Eschatologist II
To anyone who might read my life story someday, I have a piece of advice: try to build a good relationship with the Tutorial Fairies.
I was an inexperienced regressor, and we ended up in a cycle of hatred, cutting off heads and smashing skulls. But you don’t need to get involved in such bloody disputes.
“Hik-hik-hik. Starting the operation to hunt down the reactionary guerrillas hidden in the Secretary-General's unconscious brain folds...!”
“Alright. I’m counting on you.”
The Tutorial Fairies were really decent anomalies. If you overlook their peculiar manner of speaking and their tendency to grind humans through the tutorial, they can communicate with Homo sapiens.
As long as you don’t start with ‘What the hell are you talking about, you bastard!’ you can leave a good impression on the fairies. In fact, it’s best not to start with that even when dealing with humans.
The fairies scurried over and surrounded me. I counted 64 of them.
“First, to enter the unconscious, you need to make your mind and body comfortable and then sleep deeply!”
“Hmm.”
I lay down on the bed. The fairies formed a circle and grabbed my hands on both sides.
Fairy-Fairy-(Me)-Fairy-Fairy.
That’s how it looked if I drew it.
There were 32 fairies on each side, left and right.
“Now, we’ll invite the Secretary-General to our fairies' homeland. If you have a song request, please let us know!”
“Song request?”
“Hoi. To enter the land of the Baku, a suitable and charming lullaby is essential…! If there’s no request, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ will be the default BGM!”
I requested ‘Island Baby,’ as ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ had become a trauma due to the Meteor Shower.
The fairies joined hands and swayed their shoulders from side to side.
“Mom goes to the island shade-?”
“To cut necks-?”
“The baby, left alone, poops-?”
Wait. Were those really the lyrics of ‘Island Baby’?
“ZZZ…”
I didn’t have time to ponder as the fairies' singing plunged me into sleep.
Blink.
When I opened my eyes, the scenery had changed. A moment ago, I was lying in the hideout bed, but now I was slumped on a café table in the old Baekje Hospital building.
Under the table was the corpse of Old Man Sho.
The fairies were still holding my hands. The formation had halved, with 16 fairies on each side now.
“Oh…? This would be an instant cure for insomnia patients. I should suggest it to Commander Noh Do-hwa, who constantly complains about sleep deprivation...”
“The sea sings-?”
“The song of destruction-?”
“ZZZ…”
I fell asleep again within the dream. My thoughts drifted beyond the fading consciousness.
Isn’t this like the movie Inception?
Blink.
I repeated the dream within a dream. Each time, my consciousness dove deeper into the unconscious, into deeper sleep.
From the hideout to the café, to Dang Seo-rin’s VVIP train car, to the convenience store at Jamsu Bridge, to Baekhwa Girls' High School…
“Oh? Vice guild leader, you—”
Sometimes, the characters in my dreams recognized me and widened their eyes.
In an old cycle, guild leader Dang Seo-rin was surprised to see me.
But the lullaby didn’t stop.
“Cutting heads softly-?”
“Fall asleep-?”
Deeper. Even deeper.
Dream within a dream.
To the bottomless pit of the unconscious that normal humans could never perceive or remember even if they dreamed.
“—Sunbae?”
“Hyung.”
“G-Guild leader…”
“Oppa.”
It was an endless descent.
My relationships, memories, and essence as the Undertaker scattered more and more.
Like a slaughtered animal at the butcher shop. Like a wooden doll being carved by a sculptor.
“Humanity sleeps soundly-?”
“Even though a baby’s cry-?”
“Shakes the soul.”
Blink.
With each layer deeper into the dream, the number of fairies decreased. 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2…
Finally, one.
“Hoi.”
Fairy number 264. The first Tutorial Fairy I ever met held both my hands.
In reality, the fairy appeared as a 2D deformed character, expressing an (>_<);; face.
“Eek… What a tough job! You did great!”
The fairy shook her head, causing deformed sweat drops to fly.
“Secretary-General's unconscious is so solid!”
“Really?”
“Eek. In my long life as a Baku, I’ve never seen a human with such an unconscious structure! Secretary-General, you have no distinction between ‘present’ and ‘past.’ Everything is present before your eyes, and its capacity spans thousands of years! An ordinary mortal couldn’t endure this...! As expected of our Secretary-General!”
“Hmm.”
As a human, I found it hard to understand the concept of ‘solid unconsciousness.’
I could only guess that the fairies struggled because of my Complete Memory.
How should I explain this?
Unlike others, my memories never faded, except those before the 4th cycle.
For me, this had been the case for thousands of years, so I was accustomed to ‘memories that seemed truly present.’
It was the reason Old Man Sho genuinely envied me.
The old man’s life-long regret was that his wife’s face and voice were gradually fading.
I’ll have another chance to talk about this unique condition of mine later.
“Anyway, well done. Is this the bottom of my unconscious?”
“Hik-hik-hik. Yes! Only highly skilled Baku could reach this place...! It’s an overachievement project brought to life by the heroic will of revolutionary heroes!”
I looked around.
Busan Station’s waiting room.
In a way, it felt very fitting. While I had a separate birthplace, the regressor ‘Undertaker’s’ hometown could only be here.
My starting point. The space had a volume, just like reality, flowing through the waiting room.
“It doesn’t feel like a dream at all.”
“Of course. This place isn’t just the Secretary-General's unconscious but is akin to ‘humanity’s collective unconscious.’ For humans, it’s an essential phenomenon like air or water… The reality before reality, a priori structure, hyperreality.”
“Collective unconscious? Isn’t that Carl Jung’s concept? You guys know about that?”
“Hik-hik-hik. Thanks to the void, we accessed all human knowledge and had crash courses!”
“Ah.”
“Anyway, you must be very careful here, Secretary-General. What surrounds you isn’t just physical reality but humanity’s unconscious itself...!”
Despite saying that, the fairy didn’t let go of my hand. Just like when the Fairy Lord showed me the void, it must be truly dangerous here.
“In this place, the laws of space and time mean nothing!”
“So, it’s no different from the void?”
“Not just similar; it is the void!”
Some people talk faster when discussing things they know well, and Fairy number 264 seemed to be one of them.
“In a way, dreams are the first grand void that envelops all humans...! Thankfully, this waiting room is a ‘familiar place’ to you, Secretary-General, so we could use it as a base camp.”
“Base camp.”
“Yes, so whatever happens, don’t let go of my hand when leaving this place, Secretary-General! To activate the emergency escape protocol if needed...”
It was then.
Tap—
The low sound of high heels echoed through the waiting room. For the noise of heels hitting the floor, it was excessively loud. Like a church bell in a village.
The waiting room beyond our radius was shrouded in darkness. Hence, the figure producing the footsteps appeared slowly from the bottom up.
Tap—
Black loafer shoes. White stockings. A purple skirt covering below the knees. But the white stripes slightly eased the heavy feel of the deep purple.
“Oh?”
Pink hair.
“This is interesting.”
“......”
“Meeting you here, guild leader?”
Go Yuri.
Go Yuri smiled brightly.
My heart sank.
My aura pulsed faster than my heartbeat. I gathered aura throughout my body, ready to slash Go Yuri’s neck in an instant.
“—Hoi?”
Poof!
The weight holding my left hand suddenly decreased. I turned to see that the fairy’s head had been completely ripped off.
Thud, thud. The fairy’s flesh fell to the floor belatedly, like a song out of sync.
The arm of Fairy number 264, which I held, hung limply. It swung up and down three times before finally settling.
It was an instant death.
A Baku, which exerted more power in dreams than in reality, had been slaughtered in its own domain.
“......”
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I was so delighted to see you again, guild leader, that I couldn’t help it... I’m really sorry—”
No words were needed.
I gathered all my aura and pushed off the floor.
I passed Go Yuri, and the feeling of her neck exploding in response to my slash traveled through my cane-sword to my hand. The sound was more of an explosion than a cut, a pop that followed a step later.
I had grown much stronger since the battle with the Ten Legs. Without saying, ‘Did I get her?’ or confirming the kill, I just kept running.
In short, I fled as fast as I could.
“—Ah.”
But not even 300 meters later, I ran into Go Yuri again.
Thud!
I collided with her head-on, causing her to fall backward.
Go Yuri rubbed her nose, smiling wryly.
“Ouch... Sorry, guild leader. I wasn’t looking ahead. Ahaha. I can be a bit clumsy sometimes.”
“......”
I immediately shot my aura upwards.
The inverted lightning pierced through the ceiling of Busan Station, revealing the sky. I gathered aura in my feet and launched myself into the air.
Sky Walking.
At this point, only someone who had refined their aura to the extreme could perform such a technique.
“The weather is lovely.”
Go Yuri was sitting on a cloud.
“......”
“Doesn’t it feel clearer up here than on the ground, as long as you avoid the void? Ah. guild leader, would you like some Pu'er tea?”
Using the cloud as a bench, Go Yuri swung her legs one by one. Next to her, a thermos and teacups were prepared.
I stopped sky-walking and fell. Boom! As soon as I hit the ground, I used all my strength to dig. I tunneled into the earth, descending deeper.
I was a drill, and our drill was one to pierce the underground.
“Oh dear. I almost forgot. Guild leader prefers Ceylon tea over Pu'er tea.”
Go Yuri, who had been buried 600 meters underground, was excavated. She smiled brightly, holding two cups of Ceylon tea in her hands.
“......”
“Oh, were we playing hide-and-seek? So... Was I the seeker? guild leader, I found you. Ahaha. Is this how it’s done? I haven’t played hide-and-seek since I was a kid, so I’m a bit embarrassed.”
Dear God, Buddha, Allah, Shiva, Jesus Christ, Mo Gwang-seo! Please!
I had no choice. I activated the last emergency escape protocol 552-71: "Jeokbyeokga Pansori."
“Unexpectedly, a storm raged ururururu! The wind howled fiercely, and Zhuge Liang quickly descended to the platform, looking at the flags…”
“Oh ho— The Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird responded to the White Tiger and Black Tortoise, and suddenly, the wind from the northwest rose to the southeast—”
“......”
“Oh, like thunder, the storm raged, and Zhuge Liang’s heart trembled at the sight…”
Boom!
Go Yuri, somehow having obtained a drum, beat the drumhead skillfully. She sang Jeokbyeokga as well as I, who had once received professional pansori training during a vacation cycle.
“Oh? Guild leader, why aren’t you singing? I practiced a lot to sing this with you...”
“......”
Go Yuri’s eyebrows drooped.
That’s when I had to face the cold, harsh reality.
Yes.
I was screwed.
Really, really screwed.
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