1. The 10th Regression – 02
That night, Seol Ha-jin, who came home drunk and a bit groggy, was lying on the bed and staring at her smartphone screen as she rolled around.
[Ragnarok]
“… Should I put this on or not?”
To be honest, I had a desire to play Ragnarok for a long time.
It is because his curiosity was also strongly stirred as the game Ragnarok is currently gaining unprecedented popularity all over the world.
Why is this game so fun that people in all over the world are making a fuss over it and advertising it in all directions? It would be a lie if I said that I did not become interested in Ragnarok while looking at such a scene.
However, they had a history of ignoring mobile games with great admiration, so they couldn’t start the game hastily even if their pride was hurt. Isn’t it really embarrassing for a man to repeat his words twice with one snout?
Normally, he wouldn’t have installed the game because of his low self-esteem, but now the alcohol that occupied his brain was clouding his judgment.
I’m not really trying to start the game anyway, I’m just trying to take a quick look at what the game is like. Didn’t it used to be said that knowing the enemy and knowing yourself is invincible?
Yeah, I’m not selling my pride. By analogy, this is more of an act of reconnaissance of the enemy’s condition before the start of the war. And also to give a gift of 500 diamonds to a junior… .
All sorts of miscellaneous thoughts floating in his head eventually succeeded in rationalizing him, and Seol Ha-jin clicked the ‘Install’ button without much hesitation.
And-
“… uh?”
There was no foreshadowing or anything. At the same time as pressing the install button, Seol Ha-jin’s consciousness fell into darkness.
It was the beginning of a fucking nightmare.
***
A long time ago, Seol Ha-jin went on an overseas trip with her parents and got lost.
It happened more than ten years ago, but I still remember it clearly.
Unfamiliar sights where you can’t tell where you are, strangers who don’t understand the language at all, despair and fear as if you are left alone in the world.
At that time, fortunately, his parents, who noticed that he had lost him, desperately searched for him, and in less than an hour, he was able to escape from being lost.
Regrettably indeed, it seemed that such good luck could not be expected this time.
Because the place where Seol Ha-jin became lost was not at all in another country, but in a different dimension.
The first day I fell here, I thought it was a dream. Or I wondered if it was being filmed by a hidden camera on a fairly large scale.
However, that suspicion was quickly dispelled. Because no matter how much the technology to deceive people develops, there was no way it would be possible to create fire and drop thunderbolts from one’s fingertips.
I didn’t know what kind of world this world was, but one thing was certain. This wasn’t Earth, it was a different world where magic and all were alive and breathing.
Fortunately, I was able to communicate with other people, but that did not change the situation. Unfortunately, liberal arts students who studied at universities in the 21st century Korea were not very helpful in the fantasy world.
At first, I was just busy getting used to it. He had to adapt to a living environment that changed overnight, to a culture that was completely different from what he had known so far, and above all to accept and adapt to the fact that he was useless in the world.
I wonder if it was an advantage that I was more useful in document work than other ignorant stone heads because I had the time I had studied for 12 years in elementary, middle and high school. He rolls at the very bottom of society, struggling desperately to survive at all costs.
Just like that, 10 years passed. After a lot of hard work, I was able to get along with other people, and most of all, I was able to set up my own home in the middle of the imperial capital. If it was Korea, it would have been a great achievement that would have been impossible even after dying.
Yeah, what’s so special about hometown? Wherever you live, wherever you live, that is your hometown. I’ve gotten used to living in this world over the past 10 years.
Well, sometimes there were times when I missed the modern culture of 21st century Korea or couldn’t bear to see my parents’ faces… .
Even that would be a problem that time can solve. Crucially, in Korea, isn’t it close to impossible to buy your own house in your 20s?
Perhaps, after living such a casual, featureless life, I will die casually. Maybe one day I’ll find a good blind woman and marry her.
Seol Ha-jin, no, Jin was living his life with a calm expression that could not be compared to 10 years ago.
One day, everything he had worked hard to build collapsed in an instant.
The end came without any warning, and with it the world was destroyed. As a bonus, the house he had worked so hard for was also turned to dust.
And crucially-
“… under?”
Jin returns to 10 years ago. To the very moment when he first fell into this world.
***
Jin is not dead. No, to be precise, the moment he died, he returned to the past. As if the world didn’t want Jin’s death.
At first, I thought it was good to live a second life, but it wasn’t until quite a while after that that I realized it. About how dog-like it is to be forced to live without being able to face death regardless of one’s will.
As soon as he returned, Jin thought about running away somewhere. However, after learning that the end was about to destroy the entire continent itself, he gave up even running away. No, I had no choice but to give up.
In other words, if you want to live and don’t want to be left behind, fighting back was not an option, but a necessity. As in the first life, the end of the whole body being reduced to a monster’s meal at the end of the body was not acceptable even if it died.
There were a total of nine regressions. There were also a total of nine types of Jin’s end against the end.
There were times when I could not achieve anything and met a pitiful end.
And the world was destroyed by the end.
One day, there was a time when we gathered the power of all mankind and broke the end.
And the world was destroyed by the second end.
There was a time when a new ‘hero’ was raised to leave hope for the future.
And the world was destroyed by the third end.
In order not to die in the last nine lives, there was a limit even though I rolled around like a dog in this shitty world and trembled with all sorts of pestilence.
Of course, it wasn’t just that he was blindly heading into the ground and risking his life. There were several facts that I found out after nine times like the life of a fly.
This world is not just another world, it is the world in [Ragnarok].
The end was not simply the cause of the world’s destruction, but it was part of the scenario in the game.
And as the end is part of the scenario in the game, the way to defeat the end must also exist somewhere in the world.
Because if the creators of [Ragnarok] hadn’t lost their minds, it was easy to guess that they would have definitely prepared elements to defeat the end of the game inside the game.
But apart from that, Jin went through countless repetitions and felt that the various parts that make up the person he was were slowly wearing away.
‘I’m fed up.’
At first, the fact that his life flew lightly like an insect seemed like a beggar, but now he has gotten used to that. Killing someone and dying just felt so light.
It was boring. How long will he have to roll around in a cage like this on a treadmill? How long will we have to watch a play that is repeated like a dodol table?
After pouring in a hundred years of time, he was able to meet the third end, so how long will it take to overcome all the ends and meet the end?
And until then, will he be able to maintain his sanity? How long will his fragile spirit be able to endure the endless repetition of regression?
Kirik-
Is it because of my mood? I hear the sound of a clock winding up somewhere.
No, it’s not because of a simple feeling. Because so far, I’ve heard that damn sound like nine times in every run.
‘Please leave me alone. Just let me die.’
exhausted It was the end, it was nabal, and now I just wanted to rest. Without thinking, I wanted to fall asleep.
However, regardless of his will, the world begins to return. Ten years ago, at that time of the day, the world begins to be reconstructed.
Consciousness flies somewhere. And when he opened his eyes, everything had already changed.
“Damn it.”
He was standing in the central square of Ninea, the capital of the Empire. As befits the place with the highest traffic volume in Jedo, this area was noisy with the liveliness and noise generated by people.
Before Jin’s heart was pierced by that goddamn lizard bitch, the surroundings were engulfed in a sea of fire, but now there is no trace of that anywhere.
It must have been. 10 years ago, when he fell into this world, that time, that time, that time, he returned to that place once again.
With this, the 10th life of Jin, who has gone through nine reversions, has begun anew. After overcoming the gruesome death he faced by the end, he seized the opportunity to change everything in the future.
“… Damn, I’m really going to turn around.”
Of course, it wasn’t something that Jin himself wanted at all.