Chapter 142
Summer Vacation (6)
It was a vivid experience, yet it felt like a dream, making one think they had been asleep for a long time.
In fact, it might as well have been a dream.
The idea that someone had turned back time tens of thousands of times to save the world seemed like something out of a novel.
Every time he turned back time, he had to sacrifice memories.
All the life and memories he had built up crumbled like a sandcastle. How could anyone repeat that process tens of thousands of times?
Could I do it?
‘Impossible.’
Even this one life is precious and desperate, so to repeat it two times, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or ten thousand times?
If I did that, all my emotions and soul would wear away and disappear.
“…Ah.”
Aiselle opened her bleary eyes.
The red sky filled her vision. The horizon painted by the sunset was truly beautiful.
None of the three moons in the sky were full.
It meant that a night had passed and evening had come again.
Struggling to lift her upper body, Aiselle shivered with fever, and she found Hong Bi-yeon lying next to her.
Though she had become quite gaunt without nutrition for a day, even her fainting figure remained graceful and elegant.
“Uhmm…”
Hong Bi-yeon, a beat late, fluttered her eyebrows and forced her eyelids open, seemingly regaining consciousness.
Meeting Aiselle’s eyes, she lay dazed for a while before hurriedly getting up.
Aiselle turned her head to look at the edge of the altar. There, Flame, who had woken up earlier, was squatting with her knees hugged.
“…You’re awake.”
Th i s w a s c op i e d f r o m k i n g m t l .o r g
Due to the shadow cast over half her face, her expression wasn’t clear, but Aiselle could guess it was extremely dark.
Aiselle forced her trembling legs to move and sat beside her. She smiled and tried to make a joke.
“Why… such a grim face?”
“Just… you know.”
After hesitating for a moment, Flame licked her lips.
“…Because we saw that.”
Flame sighed deeply.
T h i s w a s c o pie d f r o m k i n g m t l .o r g
The pain of seeing Baek Yu-seol’s past in the Library of Stars was like a weight pressing on her chest, but at the same time, she felt a sense of relief as most of the doubts she had harbored were resolved.
Why were his memories and knowledge so tangled?
Why did he seem to know everything but not really know?
It was because he had lived the same time repeatedly for such a long time.
At first, she thought Baek Yu-seol had regressed for Aiselle. Then, she thought he might have regressed for her.
Maybe, all those thoughts were correct.
Within those tens of thousands of regressions, Baek Yu-seol must have shared love, affection, and emotions with many people.
But they were all wrong, too.
He… was moving for everything, including all those things.
How deep must his sense of duty be to drive himself to the edge of hell, fighting a lonely battle alone?
Th i s w as c o p i e d f r o m k i n g mt l . o r g
“You guys know something?”
When Flame spoke, Aiselle and Hong Bi-yeon silently turned to her.
Unlike her usual playful and lively self, she carried a heavy and subdued atmosphere, so no one interrupted.
“Once, I seriously asked him what his wish was. What his goal was.”
At that time, he said.
‘To live. Just live normally.’
Flame probably confirmed Baek Yu-seol’s regression at that moment. But she hadn’t fully realized the weight of it until now.
Anyone could say they wanted to live.
But…
How heavy must ‘I want to live’ be when uttered by someone bearing such a harsh fate?
It felt so distant and unreachable that she couldn’t even grasp it.
“There’s no need to be so dramatic.”
This time, Hong Bi-yeon spoke. Leaning against a pillar and bathed in the sunset light, she continued.
“Now that we know about him… we just need to ensure Baek Yu-seol never has to turn back time again.”
“…How could that be possible?”
“It’s simple.”
Her tone was indifferent.
“We saw the end of the world. We just have to prevent it from happening.”
“Ah…”
To never again sink into the sorrow of losing everything.
To never again struggle to forget memories in a world where no one remembers him.
To never again… turn back time.
Th i s w a s cop i e d fr o m k i ng m t l . o r g
We just need to keep this world we’re living in now from being destroyed by trying and trying again to save everything.
Baek Yu-seol is not alone anymore.
This w a s c o p ied f r o m k i n g m t l . or g
If he had struggled alone through tens of thousands of lives, now three young female mages, who pride themselves on having the best talent in the world, know the truth about him.
Hong Bi-yeon matched eyes with Flame and Aiselle, one by one, and said.
“Until then, unfortunately… I might need a bit of help from your unskilled hands.”
At her words, Flame and Aiselle’s expressions softened somewhat.
T h is w a s c o p i e d f r o m ki n gm t l . o r g
“Do you have to ask for help in such a distasteful way?”
“Right. It’s so unappetizing.”
“…What?”
Though Hong Bi-yeon glared fiercely with her red eyes, Flame stood up and stretched her waist.
“Well, we have our task decided. We’ve been starving all day and sleeping like logs, so let’s go get something to eat?”
“Sounds good!”
Aiselle got up as well, and Hong Bi-yeon had no choice but to follow them.
Even so, she couldn’t help but think.
With this trio that doesn’t match at all, how far could they help Baek Yu-seol?
T h i s wa s co p i e d f ro m k i n g m t l . o r g
That… even Baek Yu-seol wouldn’t know.
Because in no history has such a combination ever been formed.
* * *
Honestly, when a girl who seemed like a middle schooler first approached me and asked for my autograph, I was taken aback but also pleased.
No matter my past self, gaining some popularity in this life couldn’t be a bad sign, right? That simple and dumb thought grew gradually stronger.
And that thought was indeed foolish.
Because the moment I locked eyes with the girl named ‘Anella,’ a skill activated.
[The trait ‘Blessing of Red Spring March’ has activated, detecting the trait ‘Resurrection of Nightmares.’]
[Nightmares of Resurrection are invading your mind. Do you want to reject it?]
At first, I wondered what this was.
In the void, like some firewall antivirus program, Red Spring March appeared, asking me to choose between Yes or No.
Normally, ‘No’ would be the obvious choice. But something unique caught my attention.
[Even if you do not reject, the possibility of the target penetrating your mind is 0%.]
In other words, even though the Resurrection of Nightmares, a trait I had never heard of even with my knowledge of the original game, was invading my mind, it meant it couldn’t do anything.
That piqued my curiosity, so when I came to my senses, I had pressed ‘No.’
And so.
I arrived at the current situation.
‘Kyaaah! Save me, save me! Saveee meee!’
The girl’s screams echoed loudly in my head. I vividly watched Anella, who had collapsed on the ground, wailing.
‘Is this… my mind?’
My mental world resembled an ocean. There, through her trait, Anella was triggering ‘the most horrific trauma’ I had ever experienced.
But for someone who lived a peaceful modern life, the worst trauma I had faced was the moment the power suddenly went out while I was retrying for three days to defeat a boss monster.
Even in this world, I hadn’t gone through anything I’d call horrific.
T hi s w a s c op i ed f ro m k in g m tl .o r g
Strangely enough, though…
I did have trauma.
But, they were…
‘Gah!’
Stab!
‘Ugh!’
Crunch!
Countless deaths, really too many to count, were my traumas.
Watching it even made me feel dizzy and nauseated from the terrible deaths. Anella was experiencing that pain vividly.
‘What the hell… What is that, crazy…’
I never went through such traumas. Those aren’t my traumas.
Thinking so, I turned my head away, but this was undeniably my mental world. The Blessing of Red Spring March confirmed that.
So…
I had to face ‘my traumas’ again.
Crunch!!
‘Being torn apart alive by a giant monster with blood-red fangs.’
Thud!!
‘Failing to control Blink and crashing into a wall to death.’
Whoosh!!
‘Burned to death in flames.’
Boom!!
‘Being smashed to death by a goblin’s club.’
But in none of those death moments, did ‘I’ scream or cry for help.
T h is w a s c o p i e d f r om k in g m t l .o r g
With an emotionless face, I just accepted death humbly.
Only then did I realize that I was familiar with these deaths.
‘Aether World Online.’
In that place, even if you died once, you could revive with a slight penalty or go back to a designated save point to play the game again.
Those countless deaths…
Were the deaths of ‘Baek Yu-seol,’ the character I played in my modern life.
‘But why are those my traumas?’
T h is w a s c o p i ed f r o m k i ng m tl . org
It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
Those deaths were just in-game deaths, right? Even suitable for all ages, without proper blood depiction.
But those deaths, so vivid they were terrifying to face… what were they?
‘Sa-Save me, save me…’
Anella, screaming, eventually fainted, and I also felt a splitting headache, too overwhelming to endure.
‘…Stop showing me this.’
Then, as if it were a lie, all the traumas disappeared like smoke. Only then could I barely calm my heart and think about how to get out of this mental world.
*…Huh.’
I locked eyes with someone.
It was ‘me.’
A version of me different from Earth’s me or Aether’s me, with a subtly different vibe.
…Maybe if I struggle for about ten years more, I’d look like that ‘me.’
He stared at me for a moment, then turned and started walking somewhere.
‘Hey, what are you? Wait, you’re me, right?’
But he didn’t even intend to stop at my call and kept walking somewhere.
This place felt like an endless sea, where no matter how much I ran, it felt like I was running in place, but he was moving away rapidly.
‘Wait a minute, what are you! Hey! Answer me!’
I sprinted toward him, and ‘I’ didn’t even acknowledge my call, moving farther.
Farther.
Vanishing like a mirage.
“Hey! …Huh?”
And when I came back to my senses.
I had returned to the cafe.
[Thud]
And the girl, Anella, who lost consciousness and was falling toward me. In a daze, I caught her and stared blankly into the void.
‘What… was that…?’
I couldn’t understand anything.
End of Chapter