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Chapter 225

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The Concealer II

3

Facing the situations of "Seo Gyu hiding his hair" and "Tang Seorin hiding her fandom," I became confused.

The latter, in particular, was terrifying.

‘A Tang Seorin who gave up her witch cosplay and her love for trains?’

How could that even be Tang Seorin?

Originally, the great witch of the Three Thousand Worlds was a leader who commanded both the witch’s hat and steam locomotives.

By wielding these symbols of the Middle Ages and the modern era in her hands, she became a superhuman whose very existence embodied human history.

In other words, the Tang Seorin of the 244th turn had, in essence, lost her soul. A soulless non-human. We decided to call Yoo Jiwon for convenience.

“Is there no normal person? Is there really no one normal in this turn?”

Here, by "normal," I mean someone normal by my standards—basically someone who is the same as in the other turns.

Desperate to find a "normal" person, I started searching, leaving behind my comrades who all seemed to be a bit off.

"Your Excellency, why are you so anxious?"

"Yoo Jiwon, you\'ve always been someone who hides your humanity and personality, so just stay out of this."

"I\'m not sure what you mean, but okay. Since it\'s Your Excellency speaking, I assume it must be something insightful. I\'ll consult you about my own concerns later."

Even after searching diligently, leaving behind the sociopathic Yoo Jiwon who was, as usual, unchanged in this turn, the results were disheartening.

"Chief Noh Doha, why are you being kind to young patients now? Where\'s the hatred for the MZ generation rooted in your heart?"

"Huh? ...What kind of lunatic discriminates against patients based on their age?"

"I see. You\'re not Noh Doha."

"Do you want to die...?"

Noh Doha OUT.

"Saintess, why don\'t you have aquariums in your house? Are you not planning on keeping fish?"

"Fish? I\'m sorry, but I\'ve heard aquariums are hard to maintain, so I’m not very interested. I think lizards are cuter."

"Definitely a fake..."

"Pardon?"

Saintess OUT.

"Yohwa, why do you still call me ‘senior’ after I gave you your diploma? Shouldn’t you call me \'teacher\' now?"

"Huh? Haha. Well, senior, we’re not that far apart in age, at least in appearance. Isn\'t it a bit weird to call you teacher now?"

"...I see. Then why aren’t you wearing the white school uniform after graduating?"

"Come on, senior. Who wears a sailor uniform after graduating? That’s just weird, and it was kind of old-fashioned anyway."

"Get lost, you devil!"

"Huh?"

Cheon Yohwa OUT.

"Man Manyo Neko! Why aren\'t you adding \'meow\' or \'nyan\' to the end of your sentences anymore? Are those cat ears on your head just decoration?!"

"Are you picking a fight, Doctor Jang?"

Even the magical girls from Japan were OUT.

A small detail, but even the coffee left by Elder Scho in this turn wasn’t café au lait—it was hazelnut Americano.

A German! (A German!) A man who took great pride in his barista skills! (The old man!) Drinking Americano! (Americano!)

The shock reverberated in my head like an a cappella choir.

I despaired.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

I hid away in the Inunaki Tunnel, mumbling in agony, filled with anguish.

"...Something is wrong. This isn’t right. How could there be such a big difference right from the start of the regression, before any butterfly effect could even take place? Could I have fallen into a dream without realizing it? Oh, woe is me. Am I, Doctor Jang, merely a brain in a jar, lost in a dream..."

"Your Excellency, are you alright?"

"Yoo Jiwon, stay out of this. No matter how desperate I get, I haven\'t fallen so far as to seek your human understanding and empathy."

"I still don’t understand what you mean, but of course, if it\'s Your Excellency, my personal concerns are but a luxury, and I’ll stay quiet."

How should I even begin to solve this unprecedented crisis?

In hindsight, I was still lacking experience in the 244th turn.

I hadn’t yet defeated the ‘Goddess of the Night’ Nut, nor had I taken down the ‘The Admin of All-Play.’

I didn’t fully realize that anything powerful enough to interfere with my regression had to be an alien god-level anomaly, a fact I was not yet certain of in the 244th turn.

(The Saintess voluntarily sealing herself to protect my regression with an absolute barrier would only happen in the future.)

"For now... yes. I’ll help them reclaim what they’ve lost. That should cancel out the anomaly\'s tricks."

"Even though Your Excellency sometimes mumbles to yourself incomprehensibly, I, Yoo Jiwon, shall serve you with unwavering loyalty. Feel free to give your command."

"Go get me a wig, Yoo Jiwon."

I placed the wig on Seo Gyu’s bald head.

Then, looking in the mirror, I adjusted his hairstyle to match 99.99% of the other Seo Gyu\'s from different turns.

"How does it feel, Seo Gyu? Don’t you feel like you’re returning to your true self, regaining what you’ve lost?"

"......"

"Recall your true self! Seo Gyu! You can do it!"

"...Brother, with all due respect, are you asking for a punch?"

It was a failure.

In other stories, when the regressor acts out like this, their comrades usually say, "Huh, why do I have memories of something I’ve never experienced?" and overcome their amnesia. But in my story, that wasn’t the case.

Seo Gyu was the mildest of them all.

When I rushed to Noh Doha and said, "Come on, Chief! Be rude to young people! Hurry up! Start cursing them out with every profanity in the book!" I got beaten up like a dog and chased out.

When I visited Tang Seorin wearing a witch\'s hat, outfit, and broom, asking, "Tang Seorin! How does it feel? Doesn\'t your passion for fashion awaken?" she responded, "Hmm, are you perhaps asking me to undress you in a very sophisticated manner?" I almost got eaten alive.

I couldn’t even bring myself to wear a school uniform to meet Cheon Yohwa. As Doctor Jang, I hadn’t abandoned my humanity that far yet. Besides, though her titles and fashion had changed, Cheon Yohwa\'s eccentricities remained the same, and I couldn’t predict how she would react.

Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure.

The once unshakable mentality of the regressor was now crumbling to pieces.

Surprisingly, I, as a person, was more shocked by my comrades\' change in hobbies than by the idea of being destroyed by a mysterious force.

"Hmm. Even if what Your Excellency says is true, we have no way of verifying it. According to Your Excellency’s terminology, we are only aware of the ‘244th turn.’"

"Yes, you\'re right..."

Strangely enough, I could only comfortably share this type of concern with Yoo Jiwon.

The reason was simple. She didn’t care at all about my mental stress, so I could talk to her without any sense of burden or empathy.

"On the contrary, have you considered that perhaps Your Excellency’s mind is the one that has changed?"

"...Are you suggesting that Seo Gyu has been bald throughout all turns, but my memory has been distorted to perceive him with a full head of hair?"

"Yes. That would be much more rational."

Yoo Jiwon said as she sharply carved a chess piece with a knife.

"It\'s no different from Occam\'s Razor. If we assume that everyone except Your Excellency has changed, it means the anomaly’s power is incredibly strong. As you said, it must reach across turns."

"Hmm."

"On the other hand, if we assume that it\'s only targeting your mind, the story becomes simpler. It’s merely an anomaly involving mental brainwashing and perception distortion. No need to think about surpassing turns."

"......"

Yeah.

Though it was hard to admit, Yoo Jiwon’s analysis was correct. I was likely being mentally brainwashed at this very moment.

At some point, my [Perfect Memory Ability] had been hacked. Once I considered the possibility that my perception had been twisted, everything started making sense.

Why was it that others had their characteristics ‘hidden,’ but I remained unaffected? This too had a clear explanation.

It was just me who had become strange.

“Of course, His Excellency is perfect anywhere and anytime, and he doesn’t make mistakes. However, sometimes it’s necessary to flip the board and think from a different angle.”

“......”

In fact, I wasn’t the only one who was normal.

Yoo Jiwon. The silver-haired psychopath sitting in front of me, offering consultation, was the same as in other turns.

Speech, hobbies, fashion, mindset.

None of the components that made up Yoo Jiwon as an individual had been erased. She was still the ace of the Three Thousand Worlds and the operation team leader of the National Road Management Corps, just as I remembered.

Aside from the fact that her abilities had become slightly strange.

Thus, I had my suspicions.

Maybe, just for fun, this unidentified anomaly, which claimed ‘X hides Y,’ had actually embedded itself in Yoo Jiwon.

"Waiting until the next turn wouldn\'t be a bad strategy."

Clack.

Yoo Jiwon completed the chess piece and flipped it over, examining it closely.

“Until the next turn? Why?”

“If this anomaly truly possesses a curse that \'deletes\' something from each person, then in the next turn, more things will likely be erased.”

"......"

"If it were me, I’d start by erasing trivial things like baldness or fashion sense, so as to escape His Excellency’s suspicion."

"My mental alarm is already ringing, though."

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"That’s something the anomaly couldn’t have predicted. I believe that starting from the next turn, it will begin erasing the abilities, personalities, and behavioral principles of the Awakened."

“…Then it truly becomes dangerous.”

“Yes. It’s an effective strategy to lull the opponent into complacency and then ambush them.”

At that moment, something strange happened on the map.

Swoosh—

The very spot where Yoo Jiwon had placed the knight seemed to have some kind of magnetic pull, as another knight piece slid over to that position.

The chess piece that Yoo Jiwon had just created was at the top of the map, while the one being pulled by an invisible hand was at the bottom.

Visually, it looked something like this:

[Illustration 225]

It formed a shape that resembled a Taeguk symbol.

With chess pieces clamping down on the map from above and below, the paper map naturally floated in the air.

It was a rather curious sight, but that was one of the ‘changes in 244th turn Yoo Jiwon.’

Except for the fact that the map floated slightly, her [Mini-Map] ability was still intact. Yoo Jiwon’s chess pieces still accurately tracked people’s positions.

You could call it a trivial glitch.

“It’s still strange, though……”

I muttered.

While everyone else, including Tang Seorin, seemed to have ‘lost’ one characteristic, Yoo Jiwon’s characteristic simply seemed ‘off.’

This difference kept gnawing at me.

Why, and how, was Yoo Jiwon displaying such a starkly different aspect compared to the others?

"Maybe it’s because my characteristic, which Your Excellency named ‘psychopathic tendencies,’ has disappeared? In this turn, I’ve regained the ability to empathize with others deeply."

"Could you at least try to show some emotion in your eyes when you say that?"

"My gaze is already filled to the brim with respect for Your Excellency, so there’s no room for any other emotions. Please understand."

"What room? You’ve had that same look in your eyes ever since I first met you in the 5th turn……."

I paused.

Suddenly, I stopped talking.

\'Wait a second.\'

It wasn’t intentional. My instincts, my sixth sense, abruptly stopped me from continuing.

I had just touched on an incredibly important keyword.

The Taeguk-shaped chess pieces, still gripping the map from above and below, were engraved in my vision.

‘Space? Space. ...Space?’

If Yoo Jiwon’s ability wasn’t malfunctioning…

If those chess pieces were ‘perfectly’ representing people’s positions on the map…

How should I interpret this?

"......"

I sprang to my feet.

“Jiwon.”

“Yes?”

"Pack up the map and the trunk and follow me. There’s something I want to test."

Yoo Jiwon glanced at her analog wristwatch.

11 p.m. In the days of past civilizations, some humans considered this morning, but now, everyone thought of it as far too late to go outside.

"Understood."

Without questioning anything, Yoo Jiwon followed me out of the Inunaki Tunnel.

We headed to a vacant lot far from the coast. I grabbed a shovel instead of a sword.

“We’re digging down from here.”

“Digging down, Your Excellency?”

“Yes. It doesn’t make sense, even to me, but I have a hunch. We’ll keep going deeper, and you monitor the map around me.”

"Understood, Your Excellency."

I put my declaration into action.

Thwack!

The shovel dug into the dirt like cutting through pudding. It was a feat made possible by pouring in my aura.

Deeper, deeper underground—

This wasn’t a simple well-digging task; I was drilling far below the surface.

The ground was becoming increasingly firm, and if it were any other Awakened, their shovel would have broken by now.

‘But it’s too solid, even so.’

Despite using my aura, the ground was becoming ridiculously hard, and the pace of digging began to slow.

Thwack! Thud! Thunk!

But I didn’t let it bother me. I wasn’t a regressor at this moment—I was just a human excavation machine.

Who knows how much time had passed.

I had dug to a depth where it wouldn’t be surprising if magma started spewing out, and by then, my forehead was covered in sweat.

“Your Excellency, please have some water while you work.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Yoo Jiwon took out a bottle of water she had prepared in the trunk and handed it to me.

For reference, while I was digging the ground, Yoo Jiwon stood beside me, skillfully illuminating the area with her aura. Really, if it weren\'t for her lack of humanity, she\'d be the perfect asset.

Silently and diligently, we continued breaking through the underground bedrock, descending further.

"Huff, huff... Oh?"

Fsshh-.

A faint hissing sound came from the tip of my shovel.

After a long period of digging through the earth, the shovel had broken through into an empty space.

"Is this a new layer of bedrock?"

"I\'m not sure, Your Excellency."

"It could be a cave. Let\'s head down for a look."

We started widening the small hole.

But it was strange—faint light was seeping through from beyond the hole, which was unusual for a cave.

As the hole grew larger, the light became stronger, until it was bright enough that we no longer needed any additional lighting.

And just like Mario poking his head out of a pipe, I tilted my head through the opening.

"......"

"......"

I couldn’t help but hold my breath.

Yoo Jiwon, who had also stuck her head through the hole beside me, was equally stunned by what she saw inside.

For once, I could see emotions like \'surprise\' and \'shock\' cross that typically expressionless face of her.

We remained silent for a long time. The visual information pouring into us was so overwhelming and shocking.

"Jiwon. That...?"

"...Yes."

Deep below the earth, beyond the hole.

Or rather, beyond the other side of that opening...

"No matter how I look at it, it\'s a sun."

There was a \'sun\' there.

A massive, underground expanse stretched before us. Its size wasn\'t just comparable to the Korean Peninsula; it transcended such comparisons.

Even with my aura-enhanced eyesight, I couldn\'t begin to fathom the ends of this space. It stretched out endlessly.

And right in the middle of that space—of that vast, empty void—was a small \'sun,\' illuminating the underground world.

In other words...

"No way..."

The Earth was hiding a sun.

"Unbelievable... Something like this should never be hidden..."

The Hollow Earth theory.

That was the anomaly that had manifested this time.

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