“About that power of yours... is it really turning back time?”
“What?”
When I said that,
Jang Youngwoong opened his mouth with a look like he didn’t understand.
“What are you talking about? I truly turned back time with this power.”
“Hmm....”
“Can’t you see what Seoul looks like? Those countless people too!”
GRAB—!
Jang Youngwoong pounded his own chest.
“I did this! The result I obtained by repeating time thousands— tens of thousands— of times!”
“Well, I do think it’s impressive.”
When I reacted in a flat tone,
he clenched his teeth and said—
“...You conquered Gangwon even without a power like this. To people like you, this power might seem laughable. But there’s something you need to understand. Seoul was an exceptionally difficult place to survive— even compared to other regions!”
No.
I know.
‘We assumed there wouldn’t even be survivors in Seoul to begin with.’
How much he must have suffered to create this.
How incredible it is that he realized this scenery—
I understand perfectly.
But separately from that.
“That being impressive and the identity of the power are separate issues.”
“...Ha!”
This part—
I needed to nail down.
“Of course it’s hard to believe.”
Jang Youngwoong seemed to think I was denying reality,
shaking his head as he tried to persuade me.
“But you seem to be resisting my ability to some degree, for some reason. If so, you must have seen all the repetitions in the process. So why are you denying reality?”
“Why...”
At that,
I thought to myself.
‘If it really was that kind of absurd power, we wouldn’t have even been able to ram in like this.’
When I first realized Seoul was repeating,
I ordered widespread destruction of Seoul.
For one reason.
‘I had to confirm it.’
Whether that ability truly turns back time—
or.
‘Whether it’s just an illusionary power that only looks like it does.’
And as a result.
What I confirmed was—
‘A Seoul that looked different from before.’
If it were truly power that turns back time,
it makes no sense for a different-looking Seoul to appear than what I saw before.
‘His ability isn’t some grand power that turns back time.’
It has gaps— it’s something that can be solved.
And because I knew that,
I chose to fight.
“...Do you really not know?”
“What?”
But.
If I say that, it’ll just sound like nonsense to him.
So then.
“I don’t know if you know and want to pretend you don’t... but if you’re insisting on asking that much, I’ll tell you.”
I decided to tell him the very first reason I started suspecting this.
The first point where I realized his ability might not be normal.
“I enjoyed touring your house. Your wife is pretty, and she cooks well too.”
“...Why are you suddenly bringing up my family?”
“But... you must have been extremely busy surviving this collapse. Did you pay enough attention to your home?”
“I said, why are you talking about my family—!”
“You said your child was fifteen months old, right. They were cute. But.”
That invitation he probably extended without much thought.
What I saw inside that house.
“Did you ever check... whether your child is growing properly?”
“...?”
Because that baby—
was too small.
*****
‘This is fifteen months?’
I’m not a childcare specialist.
I can’t say I know much about growth.
But.
The moment I saw the baby in my arms back then, I couldn’t help but feel odd.
‘No matter who looks, that’s a newborn. Like they just came home from the hospital....’
People say babies grow most explosively around three months.
The baby I saw looked so young it felt like they hadn’t even hit that stage yet.
A newborn that didn’t look like they’d even passed their first birthday.
‘Isn’t it strange that this child is fifteen months old...?’
At first it was only a vague sense of strangeness.
But I also thought it could happen.
Like, you know— a premature baby.
That kind of possibility was worth considering.
But.
That thought changed after I looked around the house a little more.
There were family photos in Jang Youngwoong’s home.
Among them were photos that looked like they were taken before the day the world ended.
The problem was the child in those photos—
‘The same.’
The baby in that house
and the baby in the photos looked like the exact same stage of growth.
‘Back then, it was only at the level of being consumed by discomfort.’
Because of that discomfort,
I considered the possibility that Jang Youngwoong was lying.
I threw questions at him and noticed he was lying.
But later, after I recovered all my memories—
and revisited them—
I could be sure.
‘He said awakened people were fixed at the level they grew to in their first life. And those who didn’t awaken in the first life couldn’t awaken afterward either.’
It’s the same kind of story.
‘They didn’t grow.’
The baby I saw
was truly— at most— a one- or two-month-old newborn.
‘Fixed... at the point they died in the first life.’
At my words.
Jang Youngwoong went pale and opened his mouth in a daze.
“What....”
Jang Youngwoong, turning ashen at what I said.
He let out a hollow laugh, then shook his head.
“H-haha... What kind of nonsense is that. You think I wouldn’t even know my own child’s growth—”
He seemed to want to deny what I said at any cost.
His face twisted, shaking his head.
But.
“Then go and look.”
“What?”
I extended my hand,
pointing in the direction of Yeouido.
“Go see your child and come back. We’ll stay right here. We won’t go wild, we won’t destroy the city. Take your time... and go see your child.”
“......”
“Whether your child has grown compared to a year ago— you can confirm it yourself.”
When I said that,
Jang Youngwoong clenched his fist, hesitated briefly—
then said—
“If you were trying to play games with my family, I will never forgive you.”
“Yes, yes.”
And then he began to vanish from my sight at an incredible speed.
Whatever else—
he’s a very high-level awakened person.
In a city with no one trying to stop him, he’d reach his house at a very fast pace.
After sending him off,
I sat there and spent time in silence.
And then, hours later—
“How...”
What appeared before my eyes
was a man, tearful with a pale look.
“How... can this happen....”
That face
was filled with despair.
*****
“This can’t... be.”
This.
This is why I doubted the identity of that power.
If it really was the absurd power of turning back time,
then even if you return to the past,
time should flow normally from that past onward.
That child too.
Even if the child was originally someone who would’ve died not long after the day the world ended—
if he succeeded in saving them by going back—
then from that point forward, they should grow normally.
“How... can this happen...?”
At the point where that wasn’t true,
I became sure it wasn’t some grand power like that.
‘This phenomenon covering Seoul is not turning back time.’
Rather—
how should I put it.
‘It’s overlaying.’
It’s only “overlaying” the appearance the one causing this phenomenon wants
on top of the original appearance.
‘It’s only covering the surface. The essence inside doesn’t change.’
I recalled how easily the buildings were destroyed.
The reason the buildings were destroyed so easily was probably—
‘Because the essence already had a nature that made it easy to break.’
Even if it looked fine on the outside,
inside it was old, worn out, and fragile.
‘If you destroy it physically, the overlaid appearance disappears... and the real appearance is revealed.’
That baby too.
No matter how fine they looked on the outside—
the essence was probably already...
‘....’
And.
There was something that made that certainty even stronger.
‘Those monsters that poured down in Yeouido.’
The one who seemed like their leader had said this.
They said they were curious what was inside, so they sent forces in.
At the time, I didn’t understand what that meant.
But now, I could grasp the core of it.
‘There’s an [Outside] where that thing lives.’
This land that keeps repeating because of Jang Youngwoong.
This Seoul—
‘This world is fake.’
Not reality.
‘Even this scenery he created by spending thousands, tens of thousands of years... is fake.’
That’s why—
“I don’t think I can accept your offer.”
“I don’t understand....”
Whether I said that or not,
he kept muttering to himself.
‘...It would be hard to accept.’
It was that shocking of a story.
I understood why he couldn’t accept it.
With a sigh, I spoke to him.
“I understand it’s hard to believe. But you have to accept reality—”
“No. No.”
But then.
“It’s not that it’s hard to believe... I’m not trying to deny what you said.”
“...?”
“Y-yes, you’re right. It seems this power is different from what I thought. The problem is... that’s not it.”
Contrary to what I assumed,
it didn’t look like he was struggling to accept reality.
“Why... didn’t I notice it?”
“!”
“Does this... make sense?”
It looked like ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) he was realizing something else.
“Do you think I’m some idiot?”
“What?”
“While I kept repeating that endless loop, how many times do you think I spent time with my child. Do you really think I’m such an idiot that I wouldn’t notice my child stopped growing?”
Well.
That part had bothered me a little too.
But.
“You must have been busy overcoming this collapse, so it could happen—”
“Damn it, if you get down to it, I wasn’t even that busy!”
Jang Youngwoong shouted.
Clutching his head like he couldn’t understand at all, he yelled—
“Out of those thousands, tens of thousands of repetitions, there were hundreds where my mind collapsed and I only lived with my family!”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t care if the world ended, I didn’t care if people all died! I hid with my family in the relatively safe places in Seoul plenty of times!”
At that.
I, too, realized what he was trying to say.
“And still, you’re saying I didn’t notice my child’s growth stopped?”
“...That...”
“That doesn’t make sense....”
He lowered the hands that had been wrenching at his head,
and looked up at the sky with a ruined face.
“How can something this insane even be possible....”
And.
Staring at the sky, he muttered—
“Unless someone was trying to deceive me....”
And.
The instant he spoke those words.
-Ah.......
“!?”
A voice came down from between the faint stars
in the sky where the sun was setting.
{Pitiful, miserable child.......}
“...Ah.”
Hearing that voice,
Jang Youngwoong cried out in horror, like he realized something.
“I repeated thousands, tens of thousands of lives... but I never forgot it even once.”
{I saw that mountain of regret in your heart... that sorrow.}
“Th-this voice is...”
{And so I gave you a chance to correct that regret... ah, how truly unfortunate.}
When I looked there too—
Up in that sky.
[The divine power senses an external existence.]
“That thing from back then...!”
From space, looking down at this place—
I could feel an intense presence.
[A trait activates.]
I turned my gaze toward that presence.
Past even the clouds.
That dark world outside.
[Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)]
[Matron of Regretful Ones]
A gigantic form there
looked down on this land and let out a regretful sigh.
{If only you had stayed like this a little longer, you could have forgotten all regrets and become happy.}
