Chapter 408 400: Long Dream Ends
"I am… a regressor am I not?"
"Hah…"
He chuckled.
"Hahaha! Hahahahaah!"
The small peal of laughter turned into a guffaw as he clapped his hands together and burst out at my words.
"What gives?" he asked.
There were, many things.
I had the thought when I met him for the very first time, but I could be certain now.
The person in front of me wasn't a 'future' me but a me from a different past, one that I had returned to.
"All those years ago, I didn't wake up from a dream where I had just taken over Eugene Hall, but a dream where I returned back in time, just like the others."
The one in front of me smiled and sat down. His pensive smile had turned euphoric, I could tell it did.
"Like I asked, what gives?"
I covered my eyes and sighed.
There were many things.
"The first, was the stupid fucking control over my Mana and Ki. I had lived a life as only a mana user, then how was I not just able to use them both better than most dual cores, but also able to merge them into one? World's End is something so volatile that I am certain no one can pull it off in just four years."
The only explanation for it was that I had way more than four years. Maybe decades, centuries even.
"That's ten points for you," he said.
It was… true…
"There were just so many inconsistencies." My hand clutched at my hair. Just what was all this? "How could a single person not just be a villain but also a researcher at the same time? There was no way I did both of those as Han Yu Jin."
Was that all? No fucking way.
When I saw the hunters fight again, I could clearly tell they had a very strict skill-based way of battling, yet I knew more than well how to fight in the other world.
I had never even received a proper explanation of the fucking power system.
"Why would I ever spill things to Maria, Keith, and Lily. No, even if I trust them, it never made sense that I would explain stuff to Dawn. Why would I ask someone looking at Anomalies to stare at me too?"
"Keep going."
"Fuck, the entire damned thing with Dantalian, all of that should have given me enough hints on this. Why would I ever start Apollon, trust Bathym that easily, the raid on the East? How did I know more about the demon lords and their functionings than most demon lords themselves?"
Jack Clayton's daughter should have known of me.
Going to the top of the Sanctuary.
The words that Framtida mentioned, of I being both the one to save and end the world.
swallowed the mask.
There were just so many.
That I ever put on the ring that Charlotte had left even after it swallowed the mask.
There were just so many.
So many damned inconsistencies.
I knew more than I should have. Things were always far too easy. The remotest semblance of difficulty I had was also resolved within moments.
Nothing added up. Ever.
"Eugene, is that all?"
I looked at the man in front of me.
His wide smile had turned calm again as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
There was time dilation between Earth and my world, but not big enough to warrant a passing of only three years when
If I spilled things to Dawn, then why did she not end up screwing me over? Definitely one life-and-death battle was not enough. Same was the case with everyone else.
Why in the world were Kai and the other Mythril Ranked adventurers so close to me? Unlike with my friends and even the members of the guild, there were way way fewer interactions. So was it with Miss Rio and I wonder how many others.
The people that I confided in were just as weird as I was.
Then…
The ones that regressed weren't just Luka and the main characters of the game.
"The entire world… regressed?"
—Clap clap clap.
He started grinning and clapping.
"Correct, at last," he said.
The other Eugene Hall grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes.
"The world regressed. This too, was the power of the Outer Gods. Reaching the very end, barely, just very barely, we managed to use the curse of these Outer Gods against themselves. A way to use their ability in our favor."
My eyes widened.
The Outer Gods… could do that too?
"It was impossible to do it perfectly. It was because Luka and the regressors fought the Outer God of Time that they could see what little they remembered as a regression. Because Albert Wessler and Albert Pinot fought the Outer God of Space they could swap their places. It wasn't possible that perfectly with anyone else."
The regression was no coincidence.
It was done by them. By us.
"This is the only way to truly defeat those Outer Gods, by doing things right. I… took the risk on and tried to preserve myself through the regression."
"Preserve yourself? How?"
"Through the abilities of the Outer God of Time and of Space, we managed to create this place with your soul as the gateway."
I looked around myself.
"I… am not a whole person," The other Eugene Hall sighed as he spoke. "I am just a fragment, a shell. Most of my 'self' is lost to the regression. It is thanks to those two abilities that I can only manifest myself here, where time only drifts and space only erodes."
A place where time only drifts…
In such a place. This Eugene Hall alone was waiting after the end of the world…
For one last shot at the Outer Gods.
"How long… have you been waiting?"
He smiled a wry smile.
"I lost count at the three-hundred thousand year mark."
Three hundred thousand…
For three hundred thousand years, he had been waiting here alone… With most of his memories gone into me and lost to time…
"Listen well, Eugene Hall," He said. "This was the only way to defeat the Outer Gods. This was your plan… To come back here and do it all right. Didn't you want a war with the least casualties? Aren't there people you want to protect?"
I took in a deep breath.
And nodded.
"What is the plan?" I asked.
"Didn't you say you were going to learn from Kaiser? Or maybe even that bitch of a mother of mine? But they are all weaklings in front of me."
I stared at him as he gave me a wide grin.
"What could the plan be, other than to become the strongest?"
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