I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 310

Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

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The Skeptic III

Once, I had a drink with the Great Priestess of the Magical Girl Association, and we had a conversation that went as follows:

“Undateikeo-san. You sometimes compare yourself to a supporter, but from my perspective, that’s nonsense.”

“Oh?”

“A thief. No, in this case, the term ‘assassin’ would be more appropriate.” The Great Priestess wagged her nine tails and smiled slyly. “You calling yourself a supporter is a result of being overly focused on your allies. From the perspective of your enemies, there’s no assassin as ruthless as you.”

“Hmm.”

“You appear out of nowhere, assassinate your enemies with a strategy in hand, and then, you vanish. While Anomalies are a disaster that strikes humanity in the dead of night, to them, you are also a disaster that descends without warning.”

As the head of the Magical Girl Association, the Great Priestess assigned roles and abilities to all magical girls. To the trained eye of an Awakener with that sort of expertise, I was more of an assassin than a supporter.

The term “assassin” did have a somewhat ominous connotation, but I was willing enough to admit to seeing her side of things. I preferred one-on-one duels over full-scale battles and ambushes over duels, and when dealing with enemies like the Infrastructure Anomaly, whose true nature was hidden, I readily adopted the mindset of an assassin.

‘Infrastructure still doesn’t realize I’ve caught onto its existence.’

In the next cycle, I acted as if I knew nothing and went about my usual routine. Of course, behind the scenes, I was secretly gathering information about the Anomaly in question.

‘I can’t consult the Saintess or anyone else.’

Infrastructure’s most terrifying ability, I presumed, was its widespread common sense alteration. Even if my comrades seemed fine now, there was no telling when or where their perceptions might be corrupted.

Only one person—Yu Ji-won, the psychopath born immune to brainwashing—could be trusted with the strategy, and even then, I couldn’t discuss it carelessly.

“Why is that, Your Excellency?”

“Because there’s a risk that the Saintess might peek into our thoughts at any moment, leaking information to Infrastructure.”

“Ah.”

So I came up with a plan.

“From now on, all discussions about Infrastructure must take place within the dreams of the Baku. Understood?”

“Yes.”

Using the Tutorial Fairies.

With the Baku’s power, it was entirely possible for me and others to share the same dream. No matter how powerful the Saintess’s Clairvoyance was, she couldn’t follow us into the dreams of the Awakeners. It was the perfect place for a secret meeting.

“I’m endlessly pleased that it’s me, Yu Ji-won, upon whom you ultimately rely. But Your Excellency, may I ask one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“Down there, at the entrance to the stairs, there’s danger tape with warnings like ‘Handle with Care,’ ‘Safety First,’ and ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ plastered all over like spiderwebs. What exactly is lurking in the depths of the subconscious that you’ve blocked off so thoroughly?”

“Shh! Don’t ask. Don’t even get curious! Divine punishment will strike!”

Legend has it that if you linger too long in the subconscious, a shadow with pink hair will eventually loom behind you.

I really hate that story.

Anyway, aside from the minor drawback of a 0.1% chance of Go Yuri appearing, the dream world of the Baku served as an excellent hiding place.

“Right now, Infrastructure is slowly working to alter people’s common sense. We need to strike while it’s focused on that.”

“And to kill an Anomaly, the first step is to expose and define its true nature.”

“Right. We need to reveal its identity.”

“Hmm.”

Ji-won turned her head.

The background of our dream was the ruins of an abandoned construction site. Painted on the building’s walls were words, the thing Ji-won was currently scanning.

National Tax Service, Yeouido Airport, Village Bus No. 44, Trolley Dilemma, Toad House, Supreme Leader Comrade...

All were Anomalies either connected to or suspected of being part of Infrastructure.

“Your Excellency...” Ji-won began after a long pause. “If I may ask, which cycle are we in now?”

“This is the 776th cycle.”

“Did Infrastructure start altering people’s common sense in the 775th cycle? Were there no signs before that?”

“Ah. Well, it might have been subtly making changes for a long time, but I only noticed it then.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, resting her chin on her hand. “Then the conclusion is that Infrastructure didn’t originally exist in Your Excellency’s cycle line and has now suddenly appeared.”

“Like a mysterious ghost. This thing is capable of altering common sense on the level of a whole population across the entire peninsula. How could such a powerful Anomaly just appear out of nowhere?”

“No, there’s no need for ghosts to wail. The reason for Infrastructure’s appearance is actually quite clear.”

I blinked. “Oh? Do tell.”

“Yes. The cause is none other than you, Your Excellency.”

Huh?

“Ji-won...” I trailed off, choosing my words carefully. “I know there are some in our cycle alliance who push the Undertaker-Anomaly Theory, but if you take that at face value...”

“Oh, I’m not saying you are an Anomaly, Your Excellency. Just that you are the one who drastically increased the probability of Infrastructure’s appearance.”

I tilted my head. What on earth was she talking about?

“Your Excellency. South Korea has fallen. Human civilization has collapsed. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“But from an individual’s perspective, the state itself is a powerful monster. State power controls individual thoughts, restricts actions, and limits freedom.”

“Hmm...”

Did she think that way because she’d been a serial killer since middle school? If you’ve spent your whole life outsmarting the police, of course state power would feel unfriendly.

“I won’t interrupt,” I reassured her. “Go on.”

“Certainly. Originally, the monstrous power of the state vanished with the collapse of civilization. Whether it’s the National Tax Service or Yeouido Airport, they’re all scattered like dismembered limbs, leaving only traces of the state and infrastructure.” Ji-won turned to look at me and said, “But Your Excellency, you’ve begun to rebuild a part of civilization.”

I stayed quiet, waiting for her to continue.

“The scattered remnants of human infrastructure have been reconnected. The National Road Management Corps you established is the symbol of a unified state. Furthermore, you’ve even connected Eurasia with the beacon of the Sacred Fire.”

A faint electric current ran down the back of my neck in realization. “Are you saying... that as I rebuilt human civilization, the Infrastructure Anomaly also grew alongside it?”

“Yes. More accurately, you’ve created an environment where Infrastructure can run rampant.”

Ji-won picked up a paint can. With a practiced stroke, she wrote a word on the ruined wall:

“Therefore, the name ‘Infrastructure’ is somewhat inaccurate. It can’t explain Anomalies like the ‘Supreme Leader Comrade.’ To name this Anomaly on a larger scale—”

The word she wrote was the one she spoke next.

“State. The power of the state. The ideology of the state... This is the name of the Anomaly that has newly appeared in your cycle line, the parasite that has grown by riding on your success.”

https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

For a good, long while, I was stunned stiff, unable to recover from the shock.

Seawater lapped at my feet, soaking my socks, but the thought of drying them with Aura didn’t even cross my mind.

‘The more I restore human civilization... the more I create opportunities for another Anomaly to grow?’

What kind of nonsense was that?

Until now, I had classified Anomalies based on whether they were useful to humanity or not. If an Anomaly was useful, I boldly recruited it into the regression company. How else could the National Road Management Corps operate caravans when car fuel was more expensive than gold? It was all thanks to the Kongkongi and Byojoki I raised on my ranch. The northern barrier blocking the Monster Wave was also maintained by the resurrection Anomaly, Mo Gwang-seo.

Logistics, currency, even security—there were few areas where Anomalies weren’t utilized.

‘And all of that ultimately feeds into the growth of a larger, more dangerous Anomaly—the State. An Anomaly that might even evolve into an Outer God.’

Does convenience always come with a price?

Perhaps I need to completely overhaul my strategy as a regressor.

‘Should I abandon the plan to connect Eurasia with the beacon? Scrap the Baku’s currency? What about our adorable Kongkongi?’

My head spun.

Ah, the incompetent and weak regressor could only crouch by the breakwater and gaze helplessly at the horizon...

“Meow. Why are you moping here, Undateikeo?”

I suppose I should say—I was standing on the shore of Noto Peninsula in Japan, where the Magical Girl Association had illegally occupied a famous ryokan-style hotel and turned it into their headquarters.

Since sulking in Korea would inevitably attract the Saintess’s attention, I came here under the pretext of a business trip to film The Undertaker’s Melancholy.

“Ah, Manyo Neko,” I greeted, making a nihilistic expression. “I envy you, a shrine maiden serving a cat god. Animals don’t need countries or governments, so you can’t empathize with my worries...”

“Are you picking a fight? I’d love to punch you right now, nya.” Manyo Neko hissed. “I came to comfort you because you looked so pitiful, but I regret it now.”

“What I need isn’t comfort, but a vacation. And the next vacation season is still 100 years away. Manyo Neko, do you understand this pain and resentment?”

“Our Great Priestess is a handful, but the Awakeners in Korea must have it tough too, nya...”

Manyo Neko crouched beside me, her shadow falling over me. The magical umbrella she always carried cast a galaxy-like shadow even in broad daylight.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about, but why not spill it? Since I’m not part of your organization, you might feel less burdened talking to me, nya.”

Hmm. “Should I?”

“Meow, meow.”

What followed was a two-hour counseling session.

In the middle of it, a summer event occurred where monsters with tuna heads and shark tails landed on the shore and attacked, but as seasoned Awakeners, we casually defeated them and continued our conversation.

Manyo Neko sliced into fresh tuna sashimi with a contented purr and tilted her head.

“So, to summarize, you want to provide as many people in Korea with the benefits of infrastructure, but doing so risks creating an Outer God disguised as a state, leaving you stuck between a rock and a hard place. Is that right, nyan?”

“Ah.”

“Hmm.” She swallowed a piece of tuna belly, then said, “Honestly, I don’t get why that’s a pawblem.”

“Huh?”

“Just because people come together to build organizations and infrastructure doesn’t mean it has to take the form of centralized state power. Look at us nya. We’re not a Magical Girl Nation, but a Magical Girl Association, right? A network of shrines across the country, each forming its own group of shrine maidens. The Great Priestess just helps coordinate joint operations or agreements among magical girls. She’s not some kind of queen, nyan.”

She was right.

It was surreal to hear political philosophy spilling from the mouth of a cat-eared magical girl, but they had their own ideas (surprisingly?) and had formed an association to realize them. Specifically, the Great Priestess was a believer in anarcho-syndicalism and spread that ideology to other magical girls.

If you’re wondering what that is... Well, it’s similar to anarchism. Long story short, in this reality, the Tutorial Fairies were revolutionaries and the magical girls were anarchists.[1]

There’s a reason the world ended.

“Anyway, just because social infrastructure exists doesn’t mean you have to worry about centralized state power. Politics can take many different forms—”

I shot to my feet. “That’s it.”

“Purr?”

By now, my socks had dried from the seawater and were soft again. Aura surged through my body like a tiger’s energy.

“Thank you, Manyo Neko. My eyes have been opened. Thanks to you, I’ve thought of a way to maintain infrastructure while defeating the Anomaly. Truly, the Manyo Neko Strategy.”

“Uh, meow. You’re welcome?”

“I’ll repay this debt someday.”

Splash!

I didn’t need to wait any longer. I stepped on the seawater and hurried back to Korea.

As I distanced myself from Manyo Neko, I heard her mutter, “This feels weird. I’m sure I did a good thing, but why do I feel like I’ve done something terribly wrong, nyan...?”

Infrastructure— No. The State Anomaly.

I needed a way to lure it out and exterminate it while preserving the systems I’d built as a regressor.

There was only one solution.

“From now on, we will stop pretending to be the only legitimate government organization on the Korean Peninsula.”

The Regression Alliance. Meeting room in the Tower of Babel.

I made the declaration in front of all my comrades.

“The state is ultimately a servant of power and has now become a plaything for Anomalies. Until the day all Outer Gods are exterminated, the reconstruction of civilization is a distant dream. The National Road Management Corps was never meant to replace the government.”

Silence fell over the room. Do-hwa raised her hand, piercing the quiet with a question.

“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?”

“Ah. An excellent question.” I nodded. “From this moment on, the National Road Management Corps will be reborn as a terrorist organization.”

Immediate confusion.

“In this hellish situation where our peninsula is ruled by vile Anomalies, violence is our only meaningful form of resistance!”

I slammed the table, impassioned as I delivered my speech.

“We will fight as a resistance force—as an independence army—to protect human dignity and individual freedom against the monstrous Anomaly State! Ah! One hundred million humans, unite! Long live freedom! Long live the resistance!”

Everyone fell silent.

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Then—clap, clap, clap—applause rang out. All eyes turned to see Ji-won on her feet in the corner of the room.

“Long live freedom! Long live the resistance! Long live the eternal Supreme Leader of the Resistance, Undertaker!”

Clap, clap, clap.

“Your Excellency. The lack of response proves that these traitors have already been swayed by the Anomaly State. We must execute them to uphold the discipline of the Resistance and Your Excellency’s dignity.”

“Stop messing around and sit down, Ji-won.”

“Okay.”

The National Road Management Corps has officially transitioned into a terrorist organization for humanity and civilization!

Footnotes:

[1] To put it simply as one poor, confused editor to any of you readers who are also confused, anarcho-syndicalism is essentially anarchy where you want to abolish the centralized government of the state plus syndicalism where that power would then be invested back into labor unions and the hands of worker revolutionaries.