The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 119 – The Brainwasher I

1

I don’t have much fondness for quotes or proverbs.

To admire a quote is akin to appreciating a photograph of a beautiful landscape rather than experiencing the landscape itself.

For those who have already traveled to such landscapes, it might hold some commemorative value. For others, it’s just a faux antique decorating their home.

However, there’s one quote by Nietzsche that even a pragmatist would find useful:

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

This truly is a guide among guides for hitchhikers traveling the apocalyptic road, isn’t it?

To make it even more practical, one could slightly modify the latter part:

– “If you gaze long enough into Koyori, Koyori will gaze back into you.”

Koyori.

Personal color: Pink.

Pokémon type: Psychic.

Specialties: A soft smile for everyone and a brainwashing hypnosis beam.

If it had appeared in the first-generation Pokémon animation as Kadabra, it would have been a cult favorite among children. Unfortunately, being reincarnated in reality made my neck stiff.

What I want to tell you is that I, Doctor Jang, made considerable efforts to seal this Pokémon.

‘What if I don’t look directly but take a picture? Could I then see Koyori’s true form?’

Click.

I committed the reckless act of secretly photographing Koyori. It was a death-defying act.

Although the photograph was successfully taken, the result was disappointing. There was no significant difference in performance between an ordinary camera lens and my retina.

In other words, the photograph showed the same pink hair and the same soft smile. Hmm. Somehow, the photo seemed less impressive than the real thing.

The moment I thought, ‘Hmm. The photo seems less impressive than the real thing,’ I realized I had already fallen under a mild hypnosis. A chill ran down my spine. I immediately burned the photograph.

Failure.

‘What if someone else takes the picture?’

I had Yoo Jiwon, who wasn’t particularly attached to her life, take the photo. The result was the same. Yoo Jiwon also returned unscathed.

Failure².

For the record, my tests were never conducted in the same turn.

Regarding Koyori, it was necessary to handle and research more cautiously than with a nuclear bomb. Naturally, all tests were conducted in different turns.

‘What if I record the voice with a voice recorder――.’

Failure.

‘…Wait. What if I take a picture with a ghost camera?’

It was a rather ingenious idea.

Around this time, I had received an instant ghost camera from the Magical Girl Association as a reward for exorcising the Inunaki Tunnel.

Click.

I had high hopes for this test. The ghost camera was the finest of supernatural items. Could there be a more suitable item to reveal Koyori’s true identity?

That was when it happened.

Dr-r-r-r…

From the ghost camera, which was developing the photo normally, a strange noise began to emanate.

Dr-r-r! Clank! Riiing! Riiiing, riiing, riiing! Riiiing!

It was the sound of a telephone ringing. Or maybe it was more like the loud sound of pressing a red fire alarm button.

Clank!

The camera jerked and then started emitting smoke from inside as if a fire had broken out.

Then it stopped.

“……”

I got goosebumps.

“What’s wrong?”

The more chilling fact was that Koyori had approached me without me noticing.

Right up close.

Koyori tilted her head, bent down, and looked up at me from below.

“Oh, you seem familiar… Ah, wait a moment. Weren’t you the one at the waiting room in Busan Station? Hmm, your name was definitely… Doctor Jang. Mr. Doctor Jang, right?”

“……”

“Wow! What a coincidence to meet you here again! Ah, the thing in your hand is emitting smoke. Is it okay?”

Koyori smiled brightly.

“Can I help you with anything?”

Damn it.

I was stupid to trust this camera in the first place. How powerful could the treasures of a group that dresses up as magical girls really be?

However, a regressor’s job is to calculate even such contingencies and establish countermeasures. I immediately activated Protocol 552-71.

“Unexpectedly, a wild wind roars! As the wind blows loudly, Zhou Yu hurriedly descended onto the grand platform, looking at the flags fluttering!”

“…What?”

“Lo! Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and White Tiger, Black Tortoise, responding to the southwest, rise swiftly with the eastern wind, causing the flags to snap! Swoosh! The banner topples, and the flagpole snaps! Zhou Yu, seeing this, is terrified!”

“Eh. What…?”

“Oh, heavens! Ahhh! Why did you give birth to both me and Kongming! Uwaaa! U-wee!”

“……”

Like a madman, I danced and ran towards the horizon, abandoning all the dignity and character I had built over a thousand years as a regressor.

Protocol 552-71’s original name is “Singing Pansori Jeokbyeokga” or “Pretending to be Crazy.”

Incidentally, I was good at pansori.

I was even better at pretending to be crazy.

Even the ever-curious Koyori, who always found everything interesting, didn’t bother chasing after a human disgrace. Dobby was free, and I escaped.

And I never approached within 30 kilometers of Koyori again in that turn.

Failure.

――Koyori was indeed a dangerous existence.

As the founder and hidden mastermind of the Library Society, it was hard to resist adding “Koyori-class” to the danger lineup of [Village-level, City-level, Continent-level, Ocean-level, and Outer God-level].

[Proofreader – Gun]

My trusted business partner, National Road Manager Noh Doha, maintained a calm expression in the headquarters operations room.

“To me, you seem more dangerous…”

“Hmph.”

I didn’t particularly agree with Noh Doha’s point, but I adjusted my strategy.

“As I mentioned, ‘the one who must not be named’ is dangerous not just to me but to all humans. Each person projects their ideal onto them, so even someone as emotionally detached as myself is bound to fall.”

“Geez. I don’t even know where to start with your delusions. First off, is your ideal type pink hair…?”

“That’s a trivial matter, Manager. But by addressing this issue, we can hypothesize the following: What if someone who lacks emotions entirely were to contact ‘the one who must not be named’? Would they be safe?”

“Hm? Someone without emotions? Does such a person exist…?”

“More precisely, someone who lacks any feelings of affection. If someone lacks the ability to feel attraction, Koyori’s manipulation would fail to take hold.”

“……”

“……”

We almost simultaneously turned our heads.

“Hmm?”

Scritch, scratch.

There, in the National Road Manager’s operations control room, Yoo Jiwon was carving wood with a chisel, making pieces for the [minimap] chess set.

“Why are you suddenly looking at me?”

The highly intelligent psychopath tilted her head.

2

Yoo Jiwon.

Personal color: Silver.

Pokémon type: Well, who knows. Anyway, psychopath. Spending too much time explaining this one is a waste of life.

Compared to Koyori, she couldn’t win in anything but looks.

It was an excessively bitter fact for reality, but Yoo Jiwon was undeniably beautiful. This was an objective truth that even I couldn’t twist.

Among the awakened in Korea, the two top rivals in terms of appearance were Koyori and Yoo Jiwon. The fact that these two were the standard bearers just showed how hopeless this land was.

That’s right. I always assigned Yoo Jiwon to monitor Koyori.

On the Korean peninsula map spread out in the operations team room, there was always a black bishop (♝) with the engraved name “Koyori” wandering around.

“Jiwon, you need to make contact with ‘the one who must not be named.’ And, of course, you must never let it be known that I sent you. Above all, if there’s even the slightest sign that you’re being brainwashed, I will isolate you immediately.”

“Hmmm…”

Yoo Jiwon propped her chin on her hand. The very act of doing so in front of someone, while making a thoughtful noise, was an obvious sign of a psychopath. It was chilling.

“Sir, I have conditions.”

“What conditions?”

“When you go to the next turn, get me something.”

This was the sound of a born lunatic.

If Yoo Jiwon were a normal psychopath, she would think:

‘Huh? The next turn of me? That’s a completely separate person from the current me. I’ll pursue my happiness now.’

‘I’ll live for myself from now on.’

But no. Our psychopath had wrinkles in her brain from sheer brilliance.

‘Hmmm. If that person (Doctor Jang) causes the world to regress, no matter how much wealth and power I accumulate, it will all disappear with one “click” of regression.’

‘Why should my power and safety vanish because of a clicker?’

‘But the regressor cannot be killed.’

‘Therefore, I must cling to the regressor.’

‘In other words… negotiate with the regressor to pass more power and information to the next turn of myself. Then even more the next time. If I keep inheriting wealth and power this way…’

‘The final victory will be mine.’

‘I will invest everything in the regressor coin from now on.’

This was the extraordinary thought process she reached.

How do I know this? Because she told me directly.

I believe no further explanation is needed as to why I consider this beautiful lady a lunatic. I’ve never seen a character with such a thought process in any work of fiction involving infinite regression.

It’s another example of how reality always triumphs over fiction.

“Jiwon.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard you say that?”

“No. But your remark just now confirms that I maintain my sanity in any turn. That’s reassuring.”

“I feel like I need to replace ‘sanity’ with another word to make sense of it…”

“Intelligence? Rationality? Judgment?”

“The opposite of all those words would be more accurate.”

“…?”

In the end, I had no choice but to promise Yoo Jiwon again. For reference, she was at a depth of 1,000 meters according to my hideout café’s standards.

She started at 100 meters.

There’s no need to explain how she clawed his way from 100 meters to 1,000 meters. Just know that I am a person who keeps promises very well.

I sent Yoo Jiwon on her mission and followed her, maintaining a careful distance of several hundred meters.

Koyori was running a soup kitchen in Daejeon. She distributed food twice daily, morning and evening, in exchange for some light labor from the general public.

I observed the scene through binoculars. Seeing Koyori herself in an apron, smiling brightly as she served food, made my teeth chatter.

The apron even had Chinese characters written on it.

Records of the Three Kingdoms.

‘Terrifying, Koyori!’

I shuddered.

‘Are you trying to seduce my mind even in such a moment? Do you think I’ll develop any affection for you because of this?’

Furthermore, the apron was green, the symbol of the Shu Han, neither the baseless blue nor red.

Truly formidable brainwashing!

My hands trembled. As I forcibly turned the binoculars slightly, I saw the final weapon of our National Road Management, the silver-haired psychopath, walking steadily.

And then――.

“……”

“……”

The two beings, met.

The one who makes everyone fall in love and the one who never feels affection.

In other words… contradiction!

The mere contact threatened to disrupt the laws of the universe and mock social ethics, an encounter that should never have occurred in a proper history, but stood there by some bizarre twist of causality (me).

My heart swelled with grandeur.

[Proofreader – Gun]