The regressions continue (1)
After someone somehow died (let's say it's Yoo Jonghyuk), a new round began.
Cale opened his eyes in the familiar subway's cabin. Sighing, he turned to Yoo Jonghyuk.
In the last round, Yoo Jonghyuk had seen him at the constellations' banquet and knew that he was alive. He wouldn't be able to hide from Yoo Jonghyuk this time.
Cale made up his mind.
At that moment, as if his sponsor could read his thoughts, a message appeared in front of him.
[The skill 'Pain Resistance Lv.4' is activated.]
A few minutes later, the scenario ended and the crimson-haired teenager's head exploded.
Cale was dead.
When the timer hit zero, Yoo Jonghyuk didn't hurry to break the door as usual but instead headed to the pile of corpses and searched through it.
There, he found Cale's headless body among the strangers. The teenager had indeed died this time.
Yoo Jonghyuk frowned.
After thinking for a few seconds, he sighed and walked to the cabin's door before breaking it.
However, what was waiting for him there was an unexpected sight.
Yoo Jonghyuk took a step back.
***
In Zhou Mingrui's cabin, the Lord of Mysteries woke up with all his memories intact.
It took him a few seconds to realize the situation.
'As expected, since I increased my connection with the gray fog, it can help me regain my memories of the previous rounds.'
That regressor should have died and gone back in time.
"Hehe… hehe…"
Goosebumps appeared on Zhou Mingrui's arms as he turned his head to the side.
There, he saw an unknown man laughing to himself while looking at the next cabin.
Zhou Mingrui got chills.
This man that the pillar of the universe hadn't seen here before, also called Nirvana, who had been completely forgotten since a few rounds ago, was sitting beside him.
Weirded out, Zhou Mingrui decided to ignore the reincarnator and stepped away from him.
Then, he received messages from a certain constellation (who pretended to have never used the modifier 'The Word Needs Justice' in front of him before).
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' asks you to spare some people.]
After briefly wondering who it was, having flashbacks of the strange modifier from the last round and putting two and two together, Klein had a good idea of who was talking to him.
At her request, he completed the scenario while saving Yoo Sangah, Lee Gilyoung, Lee Hyunsung and Kim Namwoon by giving them grasshoppers.
Unfortunately, Nirvana also survived.
Turning a blind eye to it, Zhou Mingrui glanced at the breaking door as the others stepped back.
Then, when Yoo Jonghyuk was visible, Nirvana walked toward him with stars in his eyes.
At that moment, Zhou Mingrui had a feeling that the next thing he would hear would be something really absurd.
And as expected, Nirvana exclaimed:
"Yoo Jonghyuk, become one with me!"
Zhou Mingrui looked away and decided to not get involved in this couple's affairs. It was another secret of Yoo Jonghyuk he would have rather not known.
While Nirvana continued to say misleading things, Zhou Mingrui broke the exit's door and escaped. It was only when the others followed him as well that Yoo Jonghyuk regained his senses.
It was too bad Yoo Jonghyuk didn't have a sword to cut off Nirvana's head now.
[??? has gifted you a sword.]
Ignoring the weird timing from his sponsor who had never spoken to him before, Yoo Jonghyuk received this sponsorship gratefully and picked up the weapon.
That's how Yoo Sangah, Lee Gilyoung, Lee Hyunsung and Kim Namwoon survived the first scenario.
As for whether Nirvana had his head cut off by Yoo Jonghyuk, that's another matter altogether.
***
[
Category: Main.
Difficulty: F.
Clear condition: Kill one or more creatures.
Time limit: 30 minutes.
Rewards: 300 coins.
Failure: Death.]
As soon as she appeared in this world, Fors was presented with an absurd situation.
She was amazed by the strange 'system messages' she had never seen before and lazily stayed in her spot without doing anything. Meanwhile, with his experience as an official Beyonder, Leonard next to her regained his senses and started to look around.
Noticing Leonard approaching her, Fors stopped staring at the unfamiliar architecture of the place they were in and asked Mr. Star:
"What should we do now?"
Leonard shook his head.
"It should be a Beyonder event. I'll try to see if we can leave and evacuate the people here."
Fors nodded and looked at him as he left.
She sighed as she thought that she wouldn't be able to rest for a while, and Xio wasn't even here.
Fors had deduced that the place they were in should be a police station. It meant that some people may have guns.
If people began to obey the rules of this 'scenario' and pulled out guns at innocent people or the guns were stolen and entered the wrong hands, it would get messy soon.
Moreover, Fors didn't know if there were any Beyonders apart from her and Mr. Star here, and the dokkaebi showing screens of people killing each other in the background didn't help either.
Leonard came back to Fors and shook his head.
"There seems to be an invisible barrier preventing people from leaving. I was unable to break it."
Fors's eyes widened.
"You couldn't break it?"
She realized how dangerous the situation was. If even Mr. Star couldn't break it, an higher existence should have caused this. It may even be a god.
She tried to open a door with her Beyonder abilities to get out of this place but failed. It confirmed her suspicion.
"Let's follow the rules for now then search for the others."
Fors silently agreed with him.
Then, their attention was brought to the side. A police officer was aiming a gun at a civilian.
As she expected, there were indeed guns in this police station.
Leonard frowned and intervened. How could someone who was supposed to protect others try to harm them?
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
The police officer pointed his revolver to Leonard when he heard these words.
"D-didn't you see this? We will die if we don't kill someone!"
Fors shrank in her seat, trying to not be noticed. She didn't want to be involved in this fight.
As he was pointed at, Leonard felt the unstable mental state of the police officer and gritted his teeth.
"That's murder." He retorted.
However, it made the other man even more agitated.
"So what?! I want to survive!"
The police officer's attention was now completely on the guy who had interrupted him. Then, he shot at Leonard.
Surprised, Leonard reflexively evaded the bullet, but his eyes widened when he recalled that Miss Magician was behind him.
Even though she wouldn't be injured if she took the bullet head on as a high Sequence Beyonder, Fors created a door in front of the bullet, making it disappear. Then, another door appeared behind the police officer's head and the latter died, receiving the stray bullet.
Everyone stopped moving, shocked.
Leonard finally broke the silence and apologized.
"I'm sorry, I was careless."
Fors shook her head. After all, it wasn't a big deal.
At the same time, messages telling her that she had cleared the scenario materialized before her eyes.
She glanced at the timer. There wasn't much time left.
Looking around, her gaze paused on the ceiling as she searched for a solution for Mr. Star to also finish the scenarios. In novels, there was usually a trick to bypass the rules or a loophole…
'Ah.'
She had found it.
Fors remarked:
"Shouldn't killing animals also work?"
Leonard turned his head to her.
"What?"
[Kill one or more creatures.]
As Fors's words, Leonard noticed this point.
'A creature.'
A creature wasn't necessarily a human.
As expected, Miss Magician's experience as a writer was really useful in moments like these. She had a lot of imagination and could thus view this situation from a different angle.
Now, the question was…
"But how are we going to find an animal? I don't see any here."
As if she had anticipated this question, Fors pointed up.
"Animals aren't necessarily dogs or cats, they can also be insects."
On the ceiling, there was a cobweb.
The probability of finding an insect in a police station was higher than a cat or a dog. Moreover, they only needed one.
Leonard nodded.
Nevertheless, they were lacking enough time.
He was about to remind Fors but the latter was faster than him.
"Why don't you use your Beyonder powers to detect if any insects are present?"
Mr. Star paused.
Using Beyonder abilities to detect insects?
He had never thought about it before.
However, Miss Magician had a point. In theory, insects were living beings. Since they were conscious, they should also have a subconscious and be able to dream. It was just something that science hadn't confirmed.
Leonard activated his Nightmare ability and sensed a very weak presence in a place where no human was seen. There was indeed a little spider in the police station.
Relieved, Mr. Star bypassed others and went toward another corner of the ceiling.
However, a new problem came up.
He was too short to reach it.
Embarrassed, he turned back toward Miss Magician. It was too bad that Pallez wasn't here to tell him what to do.
Fors covered her face and decided to tell this story to Xio when she came back.
She then looked around and saw that there was indeed no tool to let him reach the ceiling. She deduced that Mr. Star wanted her to use her Beyonder abilities.
Fors created a door on the ceiling and connected it to another door on the wall, at Mr. Star's height.
Seeing this, Leonard scratched his neck and thanked her before finally killing the spider and also clearing the scenario.
Less than a minute later, the scenario ended and Mr. Star looked at Miss Magician.
"Let's separate."
Understanding what she had to do, Fors stood up.
"Okay, I should be able to find the others faster with my Beyonder abilities. Recite my honorific name if you find them."
As a Beyonder of the Door pathway, Fors could teleport to other places.
After she opened a door in the air and left, the other survivors of the scenario looked at the place where she disappeared in awe.
That's what happened in Fors's and Leonard's first scenario.