# Chapter 174
“There’s a process in the regression that you don’t know about.”
“The third regression? Early sixth? Seventh?”
Even though Lee Hwan fidgeted with his fingers, Taesung wouldn’t let go. He murmured, lost in his own thoughts. Lee Hwan squeezed his hand tightly to draw the attention of Taesung, who was concentrating on his deductions.
“The very first one.”
His face hardened as he spoke. The only moment when Taesung didn’t recognize Lee Hwan. According to him, the fundamental reason why the regression point was fixed to the present time.
“Well, what came after is also correct… Anyway, Kang Dongha will stay with us until the end without betrayal. He won’t find a better partner than me.”
“…In what way?”
“In the sense that I received proof from his past self? It’s complicated to explain… Well, I have memories from later regressions too, which made things easier.”
Though he smiled smugly, Taesung somehow looked gloomy.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t approach him with the intention of relying on him.”
Lee Hwan bit his lip comfortingly. There was still something he hadn’t heard.
“So, what was your plan?”
“Plan?”
“What have you been doing all this time while keeping me at a distance and hiding the regression?”
Taesung had been so busy from the first day of the regression. He couldn’t stay at home, and had even made the mistake of trying to confine Lee Hwan.
It meant he was handling important matters that couldn’t be delayed. If it was such a crucial affair, Lee Hwan couldn’t help but know about it.
“Tell me honestly. I won’t judge you again based on this.”
“…Groundwork, a kind of.”
Knowing that he’d receive a beating if he hesitated again, Taesung spoke right away.
“Every regression is the same. After going through several, I came to know what needed to be done first.”
“For example?”
“Contact with the Chairman, control of key personnel in the attack team, joining the Anti-Awakening project, recruiting Management Bureau personnel. And dealing with Kang Dongha.”
“What about the non-essential options?”
Taesung’s lips paused momentarily at the sharp question. Then, perhaps thinking there was nothing more to hide, after some hesitation, his voice returned, sounding subdued.
“First… eliminating certain individuals from the Health Promotion Association.”
Lee Hwan couldn’t yet recall who was in the Health Promotion Association. But to participate in such a secretive gathering, one would need substantial money and status if not a capable member of the Kang family.
Suddenly, news about upper-class disappearances that had heated up the news for a while crossed Lee Hwan’s mind.
“…Seokjeon Daily and the Hunter Association.”
Lee Hwan read affirmation in Taesung’s eyes as he silently stared at him. Somehow, he’d thought those suspicious incidents that never happened in the past seemed odd, and now the culprit was right in front of him.
“I didn’t handle it directly. Those three had done many things even before joining the Health Promotion Association, so they had enemies everywhere. Besides, if I’d left them alone, they would have pushed out neighborhoods around the gate two years later and committed more atrocities…”
“I understand. As long as there were no traces left.”
Did he not want to appear dangerous? Taesung tried to explain somehow. Lee Hwan squeezed the hand he was still holding to stop his words.
If he had hurt someone, there must have been a reason. They must have committed a major offense, were planning to, or had accelerated the apocalypse.
That was the trust Lee Hwan still had in him. It was also sympathy for all his suffering in places unknown to Lee Hwan.
“Your physical condition… what happened?”
“I found some skill stones. Since I acquired them without telling anyone, it seems several didn’t suit me.”
“Several?”
Lee Hwan asked, aghast. He thought he had only swallowed one or two at most. Just like himself, collecting only those that matched his original ability.
“There were skill stones that the Health Promotion Association would definitely get if left alone. I seized them and regressed.”
“Who acquires skills so recklessly?”
Taesung quietly smiled at the reproachful question tinged with concern. How could he smile when his body was damaged? When Lee Hwan made an angry face, Taesung brought the hand he was holding to his forehead.
His body temperature was always high, so it was impossible to tell whether he had a fever just by touching his head.
“…My head hurts.”
Judging by his behavior, he was clearly feigning illness. But when he said he was in pain, Lee Hwan couldn’t question him further. At this point, it was a disease. Maybe he was the one who was truly sick.
“Besides headaches, any other symptoms?”
Lee Hwan sighed and redirected the question. Grateful for his understanding, Taesung answered immediately.
“When I use too much strength, my condition isn’t good. Also, my energy consumption is excessively high. I think it’s because of the regression skill, which makes it a bit strange.”
Lee Hwan’s eyes widened at the mention of the regression skill. As he stared at Taesung with furrowed brows, Taesung reported without falsehood.
“That skill has almost collapsed. I can’t even see the text properly now.”
“…Skills can collapse?”
“Maybe because it’s EX-class or something, it seems to undergo self-modification according to the situation, but I don’t know the details. Anyway, it must not have completely collapsed yet since energy consumption is still high.”
This was new information. When Lee Hwan first acquired it, the regression skill was “Broken Clockwork.” The skill description gave a stronger impression that the text had been erased rather than collapsed.
What could be the reason for the collapse? Was it a skill designed to be used only that much from the beginning?
As Lee Hwan was about to get lost in thought, Taesung’s voice woke him up.
“Originally, I couldn’t even mention stories related to major events before regression… but as the skill began to collapse, most restrictions were lifted. Your memories returning seems to be part of that too.”
“…So the skill is collapsing, right? Then what about the regression conditions?”
“Achieving lost causality derived from all previous regressions. But it seems there’s no need to remember that now.”
“Why?”
Lee Hwan, who had been recalling memories about the regression skill, turned his eyes with an anxious expression at the meaningful answer. Taesung gazed into empty space as if checking his skill window, then continued speaking with a slightly disappointed face.
“I told you, the skill has collapsed. This is the last regression.”
Lee Hwan remembered Taesung coming to him with a desperate face before the regression, crying silently. He closed his eyes tightly, opened them again, and pressed Taesung’s hand firmly.
That night, he couldn’t sleep either. Lee Hwan paced outside his room after much deliberation. Since hearing Taesung’s story, his thoughts had been ceaseless.
The first regression when his memories hadn’t returned, and the seven regressions after when his memories had disappeared. And in the ninth, Lee Hwan and Taesung faced the final regression.
Taesung had obtained a justification to infiltrate the Health Promotion Association through the Chairman, and after permanently losing the experimental information related to gates, he planned to hand over only the human experiments of the revival project to the Management Bureau.
The official supervising Naru was said to be disinterested in personal gain, upright, and notorious for being an extreme rule-follower, so he decided to trust Taesung’s judgment, honed through countless regressions.
The subsequent disclosure would be carried out by an international journalist group called Praxis, and he had originally planned to deal with Kang Dongha around this point…
‘He always said there were problems in the process of burning certain internal information and making disclosures.’
Would Kang Dongha’s survival bring significant changes to that process? He’d like to run a simulation once or twice, but the word “final” weighed heavily on him.
“Haa.”
His head felt like it was about to split. He wanted to sleep a little, but even after lying down with his eyes closed for a long time, sleep wouldn’t come, and only his frustration grew.
When he forcibly calmed his mind, it felt like insects were gnawing at the edges of his body. Unable to endure, Lee Hwan got up, thrashing about.
‘I sleep well when I lie down with that guy.’
He considered seeking out Taesung. But remembering how he had embraced him and wailed in the afternoon made him belatedly embarrassed.
Moreover, he could almost see himself losing focus due to being conscious of Taesung. When he touched him, his heart kept pounding wildly. In the end, Lee Hwan couldn’t go either way and just went to the living room.
’12, 13, 14, 15 centimeters…’
Lying on the sofa, he used his ability. He was absent-mindedly measuring the width of the ceiling while gradually expanding the space. He thought perhaps if he wasted energy like this, he might eventually tire and fall asleep.
Of course, it didn’t even come close to affecting him. It only made his mind clearer. Annoyed, he suddenly expanded the designated space, which gave him some sense of relief.
Maybe he should sneak out and run in the middle of the night? Would climbing the hill behind his apartment after running there help him breathe better? Lee Hwan was seriously considering exercising under the moonlight as he half-raised his body.
That’s when it happened.
Click.
The sound of a door opening. Since there were only two people in this house, him and Taesung, it was undoubtedly Taesung who had woken up.
‘Oh no.’
Thud. His slightly raised body buried itself back into the sofa. As if he had done something wrong, Lee Hwan quickly deactivated his spatial control and pretended to be asleep.
Had Kang Taesung come out to go to the bathroom? But the footsteps headed steadily toward the living room. The consistent pace suggested he wasn’t sleepwalking again.
The footsteps stopped right in front of the sofa, and simultaneously, a presence approached so noticeably that he could sense it even with his eyes closed.
“Lee Hwan.”
He felt warmth over his face as if Taesung had touched him, and Taesung’s voice called him.
‘Why call someone who’s sleeping?’
Did he know he was awake? Should he respond then? If Taesung was just calling out, pretending to be asleep would be exposed. But continuing to ignore him seemed strange too.
While he was briefly considering, he missed the timing to pretend to wake up at Taesung’s call. Damn it. Lee Hwan just kept his eyes closed, pretending to be in deep sleep.
Then he heard a low sigh. His face felt ticklish as if being stared at, and Lee Hwan just tried his best to keep his breathing even as he lay there.
Focusing so much on natural actions like breathing, swallowing saliva, and rolling his eyes felt awkward and tiring.
As he was controlling his breathing, slowly exhaling, suddenly something soft touched his forehead and then pulled away.
‘…!’
He almost shrunk his neck in surprise. As soon as he relaxed the stiffly tensed muscles in his shoulders, Taesung’s arm slipped under his body and lifted him up.
What was that just now? He was so focused on pretending to be asleep, and his hair was half-covering his forehead, so it was hard to tell. Lee Hwan just felt like he shouldn’t be caught being awake, so he went limp, leaning against Taesung’s body.
The sensation of being carried while keeping his eyes closed was strange. In the darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, there was only the feeling of floating somewhere.
Still, he could tell that Taesung’s footsteps were heading toward his room. Being carried in Taesung’s arms, Lee Hwan felt a somehow regretful emotion. He just felt that way without knowing why.
Then suddenly, Taesung stopped moving. After standing silently in front of the door for a moment, he abruptly turned around.
Click.
Although the sound of turning a doorknob was heard, the place he entered wasn’t Lee Hwan’s room.
A familiar scent… Taesung had brought him to his own room. Lee Hwan forced his stiffening neck to go limp again and quietly took a deep breath.
