# Chapter 160.
‘Is this because of Kang Dongha? I told you I won’t see him again, okay?’
‘Lee Hwan. If you try to leave through Jade again and get caught, I can’t guarantee what will happen to him.’
‘…I was stupid to believe you were my friend, you crazy bastard.’
He was fine with Lee Hwan hating him. While it was unavoidable that he’d appear less happy, as long as he stayed alive, Taesung could bear even greater hatred.
But hadn’t regression attempts exceeded seven times? The end of the third cycle wasn’t good either. Despite being wary of Taesung, Lee Hwan was never negligent in preventing the world’s destruction.
He joined hands with Kang Dongying through Kang Dongha to deal with the monster wave. Though unsure how deep their bond was, Lee Hwan remained in opposition to Taesung for the next two years.
And at the last moment, he was betrayed and met death. Remarkably, Kang Dongha, Kang Dongying, and their close associates were all dragged down together, but ultimately what remained was a slightly safer world and Taesung, who survived alone.
Taesung’s purpose was never the world from the beginning. His clock turned back again towards 2022.
From the fourth cycle, minor details became hazy. By then, he had started to get tired. From the constantly derailing situations, from the increasingly broken Lee Hwan.
People weren’t pieces on a chess board that remained fixed and waited. They were organically connected, constantly moving and changing. Consequently, situations changed moment by moment. Just because A was B in the previous cycle didn’t mean B+C and A+C would be the same.
The butterfly effect from a single choice could hasten destruction or bring death. If they could go back to an earlier past, they might correct things more easily, but they couldn’t expect more from the regression skill in this situation.
* ▶X %justed #◇&%
– Previous owner!& First r○gression $◇% ◐%□▦▦▦—-
In the first cycle, he proceeded by following intense feelings, but after the skill began to transform again, even that was barely provided.
With each regression, the skill’s description became increasingly distorted. As if it wasn’t originally like this, but something went wrong as the pieces were forced together.
Crackle- crackle-.
Chilling noise and incalculable futures tormented him. Taesung sometimes restricted Lee Hwan’s movements causing conflict, or ruined the situation trying to protect him.
Not only that, he also tried killing everyone related to partial awakening, kidnapping, threatening, and causing terrorism. Had he not achieved the regression conditions in advance, he might have been shot dead in the fourth cycle.
He did learn a few things through it all. One was that there wasn’t much benefit in Lee Hwan discovering the repeated regression fact.
If he just steadily leaked a few pieces of information that could be spoken, the sharp and intelligent Lee Hwan would roughly deduce the past before long. Because of that, he had been in dangerous situations. After that, Taesung tried to hide information as much as possible.
Another was the judgment of characters. Kang Dongying was greedy and lived struggling more than expected, and bore grudges for any reason. Kang Dongha was closer to a hyena ready to bite one’s back at any time. If left alone, he naturally stood in opposition, and even if somehow persuaded, he ultimately betrayed for his own benefit.
He was a meticulous bastard who only believed in himself and acted solely for himself based on that. Moreover, if he met Lee Hwan right after regression, he persistently clung to him. Had Taesung’s patience been weaker than others’, he might have struck him at some point.
So Kang Dongha was a card to discard early. Whether killing him or turning him into a cripple.
Lastly, he discovered the optimal route. A private meeting with the Chairman. When persuaded for support, the checks and maneuvers that troubled him decreased by about 70%.
After all, even though his days were numbered, he was the owner of the vast kingdom that was Naru. The fierce determination with which he started the company, even seizing the inheritance meant for his youngest brother young enough to be his son, couldn’t have gone anywhere.
While pretending to step back after placing partial awakening in the hands of his son and grandson, he actually had tremendous interest in it. While praising and being proud of them, he constantly monitored and tightened their leashes.
At an age where all one could do was endure no matter what medicine they took or what they did. He wouldn’t want to leave his self-built kingdom in vain. Taesung used his sentiments to strike a deal. While hiding all future events, only passing information about partial awakening.
Taesung vividly remembered the day he first saw that old man. He had grown up without ever meeting any relatives. Then, dressing up in a formal suit to meet his uncle for the first time, behind the door was not someone of his father’s age but a complete elderly man.
‘Ah yes, you’re Taesung. Are you younger than Dongying?’
‘I’m even younger than Dongha, Elder Brother.’
‘Dongha? How old is he now…?’
Until his parents passed away, that was the extent of their interaction. Since it wasn’t particularly pleasant to see a nephew who was older than himself, it was perhaps better that way.
And so came the fifth cycle. The shrewd gaze that seemed to see through the young him once again rested on the regressed Taesung. For some people, the years lived translated directly into experience and knowledge. The Chairman was the type to be more cautious of because of his age.
“So, you said you have something to say.”
Still, the reason Taesung could maintain a calm face was that there was no need to deceive him completely. Anyway, the Chairman wouldn’t be completely fooled no matter what was said. Since Taesung approached knowing this, he just needed to provide bait attractive enough to catch his interest.
Information at such a level that, while the Chairman might notice some scheming, he would roughly overlook and pass by—whatever the calculation might be.
“Since time is most precious to you… I’ll cut to the chase. Do you know that there are differences in magical response during the mutation into partial awakening?”
He had gained some minor information while chasing Lee Hwan, who had joined Kang Dongying in the third cycle. The experiment conducted over two years definitely yielded different results than in 2022. Coincidentally, the Chairman was a magic responder, and thus showed more interest in the partial awakening experiment.
There was a reason he provided land for an experiment that could potentially collapse the magnificent castle he had built.
As long as he clearly stated what he wanted, the Chairman didn’t press for the source of the information. However, he didn’t leave Taesung alone either. As his interest shifted, surveillance and restrictions shrouded many aspects of daily life.
There was a time when Jade was dragged away for confirmation after Taesung leaked future experimental information, not wanting to hand him over personally. There was also a time when Lee Hwan got involved and was held like a hostage.
At the end of the fifth cycle, though barely achieving the regression condition, Lee Hwan lost his life before his eyes due to the interference of the Health Promotion Association. Facing his fading life, Taesung recalled the first regression when he lost him.
‘AAAAAAHHHHH!!!’
The taste of blood came from the throat that let out a terrible scream. At some point, endless anger and pain had been consuming him. Several revenges were added to his goals.
From the next cycle, he also collected the weaknesses of potential troublemakers. He watched the branches where environments changed as he killed or spared them. Meanwhile, he also gathered skill stones. From skill stones discovered in Naru-owned gates to ones he found all over the country and abroad, he consumed anything that seemed useful.
To save Lee Hwan in any emergency. To be able to overpower and endure any interference with sheer force.
At some point, he began suffering severe headaches when using skills. He had to supply nutrients frequently to the regression skill that consumed energy strangely, and even when using the abilities he always had, his bones ached.
It felt like being a bazooka made of glass. He could burn entire mountains whole and run as if flying through the air, but he often had to sit down and calm his throbbing head.
‘Is this… the seventh time?’
Too many regressions had been repeated. The skill window started crackling and finally kept coming back endlessly until it was chilling from any angle, and came back again.
Through this, Taesung was afraid. Not because the skill might harm him, but because all of this might become familiar. So that even Lee Hwan’s death would eventually become numb.
Imagining a future where he would treat losing Lee Hwan as trivial made his nape stiffen automatically. Every time he first sought Lee Hwan again, Taesung tasted a sad happiness that made his fingertips tingle. If that moment disappeared, he truly couldn’t endure it.
His worry seemed to have mistakenly reached the heavens. Taesung, suffering from the torture of hope, finally witnessed a desperate situation in the most recent regression.
[‘Using the ▦X Br▦▦ ▦ckwork (▦ime)’ skill.]
[Warning! Transformed& ●kill is collap%ing△$–]
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[▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦]
[▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦▦]
The system message began failing to read the skill. Thus, the 8th cycle. At the beginning of 2022, which he was facing for the tenth time, Taesung opened his skill window feeling his heart freeze coldly.
* ▦X Br▦▦ ▦ckwork (▦annot be used)
Instead of ‘0 times’ or ‘1 time’, a marking he had never seen before appeared there. The content of the description with one letter carved out was probably ‘cannot be used.’ It was broken. The skill that couldn’t hold on any longer had collapsed.
‘This is the last time.’
The moment he realized this fact. A sense of desperation rushed in like a wave and engulfed Taesung’s mind.
