# Chapter 53
The Birth of a Personal Villain
“Huff, hah…”
Lee Hwan, having escaped the hallucination, quickly gathered his rough breathing. He was still standing in the laboratory. A cool, unpleasant smell brushed his nose.
Checking the time on his phone, barely more than a minute had passed. No, even that wasn’t certain. He didn’t know exactly what time it was when he entered the laboratory.
It felt like he had been in the hallucination for quite a while… At this rate, it was possible that practically no time had passed at all.
‘Skill.’
A thought flashed through his mind. Last time when he found a piece of causality, there was a change in his regression skill. Part of the hidden description was revealed. Would there be a similar change this time too?
But there was no time to check right now. If someone discovered him here, it wouldn’t end well.
‘First… let’s get out of here.’
Lee Hwan scanned his surroundings again and gently pushed away from the table he had been leaning against.
Fortunately, he left no trace behind. He hadn’t touched anything.
Would it be better to get out of the basement quickly? The researchers who had finished their meals would be coming down here soon. There was only one exit route. If their timing overlapped, he would inevitably be caught.
Click. The door opened with a small sound. Lee Hwan, mindful of the CCTV, turned back and went out, boarding the elevator.
The elevator’s notification sound seemed unusually loud. In sync with it, Lee Hwan’s heart made a thumping sound. Although he knew almost no time had passed since the hallucination, the anxiety intensified with each second due to the disturbing things he had seen.
When he carefully exited the room with the elevator, passed through the first basement floor corridor, and returned to the stairwell, as soon as the CCTV disappeared, Lee Hwan nimbly slipped away and ran up the stairs. After escaping that place, he finally stepped into a bathroom stall, and instantly his tension released, making his body feel like it might collapse.
“Haah… haah…”
The bag he had left was still on the toilet lid. Lee Hwan wiped away the sweat that had seeped out and slowly changed his clothes. He thought he had become quite strong-hearted after going through many battles before the regression… but seeing his trembling body now, that didn’t seem to be the case.
From outside, the sound of people gradually gathering became audible. It seemed that the facility’s personnel were returning one by one after finishing their meals. The sound of doors opening, urinals flushing, hands being washed, and people going back out. Only after all signs of people around had disappeared did Lee Hwan put on his mask and leave the bathroom.
Only after leaving the research building grounds did his wildly pounding heart gradually subside. When he entered the office and sat in his chair, the surroundings were so noisy and tension-free that Lee Hwan suddenly felt like everything he had just experienced was a dream.
* EX Broken Clockwork (0 uses)
* B Spatial Control (☆)
* C Gravity
As his abilities appeared in his skill window, Lee Hwan slightly regained his senses. Realizing the situation, blood rushed to his face with excitement, making his cheeks red and warm.
At the same time, anticipation filled his chest, making it feel tight. Last time, after obtaining a piece of causality, there was a change in the skill description. Would it happen this time too?
* EX Broken Clockwork (0 uses)
– Allows the user to regress to a desired point in time.
– The user can designate a target for dual regression.
– ! The target’s memories function as components.
☞ Memories are returned after the missing causality is completed.
– ! □□□□ □□ □□□ □□□□.
He closed his eyes, opened them, and closed them again. Thunk. Lee Hwan’s heart sank.
‘It changed.’
Clearly more letters had been revealed. And it was the part he was most curious about. Having read the skill so often, he couldn’t miss the change.
For a moment, he seemed to hear a ringing in his ears. He couldn’t distinguish whether it was a physical or mental issue. Lee Hwan absentmindedly touched his ear while reading and rereading the skill description.
Memories are returned after the missing causality is completed… What could this mean? Does “missing causality” refer to the future of destruction that disappeared when he regressed?
‘Certainly… I’ve been obtaining a piece of causality each time I discover something related to the monster wave.’
Lee Hwan’s exploration was clearly aimed at preventing destruction. Conversely, the world after regression seemed to be advancing toward destruction step by step like a shape memory alloy, regardless of how much he tried to twist the route.
Yet, given that he was being guided to pieces of causality, did it mean that the System or regression skill didn’t want this world to collapse? Or did they truly have no thoughts about destruction or anything else, and simply wanted to complete the causality according to balance?
‘Maybe…?’
Lee Hwan bit his lip and then paused. If the System, as initially suspected, only wanted mechanical balance, there was something he vaguely sensed, though not with certainty.
Excitement gradually filled his chest. As he recalled the System repeatedly babbling about causality and stopping him, he could almost see the events right after the regression flashing before his eyes.
‘…Let’s organize this. Strictly speaking, I regressed in the middle without seeing the end.’
Lee Hwan and Taesung returned without seeing the end of the monster wave. They neither saved the world nor completely ruined it. What if the point he regressed from wasn’t the end of the knot? What if it was an unexpected interference called “regression” that prevented seeing the result?
If so, “causality” is missing its “effect.” The result was forcibly erased before it could happen. Whereas…
Lee Hwan rolled his eyes, recalling one by one the events he experienced after the regression. C-17 gate, the underground laboratory in Research Building D.
The cause of destruction wasn’t erased, and the world was advancing toward destruction step by step like inertia. Though a speculation, perhaps the world after regression had become an unbalanced state with “cause” but without a clear “effect.”
Was that why some unknown sanctions were imposed when mentioning destruction?
He still couldn’t give a definite answer to any speculation. He also had no idea how the regression skill was entangled with this world. All Lee Hwan knew was that whenever he discovered a clue related to the monster wave, he was able to glimpse a specific situation along with the mention of a piece of causality.
However, he could make plausible guesses. The world was still trying to flow in a form similar to the past, and yet if Lee Hwan discovered it, he might be able to twist it in a slightly different direction.
And finally…
‘Whatever the reason, it means that if I gather all the pieces of causality, Kang Taesung’s memories can return.’
* EX Broken Clockwork (0 uses)
Lee Hwan, who had been stupidly reading and rereading the skill, suddenly felt strength from his fingertips. Due to the exhausting events lately, his confidence had been gradually disappearing, but when he thought of that bastard Kang Taesung’s memories being attached like a prize at the end, somehow it felt bearable.
That was funny. It made him wonder if he really needed to go this far for Taesung, who was just a friend, not even family that he had loved so much in the past.
But thinking differently, Taesung would also have come to save him by any means in the same situation. For some reason, he had that certainty, though he couldn’t pinpoint the basis.
Taesung’s last words, which now always came to mind as if engraved in his brain. The blood-choked voice saying he would come to get him tickled his mind. Now, that was the only thing Lee Hwan believed in. Imagining that Taesung, having regained his memories, would really come to get him.
If that’s the case, I can do it too. Lee Hwan whispered inwardly and slightly clenched his fist. His chest felt warm, and he felt his will standing straight again. It was like a sudden downpour of blessed rain on his arduous daily life.
Finally, as his heart, which had been full of tension and anxiety, was softening a bit, suddenly someone spoke beside him.
“…Lee Hwan-ssi? Are you crying?”
Wondering what that meant, he turned his head to find his colleague looking at him in shock. Lee Hwan instinctively wiped his eyes and was momentarily confused when he saw his soaked sleeve.
When he touched his face, it was still feverish. As he quickly raised his face, tears rolled down his cheeks. He wiped his eyes again firmly with his other arm, which clearly showed the shape of crying eyes.
“What? Huh? No, that… no.”
For some reason, words wouldn’t come out properly, as if he was a fool, and gradually the surrounding gazes turned toward him. Continuously wiping his face and finally giving up on answering, Lee Hwan abruptly stood up and hurriedly ran into the bathroom.
Fortunately, the bathroom was empty. Lee Hwan continuously washed his face and patted his eyes with a hand towel several times. Even after the tears stopped, his expression remained foolishly blurred. His face was still flushed all over.
‘How embarrassing…’
Perhaps because the tension suddenly released, he had acted weakly like an idiot. To make such an expression in front of others.
The pieces of causality he had found were now just two. It was better to refrain from foolishly bursting into tears of relief suddenly when he didn’t even know how many more fragments remained, for the sake of his mental health.
“Haah…”
Moreover, as he deliberately calmed his repeatedly surging breath and thought again, there was another point to consider.
– ! □□□□ □□ □□□ □□□□.
There was one more item yet to be revealed. Since the descriptions with exclamation marks explained the operating principle of the skill and how to recover memories, this description below would likely be equally important.
It could be either a blessing or a curse, but somehow Lee Hwan felt something like reassurance from it.
‘At least everything I’ve found out so far has been helpful…’
It was anxious but equally hopeful. Lee Hwan rolled up his wet sleeve, checked his eyes that had quickly returned to normal, and slowly walked out of the bathroom.
