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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: The Regressor's Question
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“‘Power-hiding gong.’ ‘Gong’ as in ‘gongmuwon’? A civil servant hiding her strength?”
This is why I hate perceptive people. Seora clicked her tongue internally. I really need to stop saying dangerous things out loud.
“So you really were the one who killed the boss beast. You just admitted to hiding your power.”
“Me, kill the magical beast? What are you talking about?”
Seora decided to play dumb for now. She’d assumed he’d already figured her out from the odd way he’d looked at her at the Association, but hearing him now, it seemed he wasn't so sure.
Indeed, Kang Sejun frowned faintly.
“I saw you. Are you really going to play dumb?”
“I did go to the gate that day, but I left right away. My rank is low, so it was hard to withstand the magical energy coming from a Grade 2 gate. There are plenty of witnesses.”
“The Jacket of Regeneration is L-rank. Its stealth effect doesn't work on me. In other words, I clearly saw a woman blow the magical beast’s head clean off. Though I couldn't see her face behind the gas mask.”
“You said you couldn't even see my face, so why are you so sure it was me?”
“What good is covering just your face? Your build was perfectly visible.”
Kang Sejun shot her a look of disdain, as if to say, *You think an L-rank can't even tell that much?*
Seora was speechless. I see. So high-rank Awakened can identify people by things like that. It had already been a few days since she’d become an S-rank, but she still wasn't used to it.
“Besides, you're the only one with an aura I can't discern with my own eyes.”
Kang Sejun's eyes scanned the area around Seora, as if trying to gauge something unseen.
Seora realized one thing.
Ah, the Veil of Protection works even on L-ranks.
If only I had hidden my build properly, I could have completely fooled even Kang Sejun's eyes. What a shame. I'll have to be more careful about that from now on.
“You're clearly strong enough to handle a boss beast, but the fact that I can't properly see your power must mean you're under the protection of a top-tier Constellation. Like Song Hanna, who's accompanied by a Constellation famous for being overprotective.”
‘So the Association President's Constellation is overprotective.’
That was new information.
“Seeing as not even I, Song Hanna, or Ju-eun can get a proper read on you, your Constellation seems to be far more overprotective than Song Hanna's.”
Ahem. Hmm. Well, it’s true that there aren’t many Constellations who would give you an 80 billion coin jacket or make gloves for you themselves.
Suddenly embarrassed, the tips of Seora’s ears turned red.
【Administrator: /(❁´∀`❁)/】
‘Ah, seriously. Just stay still.’
Seora’s ears grew even redder.
“So, the conclusion is that you're that unknown S-rank. It's you, right?”
His knack for laying out a case so thoroughly that it left you speechless was truly top-notch. Seora looked at the ground, then the sky, then at the Administrator's emoticon.
【Administrator: ◟( ´ω` )◞】
Seeing the gesture that seemed to say ‘do as you wish,’ she finally let out a deep sigh.
“Ah, seriously. Of all the people to find out my identity first, it had to be you. You're in a league of your own, so it's not like playing dumb would have worked anyway.”
Crossing her arms, Seora tapped her foot on the ground in annoyance. The civil servant who had been playing dumb vanished in an instant. Kang Sejun let out an incredulous laugh.
“Your act of feigning ignorance was amazing. If you had kept it up to the end, even I would have been fooled.”
“You?”
When Seora scoffed, Kang Sejun fell silent.
The person standing before him now was not some nameless, low-level civil servant from the Association, but a powerhouse who could take down a Grade 2 dungeon boss in a single blow.
Kang Sejun could clearly feel that it wasn't just her attitude that had changed.
“If you really thought that, you wouldn't have come looking for me. Come to think of it, that’s weird. How did you know I lived here? Director Do or the Association President wouldn't have told you.”
“What do you take an L-rank’s abilities for?”
Seora looked Kang Sejun up and down with a stunned expression.
“Wow, the nation's only L-rank stalker…”
“I’m not!”
Kang Sejun yelled. He was now realizing that this person was formidable in more ways than one.
“Whew. I apologize for suddenly showing up and grilling you about your identity. But I came here because I want to talk. I have absolutely no intention of harming you.”
Sejun raised both hands, showing he had no intention to attack. Seora hadn't thought so either. If he wanted to kill or threaten her, he would have snuck up behind her, knocked her out, and dragged her away.
【Administrator: \\٩(๑`^´๑)۶//】
Of course, if he had, he would have faced the Administrator's terrifying wrath. He’d made the right choice.
“That depends on what you have to say.”
“I haven't told anyone that you're the unknown S-rank. Not even Song Hanna. If you don't want your identity revealed, I will gladly keep my mouth shut. Is that a sufficient answer?”
That was unexpected.
“What do you want to talk to me about? Let me tell you, I don't know anything. Even if I'm an S-rank, the fact that I'm a low-level civil servant at the Association hasn't changed.”
“That doesn't matter. There's just one thing I'm curious about.”
“About me? What is it?”
“I am a regressor. I have already lived several lives that no one else remembers.”
Seora's eyes widened. She already knew, but she never imagined Kang Sejun would reveal it himself.
Is it okay to tell something this important to just anyone like this?
“…Regress, what? Re? Regressor? Did I hear that right?”
Perhaps because she was flustered, her act of knowing nothing came out more naturally than usual.
“You’re a… reg… ressor?”
“Whether you believe me is up to you. But since I've revealed my secret, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a proper answer.”
“Re… Huh, seriously. I know the world has changed and all, but what are you talking about? You sound like the protagonist of a fantasy novel.”
Seora looked him up and down as if he were absurd. When her gaze turned suspicious, Sejun frowned.
“What? Are you going to call me an L-rank con artist this time?”
“Whoa! You can read minds, too!”
“…”
Kang Sejun buried his face in his hands as if he were at his wit's end.
Seora, who already knew the truth, found him hilarious but pretended otherwise. Ah, so even Korea's strongest, who has regressed five times, is still human. This guy is pretty funny.
“Ahem. Anyway, re-re-regressing. Goodness. I had no idea something like that was possible. Then again, the fact that reality itself has changed is surprising enough.”
Seora looked at him straight on again.
“But is it really okay to tell me this? In novels, people with special circumstances like regression usually can't reveal it for some reason. Something about causality, or receiving divine punishment.”
“I don't know what you've been reading, but don't apply everything from novels to reality. Novels are novels, and reality is reality.”
“Really? Then you can just tell anyone about this?”
Kang Sejun furrowed his brow. His expression turned grim, but in the end, an answer of ‘it doesn’t matter’ never came.
Just as I thought.
“Then why are you telling me? Gasp! Don't tell me I have to pay some price now, do I?”
As Seora’s eyes widened, demanding to know what he’d done to her, he immediately waved his hands.
“If there was a price, I wouldn't have told you in the first place. It's true I can't just tell anyone. If I act differently from the past, the future will change accordingly. I've repeated my regressions for a single goal. I don't want to take that kind of risk.”
“What? Then why are you telling me? Don't tell me you've told me this in the past, too?”
She thought the possibility was quite high, but he shook his head firmly.
“No, not even once.”
“I can't figure you out. Then what's the reason? I’m telling you, I've never experienced anything special like you have.”
“Really?”
Kang Sejun's gaze, fixed on Seora, was filled with a conviction that that couldn't possibly be true.
So much so that it flustered her.
“I've been through several lives, but aside from this very moment, I have never once seen you before.”
“…What did you say?”
“Why am I only telling you this? Because this is the first time I've ever seen you. The very existence of someone who wasn't in the past has already changed the future. I figured it wouldn't matter if you knew my secret.”
Seora fell silent. He’s regressed several times, but he’s never seen me. That means… that means…
“Why do you only exist here and now? Have you really never experienced anything special? If so, who in the world is your contracted Constellation? What… are you?”
Seora unknowingly gazed into the empty air. At the Administrator who was probably watching her.
There was no answer from him.
“…How would I know? I don't know anything.”
She had no memories of the timelines that were now gone. After all, she had been just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, lowest-rank Awakened with nothing special about her.
Until she received the incredibly special opportunity of a contract with the System Administrator.
‘So, in previous timelines, I either died early or never managed to contract with the Administrator.’
The fact that she was not only alive now but had become an S-rank meant it was a very special occurrence after all, and Seora felt incredibly strange.
***
For the past few days, Seora would often find herself staring into space whenever she had a moment. On her way to work, in the middle of her tasks, while eating, and so on. As if the Administrator would surely give her an answer.
But.
【Administrator: (~ • ω•)~】
The Administrator only ever showed that kind of reaction, even though he clearly knew why she was looking at him.
‘Then again, it's not something that can be explained with an emoticon.’
It started that day. The day the regressor Kang Sejun came and asked about her.
‘I've been through several lives, but aside from this very moment, I have never once seen you before.’
His words weren't particularly shocking. After all, if not for the miracle that was the Administrator, Seora would have died the day Park Jinyong threw her into that Grade 3 dungeon. And miracles didn't happen very often.
There was only one thing she was curious about.
Why did the Administrator grant her a miracle this time?
