The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 26

Beyond the Boundary (1)

“Winter.”

I murmured K’s words.

Winter has tormented living beings for a long time.

Winter brought extreme cold and death to living things.

Insects end their lives before winter, and some mammals spend the season sleeping.

Even in modern times, or in some regions today, winter remains a season of death.

The same goes for my immediate life.

Water pipes freeze, or the heating doesn’t work, so I sleep wearing a padded jacket and several layers of blankets.

Or I leave the faucet running to prevent freezing.

What about the elderly?

Winter will be even harsher for them.

The mortality rate for elderly people living alone is highest in winter.

Like this, winter meant death to living beings.

I carefully reached out my hand.

A small snowflake fell on my finger and melted.

The streets were full of frozen corpses.

A woman who died hugging her child in a car.

A young man who was buried in the snow after hugging a streetlight as a heater.

People who were frozen sitting for some reason.

And even a corpse hanging from a streetlight.

I couldn’t tell if it was caused by someone else or suicide.

But I didn’t think anyone would deliberately climb a streetlight to commit suicide.

At the same time, I thought there might be a ‘Lord’ in this street too.

“Haa-.”

As I exhaled, a white breath scattered in the air.

I felt something rustling and looked at the ground; it was a finger.

The finger was frozen and easily crumbled even when stepped on.

We had been in the shopping mall for 7 days.

In the meantime, the world had changed dramatically.

“This winter will be harsh and boring.”

K said, stepping onto the snow-covered asphalt pavement.

She then turned around and met my eyes.

“Anyway, you have successfully passed the first round. Now, let’s start the second round in earnest. The second round is similar to the first, but there is a goal: to survive in the frozen city.”

Crunch, crunch.

K walked forward.

With each step she took, her feet sank into the snow.

“Do you know? Ancient humans, who had not yet established the concept of time, couldn’t even guess when the winter season would end.”

K stood in front of a frozen statue of a boy.

The boy had his mouth open and his lost right hand outstretched.

“So winter came as a disaster. Perhaps winter is a trial given by the Earth. A natural trial where only those who can survive can live, only those who are qualified can welcome spring.”

Then K leaned her body against the boy’s head.

“Can you endure it? You who have lived in comfortable heating, who have lived within the fence of safety.”

Crack!

At that moment, the boy’s neck, which K was leaning on, could not withstand the weight and broke.

The boy’s neck fell to the ground and shattered.

Frozen blood was clumped on the cross-section of the neck.

“Oh my. It’s very weak.”

K nonchalantly walked to the other side.

This time, she leaned against a car and continued.

“Let’s open the artifacts. From the second round, each player’s artifact will be opened.”

Woo-.

A small cube box appeared in K’s right hand.

The cube box floated above her hand and began to spin.

“Artifacts are gifts from God that only chosen players can obtain. Each grade has abilities from S-grade to F-grade. But you shouldn’t waste your abilities too much because there is a cooldown time.”

At that moment, K’s cube box split into several small square boxes and floated into the air.

The split boxes scattered high into the sky, and one of them came to me.

“Artifacts will be distributed to selected players included in the area within one week from the start of the second round.”

Beyond the box, I could see K with her hands in her pockets.

I turned my gaze to her.

K smiled and said.

“Then good luck, Player.”

The box in front of me naturally went into my inventory.

After speaking, K’s body began to scatter and disappear like fog.

It was then.

Kiiiiiiiiing-!

At the familiar cry, I put the cube box in my hand and looked up at the sky.

There was a huge whale flying there.

The body was a whale, but it had eight fins.

The fins fluttered like butterfly wings, and the whale was flying in the sky.

The whale’s eyes.

Those black eyes reflected in the window covered with black smoke that I had seen in the shopping mall.

It was a being of terror there, but at this moment, the whale was incredibly beautiful.

It was the first time in my life that I had seen such a beautiful creature.

The cry, the appearance, everything was beautiful.

The whale flew between the buildings and then crossed over to the mountains on the other side.

We all stared blankly at it until the whale disappeared.

* * *

The survivors of the shopping mall went back inside the store.

They put on thick clothes and gathered the necessary items.

Sion wore several layers and then put on a white padded jacket.

That took about an hour.

And they gathered on the first floor again as if they had made an appointment.

Lee Joo-yeon wrapped a red scarf around the surviving middle school girl.

It was the young girl who had killed the surviving Blue Team uncle.

“Do you want to go with me?”

The girl shook her head.

Then Joo-yeon was silent for a moment as if she felt sorry, and then stroked the girl’s head.

“Okay. Do you have anywhere to go?”

The girl nodded.

Joo-yeon smiled at the girl’s brave appearance.

Se-beom picked up a thick padded jacket and slung a sports bag over his shoulder.

All were products in the shopping mall.

And he said to Joo-yeon.

“Let’s go, Sis.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll go.”

Joo-yeon approached Se-beom but couldn’t take her eyes off the remaining girl.

The girl silently wore the red scarf and looked at Joo-yeon from there.

Se-beom handed Joo-yeon another sports bag he was holding.

Joo-yeon received it silently and set off.

There were Kang Sion and Jin Jae-hee.

Se-beom approached them and said.

“We’re going north. Our home is in Seoul.”

“Okay.”

Sion answered bluntly, as if he wasn’t interested.

In fact, he just wanted to break up as soon as possible because he had to go find his brother.

Se-beom looked at Jae-hee and Sion alternately and nodded.

Se-beom felt empty at his bluntness.

“I’m going.”

With those words, Se-beom set off with Joo-yeon.

The siblings’ footprints remained in two lines.

Soon the siblings disappeared into the street on the other side.

They were probably planning to go up along the national highway.

Sion turned around once to look at the girl with the red scarf left at the entrance of the shopping mall and then moved his steps again.

Jin Jae-hee followed him silently.

* * *

I was crossing the bridge along the road.

Even though it was a bridge, it was a two-lane road connected to cross the railroad tracks.

But the middle part of the road was completely collapsed, and snow was piled up on it.

You couldn’t tell whether there was a floor until you took a step.

I carefully took one step at a time.

Every time I did, I heard voices from behind.

“There will be a Lord of the streets.”

Jin Jae-hee continued to speak whether I answered or not.

“So, the groups that were caught on the streets, not in buildings, in the first round, they will probably be the biggest force in the second round. Honestly, you should know that walking on the streets like this can be dangerous.”

I walked through the snowfield while listening to her words.

No.

In fact, I was letting it go in one ear rather than listening.

“First of all, we need to secure a base. It’s better to use a small villa as a base than a large building that is difficult to defend. It’s better not to compare the second round with the first round because the aspect will be completely different.”

Thud-!

Suddenly, my foot sank.

I momentarily lost my balance and fell forward.

The front was a cliff.

My heart sank.

But my body was caught in the air and didn’t fall.

“……”

After catching my breath, I turned my head.

Jin Jae-hee was holding my arm and holding on.

Judging from the volume of her voice, it seemed like she had been following me from quite a distance.

Before I knew it, Jin Jae-hee had come to me and grabbed my body.

Jin Jae-hee continued to speak as if nothing had happened.

“Be careful. Don’t think of it as the old world. I’ll tell you one by one, but even if it takes years, I haven’t been able to figure out all the secrets of this world, even you in your previous life.”

I was led by her hand and stood up straight.

And Jin Jae-hee walked ahead of me.

It was probably to clear the way.

“You can think of the city as a wilderness. You should never let your guard down. We humans are at the bottom of the food chain from the moment the League is held.”

Jin Jae-hee went ahead in the snowfield and cleared the way.

Thanks to her, I was able to follow her comfortably.

But I didn’t thank her or have any gratitude.

My mind was full of my brother.

While Jin Jae-hee’s explanation continued (although I didn’t listen to most of it), we were making our way through the snowfield.

Something flew in from the left.

Swoosh, rustle-!

I could be aware of it, but I couldn’t see it.

And when I turned my head to the left, a vine plant that looked like an octopus leg was bleeding and wriggling.

Every time it wriggled, blood splattered everywhere on the white snowfield.

Before I knew it, Jin Jae-hee had drawn her sword.

Before I could even realize it, Jin Jae-hee had sensed the danger and cut down the monster that had flown at me.

Sseueung- Chak.

Jin Jae-hee explained, putting the sword blade into the scabbard.

“Snow Nepenthes [a carnivorous plant]. It hides in the snowfield and stretches out its tentacles to catch prey when it appears. And it goes crazy for shiny things. An ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to react.”

“……”

Then, Jin Jae-hee stood right in front of me and tore off the zipper on her padded jacket.

Ttuk.

I could tell how strong her grip was; she tore it off as if she were opening a can.

Tsutsutsuk…….

The vines began to go back into the snow.

If Jin Jae-hee hadn’t followed me, I would have died here before I even got home.

A heavy blizzard was blowing, and the visibility was poor even 10m ahead.

The world that had changed in a few days was not easily acceptable even to humans with great adaptability.

Winter.

Suddenly, that word became terrifying.

The steps toward the villa became heavier.

The scene of slaughter I had experienced in the shopping mall kept lingering in my mind.

My brother Jun-ho would have played the game too.

Rather than the vague thought that I hoped my brother was alive, I was more afraid of how my heart would change when I checked on my brother’s condition.

“……I have to go quickly.”

I walked across the bridge, ahead of Jae-hee.

It wasn’t far to home.

If you cross the bridge and walk through the alley for about 3 blocks, you can see the villa.

The name is also Love Villa.

“Hoo……”

I was out of breath.

Even though it was a distance that would normally take 10 minutes, it took 2 hours.

The entrance was full of snow, and several unfrozen corpses were lying near the villa.

The closer I got to home, the more my heart pounded like crazy.

I stopped walking.

All the survivors of the shopping mall had scattered, but only one woman was following me.

Jin Jae-hee.

She was approaching me little by little, as if she was watching me from about three steps away.

I didn’t pay much attention.

I looked ahead.

There were cracks all over the building, and white alien vine plants were wrapping around the exterior walls of the building.

Some small animals were grazing in the street.

It was a bizarre form that could not be seen on Earth, similar to a deer, but the horns rising above its head were shining brightly.

The deer didn’t threaten me, but they scattered when I took another step.

Before entering the villa, I sighed and turned to look at her and said.

It didn’t seem like Jin Jae-hee was going to leave.

“Don’t come here.”

My trembling voice was weak.

She probably couldn’t hear it well.

But Jin Jae-hee nodded.

I checked the nod and went down the stairs.

Down the dark stairs was my and my brother’s house.

Room 101.

When I turned the doorknob, it was locked.

I opened the flower pot on the left and checked for a spare key.

The key was still there.

I held the key and opened the lock on the doorknob.

Click.

The lock was soon released, and I carefully turned the doorknob.

With a little tension, I put strength into opening the door.

Creak-.

The sound of the hinges was loud.

And there was a foul smell through the slightly opened door.

The anxiety was amplified.

(To be continued in the next episode)