Gehrman quietly walked beside Yoo Sangah. Since she was following after Kim Dokja, they were heading in the same direction.
The woman was awkwardly glancing at him, hesitating.
Klein didn't know what to say in this situation either, so he was glad that Gehrman Sparrow wasn't supposed to be talkative.
"…"
"…"
Matching the heavy atmosphere, Shin Yoosoung remained quiet as well, erasing her presence as much as possible.
Finally, Yoo Sangah took the initiative.
"That time…"
She didn't finish and shut her mouth.
Gehrman maintained an impassive face, not answering.
Hesitating, Yoo Sangah mustered her courage and started again, "The worms on your face… what was it?"
She was hoping for a logical explanation to clear up the misunderstanding.
That Gehrman was human. That she had imagined it.
Having prepared an excuse in advance, Klein said, "It's the side effect of a skill."
He couldn't very well say he had turned into an eldritch being after drinking a potion in another world with ingredients coming from dead people's corpses, could he?
Then, even if he was human, Yoo Sangah would probably avoid him in fear—or try to kill him. At best, she wouldn't believe him and think he really was crazy.
As he inwardly lampooned, Yoo Sangah was relieved and nodded understandingly.
"What skill?" she inquired.
Gehrman didn't respond.
Yoo Sangah didn't pry further.
In the distance, they heard familiar voices.
"There won't be a disaster. Master is taking care of it." Lee Jihye claimed, "The last disaster won't be dangerous at all. Instead, useless people can't enter the island… shit, they are entering."
Gehrman listened.
So Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't awakening it to defeat the disaster early? Was he acquainted with future Shin Yoosoung?
Gehrman looked down at the child next to him.
Come to think of it, for what reason for Shin Yoosoung's future self be an enemy in the first place? If she had her past memories, unless something bad had happened later, wouldn't she be an ally?
Han Yoosoung questioned the reader, "You didn't tell them?"
Kim Dokja shook his head, "Let's hurry, or else that bastard is going to die."
Having forgotten that Yoo Joonghyuk had a nicer personality in the early rounds, the reader even seemed to be confused as to why the regressor would make such a crazy decision.
…Okay, so it was a problem of miscommunication again.
Lee Jihye retorted, "Die? Why?"
"I don't have time to explain."
Kim Dokja headed toward the meteorite's presumed location.
Walking through the forest, the three soon joined up with Kim Dokja, Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk and Lee Seolhwa. Lee Jihye and Lee Hyunsung were still fighting the incarnations chasing the reader.
[The Disaster of Floods has hatched.]
"Lee Seolhwa! Take the kids and escape from this island right now. The Disaster of Floods is different from the past. We must fight her together. If we don't all fight―"
"Kim Dokja, don't disturb me if you don't want to die." Yoo Joonghyuk grabbed Kim Dokja by the neck.
"Yoo Joonghyuk, listen to me! The Shin Yoosung waking up now isn't the Shin Yoosung you know. Once you meet her…"
Kim Dokja regretted that Van wasn't here to subdue Yoo Joonghyuk.
[The Disaster of Floods is waking up.]
Along with the message, a green light emerged from the meteorite. Finally, the hatching of the meteorite began.
"Kim Dokja, do something! At this rate, we're all going to die!" Han Sooyoung exclaimed.
Kim Dokja sent her a glare that meant 'I'm trying', while Yoo Joonghyuk decapitated Han Sooyoung's avatar with his sword.
Han Sooyoung's head, rolling on the ground, deadpanned.
"…"
"You didn't even bring your own body?!" Kim Dokja gasped, feeling betrayed.
Han Sooyoung looked at him as if he were stupid.
"Why would I bring my real body with this psychopath here?"
Had she done so, she would have died at Yoo Joonghyuk's hand now.
It was a good thing she thought about exchanging her real body with an avatar in the forest once she saw things were going wrong.
[The incarnations of Seoul are really hot-tempered. Other areas aren't so eager to wake up the disaster and are struggling to avoid the disaster…]
Bihyung's voice resounded.
[Do you miss your first companions? Now, prepare to face the disaster. Your companions are waiting for you in the other world.]
[A new main scenario has arrived!]
+
[Main Scenario # 5 – Disaster of Floods]
Category: Main
Difficulty: SS
Clear Conditions: Kill the Disaster of Floods, Shin Yoosung.
Time Limit: ―
Compensation: 100,000 coins, ???
Failure: The fall of Seoul.
+
The large meteorite split apart and revealed the interior that was reminiscent of a womb. A completely nude woman was trapped inside like a fossil.
It was a mysterious woman with pure white skin. Her beautiful hair was tied up in a ponytail and wrapped around her body. This was the appearance of the adult Shin Yoosung.
Child Shin Yoosoung stared at her from afar.
'So this is me?'
The moment that Shin Yoosung opened her eyes, white fur grew all over her body. The white fur was reminiscent of an animal's pelt and covered her body in the form of clothing.
She slowly emerged from the meteorite and stepped on the ground. She was like a child taking her first step. She had just taken a step when everyone around her was frozen.
Han Sooyoung clicked her tongue.
"Captain, do you know how hard it was for me? I endured all these years to comply with your request."
Holding Gehrman's hand, Shin Yoosoung thought that her future self seemed sad.
Their emotions were connected, letting her feel how worn out, desperate, and broken she was from all the years of hardships her future self had endured.
'Is this really me?'
Would it really be how she would be later?
"I wanted to see Captain."
A despair-filled smile.
However, the object of these emotions only opened his mouth in a nonchalant manner.
"Give me all the information from the 41st regression. Did the future me say anything?"
Loneliness. Resentment.
"Captain has never changed."
"Don't say unnecessary things and turn over the information. I don't have time."
"What are 'we' to Captain?"
"…What?"
"I did everything for you. I gave you one chance. However, Captain is still here. You will keep going forward. You will turn people like me into tools and abandon me in the terrible labyrinth of worlds. It is all because of that goddamn sense of justice. I hate you for living in this world alone."
Klein started to have an ominous feeling. He understood now why Kim Dokja thought Yoo Joonghyuk's plan wouldn't work.
She would try to kill them now, wouldn't she?
Moreover, the '41st regression'… Was it because she came from a different worldline that she didn't seem to recognize Gehrman?
Where had he been in that world?
Did he not meet Shin Yoosoung? Or was he not there at all?
"There is only one thing I'm going to tell you. Captain can't save anyone." Shin Yoosoung laughed. "Your third regression ends here."
Light emerged from Shin Yoosoung's hands. However, at the same moment, she seemed to feel something wrong and redirected the attack toward Klein.
'Did she notice I was manipulating her Spirit Body Threads?'
Had she attacked Yoo Joonghyuk, she would have wasted time and fallen under his control without having enough time to retaliate.
"Ahjussi!"
He tried to teleport through flames with Shin Yoosoung. However, his hand reaching for his pocket found it empty. There were no matches left.
'Impossible. I checked before…'
Did it fall from his pocket? Or was it stolen from him during the night but he didn't notice it because it wasn't counted as 'danger'?
As he was about to pull out of the way with Shin Yoosoung, the child noticed his lack of movement and pushed him out of the way.
However, that way, she would be right in the attack's range.
Since all this happened only in a fraction of a second, he didn't have enough time to avoid.
Klein's pupils constricted, and he resisted the child's strength to stand in his spot, pushing Shin Yoosoung away instead but not having the time to evade the attack himself.
More precisely, his intuition detected danger from the other directions.
「Numerous daggers coated with lethal poison.」
But no such weapons were thrown.
「The disappeared matches, his danger detection… someone was specifically targeting him.」
He had already checked above the gray fog, and Kim Dokja didn't have any assassination attempts planned. His divination had told him that the reader wouldn't try to kill him again, so was it someone else?
The future Shin Yoosoung finally noticed her past self and was stunned.
Gehrman's body was split open and his mind became blank from the pain. A massive crater formed in the centre of the island and he rolled along the ground for a while. Shifting his injuries to a non-vital part, he barely had enough willpower to check if the child was okay. However, he was still losing too much blood.
It really hurt.
"Ahjussi!"
Thankfully, she was unharmed.
The child tearfully ran to Gehrman before being stopped by her future self.
"You."
The two's gazes met.
Tasting blood in his mouth, Gehrman barely hung onto his dizzy mind. He had to get up.
If he died right now and something happened before he resurrected…
"Haha… yes. I knew it."
The future Shin Yoosoung's voice resounded.
"Yoosoung, flee!"
Yoo Sangah simultaneously activated Hermes Walking Method and Arachne's Spiderweb.
Shin Yoosoung ignored Yoo Sangah and approached the little girl. The girl looked up at her with fear and anger. The girl wasn't able to move an inch. Shin Yoosoung raised a hand to the girl's cheek.
"Yoo Joonghyuk really did find the 'me' of this world."
"Uh, ah…"
"He tried to kill the little 'me' to stop me. Right?" The 'disaster' Shin Yoosoung laughed. "Hello, my past self."
Klein struggled to raise himself on the ground, barely standing, when a thought came to mind.
He had divined that his life wouldn't be in danger in Sefirah Castle.
But, what if the one being targeted wasn't him?
「What if the one targeting him wasn't aiming for his life, but…」
He sensed danger in the back of his neck but didn't have time to get away.
Gehrman Sparrow was cleanly knocked out.
A woman's voice resounded.
"I wasn't aiming for this guy…"
She was dumbfounded. Why did he protect the child?
Although she had analyzed Gehrman's fighting patterns, Han Sooyoung didn't expect Gehrman to have a fondness for kids.
'Soft on the inside and tough on the outside? Was that the saying?'
Did he instinctively feel all the back-up plans she had prepared even if she threw her daggers and managed to save both of their lives in that split second?
As expected, he was outstanding.
She was right to get rid of all these paper figurines with unknown uses she had found in his pockets and the matches.
[Exclusive skill, 'Predictive Plagiarism Lv.1', is activated.]
Han Sooyoung retrieved the memories of the avatar whose head had been cut off and deployed another avatar.
'That idiot over there didn't seem to have expected the current situation…'
Kim Dokja was busy arguing with Yoo Joonghyuk.
Then, as expected, it was right for her to step in.
'You don't want to kill this child?'
There was a simple way to solve this situation after all.
'Then stay there.'
After the future Shin Yoosoung shifted her attention away from the child and was busy attacking Yoo Joonghyuk, when nobody could see her, Han Sooyoung intervened.
「I don't mind being the villain.」
As she was about to stab the child from behind, Kim Dokja noticed her presence, stunned.
"Wait-"
However, it was too late to stop her.
'It's my role after all.'