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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 10: Are You a Fool? (5)
Thanks to Oh Yeon-Su’s persuasion, Min-Ah finally fell silent. Though she still looked uneasy, there wasn’t much else that could be done for her.
There are, after all, problems that simply need time to resolve. Just as Yeon-Su had mentioned, the doctor said I’d be discharged tomorrow.
All the formalities seemed to be handled already, so there wasn’t anything left to do.
Min-Ah should’ve been here by now, but she wasn’t.
While I was aimlessly pacing the hospital room, the door opened, and a man in a suit walked in. He had a Cheong-Yeong Guild employee badge around his neck—a very ordinary-looking guy.
“You’re Lee Su-Hyuk, right?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Yeon-Su asked me to bring you this.”
He handed me a small bag. Inside were a new smartphone, a card, some clothes, and a note.
[I’m with Min-Ah, so take care of your stuff and come over.]
No wonder she hadn’t shown up. Above the small writing was an address for a new place.
The man left after saying he had other matters to attend to. I scanned the QR code he’d given me, and a long set of instructions popped up. Rules about not using the guild card to exchange gold, cash out, or buy items were all listed.
The gist was to keep the card strictly for day-to-day needs. After signing on the phone screen, I registered the card and left the hospital.
“It’s been a long time.”
Although I’d been able to walk for a while now, I hadn’t been allowed outside the hospital. Seeing the unfamiliar sky and surroundings felt strangely refreshing.
I watched people walking by. Every single face was unfamiliar. I still have nightmares now and then.
Sometimes I worry that if I close my eyes, I’ll wake up back in the past—as if this, too, might just be part of the endless cycle of returning. So many unsettling thoughts cross my mind.
When I wake up, I know it’s just a dream, but in the moment, it’s genuinely terrifying. That’s why this view affects me so much.
I can finally feel it’s over. I’m free, for real this time. No more going back. There’s relief in realizing that this is reality.
“Let’s go.”
I hailed a taxi and headed to the house in the outskirts of Seoul. Torn yellow eviction stickers still clung to one side of the door. I opened it to see the layout of a studio apartment. Traces of my life from a couple of months ago remained, but there wasn’t much to see.
Moving often made it pointless to invest in furniture, so the room was mostly empty. A large travel suitcase lay against one corner of the room.
“If they were going to relocate me, they could’ve moved my stuff too.”
[Young man, stop whining. How hard could it have been?]
“Well, it’d have been nice if they had. I’m still a patient... huh?”
Wait, who am I talking to?
I froze with my hand on the suitcase. Was it a hallucination? An auditory illusion? But it was a clear voice.
I closed the suitcase and slowly turned around. The room was nearly devoid of any signs of life.
“Am I imagining things? I swear I heard someone’s voice... Aah!”
What the hell? Seriously, what is this?
“Ki… Ki… Ki… Kim Do-Jin? Wait, what?”
So it wasn’t just a voice. Was I seeing things too?
I blinked, still sitting on the floor in shock. Standing right in front of me, with his unkempt hair and broad figure, was unmistakably Kim Do-Jin.
He was even floating casually right in front of me.
Have I finally lost it?
“Damn it. I should’ve known the cycle hadn’t really ended. That’s just my luck.”
[Hey.]
“Mr. Kim, I was told you were dead! But you’re floating here. Why? The doctor said I was completely fine when I was discharged...!”
That quack! I’m definitely not fine! Not at all!
I mean, I’m seeing Kim Do-Jin!
Kim Do-Jin, who was supposed to have died in the dungeon, is standing here. Why?!
[Don’t kill off a perfectly healthy person.]
"……."
[I didn’t die.]
"But… uh… aren’t you… you’re floating, though? And talking? Are you… a ghost?"
[I said I didn’t die!]
As soon as Kim Do-Jin shouted, I instinctively dropped to my knees. Somehow, it just felt right to do so.
"……."
An awkward silence hung between us. Kim Do-Jin floated down and perched himself on the edge of my suitcase. Given his size, the suitcase should’ve dented a little, but it didn’t budge. Since when were suitcases made of steel?
[Tch, I thought it had worked this time… is this a side effect?]
“Uh, side effect? What side effect?”
[Do you even remember who I am?]
"Kim Do-Jin. I mean, the ghost of CEO Kim."
[Not a ghost.]
“Oh… got it, sir.”
Kim Do-Jin kept insisting he wasn’t dead. But… he’s sitting here, semi-transparent, floating in midair. How is that not ghostly?
[Well, since only you can see me, you could say I’m a ghost.]
Is he kidding? So, is he a ghost or not? What kind of geezer is this?
I thought about saying something, but I kept my mouth shut.
He might be a ghost, but this is still Kim Do-Jin, a 9-star powerhouse.
But why is Kim Do-Jin’s ghost—or whatever he is—here? As I was mulling this over, he said something unexpected.
[Is there anything else you remember?]
“‘Else’? What do you mean by ‘else’?”
[About the Abyssal Forest.]
“How… how do you know about that?”
My eyes widened in shock. Honestly, when Cha Woo-Jae kept insisting on holding out hope, calling it a “disappearance,” I was doubtful.
‘Because my repeated time loops were tied to Kim Do-Jin’s death.’
I would always rewind to two days before Kim Do-Jin’s death. And if he died, I died too. I’d tried everything I could to save him, but as a mere 2-star, there wasn’t much I could do.
And now they’re calling his death a “disappearance”? What’s going on?
‘Could it be because I stopped looping? So, was he able to survive because I didn’t reset? Then who is this Kim Do-Jin standing in front of me?’
Yet I couldn’t remember doing anything particularly special in the final loop.
[Are you a regressor?]
Whoa, isn’t he coming on a bit strong?
I knew he was direct, but being on the receiving end was overwhelming.
"What makes you say that?"
[The Temple of Valhalla, the twin bosses, Nyarlathotep, the hidden passage beyond the temple pillars, the fact that clearing the Abyssal Maze in the Otherworld randomly drops a 10-level rune stone—all those hints came from you, didn’t they?]
“How do you…!”
Shocked, I jumped to my feet, only to realize it was pointless and slumped back to the floor.
He’s right.
If I do nothing, I’ll die in two days. Because Kim Do-Jin dies in two days.
If I could save Kim Do-Jin, I’d survive too. Driven by that single-minded goal, I once shared dungeon strategies with him. In the end, though, there were no answers, and I gave up.
“So, what exactly are you?”
[I’m Kim Do-Jin. Can’t you tell just by looking?]
“But I never once said the 10-level runestone drops randomly.”
It’s true that a 10-level rune stone appears if you clear the Thousandfold Maze. But to defeat the real Nyarlathotep beyond it, you absolutely need the Rune of Light.
‘I only figured out it was random after about twenty loops.’
After that, I never told him it was random. I just told him with certainty, “The Rune of Light will appear.”
Why? Because if any other rune drops, the success rate is 0%. In reality, I never made it to the end with any rune other than the Rune of Light.
Since getting any other rune meant certain death, there was no need to mention it. Unlike me, who had pulled the runes over twenty times, Kim Do-Jin only had one chance.
So, technically, I should’ve said, “This is the rune you’ll get,” instead of implying randomness.
[That’s fair enough.]
“What are you getting at?”
[But if you loop thirty times, you’d figure out it’s random, wouldn’t you? Unless you’re an idiot.]
"……."
[And you deliberately kept that from me. Am I wrong?]
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but come to one conclusion—just as Kim Do-Jin had implied.
“Were you… a regressor too?”
[Took you long enough!]
“Alright, no need to shout.”
With that huge frame of his, it’s actually a bit intimidating.
“If you’re really a regressor, then why did you die to Nyarlathotep? Something here doesn’t add up…”
If he truly looped, then when I returned, I should’ve seen some trace of his memories. But the Kim Do-Jin I remembered had reset memories, just like everyone else.
[My regression is different from yours.]
“What?”
[For now, let’s call it inevitable-death regression.]
“Inevitable… death regression?”
[A loop where I die every time. You should know—I could never leave that dungeon, no matter what I tried.]
“Yeah, that much I noticed.”
If there’s such a thing as the world setting you up for failure, it must feel like that. Every time I cleared one thing, new variables kept cropping up. In the end, I concluded that “Kim Do-Jin can’t be saved.” Hearing it from his mouth was still a shock, though.
“It’s still strange. If you’re looping, then you should…”
[I told you, I’m alive.]
“Where?”
[Somewhere.]
“What kind of answer is that…?”
[Though, I’m not sure how much longer I can last.]
Kim Do-Jin then explained inevitable-death regression. To put it simply, he doesn’t know he’s a regressor.
He only realizes he’s looping right before dying to Nyarlathotep each time.
“If you’re still alive, can’t you just… I don’t know, cross over to this side instead of appearing like some ghost?”
[Kid, if I could come over, do you think I’d still be suffering like this?]
He didn’t explain everything, but it was clear there was no immediate way for him to return. I guess a 9-star powerhouse would have a few secrets he couldn’t share.
[I kept thinking, right up until the moment I died, why did I fail? Was there any way for my past self to remember that I was a regressor?]
I felt a certain understanding of that struggle, even if the specifics were different. Fighting to change an unyielding past—he must have felt like he was sinking deeper into the mire with every attempt.
[Tch, then at some point, I started seeing you.]
“…….”
[I couldn’t remember back then, but since I got here, I’ve been able to remember you.]
It seemed that the memory of that strange 2-star awakened being, always chattering about what to do and how to do it, began to resurface. At first, it was one memory, then two, and gradually Kim Do-Jin seemed convinced that I was a regressor.
After hearing all that, one question dominated my thoughts.
“Wait…! Then, where exactly do your memories start?”
[I go back to twenty years ago when I die.]
“…….”
I go back two days before Kim Do-Jin dies. For me, a single two-day stretch represents twenty years for him.
Does that mean he holds all those memories?
Even if he didn’t know he was a regressor at the time of each loop, doesn’t that mean every time he regained consciousness, he would accumulate the memories of the failures spanning twenty years?
“I thought I was the craziest one out there.”
Now, standing before me was someone even more unusual.
Kim Do-Jin.
What exactly is he?
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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