Chapter 548: 548
⸢4th day of drifting . ⸥
Yu Jung-Hyeok barely managed to regain his consciousness and discovered a sharp piece of debris stabbing him in his abdomen . He calmly got rid of the debris and checked the status of the vessel's hull .
⸢6th day of drifting . ⸥
He realised that the ark had completely lost all its functions . The navigation system was unresponsive, and he couldn't see a single thing nearby . As a matter of fact, he couldn't even see a single planet nearby .
⸢11th day of drifting . ⸥
With several of the safety systems installed within the ark destroyed, abnormality began manifesting in Yu Jung-Hyeok's body .
[System's homeostasis is currently broken!]
[Power of chaos is eroding your entire body . ]
[Your Fable is crumbling away little by little . ]
Some kind of a problem must've occurred somewhere, because all the abilities realised through the system had become completely paralysed . Yu Jung-Hyeok remained calm as he inspected the Fables currently with him . Thankfully, his Fables were all safe .
[Fable, 'Hellscape of Eternity', is enveloping you . ]
The flames of hell protected him from the bitter coldness .
⸢21st day of drifting . ⸥
The spacesuit Anna Croft made him wear really did come in handy . If it weren't for the built-in protective functionality of the suit, the rate of his body crumbling away would've been so much faster .
Yu Jung-Hyeok did whatever he could to repair the ark's power source . Although the job performed wasn't of professional quality, the vessel still started moving again . Unfortunately, the collision caused the fuel tank reserved for a rainy day to blow up, and the ark needed his Fable energy to operate .
He failed to repair the self-navigation system and the auto-pilot, though . Meaning, he had to pilot the craft personally .
⸢34th day of drifting . ⸥
He needed to somehow find his original route .
⸢42nd day of drifting . ⸥
As the days of his Fable needing to be exhausted increased, fatigue began accumulating in his body . Instances of him briefly losing his consciousness happened more and more frequently . The darkness was eating away at his mind .
… . Why did I come this far?
There were moments when his purpose would become blurry, uncertain . He came this far to carry out his mission . To deliver a 'story' to the reincarnated Kim Dok-Ja . To revive the 'Kim Dok-Ja' his companions remembered .
Why, though? He still had something he simply had to ask Kim Dok-Ja, that's why .
… . But what was the question?
⸢58th day of drifting . ⸥
The moment he saw a wane face reflected on the ark's window, Yu Jung-Hyeok recalled the forgotten question .
- In a world where the scenarios have come to an end, what should he do to continue living on?
That's right . That's what he wanted to ask Kim Dok-Ja . Because that guy knew everything .
Kim Dok-Ja, always thinking about the end . The man who planned for everything, and didn't hesitate to sacrifice his own life to see the conclusion of a certain story .
A fool like that should know, he thought .
If it was Kim Dok-Ja, then he should know more about Yu Jung-Hyeok than Yu Jung-Hyeok knew about himself . That's what the latter thought .
The regressor who stopped regressing – just what would become of him?
Yi Ji-Hye said that she suffered from nightmares every night .
But for him, his life had been a constant nightmare for the longest time . The only reason why he managed to endure until now was because he still had a goal, an aim, which he hadn't achieved yet . However, that goal was now no more, and the scenario had ended, as well .
The regressor Yu Jung-Hyeok was free .
But as he stood before the hard-earned freedom, he couldn't figure out what exactly he had finally earned .
⸢83rd day of drifting . ⸥
As his directionless drifting went on and on, the Fables covering his skin decreased precipitously . The amount of Fable scattering into space gradually increased .
His voyage continued on, but he didn't even know where he was heading to .
⸢102rd day of drifting . ⸥
Yu Jung-Hyeok began reading Han Su-Yeong's novel .
He thought that by reading it, he'd be able to endure against time, somehow .
⸢111th day of drifting . ⸥
While reading about Kim Dok-Ja's story, he began to harbour this faint hint of anticipation .
He thought that the Kim Dok-Ja from this story should be able to answer his question .
From the first episode onwards, he studiously read about Kim Dok-Ja's life .
Some events he already knew, while some others were unfamiliar to him . He'd stop reading when he reached certain sentences, too .
⸢That feeling of being left alone past the full stop of the story, right after the protagonist and the side characters all stepped into the sentence of 'Everyone lived happily ever after' . Struck by the sense of emptiness and betrayal, the young me couldn't fight against the loneliness and writhed around in pain . ⸥
What was 'happiness'? That term felt so very alien to Yu Jung-Hyeok . He thought he might have felt such an emotion from somewhere within the memories of the 0th turn that he managed to steal a glance earlier . However, that was no longer his life .
⸢128th day of drifting . ⸥
To him, the figure of Kim Dok-Ja relying on nothing else besides the 'Ways of Survival' to survive came across as alien . He read many times, yet he just couldn't understand it very well .
How could a mere story like this be able to support a life?
⸢154th day of drifting . ⸥
Little by little, Yu Jung-Hyeok grew accustomed to reading the novel .
He even found some passages that he liked reading over and over again .
⸢I grabbed the hind leg rich in the perfect amount of fat and bit into the flesh . The gravy gently oozing out from the meat . . . I closed my eyes, having even forgotten to chew . As I thought, reading about it and actually tasting it are two different things . ⸥
It was a scene that happened early on, when Kim Dok-Ja and the companions had recently entered the scenarios – when they roasted the meat from the mole rats . Yu Jung-Hyeok pulled out a slice of dried meat from inside his coat underneath the spacesuit and began chewing on it while reading that passage again . He slowly closed his eyes and chewed, and it almost felt as if he was with the companions within the damp darkness of the subway .
⸢155th day of drifting . ⸥
But when he opened his eyes, he was still all alone .
Yu Jung-Hyeok dazedly sitting there began reading the novel again .
⸢211th day of drifting . ⸥
He continued to read this story all by himself, and . . .
⸢258th day of drifting . ⸥
… . And, read the story again .
⸢279th day of drifting . ⸥
He finally understood Kim Dok-Ja just a little .
⸢316th day of drifting . ⸥
[Your Fables have absorbed your emotions . ]
Every time he read Han Su-Yeong's novel, the consumed Fables would regain their vitality for fleeting moments . Although it couldn't match the speed of consumption, he wouldn't have been able to hold on until now if he didn't read the story .
However, he couldn't simply hold on forever .
Kim Dok-Ja within the novel was saying this .
⸢"That's why you should've read it until the end, you know . "⸥
What did it mean to read a story to its end?
Although he couldn't fully understand it, Yu Jung-Hyeok still chose to heed that advice .
⸢333th day of drifting . ⸥
Abruptly, he realised the reason why his failure was inevitable .
⸢"Even if you manage to save the world, you still won't be saved . The moment you save the world, the worlds you have cast away would pounce on you . Even if you do save one world, every other world you have forsaken will drag you down to hell . "⸥
Yu Jung-Hyeok stared at the distant universe and thought to himself .
What could've it been like if this was the first, or the second, regression turn? What if he had completely forgotten about the memories from his previous lives? If he had no clue whatsoever of the lives from his previous regressions, then maybe, just maybe, couldn't he have found his answer already, instead of wandering aimlessly like this? Maybe, he wouldn't have to suffer like this?
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