The question remained if the original history was Lee Su-yeon killing him before her regression, then what about the other fates Yoon-seok heard so far? He realized while thinking for a while that the butterfly effect of a person’s regression wouldn’t occur in only one parallel dimension.
—I don’t know if this is better. Because even if you live, you’ll only be used by him for the rest of your life.
It was originally Yoon-seok’s fate to sign a subsidiary contract, become a slave, and act as a tool to Kang Hyung-woo. But, everything changed as Lee Su-yeon regressed.
—Hahaha! I didn’t lie. Yeah, I didn’t lie to you! Good job. Now rest in peace! I’ll fulfill your wish for you!
As Lee Su-yeon regressed, Yoon-seok met Cheon-ma. Although he became stronger than before, he chose the Heavenly Warrior instead of Elle in the Wish Auction and later reached the end where his body was stolen. And that ending made a new one.
—It’s invalid! He was going to pick me!
Elle interfered in the Heavenly Warrior’s plan by showing her clairvoyance to Yoon-seok. That opened a new path. But…
—You were eliminated in the last trial and became an admin, and you had the fate of living happily here with several women.
Even this became meaningless as he escaped from fate with b Divine Ultimatum}. His life in this world had no fixed ending. In other words, he could reach any ending in the future, depending on his choices. Lee Su-yeon regressed for her own purposes, but that small change released Yoon-seok from his fate.
‘Somehow, she’s my savior….’
Of course, he didn’t know what might happen, but every moment to his final destination would depend on his choices.
Yoon-seok smiled. He thought nothing had changed. Whether it was a parallel world, fate, or another future, what needed to be done was the same: to do his best to face a better future. And for this, what he had to do now was listen to Lee Su-yeon’s story.
“Did you say the third duel?”
At Yoon-seok’s request, Lee Su-yeon returned to her original story and recited the events after her return in chronological order. They went through the skill tree for maximal efficiency, including all the achievements she remembered, where she gradually reached the goal of killing the queen. For reference, there were times where she used nomination tickets to banish future enemies she could sometimes see, and her first was a colleague who betrayed her.
“Maybe it’s someone you know, Lee Chang-hoon. He was the one who bullied you with Kang Hyung-soo when you were in school.”
“Lee Chang-hoon…?”
“Yes, looking at your reaction, you must have only memories of right before you died. Anyway, as soon as I saw him on the same floor, I used nomination rights. I didn’t know if he had any coins left, so I worked on inducing a mental breakdown, but I couldn’t see him afterward, so I don’t know if it went well.”
Come to think of it; he remembered Grape Jam using the nomination ticket. But he didn’t know that this situation was happening in the background.
-Kalopa: Grape Jam? What are you doing? Why are you nominating me all of a sudden?
-Grape Jam: Free pass, lucky.
-Kalopa: Fuck, what kind of idiot are you? Do I look like a joke to you too?
To be honest, who would’ve found out what was going on after seeing that chat from start to finish? Still, he could see the hope she had to give up for her goal. She sought revenge against Lee Chang-hoon, who betrayed her in that previous life.
Of course, he had one question.
“Then why did you pick a fight with other challengers?”
“It’s simple. If I use the nomination ticket, I would be at an advantage. Since they are quite famous, I can see their weaknesses, but I can’t necessarily deal with them later. So I purposely provoked them.”
That wasn’t the only thing she did. When she had a chance, she used the chat room to create disputes between Seheranbad, Moorim, and Kilian, who would someday become Earth’s competitors. She argued that she didn’t mean much by it but thought it would be beneficial if they were a little hostile to each other.
“I know it may seem strange to think of them as tentative enemies. But the situation was different then. Challengers at different levels were more threatening than the invaders and the Queen.”
He could guess what she meant by that. Yoon-seok quietly nodded along, and Lee Su-yeon calmly explained the rest. There was nothing unusual, but it was quite fascinating. It was like watching a master play with a perfect strategy. There were no unnecessary, and a reason stood behind each of her actions.
“It was then. I was preparing a plan to kill the challenger who would come to Earth around this time. That’s when I first saw the masked dual swordsman.”
He could tell who that challenger was without needing to say it.
“That’s when I first had doubts. Who is that guy? There was no one like that before. Did something change because of me?”
Lee Su-yeon began a background investigation that day, and she found out that the man was Yoon-seok. However, her questions deepened.
Choi Yoon-seok was the so-called Savior of the Earth? He slaughtered everyone on the 6th-floor plaza rather than be a slave? It was unbelievable. So she thought he might be fake. Or like herself, he came back to the past.
“Is that why you bumped into me?”
“Yes.”
“But it was a long time ago. Why now?”
“I can’t just cling to this matter, and you haven’t come to Earth for a while because you’ve been stuck in the Tower. The timing wasn’t matching up.”
She said that her reason for joining the federation wasn’t because of Yoon-seok. Rather, it was to find out about this new organization that didn’t exist before. He was convinced. But, he was still curious about one thing. She was at least four or five years older in that wave.
“It’s because of b Time Control}. Regression was only available after reaching Rank S, and if other abilities were used, my aging progressed rapidly as a side effect. That hasn’t happened in this life because I don’t have that skill.”
“…I see.”
“Are you done with your questions?”
“I have more, but for now, yes.”
“May I ask a few?”
Yoon-seok nodded after a moment’s thought. Grape Jam was the only ranker and rewinder on Earth other than him. After listening to her story, there was no way to see her as the enemy. Rather, it would be better to become allies.
“What has happened to make you so strong? I saw the evaluation ratings on the ranking board. Rank SS+? How can you be higher than me? Two levels at that?”
Curiosity and envy mixed in her voice. That was understandable. After returning, she climbed the Tower with her strategy book, yet Yoon-seok was ranked above her.
“I kept thinking about it, but I still don’t understand. Of course, I know that’s part of your Unique Skill, but even so….”
Since it wasn’t difficult to answer, Yoon-seok briefly explained what happened in the beginning.
“Heavenly Demon? You were taught by No. 1 in the rankings?”
Meeting Cheon-ma, and after receiving advice from Ragna, a former merchant, he killed Lee Chang-hoon in reality. Lee Su-yeon responded more to the name of Ragna than to Lee Chang-hoon.
“R-Ragna Hambledon…?”
“You know her?”
“Of course! She’s the actual chief of the Seheranbad Alliance!”
The future may have changed now, but it turned out that she would become quite a big shot afterward (?). Next, when Yoon-seok mentioned meeting King of Steel and talking about his first defeat, she laughed.
“Cheon-ma, Ragna Hambledon, and King of Steel… what kind of great luck is that? Wait, you said {Blood Pact}, right? Then even though it was around the early days, hadn’t you met the Vampire King once?”
Not only once, but they also met a second time way later. In addition, there was the 7th-floor admin Heavenly Warrior’s old mentor, the Sword Saint Lee Hyun-hak, which was like a hidden stage on the 10th-floor duel. After that, he met numerous strong enemies such as Lavan Vargas and the Heavenly Buddha and somehow became a Co-Sect Leader of the Demon Cult.
However, it wasn’t necessary to talk about this. Wasn’t it just the beginning that she was curious about?
Yoon-seok listened to her complaints.
“I don’t understand. How could you be stronger after meeting all those people?”
He didn’t understand why, but Lee Su-yeon seemed very upset.
Why did he become so strong? Yoon-seok answered the question like this:
“…I was lucky.”
He was lucky. This was sincere. The stronger the opponent, the greater the reward following victory because of his Unique Skill b Predation}. However, Lee Su-yeon wasn’t exactly convinced.
“Did you not come back in time? You killed Eld Carta in the 6th-floor plaza, no? I think it’s more believable that you knew it beforehand and killed him.”
“It was all a coincidence.”
Really. He didn’t even know that Eld Carta would become such a big shot in the first place. When he was enraptured in b Bloodseeker’s Ultimatum}, he killed him because he was in the way.
“Anyway, let’s stop talking about this. It doesn’t matter if I regressed or not.”
When Yoon-seok drew the line, Lee Su-yeon was forced to stay silent, so she brought up a new topic.
“What you want is information about the future, right?”
“Well, that’s right.”
“This information is very dangerous. So I should make you promise. When you use that ticket, please let me choose the remaining colleagues to tag along.”
Yoon-seok snorted without realizing it. She was talking as if she were a great hidden card, but to be honest; he wasn’t that desperate. Didn’t he experience how one small event could change the future firsthand?
Her information wasn’t likely to shine as much as before. Of course, it would still be helpful as a reference.
‘I don’t even know if there will be a day when I’ll use the ticket.’
Crucially, Lee Su-yeon had misunderstood one thing. Yoon-seok’s final goal wasn’t to kill the queen. He didn’t know what would happen afterward, but that was a problem he would decide on after identifying the Tower and the Queen’s exact purpose.
To be honest, Yoon-seok didn’t understand Lee Su-yeon’s way of thinking. Wasn’t it wishful thinking to kill the Queen without knowing anything and believe the Tower would release everyone else?
‘Well, it wouldn’t be so bad to appoint a colleague in advance just in case.’
“All right. You decide on the rest of the companions.”
Anyway, when Yoon-seok agreed, Lee Su-yeon couldn’t hide her delight and clenched her fist. Only then did Yoon-seok realize, even after combining the time before she regressed, she was less than 20 years old.
“…W-why are you looking at me like that?”
“I just thought you must have suffered a hard time alone.”
When Yoon-seok smiled bitterly and explained, Lee Su-yeon froze before responding in a small voice.
“…I’m not alone.”
Wasn’t she alone? Did that mean she had other colleagues? With her small hands spread out, she reached to Yoon-seok.
“Now.”
He thought she was saying that he was now her colleague. When Yoon-seok belatedly reached out and responded to the handshake, Lee Su-yeon smiled brightly and took out a list with hundreds of names.
When he thought these were the candidates to assassinate the Queen-
“Oh, I gave you the wrong one. Wait a minute…”
Lee Su-yeon quickly recovered the list with a despairing look.
“What was that just now?”
When Yoon-seok asked about the identity of the list, she blushed as if she were ashamed. It was the reaction of a girl whose secret diary was found. But did she think she had to tell him because he became her colleague?
“It’s nothing…”
Lee Su-yeon hesitated and shyly continued.
“It’s just the names of the bastards I need to kill in the future.”
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