Time creates an existence.
This was the reason dragons, who lived for thousands of years, became one of the strongest races and at the same time was the reason young dragons were weak and delicate.
“I’m actually fine, you know?!”
Kaeul said to Yu Jitae.
No-one said anything.
“Yes? Ah it’s just… because, you were glaring at me…”
She laughed, “Hehe.”
The moment she uttered the words that she was fine, she became better like magic.
It had only been a few hours since they came back to the dorm. As if nothing happened, she was nonchalantly taking a chocolate ice cream out of the freezer with a smile.
For a long time, he watched her eat.
“Uh? What you eating?”
Yeorum asked after finishing the training session for that day. Wearing a smile, Kaeul showed the half-eaten ice cream in her hand.
“Ice cream!”
“Oh, the one we bought yesterday?”
“Nn nn! It’s super delicious.”
“I’m gonna have mine as well.”
“I don’t think there’s any left?”
“What? Why? We bought four to have one each.”
“Nnn…?”
Kaeul’s eyes drew a curve and travelled down. She checked the number of ice creams she had eaten with the number of empty packs that were inside the rubbish bin.
“Did we…?”
She tried to stealthily stand up with an awkward smile when a frown appeared on Yeorum’s face.
“My dear sister.”
“Yes?”
“There’s no way you ate all those four damned ice creams by yourself. Right?”
“…Mommy!”
Kaeul saw the eyes of a murderer and urgently ran away. There wasn’t even a need to check the freezer. “Why would you eat all that you idiot!” shouted the boar as it chased after a baby chicken. A scream echoed across the other side of the house.
Just like that, everything around Kaeul appeared normal. That was the same reason why no-one including Yu Jitae had been able to see through what was going inside BY’s mind in the fourth iteration.
Ever since coming back, Chirpy the baby chicken, buried itself inside the blanket and stayed there. It even peed on the bed so Kaeul had to clean it with the spell, [Cleanse (B-)].
Frightened, the baby chicken was sick and Kaeul looked after it the entire day. When she did leave the room, she was wearing a smile but Yu Jitae saw through it. Because she was still young, the mask she formed wasn’t perfect.
“Dude. Your heart’s beating a bit weak though? Are you alright?”
“It’s because you’re harassing me, unni!”
“No you retard. Not that.”
Back in the fourth iteration, he didn’t have a convenient tool like this.
“Of course. I’m fine.”
[Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]
Her authenticity was at false. It was an ‘extreme false’ at that.
If this wasn’t the seventh iteration, Yu Jitae would have lacked the knowledge to realise her situation. And if this was the fourth iteration, he wouldn’t have known how to see through her mind and chat about it.
But since this was the seventh iteration, he had a way.
“Cooking?”
After hearing the Regressor’s request, Bom tilted her head.
“Did you want me to help you cook?”
“Yeah.”
She curiously asked.
“What kind of food is it?”
He still remembered it because of its unique name. It was called ‘Offering for Eternal Peace’ – something which the Gold Dragon occasionally requested of her exclusive chef in the fourth iteration.
“Hmm. It’s the first time I’m hearing it… did something happen to Kaeul, by any chance?”
“It’s nothing important.”
“…”
“No need to worry about it.”
Bom looked into his eyes with an indifferent expression and a gaze that tried to look deeper within. When he looked back thinking what this was about, she gave a faint smile and asked with her usual light tone.
“And the ingredients?”
He still remembered them: several vegetables and extremely fatty meat; some other special ingredients and a blended mix, as well as a unique sauce.
The problem was that he didn’t know whether it would taste good or not. But, since they liked Bom’s food at least, wouldn’t the end result be quite nice if Bom helped out?
After buying the ingredients, they began cooking. The Regressor slowly cleaned and cut the meat and the vegetables before placing them into the mixing bowl. He swirled the killing intent like the blades of a blender and ground them into fine particles. Finally, he threw the secret ingredient in which he also ground into fine powders.
The blended pieces of meat and vegetables were mixed with other liquids and solids, creating the texture of soy pulp. Because of the fatty gelatin, it looked like jelly before being boiled.
At this point it was just healthy food and the most important factor was the sauce.
In order to replicate the spices of Askalifa, Baby Yellow endlessly compared all the spices available on Earth and came to a conclusion. The closest result she had was by mixing powdered garlic, salt, basil and ghee.
The issue here however, was that he didn’t really know the ratio.
“Hmm…”
Bom grabbed a pinch or plucked those spices and herbs before having a taste. She stayed still and contemplated the flavour with an indifferent expression.
“Can you make it?”
“I don’t really know. I guess, something similar could work…”
No-one else would know if Bom didn’t. He had no choice but to trust her senses here.
After boiling all the ingredients, she added the sauce. Unexpectedly, it gave off a rather familiar scent.
The ingredients that resembled a jelly melted from the heat which resulted in an extremely thick soup.
Using a spoon, he had a taste. It had the savoury flavour of meat but overall contained a healthy flavour.
He asked Bom for her evaluation.
“It’s good. It’s tasty, but it might be too bland for Kaeul’s tastes…”
She had the same opinion as him.
Fortunately, there was another tasting judge peeking her head out from behind the kitchen door. She asked when their eyes met.
“…What is it?”
“Oh. Gyeoul’s here. Would you like to try it? It’s something ahjussi made.”
“…?”
The child gazed up at Yu Jitae. Unintentionally and unknowingly, the tasting judge was being bribed by the cook.
Bom lifted her up and placed her on the seat, before giving her a spoonful of the soup.
Nom nom. Gyeoul had a mouthful of soup.
“How is it?”
She didn’t say anything in response but the smile on her face was extremely bright. The evaluation of the tasting judge was very positive.
“…Is there, more?”
It was so positive that they had to cook another pot.
The Regressor carried the finished soup to Kaeul’s room.
She was lying on the bed watching the baby chicken, who was the same as before. Eyes closed, the baby chicken shivered with its head buried into the blanket.
“Oohh. What’s this smell.”
“Have some of this and take a good rest.”
She turned around and looked at Yu Jitae. As always, she was wearing a bright smile and a sparkling gaze.
“What is itt?”
“A soup. We made it together.”
“Uwaah. It smells amazing. Did you make it with Bom-unni?”
“Yeah.”
After he carried it to the table, she came and sat on the chair.
“But what’s the soup for? I’m full ‘cuz of the ice cream though.”
“Just eat it.”
“Okayy.”
With a spoon, she scooped up the thick soup and carefully carried it to her mouth. Meanwhile, he looked at her face.
Perhaps thinking that it was something tasty, she hummed but the moment she placed the spoon into her mouth and savoured its flavour;
Her humming stopped.
Before long, her golden eyes slowly turned wider. Her fluster erased the smile on her lips.
“…”
Kaeul looked at him.
***
In the fourth iteration, while BY was enjoying a vacation on a personal beach in bikinis, Yu Jitae discovered a man filming her in secret with a large camera. He made the paparazzi’s face into a mess.
“Oh my. I’m fine but…”
Baby Yellow was benevolent to him.
“Just don’t do it from now on. Okay?”
BY of the fourth iteration always smiled in front of others. She was a kind child when she was young and after she aged, she became a kind celebrity. It was to the point that the Times newspapers decorated their first page with the headline, ‘The word kind was made for Baby Yellow’.
As she gained more and more fame, the company tried harder to have that image built in. So unlike normal top celebrities, she personally went to militaries and performed there.
After visiting superhumans that were carrying out a war for a very long time in the fissures, BY consoled them with her beautiful songs.
A public image was hard to build and maintain because one had to diligently show an attractive side. The best method was to reveal their personality as is but unfortunately, BY’s personality was changing over time.
The longer something took to build, the easier it was to crumble. BY, who felt greatly pressured from single malice, became a person that couldn’t afford to make mistakes at all costs.
And because she was a dragon, she didn’t make a single mistake. She gradually became more perfect as she built up her experiences with age.
One day, during a military performance,
In a certain fissure,
BY was met with a fairly big problem.
To be exact, it wasn’t BY’s mistake. What became an issue was what her parrot said, as it copied the words BY said during her intoxication.
It was a quiet parrot until then but for some reason, it spoke of words that should never be said in front of a camera – words that were extremely vulgar and violent.
At the time, the incident was glossed over nicely but that wasn’t the case for some people. Everyone already knew that the parrot was BY’s favourite pet, so criticisms and ridicules of BY quickly spread to every corner of the internet.
Dirty and vulgar woman. A psychopath. Crazy bi*ch.
BY who deeply immersed herself in those hostile words had her watch confiscated, and was locked in a tent with all the schedules cancelled.
Inside an SS-ranked large fissure, BY who was locked up in a fancy tent, called here and there with a pitiable voice and apologised. Whenever they met, she apologised to Yu Jitae as well but fortunately nothing happened apart from her sorrow.
But one night.
In the middle of the night, she woke up and suddenly opened the storage of the tent. It was locked with a padlock, but she forced it open with her nails. Then, she glared at the parrot who was in quarantine.
Soon, her white hands strangled the parrot’s neck and squeezed it. The bird was unable to resist.
Right before it’s thin neck was about to be crushed, BY released her shivering hands. When Yu Jitae rushed into the tent after sensing something strange, she glared at him with congested eyes.
“Oi.”
“Why…”
“What did you do just then.”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I… don’t know. I don’t know. Just go outside for now. I want to be alone.”
“Wake up. We have to leave this place soon.”
“I get it, so just go outside… please…”
He felt somewhat ominous but Yu Jitae back then only prioritised her safety and refrained from doing anything apart from that.
‘…… …? …’
But he heard BY whispering something to herself throughout the night.
Back then, the company in fact cared more about her mind than Yu Jitae. A counsellor or a massager would come during the day and care for her and unlike nighttime, BY conventionally listened to their orders during the day.
That wasn’t the end.
‘Offering for Eternal Peace’ was sent from outside the fissure, mixed with the military munitions. The jelly-like soup inside the plastic container was sent by the company, with the help of her exclusive chef who knew BY’s favourite dish.
At the start, it looked like jelly, but became the thick soup BY loved after he heated it back up at the military kitchen.
Holding the soup, the Regressor headed into BY’s tent. But the moment he walked in, Yu Jitae felt extremely irritated.
BY wasn’t there.
She went missing that day.
On the floor, there was a cross drawn in red blood. Looking at that symbol, it seemed that she had been abducted by the demon organisation, ‘Blood Cross’.
Blood Cross was a human trafficking organisation located throughout the world, a wicked group that focused on women as its target.
In the fourth iteration, Yu Jitae was ranked 3rd.
However, the rank was given because of his contributions at war more than his individual power, so there were countless superhumans in the world that could hide from his senses around the globe.
“I should kill them all or something…”
Hiding the irritation soaring through his throat, the Regressor turned around. Throwing the soup into the alternate dimension storage, he flew up into the air.
After flying high above, he looked into the distance. There were large forests and mountains in front.
This was an SS-ranked dungeon.
It was similar to the ‘Ancient Forest’, and no-one knew what lay near the end of it. The area they mapped out was at least 4.95 million square kilometres, which was roughly half of China.
Beyond the end of the extensive forest, he could see the endless horizon past the mountains.
– There has been no signs of anyone having left through the dungeon entrance!
“…Got it.”
After receiving the report, Yu Jitae heaved a deep sigh. From now on, he had to look for BY in this wide and unknown land of danger.
“…”
Swallowing the profanities inside, the Regressor moved.