“…”
Clone 2,
The young Yu Jitae, around 15 years of age, was staring off into the distance.
He was currently at the isolated dungeon, [Southern Boreal Forest].
An isolated dungeon referred to a half-closed dungeon, which monsters weren’t able to leave at all. Because of that, people ignored the dungeon and the Southern Boreal Forest did not get a rank for itself.
However, if it were to receive a rank, this dense, deep and immensely large forest would be SS+ at the very least, rivalling the most dangerous dungeons found on Earth until now.
The Southern Boreal Forest looked like a large tower, driven into the ground. Each level had all sorts of bizarre environments and the lowest floor was around 300 levels deep.
For the last two months, this young Yu Jitae had to wander around the large forest, which was as big as the Asian continent, despite receiving a map from Yu Jitae in his head.
He killed thousands of monsters and went the wrong way dozens of times already.
And at last, he was in the 290th floor underground.
He finally reached the Witch’s forest.
‘You there?’
A message from Clone 1 echoed through his brain.
“Ah, yes. I just arrived.”
Clone 2 spoke to his senior while urgently bending his back in a right-angle, despite there being no-one to see it.
“She’s that great of a sorceress. Is that correct?”
Staring off into the distance – at the large tulip that appeared enormous regardless of the distance, he opened his mouth.
That place was the dwelling place of the witch.
‘Yeah.’
Yu Jitae was a regressor.
Once upon a time, he was a superhuman swordsman. Sometimes, he was the commander of an army and later became a chimera engineer. However, he almost never spared any time throughout those countless iterations for magic.
It was because he had no talent in magic.
‘She’s the only human that can interfere with the directional coordinates of a fissure.’
“That does sound amazing…”
‘That woman used to be the sovereign of Earth, after all.’
Sovereign.
Only one existence that was allowed to exist in a Providential world, that received the blessings of Providence.
In the demon world, it was the Demon Archduke and on Earth, the witch used to be such an existence.
‘I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the information you got from our lord?’
“Yes. Of course.”
Greedy and easy to see through.
A woman who’s feeling lonely after living alone for a long time, that needs someone to talk to.
And…
“……Uhh, can I please ask one thing?”
‘No. You can’t. It’s about time for me to meet someone as well.’
“Aht, yes. Good luck.”
Clone 2 bent his back towards the thin air.
The moment his communication was cut off inside his head, Clone 2 started moving. While going down the thick forest, a strange odour touched his nose – an odour resembling the rotting smell of corpses. Clone 2 soon realised that the smell was slowly rising up from the bottom of the cliff.
Walking towards the cliff, he stopped in front and gazed down.
“…”
Beneath were things resembling mummies, which were used to be humans. There were dozens of corpses that appeared as if they were squeezed dry by something, and after more observation, he realised that all of them were male.
Clone 2 couldn’t help but feel slightly scared after reflecting on the memories that had been sent by Yu Jitae.
His discomfort doubled.
“Umm, sunbae*.”
Clone 2 looked for Clone 1, but no-one replied.
“Sunbae. I’m in a bit of a serious situation.”
Even then, Clone 1 didn’t reply. It wasn’t like he could call Yu Jitae for something like this either. At least that was usually the case.
“Sunbae. This is way too scary. If you don’t respond, I have to talk to our lord about it.”
‘You wanna die?’
“Sorry… Can I please ask one thing?”
A sigh was heard in his head.
“What does it mean to give body?”
‘What?’
“From the memories I got, it was like, something… extremely…”
‘In the inner part of the witch’s house will be a bedroom.’
“Ah, yes.”
‘Don’t go in there.’
“Ahh, yes sir.”
‘And avoid all sorts of physical contact with the witch.’
“Sorry? Ah, yes.”
That was the end of their conversation.
180cm tall with wide shoulders and a muscular body. Funnily enough, the 15 year old Yu Jitae who was more mature compared to others in terms of appearance, was in fact a lot slower than others when it came to ‘those’ things.
Since only the important pieces of information were sent to him one by one, knowledge on ‘those’ things that were deemed the most unnecessary weren’t shared.
What in the world did physical contact have to do with the bedroom?
Inside the memories sent by Yu Jitae were strange sounds and strange gestures.
“Huu…”
After heaving a sigh and mentally preparing himself, Clone 2 walked into the building through the gaps between the petals of the large tulip.
The petals started opening up and revealed the inside of a large palace in front of Clone 2.
Although the long corridor was high and wide, it was empty and since not a single person was inside the well-ornamented building, it gave off a surreal atmosphere.
Before long, the air in front of Clone 2 got dissected and showed four things inside that were protecting the house. They were large soldiers with gray, full-plated armours – living armours with a dense demonic aura.
The Death Knights flickered their red eyes.
“I have come to meet Miss Witch, Valentine,” said Clone 2.
“We’ve been expecting you. Go in.”
Letting go of his discomfort, Clone 2 pushed open the golden doors that were between the Death Knights.
Inside, on the throne resembling a blossoming flower, a woman was sitting down. The large breasts that were unthinkable to be that of a human’s reached his eyes first, but he quickly realised it was rude and raised his eyes a bit more.
Wearing a red dress, flashing golden ornaments and a decadent pair of eyes.
The room was filled with a stinky and dirty smell, as if animals had been mating inside it. Finding that unpleasant, Clone 2 had to manage his facial expression.
Soon, the marble-like voice came flowing out of her mouth.
“Welcome.”
Clone 2 looked at her.
The mage who had grasped the world’s Number 1 sorceress spot for the entire time ever since the New Era. The former rank 1, who at the same time used to be the leader of the Association.
The Witch, [Berry Valentine], opened her mouth with a coquettish voice.
“Little boy.”
***
Antonio Jefferson was living through hell.
The disappearance of his close brother, the Shadow Human Ohn Sung-o was the start of his hell.
Ever since he disappeared, Jefferson endlessly looked for him and even applied for a vacation to do so. Usually, he would spend this time doing the intriguing hobby of his, but he had long washed his hands off it.
However, he was nowhere to be found and Jefferson had to hire another person to look for him. It was his own younger sister, who knew Ohn Sung-o for a long time herself.
She too was a world ranker in the hundreds, and if it was her who was a veteran at chasing others, he was certain that she would definitely be able to find a trace of Ohn Sung-o at the very least.
At the same time, the Association started to move.
Aside from Jefferson, they began looking for Ohn Sung-o with their own search party.
The Association was more aggressive at the search.
The boss of the secret ops that Ohn Sung-o belonged to – the Abyss Human, Atvache, left on a search mission wearing the Level 3 artifact, WOTA-13 (Complete stealth-type Armour) and started finding clues upon clues.
And yet just this morning, the two of them disappeared.
“…”
A long-time brother who sincerely cared for him.
His sister who had cried at her engagement ceremony last week.
When the key personnel of the Association and an important artifact had disappeared on top of that,
As the chief aide of the Association – as the brother of a long-time colleague, and as the brother of his younger sister,
Jefferson greatly despaired from the depths of his heart.
The problem was that the Association was still not aware of how he was at the centre of this incident. He would love to go there and let them know immediately, but there was nothing he knew about the opponent. In other words, it would be meaningless even if he let them know about it.
Sitting down, the man finished smoking through an entire pack of cigarettes and placed his hand on his forehead.
Drop–
That was when a paper airplane flew across and tapped him by the leg.
He opened it, and found a city name, a cafe and time.
It was the message from ‘that guy’.
At an old age, he was still unmarried and was still living with his family. Going back home, he found his mother sobbing while hugging his sister’s photo, crying where she suddenly went off to.
Looking away from his mother, and pushing the maid away, he entered the dressing room himself and took out a tuxedo.
It was the suit he first bought when he started off at the Association. And when he placed the suicide-oriented necktie artifact around his neck.
The old man who was drunk from attention by bashing people up every weekend – that disgraceful old man was no longer there.
He looked at the mirror.
The man inside the mirror doing his necktie, was the soldier who rose to be the chief aide of the chairman with his ability alone.
*
Antonio Jefferson.
There were 2 reasons why his lord – Yu Jitae – was looking for this pathetic and wasted soldier.
This man who was forced to spend his life like a watchdog of the chairman, was unexpectedly extremely gifted at military tactics.
Looking back in the previous iterations, in the upcoming Second Great War, Jefferson prepared the right people at the right time and led the regional wars against monsters and demons to victory.
The biggest achievement worth having a big talk on, was how he was able to kill a catastrophe-ranked demon with just 7 rankers. Considering how it was highly likely to fail even when trying to kill a catastrophe-ranked demon with dozens of rankers, it was a superb achievement.
That happened in every iteration, and remained a fairly surprising event even inside Yu Jitae’s memories. In the closest iteration – the 6th iteration, that incident was recorded in history as such.
Operation [Blue Sunday]
So when Clone 1 first met Antonio Jefferson, he was unable to hide his disappointment. The man was deplorable and pathetic. Could this immature old man become a genius of military tactics no matter how much time he was given? That was a doubt that appeared in his mind.
However,
“I’m Antonio Jefferson. The chief aide of the chairman.”
The man who arrived at the cafe was slightly different. His calm and sunken gaze and an even deeper voice echoed with a sense of determination.
“Judging from how you’ve done all this to call me here, it can’t be without any reason.”
His words that tried to be leading the negotiation forward seemed natural, and his voice had the power to control the flow.
“Please do speak. What’s your objective.”
“Seeing your attitude, it seems you’re still unaware of the situation.”
“No. I am fully aware of it. And there is no problem with my attitude.”
“Do you know what this place could be?”
“I do not. But at worst, it would be a guillotine. I came here ready to die. Since I’ve already killed my own self, you threatening my life serves no purpose in this negotiation table.”
He showed a vigorous spirit that showed how he was unwilling to falter in front of the situation and his position. Thus, Clone 1 changed his evaluation of the man a little.
“I have no idea why an old-generation senior is doing this, but surely you’re not doing this for money or people. What you need would be my position. So what political help would you like me to help with.”
“Oi.”
But changing his evaluation was one thing.
In an instant, an unspeakably fierce aura started oozing out of Clone 1’s body.
“Don’t get cocky.”
Jefferson widened his eyes.
An unprecedented weight that he never felt from the chairman of the Association, or the captain of the Association’s last suicide squad, BM, or even the god-like superhuman Oscar Brzenk, started oppressing his entire body.
In the suffocating situation, the man started gasping for breath. He should be feeling as if he was 100 metres deep in the ocean, and yet the man stood straight and glared back at Clone 1.
“I’ll be straightforward. In a few years, large fissures will be formed in this world. There will be at least a few hundred that open simultaneously. It will be dangerous. A rough estimate is that there will be at least 3 SSS+ ranked dungeons.”
“…!”
“And I’m trying to stop it.”
SSS+ Rank.
In the records of history, there was one incident when a dungeon of that size was opened. People referred to that incident and its consequences as the ‘Great War’.
Thinking that this was gibberish, the man’s face was filled with half doubt and half puzzlement. Without giving heed, Clone 1 continued his words.
“A large cluster of dirty mana is heading towards Earth. It has already started affiliating itself with this dimension and there will be more and more superhumans that start to feel it.”
“…”
“But that will be too late. After the war, the heads of the Association have become too complacent, and it’s time to reform it.”
“…And what.”
“I can steal a person’s body and control it. I have the possessing ability which the Association considers a taboo. However, I won’t kill you and steal your body here. If there are two bodies, won’t it be more efficient for there to be two heads on top of that? If you and I can become ‘friends’, we’ll continue this in more detail.”
Soon, a new emotion appeared on Jefferson’s face.
It was displeasure.
“What will you say about killing three superhuman rankers, while knowing we’re in such a desperate situation?” He asked.
Clone 1 found it intriguing that he was talking not from the sadness of having lost his family, but from the perspective of a soldier contemplating the loss in military power.
Scornfully, Clone 1 gestured with his chin. After turning around, Jefferson’s eyes were shot wide open.
Two tables away from them, Ohn Sung-o, his sister and Atvache, whom he thought had all died, were staring at him. It seemed that the man in front of him had killed their presence with a delicate control of his mana.
What in the world was happening. Did they talk about it beforehand?
Seeing his sister waving her hand with a smile, his head turned cold.
“…”
He turned away from his sister and while pressing down on his forehead, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I assume there is a reason why you looked for me, instead of the Association… Do you guys have a boss yourself?”
“Why are you asking that.”
“I’m curious about what he’s trying to do. The whole picture he’s trying to draw. Please let me see him once…”
In fact, Yu Jitae had mentioned to bring Jefferson if he ever looked for him.
This would be the starting point of an extremely important plan. The immensely important plan that would involve turning the Association upside down, cutting out its rotten roots and the dead leaves that were wasting the water and sunlight.
Thus, Clone 1 conveyed its will to the true body.
‘My lord. Jefferson is wishing to see you. Would now be okay?’
– No. I’m busy.
However, he was met with an unexpected response.
He was saying that he was busy in front of such an important task. What could he be in the middle of doing?
– I have to make Gyeoul’s room.
Clone 1 was convinced.
That indeed was a little bit more important.
“Now’s not a great time… I’ll tell you the time later. See you then.”