Chapter 92: Regression (1)

“Master….”

Albus, who was observing through the memories of the guide from the first timeline, immediately grasped the situation he was in.

The regression device he had created with his master.

It operated with the worst possible activation condition — using a powerful being with divinity as a sacrifice.

In return, it allowed the consciousness of a being to be sent far into the past.

Originally, the plan was to activate the device by sacrificing the guide when an unsolvable problem arose in the present, sending Albus back to the past.

But in the final moment, as Albus prevented [destruction], he realized that he could no longer be the target of the device. 

So, he sacrificed himself and sent the guide to the past instead.

Hoping that the guide, now in the past, would stop the impending destruction.

“Master!”

And the guide, upon realizing this truth, screamed in anguish.

A being created to serve her master.

A being born for the master.

Yet, she had survived through the master’s sacrifice.

The guide could barely contain herself.

Her divinity had darkened and become tainted.

The overwhelming, concentrated negative emotions had transformed her.

“For my master, I would even become an evil god.”

The guide checked the time she had arrived in.

It was right after the birth of Rudera.

The period when the primitive virtual reality was slowly stabilizing with the help of Carthesia.

The guide descended into the deepest part of Rudera.

She created a hidden space that even Albus, the master of Rudera, wouldn’t notice, and resided there.

Until she could identify the unknown being that had harmed her master, she couldn’t face him again.

She couldn’t bear to witness the same thing happening again.

In the darkness, she stayed, studying the cosmic entity that had seemed impossible to resist in the first timeline.

For a long time, the guide, driven by her desire for her master, peered into the secrets of the universe from the depths of the abyss, until she finally uncovered the truth.

The highest order that transcended all gods.

The administrator of the universe, [ ].

The guide temporarily referred to this being as the [System].

It was a reflection of the administrative thought created by Albus, the creator of Rudera.

“The indulgence of the child of man. And the creation of the world.”

The guide recalled the words the [System] had uttered briefly during the first timeline.

It had seemed to pass judgment on Albus for creating Rudera, gathering divinity, and performing god-like actions.

Perhaps the [System] had been managing the order of the universe above all the gods until now.

“Is it implying that a mortal creating a world goes against the order of the universe?”

And it viewed her master, Albus, who had created a world, as a dangerous being that must be eradicated.

Even though she was alone, the guide gradually unraveled the existence of the [System].

Of course, there were still many things she couldn’t comprehend on her own.

“But then, why only then?”

Why had the [System] appeared and brought destruction only decades after Rudera had been created?

Why not when Rudera was first established?

Why not when her master was gathering the faith of the people as a divine being?

Why not when countless miracles occurred, and sentient beings gave birth to a new god?

For ten years, the guide remained in the abyss, watching over her master and investigating the [System].

But she couldn’t endure any longer.

On the day Albus had created the guide, “Master.”

“Ah!”

The guide from the first timeline revealed herself to an Albus who was much younger than she remembered.

She immediately explained the situation to him.

That she was the guide from the future, and that an unfathomable monster-like entity had destroyed Rudera and the continent in the first timeline.

Albus found it hard to accept, but after hearing her repeated explanations, he had no choice but to acknowledge that she was the artificial intelligence he had created, now returning from the future.

Ten years after the regression.

Finally able to be with the master she adored once again, the guide joined forces with him to figure out a way to counter the [System].

At the same time, countless disasters descended upon Rudera and the continent.

Endless droughts, the uprising of frogs in overflowing rivers, the slaughter of livestock by a rampant plague, relentless hailstorms, and a sun that refused to rise.

Disasters that were clearly abnormal unfolded.

Within Rudera, these disasters were easy to solve.

This was because Albus and the guide held absolute power within it.

But outside, on the continent, things were different.

Even a regressed guide couldn’t solve real-world calamities.

The numerous disasters ravaged the continent, leaving its people destitute.

And the people turned to the gods.

Thought for 12 seconds

At the end of it, the divinity of the G.M., which had offered no salvation to reality, rapidly diminished.

And then,

[From this place, I declare the end of the chaos wrought by mortals.]

[It] descended once more.

“Master! Please, run!”

The guide blocked Albus’s path to protect him. It was the method they had decided upon: if they couldn’t find a solution before the [System] reappeared, she would sacrifice herself to send her master back to the past.

“Yes. This was supposed to happen. This is right.”

The guide heroically sacrificed herself to protect Albus. 

She activated the regression device and sent Albus back to the past. 

Destruction loomed. 

But since her master survived,

This was my duty.

With a satisfied smile, the guide closed her eyes. 

When she opened them again.

“No…”

She had returned to Rudera at the time of its rebirth.

“I’m certain I sent you back to the past, Master.”

There was no doubt. 

She had sacrificed herself to send her master away. 

As the one who had been sacrificed, there was no way she could return to the past.

“Why…?”

Finally, she had no choice but to realize.

“…Am I the only one who can regress? No matter what I do, the moment I reach death, I return to this point?”

The worst reality plunged her into terrible guilt. 

No matter how much she sacrificed herself to send her master to the past, the moment she died, only she would return to the past. 

The regression device they created in the first timeline was incredibly powerful. 

No matter what she did, the moment she died, all paths to her master’s happiness were blocked.

“Does this mean I…must not die?”

In the end, she had no choice but to reach a single conclusion. 

She would not die and would fight the [System] alongside her master. 

That was the only solution for her master.

The guide went straight to Albus of the third timeline—a transcendent being who appeared to Albus, who had been recently kidnapped by Carthesia and was cultivating Rudera. 

The guide’s appearance was extremely shocking to Albus. 

Compared to the second timeline, it was harder for him to accept her, but she eventually persuaded him and revealed the events of the previous timelines. 

Together, they reorganized and began preparing to counter the [System]. 

Or so it was supposed to be.

“Disaster…!”

The numerous disasters that had besieged the continent in the second timeline reappeared. 

They occurred at a point more than ten years earlier than when the disasters had appeared in the second timeline. 

The difference from the previous timeline was that she had told Albus about the previous timeline.

“…Wait a minute. The time when the disasters happened in the previous timeline was….”

It was the moment when she had revealed her identity to Albus and discussed the previous timelines and the [System]. All of this meant one thing.

“My act of informing my master about the existence of the [System]…caused the disaster.”

And shortly after the disaster occurred,

[From this place, I declare the end of the chaos wrought by mortals.]

The [System] had arrived.

Timeline 4

“Damn it!”

The guide screamed and slammed the ground. 

Only then did the guide understand why the [System] appeared shortly after the disasters in the second timeline. 

It’s like the idiom: “When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” 

The moment her master noticed the existence of the [System], the [System] recognized him and caused the disaster. 

And at the peak of the disaster, the [System] reached the continent.

In other words, she could not tell Albus about the previous timelines because the moment she did, that timeline would be erased.

“I have to do it alone…”

The guide had to overcome this by herself. 

Unable to approach her beloved master, she watched him from a distance and had to find a way to defeat the cosmic entity standing above the gods—the [System].