"...Yoo Joonghyuk. What are you doing right now?"
"For someone with [Foresight], there sure is a lot you don't know."
"Don't tell me... you fed the Guiding Meteorite to the disaster?"
Because the Guiding Meteorite had been fed to the disaster, the disaster would hatch even faster.
The Great Tree thought to itself.
It couldn't understand why Yoo Joonghyuk, even after seeing the variable called Kim Dokja, still believed the disaster would remain unchanged.
Of course, Kim Dokyun's appearance had softened Shin Yoosung, the [Disaster of Floods], to a degree, but it had only reduced her hatred for Joonghyuk. It hadn't erased it.
"Why the hell...? Fine, maybe the guide I can understand, but what are you trying to do by waking the disaster early? Have you finally gone insane?"
"This disaster was my companion in a previous life."
"What?"
"So this disaster is safe."
Dokja was reminded once more of what kind of being Yoo Joonghyuk really was.
One of the reasons her brother, Kim Dokyun, had died was the Yoo Joonghyuk standing before her.
Her brother, who had done nothing but sacrifice himself for her from beginning to end.
Whenever she thought of that, she wanted to die together with Yoo Joonghyuk, but she was afraid Kim Dokyun's sacrifice would end without meaning.
Afraid that if she too disappeared, no one would remain to remember Dokyun's sacrifice.
That fear kept her from daring to throw herself at Yoo Joonghyuk.
Dokja hated herself for that even more than she hated Yoo Joonghyuk.
For falling into the contradiction of thinking of her brother, yet being unable to kill the enemy before her, unable to hate her forever.
Papaat!
"Don't interfere, Kim Dokja. Not if you don't want to die."
In the moment Dokja's attention slipped, Yoo Joonghyuk struck her pressure points and rendered her unable to move.
If Dokyun had been here, it would have been enough to make him see red and charge in.
The time until Dokja and Dokyun's reunion had been shortened, but it would never be a good reunion.
The Great Tree could only hope.
That Dokyun's plan would succeed.
Kugugugu
Kugugugugu
Kuuung!!!
[Main Scenario #4 - Disaster of Floods]
Category: Main
Difficulty: SS
Clear Conditions: Defeat the [Disaster of Floods], 'Shin Yoosung.'
Time Limit: —
Reward: 100,000 Coins, ???
Failure: Destruction of Seoul
The [Disaster of Floods] had awakened.
Srrk
Thud
"What the hell is that? That's the disaster?"
"That woman?"
But Shin Yoosung wasn't the only one who had awakened.
Swiik
Tak
Sararak
"Thank you, 'Oppa.'"
'Oppa?!'
There was another unknown being standing beside Shin Yoosung when she awoke.
Shin Yoosung had no family.
Neither Yoo Joonghyuk nor Kim Dokja had realized she had gained a new one.
If Shin Yoosung looked as though she had wrapped herself in feathers and hide, then the unknown being beside her looked as though it had been woven from branches and leaves.
'Did a monster like that, a species like that, ever exist in Ways of Survival? More than that, was there ever anyone close enough to that Shin Yoosung for her to call him oppa?'
Dokja's mind grew more and more confused.
Without knowing that being was her own brother, Dokyun.
"I've been waiting, Shin Yoosung."
"...Captain. ...So it's true. Oppa said this wasn't the first time you'd seen me. He really is family who never says the wrong thing."
"I don't care about your new family. I only need your help."
"Before that, Captain... what regression turn is this? It's not the 3rd, is it?"
"...Why are you curious about that?"
While she had been asleep, Dokyun had already told her everything he could possibly tell her.
It had only deepened Shin Yoosung's anger, but Yoosung hadn't wanted to believe it.
Because even though it came from her precious family, it was far too cruel a reality.
"I just... need to know."
"... ...It's the ■th turn."
"...Haha. Hahahahahahahah!!! Oppa really won everything. Then I have no choice but to grant his request. Ah, though I guess he can't hear me right now?"
Dokyun, transformed into a monster, showed no reaction at all even when he looked at Dokja.
He only moved little by little in response to Shin Yoosung's actions.
And yet, for some reason, Dokja couldn't take her eyes off Dokyun at her side, even though she hadn't consciously noticed him more than Shin Yoosung.
As if she had recognized him by instinct.
"...It took thousands of years. Captain, do you know that? Do you know how hard it was for me? How long I endured, just to grant your request?"
Sometimes for humanity, sometimes for the world, sometimes for her companions and for Joonghyuk.
Even so, her heart had broken.
The one who acknowledged that girl, who had endured without end, wasn't Yoo Joonghyuk, whom she had called Captain, nor the companions who had forgotten her, but an unknown young man she'd never even brushed sleeves with.
Now, the young man Shin Yoosung called oppa. Kim Dokyun. Him alone.
"Enough useless talk. Hand over the information from the 41st regression."
"What exactly were we to you, Captain?"
"...What?"
"I did my duty. I even gave you a chance. But you're still the same. And you'll stay the same from now on, won't you? How can you think of me as more of a tool than some man you've never even met?"
On the surface, it looked as though her hatred had lessened.
On the surface.
People were always like that.
The self they showed in front of someone precious always wanted to be a good person.
Shin Yoosung was no different.
"You'll use people like tools again, and you'll throw me into the demonic pit of some horrible world-line."
The words Dokyun had spoken, despite meeting her for the first time: You worked hard.
That single sentence was what Yoosung had needed.
"That pathetic sense of justice, that damned cause...."
Regardless of what Dokyun had intended, Dokyun's kindness had...
"Captain, I missed you so much. I hate you for living through the world alone."
...amplified Shin Yoosung's hatred for Joonghyuk.
"Now there's only one thing I can tell you."
This was something even the two beings inside the Great Tree, moved by that kindness, had failed to notice.
"Captain, you can't save anyone. Your 3rd regression ends here."
"Move, Yoo Joonghyuk!"
The variable all three of them should have feared most—Yoo Joonghyuk, Kim Dokyun, and Kim Dokja—was the one called kindness.
Chwaak!!
"...Kim Dokja?"
Dokja's abdomen was pierced through.
"Kim Dokja...! Kim Dokja!"
"...Kim Dokja, huh... Ah, this is bad."
Kim Dokja died.
Dokyun, though still unable to recognize Dokja in his current state, let out a cry when he saw her die.
"I'm sorry. It doesn't make up for it, but I won't touch anything beyond this."
Yoosung embraced Dokyun and tried to comfort him...
But even while saying she was sorry... for some reason, Shin Yoosung was smiling.
"Flood."
At that one word, countless monsters poured forth and, as always, began to ravage the powerless Incarnations.
"Tear, crush, destroy. At last, it is the hour of disaster."
"I will kill you, Shin Yoosung."
Kwaang!
"Wow, your [Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship] level is already pretty high. But no matter how much you struggle, you can't beat me. You know that too, Captain, don't you?"
"In this regression, you will die without fail."
Shin Yoosung and Yoo Joonghyuk clashed, but Shin Yoosung, who possessed greater stats and far more experience than the current regressor Yoo Joonghyuk, overwhelmed her.
"Well, maybe in ten years."
"I will kill you myself!"
Kagak
'What the hell is that thing?'
Kim Dokja, now in a disembodied state, watched as other monsters poured out and attacked people, yet the tree-like being still only observed the entire situation.
A monster Shin Yoosung clearly cherished.
And yet, for some reason, a monster that felt familiar.
"That one is my companion."
"...Captain, did you just do something? ...What? Companion? That person is your companion?"
"That's right."
"...How can you say something like that? I thought you'd gotten better after Oppa came, but I guess not."
It was a hollow laugh, as if she had given up on everything.
No matter how precious someone became, hatred wasn't something that could be cast off so easily.
If anything, comparing them to someone precious only made the hatred grow.
"How dare you say that in front of me!! Why do you call that person your companion?!"
Shin Yoosung poured out the resentment she had held back all this time.
But all of it came from what she had suffered in the 41st regression.
The Yoo Joonghyuk of the ■th regression had no intention of understanding that pain, and didn't even know it.
And that meant...
"Hahahahahahahah! Right. So now... now all I really have left is Oppa."
A little obsession with Dokyun, hatred for Joonghyuk.
And nothing but despair remained.
"I can't accept you changing like this now, of all times. Sorry, Oppa. I was going to go easy on them, but I've changed my mind."
All Shin Yoosung had left now was hatred.
"I'll kill them one by one. In the most painful way possible, right in front of your eyes, Captain. Hold her down, Oppa."
Kwagagagagagak!!
Tree trunks shot out from Dokyun's body and instantly bound Yoo Joonghyuk.
'Yoo Joonghyuk got caught that easily...?'
It was true Yoo Joonghyuk had been injured fighting Shin Yoosung, but even taking that into account, seeing her subdued so easily was shocking to Dokja.
Even more so because it was by a monster she had never seen before.
"Kill her!"
"That's the disaster—!"
Pushuk!!!
Even while restraining Yoo Joonghyuk, he skewered the charging Incarnations with another hand.
"I can handle this much myself. Don't let the Captain go. Ever."
Nod.
"I'll be back."
"Where do you think you're going? You dare leave my master like that?"
"...Jihye unni."
Jihye lost.
Completely.
"Naval warfare was your specialty, unni. But you're still far from enough. A captain belongs on a ship. What are you doing in a place like this?"
No matter what she said, they would believe Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yoosung knew that, and still she opened her mouth.
"Do you know what Yoo Joonghyuk said after losing you? 'Naval battles will be a little difficult from now on.'"
Ppaak!
The next target was Lee Hyunsung, the sturdiest shield of them all.
"You're still the same, Hyunsung oppa. Yoo Joonghyuk's most loyal war hound. You saved countless lives, and in the end, you protected Yoo Joonghyuk to the last and got hit by the Steel Blood Dragon's breath, scattering into a handful of ash."
A cruel truth.
The foulest kind of malice—the belief that others should suffer the same pain she had suffered.
"...I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't follow Yoo Joonghyuk."
"What?"
"I am part of Kim Dokja's group."
"Kim... what?"
'That's strange.'
"My little sister's name is Kim Dokja, but you know, her name has the meaning of 'man' in it?"
"When we wake up, it'll be very different from what you know."
"My little sister is going to create an absurd variable. Even for you, it won't be easy."
"Just how far ahead did Oppa see...?"
There wasn't a single piece of information Shin Yoosung had heard from Dokyun that had been wrong.
No, if there was one thing, it was only that unlike Dokyun's words that the current world was the 3rd regression rather than the 2nd, the truth was that this was the ■th regression.
"Catch her!"
"Grab her!"
"Kill her!"
The shouts of people trying to kill her from all directions.
And the screams of those same people begging to be saved.
Among them came the clearest voice of all, and the one she knew best.
"You're the future 'me,' right?"
The voice of her younger self.
"Bring Dokja unni back to life!"
Kkadeuk!
"Haha.... This one too, that one too!!!"
"!!"
Everyone was crushed by the even thicker killing intent.
"Oppa too! Kim Dokjaaaaaa!!!"
She had secretly envied Kim Dokja for having Dokyun—a companion and family member Shin Yoosung herself had never had.
And now even those who had once been her companions were crying out for Kim Dokja.
"Kkaak...!"
"Young 'me.' I understand how you feel. If I had lost Oppa too, I think I would've felt the same way you do."
"Ah...."
"Goodbye, me of the past. It won't hurt."
Chwaak
"Yoosung, run!"
'Olympus? And...'
Kung
Kuuung!
"Titano! Kill her!!"
'Even a grade-6 insect king species.'
"What did you do to noona?!"
"What?"
"Where's Dokja noona?!"
Just how far ahead had Oppa seen?
Shin Yoosung gave a hollow smile.
By now, she was sick of hearing nothing but the name Dokja from beginning to end.
Maybe Shin Yoosung... hated Dokja almost as much as she hated Joonghyuk.
"Now... now I don't need any of it! As long as I have Oppa, that's enough!! Oppa!!! Transform into a Titan!!!!"
"Just do it!"
Kwadudeudeuk
Pajik
Kkadeuk
Kwaang!
Roots burst from Dokyun's body and drove themselves into the bodies of every monster nearby.
Titano, Queen Mirabad.
Even the monsters summoned by the Shin Yoosung of the 41st regression were no exception.
"What... what is that?"
Someone shouted.
At those words, every Incarnation's gaze turned toward it.
The roots drained the monsters' power and began transforming into the shape of a giant titan.
The thick tree trunks surrounding all sides became a shield for Shin Yoosung alone.
"Sweep them all away!"
Why is it that in so many fantasy worlds, giant beings are treated as objects of fear?
Because a huge body is intimidating?
That was one way to show an opponent's strength at a glance, but it wasn't the only reason.
The biggest reason large beings become symbols of fear was...
Kwaaaaaaang!!!
...because simply by walking, simply by swinging an arm, they could cause catastrophic damage.
Shuuuuuu
Kwaang!
'Bombardment from the ghost fleet? How?'
"Gilyoung!"
"!!"
'I definitely hit them hard enough to kill them instantly, so how are they both still alive?'
"Oppa!!!"
At Shin Yoosung's cry, enormous roots from Dokyun's body filled up the river.
'That means naval warfare is impossible now.'
Jjirit
Twitch twitch
Her mouth wouldn't move easily.
Her arms wouldn't move the way she wanted.
"Y-you. Right! So you're Kim Dokja!!"
"I hate you... as much as I hate Yoo Joonghyuk! You... you have no idea what a good family you have!! What that is worth!!!"
'This is?!'
A message appeared before Dokja.
And then a startled voice.
"Oppa?!"
"How is this... possible?"
Dokyun had returned.
'It feels like I slept for a long time.'
The first thing I saw when I woke was a world that suited the word ruin perfectly.
I didn't know how it happened, but it seemed Dokja had interfered with the linked consciousness between Yoosung and me, waking the consciousness I'd had lying dormant.
"Are you just a mind now?"
"No, that tree is me."
"That giant tree? Then do something!"
"Uh... right now my body is closer to a demonic beast under Yoosung's control, so that's impossible."
Maybe this was like phase two right now... so by phase three, wouldn't my mind come back fully?
"Unni, that's really you over there, right? Unni...!"
"It's the young Shin Yoosung. Looks like you saved her. It's nice to see she seems to be doing well."
Pajijik
"Yoosung...!"
"Yoosung!!"
Damn, since I'm connected to Shin Yoosung right now...
Those memories would climb up into me too.
The memories of young Shin Yoosung and adult Shin Yoosung mixed together.
Those two sets of memories climbed my roots and rose into me.
The loneliness adult Shin Yoosung had endured.
The anguish young Shin Yoosung had been forced to bear.
All of it came surging up.
My body screamed, unable to endure the memories.
Right now, both Dokja and I were inside Shin Yoosung.
So what if the two strips of film that should never have connected had been joined, even for a moment?
"Kgh...!"
Crack crack!
"?!"
"Kuuugh...!"
"Yoosung? Yoosung! Listen to me!"
"Get out of me! All of you!"
Even I, who had been inside Shin Yoosung, was forcibly expelled.
Kugugugugugung
"The giant!"
"The giant is falling!!!"
The people's cheers lasted only a moment before the collapsing wreckage came crashing down on them.
"R-run!!"
Kwaang!
"Unni?"
"My, my, my. Look who's back."
"You turned into a demonic beast, Oppa."
"""Oppa?!!"""
"Ah, come to think of it, he does look a bit like Mr. Dokyun?"
Yoo Sangah and Lee Hyunsung, whom I'd seen on the subway before, seemed to recognize me.
"Good thing you came back to your senses now, at least. Right?"
"You... I thought you'd burned to death."
"You've died several times yourself, so how can you act surprised that I came back?"
"Then as now, your mouth still runs like a river."
Dokja and I, as if we'd promised each other, approached the collapsed Shin Yoosung.
To the child who had endured nothing but pain for so long.
To the child who had never been allowed to spend her childhood as a child.
"Dokja, let me introduce her properly. You already know, but this is Shin Yoosung. She's the child who'll become our youngest."
"Oppa, step back for a moment. It's time for a conversation between girls."
"...Okay."
When I stepped away for a moment, Shin Yoosung kept glaring at Dokja.
"Shin Yoosung."
"...You, you have no idea how precious your oppa is as family. A family member who apologizes for what she did wrong, who understands my pain, who tries to carry that pain with me! A family like that isn't common."
Adult Shin Yoosung had forgotten most of her childhood memories.
And most of the memories she did have were of living with Yoo Joonghyuk, memories filled with nothing but a cold-blooded lunatic bitch who used her up and treated the deaths of her companions as natural.
Then one day, some lunatic appeared saying he would cherish her... that he would become her family, and that lunatic was someone who tried to understand her pain.
Dokyun, who cherished her not as a companion but for no reason at all, simply because he wanted to become family... before she knew it, he had truly become family to her.
And yet.
"You were with a family like that just because you were born into it... what could you possibly know!!"
"That's right. I still don't know my oppa very well. Maybe I know him even less than you do."
"Then—!"
"But there is one thing I know. Whether it's Shin Yoosung or me, Kim Dokja... Oppa is family who is always ready to jump into the fires of hell for our sake."
Silence settled over them.
"Now I should say something too, right?"
"I told you to step back, and you were standing there listening to everything like a creep?"
Families aren't supposed to have secrets from each other.
Saying that, I gave her a smile.
Srrrkk
"Since it's made of wood, it'll be weak to fire, but it's still better than nothing."
"A wooden prosthetic arm? You could do something like this too?"
The startled look Shin Yoosung gave me was the first since the day we first met.
Even so, I could tell she'd let down her guard a little more than before.
Why were all my family members so good at creating troublesome situations?
"Everyone. I will not kill the 'disaster.'"