The Heroine Stole My Regression

29 – Splinter (5)

The grounds of Gaon Academy are an artificial island floating near the West Sea.

Monday morning, most students were making their way to school.

-WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

That instant. A sharp sound sliced through the air, scattering in all directions.

Alarms began to blare.

Since Gaon was essentially an artificial island, alarms rarely sounded.

It was impossible for magical phenomena to occur.

Therefore, an alarm in Gaon meant a national alert had been issued.

[Mount Baekdu’s Heaven Lake, Large-Scale Magical Anomaly Detected]

-Resembles magical wave patterns previously detected in the United States and China….

-Significant number of magical creatures concealing themselves around Mount Baekdu… Over 72% of missing entities located.

Gaon students checked the news in real-time through their smart devices and holographic news screens.

Conversations filled with curiosity and excitement echoed throughout the classrooms.

Cheon Yeoul stared silently at the news screen.

A video showed a jade-green pillar of magical energy soaring toward the sky.

She clasped her hands together, praying fervently.

“Please….”

May he rise once more.

*

I opened my eyes.

The ceiling above remained high. An immense cavern, its end impossible to determine.

A place I had visited once before.

Returning now, even forgotten memories resurfaced with vivid clarity.

Faint rays of light filtered in at the cavern’s edge.

Slightly stronger than before, but still unable to completely dispel the darkness.

Instinctively, I took a step toward the light.

And then, stairs.

Leading toward the exit, on the stairs, someone was still sitting.

He stood silently, watching me.

Without a word, without movement, but the ominous energy emanating from him remained chilling and sharp.

The last time we met, I couldn’t even move my body properly.

This time is different.

That instant.

“Never thought I’d see you again so soon.”

He spoke,

His voice calm.

“A welcome surprise…”

“Who are you?”

I cut him off.

His face, atop the stairs, remained hidden.

Though closer to the light, he should be clearer, it was as if a black curtain obscured him.

“Regrettably… I can’t tell you that.”

The silhouette in the darkness began to descend the stairs slowly.

“A most unfortunate thing.”

I could feel his presence, a weight.

A Named, perhaps?

Images of known powerhouses flickered through my mind, one after another.

‘I’m not yielding ground.’

That was my conclusion.

‘Maybe… even stronger.’

He slowly drew his spear, and as he did, it wailed, screaming a tearing sound.

“Kugh.”

I grimaced, instinctively covering my ears.

A sharp shriek piercing my entire being.

“Can you hear it?”

He gestured to the spear, smiling.

I couldn’t see his face, but somehow I knew he was smiling.

“A good sign.”

He slowly raised the spear’s tip, muttering.

“Still… this place is a bit premature, a few more remain.”

His features were still indiscernible.

“Just do as you’re told. Honestly, I’d recommend abandoning thought. Just surrendering your body to them might be… ah, but that’s a little risky.”

My vision began to widen.

As if to shield from assault.

‘Fragment.’

An expanding vision, one of the powers held by the Fragment.

And at once.

I gripped the spear at my hip, with terrible strength.

This time, it was felt. He was rushing toward me.

A silhouette approaching from the front.

Nay.

Not only from the front.

In an instant, my vision warped.

Before my eyes, from behind, from the sides—afterimages scattered from every direction.

Dozens of attack routes filled the space.

No escape was visible.

I was, utterly, sealed off.

‘Catenaccio.’

He unfurled the game’s most difficult technique with effortless ease.

Perfect spatial domination, a siege of spear strikes without even a sliver of opening.

“Watch closely.”

His voice reached me.

“At your age, just seeing this will be of aid.”

-Pakpakpakpak!

The sensation of the spear digging into my entire being.

A feeling like my whole body was being carved away.

-… Hang in there.

My vision.

Darkened, once again.

*

I awoke.

-Cheep cheep.

I was buried in the undergrowth somewhere on Mount Baekdu, gazing at the sky.

My mind was a blank slate.

Before my eyes, only the clear sky and leaves fluttering in the wind.

And,

–

[Authority: Shard of Harmony (片鱗)]

① Crush the False, Reveal the True (破邪顯正)

ㅡ Destroy the wicked.

② ???

③ ???

–

An unfamiliar system window.

There, a solitary entity neatly occupied the space of my authority.

Shard of Harmony.

I didn’t know why.

I distinctly absorbed the shard.

[Job Skill 『Intuition』 resonates with Authority 『Shard of Harmony』, evolving into 『Omniperception (一體知覺)』.]

[Aptitude 『Complete Man (全人)』 resonates with Authority 『Shard of Harmony』, evolving into 『True Man (眞人)』.]

.

.

.

And many others.

Notifications of growth flooded before my eyes haphazardly.

But more than joy, a dazed bewilderment took hold.

“Where is this?”

I scanned my surroundings.

A mountain lodge? No, it wasn’t.

If anything, the slight shortness of breath suggested a considerable altitude.

It was clear, a height nearing the heavens.

How to descend, I wondered, but it was alright.

As the shards of the past were absorbed into me, the shards of the present vanished.

The demons of this era would weaken immediately, or perhaps hide, now that the energy emanating from the Shard was gone.

Thus, they were no longer a threat.

And Kang Arin…

Was nowhere to be seen.

Did that mean she hadn’t fallen with him?

Their locations had likely diverged.

The last thing he’d heard from her echoed in his mind.

-Actually, I… I belong to you, too.

His head felt like it was burning.

It was true they’d shared an emotional connection during those seven days.

And it was also true she was the type to cherish those she considered her own.

But, was it to that extent?

It had certainly been profound, but…

He slowly closed his eyes.

And cleared his mind.

The Regression of Death was gone.

Since then, the original storyline he knew had begun to deviate more and more.

Major characters that differed from their established roles. And even their subtly altered reactions.

And above all, the Shard.

The Shard could only be absorbed by those chosen by the System.

Meaning, the option of him absorbing it hadn’t even existed in the first place.

And yet, now he had absorbed the Shard.

He lightly extended his hand.

He channeled mana lightly to his fingertips.

The color of the mana he confirmed as he slowly opened his eyes was, as always, ashen.

But the faint jade-green hue mixed within made him truly realize that he had absorbed the Shard.

He breathed out lightly and rose from his spot.

All the plans he had made up until now were meaningless.

He would admit that he was wrong.

“Let’s, make new ones.”

It was the moment a decision was made.

*

Team Two of the Lotus Guild had been adrift on Baekdu Mountain for two days.

Originally, they were a reconnaissance team deployed to investigate the Baekdu Mountain area.

But thanks to their leader, Woo Jang-hoon’s greed, things had taken a turn.

‘Continue the exploration. Descent is secondary.’

With the excuse of analyzing the discharged energy further, he kept delaying the timing to descend.

As a result, the descent route was completely blocked.

Rations dwindled, stamina was depleted.

Even sending out distress signals was obstructed by the energy emanating from Cheonji Lake.

Eventually, they were slowly becoming part of the mountain itself.

The light in the eyes of some of the team members had begun to dim.

The gazes directed at Woo Jang-hoon, as if wanting to devour him, grew in number.

Then.

-Shooosh!

Baekdu Mountain’s Cheonji Lake.

From it, a massive pillar of jade-green light erupted.

A colossal wave of magical energy, shaking the entire mountain, washed over the area.

At that very moment.

-Beep-beep-beep!

The radio crackled to life.

Woo Jang-hoon reflexively snatched it up.

“Team Two here!”

It was headquarters calling.

And the person on the other end of the radio shouted without preamble.

“Hey, you are absolutely not to crawl back down! Get up there right now! Straight to Cheonji!”

“…Excuse me?”

“The monsters are all gone! Hurry, now!”

They met each other’s gaze.

Then, all at once, they grabbed their gear and began to run.

They didn’t know it, but in truth, while fleeing the monsters, they had unwittingly arrived near the very edge of Cheonji.

Thus, far faster than expected, they reached Cheonji.

And there—

The clear waters of Cheonji’s shore.

In the very center of it all, a person stood.

“Huh?”

An unconscious exclamation escaped Woo Jang-hoon’s lips.

It was that young lad he’d seen at the terminal just a few days prior, before ascending Mount Baekdu.

Back then, he’d seemed like a greenhorn, unable to hide his boyishness.

But now.

He was an entirely different person.

His aura, the atmosphere he projected, were completely changed.

It was like gazing upon a sage who had attained enlightenment after a long ascetic practice.

‘What in the world happened in just two days…’

Woo Jang-hoon was considerably flustered.

“Wow…”

The female team member behind him inadvertently breathed out a sound of wonder.

In contrast, Jung Hae-in, standing at Cheonji, grasped the situation at once.

‘They’re stranded.’

Their disheveled appearance made the situation obvious.

Their gear was torn, and exhaustion was deeply etched on their faces.

Hunger and fatigue were plain for all to see.

Jung Hae-in had ascended to Cheonji to solar-charge his watch before descending the mountain.

Two days or so after the first day he scaled Baekdu.

So, they had been trapped here for those two days.

Jung Hae-in silently regarded them. Woo Jang-hoon avoided his gaze.

And soon, Jung Hae-in opened his mouth, a calm smile gracing his lips.

“Are you alright?”

A sense of composure filled the question.