Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1409. Crimson Ball (19)

"Dammit!"

"..."

"..."

It wasn’t that I[1] didn’t trust him.

If someone were to ask me whether I was on his side, I'd proudly say "yes." I'd even give my life for him without any hesitation.

It was only natural.

The Second Seat of the Five Great Tiger Generals of the Republic belonged to him, but that alone wasn’t why I followed him.

His rank, his position, and his authority weren't enough to explain who Jin Cheong truly was. Ever since he was summoned to this continent, not a single day had passed without him writing a brand-new legend.

A great man stood before me. For the citizens of the Republic, he was hope, an icon, and an idol. He was a war hero who had won countless battles and wars. He was praised for transforming the Republic that had been collapsing from within.

He was always noble, always fair, and a man who understood the meaning of true honor.

That was the Jin Cheong everyone knew...

They remembered him standing firm during the legendary Valias Campaign, despite being covered in wounds at the time. Even with injuries that would make anyone collapse immediately, he faced the enemies without faltering.

Everyone also remembered him during the Hachis Defense. At the time, everyone else had given up and fallen into despair, but he was sitting atop the ramparts, looking down at the enemy forces with a mocking smile.

Surrounded by tens of thousands of enemies, he had muttered, "How interesting" to himself as he straightened his clothes. That scene had never left everyone's minds, and I believed they would never forget that scene.

Jin Cheong would never bend and shatter. No matter what happened, he was always composed and arrogant. His arrogance suited him. In any situation, he seemed like someone capable of placing the whole world beneath his feet and laughing at it.

"..."

"Damn it..."

He was supposed to be that kind of man.

‘Who in the world...’

Was the man before me? How come he had completely lost his composure? I started doubting whether he was truly our commander. He looked extremely agitated. It wasn't obvious, but anyone who knew Jin Cheong would rub their eyes in disbelief at the sight.

He looked extremely anxious, and whether it was due to a headache or something else, he kept pressing his temples with his fingers. His usual confident and arrogant gaze was gone, replaced by a worry for a single woman.

‘Maybe I should’ve listened more carefully.’

Perhaps I ought to have listened to Zhang Liang. She told us that our commander was acting differently around Aina Peneloti, and she warned us that Aina Peneloti could become the biggest variable ever.

I felt like I ought to have taken her words seriously. I wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy. I looked around and saw that everyone had the same anxious face, but no one dared to say anything.

They all knew how tangled things had become.

Their commander had failed to pull the trigger.

The ones who had pulled the trigger belonged to a third group. The third group's existence remained hidden to us until the trigger was pulled.

The commander seemed to have noticed them, but it was clear that something unexpected had disrupted our plans. We completed our mission. We assassinated every target and secured the classified documents, but the outcome wasn’t what we wanted.

The dead had risen to become members of the undead. Our planned escape route was blocked, and even moving now wouldn’t solve much.

The only reason we were still in this castle was Aina Peneloti, the cursed third daughter of the Union of Kingdoms.

As expected, Zhang Liang finally spoke up, asking, "Do you think he’s alright?"

"..."

"The front is completely filled with undead. Holy power and holy water don’t work on them. Even if you cut off their heads, they'll keep moving, and they’re difficult opponents to handle. They even seem to have a bit of intelligence. Those aren’t ordinary creatures. Among them, some are Epic and close to Legendary," she explained.

"Are we going to create a path?" I asked.

"He’s using the scouting unit to search for Aina Peneloti, that girl. How could we possibly clear a path with that? We don’t have enough troops. I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but escaping the castle won’t be easy. That goes for us as well," she answered.

"And for the surviving members of the Union of Kingdoms, too," I commented.

"They’re coming down from the fifth floor, and they’re coming up from the third floor. I don’t even need to mention the first floor and the second floor. It feels calm for the moment, but in less than a few minutes, the undead will reach this place," she continued.

"..."

"..."

"This is no time to be leisurely looking for her. We need to move now and carve out some sort of escape route," I suggested.

"That is for the commander to decide," I said.

"Didn’t you hear what I said? At least this once, we have to persuade him. And if that doesn’t work, we need to drag him out by force. He’s not in a state to think rationally right now. I don’t know why her presence affects him so strongly, but it clearly does," she said.

"No, that’s not what I meant. If what you say is true and we have already reached the worst possible outcome, then even if we take the initiative, there’s no other path available to us," I said.

If her words were true, the battlefield was already at its worst. We were bound hand and foot by the undead. For now, both sides, including the Union of Kingdoms with their lights still burning, were taking a brief breather, but in a matter of minutes, the hellish chaos would return.

Even if we moved first and struggled to find an opening, nothing would hold back what was coming. As always, the answer lay with our commander. Only he could break through this situation.

"Don’t assume the commander doesn’t know what you already know, Zhang Liang," I warned her.

“...”

"There’s no doubt he has something in mind..." I added.

"How can you still say that after seeing him in his current state?!" she yelled.

I turned and saw her trying to head outside. It was unusual for her to move like that unless the situation really called for it. She was the brains, and unless she felt the situation had reached absolute disaster levels, she would never do something like that.

"Commander!"

"Commander!"

"..."

"..."

I shook off the hands of the soldiers trying to talk to me and walked forward.

I was sure my face looked strained right now, but I remained silent.

"You’re the only one who can stop him right now," a soldier said.

‘Damn it.’

“...”

“...”

"Please, persuade the commander," they begged.

I finally moved, unable to hold back any longer.

Just then, the distant light faintly illuminating the darkness began to blur. One moment it went out, and then it flickered back to life. I stared blankly at the sudden change, but the light blinked again and again.

Beside me, Zhang Liang watched the flickering glow with a dazed expression and murmured, "You..."

‘Morse code?’

"Are you... the one who brought the dead here? From Aina."

The receiver was obvious.

I saw the corners of the commander’s mouth rise.

‘It could be a trap...’

That was what I thought, but the commander lifted his own light in response.

"It... wasn’t... me."

"I... propose... a temporary... alliance. From Aina."

"I... accept."

In the darkness, the two exchanged messages. Undead were flooding in from the third and fifth floors. To escape this place, both sides would have to join forces. The conversation continued along those lines.

No one asked how they were supposed to trust each other, and no one demanded any proof that they would stop raising the undead.

There was no time for that. The cries of the creatures were getting closer. By the time it felt like the undead were right at our doorstep, I heard the commander’s voice.

"Let’s move."

"Commander, it could be a trap..." I said.

"I said let’s move," he repeated.

If he said we were going to move, we would move.

There wouldn’t be a third option.

The light blinked again, and Zhang Liang murmured, "E2, E4."

"What is that?" I asked.

"It’s chess. Aina Peneloti and the commander are playing chess right now," she answered.

The commander raised his light once more.

"Time to advance."

‘Chess?’

The situation was so absurd that I could barely form a proper thought. Why on earth were they suddenly reciting opening moves now of all times? My slow brain couldn’t make sense of it at all.

When the undead finally rushed toward us, I began to understand—at least vaguely—what the two of them were trying to do. No... what they were already doing.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me...’

They turned the entire fourth floor into a chessboard. Each sector was being treated as a black or white square, and the two of them were constantly relaying their positions back and forth to each other. They were playing chess using those creatures as their pieces.

How was that even possible? How did they understand the layout of this huge, uneven floor well enough to remake it as a chessboard? It was beyond me.

Whatever was going on in their heads was far beyond what my stupid brain could grasp.

What was certain was this—the moment they exchanged E2 and E4, they instantly understood each other’s intentions. In the blink of an eye, they mapped this entire place onto a chessboard in their minds.

‘Monsters...’

Two of the creatures fell onto the board. They became rooks, knights, bishops, and even queens. The two pieces supported each other and used each other while advancing and retreating in a relentless rhythm.

"Enemies ahead!"

"Break through!" the commander shouted.

"Kyaaaaaah!"

"Die, you undead bastards!"

"We move. G6," he instructed.

I had no idea what was happening. Magic rained down on us, presumably from the Union of Kingdoms’ side, and the obstacles in front of us crushed the undead.

A few minutes later, a signal indicated that the forces had reached the point we had just broken through. Even though they couldn’t see each other, the two were repositioning themselves, driving the undead back with perfect coordination.

Just moments ago, it seemed impossible to move, but now, the battle felt almost effortless. It was so easy that moving around was harder than fighting the undead.

‘They’re monsters...’

The commander had always been a monster, but Aina Peneloti...

‘She’s truly...’

I finally understood why the commander was obsessed with her. If she were to go to the Republic, she'd dominate this continent in just a few short years. She could instantly accomplish tasks once thought to be impossible.

‘The commander was right.’

I found myself looking at him without realizing it, and he was smiling—a real, genuine smile, like a child having fun. Since the Hachis Defense, it was the first time he truly laughed. Perhaps that was the same smile Zhang Liang had seen before—a smile that had bloomed from beneath his normally impassive, emotionless face.

‘Chess?’

No, they were dancing. The lights flickered continuously as they exchanged positions through light signals; it was like stage lighting moving across the stage to highlight their performance.

They treated the blinking lights as a stage, as if this battlefield had become a ballroom.

They held hands, drew close, separated, and shifted positions in a fluid, deadly dance.

Sometimes, he would lead; sometimes, she would lead, but their breaths had synchronized, and their hands were clasped.

The only difference was that they left blood in their wake rather than a melody.

"..."

"..."

I stood at the center of this crimson ball.

"Screeeeeeech!"

I swung a massive sword, spraying the floor with the blood of the undead creatures.

1. A soldier's pov ☜