Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 590: Key Player (1)

“I guess he doesn’t have as much valuable information as I thought.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily bad, though… Actually, I didn’t expect much. The amount of knowledge he possesses is within my expectations.”

“Should I pressure him a bit more?”

“Is there anyone else that can do it?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to let the Holy sector handle this? It would be easy to hand Natalie over to the heretic interrogators. The Director of The Inquisition recently called me, saying that they wanted to interrogate the prisoners themselves. I didn’t answer because I thought you wouldn’t like that… However, since this matter is important, they should be eagerly waiting.”

“Well… what should we do? Since it’s annoying, should we just pass them over?

“I already told you everything I know. So…”

“Gosh. Up until now, you’ve been busy holding onto your pride. You just ruined it in just a few hours. That’s why people who have something to keep shouldn’t do anything like this. You’re a little soft, after all. If it were me, I wouldn’t have finished the situation in this way. I guarantee that both of you would’ve had your mouths wide open with only your heads left. I could’ve made you feel like you’re not even alive. You must be thankful that I have mercy, right?”

“…”

“…”

“Just pass them over.”

“Actually, I’m not interested in what’s going to happen anymore… but I guess they should stay alive. Public executions wouldn’t be bad, either… It’s also been a while since we showed something like that. No, I think it would be better to let them breathe.”

“If you need time to think, I’ll keep them here until you decide. It seems that they’re going to continue to contact us, though. Can you tell them to stop?”

“Yes. I don’t think I have any more business here. Let’s go.”

“But, oppa–”

“Yes?”

“Why did you say it that way at the end?”

“What did I say?”

“If you had created an atmosphere and said something like, ‘for the continent.’ You could have made a legitimate black hole between ethical and unethical. It’s such a waste that you threw away your reputation just because you wanted to make fun of his mistakes.”

“I won’t see him anymore anyway, so my reputation won’t matter. He was annoying me. It’s funny how criminal bastards think they’re right to the end. Those who haven’t done anything on the continent until now come and say, ‘You should do this. You should do that.’ And him trying to lecture me is just plain ridiculous. Hmm… Hey, Mikhail. What would you have done if you were in my position?”

“…”

“Maybe you wouldn’t have even come this far. You wouldn’t be able to choose anything in the middle and would have died early on… Anyway, talking any more than this hurts my mouth… Keep it up, Mikhail. I’ll send you special meals sometimes, so don’t lose courage. Live with it instead. Study hard, Mikhail. That’s the way to go! Pff… puhaha.”

“I know it’s exciting, but stop teasing him. Try to be serious.”

Wouldn’t it be better to let the rain pour on my chest that’s suffering from drought rather than caring for my reputation?

When I nodded, Lee Jihye sighed weakly.

She said that, but she looked delighted as well. Looking at her humming, it was clear that she thought the amount of information we got wasn’t too bad, either.

‘Well, we got a clue at least.’

However, I still felt like it wasn’t enough. There was too little information about the demon, which was the most important part of this entire situation.

Strictly speaking, Mikhail wasn’t a member of the Order. Hence, he wouldn’t have known…

I already expected that he would have very little information.

‘Those demon contractor bastards.’

However, the number of options turned out to be less than I predicted. I thought Mikhail would know the contracted demon’s name at the very least. It was certainly problematic that even that was kept hidden under a veil.

Perhaps Benignore knew this. If not, there might’ve been some clues left in District 5.

Having confirmed that there was a hideout in the basement, I considered that the top priority was to investigate it no matter what.

‘I think it’s better to go with Kasugano.’

There was also the possibility of getting a glimpse of what happened in the demon contractors’ hideout how everything transpired. Wasn’t it a huge advantage just to hear how they summoned the devil, who they signed the contract with, and what the terms of the contract were?

If the demon really were ranked higher than Belial…

‘I think I can benefit from it…’

There could be something to be gained. While I was walking slowly, I started deciding in my mind the person who would be put in the team to explore the Demon’s Den.

First, Kim Hyunsung would be left out of it.

Regardless of us telling each other our secrets, it was irrational to ask him to come since he had an antipathy towards demons. If it were a simple sweep of the remnants, I would gladly offer him to join the team, but…

‘The purpose of the expedition itself is different.’

I even pushed him away with my acting for it.

‘I guess I’ll have to take Han Sora.’

I was a bit nervous about taking her, but it was more beneficial to let Jung Hayan come as well.

Since both of them were well versed in black magic, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that they had considerable knowledge about it. In particular, I thought being in the Order’s hideout would be more helpful to Han Sora than anyone else.

The evil Order had endured to achieve their wishes and compiled the results of their research.

The impressive suicide bombings, the secrets that prevented them from being killed even if their limbs had been torn apart, and the source of their power.

It would most likely seem like a terrible place to third parties, but it would feel like a treasure trove to her. The hideout might’ve even contained catalysts or experimental results that the Plaguelord of Darkness could use.

It would be a win-win for both of us. The place was heaven, especially for her since she overwhelmingly lacked information on black magic.

‘Those bastards indeed did it for the continent. They’re even trying to hand over these things to us. As it turned out, they weren’t the villains but the heroes. It’s even giving me goosebumps.’

Kasugano, Jung Hayan and Han Sora, and I. That would be the rearguard.

I wondered if I would even need an avant-garde, but it would be better to take them with me just in the event that there were still remnants in there making a fuss.

Park Deokgu and Cho Hyejin alone felt a little insufficient, but those two were the only ones that I could take among the guild’s vanguard.

As I was walking and thinking, ‘I can take some of the guards,‘ I saw Yuno Kasugano staring at me. Thinking about it then, I realized I forgot to thank her since she didn’t say anything.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“I just did what I had to do. Mast… airman.”

‘What is a mastairman?’

“I’m going to go to District 5 and take a look at the place we just discovered. Do you want to come with us?”

“Yes, rather, I wanted to ask if I could.”

“And… maybe the story after that…”

“I’m sorry. S-So far, nothing has changed. The story of the black world, the story of the future… I apologize.”

“No, you don’t have to be sorry. It can’t be helped. Even small changes are crucial from here on out, so if there is even the slightest detail that’s different from before, I would like you to tell me immediately. As you may have known, big changes seem to have an immediate effect on the future…”

“…”

“Just like what we just saw. Obviously, when I first saw the new future, I remembered that the wall over at District 5 wasn’t supposed to collapse like that… the variable in the scene we just saw… is it okay to think that it happened because of the recent incident?”

“Yes, I think the Chairman is probably right. Still, we should also consider the possibility of other factors since there’s a chance that that’s not the case. We haven’t done any restoration work for District 5 yet, but I know that the Master thinks that repairing that area is an essential task.”

‘That’s right.’

“There is a possibility that the future would change again just by deciding not to take any action. If you think about it, doing recovery work in District 5 is already a fixed future. Nevertheless, if things don’t go as the Master thought, it’s likely that something else might have intervened.”

“Sudden variable…”

‘This is getting complicated.’

I could roughly understand what Kasugano meant.

‘She’s right.’

Even if there was no recovery work in progress in District 5, it didn’t mean that District 5 would always remain in that state.

Lee Jihye and I had already made up our mind to repair the place by putting all the personnel to work as quickly as possible. We also already had a plan at hand. Nevertheless, if the forward base couldn’t play its proper role in the future, it was better to look for problems outside rather than inside.

‘What is going to happen?’

Could an outer god come in before we could finish the repairs? It was unlikely. It couldn’t have possibly arrived that fast.

Or were there followers of the outer god arising from places I wasn’t aware of? Was there a problem with the recovery operation itself?

Or did the recent event itself cause a butterfly effect?

Question after question was coming into my mind.

I pretended to be okay, but I was thinking as hard as I could as I analyzed Kasugano’s foreseen future seriously. We couldn’t stop even those angels, so how could we assume that we were prepared for a fierce battle against an outer god?

If the situation persisted, I thought it wouldn’t cause anything to worsen if I were to lead the Blue Guild and some acquaintances and get closer to the enemy.

“Don’t worry too much. The future is bound to change, even if it’s only minuscule. You probably think it doesn’t suit me to say this, but it isn’t a good option to dwell on the visible future. You’ll surely be able to get what you want.”

“I see… thank you.”

“Sorry if I’m being cocky.”

“No. I sincerely appreciate it. I apologize for not being able to pay attention to you as much as you deserve…”

“If you say that…”

“I think it would be nice to spend some time together in the future.”

“Really? Really?! Are you going to follow through that?”

“Yes.”

She looked very happy upon receiving the news, which made me feel a little proud.

Regardless, I was still nervous about not being able to see anything new regarding our inevitable future. It wasn’t easy to look into the future or the black world continuously either.

Although there was a convenient replay function that allowed us to watch the scene we once saw with others, the cooldown required in between looking into the future was still in effect.

The more she grew, however, the shorter the cooldown became.

Most of all, she was desperate to spend time with me, so she had no choice but to think that sooner or later, her effort would pay off.

‘I feel really sorry for her… she lives only for the debt.’

Even though I knew how she turned out like that, I was forced to turn my gaze away.

Anyway, we headed up again after we finished the business in the dungeon.

She might’ve been curious about what exactly happened inside and how the conversation went on. However, I wanted to compliment Cho Hyejin, who didn’t ask about anything related to it.

She thought that all she had to do that day was escort me, and I liked the part that she didn’t care about what I was doing. Shortly after we came up, she told Lee Jihye about the message, and she immediately started preparing for the expedition.

‘Since its size is quite large, there must be a lot to loot.’

It wouldn’t even take that long.

Two days and one night or three days and two nights? It would take about three nights and four days at the maximum to look into details if we were to take a little longer.

As I was stuffing my belongings into the bag, a voice called for my attention.

“Do you have a moment?”

At this, I turned to see Kim Hyunsung looking at me cautiously.