Chapter 70 - The Chronicler II

3

I, Undertaker, never pick and choose who I befriend, but I am exceedingly strict when selecting talent. I keep business and personal matters firmly separate.

In Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, my play style is to never even glance at warriors with a measly 70 Strength or strategists with a measly 70 Intelligence.

The command center I assembled through painstaking selection over dozens of regressions was the so-called “Regression Alliance”... an ultra-top-secret society that devised grand strategies with a clear understanding that I was a regressor.

Its members? Simple. At run ninety-five, the list was even simpler.

Me, the Saintess, and Noh Doha. The end.

Of these, the Saintess gaslit every awakened on the Korean Peninsula as the mastermind behind the constellations, while Noh Doha extorted them all, saying, “Oh, you want to use the roads in the apocalypse! Then you’ll need to show us a little appreciation.” They could rightly be called the rulers of the peninsula’s spiritual and material worlds, respectively.

Thus, apart from me, those two were essentially the Regression Alliance’s only permanent Security Council members at the time. Well, Seo Gyu or Yu Jiwon occasionally joined as nonpermanent members, but those were strictly exceptions.

Naturally, it was absolutely impossible for someone like Sim Aryeon, with [Strength 4] [Politics 3] [Charisma 16] [Intelligence 77] and a skill that barely scraped into A+ rank, to join our Regression Alliance.

“G-Guild Leader... you’re a regressor?”

But, ta-da. There’s no such thing as “absolute.”

Clutching the café mocha I’d made her in both hands, Sim Aryeon had her mouth wide open in an O.

“Yes.”

“Y-you mean you weren’t just some awakened diamond-spoon brat born with suuuper good luck, who sneakily hogged every miraculous opportunity while everyone else was floundering, then made anyone who envied you feel miserable by being unnecessarily generous on top of it all?”

“... Yes.”

What kind of person had this little shit thought I was all this time?

Fortunately—or unfortunately—her astonishment didn’t last long. By the time she’d finished about half her café mocha, her expression had relaxed completely, as though she’d settled into a hot spring.

When I asked why, her answer was something else.

“Wellll... Hmm. Honestly, I guess a lot of things make sense now. You know, you were the one who figured out the activation conditions for my [Grudge Bomb] before I did...?”

“Mm.”

“M-most of all, thinking that you got where you are by grinding yourself into the dirt through regressions, rather than pure talent or luck... makes me feel a little better. Oh. Of course, the fact that you live that hardworking a life is a bit much in itself...”

“...”

“Oh, right. U-um, Guild Leader. Can I post this anonymously on SG Net?”

“What do you think?”

“It’d definitely make the recommended posts...”

This forum-addicted ghoul.

“No. That Go Yori girl is dangerous.”

“Go Yori? Oh, Contentment... I-I’m actually not too keen on her either. Ugh. Doesn’t it feel like our characters overlap a lot? Like she’s copying me and stuff... Though I suppose that part isn’t entirely uncute...”

“...?”

“...?”

The proportion of question marks always seemed to increase exponentially whenever I talked to her. Could this be another of Sim Aryeon’s hidden awakened abilities?

Continually bending the question marks in my mind, I went on explaining: that SG Net had actually been created by Seo Gyu, and that the constellations, too, were nothing more than one person’s puppet show.

“Eek. Eeeeek...!”

Having witnessed the truth of the world, Sim Aryeon lost SAN points all over again. The hands holding her café mocha trembled.

“W-why are you sharing these secrets with me? This is too much pressure! I didn’t want to know this much...!”

“Calm down, Aryeon. How would you feel if your anomaly paintings were recognized as ‘official illustrations’?”

Her ears perked up.

“O-official...?”

“Yes. I already post the anomaly strategies I’ve discovered through my regressions on SG Net from time to time, but starting next run, I’m thinking of polishing those guides into something a little more presentable. And I intend to put your painting skills to good use there.”

“H-how...?”

Like this.

A few days later, I invited the Saintess and Noh Doha as well, and handed out a small booklet.

The Saintess tilted her head.

“Mr. Undertaker, what is this?”

“Take your time and read it.”

Produced with an exceedingly precious printer, the booklet contained illustrations alongside the text.

――――――――――

[Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia]

‘Tenlegs’

Aliases: Crawling Baby Cthulhu, Shadow Monarch, Spiny Hell, Lurker

Threat Class: city-class (Polis)

Contamination Class: None

Habitat: Throughout the Korean Peninsula

Characteristics: Distinguished by protruding tentacles resembling human fingers. Despite the name ‘Tenlegs,’ it actually possesses hundreds or thousands of tentacles, rather than ten. Not every tentacle is attached to its main body; smaller tentacles grow from larger ones.

The tentacles continually grow and break off in real time. They extend in an instant to tear apart an opponent’s body (known as ‘Tentacle Thrashing’), or are launched outright to impale an opponent (known as ‘Tentacle Spikes’).

In addition to the visible tentacles, at least several dozen are always burrowing underground. Thus, one must never let one’s guard down when fighting Tenlegs, and must remain alert for tentacles emerging from behind or below at any moment. These ‘spikes erupting from underground’ have made it widely known among Koreans by the alias ‘Lurker.’

The main body is extremely small compared with the tentacles. It consists of two hearts, and these hearts must be struck simultaneously...

――――――――――

The Saintess blinked.

“Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia?”

“That’s right. A sort of strategy guide. Starting next run, I intend to produce guides like this and distribute them in the name of a new constellation.”

“...!”

In short, a “constellation that governs information.”

The constellations the Saintess had controlled so far took their names from actual human history. The ‘Saintess of National Salvation’ was Joan of Arc, and the ‘Conqueror of the Alps’ was Hannibal.

That approach had an intuitive advantage, since it borrowed its originality from history... but I felt it was about time to flesh out the constellations’ identities a little more.

“Are you perhaps... planning to establish a new constellation responsible for information on anomalies and strategies against them, Mr. Undertaker?”

“Yes. Having me monopolize the information as a regressor isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it draws far too much aggro toward me. Unidentified beings like Go Yori end up taking more interest in me than necessary.”

Beyond Go Yori, there were plenty of beings in the world whose true nature even I had yet to discover.

“We’ll create an encyclopedia board on SG Net and make it look as though a new constellation manages it. Of course...”

I pointed to Sim Aryeon, who was sitting quietly beside me.

“The person actually managing that board will be our guild member Sim Aryeon here.”

“... I see.”

“People will find information distributed under a constellation’s name far more trustworthy than information I release personally. Especially if we include vivid visual materials like these.”

“Heh. So she was the one posting those anomaly paintings anonymously...”

Aryeon’s shoulders twitched as the Saintess and Noh Doha focused their attention on her.

“In short, in addition to Mr. Seo Gyu, who has been serving as SG Net’s moderator, you intend to appoint Ms. Sim Aryeon over there as deputy moderator...?”

“Yes, more or less.”

“Isn’t that quite a weighty responsibility? Seo Gyu doesn’t participate at all, but Ms. Sim Aryeon there... was quite a notorious troll in the community, as I recall. I feel a little bad saying this to her face, but will she really be able to handle the position...?”

“It’s fine. We can test that starting next run.”

“Ah, true...”

Noh Doha’s low laughter spread through the meeting room like a shadow.

“I suppose I, too, belong among those vetted ‘that way.’ Heh. Even I sometimes have trouble keeping up with your sense of time, Awakened Undertaker...”

4

And so came run ninety-six.

I took Sim Aryeon on a tour of every corner of the country. The purpose? More illustrations for the anomaly encyclopedia, of course.

I showed her the Continent-class anomaly ‘Udumbara’ in Onyang, South Chungcheong Province, and introduced her to the village-class anomaly ‘Trolley Dilemma’ on the Donghae Line metropolitan railway. I compiled a whole list of anomalies ordinary people rarely had a chance to encounter and showed her the lot.

“A-amazing...!”

Whenever she encountered one of these bizarre anomalies, Aryeon busily worked her brush.

Six months into collecting these paintings...

-A playground for constellations!

-The only safe online community!

-Welcome to SG Net!

SG Net finally opened.

It launched slightly later than usual in other runs. But the longer preparation had brought enough changes to practically call it a complete redesign.

“Huh? Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia...?”

“What’s this now?”

It was the full-scale debut of the ‘anomaly encyclopedia’ I’d conceived in the previous run.

SG Net had originally offered little more than [General Discussion] [Creative Works] [Small Groups] [Guild Recruitment] [Chat Rooms]. Now, [Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia] sat prominently at the top.

Every other board was displayed in gray, but this encyclopedia alone was red. Anyone could tell it was something unusual.

Its contents were even more unusual.

“It’s full of information about monsters?”

“What?”

“Tenlegs, gremlins... Udumbara? Trolley? My god. There were monsters like these too?”

Alongside the visual materials we’d diligently gathered over the past six months came a flood of data I’d accumulated over dozens of runs.

[The ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ manages the encyclopedia.]

A new constellation had made its debut.

[The ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ surveys information on all things in the world and particularly favors collecting data on anomalies.]

[The ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ wishes you to share information with others. Sharing. That is how you praise and glorify the ‘Librarian of the Great Library.’]

[The deeper your faith in the ‘Librarian of the Great Library,’ the more previously unknown information will be unlocked for you.]

The Saintess sent the messages to awakened nationwide according to our advance plan.

In the monitoring room, Sim Aryeon gnawed her nails and anxiously swiped away at her smartphone.

“Stop staring at it. You’ll wear out the screen.”

“B-but... We have to fool so many people without them noticing. C-can I really do this well...?”

“Yeah. You’ll be damn good at it.”

“What?”

“Aryeon, you have a natural talent for this.”

“What?”

I’d seen it over dozens of runs, so I knew: when it came to anonymous masquerades, she was a once-in-a-generation genius.

Sure enough, within a few days, a commotion broke out among SG Net’s members.

-Anonymous: I went to Onyang like the anomaly encyclopedia said, and there was a flowering tree growing on a corpse that looked exactly like the picture. What do I do about this?

└BookishGirl: What do you mean, what do you do, you lunatic? That’s a zombie virus! Burn it!

└Anonymous: But it says it gives you eternal life?

└Historian: Stay right there. I’m coming to burn down the whole inn with you in it. Yep.

└Anonymous: Eek.

-CookingQueen: Interesting.

-Anonymous: Guys, I thought these green pests were just goblins all this time, but they were actually gremlins. I smashed the machines like the encyclopedia said, and they just disappeared on their own.

The testimonials kept coming.

Verification posts poured in: people visited locations described in the anomaly encyclopedia and found anomalies that looked exactly like the illustrations, then followed the strategies and genuinely eliminated them.

Before long, the ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ gained widespread acceptance among the awakened.

There were also a few minor incidents that forced people to accept it even if they didn’t want to.

-Anonymous: But if this constellation really manages all information, shouldn’t it know my identity and personal details too? Hey, Librarian or whatever, if you’re a real constellation, try guessing who I am.

└[Librarian of the Great Library]: Park Sang-sun. Age 37. Guild leader of the Blue Sea Guild. Currently connecting from Yeongdo, Busan, Korean Peninsula.

└Anonymous: ?

└BookishGirl: ?

└Anonymous: Wait, wow. That was the Blue Sea guild leader?

└[Three Thousand]WitchTrialJudge: LMAO

└[Three Thousand]Historian: That’s one of the guilds supposedly representing Busan? How embarrassing.

Doxxing!

It had been revealed that anonymous handles were utterly useless before the ‘Librarian of the Great Library.’

Naturally, Seo Gyu could view the personal information of every anonymous guest accessing SG Net. Using that information as a basis, the Saintess’s [Clairvoyance] could identify an awakened precisely.

But to the awakened, who had no way of knowing this secret, the ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ must have been terror incarnate.

After that guest’s identity was exposed, voices questioning or criticizing the ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ vanished completely—at least on SG Net.

“G-Guild Leader...! This is fun!”

Sim Aryeon, too, humbly acknowledged that “FORUM ADDICT” was plastered across her soul in giant letters. Yes. I knew it would be.

Unlike Seo Gyu, who managed SG Net with something of a dutiful air, Aryeon threw herself into her ‘constellation duties’ with boundless energy.

Naturally, the number of awakened following the ‘Librarian of the Great Library’ grew as well.

-Anonymous: Figured out how to get rid of gremlins without smashing the machines.

-Anonymous: Trolley<<<Already run into this guy three times. Do exactly what I tell you and there’s absolutely no risk of dying.

Thanks to this, spreading anomaly strategies became much easier, and the awakened’s tendency to hoard valuable information and keep it tightly under wraps diminished considerably.

‘At this rate, I can keep entrusting her with the job in future runs.’

A truly satisfying result.

With a contented smile, I watched Aryeon diligently doing her work on her smartphone.

Of course, this ‘anomaly encyclopedia’ also led to an incident I’d never anticipated, but let’s leave that story for another time.

“... Oh. Guild Leader. W-we have a problem.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“I-I meant to leave a comment under the [Librarian of the Great Library] handle, but I accidentally posted it as [Goryeojang]...”

“...”

“I deleted it right away, but it looks like several members already saw it. Eek. P-posts about seeing it are going up like crazy in real time! They even took screenshots! Th-these forum-addicted ghouls. Why did they take screenshots in that tiny window...? If you’ve got time to hang around online, go live your real lives... W-what do I do...?”

“...”

Right.

Starting next run, I’d have to warn her to be a little more careful when posting comments.

Oh, there is no epilogue.

- The Chronicler. End.