RG 109

A wave of dizziness hit me. Even with my lips parted, I couldn’t tell if I was breathing properly. I struggled desperately to gather my senses. I forcibly shoved thoughts into my mind, bleached white and empty.

‘Check. I have to check.’

What do I check first? How is this even possible? Are there no side effects?

…Can he really do that for me?

As I flailed in the confusion crashing over me like waves, the fake continued explaining, “This is a time and world where the ending has already been decided. You know that well.”

“…Can’t it be changed?”

The brief question that slipped out like a groan was met with a firm answer. “No. Even if you go, all that awaits you is dying along with the world.”

A world with a predetermined end.

A world where everything perished and was ruined by the Great Calamity. The memory of that crimson wasteland, holding the lifeless body of Ryu Seonghyeon in my arms and staring at the Calamity, was still vivid.

I stared at the black-and-white branch in my hand, then looked up. At the top of the enormous tree—the only golden light.

Now I saw it clearly. That sparkle in the distance, twinkling like a star, was also a branch. Though shorter than the one I held now, it radiated a brilliant golden light, making its presence known.

The glowing branch and the black-and-white one in my hand. As I looked back and forth between the two and quietly mulled over what the fake had said, I reached one conclusion.

“If I fail to stop the world from ending again in this time… does that branch also turn into this?”

“That’s right.”

“…”

What mattered was trust. If I couldn’t trust the being in front of me, no matter how tempting the reward, I couldn’t accept it recklessly. And the other party would surely know that too. That’s why they explained the branch first. It was the only offer that could shake me.

“If the world is already dead, and I’m just going to die with it anyway… isn’t the merit kind of low?” I tightened my grip on the branch and spoke deliberately, as if provoking. But the fake tilted his head, unaffected.

“Don’t test me for no reason. I know you value that time more than your own life.”

“…”

“And honestly, even after knowing the details, I’m not sure you’ll like it.”

“What?”

As I looked at him in disbelief, the fake stepped closer and raised his hand. “See for yourself.”

“…!”

“Call it a trial version, or something like that.”

When his fingertips pressed down on the hat over my head, my upper body tilted backward.

“Wait…!”

A chill ran down my spine as a strange sensation enveloped my entire body. Like before, my consciousness was yanked away, my eyelids grew heavy, and curses rose to the tip of my tongue.

‘This bastard, again!’

Through my darkening vision, I caught a glimpse of the fake’s lips, curled into a deep smile.

And then—

I gasped and jolted awake. A wave of heat poured down from my head.

I steadied my swaying body and looked up. Reflected in the glass window of a familiar restaurant was my own face.

‘What…?’

The fake, the star-filled night sky, the giant tree—everything had vanished without a trace. In their place were the blazing sun beating down, heat haze rising from the asphalt road, and a few pedestrians passing by.

‘What is this?’

I couldn’t comprehend the situation. I realized my hands were empty and looked straight ahead.

There still stood the restaurant. As I stared at the reflection of myself in a black cap and mask in the window, I noticed people gathered at a table inside, eating.

“Seohu, have some dumplings too.”

“I’m full.”

“Then I will! I’ll eat it!”

“Stop eating already, Kim Suho!”

Their lively chatter reached me, even though I stood outside the shop. I blankly stared at the noisy group. Kim Suho held a plate full of dumplings with a tearful expression. Yu Harin teased him playfully. Go Taeseong laughed while drinking water. And… in between them sat a black-haired man.

‘…How?’

That was definitely me. The side profile, telling Kim Suho to be careful or he’d spill all the dumplings—that was unmistakably Cha Seohu.

How could there be another me right in front of me?

In a situation where nothing made sense, my gaze instinctively turned to the last remaining person.

The one sitting across from Cha Seohu, holding a water bottle and pouring water into Cha Seohu’s cup. Wearing a gentle smile as he looked over the guild members… Ryu Seonghyeon.

I could tell just by looking. The people in front of me now were from the Circle Guild before my regression.

‘Big bro…’

Yeah. I missed that face. I missed seeing all of them smiling so peacefully.

Without even realizing it, I found myself smiling back at Ryu Seonghyeon as he laughed.

That’s when Ryu Seonghyeon suddenly snapped his head around and looked straight in my direction. For a brief moment, our eyes met.

“…!”

My heart dropped with a thud, and a chill surged up from my toes. At the same time, dizziness struck again.

“Huff, ugh!”

My vision flipped as if I were falling from a great height. The sunlight heating my skin, the sweltering heat of midsummer, the footsteps of passersby, the voices of the Circle Guild members—all of it faded in an instant.

A sharp, wave-like pain crashed over me, and I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I was back in the strange space created by the fake.

“How was it?”

“…”

I blinked several times before admitting it.

What I experienced wasn’t a dream. That was… reality. The weather, the air, the noise, everything I saw—it was vivid and raw in a way no dream could replicate.

‘It was a place I knew well.’

Just a regular snack bar. Since we were a small guild, no one had much money, and it was close to the guild and decently tasty, so we went there often.

A burning thirst welled up in my throat. Maybe it was because I had just been standing in the middle of the street in midsummer, or maybe it was something else.

‘That bastard called it a “trial version,” didn’t he?’

In short, seeing is believing. It was too complicated and time-consuming to explain everything, so he let me experience it instead—calling it a trial version.

Being hit with the same method I usually used on others… didn’t feel great. I bit my lip hard before finally asking, “Even if I accept the reward and go back to the previous time… you’re saying Cha Seohu and I would become separate people.”

“We’re inserting you into a time and world that already exists. Assimilating the current you into the previous you is impossible.” The fake continued with a heavy expression, “And you still can’t change the future where the world is destroyed. The outcome is already decided.”

“…”

“Even if you go there, you can’t live as Cha Seohu, and you can’t protect the people close to you. All you can do is watch the world slowly come to an end.”

“…”

“Do you still want to go?”

The fake touched even the part I didn’t want to face, and I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “You’re surprisingly honest about it.”

“This isn’t a gift—it’s a price.”

“Let’s get things straight first. So… just like when we made a deal over the competitive match, this time you want to make a deal using this branch?”

“More precisely, it’s a request for cooperation. My goal isn’t so different from yours.”

I’d already figured out what the fake’s goal was. He had shown me a decent portion of the cards he was holding.

‘The Great Calamity.’

He must want to protect the world from that entity. The unlit branches on the tree—including the one currently in my hand—must all be traces of past failures.

“If it’s cooperation rather than a deal, then it sounds like you’re offering to help me too.”

“To some extent. But I can’t tell you everything I know. I have my own circumstances.”

“If you’re going to start talking about your ‘circumstances,’ then I’m not really feeling inclined to cooperate,” I replied playfully, but I understood what the fake meant. “Is the reason you haven’t directly eliminated the source of the catastrophe also part of those circumstances?”

The fake gave a slight shrug. That meant yes. “If I’m going to share the information I have with you, then you need to do me a favor in return. I’d prefer if we maintained a cooperative relationship—exchanging deals when necessary.”

“And if we keep going like that and ultimately manage to stop the Calamity… then you’ll send me back to before the regression?”

“If that’s what you want.”

To be blunt, I was getting the short end of the stick. The reward the fake was offering—‘I’ll send you back to a previous timeline’—was, frankly, lacking in many ways.

Even if I took the reward and went back to the time before my regression, I’d no longer be able to live among the Circle Guild members as Cha Seohu. With no identity, I’d be reduced to hovering around the Circle Guild, and when the world ended, I’d probably die along with it.

‘It might not even be possible to hover around. If they accidentally saw my face…’

No matter how I looked at it, returning to the pre-regression timeline wasn’t a smart choice.

And yet, the fake was confidently offering that as a reward, and I still wanted it so badly because… even if that was the ending waiting for me, I wanted to go.

To where my people were.