Chapter 2: The Real-Time Regression

She was a woman with long, jet-black hair that flowed down like a waterfall, pale white skin, and red eyes. She was dressed in a black suit.

Her lips were as sweet and beautiful as red roses, but behind her smile burned the flames of ugly desire.

Kang In instinctively knew.

She was definitely not human.

“Um… who are you?”

“Well, I’m called by many names, but to put it simply, it’s easiest to think of me as a ‘demon.’ My name is ‘Prosephrin.’”

“Ah…”

Her calm, matter-of-fact tone made her introduction feel strangely casual. Kang In momentarily found himself at a loss for words.

“What are you thinking about?”

“…Am I really dead?”

“Yep. What a pointless life you had.”

Her simple and straightforward answer, as if it were nothing important, left Kang In staring at her with his mouth slightly open.

‘So I really died.’

A life that amounted to nothing.

A life in which he had accomplished nothing.

The fact that his life had ended with him doing nothing but getting beaten until the very last moment felt incredibly unfair and empty.

But… a demon?

Did demons, creatures that only existed in fantasy stories, actually exist?

There was no way for him to understand his current situation logically, but he had no choice but to believe it.

All five of his senses clearly recognized the existence standing right in front of him.

“Do you want to live?”

For a moment, Kang In felt something strange about her question.

Do I want to live?

It sounded as if she were questioning whether he truly had the will to live.

Kang In’s face turned red.

“Of… of course I do!”

“Hmm, really? Why?”

“Why…?”

“If you were brought back to life, what would you do then?”

“Of course, I’d get revenge on that bastard Kim Hyunsu.”

“Hmph. I knew you’d say that. And then?”

“…What?”

“What are you going to do after that? Your life doesn’t end after getting revenge. I’m asking what kind of life you want to live from now on.”

Kang In’s head felt like it had been struck.

It was similar to the feeling he got whenever he went to a hair salon and the stylist asked him,

‘How would you like your hair?’

Whenever he was asked something like that, Kang In could only stammer and say,

‘Just do whatever you think looks good.’

Because he still did not know what kind of person he wanted to become or how he wanted to live.

Prosephrin quietly watched Kang In hesitate without being able to answer.

Then she continued with a pitiful expression.

“There are two reasons why I brought you to this middle realm.”

“What are they?”

“The first is because you’re ‘ambiguous.’”

“……”

“You didn’t do anything particularly terrible, so it’s difficult to send you to Hell. But you’re also not exactly qualified to go to Heaven. So you’re stuck somewhere in between.”

At her words that he was not quite worthy of Heaven, Kang In felt a pang of guilt somewhere in his heart.

The image of Jin Cheolmin being bullied floated through his mind.

Jin Cheolmin’s existence forced Kang In to face the shameful side of himself and the ugly self-justification he had used to protect himself.

“Is the reason I can’t go to Heaven because I stood by and watched the violence?”

Prosephrin looked as if she had no idea what he was talking about.

Then, as if she suddenly understood, she snapped her fingers.

“Ah, well… if you really want to argue about it, standing by and doing nothing is wrong too. But if we sent people to Hell for something as minor as that, Hell would have collapsed long ago because it wouldn’t be able to handle the population.”

Prosephrin crossed her arms and continued.

“And the second reason is that we have an experiment we want to conduct on people like you, who are stuck in this gray area.”

“An experiment?”

“Yeah. These days, humans are becoming more demonic than actual demons, so there’s less and less work left for us. You know that meme on the internet, right? The one where a demon scratches the back of his head and says, ‘Ah… that’s a bit much.’ Whoever made that thing… they must know a lot about our industry.”

“So you’re saying that meme is actually becoming reality?”

“Of course, we initially took it as a joke too. But now it’s practically becoming a fact. Things are getting more serious.”

Prosephrin rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“We can’t just sit around doing nothing anymore, so we decided to collect some data. We’re going to use ambiguous humans like you as our subjects. If humans were given a chance to undo their choices, would they really be capable of making better decisions?”

“…Wouldn’t they? But what are you planning to do with the data?”

“You don’t need to know that. You just need to follow the rules we give you.”

Prosephrin’s expression suddenly became strangely cold.

There was an unspoken pressure telling him not to ask any more questions.

Sensing that it would be difficult to dig any deeper, Kang In quickly changed the subject.

“…I see. So what am I supposed to do now?”

“First, you’re going to be brought back to life. And I’m going to give you one ability.”

Only then did Kang In raise his lowered head.

A spark of hope appeared in his eyes.

As expected, there really is something.

“Wh… what kind of ability?”

“An ability of a demon.”

Stab!

Kang In’s body suddenly jerked.

“…Huh?”

A sharp, cold sensation pierced through him.

Kang In slowly lowered his head and looked at his chest.

“Cough!”

Blood burst from his mouth.

A huge longsword had been driven straight through the center of his solar plexus and completely pierced through his back.

Drip, drip, drip.

Dark red drops of blood fell onto the floor.

“AAAAAH!”

Kang In instinctively grabbed the sword’s handle.

“Cough! Cough! Wh… what are you doing…?!”

“Think. Think about what you looked like before you were stabbed.”

“Cough… wh… what?”

“Quickly!”

“Grrrgh…”

Kang In desperately tried to remember what he had looked like when he was perfectly healthy.

As the agony of death overwhelmed him, his thoughts became much more intense than usual.

He desperately longed to return to his original, unharmed state.

At that moment—

“Huh?”

The pain disappeared.

He looked down at his chest again.

The sword was gone.

There was not even a trace of the wound, as if he had never been stabbed in the first place.

“You’re now back to the state you were in before anything happened.”

Kang In awkwardly rubbed his chest.

“Wh… what the hell…?”

“Real-time regression.”

“Real-time… regression?”

“Yeah. From now on, no matter what happens to you, you can return yourself to your previous unharmed state. No one except you will realize that you went back in time. You can go back up to five minutes, and you’ll get five charges every day. The more carefully you save them, the better.”

“Whoa…! I see.”

A wave of joy suddenly swept over him.

And that was how Kang In gained the ability called Real-Time Regression.

With this ability, he could immediately undo any mistake, accident, or incident he caused or experienced.

A strange light appeared in Kang In’s eyes.

He could feel his mind becoming more and more excited.

After gaining this ability, a burning desire began to rise within him.

He wanted to escape from the dissatisfaction he had always felt toward his vague and mediocre life.

He was not quite bad enough to be called evil, but he was not bright enough to be called cheerful either.

Yet he was not completely gloomy, because he could also be quite loud and lively.

He had a vague sense of depression, but he also lacked the courage to simply throw his life away and live recklessly.

Kang In did not want to admit it to himself, but after experiencing death, he could no longer deny the truth.

These days, many people claimed that simply living an ordinary life was already a successful one.

But if you looked at it coldly, being ordinary also meant that you had no particularly outstanding qualities.

And because of that, your usefulness would inevitably be limited wherever and whenever you were needed.

Sometimes, this even made him feel as though his entire life had gone wrong.

No.

Rather than saying his life was wrong, it would be more accurate to say that he felt inadequate to make his way through this harsh era as such an ambiguous, mediocre person.

Even the death he had just experienced had been a tragedy caused by the confusion in his heart and his lack of decisiveness while stuck in that vague middle ground.

Real-time regression was undoubtedly a great opportunity to look back on his life and become a better person.

Now is the time to go beyond being ordinary and become extraordinary.

This time, he wanted to sincerely face everything in every single moment.

He wanted to actively throw himself into life, make something of himself, and live in a way that allowed his own light to shine.

However, there were limitations.

He could only return to a point within five minutes before an event occurred, and he could only use the ability five times per day.

The conditions were not bad, but he would always have to make future decisions carefully.

“As you probably realized, the key to this ability is ‘decisiveness’ and ‘quick thinking.’”

Prosephrin once again pointed out an important aspect of the ability.

“From now on, we’ll constantly observe the choices you make in real time.”

Before he knew it, Prosephrin had walked up to Kang In and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Always remember this. Other than that ability, you are nothing special. You’re still just the same ordinary high school student you were before. Think carefully about how you’re going to settle things with Kim Hyunsu. Your future now depends entirely on you.”

“…I understand. So am I going back to life now?”

“Wait. You should listen to a demon until she’s finished speaking.”

“Huh?”

Prosephrin crossed her arms and raised one corner of her mouth.

“There’s a price. You didn’t think this was free, did you?”

A sense of unease slowly began creeping over him.

“…A price?”

“Yeah. Depending on what choices you make, there will come a moment when we decide whether to let you remain in the living world or take your soul back.”

Kang In thought over her words and organized them in his mind.

“…So I either endure the trials that continue to come my way and keep living my life, or my soul gets taken back by the demons early. That’s the difference, right? But when will that moment come?”

“That’s a secret. When the time comes, we’ll find you ourselves. If we told you in advance, then you wouldn’t really be living your own life anymore.”

Kang In swallowed nervously.

“I see…”

“So do your best. Personally, I hope you won’t become corrupted by evil too easily.”

With a sly smile, Prosephrin lightly tapped Kang In’s forehead with her index finger.

A powerful energy wrapped around his entire body, pulling both his mind and body downward.

His consciousness began drifting farther and farther away.

Just before his vision went completely dark, Prosephrin’s soft voice lingered in his ears.

“Try your best to avoid falling into the swamp of revenge and isolating yourself.”

“Hey! Here, here!”

“Pass it!”

A gentle breeze came through the open window, which had been left open to ventilate the classroom.

From far away, he could hear the voices of his friends playing soccer.

“Huff…!”

The smell, sounds, and surroundings were all incredibly familiar.

It was lunchtime at school.

That strange feeling of the classroom being both bustling and quiet at the same time.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

His breathing became ragged, and his heart pounded like crazy.

He could clearly hear the sound of his own heartbeat in his ears.

Kang In could hardly believe the information his senses were giving him.

“…I’m alive.”

He slightly lowered his head.

A book was open on his desk.

“Did I… even go back to that exact moment?”

There was no doubt.

This is regression.

Chill.

His joy at being brought back to life lasted only a moment before he felt a chilling gaze from behind.

Kim Hyunsu was definitely staring at him from behind.

He could never forget that gaze.

The starting point of the violence.

The beginning of his death.

Kang In tightly shut his mouth and maintained a blank expression.

I have to stay calm.

From this moment on, it was time to carefully change his future.