The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

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Chapter 227

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The Four Seasons I

1

Which season do you like?

Summer? Autumn? Spring? Winter?

For the record, I don\'t particularly like any season.

The pride in saying that the Korean Peninsula has four distinct seasons is long gone. But after the fall of civilization, the four seasons really did become more distinct.

However, everything in life has its pros and cons. Even though the seasons became more distinct, we couldn’t just rejoice.

First, spring.

"Your Excellency, large yellow clouds have been observed to the west and north."

"Must be yellow dust mixed with fine particulate matter. Send an urgent message to the Three Thousand Worlds for reconnaissance of the clouds\' path. Order all citizens to wear masks."

"Is it that bad? As far as I know, breathing in a little fine dust doesn’t kill people right away."

"It\'s not just normal yellow dust. Every single particle of that dust has transformed into a deadly toxic substance. If you don’t wear a mask, you\'ll die within three minutes."

"Oh."

Then, summer.

"Doctor Jang! They say a typhoon is coming!"

"Calm down and let’s build the ark first."

Autumn.

"G-Guildmaster, why do the falling leaves smell like blood instead of, you know, leaves?"

"Ignore it."

"But lately, when I walk down the street, every time a leaf touches me, I swear I hear faint cries for help, and when ginkgo fruits fall, the stench reeks of human entrails…"

"I said, ignore it."

"Yes…"

Ah, the joys of living on the Korean Peninsula!

To be fair, this wasn’t happening just here; the whole Earth had become a hellscape. So maybe I should say “the joys of living on Earth.”

Yet, no matter how harsh spring, summer, or autumn might become for humans, none of these could compare to the final boss.

Winter.

The cruel tyrant in white.

From the dawn of civilization to its collapse, humanity\'s most feared enemy has always been winter.

2

One day, I was walking down the hallway of Baekhwa High School with Cheon Yohwa when a student blocked our path.

"Hm? What is it? Didn’t I tell you not to interrupt when the teacher\'s around… Oh, it\'s Soyeon."

Cheon Yohwa\'s eyes briefly turned cold, but her expression softened as she recognized the student.

“What’s the matter?”

“...”

The girl with the short bob quietly bowed her head. This was Joo Soyeon, one of the original members of Baekhwa High School.

In the timeline where I didn’t intervene and defeat the \'Endless Hell,\' she was supposed to die.

Didn’t I mention that in the original Baekhwa High School scenario, out of the 750 students, only 19 would survive, and two of those survivors would eventually take their own lives? Joo Soyeon, standing in front of us, was one of those two.

Of course, no such tragedy occurred in the timelines where Endless Hell was eradicated.

Now, Joo Soyeon was just a quiet underclassman suffering from mutism.

However, she did have a special status that allowed her to speak frankly with the student council president at any time.

“... ...”

“Mm. It’s okay. You can take your time.”

“...”

Unlike Lee Hayul, who also suffered from speech impairments but could skillfully use \'Aura,\' Joo Soyeon couldn’t do that.

She didn’t possess the ridiculous power of controlling spider webs to make a doll speak on her behalf.

So, Joo Soyeon slowly traced letters onto Cheon Yohwa’s palm with her fingernails.

[ W I N T E R ]

As soon as Cheon Yohwa read the letters, her expression stiffened. Glancing sideways, I saw that my face likely mirrored hers.

Cheon Yohwa asked gravely, “Winter? Are you sure? But it’s only June.”

“...”

Soyeon nodded.

“That doesn’t make any sense… Wait, Soyeon. Can you show us?”

“...”

Another nod.

Joo Soyeon clasped her hands together as if in prayer. Cheon Yohwa and I flanked her on either side.

A few seconds later—

Crack, cr-crack—

The sound of ice cracking echoed through the hallway. Frost began to spread in a 3-meter radius around Joo Soyeon.

“Yohwa.”

“Yes, teacher.”

We both summoned our aura to protect ourselves from the cold. The temperature was plummeting rapidly, and Joo Soyeon couldn\'t control it on her own.

But something was very wrong.

Cr-crack. Crack-crack—

The windows along the hallway quickly froze over and shattered. Snow began piling up at an alarming rate in the three-meter radius.

Only the area where the three of us stood remained clear.

The snow piled up quickly—past our calves, waists, and shoulders— finally, it surpassed our heads.

It was cold.

"..."

"..."

Haah.

Cheon Yohwa exhaled, and her breath came out in a cloud, like dry ice vapor.

I tried lowering my aura on just my forearm as an experiment. The biting cold in the air felt brutal.

It must have been around minus 120 degrees Celsius.

“…Soyeon, is it over yet?”

“...”

She shook her head.

That meant it was over.

"Okay, can you release your power now?"

"...."

Another nod.

The bone-chilling cold vanished. The shattered window glass fell to the ground, and the snow that had piled up around us began to melt.

Joo Soyeon, one of Baekhwa High School\'s awakened students.

Her ability was called [Weather Forecast].

She had a skill that allowed her to predict and summon the season and weather up to a month in advance.

Accuracy: 50%.

As you can see from the odds, it wasn’t a particularly useful ability in everyday life. Imagine receiving a weather forecast saying, "Tomorrow, it will either rain or not." Your response would likely be something like, "So what?"

In other words, while it was not helpful during normal times, it became extremely valuable in emergencies.

"…Teacher."

"Yes. We need to prepare."

Winter is coming.

From now on, there would be about a 50% chance that a -120°C cold wave would descend upon the Korean Peninsula.

3

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Naturally, the national road management division was in chaos.

"Minus 120°C? In the middle of summer? Is that even weather a human being can survive?"

"Of course not, it\'s lethal. Chief Noh Doha. You’ve dealt with 100-meter tsunamis in the summer, and that was just considered ‘normal.’"

"Ugh. This planet is truly hell to live on..."

Noh Doha was full of complaints, though if any Russians heard him, they\'d be outraged at how ungrateful he sounded. In their region, the average annual temperature hovered around -100°C.

Of course, Noh Doha wasn’t about to empathize with Russians any more than he empathized with Koreans. In his mind, he was already coming up with ways to sacrifice at least half of the city’s population.

"So, do you have any brilliant ideas? The city is practically a shantytown as it is. If a -120°C blizzard hits, we\'re all going to freeze to death."

"First, think calmly. This cold is merely a phenomenon caused by the Void."

"And?"

"It means there’s no need to sit in Busan and wait for winter to come. We should head further north than Pyongyang and face it directly."

"Directly...?"

Noh Doha tilted his head skeptically.

"‘We’...?"

Literally.

First, we used the telepathic power of the Constellation \'Morning Star of the Second Coming\' to advise the citizens of the Eastern Holy Kingdom to stay indoors.

The authority that the Morning Star commanded in the Eastern Holy Kingdom was immense. The evacuation proceeded smoothly.

Then, a party of 50, including Noh Doha, Yoo Jiwon, the Saintess, and the national road management division’s operations team, began their journey north. It was a two-week-long march.

"Haaah."

The Saintess, now equipped with a fur hat and gloves, clasped her hands together and exhaled.

A perfect balloon of breath expanded before dissipating into the cold air.

"It’s already chilly here. And it’s only July. The air feels different than it did in Seoul."

"…"

Next to the Saintess, Noh Doha stood, arms crossed, glaring at me silently.

Noh Doha had just arrived in Sinuiju, leading the national road management division’s troops. I spread my arms wide to welcome them.

"Welcome, O King of the Korean Peninsula. It must have been hard guiding the people here."

"Forget the hardship... what the hell is that?"

"Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. It’s just a sort of totem."

"No, are you crazy? How am I supposed to ignore that?"

Noh Doha was pointing at something towering over the landscape: the Statue of Liberty.

Yes.

The Statue of Liberty.

While Noh Doha’s 50-member party had been trekking north, I had arrived in Sinuiju ahead of them and constructed a replica of the famous American symbol.

The original statue had been made of steel and copper, but that was too precious for me to use. So I gathered stones from the area around Sinuiju and built it.

I’d even managed to replicate the appearance of the statue perfectly. At 93.5 meters tall, it was exactly the same height as the original.

Confronted by this overwhelming structure, Noh Doha had the same expression as Irish immigrants arriving in America in the 1900s. A mixture of anticipation, hope, apprehension, and uncertainty about the future.

"What the hell... why did you build the Statue of Liberty here, in Sinuiju?"

Incidentally, I had a reputation for being terrible at reading Noh Doha’s expressions.

"You don’t get it, Chief."

"Huh?"

"The Statue of Liberty is the first thing to be attacked in any major disaster."

"That’s not…"

"Think of it this way: in every disaster movie, the Statue of Liberty is the first thing destroyed."

"Are you serious?"

"If you don’t believe me, take a short trip beyond the Tumen River while we still have time. It’s colder here than it is there."

"…"

Noh Doha muttered something under his breath, probably praising my wisdom.

The Saintess, who had been listening to our conversation, nodded thoughtfully.

"It’s like a lightning rod, isn’t it?"

"Exactly. In any climate disaster—whether global warming, climate change, or eco-apocalypse—the Statue of Liberty is the first to be obliterated."

"Yeah, I think that happened in some of the movies I’ve seen."

"So here’s the hypothesis: every climate disaster targets the Statue of Liberty first."

I dramatically raised my index finger.

The imposing Statue of Liberty stood at the tip of my finger, casting a long shadow.

"So, conversely, if we manage to protect the Statue of Liberty, the climate disaster won’t happen."

"…"

"I’ve evacuated all the residents and soldiers from Sinuiju to Pyongyang. Right now, it’s just us and the Statue of Liberty here."

In other words, the strategy for handling this \'Blizzard\' or \'General Winter\' was very simple.

We, the humans, had to protect the Statue of Liberty.

On the other hand, the disaster had to destroy the Statue of Liberty. As long as the statue remained intact, it meant the disaster hadn’t fully arrived.

In short.

"From today, this isn’t Sinuiju anymore. It’s New York. Chief Noh Doha, here’s your official appointment as the Mayor of New York."

"Uh…"

I handed him an appointment letter and a nameplate I had prepared in advance.

What an honor, becoming the first Korean to be appointed as Mayor of New York. As expected of Chief Noh Doha.

His English might be a bit rusty for a New York mayor, but who cares? This proved that New-New York was a free city unbound by nationality or prejudice.

Thus, the Eastern Holy Kingdom became a nation that possessed both the \'Jerusalem of the East\' and the \'New York of the East.\'

What had once been Asia\'s poorest region had grown so much.

You could infer that this world was, in fact, an alternate history story, and that the Eastern Holy Kingdom was the protagonist.

"Look at the Yalu River. Doesn’t it remind you of Manhattan, with that island in the middle? It’s totally New York."

"…"

"Everyone else will be appointed as Police Commissioners, Federal Judges, and other key roles. Do whatever it takes to protect the Statue of Liberty, everyone."

Whack!

Noh Doha hit me on the back of the head with the nameplate that read "Mayor Noh Doha."

And thus, the defense game began.

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