『 Above The Broken World 』
You must remember everything now.
The moment I read those words, countless memories surged through my mind like a broken dam.
The endless regressions, dungeons, outsiders, even the people I lost. And the constellations who had stayed by my side through countless lifetimes.
My vision blurred.
Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face.
"I'm glad..." My voice trembled. "I'm glad you guys are still alive."
I quickly wiped at my eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop.
『 Under The Oak Tree 』
I am glad we found you again.
『 The Shiniest Gem 』
I'm sorry for leaving you alone, child.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
"It's okay," I shook my head. "You have nothing to apologize for."
After everything they had done for me, how could I ever blame them? I took a slow breath and steadied myself.
"From now on, I'll fix everything."
The moment those words left my mouth, my gaze shifted toward the Outsiders. Contempt flickered through my eyes.
No.
Contempt was too light of a word for them. I was tired. Tired of running, tired of losing people, tired of watching worlds fall apart because of them. I had endured enough.
Slowly, I looked around the battlefield.
The land was ruined. Even if it wasn't the whole world, a big part of Japan was ruined. Cities were reduced to rubble, mountains had split apart. The air itself felt thick from the countless abilities that had been unleashed.
Even if no one died today, it would take years to recover from this destruction.
"How many more worlds will you ruin?" I asked quietly.
The Outsiders narrowed their eyes. Despite my low voice, they heard me.
"How many civilizations have you destroyed?" I continued. "How many people have died because of the system?"
My gaze drifted upward. The sky itself was scarred.
"Do you intend to drain every world in existence until there is nothing left?"
None of them answered.
Perhaps because they couldn't care to respond.
As I stared at them, my attention shifted to the symbols. They were everywhere. Floating through the air like countless lines of code. An endless sea of information moving so quickly that ordinary people wouldn't even realize they existed. Yet to me, they moved as naturally as flowing water.
I could read, understand, and manipulate them. It was akin to controlling atoms itself.
Even now, I couldn't explain why. Perhaps I never would. But after countless lifetimes, one thing had become clear.
The System was never some divine miracle. It was merely a language, and I had spent far too long learning how to speak it.
The symbols reflected within my eyes.
I used my mind to control it, altering certain codes and with it the changes happened.
Everything that had been destroyed was reverted back to its original form, as if nothing had ever happened.
The red skies resembling that of a nightmare had turned back to a blue hue. The craters all over, the toppled buildings, the burnt trees and all plant life was back to its original state.
"Hyuk-ah." I turned to Jinhyuk and grabbed his hands. "I'm sorry."
He looked at me with confused eyes. He had the same eyes as I did. Tired.
We were both so tired.
"Will you forgive me?" I knew it was a bit unfair to ask for forgiveness without explaining everything first, but for some reason, making him hate me was far more terrifying than death itself.
Without understanding anything, he looked at me in the eyes and smiled. "There's nothing in this world that you could ever do to make me hate you."
I smiled.
"I like you," I whispered. "And I'm sorry for everything. So... please, forget everything."
"What?" His expression shifted with concern, as if he could sense something was wrong. "What do you mean? Yena, you're not—"
I couldn't bear to hear the rest.
Gathering every last bit of courage I had, I reached for him and pressed my lips against his, kissing him as though this might be the last chance I would ever have.
For a moment, everything else faded away. The Outsiders, the hunters, the cruel fate that awaited us, none of it mattered anymore. I didn't want to think about what would happen next or what I would have to give up.
All I wanted was to remember this moment.
The warmth of his lips against mine, the way my heart ached at the thought of losing him, and the feelings I'd kept buried for far too long.
Jinhyuk froze the moment I kissed him. He seemed completely caught off guard, and for some reason, the thought almost made me laugh. How often did anyone get to see Han Jinhyuk at a loss for words? If someone managed to capture this moment, it would probably make headlines across the world.
I felt his breath catch against my lips. Maybe it was because the kiss had come so suddenly, or maybe some part of him could sense the desperation I was trying so hard to hide.
Tears slipped down my cheeks as I continued kissing him, wrapping my arms around his neck as though holding him a little tighter could somehow keep this moment from slipping away.
I hated this.
After everything I had done to ruin this world, his life, and the lives of so many others, I still wanted to be selfish.
I wanted to stay. I wanted everyone to remember me. I wanted to visit places I had never seen before, to experience all the ordinary things I had been too busy trying to survive to enjoy.
More than anything, I wanted to go on a date with Jinhyuk. I wanted to hold his hand, listen to him complain about something trivial, and spend an entire day with him without having to worry about saving the world. I wanted a simple life, one where neither of us had to carry the weight of everyone else's fate on our shoulders.
But I couldn't have that.
Not when I was the one who had brought us here. Not when there was still so much I needed to fix.
I had to make everything right, even if it meant giving up the one thing I wanted most.
When I finally pulled away, Jinhyuk stared at me with wide eyes, looking so utterly stunned that, under different circumstances, I might have teased him about it. For a moment, he didn't say anything, as though his mind had simply stopped working.
"Yena..." His voice was barely above a whisper.
I reached up and gently touched his face, tracing his features to memorize every detail before it was too late.
"I like you," I whispered. "I'm sorry that it had to be this way."
"I—"
His words were cut short.
The moment I interfered with the System's code, the changes finally took effect.
I rewrote the sequence governing causality itself.
Time would return to Han Jinhyuk's original timeline. The very first one, where he had never become a regressor.
The countless regressions he had endured would be erased, along with all the memories he had accumulated along the way. He would forget me. He would forget everyone he had met, every bond he had formed, and every tragedy he had been forced to relive.
He would have to start over.
But this time... he would finally be free of the skill the System had given him through causality. No more regressions. No more dying over and over again, only to wake up in a world that had taken everything from him.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
Every time I had turned back time to save my parents, my people, and the world, I had unknowingly shattered his.
While I desperately searched for a future where everyone could survive, I had condemned him to an endless cycle of death, loss, and despair.
And I hadn't even realized it.
I had been so focused on saving everyone that I had never stopped to consider what it had cost him. How many times had he watched the people he loved die? How many times had he lost everything, only to force himself to start over again?
How lonely must he have been, carrying all those memories while the rest of the world moved on without knowing?
So this time... I would be the one to let go.
Even if it meant becoming the only person left who remembered.