Dreams are called dreams for they aren’t meant to be achieved.

I woke up feeling a tingling sensation on my cheeks.

Rising from the table, I squinted my blurry eyes back to focus.

The aroma of coffee was strong. The shuddering sound of hailing rain tingled in my ear.

I looked to the front.

Cho LiSeo.

She was half dozing off.

Her lustrous black hair neatly scattered across her shoulder and her droopy long eyelashes fluttered slightly at each sound.

[DETAILS:▽MISSION BOARD> MISSION RESULTS(1/2)

>[CLEAR] MISSION TITLE: DENIAL

>SYSTEM REMARKS:

>>Clear Reward: Acquired [Title: World Vengeance]

…

[DETAILS:▽MISSION BOARD> MISSION RESULTS(2/2)

>[FAILED] MISSION TITLE: ACCEPTANCE

>SYSTEM REMARKS:

>>Nil

…

DETAILS:▽PERSONAL STATUS> TITLES

>>World Vengeance

>>>Description: Grief and sorrow denied, wrath burns. Possessor of this title granted a sharp increase in all aspects of luck and chaos. A permanent [UNIQUE TRAIT: Bloodlust] is inherited as long as the title is active.

“…”

I stared at the half translucent display.

…For a good while.

[UNIQUE TRAIT: Bloodlust]

This [TRAIT] was quite the surprise. How I, who had been depending on borrowed abilities finally had one I could call my own.

Its effects were simple: it makes the demon feel a natural fear towards you.

Despair.

“If you’re awake you should’ve said something.”

LiSeo-chan’s voice snapped me out of my head.

“Sorry.”

I swiped the system screen away.

Her ocean-lilac eyes, resembling that of a beautiful salt lake, stared at me.

“So, feeling better?”

I feel horrible.

“No.”

She looked at me like I was a lost cause.

“Seriously… it can’t be helped, can it? How about instead of going about grief alone, you do with XiaoLe?”

“…XiaoLe?”

“You two give off the exact depression vibes.”

The fact that the system noted the completion of the missions would mean that the funeral was over.

“Hey, are you even processing my words properly?”

I wasn’t in the mood to bother with her antics. She had always been the annoying little-sister type of person. But today especially… it was getting on my nerves.

I got up from my seat and headed to the cashier to pay.

“Kenji, I’ve already paid.”

LiSeo said.

“Thank you.”

I turned to the exit.

“Do you even know where XiaoLe is?!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I wasn’t planning to see her. I’m just going home.

“Doesn’t matter? You think you can find her in the downpour without any info?”

“I never said I was going to see her.”

“I think you should.”

I turned around to look at her.

She had an expression that showed off both her noble-like pride and concern. Perhaps laced with a sparkle of human empathy, nevertheless…

“Kenji, XiaoLe came earlier and…”

“You know, you look just like the girl who killed EunHa.”

“…!”

There, I said it.

I never realised I had such a thought brewing in my head—my heart.

Leaving her in a stunned state, I grabbed my umbrella and went out.

⊳╙⊠’╨

You look just like the girl who killed EunHa.

LiSeo felt strength leave her body as she leaned against a seat.

“Are you alright?”

The barista, her employee asked.

“I’m fine…”

“He shouldn’t have said that.”

“He’s… just angry. I’m sure he’ll come begging for my apology tomorrow…”

As a chaebol, if she got worked up over fickle words like that, there was no way she’d be able to keep herself sane while handling so many people beneath her.

Still, no matter how she rationalised it, being likened to a murderer was not a nice thing to hear.

“To think I’d look like the person who killed my rival… I wonder who that person is?”

The Black Siren.

The name had popped up in a few more than several conversations most recently.

It was said that her fame in Fortress City Fuji was second to none. Not only for her beauty, charm, and military achievements but also for her business merits.

“If I get a chance, maybe I should go take a look at what this Black Siren rumour is all about.”

It was the first time the ‘woman magnet’ Kenji, showed such disgust towards someone. Curiously, LiSeo wanted to know who the girl that made him so mad was.

LiSeo smiled wryly to herself.

║⪡▰╖⪄⌺⪄╨▩⪡_.

The downpour fell upon the umbrella’s canopy, creating a clattering din. Yet the noise did nothing to squelch the unceasing voices swirling in my head.

“Fuck…”

I gritted my teeth. Why did I say that?

“I… lost my mind…”

Was it really necessary to tick her off like that? LiSeo-chan was only trying to be helpful.

“Turn… back…”

Somewhere inside my head, I reasoned that there was no point going back—LiSeo-chan would’ve been gone by the time I returned. I should turn back; I wanted to turn back.

“…Apologise…”

Guilt and regret. Regardless of myself, I had to apologise.

“Damn it.”

Why… why is this so hard? Why is life so hard?

I can’t live anymore.

Slapping my own cheeks, I stared stunned at myself.

“What just…”

Can’t… live? Did I just think that?

“…No”

Did I just tell myself to die?

EunHa often told me about the dark feelings going round her head on a day to day basis. How it constantly gnawed at her, this unquenching pain.

It was the reason she fought, her drive.

To change her fate, and properly save the human race.

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To one day put an end to the pain.

Every day.

She had been feeling this kind of sickening weight every day… knowing that the reason for everyone’s pain, the ruin of everyone’s life in the previous regression was… herself.

I lurched forward and struggled, my chest tightened.

“So was this why EunHa…?”

Was this why you chose death?

I refuse.

I refuse to die.

Not until humanity’s ark is safe.

Not until I kill every last one of those damned demons.

“Stop it. Don’t think about…”

Why did you have to choose this path, EunHa…?

“Forget about her already…”

What did we ever do wrong? What did you ever do wrong?

“Just…”

You told me yourself. We would fight those demons together.

“Fuck, why…”

I told you so many times to prioritise yourself yet still…

“…”

My feet came to a halt.

“What…?”

The stalls emitted a warm orange glow, the pleasant smell of food.

I realised after coming back to my senses that a little distance away was the familiar park EunHa and I often visit. I thought seeing this would bring up all the regrets I ever had but…

All thoughts ceased when I saw her standing in the rain.

Her white priestess gown drenched all the way to the ground, the fabric clinging tight to her wet skin.

I silently walked over and held out my umbrella.

Drip. Drip.

Drops of rain began soaking my clothes. Her shoulders trembled.

“Sorry for showing you something so unsightly, Kenji.”

“Why are you not using your umbrella?”

“I thought it would be nice once in a while to feel the cold.”

“…”

I carefully peered at her face from the side.

A soft fake smile adorned her lips, the edge of her eyes red and swollen. She stared out towards the silhouette of the buildings, clouded in rain.

“…Are you angry at me Kenji? For deciding this without you.”

Am I angry that she finally gave up trying to save EunHa?

When I first arrived in this world, she was the first person I depended on. A regressor who came from the failed timeline to guide me towards a better future.

She moved the heavens and the people to change the fate of the world. It was more than anything I could’ve ever done.

And all of this for one reason:

To save EunHa.

But what then now when the reason for everything she had ever done was… gone?

The Saint Wu XiaoLe.

What was she feeling now?

Did I think it only hurt for me?

I lowered my umbrella, letting the full impact of the rain fall directly on us. Confused, she turned to me.

Her dull spectre-blue eyes resembled a hollow vessel, pink hair that looked as if it had been drained of life.

I pulled her into a hug.

“Hanging on to guilt sucks… don’t you think?”

I said, hearing my own voice crack up.

It took her a while, but her hands soon wrapped itself around my back.

She buried her head into my shoulders.

Saying nothing.

She just cried.

And cried…

╓▰╨╖⊳⚙⊲╓⊠╥╖

His fresh ripe blood dripped from the walls.

A buzzing noise akin to a jet engine.

Nausea that made her entire stomach invert.

She couldn’t breathe… stopped breathing.

Hands to her mouth, trying to stay sane.

His blood made a pool on the ground.

Indecipherable screams and shouts.

“…XiaoLe, can you trust me?”

Flashbacks of ‘that time’.

Different but similar…

“You’ll save the world.”

She said with blood dripping between her fingers. A broken smile that pierced the darkness.

“…!”

“Someone save him.”

Wu XiaoLe finally snapped out of it.

Seeing the bride who was detained by her own father, and the bleeding groom who was carried out of the chapel.

Between one or the other… she was forced to make a painful choice on that wedding day which ended in failure.

⊳╙⊠’╨

Having experienced horrors worse than death, there were very few things that sparked XiaoLe’s wrath.

One was the thought of having to witness humanity die out once more. A resentment directed towards oneself.

The second was… when someone harmed those whom she loved.

“EunHa… why?”

Prayers could only do so much.

“Why EunHa? WHYY?!”

“It was all… to save…”

Words failed to describe her truth.

She never meant it.

Neither of them ever meant it.

Yet in a situation where nothing could change the intended direction of the future, they were simply trying their best to fulfil the same dream.

To save humanity… wasn’t it?

No.

To XiaoLe, who had seen the worst of EunHa, she knew that her implications… meant something else.

It meant something even more inane.

“…To save?”

The dimly lit cell where the bride sat limply on the chair, and the Saint standing indignant—losing her mind.

“…Save the world, just like how you promised me in my last life?”

The bride’s hands were bound by shackles, hollow eyes glued to the ground.

“You… you killed… everyone, you know?”

EunHa’s promise warped in a completely different direction. The salvation she sought to bring humanity born out of death, not life.

To bring forth a new era where mankind be set free in extinction.

That.

That was what EunHa did to the human race.

“You killed Kenji once, and even tried to do it again.”

“With your bare hands, you ripped his heart out.

“You ate his flesh in front of my eyes.”

“And promised me these same fucking words in my fucking face!!”

The gore and memory from that day would never leave her mind.

“…You demons should just die.”

It was too much to bear so, just die.

Just die already.

DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE.

…A small, weak laughter.

It sent a chill down her spine. Starting from her toe, travelling upwards, toward her legs and into the spine. Ending with the sensation of ice stabbed deep into her heart.

“XiaoLe. Thank you…”

And tears ran down the bride’s cheeks, weeping as she spoke.

“Kill me before it’s too late.”

You have to kill me.

Then the world would be set free.

So that Kenji would live on;

So that you would live on.

Happily.

╓▰╨╖⊳⚙⊲╓⊠╥╖

I offered XiaoLe a warm cup of tea.

“Thank you.”

“No problems.”

She sat down on her armchair, still rubbing her damp hair with a towel.

There was a small lounge and shower in her office, so we went ahead and got ourselves changed.

She was now wearing her military uniform, same with me.

Though, I was surprised she even kept a set of uniforms, my size specifically in her storage.

“Let’s first put aside the matter of the funeral and focus on what we can do. I think we should proceed with a contingency meeting tomorrow. It’s been almost two months since the last one. The current state of the war has changed.”

“The usual meeting except…”

XiaoLe nodded to my words, I didn’t finish the rest of the sentence.

“Do I contact everyone…?”

“Not everyone. Cho LiSeo, Aoki Yuta-san, Yoshida Kaori-san, Hee JingKai and… maybe add MinGyeo?”

“Are you sure? She’s… you know.”

“…I was thinking maybe she should know what our plan is going forward now that it’s… happened.”

“…I’ll at least try and ask. Where’s the venue, here in your office?”

“No, we’ll hold the meeting at the fifth-floor function room adjacent to the fountain. But if there are any changes, I’ll let you know by tomorrow morning.”

“Great…”

“…What’s with that reaction?”

“…I screwed up earlier.”

“???”

Holding my head, I confessed.

“I got mad at LiSeo-chan. Said a bunch of things I didn’t mean… I don’t know how she’ll react tomorrow… or later when I tell her about the meeting.”

“What did you say…?”

“I said she looked like the Black Siren.”

“So you’re not the only one who thinks so?”

Huh?

I looked at XiaoLe who, like me, had an odd expression.

“What do you mean? Are they actual sisters or something?”

“Ms. LiSeo in my previous life most likely died, so I don’t know much about her.”

What were the possibilities that those two were blood-related?

“No, I think it’s simply a coincidence that looks similar. There are a lot of people that look like each other.”

“Yeah…”

I quickly took a sip of my tea to wash away the chills brought by the thought.

“In any case, I owe her an apology.”

I put down the cup and sighed.

“You do owe her a big one. It was harsh of you to say something like that.”

“…Yeah.”

“I’m sure she’ll be back to normal after throwing a fit or two. You just have to suck up to it.”

“…Didn’t need to put it that way, do you now?”

XiaoLe chuckled. I shook my head, smiling wryly.

In this room, just the two of us. Just like the old times…

“Kenji?”

“Ah, no. Nothing… just brain fog…”

“As for the agenda, tell them to prepare a brief about their ongoing assignments. We need a progress report on the Fourth Stratum by Ms. LiSeo. And then the current progress of the exoskeleton suits, and drones from Yuta-san and Kaori-san. After that the current state of affairs surrounding the First Stratum by…”

Hearing XiaoLe rambling on and on.

The only thought that kept swirling in my mind was why…

This comfort felt so familiar.

║⪡▰╖⪄⌺⪄╨▩⪡_.

The next day arrived.

A girl was peeking at me from behind a turn. The moment I met her eyes she hid away.

Scratching my head while groaning, I walked towards the corner and—

I bowed deeply.

“Sorry.”

“Hmph.”

LiSeo-chan folded her arms and stared at me.

“I’m really, really sorry for what I said yesterday. What can I do to make up for what I said?”

She pointed a finger at me.

“You will go out with me tomorrow as an errand boy. Got it?”

“…What?”

“I hear no objections, I know your schedule is free. I’ll see you at GwangMyeong Plaza sharp, 9 am tomorrow morning.”

“GwangMyeong Plaza? Are you going there shopping or…”

Without answering my question, she turned away and marched off ahead of me.

“…”

After saying something so hurtful, expecting to be forgiven in a snap would’ve been naive. Still, to let go of me by accepting this much was a blessing.

“Even so… can’t she read the mood?”

I sighed.

Whatever. If that’s what it takes to make up with her, then it’s at least better than letting the grudge fester.

Trudging towards the meeting room, I bumped into JingKai.

“Morning Kenji-san. You okay today?”

“Morning. Yeah, I’m fine.”

My pal Hee JingKai.

“You’re earlier than Yuta-san today?”

I said.

“Doesn’t that sound great?”

He shrugged with a grin to his smile. Then unexpectedly, he placed a hand on my shoulder.

“We’re in this together.”

He said with a firm, yet consoling voice.

Grief into resolve. I understood his intentions.

“Thank you.”

It was clear I couldn’t let it continue bothering me. We still had a mission to fulfil, and I can’t be the one to bring down the team.

Down the hallway and reaching the venue, we entered the function room together.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

Kaori-san and Yuta-san had already arrived… contrary to what I had told JingKai.

He looked at me as if he had been betrayed. Well, it’s your fault for trusting my blind guess okay?

The waves of demon attacks progress year over year with an ever-increasing intensity. Against their almost infinite numbers, a battle of attrition using the human flesh had its limits.

So, the only solution to fill in this gap would be technology, as it had always been since the advent of mankind.

Yoshida Kaori and Aoki Yuta. With LiSeo-chan as our investor, they were both engineers working alongside me to develop new weaponry for the war. Ongoing was the research into the use of mech suits and autonomous drones.

As the product was already in its final prototype phase, I have a feeling the two engineers would have a lot to say in this meeting.

Thanks to the unique quantum properties of the prana crystal, it was possible to generate an infinite amount of energy through an advanced dynamo. An energy core that can consistently generate a stable output was the basis of this world’s machinery.

It was commonplace to use this ‘perpetual machine’ dynamo to power entire towns and cities. The problem of a ‘lack of power’ never existed in this world to begin with.

It didn’t matter so much that we had infinite energy. What proved difficult was coming up with a process to mitigate the effects of sub-zero freezing.

Sub-zero freezing was a problem that plagued free energy.

As the components of an energy core drop below the critical temperature required for a superconductor to function properly, the system collapses. With that came a limit to the output.

As the creation of energy swells, the rate of sub-zero freezing rises just as sharply. Sometimes going all the way to absolute zero.

From material deformation to output limitations due to the thermal-energy relationship of the components. Subzero freezing poses various problems to small devices that utilise high output source energy created from prana directly.

That’s what the pair, Kaori-san and Yuta-san, were trying to solve… and they’ve almost got it.

“Everyone is… no?”

XiaoLe looked around as JingKai-san and I took our seats.

The members of XiaoLe’s selected council were as follows:

Small chaebol Cho LiSeo. Daughter of the large conglomerate Cho Group which had extensive economic influence in many important industries.

She was the main investor in our research into new military technology, and the primary prerogative to develop the first island in the Fourth Stratum.

Engineer Aoki Yuta and engineer Yoshida Kaori. In the game setting, these two would’ve been part of the base-building mechanism. In reality however, these two played a crucial role in advancing military technology.

Both possessing traits that boosted their engineering talents, they stood at the frontiers of modern warfare.

Hee JingKai. One of my trusted friends under the same company XiaoLe manages. Looking beyond his military rank, he was an informant and agent who had networks with many people. He was the one that coordinated the resources for most missions we partook in.

And, one last empty seat. The one meant for Ju MinGyeo, EunHa’s secretary.

“…Kenji?”

XiaoLe looked at me for an answer.

“She said she wouldn’t be coming.”

“Did she say why?”

“No. I’m not sure.”

I don’t have the details, but I plan to meet with her later in the afternoon.

“…”

Ju MinGyeo.

EunHa’s attendant, a member of the council. What she brought to the table was critique. She was the analyst, the one to fix and point out flaws between the links in ideas.

“Alright.”

XiaoLe concurred with a nod. The already sombre mood sank even further.

“We shall begin the 23rd council as planned.”

The many questions surrounding EunHa’s death.

The blaming, finger pointing.

Anger and sorrow.

Nobody had any idea what to make of it.

But the most important thing here was the person who sacrificed herself.

What was it that she desired from her death?

Everyone steeled their resolve.

“We will bring an end to this war.”

Victory.

“For her.”