Origin Regression

[OP (CantDieWontDie): You selfish race, who abuse the power you were given.]

Abuse!
That was the word that provoked me as I was just munching on popcorn and watching the flames rise.

I couldn’t hold back and left a comment.

[My Comment (Shinbi-jui): I didn’t abuse it, I just used a skill that was there. Everyone used it back then.]
└ [OP (CantDieWontDie): If everyone commits a crime, does that make it okay for you to commit one too? Do you think your sin becomes lighter? You must want to alleviate your guilt somehow.]

Judging by the way he talked, he seemed like a serious roleplayer.
It was quite interesting, but it was late into the night.

[My Comment: (Shrug_Emoticon)]

I still had an assignment left and didn’t want to waste any more time, so I posted an emoticon of Ganev, one of the boss monsters, shrugging with all eight of his hands, and left the post.

[You have received a message from CantDieWontDie.]

And I had completely forgotten about it, but the next evening, a 1-on-1 message had arrived.

[Message from CantDieWontDie. (※ This user is not a friend or guild member. Please be cautious with the conversation. GMs do not make unreasonable quest demands or ask for money.)]

Thinking he must have been pretty angry, and curious about what he wrote, I opened the message.
Contrary to my expectation of it being full of curses, the content was concise.

[CantDieWontDie: Well then, this is a skill that exists too, so try using it.]

Along with the cryptic message, a skill I had never seen before was shared.

[Origin Regression: Redraw the regrets of the past. (※ Skill shared by CantDieWontDie.)]

…What is this.
I was momentarily flustered, but then I just shrugged my shoulders like the emoticon I had sent yesterday.

In ‘Legacyth Chronicle,’ users could change skill names themselves.
It seemed he had probably just arbitrarily named one of the existing skills.

[My Message (Shinbi-jui): The skill name is romantic. Did you come up with it yourself? Are you a poet? (Baffled_Emoticon)]

As if on cue, the other person was also online, and a reply came back immediately.

[CantDieWontDie: Just try using it. You will regret mocking me so.]

A skill name change ticket.

Changing the name didn’t add any special effects, nor did it increase stats, and you even had to pay real money to use it, so it was a feature that no one but the most dedicated roleplayers used.

Thinking this person was the real deal, I decided to play along appropriately.

“Origin Regression!”

I immediately logged into the game and tried using the skill.

[Awakener ‘Shinbi-jui’ casts <Origin Regression>.]

Shoooong, pang.

A black flame shot out from the tip of my spear, embroidered a bat shape in the air, and disappeared.
That was it.

…I expected it to be a prank, but this is less fun than I thought.

I shrugged reluctantly and wrote a message to him.

[Message to CantDieWontDie: I used it, but nothing happened?]

However, the reply that came back was unexpected.

[This user is not in a state to receive messages.]

…Huh?
What’s this.

Puzzled, I kept trying to send messages, but only an incomprehensible phrase was repeated.

[This player does not exist.]

…Did he delete his account and disappear in that short amount of time?

But it’s impossible to delete an account that quickly.
Virtual reality games are based on physical recognition, so identity theft is impossible, and joining and leaving are strict.
Including the review period, it takes at least a week to a month.

Flustered, I searched for the post that user had made yesterday, but it was gone, as if deleted in the meantime.

[Integrated Post Search: Varg]
[There are no recent posts related to ‘Varg.’ Please enter the search term correctly.]

If the discussion had been that active, knowing the nature of Legacyth players, it would have definitely continued to be mentioned until the next day.

But not only were there no related posts, but even the search results for Varg were all from years ago.

…What the.

Feeling an inexplicable chill, I rubbed my arms, logged out of Legacyth, and lay down on my bed.

I even forgot to take off the GB (Gaming Band) that I always removed before sleeping, saying it emitted electromagnetic waves.

[…Awakener ‘Shinbi-jui.’ Welcome back to the Legacyth Continent….]

And when I woke up again, I was logged into ‘Legacyth Chronicle.’

No, to be precise, I was trapped in the game.

“Log out!”

[Command does not exist.]

Status window, quest window, equipment window, everything could be executed with voice commands, but just one thing.
The logout button had vanished as if it had evaporated.

Most of all, the color of the GB on my wrist, which I couldn’t comprehend, made me despair.
Blue, meaning I was in a ‘real’ state.

But I soon found hope.
Because ‘Observers’ began to appear one by one before my eyes.

[<Observer> that has recognized your presence is being summoned to your current location.]

Observer.
The anti-cheat and bug prevention system of ‘Legacyth Chronicle.’

It monitors players to prevent illegal activities or functions as a sort of rescue agent in-game.
It was like a visitation service that came to solve problems when you were stuck in a dead end or in a difficult situation where you couldn’t go to see a counselor.

“Ah, Observer!”

That’s why when the Observer first appeared before me, I naturally thought it was here to help.

“I can’t log out, can you help me? I think something is wrong.”

The Observers, which looked like lumps of black clay, began to stare at me intently.
They clearly had no facial features, yet I could feel their gaze.

As I was feeling an unexplainable creepiness, a monotone voice flowed from the empty face.

[Abnormal skill usage has been detected in the log of the exploring Awakener ‘Shinbi-jui (hereafter: Shinbi)’.]
[Awakener ‘Shinbi’ is currently classified as an ‘Unimplemented Skill Abuser.’ In accordance with the deserter disposal principle, the main body will be immediately retrieved.]

…What?

As I was mulling over their words, clang!
Their pitch-black faces split wide open.
The face, opened like a zipper, was full of jagged teeth.

“Aaargh!”

I knew instinctively.
If I got caught by those Observers, I would suffer something more terrible than death.

“H-Halt, ‘Spiral of Incapacitation’!”

So I immediately hit the Observers with a CC (Crowd Control: a general term for magic or skills that incapacitate a character by hindering their actions) and ran away.
Fortunately or unfortunately, my skills strangely worked on the Observers.

[…Deserter ‘Shinbi’ is currently a grade 1 wanted illegal skill abuser.]

It was self-defense driven by survival instinct, but the Observers, as if offended by my actions, pursued me even more tenaciously.

And so, having become the worst of criminals, I was on the run for weeks without sleep.

It was by chance that I arrived in the neutral city of Midvalen.

“…A guest who entered without permission. Should I call it refreshing, or arrogant.”

As soon as I entered Midvalen, the Observers disappeared as if by magic, and I sensed something was unusual.
I fearlessly wandered around and stepped into the audience chamber.

The master of the audience chamber was, needless to say, the Empire Lord ‘Baalzeph von Bloddyhen.’

“Well, Awakener. What brings you here?”

Surprisingly, Baalzeph clearly recognized me.
It was the only different attitude compared to other NPCs.

Come to think of it, this place, Midvalen, was set as a ‘neutral city.’
Hostile guilds, races, and Awakeners who fought tooth and nail outside could not fight within these walls.
Even if it was an Observer.

Realizing that, I immediately begged Baalzeph.

“Please let me stay here. I’ll do anything you ask.”

“…Will you really do anything I ask?”

“Yes!”

I still remember Baalzeph’s expression vividly.
He looked down at me for a long time with a third-rate villain’s expression, twisting his lips, and I trembled for a long time, thinking I would be rejected.

“Very well. I will let you stay in Midvalen.”

But contrary to his inscrutable expression, Baalzeph readily accepted my proposal.

“In return, you must bring me the artifact I request every day.”

“Yes, of course!”

I thought the condition wasn’t that difficult either.

Fetching items was something I had done countless times back when I was a player, so I confidently accepted.

…And, 1 year later.
The present.

“But still, a hundred Nemean claws! This is just telling me to die!”

I was feeling a threat to my life from the quests pouring in every day.

The artifacts Baalzeph demanded became more and more difficult to obtain as the days went by.
On top of that, I had to evade the Observers, so it was several times more burdensome.

To make matters worse, the recent unsettling dreams in which past events were vividly replayed also played a part.
Was it in high school?
A friend who was deeply into dream interpretation once told me.

“You’re having unsettling dreams? Be careful. It’s your body subconsciously sensing danger and warning you.”

“Is that scientifically proven?”

“Hey, there are many things in the world that can’t be explained by science, you know?”

…I didn’t want to find out my friend was right in this way.

With troubled eyes, I looked down at the handcuffs on my wrists.

[Due to the effect of the equipped <Nemea’s Silver Handcuffs>, attack skills cannot be used.]
[Due to the effect of the equipped <Nemea’s Silver Handcuffs>, all inventory and equipment windows are locked.]