A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 120

I was screwed.

[Warning! You have ingested a substance of unknown identity.]

[An unknown mana attempts to take control of your body.]

There was no doubt about it, I was truly screwed.

“Hmph. As expected of my powerful back.”

“…You son of a bitch.”

“Hey, look carefully. It couldn't withstand my immense power and flew backwards.”

“……”

“I definitely pulled it out.”

I wondered if he even knew what he had just done.

That guy Tom was already covering his ears again, speaking to me while marveling at his own back muscles.

I wanted to smack him on the back of the head for that shameless muttering, but unfortunately, I wasn't given the leisure.

Solving the immediate problem was hundreds of times more urgent than arguing over who was at fault.

Riiip-

First, I tore the Signal Card that guy Louis had given me from my pocket.

[The activation condition for ‘Artifact: Signal Card’ has been met.]

[The embedded effect is activated.]

[Target: Leonardo Louis Button]

Originally, I had planned to tear it after talking with that guy Tom a little more, but it seemed I wouldn't have that luxury.

One way or another, the Quark's Source Stone had been extracted, and since our business was done, I needed to summon him to get out of here.

…Although if the worst-case scenario happened, all of this would become meaningless.

Still, if it was a situation where I could do something about it, it seemed right to call him first.

Next.

Ugh-

Was to vomit the Quark back out.

Forcing my fingers down my throat to induce vomiting.

I pushed and scraped my fingers deeper than they had ever gone before, but.

Along with dry heaves, only yellow stomach acid came up; the Source Stone, already deep inside my body, showed no sign of coming out.

“Damn it……”

Realizing that method was impossible, I quickly pulled the ‘Nameless Sword's Fragment’ from my pocket.

If vomiting it out was impossible, then I had to cut it out, even if it meant tearing open my stomach.

A torn abdomen could be stitched back up, but a person who lost their mind to the Quark could never return.

I knew this better than anyone.

What it meant to swallow a Quark.

‘…….’

It was difficult to define Quark as strictly living or non-living.

But if one had to classify it, Quark was closer to a living being than an inanimate object.

Unlike inanimate objects whose entire existence was just that, existence, Quark had a purpose, just like other living beings.

The only difference from humans or other creatures was that its focus was not on ‘survival’ but on ‘being eaten’.

The Demonic Nature interference seemed to act randomly, but it too was ultimately a form of enticement to make something swallow the Quark's main body.

The Mutants outside the mine were an example of this, and while intelligent beings like that guy Tom would instinctively be wary of the Quark, they would eventually swallow it or embed it somewhere in their bodies after succumbing to its hallucinations.

I had seen more people fall prey to Quark in the 1st Regression than I could count.

And I remembered their common end vividly.

First, they lost their reason, then they showed aggression that didn't distinguish between friend or foe, and then their internal Mana Circuit would overload, causing their bodies to explode and die.

…That was the end for those who swallowed a Quark.

‘A Quark.’

‘…….’

And what had now forced its way down my throat was the Source Stone, which could be called the very origin and mother of all Quark.

Even I had never seen a madman who swallowed a Source Stone, so I couldn't predict exactly what would happen next.

But at the very least, I didn't think the outcome would be any better than that of those who swallowed a normal Quark.

What's more.

‘…No way.’

The hypothesis that the Witch had told me.

『The Darkest Dungeon itself might be the corpse of a Primordial Demonic Beast.』

If the hypothesis that this Darkest Dungeon itself might be a Primordial Demonic Beast was actually true.

And if, as discussed in that hypothesis, the role of this Quark was that of a 'digestive organ' that absorbed and stored Demonic Nature.

Then perhaps this incident wouldn't just end with the cost of my life.

It might be an event that pulled the apocalypse—the one the Demon King brought after conquering the entire continent at the end of the War against Demons—right to our doorstep.

An object that absorbed Demonic Nature, which served as the energy for a Primordial Demonic Beast, couldn't possibly exist for the sole purpose of blind 'storage'.

Therefore, I tried to tear open my stomach right away and pull out that abominable gem.

…But.

Flinch-

The muscles in both my arms, which were about to stab my stomach, were momentarily paralyzed, and the system window sent a signal that the situation had already left my control.

[An unknown mana is taking control of your body.]

Saaaaaaah-

A dark red energy seeped out from the seven orifices of my face, and my limbs twisted grotesquely.

It wasn't just the outside that was moving strangely.

The inside was in big trouble in its own way.

Hwiiiiik-

My Mana Circuit activated on its own, circulating the mana within my body like mad.

[Warning! The Mana Circuit is overloading beyond its limit!]

Like an electronic device with its limiter removed, the Mana Circuit heated up tautly, pulling out its maximum output despite the system window's warning.

Hwiiiiiiik-

The superheated Mana Circuit went beyond activation and began to overload as if its purpose was to explode.

The dark red energy leaking from my body had already filled the surroundings.

Hwiiiiiiiiiiiiik-

My body trembled, unable to handle the insane rotation of the Mana Circuit, and my jaw opened on its own.

【ωºαijĿ? ÞŒijα-.】

An unholy language spewed forth, regardless of my will.

It caused the dark red mist obscuring my vision to spread even further.

【ωºαijĿ? ÞŒijα-.】

Something, I had an ominous intuition that something unbearable was arriving at this place.

My vision grew distant. My body was uncontrollable.

An immense terror that the body of a mortal could not possibly bear.

Just before the third utterance could part my lips and burst out.

Paaat-

For an instant, I lost consciousness as I watched everything in my vision turn black.

***

…A black, murky vision.

My ears were muffled as if submerged in water.

A powerlessness that left me unable to move a single hair.

An absolute stupor.

‘…….’

U-jin continued to fall within a pure void, devoid of any sound, smell, sight, or feeling.

As if a weight had been tied to his ankles and he had been thrown into the abyss.

Down, down.

Endlessly, endlessly.

Into the fathomless depths of nothingness.

‘…I'm sure.’

It felt like there were things he had to do just a moment ago.

But U-jin couldn't properly recall those memories.

What he had to do, who he was, anything at all.

He couldn't remember.

…But the emotion U-jin felt in his heart at that moment was 'comfort'.

He didn't want to struggle to recall memories that wouldn't surface.

This current powerlessness was, in fact, comfortable.

He didn't know what it was, but in this state, there was nothing he could do, nor was there any need to.

It felt like if he just remained submerged in this powerlessness, he could disappear, forgetting even the fact that there was something he had to do.

To fade away and away, to become a single speck of dust and vanish, and with that…….

【…Contractor.】

Hwaaaak-

It was then.

“……!”

A reverent voice from somewhere awakened his blocked five senses.

As if a vanished soul was being resurrected.

The curtain of stupor that had shielded U-jin's senses was lifted, his focus returned, and his fading memories came back.

And the moment he regained his senses, what existed before U-jin's eyes was.

【…Why have you swallowed that.】

A colossal eye, its size impossible to gauge.

“……”

It was a pupil so massive that it seemed more fitting to call it a gigantic living creature in itself, rather than an eye.

Its size was so overwhelming that he had to move his head just to catch the edge of the pupil in his vision.

And as he stared back at the eye that had called him 'Contractor'.

‘…The Source Stone.’

U-jin was able to recall the memory from just before he lost consciousness.

He had swallowed the Source Stone and tried to cut it out of his stomach, but it seemed he had collapsed from the Source Stone's encroachment, which was faster.

An unexpected accident, and a failure to deal with it.

It was a situation where he would have no complaints even if it led to immediate death.

After all, what he had swallowed was none other than the Source Stone of Quark.

…However.

The reason U-jin hadn't lost his life immediately and had instead entered this abyss of his subconscious was.

【Do you truly not know that your one act… could ruin everything.】

“…I know.”

【…Then why.】

“…If I had recited up to the third sentence, it probably wouldn't have ended with just death. It wasn't on purpose. It was an accident.”

It was because this giant eye residing in U-jin's subconscious—or more accurately, the owner of this eye—had intervened in U-jin's body.

‘…….’

As if guessing the general situation just by looking at the eye, U-jin let out a smirk and muttered.

“…I didn't expect to see you this soon, though.”

【A hand… has been lent.】

The meaning of those words was self-evident.

It meant that it had made the Quark's Source Stone U-jin swallowed unable to perform its function anymore.

A normal person would naturally first ask how that was even possible.

But U-jin threw a pointless joke as if he wasn't even curious about such things.

“…When I get out, it's not like I'll be barely alive, right? Like my head is attached to my butt, or I'm running with my arms.”

【…It shall not be a problem… It is better for you to finish what you must do.】

Of course, the eye did not respond to U-jin's joke.

It completely ignored U-jin's smiling jest and recited only what it had to say.

【…Do not act rashly… for you are a mortal.】

U-jin nodded once at the eye's warning.

Frankly, under normal circumstances, it was a bizarre appearance and experience that wouldn't be strange even if one fainted again in their subconscious out of sheer terror.

If a human could feel the wonder of nature just by looking at the strange rocks of a high mountain.

Then the awe inspired by a giant eye of immeasurable size was beyond words.

But, strangely, U-jin was accepting the eye's existence as if it were natural.

As if he knew what it was, and was even familiar with it.

【Remember… the terms of the contract still stand.】

“…Of course.”

【You must…….】

“……”

【Before you die, you must…….】

The eye, which was about to give some kind of warning, stopped its voice.

And.

Kureung-

The eyelid covering the giant eye closed slightly.

【Aah-.】

“……”

【…My intervention ends here…….】

Like an old man on his deathbed, the eye muttered and, closing its half-shut eyelid the rest of the way, said.

【…There will be… a time to meet again…….】

“…Let's.”

The moment U-jin accepted the farewell, the eye's lid closed.

And in the world that went dark the instant it shut, U-jin felt his vision flicker once more.