The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 186

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Addict III

4

Birth Rate 0%.

Faced with an unprecedented situation that even survivors from South Korea had never witnessed, the policy I proposed was simple:

- Use a succubus to enter the fetus's dream.

- Defeat the mysterious creature lurking there.

Among the low birth rate policies previously implemented on the Korean Peninsula, this one was arguably the most practical. However, even this plan encountered issues right from the first step.

First of all, the 264th fairy, who was urgently appointed as a low birth rate consultant, was hesitant.

"Gasp. Comrade Secretary-General, it's utterly reckless for a fully grown adult, especially a complete stranger, to enter a fetus's dream!"

"...Is it that difficult?"

"Of course!"

As expected of an expert selected for the advisory committee, the 264th fairy looked at me as if wondering how I could be so ignorant of something so basic.

"The fetal world is made entirely of ‘sound’! The dual melodies of the mother’s high tones and the father’s low tones, the rhythm of the heartbeat, the dissonance of the digestive organs... Along with the mysterious interplay of light and shadow! Although in reality, it’s just the parents turning the lights on and off in the room, for the fetus, it feels like the sun and moon are alternately dancing. The touch of water, the smell—this is all that makes up the fetal world, the fetal dream!"

"There's almost no visual information."

"Yes! That's the big problem!"

The revolutionary official nodded, using the imperialist language, acknowledging the reality of the situation.

"More than 80%, no, 90% of the fetal world is composed of sound! On the other hand, for fully grown humans like you, Comrade Secretary-General, more than 80% of perception is visual! It's safe to say it's almost like a different species!"

"But it’s something we must accomplish. Is there no way?"

"If you want to be disassembled and turned into a 3/4 rhythm sound as soon as you enter the dream, I won’t stop you."

"Hmm..."

As I sat silently, the 264th fairy added, "But if it’s someone with a familiar voice to the baby, the success rate increases dramatically—from 3% to around 9%."

"A familiar voice?"

"It’s much easier to connect to the baby's dream if it’s the mother or father! So, if it's your own child, Comrade Secretary General, the success rate doubles!"

Twitch—

At that moment, the atmosphere in the conference room changed.

I could sense the shift in the air. Everyone in the meeting turned their ears towards our conversation.

...I had promised not to use [Mind Reading] on Oh Dokseo anymore, but this time, it was hard to resist.

I immediately closed one eye and activated my 'Gung Ye technique.' Ah, I hadn't described it before, but my mind-reading ability worked better when I closed my left eye.

[PR/N: Gung Ye was a king of north-central Korea in the early tenth century who believed he possessed the supernatural ability to read minds, killing many innocent people out of paranoia.]

[Cheon Yohwa: Wow. That succubus just asked the forbidden question everyone was curious about but no one dared to ask…]

[Seo Gyu: I'm curious too. The Boss has lived through hundreds of regressions, but did he really never have a child? Never married?]

[Tang Seorin: I need to focus on enjoying this coffee. Yes, delicious.]

[Sword Maiden: Mount Hua Number One.]

[Sim Aryeon: The Guild Master's child would be so cute.]

[Noh Doha: Oh, he's closing his eye? Is that bastard using mind reading?]

I immediately turned off the mind reading and rubbed my left eye, pretending as if something had gotten in it and I had to close it briefly.

Even so, Noh Doha continued to give me a suspicious look, but I smoothly changed the subject.

"Having a child solely to hunt the creature would be disrespectful to the child. Instead, how about this method?"

"What method?"

"Rather than me entering the fetus's dream, how about inviting the fetus into my dream instead? Wouldn’t that be safer?"

"...!"

The 264th fairy jumped up from her seat.

"Wow! As expected of you, Comrade Secretary General! What an astute decision! That would indeed raise the success rate above 50%!"

A chorus of disappointed and annoyed murmurs echoed quietly throughout the conference room.

I was getting tired of it. Humans’ interest in other people's love lives seemed to be a matter of instinct.

"Good. Instead of simply inviting the fetus into my dream, let's decorate my dream to match the fetal environment as closely as possible. As you suggested, we'll dim the surroundings, fill the air with the smell of water, and add a natural white noise background."

"Success rate surpassing 90%! Comrade Secretary-General is a genius…!"

The project was taking shape.

Now we needed a collaborator—a pregnant woman. This part was quickly resolved.

"You're saying that a disgusting monster is trying to kidnap my baby, right? Of course, I'll cooperate. Just make sure to tear that anomaly limb from limb."

"Yes, Doctor Jang! Please dismember it entirely!"

"...."

Survivors of the apocalypse were inherently tough. Among them, the residents of Busan, who watched Tang Seorin’s monster dissection show weekly, were particularly resilient.

There were a total of 49 volunteers.

The final selection was made for the woman who had been pregnant the longest.

This was at the fairy's request.

"The fetus’s brain needs to be developed enough to dream!"

A reasonable point.

Recently, fetuses had stopped growing after 8 weeks of pregnancy and would 'disappear' as early as 10 weeks, or as late as 30 weeks.

The final candidate had reached 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Nevertheless, her belly did not protrude, and there was no noticeable difference from before she was pregnant.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if the child had been kidnapped at any moment, which only heightened the mother’s anger and anxiety toward the anomaly.

There was another reason behind her selection.

"If my baby is born, I plan to name her Seoah."

Jeong Seoah.

You might remember her. From a very long time ago, in a past turn, she was the little chef who personally fed me a sugar doughnut on Haeundae Beach.

In each turn, Jeong Seoah’s personality and appearance were slightly different. Her gender varied too. But regardless, her identity as a bakery child remained consistent.

Yes, I understood that the ‘Jeong Seoah’ I knew and the ‘Jeong Seoah’ who would be born in this turn would be similar, yet different.

But what does it matter?

Every child carves out their own life, navigating the gap between what adults know and the unknown.

I didn’t want to see this child kidnapped by a monster.

"Alright, let's sit together. We need to sing a lullaby to enter the dream properly!"

Everything was ready.

Thirty-six fairies formed a circle and held hands. I shook hands with the fairies using my right hand, while the mother used her left hand.

Then the fairies began to sing in unison.

"Mother goes to the island's shade~♪"

"Off to chop the necks of those evil monsters~♪"

"The baby left alone~ defecates~♪"

"...."

Are you still insisting that this ridiculous song is a lullaby?

Right after losing my sense of disbelief, my consciousness suddenly dropped.

5

We had previously agreed, the fairies and I, that we wouldn’t descend into the depths of unconsciousness too far.

After all, as everyone knows, the bottom of the underground has become the territory of 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.'

If I were to describe it purely by feel, the unconscious world where the 'pink entity' resides is on the 13th underground floor. The unconsciousness I had descended into this time was only about the 2nd underground floor at most.

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

-Thud.

Even coming down this far was enough to set up an interior designed to imitate the image of a fetus.

-Thud. Thud. Thud.

There was nothing but darkness.

But it wasn’t a silence of darkness, nor a dry, black background. The darkness was sound.

The world was softly growling.

To humans, the heart is never a visible diagram but always exists as a sound, a ripple that resonates slightly, submerged in water.

"I can't see anything."

"Well, of course, because a baby has never seen anything before! To a baby, the world seen when a human closes their eyelids is everything there is to see."

"That's why in mythology, prophets often appear after losing their eyes. To experience the first world, you must be able to discern it through sound."

"Shh. The baby is over there!"

Fairy No. 264, who was holding my left hand, pointed to a part of the darkness.

I saw it.

-…….

My five senses reinterpreted 'the world as felt by the baby' into visual information.

And what I saw was astonishing.

"That’s... just water, isn’t it?"

In the middle of the darkness, water floated and wriggled.

I couldn’t see arms or legs. There was no head. There was something like long tentacles wriggling in the water… Could it be the umbilical cord?

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed more like an Undine wannabe than a human, neither more nor less.

"Yes, it's water."

"...No. Where’s the calm baby quietly curling up, and why is there a water elemental slime sitting here instead?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Comrade Secretary. That’s just the distorted mindset of an adult's perspective."

This brat really deserves a smack.

"Adults might distinguish between the fetus and amniotic fluid, thinking this is human, and that is liquid, but from the fetus’s perspective, the amniotic fluid is almost like a part of its own body! It’s only natural, since it’s been with it since birth!"

"Ah."

"Human scholars interpret the pain babies experience during birth simply as the separation of the umbilical cord or from the mother, but more fundamentally, it's closer to the separation from 'water,' the loss of the 'body,' the most fundamental 'skin!' Mammals are terrifying creatures that have their skin stripped off every time they’re born..."

Fairy No. 264 shivered.

‘This is a pretty interesting perspective.’

So a large part of the pain humans experience during birth stems from the 'loss of water,' the 'loss of body.'

In other words, it's like saying that babies, who were originally 'water spirits,' are forcibly turned into 'humans.'

But there was no time to delve into such anthropological topics now.

"Comrade Secretary! An anomaly has appeared!"

"...!"

The very being responsible for ushering in the era of zero birth rates on the Korean Peninsula had made its appearance.

Step, step-

The anomaly walked lightly from the other side of the darkness. And when I saw its appearance, my eyes couldn't help but widen.

Jeong Seoah.

The anomaly looked strikingly similar to how the fetus would look when it grew up, walking toward it.

-Hah. Yesterday was tough too.

Plop.

The 'grown-up Jeong Seoah' sat down beside the 'unborn Jeong Seoah.'

-You know, it seems like mom finally got the news. That I might not be born if this keeps up.

-…….

The anomaly, imitating Jeong Seoah, whispered to the fetus in a strange voice and tone.

-Our dad, he went into the void last month and died, remember? So mom thinks I'm the only trace dad left behind. But now that I might disappear too, she’s in immense pain. She ate so much dopamine again.

-…….

-It's not just mom. Dad too, up until the day before he went missing, he kept baking dopamine rice pizza every day. Uncle. Aunt. Cousins. And don’t forget to calculate the grandparents on both sides. Thanks to that damn dopamine, they lived healthily and happily and passed away.

-…….

-So… it’s my turn now?

Splash.

Jeong Seoah dipped her hand into the fetus's amniotic fluid.

Then, a certain ominous 'blackness,' different from the serene darkness of this dream world, contaminated the fetus’s water.

-……! ……!

The fetus’s amniotic fluid turned murky and dark.

The fetus, not yet knowing how to scream, expressed its pain by violently rippling the surface of the water.

‘Ah.’

It was only then that I realized the true nature of dopamine.

How could dopamine have made people purely happy without any side effects until now?

The side effects hadn’t disappeared.

Misery hadn’t vanished either.

The side effects and misery were merely transferred and postponed to 'other people.'

Namely, to those not yet born.

In other words, to the 'next generation' sharing the same bloodline.

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]