Prologue. Destruction
Many doomsayers talked about the end of the world, each imagining a different cause.
For example, global warming.
A zombie virus.
Nuclear war.
Things like that.
In a way, you could say all of their predictions were correct.
The year I turned twenty-two, the world ended.
Because of every single reason the doomsayers had talked about.
I was a reincarnator who had lived a fairly ordinary life, died, and then was born again.
The world I reincarnated into was an ordinary Earth, just like in my previous life.
Strangely enough, even the year I was born and my family relationships were exactly the same as before.
Even so, there were several reasons why I thought this was reincarnation rather than regression.
The biggest reason was that the names of famous people and companies were completely different.
The stock market was different too.
Companies like SamX or TeslX didn't exist in this world, and neither did Bitcoin.
Because of that, I simply assumed I'd reincarnated into some parallel world.
At least, that was what I thought until just a moment ago.
Now I knew that wasn't the case.
“Huff… Haaah!”
Gasping for breath, I barely managed to get inside my apartment.
The instant I managed to close the door—
Bang! Bang!
The door shook violently.
I hurriedly dragged every piece of furniture I could find and piled them against it.
Only then did I finally feel somewhat safe.
My heart had been racing wildly, but I forced myself to calm down.
I squeezed my eyes shut and remembered what had happened only moments ago.
I had woken up before dawn and gone out for a walk.
While walking, I saw an old man I frequently passed coughing violently.
Normally, I would have just walked past him.
But maybe it was because of the strange emotional mood that came with the early morning.
My empathy had somehow reached its maximum level.
I cautiously approached the old man and asked if he needed help.
He caught his breath for a moment, then muttered something toward me.
And the next instant—
The old man vomited blood.
So much blood that it could have filled an entire one-liter cup.
It was dawn, but the walking path I used was in the middle of an apartment complex, so there were still quite a few people passing by.
That morning was no exception.
People passing nearby hurriedly stopped and approached the old man.
The area grew noisy.
Someone raised their phone, about to make a call.
And then something else happened.
The old man suddenly raised his head—
And tore into one of the approaching men with his teeth.
Screams erupted from every direction.
Bright red blood sprayed through the air.
The old man worked his jaw, chewing on what he'd bitten off, before turning his gaze toward me.
Thinking back on it now, his eyes had been completely empty of reason and intelligence.
I immediately realized this wasn't some random violent crime.
So I ran straight back toward my apartment.
On the way, I encountered four more people showing the exact same symptoms as the old man.
And now, after all that, I had successfully made it inside my home.
“…Did the world end or something? There are actual zombies outside.”
Fortunately, I'd already experienced reincarnation once before.
That had given me at least some mental resistance to fantasy-like situations.
I was shocked and horrified that a zombie virus had broken out, but I didn't waste time denying reality.
Maybe it was an incredible stroke of luck, but because the situation in the world had been looking suspicious lately, I'd already started stockpiling food.
I never imagined it would become useful like this.
I calmly checked the apartment.
I had enough food and bottled water to easily survive for around a year.
“Zombies were seriously the last thing I expected.”
If I'd known this would happen, I would've built a bunker.
Feeling slightly regretful, I headed toward the bathroom.
Now that some of the tension had faded, my body had started sending me an urgent signal.
I passed dozens of boxes of bottled water and opened the bathroom door.
The inside was pitch-black.
I reached for the light switch and sat down on the toilet.
That was when I noticed something strange.
“…Hm?”
It was still completely dark.
Putting aside the fact that the light hadn't turned on, this darkness itself was far too unnatural.
I'd left the bathroom door open, so at least some light from outside should have entered.
Yet my vision was completely black, like I was standing in the middle of the countryside on a moonless night with no electricity anywhere nearby.
Was the light broken?
Even if it was, this was still way too dark.
For the moment, I finished my business, found the sink by feeling around, washed my hands, then carefully made my way back toward the bathroom entrance.
I found the doorway and stepped forward once.
The surroundings suddenly became bright again.
“Huh?”
I froze in surprise.
It was completely unreal.
I'd moved only a single step, yet the brightness had changed instantly, as if someone had switched out a filter in front of my eyes.
I took one step backward.
The world turned black.
I stepped forward again.
My vision brightened, like a curtain had been pulled aside.
“….”
It was strange.
Way too strange.
I backed away and moved as far from the bathroom as possible, then lay down on the living room sofa.
That was when a blue window suddenly appeared at the edge of my vision.
[You have been invited to the Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery.]
[Would you like to accept the invitation?]
“….”
I instinctively understood something.
Apparently, the zombie virus wasn't the only problem threatening this world.
Chapter 1. Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery
The world was in chaos.
And apparently, even the inside of my apartment wasn't completely safe.
A zombie outbreak.
A bathroom so dark it felt like the space inside had been completely isolated.
A blue window floating in front of my eyes.
Mysterious events were happening around me one after another.
Even for someone like me, who had already experienced reincarnation once, this was enough to leave me seriously confused.
Have I finally gone insane?
I'd certainly become more pessimistic lately, but I didn't think I'd reached the point where I'd hallucinate this badly.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided to simply accept the situation.
I'd already reincarnated into a parallel world.
Compared to that, zombies and system windows weren't exactly impossible.
I stared blankly at the floating blue window and poked it several times.
Every time my finger touched it, ripples spread across its surface like water.
It was surprisingly impressive.
“…Should I accept?”
An invitation from the Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery.
"Regression, possession, reincarnation" was a phrase referring to exactly those three things.
Regression.
Possession.
Reincarnation.
And I was someone who had experienced reincarnation.
If there was any reason I'd suddenly received this invitation, reincarnation was the only thing I could think of.
What I didn't understand was why the invitation had only arrived now.
I'd reincarnated twenty-two years ago.
Maybe the reason the invitation had appeared now was connected to the zombie outbreak and the strange bathroom?
Somehow, that felt likely.
“But what exactly is this ‘Gallery’?”
Judging by the words "Regression, Possession, Reincarnation," I doubted it was an ordinary photo gallery.
After thinking for a moment, I finally pressed Accept.
The blue window folded inward.
Then a completely different interface appeared over my vision.
It looked like—
An online community.
Dozens, then hundreds, of posts appeared one after another.
I instinctively started reading their titles.
[I,,, regress,,, again,,, today.]
[Characteristics of gallery users by type.jpg. If you disagree, you're wrong.]
[Had a life-or-death duel with the Heavenly Demon, lost one arm, survived. Rate me?]
[132 reasons martial arts worlds are better than immortal cultivation worlds.]
[Is possessing a novel better, or possessing a game?]
So this was what they meant by Gallery.
The floating blue interface looked just like one of those online communities I'd visited countless times in my previous life while searching for game guides.
I read through the titles near the top and let out a hollow laugh.
It wasn't because the ridiculous topics like regression, martial arts, and possession sounded absurd.
“This is insane. They're all real, aren't they?”
If I'd seen posts like this on an ordinary website in the past, I would've laughed and assumed a bunch of roleplayers had gathered together.
But not a single realistic thing had happened to me today.
So I found myself accepting the contents of the posts surprisingly easily.
For now, I clicked the post at the very top.
[I,,, regress,,, again,,, today.]
[Author: Regression Sword God]
[Today, I have finally reached my 1,792nd regression.
Over those years, the tip of my sword has shaken hundreds of thousands of times.
I have endured millions of moments of anguish.
I have undergone twice as much training, and throughout that journey, I have endured several times as much ridicule.
After endlessly pursuing the Way for what felt like eternity, only upon reaching my 1,792nd regression have I finally entered the Transcendent Realm.
From this day forward, do not look down on me.
I am the Sword God.
Now, I shall go kill the Heavenly Demon.
I will conquer the world.]
└Grandpa, can you still get it up?
└Too long. Summary pls;;
└You needed 1,792 regressions to reach the Transcendent Realm? My dog Choco would've reached Unity of Man and Sword in 300 runs, dumbass.
└Should've learned magic. You would've reached the supreme realm ages ago. Factos :)
I went silent for a moment.
Normally, I would've just shrugged and moved on.
But the contents of this post were far beyond anything I'd imagined.
“This seriously isn't just a gathering of roleplayers… right?”
If I'd entered through an ordinary internet browser, maybe.
But this was a community I'd reached through some supernatural blue window.
The chances that these posts were real seemed higher than the chances that they were fake.
Suppressing my shock, I opened the next post.
[Characteristics of gallery users by type.jpg. If you disagree, you're wrong.]
[Author: LifeAndDeathRealmGorani]
[Characteristics of Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery users.
Regression users: A lot of them are basically insane. Around seventy percent of the lunatics starting fights and causing chaos are regressors. They're the type of people you should never associate with.
(Gif of a man cutting his own throat while screaming, "Enough already!".jpg)
Possession users: Lots of psychopaths. Many are trash who steal someone else's life and keep living without feeling guilty, or gaming addicts who poured their entire lives into a game before getting transported into it. Poor communication skills.
(Gif of a man running while alternating between jumping and rolling.jpg)
Reincarnation users: Fundamentally altruistic people who enjoy helping others. They don't cause harm, and their mental states are perfectly healthy. Truly admirable members of humanity whom regressors and possessors should learn from.]
└You got everything wrong except one thing. You wasted 170 years of your life.
└Which one did he get right?
└The part about regressors.
└Yeah, same opinion. Everything except the part insulting possessors is wrong. (For reference, I'm not a regressor.)
└Characteristic of someone saying "I'm not a regressor") They're a regressor.
└I don't know about the rest, but it's obvious the OP is a reincarnator ^^
└How can a post be this disgusting? I wish to request a Life-and-Death Realm with you.
└Old man, it's "life-and-death duel," not "Life-and-Death Realm";;
There were hundreds more comments beneath those.
Around seventy percent were insults aimed at the author or the post itself.
The remaining thirty percent agreed with its contents.
I didn't know anything about the other two groups yet, but at least the part about reincarnators seemed completely correct.
I explored the interface a little, figured out how to upvote posts, then quietly gave it an upvote.
I think I understand what kind of place this is now.
The corners of my lips slowly rose.
While looking through more posts, I belatedly realized it.
The expression on my face felt strangely unfamiliar.
“I laughed.”
Laughter.
Even now, occasional screams were still echoing from outside my front door.
And yet—
While browsing the Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery, I'd somehow started having fun.
After facing one abnormal event after another, my mental strength had been wearing away.
Reading these ridiculous posts seemed to have restored some of it.
I walked over to the balcony railing and looked down.
The walking path in front of the apartment was now filled with dozens of zombies wandering aimlessly around.
It looked like I'd be trapped inside my apartment for a while.
I'm glad I have the Gallery.
At the very least, the chances of me developing depression seemed to have gone down.
While I was lost in thought, I suddenly remembered some of the posts I'd read.
Discussions about martial arts and magic flashed through my mind.
If I could gain some fighting ability, wouldn't I be able to go outside?
Even if they were zombies, their physical strength probably wasn't that different from a normal human's.
I immediately opened the Gallery and searched for the search function.
The overall UI wasn't very different from ordinary internet communities, so I found it quickly.
[How to learn magic]
Dozens, then hundreds, of search results appeared.
I opened the post with the highest number of recommendations.
It was filled with terms I couldn't understand.
What the hell was Mana Mind-Body Formation?
And what were Introduction to Mana Flow Theory and Relative Mana Counter-Reaction Theory?
What did any of that even mean?
I spent around thirty minutes trying to read through it.
Eventually, I gave up and searched for something else.
[How to learn martial arts]
This time, even more results appeared than when I'd searched for magic.
Full of anticipation, I started reading through them one by one.
They were still difficult, but things were at least better than with magic.
At the very least, I didn't have to spend thirty minutes trying to understand the meaning of a single word.
After reading through a decent number of posts, I closed my eyes.
Damn it.
It looked like I wouldn't be able to learn martial arts either.
According to the posts, the most important thing for beginners was gathering something called internal energy.
And apparently, even a beginner had to expect to spend at least three years doing that.
The zombie outbreak had happened only moments ago.
And the situation would only get worse over time.
Three years?
Forget it.
By then, the world would've already ended.
What I needed wasn't overwhelming strength.
I just needed some kind of combat ability I could obtain immediately.
After searching for a while longer and finding nothing useful, I eventually decided to write a post myself.
[Could someone tell me how to become stronger?]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[I live in a world where things like mana and energy don't exist, and only science exists.
I urgently need combat power right now.
Is there any way to become stronger immediately?]
Even after posting it, I felt slightly nervous.
People said that on internet communities, acting overly polite was worse than speaking casually.
What if no one replied because I'd been too polite?
My worries were unnecessary.
Around three minutes later, four or five replies appeared.
With my heart pounding, I read through them one by one.
One of the responses caught my attention.
└Looks like you're a newbie who just arrived. There's no way your world literally has nothing at all.
└What do you mean?
I replied with a question.
Only a few seconds later, another reply appeared.
└What do you mean?
└You can't enter the Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery just because you've regressed, possessed someone, or reincarnated. Some kind of incident has to occur in the world you belong to first. We need to know what happened in your world before we can give you an answer.
“Ah.”
So that was why I'd received the invitation today.
There were plenty of incidents I could mention.
I wrote another reply.
└A zombie outbreak happened.
└Then aren't there Awakened people too?
└Apocalypse = Awakened people is basically an unwritten rule, isn't it?
└It only started a little while ago, so I don't know yet. Oh, and there's something strange inside my room too.
└Something strange?
I explained the bizarre bathroom.
For a short while, no one replied.
Then—
Along with a burst of notifications, more than a dozen responses suddenly appeared under my comment.
The reply at the very top immediately caught my eye.
└That's fucking interesting. Tell us the whole story in detail.
