Chapter 1. Regression
Rustle.
Kim Seongchan stepped over the dry leaves as he headed toward the cabin at the top of the mountain.
A bundle of dry branches had been tied tightly to the carrier on his back so they wouldn’t fall out.
The pile of branches rose nearly three times taller than Kim Seongchan himself, yet he carried it up the mountain without any difficulty.
“Whew~ It’s cold.”
The sun was slowly sinking beyond the horizon.
The mountain wind was cold and sharp.
Even though Seongchan was carrying a load three times larger than his own body, not a single drop of sweat ran down his forehead.
I could use mana to keep the cold away, but I don’t really feel like doing that.
Even without using mana, Seongchan possessed power far beyond an ordinary person.
A burden like this was nothing to him.
And if he truly wanted to escape the cold, he could do so whenever he wished.
Thud!
He lowered the carrier onto the ground.
Then he looked down the mountain.
Rustle, rustle.
The brown leaves were turning black.
Leaves that had once been full of life fell from the trees one after another and scattered in the wind.
Seongchan shifted his gaze elsewhere.
There were no leaves there.
Even the trees had lost their vitality and withered away.
Some of them were already burning.
It was the future awaiting the trees whose leaves were still falling.
Kim Seongchan was living while watching life die before his eyes in real time.
“The moment of leaving always feels bitter.”
The area around the cabin was filled with branches Seongchan had gathered until now.
The branches had been piled as high as his own height and connected together.
Viewed from above, the tall piles resembled a coffin.
“Was chef the only profession I never properly tried?”
Kim Seongchan picked up a few branches nearby and placed them inside the stove.
Then he pulled a large pot out of his inventory and set it on top.
Inside the pot was pale broth containing the meat of a Chaos Dragon.
Bubble, bubble—
Splash!
Ripples spread across the milky broth.
Then, with a sudden splash, a gem-like object that resembled a heart shot out of the soup.
It gave off both black and white energy.
It was the heart of the Chaos Dragon.
As if it were alive, the Chaos Dragon’s heart began flying around Seongchan.
“Wait, Lena.”
At his words, light flowed out from the heart.
A transparent humanoid figure appeared.
It was Lena, the Chaos Dragon.
Her black hair swayed as she opened her eyes sharply.
[I can’t wait!]
“You’ve already waited this long.”
Flames flickered across Kim Seongchan’s hand, and he lit the branches.
As the sun disappeared and darkness covered the mountain, the flames brightly illuminated the surroundings.
Kim Seongchan sat down on a wooden chair and thought for a moment.
“I did everything I could as a blacksmith, but I still failed.”
[Right. I thought things would work this time, but I lost control again...]
“Seriously... what am I supposed to do with you?”
[What if we get rid of conflict altogether?]
The more conflict spread throughout the world, the more Lena lost her reason and eventually destroyed everything.
But if Seongchan killed Lena while she was destroying the world, every other living creature would also begin to die.
Even now, beyond the stove, the trees on the mountain were burning to ash and disappearing.
There were no cries of animals anymore.
The mountain had become completely silent.
“I worked really hard to eliminate conflict before. I kept swinging that hammer endlessly, remember?”
The greed of the different races had no end.
Humans always wanted items that would make their lives more comfortable.
Demons constantly wanted items that would make them stronger.
The other races also demanded whatever they desired.
Kim Seongchan had tried to satisfy all of them.
He had lived diligently as a blacksmith.
However, even blacksmithing had its limits.
I thought that if everyone wanted things from me, they wouldn’t have time to worry about everyone else.
To some extent, his plan worked.
Everyone waited for Kim Seongchan’s items.
The different races cooperated with each other and lived peacefully.
Eventually, Seongchan unified the races and became the King of Blacksmiths.
But ten years later, a problem occurred.
The Fairy Race became bored because there were no interesting items left.
So, just for fun, they created a massive maze barrier.
Many different races were trapped inside and died.
That incident triggered a war between the races.
“I thought that if anyone started a war, it would be the Demons. Things really never go the way you expect.”
He had never imagined the Fairy Race would be the spark that started the war.
The war caused by the Fairies eventually pushed Lena beyond her limits.
She lost control of her emotions and went berserk.
After regressing so many times that he could no longer remember the exact number, Kim Seongchan knew Lena’s weaknesses so well that he could exploit them with his eyes closed.
He had returned to the past again and again.
To the point where he could easily kill Lena, the final existence standing at the end of the world.
[I thought I wouldn’t die this time, but I died again.]
Lena dying had become almost routine.
She had always died by Kim Seongchan’s hand.
The transparent Lena showed a slightly sad expression.
“I think the way to stop all this conflict is to make chef my main profession.”
[You suddenly want to make chef your main profession? Can you really stop me by being a chef? Wouldn’t Spirit Swordsman be better? The Fairies were the ones who caused the problem, right? We could use spirits to keep the Fairies from causing trouble.]
Lena seemed pleased with her own idea and looked at Seongchan expectantly.
After so many regressions, there were times when Lena shared memories of our previous lives and times when she didn’t.
Strangely enough, Lena and Kim Seongchan sometimes shared memories from before his regression.
The problem was that whether Lena remembered previous regressions depended on what Kim Seongchan did.
Because of that, some memories from previous regressions were missing from Lena’s mind.
When I became a Spirit Swordsman, the Fairies and spirits got along way too well, and the world ended even faster.
Both spirits and Fairies were extremely curious.
Neither was particularly patient.
Whenever something dangerous caught their attention, they tended to act first and think later.
There had been no controlling them.
Lena didn’t know that.
Kim Seongchan smiled.
He thought of an answer that would satisfy Lena without disappointing her.
Then he spoke.
“You like eating, don’t you, Lena?”
[I love it!]
Lena loved food.
Kim Seongchan enjoyed eating as well.
However, he had never chosen chef as his main profession.
Because I thought another profession would be better for solving Lena’s rampages.
The experience he had accumulated through countless regressions had turned him into a genius.
He had become the hero who saved the world.
He had become the king of every race.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had experienced nearly everything a person who only lived once could ever dream of doing.
And yet, in all those lives, Kim Seongchan had never made chef his main profession.
Instead, he had tried almost every other profession.
And after experiencing all of them, he finally reached one conclusion.
Only a chef could save this other world.
“Let’s save this world by becoming the kind of chef you love, Lena.”
[If Seongchan says so, then I’m sure it’ll happen. I believe you.]
The blazing trees continued to burn.
Even the ground beneath the trees that had already turned to ash began to crumble and fall apart.
The land itself was collapsing and disappearing before his eyes.
