The Regressor Only Protects Me Chapter 3

#Episode 3. The End of the World (3)

The desire for survival is the most basic desire for humans.

The emergence of monsters has made it impossible for people to fulfill their basic needs.

And today, people are beginning to develop a fear of the ‘predatory’ instinct that mammals have in their subconscious.

In the end, we realized that humans, like other animals, are just pieces of meat.

People have changed from being the prey to being eaten.

The situation inside the store was the worst.

“Get out of the way, you fu*king punk!!!”

“Gyah! Don’t push me!!!”

“Whoaaaaah! Aah! Aah!!!”

There was a crowd of people at the entrance.

They tried to open the door, losing their sense of reason in their desire for survival.

They became individuals with only the instinct for survival left.

In reality, the monster didn’t kill any of them, but things got even worse.

Plop! Plop! Crunch!

There were several people who fell in front of the entrance.

Some people lost their balance and fell over, getting trampled by the crowd that surged forward.

Zion ran around in various directions trying to find an exit, and barely managed to reach a different staircase level.

And then he turned his head away, looking at the people crowding at the door.

The entrances and exits to the shopping mall were restricted.

The entrances to the shopping malls were mostly on the first floor, and were connected to the underground parking lot, even considering the driveway.

But this is the 7th floor above ground.

If there are about 1,000 people inside this shopping mall, everyone who is panicking right now will be thinking the same thing.

Run away to the first floor and escape.

And with hundreds of people crammed into the first floor, it was sure to be a living hell.

Zion strode back and examined the steps he had been on again.

‘The black fog hasn’t come in yet.’

It was an unbelievable sight.

The fog-like gas could easily seep in through the narrow gap in the door.

But the fog still hasn’t come in.

As I started to look at the situation rationally, I began to see a direction.

Zion covered his mouth and nose with a sweat towel he used on construction sites.

And then, taking a deep breath, I slowly opened the stairwell door.

Crunch! Creak-.

The rotten smell made my nose tingle and vibrate.

And the sight that appeared before my eyes was truly astonishing.

The black fog remained still, surrounding the walls.

Literally stop.

The fog was neither moving forward nor spreading.

It was certainly a sight that Zion could not understand with the common sense that it possessed at the time.

Zion slowly approached the wall.

The wall was slowly rippling.

At the same time, a strong smell continued to emanate from there.

It was a smell that was out of the question for a towel.

The smell was like a rotting corpse.

The feel is unknown.

A strange ‘wooooong~’ sound was heard.

It felt as if I was experiencing a state of vibration with my whole body.

Black fog covers both the exterior and interior walls of the building along the walls.

It meant that the entire building was covered in this black fog.

‘… …I’m not threatening.’

The monsters outside this black smoke may be threatening to humans, but at least this black smoke was not a threat to humans.

Zion walked slowly, looking around, back towards the people.

People were still scuffling in front of the opposite staircase.

There were at least a few dozen people.

Zion lost interest and sat down on a nearby chair.

I could tell from what I had observed and felt so far.

That there is nothing you can do right now.

Something had to change.

And the change happened faster than expected.

A woman leisurely browsing clothes in a children’s clothing store.

She had a calm expression.

It looked somewhat out of place.

Because no human being could ever remain so calm in a situation like this.

The woman soon walked out to where the people were.

“Just a moment~ Please pay attention.”

The woman called the people.

* * *

I walked a little closer to the woman.

There was a woman there, wearing an outfit that was shockingly revealing, and her eyes were covered with a strangely patterned blindfold.

The woman slowly approached the panicked people.

“All you troublemakers, please focus on me! Let’s get this over with quickly.”

The woman’s voice instantly caught people’s attention.

The woman’s voice was bright.

It was a contrast to the others who were terrified.

It seemed like that woman was the administrator of this fu*king extermination policy.

The people gathered at the entrance looked at the woman one by one.

Only then did the woman laugh out loud and shout.

“Hello, fellow Disruptors! I am Manager K, dispatched from the Space Ecology Management Headquarters! Nice to meet you.”

Everyone there looked at K, reminded of that.

K bowed his head politely and then began to speak again.

“Okay, okay. Everyone! You don’t have to be so scared. This is just a policy. You are living beings in the universe and you just have to follow the policy. So this is not a disaster, it’s a policy! Okay, let’s follow it.”

No one followed suit.

When K saw that the citizens there were not laughing, his expression softened and he continued to speak with a grin.

“Huh? No one is following along… … Ahaha. Well, anyway, I don’t like being bored, so let’s get started quickly. Let’s see… … First things first… … .”

At that moment, a woman who was looking at K from the escalator spoke in a fearful voice.

“I… … I… … Us! Can’t you just let us go? I, I don’t know who you are… … but we’re innocent… … Why this kind of terrorism… … .”

K was looking at a strange paper book and seemed uninterested in what the woman was saying.

Then the woman knelt down and begged K.

“Please… … Please… … There’s a child in my stomach. So.”

As the woman knelt down, the nearby citizens who had been sobbing also began to plead.

They were all begging with both hands.

As the sobbing filled the room, K finally responded.

“Hmm. That’s right. I forgot. I forgot for a moment that the human race is a species that only tries to avoid situations it encounters. I clearly told you earlier. It was to heighten your sense of reality.”

Tamar-!

Only then did K close the book and look at the woman.

It was a sinister smile.

“Okay. Then, before we get into the real first round, let’s select those who will not follow the extermination policy.”

Binggle-.

As K drew a circle in the air with his finger, an area with signs reading [O] and [X] appeared inside the store.

The people were in an uproar.

“Article 1, Paragraph 3 of the Space Ecosystem Disturbance Species Disposal Act. All disruptive species have the right not to follow the policy. That right must be guaranteed by the administrator… … Because of this provision, I, as your administrator, must guarantee the right to choose.”

A few people showed faint smiles.

K, who was looking at the people’s smiles, also slightly raised the corners of his mouth.

“Then, those of you who will not follow the extermination policy, please move to the left where the X is, based on my standard. Those of you who will follow the policy, please move to the right where the O is. The time is… … well. About 5 minutes? I’ll give you that.”

Bang! Bang!

As K snapped his fingers, a colorful digital clock appeared in the air.

It was a watch with a clown design on it, and the clown was laughing in a strange way.

[Kekekekekekekeke! Bug. Move! It’s morning. Kekekekekekeke! Bug. Move! It’s morning.]

Then K was startled and mumbled his words.

“Ah, chacha. This is my alarm bell. Again.”

Percussion!

She snapped her fingers once more, and only then did the normal clock appear.

The clock showed exactly five minutes.

“Ah, ahem! Okay, then please choose. We don’t have much time. If we keep doing this, they’ll swarm us!”

Those guys?

I frowned at K’s words.

There was cruelty in that monstrous laugh.

People started to move one by one, hesitating.

Most people flocked to the [X] option of not following the policy.

Some of those who had remained neutral soon walked towards [X].

I also got up from my seat and headed towards the option without hesitation.

[O] was an option.

When I came to the choices, I turned my head and looked at the [X] choice.

Everyone there was looking at me.

Everyone had the same expression on their face.

He was glaring at me as if he couldn’t understand at all.

Of all the people here, none of them chose the [O] option.

“Interesting results. I didn’t expect it to be so polarized.”

K approached me with a smile on his face, in the [O] choice.

And it circled around me.

“Player, is there a reason you chose ‘O’?”

K asked me even though he knew.

I didn’t really need to answer, so I remained silent.

Then, the people in the [X] option started talking to me one by one.

“Hey, hey! Are you crazy?! Are you so crazy that you want to die?”

“Yeah! We can’t follow this crazy policy. Come over here quickly.”

“Look, I’m a soldier. The safest way to deal with terrorism is to first comply with the perpetrator’s demands.”

“Yes, student. Come here!”

A few people looked like they couldn’t understand.

A few people with pitiful expressions.

A few people looked worried.

They were all looking back at me, lost in thought.

But I stuck to my choice.

If you think about it for a moment, it was such an easy problem.

“3 minutes left~.”

As time passed, the citizens became more and more agitated and began to try to persuade me.

“Hey! Student! Stop being so stubborn and come here!”

“Yes! Why are you doing that! Let’s listen to what the terrorist has to say first. Then the police and firefighters won’t come!”

Police, firefighters.

That was an interesting statement.

I have no obligation to save them.

Saving them didn’t make them on my side.

I wasn’t a good guy.

The world was never a place where you could live just by being good.

Whether the world ends or not.

“Leave me alone! You little punk, why are you trying to persuade me with your mouth so sore?”

It was a middle-aged man who had been picking on me in front of the stairs.

At those words, the citizens who were trying to persuade me stopped talking to me one by one.

The man’s muttering could be heard from here.

“X신 같은 새끼. 요즘 애새끼들은 저런 자기 주관 때문에 인생 종 치는 거야. 쯧쯧. 나 때는 주관 따윈 없었어.”

Why do you have so many complaints about others?

The man, who saw me for the first time today, showed his disgust without reservation.

I didn’t react.

No, there was no need to react.

Anyway, in three minutes, that guy will be dead.

At that moment, a voice rang in my head.

I was a little surprised, but I didn’t show it.

-Player, can you hear me?

I raised my head and looked ahead.

There, K was looking at me with a grin.

I frowned.

K said.

-Excuse me~. I’m bored. Shall we play a game? A special game just for you and me.

There was no answer.

But K still conveyed his voice with a grin.

-From now on, if you can get more than half of these citizens to choose ‘O’, you win. If more than half of them choose ‘X’, I win.

-Even if you lose the game, there’s no disadvantage. Let’s just have fun~ Fun.

K shrugged.

-But I dare say that if you win the game, I’ll give you some useful items. You know I’m not lying, right?

I looked at K.

K was also looking at me.

Now, there seemed to be no reason to refuse her offer.

But I was curious about the intention.

From the manager’s perspective, I’m just a worthless nuisance.

Why did she have to pick me?

Am I the only one who chose the [O] option?

There must have been a higher level decision than that.

I glanced at the timer.

2 minutes left.

I had to convince a bunch of citizens who were here in two minutes.

Opened his mouth.

“If you are in [X], you all die.”

Only then, one by one, did the citizens turn their gaze towards me.

I took my eyes off K and looked back at them.

“Come over. To [O].”

Simply put.

At this moment, if I try to explain it in detail, you’ll think of me as a strange man.

There will definitely be someone who will trip over my words.

Yeah, like that old man.

“What do you believe in? Have you finally lost your mind?”

The moment the man took the bait, he immediately lifted the fishing rod.

“If we don’t play this game, we’ll die.”

“If you play the game, you die. That woman said. You don’t have to play the game if you don’t want to!”

“What if I don’t play the game? Should I send you home nicely?”

Of course that could be the case.

K didn’t say anything after the selection.

But if you look at the case a little more closely, it turns out to be a very easy problem.

So much so that even a child can easily understand the intention.

Most people here are mentally unstable right now.

That is, it is impossible to look at the incident rationally.

If you can’t think rationally, your judgments will be driven by emotions.

“If you play games! Then you’ll send me home? This kid, really!”

“Playing games can extend your life… … ”

I think you have a girl!

The man interrupted me mid-sentence and became very angry.

He shouted with great excitement, and his voice was so loud that it resonated throughout the store.

He needed someone to vent his anger on.

And the youngest and most vulnerable person was chosen as the target.

He was a worthless man.

“If you want to die, die alone! Where are you trying to incite people! A kid like you is ruining the country… …!”

“Shut up and listen.”

As I spoke, the atmosphere grew cold.

I continued speaking, looking straight into his face.

The man looked up, his eyes wide open, as if he was dumbfounded.

“We were designated as an ecosystem disruptor. A disruptor is a species that threatens the ecosystem, and it is an entity that must be subjugated by the life forms that have taken over civilization. That is the word. We are that disruptor. In other words, if you think about it, we have been under the control of a higher level of life forms that are incomparable to Earth’s civilization. The meaning of this policy is to exterminate all humans except for a small number of individuals. But that woman who was dispatched as the administrator is going to let us live because she opposes this policy? Of course not. Because that would be against the policy.”

“Pheuhhhh!”

Seeing K laughing out loud as he listened to the story, it seemed like my hypothesis was also correct.

And from then on, the citizens in [X] began to hesitate one by one and cross over to [O].

“It’s not a position we can choose. If we choose to avoid the policy, our chances of survival are very slim. On the other hand, if we follow the policy, we can survive for now. Why, we haven’t even started the first round yet.”

“You… … You… … !”

“… … That woman is simply playing a game with us right now, and the answer has already been decided. So the choice is [O].”

After saying that, I looked at the timer.

Before I knew it, the timer had 15 seconds left.

“If you still don’t understand even after this explanation, it would be better for you to just die here. Like you.”

“This X baby !!!”

The man was furious, but the odds were in my favor.

“… … I, I think what that person said is right?”

“Yeah, yeah… … I think that’s right!”

“Hey, hurry up!”

People started to move from [X] to [O] one by one.

At first, it was the younger generation that took the lead in coming over, but soon the majority of people came over to [O].

“Huh??!? Are you guys crazy??!! Are you saying you believe that crazy guy’s delusions?!?!!”

The old man panicked and tried to stop them, but there was no change in the people’s choices.

When the remaining timer reached 5 seconds, there were less than 10 people left in [X].

I looked at the old man.

He hesitated, but did not fall over immediately.

And the timer number soon pointed to ‘0’.

Only then did the old man extend his arm towards [O].

“Oh, wait a minute.”

But it was already too late.

Pubbubububububu!!!

The body of the old man in front of me exploded in all directions.

There was a brief moment of silence as the horrific sight of entire bodies bursting into pieces of flesh continued.

But it only lasted for a very short time.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaah-!!!”

“Eww! Ewwwww!!!”

Shrill screams echoed from all directions.

Their shredded flesh writhed and rolled on the floor.

I calmly wiped the blood that had splashed on my face with my sleeve.

And then came applause.

Clap-. Clap-. Clap clap clap clap.

K was approaching, smiling and clapping.

“Bravo! Awesome, Player. You win.”

K was laughing, but I could never laugh.

(Continued in the next episode)