The Regressor Only Protects Me Chapter 59

#Episode 59. Revolution

I listened to the chief’s words silently.

He invited me and Jin Jae-hee to his office one night, a week after the first execution.

And ironically, today was the day of the event.

I was sitting in front of him, and Jin Jae-hee was standing next to me.

The chief said to me.

“Do you know what is truly strange about humans?”

The chief’s table was laden with food.

He thawed frozen sashimi and ate it dipped in soy sauce.

Dribble dribble dribble-.

Wine continued to be poured into the chief’s glass.

The table was filled with fish cake soup filled with warm broth, chicken roasted on a brazier, meat grilled on a hot plate, and other foods from previous civilizations that could not be found after the world was destroyed.

Disposable chopsticks were neatly placed in front of me, and the chief in front of me was greedily eating the food.

Among the mess of food, the chess pieces of the chief and I were neatly arranged.

I was black, and the chief was white.

“People make mistakes. That’s true… If only there weren’t mistakes… There wouldn’t be conflicts between people. If you think about it, a wrong judgment, even if it wasn’t a mistake at the time, turns out to be a mistake in retrospect.”

Chin, slurp.

The chief cut the steak.

I was wondering where the chefs were dispatched these days, but it seems they were being used as the chief’s personal chefs.

The chief put a piece of steak in his mouth and chewed it.

The chief continued speaking.

“But, let’s think about it another way. If this person hadn’t made mistakes, we humans wouldn’t have been able to develop this much.”

Tick, s …

The chief was slicing steak, his eyes fixed on me.

“Administrator, do you happen to know who the first human was? Putting aside religious stories like Adam.”

Honey, honey, honey.

The chief now began to chug the entire bottle of wine.

There was a pile of liquor bottles next to his bed.

I followed him and answered while drinking wine.

“Are you talking about Homo sapiens?”

“No. No, that’s true, but think about it carefully. The first human being… … who was it?”

The chief’s mouth opened and closed at regular intervals.

Every time that happened, I would feel sick seeing the thick saliva flowing between my lips and the small pieces of food filling my mouth.

“Who could it be… … Well, I saw it in a book too. It was definitely a professor from somewhere in Israel, in the Middle East… … But when I saw the book, I thought, “Ah!” and realized. That makes sense!” Haha.”

The chief spends most of his time in his office.

There was a bed on one side of the office, and next to the bed was a wide, long desk, so I always had my meals here.

Thanks to the two heaters installed here, the temperature was kept warmer than other residences in the police station.

The chief, who had been rolling wine on the tip of his tongue, put down his knife and fork and looked at me.

It seemed like he was waiting for my answer.

But I don’t know the answer the chief wants.

And the chief called me aside, and I don’t know why he brought this up.

I didn’t even want to know.

Of course, now is the time to please him.

Because the work has already begun.

“I guess you don’t know.”

“Could you please tell me?”

I picked up a grape that was on the table.

The wine was rotating steadily in the glass held by the chief.

“The correct answer is the monkey who told the first lie.”

He held the grape, put it in his mouth, and chewed it.

Misread.

It was sour and sweet.

“The first monkey to lie deceived another monkey for his own gain. Do animals lie? No. Animals don’t lie. They act according to their instincts. So why did the first human lie?”

“… … .”

“I think it’s because of the desire for destruction.”

Honey rice cake.

The chief’s throat moved up and down.

“A monkey has no reason to kill another monkey. Unless they are meat-eating, it is safer to stay together. But this monkey… … destroyed another monkey for its own benefit. By stealing its food, or by falsely starving it, it committed an act of destruction. It was an act of transcendence, an advance beyond the primal instincts of an animal.”

Bam.

The chief put down a wine glass.

He opened his eyes half-heartedly, glared at me, and finished speaking.

“Then, one question arises. Aren’t humans who commit murder the most progressive beings?”

I too raised my eyes and glared at him.

He was smiling, revealing his yellow teeth in an unpleasant way.

“But that seems like a very one-dimensional interpretation… … I think that transcendental progress through destruction ended with monkeys. Then what about humans now? What is needed for humans to become more transcendent beings than they are now? Monkeys had a desire for destruction… … Then what about humans?”

Ting-.

As the chief opened the cap of the Zippo lighter, a refreshing sound filled the room.

The end of the chief’s cigarette was engulfed in the flame from the Zippo lighter.

“This league is a process of eliciting answers to questions that prove that. That’s my conclusion.”

“… … .”

Phew-.

The smoke from his cigarette instantly obscured him from my sight and then dissipated into the air.

“I think so. Don’t you think so, sir?”

He asked for my consent, but I couldn’t easily answer.

His voice was dry and wicked, like the howl of a snake.

“Well, whatever you want, think about it.”

My eyes were drawn to the wine glass in front of me.

I have never had alcohol in my life.

I’ve never had soju, beer, or any other alcoholic beverage.

But just now, I followed him and placed my hand on the wine glass.

I put the glass to my lips, paused for a moment, and took a sip.

There was a sweetness after the bitter taste.

The chief and I had been drinking for two hours already, talking about nothing but pointless things.

The chief spoke with a slightly tongue-tied voice, stammering.

“There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. That’s… why are humans equal?”

“… … .”

Phong-!

The chief opened the bottle of wine again.

He was already very drunk.

Dribble, dribble, dribble.

His glass was filled again with bright red wine.

“Humans are not equal, sir. Because we are not equal, we enjoy equality. It is not equal, and the authoritarian beings have simply made the world equal. That is why the world is not equal. We are beings who are unequal from the moment we are born.”

The chief emptied the wine in his glass in one gulp, and I followed suit and drank some more.

At that moment, Jin Jae-hee touched my glass as if he was worried.

“Are you okay?”

“are you okay.”

She was worried that I might drink too much.

But I wasn’t worried about that much.

Not only was he not drunk, but to this extent… … it was difficult to make the chief drunk.

“Anyway… … I… … Administrator… … I like you. You’re like my nephew, you know. Age doesn’t really matter now, but… … Originally, I had assigned a watcher to the punitive force that the Administrator formed.”

I couldn’t help but be a little surprised by that sound.

I raised my eyes and looked at the chief.

He was staggering and shaking his head from side to side.

I thought of the city councilman who died a few days ago.

I rated him highly.

I thought he was the real brain within the force.

But it wasn’t.

The city councilman was executed, and the mayor was left to his own devices.

The police chief, and me too.

We were watching each other.

“I know you’re doing a lot of things, like building bridges and taming monsters. And… … I also know that you’re gaining the trust of the citizens… … Uuuuk… … ! I know that.”

The chief covered his mouth and then looked at me again.

“But the administrator… … ordered the citizens to build a guillotine… … That- That. I. became certain that the administrator was now on our side… … Well… … Actually, I was trying to get rid of you. If I had killed you rashly, the citizens’ resistance would have grown stronger… … In preparation… … Ah… … You’re taking it.”

I looked at the chief and asked naturally.

“But what happened to Officer Kim Soo-kyung? She hasn’t been coming since yesterday.”

“I killed him? Because he was so arrogant.”

The chief answered as if it were so obvious.

I frowned.

Bam-!

After those words, the chief stood up from his seat.

Then he grabbed the wine glass in front of him and extended it towards me.

“Well, that’s in the past. Now, Administrator! For our… … success.”

The chief chuckled, raising his glass of wine.

I too followed him and raised my glass.

Tank-.

The wine glasses clinked, releasing a refreshing sound.

The chief looked up from his wine, but his eyes were fixed on me.

I felt his gaze, but I pretended not to notice and emptied the wine in my glass.

As expected, it’s bitter.

In the end, it’s a battle of timing.

Will I kill the chief first, or will the chief kill me first?

And the conclusion has already been reached.

“We’re in the same boat now, sir.”

“… … .”

“To commemorate this, I would like to give you a small gift. This is a gift to show that we have reached the same level.”

At that moment, the chief called the secretary who was outside.

“What, what is that? Tell them to come in.”

I grabbed a bottle of water on the side of the table, thinking I should drink some water.

At that moment, several people came into the office.

They were all women.

The women stood next to me, looking down at me with anxious eyes.

The chief poured wine into my glass again and spoke to me.

“Since ancient times? Those who reached the top… … had exclusive and absolute rights to all pleasures. The Greek saints enjoyed sleeping with young boys… … and Gandhi, who was an anthropological saint, also enjoyed a promiscuous s*x life. … … Are modern people any different? No. It would be even more so. This is natural. There is no need to feel guilty. We are not sick or weak beings by nature. We do not have pathological desires. This is simply… … natural. You have the rights you deserve because you are above, because you are above. So enjoy it to your heart’s content.”

Even though the alcohol was kicking in, I came to my senses.

Then he looked back at the women.

They were all young women.

Then he turned his head again and looked at the chief.

As a man, it is abnormal not to feel s*xual pleasure.

I am also a twenty year old man.

Even after the world was destroyed, that desire still stirred in me.

s*x drive, appetite, and sleep.

Even in this world where everything is lacking, the top class of the group lives enjoying everything.

It was no different from the world before it was destroyed.

But I wasn’t interested in pleasure.

My only concern was finding my brother.

“… … Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Then the chief pointed at Jin Jae-hee with a staggering finger.

He laughed heartily, revealing his blackened gums.

“Oh, so the manager already has a lover?”

The chief continued speaking, giggling as if trying to hold back laughter.

“Are you a romantic? Our manager.”

“… … .”

I didn’t feel it was worth responding, so I didn’t answer.

I put my hands in my pockets, stared at him, and then quickly raised my upper body.

Then he naturally returned the black chess pieces that had fallen over in a mess to their original positions and said:

“Chess. Do you know how to play?”

“… …Chess? Oh, yes. I do. I used to play it a lot when I was in college. Yes. Oh, right. Sir, you and I decided to play… …chess, right? Okay. Let’s play sometime.”

Boom!

The waiter pushed the plates and food in front of him across the table.

There was now a chessboard between the chief and me.

Chess was a toy I brought with me.

One means to keep him here.

The first is alcohol, the second is chess.

Simple as they are, these two means are elements created to keep the prologue here.

The chief held his chess pieces with unsteady hands.

“Look… … here… … no, the positions of the Queen and King… … this is… … different from Janggi… … .”

I raised the black king who had fallen down while the chief was causing a ruckus.

widely-.

The moment the black king stood up, my legions were complete.

I am ready.

I am prepared.

I will start.

Today, in this place, I will end it all.

Those white chess pieces, lying scattered here and there in a mess, are now just lights in the wind.

“Shall we begin?”

“Yes… … Well… … Let’s begin.”

I held the phone with my index finger and moved it forward.

Tamar-!

A dull sound filled the office.

(Continued in the next episode)