Chapter 86
I checked my outfit as I looked at the office where the sun was rising early in the morning.
The drinking party that I had last night as a celebration ended late at night.
And what I learned there was that I was surprisingly good at drinking.
‘Who would have thought that the other three would fall before me?’
The most surprising thing was Shin Gareung’s alcohol tolerance.
She looked like someone who had been in social life for a long time and had been to many of these occasions, but she was the first one to retire.
She looked the strongest, but she actually showed the cliché of being the weakest.
‘At least Hye-rim was the strongest.’
Maybe it was because she was a collector or because of her constitution, she didn’t get drunk easily.
She was the one who fought with me until the end, and she was the one who left with Shin Gareung and Baek Seoryeon to Baek Seoryeon’s studio late at night.
‘I did a rough cleanup of the office, so I’ll leave the rest to Seoryeon.’
She must be suffering from a hangover, but that’s a separate matter.
Besides, I can’t call Shin Gareung and make her clean up, can I?
Above all, I’m busy today.
It’s been one day since I became an assistant.
Now, as assistant manager Kang Yu-hyun, I had to go back to the teller’s work again.
“Let’s go.”
[Ah. How are you so fine after drinking so much yesterday?]
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I left the office with Baekryeon on my back.
The city where the sun rises is very busy.
People walk around the streets and cars fill the roads for work.
I moved through those people and headed for a certain world of thought.
[Where are you going? Aren’t you going to call Kang Hye-rim?]
‘No, I’m not. This is something I have to do by myself.’𝗻𝗼𝘃𝑒𝑙𝗯𝔦𝔫.𝒏𝔢𝒕
[Ah. Are you going to see that woman from that time?]
I nodded.
Now that I’m an assistant, I can officially increase the number of contract collectors.
I already have a reliable collector like Kang Hye-rim, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pick the second and third ones lightly.
‘I have to recruit her no matter what.’
[Tsk. What’s so good about that rude woman?]
Baekryeon grumbled, but that was because he didn’t know about Kwon Jia’s true ability.
I didn’t bother to explain it to him, saying that he would know when he saw it.
I arrived at the entrance of a world of thought.
Maybe it was because it was early in the morning, but I didn’t see any collectors coming and going.
I sat down on an empty chair and waited for time.
***
Near the entrance of a world of thought where people’s access was controlled.
Kwon Jia, who left early in the morning, found an unwelcome guest who came before her.
“Hello.”
“…”
Kwon Jia hardened her expression as she saw the man in front of her.
Why on earth is he here?
She didn’t have time to solve that question as the man smiled faintly and stood in front of her.
“The weather is nice today. Isn’t it, Kwon Jia?”
“Kang Yu-hyun…that’s what you said. What do you want?”
“Oh. You remembered my name.”
“Shut up and answer my question.”
Kwon Jia was not in a good mood.
She had something to do.
To do that, she needed to collect TP as fast as possible and become stronger.
She didn’t want to be bothered by such trivial things from the start.
If he annoys me a little more, then I’ll kill him.
Kwon Jia had a fierce thought, but Kang Yu-hyun didn’t seem to know that.
He maintained a gentle smile and said.
“Didn’t I tell you last time? I know that you don’t belong to any manager or clan yet, so why don’t you take this opportunity and sign a contract with our White Flower Management?”
“No thanks. Get lost.”
Kwon Jia left him cold words and passed by Kang Yu-hyun.
White Flower Management?
She had never heard of that name before.
It must be some insignificant place.
It seemed like they suddenly rose in ‘this round’, but she didn’t think much of them now.
Things didn’t always go the same way in the repeated worlds.
She didn’t like being affiliated with somewhere in the first place.
The moment she joined an organization, her freedom was practically taken away.
It was easier to be alone to move as she wanted and to achieve what she aimed for.
“Is it because you can’t do what you want?”
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“…”
Kwon Jia’s footsteps stopped at the words that hit the mark.
Kang Yu-hyun’s voice continued to be heard from behind.
“You’re anxious, right? You have to earn TP, but if you belong to somewhere, you feel like you’ll only be spinning around. And if you sign a contract, you don’t like the tellers either. But you can’t give up either.”
“You…”
Kwon Jia turned around with fire in her eyes.
“What do you know, talking like that?”
“What if I know?”
“What…”
Kwon Jia was speechless at the brazen answer.
She looked at Kang Yu-hyun with disbelief.
Usually, in this situation, wouldn’t they just ignore or apologize?
She missed one thing.
Kang Yu-hyun was not an ordinary person that she normally thought of, and he was not a person who would let this situation go.
“I know what you want. I can help you with that.”
As he spoke, Kang Yu-hyun was confident.
Even though Kwon Jia had repeated hundreds of similar lives, he was the first one for her.
“How?”
She would have dismissed it as nonsense and ignored it normally.
But she couldn’t help it, the man in front of her was strangely intriguing.
So far, there were many people who approached her through all the rounds.
They all approached her after seeing her outstanding ability and results.
The incident happened not now, but a few years later in the future.
But Kang Yu-hyun was different.
He blocked her way as soon as he saw her on the graduation day.
He didn’t stop there, and he pinched her insecurity as if he wanted to show it.
This was the first time in her repeated life.
Curiosity that arose between doubt and caution.
A faint expectation and wariness mixed in her eyes, and Kang Yu-hyun smiled slightly.
“It’s no fun to tell you everything here. That’s why I’m asking you to talk.”
“Hmph. You’re talking nonsense without any intention.”
“Isn’t it something you have to experience to know if it’s nonsense or not?”
“…”
Kwon Jia felt a slight sway in her heart for a moment at the audacious answer.
A very little bit, she felt like it might be true.
But that emotion was forcibly cooled down by something else.
Kwon Jia’s expression turned cold in an instant.
She suddenly became frigid, as if she had changed her mask.
Swoosh.
As if she didn’t want to hear any more, Kwon Jia drew her sword.
Kang Yoo Hyun was surprised by Kwon Jia’s sudden change of behavior, but his expression became even calmer.
He analyzed Kwon Jia’s actions in detail.
‘She changed her mood abruptly. A trigger from trauma? No, that’s a different reaction. Could it be one of the characteristics of the regressor?’
He had only read the book of Kwon Jia’s current life, but that didn’t mean he knew nothing about her.
Considering her characteristics and the peculiarities of this world, there were things he could figure out without seeing them.
‘It must be because of the regressor characteristic.’
All collectors gain their own characteristics as soon as they awaken as collectors.
From the lowest-rated extra-class characteristics to the highest-rated protagonist-class characteristics.
Kwon Jia was no exception.
She possessed the regressor characteristic, a protagonist-class characteristic that all collectors coveted.
But such a strong characteristic was also a double-edged sword.
If the power of the characteristic is too strong for the user, the user will be swayed by the [power of the story] that the characteristic possesses.
That was what happened to Ju Kyung Soo, who was smashed by Kang Hye Rim a while ago.
He didn’t know if it was his original personality, but he was being controlled by one of his characteristics, [Casanova].
He flirted with too many women and indulged in them.
‘Surely, the regressor characteristic is much more powerful than that.’
And according to Yoo Hyun’s analysis, one of the effects of the regressor characteristic was to forcibly calm down heightened emotions.
Perhaps, that was not something Kwon Jia intended, but rather a behavior that was semi-forcibly fixed by the characteristic itself.
Feeling his gaze analyzing her, Kwon Jia pointed the sword she received from Kang Yoo Hyun at him and bared her teeth.
“Get lost!”
She shouted with her spikes up, like a wounded beast who couldn’t trust anyone after being hurt for too long.
At least Yoo Hyun saw her that way.
“And don’t ever show up in front of me again.”
The woman standing in front of Kang Yoo Hyun was not a simple regressor.
She was an eternal victim who repeated the same life over and over again, getting hurt and betrayed by people.
Kang Yoo Hyun did not avoid Kwon Jia’s gaze that seemed to want to kill him.
He sighed softly and said,
“Since you don’t seem to trust me, I’ll show you.”
Kang Yoo Hyun took a big step toward Kwon Jia, who was still wary of him.
Kwon Jia spat out her breath and pointed her sword at Kang Yu-hyun’s neck.
It was a silent threat that she would stab him if he kept walking towards her.
Just before the unwavering blade touched him, Yu-hyun stopped his steps.
He lifted his finger and pressed it against Kwon Jia’s sword.
Swoosh.
The sharp sword, following Kwon Jia’s momentum, cut Kang Yu-hyun’s finger.
Blood dripped from the wound and flew in the air.
But soon, it turned into white letters and disappeared as if melting in the air.
Kwon Jia shuddered at the sight.
“What the…”
“As you can see, I’m not human.”
“What?”
“Let me introduce myself again.”
Kang Yu-hyun bowed his head politely.
“I’m a teller from the Story branch of Celestial Corporation. My name is Kang Yu-hyun, assistant manager.”
When she learned the true identity of Kang Yu-hyun, whom she thought was a human, Kwon Jia swallowed her saliva unconsciously.
Could it be, he was a teller?
“Are you willing to listen to my story now?”
As he asked her seriously, Kwon Jia was at a loss for how to react to this strange feeling that she had never experienced before.
***
I could tell that Kwon Jia was hesitating a lot.
I didn’t expect her to give me a positive answer right away.
But the fact that she was holding her sword and thinking after I revealed that I was a teller was a sign of a positive change.
I could easily guess what state she was in by looking at her reaction.
‘Extreme distrust of humans. On top of that, she can’t have a normal conversation in any situation because of her regressor trait.’
She was really the worst candidate for recruitment.
But if I wanted to be with someone like her, this kind of hardship was nothing.
Regressors are such beings.
They are the ultimate protagonists that I have to risk everything and bring them with me.
They have rich knowledge that others don’t know because they have experienced the events that will happen in the future.
They don’t act like rookies either.
And they have many ways to become stronger, so they are like perfect characters who can grow.
[What’s up with her? She’s taking too long.]
‘She doesn’t trust me completely.’
[Why? You said you were a teller, shouldn’t that make her more responsive?]
That’s what Baek-ryeon expected.
The name of a teller had a very high value on Earth.
Probably any collector would be ready to accept a contract from a teller as soon as they offered it.
And that was natural.
But Kwon Jia’s reaction was quite different from Baek-ryeon’s expectation.
On the contrary, I felt a hint of hatred from her when I mentioned that I was a teller.
And I had a vague idea why.
‘Regressors are those who have experienced the future. And if it’s the future of Earth…’
The end.
People who haven’t seen or experienced it don’t know how much the tellers exploited and used people there.
If Kwon Jia was a regressor, there was a high chance that she had witnessed that future herself.
It was natural for her to hate tellers.
But the reason why Kwon Jia didn’t attack me right away was because I was different.
I showed her that.
“Phew. If it’s hard for you to be honest, you don’t have to answer me right now. You need time to think.”
So I decided to give her some time to postpone her answer.
“I’ll leave you alone for today.”
When I tried to give up easily after coming this far, Kwon Jia was rather flustered.
“Hey, wait!”
“Then, I’ll see you next time.”
I disappeared from the spot before she could say anything else.
I teleported to one of the privileges that a teller had, [The Room of the Observer].
[What? You don’t have to ask more?]
“It was better to stop here for now. If I pushed her more, it would backfire.”
[That’s not like you.]
Not like me.
I smiled bitterly and didn’t bother to deny it.
‘But Baek-ryeon. You don’t know yet, but I didn’t just retreat without any plan.’
I muttered to myself so that only I could hear and opened the dozens of books that I brought with me.
The mysterious books that only I could see and no one else.
Yeah.
They were all taken from Kwon Jia’s bookshelf.
‘I’m not like myself if I don’t do anything and just leave.’
I wonder if she won’t charge me late fees for borrowing so much.
