By Zephyria 
The infinite death he thought had ended repeated itself.
Like the daughter of the Chinese restaurant owner who was Seo Gae-un’s close friend, Tae-un searched for, died, searched, died, and searched again for the acquaintances who were anxious about the whereabouts of the orphanage children, eventually rescuing them. The number of survivors who joined him increased with each repeating cycle, and Tae-un realized that to keep them safe, he had to expand his own power.
Starting with the nearby Jaewoo University shelter, Tae-un began to integrate survivor groups one by one. It was not uncommon for people to resent a mere fourteen-year-old boy standing above them. In a desolate city where death was imminent, Tae-un saw the depths of humanity in the raw desires and naked faces displayed without reserve.
‘Why do I even have to save people like this?’
Deep skepticism washed over him at times, but he steadied his heart by thinking of Kim Si-baek. It was the only atonement he could offer to the man who would suffer upon learning that he had been erased.
「You have become the apostle of a young god.」
The news of Kim Si-baek that Chaos occasionally delivered was joy, longing, pain, and sorrow.
He missed Si-baek hyung. So much.
Even after escaping Seoul, problems remained piled high. Since the country could not find stability, not only the Seoul refugees without a foundation but also the orphanage children grew worn and exhausted by the hardships of the world. If Kim Si-baek saw a world where the value of life was dragged through the mud, he would be deeply distressed. Tae-un knew only one way to solve the problem.
There is a famous question asking whether one would kill baby Hitler if they traveled back in time. He didn’t know how he would have answered in the past, but Tae-un’s current answer was firm.
Sifting through the memories of previous cycles, he killed off the corrupt politicians and businessmen one by one—those who had incited and fueled chaos for their own greed. Awakened who committed major crimes were no exception.
Soon, he reached a limit. Just as the era had given birth to and raised Hitler, removing a few people did not instantly straighten a twisted nation. He grew sick of the human nature that manifested just as basely as it did in the desolate Seoul. He was fed up. He felt that a world where such humans lived deserved to perish. However, he could not give up.
To set things right, he couldn’t spend years as he did now; he had to escape Seoul faster. Furthermore, he needed to possess a power other than mere force.
Tae-un planned to establish a guild that would become his own source of authority.
Let’s start again from the beginning.
There was a 60 percent chance that Pi Min-hyeong would adopt Pi Seo-yeon and Pi Seo-jun; as long as only those children survived, it was fine.
There was an 80 percent chance that Seo Gae-un would enlist, and a 55 percent chance she would die or be seriously injured due to the earthquake. As long as he got her discharged before the earthquake, it was fine.
There was a 90 percent chance that Yang Eun-ho would date or marry Yang Yura, and he found stability through the affection he shared with her. As long as he guided them to date, it was fine.
Lee Han-gyeol would do anything he was told, but if something similar to the bombing of the State Council chamber occurred, he would become a wreck, unable to bear the guilt. As long as he didn’t ask him to do anything unreasonable, it was fine.
Pi Min-hyeong, who hadn’t adopted the children, fell into despair over the death of another comrade. Again. Seo Gae-un, who stubbornly remained in the army, died while saving civilians during a reckless operation. Again. Yang Eun-ho, who had gone on a trip with Yang Yura, met with an accident. Again. Lee Han-gyeol, caught in a laboratory explosion, became a vegetable. Again.
Again. Again. Again.
Again.
Again.
Again…
Tae-un killed himself mechanically.
It was only natural for memory confusion to occur within the repeating cycles. A gap formed between the memories of people living in the present and Tae-un’s memories of repeating the past countless times. Tae-un could no longer tell what the present was. Countless memories of the past would suddenly sprout, tearing through the thin veil of the present and lunging at him.
He covered the confusion with death and started again from the beginning.
He began to view not only himself but all the people he was saving as parts of a machine. Fragments of parts, haphazardly pieced together, rattling precariously to welcome the return of Kim Si-baek.
Was this truly a human’s perspective?
Am I truly human, I who revive no matter how many times I die?
The start was always that place where Kim Si-baek disappeared. At this ‘starting point,’ crushed by repetition, he could no longer accurately recall what conversations he had shared with him.
Nevertheless, because it was immediately after Kim Si-baek had vanished, his trace, not yet fully gone, shimmered faintly in the air. That revived the ancient time that had been distantly wound away.
〈Our Un-i is the cutest in the whole world.〉
The monster who died and died and died and died became human because of him, who embraced him with love and adored him.
‘…I am human.’
Relying on the memory of him petting his head affectionately, hugging him, and patting him, Tae-un turned around.
From afar, the shrieks of magical beasts and the screams of people could be heard. It was the start again.
Though he couldn’t reclaim Seoul, Korea had become remarkably stable. Compared to the early cycles, it was a world of difference. The people from the orphanage were safe, and unless an unavoidable illness or accident occurred, their acquaintances remained intact. These close relationships provided the orphanage people with emotional stability.
This was a world appropriate enough to welcome Kim Si-baek. He felt his heart beating—a heart that had forgotten the very fact that it pulsed while repeating death. Tae-un took a deep breath. Not the air of a lawless street of slaughter where trash worse than beasts roamed, but the air of a city where people lived rushed into his lungs.
The time he had been so utterly sick of finally became a source of excitement. Tae-un’s biggest concern now was how to explain to Kim Si-baek that his existence had been erased. When he thought of that, the excitement turned back into worry and anxiety. Nevertheless, he waited only for the 7,777th day to arrive.
And so, the final summer came.
The ancient filth that had risen from the bottom of the world gradually encroached, and finally, it consumed him.
When he regained consciousness, Tae-un was in an unfamiliar land. Neither the collapsed buildings nor the human corpses strewn across the ground were familiar. All that reflected in the surroundings was death and ruin.
〈I was definitely in Seoul until just now…〉
As if enjoying the confusion, Chaos responded.
「Eternity belongs to the gods; how could a creation covet it infinitely?」
〈What?〉
「Can you not see, our apostle? This is the end of your regression.」
Our apostle.
The moment he heard those words, the truth slammed into his mind. Tae-un looked down at the ground in a daze. Yes. He ‘looked down at the ground.’
Chaos had said so from the very beginning when the regression started. That there was still one step left before becoming their follower. Tae-un, not knowing what being an Apostle of Chaos meant, had let it slide. He had devoted himself solely to cultivating the ground where Kim Si-baek would return.
This was the price.
After staring down at the city ruined because of him for a long time, Tae-un headed east. Every path he retraced was met only by destroyed civilization and rolling corpses.
And in Seoul.
Tae-un witnessed the sight of those he had tried so hard to protect and save dying miserably. The one who had killed them was none other than himself.
He heard the songs of magical beasts reacting to the apostle’s emotions. In the face of this stark proof, he could not deny that he was the one who had committed these acts.
〈You said you would give Si-baek hyung back!〉
「I shall return him on the 7,777th day.」
Chaos did not lie. It simply did not reveal the truth. That even if Kim Si-baek had returned to Earth in a previous cycle, the truth was that Tae-un would become their apostle in the future and annihilate the world.
Tae-un fell into despair.
〈…Hyung is coming back to a world like this?〉
「Indeed.」
〈Even though I’ve become a monster like this?〉
「Do not worry, apostle. Originally, your humanity would not have risen to the surface like this. It shall not be so in the future.」
The words of Chaos were a new despair. Was it not saying that he would try to kill Kim Si-baek without even recognizing him? That could not happen. More than the fact that he had become a monster, the fear that he would try to kill Kim Si-baek with his own hands was greater.
Tae-un reflexively tried to kill himself, but his body did not move as he wished. As a single drop of Chaos’s malice and hatred dwelled within him, his human will began to slowly sink to the bottom. In its place, a murderous intent to destroy the world and kill humans—creations of god, not Chaos—filled the void.
Squeezing out his last bit of will, he screamed desperately.
〈Is there no way to stop hyung from coming?〉
Chaos wore a thin smile, as if savoring his desperation.
「The god has made a covenant. That man ‘shall certainly’ return to this world on the 7,777th day.」