The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 103

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The Pedestrian I

1

In this world, there is no such skill as [Teleportation].

The tutorial fairies do pop up in mid-air, but as mentioned in a previous episode, that’s merely an invisibility spell.

Monstrosities like the ‘Reincarnation Truck’ suddenly appear from beyond the horizon. But even the trucks aren’t [Teleporting]; they are simply ‘manifesting’ in blind spots out of human sight.

To reiterate, there is no skill like [Teleportation] in this world.

However, phenomena quite close to [Teleportation] do exist.

[Doctor Jang. You need to head to Busan immediately.]

“Yes? What’s happening?”

[Well, it’s hard to explain…]

The Saintess hesitated.

That hesitation alone should have been enough to make me tense. The Saintess had a perfectionist streak bordering on obsessive-compulsive disorder. She always ‘rehearsed’ her lines by pausing time before speaking to me.

But I only discovered this secret in the 713th turn, and this was only the 141st turn. So I asked casually.

“What’s the matter?”

[A tunnel has appeared in the sea off Busan.]

“What?”

[Exactly what I said. An underwater tunnel has appeared. You need to see it for yourself.]

2

Have you ever heard of the ‘Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel’?

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t. It’s a structure that doesn’t exist in reality anyway.

The idea of connecting Korea and Japan with an undersea tunnel has been suggested repeatedly over the years, but its astronomical costs have never justified its benefits.

The person who first proposed this project was anything but ordinary.

He later became the Prime Minister of Japan, with notable achievements including the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the recapture of the Philippines, the bombing of Tokyo, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa.

It’s a stroke of luck that the ‘Undersea Tunnel Collapse Disaster’ wasn’t added to that illustrious lineup.

A far-fetched paper plan.

So when I arrived in Busan upon receiving the Saintess’s urgent message, I couldn’t help but look dumbfounded.

“No way, it’s really an underwater tunnel…?”

There were no seagulls over the waters off Busan.

Instead, there was a tunnel.

More precisely, a tunnel had suddenly appeared on the coast where the former Sinseon-dae Pier used to be.

However, there were several differences from the original plan. As often happens with grand projects that meet the reality, the tunnel, initially conceived as a ‘railway tunnel’, was significantly narrower.

Honestly, it was very narrow.

Barely wide enough for even a truck, let alone a train.

“Oh, you’re here…”

At the tunnel entrance, yellow caution tape was strung everywhere.

Road management staff were bustling about, while Noh Doha greeted me with his morning coffee in hand.

“You’ve worked hard. The Saintess contacted me, and I came right away. What’s the situation?”

“Well, as you can see, a pedestrian tunnel has popped up from the sea. The first report came in at 5 AM today. A crazy road manager who gets up early to jog discovered it first…”

“Is it really connected underwater?”

“We had divers do some snorkeling. They said there are now corals in the waters off Busan. The tunnel slopes down like a damn shaft and then just plunges into the sea floor…”

“Is that harassment? I’ll sue.”

“Hmph. A thousand-year-old old man, really. So, Doctor Jang, what do you think…?”

“It’s definitely an anomaly.”

I looked up at the plaque above the tunnel entrance.

“And also a void.”

It was dirty with all kinds of graffiti and scribbles, but the name of the tunnel was still legible.

Inunaki Tunnel.

This wasn’t a Korean anomaly.

It was Japanese, from the only foreign country across the sea from Busan.

The fact that a domain-type anomaly without wings or legs had ‘invaded’ across the sea made me tense.

Its danger level was continental. It meant an anomaly comparable to the World Tree ‘Udumbara’.

“…You didn’t order the road managers to explore inside, did you?”

“Hmph. Of course not.”

Noh Doha laughed brightly.

“I sent death row inmates.”

Behind him, Yoo Jiwon was waiting. A nautical chart titled ‘The Tsushima Strait and Vicinity’ was spread out on a makeshift folding table.

“How is it going, Director Yoo? How far have the death row inmates gone…?”

“Amazingly, they’ve already passed Tsushima. Ah, welcome, Doctor Jang.”

Click. Yoo Jiwon, a holder of the [Minimap] ability, head of the Road Management Operations Control Room, and a psychopath, saluted me.

She did this right in front of his direct superior, Noh Doha. What a remarkable person. Every time I saw her, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

But now, I needed to focus more on the report than Yoo Jiwon’s character.

“They’ve passed Tsushima?”

“Yes, sir. Look.”

On the nautical chart, chess pieces labeled ‘Kim Jungrip’ and ‘Lee Eunjoo’ moved inch by inch. Presumably, these were the names of the death row inmates.

Surrounding the chart, dozens of pawns (♟) were scattered haphazardly.

“Did you only send two people into the tunnel?”

“No, sir. We grouped the death row inmates into twelve teams of six, making a total of seventy-two inmates sent out as the exploration team. Half of them, thirty-six, were provided with bicycles.”

“…It seems you’ve taken this opportunity to thoroughly clean out the road management prison.”

“It was the command of the Chief. Sir.”

“It wasn’t criticism. Considering the anomaly’s continental-level threat, it was the right call.”

“I also believe the command was entirely appropriate. Sir.”

This bastard…

In any case, Yoo Jiwon’s character wasn’t the issue now. Excluding the part of his brain responsible for morals and ethics, Yoo Jiwon’s intellect was indeed quite exceptional.

“When did you deploy them?”

“The exploration operation began at 0710 hours today. It’s currently been 3 hours and 16 minutes since the operation started. The two survivors who received bicycles are making fairly good time, considering the void environment.”

“…The inmates left in the custody of the road management team are at least somewhat experienced with voids, aren’t they?”

“Correct. Of the seventy-two death row inmates, sixty-nine have at least one void exploration experience.”

“And yet, they’ve all been wiped out in just three hours.”

At that moment.

Srrrrk-!

The chess piece representing ‘Kim Jungrip’ suddenly crossed the sea after passing the northern tip of Tsushima.

“Huh?”

“…?”

Both Yoo Jiwon, Noh Doha, and I stared at the chart, puzzled by the strange movement.

‘Kim Jungrip’s chess piece swiftly moved to the vicinity of Fukuoka. Specifically, the center of the map labeled Hisayamamachi and Miyawaka City.

Regardless of the distance from Tsushima to that location, it was clear that the speed was impossible for a human.

Thud-

While everyone watched with their mouths agape, ‘Kim Jungrip’s chess piece toppled over powerlessly.

“…”

“…”

Silence ensued.

[Proofreader – Gun]

There were only two reasons a chess piece would fall over on Yoo Jiwon’s minimap: either the person associated with the piece had moved outside the map’s range or they had died.

Noh Doha muttered.

“What the hell is this…?”

Srrrrk!

This time, it was ‘Lee Eunjoo’s chess piece. It too, abruptly moved from Tsushima to near Fukuoka.

As if being pulled by something.

Srrrk! Srrrk!

The chess piece darted erratically to the northwest and northeast of Fukuoka. Here and there, then south. Like a ping pong ball being batted around, the piece finally dropped—thud—

And then fell over.

There was a long silence.

“…With all due respect.”

Yoo Jiwon broke the silence.

“There is nothing wrong with my ability, sir.”

It was indeed with all due respect.

“…Jiwon, didn’t you say you had cycled across Japan?”

“Yes? Yes, I did.”

“See if you have a large map of Japan in your trunk.”

“Understood, sir.”

Yoo Jiwon opened her ever-present trunk.

The trunk, meticulously organized, was either a testament to her obsessive-compulsive disorder or her extreme efficiency in organization.

Maps of the entire Korean peninsula, city maps, nautical charts, and world maps were all neatly stored in tiers.

Yoo Jiwon retrieved a map of Japan in less than ten seconds.

“Spread it out. Match it with the Tsushima Strait chart.”

“Yes, sir.”

Despite the difference in scale, the two maps aligned.

Then something strange happened.

Srrrrk-

‘Lee Eunjoo’s chess piece began to drag. Not just it.

The chess pieces scattered across the table, like dozens of corpses, started to be pulled somewhere as if by a magnet.

Srrrrk- Srrrrk- Srrrrk- Srrrrk- Srrrrk-

“……”

“……”

Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Okayama, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Sendai…

The corpses were scattered all over Japan. The 72 bodies were dispersed throughout the entire country.

Among them, ‘Kim Jungrip’s chess piece was particularly strange.

Clatter, clatter, clatter!

The chess piece that had fallen near Fukuoka was trembling uncontrollably. It was an inexplicable phenomenon. Then, all of a sudden,

Crack-

The chess piece split in two.

The pawn’s ‘head’ remained near Fukuoka, while the ‘body’ rolled away, finally stopping near Osaka.

The silence lasted even longer this time.

Noh Doha spoke up.

“Should we get more death row inmates?”

I shook my head.

“I will escalate the threat level of the anomaly ‘Inunaki Tunnel’ to continental level. We should contact the Magical Girl Association in Japan. They are the experts on this matter. A joint investigation team will likely be formed. Prepare for it, Director Noh Doha.”

3

“The Inunaki Tunnel, you say? That place is a real nightmare.”

As expected, the Japanese Awakened were already well-versed with this anomaly.

An ex-shrine maiden turned magical girl who had received divine powers from the cat god by pledging to end every sentence with ‘nya’ or ‘nyan’ until she died. The golden-haired Awakened, Manyo Neko, answered our inquiry diligently.

“Mountains are pretty common in both your country and ours, right? Unless you’re a pervert who finds bizarre pleasure in mountain climbing, tunnels are convenient.”

But who would have guessed?

Once the lights go out, tunnels, by their very nature, turn into spaces of ‘perpetual darkness that is damp and feared by people,’ making them hot spots for anomalies.

Unfortunately, the officials at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism did not possess the ability to foresee the future. In fact, their ability to perceive reality might not have been that great either. As a result, tunnels were dug all over Japan like wormholes.

Then the void arrived.

“Kiyotaki Tunnel. Ikoma Tunnel. Inunaki Tunnel. They were all famous haunted spots back in the day.”

These were tunnels famously known as the three major haunted spots in Japan.

“But after the void arrived, these tunnels started ‘fighting’ each other.”

“Fighting? The tunnels?”

“That’s right, nya. Since you’re Undateikeo, I’ll let you in on a little secret…”

The magical girls in Japan referred to me as Undateikeo. It meant the same as Doctor Jang.

“There was a perfectly fine tunnel in our area. But one day, we woke up to find the signboard suddenly changed to ‘Kiyotaki Tunnel.’”

“……”

“Kiyotaki Tunnel is far from our area. Then, a year later, the signboard changed to ‘Inunaki Tunnel!’”

It was a territorial competition among the anomalies.

A battle to determine which of the three major haunted spots was the true ‘tunnel anomaly.’

“It’s not just in our area, nya. All over Japan, every single tunnel, including underpasses, has turned into ‘Inunaki Tunnel.’”

“…It’s an infection. The concept of ‘tunnel’ has been entirely consumed and eradicated by ‘Inunaki Tunnel.’”

“That’s right, nya. It’s a real pain in the ass, nya.”

The magical girl added, ‘So now no Japanese person dares to use any tunnel.’

Moreover, Inunaki Tunnel didn’t stop at conquering Japan; it started to invade foreign lands as well.

It even consumed the concept of the ‘Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel,’ a fictional tunnel that never existed in reality.

Manyo Neko sighed.

“Originally, the real Inunaki Tunnel was only about 150 meters long at most. But now it has consumed all the tunnels in Japan, and according to you, it has even devoured a fictional undersea tunnel, making its total length…”

The longest anomaly in history.

That was the continental-level anomaly I would be dealing with in this 141st turn.

[Proofreader – Gun]