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◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell
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The Exile I
The following chapter includes depictions of torture and violence that some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.
I strive to be as honest as possible with all of you. Naturally, I have no intention of glossing over Yu Ji-won’s crimes or the responsibilities I myself carry.
Let me warn you in advance: the tone of this story is dark and twisted. Even so, the events that have already occurred cannot simply be dismissed as mere blemishes.
The disgrace of the National Road Management Corps, and the atonement for Yu Ji-won’s abductions and murders during the 703rd regression.
Let us delve a little deeper into the prisoner squad.
As I mentioned previously, news of the National Road Management Corps’s Operations Team Leader abducting innocent civilians shook the nation. The public reaction was—
“Wow, what a goddamn bitch.”
“What’s Dang Seo-rin doing, not using this criminal for a public dismemberment show in the square?”
“But did Noh Do-hwa, the Corps’s commander, really need to step down too?”
“Who knows? Anyway, how about some beer today? Let’s splurge a bit.”
“You must be making a lot these days.”
“I went hunting in the Void last time, and the clothes in a dilapidated department store were completely intact. I got lucky.”
—surprisingly underwhelming.
The decisive factor must have been that Ji-won meticulously targeted individuals with no connections.
In the age of the apocalypse, there was no need to ask if Anomalies ever tired of tormenting humans. People had long since learned to operate under the assumption that human torment remained endlessly entertaining, making every moment feel new and exciting.
Mortals had grown desensitized to death itself. They had suffered too much loss to react otherwise. What mattered more was whether their territory had been encroached upon or their interests harmed.
If their family, friends, or colleagues had been tortured? Civilians and Awakeners alike would have taken action, of course. In this era, civilized disobedients were a nonexistent demographic. ʀἈƝÔ𐌱Ёs̩
However, Ji-won exclusively hunted individuals without ties.
The total number of abductees was 173. Of those, 13 died. And yet, there were shockingly few people enraged on behalf of these victims—only a handful, really. Even Do-hwa’s resignation as the Corps commander was met with pushback by the majority, who argued that she didn’t need to go to such extremes.
Ji-won’s thoroughness was, as always, thoroughly impressive. Not only did she give her all for her success, but she also accounted for failure and took precautions. People of her sort are inherently formidable.
“I will never forgive her.”
Nevertheless, achieving a perfect crime was impossible, even for the ever-thorough Yu Ji-won.
It was an inevitable conclusion. Even if the nearly entire world ignored the victims of the Misfortune Workshop, there were at least 160 exceptions who all shared one important trait: surviving the same season of hell together.
In other words, they had lived to tell their tale.
“No matter what happens, Yu Ji-won, I will never forgive you—not even in death. Never.”
Among the 160 survivors, some were simply glad to have lived and wished never to be involved with the psychopath Yu Ji-won again. Others could not escape their trauma and either died by suicide or disappeared into the Void, never to be seen again. Others still settled into the luxurious residential area in Busan provided by the National Road Management Corps and tried to piece their lives back together, finding stable jobs when they were once again able.
And some did none of those things.
“You should feel hell too.”
She did not run away from Yu Ji-won.
She did not let her trauma destroy her.
Nor did she try to rebuild her life.
She simply raged and hated.
Kim Ji-soo. A name that, when broken down into its defining Chinese characters, means “a pond gathered in a swamp.”
Among the 160 survivors, she was particularly memorable.
Today, let us discuss this girl.
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The following content is based on testimony provided by Yu Ji-won following her arrest by the National Road Management Corps and her subsequent cooperation with the investigation. Hence, some parts of the story may be inaccurate.
The interrogation was attended by Commander Noh Do-hwa, myself, and others.
The individual facing Yu Ji-won was the deputy leader of the Final Judgement Division of the Corps—a veteran investigator with the Lie Detector ability. This ability, however, came with the critical limitation of being usable only once a year. Luckily, it was fully charged for this particular interrogation.
Q: State your name and title.
“Yu Ji-won. Former Operations Team Leader of the National Road Management Corps. Officially second in rank within the Corps. Secretary to the Awakener known as the Undertaker.”
The investigator nodded. Truth.
Beside him, a scribe from the Forbidden Books Department recorded the proceedings with a quill suspended in midair.
The interrogation unfolded in a dimly lit basement. After a brief warm-up of basic questions and answers, the investigator began probing for the details of the crimes.
Q: When you first began, did you have a specific objective for torturing your victims?
“Torture is a challenging task.”
Yu Ji-won rested her chin on her hand, the chains on her wrists clinking with the movement.
“I’m not sure if you’ll believe me, but I’m an amateur when it comes to torture. My specialty is murder and disposal, not the deliberate infliction of prolonged pain. I never trained specifically for such methods.”
Q: Please continue.
“One option was to practice torture techniques myself through human experimentation, but I was more interested in artificially cultivating Awakeners. So I approached the matter practically.”
Q: Practically?
“Creating an Awakener with the ability of Torture.”
That was Yu Ji-won’s first goal.
“I wanted torture to manifest as ‘sustainable pain.’ Additionally, I wanted no physical evidence of the torture to remain.”
Q: What do you mean?
“For example, inflicting the pain of having an arm shredded by a saw, but leaving the arm intact.”
(Murmurs among the officers in the back)
(Noh Do-hwa silencing the noise with a gesture)
Q: Let me confirm: you aimed to create an Awakener who could deliver pain without physically harming the body. Is that correct?
“Exactly.”
Q: Did you succeed in creating such an individual?
“It was not an easy challenge.”
But Yu Ji-won succeeded.
More accurately, she failed until she succeeded.
“Think about it, Investigator. To make someone feel the pain of being burned alive, you have to experience it yourself. The agony of bones being ground, limbs being severed, the chest being ripped open to expose a beating heart...”
Q: Did you experiment with all these forms of torture?
“Yes. But that was just the first condition. The second was even more difficult.”
Q: The second condition?
“The victim must maintain relentless hatred toward me. They must be filled with the determination to inflict as much suffering on me as they endured.”
Yu Ji-won exhaled a sigh, remaining expressionless.
“I realized that humans rarely keep their hatred fed. Most break under pain. They beg and grovel, pleading for mercy, offering to live as slaves just to end the torment. People these days are weak-willed.”
Q: ...
Truth.
“For someone to Awaken with Torture—more specifically, Phantom Torture—they would have to endure all of this while harboring unyielding resentment and anger. During the early days of running the Misfortune Workshop, I failed to meet these criteria and killed 11 subjects.”
Q: You succeeded on the 12th?
“Correct.”
Q: Who was this individual?
“Kim Ji-soo.”
(Commander Noh Do-hwa whispers to an officer to verify this information)
(The investigator composes himself and resumes)
Q: We found no visible injuries among the survivors. How did you conceal the evidence of your own self-inflicted torture?
“Ah. I traveled to Japan, sustained severe burns and injuries, and sought treatment from Uehara Shino for healing potions.”
Truth.
(More murmurs)
“After that, I regularly visited Uehara Shino once every six months, mimicking injuries to request more potions. She ended up providing me with large quantities of the medicine.”
(Regarding this, I personally secure testimony from Uehara Shino, a member of the Magical Girl Association)
(Uehara Shino says to me, “She told me she didn’t want to worry you, so she came to me instead of someone like Sim Ah-ryeon.”)
“Though Uehara Shino’s potions are neither as absolute nor efficient as Sim Ah-ryeon’s healing powers, they worked well enough. This allowed me to minimize fatalities during my experiments. Kim Ji-soo, too, appeared outwardly unharmed thanks to the excessive use of these potions.”
Q: What happened to Kim Ji-soo after she Awakened with Phantom Torture?
“Naturally, I made her my assistant.”
Q: Assistant?
“For example, if I ordered her to flay the skin off Prisoner 110 with a razor, Kim Ji-soo would transmit the pain of having one’s skin flayed rather than actually performing the act itself.”
Q: So you were the one issuing orders, and Kim Ji-soo carried them out?
“Hmm. That’s one way of looking at it.”
Q: According to your earlier testimony, Kim Ji-soo harbored immense hatred toward you. How did you make her obey your commands?
“Through various means. For instance, if Kim Ji-soo refused to comply, I would personally execute the prisoners.”
Q: Excuse me?
“In other words, I’d threaten her by saying, ‘Because you didn’t obey, I have no choice but to conduct actual torture instead of imaginary torture.’”
Q: I see.
“As I mentioned before, humans are generally weak-willed by nature. Prisoners whose limbs I actually severed couldn’t help but wail and plead with Kim Ji-soo, begging her to apply Phantom Torture on them instead.”
Q: ...
Truth.
“From the prisoners’ perspective, the only solace they had was that their real bodies remained intact. But when even that was stripped away, what else was left for them to cling to?”
(The investigator glances at Commander Noh Do-hwa, who signals for the interrogation to continue)
“That’s how the twelfth fatality occurred. It was the first death after Kim Ji-soo Awakened.”
Q: How did Kim Ji-soo react?
“Surprisingly, she continued to defy me. Her mental state had demonstrably deteriorated, of course. She suffered a breakdown and even used her powers against me.”
Q: She attacked you?
“Yes, but her resistance was futile. She inflicted all the pain she had experienced onto me, yet by then, I had already become desensitized to most forms of agony.”
Truth.
Yu Ji-won’s confrontation with me at the Misfortune Workshop revealed the same. Even with her limbs broken, her fighting spirit never wavered.
There lay the secret behind her endurance.
“While I wasn’t immune to Kim Ji-soo’s Phantom Torture, the impact wasn’t significant. After all, her ability didn’t cause real injuries, and her wrists and arms were bound. Essentially... it was just a tantrum. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Truth.
Q: ...
“I decided to turn her rebellion into an opportunity. Each time she used Phantom Torture on me, I documented the pain and incorporated it into the next prisoner’s torture session.”
Truth.
Q: I see.
“For instance, if she inflicted the pain of having all nails ripped out on me—which, incidentally, did happen—I would ensure the next prisoner experienced the same during their session.”
Truth.
Q: ...
“Naturally, Kim Ji-soo would scream in shock, demanding to know why I added unplanned torture methods. I always had a response prepared.”
Because you defied me, I’m simply passing on the pain to someone else.
“She grew increasingly agitated, yet her resolve visibly weakened.”
Continue defying me if you wish. Just know that others will suffer more as a result.
“Eventually, Kim Ji-soo lowered her metaphorical claws. After the thirteenth death, she broke down and begged me through her tears.”
I’ll do it. I’ll follow your orders.
Please.
Yu Ji-won. Mistress. Please.
“From that day onward, I gained the perfect assistant for the Misfortune Workshop.”
(Chaos erupts among the former members of Yu Ji-won’s operations team present at the interrogation)
(At this point, the deputy leader of the Final Judgement Division reports extreme stress and requests a recess in the investigation)
(Commander Noh Do-hwa grants the request)
(End of Day 1 of the investigation)
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