TRPM 09

CHAPTER 09

My mother must have thought that I skipped lunch because I had been playing computer games all day, so she tampered with my computer and set a limit on the hours I could play games.

Of course, it didn’t really matter to me, since I used the computer more for gathering information than gaming.

Well, it’s hard to expect an ordinary eight-year-old kid to forget to eat because he was too busy training.

So aside from getting nagged about playing fewer games, I didn’t suffer any real consequences.

Time passed as I built a magic circle at home to gather mana and began practicing Harmony Divine Art in earnest.

It’s already November, huh.

It felt like I had only just entered elementary school, and yet my first year was already nearing its end.

Of course, I didn’t feel like I had wasted time. Between cultivating the Harmony Divine Art and preparing for the future, I had used my time quite effectively.

The Yeouido Catastrophe… that was on December 5th, right?

The Yeouido Catastrophe.

To summarize briefly: a dungeon appeared in Yeouido, but even at its entrance, monsters far too powerful emerged. Korea’s top-ranked Awakened gathered to subjugate it, but when countless monsters suddenly poured out of the dungeon in a surprise attack, massive casualties occurred.

At the time, I was only an elementary schooler, but the event was so significant it would later be written about in history textbooks. I clearly remember both the time and place.

It was said that most top-ranked Awakened who used aura or psychic powers managed to survive, but… magicians and spirit summoners suffered heavy losses, didn’t they?

Because the sudden ambush turned into utter chaos, magicians and summoners couldn’t properly receive protection from knights or psychics.

What good is powerful magic or aid from spirits? In the end, their physical bodies were only slightly better than ordinary civilians. Once monsters attacked them directly, it was all over.

And then there were the civilians who couldn’t evacuate in time.

The existence of the dungeon filled with strong monsters was known. But because so many top-tier Awakened were gathered, ordinary people trusted them to clear it and continued with their daily lives.

As a result, civilian casualties were also quite high.

But right now, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Even if I sent an anonymous letter, no one would believe me. And even if I revealed myself, who would trust the words of an elementary schooler?

I couldn’t prevent the catastrophe.

That left only one option: to go there myself and minimize the casualties as much as possible…

But the catastrophe happened on a weekday morning, when I have to be at school.

In other words, I couldn’t physically go there.

“That doesn’t mean there’s nothing I can do, though.”

Muttering that, I checked the artifact on my arm—the subspace artifact I obtained from conquering the Orc Dungeon.

At first, the artifact’s subspace was so small it could barely contain the orc chieftain’s sword. But as I trained in the Harmony Divine Art, it began to grow along with me.

It was a growth-type artifact: as its master developed, new functions were added or strengthened.

Thanks to that, the subspace had extra room now. I filled it with various branches and stones, and at night, I would take them out and start crafting.

【User Han Gunwoo is confirmed to be creating a doll.】
【Retrieving skill data, 【Puppetry】, from database.】
【Paying licensing fee to registered user of 【Puppetry】.】

What I was making was a doll.

Not just any doll—a doll resembling myself.

Not the me of now, but the me from before regression.

The materials are cheap, so I can’t expect much durability…

On top of that, the system took a small portion of my inner energy as a “fee.”

Still, it should be good enough.

Thinking that, I poured my inner energy and blood into the doll.

Then, flesh began forming over the wooden and stone framework.

【… Error.】
【User Han Gunwoo’s usage of 【Puppetry】 far exceeds the system’s known levels.】
【… Error.】

The Awakener System sent out messages as if it couldn’t comprehend what I was doing.

Almost like it was demanding an explanation: Is this really puppetry?

So even the Awakener System that had rewound time for me didn’t know everything.

“This isn’t puppetry. It’s closer to sorcery.”

Sympathetic sorcery.

A spell that uses the law of similarity: things that resemble one another influence each other.

I crafted a doll resembling my pre-regression self, then infused it with my inner energy and blood, making it as close to my former self as possible.

Of course, I wasn’t done yet.

“Sympathy.”

With word-spell magic, I granted the doll the same senses as myself.

The doll lying on the floor twitched faintly.

“…This is harder than I thought…”

When I tried moving my arm, the doll barely twitched a finger.

I had a rough idea why.

The low quality of branches and stones as materials, and the fact that the doll was more of a makeshift construct than a perfected creation, meant its completion level was poor.

Thankfully, thanks to the ‘Eyes of the Grandmaster’ the system gave me, I have some idea how to improve efficiency.

But with such ordinary materials, limits were inevitable.

“Materials… I need better materials…”

The best way would be to find and conquer an undiscovered dungeon, then gather resources there…

It was as I was thinking this that:

【User Han Gunwoo, the system proposes a trade.】

“…Huh? A trade? Out of nowhere?”

The Awakener System would do anything for humanity’s survival and happiness. It had many ways of assisting people, and trades were one such method.

But I hadn’t given the system anything recently—it had even taken a fee from me for puppetry. If anything, I might even be in debt.

So what kind of trade could it possibly propose?

【The system requests user Han Gunwoo to register various techniques into the database.】
【In exchange, the system will provide the user with materials suitable for doll completion.】

Various techniques?

“What do you mean? You want me to create new techniques and share them?”

The system responded:

【Affirmative.】
【Similar to how user created skill 【Resonance】, system requests user to create and share the techniques in your memory.】

I frowned, then asked:

“…I don’t mind registering techniques, but why are you helping me this much?”

I knew the Awakener System was meant to serve humanity.

But it had limited resources. It wasn’t supposed to lavish excessive benefits on a single person.

So why me?

The system replied:

【User Han Gunwoo’s status: Regressor.】
【System has determined that aiding user Han Gunwoo is the most effective way to ensure humanity’s survival and happiness.】

Because I was a regressor.

The system of the future had turned me back in time precisely because what I did would lead to humanity’s survival.

“…Yeah.”

That wasn’t wrong.

I couldn’t save everyone in this world. But I did plan to save as many people as possible.

That meant my goal aligned with the system’s.

And with that answer, I no longer had a reason to hesitate.

After that day, my daily life changed.

I began registering countless techniques from my memory into the system’s database.

And in return, the system supplied me with the materials I needed.

Both had to be done away from prying eyes, so I couldn’t do it at school’s training hall or at home.

Especially since many of the techniques I remembered either required special tools or had massive destructive power.

As a result, I often snuck into the mountains at night to test and perform them.

Thanks to my cultivation, I could restore fatigue with just light breathing exercises, so sleepless nights weren’t an issue.

That way, I recreated techniques I had invented in my previous life—or hadn’t invented but remembered—and registered them all into the system.

And the system kept its promise.

“…What… is this?”

I stared at the branches and ingots of metal that dropped before me.

Not that I didn’t recognize them—I had seen them in my past life.

【User Han Gunwoo has been granted Yggdrasil Branches and Eternal Cold Iron.】

My lips clamped shut.

Yggdrasil Branches…

In any fantasy world, there was no material more superior.

And Eternal Cold Iron?

In martial arts novels, it was the metal of ultimate hardness.

Modern wuxia novels threw it around like it was common, but that didn’t diminish its actual value.

“…Honestly, I’d rather use both to forge my own sword someday than waste them on a doll…”

They were too good to use for a temporary construct.

Not that I had any choice.

Regretful or not, if I needed to use them, then I had to.

So I began crafting the doll again, this time as before—but with superior materials.

I built its frame from Eternal Cold Iron, then layered the Yggdrasil Branches over it as muscle and flesh.

The system must have anticipated this, because the materials shaped themselves exactly as I wished, seamlessly becoming parts of the doll.

Once complete, I again infused it with my blood and inner energy.

Finally—

“Sympathy.”

I finished it with a word-spell, then gazed at the doll.

If even with such fine materials and improvements, it still refuses to move…

Then there’d be no stopping the Yeouido Catastrophe.

Because while I was busy registering techniques and refining the doll, the date of the disaster had drawn near.

“Please… work…”

And perhaps my determination carried through—

“……”

The doll, which had been lying still, slowly opened its eyes.

Then, clumsily, it rose to its feet and checked its body.

“…This feels familiar…”

A voice came from its mouth.

Technically, it was my voice, spoken through the doll.

Though its movements were awkward now, that was something time would fix.

In other words—

Success.

I had succeeded in creating a doll to move in my place.

Three days remained until the catastrophe.

All that was left was for me to grow accustomed to controlling it.