BXBX NOVEL Chapter 69 – The Record Keeper (1)
Chapter 69 – The Record Keeper I
1
Lately, I’ve been thinking I’ve been talking too much about Tang Seorin.
Of course, I can’t tell the story of my reincarnated life without mentioning Tang Seorin. But even the greatest output of the Korean Peninsula, the Witch of the Railways, and the Idol of the Masses have their own private lives.
Yes, privacy.
I’m not the type to actively pry into someone else’s secrets, nor am I the type to interfere with someone’s hobbies.
Even if that “someone” is a keyboard warrior with a split personality disorder and a penchant for verbal battles.
“Ah. G-Guild Master… G-Good morning…”
Sim Aryeon.
[PR/N: After a few rounds of discussions and argument ‘we’ have decided that Sim Aryeon is a girl. 100%. (i knew)]
Nickname: Considered one of the biggest agitators on SGnet, a villain of KoreanVillage.
However, during the 50th turn, she was praised as the “Angel of Healing” for treating ordinary people for free, and even volunteered as an art teacher, health teacher, and librarian for elementary school children.
Fashion Style: Prefers brown-toned tops. Especially likes to wear a white doctor’s gown over a brown turtleneck. Why? To show off that she’s a valuable healer.
Even up to this point, it would make for a pretty entertaining character profile, but her awakened skills took it to another level of absurdity.
Ability: Aptly named “Vigor Stone.” In other words, a bird that feeds on aggression. The more insults she takes, the stronger her healing ability becomes. Thanks to this ridiculous ability, Sim Aryeon attracted all kinds of aggro on SGnet.
Truly a KoreanVillage Anubis… but speaking strictly about his private life, she had quite wholesome hobbies.
“Yeah, it’s a good morning. Where are you off to at this hour?”
“Oh, I thought I’d try drawing again after a long time. Hehe. Since the Guild Master gave me an easel as a gift last time…”
A canvas and easel were wedged under Sim Aryeon’s armpit as she awkwardly smiled.
Hobby: Drawing.
Yes, she was actually an art student. If you have a good memory, you might recall that during the surprise attack on KoreanVillage’s villain’s mansion in the 50th turn, Sim Aryeon was drawing.
And… surprisingly, Sim Aryeon, with all her brilliance, was academically excellent in our guild.
Education: Yeowon School (Fine Arts) → Seoul Arts High School (Fine Arts) → Seoul National University (Design).
And that’s not all. Not only did she sweep art exhibitions at school from elementary to high school, she even won awards at various design exhibitions.
Two awards in elementary and middle school, and one presidential award in high school. The aspiring art students who were preparing for the same entrance exams in the same year all envied Sim Aryeon. She already had the qualities of a bird feeding on aggression since childhood.
Sounds like a lie? I even sneaked into the ruins of schools to dig up data. It was all true.
Why on earth… is this real… At that time, I could only lament amidst the ruins of schools with exhibition materials spread out.
With such shining academic and career achievements, Sim Aryeon’s main focus was…
– KoreanVillage: Hmm… I can tell you’ve never observed people in real life. Did you use a human body joint reference for this? Then I recommend switching to a biological experimental subject rather than trying to become an illustrator seriously.
– KoreanVillage: Wow, what a jackpot. If you draw like this at a cram school, you could probably get a refund from the director right away.
– KoreanVillage: Seriously, I drew better than this when I was 8 years old lol.
These were the comments.
Or drawing cartoons that make people cringe and posting them on SGnet.
Right now, in front of me, Sim Aryeon was innocently giggling, but just last night, she had created a triple crown of curses, insults, and ridicule from SGnet members.
“Where are you going to draw?”
“Oh, the Han River. I just felt like sketching while watching the river for a change… Oh, the weather is really nice today. Yeah. If I get bored, maybe I’ll take a walk around the neighborhood to see if there are any elderly people who need free check-ups…”
“Oh, my god. Why was such a child given a skill like Vigor Stone?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s nothing… Anyway, you’re going to the riverside, right? Here, take this bag.”
“Heh. Th-there’s no need to… Oh. Th-thank you. Guild Master…”
Sim Aryeon trailed behind me hesitantly, but as soon as we arrived at the Han River and set up the easel, any signs of hesitation vanished completely.
She faced the canvas and began applying paint with swift strokes, humming to herself.
“…….”
Truly a masterstroke. Among the virtues of artists, ‘speed drawing’ is included, and Sim Aryeon’s hands were certainly incredibly fast.
But it wasn’t just about being fast with her hands. Even to my eyes, which boast a fairly discerning view from encountering various artworks as a regressor, Sim Aryeon’s drawings reached a considerable level of skill.
“Heh… Y-yes. I’m a genius indeed…”
Though her occasional muttering was, well, a bit excessive.
“Well. It’s a much healthier hobby than stirring up trouble on online communities, I suppose.”
I shrugged.
At least until now, I had no intention of getting involved in Sim Aryeon’s hobbies.
The change began around Turn 95.
2
Briefly describing the flow of history surrounding us, the time when the first conquest of the meteor shower occurred was Turn 42.
Unfortunately, due to the law of action and reaction, when the meteor shower was conquered, we awakening users also disappeared.
But the time of a regressor defies the laws of physics. Turns 43, 44, 45, as we went back, the tactics against the meteor shower became increasingly sophisticated.
By around Turn 95, it could be said that the tactics were complete.
“Tang Seorin. When the meteor shower appears, cast a net-like magic below it in advance.”
“Huh? A net? Why?”
“Think of it like dealing with meteors. It’s not just about destroying them; it’s also about dealing with the fragments after they’re destroyed, right?”
“…Ah.”
Following my advice, Tang Seorin embarked on magical development. The net magic, ‘Net of Heaven and Earth’, designed specifically to deal with the meteor shower, was completed. Thus, the final desperate move of the meteor shower was easily sealed.
Where else would it be like this?
The quest lists to tempt the awakening users in the Korean Peninsula also continued to advance day by day.
The AAA-grade game I planned and the saintess serviced, ‘Growing from a Regular Person to an Awakening User in the Korean Peninsula,’ is an open-world sandbox ultra-realistic MMORPG that not only provides information on countless voids but also offers ‘custom growth’ automatically.
“Oh. So my awakening ability was actually purification, not turning sewage into drinking water?”
“After clearing the dungeon, a guidebook on the most efficient way to enhance my abilities appeared!”
“Kya. This world may be shit, but at least there’s a taste of growth.”
“The quests are invincible, and the saintess is a goddess!”
“Cheers! The meteor shower is just… a star.”
Of course, all those rewards were obtained by me as a regressor.
Running an academy and raising as many awakening users as possible had its rewards. Thanks to that, I was able to develop their potential, optimal builds, and more.
“Huh? The reward that popped up… Equivalent Exchange Spellbook? What’s this?”
Just looking at Tang Seorin, you could see that the Tang Seorin of Turn 4 and the Tang Seorin of Turn 95 were completely different beings.
The magic she had barely managed to create over several years in previous turns was now being given almost for free.
“…Unbelievable! Such a ridiculous magic existed?”
The effects were tremendous.
Not only S-grade users like Tang Seorin but also most awakening users showed growth curves like Bitcoin in the early 2020s.
As a result, while not exactly tenfold, even the meteor shower, albeit slowly, began to enter the ranks of the bizarre creatures lineup, if not already included.
Wudambala? He was included from the start.
– Kyu?
– Are you hungry?
– Blink blink?
Ah, sadly, the trio of Korean Peninsula’s bizarre beings, who plunged my early days of reincarnated life into despair, were now service-terminated.
However, as you know, for every advantage in the world, there’s a corresponding disadvantage.
As the power of the saintess approached its limit, the probability of the emergence of the corrupted version, the ‘Executioner,’ increased, just like with other people.
The awakening users became more powerful but also started to become more dangerous. You could say ‘acceleration’ was starting to kick in.
If this were a character collection-type gacha mobile game, there wouldn’t have been any problem. On the contrary.
“4th Turn Tang Seorin is 2-star, 50th Turn Tang Seorin is 3-star, 100th Turn Tang Seorin is 4-star! Wow! Multiple Tang Seorin characters!”
“If you just change the clothes of the same character, you can sell it two, three, four times?”
“Limited Edition Pickup Rerun! Saintess Alter Version – Executioner Emerges! Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Time Stop, Existing Ability Major Buff!”
“If you’re tempted… you gotta draw, right?”
Various dialogues like this could have tested people’s wallets and patience from different angles.
But as you know, this was reality. As a regressor, I had to be mindful of various side effects.
“Um… Guild Master…?”
So if someone were to utter such lines in real life, they should be very careful.
“Hmm? What’s up, Aryeon?”
“Um, is it okay for me to say this? Well, actually, I shouldn’t. But, I thought maybe since you’re the Guild Master, it might be okay…”
“Huh? What’s going on? Speak freely.”
“Um, then. Could you, um, lend me your ear for a moment?”
Sim Aryeon whispered quietly.
“Um… Guild Master. It’s about the meteor shower. Could you, um, just, um, slowly and gently deal with it? Just a little bit?”
?
“Why?”
“I want to draw…”
?
“Why?”
“W-well… it’s awesome. I mean, it’s starlight that brings destruction from the sky. Creating dark waves of despair. Even lulling us with a lullaby… I think this should be preserved for eternity through a painting…”
???
If someone were to claim, “Oh, if Cthulhu appeared in the ocean, we must draw it realistically and make as many civilians as possible witness it!” they’d be considered insane. At that moment, my expression perfectly mirrored encountering such madness.
“Student Aryeon. Right now, the Guild Master is confused, but the meteor shower is an A-grade bizarre creature.”
“Yes? Oh, yes… According to the Library Society’s standards, it’s a continental-level bizarre creature. It’s more dangerous than any other bizarre creature observed in the Korean Peninsula so far. Of course, I know that…”
“Yet you want to leisurely draw the meteor shower? Are you serious? What if combat team members die while trying to subdue it?”
“Um… I’ll try harder to make sure such tragedies don’t happen, Guild Master…”
“Um… and honestly, sacrifices for art are inevitable, I think. Last time, I wanted to draw the Ten Clans too. Uh, it’s just so regrettable that the Ten Clans drawing was lost. It’s a perpetual loss for humanity. Such a waste…”
Sim Aryeon’s legitimate identification for the Ten Clans, as stipulated by the Library Society, was ‘Crawling Cthulhu Spawn.’ In other words, Sim Aryeon was genuinely trying to draw Cthulhu.
And she actually did.
I was so dumbfounded that I even made a deal next time, saying she could try drawing it while we were dealing with the Ten Clans.
“Unbelievable! These tentacles! Something so bizarre that no terrestrial or deep-sea creature has ever had in the evolutionary process…! The fact that such a thing exists! It’s unbelievable! Ugh, I’ll draw it, I’ll draw it, I’ll draw it…!”
I slightly regretted it.
However, the astonishing fact was… Sim Aryeon’s bizarre creature drawings uploaded to SGnet received an enormous response.
– Anonymous: (Doodle) Today, I’ll draw a small Ten Clans and upload it… ^^
(Image file)
– Last time’s bizarre Ten Clans! I was lucky enough to join the subjugation team and get a chance to draw it! But the subjugation team fought so well that I didn’t have enough time to sketch… ㅠㅠ
– It’s embarrassing, but I hope even the awakened users who didn’t participate in the subjugation can refer to how the Ten Clans looked like…! So, I’m uploading it like this…!
– PS: SGnet seems to degrade the image quality every time I upload an image. Admin, please hang in there a bit more…!
Hmm.
Yes, I understand what you want to say. Unfortunately, this is truly written by Sim Aryeon (aka the villain from KoreanVillage) herself.
She just wrote it anonymously instead of using her formal member nickname.
Of course, comments poured in, completely different from the aggro posts Sim Aryeon usually makes.
– [Baekhwa] 6th Grade High School: Wow! It’s so beautiful!! >_<)!! - Anonymous: Wait, it's too realistic... - Anonymous: If you participated in the Ten Clans subjugation, aren't you quite high among the awakened users? Wow. Amazing. - [Samcheon] WitchTrialJudge: It really looks like Ten Clans. └ Anonymous: What do you mean by 'looks like it’? - dolLHoUse: Disgusting. - LoveMySon: Oh, please, talented person, please join as a regular member. It's hard to search for your drawingsㅠㅠ. - Anonymous: It's really well-drawn. - Anonymous: I was in the subjugation team, and it really looked like this. It feels exactly the same. └ LiteraryGirl: How do you catch such a monster? └ Anonymous: 'Doctor Jang' 'Grand Witch' End. └ Anonymous: Simply GOAT. - Anonymous: But why does the tone of this person who uploads drawings always seem so pretentious? └ Anonymous: Where's the pretentiousness?? └ Anonymous: Stop bashing the talented person. - [Satisfaction] CookingQueen: It's a wonderful drawing. It gives me the feeling of actually seeing Ten Clans rather than being drawn exactly like the real thing. It seems like you have an innate talent for expressing bizarre creatures! Hmm. I nodded at the comment left by CookingQueen. There were quite a few awakened users who participated in the Ten Clans subjugation on SGnet. If even those people gathered their opinions and testified that it "looks like the real thing," then Sim Aryeon definitely had some talent. The brush strokes that make it feel like you're really seeing it, even if you're a stranger, and the boldness that makes it feel like a real bizarre creature, even if you know about it. The aesthetics of the bizarre creature. "Hehehe... So many compliments for my drawing..." "......" Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind like lightning. It was one of those flashes of inspiration that occasionally came to me as a regressor. "Aryeon." "Hehe... Yes? Guild Master?" "Do you like drawing bizarre creatures?" "W-why are you suddenly asking that? Um, nervously. Why?" Chin. I grabbed Sim Aryeon's shoulder. I smiled broadly at Sim Aryeon, who was looking bewildered. "Have you ever thought about becoming a Constellation?" "......?" ------------------