#061
There’s a law of large numbers in the world. When two or three people play rock-paper-scissors, the odds of winning or losing are somewhat fixed, but when a group plays, the probability of a tie increases, and the winning rate of one of the three options rises.
In other words, there aren’t many things in the world that happen ‘by chance’ or ‘by luck’. The vague musical information that comes to mind is based on mathematical calculations, and even a string of incomprehensible misfortunes follows a pattern.
With the development of human civilization, over centuries, humans have named abstract concepts and reinterpreted scientifically inexplicable phenomena from various perspectives. In this way, numerous laws were created, and people became able to calculate the probability of certain events with precision.
In the real world, unlike a virtual one, there are no results without cause. A large rock eroding is due to the influence of time and wind, and human aging is because time flows in a straight line without reversing. There can be no event without a reason. Even the absence of a reason becomes a reason in itself.
However, Jung Hwi-kyung’s regression has ignored many of the world’s laws and probabilities.
Does it make sense to say that he regressed due to ‘bad luck’ after wishing for a better job, rather than ‘coincidentally’ helping a Buddhist grandmother to save the world?
Moreover, Gyo-ha, who is regressing along with Hwi-kyung, was on the opposite side of the Earth. No matter how global the world has become, it’s unlikely that a fellow regressor would be ‘randomly’ selected without the regressor himself knowing.
Apart from all this, fundamentally, it’s physically impossible to fix a certain time axis and return to the past with only one or two people retaining their memories. Time travel is only theoretically possible, and humans haven’t even found a way to safely resolve the time paradox.
For example, if a person A goes back in time and kills their grandfather, does A disappear at that moment? No one can know the perfect answer to this question.
Therefore, the ‘regression’ in the subculture that Gyo-ha enjoys reading was mostly a fictional device that made the impossible possible through literary license.
Jung Hwi-kyung’s regression was not only realistically impossible but also had too many unexplainable aspects. At least, that’s what Gyo-ha, who was well-versed in regression-related subculture, thought.
“But we did regress.”
“That’s right.”
Hwi-kyung leaned back on the sofa. He was completely disoriented due to Gyo-ha’s long lecture about regression.
What’s the big deal about regression? It’s just a signal to start job hunting again. If he had known he would hear this kind of talk, he wouldn’t have wasted his precious weekend in this officetel.
Lee Gyo-ha tempted Jung Hwi-kyung on Friday night by offering tickets to Kim Tae-pung’s concert. “What are you doing this weekend? Want to watch a movie at my place?” It was a very suggestive invitation. Not at a movie theater, but at his own home. In a social context, this was clearly a seduction.
So Hwi-kyung couldn’t sleep on Friday night. In his judgment, this was similar to asking, “Want to come over for some ramen?” Just as “The moon is beautiful” can be interpreted as “I love you,” “Want to watch a movie at my place this weekend?” likely implied a desire for physical intimacy.
Hwi-kyung was a novice who had never properly dated, but he wasn’t foolish enough to misread such context. So it was natural for him to misinterpret Gyo-ha’s words.
However, Gyo-ha wasn’t the type to beat around the bush with phrases like “Want to sleep with me?” Unlike Hwi-kyung, Gyo-ha was straightforward, so his words had no hidden meaning. The invitation to come over was really just an invitation to hang out at his place over the weekend.
Hwi-kyung only realized that Gyo-ha’s words didn’t have that meaning on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, he realized this only after dressing up nicely and entering Gyo-ha’s house.
As soon as Hwi-kyung arrived, Gyo-ha started the beam projector installed in the living room and began playing movies related to ‘regression’ or ‘time travel’ indiscriminately. The movie screening that started this way showed no signs of ending for hours.
It was a very absurd situation. Hwi-kyung, who had even chosen and sprayed a rarely used perfume just in case, ended up looking foolish.
Is this what they mean by counting your chickens before they hatch? The most embarrassing part was thinking that he shouldn’t refuse because Gyo-ha had even gotten Kim Tae-pung concert tickets, misunderstanding the invitation to hang out at home as something more.
It was fortunate that the system window was quiet because Gyo-ha wasn’t his direct superior. If he hadn’t changed jobs, the system window would have troubled Hwi-kyung by making all sorts of fuss as it did before.
The system window was overly sensitive to Jung Hwi-kyung’s office romance. It didn’t interfere with people outside the company, but at least within the company, most of Hwi-kyung’s interpersonal relationships were under the control of the system window.
In a way, it seemed to be wary of Hwi-kyung becoming close to his coworkers. Thinking that getting involved with colleagues might easily lead to a black company situation, Hwi-kyung had often let the system window’s interference slide, thinking it must be for a reason.
In fact, even after thirteen regressions, Hwi-kyung hadn’t thought deeply about the system window. He had experience playing online games, though not frequently.
Since the world was repeating like a game, it wasn’t strange that a system window appeared. Hwi-kyung roughly perceived it that way. He had already regressed several times, so he dismissed the visible phenomenon of the system window as something that could happen.
“Usually, regressors have a system window attached to them.”
Even Lee Gyo-ha, a subculture addict, said this, so the existence of the system window wasn’t particularly unusual. If you think of it as a kind of alarm system announcing regression, it wasn’t entirely without purpose.
“But no matter how I think about it, it’s a bit strange.”
“What is?”
“Usually, you know… the regressor can summon it themselves.”
“The system window?”
“Yes.”
“Why would they summon it… I can move the window position a bit. I can even minimize it.”
“No, not that. The virtue of a system window is that it comes when called.”
“…”
“But the system window you have just appears when it wants to.”
To be honest, even after hearing Gyo-ha’s words, Hwi-kyung couldn’t understand what the problem was. Isn’t it good if the system window doesn’t come even when called?
After all, all the system window did was explain why a black company was black. If the forced regression count wasn’t visible, that would be fortunate, so why would anyone want to see such a thing?
But Gyo-ha seemed to think differently from Hwi-kyung. He eventually showed Hwi-kyung an animation of a system window appearing. It was forced viewing at 1.5x speed.
“You see this? Usually, it should appear when you call ‘Status Window.'”
“…”
“And it should give some meaningful information values. Like skills and such.”
“This is just an animation.”
“Of course, fiction and reality are clearly different. But human creativity is just a list of possible cases of what could happen, you know?”
Jung Hwi-kyung didn’t understand a word of what Lee Gyo-ha was saying. Unlike Gyo-ha, who had a high understanding of subculture, Hwi-kyung had no interest in novels, movies, or even basic fantasy genres.
Gyo-ha thumped his chest as if frustrated. He was equally exasperated. From Gyo-ha’s perspective, Hwi-kyung’s system window had something suspicious about it.
Although he had only observed for two cycles, from what he could see, the system window wasn’t helpful to Hwi-kyung at all. Even if it gave opportunities to regress, it didn’t actually tell him which places weren’t black companies.
If it really intended to grant the wish of finding a good job, shouldn’t it find and arrange a company where he could work safely until retirement?
Moreover, this regression system had no laws or probabilities. There was a premise that ‘if you get a job at a black company, you regress,’ but it didn’t specify how black it needed to be.
Hwi-kyung said based on his experience that regression happened after a certain number of unpaid overtime work, but even that was inaccurate. Sometimes, like now, the system window would arbitrarily suggest regression to Hwi-kyung if it thought the current cycle was ruined.
So this system window could force regression when certain criteria were met, but it stubbornly refused to explain what those criteria were.
In Gyo-ha’s opinion, this wasn’t normal. The system window had no system. How could a system window lack a system when ‘system’ in English means structure?
According to the subculture knowledge he had accumulated by consuming all sorts of media, it was clear that the system window was most likely not a benevolent entity for Hwi-kyung.
“Honestly, I didn’t understand a word of what you said.”
Hwi-kyung dismissed Gyo-ha’s detailed explanation about how regression doesn’t fit the laws of the world, and how despite some patterns in the regression process, the lack of laws suggests the system window might be an organic life form, as nonsense.
What is he even talking about… An ordinary person lacked the relevant knowledge to understand an otaku’s words.
“To summarize the main point, your system window is weird.”
“Well, regressing because you got a job at a black company isn’t normal to begin with.”
“That’s true. It’s not like the world ends if you can’t get a job.”
“The world doesn’t end, just me.”
“…”
“Anyway, it was hard to understand, but it was an interesting story. I’ve rarely questioned the system window until now.”
Looking back, it was strange that he hadn’t had doubts before. Jung Hwi-kyung truly hadn’t thought deeply about the flaws of the system window until Lee Gyo-ha explained it in such detail.
He had just cursed it for being terribly unhelpful. Or thought of it as an interfering aunt rather than an inanimate object… Other than that, he hadn’t felt anything strange about it.
“But that is indeed curious.”
“What is?”
“Why did I think the system window was normal?”
Jung Hwi-kyung knows less about subculture than Lee Gyo-ha.
He hasn’t read many web novels or webtoons, let alone watched many time travel-related movies. He knows what regression stories are, but doesn’t understand their specific aspects. So Hwi-kyung had never thought that there should be a system window.
But Jung Hwi-kyung had been aware of the system window without any particular sense of discomfort. He had never once questioned, ‘Why is this here?’ That was truly strange.
It was contradictory that someone accustomed to doubting things hadn’t questioned the existence of the system window, which seemed to be the central element of the regression.
