Regression Guidelines For the Supporting Character

Dizziness swept over me. Even with my lips parted, I wasn’t sure if I was breathing properly.
I struggled desperately to pull myself together. I shoved thoughts into my bleached-out mind with force.

“I have to confirm it. I need to confirm it.”
What do I confirm first? How is something like this even possible? Are there side effects?
…Can he really do it?

As I floundered in the chaos crashing over me like waves, the fake continued his explanation.
“This is a time and a world where the ending has already played out. You know that well.”
“…It can’t be changed.”

The short question came out like a groan, and a firm answer returned.
“It can’t. All that awaits you there is dying with the world.”
A world where the ending has been concluded.

A world ruined and annihilated by the Catastrophe. That crimson wasteland, where I held Ryu Sunghyun’s lifeless body and stared at the Catastrophe—it was still vivid in my memory.
I looked down at the black-and-white branch in my hand, then lifted my gaze. At the top of the giant tree—the only golden light.
Now that I looked closer, that distant flickering light like a star was also a branch. Shorter than the one I held in my hand now, but glowing with a radiant golden hue, boldly asserting its presence.

The glowing branch and the dull, lifeless one in my hand. After comparing the two, I calmly mulled over the fake’s words and reached one conclusion.
“If I fail to stop the world’s destruction again this time… that branch will end up like this too?”
“That’s right.”

“……”
What mattered was trust. No matter how good the reward sounded, I couldn’t accept it lightly unless I could trust this being in front of me.
And he probably knew that well too. That’s why he started with this branch. Because it was the only offer that could truly shake me.

“If it’s a world that’s already dead, and all I can do there is die with it… then isn’t there not much merit in going?”
I tightened my grip on the branch and provoked him on purpose. But the fake didn’t seem shaken—he simply tilted his head.
“Don’t test me needlessly. I already know that you value that time more than your life.”
“……”

“And to be honest, even after I explain everything, I’m not sure whether you’ll like it.”
“What?”
As I looked at him in disbelief, the fake stepped closer and raised a hand.

“Experience it for yourself.”
“…!”
“Think of it like a demo version.”

When his fingertips pressed down firmly on the cap over my head, my upper body tilted backward.
“Wait—!”
Chills ran down my spine, and an eerie sensation spread through my entire body. Just like before, my consciousness began to blur, my eyelids closing tightly on their own. A curse rose up to the tip of my tongue.

“This bastard again—!”
Through the darkness overtaking my vision, I saw the fake’s lips curl into a deep smile.
And then—

“—Haaah…!”
I gasped sharply, eyes flying open in shock. A wave of hot heat poured down from my head.
I steadied my wobbling body and lifted my head. Then I saw my reflection in the glass of a familiar restaurant window.

What… is this?
The starry sky with the Milky Way, the massive tree, the fake—everything had vanished without a trace.
Instead, the spot was filled by the blazing sunlight, shimmering asphalt radiating heat, and a few passersby walking by me.

What the hell?
I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. I noticed I was no longer holding anything and turned to look straight ahead.
There was still a restaurant. I stared at the black cap and mask reflected in the window—my own appearance—then looked through the glass to the people sitting at the table inside, eating.

“Seohu, have some dumplings.”
“I’m full.”
“Then I’ll eat them! I will!”

“Stop eating already, Kim Suho!”
Their noisy chatter carried even outside to where I stood. I dumbly stared at the group making all that noise.
Kim Suho, on the verge of tears while holding the plate of dumplings. Yoo Harin, teasing him. Ko Taeseong, laughing while drinking water. And… the man with black hair sitting among them.

…How?
That was definitely me. The side profile warning Suho not to spill the dumplings—it was clearly Cha Seohu.
How could another me be standing right in front of me?

I couldn’t understand anything about the situation, but instinctively, my eyes were drawn to one last person.
Sitting across from Cha Seohu, holding a water bottle and pouring water into his glass. A gentle smile on his face, watching over the guild members…
Ryu Sunghyun.

I knew just by looking. This was the Circle Guild before the regression.
Hyung…
Yeah. That was the face I wanted to see. Everyone smiling that comfortably—I missed them so much.

I found myself smiling unconsciously, watching Ryu Sunghyun—when suddenly, he turned his head sharply and looked straight at me.
For a split second, our eyes met.
“…!”

My heart dropped with a heavy thud, and a chill rushed up from the soles of my feet. At the same time, dizziness surged again.
“Haaah—ugh!”
The sensation was like falling from a high place. My vision flipped. The sunlight heating my skin, the scorching summer air, the sounds of footsteps, the voices of the Circle guild members—everything faded at once.

A sharp pain crashed over me like a wave. I squeezed my eyes shut reflexively. And when I opened them again, I was back in the strange space the fake had created.
“How was it?”
“……”

I blinked a few times before I admitted it.
What I’d experienced wasn’t a dream. It was… reality. The weather, the air, the noise, everything I’d seen—none of it could’ve been replicated in a dream. It was too vivid, too raw.
I knew that place well too.

It was a simple snack shop. Since we were a small guild with not much money, we went there often—it was close to the guild and surprisingly tasty.
My throat felt parched. Maybe because I’d just come from the middle of a summer street… or maybe for another reason.
That bastard called it a ‘demo version.’

In other words, seeing is believing.
Too complicated to explain everything from A to Z, so he let me experience it. A “demo version.”
It felt awful being on the receiving end of the very tactic I usually used on others. I bit my lip hard and finally asked,

“So even if I accept the reward and go to the previous timeline… ‘Cha Seohu’ and I become separate people?”
“That’s right. You’d be inserted into a time and world that already exist. It’s impossible to merge the current you into the former you.”
The ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) fake continued with a somber tone.

“And the future—where the world is destroyed—can’t be changed either. It’s a predetermined result.”
“……”
“Even if you go there, you can’t live as Cha Seohu. You won’t be able to protect those close to you. All you can do is watch as the world fades away.”

“……”
“Even so, do you still want to go?”
The fake’s words struck the very part I didn’t want to confront, and I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“You’re being surprisingly honest.”
“It’s not a free gift. It’s a trade.”
“Let’s organize this. So… just like when we made a deal over the competition match, this time you’re offering this branch in exchange for something?”

“More precisely, it’s a request for cooperation. Our goals aren’t so different.”
I’d already figured out what the fake’s goal was. He’d shown me enough cards to guess.
The Catastrophe.

He wanted to protect the world from that being.
The darkened branches on the tree—including the one in my hand—were probably all traces of failure.
“If this is a cooperation, not a trade, then that means you’ll help me too.”

“To some extent. But I can’t tell you everything I know. I have my own circumstances.”
“If you start talking about ‘circumstances,’ I won’t feel like cooperating.”
I answered half-jokingly, but I understood what he meant.

“Is that also why you haven’t removed the source of the Catastrophe directly?”
The fake shrugged. That meant yes.
“If I’m going to give you the information I have, you have to fulfill my request. We’ll work together—and whenever needed, we’ll exchange things like in a deal.”

“And if everything goes right, and the Catastrophe is stopped… you’ll send me back to before the regression?”
“If that’s what you want.”
If I’m being cold and rational—this is a loss for me.

The reward the fake is offering—“I’ll send you back to the previous timeline”—honestly isn’t enough.
Even if I take the reward and return, I’ll no longer be able to live with the Circle Guild members as ‘Cha Seohu.’
I’d just be someone without an identity, wandering near the Circle Guild, and when the world ends—I’d die with it.

Maybe I won’t even be able to wander. If I get spotted by accident…
No matter how I thought about it, going back to before the regression wasn’t a smart choice.
And yet the fake offered it proudly, and I… wanted it this badly.

Because even if that’s the ending waiting for me—I still want to go.
To where my people are.