Chapter 6: Red woman # 5

For several days, I rested deeply, allowing my mind to find a semblance of peace.

Though I occasionally woke screaming, gripped by extreme terror or an inexplicable madness, I managed to cope.

It was all in the past now.

I deliberately avoided touching the Status Window.

The vampires, the truth hidden beneath the world, the agony of death, and even the regression—all of it was simply gone.

I had returned to my ordinary life.

Such extraordinary events were never common, and if I simply avoided them, I could continue living without further entanglement.

If encountering vampires were a common occurrence, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.

“Delicious pizza! Crab meat pizza! Free delivery!”

On my way home, carrying the packaged pizza, I walked, singing like SpongeBob and wiggling my hips.

My dream was to train my glutes to their absolute limit and become like Omni-Man.

I was going to eat it with my mom and dad when I got back.

Lately, I had found it truly wonderful to share dinner with my parents.

Before, even when they were home, I would eat alone in my room while on the computer, but I resolved never to do that again.

After all, there was nothing as precious as time spent with family.

“Knock, knock, knock!”

I pressed the door lock, mimicking the rhythm of a knock.

‘Pizza…!’

‘I’m going to devour this f*cking pizza!’

‘I’ll greedily devour only the luscious flesh of the pizza, then collect the crusts at the end and dip them heavily in the dipping sauce!’

‘That’s what I bought the dipping sauce for, after all.’

‘Now, quietly enter my belly.’

‘You were made for this.’

“Mom! I bought pizza!”

The moment I opened the front door, shouting in imitation of Jimi Hendrix’s vocal style,

“Oh.”

A thick, cloying scent of blood wafted through the air.

“Huh, Mom…?”

‘No.’

‘It can’t be.’

‘No.’

‘It must not be.’

“Mom? Are you here?”

The living room was empty.

I set the pizza down and slowly stepped further into the house.

Silence reigned.

It was suspiciously quiet, not a sound to be heard.

‘Then what was this smell of blood…?’

‘No, was it even truly the smell of blood in the first place?’

‘Was I once again caught in the madness of that day, reacting to a hallucination of blood that wasn’t even there?’

‘That must be it.’

‘It had to be.’

‘There was no other possibility.’

I stood before the master bedroom door.

Carefully, I grasped the doorknob and pushed the door open.

“Mom?”

The scene inside slowly came into view.

I desperately wished to deny what I was seeing.

Something red was splattered across the master bedroom floor.

And there, crouched over it, was my mother, covered in blood.

Her face was submerged in a pool of blood on the floor.

“Slurp, slurp.”

My mother lifted her head.

Her mouth was stained crimson.

She was smacking her lips, and the fangs revealed were unnaturally long.

I felt as though I would vomit.

“Ugh, ugh…! No! No! Mom!”

I started to run toward my mother, then froze.

The crouching figure of my mother suddenly sprang to her feet.

Then, she slowly began to walk towards me.

Her arms were outstretched.

‘Normally, I would have embraced her.’

‘Even if it was a little embarrassing, she was my mom… But, but!’

“But why are you trying to bite me?!”

“Kieeeek!”

“Hwaak, hwaaaak!”

I tumbled to the floor as if tripping on a treadmill, then scrambled back to my feet with an absurd struggle and fled.

‘I have to get out, I have to get out now!’

“Fuuuuuck!”

‘A vampire!’

‘That f*cking vampire found me!’

‘Running away hadn’t made me safe!’

‘It had found me somehow!’

‘I shouldn’t have come home!’

‘Because I came home, Mom…!’

“Mom, Mommm! H-huh! K-k-k-k-ugh!”

‘Mom turned into that!’

‘Because of me, Mom was murdered by a vampire and turned into a monster!’

“No! Not Mom and Dad! Kh-heugh!”

Fear, revulsion, self-loathing—emotions so heavy and viscous they transcended everything, beyond imagination, surged from within me.

‘Why, why was this happening?’

‘Why did I have to suffer through this?’

It was the moment I burst through the front door.

“Huh?”

A blood-soaked hand seized my forearm.

“K-heugh.”

“D-Dad?”

His eyes were vacant.

No, they had become emotionless, like a beast’s, fixed on me.

Dad was also covered in blood.

His fangs were long, and he seemed to perceive me as prey.

‘This wasn’t the usual, slightly eccentric but cheerful Dad…’

“Ah, Dad. Please. Please! Pleeease!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Dad shoved me, sending me sprawling.

I crashed onto the floor.

I thrashed, screamed, and wept loudly, tears streaming down my face.

“Hyaak! Hyaaaak!”

Fangs sank into my forearm.

Dad was tearing at my arm.

‘Please.’

‘Please, somehow.’

‘I just want it all to end now.’

“Kk-heugh…!”

My stomach burned.

Dad’s powerful hand plunged into my stomach.

The front door opened again.

Mom emerged.

“Kya-hak!”

Mom lunged at me.

Then, along with Dad, she began to tear open my abdomen and pull out my intestines.

—Thwack! Thwack!

Amidst the horrific pain and dizziness, I watched my parents gnawing on my entrails, and then closed my eyes.

.

.

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[You were devoured by your parents.]

[Death Count: 3 -> 4]

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[Restarting.]

****

“Hwaaaak! Haak! Aak! Ugh, ughhhh! Kk-eueek!”

The moment I opened my eyes, tears and vomit poured out.

Clutching my stomach, I writhed on the floor, expelling every ounce of my agony.

“Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!”

‘I died…!’

‘I died again!’

‘And I was devoured by Mom and Dad!’

“Khaaaak!”

The images of my parents, transformed into monsters, refused to leave my mind.

‘It was all my fault.’

‘Because I went home, like an idiot!’

‘That vampire tracked me down and turned my mom and dad into monsters!’

“That f*cking b*tch!!!”

Alongside the pain, an extreme fury surged within me.

‘What was I supposed to do about that f*cking b*tch?’

‘What was I supposed to do to that bastard who touched my parents?!’

‘There was only one answer.’

‘A cross.’

“Huh?”

The moment I tried to get up, I realized something was amiss.

“This isn’t the subway?”

It wasn’t the subway.

What I saw was my studio apartment, plastered with cross drawings.

Realizing this, I sat blankly, struggling to comprehend the reality.

‘Why… why was it my room and not the subway?’

‘Had the regression point changed?’

“Status Window.”

——————————

[● Status Window]

Name: Kim Geun-hong

Age: 24

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.

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Regression Count: 2

Death Count: 4

[● Endings Collected]

——————————

Only the death count had changed.

Nothing else was different.

Just in case, I checked my phone, and it was the very same dawn.

The dawn after I had escaped the subway and spent the night wide awake in my room.

‘…’

‘I couldn’t understand why I had regressed here instead of the subway.’

Still, confronting this new bizarre phenomenon had momentarily diverted my focus, making me feel somewhat more alert.

‘Mom… Dad… Haa.’

‘If I had regressed here, it meant they were safe too.’

The thought brought a profound sense of relief.

‘A call.’

First, I tried calling Dad.

[Ugh… Uh, Red Sun. What is it? Why?]

“It’s really Dad.”

‘It really was Dad!’

“Hoo!”

I hung up the phone and let out a long, shuddering breath.

‘It meant both of them were safe.’

‘Thankfully, the regression had made it as if it never happened.’

‘Let’s get a grip.’

I got up and pressed my thumbs firmly against my temples, rubbing them.

‘I need to pull myself together. The vampire will find me.’

‘Therefore, I couldn’t run to my parents’ home.’

‘I didn’t know how it found me, but if I went to my family home, it would follow me there in just a few days.’

‘Then Mom and Dad would both die.’

‘Somewhere else.’

‘I had to flee elsewhere.’

‘But even if I fled somewhere else, there was no guarantee the vampire wouldn’t find me.’

‘Even if I went to a place like Gangwon Province, there was still a chance it would track me down.’

‘So, I had to be prepared to confront the vampire at any moment.’

‘I would have to live like the legendary vampire hunter, Van Helsing, constantly packing anti-vampire weaponry and treading the fine line between life and death every single day, as if walking on a blade’s edge.’

‘It would truly be the life of a vampire hunter.’

‘But where would I get the money for all that?’

‘Regression.’

It was as if lightning struck my mind.

The information about stocks and cryptocurrencies that I had been checking for the past few days resurfaced.

‘Although I had almost no money on hand right now, if I just used these memories, I could quickly amass an overwhelming fortune!’

‘With that, living on the run would be no problem at all!’

‘It was good that I had familiarized myself with it.’

‘There was no time.’

‘I had to prepare starting now.’

‘Mom. Dad. Friends. Relatives. I couldn’t meet anyone.’

‘I had to live a life of solitude, on the run.’

Once I had mentally prepared myself, I immediately began to act.

Having witnessed my mother and father transform like that, there was no room for childish weakness.

****

[People are dying!!!!!!!!!]

[If your heart feels like it’s going to explode, give it a thumbs up lololol]

[Still trust America???????]

Using the information I had familiarized myself with before the regression, I literally made an immense fortune.

I profited from both surges and dips, never losing a single cent.

What was barely a college student’s fund rapidly swelled beyond that of a professional investor, multiplying many times over, causing my wealth to skyrocket endlessly.

Though it was an amount that would have been unimaginably vast before, now it felt like nothing more than cheat money in a single-player game.

The Kim Geun-hong who, just a month prior, would revel in boundless, frenzied joy all day long after earning a measly 50,000 won (TL Note: Approximately 40 USD) was no more.

With the power of regression now in my hands, money was merely a free resource that could be generated endlessly.

Having amassed my fortune, I began my life on the run.