A Regressor's Bucket List

During my first life.

When I first learned of the existence of the ‘Floating Territory,’ I couldn't help but frown.

This was because the act of traveling across the continent and taking away talented individuals felt like stealing manpower from the Guardian Cross Order, which was fighting the War against Demons.

I thought that if the strength of those talents had been concentrated on the Church Allied Forces' war effort instead, we might have defeated the Demon King's Army and won the War against Demons long ago.

Although they were somewhat lacking compared to the ‘Church Alliance,’ which was a gathering of numerous powers.

It wasn't that the Floating Territory's strength was small either; the influence of its core figures, in particular, was enough to put any 5-star Hero to shame.

Even excluding everything else, Sejong himself was a figure who would have achieved distinguished merits had he simply joined the Order.

However, as time passed and I personally participated in the War against Demons, gaining various experiences.

After I grew up and developed a broader perspective that went beyond one-dimensional thinking, those thoughts vanished like a clean slate.

The reason was simple.

The War against Demons that I experienced firsthand was not that easy.

It was because I clearly realized that winning the War against Demons was not possible through such simple logic.

It wasn't something that could be debated based on whether or not a little more power was supplemented.

If it were something that could be settled by that much, the War against Demons itself would have ended long ago, regardless of whether the Demon King's Army or the Church forces won.

The War against Demons had continued for so long that it had become a symbol of the Upper Plane.

The reason the war continued so sluggishly for such a long time was that the sizes of the two forces were so massive and their levels were so equal that neither could form a decisive trend.

It wasn't just a matter of martial power.

Culture, effort, combat methods, counter-intelligence, and so on.

Each might have had advantages in certain fields, but the total sum ended up being almost equal.

The expansion of power through desperate efforts over a long period had accumulated to form a kind of average.

If Sejong had joined, he might have brought a slight advantage to the battles he participated in, but that would only have brought a ‘temporary advantage’ within a ‘localized scope.’

It was impossible for that to play a decisive role in bringing victory to the War against Demons.

At best, it would only act as a single variable.

And in the first place, the reason the Floating Territory was able to grow this much was because of Sejong's accumulated efforts over hundreds of years.

Now, it had reached a point where its power was difficult to estimate, and it was a force so powerful that Kanna Cartier, the Commander of the Northern Subjugation Force, unconsciously thought of the term ‘Third Power,’ but it wasn't this way from the very beginning when Sejong first designed it.

Reaching its current level was entirely thanks to the research and technology of the talents who had grown and concentrated within the process of him gathering people for hundreds of years.

It was uncertain whether he could have created a force like Floating Specter Joseon if Sejong had chosen the single-minded path of simply joining and participating in the War against Demons.

It was an exceptional force, perhaps the only one in the long history of the Upper Plane, and the greatness of the Floating Territory lay not so much in its martial power, but in the fact that it gathered talented individuals with miscellaneous skills who would have lived ordinary lives after falling behind on the battlefield and created an ‘independent mana utilization method.’

After experiencing the War against Demons myself, I could no longer define it as ‘theft.’

Rather, it was thanks to that that we could discover the existence of the ‘Transcendent Plane’ and seek another way.

Sejong’s ‘Floating Territory Project’ was something only he could do, and even if the Church Allied Forces of the first life lost the War against Demons, it was not a plan that could be dismissed as inappropriate.

Well.

In the first place, just because the Floating Territory sought methods other than martial conflict through its remaining talents didn't mean he was ignoring the War against Demons altogether.

If he had, there would have been no reason for him to suddenly appear and help in the ‘Northern Subjugation War,’ revealing himself after hiding for so long.

Sejong also knew the importance of the War against Demons better than anyone else.

Whatever the case, the fundamental reason he headed for the Transcendent Plane was to witness the ‘Truth,’ but at the same time, it was also to prevent the ‘destruction of the Upper Plane.’

It had to be that way.

Even if they arrived at the Transcendent Plane and discovered some way to prevent the destruction of the Upper Plane, it would be meaningless if the Upper Plane had already been destroyed by then.

Sejong’s acceptance of Kim Satgat’s request to head to the Northern Subjugation War was ultimately on the same level.

If the Northern Subjugation Force were to lose its strength here by falling into Isaac Einstein’s trap, the balance of the War against Demons would immediately begin to tilt toward the Demon King's Army without any time to spare.

In fact, this was the point where the Order began to collapse in the first life.

If such a situation occurred, let alone the Floating Territory arriving at the Transcendent Plane and finding a way, the Upper Plane would begin to crumble before they could even try anything.

That was why Sejong was helping the Northern Subjugation Force, even providing materials and mana power to be used by the Floating Territory.

Because he didn't want to create such a ‘time attack’ situation.

“…It’s not just a matter of gauging the existence of the Transcendent Plane on a theoretical level.”

“…….”

“The reality of the Transcendent Plane has already been experimentally confirmed.”

As Sejong explained while emphasizing the existence of the ‘Transcendent Plane,’ its existence did not remain merely at the level of ‘intuition’ that he had mentioned.

Of course, the first clue might have been caught through ‘intuition,’ but the Floating Territory had put in all sorts of efforts to bring it down to a visible level rather than stopping at a ‘sensory dimension,’ and at the current level near the end of the War against Demons, it had already been experimentally confirmed.

“It was brief, but about three times.”

“…….”

“I have experienced a connection to the Transcendent Plane.”

“…….”

“We haven't yet acquired the technology to move the entire Floating Territory... but since we've opened the way, I don't think it will take very long.”

There was a strong conviction in Sejong's voice.

It wasn't just a level of ‘groundless confidence’ that it would naturally succeed because he was involved.

It was an intense conviction that showed no sign of doubt, as if he knew for a fact that it had already been decided to happen that way.

And I knew very well where that confidence originated from.

“Seeing is believing, as they say.”

“…….”

“It’s better to see it for yourself once than to talk about this and that.”

Turning around, Sejong gestured for me to follow and walked toward the inner palace.

***

A space wider than I expected was located inside the inner palace.

As I followed Sejong down the path to the right, a long hallway appeared.

‘…….’

Wooooon—

An alien noise was heard from the other side of the hallway.

It was too massive to have been made by a human, and too artificial to have been made by nature.

Moving his steps toward the sound that echoed and amplified throughout the hallway, Sejong spoke quietly.

“I expect you’ve heard on your way here.”

“…….”

“Do you know that our Joseon employs an independent mana utilization method?”

“…Yes.”

As he said, Bamboo Hat Mister had arrived at the Northern Subjugation Force and made the shocking statement about an ‘independent mana utilization method.’

But in fact, from U-jin's perspective, it was something he could have known even without hearing those words.

The dense characters appearing on the poles right before his eyes were certainly using a different method than ‘magic.’

Thanks to that warp technology, U-jin, who was now up on the Floating Territory, couldn't help but realize that it employed a system fundamentally different from the magic used by the Order, yet possessed equivalent power.

Click, click—

“It’s a given, but the reason this Floating Territory can float in the sky is also because of that independent mana utilization method. It’s not known to the world, so it’s likely your first time hearing of it, but we refer to it as ‘Sulbeop.’”

Sulbeop.

The first mana utilization method developed since the Order's magic system.

It was true that it fell short of the vast data magic had accumulated over eternity, but the essence researched and built up by Sejong and the members of the Floating Territory for hundreds of years was not something to be ignored.

Its effectiveness was as good as proven from the moment the Floating Territory floated in the sky.

In the end, Sulbeop made it possible for the Floating Territory to head toward the Transcendent Plane at the end of the first life.

“Admittedly, its field is limited and narrow compared to magic, but it’s a field we take pride in in our own way.”

“…….”

“It’s not just that I’m biased because I’m involved; it’s because it already surpasses magic within those narrow fields.”

This wasn't just praise for the Floating Territory.

Even if other parts were unknown, Sulbeop was the one with technology more advanced than magic in fields such as ‘giant object maneuvering,’ ‘concealment,’ and ‘dimensional technology.’

Of course, as the ancient books related to magic had not yet been fully read, it was more accurate to say that the entirety of the magic left by the Messiah in ancient times had not yet been fully explored, rather than magic simply being inferior.

From the Order's perspective, it had only fallen behind because they felt no need to research such fields, but that didn't detract from the excellence of its fundamental system.

Regardless, it was a clear fact that the Floating Territory's mana utilization technology in several fields was superior to the Order's magic.

Kim Satgat's warp technology, which allowed him to appear inside the Northern Subjugation Force camp through a pole without being noticed by anyone, and the technology that brought U-jin up to the Floating Territory, were also related technologies.

“And the reason we dug into those few fields so intensely is because, as I said before, reaching the Transcendent Plane beyond the Upper Plane is ‘our goal.’”

“…….”

“And the core technology of our Floating Territory, which contains the totality of such movement technology, is…”

Step—

“…right behind this.”

Sejong’s footsteps stopped.

Before we knew it, we had passed through the hallway and arrived at a massive red door at the end.

Tap, tap—

Tapping the door a couple of times, he left a warning that wasn't quite a warning, a smirk playing on his lips.

Heh—

“Don't be too surprised when you see it.”