Floor 6: The Lost World of the Contaminated (4)

The 2nd regression, Floor 6 Waiting Room.

Perhaps due to the aftershocks of her regression, the deity sponsoring her—a 1st-Class Divine Seat—had been changed to a 5th-Grade Deity.

But that wasn't what mattered.

Ha Heijeong turned her gaze away from the status window and let out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a deep sigh. Nothing had changed in her 2nd regression either.

Her status window's affiliation field, without fail, read Tower of Trials.

When she'd first set out, it hadn't been a problem.

After the ambush at the construction site earlier, whether it was because all the things lurking nearby had come swarming or not, the number of enemies hadn't actually been that large.

"This way!"

"Don't look back! I'll handle the rear!"

At the stairway leading down to Exit 3, Ha Heijeong chanted a spell at the creatures wriggling their way down behind them.

A wall of fire rose up before the creatures.

The brief gap she had carved out for them—it was time to move forward again.

Hoo.

When had things come to this?

The strange, unidentifiable zombies that had come pouring out from every direction began their downhill slide when the climb started near the consular annex of the Chinese Embassy, and it was around the time Myeongdong Station's Exit 3 came into view in the distance that the descent reached its end.

The zombies filled the massive six-lane road in front of Myeongdong Station to bursting.

The moment one of them spotted us and let out a shriek, thousands of zombie heads turned toward us.

Immediately after, the zombies began charging at terrifying speed.

A chill had run down my spine in that instant. It felt like watching a cheap horror film. I'd been briefly flustered by the sheer, overwhelming numbers.

"Heijeong! How long does that thing hold?"

"Three minutes! Two if we're unlucky! We have to reach the platform before it goes out!"

"Dobby! Use a healing spell on the mister, quick!"

The mister didn't look good. He was splattered with the creatures' blood from head to toe, so I couldn't tell where he'd been hurt, but his movements had definitely slowed.

"Kkiik! Wound healing!"

"Vitality!"

"Vitality!"

Dobby, Seo Harin, and the dark-skinned woman called out one after another. A brilliant radiance settled briefly over the mister and me.

It felt like the stamina we'd burned carving through those creatures was being replenished.

I swung my mace roughly at the creatures surging up the stairs.

Crack—craaaack!

A ranged attack using the Essence of Lightning.

The lightning coursed through the creatures' bodies, and every one of them within three meters collapsed in a heap.

"Run!"

We broke through the creatures swarming in again and crossed the ticket gates.

Fortunately, there were few of them inside the station. It was a stark contrast to the surface, teeming with zombies.

Maybe it was because the creatures didn't quite grasp the concept of a subway? Or maybe they just disliked going underground?

It couldn't have been because they needed to eat people. Something I realized on the way down—there were no traces of humanity on Floor 6 at all.

It felt like they'd simply ripped off the space itself and nothing more.

Out of curiosity I'd stepped inside a restaurant once, but there were no cooking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ingredients, and no electricity came on either.

The building where we'd first hidden was empty too.

"Harin, you said we're heading toward Chungmuro?"

"Yes, go right from here."

Down on the platform, we killed the shambling zombies and smashed the screen doors.

Before the other creatures could come swarming in, we slipped onto the tracks and hid ourselves.

"Graaah... rghh..."

The zombies that belatedly made their way down to the platform failed to find us crouched beneath the screen doors.

After shambling around for a while, they climbed back up to the ticket gates. It was time to move again.

"Let's go now."

"Suhyeok, it was right, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

The bald mister and I started walking at the front, and the rest of the party quietly fell in behind us.

"It seems Harin isn't much of a talker, huh?"

"Ah, my girl's shy around strangers. She'll open up once you get to know her."

In case the others might overhear, I kept my voice low, chatting with the mister.

Of the six of us, the ones actually talking were me, the mister, and Ha Heijeong—that was all.

According to the mister, Seo Harin was the type who was very shy around strangers.

Call looked like the kind of person who simply didn't talk much by nature. The strong, silent type.

As for Chloe...

She didn't seem so much quiet as guarded—like she was holding her words in on purpose.

Dobby, too, rarely opened his mouth unless someone asked him something first, so.

As we walked along the tracks toward Chungmuro, our party was silent and awkward.

I can say with certainty that even my first club meeting as a freshman wasn't this uncomfortable.

It wasn't as if we were keeping quiet to prepare for enemies either. The tracks beyond the screen doors held none of the strange zombies.

Probably because they couldn't get past the screen doors, I figured.

Maybe it just comes down to each person's personality.

Occasionally the mister and I exchanged a few words, and Ha Heijeong made conversation with Dobby and Seo Harin.

Perhaps because of her memories of the 1st regression, Ha Heijeong tried hard to get close to Seo Harin, but Harin seemed to find it a bit much.

Well, fair enough. She was already shy by nature, so having someone like Ha Heijeong suddenly approach her would probably feel uncomfortable.

Didn't Ha Heijeong know Seo Harin's personality well? She'd said they were comrades in the 1st regression.

Hm. If they'd met on the upper floors of the Tower, that would make sense. Harin's personality might have changed as she climbed.

I was lost in these thoughts for a moment when the bald mister, mid-conversation, nudged me along.

"Suhyeok, you're listening, right?"

"Ah, yes. All the way back to how you loved reading martial arts novels as a student."

"That's right. That's when I first took an interest in genre fiction, you see."

Hm. Seo Harin must definitely take after her mother. If she took after the bald mister, there's no way she'd be that quiet.

I nodded absently along as the mister chattered away in high spirits.

"So even when I was reading fantasy novels recently, I never imagined something like this would happen in real life."

"You mentioned genre fiction had a lot of what we're going through now?"

"That's right. Status windows, towers, parties, constellations, gods. Full of romantic adventure."

Having said that, the mister laughed—a self-deprecating sort of laugh.

"It was fun when it was just words on a page. But actually living through it with my daughter? I worry. A lot."

"Harin is still a high schooler, after all."

"Right now I'm just glad her mother didn't come into the Tower too. Even if Harin loses her dad, she'll still have her mom."

We'd been talking about novels, and then he just dropped that?

I couldn't easily answer the sudden gravity in his voice.

"Suhyeok, real life isn't a novel. And I'm no protagonist. If something happens to me and Harin, you save my daughter first. You understand?"

"...I'll save you both."

"I mean if. If it comes down to a choice—picking one over the other—you save my girl first. I'm asking you."

"Okay."

At the mister's quiet voice, I gave a small nod. Only then did the bald mister smile faintly, as if relieved.

So beneath that cheerful exterior, he'd been carrying a heavy weight of his own.

How long must he have deliberated before asking me—a man practically his son's age—for a favor dressed up as a promise?

Most likely, it was because I ranked first on the leaderboard that he'd brought it up at all.

He really is something.

The mister never shrank back. Even while taking risks himself, he tried not to hold anyone behind him.

He'd gritted his teeth and kept up without complaint, determined not to burden me either.

Frankly, I liked him for it.

He was the talkative type, sure, but he was good company—and dependable.

The mister, and his daughter Seo Harin too. Neither of them would give up easily.

"Hold on."

At Ha Heijeong's voice from behind, I tensed and dropped into a combat stance. The faint lights illuminating the dark tracks flickered slowly.

...My senses detected no enemies.

Hm?

No—it wasn't movement, but I could feel a faint wave of something. Like when I used the Essence of Lightning. Was this magic?

A faint ripple of magic could be felt from a corner of the opposite track—the line running from Chungmuro toward Myeongdong.

"...You know what this is?"

"I think so. There are rings and necklaces here too. And this is—"

"That one looks like an elixir?"

A bizarre egg entwined in black tendrils like veins.

Beside it, arranged neatly, were silver rings and necklaces, and a dark elixir.

As I drew closer, my notification window refreshed.

It was a description with a great deal conspicuously left out.

The egg certainly felt unsettling. The longer I looked at it, the more a primal revulsion crawled up from somewhere deep inside me.

The ring seemed meant for melee warriors, and the necklace for mages or priests. As for the elixir, its description was too sparse to tell anything.

After examining the items for a moment, Ha Heijeong spoke up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of nowhere.

"These are mine and Suhyeok's to take."

At her flat declaration, the dark-skinned woman jumped as if stung.

"Why? Why should just the two of you take them?"

"It's thanks to me that we found them at all. And do you really think anyone other than Suhyeok and me could have fought our way this far?"

"W-well, sure, you two did the heavy lifting, but deciding that without even discussing it—isn't that going too far?"

Chloe glanced around at the others, seeking support.

But the bald mister and Seo Harin seemed to accept Ha Heijeong's words, and Call shook his head at Chloe as well.

"I think Ha Heijeong is right. Without those two, we wouldn't have made it this far in the first place."

"...Hah. So everyone thinks I'm the villain here, is that it?"

"That's not it at all. Heijeong, so is that egg a hidden mission?"

Call ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠paid no heed to Chloe's grumbling. Instead, he posed a question to Ha Heijeong.

"Yes. Break the egg, and the hidden mission begins."

"It certainly is an unsettling egg."

"Come on, come on. Just smash the damn thing!"

Ha Heijeong looked at me. A expectant gaze. She wanted me to break it?

When I made a puzzled face, Ha Heijeong nodded, as if to say I'd read her right.

Hm. I turned my eyes back to the strange egg. With every twitch of the black tendrils, it seemed to pulse, ever so faintly.

Fine. Let's break it. Wrapping my mace in one more layer of lightning, I raised it high.

Wait.

Just then, an instinct flared up in me.

Don't break it. The same feeling that had guided me all the way up from the tutorial. Was it my Sixth Sense skill?

I stood frozen with the mace still raised, and Ha Heijeong stared at me as if to ask what I thought I was doing.

"We shouldn't break it."

"What?"

"No."

Ha Heijeong may have been a regressor, but she hadn't cleared every hidden mission in existence.

The instinct that had guided me through the tutorial. This time, it was my turn to trust it.

"Dobby, you know a purification spell, right?"

"Kkiik! Goblin! Can do it!"

"Try casting your purification spell on this."

At my words, Dobby stepped forward.

Before Dobby could begin his incantation, the rest of the party, belatedly snapping out of it, started to stop me.

"Suhyeok, I heard Heijeong has some kind of foresight ability, but—"

"Suhyeok, wouldn't it be better to do as Heijeong says and just break it?"

"I have a Sixth Sense skill. This thing shouldn't be bro—"

That was when I heard the footsteps.

Frantic footsteps, coming from the direction we'd walked. Like someone being chased.

Following my gaze, the rest of the party turned to look behind us as well.

"Save us, please!"

"Help! There are zombies back—!"

Five people running toward us from far away, and behind them, a horde of zombies closing in.

Hah. Idiots.

"Battle stations!"