Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Director - 1
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Let's talk about Seo Ji-woo.
The image of Seo Ji-woo that I remember is starkly different from the Director she is now.
If I list out all the facts I know about her—
Her combat ability stayed at the average level among adventurers who started at the same time.
Her personality... wasn't overly friendly, nor excessively introverted. It was just moderately balanced.
She mainly used a bow as her weapon, but she didn't seem to have any particular talent for archery.
No standout features.
She blended moderately into the alliance and behaved in a way that didn't catch anyone's ire.
Entering the tower already put her far from ordinary, but since the comparison group was the same adventurers, she became relatively ordinary by contrast.
Even this utterly ordinary Seo Ji-woo had one special trait.
The camera.
In the early stages of the climb, she carried a camera around with her.
She took commemorative photos to preserve memories and saved a few videos, too.
But the camera wasn't an 'item'.
She couldn't store it in subspace, and unlike my notebook—which was in the same category but a convenient portable size—it wasn't easy to carry.
Before surpassing the 30th floor, in most rounds, the camera met one of two ends.
Lost, or broken.
Thanks to my trait allowing me to repeatedly challenge blocked floors and uncover methods, the climbing speed picked up, but Seo Ji-woo lost any spare capacity to keep her camera safe.
On floors swarming with monsters, cameras got trampled and shattered countless times amid the chaos.
It was too hectic to even check whether it was a monster's foot or a person's.
While I, the regressor, got involved with the adventurer alliance and guilds, Seo Ji-woo wasn't even given a chance to awaken her own trait.
On the flip side, the rounds where she utilized her trait as Director could be classified into two cases.
Rounds where she climbed the tower alone with the Sword Saint, ignoring all other adventurers without a second thought.
And the current round, where she stayed stuck on the 1st floor and abandoned climbing altogether.
Which is, well, right now.
That's why I'm suddenly dredging up memories about Seo Ji-woo at this moment.
"Sua, you're here, right?"
Because that Director is standing right in front of me now, camera running.
Ah, right.
I almost forgot the most important detail.
She possessed a rare legendary-grade trait, just like me.
Seeing Seo Ji-woo's face was the second-longest time since the Sword Saint.
Back when she left the alliance, unlike Sua, she never came down to the 1st floor looking for me.
She wasn't affiliated with any specific faction, so she had no reason to visit the 1st floor for promotion or recruitment like the guild masters and key members.
"Did we... miss our chance to talk?"
Above all, Seo Ji-woo knew nothing about me.
We only saw each other's faces for a few weeks before heading to the 2nd floor.
I knew the Seo Ji-woo from past rounds, but the Seo Ji-woo of this round didn't know me.
"If possible, could you put that camera away? I don't like my face getting sold off."
"No one's buying it. Easy to store."
"That's not great either."
"Don't change the subject, Regressor."
Let's set aside for now how much sooner the Director showed up on the 1st floor than expected.
No sign of her wandering the entire 60th floor searching for Sua like I did. She came straight here, certain I'd be on the 1st floor.
Lately, more and more people are figuring out my secret.
Seo Ji-woo, who wasn't even on the 1st floor, couldn't have overheard like Sua did.
She must have known all along.
"You plan to regress if things go south, right?"
"How did you know about my trait?"
"You know mine, so why wouldn't I know yours?"
She doesn't know exactly.
Seo Ji-woo doesn't know my trait's activation conditions or the exact regression point.
Otherwise, she'd realize I can't use it on the 1st floor.
Part of me wants to rush her right now and smash that camera.
Her reaction speed probably isn't faster than mine.
But the camera's still rolling even now.
That means she has some ace up her sleeve.
It can't do real-time streaming or anything.
The camera is just for recording; the ability to transmit video data outside the tower stems solely from Seo Ji-woo's trait.
Tools that aren't items only assist traits.
Just as the ink in my pen on the notebook assists my merely human memory.
If it were an item classified by the tower, all the memos I wrote would vanish every regression.
That distinction of legendary traits includes these auxiliary tools.
The notebook lacks any real durability and burns black in the slightest flame, but the memos are unaffected by regression, and the notebook itself can be restored.
Conversely, scribbles on rock with a pen vanish cleanly upon regression.
Only writing with 'pen' on 'notebook' escapes the trait's influence.
An incomprehensible, vague tower criterion.
Seo Ji-woo's camera probably works the same way.
For now, it makes sense to go along with her demands.
"Why are you looking for Sua?"
"You asking because you don't know?"
"Better to confirm for both sides."
"Sigh... No guild but Crimson Flame can the 61st floor right now."
Seo Ji-woo isn't even in a guild, yet she wants Crimson Flame to push to the next floor quickly.
For the Endless Challenger—aka the regression trait—its power itself greatly aids climbing.
Her trait must live up to its grade.
Transmitting scenes from inside the tower to the outside is indeed an astonishing ability no one else can do, but it doesn't directly help the tower.
It might draw in more adventurers, which is a gain, but it's hard to see it directly benefiting Seo Ji-woo personally.
Beyond the info I know, her trait clearly has other effects.
The act of broadcasting videos itself generates specific value.
"You could film other adventurers instead of Sua."
"Think that'll get as many views as Amelia? Filming alreadyed floors? Predictable reactions."
One more from that exchange.
The Director doesn't just broadcast videos; she aims for high viewership.
The benefit she gains is proportional to the views.
Structure where more popularity and views outside the tower mean more returns for her?
"Asking questions like that means you don't know as much about me as I thought?"
Neither of us fully grasps the other's trait.
"You plan to regress if things go south, right?"
Her knowledge of regression is pretty thin on details.
Even now, she's facing me while accounting for the possibility of my regression.
'She pulled out the camera as a counter to regression.'
You don't die on the 1st floor.
That's a fact every adventurer, including Seo Ji-woo, knows.
No need to worry about losing your life here.
What she's concerned about isn't injury or death—it's regressing and forgetting even this conversation.
In other words, she can remember this talk through the camera even after regression.
Combining that with her already knowing I can regress, and pinpointing my location straight to the 1st floor to find Sua...
"Videos saved on the camera don't disappear."
"......"
"You think Sua's on the 1st floor because I arranged it?"
"I have no intention of meddling in your little game. So just put Sua back in her rightful place."
Pretty close to the truth.
"Unfortunately, that's not happening."
"I'm saying this because I don't want things to get messy. I don't want to resolve it dirty either."
If my suspicions are correct, then even the videos from early rounds are all still in that camera.
If the Director wanted, she could make my daily life a nightmare—far worse than when Sua spread rumors among the guild masters.
But Sua abandoning her guild master position to settle on the 1st floor wasn't my intention.
"Doesn't seem like something I can just decide."
"What?"
"I'll take you to where Sua is. She's probably still sleeping in her room."
For now, better to leave them to talk it out freely.
I need to roughly gauge the Director's goal.
Sua crumbled when the tower's height far exceeded her expectations, but Seo Ji-woo didn't.
If past round videos really remain on the camera and she's watched them all, she'd know the tower exists in hundreds of floors.
Those whose goal is seeing the tower's end all eventually break.
I did. Sua did.
"Planning to keep the camera on the whole time?"
"Yeah. The whole stay on the 1st floor."
"......Do as you like."
This shows Seo Ji-woo's purpose lies elsewhere than ours.