Initiation
Initiation
Monolith official launch day rush.
Extremely successful.
I couldn't close my mouth at the sight unfolding before my eyes.
"Waaah, it's real! It's actually inside the tower!"
Although I've never seen it in person.
It's a sight that's all too familiar.
You know how it is, right?
The phenomenon where you've never actually met a streamer, but you feel a growing sense of parasocial familiarity.
That's exactly how I feel right now.
I've watched so many videos of it that I feel as comfortable as if I'd returned to my hometown.
The surroundings are a bizarrely pure white space.
The platform I'm standing on has [Safe Zone] written on it in huge letters.
And floating in front of me is a translucent window with the Monolith's signature interface.
[Praise for the courage of the first player to enter the tower!]
[First-time entry bonus will be provided.]
"I knew it would be there!"
For the record, this wasn't some calculated bonus-snatching based on future knowledge.
It was just a gamer's intuition—a vague hunch that there would be something for being the first to enter, and it hit the mark.
Why didn't I know about it in the previous timeline?
'The first person to enter must have kept their mouth shut.'
It was a one-time reward that ended with the first entry anyway, and there was no reason to go around bragging about it.
Rip-rip-rip-
A brilliant cluster of light gathered above my palm.
And just like that, a ruby-colored ticket was resting on my hand.
I checked the ticket with a pounding heart.
[Random Grade Magic Stone Exchange Ticket]
[Description: The tower offers its praise for the courage to step into an unknown world before anyone else.]
[Using this ticket will provide a Magic Stone of a random grade.]
"Oh, a gacha item."
Magic Stones are an indispensable, all-purpose material for humanity since the appearance of the tower.
To provide it in a gacha format?
As expected of Monolith, a game that knows how to follow the trends of the times.
I immediately tore the ticket along the dotted line.
Rip-rip-rip-
Ta-da!
Piuuuung-
[F-Grade Magic Stone obtained!]
A special effect played, sounding like a pathetic fanfare.
A small Magic Stone was generated on my hand.
"Ah, damn it."
I'm the idiot for having expected anything.
They followed the trends of the times a little too well, didn't they?
Starting off with rigged odds right from the get-go.
Still, it was better than nothing.
It might be F-Grade, but it's worth a decent amount if I sell it.
Of course, that's only after the Management Bureau is established and some research into Magic Stones has been conducted.
'Maybe the result will be different in the next timeline?'
Well, I'd only know that if I checked later.
I shoved the Magic Stone into my pocket, harboring a vague hope that it would be.
The main event wasn't some crappy Magic Stone gacha.
Right, the main event wasn't bonus-snatching.
The Monolith launch day rush.
That was the main event.
[Welcome to the tutorial.]
[The tutorial will begin once you leave the Safe Zone.]
[Eliminate the enemy within the time limit.]
[10:00]
"Kuh!"
The disappointment from the F-Grade Magic Stone vanished in an instant.
Tears of emotion welled up. I wiped them away with my sleeve and took a deep breath.
"The Normal difficulty tutorial was five harmless slimes, right? And I could pick weapons from the armory next door."
This is what you call a Regressor movement.
There is only full speed ahead, utilizing future knowledge.
Unfortunately, this cheat is blocked starting from the 11th floor.
From that floor onwards, it was treated as high-level information, so ordinary people couldn't access it.
Anyway.
"Is the difficulty just Normal? There's no mention of Hard difficulty."
Honestly, I was a little disappointed by that.
Still, this is better than nothing.
Even if it's Normal difficulty, the difficulty goes insane starting from the 10th floor.
If Han Si-yeon hadn't cleared the Hard difficulty boss, humanity would have been stuck at the 10th floor anyway.
So—
"Let's just run to the 10th floor for now!"
I said that and stepped out of the Safe Zone.
Then, as if the game system had glitched, static began to fill the air all around me.
Bzzzzzt-!
[Warning! Warning!]
[Distortion in the time axis detected!]
[Readjusting difficulty!]
[Adjusting from Normal difficulty to Hard difficulty!]
[Adjusting from Hard difficulty to Extreme difficulty!]
[Adjusting from Extreme difficulty to Infinity difficulty!]
[Death penalty will be applied upon failure!]
A loud siren blared.
Red warning windows popped up everywhere.
Whoosh!
Before I could even organize my thoughts, the scenery all around me changed.
And the enemy for the tutorial—the Infinity difficulty tutorial—appeared before me.
"Chiiiiiik-!"
A terrible stench.
A green giant that looked to be 2 meters tall.
Red glowing eyes and boar-like tusks.
......And a massive club held in its hand.
A monster that only shared the color green with a slime.
In other words, unless you were an idiot, you could tell that this monster was definitely not a slime.
This is an Orc.
And not just any Orc, but the 10th-floor boss of Normal difficulty that brought humanity to despair.
The Orc Chieftain.
My heart was pounding like crazy.
'Infinity difficulty.'
Even while facing the monster, the word 'Infinity' kept swirling in my head.
So, they're saying they won't let me have a free ride?
Not bad.
I've thought this before, but—
A free ride has its own flavor,
And difficulty has its own flavor.
"Hoo."
The game has already started.
If I space out, it's game over.
I calmly regained my composure.
'Whatever it is, I need a weapon first.'
I may have awakened the absurdly broken ability of Infinite Regression, but my combat power is at the level of an ordinary person.
It's common sense that a character with a high ceiling has an insanely low starting point.
It means I have to crawl and scrape by while others are shooting fire and lightning.
In other words, I can't beat this crazy monster with the body of a pure ordinary person.
To begin with, even the top-tier players were blocked by this guy, so what more is there to say?
I quickly looked around to find a weapon.
Only now did the surrounding scenery properly enter my vision.
This is a meadow.
A meadow of great nature with a cool breeze blowing.
In other words, it's an empty wasteland with nothing in it! F*ck!
"Huh?"
I'm not someone who gets flustered easily.
But I was flustered for a moment.
"There's no weapon?"
"Kwooooooo-!!"
Thwack-!
A clean swing.
My head exploded.
It was such a clean swing that I didn't even have time to feel pain.
I just died, with the final thought that I should have ducked to dodge the first pattern.
That was my second regression.
Third life.
Second life as an Infinite Regressor.
I woke up in my studio apartment again.
Despite having experienced death twice, I was calmer than I imagined.
Is it because I died too instantly both times?
Holding my head, which was throbbing with phantom pain that arrived late, I entered the gallery menu.
"Phew, thank goodness."
I was worried I'd have to re-record the video because I died without even pressing the stop recording button.
It seems a feature that automatically saves upon death is installed.
I uploaded the post along with the saved video.
[Newbie Initiation]
[Author: Amor Fati]
(Thumbnail of a face close-up with a fisheye lens)
The difficulty is just insane lol.
Going for 2nd try immediately.
Comments didn't appear right away.
Given the length of the video, I suppose everyone needed time to watch it.
I was looking forward to the reactions, but I didn't have time to waste.
Because the Infinity difficulty tower was calling me!
After pressing the record button on the gallery camera again, I entered the tower once more.
"Going for 2nd try! Entering!"
Paradise Elvenheim.
Known as the earthly paradise, this place is a beach where warm sunlight shines all year round.
Lecobel Mirajian, lying in a hammock installed on a palm tree, was staring blankly into the air while wearing sunglasses.
"Noona, did you come alone?"
A blonde Dark Elf.
The contrast between his hair color and skin tone was impressive.
How many times have I heard this line already?
Lecobel answered without even glancing at him.
"Get lost, you idiot."
"So prickly. I like it even mo—Ack!!!"
With a single flick of Lecobel's finger, his precious long ears were sliced off in an instant.
A realm called the Heart Sword in the world of the Martial God, the Murim.
No one would dare criticize her for using such a noble realm to deal with a punk like this.
Not in the Fantasia Continent, where she lived.
And not in the Infinite Regression Gallery.
Because no one stronger than her existed.
Solo Hero Lecobel.
Exhausted by infinite regression, she was enjoying an eternal vacation.
"Puh-hee-hee."
She snickered after seeing the thumbnail of the video uploaded by the new newbie, Amor Fati.
"Isn't this guy a total nutjob? By the way, his hair color is black too. Maybe he's from a world similar to the Martial God's?"
It was a joy she hadn't felt in a very long time.
Hoping that this newbie would last a long time, she clicked on the video.
The newbie, Amor Fati, with his nose exaggeratedly enlarged, opened his mouth immediately.
-Newbie initia...
"Argh, crazy!!!"
Lecobel let out a scream imbued with Aura without realizing it.
The palm trees collapsed, a sandstorm struck the beach, and the humans and demi-humans nearby lost consciousness from the Lion's Roar she let out.
-No, wait, that's not it. The newbie's tower climbing log starts now. Entering!
"......."
How long has it been since my heart dropped like this?
He was a newbie who could stir up a person's heart in an instant.
She calmed down for a moment and watched the video uploaded by the newbie with her vision enhanced.
When the newbie was happy about entering the tower, she was happy with him.
"It's a good time."
Seeing that the Magic Stone from the reward ticket was a dud, she let out a dry laugh.
Seeing his dejected feelings clearly displayed, he had a certain cuteness to him.
"This is kind of cute. I should save it."
And when she saw the scene where the difficulty rose to Infinity difficulty.
"Ah."
She despaired.
The newbie's worldview.
The genre of tower climbing, no matter how you look at it, has an abnormally high difficulty.
Because he couldn't utilize the biggest strength of Infinite Regression at all.
Everyone lives with deficiencies.
And Infinite Regressors have a means to find out the deficiencies of the people around them.
What does this mean?
It meant that he could select people who would become strong in the future and increase his allies by filling their deficiencies.
Giving a panacea to someone suffering from an incurable disease.
Giving praise to someone who isn't recognized.
Appearing as a savior to figures who would skyrocket in the future in such a way, and raising them as allies.
And exploring routes from various angles together with such allies.
The tower completely blocked those two strengths at the source.
It's forced solo play from the start.
There are no other routes.
Only climbing the tower.
"Haa."
Though she herself insists on solo play because she's been betrayed and is sick of human nature.
Anyway.
The base difficulty itself is Hell difficulty, and the difficulty assigned by the tower is Infinity difficulty.
"This newbie won't last long."
Even if the Infinite Regression Gallery helps him all together, it is ultimately the fate of an Infinite Regressor to have to overcome it on their own.
No matter how high-level sword techniques you teach him.
No matter how great magical knowledge you teach him.
If he gives up, it's all for nothing.
It's something she has experienced countless times.
According to the Puppet Master, an dollmaker from another dimension, the probability of this newbie quitting is less than 2%.
'Really?'
Isn't that a story from when there was no information that the tower's difficulty was Infinity difficulty?
The higher the difficulty of the happy ending, the faster the newbies gave up.
"I had some expectations because he seemed like a nutjob. It's just unfortunate that the difficulty isn't on his side."
Lecobel thought she would just raise him moderately this time as well.
Because the more affection you give, the more unbearable the pain is when the newbie disappears.
Just as she was thinking that and her interest in the newbie was about to cool down.
"Hm?"
She saw it.
At the moment of death, the newbie was staring wide-eyed at the Orc's club swing until the very end.
"This is......"
Solo Hero Lecobel put her sunglasses on top of her head and watched that part again.
He's a natural.
It's not an easy thing at all.
Being able to face the opponent's fast attack head-on without closing one's eyes.
It's a virtue that one must possess to become a proper knight.
A vision that can only be obtained by overcoming human instinct.
"Look at this guy?"
Even just looking at a ball flying toward you, it's human instinct to squeeze your eyes shut.
But he wasn't closing his eyes even while watching the Orc's club swing?
Lecobel examined it closely, putting strength into her eyes.
The newbie's gaze wasn't just looking at the Orc's club swing.
"!"
The path to dodge.
At the moment of death, the newbie's gaze was searching for a path to dodge.
Even for Infinite Regressors, death is a terrible fate that one can never get used to.
The newbie, Amor Fati's eyes, lacked fear of death.
Rather, they were eyes that said he couldn't wait for the next try.
"Is this newbie the real deal?"
Just as she was thinking that.
The newbie uploaded a new post to the IR Gallery.
[F*ck, this is impossible to dodge lol. Going for 3rd try]