Yellow God and Red God's Protection

A freshly awakened Player's stats ought to fall somewhere between 5 and 10. Before the regression, Jin-soo's had been no different. Nothing to complain about. His level was only one higher than it had been at that first awakening, and yet his stats had more than tripled.

A single level-up automatically distributed a total of ten stat points. Even at Level 2, Jin-soo already carried the stats of a Player at Level 9 or 10.

So this is the cause.Yellow God and Red God's Protection. The blessings must have set his freshly awakened level at 2 and locked every stat at 22.

No information. Jin-soo had reached the highest floor in the Tower; it was no exaggeration to say he knew the place inside and out. Gods, though, and the blessings they granted—those he was meeting for the first time.

The ones who regressed me have to be the Yellow God and the Red God. Whatever purpose they had in sending him back, he couldn't begin to guess. So far, they're helping.

Jin-soo closed the status window and swept his gaze over the people lost in confusion. As expected, not a single familiar face. He strode to where the weapons and rations were laid out and took two longswords, two daggers, and two packs of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠food.

What? A system message had flared up out of nowhere, declaring that the blessings had grown. And not once—twice.

The blessings grew? Jin-soo opened his status window at once and checked their information.

Option effects? Only moments ago the blessings had carried no options at all. Now the information had changed.

Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Endurance, each increased by 2.2 percent? That was no small help. For the moment his base stats were still low, so the options weren't especially efficient. But once he acquired titles and leveled up, raising those base stats, the efficiency would have no choice but to skyrocket.

And if 2.2 percent isn't the ceiling—if they can grow even further? Blessings that had not existed before the regression would become an immense source of power for him.

Still, I don't know why they grew. He hadn't earned a title through some special achievement, hadn't leveled up, hadn't cleared a hidden dungeon. Think about it later. Right now he needed to move.

There's time enough. A Player who reached Floor 1 had to ascend to Floor 2 within ten days. Fail, and you die. With his current stats and the knowledge he carried, Jin-soo was confident he could clear Floor 1 and reach Floor 2 inside an hour.

Even so, I can't just climb. Before the regression he had been desperate merely to survive, and without information he had failed to claim a single achievement or hidden dungeon that could be taken only on Floor 1. This time, things were different. The reward for the fastest clear of Floor 1 comes if I reach Floor 2 within three days. Three days was more than enough. I'll sweep up every last one of them.

Weapons and rations in hand, Jin-soo was just about to step away when a voice stopped him.

"Hey! Kid! You know something, don't you?"

A hulking man in a gaudy leopard-print shirt, both arms sleeved in tattoos, blocked his path.

"You do, right? You're only grabbing this stuff 'cause you know what's going on."

The brute picked up a dagger with a keenly honed edge.

"Tell me everything you know. Don't leave out a single thing."

He brought the blade up against the nape of Jin-soo's neck.

"Feed me a lie and I'll open a fresh hole in your throat, little boy."

"Ah..."

The man's behavior dragged a shard of old memory up through Jin-soo's mind. A gangster who, among people dumped onto Floor 1 of the Tower with no idea why they were there, had reigned like a king—dealing out merciless violence and committing murder. He had monopolized the food and worked the others like slaves, and as if that were not enough, he had thrown people to the monsters as bait so that he himself might live.

Jin-soo had fought him alongside a few others and taken a grievous wound, the muscle and tendons of his left arm torn clean through. Clearing Floor 1 and climbing to Floor 2 healed every injury, so it never became a permanent disability. Back then he hadn't known that ascending to a higher floor restored the body to peak condition even from the brink of death. He remembered how deeply he had despaired.

The brute had been strong, and the reason was a single powerful title that massively increased his stats. First Murderer. One of the titles obtainable only on Floor 1, granted solely to the one Player who committed the first murder.

Right. That title. He had forgotten it completely. It was nothing to be proud of, so those who held it often concealed the fact entirely. Jin-soo himself hadn't known until a comrade told him, just before they cleared Floor 100. Before I learned about First Murderer, I simply thought the bastard was naturally that strong. He wasn't. It had been the title, and nothing more.

"Why aren't you answering? You really want to die? Think I won't stick you?"

The dagger in the brute's hand jabbed at Jin-soo's neck, again and again.

"What?"

The brute's face twisted in confusion. He had assumed the baby-faced Jin-soo was too frightened to speak. Hearing the voice, though, he found the tone impossibly calm.

"Has this bastard lost his mind?"

He scowled, turning over whether he ought to draw blood just to prove he meant it—and in that instant the arm holding the dagger bent the wrong way with a wet crack. The blade ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dropped from his right hand and clattered across the floor.

"Aaaaagh!"

A wretched scream tore out of him as his arm twisted into something no arm should be. It did not last long.

"Guhk—!"

Jin-soo's hand had closed around his throat.

"Ghk! Kk—!"

Breath failed him. His vision blurred, and a sick, alien pain lanced through him as the bones of his neck ground out of place.

"S-spare—!"

Before the brute begging for his life could finish the word, his neck snapped with a crunch.

Just as he had heard, the titles appeared. Two of them, no less. Did I get an extra one because I didn't use a weapon? The thought had barely formed when the logs changed.

Huh? Something had gone wrong. What is this? Jin-soo's face hardened to stone. The titles disappeared?

Before the regression he had survived every kind of battle there was and lived through absurdities beyond counting, and yet a title simply ceasing to exist was a grotesquerie he had never once heard of in his life.

These blessings—what in the world are they? Yellow God's Protection and Red God's Protection. He had taken them for gifts from the gods who regressed him. From the moment of awakening his level had risen to 2 and every stat to 22, and on top of that they had granted a buff increasing Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Endurance by 2.2 percent. He had been certain they were a power that could only help him.

So why are they doing this? The blessings were not beings that brought him nothing but benefit. Yellow God's Protection and Red God's Protection had annihilated titles—one of the very cores of a Player's growth. On the off chance something else had changed, Jin-soo hurriedly checked his status window.

Nothing's different. It wasn't only the titles that had vanished. The stats that had risen when he acquired them had returned to what they were. Highly pleased, were they? Found them commendable and satisfying? Then why extinguish the titles? His thoughts tangled. But he still knew far too little about the blessings.

"Eek!"

"S-someone's dead."

"It's murder! Murder!"

"Murderer!"

"He's insane!"

Those who had witnessed the brute's death flinched back in shock, putting distance between themselves and Jin-soo. Not everyone did. A man and a woman who looked to be in their early to mid-twenties watched him warily, yet they did not retreat.

Is it them? Jin-soo studied the pair. He had meant to take what he could and climb to Floor 2 alone, but the brute stepping forward had stirred memories of Floor 1 he had forgotten completely, faint as they were. The ones who had stood against that brute beside him. The ones who had risked their lives with him to clear Floor 1. The ones who had shared life and death with him on the lower floors. Jin-soo's first comrades.

It is them. Looking closely, their faces were somehow familiar, and the blurred memory grew a little clearer. What were their names? He couldn't remember. Both of them adapted to the Tower quickly. Sharp judgment, and real skill as Players.

But at the first moment of choice, those two had chosen differently from Jin-soo, and just like that they had parted. It'll be the same this time. Jin-soo had a reason he absolutely had to return to Earth. If we're going to part anyway, there's no reason to walk together. Party members only became essential once you climbed past Floor 50.

With a soft rustle, the dead brute's corpse crumbled to dust and scattered. No class-change tome. No skill book. Only natural. The brute would have had neither a class nor any skill he had learned.

"Eeeek! The body's gone?!"

"Is this place even real?"

"Where the hell did they drag us?!"

The moment the corpse dissolved into dust, the crowd collapsed into panic. Even then, the only ones who kept their composure were the man and woman who had once been Jin-soo's comrades. Going for the weapons and rations? Both their gazes were fixed on the display beside him. He stepped aside, and they approached cautiously to claim weapons and food.

"Excuse me... do you actually know something?"

The woman asked him then.

"I don't."

"Ah. All right."

At his answer she replied shortly and looked away.

Time to go. First he had to secure every achievement he could. There was no need to help two people he would only part from later. With that bastard dead, they should get through Floor 1 well enough. Before the regression they had possessed the backbone to stand against the brute's tyranny—the ones who had gathered several Players, Jin-soo among them, cleared Floor 1, and climbed to Floor 2. Even without his help, they would likely clear the Tower's lower reaches with ease, and make the same choice they had made before the regression.

Leaving the other Players behind, Jin-soo set out alone to claim the achievements and the hidden dungeons.

"Kreeeik!"

"Kigigik!"

He had not gone far before he met ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two goblins. With his bare hands he crushed the first one's throat. Toward the other he swung his sword in an easy flick, and the goblin's head came off in an instant.

Three titles, in a single breath.

And once again, the titles were extinguished.