The Regressor Makes an Effort (11)
The Regressor Makes an Effort (11)
A week flew by in the blink of an eye. Time shot past while I gathered information, trained with my sword, and practiced shifting my mana around.
"Three more bowls of udon over here!"
Of course, I didn't pour all my time into self-improvement. The very first thing I did was hit all the best restaurants. On Floor 4, I'd had to survive on jerky, hard bread, and the like, so my craving for good food had been fierce.
I ended up savoring every sweet luxury society had to offer like a private on a hundred-day leave, and before I knew it, a week was gone. Normally, I'd set a goal and chase it down relentlessly. But now, simply lying in bed felt blissful.
When you think about it, life used to be exactly like this. Working. Eating. Playing. Sleeping.
It wasn't a place where monsters tore people apart or where you swung a sword until your head throbbed with stress. That truth hit me all over again.
"Huu."
Anyway, time passed, and when the appointed day finally arrived, I found myself standing in front of Choi Ji-won's house.
I could have just regressed without keeping the promise, but I felt sorry for having pushed my luck last time, so I decided to go along with her today.
"You're here."
"Yeah."
Being a guy, I wound up scanning Choi Ji-won's outfit before I could stop myself.
Her trademark ponytail aside, she wore a pair of slightly fitted jeans with a loose white oversized short-sleeved shirt left untucked. The same outfit as back in the tutorial. Was that on purpose?
Regardless of how it tangled up my feelings, Choi Ji-won looked as unruffled as ever. She'd apparently shaken off a good deal of her crushing failure on Floor 4 during the past week.
"Did you eat lunch? Let's eat first. I'm hungry."
She tilted her head as if to say, "Follow me." I let her lead the way down the street, and soon we'd arrived at a barbecue joint.
"...Meat? Before noon?"
"Well? Got a problem?"
Laughing softly, Choi Ji-won walked straight inside. Since standing around outside the door would've been awkward, I followed.
"The aprons are... here. Here, sit. I'll order."
With practiced ease, she pulled out two aprons, called over the restaurant auntie, and started ordering.
"Auntie! Five servings of pork belly, five servings of pork neck, and the pork rind too. Oh, what's this? A new menu item? Give us that too."
"Ji-won, aren't you eating way too much these days? And who's the man with you? Could he be..."
"Ah! Auntie!"
After squabbling with the auntie, Choi Ji-won cleared her throat and put on her apron.
"Do you want doenjang stew? How many bowls of rice? I'm paying, so order without worrying. I'm the one who asked you to meet today, right?"
"...You're really unexpected."
"What is?"
"You don't look the type."
Choi Ji-won's first impression was... cold. Aloof. Her gaze had an edge.
The words "cold city girl" fit her image perfectly, so watching her casually order meat like this felt a little off. She looked more like the type to twirl pasta at a fancy restaurant.
"I like pasta too. Vongole. But pasta doesn't fill you up. And ordering a ton of it draws attention. Ah, the meat's here."
Choi Ji-won accepted the wooden platter laden with meat and then suddenly shot me a glare.
"Hey. I picked a barbecue place thinking of you, and what? I don't seem the type? Should we just go to a pasta place? Tteokbokki? Malaxiangguo?"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."
"That's it. I was going to treat, but we're splitting the bill."
Grumbling, Choi Ji-won grabbed the meat with her tongs.
Sssizzle.
The sound of meat sizzling on the grill made my mouth water. At the same time, our conversation came to a sudden halt.
Though we'd been chatting comfortably, we were fundamentally a little distant. Once I realized that, an untimely silence fell.
"..."
"..."
The wordless grilling lasted only a moment.
"Should we start eating? Looks cooked."
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
A quiet meal began. The sound of the news from the TV mounted on the wall. The whir of an old electric fan. A voice from the kitchen, someone on the phone. Cars passing beyond the open door. Only the sound of our conversation was missing.
I felt like I ought to say something, but I didn't know what. I didn't even know why she'd asked to meet today. What was I supposed to do?
"What kind of work did you do before the Tower appeared?"
Just as I was mulling it over, Choi Ji-won broke the ice.
"Me? I just, uh... went to school."
"Oh, yeah? Which school?"
She rested her chin on her hand and showed interest. The memories from the tutorial, when I'd asked her about school and gotten sliced up for it, began creeping back. Ugh, why was my body trembling?
"I almost entered Korea University myself. Their sports program said they'd recruit me as a special-talent student."
Whether I was suffering from PTSD or not, Choi Ji-won kept the conversation going. Wait—Korea University?
"...Korea University? Seriously?"
"Yeah. I turned it down because it was right after my father passed. Still, I get curious sometimes. What it'd be like to attend university."
With one hand propping her chin, she picked up a piece of meat, placed it on top of my rice, and then took one for herself.
"I went to an all-girls high school... so I've never really had any male friends. All the men I know are old guys. And people say you make a lot of friends in college, right?"
She chewed on a piece of pork neck as she said it.
Come to think of it, this girl was twenty, wasn't she? I kept forgetting because of her exceptional strength and cold appearance.
Wait, so I'd been butting heads with a twenty-year-old girl? I suddenly felt pathetic and shoved a mouthful of meat into my face.
"Hold on, hold on. Let's talk instead of just eating."
But it seemed Choi Ji-won still had plenty she was curious about, and the conversation went on from there.
"What do you normally do to relax?"
"Do you know this YouTube channel? It's fun."
"Instagram? Why would I do that?"
"MBTI? I've only ever done kendo, so I don't know stuff like that. What is it?"
"Swords? You want to talk about swords while we're eating?"
"But do you really regress from just a graze? I guess... experimenting would be bad, huh."
"Ah, we're out of meat."
We wove small talk together, swapping our various quirks, and the meat quickly disappeared.
"Should we order more?"
"No. Let's go. Auntie, check please!"
"Yes~! Oh, please take good care of our Ji-won~."
"Ah! Auntie!"
After paying, Choi Ji-won picked up the bag with Boongboong-yi inside and stepped out of the shop.
"Kim Jun-ho. Do you play games?"
"Games? I love them. Want to go to a PC bang?"
I never expected Choi Ji-won to be into games. A bright smile was about to form on my lips when—
"No, are you a weeb? I meant the arcade. Follow me."
Shaking her head, Choi Ji-won let out a deep sigh. Look, I didn't know she meant that kind of game.
And so we arrived at the arcade.
"Wanna try the basketball game first?"
"Sounds good."
We fed coins into the machine, and basketballs came tumbling out. I grabbed one casually, shot it cleanly, and it went straight in. Choi Ji-won and I mechanically sank shot after shot, eventually setting a new arcade record.
"...Sigh."
"Hm..."
Not fun. Boring as hell.
Not long ago, I'd been fighting for my life in the Tower, every split second a matter of survival. How hard could it be to put a ball into a hoop? Just a hair harder than lying down and eating cake.
"This isn't working. Come out here."
It seemed Choi Ji-won felt the same way, because this time she led me out of the arcade.
"Let's do this."
"...This?"
She pointed to a punch machine. The mitts were worn and tattered, the machine obviously old.
"Hey, won't we just break this thing if we hit it?"
Sure, we'd only just cleared Floor 4, but our physical abilities already far surpassed any normal person's. Trashing this machine would be a breeze if I felt like it.
"That wouldn't be any fun. Here, look at the score."
She tapped the display, which read 000.
"Let's make it a contest: whoever lands exactly on 777 points wins. How about it?"
"Oh, that's a good one."
Hitting a precise score would be much harder than just smashing the machine. Now I'd show her and beat her.
"Huh?"
"Heh."
But the result was my crushing defeat. While I was getting vague scores like 600 or 900, Choi Ji-won toyed around in the 700 range the whole time and finally nailed 777.
"Your physical control still needs work, huh?"
"...Tch."
My body had grown explosively thanks to the achievement levels I'd gained on Floors 3 and 4. When the Hero trait kicked in, my physical abilities became entirely different, and I wasn't used to my current state yet.
"You lost the bet, so you're buying ice cream."
"Convenience store?"
"...Are you kidding me?"
After we got ice cream at a franchise that boasted 31 flavors, the sun was slowly setting.
"..."
"..."
We walked the street in silence. The orange sunset glow backlit Choi Ji-won, just like it had in the tutorial.
The realization made my chest ache.
"Choi Ji-won."
"Hm?"
"Why did you ask to meet today?"
The time I spent with her was fun. We happened to share some hobbies, and we understood each other well. And honestly, Choi Ji-won was damn pretty.
But the closer I got to her, the heavier a part of my heart became. The uncomfortable feeling just kept growing.
"I'm going to regress anyway. I told you, didn't I? I'm going to minimize the time until the clear as much as possible."
"..."
Choi Ji-won adjusted the strap of her bag with Boongboong-yi inside. She chose her words carefully, then finally answered.
"It's just... I got curious too. You said I talked to you about my father back in the tutorial, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's something I've never actually told anyone myself. My close friends know about it, of course, but I've never had a conversation about that subject. It's a sensitive, private topic."
"..."
"What made me trust you enough to tell you that? I don't understand it. Because I was about to die? But you said I had a Golden Orb, didn't you?"
"Right."
"What made me confide my most secret story to a man I'd just met in the tutorial? I was curious about that. I figured if I spent time with you, I might find the answer."
She stopped walking and turned around to look straight at me. The sunset was shining directly in her face, so she narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Is that answer enough?"
"...Yeah."
But there was still something I was curious about.
"So, after hanging out today, what do you think? Why do you think you told me that story?"
Just as I had observed Choi Ji-won today, she had surely observed me as well. To my question about the result—
"I still don't know yet."
A soft laugh escaped her.
"So come again next week. In front of my house."
"Uh, well..."
"You've got plenty of time anyway, right? If you regress, it's back to Floor 4. Before that, you need to train your body and refine your mana for new possibilities to open up, right? And didn't you already say you know the perfect clear method?"
"...Yeah."
She wasn't wrong.
And because she wasn't wrong, I had no choice but to nod.
Turning my face away from the ache in my chest.