The Regressor Wanders (5)
The Regressor Wanders (5)
"In about ten months... Earth could face a crisis."
"...?"
"...What?"
Choi Ji-won and I both froze. Earth in danger? What did that mean?
"First... let me explain how I found out. Would you mind if I helped myself to something to drink?"
Without waiting for an answer, Michael Jeter opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. He didn't bother with a cup—just grabbed the 1.5-liter container and drained it in a moment.
"Hoo. Before anything else, let me ask you this. How long has it been since you were summoned to the Tutorial?"
"About three months, I think."
"I've been in the Tower for four months. That makes me one of the very first people summoned to the Tutorial. Actually, I cleared Floor 15 two months ago."
"...That fast?"
"Yes. I gathered people I could trust and moved as a team. The only real delay was waiting for a hundred people to gather on Floor 4. By now, I've cleared up to Floor 23."
Floor 23. I wasn't certain if anyone had climbed the Tower faster than Michael Jeter, but Floor 23 put him at the very peak of humanity. Twenty-three floors in four months. Given that the Tower has sixty-six floors total, that pace is dizzying. If he kept it up, he could conquer the Tower in a year.
"So... what does your fast climb have to do with a crisis on Earth?"
"The higher the floor in this Tower, the more information you obtain. I've been President of the Player Association for three months now. It's a position with heavy responsibility, but it also comes with considerable authority. I've been using that authority to secretly nurture players with excessively dangerous abilities."
"...'Excessively' dangerous abilities?"
"Do you remember that I teleported here?"
"Yes?"
"What if it hadn't been a person... but something like a bomb? If a person can move from New York to Seoul, then moving an object from one place to another is definitely possible too. And it would leave no trace. Right now, Earth has no way to detect a player's ability."
"..."
"Beyond bombs, there are biochemical weapons. Bugs. Fabricated evidence. You can transport anything secretly, without a trace. This power... is far too dangerous for any single group to possess. It's the kind of power that could shatter the balance of human society."
Michael Jeter interlaced his fingers, rested his elbows on the table, and covered his mouth.
"When rulers discover an ability that's 'excessively' powerful, like my long-distance teleportation, their reactions generally fall into two categories. They either devise a way to control it perfectly and use it safely..."
"Or they destroy it."
"Exactly. That's why I called it 'excessively' dangerous."
Killed because your ability is too outstanding. A perfectly plausible scenario. And if the person wielding that power is weak, the danger grows even greater.
"When I find such players, I erase their traces from the Association database, bring them in separately, and help them develop. Because if they become known, their lives are at risk. I've already gathered seven players this way."
Michael Jeter recounted all of this matter-of-factly.
"Among them, an Indian player named Mahesh cleared Floor 15 about three weeks ago. Mahesh's ability is called 'Divination.' It reveals the best course of action to take in the user's current situation."
"So it's... a bit like a navigation ability?"
"Correct."
According to Michael Jeter, Mahesh had actually sought him out first. After returning to reality, Mahesh had used his divination, and it told him to find the President of the Player Association.
"Mahesh cleared Floor 15 just as easily as you did. An old man handed him a suitable reward, a blue portal opened, and all that remained was to clear the floor."
At that point, Mahesh had felt a nagging unease. To be safe, he used his 'Divination' ability.
"The divination's answer was... to use an 'Appraisal Scroll' on a dragon-shaped statue."
"...An Appraisal Scroll?"
That was... a reward from Floor 12. I recalled the quantity was [25]? I had one of those scrolls myself. And suddenly the divination was telling him to use it on a statue?
"These are the numbers Mahesh saw at that moment."
Michael Jeter drew a small scrap of paper from his jacket. Scribbled on it in hurried pen strokes was a string of numbers.
-325 : 11 : 24 : 41
"...A timer?"
"Yes. If we read from right to left as seconds, minutes, hours... then the 325 at the front must be days."
He raised his fingers and tapped the paper: tap, tap, tap. Michael Jeter's expression didn't change, but the air in the room grew considerably heavier.
"I wasn't the first person to clear Floor 15. But when I entered Floor 15, the number of statues was very, very small. From what I've heard, however, the number of statues has increased considerably by now. Is that accurate?"
"...It's true."
"Then it's reasonable to assume that a new statue is created each time a player enters the floor. Working backwards from the statue's timer... it looks as though the timer is set for one year after the moment Floor 15 is cleared. Would you agree?"
"I would."
Three weeks ago, the timer read 325 days. Since Michael Jeter said he cleared Floor 15 about two months ago, it was logical to conclude that the timer began counting down from one year at the moment he cleared it—or at the moment of the very first clear, if someone else cleared it even earlier.
"In that case... what do you suppose will happen the moment those statue timers run out?"
I thought back to the statues on Floor 15. Most of them took the form of some kind of monster. Goblins, wolves, dragons...
"My associates and I have judged that... the statues will materialize and appear on Earth. They could simply reappear on Floor 15, but that would very likely make it impossible for later climbers to clear the floor at all. So we think Earth. They'll appear on Earth. Of course, it's only a possibility."
"..."
"Maybe nothing will happen. But when I consider the structure of Floors 11 and 12, I believe we should prepare."
Choi Ji-won and I couldn't say a word. Not because his claim was too absurd, but because it was too plausible to speak. Honestly, if statues on a timer existed, what other possibility was there?
"The reason I haven't shown myself publicly lately... was to search for a solution."
I once read a post Michael Jeter wrote online. It must have been back around Floor 2. Back then, his writing had been cheerful. This wasn't the same unrelentingly heavy man at all.
What had changed him so much over the past four months? Maybe, just like me, he had become aware of the weight on his own shoulders. Maybe it was the sense of responsibility: 'If I don't play my part, Earth will be destroyed.' The thought crossed my mind.
"I've run experiments since then. First of all, it's impossible to inform ordinary people that monsters will appear. No—anyone who hasn't climbed to Floor 15 can't even perceive that information. I suspect it's being treated as 'Tower content' and filtered out."
"So... realistically preparing is impossible."
"I think so too. Perhaps we could find a loophole, or phrase things with the right nuance to achieve a certain degree of preparation, but not enough to counter worldwide chaos. From our position, we don't know the scale, location, or manner in which the statues will appear. The only thing we know is the time."
"Sss..."
This was bad. Seriously bad. Monsters appearing on Earth? And we couldn't even alert people? That was practically a scheduled mass casualty event. On top of that, one of the statues had been shaped like a dragon... stopping it with modern firearms didn't look easy.
"Can't the Association help?"
At Choi Ji-won's cautious question, Michael Jeter shook his head.
"The Association's senior executives... are currently preoccupied with something else. I don't know exactly what, only that it's a massive project in collaboration with the U.S. Government. They probably won't even listen to me right now."
"So the rift with the Association was real."
"We were just using each other. Excuse me while I drink some more water."
Michael Jeter pulled another bottle from the refrigerator and drained it in moments. He wiped his mouth roughly with the back of his hand and stared at the ceiling with sunken eyes.
"We can't stop the initial chaos. We have to accept that. What's more important, I believe, is preparing for what comes after. If an endless flood of monsters keeps pouring in... then all of humanity that isn't a player will be annihilated."
He lowered his gaze from the ceiling, held up two fingers, and extended them toward us.
"In my opinion, there are broadly two theoretical solutions. First, we drastically reduce the number of players who can reach Floor 15 or higher."
I wasn't certain of the exact conditions, but it seemed that each player who entered Floor 15 created one statue. But if no players entered Floor 15 at all? No more statues would be made, and Earth would eventually become safe.
"But... isn't that impossible?"
"I think so too. In fact, it seems far more likely to backfire."
It was an untenable idea. To begin with, there was no way to stop players from entering the Tower, and human nature meant that telling people not to climb to Floor 15 would only make them want to climb it more.
"Therefore, only the second solution is viable."
He folded one finger, leaving only his index finger extended. With a voice full of resolve, Michael Jeter spoke.
"We must drastically increase the number of strong players capable of responding to sudden monster appearances... far, far beyond what we have now. No matter when or where a monster appears, the infrastructure to counter it must be in place."
"That means..."
"Yes."
Even his last remaining finger curled into a fist. A scarred fist full of unwavering will.
"For humanity to survive... an era of players, by players, for players must come."