The Regressor Wanders (11)
The Regressor Wanders (11)
After regressing, I trudged up the mountain with listless steps. When I reached the summit, I saw a familiar face.
"Who goes there?"
The wrinkly old man tilted his head, a statue in his hand. Something welled up inside me, and I couldn't speak.
"..."
"The taciturn type, I see. Young men of your kind usually prize efficiency. I'll skip straight to the assignment description."
"...Please give me the C-rank Trait Selection Ticket."
"The list will now appear before your eyes... How did you know?"
After receiving the paper labeled C-rank Trait Selection Ticket, I passed through the blue portal. But this time, instead of rushing back to my rented room, I flopped onto the soft bed on Floor 1 and stared blankly at the ceiling.
"..."
It was a little puzzling. The old man had grown familiar to me through repeated regressions, but to him, every meeting was our first. No matter how aligned our philosophies were or how moving my story was, I never thought he'd unload his own story onto me. How could anyone grow that close that fast?
"He did tell me to use my ability with caution."
The old man... must have somehow realized I was regressing. There's no doubt about it. That's why the look in his eyes as he watched me had gradually changed.
So I should avoid repeating regressions when an Archangel is nearby. Maybe Archangel Raphael didn't notice my repeated regressions on Floor 5 because they really were nothing more than illusions. I can only call it luck.
"Not regressing at the end of Floor 2 was the right call."
At the same time, this sharply narrows my margin of luck. It means that in the future, on any floor where an Archangel or an equivalent being appears... I must keep regressions to an absolute minimum.
"..."
I conjured an extra pillow in the air and covered my face with it. Every breath I took, the soft scent of fabric softener seemed to soothe my troubled heart.
When a world fails to climb the Tower... does it become part of the Tower? The image of the dwarves on Floor 11 working with such zest flitted through my mind. The reason they were trying so hard to keep living even after becoming residents of the Tower... must be because there truly was nothing left for them.
"Floor 11 would be the forest the dwarves lived in... And Floor 12 must be the city they built underground after the air vanished."
The old man said that Floor 12 is a floor filled with objects you can only see inside the Tower. In other words... he was hinting that the Tower going forward will feature modern settings, not just fantasy ones.
"What I still don't get... is Floor 13 and Floor 14."
Floor 14, the machine-building floor, was set in a forest, and honestly, just looking at the machines, I had no clue what they were for. It's speculated they were either machines built to fight monsters... or machines built to fight the old man. That much, honestly, is plausible.
The problem is Floor 13. Deducing from the old man's story, the entity who ordered them to move the boxes by carriage was most likely the old man himself. The nun saying, "How could you do such a thing even after seeing the puppets?" makes this fairly certain.
The real question is... why did he collect 'demonic energy'? And did the Tower cause this demonic energy to appear? These two are the key.
Why did the old man collect demonic energy? And did this demonic energy come into being because of the Tower?
"It didn't seem like he chose not to tell me... I should assume he couldn't."
Seeing how his complexion paled the more he spoke... the old man told me things he wasn't supposed to say, taking a certain risk. No, maybe I should see it as something he did counting on my regression. It would become something that never happened once I regressed.
If the old man calculated that far, then the story about the demonic energy from Floor 13 is definitely something he truly couldn't tell. So every remaining mystery I have now... is connected to the core of this Tower. Which means thinking about it now won't get me far. It would all be nothing but speculation.
What I need to wrestle with now... is the advice the old man left me.
"..."
Make comrades you can trust. Share your rewards. Don't make enemies.
And... kill the ones you need to kill, without hesitation.
But at the same time, he affirmed that my way was right. Since I never told him about repeating regressions, the 'way' he called right... must mean the approach of getting close to others and empathizing with them, like I did with him.
In other words... the old man wanted me to repeat regressions with other players and discern them.
"...I don't know."
I agonize over it every time. Can I really trust other players? Can I trust Association Chairman Michael Jeter? Or what about Yun Jung-hyun, the connection from Floor 4? If not him, how about Kang Chan from Floor 3? The Ahn Gyeong-nam and Ahn Gyeong-jun brothers? Japan's Death God? Can I... trust any of them?
The only player I genuinely trust right now is Choi Ji-won. Well, there's firefighter Park Cheol-jin too, but he's been focusing on his firefighting duties more than climbing the Tower recently, so let's set him aside.
The old man... wanted me to draw a clear line with other players. He wanted me to kill the ones worth killing early, and firmly turn the ones worth saving into comrades.
If I may dare to guess, the old man must have agonized many times over whether to annihilate every last remnant of the old regime, including the empire. He must have agonized for a long time over killing that player who controlled the atmosphere, too.
But in the end, he resolved to carry those people with him... and that led to the world's destruction. The result, most likely, was a loathing for foolish humans, and a loathing for his own indecisive self.
The problem is, the path the old man regrets... is exactly the path Choi Ji-won is heading down right now.
Choi Ji-won doesn't want to kill anyone unless it's the absolute worst-case scenario. She believes that if she leads by example, we can climb this Tower to the end.
Choi Ji-won... trusts me. She believes that with my regression, we can see the top of this Tower through peaceful means.
"..."
But when I've reached Floor 50, or the 60th... I can't be certain that what happened to the old man's world won't happen again. By that point, the chances are high that top-ranked players will have gained enough power to massacre every civilian. Trying to deal with it then would obviously be too late.
"I shouldn't decide this alone."
This isn't something I can make a snap decision about. This is... something I need to discuss with Choi Ji-won.
Having settled my thoughts, I opened the portal back to reality, where Choi Ji-won was waiting for me, sprawled on the bed.
"...Jun-ho? You don't look well... Did you go through a lot of regressions?"
"Yeah."
"...What happened?"
"There's something I need to tell you."
"Okay. I'm listening."
"So... that old man on Floor 15. The truth is, he's actually the survivor of a world destroyed by the Tower. The reason his world ended up being destroyed was..."
"Jun-ho."
"Another player who had already grown far too strong..."
"Jun-ho!"
"Huh—what?"
Choi Ji-won grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently.
"...I can't hear you. From my perspective, you were just standing there, frozen."
"What...?"
Choi Ji-won... couldn't perceive the story about the old man I was trying to tell. I tried a few tricks, but none worked. A familiar phenomenon. The Tower's filtering function must be at work.
"..."
Only then did I realize that this story could not be shared with anyone at all. I may not know for sure, but the old man must be a powerhouse of a caliber I cannot even begin to fathom. And that old man... only managed to tell me this story after practically resolving to die. There is no way I could relay it to anyone else at my level.
"...Should I just talk about Floor 15?"
In the end... do I bear this burden entirely alone? The only thing I could do with Choi Ji-won was convey information about the future of Floor 15.
"It's almost certain that the statues will turn into monsters and invade Earth. The difficulty of the invading monsters probably changes depending on the reward you choose. Ji-won, because you picked the old man's wise advice, the version of the old man I saw was carving a statue in the shape of a goblin."
"Wouldn't the majority, aside from us, have picked the numerically higher reward?"
"Most likely. Whether they anticipated it or not... they would have picked a reward that's unconditionally useful."
"In that case..."
"I have to assume it's confirmed that a dragon will invade Earth in one year."
I don't know. This is only the penalty for Floor 15 — would the dragon be insanely strong? Or, given the one-year timeframe, will an overwhelmingly powerful dragon appear? I want to go back to Floor 15 and ask the old man, but... the fact that he went out of his way to erase my memory bothers me. Given that he showed me goodwill, it's clear he erased the memory for my sake. If so, it's only logical not to repeat regressions any further.
"Mm..."
I've already figured out Floor 15's structure. I've learned about the old man's hidden backstory and the future that awaits if we fail to climb this Tower to the end. Now what's left is...
"Ten months... I'll have to wait and see."
Only one thing remains: to personally wait those ten months.