The Regressor Wanders (13)
The Regressor Wanders (13)
"Been well?"
"Yeah, I've been... fine. What about you?"
"I haven't been so good. Guess you managed fine without me."
"...Hey."
"Haha, you know I'm joking, right?"
Choi Ji-won's voice poured from the phone, now switched to speaker mode. I smiled the moment I heard it, though it felt oddly unreal—a complex mix of emotions, like something half-forgotten stirring back to life.
To be honest, it was a little awkward.
"You played a ton of games while I was away, didn't you?"
"What, how did you know?"
"Last time you were playing, I checked your handle from behind. I got curious, so I looked it up a few times."
But the more we talked—
"A while ago I was so hungry I ordered ten servings of delivery food, and you know what? They sent ten pairs of chopsticks. Kinda made me hate myself a little..."
"Come on, you're a player now. Eating that much is normal."
"Still... it felt bad..."
"Forget that. Tell me more about that outfit you mentioned in chat."
—the awkwardness and tangled feelings melted away, leaving nothing but pure gladness. It was just idle chatter about daily life, and yet a smile had settled onto my lips before I even noticed.
People draw comfort from having someone to share their stories with. Just babbling about nothing in particular is enough to relieve stress. I felt the tension draining from my body as I settled back into my chair.
"No, seriously, I couldn't believe my ears."
"He actually said that? You're sure?"
"I'm not sure. The voices were really soft."
Meeting with the Korean players had been... a sort of masked performance. Playing the part that they expected: Kim Jun-ho, the mysterious powerhouse.
Modestly humble, yet full of self-assurance. Witty, but always carrying a certain dignity and distance. That was necessary. If I didn't maintain that image, they'd treat me lightly. The rumors about me could turn negative. And above all, I could collect far more information this way.
But right now, this call with Choi Ji-won held none of that pretense. This was a call with my closest friend—my lover. There was no way it wouldn't feel good.
"So anyway, what the guy said was..."
"I also met up with my old high school friends..."
"Hey, did you see this short? There's a thing about a wild cat who's a landlord..."
"Oh, and I'm planning to change my number soon. Since I'll still be using this number after the regression, memorize it now."
Utterly pointless, trivial talk. But five months of accumulated trivial talk added up to a staggering volume, and the evening sun vanished, draping darkness outside the window.
"...At this rate, we'll be talking until tomorrow."
"Right? My phone's burning up."
Now, the time had truly come to talk about what needed to be said. I felt a pang of regret, but that regret seemed to prove just how close we were, so it didn't feel so bad.
"First... let me send you something."
Still keeping the call connected, I sent her a document sitting on my desktop.
"So... this is a list of promising Korean players."
"Oh, hold on. Let me read it."
I heard the soft tapping of Choi Ji-won's keyboard as she checked the file I'd sent. I could picture her perfectly—sitting in a chair just like mine, working at her computer.
"...Wow."
A quiet murmur of admiration escaped from Choi Ji-won as she read.
"This is incredibly detailed. Where did you get all this?"
"Just... I have my ways."
The document was a synthesis of what I'd gathered while networking everywhere, plus the information the 'Death God' Asai Yūki had compiled.
The Death God had boasted that this time he'd handle things flawlessly, but trusting an overconfident middle-schooler completely would be strange.
So what I'd carefully verified was the information Asai Yūki had collected on players I already knew.
"You said you wanted only confirmed intel. The confirmed stuff is up here, at the top... and anything I couldn't verify is written below."
"Huh..."
The results were... fairly satisfying. Even the information on Kang Chan, Ahn Gyeong-jun, and Choi Ji-won was surprisingly accurate. The 'unverified' section was packed with nonsense, but some of it actually turned out to be correct.
"There's a rumor that you and I are in a relationship...?"
"Even on the deep web it's treated like a fringe rumor... but it's information, so I included it."
In my humble judgment, the quality of the information was excellent. Hard to believe it was scraped together by the Death God, who'd accidentally killed an innocent person.
"Did you collect all of this yourself? The quality is quite impressive."
"Truth is, it was acquired by threatening a number of specialists in the trade. I pretended to buy information, grabbed them by the collar, and pressured them."
"..."
"I gave them a way to make use of their garbage, so they should be grateful. Oh, and I paid them generously."
The method was questionable at best... but I decided to let it slide.
From the mountain of player intel gathered, I filtered out only the reliable parts, then restricted it to Korean players—that was what I sent to Choi Ji-won. Naturally, I'd double-checked everything, so the document contained nothing but refined, accurate information. It would be a huge help after the regression.
"The Korean players to keep an eye on are Kang Chan and... Ahn Gyeong-jun... and Ji Hyun-bin? Who's that?"
"Apparently a rising new face. The details are further down."
"Good. I'll go through it carefully later. Now it's my turn, right?"
"Ah, there's one more thing I should tell you."
I sent Choi Ji-won a photo of the ring I'd received from Archangel Raphael on Floor 2.
"That's... isn't that the ring you got on Floor 2?"
"Yeah. I used an Appraisal Scroll on it—it worked."
Following the old man's advice, I'd used the Appraisal Scroll on the ring... and what it revealed about its effect was deeply shocking.
- Ring of Natural Order
- When you destroy the ring and make a desperate wish, one Trait of a chosen target will be deleted.
"...It just deletes anything?"
"I haven't tested it. But I doubt it's a fake deletion."
"Wow."
Choi Ji-won now understood the ring's true power. This ring... would be my insurance.
"With this... we can be at ease even after clearing the Tower."
Someday, the moment I die of old age... the terror that regression might drag me back again. The terror that I might have to live forever.
This ring possessed the power to erase that terror. It had the power to grant me a peaceful future.
The power... to delete my regression.
"...Jun-ho. I'm so relieved."
"Yeah, I think so too."
"Really, truly, such a relief..."
Since we'd talked about that fear of mine before, she sniffled and kept murmuring how relieved she was. My own eyes had grown wet the first time I read the ring's description, so I waited patiently for her to calm down.
"Hold on... I'm going to go wash my face."
Now it was time to share the information Choi Ji-won had gathered. After washing her face and returning, she sent me a weighty document, just as I had.
"This... this file was collected by Michael Jeter's side... this one is from Germany. This one is from Russia... and this is from that person, Yun Jung-hyun—the one from the Player Association."
"What is all this?"
"Basic player profiles? It's not as detailed as what you sent... but it has faces, estimated floors. They said the Association considers it a valuable asset."
While I had dug deep into Korean players, Choi Ji-won had cast a wide net, gathering broad and shallow intel on powerful players across the world.
"The players with known abilities are up front. The vague ones, or the ones who deliberately hide themselves, are further back. I'd suggest taking the time later to at least learn the names and faces. Read it later. I still have a lot more to say."
"There's more...?"
"Yeah. For starters... this is something I got from Association President Michael Jeter. A plan, I guess? Or a blueprint?"
The new document Choi Ji-won sent contained detailed information on how the Player Association would be reorganized in the future. The 'Academy' that would be established, and even the legal basis for replacing each nation's defense forces with players.
"They said that if the ranking system gets introduced, I'll likely be listed as the number-two S-rank."
"Second place? First would be... Michael Jeter, I guess."
"Right. Honestly, I'm a little ambivalent about it. Since I haven't been climbing the Tower, I've definitely fallen behind a bit."
"...That's true."
What Choi Ji-won mentioned applied to me as well. While everyone else was climbing the Tower, I'd been lounging around in reality, and I couldn't shake the feeling of being left behind.
"I said the same thing to Michael Jeter. He told me rankings are unavoidably laced with political intent, so I should just let it go. He asked if we'd really want the players to fight each other for rank."
"...Can't they just use Tower floors?"
"If we did, Michael Jeter wouldn't be number one."
"Ah."
"Lastly... a proposal came in from the Player Association."
Choi Ji-won's voice held a hint of hesitation.
"What kind of proposal? You just talked about Michael Jeter."
"No, it's not from him... It came from the Player Association in coordination with the U.S. government."
"...From the U.S. government?"
"Yeah. I even spoke with the US President. He said they're running a study that could change the world... and they need my help. Apparently they already have quite a few players cooperating with them."
"...Something about the word 'President' makes it feel less real."
"He said there's a book containing all the truths of this world, and they're researching it right now... but it's still just a feeler, so I only got the basic nuance. I'll need to look into the details more."
"Hey. Even this much is plenty."
"You think? Thanks. You did a lot of work too, Jun-ho."
After the information exchange was finished, the idle chatter resumed. We once again confirmed just how much affection we held for each other, and we agreed there was still plenty of information left to gather.
"So five months left now, huh?"
"I don't know if I should be afraid because the monsters are coming... or happy because I'll get to see you..."
"Just do both. That's how it is. I'll see you later."
"Okay. I'll be waiting."
The information exchange was over.
Once more, time began to flow.