The Regressor Agonizes (1)
The Regressor Agonizes (1)
"A dragon."
The moment I saw the video, I contacted Association Chairman Michael Jeter.
"Any reply?"
"...No."
No answer came back. Since Michael Jeter had always replied without fail, the sensible conclusion was that he was simply busy.
"Then let's reach out to everyone else we can."
"Got it."
From that moment, Ji-won and I used every means we could to warn the people around us. Evacuate. Monsters are about to appear. A dragon has appeared in the US.
Perhaps because monsters were already appearing, no information filtering triggered. People could read our messages just fine.
-A dragon is coming...?
-Is this some kind of YouTube stunt?
But even with a sudden dragon warning, people didn't easily believe it.
-They tell us to run... but where?
-The subway station is the best bet... do you have a recommendation?
The truth was, in Korea there really wasn't anywhere obvious to flee to. I'd learned in safety training that you should go underground if a nuke goes off, but a dragon flying through the sky and a nuclear bomb aren't quite the same thing.
"For now... get out of your apartment and evacuate to the subway. Or at least near a military base."
After hurriedly wrapping up the call, I hit the keyboard and started scanning social media again.
-Dude, isn't that a real dragon?
-I just saw it too, it's heading east. My photo only caught the tail though.
-This isn't some movie viral marketing, right? It's real?
Online opinion was still split, but as evidence flooded in, the tide was shifting toward 'is this real?'
-I'm in Harrisburg. A dragon just flew by.
-I'm in Philadelphia and I can see the dragon.
-I'm in New York... looks like it's heading this way.
Videos surfaced of people stepping outside and pointing their phones at the sky. More and more people were telling friends and family a dragon had shown up, and in just thirty minutes, everyone on the planet who was awake had one thing on their minds: the dragon.
-It's edited.
-There's way too much evidence for it to be edited.
-It's an American conspiracy.
-It's viral marketing for a movie.
-It's some massive YouTuber project.
"Hey, let's go outside. They're saying there's a dragon in the sky."
"Seriously? You can see it from here?"
"Dunno. But if it's headed for New York, we'll probably see it."
Amid the endless creation, reproduction, and spread of rumors.
"Hello everyone! Can you see my screen?"
One young man even started his own live broadcast on YouTube.
"This is New York, and you see that on my screen right now? It's a dragon. A dragon! A real dragon! With wings, and claws, and scales!"
The digital camera he usually used for birdwatching was now tracking the dragon soaring across the sky. The angle was a bit awkward since the camera was set up by his apartment window, but unlike the others going live with their phones, his stream had excellent picture quality—and that made all the difference.
Not even five minutes into the broadcast, the viewer count shot past one million. He'd gone live without any special setup, so his computer immediately overloaded, and the feed devolved into a stuttering, choppy mess.
"Whoa, a million. This is insane. Is this fake? I don't know! I can't even see the chat properly! Please slow down your messages a little!"
The young man, basking in the attention, was simply having a great time. People with superpowers had already appeared, so why not a dragon too? His subscriber count was definitely about to explode.
"Oh, the dragon's getting closer. Hold on, I need to adjust the camera lens real quick..."
-Yo, I can't really see it.
-Angle the camera better.
"..."
But the dragon kept descending. The young man's hands, which had been moving with such carefree delight, suddenly slowed to a crawl.
Those massive teeth. The slit pupils. The crimson flames lapping inside its mouth.
"Uh, uhh..."
The closer the dragon came, the more overwhelming its presence felt. His heart began to race. He glanced down because the computer screen was shaking—his legs were trembling completely outside his own control. He wiped his chin when he felt wetness; drool was dripping from his mouth.
"S-save..."
The young man wasn't the only one. Every person in New York was now gripped by an inexplicable chill. The crowd that had been holding phones up to the sky dropped them. Every animal, from birds to rats, began fleeing the city with all their might, and citizens who had been sleeping at home woke up drenched in cold sweat.
People had stepped outside without a second thought, thinking it was just a spectacle—the friendly kind of dragon they knew from stories.
There were plenty of excuses. But if no one was around to listen, what good were those excuses?
"Help me!"
"Move! Get out of my way!"
"Kyaaaaaa!"
Like prey animals in the presence of a predator, every human in New York understood on a primal level.
Right now, they were on the verge of death.
"..."
Flap. Flap.
The dragon halted above New York, slowly beating its wings. Its slit pupils gazed down at the humans scattering in utter panic.
Fwoooosh...
At the same moment, the dragon's mouth began to glow red. If a powerful player had been nearby, they would have assessed the situation in a flash.
'So that's the breath attack from fiction? I can't block that.'
"Ah, aah..."
Back in his apartment, the young man's pants were soaked with urine. The livestream on his monitor showed the dragon's maw glowing red in sharp detail.
"...Huh?"
And then, just as suddenly, a figure appeared on the dragon's back.
-It's the Association Chairman.
Michael Jeter was standing atop the dragon before anyone could blink. His entire body was cloaked in items of unknown origin, and in both hands he gripped a massive golden axe.
He had materialized out of nowhere, as if he had always been there.
"?!"
The dragon had been so focused on charging its breath that its reaction to the sudden enemy came a split second too late.
"Hmph!"
With a single lightning-fast swing of his axe, Michael Jeter severed both of the dragon's wings.
"GUOOOOOOOOH!!!"
A dragon doesn't rely on its wings to support its massive body, but the magic that enables flight is housed within them. Its weak point struck, the dragon's bulk began to plummet toward the ground.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Perhaps it was a final act of spite. Even as it fell, the dragon unleashed the flames it had been holding inside its mouth.
In the dark of night, the middle of New York City blazed brighter than daylight in an instant.
The screen washed out to pure white, and at the same moment—
-Broadcast ended.
Every live feed coming from New York, on every platform, died at once.
"..."
"..."
Ji-won and I stared at the dead broadcast in silence. The scene we had just witnessed was so shocking that neither of us knew what to say.
"Could... the two of us beat something like that if we worked together?"
"...I don't know."
I'd only glimpsed a fragment of it, but the dragon looked unimaginably powerful. Could my cold energy stop a breath attack like that? No chance.
And the Association Chairman, Michael Jeter—his movements had become incomparably faster than before. Unlike us, he had clearly been climbing the Tower constantly and growing stronger.
"..."
Right now, the two of us, who had stopped climbing, had undeniably been left behind. I couldn't picture Ji-won winning against that dragon. She probably felt the same way. If she thought she could win, she would have said so—like she did with the Minotaur.
"..."
Ji-won stared down at her phone with a hard expression. I forced myself to keep typing, trying to gather whatever scraps of information I could.
"In Canada... a huge bird..."
"A giant wolf appeared in the western US."
"They say an orc over five meters tall showed up in Russia."
"On the French-German border, three enormous chickens... Well, those are already being handled. Sounds like they'll be suppressed quickly."
After the US kicked things off, monsters were appearing all over the world. Not every country was taking damage, though, and the monsters' strength varied wildly.
Maybe just picking the number ten doesn't guarantee the strongest monster? There had to be additional rules at play.
"I don't know the exact rules... but is this all of them?"
Even so, one thing remained certain.
One monster was created each time a single player entered Floor 15. And these monsters were the remnants of the players who had cleared Floor 15 long ago. That meant once we weathered this, no more monsters would appear for the time being.
"...I hope the situation in the US wraps up well."
My leg jittered anxiously as I stared holes through the monitor. Had Michael Jeter won? The western US was where William Smith, the healer, was stationed.
While I was lost in thought, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Huh?"
"...Jun-ho."
Pale-faced, Ji-won held her phone out to me. On her screen was a tiger, drenched in blood.
"A giant tiger appeared... on Namsan... They say people are dying right now..."
"People are... looking for me... asking where Choi Ji-won is... and what she's doing..."
Ji-won bit her lower lip so hard it bled, and looked at me with glistening eyes.
"...Jun-ho."
"...Yeah."
"Even if it means dying out there... I think I have to go."
I wanted to say it was too dangerous, but I couldn't bring myself to stop her.
"Let's go together."
And I had no intention of letting her go alone.