The Regressor Reflects (6)
The Regressor Reflects (6)
I don't think of myself as a martial artist.
It's true I'm good with a sword, true I've spent a long time training, and true I've gotten used to the weight of a heavy steel bar clanking against my waist... but my core isn't martial. For me, martial arts are a means to an end.
If I could win without fighting, I'd gladly take that. If I could become stronger without training, I'd jump at the chance. I still daydream about an [SSS-rank Trait Selection Ticket] falling out of the sky. I keep choosing the hard path because I think it's necessary.
Maybe my values are still stuck in my ordinary days, because my own strength still feels unnatural. I press my fingertip into a wooden desk and it cracks, squeeze a coin and it crumples, walk into a zoo and nap next to a lion in safety—and it still hasn't really sunk in.
To me, strength is a kind of bonus. If my Status Window numbers go up even a little, I'm stronger. If I gain even a trivial trait, I'm stronger. If I swap my gear for better stuff, that's stronger too. I don't really care how strong I am objectively. If I did, I'd be picking fights with other players.
Choi Ji-won, by contrast, has devoted her life to kendo.
She picked up a sword in elementary school and hasn't put it down since. Sometimes, when we're walking together on a date, holding hands, I run my fingers over the roughness of her palm.
When I asked, "How about using a potion to get rid of the calluses?" she gave a sheepish smile and refused. To her, even the calluses earned through training were a part of her life.
Choi Ji-won spends at least two hours a day with a sword. Rain, snow, traveling—no exceptions.
Choi Ji-won grows stronger every day. Drawing a sword is already part of her life, just a routine.
Choi Ji-won's gaze is always fixed on the summit. She doesn't want to lose to anyone when it comes to the sword. She's accustomed to being the best and takes it for granted.
Recently, though, she's gained a target to surpass.
"Maybe... I'd come to think that someone had to be at least at the level of future Michael Jeter to be considered strong."
After all, why did Choi Ji-won propose regression in the first place? To grow stronger. To change the world. And her benchmark? The pinnacle of that era: Michael Jeter. Unconsciously, she must have felt she had to reach at least that man—the one who fought a dragon and saved the United States.
With standards that high, there's no way she'd be satisfied inching upward bit by bit.
"Mm, when you put it that way, it does fit."
That attitude of Choi Ji-won's—her refusal to compromise, her severity toward herself, her endless effort without settling for small improvements—is currently becoming an obstacle.
"So, if the hypothesis I just laid out is correct..."
To clear this floor... she has to surpass the standard she herself set.
Naturally, there are two methods. Either she trains insanely hard and exceeds her own standard, or she lowers the standard.
"So, like, if you think—'There, I'm stronger now!'... Nah, the System wouldn't be that simple."
If just going "Hm, I'm stronger now, right?" triggered a clear, anyone would beat Floor 16 in a day. More likely it requires a standard that comes from deep conviction.
Anyway, the easiest way to clear Floor 16 right now is obvious.
For Choi Ji-won to lower her own standards.
If she can let go of that mindset and fully accept her own strength, the problem is simple. Doesn't everyone say self-acceptance matters?
"Ji-won, what do you think?"
"I..."
Choi Ji-won sat on the floor with her legs together, staring blankly downward.
"I think I'll need time."
"How much?"
"I don't know. But I won't disappoint you."
"All right."
If Choi Ji-won says she needs time, then that's that. In this world, if I don't believe in her, who am I supposed to believe in?
"Me, I mean, if I regress I can clear it again right away... so I'll adapt to whatever pace you need."
I'll say it again: I believe in Choi Ji-won. There's no way a woman who trains swordsmanship two hours every day can't change her own values.
"Breathe some fresh air... take in the scenery... do whatever you want. This is all just because you don't fully grasp what an incredible person you are."
"...Thank you."
Change doesn't happen in an instant. Rapid change comes with severe side effects. It's slow and gradual.
I was fully prepared to wait as long as it took. Of course, I had no idea that waiting would stretch into a full month... but I didn't have a single complaint.
And so, back to the present.
Choi Ji-won had said she wanted some time apart to concentrate. I respected her wishes and we'd been doing our own thing, but enough time had passed that I figured a check-in was in order.
"Ji-won! I heard something interesting from Anael."
I went up the mountain path to find her, expecting she'd be training inside the cave. I was planning to have lunch together while we talked.
"...Ji-won?"
But Choi Ji-won wasn't in the cave. It's a dead end on all sides, so she really had nowhere else to go—where had she even gone?
"Choi Ji-won? I saw her heading down the mountain earlier. What are you doing here?"
"Ah, really? Thanks."
Apparently we'd passed each other on the way up, so I retraced my steps back down the mountain to find her.
After following the winding mountain trail, crossing the large training field, and finally arriving at the towering stone:
"Ji-won!"
At last, I reunited with her.
Choi Ji-won stood before the stone. Her clothes were a bit dirtier than before, and her ponytail had come undone. In her hand was Boongboong-yi.
"Ah, Jun-ho. You came?"
"What are you doing here? I was worried."
"Mm... I was organizing my thoughts. About the direction I need to take from now on. I also gave some thought to the method you mentioned before."
Was she talking about the method of lowering the standard? Choi Ji-won's expression wasn't bright at all.
"For the sake of climbing Floor 16 alone, changing myself is easy. It's probably faster, too. I just... have to change one thing about myself, right?"
She held Boongboong-yi with both hands and slowly raised it above her head.
"But... that doesn't feel like my way."
Even an outsider like me could tell. This was a high-guard stance in kendo.
"I'm not trying to deny your approach, but I have my own."
The flow of mana was calm. She wasn't using a trait. She was simply closing her eyes and concentrating.
But around Choi Ji-won, a strange ripple could be felt. The sensation of the surroundings being drawn inward. A heavy pressure settling on my chest. What was this inexplicable sense of pressure?
"Why am I weak?"
Choi Ji-won remained upright, sword raised.
"Why can't I move the way I intend?"
Her sword descended. Slowly, incredibly slowly. Too slow to be an attack, too precise to be a mere eccentricity.
"Maybe... I'd gotten too entangled in 'kendo' itself. I was so used to kendo that I couldn't even think of stepping outside it."
Choi Ji-won's stance, picture-perfect beyond the word 'perfect,' gradually shifted. Her erect back leaned slightly forward. The space between her two hands on Boongboong-yi widened. The mana within her began to simmer, little by little.
"Kendo... isn't a swordsmanship for players. No matter how much I refined it, added to it, or stripped away... the limits are clear."
What took shape was a Choi Ji-won in a stance I'd never seen before, a form I'd never seen before. Feet aligned vertically. The straight-held sword placed horizontally. An unfamiliar stance, and yet—
"So... I created new clothing that fits me. A new swordsmanship suited to a player who can fight at ultra-high speed and from tricky stances. A swordsmanship without limits, endless and inexhaustible."
She looked stronger than any Choi Ji-won I had ever seen.
Tap.
Boongboong-yi touched the stone ever so lightly, and a tiny stone grain fell to the ground. Anael, who'd been watching, clapped furiously and opened a portal.
"The name of the swordsmanship... I haven't decided yet. It's not complete, either. Let's work on the name together later. But with this... it's possible. Even to surpass Michael Jeter."
Choi Ji-won didn't compromise. Rather than lowering her own standards, she threw herself at them with everything she had and soared far past them.
Future growth? Having established a new swordsmanship, every day ahead will be dazzling growth. There's no need to worry about what comes after regression.
Geniuses are not people who create something from nothing. They are not people who produce unknowable knowledge.
But a genius... is someone who, grounded in over twenty years of accumulated experience, can produce something entirely new. That is why it's called a heaven-sent gift: genius.
"Shall we go? I've been eating nothing but temple food—I'd like to eat something good. How about gnocchi?"
Looking at the blue portal open before her, Choi Ji-won smiled with satisfaction.
"...Haha."
This is incredibly awkward and embarrassing to say, but...
I'm glad I met her in the Tutorial.