The Regressor Endures (3)
The Regressor Endures (3)
"...Can we really call those things 'angels'? They force their standards on us. Do they think they're our masters?"
"...They might actually be our masters."
Behind Choi Ji-won's anger, I found myself lost in thought. In tower-climbing stories, the protagonist endlessly grows stronger, and near the ending, they acquire godhood, devour even God, and become the absolute being—endings like that always left me with a lot of questions.
Are the beings who created the Tower gods with a sickness? Or do they long for death? Even if we assume they enjoy observing the insignificant creatures within and watching them grow stronger, what's the point if that process leads to their own deaths? Honestly, I could never really understand climbers getting stronger so wildly and recklessly.
But it makes sense if the intention was to create a situation where powerful beings coexist with ordinary people. If all of humanity were good, rational, and reasonable, then maybe not... but our current situation is no different from a bomb with its fuse lit.
"If we assume the God who created the Tower is a creator God... does it not know this? Or is it pretending not to know?"
In the first place, humans aren't uniformly good or uniformly evil. So this structure, where a single person's malice can doom the whole, is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If God created humans, it couldn't possibly be unaware of this.
If all of this is proceeding according to God's will, then God truly intends to wipe us out. It has decided to abandon humanity. But there is one error in that logic.
"...Regression."
The fact is, my regression ability must also have been granted by God.
Even with its extreme penalty, regression is undeniably a broken trait. This one thing alone is an overwhelming power that can alter the history of humanity—no, the world. And it's not even a one-time regression, nor does it have a limited number of uses; the fact that I can repeat it infinitely makes me practically immortal.
"..."
Why would someone planning to destroy the world give such an absurd power to a human? That is my question.
"Not that thinking about it does any good."
But this is a problem I could spend my whole life pondering and never solve. Unless I reach Floor 66, grab God by the collar, and ask directly, I'll never get a complete answer.
Whatever the intention, my task is already decided.
"Climb the Tower."
And in that process, prevent the predetermined destruction. That is the best I can do, and the only way I can screw over the archangels and God. Since I'm dealing with God—something vast enough to build the Tower in the first place—even I feel suffocated and short of breath... but being miserable and hard doesn't mean I can just give up.
"Should we rest for just one day and go?"
"Let's."
The number of floors conquered: 20. The number remaining: 46.
The road ahead is long, so we need to pick up the pace.
**
-You have entered Floor 21.
It's something I always say, but whenever I first enter a Tower floor, I crank my tension to the maximum. So far, there's never been a case where a monster appeared the moment you entered, but I couldn't be certain there never would be.
"...Huh."
That's why I felt a momentary sense of wrongness. There was something weighty in my hand.
"This is..."
A rectangular object. The back was finished in clean white, and the front was like black glass. The weight was somewhere between 0.5 and 1 kg. The texture against my palm felt cold yet clingy.
This is...
"An iPad...?"
I was holding an iPad, the kind I'd often seen Choi Ji-won using in the real world.
"Is this cosplay?"
"Are they filming a movie? Or is it YouTube?"
"Can I take a picture? That looks pretty cool."
"I think that's a real sword."
"Gotta post this on Instagram."
Only then did the murmuring voices of people around me start to register. Some were pointing their phone flashes and speakers at me, taking pictures. Compared to the modern clothes they wore, my dwarven-forged armor was obviously strange.
"..."
Flustered, I focused mana into my ears, sharpening my hearing and sight, and took in everything happening around me.
"Babe. Did you see that duck on the screen? It's so cute, right?"
"Honey, that's a mandarin duck."
"Babe, just play along."
"Sorry. I'm a T..."
A couple walking past, arms linked and laughing.
"Dad! Dad! Can I pet this puppy?"
"Hansol. That's an animal hospital. We can't go inside."
"He's smiling at me! He's so cute...?"
"Stop. No crying. If Hansol is a good boy until Christmas, then let's get a puppy. How about that?"
"Really? You promise? Dad, you're the best!"
"Honey!"
A father promising a cute puppy, a son jumping up and down, and a mother who started to smack a back but restrained herself.
"Yes... Ah, about that part, I'm actually out on a business trip right now..."
A businessman hurrying past.
"..."
"..."
The majority of people walking with their heads buried in their phones.
The language people used was clearly Korean, and the signs on storefronts and the text on phones were also Korean.
But more than anything, this street...
"...It's near my old studio apartment."
No wonder it looked familiar.
The setting of Floor 21 was Earth.
**
I don't know whether it's fortunate or not, but Floor 21 was slightly different from reality.
"Who is it?"
"Do you live here?"
"Ah, yes."
"...Apologies for the disturbance."
First, my old studio apartment had a new tenant. It was a woman I'd never seen before, and when I glanced behind her, I caught a glimpse of a cat she was keeping. For the record, pets are banned in this building, but it seemed that had changed too.
"Um, by any chance... does Choi Ji-won..."
"Who? My surname is Park."
"My apologies."
And it wasn't just my place or Choi Ji-won's. No, it wasn't just about the two of us.
Past presidents. Celebrities. Historical figures. Even historical events.
The shape of this world was infinitely close to the Republic of Korea I knew, but only the broad strokes were the same—in the finer details, it was very different. A world line where the unprecedented war criminal Hitler didn't exist, and instead England revealed its ambitions and tried to conquer Europe... You could say it's the same shell but a different substance inside.
"And there don't seem to be... any other players."
No, in the first place, the Tower itself and players don't exist here. Superpowers? Special abilities? Those are just things in movies. Even after searching through social media, there was no mention whatsoever of players or the Player Association.
If I had to put it into words: a kind of parallel world. I, who was infinitely similar to Korea, had arrived here; a place similar to my world before the Tower appeared.
A world that was moderately peaceful. Moderately quarreling. Moderately stable.
"...Well, damn."
Because it was that kind of world, I couldn't believe the message window floating before my eyes.
<Floor 21>
-Survive for 7 days.
Survival. Survival. Survival.
It was the same phrase I'd seen on Floor 4, and I knew well what it meant.
"Fuck."
Sooner or later, something is going to happen.
**
I tried to gather information immediately, but I had overlooked one fact.
"Uh... um... if you give me your card, I can help you check out."
"Ah."
In my original world, I lived a life free from material constraints, but this world is different. I'm a complete vagrant without a card, a phone, or a bankbook.
I'd planned to grab a room in some cheap motel and observe my surroundings, but that was impossible now. Leaving behind the motel part-timer who eyed my armor with a weird look, I ran to a nearby park and sat down on a random bench.
"The armor..."
To blend into this world, the armor would be useless, but the setting is just modern—this is still inside the Tower. Taking off the armor isn't the wise choice.
The question I have to decide now is how to act. But since I have absolutely no information to make a bold move, there wasn't much I could actually do.
"The iPad."
Except for checking this tablet I was clutching tightly in my hand.
When I opened the screen, it lit up with no lock screen, and without needing to press anything, a video began to play.
"..."
I briefly scanned my surroundings, then hit play.
"Greetings, climbers."
A mysterious angel greeted me from the screen. Against a black backdrop, an angel in white clothes was there, but something about their presence felt rather awkward.
"What do you all consider to be the value of a human being?"
The angel had fetched a docile cat from somewhere, settled it on their lap, and began to stroke it.
"Courage must be the foremost value of humanity."
There was delight in the angel's voice.
"Animals cannot overcome their instincts. Appetite. Lust. The desire for sleep. Any animal that appears to overcome its urges has merely had those instincts twisted through a process bordering on cruelty. Overcoming one instinct is nothing more than yielding to another instinct."
In a sense, 'training' is a form of abuse. It teaches that a certain action yields a reward, and another action yields pain. Therefore, a trained animal's behavior is merely an act stemming from the instincts of 'not wanting to be hurt' or 'wanting to eat something tasty.'
"On the other hand, what about human courage?"
Humans can overcome the fear of death. Humans can give up basic desires. Humans can defy instinct to uphold the values they believe in. We call that courage.
"The sight of someone showing courage is beautiful. A person who ignores the warnings their instincts send and takes a single step forward shows us the meaning of why we live. Don't you agree?"
The angel, having set the cat down, looked straight at the screen and gave a soft smile.
"Tomorrow, at 9 AM. The trial will begin. I sincerely hope you show us your courage."
With those words, the video ended. The time displayed on the pad was 3 PM. In 18 hours, the Tower's trial would begin.
"Courage... courage, huh..."
I'm not sure what kind of behavior the angel expects from humans... but it picked the wrong opponent. It would be hard to call me a courageous person, but—
"Look forward to it."
It was correct to say I'm someone who has overcome the fear of death.