The Regressor Endures (5)
The Regressor Endures (5)
"H-help... me..."
A frail girl, trembling uncontrollably. To anyone watching, she was nothing more than delicate and powerless... but I didn't let my guard down. There was always a slim chance it could turn into a "I've been tricked!" scenario. For all I knew, my survival mission might be to survive this girl. She could be the ender of all things, the terminator of the world I'd been so wary of.
If I'm so suspicious, you ask, why am I walking right up to her? Simple—I'm a regressor. Even if I mess up, I can get back up. If I get backstabbed, I just rub the back of my aching head and move on. But hesitating here and letting things tangle up—that would be a real mistake.
And my best guess was that what I needed to do right now was save this girl. The South Korean government—or some national-level authority—was after her. The fact that every possible media channel, from the news to billboards, was saturated with the search proved it. I didn't know why, but they seemed desperate to get her back.
"Hey, kid."
"Yes...?"
"People are looking for you right now. Do you know that?"
"Yes..."
"What do you want to do? Should I take you to them?"
"...I-I don't want that. I don't want to go back..."
Her face flooded with terror in an instant. That was all the explanation I needed.
"All right, I get it. Here, climb onto my back—ah, the armor's in the way. I'll just carry you and run."
"I-I'm scared..."
"Bear with it a little."
At first I ran at a speed no normal person could even attempt, but when she seemed frightened I slowed down a bit. I'd planned to get somewhere empty of people as fast as possible. That turned out to be a poor judgment call.
"...What's with that guy? Did I see that right?"
"Hey, get your phone out. Film it. Let's post it as a Reel."
A man in gleaming plate armor, running with a tiny girl in his arms—there was no way that wouldn't draw attention. Even though I stuck to pathless, barren riversides, I could still see people in the distance pulling out their phones the moment they spotted me.
"Gotta ditch the armor here. Just wait a moment."
This couldn't continue. I carefully set the girl down on the damp riverbank and quickly stripped off the armor and threw it aside. Underneath I was wearing a cloth outfit that looked like the standard Tower-issued gear—a little awkward, but bound to attract less attention than steel plate.
"Can you walk?"
"N-no..."
"Got it."
There's a saying: hide a tree in the forest. My idea of the best move was to hold her hand and walk side by side, but since that wasn't possible, piggybacking her while walking seemed like the better option.
"Hop on. Press your face down and pretend you're asleep. You can actually fall asleep if you want."
"Okay..."
The moment she climbed onto my back, she was out. The way she dropped off instantly told me she'd been pretty exhausted.
"..."
"..."
Once I was walking with the girl on my back, the stares aimed at us vanished just as fast. Aside from the occasional elderly person looking on with a warm smile, it was almost startling how little anyone cared.
"Is that your daughter? You're working hard."
"Haha, not mine."
Even as I answered with a smile, my mind was spinning. With the situation like this, the city was dangerous. I couldn't be certain of the details, but it didn't look like the authorities were going to be on our side. The police? They were more of a serious threat.
"Don't ordinary criminals manage to hide out just fine?" Sure—look at the criminals who've hidden and survived in cities. Every last one had an accomplice. Meaning, first and foremost, they had a "hideout" to stay in.
I, on the other hand, was a complete outsider. An extraneous element. I didn't even have cash on me, let alone a place to stay. The only way to make money I could think of right now was shaking down a passerby, and even that was pointless since everyone pays by card these days.
That meant I couldn't make use of the city's modern infrastructure. If anything, CCTV and the like acted as potential threats. The countryside—the mountains, if possible—that was the better choice.
So that brought me back to: how do I get to the mountains? We were in Seoul. Obviously I had no car, and I had no money even if I wanted to take a bus.
"..."
Wait. Did I really have to "ride" a bus?
"Uh... where are we going?"
"To the riverside."
First, get out of Seoul. Then think.
**
The sun went down. I've always thought that sunset has a particular beauty. Everyday beauty you can see anywhere—that's what I like about it.
"Where... are we?"
"Good question. I don't know either."
Just before a bus departed, we slipped into its cargo bay. It was marked for somewhere out in Gangwon-do, and the timing happened to work out perfectly.
"Won't the CCTV catch us?" It did. Definitely. That's why, once I sensed we were on the highway, I forced the cargo bay open from the inside and we jumped out. Jumping from a moving bus is generally something you'd want to avoid, but by wringing every last ounce of my superhuman strength, I managed to land without injury. I closed the cargo bay right before we jumped, so nobody else would have gotten hurt. Probably.
Traffic was light in the middle of the day so we weren't hit by another car, and we followed the road to the foot of a nearby wooded hill and climbed. From there, we just climbed without any destination. My first objective was to stay out of sight as much as possible; my second objective was to have a view of anyone approaching.
By the time we reached the summit, the sun was already low. The girl on my back looked thoroughly drained, so it seemed like we ought to rest here.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
The girl, breathing hard, glanced at me and ducked her head.
"Um... thank you for saving me."
"...Uh, sure."
If it were me, I'd probably have asked why someone helped me first. Maybe this was what they called innocence. Either she accepted goodwill purely as goodwill, or she simply wasn't thinking about it at all—one or the other.
"First off—what's your name?"
"My name? It's Areum. It's a native Korean word—they say it means something you can hold in your arms. And you, mister?"
"I'm Jun-ho. Actually... what's your family name?"
"I don't have... a family name."
"..."
That set off a whole parade of red flags. When a girl in a plain white cloth dress says she has no family name, half the scenarios that sprang to mind were the painfully cliché sort.
"Do you happen... to know why you're being chased?"
"That's... I'm sorry. I don't really know."
"Then why did you say you didn't want to go back?"
"My memory's fuzzy but... it was painful... and miserable... I don't want to go back... it was too hard..."
"Hmm... So how did you end up out here?"
"I'm not sure about that either... I just came to and I was outside..."
From what I could piece together, she'd been confined in some kind of secret lab—or a facility like it—and had escaped for some reason.
But what stuck out was that she had memories of the "outside." If she'd been born and raised entirely inside a lab, it would be normal for her to have no knowledge of the outside world, but Areum had some basic common sense.
"Hmm..."
Now what? There was a lot more I wanted to ask her, but I didn't feel right about pressing a girl who'd just barely escaped. I'd gather more detailed info once she'd calmed down.
"You tired? Let's find a place you can sleep. I've seen somewhere that if you gather up leaves and lie down, it's pretty soft."
"Okay, I understand."
I spread my mana out in a wide sweep to watch for any unexpected trouble, then walked in search of a spot to rest. Since this was just a rural hill in Korea, I wasn't likely to find a cave or anything; I planned to stop once I found a reasonably wide stretch of flat ground.
"That spot looks decent, right?"
"...Yes..."
Areum's words were dragging—she was tired. I'd only just met her, but honestly, she was cute. I was just thinking that if I ever had a daughter, I'd want to raise one like her, when...
Maybe it was because my guard had lowered. Just a little. A tiny bit.
CRACK!!!
"Ngh...!!"
A searing agony bloomed near my shoulder. Petals of blood scattered in every direction. A sound more like a splintering snap than a clean crack—a noise no human body should ever make.
I'd been on alert with my mana spread out, and I instinctively twisted my body the instant I reacted, but I couldn't dodge the bullet. At best, I'd taken a shot meant for my chest in the shoulder instead. As the searing pain radiated through my whole body, time seemed to crawl in slow motion.
Far in the distance—a faint glint reflecting off the opposite ridge. A sniper.
"Mister...!"
Areum stared at me in shock. Her eyes flew wide. Her mouth opened in a gasp.
CRACK!!!
"Kyaaaah!"
Both of her knees shattered. That final image—her slender legs folding the wrong way, her body collapsing in an instant—was all I saw.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 21.]
And then I blacked out.
***
"..."
"Is that cosplay?"
"Isn't it a movie shoot? Or YouTube?"
"Mind if I take a picture? Looks pretty cool, actually."
I ignored the onlookers and dropped onto the nearest bench. I needed to gather my thoughts.
"A sniper..."
I'd known there were snipers in Korea, but I'd never heard of them being deployed in a real operation. Let alone shooting at a civilian.
And that last scene I'd witnessed was telling. The sniper's round had been aimed at my chest—meaning they intended to kill me. For Areum, they'd targeted her legs. That likely meant they needed her alive. Also meant they were confident they could save her before she bled out.
"Hoo..."
If they were willing to mobilize a sniper, I could safely assume the faction after Areum was the South Korean government. An entire nation was after a single girl.
Either way, my goal was set. When forced to choose between a frail girl and ruthless power, anyone would make the choice I was making.
I would hide Areum from the world.
For a week. Or longer.