The Regressor Endures (6)
The Regressor Endures (6)
I'd made up my mind to save the mysterious girl, Areum, but... there were more than a few things nagging at me.
First, the girl's identity. Who exactly was she, that the government was mobilizing to find her? Who exactly was she, that they'd shatter her leg with a sniper rifle just to get her back? I probably wouldn't get a satisfying answer even if I asked her directly. I would have to investigate that one myself.
Second: were they actually trying to kill me?
At first I'd assumed they were absolutely aiming for my life, but thinking it over... if lethal force had been the objective, they would have gone for my head. A shot between the eyes, and a person can't move at all. I'd twisted and taken the bullet in the shoulder, so the original target was probably my collarbone. A critical spot for arm movement, a devastating hit if it lands... but not exactly the most efficient place to kill someone. Which meant my earlier theory—that they planned to kill me and take Areum alive—was wrong.
"Which makes this weird in its own way."
It's not as if I'd jumped to conclusions thinking the sniper was out to kill me. Logically, they had no reason to keep me alive. If someone in Korea was prepared to fire a gun, killing the target would be easier to clean up afterward than leaving them alive. There was no reason whatsoever to spare me.
"I definitely... tripped something I wasn't supposed to."
Considering everything, I was convinced I'd accidentally triggered something wrong. The sniper appearing wasn't normal progression, and it probably wasn't the direction the Tower intended either.
Why? The reason was simple. The moment heavy weaponry like that entered the picture, Floor 21's difficulty became far too extreme.
Let's bring back our ordinary Player A I mentioned before. Decently leveled, can handle martial arts reasonably well, has a reasonable amount of mana—your reasonably strong Player A.
Could this man survive a sniper? Could he save Areum in that fight from moments ago?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. At this point, there are very few players who can dodge or withstand gunfire. You think you just need to spot the muzzle and dodge? Let's set that aside. Maybe a bold player, mana surging, running evasively, could dodge one gunman. But I'm talking about the bullet itself.
A bullet's muzzle velocity is roughly 400 meters per second. The speed of sound is roughly 340 meters per second. The bullet arrives faster than the sound. Which means reacting after you hear it is impossible. For reference, 400 meters per second is about 1,440 kilometers per hour. You can probably imagine the speed.
A bullet being faster than sound means you'd have to spot the bullet's trajectory purely by sight, which is practically impossible—and when I was sniped, it was a dark night. So the option of seeing it and dodging is off the table.
In other words, no matter which player you brought in besides me, they would have failed. That's why I couldn't believe such a brutally difficult challenge would appear unless I'd tripped something I wasn't supposed to. Especially before a full day had even passed.
Therefore, either heading into the mountains itself was the problem, or I clearly did something I shouldn't have in the process.
"I'd like to know the standard strategy here..."
How did other players clear Floor 21? I desperately wanted to grab someone and ask.
The best method would be... first, endure the seven days and escape Floor 21, then return to reality and look up other people's strategies. There had to be some who gave up and just waited out the seven days helplessly, but there'd also be plenty who, like me, tried their hardest to find a solution. And among them, there might even be someone who succeeded.
But to clear it that way, I'd first have to give up on one innocent girl. I'd have to send her back to that research institute that hated her so much.
"That's not happening."
There are things you can compromise on, and things you can't. This is one you can't. First, one way or another, I'll figure out how to save Areum. Then I'll worry about the rest.
"Okay."
My thoughts were roughly sorted. Time to act.
"Ugh..."
I immediately stripped off the cumbersome armor and tossed it into some nearby bushes. Since heading into the mountains seemed to be the problem last cycle, this time I planned to stay in the city.
"First..."
I had to earn some money.
**
The means I chose to earn money was none other than manual labor. More precisely, temp work in construction.
What I learned while trying to earn money this time was that temp work isn't something just anyone can walk into and do. There are usually separate agencies that handle placement, you have to show up before dawn and wait, and the workers need to be vetted to some degree.
"What's this punk? Huh? You wanna work? Cut the bullshit and get lost. You think this is a playground? I'm calling the cops."
So my approach—showing up at a construction site with no ID and no introduction—was nothing but a nuisance. I'd arrived around 10 in the morning when work was in full swing, and since the roster was already filled out beforehand, they couldn't just take on someone the workers didn't know.
"Should I move this?"
"Hey! Don't touch th—huh...?!"
But the moment I hoisted four 40-kilogram bags of cement, the hard-hatted foreman's mouth slowly fell open.
"Foreman, should I call the police—huh..."
"...Hey. What'd you say your name was?"
"Kim Jun-ho."
"Ha, fuck... we're not supposed to do this, but... wait here. I'll go work something out."
The foreman vanished somewhere for a moment, then returned, handed me a hard hat and a worn vest, and told me I could work. He gave me my instructions. For an ordinary person, construction work would be considered brutally tough, but for someone with a superhuman body like mine, it wasn't much of a challenge.
And so, I finished a job that normally required five strong men all by myself, and the work wrapped up far earlier than expected. In my hand was a thick envelope containing a staggering 300,000 won.
"So... you coming back tomorrow?"
"No. But if I do, I'll contact you."
"Ah, right. Right. I'll give you my number. If you want work, just call this number."
"Oh, I don't have a phone, so..."
"Hey, if you're gonna work, you work with me, got it? You go somewhere else, you're dead, seriously. I gave you a good payday today, didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know..."
After smoothing things over, I headed to a clothing store first. I didn't need anything stylish—just bought a tracksuit set that was comfortable and wouldn't draw attention. Now people wouldn't stare at me strangely. They'd just think, ah, some unemployed guy who never leaves his house finally went outside.
"Got any rooms?"
"Yes~"
I headed to the cheapest-looking motel nearby, and luckily they had a room. That night, I got to sleep in a soft bed. Even a tiny bit of cash made life so much easier.
The next morning, I realized something terrifying.
"...I'm in trouble."
I was way too far from the place where I'd first met Areum. The time was 8:30. Only 30 minutes left. If I sprinted at full speed, I might make it in time, but running at a speed beyond human limits would draw way too much attention.
"...Taxi."
In the end, I steeled myself and hailed a taxi toward the river area. It was just past 9 o'clock. A ten-minute run from here would get me near the bridge where I'd met Areum. I was about to move without delay...
"Help... please help me, mister..."
I stopped when I saw Areum limping toward me from a distance.
"...Her location changed?"
We were still some distance from where we'd met before. It wasn't a distance she could have covered on foot in this amount of time. So how was she here, now, at this spot?
Last cycle, my running into Areum at just the right moment wasn't a lucky coincidence.
There might be a reason behind it.
**
"Why did you come this way?"
"I just... felt like I had to. You're a stranger, but... you feel kind of familiar, somehow."
"...I see."
We quickly exchanged names, and now I was walking with Areum on my back. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, but she didn't seem stable yet, so I held back. Besides, we weren't close—she probably wouldn't spill her heart out to me right away. Which meant I needed to break the ice first.
"Here, put this on."
"Ah, it's hard to breathe..."
"Just bear with it for now."
I slipped a mask I'd bought at a convenience store onto her and kept walking with Areum on my back. This gave her a reason to keep her head down, and even if someone checked the CCTV, her face wouldn't show.
You think the police would focus on tracking children's movements? Not if we don't go anywhere a child would normally go.
What if they were tracking Areum with some kind of biochip radar? Then everything I was doing to escape would be pointless. But if they were narrowing things down through human investigation, there was plenty of room for psychological warfare.
They say if you want to hide a tree, hide it in a forest. I prioritized places where, if I were a cop, I would absolutely never, ever think to look. And as a result, exactly one place came to mind.
A place where it wouldn't be strange to see a little girl and a grown adult together.
A place in the middle of Seoul, yet one step outside the gaze of police and onlookers.
A place where a wanted little girl had no business being.
"An amusement park."
"Whoa...!!"
We arrived at the amusement park in Jamsil.