The Boss Is Too Weak (1)
The Boss Is Too Weak (1)
Swish! Swish!
When I stirred awake, Choi Ji-won was beside me, swinging her sword.
She was much closer than before—had she finally opened her heart to me?
Had my efforts finally borne fruit...!
"...Nope."
No. More people had just shown up, and now the clearing was smaller.
"You're up."
Sheathing her sword, she fixed her hair and looked at me.
Choi Ji-won rummaged through the underbrush, then tossed a large shovel my way.
"What's this?"
"What do you think? A shovel. You served in the military, didn't you?"
"...That doesn't answer why you're giving it to me."
"The clearing's cramped. I figure we should clear out some grass around the edge."
"..."
It irritated the hell out of me, but right now I'm Angel Jun-ho.
I chewed an energy bar, picked up the shovel.
Seriously. Should I just regress and call it a day?
Thwack! Thwack!
The Tower's tropical climate kept the grass roots shallow, so digging them out wasn't hard.
Thwack! Thwack!
If she'd assigned me the work and then stood there swinging her own sword, I'd have told her to square up with me right there.
But Choi Ji-won stayed beside me, digging up grass. She had a conscience after all, I guess.
"Uh... we'll help too."
"Yeah. You gave us food, a place to sleep..."
A few men who'd been spacing out joined in, and the grass-clearing went easier than I'd expected.
Come to think of it, what's that digging-obsessed guy up to right now?
Oh, he's still digging over there. But he's scowling—more people around must be stressing him out.
I'm sorry, sir.
So, just when we'd expanded the clearing by around twenty percent,
Choi Ji-won decided that was enough and sent the other men back.
"Whew, I could use a nap..."
"You stay."
"Huh?"
I was about to get some rest too, but Choi Ji-won grabbed my shoulder as I was pulling away.
"Food. We need to go scavenge."
"Ah."
Three days later.
If I had to describe the last three days... they felt like the military.
We ate at set times, scavenged for food.
I obeyed Choi Ji-won like a man crawling between a thug's legs, docile as could be.
So, did I just get used and pushed around like a chump?
That's a hard no.
I, the cool-headed, rational Regressor Kim Jun-ho, am a man who bends briefly for a goal—and profits from it.
I walked away with two big advantages.
First: by persistently pestering Choi Ji-won, I squeezed out plenty of info about her "that person."
The one Choi Ji-won missed was her father, who was also her teacher. He's dead now.
I'm guessing he died saving someone else... but she wouldn't tell me more than that.
Still, this much info should prove very useful in the next cycle.
And second: swordsmanship.
I laid down an ultimatum at her: 'I'm helping these people, not you. If you want to work me like a dog, teach me swordsmanship!' Reluctantly, she agreed.
This time it wasn't just killing time—she taught me properly according to our deal, so the quality of her advice was on a whole different level.
With Choi Ji-won's sincere guidance, my skills shot up fast.
Like the dish called Kim Jun-ho has real potential, and adding a spoonful of the oyster sauce called Choi Ji-won brings the savory depth that completes it.
If my ability at the start of this cycle was a 1.0 Kim Jun-ho, right now I feel like I'm at about 1.25 Kim Jun-ho.
In stock terms, that's practically hitting the upper limit. If I were an investor, I'd put my money on Kim Jun-ho right this second.
"Huff... huff..."
And what am I doing now? I'm following Choi Ji-won as she sprints through the forest.
I've been at this for three days and I'm still dying out here.
Choi Ji-won's speed is incredible, sure, but her stamina is just as ridiculous.
We'll be running together, and then I'll glance up and she's already way ahead of me. It keeps happening.
"Hghk..."
Thanks to my Achievement Levels, my stamina has improved drastically, but it's still only human level.
That woman isn't human. She's a monster who can use a sword.
"...Late again."
"Heck. Heck. You're just too fast."
By the time I arrived, Choi Ji-won had already beheaded a Mutant Goblin.
The goblin corpse faded away, revealing a small box with rations and a Golden Orb inside.
Choi Ji-won pocketed the Golden Orb casually, then passed the food bundle to me.
"You can't go lugging rations around constantly, so hide them well. Or carry them if you don't have a place to stash them."
She finished speaking and took off somewhere again.
"...Son of a monkey."
I almost swore on instinct, but that woman might even hear this.
I roughly hid the rations up a tree and followed Choi Ji-won.
"Late again."
"...Too slow."
"What?"
"Nothing..."
Once again, Choi Ji-won had beheaded a Mutant Goblin.
Doesn't that woman ever find this movement pattern strange?
A question I'd kept tucked in a corner of my mind gave a little squirm.
Well, we've been rubbing elbows for three days now. Surely I can ask at least this much.
"...Choi Ji-won. Didn't you run straight here?"
"I did."
"Then how did you know there'd be a Mutant Goblin here? It's not just today... it's every single time, right?"
"..."
Choi Ji-won didn't answer, her face blank, but her eyes were flicking back and forth.
"...Wait a moment."
She told me to wait and then started murmuring quietly. I couldn't catch the words, but the tone sounded like she was consulting someone.
What, does she have an imaginary friend or something?
After mumbling for quite a while, Choi Ji-won finally spoke.
"...Fine. I'll be honest. From what I've observed, you don't seem like a bad person."
It seemed she had finished conferring with her imaginary friend. She slowly lifted her head and met my eyes.
"Kim Jun-ho. You asked how I find out where the Mutant Goblins are. That's an ability from my Trait."
"...What kind of Trait?"
"It detects the approximate level of enemies at a distance. But it only works on enemies that are above a certain strength."
Choi Ji-won answered me willingly enough. It seems separate from her own sharp senses... I'm planning to use this chance to ask other things I've been curious about.
"So, do you sense any monsters around here stronger than you? Or are they all weaker?"
"...There's one monster about my level."
"Then isn't that the boss?"
"It's not. That thing... is too strong."
I see. So Choi Ji-won had already sensed the Minotaur's presence.
But if so, a question arises.
"Then shouldn't you be able to sense the 'Boss'?"
After enough regressions, at a certain point this message always pops up.
<Tutorial Stage>
-Clear Condition 1: Swallow a 'Golden Orb' hidden somewhere in the forest to advance to the next stage. However, only 50 Golden Orbs exist.
-Clear Condition 2: Defeat the boss, the Goblin Shaman, and a portal to the next stage will spawn.
The boss I'm talking about is the Goblin Shaman mentioned here.
If she has an ability that detects strong enemies, wouldn't finding the Goblin Shaman be simple?
Couldn't we just kill the boss and have everyone take the portal?
Even at its strongest, the boss didn't seem tougher than Choi Ji-won. At best, it'd end in three 'slashes'.
"..."
Unexpectedly, Choi Ji-won didn't answer straight away and fell into thought.
She was studying my face, very carefully.
"You... what's your goal? What makes you follow me around and go through all this hardship on purpose?"
Choi Ji-won used the magnificent rhetorical art of answering a question with a question.
She wasn't going to open her mouth again until I answered.
...What's my goal?
Simple.
"To clear the Tower, save Earth. To become stronger."
"...Ha."
However she interpreted my words, Choi Ji-won let out a small, hollow laugh.
"...Easy to say."
She turned her back with a cynical air.
Ugh. She asked with that whole meaningful vibe, so I thought she was about to drop some important intel. Guess it was just a mood swing.
Just as I was gathering up rations...
Thump.
A small wooden box landed right in front of my eyes.
"...This is."
The design was so familiar, I didn't even need to open it to know the contents.
This is a box containing a Golden Orb. But, why...
"There was someone like you once. A man whose reality is rock bottom, but whose eyes look up at the distant sky."
She addressed me with her back still turned. It wasn't the usual stiff, formal tone she used with me—it was the normal way a college girl might speak.
"When a crisis comes... just swallow it. Dying for other people—that's a dog's death."
"..."
"You don't have to think of it as a favor. I'm overflowing with these orbs, so I scatter them around."
With those final words, Choi Ji-won moved off, nonchalant and aloof.
That woman... she gave me an incredibly precious Golden Orb.
She must be seeing her father in me again.
My feelings were complex and mixed.
"Wait, wait...!"
I had things to say too, but she was already walking away.
I mean... I already have three Golden Orbs stashed...
And the boss... where is the damn boss! Why'd you only say your piece and not answer me!
"No idea."
"What?"
"I said, no idea. Finding the boss is my goal, to begin with."
Walking back while carrying rations.
The answer to my question about where the boss is was, amazingly, 'no idea.'
"Wait, you said you can sense the presence of the strong, right?"
"Correct."
Choi Ji-won can determine the rough location and level of strong opponents.
That's how she senses the Minotaur and the Mutant Goblins.
"The problem is... there's nothing in between."
"What do you mean, nothing in between?"
"The boss should be weaker than a terrifying monster, but stronger than a mutant, right? But there's no such thing. My ability doesn't pick up the 'Goblin Shaman's' location."
"..."
It's because Choi Ji-won's radar only works on opponents above a certain threshold.
Two main possibilities.
One: the boss is the same level as the Mutant Goblins, just with a different name, so she can't tell them apart.
In this case we could just kill every single Mutant Goblin, but...
And the second possibility.
The boss is... ridiculously weak, and doesn't even register on Choi Ji-won's radar.
"Sigh."
A sigh escaped me before I knew it.
I thought Choi Ji-won would know the boss's location...
Feels like the one reason I'd put up with all this has just vanished. This wasn't why I played errand boy.
I'd squeezed just about everything worth taking, and the Minotaur would appear soon anyway... I was mulling over whether to regress and try a different route, when—
"Hold on."
Choi Ji-won stopped me as I was lost in thought.
Her gaze was fixed on a single tree.
"...Come out."
Rustle. Rustle. As if on cue, a man walked out from behind it.
"...The rumor about you two checks out."
The man who revealed himself... was the firefighter who led a group of around twenty people away from the clearing on the second day.
Was his name Park Cheol-jin? I remembered him because his face was as intimidating as a tiger's.
But what's this guy doing here?
"Are you two the overall leaders of the clearing group?"
"...Leader is a bit much, but we are the ones managing it."
Unexpectedly, Choi Ji-won used polite speech for an older man. Seems she's the type to observe proper courtesy toward elders.
"...My name is Park Cheol-jin. I was a firefighter."
Park Cheol-jin spoke with some difficulty.
"I heard you two are incredibly strong. I need your help."
"What kind of help?"
"...We've found the boss."
Day six since regressing. Noon.
The world began to turn differently from all the previous cycles.