The Regressor Endures (10)
The Regressor Endures (10)
We drove back to the research institute and arrived once more.
There was one difference.
"..."
"..."
The agents, the soldiers, were subtly showing signs of fear toward me. It wasn't that they were truly afraid. They were under the 'delusion' that they themselves had been frightened into submission.
Once I was escorted to Professor Kim, I sat down and made my declaration.
"Areum is an ordinary person now."
"...What exactly do you—good lord."
Professor Kim couldn't gather his wits. There were several reasons he was short of breath, but one was surely this 'Cold Energy.' His muscles kept seizing up, making breathing difficult. From the perspective of someone hit with it unknowingly, it would feel as though his body had locked up from excessive tension. The symptoms — a rigid body, labored breathing, a drop in body temperature — were all perfectly explainable as being scared stiff.
Did Cold Energy always work like this? It was a minor trick I'd picked up while erasing the mana inside Areum. I'd tried making muscles tense up in natural little flinches instead of artificially paralyzing them, to see if people wouldn't notice anything off. The results were a success.
In any case, I got straight to the point.
"Take her and examine her. There isn't a single speck of 'Zeta' left in her body now."
"...Please wait a moment."
Professor Kim called someone in via his earpiece and had Areum taken away. Once Areum left, the two of us were alone in the room.
"...Who are you?"
Only then did Professor Kim let out a deep breath. He'd thought his head was swimming from sheer shock, but it turned out he'd been holding his breath without realizing it, and the oxygen deprivation had made him light-headed.
"...Who am I?"
Who was I? Kim Jun-ho. A player. A climber. A regressor. There were many words to describe me, but the identity I would give this man right now was something else.
"I am someone from the future. Fifty years from now, to be precise."
"...Pardon?"
"Professor Kim. No, Professor Kim Yong-seung. Thanks to you, the Republic of Korea will experience an unprecedented golden age... and because of you, it will be destroyed."
"Wha, wha..."
How did I know his name? I'd looked him up on the tablet. I knew his face and his surname, so I searched among prominent professors and found him. Someone spearheading a project like this couldn't be an idiot, I'd figured.
"Your 'Zeta' research will succeed. Humanity will find a new resource and take a leap forward, and advanced technology will spring up everywhere. The very reason I'm able to come to this point in time is all thanks to your discovery of how to harness Zeta — that is, mana."
"..."
"However... because of that, humanity will be destroyed."
"Like nuclear weapons... did we start firing Zeta particles at each other?"
"No. When a calamity I cannot speak of struck, humanity had grown too powerful."
This world was a world inside the Tower. In other words, it was a world already ruined by the Tower.
"The calamity... struck differently depending on the strength of each race. And because of mana, humanity was appraised as far stronger than it actually was."
Professor Kim had likely succeeded in his research. He had brilliantly studied methods for harnessing mana, and perhaps even devised a way to naturally concentrate it. And yet, humanity was still destroyed without ever reaching the top of the Tower.
I speculated that mana was one of the causes. The idea that a trial's difficulty changes according to each world's strength was a common concept in fiction.
If mana had been discovered after the Tower appeared, that would be one thing, but if it was discovered beforehand, it could come back as a calamity. Granted, all of this was only my speculation.
"...That's a difficult story to believe."
"But you'll have to believe it. I've been through far more than you can imagine."
I squeezed the corner of the wooden table hard with my fingers. The table split with a crack, caving in with the imprint of my grip. Professor Kim studied my arm closely but found no trace of any device. The Cold Energy faintly radiating from my body added to the persuasive effect.
"Stripping Areum of her power was part of that as well. I came here to prepare for the future... and to deliver a warning."
"...Huh."
Professor Kim stared blankly at the split wooden table and let out a hollow laugh. If it were me, and someone suddenly showed up claiming to be from the future and started wrecking things while I was in the middle of intensive research, I'd be dumbfounded too.
Still, I had no intention of just smashing everything and running.
"Take these."
"...What are these?"
Four bottles of Mid-grade Potion that I'd stashed in the subspace under my fingernails. Two were in their ordinary state, and two were frozen solid, packed full of my mana.
"These are potions. Think of them as a panacea that can even cure cancer. Two of them have been separately infused with my mana."
"...Cancer cannot be cured."
"That's why I said panacea. Study them."
It would be safer to research healing-related technology through potions, rather than pursuing an overdeveloped technological path powered by mana. If this man had truly been researching out of concern for humanity's future... these potions would help. I'd considered giving him an Elixir outright and being done with it, but honestly, that was too much.
This was... a kind of apology.
An apology for failing to find a proper way to untangle a ruined situation, and instead resolving the conflict through brute force. An apology for cutting through a knot too twisted to untie. An apology for the lies.
"Professor!"
The door burst open at that moment.
"It's true — no Zeta has been detected in the subject's body. There is no concentration reaction occurring either."
"...I see."
Right on cue, a researcher returned with Areum, and Professor Kim nodded weakly.
"If it's truly... truly because of me that the world was destroyed... then I suppose I must be the one to take responsibility..."
"Before that, I have one request."
**
The task on Floor 21 was 'Survive for 7 days.' Since that meant I couldn't leave for seven days no matter what, I tried to spend that dead time as productively as possible.
"Big brother, I think I could be a chef later. Hehe."
Areum was beaming. She'd gotten to make her own pizza at a theme park where you could try out different jobs, and she'd absolutely loved it.
"Was it fun?"
"Yeah! Totally!"
I'd spent the past days taking Areum around to all sorts of places. We went to the amusement park again, visited a zoo, went to the movies... I let her do everything she wanted to do. Where did the money come from? Professor Kim provided it.
Those days were pretty fun for me too. It felt like a return to childhood after a long time. The kind of feeling you might have when raising a daughter someday.
"Big brother."
"Yeah."
"Do you have to go?"
"Yeah."
The remaining time was about thirty minutes. The calculation was exact. In thirty minutes, I would return to reality.
The requirement to survive seven days might have been a lifeline for some, but for me it was more of a shackle. If the structure had let me choose when to leave, like on earlier floors, I would have stayed longer... but the word 'survive' didn't seem to allow that.
"..."
I looked blankly at Areum.
I didn't know what would become of this world after I left. Whether it would pause, whether it would vanish, or whether it would continue on. Since it was beyond my observation, I could only imagine.
Because I'd interfered with mana research, the world might meet its destruction even faster. Or, on the contrary, it might last longer. This world was destined to perish and be absorbed by the Tower anyway. That was why it existed inside the Tower.
If the world was doomed anyway... then every action I had taken became meaningless.
"..."
Just as my mood was about to turn gloomy, I felt a gentle warmth at my fingertips.
"Big brother."
Areum. I still didn't know her well. Even though I'd invested a long time in her, I couldn't claim we'd become completely close. It might have been because I deliberately tried not to get attached. We would have to part someday.
"Thank you."
But seeing her stand there, hands placed neatly over her navel and bowing properly at a ninety-degree angle... it made me think that all my hardship hadn't been for nothing.
"Thanks to you, big brother, I got to eat so many good things... and I got to leave that suffocating place... and I don't have to get weird shots anymore... It's all because of you. My teacher said you should say thank you at times like this."
"..."
I'd already found the orphanage where she would stay. I'd also roughly handled the necessary arrangements. Since I'd spoken to Professor Kim separately, she would at least have a decent life.
"I'm grateful too."
It wasn't meaningless time.
I may have crushed the situation with force because I couldn't come up with a suitable plan, I may have piled lie upon lie... but it still wasn't meaningless time.
I had protected a person's heart. I hadn't placed a human being on the scale of efficiency. I had protected my principles.
"...Be sure to be happy."
I almost wished this world would simply pause. So that she could take only happy memories with her.
"Yes! I'll be happy! You be happy too, big brother!"
The cogwheels of the clock that had turned without rest for seven days came to a halt.
—Floor 21 cleared.
—You have acquired the Trait 'Girl's Cheer.'
Once again, Floor 1.