The Regressor Is Too Strong (1)
The Regressor Is Too Strong (1)
When I got back to the studio, Choi Ji-won had arrived just barely before me.
"...You're back?"
Choi Ji-won greeted me with her usual calm. Normally she'd be startled by the state I was in after that many regressions, but she didn't look all that surprised this time.
"I half expected it. Knowing you, I didn't think you'd let it go. I figured you'd regressed a ton."
Since we had entered at the same time, we must have cleared it at the same time as well. That also meant she had experienced the same Floor 21 I had.
"What about you? Floor 21, I mean. I want to hear your side of it."
"...At first, a swarm of secret-agent types came after me. So I drove them all off. I deliberately held out in the middle of a populated city. After that happened about three times, they contacted me and said they wanted to talk."
"Professor Kim?"
"...I don't know if his last name was Kim, but I did talk to a man who looked like a professor."
Choi Ji-won had fought off every agent who came at her with overwhelming force. Because she'd cleverly held out in the city, the lab couldn't use dangerous weapons like guns. At the level of an ordinary specialist they couldn't match her fighting strength, so the situation inevitably led to dialogue. She didn't have the penalty of regressing from a single hit, and her own strength was high, so that approach was open to her.
"After that I heard the lab's side of the story... I don't know. I understand that sacrificing Areum is wrong, but ignoring a possible path to the future didn't seem rational to me either..."
"So what did you do?"
"I volunteered myself as the test subject instead. I also left a few potions behind while I was at it. It wasn't like they were going to do anything to my body anyway—apparently I just had to stay still in a designated spot."
"Hm..."
If Choi Ji-won volunteered as the test subject instead, then of course the need for Areum would vanish. Ji-won's body produced mana in quantities dozens, maybe even hundreds of times greater than Areum's. The lab side might have welcomed it.
"But what about after you leave? What happens then?"
"...That was on my mind too... but I couldn't come up with a better solution. That's part of why I figured you probably regressed."
"Hm... I guess that means I win this round."
"Jun-ho, what did you do?"
"I completely erased Areum's mana."
"...I'm sure that counts as a solution, but the direction feels a little weird... No, wait. Is that even possible?"
Choi Ji-won's eyes went wide with surprise. That power was newly gained from repeating my regressions, so her surprise wasn't unwarranted.
"But using it on someone as weak as Areum was still hard. If I ever want to use it on a player, I'll have to get a whole lot, lot stronger than I am now."
Still, as a practical application, it was hard to see it as battlefield-ready right now. Even using it on someone as feeble and vulnerable as Areum had taken considerable effort. To successfully use the ability on people far tougher and rougher than her, I would have to become outrageously powerful in the future.
"Still, it ended well. That's a relief."
"Yeah, even though I had to regress a truly ridiculous number of times... I do think it's a relief. Oh, more importantly, I wonder how the other players cleared it."
"Should I ask now? I'll contact the Association."
Choi Ji-won tapped at her phone quickly. In that gap, I casually opened my Status Window to check my newly acquired Trait.
[Name: Kim Jun-ho] [LV:79]
[Traits]
-Regression [EX]
-Flash Step [S]
-Heart of Lightning [S]
-Curiosity [A+]
-Awe [A+]
-Hero [B]
-Meditation [A+]
-Swordsmanship [A+] [Specialization Recognized]
-Cold Affinity [A]
-Strange Atmosphere [D]
-Quick Reflexes [C]
-Excellent Cardiopulmonary Endurance [C]
-Right Mindfulness [C]
-Girl's Cheer [A]
"Whew, that's a lot."
My head spun for a moment, but I still focused and looked for what had changed. First, my Achievement Level had gone up. I'm pretty sure the first digit used to be 6 and now it's 7. My Swordsmanship Trait had also changed to A+. If I pushed just a little further from here, would it become S-rank?
"Someday I could become an SSS-rank swordsman too."
Oh, and now that I looked, my Strange Atmosphere, Awe, and Curiosity Traits had each gone up a grade. No, wait, my Hero Trait had gone up too? Had Trait grades always shot up this fast? Or had I gotten stronger that quickly?
I'd had a sense of being superhuman before, but now I was beginning to feel signs that I was gradually moving beyond even that. Should I put it as fighting at the level of Hawkeye and Captain America, and now being on the verge of evolving to the level of Hulk and Iron Man? Even I couldn't quite grasp how strong I was becoming.
"Let's just check the newly acquired Trait."
I stopped my stray thoughts and pressed the Trait labeled 'Girl's Cheer.'
-Girl's Cheer [A]
-Five seconds before a threat arrives, you can perceive a vague sense of foreboding. "Always be happy!"
"Oh-ho."
So basically, I'd gotten a danger-detection sensor. It was an unqualified good ability, but it came with a five-second condition. The scope of what counts as a "threat" was also a factor. I'd have to experiment to nail down the details. Which meant more work for me.
"Ah, I just got off the phone with other players."
"Oh, what did they say?"
Choi Ji-won came back at that moment. According to her, the other players' actions broadly fell into three categories.
One: they simply abandoned Areum.
Two: they failed to protect Areum, then cooperated with reporters to expose the crime.
Three: they volunteered themselves as a test subject in Areum's place.
"Nobody really deviated from what I expected."
Well, fair enough. How many people would even think of an option like, "I'll erase her mana itself"? Even if someone thought of it, carrying it out was another matter. Without Regression, you'd have to call it impossible.
"Oh, Ji-won, what kind of Trait did you get?"
"Trait? I got an item..."
"Ah-ha."
Maybe this Trait had been Areum's parting gift. My chest felt strangely warm, and I found myself nodding.
"But Jun-ho, there's something that's been bothering me."
"...All of a sudden?"
"Yeah. I've kept wondering about it."
While I was basking in a sentimental moment, Choi Ji-won threw a question at me.
"Our world... why does it lack any concrete achievements related to 'mana'?"
"...Good question."
Come to think of it, that was strange.
The world of Floor 21 was not all that different from the reality I was living in now.
It wasn't that no one was researching mana. As far as I knew, most universities and companies were in the middle of repeated studies on mana and items. Yet... results were minimal.
And now that I thought about it, that detail really bugged me. Was it simply because they didn't have a brilliant researcher like Professor Kim? Or was it because the direction of their research was different? I'd have to look into this separately later.
"We'll think about those worries later."
Choi Ji-won hugged my shoulders tightly.
"If we get just a little bit stronger from here... we can change the variables when the monsters invade. We just need to climb the Tower a little higher. Looking into that information won't be too late then. Right?"
"...You're right."
Yes, for now let's only think about getting stronger. The Tower, that is to say... Floor 25. If we can climb to about Floor 25, we'll be able to fight back when the monsters arrive in half a year. We'll be able to save people.
We have to become stronger than Iron Man and Hulk, reaching the level of Thor. I can't stop here. I have to keep moving forward.
"Shall we go right now?"
"...Let's rest just one day and go."
After a full night's rest, we headed straight for the Tower without delay. There was no time to linger.
-You have entered Floor 22.
**
Around the time Kim Jun-ho entered Floor 22, an international conference was being held in Switzerland, on the opposite side of the globe, to discuss preventing environmental pollution from mana. It wasn't a particularly notable conference—just a formal occasion urging the establishment of countermeasures.
No, that's what the occasion had been, at least until—by sheer "coincidence"—the leaders of various nations gathered in Switzerland, and until, "as luck would have it and their schedules aligned," they found themselves sharing a dinner in a secret bunker 300 meters underground.
"..."
"..."
The food laid out on the table looked quite appetizing, but no one picked up their utensils. It was a scene you rarely had the chance to witness: leaders whose faces routinely appeared in the news all eyeing each other and nervously swallowing their own saliva.
"In that case... I take it everyone is in agreement."
The only person speaking here was the US President. His face was pale and bloodless too, but driven by a sense of duty alone, he was forcing the words out, one by one.
"We... knew nothing. We will simply forget everything and return to our daily lives. The 'Book of Truth'... let us resolve not to touch it any longer."
"..."
"..."
"Those who agree, please begin your meal."
The moment he finished speaking, the sound of moving cutlery filled the room. Every single leader, all of them looking corpselike, was shoving food into their mouths. They had made their choice. Rather than poke the hornet's nest, they would just pretend they hadn't seen anything.
"Hoo..."
The seated US President also chewed on a bite of the appetizing filet mignon steak. He couldn't taste a thing. Still, he chewed. He felt like he would go mad if he did nothing at all.
But there was one fact that everyone here was overlooking. A secret is inherently harder to keep the more people know it. A fact known by only one person can be kept a secret forever, but each time the number of people who know it increases by one, the difficulty of keeping it doesn't just double—it squares itself.
"They think they can just let this slide..."
Furthermore, the ideology of the species known as humanity is truly diverse; they are beings who can reach entirely different conclusions after acquiring the same information.
"I don't think I can allow that."
And a variable that seems trivial can flip everything on its head.