The Boss Is Too Weak (3)
The Boss Is Too Weak (3)
"...Kerghk. Keheugh..."
A dying Goblin Shaman.
"Gruuuuugh..."
And a Minotaur snorting heavy breaths.
The Minotaur's hunched body was bound tight by something resembling violet ropes, their ends connected to the Goblin Shaman's staff.
"...Brutal."
Sure, the thing had killed me once before, but that was back when I was pathetic. And I got stomped so fast I didn't even register it.
So I never really had a sense of how strong it was.
Now, facing it head-on, I can feel it.
We can't beat that thing. Definitely can't beat it.
Just how strong would you have to be to fight a monster like that head-on without even taking a single hit?
Merely imagining it made my head spin.
"As you can see, this is the situation."
Park Cheol-jin said it so calmly. Now I understood why he'd had everyone evacuated.
If a monster like that was lurking near the base camp, I'd evacuate people too.
"...Miss Choi Ji-won. Having seen it yourself, what do you think? Can you win?"
"..."
Choi Ji-won couldn't answer easily.
Her eyes were busy scanning the Minotaur's body.
"...The matchup is bad. It's so massive that landing a fatal blow seems difficult."
After a long pause, Choi Ji-won finally spoke. The answer was completely negative.
Even Choi Ji-won, the strongest person on the human side, couldn't guarantee victory.
And I'll say it again: I still can't react to Choi Ji-won's swipes.
If I fought the Minotaur, I probably wouldn't last five seconds before I regressed and muttered a quiet "fuck."
"What if you, I, and Kim Jun-ho combined our strength?"
"...I don't know."
The urge to say, 'Mr. Cheol-jin, I can't fight...' was burning inside me.
But I couldn't exactly tell them I'd regress from a single hit.
Wait, isn't that thing immobilized?
"Couldn't we just cut its throat while the seal is still holding?"
If me, Park Cheol-jin, and Choi Ji-won all went for the neck at the same time, landing a lethal hit seemed possible.
It's not like the thing is thrashing around. It's just hunched there, motionless.
Hang on. If we all put our full strength into a single strike at its neck, wouldn't it die?
"...We already considered that idea."
But Park Cheol-jin shook his head.
"It's impossible. We've already tried all sorts of things. Go on, touch it."
"...What?"
"It's fine. Just touch it once."
...Touch what? You don't mean that giant bull-headed monster, do you?
"It's really fine."
Park Cheol-jin shoved my back, telling me to touch the huge mass of muscle. My guess had been right.
"...I'm really touching it?"
"Gruuuuuuugh..."
The Minotaur let out a low growl as I approached. It was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
Settle down, Mr. Mino. I'm not doing this because I want to either...
"Ughh..."
My hand crept forward, bit by bit, until finally it was about to touch the Minotaur's fur.
Tap.
"...Huh?"
What met my fingertip wasn't the Minotaur's bristly fur. It was something smooth.
This felt like touching glass.
Something resembling a spherical glass marble encased the Minotaur's body.
"The creature is sealed, but it's also protected. Miss Ji-won... is there any chance you can break that?"
"...I don't think I can."
"Hmm... unfortunate."
If we killed the boss, the glass marble would probably vanish.
But at the same time, the violet ropes restraining the thing would vanish too.
If we timed it perfectly, we might be able to land one blow on the Minotaur... but that'd be a lot harder.
Whoever designed this Tower is a real son of a bitch.
They made it sound like if you just kill the boss, everyone can survive using the portal.
But then right in front of the boss, an absurd monster is sealed away? And if we all want to live, we have to get past it?
I've felt this for a while now, but this Tower is way too good at creating the most fucked-up situations...
"Huh?"
An ominous sensation crawled up my spine.
My brain processed the worst-case scenario and reached a conclusion: it made far too much sense.
"...Mr. Park Cheol-jin?"
"My Trait gives me excellent defense, so... hm? What's wrong?"
"How many people know the boss is here?"
"...Four, including myself. All trustworthy people."
"...That's a relief."
I'll say it again: this Tower steers you toward completely fucked-up situations.
The Golden Orbs were the first clue.
People with overpowered Traits can snatch orbs easily, but think about it from the perspective of an ordinary person with a normal Trait.
Choi Ji-won is a monster who can slice through things, but mutant goblins are incredibly hard for a regular person to handle.
A level-appropriate ordinary person needs a whole group to make sacrifices and charge in just to barely win.
Imagine about fifteen ordinary people risk their lives and barely manage to bring down a mutant goblin.
They'll get maybe enough food for two meals, plus one or two Golden Orbs.
What do you think goes through their minds?
Once that food runs out, they have to risk their lives again. The person who died to the mutant goblin's wild spear last time could be you this time.
The leader tells everyone to hold out until they've gathered enough Golden Orbs for the whole group.
But there are only fifty Golden Orbs. Can they really get fourteen more?
Anxiety turns into mistrust, and suspicion turns into certainty.
People you once saw as comrades start looking like competitors.
The destined future is destruction.
It's now afternoon on Day 6.
Somewhere out there right now, people are killing each other over orbs.
"...I'm aware the Golden Orbs are designed to stoke mistrust. But what does that have to do with the boss?"
Firefighter Park Cheol-jin asked me that. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at.
"...If we kill the boss, the Minotaur gets released, right?"
"You call that thing a Minotaur? Yes, it would be released."
"And a portal appears."
"...!"
"Do you see now?"
Kill the boss, and a portal opens.
The Minotaur gets released at the same time, but whoever killed the boss can just slip right into the portal in front of them and be done with it.
Kill the boss, and at least that one person gets to live.
The boss is just a dying old goblin. Killing it wouldn't be hard.
"If I were in a desperate situation... I think I'd just kill the boss and see what happens."
This Tower set up one hell of a nasty game.
Whoever kills the boss gets to move on to the next stage.
Sure, everyone else gets slaughtered, but humans pushed to the edge will act selfishly.
The moment someone hits that escape button, the disaster begins.
The Tower is driving people to turn on each other, right to the very end.
"...Good lord. Damn it all! Does God think we're his personal joke?!"
CRACK!
Firefighter Park Cheol-jin, unable to contain his rage, slammed his fist into a nearby tree trunk.
He's a firefighter. Saving people is his calling.
Of course he's a good man, but more than that—his instinct to look out for others runs far deeper than most.
To Park Cheol-jin, this space soaked in malice must feel unbearably vile.
"...Hoo. I'm going to go cool my head."
Grinding his teeth, he walked off.
"...Kim Jun-ho. I'm going to calm down for a bit too. When my emotions spike... my body stops listening."
Choi Ji-won, radiating threads of killing intent, also disappeared somewhere while stroking her sword.
"...Where's everyone going."
So now all that remained in this space were...
"Gruuuuuugh..."
The Minotaur, eyes blazing.
"Keheuuuugh..."
And one old goblin, teetering on the brink of death.
I glanced around briefly, then cautiously settled myself down next to the Goblin Shaman.
Man, look at that arm holding the staff. Shaking like crazy.
"...Sigh."
Let's be real: if I regress, it's over.
My objective is to collect the rewards available on Floor 0, not to kill the Minotaur.
The reward for killing that thing is tempting, but I'm not about to ram my head endlessly into an impossible task.
Plus, I don't have to find the solution right now anyway.
Next cycle. Or the one after that, I might stumble on a brilliant idea.
If even repeated regressions make it clear I can't beat the Minotaur no matter what?
Then I'll just gulp down one of the Golden Orbs and be done.
"It's way too early to worry about that."
But it was also too early to give up now.
There's still time left, and there's no guarantee I can recreate this exact same setup in the next cycle.
As we saw with Mr. Kim Gun-do, the future can change from the smallest variable.
And on top of that, it seems like Choi Ji-won actually trusts me, in her own way. I don't want to throw away the rapport we've built.
If I'm truly backed into a corner with no way out, I'll regress. But until then, I should try everything I can, so I don't have regrets.
Alright... let's think. Let's reconstruct the timeline.
"...Hmm."
The Minotaur had attacked the clearing around noon on Day 7. Now it's the afternoon of Day 6.
Whether the Goblin Shaman dies of natural causes or gets killed by someone aiming to escape...
If events play out like last cycle, the thing dies tomorrow.
If someone does it, I can try to stop them. But if it's natural causes, there's no answer.
Assuming natural causes, the remaining time limit is roughly twenty hours.
Within twenty hours, is there any good way to kill that giant bull-headed monster...?
"Keheuk... human... I smell a human..."
Hmm... should I dig a pit and bury it? Maybe Mr. Kim Gun-do could pull that off.
"Human...!"
"...Huh?"
"I need... need help... kerghk... hack..."
"...What the hell."
Day 6. Afternoon.
The Goblin Shaman spoke to me.