The Boss Is Too Weak (7)
The Boss Is Too Weak (7)
Human.
By now you must be wondering why I've done this.
Truth is, I must've really liked you.
We might be different species, but you were the first human who treated me like a person.
That doesn't mean I don't despise your kind.
You seemed to trust me, but I lied to you. More than once, in fact.
I told you the goblin children playing tag in the labyrinth broke the monster's seal.
That was a lie.
Humans were the ones who ransacked the ancient labyrinth, hunting for treasure. You were the ones who broke the seal.
I still had strength left back then. I managed to seal one of the monsters.
There were two. While I sealed that one, my entire tribe was wiped out.
My tribe were pitiful creatures who'd fled to this island to escape human hunts.
The island we fled to in order to escape humans... and in the end, it was humans who killed us all.
Human.
I was about to end my own life, crushed by despair. That's when I heard the voice of the Great Will.
It said it would give me a chance to take revenge on your kind.
Human.
I already knew this place was something called the Tower.
I knew I'd be given only seven days to live each time.
I knew that, once every human here was dead or had escaped, I'd be brought back with my memories wiped clean.
I knew gold trinkets were precious to humans.
I knew my death would summon a way out for the survivors.
Human.
The truth is, gold trinkets aren't required for the ritual.
Human.
I know that if I broke the monster's seal the moment I came to my senses each cycle, I could kill far more of you.
But even after I die and am reborn, I will hold the seal until the very end. I'll keep trying to help you.
The reason I help you as best I can is simple.
I want to watch you struggle... while you still have hope.
Watching you get crushed miserably by a monster has its own sweetness, but what I really want is to see you bravely defeat it and taste the highest joy.
I know better than anyone: the worst despair that follows the greatest happiness cuts deepest.
I wanted your kind to feel what my tribe felt.
Human.
Because I'd grown fond of you, there were moments I hesitated to throw you into the abyss.
But, human. I did mention my sense of smell is keen, didn't I.
Human.
The stench of my kin's blood on you... it's thick.
Honestly, I don't much care whether my kin live or die.
They're pitiful creatures already bound to the Tower. They're summoned only to die, over and over.
I understand you killed your own people to survive, too.
It just made me think... in the end, you humans are no different from the rest of them.
O humans.
If only you could feel the way I felt, the moment I resolved to die.
Human.
I'm sorry.
**
The Goblin Shaman's voice, pouring out from the shattered stone, finally fell silent.
I was in the clearing where it all began.
The voice had stopped a long time ago, but I just kept staring at the stone fragments, blank and unmoving.
"I'm fine."
Getting caught off guard stings, but when you step back, it's all part of the process.
"I just have to regress."
Next cycle, I'll hit first.
I won't ever let that bastard stab me in the back again.
"Get it together."
It was just one slip-up near the end.
Honestly, even if you only count what I gained this cycle, the value is impossible to describe.
The achievement experience I racked up, the trait grades that skyrocketed, and the trick tying the Minotaur to the Goblin Shaman.
The ending was a disaster, but in terms of results, I took away more this cycle than any other.
If I can absorb emotions from the same people again after regressing, I just need to run things back, follow roughly the same path, and I'll become overwhelmingly strong.
Loop it a hundred times or so, and I could probably one-shot the Minotaur with my big toe.
I'm fine.
I'm fine.
"Fuck..."
I'm not fine.
Feels like my mental state just got smacked by the Tremble-Tremble Fruit.
The Goblin Shaman's last "I'm sorry" keeps looping inside my head.
I failed. I lost.
And even that... felt like part of God's design.
The Shaman itself was pathetically weak.
Maybe it's human nature to help without much suspicion when someone so fragile, with only days left to live, begs desperately for aid.
But that creature was a goblin. Weakness doesn't equal goodness.
The Goblin Shaman's heart... was packed solid with malice toward humanity.
The fact I'd earned its favor made it feel even more sickening.
...Because I'd grown fond of the Goblin Shaman, too.
"Should I just regress."
The survivor group was already a wreck.
Once they accepted the situation, everyone looked like a ticking time bomb about to blow.
Hope pulled people together; despair sent them at each other's throats.
The massive brawl that erupted over accusations of hidden golden orbs inside someone's body only stopped when Park Cheol-jin stepped in.
Afterward, people scattered on their own. None of them forgot to send a glare my way as they left.
I went from hero to traitor in an instant.
Firefighter Park Cheol-jin tried to console me, saying, "It's not your fault," but even his eyes were empty beyond words.
Staying sane would be the stranger thing here.
Twenty-two golden orbs. Gone in a flash.
The portal that was meant to save everyone now sat at the bottom of the poison swamp.
Hope of advancing to the next floor was shattered.
Sure, we were technically still alive.
But... how long could we last?
Killing goblins had yielded food.
The number of goblins wasn't infinite.
Sooner or later the goblins on this island would be gone, and the only future waiting for us would be starving to death.
"...There's no answer."
I turned it over and over in my head. There was no answer. This cycle was finished.
I raised my fist to drive it straight into my own chest.
"There you are."
Step. Step. Familiar footsteps. A familiar voice.
"Why are you sitting here moping?"
It was Choi Ji-won.
**
For someone who was supposed to be dead soon, she looked remarkably composed.
"...What are you doing here? Food's going to be scarce from now on."
Disliking how calm she looked, I made my voice unnecessarily sharp.
"...Food? Ah. So you've been here the whole time."
Choi Ji-won shook her head.
"They committed suicide."
"...Huh?"
"The goblins. All of them threw themselves into the swamp. The Goblin Shaman probably had a hand in it. It seems they could control the others."
"..."
So the Goblin Shaman even knew that killing the other goblins gave us food and golden orbs.
Grinding us down to the very last breath.
Bravo. Well played, Shaman.
"..."
"..."
Neither Choi Ji-won nor I spoke.
Like I told myself earlier. I just have to regress and it's over.
I won't make the same mistake again. I'm not an idiot who repeats his own failures.
But still... once I regress, what happens to this world? The thought crept in anyway.
If everything rewinds along with me, that would be the ideal. It would mean none of it ever happened.
But what if... I regress alone, and this world gets left behind as it is?
The people in this world line would starve to death in absolute despair.
Because of my misjudgment.
My nerves weren't thick enough to shrug and say, "That world? Not my problem."
So this is the weight a regressor has to carry.
I kind of understood now why death-regressors who'd stacked up more than ten cycles lost their minds.
Imagine having the lives of everyone in the world on your back—and not just this tutorial. You'd be insane to stay sane.
"Choi Ji-won."
"Yeah?"
Maybe that's why.
I felt a powerful urge to spill my story to someone.
"I'm a regressor."
"...A regressor?"
"Not some impressive regressor. A pathetic, flimsy glass-cannon regressor who goes back from a single hit."
Whether she was really listening or not, I poured out every story I had, without holding back.
The story of waking up in the Tower for the first time.
The story of regressing because I got cut by some grass.
The story of regressing because of a goblin hiding in the bushes.
The story of repeating regressions and learning the sword from Choi Ji-won.
The story of being mistaken for a pervert by Choi Ji-won, taking one smack, and regressing.
The story of gaining traits from other people's emotions.
And finally, the story of reaching this cycle.
After letting it all out, I did feel a bit lighter.
"...Ha. Sorry."
But the lightness was brief. A solid wave of belated embarrassment crashed over me.
Logically speaking, nobody would believe a story like that.
What? A regressor? Even the smallest hit makes you regress?
Saying I'd gone insane from the stress of approaching death would be far more convincing.
I couldn't complain even if she decided to slash me with her sword right then and there.
But Choi Ji-won merely gave a small nod.
"I believe you."
I could tell from her voice. She meant it.
"...Why?"
If it were me, I wouldn't have believed it.
I couldn't understand at all why she did.
Instead of answering, she stroked the sword that lay sprawled on the ground.
"Your swordsmanship. I always thought it was strange."
"...My swordsmanship?"
"I've done nothing but swing a sword my whole life. So you got a trait, or whatever? Did you really think I wouldn't recognize the swordsmanship I spent my life learning?"
"...Haha."
Before, I'd lied about being in the kendo club, and my swordsmanship had given me away and gotten me regressed.
Now that same swordsmanship was what made Choi Ji-won believe in regression.
"Come on. Get up."
She stood, dusted off her pants, and reached down to pull me—still crouching—to my feet.
"...Where are we going?"
"You'll see when we get there. It's nearby."
She was right. The place we arrived was very close—and very familiar.
The spot where Choi Ji-won used to swing her sword every time I regressed.
In this cycle, it was the corner of the clearing where she and I had practiced swordsmanship together.
"Pick up your sword."
Choi Ji-won's voice was level.
"From now on, I'm going to teach you everything I know about the sword."