The Regressor Likes Cider (2)
The Regressor Likes Cider (2)
[Entering Floor 3-5.]
"...Get up, rookie."
The moment I heard that low growl of a voice.
I wrenched every muscle in my body and shot upright. Apparently I'd lost consciousness and been sprawled on the floor.
"...Fuck."
No. Not this. This can't be right. This is just bullshit. This is so unfair.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]
***
"...Get up, rookie."
"Ah."
A groan slipped out before I could stop it, and my eyes clamped shut as if refusing to look at the scene in front of me.
Cold reason was whipping me to accept reality and come up with a plan... but emotion was howling, "It's the Great Depression!!! Doom-chan-cha!!!" at the top of its lungs.
Anyone who's read a few web novels knows there are types of infinite regression.
First, the kind where every death throws you all the way back to square one, starting over from infancy.
And second, the kind where meeting certain conditions updates a save point.
My case was the latter. The condition was 'Regress to the moment you first entered each floor.'
So I'd had the option of clearing one floor and then deciding whether to regress, or to lock in my past by moving on to the next floor...
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]
The message I saw as I regressed was a death sentence.
That feeling when your conscription date hits your KakaoTalk. When you go to sleep with crypto leverage active and wake up to an email that says "Liquidated." When you open a test paper and there are more things you don't recognize than ones you do.
Blood drained from my face, but paradoxically, my head was burning up, the world was spinning, and my breathing turned shallow.
A line from *The Martian* flickered through the corner of my mind.
'I'm fucked.'
How much time had passed?
As I sat there blankly staring at the stone wall like a prisoner in solitary, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Um..."
The one who tapped my shoulder wasn't the growling voice from before. It was the meek-looking scholar.
If 'Ahn Gyeong-nam' from the Tutorial had been a cool-headed, sharp sort, then the man in front of me looked timid. He was tall and lanky, his face pale to the point of sickly, his voice barely more than an ant's crawl.
"Could you come this way...? I think we all need to check something together..."
The guy must have worked up tremendous courage just to talk to a man who'd been blankly drooling at a wall, because his voice was trembling.
"...All right."
Only then did I pull myself together and unsteadily get to my feet.
What's done is done. What matters is how I handle it.
True, my save point got scrambled. I've been separated from Choi Ji-won and stuck tackling the highest difficulty solo, and even if I regress, I'll return to the moment I first entered this difficulty instead of the moment I first entered Floor 3.
Then again, if you think about it coolly, I haven't really lost that much. I just can't hitch a ride on the Choi Ji-won bus anymore. All I have to do is clear 3-5 on my own merits and grab whatever dazzling rewards are waiting.
Sure, depending on 3-5's difficulty, my future could fall anywhere between a healing story and a grimdark misery-fest, but... I can worry about that when I get there. No need to shiver and fret already.
"..."
I followed the beanpole in silence, taking in my surroundings.
This space seemed to be an extension of the cave with the five doors from before.
Damp, dark, cramped, with torches here and there as the only light source.
"W-we're here..."
After a long walk through the narrow, winding cave path, the passage suddenly opened wide.
A circular chamber whose walls had been artificially hewn out. Inside, one man and one woman were waiting for us.
"..."
Right in front of us was the rough stone door I'd touched when entering 3-5...
I glanced back and saw three more passageways, similar to the one I'd just emerged from. So Floor 3 must be designed for four people.
"..."
"..."
While I assessed the situation, the two who'd been waiting here already were silently glaring at me.
"..."
Not to be outdone, I glared right back at the two of them, but since there were two, managing the eye contact felt a little awkward, so I compromised by staring daggers into the midpoint between them.
"Uh, um..."
The atmosphere was rapidly freezing over, and just when the flustered scholar was trying to sputter through a mediation attempt—
"Hmph."
The man who'd been glaring at me averted his gaze first.
"..."
And with that, the woman also slowly pulled back her stare.
The hair-trigger tension had just barely settled, and the scholar was letting out a sigh of relief, when—
'...Hm.'
I was too busy racking my brain to pay attention.
This was the highest-difficulty tier inside Floor 3. No one in their right mind would come here.
You'd be either drunk on your own skill, or a narcissist who's failed at self-reflection and genuinely thinks you're the protagonist... one or the other.
In that sense, the man and woman before me looked like the kind who were confident in their abilities. Call it aura, but they seemed to be already fully committed. Their whole demeanor was different—sharp, like well-honed blades.
"E-everyone's calmed down enough now, right?"
On the other hand, the scholar seemed too full of openings to believe he was any kind of powerhouse. Not that he seemed like the type who'd walk into the hardest difficulty without a second thought, either...
"So... c-could you look at this door, please?"
I stopped my musings and shifted my gaze toward the crude stone door the scholar was pointing at. It had four palm-shaped indentations carved into it.
"I-it seems like... all of us need to place a hand here at the same time. They're all right-hand shapes, so one person doing multiple isn't possible..."
Just as he said, all four were right-hand prints. Four people gathered in a cave. Four palm-shaped grooves in front of us.
"I don't know for sure but... isn't Floor 3 the kind of floor where we're supposed to cooperate? Instead of everyone grabbing their own reward like Floor 2..."
The scholar finished saying his piece, voice still quavering.
I privately agreed. The fact that you needed four right hands to proceed implied the intention was cooperation rather than infighting.
"..."
"..."
The silent man and woman nodded slightly as well, seemingly in agreement.
"S-so I was thinking... shouldn't we share some basic info about ourselves...?"
So when the scholar proposed sharing basic information about ourselves, nobody objected. We were potential competitors, but at least within Floor 3, we were in this together.
"First... I'm Ahn Gyeong-jun..."
"...Ahn Gyeong-jun? Are you related to Ahn Gyeong-nam, by any chance..."
"Uh, uhh... he's my older brother... how do you two know each other...?"
"..."
I'd just asked on a hunch because the names were similar. The guy from the Tutorial, Ahn Gyeong-nam. His younger brother, Ahn Gyeong-jun, was the scholar standing in front of me.
But when he actually asked how we knew each other... I was a little short on answers. I'd saved his life once, but that event had vanished because of the regression.
"Uh... a friend mentioned the unusual name, so I'm aware of him. That makes me a friend of a friend, I guess."
"Ah, aha... small world..."
After a brief moment of bonding, Ahn Gyeong-jun cleared his throat and continued explaining.
"I... fight with a spear. Throwing spears are my specialty..."
Throwing spears. Not just regular spears—throwing spears aren't even common in fiction. That felt unique.
With that, Ahn Gyeong-jun finished.
"I'm Kim Jun-ho. My weapon is the sword."
My turn passed quickly, and then it was the quiet woman's turn.
Short black hair that barely brushed her shoulders. Eyes with an upward tilt, like a cat's. And a sleek, panther-like build.
If Choi Ji-won gave off a cold impression, this woman was closer to sharp. Like someone who'd get irritated easily.
"...Dok Su-hee. Weapon, daggers."
Her lips barely moved as she answered—no, that was Dok Su-hee answering.
"..."
In my head, I thought of the word 'doksuri'—eagle—but I didn't bother bringing it up.
More to the point, daggers. She uses a pretty unusual weapon herself.
From what I saw in the Tutorial, over 60% of people picked up a sword, and the next 35% grabbed a spear...
Guess the kind of lunatics who show up in 3-5 really are a breed apart.
With that, the short self-introductions had only one turn left.
"..."
A good-looking face. Hair cropped short in a sporty cut. But the emotionless mask of an expression and the deeply sunken eyes gave off a dangerous vibe.
Like a human weapon whose entire body was a blade. No doubt about it. This man was strong.
"...Kang Chan. I use my fists."
Kang Chan's voice was a low rumble. After his introduction, he leaned his back against the wall and shut his eyes.
I remembered that voice. It was the one that had told me, 'Get up, rookie,' when I regressed.
But Kang Chan... Kang Chan... why did that name sound familiar...
"Uh, uhh...!"
At that moment, Ahn Gyeong-jun's eyes slowly widened, then went as round as a startled rabbit's.
"Ka-... Kang Chan? The real Kang Chan???"
"..."
Dok Su-hee kept her expression neutral, but she bit her lip slightly as if she'd recognized the name.
Kang Chan. Kang Chan. I'd definitely heard it somewhere...
"Are you the one from the Tutorial..."
"Ah."
The moment Ahn Gyeong-jun mentioned the 'Tutorial,' memories of a post I'd seen in the community resurfaced.
Kang Chan. If Choi Ji-won was the hottest Korean right now, this man would be second.
"The man who took down the Tutorial Fairy... with a single punch...!"
The Tutorial Fairy Slayer.