The Regressor Accepts Fate (5)
The Regressor Accepts Fate (5)
Father!
My mind went blank.
Father!
A heavy blankness, as if waking from a long sleep. The kind that spreads from deep within the brain.
"Father!"
"Huh, wha...?"
"Father! Are you alright?"
The eldest daughter-in-law was cautiously patting my shoulder.
"Ah, thank goodness... Dear!"
After wiping her chest in relief, the eldest daughter-in-law came into the hospital room with the eldest son, and soon the rest of the sons filed in, packing the empty space like sausages.
"Father..."
The sons surrounded the bed with worried faces.
"Why the long faces? This isn't my first time being sick, you know."
Seeing my sons' faces cleared my mind a little.
Memories that had been as murky as ink slowly returned.
Right, this was the VVVIP room in the hospital where I'd been staying for the past two years. My health had been steadily declining, but I never imagined it would get bad enough to scramble my memories like this.
"Father, but they said you looked troubled while you slept..."
"I had a dream. About the days when I suffered on Floor 3. Why? Want me to tell you about it?"
"Oh, Father! We've heard it so many times it's stuck in our heads."
The eldest son let out a small laugh. The gloomy atmosphere brightened just a little.
"Right, even those terribly hard times are now just memories when I look back..."
Seventy years since I cleared the Tower. Humanity had regained its peace.
The God who cried for humanity's destruction was utterly defeated by me and retreated, promising another day, and I became the hero who saved mankind.
For seventy years I had enjoyed wealth and fame, living as the world's greatest celebrity. My body was healthier than any other old man's, but the problem was my mind.
"I think it's time for me to go."
Maybe it was because I'd repeated regression so many times in the Tower. In recent years, my memories had frequently become tangled, and I often fainted without warning.
"Son."
"Yes, Father."
"I... intend to depart now."
My body is healthy.
That's the problem. My body *alone* is healthy.
I was afraid of what I might do with a mind no longer whole. I couldn't allow a senile old man to wield the godlike power dormant in my body.
"...Father."
The eldest son bowed his head deeply. He'd persistently held on to me for the past few years whenever I spoke of dying, but he seemed to sense that my resolve was firm this time.
"All this time... I've been truly, truly happy. I've considered myself lucky that you were my father."
"Father, me too!"
"Father...!"
My family members shed tears, each trying to speak first.
I chuckled softly and gently acknowledged their words one by one, then gave a small clearing cough.
"Now, now, all of you step back. I believe I need some time alone."
"...Thank you for everything, Father."
One by one, my family left the hospital room, wiping away their tears.
I watched them leave for a moment, then drew the curtain beside my bed and looked out the window.
[Grandpa Jun-ho! You have to be born!]
[You are the pride of the Republic of Korea.]
[The entire nation is cheering for you to get up!]
Flower wreaths and banners covered one entire wall of the hospital. Even at a glance, there were hundreds.
"It's 'get well,' not 'be born,' you fool..."
Seeing that, I felt certain.
In the Tower that sought to crush humanity, my struggles had been worthwhile.
That what I had done was not wrong.
"...You did well, Jun-ho."
After praising myself, I slowly scattered the mana circling my heart,
and gradually, the vitality drained from my body.
It was a peaceful and quiet death.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 66.]
"Uwaaaaah!!!"
I steadied my ragged breathing and felt my body.
What I felt was not an ageless body harboring unprecedented power, but the soft, weak body of my twenties.
Where am I? This isn't the hospital room. What was I doing?
"...You're awake?"
Beside me, Dok Su-hee looked down at me as if I were pathetic.
Seeing her face, my memories slowly came back.
Right, I was in the middle of progressing through Floor 3. I'd opened the stone door on the right and reached a room with the same design as the left.
There, a mysterious voice suddenly said, 'Courage is paramount for a warrior, face your fear,' and the last thing I remembered was losing consciousness.
"It seems the structure is that whoever overcomes 'fear' first wakes the others. You're grateful, right? That I woke you?"
"...Thank you."
I wiped my damp nape and expressed my gratitude to Dok Su-hee.
"But what kind of illusion did you see to sweat that much?"
"...I saw the worst possible ending, from my perspective."
My goal is not solely to clear the Tower.
If I can't find a way to remove this regression skill someday... even after I clear the Tower, I might fall into an eternal shackle. If that happens, my mind will slowly shatter to pieces.
My thanks to Dok Su-hee were far from empty. The timing of my awakening was fortunate. I feared what a broken version of me—realizing that rest would never be granted—might do.
What a madman with immense power can do is limitless. And it's questionable whether my mind would even be intact after witnessing a vision of myself descending into madness and then returning to reality.
"By the way, Su-hee, what kind of illusion did you see?"
Dok Su-hee was lightly smiling, but a single tear was running down her cheek.
"...Me?"
She grinned and wiped the tear away.
"I saw the driving force that pushes me forward."
"..."
"Well, we cleared it, so that's what matters, right? It seems about two hours have passed. Shall we just wipe off the sweat and keep going?"
Her lips were smiling, but a faint sorrowful trace was palpable.
"...I've already wiped off the sweat. Let's go quickly."
I didn't press further and rose from my spot.
**
As it turned out, overcoming fear was the entirety of the right path, and there were no additional illusions or forks in the road.
"Ah, you're here?"
Following the path straight along, I found Kang Chan and Ahn Gyeong-jun leaning against the wall, waiting.
"You cleared it sooner than I thought?"
"Yes. Puppets made of dirt...? Machines...? Swarmed us from all sides, but... the powerful spirit swept them all away."
"...That soul was quite strong."
Chan nodded at Ahn Gyeong-jun's words.
"M-more importantly, this place was incredibly suspicious, so I was investigating it."
Now that I thought about it, Kang Chan and Ahn Gyeong-jun had been waiting at the entrance to some room without going inside.
"...What is this?"
Looking roughly from a distance, I saw a kind of cavernous space.
A torch flickered unsteadily on the wall, threatening to go out, and wooden support-like structures were embedded in the walls.
Large metal lumps scattered on the floor were an addition.
"A mine... doesn't it look like one?"
Yes, the first image that came to mind was definitely a mine. I think underground tunnels I've seen in books looked like this.
"B-but if that's the case, the ceiling is too high..."
Ahn Gyeong-jun's point was valid. I'd heard that mines usually have low ceilings requiring you to bow your head, but the ceiling in this space was high—at least twenty meters.
"And this metal. It's no ordinary metal."
Ahn Gyeong-jun held out a silvery, shining lump of metal toward me.
"Could you try hitting it?"
"...Hit it?"
"Yes. Hit it gently."
"..."
I cautiously tapped the lump of metal with my fist.
"Ugh...!"
I really only tapped it very lightly, but a heavy shock rang through my fist. It felt almost as if the metal had struck me back. The sensation was so strong that if I'd hit it just a little harder, I might have regressed.
"What is this..."
"I've run a few experiments, and I don't think this is an ordinary metal."
Thanks to his powerful spirit, Ahn Gyeong-jun had cleared the left room in an instant, and while waiting for us, he'd conducted various experiments. As a result, he said he was able to grasp the properties of this metal in considerable detail.
"This metal... if it receives an impact above a certain level, it has the property of returning that impact."
"...It returns the impact?"
If a science major had heard that, they'd have jumped in surprise. Returning the impact, of all things.
"Yes, though I'd need to investigate further for more details..."
A mine where a rare metal is just lying around. Does that mean something? I have no idea how to take this.
"For now... shall we go inside?"
Nothing will be solved by just agonizing. The only way to know what's wrong is to stick your head right into the tiger's mouth.
This time again, I took the lead, and Chan took the rear.
"...Hm."
Something must be there. It was the kind of place where it wouldn't be strange for something to jump out, like the wolves that hid in the ceiling.
But even though I was walking with my ki perception heightened to the max, I sensed nothing at all.
Gulp.
The silence felt like the calm before a storm, and I reflexively swallowed.
**
Had we walked for about ten minutes?
"...The chunks here are especially big."
I could see several metal lumps much larger than in other places. Was this some kind of omen? Without relaxing my guard, I kept moving my feet.
Just as we completely passed by those mysterious metal lumps—
?!"
Since I had my ki perception sharply focused, I instantly sensed it.
Behind us. Something was off.
"Care...!"
I tried to warn them, but it was already too late.
The large metal lump we had just passed began to rise into the air. The jagged chunk began to take shape and coalesce.
The speed was so fast the assembly process was barely visible.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
In a fleeting instant, the metal lump merged into the form of a giant with two legs and two arms.
"Oh, sh—!"
In the blink of an eye, we were ambushed from behind.