The Regressor Is a Cloud (1)
The Regressor Is a Cloud (1)
"...!"
In an instant so short that not even 0.1 seconds had passed in real time—a fragment of a fragment—my brain was being brutalized to the point of incineration.
My eyes, moving with desperate speed, rapidly processed the surroundings.
Chan was just now turning his body, Dok Su-hee was reaching into her coat, and Ahn Gyeong-jun's already-pale face had gone a sickly blue.
A perfect ambush. No one had ever dreamed the scattered metal debris littering the area could combine and transform into an enemy.
"..."
The situation was very, very bad.
We'd been watching the front, never expecting an attack from behind, so our formation had fallen apart. On top of that, the golem's assembly speed moments ago had been absurdly fast—even trying to turn and dodge might be impossible now.
The golem's material was also a problem.
That unidentifiable metal repelled physical force. My weapon was a sword. Against a hard enemy like that, the matchup was terrible. Combined with the metal's properties, my hands would be torn to shreds before I could even cut into the golem.
Looking at just these factors, there was absolutely, definitely no way I could beat that golem.
But.
But what about Kang Chan?
What about Kang Chan's fist, which unleashed something more than simple physical force?
Whoom.
The metal golem raised its arm-like mass high overhead, preparing to strike down.
As I expected, the golem's movements were abnormally fast. It was comparable to the massive wolf that had ambushed us from the ceiling.
Boowoowoong!
The metal golem's arm came crashing down. Too late to dodge.
Kang Chan must have sensed that fact as well, because his face contorted so hard it couldn't possibly twist any further.
At that moment.
"...!"
Goooooh!
An immense wave of killing intent burst from Kang Chan's body.
Just before the golem's fist reached Kang Chan, a thick, intense killing intent—something incomparable to anything he had shown so far—erupted from him.
Kwaaaang!
A deafening roar, and dust billowed thickly.
**
"Urgh...!"
The ground shook madly, and the dust filling the air blocked my vision.
I couldn't see exactly what had happened, but judging by the sound... it was probably the sound of the golem being blown to pieces by Kang Chan's punch.
"..."
But Dok Su-hee's expression was oddly stiff.
"...'Wind'!"
"...You can enchant like that?"
She threw her dagger with trembling hands, and a fierce wind burst from it, sweeping the dust away clean.
"Chan!"
I hurried over to support him, since he was staggering from exhaustion.
"...Huh?"
But the space where the dust had cleared was empty. Both Kang Chan and the golem had vanished.
Why? Where?
Something impossible had happened. Still failing to grasp the situation, I froze in place.
"Get a grip! Snap out of it!"
Dok Su-hee grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
"Hrrrrgh!"
And Ahn Gyeong-jun, in a possessed state, had drawn not his usual shabby spear but a somewhat more ornate one and was scanning the area.
"No, no..."
I knew I had to move, but I couldn't figure out what to do or how.
Where had Kang Chan gone? And the golem? Where had a thing that huge disappeared to?
But Dok Su-hee, as if sensing something, shoved her hand into her coat with a blue-lipped face.
"Ah, shit!"
She hastily pulled out a portion of diced wolf heart.
"Dodge!"
Only then did I notice it too. The ground was shaking differently than usual.
Pwahak!
The metal golem burst out from directly beneath my feet.
"Hup!"
Boowoong!
Panicked, I leapt backward and reflexively swung my sword at its head.
Clang!
The centrifugal force flowing from my waist through my shoulder, the independent strength of my arm, the weight of the sword—all of it combined into one intense physical force—came right back into my hand and tore my grip to shreds.
"...!"
Even as blood sprayed, my eyes were fixed entirely on the golem.
The metal golem burst from the ground and swung its arm at me.
And smeared across that golem's fist was a large amount of blood.
"..."
Could Kang Chan have... not run away, but...
The realization couldn't continue.
Because my consciousness was slowly dimming.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]
***
"..."
"...Get up, rookie."
"...Hey."
"...?"
"Let's talk for a minute."
Kang Chan.
My suspicion began when this man suddenly left, saying he was going to hunt another wolf.
In the previous cycle, when I hadn't told him about the wolf, he had quietly followed along. But once I told him a monster was hiding right under our noses, he disappeared somewhere. Even a snot-nosed three-year-old would find that suspicious.
But after seeing Kang Chan's overwhelming combat power, I had believed him. I believed there really was a second wolf and that he had gone off to fight it.
Even when the wound on his forehead after the fight seemed oddly clean, I still believed him. Because I thought someone that strong had no need to lie.
But let's reconsider the last sight I saw.
Kang Chan disappeared somewhere right after encountering the golem. And the golem's fist was drenched in blood.
There had been no dazzling flash—the precursor to Kang Chan's punch. No colossal hole blasted through the ceiling or wall.
He had simply vanished.
From what I saw, the most likely conclusion by far is that Kang Chan was killed by the golem.
Which naturally raises a question. Why? How?
This was the man who threw punches I couldn't even react to.
The man who didn't just kill a wolf—he blew away the ceiling and collapsed the cave.
The man who could clear a trap-filled corridor with a single punch. Why had the golem taken him down without him putting up any resistance? When he hadn't lacked time to react?
That led me to one hypothesis.
"Kang Chan."
"...You know me?"
"Your ability has a time restriction, doesn't it? A severe one at that."
If Kang Chan hadn't simply refused to resist—if he couldn't—everything fell into place.
If, after throwing that impossibly powerful punch once, his combat strength plummeted—then it all made sense.
If this hypothesis was true, several questions were answered.
Why someone who could throw such monstrous punches was so sluggish when it came to dodging.
Why, despite being so strong, he tried to avoid fights whenever possible.
Why Kang Chan, who destroyed the trap corridor, couldn't put up any fight against the golem.
Why Kang Chan, when he threw a punch at me, had hesitated and agonized over it so much.
"..."
Kang Chan turned his head away, as if I wasn't worth engaging with. He acted confident on the surface, but inside, he had to be fairly rattled.
"Where are you going?"
Kang Chan started to walk away, but I had no intention of letting him go. I stuck to him stubbornly and kept talking.
"You. The cooldown on your punch ability is ridiculously long, isn't it? That's why you can't use it recklessly, right? Yeah?"
"...You're insane."
Goooooh.
Probably because I'd hit the nail on the head, Kang Chan unleashed a concentrated wave of killing intent at me.
But I'd been through his killing intent several times already, so I didn't back down.
"Show me."
"..."
"If you think I'm lying and my words aren't worth listening to, then go ahead—show me your power."
"...The structure of Floor 3 likely requires four people cooperating to proceed. I have no intention of causing pointless conflict."
"Oh yeah?"
I sat down right where I was.
"Then I won't cooperate. Not until you show me your power."
"..."
"Threaten me, torture me—go ahead. But I'm not moving until I see what you can do."
Even as the killing intent radiating from Kang Chan intensified, I didn't budge an inch.
Kang Chan kept raising the pressure, but when I still didn't move, he finally opened his mouth with an exasperated look.
"...What do you want?"
"I want to know your ability."
"What for?"
Here, I gave him a reason to cooperate.
"...I'm a Regressor."
"..."
"And I just went through Floor 3. Died because you got killed by the golem. At this rate, we may never clear it—that golem's specs are way off."
I gave Kang Chan a brief summary of what had happened after I entered Floor 3.
"...You expect me to believe that right now?"
"You've got some weird red marble item, don't you? You brought it so you could bluff with it when a monster shows up. Want me to keep going? Your abilities... I'm thinking killing intent emission and a punch ability with an extremely long cooldown. Two abilities. What do you think?"
"..."
Kang Chan's expression hardened terrifyingly. He had instinctively realized it as well—I was speaking nothing but the truth.
"Kill me if you want to. I'll just regress."
"...Why are you telling me this? No, that was a stupid question. You're planning to regress anyway, aren't you? Once you've gotten all the information you can."
"...Yeah."
"...Maybe it's because this is the highest difficulty. The moment I walk in, something absurd happens."
Kang Chan closed his eyes and thought slowly.
"...Ha."
A faint, hollow laugh escaped him.
Sssss.
At the same time, the killing intent pouring from Kang Chan's body ceased. The murderous pressure—strong enough to kill dozens of people where they sat—vanished in an instant.
"...Yeah. You're right."
His expressionless, rigid face slowly relaxed.
"I'm not the monster people think I am."
He slumped against the wall, and deep exhaustion seeped onto his face.
Looking at him like this, he was just a guy with a scary face. That sense of unapproachability was gone.
Kang Chan slowly lowered his head. This, I thought, was what he was really like.
"I deliberately acted like an overwhelmingly powerful fighter."
Head hung low, Kang Chan spoke in a flat, unguarded tone.
"To survive."
The story he laid out was a shocking one.