The Regressor Is a Cloud (2)
The Regressor Is a Cloud (2)
"..."
The taciturn young man Kang Chan came to his senses in an unfamiliar clearing.
"Wh-where is this?"
"Is this some kind of hidden camera show?"
Strangers everywhere, in a place no one had ever seen. Anyone would be on edge—Kang Chan was no exception.
"...Why does that guy's face look so murderous?"
But Kang Chan's expression only hardened the more nervous he got, so the people around him jumped to their own conclusions. His naturally fierce looks probably didn't help, either.
"Mom..."
"Fuck, fuck..."
Time passed, and the anxiety, the restlessness, the fear—they gradually subsided.
"...So where is this?"
"The weather's kind of muggy..."
Just as people started to turn their attention to figuring out where they were, a man murmured under his breath.
"...Status Window."
Most probably didn't catch the whisper, lost under the murmuring, but Kang Chan, seated right next to him, heard it clearly.
"H-huh?"
And the reaction that followed: eyes wide, a startled gasp.
"...Status Window."
It was only natural that Kang Chan muttered it, too.
Just curiosity. He had no intention of taking the lead in a situation like this. Kang Chan looked, bluntly put, pretty damn rough, and that often led to unnecessary misunderstandings. So he took the saying "half the battle is keeping your mouth shut" more seriously than most.
But even Kang Chan couldn't keep his composure after seeing his own Status Window.
-Intimidation [S+]
-The weak ought to look up to you. You project an aura that strikes fear into surrounding lifeforms.
"...!"
Startled, Kang Chan shot up from his seat. He was so thrown off by the letters 'S+' that he didn't even register every pair of eyes in the area snapping toward him.
"...Intimidation?"
The moment he muttered it.
Whoooooo!
It was like a predator's glare—the aura of killers steeped in daily slaughter.
A presence that any living thing would fear radiated from him, and every human in the clearing instinctively dropped their gaze, not even knowing why.
"..."
Kang Chan swept his eyes over the crowd and only then realized what he'd done. In an unfamiliar place, surrounded by strangers, he had just drawn the worst possible kind of attention.
The smartest move would be to deactivate the trait, sit back down, and act like nothing happened. Problem was, Kang Chan was still unfamiliar with his abilities and couldn't control them well. It felt like trying to write with his left hand—almost manageable, but not quite.
Still, one thing was certain: he had to deactivate the trait. People were actually pissing themselves, trembling under the weight of the killing intent. Kang Chan grunted, focusing every nerve on shutting off Intimidation.
"..."
Maybe he focused too hard on deactivating it.
"Hello there! Have you been pointlessly wasting your life... Huh?"
Kang Chan hadn't noticed the small, child-sized winged creature that had gotten right up in his face.
"What are you doing?"
"...!"
The instant the Tutorial Fairy shoved its face at him, he flinched.
Unfamiliar place, unfamiliar people, an uncontrollable ability—stress piled to the breaking point, and then a monster shoves its face at him.
Smack!
No one could rightfully call Kang Chan a savage or a punk for instinctively headbutting it.
But no matter how justified the action, the one who does it always bears the consequences.
The Tutorial Fairy's eyes rolled back as it slammed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
A beat later, the Intimidation trait, which had been active this whole time, finally deactivated.
-[Impossible Achievement Notifier!]
-You are the first human in history to subdue an Angel!
-You may evolve one of your traits!
-Granted a random B-rank item!
The instant that message window popped up with its tinny fanfare, Kang Chan could only stare.
"..."
He'd just entered the Tower and didn't understand a thing, but Kang Chan was sure of one thing.
This situation was completely fucked.
**
It was a coincidence piled atop coincidences.
The angel assigned to guide Floor 0 normally belonged to the lower ranks of the nine choirs—an angel responsible for menial labor. Their martial power was weaker than a human's, and their nature was so lowly that they hadn't even been granted a halo, the very symbol of angelkind.
So there was no actual "Tutorial Fairy" to begin with. The angel assigned to South Korea's Floor 0 just happened to be well-versed in human culture and had a nasty personality, so they played the part of a monster that made people's heads explode.
But perception is always shaped by others; the truth rarely matters. The unfamiliar situation made people passive, and they mistook the lowest-ranking angel for a "Tutorial Fairy."
"Wh-what's that? Something's lying on the ground over there?"
"Did no one see what happened? What did he do?"
"...My legs suddenly gave out. I was just staring at the ground."
"Wait, wait! Look closely. Isn't that... the Tutorial Fairy? This is exactly like those stories, right? Getting summoned to a strange place, a child-sized winged monster showing up..."
"So that guy just took down the Tutorial Fairy? Right after being summoned? How does that make any sense?"
Ironically, perception weighs nothing in form but everything in practice. The heft of the fake 'Tutorial Fairy' reputation settled on Kang Chan.
"Did I... misunderstand? He must've just been summoned, too..."
The gazes flicking toward Kang Chan had been tinged with faint fear.
"Hey, hey! Get a grip! ...Sigh. Humans, could you wait just a moment?"
Another angel appeared, took the unconscious one away, gave a brief explanation about the Tower, and left.
"...It really was the Tutorial Fairy?"
"...Just how many people has he killed?"
Now those looks were laced with outright terror—because not a single person had actually witnessed Kang Chan use force, and that only fueled their imaginations.
"Boss!"
But not everyone cowered in fear.
"I want to follow you as my boss! In this Tower, you're the only one I feel I can truly trust!"
"Me too! Please let me serve you as boss!"
Most people felt only terror from Kang Chan's killing intent, but a select few felt admiration bloom in their hearts instead.
In short, they were nutjobs—wanting to stick close to a man who looked like he'd killed thousands.
Kang Chan didn't want to hang around these nutjobs in the slightest.
"I just checked my Status Window, and it looks like my trait is A+-rank! It's nothing compared to you, Boss..."
"Mine's S-rank! Please let me serve you!"
The problem was that these nutjobs looked a lot stronger than Kang Chan. Right now they were jumping to their own conclusions, but the moment they figured out the truth about him, there was no telling what they'd do.
"..."
Kang Chan had a clear read on his situation.
People saw him as some absurd monster. But all he had was Intimidation—a trait built entirely on bluffing. In terms of actual combat power, he had nothing.
He had two main options.
First, come clean and admit that the aura earlier was just his trait's effect, not actual killing intent. But as he'd noted, the crazies clinging to him right now were completely unpredictable.
Second, exploit their misunderstanding and grab whatever advantages he could.
He could threaten others and steal their Golden Orbs. Or he could play the role of these people's boss. As long as the illusion that 'Kang Chan is an overwhelmingly powerful being' held, the Intimidation trait would practically be a master key.
But the downside to that choice was obvious. The moment the bluff fell apart, things wouldn't end cleanly. Every second would be a tightrope walk.
"..."
After wrestling with it, Kang Chan finally spoke.
"...Do what you want."
If this Tower was anything like the ones in the stories he knew, then life from here on out was putting your neck on the chopping block no matter what.
If it was all dangerous anyway, he'd pick the choice that came with benefits.
"My name is Kang Chan."
He deliberately roughened his voice, his face utterly blank, his gaze fixed emptily on some distant point.
Kang Chan decided, right then, to play the overwhelmingly powerful figure they wanted him to be.
"...I'll kill anyone who gets in my way."
To survive in this Tower.
**
"...So that's what happened."
Kang Chan fell silent, his long explanation over.
I understood how he'd been pushed into playing the powerhouse because of a misunderstanding. I probably would've done the same.
"...So, did you enter Floors 3-5 because..."
"Yeah."
A short laugh escaped Kang Chan.
"I was trying to hitch a ride. The ones following me have a screw loose, but their abilities are top-notch."
"...Where'd they go?"
"Probably busy tackling their own Floors 3-5. I was the last one to enter, so we got split up."
Kang Chan had intended to go through Floors 3-5 with his followers, but the floor grouped people into sets of four, so he'd inevitably been separated from his party.
So I wasn't the only one who got a raw deal. I'd tried to ride with Choi Ji-won myself and failed.
"You left something out, though."
"...What?"
"Your fist. The story you just told didn't mention that fist."
"...You said after you took down the fairy, you got a message saying you were the first to subdue an Angel."
"Ah."
"I evolved my Intimidation trait. That should explain it."
I see.
I didn't know exactly what 'trait evolution' entailed, but it looked like the evolution was something suitable for playing the overwhelmingly strong figure—same as the killing-intent projection.
"You guessed right. This fist... shouldn't be used carelessly. It's a high-risk ability."
He said it with a self-deprecating tone, then raised his head and stared straight at me.
"I've laid all my cards on the table. Now it's your turn."
"...My turn?"
"You're a regressor. You've got to know Floor 3 better than I do."
The killing intent was completely gone, but Kang Chan's eyes were still sharp.
"Do you have a plan? A plan to clear Floor 3?"
"..."
Kang Chan's ability. The insane golem that reflects impact. The wolves. The mirrors. The trauma. The arrows. The traps. The native. The javelin. Dok Su-hee. Enchant.
Every experience I'd gone through so far fragmented and drifted through my head.
"U-uh... are you all not coming?"
Around the time Ahn Gyeong-jun, tired of waiting, approached cautiously to see what was going on—
"Yeah."
An answer surfaced.
Just one.
An answer the size of a narrow needle's eye.