The Regressor Is a Cloud (8)
The Regressor Is a Cloud (8)
Everything felt like it was playing out in slow motion.
"...!"
I forced my paralyzed legs to move and lunged at Dok Su-hee.
"Betrayer!!!"
Enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun, eyes bulging, summoned a wooden spear. The moment Kang Chan unleashed his killing intent indiscriminately, Ahn Gyeong-jun must have succeeded in his enhancement.
"..."
Just like the scrap of cloth I'd seen before, something materialized above Dok Su-hee's hand with no warning at all.
One was a chunk of monster wolf heart. The other was a fragment of the golem we'd just destroyed.
In an instant, they dissolved into light and seeped into Dok Su-hee's armor. It was the same light she always gave off when using 'Enchant.'
Fwooosh!
"Hup!"
The moment Dok Su-hee's armor flared, I swung the flat of my sword at her.
Tap.
Dok Su-hee retreated quickly and slipped away from my blade.
"?!"
Paralyzed or not, I hadn't expected to miss.
I'd watched Dok Su-hee through dozens, hundreds of regressions. I'd observed her movements. I'd seen her combat sense.
I've crossed swords with Choi Ji-won, and Dok Su-hee isn't strong. Her physical ability is close to an ordinary person's.
Which means...
My gaze naturally drifted to Dok Su-hee's armor.
She'd enchanted the wolf heart and the golem fragment into it just now. That seemed to have boosted her physical ability by a leap.
"Betrayerrrr!!!"
But dodging my sword wasn't enough.
Enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun hurled his spear. It flew at a speed barely visible to the eye and drove straight into Dok Su-hee's side.
Kwajik!
"Khk...!"
Dok Su-hee's face twisted and she spat blood.
Enchanting the golem fragment must have had some effect, because she wasn't blown to pieces, but her body lifted into the air and slammed into the wall. The impact knocked a torch from its bracket and the space dimmed into shadow.
"...Ugh..."
Dok Su-hee gritted her teeth, and a low-grade potion appeared above her palm. The cap was already off, so she poured it straight onto the wound.
"You think I'll let you heal?!"
Enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun wasn't about to waste the opening and stretched his right hand out. He was trying to re-summon the thrown spear, like he'd done before.
"?!"
But even with his hand outstretched, no spear appeared. No—the spear that had been lodged in Dok Su-hee's side was gone. In its place was only a hole streaming blood.
"...!"
Losing his spear rattled Enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun for a beat, but he charged at Dok Su-hee immediately. I wasn't about to let the chance slip away either, so I forced my unresponsive legs forward.
Of course... I could just regress and be done with it. The moment I regress, I have absolute informational superiority anyway. But right now, I wanted the catharsis of subduing Dok Su-hee and hearing the full story.
I wanted to hear why she betrayed us, why she started all this bullshit. That was the only way my head would feel clear.
"...!"
Face pale from blood loss, Dok Su-hee retreated. The potion had put out the immediate fire, but she was far from fine. She'd been hit head-on by Kang Chan's killing intent and then taken Ahn Gyeong-jun's spear directly.
Dok Su-hee pulled back. Ahn Gyeong-jun and I closed in.
Shwook!
A dagger gleamed out of the darkness. It was definitely threatening, but not enough to get past me—someone who'd already cleared a trap corridor.
"...!"
No. I stopped my sword mid-swing. It couldn't be just a dagger. She'd probably enchanted it with 'Explosion.' Hadn't I watched her play mind games with a monster wolf in the past?
I twisted my body on reflex, trying to slip out of the blast radius.
Slip.
My foot lost its footing and my body floated into the air.
"You fu...!"
The floor had been slick before, but not slick enough for me to slide in a situation like this. I glanced down and saw the cave floor was glossier than usual. Dok Su-hee must have taken some measure while retreating.
"Ngh..."
I barely managed to twist and land, but... the soles of my shoes were already completely greased. The smell told me it was oil. I'd been distracted by the dagger, and the cave had gone dark enough that I hadn't noticed right away.
Jirit.
And where the oil touched my skin, a stinging sensation slowly grew sharper. She must have 'Enchanted' paralytic poison into the oil.
"Betrayerrrr!"
Ahn Gyeong-jun had fallen for the oil trick just like me, but he immediately kicked off his shoes and lunged at Dok Su-hee barefoot.
No matter how much Dok Su-hee's physical ability had improved, she still couldn't match the explosive power the enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun was showing. And the paralytic poison wasn't enough to stop a man who let out a barbarian's roar.
"...!"
Shwook!
Dok Su-hee had a dagger in each hand and tried to fight back.
Bwooong. Enhanced Ahn Gyeong-jun slipped past the daggers with an uncanny body movement and drove his knee hard into her stomach.
Ppeok!
"Huck...!"
The impact was so huge that Dok Su-hee's body floated, and blood burst from her mouth again.
"...Uup..."
She couldn't even think of summoning a potion this time and sprawled across the floor.
"...Kheup."
But Ahn Gyeong-jun couldn't move either.
His body gave a faint shudder and he collapsed where he stood. His extremities were trembling minutely. The paralytic poison had spread through his whole body.
"..."
Looking closer, a trickle of blood was running from his knee. The exact spot he'd hit Dok Su-hee.
"...A needle, huh."
I could guess what happened. She must have summoned the paralyzing needle from the trap corridor onto her armor just before impact. Dok Su-hee had enchanted the golem fragment into her armor, so the needle hadn't pierced her, but it sank deep into Ahn Gyeong-jun's comparatively soft knee.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
Dok Su-hee didn't even have the strength to drink a potion, so she converted one into light and pressed it against her body. Her leather armor, which had been glowing so brightly, had now lost its color.
"Hoo, hoo..."
I, too, wobbled to my feet and barely managed to grip my sword. All sensation had left my body and my head was spinning like crazy. In plain terms, my body wasn't listening. I fumbled inside my coat for the elixir, but right now I couldn't even tell what I was touching.
"..."
I glanced toward Kang Chan, trapped inside the protective barrier.
"...My Status Window's sealed."
Kang Chan didn't seem to be in any position to act either.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
"Hoo, hoo..."
The two of them were both wrecked. Their eyes met in the empty air.
I stared into her eyes and asked flatly,
"...Do you have an inventory trait?"
"...!"
Dok Su-hee's breath hitched for a moment, then resumed.
She didn't answer, but... I became certain I was right.
Scraps of cloth appearing out of thin air. Wolf hearts. Golem fragments. Potions. Oil. Paralyzing needles. You'd have to be dumb not to notice.
Inventory is a cliché that shows up all the time in fiction that has Status Windows. You pull weapons from your inventory, store items in it, use it for everyday life.
It wouldn't be strange at all for Dok Su-hee to have an inventory, or a subspace.
"...Do you have two traits? Inventory and Enchant?"
"...It's a function attached to the Inventory trait. Not a separate trait."
Dok Su-hee answered readily. We were talking, but we both had the same underlying goal: stall for time to recover stamina.
"...Why didn't you apply the paralytic poison to Kang Chan?"
"...Because he would've noticed right away."
Right now, Kang Chan is a husk who can't use 'Fist,' but in Dok Su-hee's eyes he must have been the most dangerous enemy.
So first neutralize Kang Chan, then deal with Ahn Gyeong-jun and me. She must have figured that with the wolf heart, the golem fragment, and her inventory ability, she had a shot at winning.
She decided Kang Chan would instantly notice if she applied poison to him, so she only poisoned Ahn Gyeong-jun and me. The poison was probably applied in the groove where you place your palm on the stone door. It started from the moment she assigned our spots.
And she made us sit through a meeting so we wouldn't notice the poison spreading. The finishing touch: after taking Ahn Gyeong-jun's spear, she stowed it in her inventory. Use a potion to heal the wound, and now Ahn Gyeong-jun and Kim Jun-ho are forced into close-quarters combat.
I don't know when she cooked it up... but it was a highly polished plan. And it almost worked.
"..."
I had a lot of questions.
Why did she have the Goblin Shaman's protective barrier, which she seemed to have gotten from the tutorial? Had she brought the oil and cloth scraps into her inventory from the real world? Was every bright, cheerful look she'd shown us a lie? Why wasn't she trying to kill us, just subdue us?
But there was one question more important than any of that.
"...Why are you doing this?"
Why.
More than anything else, I wanted to know the reason.
We were working together and making good progress on Floor 3.
We could've just laughed it off and split the rewards.
So why betray us at the very end?
Why burn valuable items to trap Kang Chan and fight a bloody battle against Ahn Gyeong-jun and me?
"...Because I have to."
After a brief hesitation, Dok Su-hee gave an oddly detached answer.
"...I'm not looking for understanding. I know what I'm doing is wrong. And I know how incredible the three of you are."
"...Then why?"
"...Because I, and no one else, have to clear the Tower."
"..."
"Because I have to monopolize the rewards and get stronger. That's why I betrayed you. Even knowing it was a gamble."
Dok Su-hee spoke calmly. She brought her trembling hand to the box in the center of the room, and the box vanished from sight into thin air.
"Ha, haha..."
I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh. The reason was just too absurd.
"First... you're dead."
For a split second I felt genuine killing intent, but I forced it down. I couldn't just kill her outright.
"Here I come."
I took one careful step after another toward Dok Su-hee. While struggling to hold my paralyzed body upright, I made sure to keep my eyes wide open and fixed ahead.
The difference between the two of us was simple. Thanks to my Achievement Level, my stats were ridiculously high, so even paralyzed, I could still control my body to some degree. My recovery speed was fast too, of course.
But Dok Su-hee's stats seemed pitiful. So her recovery was slow, and she still couldn't control her body.
"..."
Dok Su-hee used her inventory to spray oil on the floor, set up needles, block my vision with cloth, and even raise sharp little stone fragments from the golem debris, but...
"Not gonna work."
That strategy didn't work on me. As long as I knew something might suddenly pop out of thin air, I had no reason to get caught.
So step by step. The distance closed.
"Got a tank or something in that inventory? You'd need at least that to stop me."
Another step.
"Blocking my vision with cloth was a cliché move... but why cloth of all things? A thick mattress would slow me down more, wouldn't it? Your inventory has a capacity limit or something?"
Another step.
"First... let me hit you a few times. We'll talk after."
Finally, the moment only a single step remained between Dok Su-hee and me.
"...Kim Jun-ho."
"...What?"
"...Look up."
A shadow fell over me.
"...Ah."
When I raised my head, a large wooden box was floating above me. The very box Dok Su-hee had stashed in her inventory earlier.
And with my paralyzed body... there was no way I could dodge it.
"Fuck."
Thud.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]