The Regressor Is a Cloud (10) (Revised)
The Regressor Is a Cloud (10) (Revised)
My talk with Dok Su-hee came to an end, and Kang Chan crushed the golem with a single punch.
"..."
The four of us were able to reach the final room once again.
"What is this?"
I ignored the box sitting in the center and dashed straight into the room to examine the red door first.
"H-hold on, don't touch it recklessly... Who knows what could happen if you put your palm on it..."
"I'll just touch it with my finger, not my palm."
I lightly placed my fingertip on the red groove meant for a palm. My fingertip glowed faintly, then the light faded.
"This is... blood."
Touching it made it clear. The red door had not always been red. It had turned red from layers upon layers of people's blood caked onto it.
"Blood?!"
Ahn Gyeong-jun was thoroughly flustered, and—
<Final Trial>
-Passing through the door ahead will clear Floor 3. However, only one person may pass through the red door. Passing through the red door will grant an additional reward.
A message window appeared before my eyes with perfect timing.
"..."
"..."
Just like in the previous cycle, the atmosphere grew still and awkward—everyone suddenly eyeing each other as enemies.
"...Would you hear me out for a moment?"
As in the previous cycle, I corrected everyone's misunderstanding. I explained that this room didn't require a fight and that cooperating to first open the stone door on the right was all that was necessary.
"Opening the door doesn't clear Floor 3 immediately. It said to clear the floor you have to pass 'through' the door. There's no issue with all four of us opening the normal door first, then having one person open the red door."
"...Fine. That's persuasive."
Ahn Gyeong-jun and Kang Chan, whose nerves had been on edge, calmed down, and the atmosphere allowed for rational conversation again.
"...So, shall we open the normal stone door first?"
Rumble.
And so the four of us gathered, opened the stone door, and a blue portal revealed itself.
Yes, up to this point, everything was the same as the previous cycle. The changes begin now.
"So... about who will enter the red door..."
"Wait."
Dok Su-hee cut off Ahn Gyeong-jun just as he was about to bring up the red door.
"Everyone. I will be the one to enter the red door."
Instead of stabbing people in the back like before, she boldly declared that she herself would enter the red door.
But even though she chose a comparatively rational method, the reaction was intense.
Ahn Gyeong-jun and Kang Chan stared at Dok Su-hee with expressions that said, What are you talking about?
"I'll explain from here."
Letting Dok Su-hee handle the explanation risked unnecessary misunderstandings, so I decided to step in here.
"...Let's hear it. You do have a bizarrely deep insight."
Kang Chan's sharp intensity eased a notch, and Ahn Gyeong-jun, whose eyes had been spinning in confusion, barely managed to calm down.
"First, I'll tell you about Su-hee's past."
Beginning with an explanation of the Tutorial's boss, the Goblin Shaman.
The Tutorial's heroes. And the Goblin Shaman's betrayal. Then the story of how the people who chose death laid a heavy burden of responsibility on Dok Su-hee's shoulders. I laid out Dok Su-hee's story as concisely as I could.
"..."
"..."
The atmosphere grew heavier than before. Death, after all, carried a weight words could never fully convey.
A brief silence passed.
"I still don't understand."
Kang Chan was the first to speak.
"I listened closely to Dok Su-hee's tragic story. But everyone carries their own burdens."
"..."
"What I'm saying is, I don't see why we should let her have the extra reward from the red door."
He was right.
Among those who had entered Floor 3-5, was there anyone without their own story? Kang Chan, Ahn Gyeong-jun, and I all carried something on our shoulders. Kang Chan's argument was undeniable.
"...I think it's fine."
But Ahn Gyeong-jun, wiping his reddened eyes, placed a hand on Dok Su-hee's shoulder.
"How hard... how hard must it have been for her... She's still just a young student, and how much must she have suffered in this tower..."
"..."
"I'm strong enough to take care of myself in this tower. I think the rest of you are the same... From the perspective of improving our survival odds, I believe Dok Su-hee, the weakest among us, is the right person to take the extra reward."
Ahn Gyeong-jun smiled as he looked at Dok Su-hee.
"We're climbing this tower to survive, aren't we?"
"...Haa."
Having heard Ahn Gyeong-jun out to the end, Kang Chan rubbed his brow as if annoyed and shifted his gaze to me.
"...Fine. I have no intention of going against the majority. But Kim Jun-ho. There's one thing I need to ask."
"...Go ahead."
"Do you think Dok Su-hee is the right person to pass through the red door?"
"...Yes."
"Alright, then I'll agree too. I'm not trusting Dok Su-hee... I'm trusting the you I saw on Floor 3."
With that, Kang Chan stepped back from the red door. It seemed he was off to claim his own share of the box.
"Th-there, that's settled then, Miss Su-hee!"
Ahn Gyeong-jun rejoiced as if it were his own success and ruffled Dok Su-hee's hair. It seemed he had already grown fond of her.
But a moment later.
"...Huh?"
Ahn Gyeong-jun suddenly dropped to one knee, bracing his hand on the floor with an expression of utter incomprehension.
"...?"
I had seen this sight before. In the previous cycle, Ahn Gyeong-jun had collapsed just like this after being hit by Dok Su-hee's paralytic poison.
With a sinking feeling, I shifted my gaze to Kang Chan.
Flash!
In a blaze of light, Kang Chan was trapped inside the Goblin Shaman's barrier.
"..."
I was too stunned to speak. I sorted through a few things to say, discarded them, and finally asked a simple question.
"...Why?"
"What do you mean?"
"...I told you I would persuade them."
"But..."
The culprit behind it all, Dok Su-hee, simply tilted her head with an unfazed expression.
"You could have failed to persuade them. I know it's cowardly, but it was necessary."
"..."
"So, in my own way, to make absolutely sure..."
Dok Su-hee rattled off excuses.
Her eyes were friendly toward me. The Awe trait was active.
But at the same time, there was madness in them. The kind of madness that would do anything to achieve her goal.
That was when I grew certain. Dok Su-hee was not normal.
"But you'll understand, won't you? This isn't just for me. It's for the people who died because of me."
With those words, Dok Su-hee walked toward the red door.
Dok Su-hee's story was undeniably tragic, and her will to climb the tower was noble.
But it seemed her character was a separate matter.
Dok Su-hee was... simply using her story to justify wrongdoing.
"Well then..."
With a bright smile, Dok Su-hee placed her palm on the red door.
"...Why."
Ahn Gyeong-jun, unable to watch any longer, squeezed his eyes shut.
"...Damn."
The moment Kang Chan clenched his teeth inside the barrier—
BOOOOOOM!!!
An explosion suddenly rang out from where Dok Su-hee stood at the red door.
The explosion was not large, so the shockwave didn't reach us standing on the other side of the room, but—
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Dok Su-hee was caught in the blast at point-blank range.
Her arm shattered to pieces in an instant. Her body flew like a marionette with its strings cut.
Her body bounced off the floor a few times before coming to a stop right in front of us on the opposite side of the room.
"..."
"..."
Dok Su-hee was still breathing, but she seemed to have lost consciousness from shock. Blood poured from the severed limb.
"...What, what is this...! No matter how much she betrayed us, she's still just a kid...!"
Ahn Gyeong-jun, trembling, tried to help Dok Su-hee. But his body was paralyzed, and he couldn't even manage that.
Ahn Gyeong-jun, who had been twisting his body trying to move somehow, suddenly rolled his eyes back and rose to his feet. I didn't know why, but he had succeeded in entering the Possession state.
"...Traitor."
The possessed Ahn Gyeong-jun didn't seem to have the slightest intention of helping Dok Su-hee.
"I have no obligation to help a traitor. She tripped over her own greed, so it's rather satisfying. Back in my homeland, she'd have been thrown to the lions."
He let out a contemptuous snort, then released the Possession state. Back in control of his own body, Ahn Gyeong-jun wobbled feebly on the spot from the paralytic poison.
"..."
And Kang Chan, inside the barrier, simply looked down at Dok Su-hee without a word.
"What a pathetic ending."
That was all he said.
When everyone had turned their backs on Dok Su-hee.
"...Su-hee...!"
I was the only one who hadn't been paralyzed. I went to Dok Su-hee's side, propped her up, and examined her injuries.
"..."
The wound was severe. But it wasn't life-threatening. And her arm had been blown off without a trace, so using a potion would be meaningless.
-Awe [A]
-Praise to your greatness. Fear of the incomprehensible.
-You may use a trait of a target under Awe's influence once, in a degraded version.
-Dok Su-hee: Inventory (SSS) >>> Synthesis/Explosion (B-) <Usage complete. Trait will be deleted.>
The injury was a little more severe than I'd expected, but... In any case, things had gone according to plan.
**
Dok Su-hee had lost her right arm in the sudden accident.
Quite a bit of time had passed, but she still hadn't woken up.
I had thought the traitor deserved a harsh lesson, but the outcome was more gruesome than I'd anticipated. I looked down at Dok Su-hee with a complicated expression, a hint of relief mixed in.
"...It's not your fault, Jun-ho. It's okay."
Ahn Gyeong-jun placed a hand on my back, having apparently interpreted my expression in his own way.
"...More importantly, look over there."
Ahn Gyeong-jun pointed at the red door. Well, calling it red now was a stretch.
The surface had exploded, and a large portion of the dried blood crusted onto the door had been blown away.
The once-red door now bore an ambiguous blend of gray and red.
"The trap seemed like a one-time thing..."
The conversation circled back to square one. The extra reward could only go to one person.
So, who would claim the extra reward?
"..."
"..."
After a brief standoff where everyone gauged each other's reactions.
"Kim Jun-ho."
Kang Chan looked straight at me and spoke.
"You go in."