The Ponytail Girl Is Too Strong (4)
The Ponytail Girl Is Too Strong (4)
I regress.
"...I'll keep it brief and just hit the mandatory parts, all right? I don't enjoy this either, but it's procedure. Nothing I can do."
'What went wrong? Ah. I put too much strength into my wrist.'
While the fairy runs its mouth, I sort through what I've learned.
"Everyone! I don't know whose scheme this is, but the greater the crisis, the more we have to stick together!"
I urge people to go hunt the boss.
At first I was so awkward my lines kept changing every time, but now I deliver the exact same speech without fail.
It's practically a routine. The words just come out on their own now.
After the speech, Choi Ji-won stops me.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
She swings her sword like a madwoman, and I learn again.
"...I'd say I've been generous enough. I have my own training to do, so I'll be off."
When the lesson ends—
Thwack!
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]
I regress.
***
There were moments that nearly broke me.
A demon's whisper tempting me to just give up everything haunted me every single time.
But I regressed again.
And again.
And then, one day—
At last.
"Ha. Hahahaha."
My sword touched the sky.
"What's with him? Why'd he stop swinging and flop over laughing?"
'Must be having a nice dream. Someone wake him up.'
"Hey. Get up."
Tap.
She nudged him with the tip of her foot, but Kim Jun-ho didn't move a muscle.
"...This is annoying."
Thwack!
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]
***
"Mm... it's not bad..."
Choi Ji-won studies me like she's searching for the words to say it without hurting my feelings.
"It isn't bad. It isn't bad, but... would I say it's enough to keep you from getting slapped around out there? I can't say that either, so... I do want to help a bit more, but I need time for my own training. Sorry."
After a couple of encouraging pats on the shoulder, she starts swinging her sword like always.
Normally this would be exactly when I'd regress, but I didn't even have the strength left for that.
"Ha... haha..."
I'm a fucking piece of work. Not just any piece of work—a spectacular, beyond-imagination piece of shit.
What kind of arrogance made me think I could actually pull this off?
Three years? You train without a break for three whole years? Me?
A guy who couldn't even stick with high school studying for three years was going to swing a sword for three years? If my old homeroom teacher heard that, he'd have laughed his ass off.
I didn't know my place. I really, really didn't.
I wasn't a web novel protagonist with a will of steel.
I wasn't an avenger who'd burn his own body to ash if it meant achieving his goal, and I wasn't some hero who regressed to resolve a past-life grudge and save the world.
I was just... just an ordinary person.
After what felt like months of swinging a sword, my swordsmanship talent still couldn't earn a single "not bad."
And it's not like I had the mental fortitude to just keep ramming my head against the wall.
I sprawled out flat on the dirt.
"..."
I wasn't a chosen hero.
I was just the kind of nobody you could find anywhere.
Getting tossed into a tower doesn't magically flip a switch and turn you into a different person.
**
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Shhhk!
Choi Ji-won had been swinging her sword like a woman possessed.
'Ji-won.'
"Yeah?"
Her beloved sword Boongboong-yi spoke, and Choi Ji-won stopped mid-motion.
She'd finally been getting a feel for something—that tantalizing sense of it hovering right at her fingertips—but Boongboong-yi surely knew that too. It must have spoken up because it was truly important.
"What's going on?"
Choi Ji-won wiped the sweat from her brow with her forearm and asked.
Boongboong-yi could read Choi Ji-won's thoughts easily, but Choi Ji-won couldn't yet fully read Boongboong-yi's.
Probably because she still wasn't used to the trait. Hence the inconvenient need to speak out loud.
'That man from earlier. Kim Jun-ho.'
"...Kim Jun-ho?"
Kim Jun-ho. The man she'd just been teaching the sword.
She didn't know exactly what his trait did, but he wielded a form of swordsmanship remarkably similar to her own.
Except his skill was about second-rate, at best. Not someone worth paying attention to.
"What about him?"
That was why Choi Ji-won couldn't understand Boongboong-yi bringing him up.
'...Ji-won.'
"Why do you keep—"
'Because of the trait you obtained, your senses are dozens of times sharper than before.'
"...And? I know that already."
'The world you're perceiving now is very different from the world you used to perceive.'
Choi Ji-won scuffed her foot restlessly.
"I know that. Why do you think I'm endlessly repeating these boring downward cuts? To close the gap that's opened between my perception and the real world. Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"
Boongboong-yi couldn't move, being a sword, but Choi Ji-won had the distinct impression it gave a small shake of its head.
'When it comes to your own body... you're right. What I want to talk about is other people.'
Choi Ji-won was a master of the sword.
She had already adapted to her own body to some degree. Martial arts begins with understanding your own body.
'Right now... your yardstick is set much higher. That guy's movements—they weren't bad.'
But it had been barely five hours since her senses had sharpened and her eyes had improved.
She was in that state where the world looks slowed down. In a way, that was only natural, but...
The problem was that this elevated yardstick had been applied to Kim Jun-ho.
Every one of his movements had looked sluggish and frustrating precisely because Choi Ji-won hadn't yet adjusted to her new senses.
"...Really?"
Realizing that she had misjudged Kim Jun-ho, Choi Ji-won glanced back.
Over there, lying limp on the dirt, was Kim Jun-ho.
"..."
He had plainly fallen into despair because of what she'd said. His eyes were hollow and entirely vacant.
"...I'd better apologize now and give him the truth."
Just as Choi Ji-won was about to approach and set things straight—
Lift.
Kim Jun-ho raised his fist high.
Thwack!
And he drove it straight down into his own chest.
[You have taken damage.]
[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]
***
I've made up my mind.
This time, I'll do absolutely nothing.
People are dying?
Fuck 'em. I've decided I don't give a single shit.
It's a world line that'll vanish the moment I regress anyway.
What I desperately need right now is a nice, relaxing break. I'm just going to chill and take it easy.
"Hello! You lowly humans doing such a splendid job of wasting your lives! Nice to meet you!"
I paid no attention when the fairy appeared.
When weapons were being handed out, when people were shouting about their Status Windows, when most of the survivors were leaving the clearing—I took no action whatsoever.
My plan was simply to wait until Choi Ji-won brought back the food.
"...Yawn."
This time I'm really not going to do anything.
Really.
**
I already knew that if I waited exactly a day and a half, Choi Ji-won would show up with food.
Essentially, my only job was tolerating hunger while killing time.
"...What're you staring at?"
"Watching you dig."
Fwap!
"Agh! You can't just fling dirt in my face!"
"Then get lost, you little shit!"
I stared so intently at a guy furiously digging that the dirt he tossed ended up in my mouth.
"Hic..."
"What are you crying for?"
I tried to make a move on a sniffling short-haired girl, but had to retreat when Choi Ji-won shot me a glare mid-swing.
Rustle-rustle.
I joined the guy rummaging through the weapon pile and poked around a bit myself. (Didn't find the Hidden Piece, for the record.)
Anyway, I wasted time productively.
I'm definitely constitutionally suited for loafing around.
I didn't do a single thing—why is this so blissful?
I started thinking that if there's a floor with a bed later on, regressing over and over and idly pissing my time away like this might not be so bad.
I had more time than anyone in this tower.
And so the night passed.
"If we stay here, we'll all starve to death. I intend to leave this clearing and find a water source. Will anyone join me?"
Firefighter Choi Cheol-soon, with his tiger-like face, rounded up the middle-aged crowd and left.
Around the time I was lying there, using the distant screams of humans as background music—
"Uh... whoa! Ma'am! This... is this okay to eat?"
Choi Ji-won appeared, carrying food.
I'd run through everything up to this point in a previous cycle.
I'd basically thrown myself at her begging to be taken as a disciple and gotten smacked—straight into a regression.
But this time is different.
Different how, you ask?
I'm going to sit quietly like the other survivors and just eat.
"...This is good."
As I quietly chewed a calorie bar, a smile crept onto my face.
I'll say it again: I'm doing nothing, and yet I'm happy.
This is healing. This is a vacation—a little gift to myself for all that suffering with a sword.
And on another note, I was curious.
Is this clearing really a safe zone?
The "Tower" I know of harbors malice toward humans.
There's no way it would just let people settle down in one spot.
"..."
If I'm curious... I'd better find out.