Chapter 14 - The Status Window Is Too Unfriendly (1)

[You can acquire a trait.]

“... A trait?”

Out of nowhere? I could acquire a trait?

The moment I thought that, my body froze in place, my hand still scratching the back of my head.

“...”

No, I wasn't the only one who'd frozen.

The scrawny guy, prostrating himself and begging for mercy. The woman clutching her throat with both hands, apparently struggling to breathe after seeing the fallen punk. The man in glasses, trying his best to stay calm but unable to hide his shaking legs. Even the background guy, who'd collapsed when his legs gave out.

Not one of them so much as twitched. I couldn't hear a single sound.

It seemed more accurate to say time had stopped, rather than that I'd frozen.

[You can acquire a trait.]

“... And what am I supposed to do about it?”

Maybe the tower was being considerate, stopping time so I could take my time choosing a trait. That part was nice, but...

It had told me to choose without actually putting any options in front of me.

Something like:

1. A good ability.

2. A slightly better ability.

3. An ability that looks like garbage at first glance but is overpowered if used right, so the protagonist will pick it anyway.

At least give me a list like that so I can think it over and make a choice.

Where had it learned such shitty manners, telling me to pick a trait without explaining a damn thing?

I couldn't even move anything except my eyes... Seriously, what the hell was wrong with the bastard who made the status window?

“... Huh?”

In the middle of my silent griping, I sensed something strange and instinctively flinched.

An aura that was revolting... sublime... and frightening.

To my surprise, it was seeping from the scrawny bastard lying on the ground. Three auras formed a strange pattern, almost mingling before pushing one another away.

“...”

No one had taught me what they were, and the status window hadn't told me, either. But I instinctively understood.

Those were emotions. The scrawny guy's feelings toward me.

Just looking at them, I could sense the emotion in each aura as vividly as if I were licking it with my tongue.

The red aura was fear.

He feared my strength—the strength to slice the punk in half in a single stroke.

The blue aura was disgust.

Disgust toward a murderer who had brutally taken another human being's life.

Finally, the yellow aura was awe.

The instinctive awe one felt toward someone powerful. Admiration. Astonishment. A little fear.

“...”

So that was how this scrawny guy saw me.

An impressive, terrifying murderer.

Personally, I thought this much was normal for someone with the ability to regress, but I supposed it would look impressive to someone who didn't know about that.

As for being a murderer... well, that was true. But you were about to kill people yourself. What a fucking hypocrite.

So why was the tower showing me these emotions?

It was obvious. Picking one of them would probably turn it into a trait. It had started by saying [You can acquire a trait], after all.

“Hmm...”

Now that it was time to actually pick a trait, I found myself hesitating.

If the trait disappeared when I regressed... it wouldn't matter what I picked here.

I could sample all three traits and find out firsthand which was best, then make the right choice on the run where I decided to move on to the next part of the tutorial.

But what if the trait became permanent once I chose it? What if it followed me even after I regressed?

What if I couldn't get another trait from this scrawny guy, even on a different run?

This was the first trait I was acquiring. Regression didn't count, since I'd had it to begin with.

Even in games, the traits you acquired early on shaped the rest of your playthrough.

If I picked fear... I'd get a trait that crushed my enemies with terror. Or maybe it would make me stronger when my enemies were afraid. It seemed the simplest and most powerful option.

If I picked disgust, well... would it inspire instinctive revulsion? I couldn't really picture what it would do; it wasn't very intuitive.

Since that disgust came from murder, maybe it would give me a trait that made me better at killing people. Putting it that way really made me sound like a psychopath.

Last was awe. Honestly, this one wasn't particularly intuitive, either.

It felt a little different from the simple “aura that makes you look strong” you saw in stories built around misunderstandings.

The dictionary definition of awe was “a feeling of reverence and fear.”

I wanted to complain that if he respected me, he should just respect me. Why did fear have to be mixed in...?

But if someone suddenly cut a person down right in front of me, I'd probably be scared, too.

“Hmm...”

Fear, disgust, or awe.

My deliberation was brief, and my choice was swift.

WHOOOOSH!

As soon as I decided, the yellow aura flowed into me as if it had read my mind.

I'd chosen awe.

The reason was simple.

Fear? Disgust? They did seem like abilities that could make me stronger quickly and easily.

Fear alone would have endless applications.

If I used Regression to learn about the future, then scared someone by saying, “I know everything about you. You're going to die tomorrow,” even the toughest person would collapse and piss themselves.

Getting stronger right away? Sure, that mattered. But I was envisioning a bigger future.

Someday, when I'd conquered this tower.

When I'd made it out.

When I'd become a worldwide hero.

If all my abilities did was inspire fear or disgust... would people really treat me like a hero?

Wouldn't some handsome, respectable-looking guy steal all the credit for my accomplishments, while I became... a kind of urban legend known only to a select few?

Even if that didn't happen, fear and disgust made cooperating with others incredibly difficult.

That would mean going it alone the whole way.

Given the nature of a place like the tower, that didn't seem like a very good option.

In a web novel I'd read called The Tutorial Is Seriously Fucking Hard as Shit, the protagonist ended up trapped in the tower despite his overwhelming strength.

Why? Because he had no companions to help him.

If I reached a floor that required working toward a shared objective, fear and disgust would become serious liabilities.

In the end, I was certain I'd made the right choice with awe—a safe option that sounded cool, too.

“... Ngh.”

The yellow aura slowly flowing into me stopped.

I didn't feel any different physically. I felt just like normal.

But I had an excellent tool for self-examination.

“Status window.”

[Name: Kim Junho] [LV:5]

[Traits]

-Regression [EX]

-Awe [C]

“... Hmm.”

I lightly tapped “Awe” with my fingertip.

-Awe [C]

-Praise for your greatness. Fear of what cannot be understood.

“... What the hell is this?”

Had the bastard who made the tower majored in Korean literature?

Or was tossing out vague choices and watching people agonize over them a hobby?

The supposed description was nothing but a string of airy, abstract words.

I wasn't even asking for a game-style description like “Deals damage equal to 160% of attack power.”

But shouldn't it at least tell me what this was and how it worked?

I instinctively reached for the back of my neck, then realized my hand could move.

Oh. Come to think of it, I'd tapped the status window with my hand, too...

“...”

Time had started moving again. It was so quiet that I'd been slow to notice.

“Spare me... please...”

The scrawny guy was still trembling on the ground...

But the reactions of the glasses guy's group had changed quite a bit.

The man in glasses, whose legs had been shaking, had regained some composure.

The background guy, who'd collapsed when his legs gave out, had barely managed to stand.

And the woman who'd been gasping for breath was now red in the face.

Her face was so flushed that I worried she might be about to die.

“... Are you all right?”

I asked before I could stop myself. She looked that bad.

“...”

But she didn't answer.

Instead, she brought both hands over her mouth and whispered,

“... So cool.”

“...?”

I gave my ear a little dig, wondering if I'd misheard.

Cool? Me?

When I was covered in blood from head to toe? When I reeked of it?

I knew better than anyone that I looked nothing like cool.

Then the answer was simple.

Was this the power of Awe?

Other people really did think I looked cool. All thanks to the mighty power of my trait.

It wasn't the effect I'd expected, but I felt I'd chosen well.

Would I finally get to experience being one of the popular kids?

“Oh, really?”

I casually took a step toward the woman in front of me, but...

STEP.

At the same moment, everyone took a step back.

“...”

They seemed wary of letting me approach.

Wait, didn't you just say I was cool? Why were you running away?

My bewilderment must have shown on my face, because the woman looked at me and frantically waved her hands.

“No... it's not that I don't like you... You're just on a different level from us... You're so amazing... It's just a little, you know.”

“...”

I shifted my gaze slightly and glanced at the status window still floating there.

-Awe [C]

-Praise for your greatness. Fear of what cannot be understood.

“... Fear.”

The options had been fear, disgust, and awe, right?

Fuck. There'd been no way to win...

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