Chapter 18 - Choi Jiwon Is Rude (1)

“Hello! Haven't we met somewhere before?”

“...”

“Do you go to Hanguk University, by any chance? I think I've seen you on campus!”

SWISH!

Just like before, Choi Jiwon sliced across the bridge of my nose in an instant.

“... Stop bothering me and get lost.”

Apparently, Hanguk University wasn't it.

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]

* * *

“Do you go to Sinchon University, then?”

SLICE.

“Or... Anam University?”

SLICE.

“Hyehwa...”

SLICE.

“Hoegi...”

SLICE.

“You go to some shitty no-name college, don't you, you fucking bitch?”

SLICE.

I'd named every university I knew, but all I got in return was cold steel instead of a warm greeting.

“I don't know many high school names...”

There were three main possibilities.

One: I didn't know the university she attended.

Two: she'd never attended university.

Three: I'd guessed right, but she was a crazy bitch who didn't give a fuck about fellow alumni and went straight for her sword.

Whatever the case, simply acting like I knew her didn't seem capable of getting a meaningful response.

Was the problem that we weren't close enough?

This time, I tried learning swordsmanship from Choi Jiwon, just as I had in earlier runs.

“Huff. Huff.”

“I've taught you all I'm going to teach you. Go now.”

“... Jiwon.”

“I said go.”

“Could I ask you something—”

“No.”

“...”

She wouldn't give me an opening in the first place.

No matter how hard I played the upstanding citizen, Choi Jiwon wouldn't open up. Being nice only stopped her from being hostile; it didn't make her friendly.

Even when handing out food, she did it silently, as though it were a duty. Every time I received a meal, I tried saying, “Thank you,” but not once did she answer.

No matter what I said, she never gave me a meaningful reply.

I got so frustrated that I even tried acting crazy and picking a fight.

“Oi! You there, woman!”

“... Easy, Whoosh. Even so, ‘crazy fucking moron’ is going too far.”

'... I never said that, though?'

A fist shot toward me like an arrow.

THUD!

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]

* * *

At least I'd caught a faint glimpse of the attack this time.

The problem was that seeing it didn't mean I could block it.

Her fist had curved along a bizarre trajectory, coming at me from a direction I couldn't possibly cover with my sword held at that angle.

Honestly, I would've regressed even if I'd blocked it. That punch was fucking powerful.

“... Heartless bitch.”

I didn't know what the problem was. Whatever I did, she simply wouldn't engage with me.

Had Choi Jiwon been an unromanceable character from the start?

Fuck... Should I just give up and go find the boss?

I felt certain I could find it if I put in enough time.

Or I could follow other people around. For instance, that middle-aged firefighter had taken a group of survivors out of the clearing on the morning of day two.

If I cleared a path out beforehand and followed him starting on the second day, that could be a decent...

“Huh?”

Wait a minute.

Other people?

I wasn't talking about making someone else do weird things for me.

Choi Jiwon was consistently cold to everyone. I'd never even seen her have a lengthy conversation with anyone except Baek Dahye, the bob-haired woman.

In other words, she wasn't singling me out. She treated everyone like a psychopath.

I wanted to put “other people” to use in a slightly different way.

“Heh heh... Heh heh heh heh...”

Choi Jiwon.

I'm going to test your limits.

SMACK!

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]

* * *

“Hah, hah, hah, hah...”

He ran. And ran. And ran some more.

His body had wrung out its last drop of moisture, leaving him unable even to sweat. His head was hazy and dizzy, and he was gasping for breath.

But Kim Jungyu couldn't stop.

“KRAAAAAAGH!”

Because a huge goblin was chasing him like mad, a sword clutched in its hand.

Things had been fine on their first day in the tower.

After discovering that goblins dropped food when killed, Kim Jungyu and his companions had roamed around inside the tower as casually as if they were playing a game.

Food had been a little scarce, but they'd never felt their lives were in danger. The weapons in their hands were sharp, and the goblins were weak.

The trio had gotten through their first night without difficulty.

With their sense of danger gone, they walked confidently, shoulders squared.

As they strode along, they came upon a large goblin sitting against a tree trunk.

“Jungyu, honestly, that one looks pretty tough.”

“Hey. We're already level 10. Killing goblins barely does anything for us anymore. It's time to find something else to hunt.”

“I guess...”

They didn't consider that it might be dangerous.

A goblin was still just a goblin, after all.

The first to step forward was a younger guy he'd befriended after entering the tower.

“Jungyu, I put all my stat points into Strength. I reckon I could total five hundred kilos across the big three lifts now.”

He flexed his biceps. Those bulging muscles looked reassuringly dependable.

“I'll fuck that bastard up with a lateral raise. Watch this.”

Holding a hatchet in each hand in a ridiculous pose, the younger man approached the mutant goblin.

SWISH!

“Huh?”

The mutant goblin suddenly darted forward and snatched away a hatchet.

CRACK!

“Ghk...!”

And split his skull clean in half.

“Uh... Ah...”

While Kim Jungyu and his remaining companion stood frozen, unable to accept what had happened, the goblin wasted no time. It picked up the other hatchet and hurled it.

CRACK!

The sound was so crisp it felt unreal.

The man who'd been standing perfectly fine beside him toppled over, and hot blood splattered across Jungyu's face.

“Uh... AAAAAAAAH!!!”

Kim Jungyu began running for his life.

He ran like that for about ten minutes.

“Haaagh, haaaaagh...”

Leveling up had improved his stamina, but ten minutes of flat-out sprinting was too much even for him.

“Haaagh, ghk!”

His vision suddenly spun. A sharp sting flared inside his lip, as though his front teeth had bitten into it.

Had he tripped over a rock? Belatedly, he tried to get up, but there was no strength in his hands.

“Khehh. Khehh. Kheheheheh...”

The mutant goblin approached slowly, breathing hard.

It seemed fairly tired too, but it was in much better shape than he was.

“Please... Someone... Help...”

Was this how he died?

He was going to die simply because he'd picked a fight with the wrong oversized goblin?

He'd only ever vaguely imagined dying of old age. Faced with it in reality, death was disgusting, terrifying, and sticky.

“Please...”

“Kheh-heh...”

The large goblin wiped the drool from its mouth with the back of its hand, then reached toward Kim Jungyu with its pointed nails.

At that very moment—

SLASH!

A sharp sound sliced through the air, and the goblin stopped moving.

Without a sound, the mutant goblin slowly bent forward at the waist.

“... Huh?”

No. It wasn't bending over.

Its waist had been cut through, and its upper body was falling away from its lower half.

SPLASH!

Belatedly, green blood sprayed in every direction.

“Are you all right? Let's get you up.”

And there was his savior, helping Kim Jungyu to his feet. He had no idea how long the man had been standing behind the goblin.

The sunlight shone like a halo behind him, obscuring his face, but the sword stained with green blood was perfectly clear.

“Ah... Ahh...”

This man had saved me?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you...!

Too choked up to speak properly, he repeated his thanks over and over in his head.

“... This one's trait is F-rank too. Can these not be combined?”

My savior muttered quietly to himself. His gaze, which had been fixed on empty air, soon settled on my face.

“What's your name?”

“Kim Jungyu... I'm Kim Jungyu...”

I barely managed to answer in a cracked voice.

Having kindly asked my name, my savior gave a small nod, then firmly grasped my shoulders.

“Jungyu. It's hard, isn't it?”

“... Yes.”

It was hard.

Two younger friends he'd been close to had died. He himself had been on the verge of death, only barely dragged back out of the River Styx.

This tower wasn't a place where you could happily hunt at your leisure like in an RPG.

It was a world of killing and being killed, of survival of the fittest.

Faced with that cold reality, Kim Jungyu's spirit had broken.

“I'm sorry... for being weak...”

Kim Jungyu hung his head.

But his savior patted his shoulder with a kindly smile.

“It's all right.”

“... What?”

“It's all right to be weak.”

“But...”

The weak couldn't survive in this tower.

Kim Jungyu was already terrified of fighting. He wasn't sure he could beat even the weakest goblin anymore.

Without killing, he couldn't obtain food or water. He'd been weeded out.

“No.”

His savior shook his head.

“You can survive even if you're weak. You can enjoy life even if you're weak.”

“But how...”

With a decisive motion, his savior pointed in a direction with that mysterious finger of his.

“Go back.”

“... What?”

“The place where you first started. Go back there.”

He stroked my back with a warm hand.

“There you'll find a warm home, food and water, and people who'll welcome you, you know?”

Such sweet words. As though heaven really existed.

“... Yes.”

All Kim Jungyu could do was nod.

Choi Jiwon.

Let's see how many people you can feed all by yourself.

A Word from the Author (Afterword)

Ah, lol, this plot is fun. (Even the author is having fun writing it.)

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