Chapter 21 - The Boss Is Too Weak (1)

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

I stirred awake to find Choi Jiwon swinging her sword beside me.

She was much closer than before. Had she finally opened her heart to me?

Had my efforts finally borne fruit...!

"... Nope."

No. There were simply more people now, leaving less room in the clearing.

"You're awake."

Choi Jiwon sheathed her sword and looked at me as she tidied her hair. Then she rummaged through the grass and tossed me a large shovel.

"What's this?"

"Can't you see? A shovel. You've done your military service, haven't you?"

"... I'm asking why you're giving it to me."

"The clearing is cramped. We should dig up some of the grass around the edges."

"..."

That seriously pissed me off, but right now I was Angel Junho.

Chewing on an energy bar, I picked up the shovel.

Ugh. Should I just regress and be done with it?

THUNK! THUNK!

Perhaps because the tower had a tropical climate, the grass had relatively shallow roots, so digging it out wasn't too difficult.

THUNK! THUNK!

If she'd put me to work and then gone off to swing her sword, I was going to challenge her to a straight-up fight.

But apparently she had a conscience: Choi Jiwon was digging up grass beside me.

"Uh... we'll help too."

"Yeah. You've given us food and somewhere to sleep, after all..."

Several men who'd been sitting around spacing out joined in, and the digging went more smoothly than expected.

Come to think of it, what was that middle-aged guy who'd been digging doing now?

Oh, still digging over there. Judging by his scowl, though, the crowd seemed to be stressing him out.

Sorry, mister.

Once we'd expanded the clearing by roughly twenty percent, Choi Jiwon declared that enough and sent the other men back.

"Whew. Time for a na—"

"You're staying."

"Huh?"

I'd been about to take a break too, but Choi Jiwon caught my shoulder as I walked away.

"Food. We need to go get some."

"Oh."

Three days later.

If I had to describe the past three days... it was like being in the military.

Eat at the appointed time, then go out to gather food.

Like Han Xin crawling between a thug's legs, I swallowed my pride and obediently did as Choi Jiwon said.

So, had I just let her work me like a sucker?

That's a no-no.

I, Kim Junho, the coolheaded, rational regressor, was a man who could bend for the sake of his goals while still profiting.

I'd gained two major things.

First, by persistently pestering Choi Jiwon, I'd dug up plenty of information about that person she missed.

He was her father as well as her teacher. She said he'd passed away.

It sounded like he'd died saving someone else... but she wouldn't tell me any more.

Still, even that much information should come in handy on my next run.

And second: swordsmanship.

When I put my foot down and said, "I'm helping these people, not you. If you're going to work me like this, teach me swordsmanship!" Choi Jiwon reluctantly agreed.

Perhaps because she was teaching me properly under an agreement this time, rather than to pass the time, the quality of her advice was on a whole different level. Literally.

Naturally, with Choi Jiwon giving me earnest advice, my skills improved rapidly.

It was like Kim Junho was a dish with potential, and adding a spoonful of oyster sauce called Choi Jiwon brought out the savory flavor and completed it.

If my skills at the start of this run were worth 1.0 Kim Junhos, I felt I was at least 1.25 Kim Junhos now.

In stock-market terms, I was practically at the daily upper limit. If I were an investor, I'd invest in Kim Junho right now.

"Huff... huff..."

So what was I doing now? Running through the forest after Choi Jiwon.

I'd been doing this for three days, but it was still exhausting.

Her running speed was incredible, but her stamina was just as ridiculous.

We'd be running together, only for me to look up and find her far ahead. It happened over and over.

"Hrrgh..."

My achievement level had improved my stamina dramatically, but I was still only human.

That wasn't a human. That was a monster who knew how to use a sword.

"... You're late."

"Huff. Huff. You're just fast."

By the time I arrived, Choi Jiwon had already beheaded a mutant goblin.

Its corpse slowly faded away, while food and a small box containing a golden orb gradually appeared.

Choi Jiwon casually tucked the golden orb inside her clothes and handed me the bundle of food.

"We can't carry food around the whole time, so hide it somewhere safe. If you're not confident you can, you can carry it."

With that, she ran off somewhere again.

"Fu...dge."

I'd almost sworn on instinct, but that woman might even hear this.

I hastily hid the food up a tree and went after her.

"You're late."

"... Too slow."

"What?"

"Nothing..."

Once again, Choi Jiwon had already beheaded a mutant goblin.

Didn't she realize there was something strange about this route?

A question I'd kept tucked away in a corner of my mind stirred.

Well, we'd spent about three days together now. Surely it was all right to ask this much.

"... Choi Jiwon. Didn't you run straight here?"

"I did."

"Then how did you know there was a mutant goblin here? It's not just today... You do this every time, don't you?"

"..."

She didn't answer, her face expressionless, but her eyes darted back and forth.

"... Wait a moment."

After telling me to wait, she whispered something under her breath. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but her tone sounded like she was consulting someone.

What the hell? Did she have an imaginary friend?

She kept muttering for quite a while before saying,

"... All right. Let's be honest. From what I've seen of him, he doesn't seem like a bad person."

Apparently finished consulting her imaginary friend, she slowly raised her head and met my eyes.

"Kim Junho. You asked how I find out where the mutant goblins are, correct? It's an ability granted by my trait."

"... What kind of trait?"

"It allows me to roughly sense an enemy's strength even at a distance. However, I can only detect those above a certain threshold."

Choi Jiwon was answering fairly readily. It seemed to be a separate ability from her keen senses... I intended to use this opportunity to ask a few more things I'd been wondering about.

"Then can you sense any monsters nearby that are stronger than you? Or are they all weaker?"

"... There's one monster on roughly my level."

"Then isn't that the boss?"

"No. That one is... too strong."

I see. So Choi Jiwon had already sensed the Minotaur's presence.

But that raised another question.

"Then shouldn't you be able to sense the 'boss'?"

Across my regressions, this message always appeared at a certain point.

<Tutorial Stage>

-Clear Condition 1: Swallow a 'golden orb' hidden somewhere in the forest to advance to the next stage. However, only 50 golden orbs exist.

-Clear Condition 2: Defeat the boss, the Goblin Shaman, to create a portal to the next stage.

The boss I meant was the Goblin Shaman mentioned here.

If she had an ability that detected powerful enemies, wouldn't finding the Goblin Shaman be easy?

Couldn't we just kill the boss and all take the portal out?

However strong the boss might be, I doubted it was stronger than Choi Jiwon. At most, it'd be over in three slices.

"..."

Unexpectedly, Choi Jiwon didn't answer right away. Instead, she fell into thought, studying my face closely.

"You... What is your goal? What could it be that you follow me around, willingly putting yourself through all this?"

Choi Jiwon was employing that marvelous conversational technique of answering a question with a question.

She looked ready to keep her mouth shut until I answered.

... What was my goal?

Simple.

"Clear the tower, save Earth. Get stronger."

"... Ha."

Whatever she'd made of my words, Choi Jiwon let out a small, incredulous laugh.

"... Easy to say."

She turned her back on me cynically.

Sheesh. The way she'd asked, all full of meaning, I'd thought she might give me some important information. Was it just a whim?

I was about to start gathering up the food when...

THUD.

A small wooden box dropped in front of me.

"... This is..."

The design was familiar enough that I thought I knew what was inside without opening it.

It was a box containing a golden orb. But why was she...?

"There was someone like you once. Someone at rock bottom in reality, but with his eyes fixed high in the sky."

Choi Jiwon spoke with her back still turned. Gone was the stiff, formal manner she'd used with me until now. She sounded like an ordinary college girl.

"If you're ever in danger... just swallow it. Dying for other people is a truly pointless death."

"..."

"You don't have to think of it as a favor. I've got more orbs than I need, so I hand them out all over the place."

With that, Choi Jiwon walked away, cool and seemingly indifferent.

Had that woman just given me an incredibly precious golden orb?

She must have seen her father in me again.

I felt strangely conflicted.

"Wait, hold on...!"

I had things to say too, but she was already far away.

No, seriously... I already had three golden orbs stashed away...

And the boss... Where's the boss, you bitch?! Why do you just say your piece and never answer me?!

"I don't know."

"What?"

"I said I don't know. Finding the boss is my goal in the first place."

On our way back with the food, the answer to my question about the boss's location was, surprisingly, "I don't know."

"But didn't you say you could sense powerful enemies?"

"I can."

Choi Jiwon could determine the approximate location and strength of powerful enemies.

That was how she sensed both the Minotaur and the mutant goblins.

"The problem is... there's nothing in between."

"What do you mean, nothing in between?"

"The boss should be weaker than that insanely powerful monster but stronger than the mutants, right? But there's nothing like that. My ability isn't picking up the Goblin Shaman's location."

"..."

It was because Choi Jiwon's radar only worked on enemies above a certain strength.

There were two main possibilities.

First, the boss had a different name but was just as strong as a mutant goblin, so she couldn't tell them apart.

In that case, we could simply kill every last mutant goblin...

And second.

The boss was... so fucking weak that it didn't register on Choi Jiwon's radar at all.

"Haa."

A sigh escaped me before I knew it.

I'd thought Choi Jiwon would know where the boss was...

It felt like one of my reasons for sticking it out this long had vanished. This wasn't why I'd been playing lackey.

I'd pretty much squeezed out everything there was to gain, and the Minotaur would show up soon... I was considering whether to regress and try another route when...

"Wait."

Choi Jiwon stopped me as I was lost in thought.

Her gaze was fixed on a tree.

"... Come out."

RUSTLE. RUSTLE.

A man actually stepped out when told to.

"... You match the description I was given."

The man who emerged... was the middle-aged firefighter who left the clearing on day two, leading a group of around twenty people.

Was his name Park Cheoljin? I remembered him because his face looked as fierce as a tiger's.

But what was he doing here?

"Are you two in charge of the group at the clearing?"

"... I wouldn't quite call myself in charge, sir, but I do look after them."

Surprisingly, Choi Jiwon was speaking respectfully to an older person. Apparently she was the type to faithfully observe respect for her elders.

"... My name is Park Cheoljin. I'm a firefighter... or I was."

He seemed to struggle to get the words out.

"I've heard you two are incredibly strong. I need your help."

"What sort of help?"

"... We've found the boss."

Day six since my regression. Daytime.

The world had begun to take a different course from my previous runs.

A Word from the Author (Author's Afterword)

This chapter was a little slow, wasn't it? Things will pick up again next chapter!

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