Chapter 27 - The Boss Is Too Weak (7)

Human.

I imagine you wonder why I did this.

To be honest, I rather liked you. You were the first human to treat me as a person, despite our different species.

But I hate humans.

You seem to have trusted me, human, but I lied to you. Several times, in fact.

I told you that young goblins playing tag in the labyrinth had broken the monster's seal.

That was a lie.

It was humans, ransacking the ancient labyrinth in search of treasure, who broke the monster's seal.

Back then, I was strong enough to successfully seal one monster.

There were two. While I was sealing one, my entire clan was wiped out.

My clan had fled to this island to escape being hunted by humans.

We had come here to escape humans, yet everyone died because of humans all the same.

Human.

In my despair, just as I was about to kill myself, I heard the voice of the Great Will.

He said he would give me a chance to take revenge on humans.

Human.

I already knew this place was a space called the tower.

I knew I would be given only seven days to live each time.

I knew that once all the humans died or escaped, I would be brought back to life with my memories erased.

I knew gold was precious to humans.

I knew that when I died, a means for humans to survive would be summoned.

Human.

The truth is, a shamanic ritual has no need for gold.

Human.

I know I could kill more humans by releasing the monster's seal the moment I regain consciousness.

But even after I die and return to life, I will maintain the seal until the very end and help the humans.

My reason for doing everything I can to help humans is simple.

I want humans to struggle with hope in their hearts.

A crushing defeat at the monster's hands would be fine, but I want them to defeat it magnificently and experience the greatest happiness.

I know that the deepest despair hurts more when it follows the greatest happiness.

I wanted humans to feel exactly what my clan felt.

Human.

Because I liked you, I did briefly hesitate to plunge the humans into the abyss.

But human, I believe I told you that I have a keen sense of smell.

Human.

Your body... reeks of my kin's blood.

In truth, I do not particularly care whether my kin live or die.

They are already bound to the tower. They were summoned here to die over and over.

I know you killed my kin to survive, too.

But in the end... I realized that you, too, were one of the humans.

Humans.

I pray that you feel as I did when I resolved to die.

Human.

I am sorry.

* * *

The Goblin Shaman's voice stopped flowing from the broken stone.

I was sitting in the clearing where everything had begun.

The shaman's message had ended ages ago, but I was still staring blankly at the stone fragments.

"It's okay."

I'd let my guard down and paid for it, but in the end, this was just another step along the way.

"I just have to regress."

Next run, I could make the first move.

I would never let that bastard stab me in the back again.

"Pull yourself together."

I'd only slipped up at the very end.

Really, the things I'd gained this run alone were too valuable to put into words.

An enormous amount of achievement level EXP. Vastly improved trait ranks. Even the tricks involving the Minotaur and the Goblin Shaman.

The ending was bad, sure, but in terms of results, I'd gained more than in any other run.

If I could gain emotions from the same people again after regressing, I could become incredibly powerful just by repeating something similar to this run.

After a hundred repetitions or so, I could probably kill the Minotaur with a toe.

It was okay.

"Fuck..."

It wasn't okay.

It felt like my mental state had taken a direct hit from the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.

The Goblin Shaman's final "I am sorry" kept circling in my head.

I'd failed. I'd lost.

It occurred to me that this, too... was what God intended.

The Goblin Shaman's own fighting ability was pitifully weak.

When someone weak, with only a short time left to live, desperately begged for help, perhaps it was human nature to help without much suspicion.

But the bastard was still a goblin. Being weak didn't mean being good.

The Goblin Shaman's heart... had been filled to the brim with malice toward humans.

The fact that it had liked me made it all the more sickening.

... Because I'd rather liked the Goblin Shaman, too.

"Should I regress?"

The survivors had already fallen apart.

Once they accepted what had happened, every last one of them was like a time bomb on the verge of exploding.

Hope had brought people together, but despair tore them apart.

A massive brawl broke out over suspicions that someone might have a golden orb hidden on their person. It only barely ended after Park Cheoljin intervened.

Afterward, everyone dispersed on their own. They didn't forget to glare at me as they left.

It had taken literally an instant to go from hero to traitor.

Firefighter Park Cheoljin comforted me, saying, ["It's not your fault."] But there was something utterly hollow in his eyes, too.

Really, it would have been stranger for anyone to be mentally fine.

We'd lost twenty-two golden orbs in an instant.

The portal that could have saved everyone had appeared inside the poisonous swamp.

Our hope of reaching the next floor had shattered.

Of course, we were still alive.

But... how long could we stay that way?

Killing goblins gave us food.

There weren't an infinite number of goblins.

Someday, the goblins on this island would be wiped out, and then the only future left for us would be to starve to death.

"... There's no way out."

No matter how I thought about it, there was no answer. This run was ruined.

Just as I raised my fist to slam it into my chest—

"There you are."

Familiar footsteps approached, accompanied by a familiar voice.

"Why are you sitting here wallowing?"

It was Choi Jiwon.

* * *

Choi Jiwon looked remarkably composed for someone doomed to die soon.

"... What are you doing here? Food's going to be scarce now."

Her composure rubbed me the wrong way, and I snapped at her for no reason.

"... Food? Oh. You've been here this whole time."

Choi Jiwon shook her head.

"They killed themselves."

"... Huh?"

"The goblins. They all threw themselves into the swamp and died. I think the Goblin Shaman probably arranged it. It seems to have had the ability to control other goblins."

"..."

Apparently, the Goblin Shaman had even known we could get food and golden orbs by killing other goblins.

It really had fucked us over thoroughly.

Bravo. Well done, shaman.

"..."

Neither Choi Jiwon nor I said anything.

As I'd said earlier, I could simply regress and be done with it.

I wouldn't make the same mistake. I wasn't an idiot who repeated his mistakes.

But... a thought struck me. What happened to this world after I regressed?

If it went back with me, that would be ideal. None of this would have happened.

But what if... only I went back, and this world remained as it was?

The people in this timeline would starve to death in horrific despair.

Because of my error in judgment.

I didn't have the nerve to brush it off with, 'This world? How's that my problem?'

Was this the burden a regressor had to bear?

I thought I could understand a little of why death regressors went mad after ten or more runs.

If you thought of yourself as carrying not just the lives of the people in this tutorial, but those of the entire world on your back, staying sane would be a feat in itself.

"Choi Jiwon."

"Yeah?"

Perhaps that was why.

I felt an overwhelming urge to tell someone my story.

"I'm a regressor."

"... A regressor?"

"Not just any regressor. I'm a fucking pathetic, fragile-as-a-sunfish regressor who goes back after a single hit."

Whether she listened or not, I poured out everything I remembered without holding back.

How I'd first awakened in the tower.

How I'd regressed after getting cut by grass.

How I'd regressed because of a goblin hiding in the bushes.

How I'd learned the sword from Choi Jiwon over repeated regressions.

How she'd mistaken me for a pervert, smacked me, and sent me back.

How I'd gained traits from other people's emotions.

And how, at last, I'd arrived at this run.

Getting it all off my chest did make me feel better.

"... Ha. Sorry."

But the relief was brief, followed by a heavy dose of post-nut clarity.

Common sense said there was no way she'd believe a story like this.

What? A regressor? One hit sent me back?

It would be far more convincing to say I'd lost my mind from the stress of impending death.

I couldn't complain even if she slashed me with her sword right then.

But Choi Jiwon merely gave a small nod.

"I believe you."

I could tell from her voice. She genuinely believed me.

"... Why?"

I wouldn't have believed it in her place.

I couldn't understand why she believed me.

But instead of answering, she lightly stroked my sword where it lay on the ground.

"Your swordsmanship. I did think it made no sense."

"... My swordsmanship?"

"I've spent my whole life swinging a sword. What was that about getting a trait? How could I fail to recognize the swordsmanship I've spent my entire life learning?"

"... Haha."

Before, I'd lied about having been in a kumdo club, only for my swordsmanship to expose me and send me back.

Now, my swordsmanship had become the proof that made Choi Jiwon believe in my regressions.

"Come on. Get up."

Choi Jiwon stood, dusted off her pants, then took my hand and pulled me up from my crouch.

"... Where are we going?"

"You'll see. It's right over there."

Just as she'd said, our destination was quite close, and familiar, too.

The place where Choi Jiwon practiced her sword swings every time I regressed.

The corner of the clearing where she and I had practiced swordsmanship together during this run.

"Take your sword."

Choi Jiwon spoke calmly.