Chapter 3 - The Regressor Is Too Weak (3)

“Hah!”

SWISH!

For a full-force swing, the sound was rather weak and underwhelming.

“... Hmm.”

I had been testing whether I could cut down the grass surrounding the clearing. To cut to the chase: not a chance.

Whether I lacked strength or technique, the grass simply bent over instead of being cut. The fact that my sword wasn’t some incredibly sharp masterpiece also contributed to the disappointing result.

“Tsk.”

I’d remembered those cool scenes in swordsman comics where a single swishing stroke sent whole swaths of reeds tumbling down, and tried copying them.

Apparently, that was asking too much of a beginner who hadn’t even held a sword for a full day.

“Not easy. Not easy at all.”

Apparently, the tower had given me Regression but hadn’t thrown in any swordsmanship.

Should I just give up and practice with a spear, like I’d overheard someone suggesting earlier?

No. In the end, the sword had the highest ceiling. It was the king of all weapons. Time was the one thing I had in abundance. I couldn’t give up here.

“...”

The sky was stained red, the sun about to set.

My first night in the tower had arrived.

* * *

Night in the tower was cozier than I’d expected.

It was much colder than during the day, but only a little chilly—not enough to make falling asleep a problem.

There was the issue of having no pillow or blanket, but I supposed I’d have to get used to that.

“... Sigh.”

As I lay there tossing and turning, a heavy dose of post-high clarity washed over me.

Of all the abilities I could have gotten, why did it have to be this fucking stupid one?

If it were simply a matter of regressing upon death, I would have left this clearing long ago and gone poking around everywhere.

Wasn’t regressing just from a cut in the undergrowth a bit much?

I’d considered wrapping clothes all around my body and heading out of the clearing, but then running into an enemy would be another problem. I couldn’t fight properly bundled up like that.

Then it suddenly occurred to me: wouldn’t simply walking around gathering information be worthwhile?

Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. I had nothing to lose anyway. I’d give it a try after my next regression. It was warm during the day, so people might give me their clothes if I asked.

“Excuse me...”

I was grinning to myself as I made plans when someone tapped my shoulder.

“... Can I help you?”

The moonlight was bright enough that I had no trouble seeing her face.

It was the bob-haired woman who had been crouching in a corner sniffling during the day. I remembered her because she had a cute face. Pretty women tended to stick in your memory, after all.

But why was she suddenly talking to me?

She smoothly extended both hands toward me, politely cupping them together.

“Do you... have anything to eat?”

“Oh.”

Her question made me realize that I was absolutely starving too.

Come to think of it, of course I was. Ever since being summoned to the tower, I’d been swinging a sword and sweating buckets without eating a thing.

“... Sorry. I don’t really have anything either...”

“Oh... Okay...”

The bob-haired woman walked away looking dejected. Judging by how she immediately approached someone else, she must have been seriously hungry.

“... Fuck.”

I must have read too many academy stories and regret-and-obsession romances lately. I’d completely lost my touch.

When you were summoned to a tower like this, your first concern had to be food, clothing, and shelter.

And the most important thing of all was water.

People could last quite a while without food, but not even three days without water.

Come to think of it, I’d sweated a hell of a lot during the day.

I ran my tongue around the inside of my mouth. It was bone-dry.

“...”

Had I been so excited about being able to regress that I hadn’t even noticed the state of my own body?

Thinking that I might have to regress soon, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Morning came.

“Fuck.”

When I woke up, my throat felt like it was being torn apart. Apparently, I’d slept with my mouth open.

If I’d known I would end up transported into a tower, I would have gone to a doctor to fix that habit. I bitterly regretted it.

CLAP, CLAP!

The sudden clapping broke me out of my thoughts.

“All right, everyone. May I have your attention, please?”

A man with scattered gray hairs was clapping to draw everyone’s attention.

“Hello. My name is Park Cheoljin, and I’m a firefighter. Everyone, I don’t know whether this is someone’s idea of a prank or whether the world has turned upside down, but this certainly seems to be a real emergency. We’ve waited a day, and there’s still no sign of rescue.”

Park Cheoljin had a tiger-like presence. His body was covered in solid muscle, befitting a firefighter.

“If we stay here, we’ll all starve to death. I intend to leave this clearing and find a source of water. Would anyone like to join me?”

He radiated a powerful charisma. He didn’t seem to know much about status windows or the tower, but he looked strong as a person, quite apart from any of that.

“... A firefighter should be trustworthy.”

“... You mean it, right? You really are a firefighter?”

All the middle-aged and older people still in the clearing gathered around Park Cheoljin the firefighter. Some of the younger people did too.

“... Let’s go. Judging by how damp the ground is, there should be a river nearby.”

A group of roughly twenty people filed out of the clearing.

That left a few women too scared to go, a handful of oddballs, and me. Fewer than ten people altogether.

“...”

Come to think of it, the ponytailed woman who’d been swinging her sword was nowhere to be seen. Had she gone with Park Cheoljin?

“Let’s just get on with it.”

Things weren’t looking good. Hunger might damage my stomach lining and make me regress before long.

I decided to keep getting used to the sword until I regressed.

* * *

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It felt like roughly lunchtime.

“... Should I regress?”

My hunger had gotten pretty bad. So had my thirst.

Just as I was seriously considering regression...

RUSTLE.

I heard something pushing through the grass toward the clearing.

“...”

The cowardly women scurried away from the sound like startled cockroaches, while I gripped my sword and tensed my muscles.

Had a monster finally made it here? Or was it a wild animal?

Just as the hand gripping my sword grew slick with sweat...

“Huh?”

The person who emerged from the undergrowth was the ponytailed woman who had disappeared that morning.

“... Hmph.”

Amazingly, she was carrying a box of energy bars in one hand and a thirty-pack of 500-milliliter water bottles in the other.

“Uh... Wow! Miss! Can we... can we eat these?”

The bob-haired woman rushed over to her in a flurry of excitement.

Seeing the pleading look in her eyes, the ponytailed woman gave a small nod. She opened the packaging and handed out the food and water.

For the first time in a while, the people left in the clearing could fill their stomachs and quench their thirst.

“Miss! Miss! Where did you get all this?”

Apparently hoping to take this opportunity to befriend her, the bob-haired woman clung to her side.

“... I killed a monster, and its body disappeared. Food appeared in its place. It was too much for me to eat, so I just brought it back.”

So you only got food by defeating monsters. That was a common trope in tower-climbing stories.

But that quantity... was far too much. In the tower-climbing stories I knew, each monster only dropped enough food for one person.

I didn’t know the details, but the monster she’d defeated must have been quite powerful.

Yet she spoke so casually, as though she’d just picked the supplies up on her way back.

She was pretending otherwise, but it was clear she’d brought the food because she was worried about the people in the clearing.

I’d thought she was some crazy bitch swinging a sword in search of hidden rewards. Had she actually been a warmhearted good Samaritan all along?

“I want to help too!”

This was my chance.

I sprang to my feet and strode over to her.

“Please teach me swordsmanship! I want to become your student!”

“... Get lost.”

She whipped her head away and coldly rejected me.

But I wasn’t about to give up here.

Deep down, she was a kind, warmhearted person.

If I pleaded sincerely, there was a good chance she would accept me as her student.

“Please, I’m begging you! I need the strength to protect everyone too!”

I began my performance, shedding hot tears like a soldier enlisting to defend his country.

“Right now, I’m so weak I can’t even leave this clearing! It’s a regret that will haunt me forever! I want to get stronger too! I want to become strong and protect everyone!”

My voice was so desperate that even my own heart ached as I spoke.

It was so moving that tears welled in the eyes of the bob-haired woman listening beside us, but...

“I told you to get lost, didn’t I?”

WHOOSH!

Something flashed past my eyes so fast I could barely see it.

“Aaargh!”

Startled, I fell flat on my ass in an undignified heap. What was that?

The ponytailed woman slowly slid her sword back into its sheath.

She snapped at me in an icy voice.

“A student? I have no intention of taking one. And I didn’t bring the food to help you. Don’t get the wrong idea. Next time, it’ll be your neck.”

“...”

The bridge of my nose stung. When I touched it, blood came away on my fingertips.

Had she just swung her sword? So fast I couldn’t even see it?

Judging by her warning that my neck would be next, she had apparently only nicked my skin to warn me.

There was just one problem.

[You have taken damage.]

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

* * *

“Fuck! Where the hell am I?!”

“... Fuck.”

For me, that hadn’t been a warning at all.

A Word from the Author (Afterword)

Thank you for reading!

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