Chapter 60 - The Regressor Loves Sweet Payback (2)

[Entering Floor 3-5.]

"... Get up, rookie."

The instant I heard someone's growling voice, I strained every muscle in my body and sprang to my feet. Apparently, I'd been unconscious, sprawled on the floor.

"... Fuck."

No. This wasn't right. This couldn't be happening. This was complete bullshit. This wasn't fair.

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

* * *

"... Get up, rookie."

"Ah."

A groan escaped me, and my eyes squeezed themselves shut as though refusing to look at the sight right in front of me.

Cold reason was whipping me into accepting reality and coming up with a plan... but my emotions were screaming like mad, 'It's a full-blown panic!!! Run for your liiiife!!!'

Anyone who's read a few web novels will know that even infinite regression comes in different varieties.

First, there's the kind where dying sends you all the way back to your goo-goo-ga-ga days.

And second, there's the kind where your save point updates once you meet certain conditions.

Mine was the latter. After all, it came with the condition, "Regress to the moment you first entered each floor."

That was why, after clearing a floor, I could decide whether to regress or move on to the next one and lock the past in place...

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

The message I'd seen while regressing had pronounced my death sentence.

It felt like getting my enlistment date over KakaoTalk. Like falling asleep with a leveraged crypto position open, then waking up to an email saying, "Your position has been liquidated." Like opening an exam paper and finding more questions I couldn't answer than ones I could.

The blood drained from my face, yet, paradoxically, my head grew hot. My surroundings spun, and my breathing quickened a little.

The opening line of the novel The Martian flashed through a corner of my mind.

'I'm fucked.'

How much time had passed?

As I sat blankly staring at the stone wall, practically meditating before it, I felt someone tap my shoulder.

"Excuse me..."

The one tapping my shoulder wasn't the owner of that growling voice from earlier, but a frail-looking bookworm.

If Ahn Gyeongnam, whom I'd met in the tutorial, had seemed coolheaded and smart, the man in front of me looked timid. He was tall and lanky, his face was beyond fair—it was pale—and his voice was barely audible.

"Could you come over for a moment...? I think we all need to check something together..."

His voice trembled, as though he'd summoned an enormous amount of courage to approach a man drooling as he stared vacantly at a wall.

"... Sure."

Only then did I pull myself together and hesitantly rise to my feet.

What had happened had happened. What mattered was how I dealt with it.

My save point was screwed up. That was a fact. I was now tackling the hardest difficulty alone, separated from Choi Jiwon, and even if I regressed, I'd return to the moment I entered this difficulty rather than the moment I first entered Floor 3.

Of course, thinking about it rationally, I hadn't really lost all that much. I just couldn't get carried by Choi Jiwon anymore. All I had to do was clear Floor 3-5 on my own and collect some dazzling rewards, right?

Depending on how hard Floor 3-5 was, my future could range anywhere from a cozy feel-good story to a bleak tale of suffering... but I could worry about that when the time came. There was no reason to start trembling with worry already.

"..."

Following the beanpole in silence, I slowly studied my surroundings.

This place looked like an extension of the cave with the five doors from earlier.

Damp, dark, and cramped, with only the torches mounted here and there providing light.

"W-we're here..."

After we followed the narrow, winding cave passage for a while, it suddenly opened up.

It was a circular chamber, its edges rounded as though someone had deliberately carved away the cave walls. A man and a woman were waiting for us there.

"..."

Straight ahead stood a rough stone door like the one I'd touched to enter Floor 3-5...

Glancing behind me, I saw three other passages similar to the one I'd just emerged from. Apparently, Floor 3 had been designed for four people.

"..."

"..."

While I took stock of the situation, the two people who'd been waiting here glared at me in silence.

"..."

Not to be outdone, I started glaring back at the pair of bastards. But with two of them, it was a little awkward deciding where to look, so I compromised and glared at the midpoint between them.

"Um, well..."

The atmosphere rapidly froze over. Just as the flustered bookworm began stammering, trying to do something to mediate...

"Hm."

The man glaring at me looked away first.

"..."

Then the woman slowly withdrew her gaze as well.

As the explosive tension finally subsided and the bookworm breathed a sigh of relief...

'... Hmm.'

My mind was busy working away.

I was on the hardest difficulty of Floor 3. Naturally, nobody in their right mind would come here.

They either had absolute confidence in their abilities, or they mistook themselves for the protagonist and lacked self-awareness... One of those two, I figured.

Viewed that way, the man and woman in front of me seemed like the confident type. Their presence—or should I call it their bearing? There was something different about the air around them. Sharp as a finely honed blade.

"H-has everyone calmed down a little now?"

The bookworm, on the other hand, had so many openings that I could hardly believe he was skilled. Yet he didn't seem like the sort to choose the hardest difficulty without thinking it through...

"Then... c-could you take a look at this door?"

I stopped pondering and turned toward the rough stone door as he asked. Four palm-shaped recesses had been carved into it.

"I-I think... it only works if we all put our hands here together... They're all shaped like right hands, so I don't think one person can fill more than one..."

Just as he'd said, they were all right-hand shapes. Four people gathered in the cave. Four palm-shaped recesses in front of us.

"I'm not sure, but... m-maybe Floor 3 requires cooperation? Rather than everyone getting their own rewards like on Floor 2..."

The bookworm finished saying his piece, his voice trembling throughout.

Privately, I agreed. Requiring four right hands just to move forward probably implied that we should cooperate instead of quarreling or fighting.

"..."

"..."

The man and woman listening in silence gave slight nods, apparently agreeing.

"S-so, on that note... shouldn't we learn some basic information about each other...?"

And so, when the bookworm suggested sharing some basic information, nobody objected. We might be potential competitors, but at least on Floor 3, we had to cooperate.

"First... my name is Ahn Gyeongjun..."

"... Ahn Gyeongjun? Are you related to Ahn Gyeongnam, by any chance...?"

"Uh, y-yes... He's my older brother... How do you know him...?"

"..."

I'd only taken a shot because their names sounded similar. Ahn Gyeongnam, whom I'd briefly crossed paths with in the tutorial. The bookworm in front of me was his younger brother, Ahn Gyeongjun.

But now that he'd asked how I knew him... I struggled to find an answer. I'd saved his life once, but my regression had erased that.

"Well... a friend mentioned his unusual name, so I remembered it. I suppose he's a friend of a friend."

"Oh, I-I see... What a small world..."

After that brief bit of bonding, Ahn Gyeongjun cleared his throat and continued.

"I... fight with a spear. Spear throwing is my specialty..."

Spear throwing, huh? Not just wielding a spear, but throwing one—that wasn't common even in fiction. I thought it was unusual.

Once Ahn Gyeongjun finished his explanation...

"I'm Kim Junho. I use a sword."

My turn passed quickly, and then it was the turn of the woman who'd been silent all this time.

Black hair cut in a bob that barely reached her shoulders. Catlike eyes with slightly upturned corners. A body as sleek and agile as a leopard's.

Where Choi Jiwon gave a cold impression, this woman looked sharp. The sort who seemed likely to get irritated a lot.

"... Dok Suhui. I use daggers."

The woman—no, Dok Suhui—answered with barely a movement of her lips.

"..."

Her name sounded almost like the Korean word for "eagle," but I didn't bother saying that aloud.

More importantly, daggers, huh? She used a pretty unusual weapon too.

From what I'd seen in the tutorial, over sixty percent of people picked swords, and another thirty-five percent picked spears...

Were the lunatics who made it to Floor 3-5 just that far removed from normal?

And so, our brief introductions had reached the final person.

"..."

A handsome face. Hair cropped short in a crew cut. But his masklike lack of expression and deeply sunken gaze gave him a dangerous air.

He felt like a human weapon, as though his entire body were lethal. There was no doubt about it. This man was strong.

"... Name's Kang Chan. I use my fists."

Kang Chan spoke in a low, almost growling voice. After finishing his introduction, he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

I remembered hearing that voice. It was the one that said, ["Get up, rookie,"​] when I regressed.

But Kang Chan... Kang Chan... I felt like I'd heard that name somewhere...

"Uh, oh...!"

At that moment, Ahn Gyeongjun's eyes gradually widened until he looked like a startled rabbit.

"K-Kang Chan? The actual Kang Chan???"

"..."

Dok Suhui didn't openly react either, but she bit her lip slightly, as though she recognized the name.

Kang Chan. Kang Chan. I was sure I'd heard it before...

"Are you the one from the tutorial..."

"Ah."

The moment Ahn Gyeongjun mentioned the tutorial, I remembered a post I'd seen on the forums.

Kang Chan. If Choi Jiwon was the hottest Korean name right now, this man would be second.

"The man who took down the Tutorial fairy... with a single punch...!"

Because he was the "Tutorial Fairy Slayer."

A Word from the Author (Author's Afterword)

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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