Chapter 76 - The Regressor Takes a Beating (7)

THUD!

The stone door we had entered through closed. We were now sealed inside.

"... What a load of shit."

The tutorial had hidden elements. Defeating the seemingly unbeatable Minotaur had earned us a reward.

Floor 2 had hidden elements, too. Subduing the city’s ruler let you claim a Diamond reward—a reward above the other rewards.

And now Floor 3 had hidden elements as well. This wasn't some game in a web novel. Did some hidden whatever really have to pop up every time I climbed a floor? It was ridiculous.

"..."

Putting aside my complaints about whatever god or Archangel had designed this tower, I cautiously looked around at the others.

"Uh, uhh..."

Ahn Gyeongjun's teeth were chattering, making his nerves painfully obvious.

"..."

Dok Suhui stared intently at the red door, her expression rigid.

"..."

"... What?"

And then there was Kang Chan, whose eyes met mine.

As I'd expected, he seemed to have had the same thought as me and was observing everyone else's reactions.

Four palms on the door to the right. One palm on the door to the left.

The meaning was clear.

<Final Trial>

-Passing through the doors before you will clear Floor 3. However, only one person may pass through the red door. Passing through the red door grants an additional reward.

A message window appeared before my eyes, confirming my suspicions.

After emphasizing cooperation all this time, did they want us to fight each other now? I couldn't shake the feeling that this was devious.

"..."

Should I kill them all and take the rewards for myself? I needed to check the red door's reward at least once, anyway. They'd come back to life when I regressed, so—

No. No, that wasn't right. Think like a normal person. If I killed everyone here, my mental state really would spiral out of control.

My eyes moved over the message floating right in front of me, reading it carefully before turning to the two doors.

Did we really have to fight? Wasn't there another way?

"There is?"

There was. A way out.

We... might not need to fight after all.

"Um... hear me out for a moment."

Everyone turned to me.

"You can all see the message, right? The part saying only one person can pass through the red door."

The message before my eyes clearly stated that only one person could pass through the red door.

At first glance, it sounded like an invitation to fight each other. As though we were supposed to kill the other three, take all the rewards here, and leave Floor 3 with an extra reward to boot.

"First of all, there's no need for us to fight. If anyone was thinking of killing everyone else, you don't have to."

From what I'd seen, none of the four of us were bad people... but you never knew. I continued with a slight smile.

"Opening the door doesn't immediately clear Floor 3. It says we have to 'pass through' it to clear the floor. The four of us can open the regular door first, and then one person can open the red door. There's nothing stopping us."

It was a little bit of wordplay. Put a blood-red door in place, herd people into a frightening sealed room, and suddenly display a message. Anyone would feel rushed and short of breath in a situation like this.

But I had consciously thought it through logically, and my 'I can always regress' mindset let me see the bigger picture. There was no need to fight in this final room.

If opening a door immediately cleared Floor 3... whoever wanted to enter the red door would have had to kill everyone else. The moment one person went through it, the other three would lose their means of clearing Floor 3. There was no way they'd just let that person go.

But this tower had set the condition as 'the moment you pass through.' In my opinion, it was an intentional loophole. A loophole designed to provoke people who had worked together into fighting, then let the tower protest, 'But you could have cleared it without fighting!'

Let me emphasize this again: this tower was built for the purpose of 'judging humanity.' Despite that, it kept steering people into situations where they had no choice but to fight... but peaceful solutions did exist.

"Let's resolve this rationally. We'll open the regular door first, then decide who goes through the red door with rock-paper-scissors or something. That should do it, right?"

Everyone would take their share of the rewards. Then we'd leave who went through the red door to chance. A logical, reasonable solution befitting citizens of a democracy.

Of course... I intended to grind through attempts until I was the one who got to enter the red door. I had to get that reward, didn't I?

"... I think that's a good idea, too!"

Dok Suhui nodded. She approached the stone door first, then looked back at us.

"Come on, everyone."

She urged us over with a grin.

"All right, Kang Chan, you go here. Gyeongjun, here. Junho, here..."

When we'd first entered Floor 3, she'd seemed quiet, only speaking when she had something to say... but she was more outgoing than I'd thought.

"... Ready?"

The four of us gathered and placed our hands on the damp stone door.

RUMBLE.

The stone door moved, revealing a blue portal. Entering that portal would probably take us to Floor 3.

Floor 3 was over. All that remained was deciding who would claim the extra reward from the 'red door.'

"All right, shall we play rock-paper-scissors, then?"

"Hmm... but with four people, doesn't rock-paper-scissors have a few too many variables?"

"We don't know what the reward is... but this is the highest difficulty, so let's choose carefully."

"Hmm... drawing lots, then? But do we have anything we can use for lots...?"

"My legs hurt. Let's sit down while we talk."

The atmosphere was friendly.

Dok Suhui kept smiling as she suggested one method after another. Ahn Gyeongjun looked a little awkward, but actively joined in. Even Kang Chan, who stood there expressionlessly, firmly rejected suggestions he disagreed with, saying, "I don't think that would work."

Any one of us could have gotten greedy, but no one showed any sign of it.

The reason was simple.

Floor 3's theme was cooperation, and we'd made our way through it watching each other's backs. A curious bond had formed between us.

Sure, I'd come up with the strategies through repeated regressions... but all four of us had put them into practice.

We'd joined forces to defeat the wolf and made it through the mirror maze leaning on one another's shoulders.

The arrow traps and the golem fight had been solo performances by me and Kang Chan, respectively... but our memories of joining forces against a common enemy, the tower, weren't going anywhere.

"What else is there...?"

"Why don't we take our time thinking about it? The reward isn't going anywhere, is it?"

The bastard who'd built this tower probably wanted us to turn on one another here. But he was wrong. Not every human was a fucking asshole.

Maybe ten minutes had passed since we'd started discussing it.

"All right, shall we settle on a method? So far, we've got rock-paper-scissors, drawing lots, rolling dice..."

Sitting in a circle, our discussion was finally drawing to a close.

"Shall we stand up while we talk?"

Ahn Gyeongjun rose from his seat, brushing off his pants.

"... Huh?"

Suddenly, a bewildered look crossed his face. He dropped to one knee and braced a hand against the floor.

"... What's wrong?"

Alarmed, I was just about to approach him when—

"Huh??"

A large piece of cloth suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, blocking my view. It hadn't flown in from somewhere or risen out of anything. It had simply appeared.

SLASH!

It wasn't a rationally considered action. It was closer to a reflex. Before I knew it, I'd drawn the sword at my waist and cut through the cloth blocking my view.

And the instant I cut through it—

WHOOSH!

A dagger suffused with an ominous glow came flying from beyond the severed cloth.

"...!"

My reflexes, honed by all those runs through the trap corridor, let me dodge it, but...

"Huh?"

The dagger's trajectory hadn't been aimed at me in the first place. It was aimed at Kang Chan behind me.

"?!"

ROOOOAR!

Kang Chan unleashed his killing intent as he dodged the dagger with its ominously wavering glow. An immense wave of killing intent shot out in every direction.

But just when I thought he'd dodged it, the dagger shot at him seemed to pass him by, then suddenly burst with light.

FWASH!

The instant the dagger flashed, a transparent barrier surrounded Kang Chan.

It was made of something resembling glass, enclosing his body in a sphere.

The design felt familiar. Somewhere... I'd seen it somewhere...

"... The Goblin Shaman?"

Yes. The sphere that had sealed the Minotaur had looked exactly like that.

Words flashed through my mind without forming coherent thoughts, and a jumble of emotions left my head spinning.

But before any of that...

"..."

My body was tingling. My senses were dulled, and I felt vaguely dizzy.

I remembered Ahn Gyeongjun dropping to one knee earlier. A sideways glance showed me that Kang Chan was fine. He was merely trapped in the barrier.

["It isn't lethal. It's a paralytic poison. But it gradually accumulates in the body."]

That was what the possessed Ahn Gyeongjun had said.

Paralytic poison. Probably the same stuff that had coated the needles fired in the trap corridor.

But when? We'd passed the trap corridor ages ago. Had I eaten something? No. Was there paralytic poison gas in the air? If so, Kang Chan should have been paralyzed, too.

Had I... touched something?

But the only thing I'd touched since entering this room was...

"... The stone door."

But why? Why?

I tightened my grip on the sword that kept threatening to slip from my hand and slowly raised my head.

"..."

And found myself meeting Dok Suhui's cold gaze.

At the very end. Just before we cleared Floor 3.

Dok Suhui had betrayed us.

A Word from the Author (Afterword)

In the original version, Dok Suhui rambled on with far too much explanation...

I felt she came across as cocky and overly relaxed without being compelling, so I revised it...

I rewrote this because I think it's an important part, but I'm not sure whether you'll be satisfied with it.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

I'll do my best with the writing. Thank you, as always, for reading.

Read Next Chapter