Chapter 77 - The Regressor Takes a Beating (8)

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

"...!"

I forced my paralyzed, unresponsive legs forward and lunged at Dok Suhui.

"Traitor!!!"

The possessed Ahn Gyeongjun summoned his wooden spear, his eyes wide. Apparently, the indiscriminate burst of killing intent Kang Chan had released had allowed the spirit to possess him.

"..."

Just like the piece of cloth from earlier, something appeared above Dok Suhui's hands without warning.

One was a chunk of the monstrous wolf's heart; the other was a fragment of the golem we had just destroyed.

They instantly turned into light and seeped into her armor—the same light she had produced whenever she used Enchant.

WHOOSH!

"Hup!"

Just as her armor began to glow, I swung my sword with the flat of the blade turned toward her.

She darted backward, dodging my sword.

"?!"

Even paralyzed, I hadn't expected to miss.

I had watched Dok Suhui through dozens, hundreds of regressions. I had observed her movements and her instincts in combat.

I had crossed swords with Choi Jiwon. Dok Suhui wasn't strong. Her physical capabilities had been close to an ordinary person's.

Then...

My gaze naturally shifted to her armor.

She had just enchanted it with the monstrous wolf's heart and a golem fragment. That seemed to have dramatically improved her physical abilities.

"Traitoooor!!!"

But dodging my sword wasn't enough.

The possessed Ahn Gyeongjun hurled his spear. It flew almost too fast to see and buried itself in Dok Suhui's side.

CRUNCH!

"Ghurk...!"

Her face twisted as she coughed up blood.

Perhaps the golem-fragment enchantment was working, because she wasn't blown to pieces. Still, her body flew through the air and slammed into the wall. The impact knocked a torch from its bracket, plunging the room into gloom.

"... Ugh..."

She gritted her teeth, and a low-grade potion appeared above her palm. It was already uncorked, so she immediately poured it onto her wound.

"You think I'll let you heal?!"

The possessed Ahn Gyeongjun wasn't about to waste this opening. He thrust his hand out to the right, intending to summon back the spear he had thrown, just as he had done before.

"?!"

But despite his outstretched hand, no spear appeared in his grasp. In fact, the spear embedded in Dok Suhui's side had vanished. All that remained was a hole streaming blood.

"...!"

Losing his spear momentarily threw the possessed Ahn Gyeongjun off, but he immediately charged her. I had no intention of wasting this opening either, so I forced my unresponsive legs to move.

Of course... I could simply regress. The moment I did, I would have an absolute advantage in information. But right now, I felt I wouldn't be satisfied until I subdued Dok Suhui and heard the whole story.

I needed to hear why she had betrayed us and started all this bullshit.

"...!"

Pale from blood loss, Dok Suhui backed away. The potion had dealt with the immediate crisis, but she was far from fine. She had been exposed directly to Kang Chan's killing intent and taken a direct hit from Ahn Gyeongjun's spear.

She retreated, and Ahn Gyeongjun and I pursued.

WHOOSH!

A glowing dagger flew out of the darkness. It was certainly dangerous, but after making it through that trap corridor, it wasn't anything I couldn't block.

"...!"

No. I abruptly stopped the sword I had raised to knock it aside. There was no way that was an ordinary dagger. She had probably enchanted it with Explosion. Hadn't I seen her play mind games with the monstrous wolf before?

I instinctively twisted, trying to get out of the blast radius, but...

My foot slipped.

I lost my footing and went airborne.

"Oh, you fucking...!"

The floor had always been slippery, but not enough to make me slip like this. Glancing down, I saw that the cave floor was shinier than usual. Dok Suhui must have done something as she retreated.

"Ugh..."

I barely managed to twist at the waist and land on my feet... but my soles were already slick all over. Judging by the smell, it was oil. The dagger had distracted me, and the darkened cave had kept me from noticing right away.

A tingling sensation spread.

The stinging in the areas that had touched the oil gradually intensified. Apparently, she had enchanted the oil with paralytic poison.

"Traitoooor!"

Ahn Gyeongjun had fallen for the oil trick too, but he immediately kicked off his shoes and charged her barefoot.

However much her physical abilities had improved, she couldn't match the explosive power he displayed while possessed. Nor was there enough paralytic poison to stop the man bellowing like a barbarian.

"...!"

WHOOSH!

Dok Suhui tried to fight back with a dagger in each hand, but the possessed Ahn Gyeongjun twisted strangely to evade the blades and drove his knee hard into her stomach.

THWACK!

"Gah...!"

The blow must have been tremendous. Her body lifted off the ground, and blood sprayed from her mouth again.

"... Ngh..."

She sprawled on the floor, unable even to think of summoning another potion.

"... Ghurk."

But Ahn Gyeongjun couldn't move either.

His body shuddered, and he collapsed where he stood, his extremities twitching faintly. The paralytic poison seemed to have spread throughout his body.

"..."

Looking closely, I saw a trickle of blood running down his knee—the very spot he had struck her with.

"... A needle?"

I had a fair idea of what had happened. She must have summoned a poisoned needle from the trap corridor onto her armor just before the blow landed. Thanks to her golem-fragment enchantment, it hadn't pierced her. Instead, it had apparently sunk deep into Ahn Gyeongjun's comparatively soft knee.

"Hah, hah, hah..."

Apparently too weak even to drink a potion, Dok Suhui converted one into light and applied it to herself. Her leather armor, which had shone with a cold brilliance, had now lost its color.

"Whew, whew..."

I staggered to my feet as well, barely managing to grip my sword. All sensation had vanished from my body, and I was dizzy as hell. Simply put, my body wouldn't obey me. I fumbled for the elixir inside my clothes, but I couldn't even tell what I was touching.

"..."

I glanced toward Kang Chan, trapped inside the barrier, but...

"... My Status window has been sealed."

Apparently, there was nothing he could do either.

"Hah, hah, hah..."

"Whew, whew..."

Both of us were battered wrecks. Our gazes met.

After looking into her eyes for a moment, I asked flatly,

"... Does your trait give you an inventory?"

"...!"

Her breathing stopped for a moment, then resumed.

She hadn't answered... but I was certain I was right.

The cloth appearing out of thin air. The wolf's heart. The golem fragment. The potions. The oil. The poisoned needles. I'd have to be an idiot not to notice.

Inventories were a common trope in fiction with status windows. People pulled weapons from them, stored items in them, and used them for all sorts of everyday conveniences.

In other words, there would be nothing strange about Dok Suhui having an inventory or a pocket dimension.

"... Do you have two traits? Inventory and Enchant?"

"... It's a function of the Inventory trait. Not a separate trait."

She answered readily enough. We were talking, but we both had the same motive: stall for time and recover our strength.

"... Why didn't you use the paralytic poison on Kang Chan?"

"... I thought he'd notice."

Kang Chan was currently an empty shell who couldn't use his punch, but from Dok Suhui's perspective, he must have been the greatest threat.

So she had neutralized him first, then taken on Ahn Gyeongjun and me. With the wolf's heart, the golem fragment, and her inventory ability, she must have judged she stood a chance.

She thought Kang Chan would notice the poison instantly, so she had only poisoned Ahn Gyeongjun and me. She had probably applied it to the palm-shaped recesses in the stone door. It had started when she assigned us our positions.

Then she had kept us seated for the discussion so we wouldn't notice the poison spreading. The finishing touch was storing Ahn Gyeongjun's spear in her inventory after it struck her. She healed the wound with a potion, forcing Ahn Gyeongjun and Kim Junho into close combat.

I didn't know when she'd come up with it... but it was a remarkably well-crafted plan. One that had already nearly succeeded.

"..."

I had plenty of questions.

Why did she have the Goblin Shaman's barrier, which she seemed to have obtained in the tutorial? Had she brought the oil and cloth from the real world in her inventory? Had her cheerful demeanor been a lie all along? Why was she trying only to subdue us rather than kill us?

But something else mattered more than any of that.

"... Why are you doing this?"

Why?

More than anything, I wanted to know the reason.

We had been working together and making good progress through Floor 3.

We could have simply shared the rewards with smiles and laughter.

Why betray us at the very end?

What possible reason was there to expend a valuable item trapping Kang Chan and fight a bloody battle against Ahn Gyeongjun and me?

"... Because it's something I have to do."

After a brief hesitation, she gave an oddly disconnected answer.

"... I don't expect you to understand. I know what I'm doing is wrong. And I know how extraordinary the three of you are."

"... Then why?"

"... Because I have to be the one to clear the tower. No one else."

"..."

"I have to take all the rewards and get stronger. That's why I betrayed you. Even knowing it was a gamble."

She spoke calmly. When she placed her trembling hand on a chest in the center of the room, it vanished into thin air.

"Ha, haha..."

All I could do was laugh in disbelief. Her reason was just that absurd.

"For starters... you're fucking dead."

For an instant, I wanted to kill her, but I slowly calmed myself. I couldn't just kill her outright.

"Here I come."

I advanced toward her, one careful step at a time. As I forced my paralyzed body to stay upright, I made sure to keep my eyes wide and fixed ahead.

The difference between us was simple. My achievement level had given me fucking high stats, so even paralyzed, I could still control my body to some extent. Naturally, I recovered quickly too.

Her stats, on the other hand, seemed abysmal. She recovered slowly and still couldn't keep herself upright.

"..."

Using her inventory, she spread oil on the floor, set needles upright, obscured my vision with cloth, and even erected golem fragments like rocks to trip over, but...

"That won't work."

Those tactics wouldn't work on me. Now that I knew things might suddenly appear out of thin air, there was no reason to fall for them.

Step by step, I closed the distance.

"Don't you have a tank or something in that inventory? I think you'll need at least that much to stop me."

One step.

"Blocking my vision with cloth was a fresh idea... But why cloth? Something like a thick mattress could actually stop me, too. I guess your inventory has a capacity limit?"

One step.

"First... let's start by beating you up a little. I'll hear you out afterward."

At last, only a single step remained between us.

"... Kim Junho."

"... What?"

"... Look up."

A shadow fell over me.

"... Oh."

I looked up to find a large wooden chest hanging over my head. It was the one she had put into her inventory earlier.

And with my body paralyzed... there was no way I could dodge it.

"Fuck."

THUD.

[You have taken damage.]

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

A Word from the Author (Author's Afterword)

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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