Chapter 8 - The Ponytail Woman Is Too Strong (4)

I regress.

“... I'll just get the essential explanations out of the way and move things along, okay? I don't want to do this either, but it's procedure. Can't be helped.”

'What went wrong? Oh. I put too much tension in my wrist.'

While the fairy babbles, I sort through what I've learned.

“Everyone! I don't know who's behind this, but a crisis like this is exactly when we need to stick together!”

I urge everyone to go fight the boss.

At first, I was so awkward that my lines changed over and over, but now I say the exact same thing every time.

It's practically a routine, I guess. The words feel like they come out automatically, without my even thinking.

After the speech, Choi Jiwon stops me.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

I swing my sword like mad, learning more and more.

“... I think I've given you enough of my time. I need to practice myself, so off you go.”

Once the lesson ends...

THUD!

[You have taken damage.]

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

I regress.

* * *

There were moments when I thought my spirit would break.

A devilish whisper tempted me every moment, telling me to give it all up.

But I regressed again.

And again.

And one day, after yet another repetition...

At last.

“Ha. Hahahaha.”

My sword reached the heavens.

“What the hell? Why did he stop swinging his sword and collapse laughing?”

'Must be having a nice dream. Wake him up.'

“Get up.”

TAP.

She gave him a gentle nudge with her toe, but Kim Junho didn't so much as twitch.

“... How annoying.”

THUD!

[You have taken damage.]

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

* * *

“Hmm... It's not bad, but...”

Choi Jiwon pondered, her eyes seeming to ask how she could say this without hurting my feelings.

“It's not bad. It's not bad, but... if you're asking whether it's enough to keep you from getting beaten up out there, then no... I'd like to help you a little longer, but it's time for my own training. Sorry.”

She patted my shoulder encouragingly, then began swinging her sword as I'd seen her do so many times before.

Normally, this would be my cue to regress, but I didn't even have the energy for that anymore.

“Ha... haha...”

I was an idiot. Not just your average idiot, either. I was a colossal fucking moron.

What made me so confident I could pull this off?

Three years? Three nonstop years of training? Me?

I was a bastard who couldn't even stick with studying for three years of high school, and I thought I'd swing a sword for three years? My old homeroom teacher would've snorted in disbelief.

I hadn't had the slightest idea of my own limits.

I wasn't a web-novel protagonist with an iron will.

I wasn't some vengeance-obsessed man willing to burn himself up to achieve his goal, nor was I a hero who'd regressed to resolve the regrets of his past life and save the world.

I was just... just an ordinary person.

I'd spent what felt like months swinging a sword, yet my talent was so pitiful I couldn't even earn a “decent.”

And it wasn't as if I had the mental fortitude to keep throwing myself at the challenge forever.

I lay spread-eagled on the dirt, utterly drained.

“...”

I wasn't a chosen hero.

I was just an average guy you could find anywhere.

Being suddenly dumped into a tower wasn't going to turn me into a whole new person.

* * *

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! SWISH!

Choi Jiwon was swinging her sword like mad.

'Jiwon.'

“Hmm?”

She stopped moving when her beloved sword, Whoosh, spoke to her.

She'd just begun to get a feel for it. Something had been lingering right at her fingertips, almost within reach.

But Whoosh would have known that too. It must have something truly important to say.

“What is it?” she asked, wiping away her sweat with the back of her forearm.

Whoosh could read her thoughts easily, but she still couldn't read all of its thoughts.

Probably because she wasn't used to her trait yet. That left her with the inconvenience of having to speak aloud like this.

'About that man from earlier. Kim Junho.'

“... Kim Junho?”

Kim Junho. The man she'd just taught swordsmanship.

She didn't know what his trait did, but he used a style of swordsmanship remarkably similar to her own.

Still, he ranked somewhere squarely between second-rate and third-rate. He wasn't worth paying attention to.

“What about him?”

That was why she couldn't understand why Whoosh was bringing him up.

'... Jiwon.'

“What is it already?”

'The trait you acquired has sharpened your senses dozens of times over.'

“... So? I know that.”

'That means the world you're sensing now is very different from the world you sensed before.'

Choi Jiwon tapped her foot impatiently.

“I know that. Why do you think I'm repeating these boring downward cuts? To bridge the gap between my perception and the real world. Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?”

Whoosh was a sword and couldn't move, but she got the impression it was giving a small shake of its head.

'As far as your own body goes... you're right. But I'm talking about other people.'

Choi Jiwon was a master swordswoman.

As such, she'd already adapted to her own body to some extent. Martial arts began with understanding one's own body, after all.

'Right now... your standards are much higher. That boy's movements weren't bad.'

But it hadn't even been five hours since her senses and eyesight had sharpened.

She was in that “the world looks so slow” state. In a way, that was only natural...

The problem was that she'd applied her heightened standards to Kim Junho.

His every movement had seemed sluggish and needlessly frustrating because she wasn't yet accustomed to her new senses.

“... Really?”

Choi Jiwon realized she'd misjudged him.

Turning her head slightly, she caught sight of Kim Junho lying limply on the dirt over there.

“...”

He was clearly despondent because of what she'd said. His eyes were empty, all the light gone from them.

“... I should apologize and set him straight, even if it's a little late.”

Just as Choi Jiwon was about to approach him and tell him the truth, Kim Junho raised his fist high.

THUD!

And slammed it straight into his own chest.

[You have taken damage.]

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

* * *

I'd made up my mind.

This time, I wasn't going to do anything.

People were going to die?

Fuck that. I'd decided I wasn't going to care.

This timeline would disappear once I regressed anyway.

What I desperately needed right now was some comforting rest. I'd decided to just relax without a care in the world.

“Hello! Greetings, you inferior humans, busily wasting your lives away! A pleasure to meet you!”

I paid the fairy no attention when it appeared.

I did nothing when it handed out weapons, when people shouted for their status windows, or when most of them left the clearing.

I intended to wait until Choi Jiwon brought food.

“... Yaaawn.”

This time, I really wasn't going to do anything.

Really.

* * *

I knew Choi Jiwon would bring food if I just waited a day and a half.

All I had to do, then, was kill time and endure the hunger.

“... What are you looking at?”

“You digging, mister.”

WHUMP!

“Ack! Why are you throwing the dirt this way?!”

“Get lost, you little punk!”

I stared at the man busily digging away and ended up getting a mouthful of the dirt he shoveled out.

“Waaah...”

“Why are you crying?”

I tried chatting up the sniffling bob-haired woman, only to retreat to my spot when Choi Jiwon glared at me while swinging her sword.

I rummaged around a little beside the man searching through the weapon pile, too. (For the record, I didn't find any hidden rewards.)

Anyway, I made excellent use of my time wasting it.

I was clearly born to be a loafer.

I'd literally done nothing. Why was I so happy?

It occurred to me that if I found a floor with a bed later on, repeatedly regressing and endlessly throwing my time away like this might not be so bad.

I had more time than anyone else in this tower, after all.

And so the night passed.

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

The fierce, tiger-like firefighter Choi Cheolsun left with the middle-aged and older people.

Around the time I was lying there with distant human screams as my background music...

“Oh... Wow! Hey! Can... can I eat this?”

Choi Jiwon arrived with food.

I remembered getting this far in a previous run.

I'd gone overboard asking her to take me as her student, gotten hit, and regressed.

But this time was different.

How, you ask?

I intended to sit quietly and accept my food, just like everyone else in the clearing.

“... This is good.”

As I quietly munched on an energy bar, a smile naturally spread across my face.

Again, I was happy despite having done absolutely nothing.

Now this was recuperation. This was a vacation.

A little gift to myself for all the hard work I'd put into wielding a sword.

And part of me was curious, too.

Was this clearing really a safe zone?

The “towers” I knew were malicious toward humans.

There was no way one would let us settle down in one place like this.

“...”

If I was curious... I'd have to find out.

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