CH 3

Chapter 3: Regressor is too weak (3)

“Haah!”

swoop!

I swung the sword with all my might, but a somewhat weak sound came out.

It was an experiment to see if the grass surrounding the vacant lot could be cut, but the results were disheartening.

Whether it was because of my lack of strength or lack of skill, the grass lay as it was without being cut.

The fact that the sword I used was not an extremely sharp one also contributed to such disappointing results.

“It sucks.”

I tried it once thinking that it would produce a cool scene from a martial arts comic and many reeds would be cut off when I swung the sword. But it seemed that my expectations were too much for a beginner who had only been holding the sword for less than a day.

"It's not easy, it's not easy at all."

Apparently, the tower had given me the ability to regress, but not the ability to wield a sword.

Should I just give up and practice with a spear like the one I picked up earlier?

No, at the highest point, the sword is the ultimate king.      

The only thing I have in abundance is time anyway. I can’t give up here.

“…”

As if the sun was about to set, the sky was turning red.

The first night in the tower had arrived.

The night in the tower was cozier than expected.

It was indeed much colder than during the day, but it didn't seem like a big problem to fall asleep in the slightly chilly atmosphere.

The only problem was that there was no pillow or blanket.

I guess I will have to get used to it eventually.

"...sigh."

As I tossed and turned, a deep philosophical mood came over me.

Why did I have to acquire such an as*hole ability?

If it was just a simple death regression, I would have left this vacant lot and wandered around long ago.

Isn’t it too much to regress just by a slight cut?

I also thought about wrapping clothes all over my body and heading out of the clearing, but if I went around like that, encountering enemies would become a problem.

After all, it's impossible to fight properly with your clothes wrapped tightly around you.

But… wouldn’t it already be a big help if I could wander around and gather information like that?

Thinking about it, it seemed like a good idea.

There's nothing to lose anyway. When I regress this time, I'll give it a try. 

It's warm during the day, so if I ask for clothes, others might be willing to give it to me.

"Excuse me..."

As I was making plans and chuckling to myself, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“… What are you doing?”

Due to the moonlight being bright, there was no problem confirming her face

It was the short-haired girl who had been sitting in the corner and sobbing during the day.

I remembered her because her face was cute. 

Normally, beautiful women tend to stick in my memory. So, it was no surprise I remembered her. But…

Why was this girl suddenly talking to me?

The girl hesitantly presented her hands in front of me.

"if… Do you have anything to eat?”

“Ah.”

After hearing her words, I realized that I was also very hungry.

Come to think of it, I had been sweating and swinging my sword since I was summoned to the tower, but I hadn't eaten anything. 

“…Sorry. Me too... ”

"Ah… yes…”

The short-haired girl left with a gloomy face. Judging from the fact that she immediately went to talk to someone else, it didn't seem like she was feeling just a normal level of hunger.

"Damn it."

These days, I must have read too many generic academy-possession novels. The survival intuitions were all dead; 

When summoned to a tower like this, the first thing to worry about was food, clothing, and shelter. 

Among them, the most important thing was water.

A person can withstand quite a long time without food, but cannot even last three days without water.

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

As I tried to moisten my dry mouth with my tongue, it was completely parched.

“…”

I was so excited to be a regressor that I didn't even realize the condition of my own body.

But thinking that I might have to regress sooner or later, I slowly fell asleep.

.

.

.

.

The morning came.

"Shit."

When I woke up, it felt like my throat was being ripped apart. 

It looks like I slept with my mouth open.

If I knew I was going to be stuck in the Tower, I would have fixed my habits even if it meant going to the hospital. 

I regret it so much.

Clap, clap!

An abrupt sound of clapping interrupted my musing.

"Please pay attention, everyone."

A man with sparse gray hair spoke as he clapped his hands.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Park Cheol-jin, an incumbent firefighter. Guys, I don't know if this is someone's prank or if the world has been really turned upside down, but it seems like this is a real situation... I've been waiting all day, but there's no sign of any rescue team.”

Park Cheol-jin gave the impression of a tiger. Perhaps because he was a firefighter, his whole body was covered with tight muscles.

“If we stay here like this, everyone will starve to death. I am thinking of leaving this vacant lot in search of a water source. Anyone want to join me?”

With his strong charisma, Park Cheol-jin exuded an air of authority. He didn't seem to know much about the status window or the tower, but he appeared like he was a strong, experienced human being.

“… If you're a firefighter, you're someone worth trusting.”

"...Is it really true? You're a real firefighter, right?"

All the middle-aged and elderly people remaining in the vacant lot gathered around firefighter Park Cheol-jin. So did some young people.

“… let's go. Judging by the moist ground, there must be a river nearby.”

With Park Cheol-jin in the lead, the group consisting of about 20 people left the vacant lot.

Only a few scared women and some weirdos remained, along with me.

Combined, there were no more than 10 people left.

“…”

Come to think of it, the ponytail girl who was wielding the sword earlier was nowhere to be seen either. Did she also follow the firefighter Park Cheol-jin?

"Sigh. Let's do what I can."

The situation wasn't good. Soon, hunger might cause me to regress and return to yesterday.

Without being able to leave the vacant lot, there was nothing I could do about that. 

So, I just decided to get used to the sword until I regressed.

.

.

.

I didn't know how much time had passed - Perhaps lunchtime…?

"... Should I go back?"

Hunger got pretty bad. The same went for thirst.

Around the time when I was seriously thinking about regressing-

Rustle Rustle.

-I heard the sound coming from a place in the clearing where the grass was being disturbed. Perhaps… someone was approaching. 

But because the height of wild grass was too high, it was impossible to tell if it was a friend or a foe.

“…”

The scaredy-cat girls fled to the opposite side of the sound like frightened cockroaches, and I tensed my muscles, strengthening my grip on the sword.

Has a monster finally come this far? Or is it a wild animal?

By the time the hand holding the sword was wet with sweat-

"Huh?"

-What appeared after pushing through the grass was the ponytail girl who had been missing since morning.

Surprisingly, both of her hands were full of boxes of calorie bars and bundles of 500ml water bottles.

"Uh… Whoa! Unnie! This… Can we eat this?”

The short-haired girl approached the ponytail girl with a trembling voice.

Seeing the desperate look in the short-haired girl's eyes, the ponytail girl nodded her head slightly.

Soon, the ponytail girl distributed the food and water after opening the packaging.

Thanks to that, those who remained in the clearing were able to fill their stomachs and quench their thirst after a long time.

"Unnie! Unnie! Where did you get this from?"

Perhaps trying to get closer through this opportunity, the short-haired girl clung to the ponytail girl.

"...I defeated a monster, and the corpse disappeared, but food appeared in its place. It was too much for me to eat, so I brought it with me."

One of the common clichés in tower climbing stories is that defeating a monster provides food.

But that amount of food... It was too much for one monster to drop. In the tower climbing stories I knew, only enough food for one person was provided on defeating one monster.

If that were to be true here too… I was not sure, but the monster she defeated must have been a fairly strong one then.

But the ponytail girl spoke with a light tone as if she had just picked all these supplies up along the way.

She was pretending not to show, but it was clear that she had brought food out of concern for the people in the clearing.

I thought she was a crazy person who was swinging her sword just to find a hidden piece, but it turned out that she was a good person with a warm heart.

“Me too, I want to help too!”

Now was my chance.

I quickly got up from my seat and strode towards the ponytail girl with confidence.

"Please teach me how to use a sword! I want to take you as my master!”

"...Get lost."

However, the ponytail girl rejected me fiercely with a sudden turn of her head.

But I wasn't going to give up here.

Her true nature was that of a warm-hearted person after all.

If I sincerely asked her, there was a high possibility that she would accept me as her disciple.

"Please, I beg of you! I also need the strength to protect everyone!"

I started acting, shedding hot tears like a soldier enlisting in the army to protect their country.

“Right now, I'm so weak that I can't even get out of this vacant lot! That is so embarrassing! I want to be strong too! I want to become stronger and protect everyone!”

My voice was desperate enough to make anyone's heart ache.

Although it was a powerful voice that made tears well up in the eyes of the short-haired girl listening next to me… 

"I told you to leave, didn't I?"

…the ponytail girl was not affected at all.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, something barely visible passed by in front of my eyes at lightning speed.

"Ah!"

I was so surprised that I fell on my butt. 

What was that?

Screech.

The ponytail girl slowly sheathed her sword back into its scabbard with a scraping sound.

Then, she spoke in a cold voice.

"Student? I have no intention of taking any student. And bringing food was not an attempt to help you. Don't get any ideas. Next, it'll be your throat."

“…”

I stayed silent.

When I touched my nose, it stung. My fingertip had a drop of blood on it.

Did she just swing her sword? At an invisible speed?

Judging from her words, ‘Next, it'll be your throat,’ it seemed like she had only cut the skin of my nose as a warning.

However, there was a problem-

Status: Injured

Regressing back to the time when you first entered the 0th floor.

***

"F*ck! Where the hell am I?"

"...F*ck."

-for me, there was no such thing as a warning.