I regress.
"... Shall I quickly go over just the essential explanations? I don't want to do this, but it's the procedure, so I have no choice."
'What was the problem? Ah, I put too much force into my wrist.'
While the fairy was talking, I gathered my thoughts.
"Everyone! I don't know who's playing tricks, but in times of crisis like this, we must unite!"
I rally the people to fight the boss.
At first, the dialogue changed several times due to awkwardness, but now I always say the same thing.
Has it become routine? It feels like the words come out automatically.
After the speech, Choi Ji-won stops me.
Whooosh! Whooosh!
I furiously swing my sword and learn.
"... I think I've seen enough for now. I need to practice too, so I'll leave for now."
Once the lesson ends,
Bang!
[You have taken damage.]
[You regress to the initial moment of entering the 0th floor.]
I regress.
There were moments when I felt like breaking.
The devilish temptation to give up altogether haunted me every moment.
But I kept regressing.
And regressed again.
And again, until one day.
"Ha... Hahaha."
My sword touched the sky.
"Why is he laughing while swinging his sword?"
"Did he have a good dream? Wake him up."
"Get up."
Thunk.
She nudged me with her foot, but Kim Jun-ho didn't budge.
"...Annoying."
Bang!
[You have taken damage.]
[You regress to the initial moment of entering the 0th floor.]
"Well... it's not bad..."
Choi Ji-won hesitated, looking like she was trying not to hurt my feelings.
"It's not bad. But are you even good enough to get hit elsewhere? I want to see more, but I also need time to train. Sorry."
She pats my shoulder encouragingly, then starts swinging her sword as usual.
Normally, this would be the time to regress, but I didn't even have the energy to do that now.
"Ha... Haha."
I'm an idiot. Not just any idiot, but an unimaginably stupid idiot.
What made me think I could achieve this?
Three years? Train non-stop for three years? Me?
If my high school teacher knew I was thinking of swinging a sword for three years, she'd have laughed her head off.
I was so out of touch.
I wasn't the iron-willed protagonist of a web novel.
I wasn't a revenge ghost willing to give up my body for a goal, nor was I a hero who regressed to save the world.
I was... just an ordinary person.
Even though it felt like I'd swung my sword for months, my skill level was so mediocre that I didn't even get a "decent" compliment.
And I didn't have the strong mentality to keep trying either.
I lay flat on the ground, utterly drained.
I wasn't a chosen hero.
I was just a commoner.
Just because I was thrown into a tower doesn't mean I suddenly change.
Whooosh! Whooosh! Swish!
Choi Ji-won swung her sword madly.
"Ji-won."
"Huh?"
She stopped because her fairy, Bboong-Bboongie, spoke up.
I was getting the hang of things, but I felt like I was on the verge of understanding something.
But Bboong-Bboongie must have known what was really important. That's why he spoke up.
"What is it?"
She wiped her sweat with her forearm.
Bboong-Bboongie could easily read Choi Ji-won's thoughts, but she still couldn't fully understand his.
Perhaps she wasn't yet familiar with her ability. That's why they had to communicate verbally.
"About that guy earlier, Kim Jun-ho."
"...Kim Jun-ho?"
Kim Jun-ho, the guy she had just taught swordsmanship to.
She didn't know the effects of his ability, but he used a sword technique quite similar to Choi Ji-won's.
However, his level was just about 2.5-tier. He wasn't someone noteworthy.
"What about him?"
She couldn't understand why Bboong-Bboongie was mentioning Kim Jun-ho.
'...Ji-won.'
"Why do you keep..."
"Thanks to the ability you've gained, your senses are sharpened by tens of times."
"...So? I know that." "The world you're feeling now is much different from the one you felt before," said the voice.
Choi Ji-won, looking annoyed, tapped her foot.
"I know that. That's why I'm repeatedly practicing this boring downward strike, right? To overcome the gap between my perception and reality. Why bring this up now?"
Although Bboong-Bboongie, her fairy, couldn't move because it was a sword, Ji-won felt it slightly nod.
"I'm talking about someone else, not you."
Choi Ji-won is a master of swordsmanship.
Thus, she had somewhat adapted to her own body. After all, martial arts begin with understanding one's own body.
"Now... your standards are much higher. His movements weren't bad."
But it had been less than five hours since her senses sharpened.
The world seemed slower to her. It's an expected feeling, but...
The problem was that she applied this heightened standard to Kim Jun-ho.
His every move seemed slow and unnecessarily frustrating because Ji-won wasn't used to her new senses yet.
"...Really?"
Ji-won, realizing she might have misjudged Kim Jun-ho, looked over to see him lying lifelessly on the ground.
It was evident he was upset by her words; his eyes were devoid of light.
"...I should apologize and explain to him now."
Just as Ji-won moved to approach him,
Thump.
Kim Jun-ho, with his fist raised high,
Bang!
Struck himself in the chest.
[You have taken damage.]
[You regress to the initial moment of entering the 0th floor.]
He made up his mind.
This time, he wouldn't do anything.
People are dying?
Screw it. He had decided not to care.
It's just a world that would disappear after regression, after all.
What he desperately needed now was a warm rest. He decided to rest comfortably.
"Hello! To all you pathetic humans wasting your life, nice to meet you!"
He paid no attention to the appearing fairy.
He didn't act when weapons were distributed, when people shouted their statuses, or when most left the square. He was planning to wait until Ji-won brought food.
"... Yawn."
He truly wouldn't do anything this time.
Really.
He knew that if he waited a day and a half, Ji-won would bring food.
So, his task was to endure hunger and kill time.
"...What are you looking at?"
"That old man's digging."
Woosh!
"Ah! If you dig that much dirt, what'll happen?"
"Get away, kid!"
While glaring at the industriously digging old man, some of the dirt he dug up flew into his mouth.
"Heeeek..."
"Why are you crying?"
He tried to chat up a short-haired girl but stopped when Ji-won, swinging her sword, glared at him.
He returned to his spot and looked around, rummaging through the pile of weapons. (For the record, he didn't find any hidden pieces.)
He wasted time quite productively.
He was definitely a lazy person.
Why did doing absolutely nothing feel so good?
He thought if there was a floor with a bed, he might repetitively regress just to lazily waste time like this.
He had more time in this tower than anyone else.
As night passed,
"If we stay here like this, we will all starve to death. I plan to leave this square to find a water source. Who will join me?"
A firefighter with a tiger-like demeanor, Choi Chul-soon, led the middle-aged group away.
As he lay down, using distant screams as his background music,
"Oh... Wow! Sis! Can we eat this?"
Ji-won appeared with food.
He remembered this part from previous rounds.
He had rushed to ask her to take him as her disciple, got hit, and regressed.
But this time was different.
How so?
He planned to sit quietly like the other members of the square and receive his share of food.
"...This is delicious."
While casually munching on a calorie bar, a smile naturally formed on his face. Again, I'd like to say, I'm happy even though I did nothing.
This is healing, this is vacation.
It's a small gift to myself for all the hard work of wielding a sword.
On the other hand, I've also been curious.
Is this square truly a safe zone?
The 'tower' I know harbors malice towards humans.
It's unlikely it would let us settle in one place like this.
If I'm curious... I should try and see.