Chapter 16: Status window is too unfriendly (3)

Have you ever played a game called "Maple Leaf Story"?

In this game, there are daily quests and events that force you to defeat a certain number of monsters, but not just any monsters.

It has to be monsters within your level range. They're called "Levmon" for short.

It's a measure taken to prevent players from easily farming rewards by slaughtering weak monsters...

Seeing this message, I can't help but think of that game.

"...Sigh."

If I make a rough guess... the words "significant disparity in the power" written in the message window is the key point.

Perhaps in the eyes of the system, a punk like me with an EX-grade skill appears to be an unreasonably overpowered target.

Actually, those words might not be that wrong.

If enough time passes, I might become a monster that no one can reach.

Just the fact that I can regress infinitely means that my level of power has risen by dozens of stages.

But from the current perspective, this is nothing but unreasonable.

How many goblins have I killed?

How hard have I worked to push through the dense thicket?

I did my best, but just because I have a cheating skill, I can't use the ‘stat’ window others have or level up?

From my point of view, all I can say is that it's really f*cked up.

Since I confirmed that achievement levels are maintained even after regression, if I could have gained regular levels, I could have become stronger much more easily.

It seems like the one who gave me the regression ability doesn't want me to have it easy.

I sighed and turned my gaze to the scrawny man.

"Scrawny."

"Yes, Hyung-nim?"

"Tell me everything about the big goblin you caught."

"Um... It dropped a golden bead... and experience points..."

"And?"

"Oh, and there was a bundle of 500 ml water bottles, a barrel, and two big boxes of chocolate bars. I didn't leave much and fed them to the goblins under my control... Should I give you what's left?"

"...Chocolate bars?"

"Yes!"

Chocolates... There were chocolate bars. And there was even a bundle of water bottles.

It's a composition I've seen before.

To be precise, it's a composition I often saw when I was idling like an unemployed person without doing anything in the vacant lot.

"Hmm..."

Choi Ji-won, who only keeps swinging her sword in a corner of the vacant lot, possesses a sharp sense that seemed to see through her surroundings.

Wouldn't she, of all people, be able to sense the presence of particularly strong monsters?

After catching quite a few goblins, I found they occasionally dropped food, but they dropped useless things more often.

However, Choi Ji-won always brought high-quality food, even in packaged form.

If...

If Choi Ji-won had been selecting only strong monsters to defeat all this time, and all the food she brought from the field was obtained from defeating strong monsters...

Choi Ji-won would have obtained numerous golden beads each time.

And the problem is that I just found out about this now.

"..."

She had hidden the golden beads even after obtaining them.

"This murder case has nothing to do with it, right?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Okay, let's work hard."

Since I seemed to have gathered all the necessary information to proceed, I let go of the scrawny man.

I also discovered the secret of the status window.

I acquired a good but unpleasant trait.

I also discovered how to obtain golden beads.

I gained a lot from this round. Of course, I had no intention of regressing like this.

There are three most important pieces of information I need to discover through regression.

First, how to secure golden beads and their locations.

Second, the location of the boss.

Third, the location of the Minotaur that killed me.

Among these, I have found the first one. The exact location will accumulate as I repeat the regression.

After enough time passes and rounds accumulate, I might be able to identify the locations of all 50 golden beads.

And the reason why I'm curious about the Minotaur's location is... it's simple.

The Minotaur is truly, incredibly strong.

Choi Ji-won, who boasts overwhelming power with fraudulent traits, cannot guarantee victory against it. It's really damn strong.

If you've read some web novels, you might have noticed something here.

This bastard. It reeks of a hidden boss.

A monstrously powerful monster, not created to be defeated in the tutorial.

The protagonist, who regressed from the future, manages to somehow defeat the hidden boss with mysterious skills and enjoys a valuable reward that no one else has ever discovered.

My goal was the same.

If I become strong enough someday, wouldn't it be possible for me to defeat the Minotaur?

If the day comes when I surpass the tutorial stage, it will be after defeating the Minotaur.

For that, the prerequisite is to know the Minotaur's location in advance.

Since I'm in the position of regressing with just one hit, it would be inefficient to sit and wait at the vacant lot for a week for it to appear.

It would be more efficient for me to constantly seek it out and bash its head.

And lastly, what I need to know is the location of the boss.

It is also the goal I am currently moving towards.

"Hmm... This place is really vast."

After witnessing someone's death, I am not cold-blooded enough to remain indifferent, even if it's not my job.

As a regressor, if I can identify the boss' location, defeating him is only a matter of time.

There is a way to save everyone, so it wouldn't be fair for me to advance to the next stage alone.

Of course, I will avoid the thugs like the ones I killed earlier... But I do intend to defeat the boss and open the portal to save everyone.

"Hmm..."

I walked straight for about two hours, repeating grass, trees, rocks, grass, trees...

There were no suspicious caves or primitive huts that could indicate the presence of a boss.

The only thing that changed was the smell.

A faint smell, as if rotten fish drifted from somewhere.

Again, this terrain is closer to a jungle.

A smell of rotting fish suddenly in the jungle? It didn't quite fit.

"Well, let's go check it out."

If I discover something strange, it's only natural to personally confirm it.

I followed the smell of rotten fish, and after walking a little longer, I finally arrived at my destination.

"Hmm..."

The background that had seemed to repeat endlessly with grass and trees had disappeared.

What unfolded before my eyes was a swamp that stretched so wide that its end was not visible.

No matter how long I've lived, I've never seen a swamp this big. It felt like looking at the sea.

Logically, it doesn't make sense for a swamp to be formed this wide... But this is the Tower.

Based on what I see now, the tutorial area seems to be a swamp surrounding a large island-like shape.

Well, it's called a tower, so it doesn't make sense for the range of activity to be endlessly wide.

It seems like the Tower kindly indicated, ‘Don't try to escape. Just stay and play inside,’ with this swamp.

Of course, if you ignore the swamp and keep going straight ahead, you'll eventually reach the wall of the Tower, and maybe if you touch those bricks wall, a hidden piece might pop out? I had such thoughts.

"...This is not it."

I didn't even consider the thought of stepping into the purple swamp that emitted an ominous bubble and made me feel sick.

No, it looks like there's poison in it. There aren't even traces of living organisms visible.

If you throw a small squirrel in there, after a while, only the bones would float up.

Even if I can regress, it's out of the question to enter that place.

Needless to say, it was close to an act of suicide.

"...Now, should I go somewhere else?"

Since I've come this far, it wouldn't be bad to walk along the outskirts.

As it is the outermost area, maybe the boss is nearby.

Just like pushing monsters off cliffs in games, if I can make the boss fall into the swamp, I might be able to defeat him easily without fighting.

"Well, then..."

As I muttered to myself and was about to take a step, I felt a slightly bitter and nauseating taste in my mouth.

It was a familiar taste and a familiar scent.

This is... the taste of blood.

***

"...F*ck."

I didn't know that just by smelling poison, I would regress.

Seriously... it's unfair, just unfair.

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