Chapter 60
Entering Floor 3-5.
“…Rise, greenhorn.”
The moment I heard that growling voice, I squeezed every muscle in my body and sprang up to my feet. It seemed I had lost consciousness and was sprawled out on the floor.
“…Damn it.”
No, this can’t be. This can’t be happening. It’s a setup, isn’t it? This isn’t right.
You’ve been injured.
Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.
***
“…Rise, greenhorn.”
“Ah.”
A sigh escaped me without my realizing, and my eyes closed tightly, as if they didn’t want to witness the scene before me.
My rational mind was whipping me to accept reality and devise a strategy, but my emotions, rather than rationality, were screaming, ‘It’s the Great Depression!!! Total chaos!!!’
People who have read web novels would know, there are types of infinite regressions.
First, the kind where if you die, you start over again from infancy.
And second, the kind where meeting certain conditions updates your save point.
In my case, I was the latter. The condition was “regressing to the moment I first entered each floor.”
This meant I had the choice to regress after clearing a floor, or to move on to the next one and fixate the past as it was...
Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.
The message I saw while regressing was like a death sentence to me.
It felt like the moment I got the notification about my military enlistment date on KakaoTalk. Like waking up to find an email saying “You’ve been liquidated” after going to sleep with a leveraged position in cryptocurrency. Like opening a test paper only to find more questions I didn’t know than ones I did.
Blood drained from my face, but paradoxically, my head heated up, everything spun around, and my breath quickened.
The first line of the novel ‘The Martian’ flashed through my mind.
‘I’m screwed.’
How much time had passed?
Staring blankly at the stone wall, as if in meditation, I felt a tapping on my shoulder.
“Excuse me...”
The one who tapped me wasn’t the growling voice from before, but a frail-looking person.
The ‘man with glasses’ (An-Gyeong Nam) I saw in the tutorial was cool and smart, but the man in front of me looked timid. Tall as a beanpole, his face was so pale it was almost ghostly, and his voice was as faint as an ant crawling.
“Could you come over here for a moment...? There’s something we all need to check...”
It must have taken him a lot of courage to speak to me, as I drooled mindlessly at the wall, because his voice was trembling.
“...Alright.”
Finally, I gathered my wits and shakily stood up.
What’s done is done. What matters now is how I deal with it.
The save point did get tangled up. I ended up proceeding through the most difficult level alone, separated from Choi Ji-won, and if I regressed, it would be to the moment I first entered this difficulty, not the moment I first entered the 3rd floor.
Of course, if I think about it coolly, I haven’t really lost much. The only thing I missed was the ‘Choi Ji-won bus.’ I just have to clear Floor 3-5 on my own and grab the dazzling rewards.
Sure, depending on the difficulty of Floor 3-5, my future could vary from a healing story to a harrowing one... But that’s a worry for another time. There’s no need to tremble in fear and worry right now.
“...”
Silently, I followed the towering figure, slowly observing the space around me.
The space I was in seemed to be an extension of the cave with the five doors we had seen earlier.
Damp, dark, narrow, with torches hanging here and there as the only source of light.
“We’re, we’re here...”
After walking through the narrow, winding cave path, the path suddenly widened to an artificially carved circular space with rounded edges, as if the cave walls had been cut away. In that space, a man and a woman were waiting for us.
“...”
In front of us was the rough stone door I had touched when entering Floors 3-5...
Glancing behind, I saw three more paths similar to the one I had just come through. It seemed Floor 3 was designed for a team of four.
“...”
“...”
While I was assessing the situation, the two people who had been waiting there were silently staring at me.
“...”
In return, I began to stare back at them fiercely. But since there were two of them, managing my gaze was a bit awkward, so I compromised by focusing on a point midway between them.
“Um, well...”
As the atmosphere rapidly froze over, and the man with glasses was stammering, trying to say something…
“Hmm.”
…The man who had been glaring at me was the first to avert his gaze.
“...”
Then the woman slowly withdrew her gaze as well.
Just when the tense atmosphere seemed to be easing, and the man with glasses let out a sigh of relief…
‘…Hmm.’
I was deep in thought, trying to make sense of the situation.
The place I was in was the highest difficulty level within the 3rd floor. Naturally, no one in their right mind would choose to enter here.
They’re either overconfident in their abilities, or they mistakenly think of themselves as the protagonist, lacking self-awareness... it has to be one or the other.
In that sense, the man and woman in front of me seemed to be confident in their abilities. Presence, or maybe aura, would be the word. There’s a different vibe about them. Sharp, like well-honed blades.
“Everyone has calmed down a bit, right?”
On the other hand, the man with glasses seemed too full of gaps to be considered skilled. But he didn’t seem like the type to carelessly enter the highest difficulty level without any thought...
“So... could you all take a look at this door?”
Following his direction, I shifted my gaze to the rough stone door. There, four palm-shaped indentations were carved.
“It seems... we all need to place our hands here for it to work... They’re all right-hand shapes, so it’s impossible for one person to do multiple...”
True to his words, the hand shapes were all for the right hand. Four humans gathered in the cave. Four palm-shaped indentations before us.
“I’m not sure, but... maybe the 3rd floor requires cooperation, not like the 2nd floor where everyone fends for themselves...”
With a trembling voice, the man with glasses finished what he had to say.
I internally agreed with his opinion. The need for four right hands to proceed implied an intention for cooperation, not conflict or competition.
“…”
“…”
The man and woman, who had been listening silently, seemed to agree with the suggestion, as they both nodded slightly.
“So, I was thinking... shouldn’t we at least know some basic information about each other...?”
Hence, when the man with glasses proposed sharing basic information about each other, no one objected. While we might be potential competitors, within the confines of the 3rd floor, we were in a situation where cooperation was necessary.
“First off... My name is An-Gyeong Jun...”
“...An-Gyeong Jun? Are you related to An-Gyeong Nam by any chance...”
“Oh, um... yes, he’s my brother... How do you know each other...?”
“...”
I took a stab in the dark because of the similar name. An-Gyeong Nam from the tutorial, and now his brother, An-Gyeong Jun, was right before me.
But when asked how I knew him... I struggled to find an answer. I had saved his life before, but since I had regressed, that event had been erased.
“Well... I know the name because a friend mentioned it. So, a friend of a friend, I guess.”
“Ah, I see... It’s a small world, isn’t it?”
After a brief moment of camaraderie, An-Gyeong Jun cleared his throat and continued.
“I fight with a spear... Javelin throwing is my specialty...”
Javelin throwing. Not just any spear, but a javelin – a weapon not commonly featured even in creative works. I found that quite unique.
After An-Gyeong Jun finished his introduction…
“My name is Kim Jun-ho. I use a sword as my weapon.”
After my turn swiftly passed, it was the quiet woman’s turn.
Hair almost touching her shoulders, jet black. Eyes slightly upturned at the corners, like a cat. A physique as sleek as a leopard.
If Choi Ji-won had a cold demeanor, this woman seemed sharp. She gave off an impression of being easily irritable.
“...Dok-Suhee. My weapon is a dagger.”
The woman, or rather, Dok-Suhee, spoke with a slight movement of her lips.
“...”
The thought ‘Eagle*?’ popped into my head, but I refrained from saying it out loud.
A dagger, though. She also uses quite a unique weapon.
From what I observed in the tutorial, over 60% of people chose swords, and the rest, about 35%, opted for spears...
The crazies who make it to Floors 3-5 are, as expected, far from ordinary.
The brief introductions were nearing their end, leaving just one person.
“...”
A handsome face. Short, sporty haircut. But the mask-like expressionless face and the deep-set eyes exuded a dangerous aura.
Like a human weapon, every part of his body seemingly lethal. It was clear. This man was strong.
“...Name’s Kang Chan. I fight with my fists.”
Kang Chan’s voice rumbled low, like a growl. After introducing himself, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
That voice was familiar. It was the same one that had spoken to me when I regressed, saying, ‘Rise, greenhorn.’
But Kang Chan... Kang Chan, where have I heard that...
“Uh, uh-oh...!”
At that moment, An-Gyeong Jun’s eyes slowly widened, then suddenly looked as startled as a frightened rabbit.
“Kang... Kang Chan? The real Kang Chan???”
“...”
Dok-Suhee didn’t show it, but she seemed to recognize the name, slightly biting her lip.
Kang Chan. Kang Chan. I’m sure I’ve heard that name before...
“Could it be, from the tutorial...”
“Ah.”
As soon as An-Gyeong Jun mentioned ‘tutorial,’ memories of posts I had seen in the community came flooding back.
Kang Chan. If the hottest Korean right now is Choi Ji-won, then this man is the second.
“The man who subdued the ‘Fairy of the Tutorial’ with a single punch...!”
He was, ‘The Slayer of the Tutorial’s Fairy.’
– – – End of Chapter – – -
[TL: *The word ‘Doksuri,’ which means ‘eagle,’ is quite similar to her name, ‘Dok-Suhee.’ This similarity is why he had that internal reaction.
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