Chapter 376

Regression (23)

Fortuitous Encounter. A term meaning a strange twist of fate.

The kind of people usually called "protagonists" put in effort, sure, but a whole lot of the time, they also come out way ahead thanks to luck. They happen to go somewhere and find exactly what they need. They stumble onto a place by accident and it turns out to hold a clue to growing stronger. And the protagonist gobbles up the fortuitous encounter without a second thought, grinning and saying something like "guess I'm lucky."

"..."

But was it really just coincidence? Wasn't it more likely the result of authors, mindful of web novel readers who hated slow, frustrating plots, designing things so the protagonist could walk a smooth, unbroken road without a single real crisis? Before I entered the Tower, I used to think about that all the time. Whether the protagonist in some novel would ever stop and question their own "excessive luck."

And in my case, right now, this gem pouring out chill in front of me felt suspicious as hell. Why would this gem, of all places, be on Floor 10, and on top of a mountain, no less. Why here specifically.

Could I really call this the product of "luck"?

Sure, it might just be paranoia. Maybe I really was just lucky, and I was doubting everything like some old man losing his grip on reality.

"Hff, hff..."

No. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Let me think it through again.

First. Each floor is built on the foundation of one world. Which means this world is a world that failed to clear the Tower and became part of it.

Second. Angels manage each floor with real care, and they observe it closely too.

So the conclusion follows: this gem already existed before this world was destroyed, and the angels simply left it inside the Tower and turned a blind eye.

"Looking at it this way, it does seem like coincidence again..."

But thinking about it like that, it starts to feel plausible again. The chill itself is basically just the floor's gimmick, its time limit. The gem's just an environmental element. And how many people out there would even be strong enough to make it up here to find this gem in the first place? The angels probably never thought that far ahead. Even Rahuel came rushing over the moment he noticed something was off with me.

"...Am I losing it?"

Felt like I was overreacting. Of course my power and this gem's nature would match, that's just natural. Of course I'd feel that warmth. The only part that could really be called "coincidence" was how perfectly this power's nature suited me, and even that could just happen sometimes, right?

"..."

Yeah. This wasn't a problem I'd solve by agonizing over it. Even if some godlike being, maybe the "god" itself, had prepared this power just for me, there wasn't a single thing I could do about it right now. Throwing a fit and losing my temper wouldn't summon some god out of thin air, and nothing would change either way.

Let it go. But remember it. This suspicion, and the wrongness I'd felt.

It left a bad taste in my mouth, but there was no way to deal with it right now. I chewed on the feeling over and over as I made my way back down the mountainside.

Even up to the last moment before stepping through the portal, that uneasy feeling never went away.

-You have cleared Floor 10.

Everything after clearing Floor 10 went, well, smoothly. Though "smoothly" refers to the difficulty of getting through it, not the methods involved.

Floor 11 alone played out differently from before. Floor 11 was the floor where humans and dwarves had been locked in conflict. A few thoughtless players had killed dwarves and fled, and as a result, the dwarves who were supposed to be cooperating had grown distrustful of humans.

"I, Choi Ji-won, am making a declaration. Any player who causes trouble here will face retaliation. Whether that's here, or back in reality."

"Ha, what the hell, who do you think you—ugh!!!"

"I said I'd retaliate."

For starters, the timing of our entry to Floor 11 itself was much earlier this time around. Various incidents had already happened, sure, but relations with the dwarves hadn't hit rock bottom yet, and more importantly, Jang Roe, the man who'd murdered a dwarf, was still inside the Tower at this point.

"Ah, aaah..."

"Right here, a murderer. I'll say this once more. Don't commit any crimes. I'll protect Floor 11 myself."

Just before Jang Roe could commit murder, Choi Ji-won personally apprehended him and handed him over to the dwarves, letting Floor 11 stay in a neutral state. My identity stayed hidden, and Ji-won's reputation only grew, so if anything, things turned out twice as well as before.

"Huh? Why are you here?"

"Well, I got reassigned!"

The only slightly odd thing was that Anael, the placard angel from Floor 2, tagged along to Floor 11 again. I'd heard he originally came to Floor 11 to clean up after Jang Roe's murder case, but for some reason he showed up while Ji-won was still on Floor 11.

"Good for you!"

"Yes! Thank you!"

Well, not exactly important. I cleared Floor 11 easily enough, and moved right on to Floor 12.

Floor 12? I cleared that one easily too, but the process looked completely different.

Floor 12 was the floor where you entered a number, and a corresponding trial appeared. When I first cleared it, there'd barely been anyone else there, and I'd run into those strange trolls and suffered through it more than I'd have liked. To begin with, it's a floor designed to force people into fighting each other, so...

This time, two variables had changed from before.

"Huh? Jun-ho-ya?"

For starters, the timing of entry was different from last time. From Floor 1 through Floor 5, I'd run into people I knew, and to minimize variables I'd entered the Tower at the same timing as before. But on Floor 12, the only connections I'd made last time had been bad ones.

Naturally, this meant I entered Floor 12 much earlier this time, and I got to go through it together with Ji-won.

"Good to meet you."

"Let's do our best."

And that wasn't all. The other three weren't the trolls from before either, they were dedicated climbers steadily working their way up the Tower. Strong people who genuinely enjoyed hitting their limits and growing past them.

"Mind if I try this time?"

"Ah, go ahead."

"Thank you!"

Honestly, I'd been planning to just power through it myself and split the rewards afterward. But these people picked the highest number on their own and overcame it through their own strength. A genuinely positive cycle. People pushing themselves harder to earn a better reward.

"Great work out there!"

"Hey, you, the guy over there. Let's spar sometime. I'll come find you in Korea."

"Ah, sure..."

Thanks to all that, Floor 12 went by in a rush too. By this point I was starting to think, could it be? and entered Floor 13 with that thought in mind.

"Guard a carriage?"

"Let's not go stirring things up. Just clear it fast."

"Think about Floor 12. High chance this is a trap too."

Astonishingly, every single member on Floor 13 turned out normal as well. Some had rather prickly personalities, and their individual strength varied, but every one of them was a reasonable person who operated on common sense...!

"Here, some water."

"Oh, thank you!"

"You're the one they call, what, Choi Ji-won? And you are?"

"A companion."

"Ah, I see."

I realized something astonishing. Actually... hadn't I just been unlucky before? Hadn't every single problem started because I'd been trapped on Floor 12 for a whole week?

Parents obsessed with their kids' education always say the same thing. Get into a good college, and you'll meet good people, and good things will follow from that. Turns out climbing the Tower worked on a shockingly similar principle.

Since I was climbing the Tower much earlier than before, the people going through it alongside me were sound-minded, decent human beings, and on top of that, I was clearly carrying an absurd amount of power. There was simply no way clearing the floors could go badly.

Good people, and a good time. Floor 13 also went by in a flash without a single crisis, and the same held true for Floor 14. I just zipped around and gathered about half the required materials myself, and it turned out everyone else had already gathered the rest ahead of time.

I collected every reward there was to collect, boosted Choi Ji-won's reputation further, and cleared it all in close to record time.

With the power I already had now, clearing the Tower shouldn't have been a problem to begin with, but with circumstances backing me up too, my progress turned into an absolute landslide. Ji-won and I were both brimming with confidence because of it. It's possible. The way things stand now, it's possible...!!!

"This might, actually, be doable."

Right now, humanity faced two major crises. First, if the Tower wasn't cleared, the world would be destroyed. Second, in roughly a year, monsters would invade Earth.

"But if I just grow a little more, just a little more..."

But what if, and this was a big if, I cleared the entire Tower myself before the monsters ever invaded?

If I cleared the Tower... wouldn't the Floor 15 monsters disappear too? I'd come up with that theory before, but I'd dismissed it, assuming clearing the whole Tower within a year was flatly impossible.

But at this rate... it's possible. It might actually be possible! Holding onto that sliver of hope, I made my way toward Floor 15.

"I can do this."

Up to this point, I'd genuinely believed everything would play out the same way. That there'd be no difference. That everything would go according to plan. That all I had to do was keep climbing the Tower.

But the moment I reached Floor 15.

"Huh?"

I realized that had all been a delusion.

The one thing I'd overlooked. A problem I could have noticed, but somehow hadn't.

It wasn't an angel, and it wasn't another player. It was already there. Waiting on Floor 15.

-You have entered Floor 15.