Regression Is Too Much - Chapter 370



370 – Regression (18)

-00 : 52 : 19

I stealthily opened the status window and checked the remaining time. Less than an hour left until the 4th floor ends.

“Ugh…”

“Chomp… chomp…”

The junior angel had long since collapsed from exhaustion, and even Mr. Eom Hong-jun was slumped on the ground, chewing on jerky like he was tired. Yeah, considering what we did, it’s understandable to be tired.

“Well, this is…”

I glanced at the senior angel still observing me, then neatly sprawled out in the snow. That angel probably has a lot of thoughts going through their head too. They must be wondering why Archangel Raphael hasn’t intervened yet. I’m curious too, but I decided not to stress about it too much.

What I was thinking about was ‘what comes next.’ What I should do from now on.

The fourth floor, considering the bold attempt, yielded extremely successful results. I made a connection with Mr. Eom Hong-jun, managed to save all the humans on the fourth floor, and will soon receive the Elixir. Oh, and the fact that my identity wasn’t exposed and the clue regarding the divine power are a bonus.

If I invested more time here, I might be able to gain a perfect… or not perfect, but an excellent understanding of divine power. The understanding I gained here would be of immense help in my future journey. There are plenty of ways it could be useful.

However, I didn’t plan on trying the fourth floor again for the time being. I might try it once or twice, but I wouldn’t be sticking around and digging into it like before.

Isn’t it necessary to see a perfect ending here?

No.

I’m different from who I was. Now I can really ‘regress’, moving between floors. Therefore, there’s no need to be fixated on clearing this floor perfectly. If there are other goals, I can pursue them first.

It’s like gaining a free save point in a game. My situation is different from before, when you couldn’t return to a floor once you’d cleared it. To put it simply, I’ve gone beyond munchkin; I’ve become some hardcore munchkin.

Of course, even with that said, understanding divine power and being able to extract information from the angels was definitely tempting… but I had a few other things that were much higher priority right now.

First, I needed to check if my current power could stop the monsters invading the real world. I also had to check the butterfly effect of me stopping Michael Geter… and, then there was the question of how I should interact with the others I was connected to in the past. Everything was now up to my ‘will’, after all.

“Is it 5 minutes now?”

Well, actually, the things I listed above were important goals, but they weren’t my top priority right now. My top priority was… something I could only confirm with time.

-00 : 00 : 00

-Congratulations! You have cleared the 4th floor!

Soon, as time passed, I blinked, and somehow I was back on the 1st floor. I took a big breath, and without even checking the rewards that had been summoned in the corner, I returned to reality immediately. My chest was pounding loudly. It seemed I was quite anxious.

To soothe my anxiety, I closed my eyes. I narrowed and narrowed the senses that had been spread so wide. Until just a moment ago, I could feel the presence of every living thing passing near this building, but now, I only heard the white noise of this quiet room.

“Maybe I should meditate a little.”

Pushing down the negative and bizarre thoughts, I sat cross-legged on the bed. When did it start? Maybe around the time I was trying to return to the tutorial. I needed to calm down a bit.

Inhale, exhale. Repeat deep breaths. I calmed my ego. Down, further down. Imagining a calm surface of water, I slowly breathed in and out. Inhale, exhale.

I forgot my worries, I forgot myself. Just as I thought I had calmed everything down completely, I slowly opened my eyes.

-Sizzle.

The sound of meat cooking pleasantly. The sound of stew bubbling. A familiar scent wafting through the mouthwatering smell of food.

It felt almost like a dream. Everything felt so unreal that I blinked without realizing it.

“You’re already awake? It’s not ready yet.”

Choi Jiwon turned to look at me, pouting her lips as if troubled. I could tell by her eyes. That was… Choi Jiwon.

Not that Choi Jiwon who didn’t know me, who looked at me with unfamiliar eyes. Not that Choi Jiwon who would back away as if troubled when I tried to act friendly. It was Choi Jiwon, my lover, who I had kept safe in my memories.

Without realizing it, I jumped up from my seat. This couldn’t be an illusion. I needed to confirm it myself.

“Can I hug you?”

“…I’m cooking.”

Even as she said that, she put down the frying pan, and welcoming me with open arms, I hugged the woman.

“Thank god.”

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Nuzzling my nose into her shoulder, the tip of my nose brushing against her swaying ponytail.

I thought, as if repeating it to myself.

“Really… thank god.”

Really… really thank god.

To calm my nerves, I’d been telling myself, ‘Of course Choi Jiwon will be back,’ but deep down, I knew. There was a chance Jiwon’s memories might not have returned.

Let’s be honest, this whole ‘pattern’ thing was just my deduction, it wasn’t some established rule… there was always the possibility that it wasn’t true.

“Seriously, as soon as I went into the 4th floor… my memories all came back.”

But hearing Jiwon’s words, it seems my deduction was correct after all. Thinking about it again, it’s really, truly a relief.

Anyway, since Choi Jiwon was back, I could finally relax. Maybe because of that, I ended up just lazing around for about 3 months. Well, considering the hardships I’d endured, I think I deserve to rest this much. To be honest, it was really, really… incredibly hard.

And just when I’d relaxed, and relaxed some more, and even gotten used to doing nothing, every day felt new. And around the time Jiwon, though not saying it, was probably thinking, ‘Should we start regressing and climbing the tower again? No, Junho must be exhausted too…’

“Hey, Jiwon. There’s something I need to tell you.”

I decided to confess to Jiwon about the sort of illness I was suffering from.

“…Illness?”

“Yeah. An illness.”

“…I’m listening.”

Choi Jiwon’s expression immediately turned serious. That’s why I didn’t want to bring it up, but it was something I had to say, so there was no other way.

“So, what’s this illness… about?”

“Well, it’s not that serious, actually.”

The sickness I got was simple.

“I… I don’t feel like doing anything.”

Lethargy. Right now, I was suffering from severe lethargy. Spending time with Jiwon was fun, and something I wanted to do anytime, but other than that, I didn’t particularly want to do anything.

There wasn’t anything I particularly craved to eat, no place I particularly wanted to visit, nothing I particularly wanted to possess. It felt like the world, except for Choi Jiwon, had lost its color.

“I think I know the reason, though.”

Actually, I’d had similar symptoms before, but not this severe. The cause was obvious.

“I think… it’s because I’ve become too strong.”

Right now, I can do anything. There’s nothing on this earth that I can’t achieve.

If I want to be a celebrity, I can be. If I want to eat food, I can eat. If I want something to happen, I can make it happen. Given enough time, I can manipulate this reality as I desire.

Right now, I’m close to a god who’s gained the ability to manipulate reality at the cost of mental power. I’m truly omnipotent.

So maybe that’s why, everything feels distant and vague. In other words, I’ve lost ‘desire’. The only thing I want is time spent with Choi Jiwon. And since I already have that in my hands, I’ve lost the engine to move forward.

“…I kinda get it, I guess.”

Choi Jiwon, who’d been listening beside me, cautiously spoke.

“Among my friends, there were a lot of them who lost interest after they finally got what they’d desperately wanted. I also lost interest in kendo for a while after winning a big tournament. In Joonho’s case, the range… it seems like it’s become too broad.”

“Really?”

Since it’s a common occurrence, I felt a little relieved. It meant that she roughly knew the solution as well.

“In my case… I started by dealing with what was immediately in front of me. Even if there’s nothing you want to do, there are still things you *have* to do. If you just get caught up in the things right in front of you, you start to want to do things again.”

“Then in my case…”

Is it climbing the tower? Or stopping the monster invasion? Both are important.

“I guess I get it.”

Still, the immediate direction was set. To climb the Tower again. And to observe Earth closely. Both wouldn’t be difficult for me now.

“Still… I’ll rest for one more month. That much is okay, right? To see how reality is turning out. Then I’ll climb the Tower again. Promise.”

“Okay, really.”

At this moment, I hadn’t yet realized it.

A question that I could’ve considered, if I’d just pondered it a little. A fact I hadn’t thought about because of the goals right in front of me.

“First, let’s go to the 15th floor. See that old man again, too. It shouldn’t be difficult.”

The future that was coming wasn’t as easy as I thought.