185 – The Returner’s Anguish (7)
“Oh, I didn’t say this first. Why… “I’m sorry for insisting on going back first.”
Choi Ji-won slightly bites her lower lip and avoids gaze.
“I know that it is better to collect information if I wait a little longer instead of returning. “This is a time of social upheaval, and the world is changing day by day.”
“Nevertheless, you are asking for a return.”
“We… No, it’s because I’m too helpless.”
She showed me her Internet article on her cell phone screen.
-‘Hero’ Choi Ji-won, let’s learn more about her.
-[Special article] Choi Ji-won, who is she?
-Korea’s national power is the second largest in the world?! The United States is surprised and China is worried…
“Everyone believes in me.”
Choi Ji-won puts her chin on her shoulder and lowers her head.
“I usually felt good like this. I felt like I was recognized. Rather, I would say that because people praised me, I worked harder.”
“But now… “Because you’ve become weak?”
“That’s right. It’s okay for her not to live up to expectations. But… I hate that even if something big happens, I can’t do anything. “These people probably only trust me.”
Choi Ji-won enjoys the attention of others, but she is not buried there. Thanks to her late father’s teachings, Choi Ji-won knows that she is truly confident and that she has only herself to be proud of.
But now this situation… No matter how you look at her, she can’t be proud of herself.
“The tiger that appeared in Namsan… Without help, I would have lost. “The current tiger is like that, but what about other monsters that will appear in the future?”
“There is no guarantee that it will be stronger. Although there is no guarantee that it will be weaker.
“That’s right, but… “I hate situations where I can’t do anything and have to watch helplessly.”
“… “
Choi Ji-won Her own sense of helplessness is also helplessness, but if a new monster appears in Korea and Choi Ji-won fails to stop it… She’s really going to get ripped off by her. In bright light, there is deep darkness, and even now, there are people hiding somewhere who hate Choi Ji-won. If Choi Ji-won gives them a piece of land, they will be so excited and excited.
“But isn’t it meaningless to wait another 10 months after returning? I can tell the time and place where monsters appear, but… “
“I want us to climb the tower right after we return.”
“Right?”
“Uh. As soon as. Anyway, nothing much happened in the early stages of regression, right?”
“… Aha.”
I understood what Choi Ji-won was trying to say.
“So… You want to climb to the top as quickly as possible, move up a weight class, and then come back to this point, right?”
“Exactly.”
We already know what will happen. The past and the future have already been figured out, and the only thing lacking is the power of the original body.
Because this force is not enough, even if it returns immediately, there is nothing to do… Choi Ji-won wants to replenish her strength by climbing the tower as quickly as possible.
“Because of your regression, it won’t take that long in real time. Maybe three months at most? That’s enough… “I will have the strength to kill the tiger that came out of Namsan.”
Association President Michael Jeter said he is currently staying in the mid-30s. Compared to when we climbed the 15th floor, the number of floors has not increased that much, but the strength is incomparable.
“After climbing just to the 30th floor… We come back to this point again. Then you won’t have to watch helplessly like this. You can actively change the world. “The time required to repeat the regression can also be reduced.”
“Sure… “
To be honest, I wasn’t confident if I was asked to wait another 10 months. Repeating regression in the tower felt like playing a familiar game again, but repeating regression in reality felt like doing a daily routine in the military. If you try to control each action to reduce variables, the stress doubles.
“… “I think it’s good.”
It is true that I have felt helpless as I have seen the world change recently. More accurately, I should say that I have become like a bystander. All this time, I was leading everything, but I felt frustrated because I was being dragged around.
I no longer wanted to watch articles about people dying or videos of bereaved families weeping on YouTube. I no longer want to let out a deep sigh, feeling overwhelmed by guilt and helplessness.
Okay, let’s climb the tower again. Let’s follow God’s intentions.
“First of all, we need to prepare.”
So that I can be confident in myself.
**
If you were scheduled to go back in time one year, what would you do?
In the days when there were no towers and monsters did not appear, I often had these delusions. And the destination of delusion always leads to coins. Because there is nothing better than making a lot of money.
Buy this coin here. Those coins are sold there. The goal was to make a lot of money with very high leverage and make tens of billions of dollars. That’s how I bought a house. I also give to people around me. I used to imagine being completely free from the shackles of labor and enjoying life happily.
The work I am doing now is not much different from here.
“Is India first in terms of timing? Or Japan?”
“India comes first on this site… “It says that Japan is about 30 minutes faster here?”
“Uhm… “A friend of mine lives in Japan, and he says it seems to be faster there.”
“Did you have a friend in Japan?”
“Should I call him my younger brother? Anyway, Japan comes first.”
The thing to pay most attention to, of course, is when the monsters appear. The priority is to understand when and where a monster appears and to what extent it poses a threat. That way, you will be able to respond appropriately later.
“Uh… Head hurts.”
“Fighting.”
My memory was likely to become blurred in the process of repeated regression, so most of the memorization was Choi Ji-won’s job. While Choi Ji-won, holding his head, stares intently at the organized diagram, I read a separate document.
“… “
This is a list of S-level and A-level players provided by the association. From the fact that Choi Ji-won is in second place right now, we can infer that the ranking does not have much to do with pure strength, but the fact that his name is on this leaderboard means that it is worth noting in some way. Whether you come from a good family, have a strong political position, or are just strong.
The primary goal is to remember their faces and, in the case of people whose abilities have been revealed, to remember their abilities.
And the secondary goal is to remember what they did or when they became strong.
There are so many careless people in the world, and the number of people who go around bragging about when and how they became strong has become quite large. It seems like they let their guard down because they thought it was already in the past, but they didn’t know there would be a returner.
However, since it happened in most towers, I couldn’t recognize its contents, so I decided to take a gamble.
“… “Is this going to work?”
What is currently displayed on my phone screen is a post written by a French player about how he became stronger. Maybe it’s because I got it from the 15th floor or higher, but I can’t see the content.
I stared at this photo, trying to remember it as accurately as possible. After I clear the corresponding floor, won’t the memory of this photo change? The intention is.
Of course, the possibility is low. It’s just a matter of throwing it away.
“Ugh… “
“… “
The above two things are what I officially do. Lastly, he pays close attention to Choi Ji-won and reads the report sent by the envoy.
From Noble mtl dot com
The disposition of the people listed in the report sent by Shinigami, Azai Yuuki… It is temporarily on hold. No, to be exact, it is on hold except for two people. One guy raped dozens of people, both men and women, and was living well, and the other guy was a pleasure killer who pretended to be a monster around the time wolves appeared in America and went around killing people.
What the two have in common is that they are human trash with no room for rehabilitation. And the ability is not that great. I can handle this with peace of mind because I am confident that killing these two will not cause any problems in the future.
However… I won’t kill you right away. For now, I’ll just let the Shinigami be scared and see if their behavior changes.
Do people change? Are there people who change, and are there people who never change? Ultimately, this is the point where the ideas of the old man and Choi Ji-won clash.
So what I’m trying to do is a kind of experiment. What if the Reaper really drives you to the brink of death and then ends on a warning? If you make them promise not to do it again and then leave it alone… Will they change or will their nature remain the same? We will use this as an example for the future.
What do you plan to do with the rest of the evildoers? For now, I plan to have an envoy leave a note at home saying, “I’m watching.” If this is the case, I won’t be able to live for a while after I return. Some of them have ambiguous crimes, while others are very talented. I will decide after watching the two guys mentioned above in action.
Anyway, after eating, sleeping, and gathering all the necessary information for about two weeks, I was ready to return.
“You’re not going straight to the 16th floor, are you?”
“Uh. “Let’s talk to Michael Jeter and then go to the 16th floor.”
“Okay.”
A short kiss. At the same time as we felt each other’s warmth, we lightly took out the bongbungi and cut my finger.
Now it’s time to climb the tower again.
[You have suffered damage.]
[Return to the moment you first entered the 15th floor.]