166 – The Returner Wandering (2)

Actually, I understood it in my head to some extent. The fact that you may have already completely cleared the 13th floor. And the fact that what I’m about to do now may be meaningless.

But I don’t think I can bear this discomfort if I don’t get rid of it. I didn’t want to ignore this feeling that something might be left behind. When you look at original novels, isn’t there something called ‘the sense of a returner’? Now my senses tell me that there is still something left on the 13th floor.

“I stopped talking?

“Why are these kids who haven’t even eaten like this?”

I waited 5 days to confirm that. After confirming that the horse had turned into a demon and returning, I walked through this wilderness for five days, enduring the boredom. For this moment.

-Ji Ik.

With a sound like tearing paper, the air distorts as if crumpling drawing paper, revealing a gap.

“Ah, are you adventurers? Thank you for your hard work.”

A nun with a warm appearance appears from that gap.

“There are no scratches on the carriage. It is clear that God guided us. She’s lucky no one was hurt. “This is a dangerous item, so thank you for escorting it safely.”

She began leading the carriage into the village as before. The other players were all overwhelmed by this strange situation and could not move.

“Well, what are you doing!”

“Get out of the way!”

I quickly flew through the gap in space and succeeded in squeezing myself into the protective shield.

“You can’t do this!”

The nun was very surprised and tried to hold me, but when I let out a chill from my body, my body became stiff and I couldn’t move.

“What are you hiding!”

I ran to the nearby wooden house and threw open the door.

“Please save me… “

“I’ll give you anything…” “

However, the only people inside were a man and a woman trembling in fear. I don’t see anything suspicious.

I tried to raise my senses to see if there was a hidden secret passage, but I couldn’t feel anything. No, it is still too early to judge.

I quickly came out of the house and this time headed towards the largest wooden building. When I first opened the door, what I saw was food such as dried meat and fruit. At first glance, the building looks like a warehouse, but…

“I knew it would be like this.”

My keen senses noticed that there were seals scattered around the corner of the building. Judging by the lack of sound and odd posture, it is not alive.

Thinking that he had finally found something, he approached Inyoung with the corners of his mouth raised.

“Mustache man?”

The things scattered around the corner of the building… It was the mustachioed man who appeared at the entrance to the 13th floor. However, it is ambiguous to call him ‘man’. This… Because it was a well-made wooden doll.

“… “

We also searched other buildings, but there was nothing except scared people and a few wooden dolls. Like… As if it were just a village where people lived normally.

“Did I guess wrong?”

But… If it was an ordinary village, why did they ask me to bring a dangerous box that leaked dark energy? Isn’t it strange?

As I was standing in the center of the village in confusion, I saw a nun who had regained control of her body running towards me in a huff.

“Everyone, run away! I will stop it! “You can go to the place I told you about before!”

The nun was holding a mace in her trembling hand, showing hostility towards me. Meanwhile, the residents hiding in the tree house start running somewhere.

“Why, why are you doing this! At a time like this! Aren’t we allies!”

“… “Do you know what that box is?”

“You know it’s a box containing moral energy.”

“Why are you moving it here?”

“You pretend not to know anything about the topic requested by &#$%. “You must have seen his doll, aren’t you afraid of the consequences?” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ I couldn’t hear the first part because of the tower’s filtering, but that doll seemed to be someone’s symbol. The nun assumed that I recognized the symbol. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “So, was this mission really a simple escort mission? “Isn’t there a hidden backstory or something like that?” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “… “What are you talking about?” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ At this point, the nun must have sensed something was strange, and she slowly lowered her hand holding her mace. She seems to have realized that she has no hostility towards me. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ The two of us entered into a temporary truce and were able to talk about various things, but the longer the conversation went on, the more my expression became miserably distorted. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “Really, really, there isn’t any? Something, a devil or something… ” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “… “I’m not sure, but it won’t happen.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ She didn’t understand everything because of the filtering, but according to the nun, it was really just a simple ‘escort mission’. It was obvious that demons led by fraud would attack the carriage, so they hired an adventurer. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “More than that, why did you invade this village? “This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen this type of village.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “… Sorry.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ A nun opens her eyes and interrogates me. I bowed her head to her and then gave her a quick bite on the flesh of her cheek. So… Because it was so shameful. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ [You have suffered damage.] ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ [Return to the moment you first entered the 13th floor.] ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ *** ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “Junho. In fact, if you face so-called ‘eokka’ at every level… I don’t think that makes any more sense. “This tower wasn’t custom-made to pick on you.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “… ” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “To be honest, isn’t it true that we are much stronger than the average player? If the difficulty is such that the two of us can’t overcome it with our combined efforts, what should the others do? “It’s only the 13th floor, isn’t it?” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ Choi Ji-won looks at me, who is noticeably depressed, and comforts me. I look down at the floor in silence, receiving her comfort. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “I separately asked a ranker I became close with in the association, and the reason other players hid the story about the box was… Most people say it’s because they abandon players weakened by box debuffs. “Because my conscience pricked me, I couldn’t confidently report it to the association.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “… “After hearing it explained, it makes sense.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “And there weren’t any ‘hidden’ elements you mentioned on the 11th or 12th floor, right? I guess the angel who designed the 11th to 15th floors had this style. “Don’t worry too much.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “But… In fact, I still feel like I haven’t found something.” ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ I think this might be some kind of mental illness. Every time I go back and go through all sorts of hardships to climb the tower, I feel anxious because I eat it up day by day. I still feel uneasy about something, and I feel like there is something left to uncover. ＜Br＞ ＜Br＞ “It’s because you worked so hard to climb the tower. “If you think about it from my perspective, the 2nd, 4th, and 11th floors were special cases, and the other floors were broken as easily as now, right?”

“… “That’s right.”

“If you’re really anxious, I think it’s okay to go back a few more times. But… “There are many floors we have to climb, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to waste too much energy here.”

Choi Ji-won is right. There is no clear turning point, and there is no enemy that cannot be defeated. It’s just that I feel uncomfortable. To be honest, it was just my mind twisted and I didn’t think there was a hidden element to it.

“Let’s just wake up. “I think that’s right.”

“Is that so?”

After gathering my thoughts, I took a short break for a week and returned to clear the 13th floor. After that, I entered the 14th floor without any regrets.

The 14th floor was a floor where 10 people had to work together to complete a machine. However, 10 different materials were needed to complete the machine, and the difficulty of obtaining each material was different. While wolves appear on the way to get the easiest ‘gear’, on the way to get the most difficult ‘core’, a swarm of trolls with weapons attack.

The most standard method would be to have 10 people unite and move 10 times… We decided to just split up and bring our own ingredients. How did you get the most difficult ingredient?

“… “Jiwon, are you here already?”

“It wasn’t that difficult, huh?”

Choi Ji-won is there, so why worry? We were able to clear the floor in one night, which would have taken 2 weeks if we had 10 people together.

What was given as a reward was an elixir of experience, a potion, and a C-grade trait called ‘excellent cardiorespiratory endurance.’ As the name of the attribute suggests, the effect was to improve physical strength.

“The rewards are really good starting from the 11th floor.”

“I feel like I’m getting stronger. “It’s not that difficult.”

All the other players were very happy, saying that the reward was a boon. So much so that he said it would be nice if the 15th floor was this sweet.

“Junho, what do you want to do? Should we go back a little further and find out if there’s anything hidden?”

“… “I’ll just go back twice and decide.”

After repeating the regression twice, this floor, like the 13th floor, seemed to have no hidden elements. Even the discomfort hasn’t gone away… Isn’t it possible to go back dozens of times just because it feels uncomfortable?

“Because mental health is important for regressors… “

I don’t know if it’s an unavoidable situation, but that’s not the case right now. After organizing my mind, I followed my routine by checking the surroundings and organizing my personal affairs.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes. “Let’s go right away.”

I climbed to the 15th floor with a light attitude.

[Enter on the 15th floor.]

And looking back, this was the beginning of many changes.