212 – The Returner Endures (9)

“Regress… what?”

“More than that, what is your name?”

“… “Please call me Professor Kim.”

“That’s enough.”

I tear off my cheek meat without regret.

[You have suffered damage.]

[Return to the moment you first entered the 21st floor.]

***

I think the word ‘choice’ has many implications. Choosing means choosing one thing, and choosing one means giving up one thing, and one day you will regret the value you gave up.

There is a scene like this in a movie featuring Batman. The woman he loves and the prosecutor with a strong sense of justice are tied up in different buildings. There is not enough time to save them both. Batman can only save one person. It’s time to choose.

“Wow, it’s frustrating.”

I hated that situation ever since I was young. Can’t you choose both? If we twist the situation well, wouldn’t there be a happy ending that everyone can be satisfied with? Why must someone despair?

Then, as your brain grows, you become aware of reality, and you realize it again. The fact that you can’t choose both.

“Hey! “Let’s play soccer!”

“It’s our dirt playground. If you fall, you hurt your knee. Junho, let’s just play basketball.”

Physical education class. Football, or basketball.

“Are you going to the door? Are you going to go to science?”

“Uhm… “

Liberal Arts. Or science.

“My senior said that if you want to go to the army, you should definitely become a driver. So, I also got the first class.”

“Don’t you know that the Air Force is honey?”

“The Air Force lasts 3 months longer, you idiot. “Just go to the Marine Corps with me.”

Army. Air Force. Navy. Marine.

In addition to these major crossroads in life, there comes a moment in life when you must make a choice. What kind of snacks should I buy? What to order from the chicken menu. Will you live hard or will you sleep on your stomach?

Choosing both sides is just an illusion. So, he may have been particularly happy when he got his return. Because the possibility of being able to choose both sides has opened up.

In the tutorial, all humans were saved. Same thing on the 4th floor. Even on the 11th floor, I mediated the conflict without anyone dying, and on the 12th floor, I honed my strength and cleared the floor with a traitor.

And now, the tower is forcing me to make a choice again. Will the girl’s truth be revealed to the world? Or will he sacrifice a girl for the future of humanity?

“Do neither.”

Check the weapons I have. A regression that guarantees infinite time and number of attempts. A scabbard that draws a weapon according to one’s emotions. Reliable armor and transparent gloves. Stats are well-balanced thanks to the various skills and achievement levels that fill the status window.

And above all, the mana control gained through repeated repetition over a long period of time. To be exact, the ability to manipulate the magical power of the soul.

“This is it.”

I have a sense of where to go. The answer is mana. More precisely, I want to move in the direction of erasing the ‘seeds of conflict.’

“Areum’s magical power… “You just have to get rid of it completely.”

Some may criticize this as a military-style solution. But I think this is the best. No matter what other methods are used, it is clear that storms will hit the life of a girl named Areum one day. Only by erasing the source can we be given the opportunity to live a life worthy of a human being.

But is it possible?

No, the question ‘Is it possible?’ Is meaningless to me. The reason why ordinary people worry about their choice is because of the opportunity cost of that choice.

And the only thing I added to the opportunity cost was my mental strength. Excessive use should be avoided, but cutting it out in this situation is also unreasonable.

“Do it.”

I sit down on the bench, close my eyes, and concentrate.

If it doesn’t work, keep doing it until it works.

**

The first plan I came up with was to ‘influence the soul and erase magical power.’ Isn’t it okay to just roughly erase the magic power? That’s not the problem.

The body is the vessel that contains magical power, but it is the soul that attracts it. This is my own realization that I gained on the 17th floor. Is not it? Those who are a bit more powerful probably already know this, so is it a leap to call it ‘my own’? Let’s just say that he is the first ‘human on Earth’. No, you can’t be sure about this either? Anyway.

“… “

When I close my eyes and concentrate, I feel the soul exactly matching the shape of my body. Magical power spreads throughout the body following the form of this soul. In some areas, such as the heart and brain, the concentration is relatively dense.

In other words, it is true that the body contains magical power, but the reason it is contained in the first place is the soul. It also means that if it does not affect the soul, the magic power will gather again.

Therefore, in order to remove the magical power from Areum, she had to be able to touch her soul.

Is it possible? It is possible. Wasn’t the entrance to the 17th floor itself a structure that shook the player’s magical power? When you reach a noble level, you can control other people’s souls.

However, difficulties were encountered from the start. In the first place, feeling another person’s soul was quite an ordeal. Because I had to change the time without knowing ‘how’.

“Can you give me your hand for a moment?”

“… “I like women.”

“It’s not like that, so come on.”

Experiment after experiment. It’s hard to tell how many regressions were repeated. At least 50 times? Since he always returned right before meeting Areum, it would be correct to say that she stayed for about 50 days.

“… “

However, even though I tried for 100 days, I could not feel other people’s souls. First, I had to feel the soul in order to have any influence on it, but since it was impossible to feel it in the first place, I felt like my heart would break. I think I took the idea of feeling other people’s souls too lightly. Maybe the people in the tower don’t have a soul.

“There is no answer as it is.”

Sensing failure, I decided to change my strategy. ‘Magic power’ and ‘soul’ cannot be viewed separately. If a person has magical power within their body, they must also have a soul. When the magic power is shaken, the soul suffers, and even when the soul suffers, the magic power is distorted.

The method I was previously trying was to remove magical power by influencing the soul. Now the method I am going to try is to influence the soul by influencing magical power. It can be seen as a simple change of idea.

“Help… Please help me brother… “

“I’ll help you. Would you like to come by for a moment?”

When I concentrate extremely hard, I can feel a faint flow of magical energy within Areum’s body. It was like a candle that would go out if you touched it, close to a trickle of water. If you’re this weak… I wonder what I, a beginner, can do. If only I could somehow guide it with my magic power.

“Huh, huh, huh… “

“Gwae, are you okay?”

No. It was very difficult. The biggest problem was that my magical power was cold. In order not to affect that delicate girl, I had to do my best to suppress the ‘coldness’, but as I was concentrating on this, I couldn’t actually move my magic.

“Help… Please help me brother… “

“… “Maybe you should help me.”

If you learn anything from failure, it is the foundation for success. More precisely. More elaborate. More perfectly.

The magical power used in battle can be treated roughly. All you have to do is remove a large chunk of magic power and roughly hit it at the enemy. However, this work was different. I really had to use the minimum amount of magical energy to suppress it and move it at the same time. It is not much different from performing surgery.

How many times did the regression repeat like that?

“… “I reached it.”

Without causing direct damage to Areum, he succeeded in contacting her magical power. Areum’s magical power was warm and light like cotton candy. She has a weak magical power that makes her feel as if she will fly away if she blows hard.

“Now if I remove this.”

“… “What are you doing?”

“This isn’t going well… “

Of course, ‘impacting magical power to prevent the soul from gathering magical power again’ was another story. The hour hand moves backwards again, and I progress little by little, very little by little.

Hit the magic with magical power and push it away strongly. Failure.

Pull out magic power by weaving it like a hook. It was initially successful, but failed again due to magical energy gathering within the body.

Just slightly exert the power of ‘chill’ to freeze the magic power. Failure.

Failure. Failure. Failure.

At this point, my mind is shaking. She is filled with doubts about what she is doing, a desire to just give up and move on, and the objective fact that this girl actually doesn’t have much to do with me runs through her head.

You can just ignore it. You can give up. Even if we save her now, she will suffer on someone else’s 21st floor anyway. To put it very negatively, it is safe to say that Areum is a kind of ‘ready-made product’.

“… “

However, according to my theory, beings with magical powers should be seen as beings with souls. In other words… This girl was a person with soul.

That fact made it impossible for me to give up.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m showing courage.”

No one will criticize me if I give up now. Except myself.

And afraid of disappointing myself, I decided to be brave.

The courage to follow a vague path with no end in sight. The courage to do what I think is right. The courage to not give up even though it is difficult.

More pointed.

Sharper.

Sharper.

My magic power, which has now become more like a scalpel, cut off Areum’s magic power that was hovering around my heart. The magic power, which hesitated for a moment, returns to the area around the heart, but it only cuts down again.

As the same operation was repeated over and over again, the speed at which the magical energy returned to the heart became slower. Again, again, again.

The magic power that had been slashed over and over again dissipated at some point. I waited for a while to see if it was a temporary phenomenon, but there was no sign of the magic power gathering again. It’s a success.

“Oppa… People… “

Only then did I return to reality. I was holding Areum’s hand tightly, and familiar men surrounded me. Has it already been like this? Sweat dripping from my forehead stings my eyes.

No, you shouldn’t show that you’re having a hard time. Stay focused. The image that comes to mind is determined.

“There.”

Speak your voice as usual. However, with a hint of natural looking down.

I will look down on it so naturally, as if it is natural, because it is common sense. With all those emotions in mind, I approached the man in front.

“Please guide Professor Kim.”

“… Professor Kim? “Who is that?”

“… “

The other agents didn’t seem to understand, but the expression on the man’s face immediately hardened.

“… Who are you?”

With a light smile on his face, he spreads magical power in all directions. The chill that comes in contact with the air naturally turns into smoke and spreads gently on the floor, and the pressure of reproducing Kang Chan’s terrifying murder spreads everywhere.

What I am imagining is the hermit who gave me Seolsam.

“Just guide me.”

The time has come to conclude everything.