289 – Regressor Fight (8)

I like animals. I like puppies, cats, and red pandas. I like all cute animals.

There are many reasons why humans like animals, but one of the reasons I like animals is because they’re ‘simple.’ I might sound like a psychopath, but please listen to my explanation.

Animals are simple. They don’t hide anything. If they like something, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. They express their opinions clearly. They’re true to their own feelings.

Therefore, you can trust animals. You don’t have to worry about their dark intentions deep inside, and you don’t have to suspect them of pretending to like something even if you don’t really like them. In addition to their cute appearance, the fact that you can touch their fluffy fur to your heart’s content is a bonus.

“What, are you a newbie?”

In that sense, liking Suin is a little different from liking regular animals. It’s not just that they’re big, smart animals.

Suin have reason. They’re a single entity. Therefore, you can’t trust them completely, and you can’t trust all their expressions. Even if the beastmen are relatively honest, there’s a difference between something that you can trust completely and something that you can trust relatively.

Their appearance… you could say they’re cute, but there’s more room to think of them as scary. If you look at the beastmen as a species, the story might be different, but at least all the beastmen who come to the arena have fierce appearances. They have sharp eyes, many scars, and are muscular. This isn’t just about beastmen, but I wanted to say that I felt a little distant from them anyway. Oh, and the fact that I can’t touch them as I please is a bonus.

“They’re cute.”

“?”

But now, I’m a beastman. A beastman lover. Love and peace. A true philanthropist. With a warm heart, I held the furry beastmen’s hand that was looking at me. Hmm~ The fragrant smell of a beastmen.

“What, what is it?”

The beastmen were greatly embarrassed. I smiled brightly and said to him,

“I like animals.”

“… What?”

“That’s why I didn’t like beastmen at first. There’s a difference between beastmen and animals. But now it’s different. You are smarter, stronger, and more… attractive beings than ordinary animals. I sincerely want to ‘love’ you.”

“…”

“Would you like to call me… a beastman lover?”

A drone is watching me. As I learned in the previous episode, those drones are recording my every move. They have various sensors built into them, and they can basically measure body temperature, heart rate, and even magical power.

Therefore, there is no point in lying. You have to act with sincerity. Having lived through regression for quite some time, I am a master of acting. However, ‘acting’ alone is not enough. You have to be sincere. I like animals. Beastmen are large animals. So I like beastmen too. They are muscular, but they are secretly cute. Lovely. Soft. I want to touch them.

– Pat pat.

“Soft.”

“…”

When I lifted my heel and patted the large beastman’s head, he was startled and took two steps back. No, his companions were the same. Even the bald beard avoided my eyes with a tired expression. It was a success.

I’m not doing this because I’m crazy. Here, my two main goals are:

First, image making.

In the previous rounds, I hid my strength. I acted as much as I could. I acted weak, acted burdensome, acted difficult.

However, my record was always 100% winning, and the arena had already noticed that I was hiding my strength. Acting was meaningless.

The top rankers didn’t fight because they were worried about their rankings. The middle rankers didn’t fight because I was hiding my strength. The money-mad ones didn’t fight because they couldn’t make money. You

can’t hide your strength anyway. You have to climb the ranks to fight the top rankers. However, since everyone avoids fighting, there’s no way to get to the top. That’s why I chose the ‘money-mad ones’ as my method. I also collected money to buy information on the beast killer.

Therefore, my goal is to become famous. If I become famous, money will naturally follow. The number of people who want to fight me will also increase. If I had fame, most of the problems I struggled with would be solved at once. The concept I chose as a means to do so was the ‘Beastman Lover’ concept.

In this world, beastmen are clearly liked and disliked. Some people like them because they are cute, but many people hate them because they look disgusting. In the midst of all that, a human who likes beastmen? But their skills are definitely there? That’s bound to draw aggro.

As I said when I was a beastman slayer, negative attention is attention. And money. I’m going to get rich with this ‘Beastman Lover’ concept.

My second plan is to form a connection with a ‘human slayer’.

For some reason, he hates all human species. He slaughters humans in the arena where there is no need to kill them.

In order for the regressor to deal with the enemy, information is needed. I needed a way to meet the slayer in some way. But what if I become a beast lover? What if a beast lover and a human slayer meet? The chances of getting involved are very, very high. Getting involved means information. As I said before, money is a bonus.

“Bubble, bubble.”

“…”

I’m not crazy. It’s all highly designed. And beasts are actually cute. The feel of their fur is addictive. If only the smell weren’t so bad, it’s healing.

“…”

“…”

“How about touching under your chin? Huh? Do you like it?”

I stroked beast for a long time, recalling the memory of petting my friend’s dog.

“It’s Mr. Kim. Jun. Ho.’s turn.”

“Hey, see you

later.” When the drone came to pick me up, I left coolly. At the time, I thought the rumor would spread that I was a ‘crazy guy who thought beasts were animals.’ I was a little bit looking forward to being known as a person who discriminates against water people, or as a person who likes water people in a twisted way.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“… You’re all married now. In front of everyone, you’d touch my chin so roughly… I was so flustered I couldn’t even move. Could you be a human…”

And as I found out later, this water person was apparently a female. People in this world seem to be able to tell them apart, but I’m a climber, so I don’t know. Because of all the hair, I can’t tell the difference by appearance. The drone was already watching my every move. As it turned out, touching the chin had a special meaning among water people.

I joined Choi Ji-won without knowing this fact, and when I continued to insist that ‘I want to fight water people. I like water people,’ the rumor… developed in a somewhat distorted direction.

“That person?”

“Oh. She likes female water people.”

“They touch chins all over the place, but they don’t even pretend to take responsibility.”

“They say he’s not satisfied with human females anymore, so he’s after beast females.”

“They say he impregnated a noble lady and ran away to the arena?”

“And on top of that, he’s carrying a woman with him.

It was inevitable that the rumor would spread in a slightly different direction than I intended.

“That… Junho?”

“…”

“No, right?”

“No!!!”

The result was successful. I had already gained enough fame before the slaughterer even appeared. I made a lot of money in just three days, and my ranking also quickly rose.

“That… hello?”

“…”

Other players avoided my gaze. Aliens whispered as I walked down the hallway. Except for the fact that I could always feel their gazes. Except for the

fact that my dignity… had been considerably diminished…

I was a success… I was the enemy…

**

There are different types of crazy people. There are crazy people you dislike, and there are crazy people you somehow like. And to the beast people, I was clearly the latter.

“I… lost.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Here, have a drink. Ah, can I touch your fur?”

“… Do whatever you want. I’ll drink your drinks.”

I never harmed the beasts I fought against. While showing a clear difference in skill, I also offered them drinks and snacks after winning. This was a kind of gimmick that Choi Ji-won came up with, and it seemed to have hit the mark and improved my image.

“Hey, fight me this time.”

“Come at me. Lover.”

Maybe it was because of that. There were plenty of beasts who wanted to fight me. Oh, there were plenty of other races who wanted to beat me up.

“Hey, hairy b*stard. Stop embarrassing humans.”

In those cases, I didn’t let them off easy. I just poured my soul into them and shook them off. This also became a source of my fame. This b*stard is only kind to beasts. I became much more famous and much richer than I had originally planned. I invested the money I earned in beasts and gained even greater fame, and this virtuous cycle continued. A positive cycle continued.

“It’s… sudden… but… I’m about to… make a… proposal… ”

There was a minor incident where Jake, the angel who appeared in the middle, avoided my gaze. The situation was so positive.

How much time had passed like that?

“Junho.”

“Is he dead?”

“Yeah.”

The Brazilian player was dead. The murderer didn’t approach me.

He just appeared at some point like before, pointed at the Brazilian player, and killed him. He acted like it was homework that had to be done.

But the difference from the previous round was.

“I’ll go buy some information.”

This time, there was a lot of money.