293 – Regressor Fight (12)

Jake, the ‘newbie lover’ who is most likely an angel. I think the probability is at least 99%.

“Guntar.”

“What?”

“Guntar, you did it.”

“… I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.”

“There’s a wolf beast. Why are you pretending not to know?”

And as I said before, I’m invincible in the early stages of my regression. I have no narrative to build up, and there are no risks in my regression. I can do a lot, but I can’t take responsibility.

“You’re an angel.”

“Oh, no.”

“Be clear. Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Take off your clothes.”

“I don’t remember.”

I pushed hard. I demanded that he admit that he was an angel. And as hard as I tried, Jake also tried his best to deny it. He was wriggling his hands wildly, wanting to use some kind of angelic power, but he couldn’t use it right now because he was pretending to be ‘part of the tower’. There was

no end to this. If I don’t hear the whole story from the angel’s mouth, there’s no progress.

How can I… something useful at a time like this?

“Ah.”

Realizing that I had something suitable, I took out a small ring from my pocket.

“Hey. Do you know what this is?”

“Th-That is…!”

“Me? What? What? That. With Raphael, huh? I did it all, man.”

The ring I had received from Archangel Raphael on the second floor. I thrust it in front of his nose as if it were some kind of token of friendship.

“I’m not doing this to harm you. I’m doing this to help you. Look at this?”

“…”

“I’m on your side. I can help. Is there anything I can help you with? Okay?”

It’s true that the Archangel gave me a ring, but it was a reward, not a token of friendship or anything. Normally, I might have just ignored it.

“Excuse me…?”

As you can tell from the fact that he’s cosplaying as a punk… the angel was in a state of great confusion. He seemed extremely anxious. His tone of speech also suddenly became polite.

“Ugh… Phew, all right. Follow me.”

The guy led me somewhere deep inside this large building, then soon stopped in front of an old door. It was a wooden door that shouldn’t exist in a modern building with a sci-fi setting.

“Come in.”

When I opened the door and went in, it was complete darkness inside. Was it the 25th floor? It was a space of nothingness like I saw there. The reason I came here was probably… to avoid surveillance.

“So. Why did the 28th floor become like this?”

I was inwardly confused, but as if I knew everything. I crossed my arms and spoke confidently like a relief pitcher who had come to help. Angel Jake seemed to have gained confidence from that attitude, as he took off his baggy clothes and revealed his wings. After Halo returned, he looked like just a handsome man cosplaying as a gangster. Or maybe he was just a man interested in hip fashion.

“How much do you know…?”

“I only heard that you were supposed to come to help, but I don’t know the details.”

“Whew… I really need your help… But it’s not like I don’t have any evidence…”

Jake stared at the ring the archangel had given him on the 2nd floor.

“The 28th floor is all ruined… It’s because of the Emperor…”

He slowly began to speak.

**

Archangels each have their own philosophy. Each has a virtue they want to test. There is a goal that says, ‘You have the necessary qualities to pass this floor.’

In the case of the 28th floor, it is violence.

Victory. Survival. Not just humans, but a fight to prove that a living being is worth living. Life is a fight, a competition, a political strife. The ideology of the 28th floor was the same.

To go higher. To get the reward. Win. Fight. Overcome. Acquire.

In that sense, the space called the ‘Arena’ is a space solely for fighting. It can be said to be a space that perfectly matches the Archangel’s intention. It was a place where you would constantly fight, receive rewards, and fight again. In a way, it was inevitable that the Archangel would use the largest arena in the universe as the background for the 28th floor.

The arena incorporated into the tower was truly beautiful. (From the Archangel’s perspective.) Fighting, fighting, and fighting again, you would eventually experience the joy of victory… A beautiful space that awakens humanity’s inherent fighting spirit. A masterpiece. It was a space that could be called a masterpiece.

“Emperor… So the Emperor was the problem…”

Currently ranked 1st among Earthlings. With the appearance of the Irregular Emperor… the situation became complicated.

“The Emperor… So… Ah, can I say this? The Emperor had no mercy.”

The Emperor was firm in her actions, to put it nicely, and cruel in a bad way. She showed the difference in rank, and gave the opponent a chance to surrender. If they didn’t surrender here… she killed them.

And this was the best arena in the universe. The lower and middle ranks might be okay, but the upper ranks, and even the top ranks, were full of people who were proud of their own skills. Some felt the difference in rank with the Emperor and surrendered, but there were more who couldn’t accept reality and rushed back.

“Many died.”

They all died. The proportion of proud Suin was particularly high. The rankings of the arena changed in an instant.

This is where the problem arose.

“The Archangel… was wary of the situation where too many rankers were dying and the difficulty of the arena itself was lowered… “

Because of the Emperor, the arena itself has become easier. In order to escape the 28th floor, you have to reach the 100th place. Previously, there were thousands of strong players waiting, and the 1st to 50th places were a kind of challenge, a wall that was difficult to climb but gave a sense of accomplishment…

“The Emperor… killed him…”

Those ‘walls’ were completely shattered. In a way that could not be repaired.

“The 28th floor is not assigned to each player, but is maintained as a single world… If this kind of damage occurs… we have to manually go through the repair process.”

We can’t just leave it alone. The Archangel in charge of the 28th floor was strict, and always wanted to maintain ‘the level of difficulty he wanted’. However, after the Emperor’s appearance, the 28th floor had clearly become easier. We needed to take action.

“There were two major problems here.”

First, the Emperor seemed to have no intention of leaving. He was mercilessly destroying even the remaining strong players.

And second,

“Could it be that the Archangel can’t be reached?”

“You knew.”

The absence of the Archangel.

Was it the 17th floor before? Because I realized my magical powers too quickly, there was a hint about the ‘absence of the Archangel’ even in a situation where it was determined that I ‘never entered the tower’. The old man on the 15th floor seemed to have said something similar. Oh, was it the 23rd or 24th floor? The angel in charge of the mental hospital in my dream also said the same thing. Something about what would happen if the Archangel returned.

It seems that the same problem occurred on the 28th floor. The Archangel currently in charge of the 28th floor has disappeared somewhere.

“The Archangel said. Always maintain a similar level of difficulty. There’s a vacancy, so it should be filled, but…”

“Can’t it be filled?”

“… Yes.”

These were not Archangels, but just individual angels. It was impossible to wield power and fill in a new face.

“In another world… Oops.”

Jake paused for a moment.

“There have been situations like this before. There have always been scenes where one exceptional person wipes everything out on their own. At those times, the Archangel would pick an appropriate life and instill talent in them.”

It was good that the 28th floor was a single ‘world’ at times like this. All you had to do was pick one of the guys living in the vast universe, give them power, and give them a story worthy of entering the arena. A new strong player would emerge to fill the empty ranking.

“But you don’t have an Archangel right now?”

“That’s the problem…”

But there was no Archangel right now. There was no manager to fill the ranking. The person above with responsibility and authority was gone, and only the subordinates who had nothing remained. Jake’s expression seemed to be so troubled.

“The Archangel has prepared some countermeasures… Those who are moderately related to the arena, moderately strong, but moderately distant from the arena… He prepared several ‘reserves’ like that.”

To be a little more specific – guys like Guntar.

“But if there was a problem, it was that with our power alone… it was impossible to lead them to the arena. In the first place, they were all tired of the arena, or were traveling in search of something else precious… even if they tried to use their powers, the Archangel’s power was already being applied, so the effect would be minimal…”

But still. The angels lacked power. The Archangel had overestimated them, and their master, the Archangel, had left, so they lacked power.

“No, wait a minute.”

A small question arose here.

“Can’t we just leave it as it is?”

“Absolutely not… If the Archangel comes back and sees this sight…”

Jake trembled. He was openly terrified.

According to him, even among the Archangels, their tendencies were divided. When a climber created a variable, there were those who would leave it alone, saying, “This must also be God’s will,” while there were those who would actively try to fix it, saying, “This is not what I wanted.” The Archangel in charge of the 28th floor was clearly the latter. The reason Dok Soo-hee was expelled from the 26th floor was the same.

“So, to summarize.”

The goal of the angels was to maintain the arena with similar difficulty, but that was disrupted because of the emperor. Since the archangel who had to maintain the difficulty level was gone, the angels had to act on their own.

“What does this have to do with Guntar?”

“That is…”

Jake sighed deeply.

“Guntar… it was our mistake…”

“Mistake?”

“Yes… Guntar was actually already dead. It was an unfortunate accident during the journey.”

The 28th floor is a world. There are countless small variables, and as a result, things often go differently from the original intention. The same goes for Guntar. He was originally a standby prepared for the arena, but died in an accident during the journey.

“… Did the angels save him?”

“Yes… It’s much easier to revive the dead than to touch the living beings in the tower…”

Jake said calmly, saying that it was easier to revive the dead.

“No, no… “

“Since the soul had already left the body, the restoration itself was much easier. As you may know, the soul is usually the obstacle in this kind of intervention…”

“…”

“The problem arose during the process of transplanting the new ego…”

Whether I was shocked or not. Jake said, biting his lower lip.

“What we wanted was an enemy who would moderately keep the players in check… someone who had some hostility toward humans, but was also somewhat skilled, and had a personality that enjoyed fighting and was suitable for the arena…”

“…” “… ”

“Maybe it’s because of our archangel’s disposition… the angel in charge… didn’t take enough consideration…” The

belligerent angel in charge took a risk in order to defeat the emperor.

“I put in a soul that shouldn’t have been put in,”

Jake said.

“What’s in there is…”

the angel said.

“It’s the old man formerly known as ‘Cheonma’…”

You’re screwed.