340 – Catastrophe (1)

“I… tried to dissuade the President until the very end. He eventually answered the phone.”

“…”

“But… it was already too late. I tried to contact Jiwon later, but he was in the tower so I couldn’t reach him.”

Choi Ji-won unconsciously grabbed Kim Jun-ho’s hand. She felt it with trembling hands and interlocked her fingers, but there was no response from Kim Jun-ho. He just stared blankly into space.

“why…”

In the end, the question that needed to be asked was Choi Ji-won’s.

“Why… do they decide on their own? What do you say?”

“…”

“You… the chairman, the president, what are you trying to do to manipulate us? You’re expecting us to conquer the tower, and you’re investing everything in it.”

“sorry.”

“I’m sorry and sorry!!!”

My breathing becomes ragged. Composure is the first thing you learn when learning martial arts, but even Choi Ji-won can’t calm down in this situation. This is true even though he shares characteristics with Boong-Boong.

“You could have just asked…”

“…”

“At least you could have told me in advance… After everything has happened, why are you telling me now…? Do you want to relieve your guilt? Or are you trying to save face now?”

“…I thought I should tell you even if it was late.”

“You say you’re being efficient. Is this efficient work? Is this? In your opinion?”

Jeter also had an excuse. However, it would not be a convincing excuse that would convince Choi Ji-won right away. After all, it was Jeter’s situation, and the fact remains that he completely ignored Kim Jun-ho and Choi Ji-won’s opinions.

“…sorry.”

That’s all I can say. I’m sorry. I was wrong. Those are words that don’t reach the victim.

“No… no…”

Jiwon Choi’s face has already been sold. I’ve seen her personal information and even her classmates’ interviews live on the news.

She herself was fine. She had experience being known through competitions and such, and she was so well-trained that she was insensitive to such things.

Still, it was hard at first. It was painful. I got angry when I saw people I had never met talking about bubbles, fake heroes created by the media, and things like that, saying they had given something to someone to get famous. I wanted to go to them and ask them, ‘How can you say that when you’ve seen my face?’

Choi Ji-won also had a hard time adjusting. Then what about Kim Jun-ho? What about him?

Kim Jun-ho’s mind was not healthy to begin with. Choi Ji-won felt more keenly than anyone else that he had become unstable due to his regression, and that was why he was trying to climb the tower so quickly. The scene where he confessed that if he repeated his regression, ordinary people would look like NPCs is still vivid.

In the midst of all this, news suddenly spreads? All over the world? Will Kim Jun-ho be able to pull himself together?

“Hoo, hoo…”

No. You have to calm down. What Choi Ji-won is guessing right now is no different from what they are guessing. What is important is Kim Jun-ho’s own opinion.

You may surprisingly accept it calmly. You may even smile nonchalantly. Let’s wait. Let’s wait and see, listen to Kim Jun-ho’s opinion, and then make a decision.

“Go out.”

“… Okay, if you need anything, just let me know…”

“get out.”

Jiwon Choi, who had chased away the jitters, carefully laid Junho Kim on the bed. He was staring blankly into space without even blinking. He was breathing repeatedly, so it was fortunate that he was breathing at least repeatedly.

Nothing will change even if you grab Jitter by the collar and shake him right now. If Kim Jun-ho was in his right mind… he would have found a way to handle the situation. He would have given him a mean lecture, saying that getting angry in this situation won’t help.

“Okay, okay… Calm down, Jiwon.”

As Jiwon Choi took a deep breath, the image of the warrior on the 29th floor flashed through her mind. He must have known. He must have reacted that way because he knew.

The time when Kim Jun-ho got sick was a day after he entered the 29th floor. And the time it takes to clear the 29th floor is at least 3 days. It is really ‘at least’ 3 days. He needs to receive the warrior’s recognition three times, and it takes a day to receive it once.

in other words.

“…no.”

A regressor cannot undo this.

**

A day passed. Kim Jun-ho was still lying in bed. Like a doll, he didn’t blink, didn’t sweat, and didn’t eat anything.

Choi Ji-won also stayed still. She had turned off her cell phone a long time ago, and she wasn’t watching TV or anything. She was just sitting still, holding Kim Jun-ho’s hand next to the bed.

“Here? Is this the right place?”

“Is that right? Why do you live in a place like this? A regressor.”

“Hey. First, turn on the live… Hey, hey! Who are you? Hey! Hey!”

Jiwon Choi’s keen senses sensed that the silence around the studio was artificial. To be exact, there were people coming and going. The state must have intervened. She could tell from the fact that the delivery man was always stopped by someone and that he had to go through some kind of inspection before leaving the food in front of the door.

Should I watch it? Should I not watch it? Let’s not watch it. But shouldn’t we at least understand the situation? No, let’s watch it together when we wake up. What should I do…

Choi Ji-won was holding Kim Jun-ho’s hand with one hand, and holding her turned-off cell phone with the other. Should I look? Should I really look?

Let’s see. Okay, let’s see. Don’t let Junho see, just let me see.

Jiwon Choi, who had made up her mind, finally turned on her cell phone.

“…ah.”

And I immediately regretted it.

-Who is Kim Jun-ho?

-Are you Americans crazy? Do you think you can believe this?

-Why is the returnee Korean? Is he a Shinto nationalist?

-I’m his middle school classmate.

The YouTube video posted by the U.S. government has been viewed over 300 million times in two days. The content introduces a person named ‘Kim Jun-ho’ and states that he is a regressor.

In fact, there wasn’t much content in it. There was no evidence that Kim Jun-ho was really a regressor, and it didn’t contain any scenes of him being active, and most of it was made up of eyewitness accounts from other players who had seen a human named ‘Kim Jun-ho’.

But the fact that the US government uploaded it. Because the president himself appeared in the video and said, ‘He is a regressor, and he will save us all.’ Even the regressor he pointed out was, quite unexpectedly, a Korean. And because the president confirmed the facts in a follow-up interview.

-Are you saying the president has dementia?

-This kid is talking nonsense because he’s afraid of getting impeached lol

-How do you know you’re a regressor? You idiots. When you go back in time, your memories are reset.

-There has to be a way, you idiot. Why would the US government suddenly start talking nonsense?

-might be able to

-But it’s so out of the blue that it seems right

-So he broke the tower by himself? So humanity won’t be destroyed?

-There’s a regression, but if you can’t wake up, you’re a loser.

-So what kind of regression is this? They just say Time Traveler and don’t give any details.

-Don’t you know that?

-Will you do it, you idiot?

People’s opinions were split evenly. Half believed, half denied.

-Hey, that’s a relief. We won’t be destroyed because we have the ability to deceive.

-There really was a regressor lol

-I knew this would happen when you said you had a tower

There were some people who reacted positively.

-I think this is a ploy. The US government is trying to divert our attention.

-It seems so to me. It’s probably an order from the Jews.

– Players have various abilities, so now they can make it however they want. If that guy is a regressor, I’m a believer.

There were some people who didn’t believe it at all.

But in Choi Ji-won’s view, the most disgusting type of people are the sarcastic ones.

-It’s been half a year now, and you still haven’t broken the tower? Even though you have the ability to return? What have you been doing all this time?

– It seems like he has no talent and doesn’t put in any effort. I don’t know which episode it is, but at this point, I think there’s no hope. Humanity is doomed.

-The original rule was that the untalented ones eat regression… It wouldn’t be fun if a genius eats it.

-But it doesn’t seem like it’s fun for a piece of trash like Junho to eat it ㅠ

-If you had given me the ability to return, I would have cleared the tower a long time ago. What kind of idiot is causing trouble by using a good ability?

-What are you going to do if the regressor catches you? You’re talking like shit.

-I can’t catch Thor lol

“…”

People who don’t know anything.

People who don’t know what kind of regression Kim Jun-ho had, what he went through at the top, and how he overcame it.

Because I didn’t know, I was saying things I shouldn’t have said so easily.

Everyone knew Kim Jun-ho. Everyone knew the regressor. Everyone… really everyone…

“Jiwon-ah.”

At that time, Kim Jun-ho called out to Choi Ji-won with his eyes still open.

“Oh, yeah? Junho! Come to your senses…”

“I can see the status window now.”

The first thing he said out of the blue was, ‘I see the status window.’

[The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero Trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait is activated!] [Hero The effect of the trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!] [The effect of the hero trait is activated!]

Yes. Kim Jun-ho has become stronger. Excessively… stronger.

“haha.”

Just as everyone hoped.