Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn’t

Chapter 66: Sixteenth Floor, Waiting Room (1)

[7 hours 45 minutes until the rest period ends. Please take a rest.]

Having just finished a round of combat training, I lay down on my bed, but sleep remained elusive. Lately, I hadn’t slept for more than four hours in one stretch. As my stamina stat continued to rise, my need for rest seemed to diminish accordingly. It wasn’t a development I welcomed.

Sleep was vital, not just for the body but for the mind as well.

Sigh.

The more I tried to force myself to sleep, the sharper my mind became. At this point, continuing to try and sleep was pointless. Rather than wasting my time, I could instead do something productive.

I had already reviewed my previous battles through combat training, so I didn’t need to spend any more time on that. It then occurred to me that I should check the Community. Doing that would be better than letting time slip away aimlessly.

[I think Su-Hyeok cleared another hidden mission. He showed us a weird shortcut.]

[Our party leader was assassinated while heading toward the fortress.]

[I followed that shortcut too. Went deep into the forest, and didn’t see a single lizardman. Absolute jackpot, lol.]

[Not a joke. I heard over twenty people were murdered.]

[Yeah, a group of climbers were moving together, when suddenly an arrow came out of nowhere, and bam, one dead.]

[?? How’s that even possible? What were the other party members doing?]

[No one sensed a thing, and they couldn’t find any trace of the assassin afterward.]

I opened the Community absentmindedly, only to find the posts pouring in at an overwhelming pace. Something serious had occurred, setting the whole Community ablaze.

I scrolled slowly through the messages and realized what had caused the uproar. There was an assassin.

[That bastard Hawthorn finally got what he deserved. He was total scum.]

[Agreed. Good riddance. I was stuck in his party with no way to escape, but thanks to the assassin, I’m free now. Thank you, assassin!]

[Even so, saying someone deserved to die—aren’t we going too far?]

[He was stealing loot from party members and hoarding it. Yeah, he deserved it.]

[Wait, there’s more drama?]

An assassin?

At first, I thought someone was just stirring up trouble for attention. Some people had previously started rumors in the Community and tried to play it off as “trolling.” Even though the Community was a place where names were openly displayed, incidents like this occurred from time to time.

After all, the tower housed over a hundred thousand climbers. With that many, it was only inevitable some would have a few screws loose. Occasionally, even seemingly normal climbers would post something outlandish just for a laugh.

This feels too widespread to be a mere joke though.

The victims’ party members weren’t the only ones posting either. Some higher-ranking climbers claimed to have seen the bodies on their way to the fortress as well. Moreover, the ones reporting the assassin weren’t known troublemakers.

That left only one logical conclusion. There was an assassin, and the very thought left me unsettled.

Could this be just a psychopath on a killing spree?

Strangely enough, few climbers seemed to be mourning the victims’ deaths. In fact, some of their party members were celebrating their leaders’ demise, going as far as to thank the assassin.

Freed from the grip of the deceased, more and more climbers began revealing the misdeeds of their former party members. The revelations didn’t fully surprise me as this was one of the darker consequences of the party system, a flaw I had anticipated from the beginning.

Hmm...

Some of the revelations were downright disturbing. Some leaders demanded sexual favors in exchange for a share of loot, or deliberately sabotaged party members they didn’t like, ensuring they didn’t earn any points.

The more I read, the more conflicted I became.

Is this assassin simply a cold-blooded killer, or are they serving as a necessary evil?

As I continued sifting through the posts, I came across something unexpected. Six of the victims had been described as ordinary, decent people. Their party members swore up and down that they were innocent.

That changed everything.

Is the assassin really just a psychopathic murderer?

Yet, the Community’s frenzied atmosphere led many to dismiss such claims. Those who had suffered under the dead leaders were adamant that the assassin was a hero, a vigilante who had done what needed to be done.

No one could say for sure. Perhaps those six were innocent.

Then, a chilling thought crossed my mind, a fundamental question that overshadowed everything.

If the assassin killed them in the name of some noble cause, how could they be certain of the victims’ guilt?

Many of the newly exposed wrongdoings had never been shared, with the party members too afraid to report, fearing retaliation.

If only a few people had died, I could maybe reason that the assassin overheard some complaints on the tenth floor and decided to act. However, there weren’t only a few victims—there were over twenty. Additionally, their rank on the leaderboard was spread out, so there was no way the assassin could have learned of all their misdeeds by merely eavesdropping on the tenth floor.

That only left one possibility

The assassin is most likely a psychotic killer.

Perhaps it was sheer luck that three-quarters of those killed had turned out to be malicious. Such a coincidence was possible in a place like the Tower of Ordeal, where power reigned supreme and rampant killing was the norm.

Here, the rawest aspects of human nature—greed, selfishness, and malice—were bound to surface. Unsurprisingly, many climbers sought to trample over others to grow stronger, rather than offer a helping hand.

So right now, the Community is idolizing a psychopath, mistaking them for some kind of necessary evil.

There was no way the assassin could know who was truly corrupt unless they—

A bolt of realization struck me.

Unless they knew the future. Unless they were a prophet...

Or a regressor.

And if we were talking about regressors, well, there was someone I knew who fit that description.

Ha Hee-Jeong.

***

It didn’t take me long to piece things together: Ha Hee-Jeong was likely the assassin.

Not only would she have foreknowledge of other climber’s wrongdoings as a regressor, but this could also explain her actions on the sixth and fifteenth floors.

I started piecing together everything, from the time she went back to that traitor’s house on the sixth floor, to the moment on the fifteenth when she chose not to enter the fortress, even though there was no reason for her to wait.

Of course, I was sure other explanations could disprove these assumptions, but the circumstantial evidence was enough for me.

Hee-Jeong.

But I knew Ha Hee-Jeong wouldn’t kill anyone without a valid reason. Whoever she had targeted must have deserved it, whether they committed heinous crimes or were a threat to the other climbers.

I trusted her implicitly.

All along, you have been carrying this burden alone.

I couldn’t let her bear the weight of these killings by herself. We were bound together, scaling the tower as partners. Even if she had changed, her personality hardening, the emotional toll of murder wasn’t something anyone could simply shrug off.

There’s a difference between observing death and actively murdering others.

I had noticed that, in the Tower of Ordeal, there seemed to exist a strange, unseen force that protected the climbers’ minds from the stresses and horrors of the challenges. There was no other way to explain how climbers’ psyches had remained mostly unscathed even after killing countless alien creatures.

I had grown used to violence only after vomiting a few times following my first kill. And those goblins were nothing more than the beginning.

However, murdering another human felt completely different.

The Community’s reaction after the events on the eighth floor made that clear. Climbers who had been deceived into committing murder by the Skill Thief Gremlin were left deeply traumatized, both mentally and emotionally.

I couldn’t allow Ha Hee-Jeong to carry that weight alone. Her hands shouldn’t be the only ones stained with blood.

To confirm my suspicions, I sent Ha Hee-Jeong a message. I didn’t mince my words. We were close enough that we didn’t need to be indirect.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Hey, Hee-Jeong.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): What’s up?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Are you the assassin?

***

Upon reading Kwon Su-Hyeok’s blunt question, Ha Hee-Jeong took a slow deep breath.

She had expected this. Kwon Su-Hyeok wasn’t foolish, and it was only a matter of time before he confronted her. She had even thought through what she would say. However, despite her mental preparation, lying to her closest friend gnawed at her, bringing nothing but guilt.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): Huh? What are you even talking about?

Regardless of the guilt, she couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth. Kwon Su-Hyeok, beneath his composed exterior, was far more sensitive and soft-hearted than he let on. His heart was pure, even if he tried to act otherwise.

She had hoped he would experience the shock of taking a life on the eighth floor so that it could harden him for what was to come. Unfortunately, his sharp instincts had allowed him to complete the hidden mission and avoid that outcome altogether.

Now is not the right time to tell him.

The sixteenth floor was rapidly approaching.

Ha Hee-Jeong recalled how Kwon Su-Hyeok had been forced to kill a treacherous party member in her previous life. The action had taken a larger psychological toll on him than she had anticipated, and the weight of it had lingered for a long time.

Kwon Su-Hyeok wasn’t a person who could simply brush off killing another individual, even if they deserved it.

Even when he knew they were villains.

Admitting she was the assassin would change everything, and she feared his reaction. Since her regression, things between them had felt a little different.

Is it the shift in my personality post-regression? Or is it because we haven’t had the chance to let our camaraderie bloom in the face of desperation yet?

I can’t risk him being disappointed in me… or worse, hurt.

She wasn’t sure if she was being needlessly concerned, but Ha Hee-Jeong couldn’t help but think that way. Regression had given her a fragile new hope for them and she didn’t want even the smallest distance to come between them.

Besides…

She recalled the many desperate moments of her previous life. The Tower of Ordeal wasn’t filled with saints. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those who survived were wicked, regardless of the scale of their actions. She didn’t want Kwon Su-Hyeok to face that ugly truth.

I should be the one to handle the dirty work.

***

Since Ha Hee-Jeong had denied being the assassin, I decided to stop my accusations. Sure, she could be lying, but pushing her wasn’t worth it. Even if she was the assassin, that wouldn’t crush my faith in her.

Regardless of the situation, I trust Ha Hee-Jeong.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Hmm. I guess the assassin just got lucky then, considering not everyone who died was innocent.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): That’s probably it.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): From the way you're talking, this didn’t happen in your previous life, did it?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): Nope. Back then, we didn’t have anyone like this. Maybe a few crazies slipped through since we saved more people this time. We’ll just have to track down the assassin.

Her logic seemed sound. We already knew that Ha Hee-Jeong’s intervention had altered the future, but putting it into numbers, our influence had saved over one hundred thousand climbers up to this point. One in a hundred thousand odds for a sadistic killer to emerge? That was completely plausible.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): It’s a shame there were so many victims, but honestly, the end result isn’t all bad. Those dead party leaders had too much power, and maybe this will bring other problematic leaders back in line.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Hmm... yeah, I can see that.

While I typed my reply, a question crossed my mind.

In her previous life, who became a villain after the fact?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Hey, Hee-Jeong. Which climbers turned bad later? Shouldn’t we do something about them now?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): Hmm, there are way too many for me to list their names off the top of my head. Plus, with how many additional climbers survived, who knows how many more we have to worry about now?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Sixteenth Floor): Right, there are still over three hundred thousand people left.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): Exactly. We’ll just have to weed them out as we climb. It’s not like any of them can touch us. We’re far too strong.

I found myself nodding instinctively. She was right. No matter what malevolent individual arose, they couldn’t threaten her or me—not with our current strength. Thankfully, we didn’t have to worry as much about the tower’s trials since Ha Hee-Jeong warned me of anything truly dangerous ahead of time.

Pop—

Just then, a small, round bottle materialized on the table in front of me. A message from Ha Hee-Jeong arrived soon after.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Sixteenth Floor): Oh, and take this. It’s a Great Elixir. It’ll boost all your stats.