Chapter 7
I faintly searched through my memories.
It was shortly after I first met Mihyeon in the past.
"There you are. Aren't you working a little too hard?"
Mihyeon had asked me to join the raid team.
I refused at first, but after being persuaded again and again, I eventually joined.
To celebrate my joining, they held a party at a bar on the 60th floor.
In the end, I didn't go.
I didn't have time for something like that.
Even focusing entirely on climbing the Tower wasn't enough, yet they wanted to waste time drinking.
When I first heard about it, I thought all of them were foolish.
Especially because I had expected them to have a different mindset from ordinary players.
"Everyone's waiting for you, so hurry up and come."
"...Leave me alone."
Mihyeon watched me ignore her and continue swinging my sword.
She shook her head.
Then, as if she had made up her mind about something, she stepped into the training hall.
Shing.
She raised her rapier and carefully wiped the blade with a towel.
Then she pointed its tip toward me.
"If you're going to train that hard, shouldn't you at least have someone to spar with?"
That was exactly what I wanted.
I had been wanting to fight her at least once.
After all, she had already reached the 70th floor.
Kwang! Clang!
We hadn't even exchanged more than a few blows.
Her rapier cut through the air and slipped perfectly through an opening in my defense.
The sword in my hand snapped.
It was a complete defeat.
"Well? I'm pretty strong too, aren't I? If that wasn't enough, want to go again? I'll keep sparring with you until you're exhausted."
My hand trembled slightly.
Even though we'd only exchanged a few attacks, the feeling hadn't left me.
I picked up another sword from the rack outside the training hall.
"One more time."
"Fine by me."
We fought several more times.
The result never changed.
Her fierce attacks pierced forward like an awl.
Again and again, my defense was broken apart without me being able to do anything.
"Haa... Haa..."
Breathing heavily, I dropped yet another broken sword onto the floor.
Mihyeon looked at me and gave me a piece of advice.
"If you keep running without stopping, you'll eventually get tired and collapse. You need to rest sometimes so you have enough strength left to run again. Don't you think?"
It was a warning.
I was obsessed with the thought that I had to keep climbing the Tower.
If I kept running while being chased by that thought, I would eventually die before making it very far.
"...By the way, why have you been speaking casually to me this whole time? I don't remember agreeing to that."
"You're twenty-eight, right? I'm the same age, so of course I'm going to speak casually. Besides, you're already doing the same thing to me. Let's just call it even."
She raised the corners of her lips into a soft smile.
Then she grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the training hall.
"Hey, we're already late. Hurry up!"
"Where are you suddenly trying to take me—?!"
"What exactly have you been listening to this whole time? I told you everyone is waiting for you! Stop complaining and come with me already!"
Even while climbing the 60th floor...
Even while climbing the 70th...
Her smile never lost its light.
She always smiled at everyone.
And she always stood at the very front, leading the entire raid team.
If it hadn't been for Mihyeon, perhaps I would have pushed myself until I died.
But even someone like her, who seemed as though she would shine forever, once faced a breaking point.
Creak.
"...You're here? Want some tea?"
"Sure."
During our raid on the 81st floor, more than one-third of our people died.
In the end, we had no choice but to retreat back to the 80th floor.
Mihyeon had always been the one comforting everyone else.
But now, a cold shadow covered her face.
It wasn't exactly sadness.
It was closer to guilt.
Guilt over failing to protect them.
The tea in front of us slowly grew cold.
I didn't say anything.
I simply stayed there with her in silence.
After a long time, Mihyeon finally spoke first.
"...Suhyeok. Do you think we're really going to be okay like this?"
A bitter smile formed on her face.
"...Ahyeon died. Sangcheol too. Beomsu too. Just yesterday, they were excitedly saying we were almost at the 100th floor..."
She covered her face with both hands and began sobbing from guilt.
Even Mihyeon, who had always been bright and cheerful, was beginning to break.
There was only one thing I could say to her in that situation.
Not words of comfort.
Not words of sympathy.
Just one firm and realistic statement.
"If you keep running without stopping, you'll eventually get tired and collapse. The ones who died simply went ahead to rest first. Think of it that way."
For a moment, she stared at me blankly.
Then a quiet laugh finally escaped her lips.
"...Haha. That's such a 'you' way of comforting someone. I should pull myself together too. Like you said, everyone needs me."
"..."
The brief memory ended.
When I opened my eyes again, Kim Hyeona was standing in front of me, blocking my path.
"Please... Please stop, mister..."
The people who had been threatening me with spears and swords only moments ago...
One of them had merely lost an arm, yet now all of them had collapsed to the ground, begging her to protect them.
"Those people only needed someone to take responsibility for them. Even in a situation they created themselves."
"I know! I know all of that! But... you don't have to kill everyone because of it..."
She was desperately trying to protect them all.
She was different from Mihyeon.
Protecting people had to come with responsibility.
Right now, Kim Hyeona was simply being bound by her relationships and used by them.
Kim Jeonghyeon knows that too.
That's why that bastard looks so confident.
I suddenly turned my head.
"Kim Jeonghyeon. You hid something very interesting deep inside the forest. Didn't any of you notice that someone suddenly disappeared?"
Kim Hyeona's expression darkened as though someone had immediately come to mind.
The others reacted the same way.
The seed of suspicion began to spread.
"Go on, then. Since you're so clever, answer me."
Kim Jeonghyeon still seemed determined to lie until the very end.
He put on an innocent expression.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Hyeona won't be fooled by nonsense like—"
Thud.
I tossed a bloodstained necklace onto the ground.
The moment Kim Hyeona saw it, her eyes widened in horror.
Several others, including Kim Jeonghyeon, showed brief panic that they couldn't hide quickly enough.
"You managed to do something like that in only one day. Did you think no one would find it just because you hid it deep in the forest, up in a tree?"
"..."
The person most shocked by the necklace wasn't Kim Hyeona.
Nor was it any of the others.
It was a middle-aged woman nearby.
Thud.
She collapsed onto her knees.
"H-How...? Why is Sua's necklace here...? Why... Why is this here?!"
Ever since arriving in this place, the woman had stayed in a corner with a devastated expression.
She was the mother of the woman named Sua, the necklace's owner.
Still on her knees, she screamed.
Her eyes, filled with hatred, turned toward Kim Jeonghyeon and several others.
"...You did this, didn't you? Are you even human...? You told me a monster killed her...!!"
Now that everything had been exposed, there was no point in making pathetic excuses.
