Five Time Regressor Walks the King’s Path - Chapter 11

Chapter 11. Ha Chun-Sung, Blocked on Floor 23

“Mmm, tsk, fine. Let’s do that. Tell me the old man’s wish.”

Nice.

“In the future, every month, please donate enough money to the orphanage to operate without difficulty for at least a month. For the name, just use these guys. They should have enough money for this.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

It seemed that he had nothing to lose after hearing my wish, so he nodded.

It was probably because even for a demon it was an easy wish.

“I see. Then I will.”

And then the demon finally disappeared.

“Tonian, wake up.”

“E-Eung.”

After the demon disappeared, I began to wake the children up one by one.

It would be too much to carry five of them with a child’s body, so I planned to wake them up and let them walk back on their own.

The children, woken up from my shaking, screamed when they saw me. I held in my desire to punch them.

“Let’s go home.”

Then I took the children back to the orphanage.

When I took the children there, the witch was already out in the front.

She seemed to be looking for someone. The moment she saw me, she looked relieved. Her eyes slowly went over the five children standing next to me.

“Carmine, Sofia, Eva, Oricia, Tonian.”

The witch approached, calling the children’s names one after the other with a look of disbelief.

The children faced the witch and slowly began to cry. They soon burst into tears while in her arms.

The witch also began to cry at the fact that the children had returned.

I opened my mouth as I watched this scene.

“How about that? ‘Parman’s Flute’… The ending I made.”

As soon as my voice halted, a bell rang through the streets.

[‘Parman’s Flute’ looks satisfied.]

At that moment, large words appeared in the sky.

[Congratulations. You are the first to clear Floor 22.]

[Floor 22’s administrator, ‘Parman’s Flute’, celebrates your clearing and rewards you.]

I turned to look back and saw the smiling witch with tearful eyes.

And the moment I blinked, she returned to the figure of a witch trapped in a glass box.

[Announcement: In three months and one day, Floor 22 has been cleared.]

And a notification message appeared all over the Floors.

By now, others must have realized that Floor 22 had been cleared.

[The witch’s grievance has been resolved.]

[The witch’s grievance disappears.]

And at the same time, the witch’s grievance that filled the Floor disappeared.

“Am I free?”

Mumbling to myself, I looked at the witch.

Then I immediately approached and reached for the glass.

‘Glass Fabrication.’

The moment I triggered the baptism I received from ‘Mocking Cinderella’, the glassy children were moved to her side.

“It’s better than being alone.”

[‘Parman’s Flute’ is touched by your actions.]

[‘Parman’s Flute’ chooses you.]

[‘Parman’s Flute’ baptizes you.]

“Damn stalker.”

The moment I was baptized out of the blue, my face flushed.

It was because I realized that I had done something embarrassing.

[‘Parman’s Flute’ is happy.]

Rotten Constellations.

I was irritated for a moment, but I held it in.

Baptism is something that helps anytime, anywhere.

I grumbled my way up the next staircase.

So far, I had cleared up to Floor 22.

There was a mountain of Floors left to be cleared.

“Ha Chun-Sung!”

As soon as I tried to climb the stairs, a voice rang out behind me.

There stood Sword Queen. Perhaps she had climbed the stairs as soon as the Floor was cleared.

When a Floor was cleared, the Constellation would turn it into a temporary safe zone before reverting the Floor back.

According to the rules, because Sword Queen had given up clearing, she would lose her right to challenge Floor 22 for a week as a penalty.

Of course, even if I was heading to the safe Floor, there was no way to follow me up the stairs.

“You, really…”

“I’m going ahead. Clear it slowly and come.”

I waved lightly to Sword Queen.

She contributed a lot to this clear.

It was because her information made it easy to clear the Floor.

So I threw her my own gift.

“Use the demon well.”

It was the best hint I could give.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Receiving a pleasant answer, I nodded, recalling the phrase, “An old eagle is better than a young crow.”

I left her behind and continued climbing the stairs.

* * *

Step. Step.

The sound of footsteps rang out.

A broken arm and a frown.

Heretic was walking in a cold sweat.

“Heretic.”

At that moment, a voice calling for Heretic rang out.

As he turned his head toward the voice, a man stood there. Heretic, who found the man, opened his eyes wide.

“Look at you.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Heretic dropped his head at the words of the man hidden by the darkness of the street.

He was shivering.

The man walked slowly out from the darkness.

Wooden tattoos all over the body, white and black inverted eyes, and pitch-black hair fluttering around his waist.

It was Yashin.

“Is it the work of Ha Chun-Sung?”

“Yes. I don’t know how, but he now possesses strength comparable to the strongest of regressors.”

To Yashin’s question, Heretic answered with his head down.

At that, Yashin was silent, and soon turned his eyes to one direction.

“It looks like it’s your turn.”

“Looks like it.”

There was another man in the darkness.

The man had a fishy smile on his face.

The eyes of Heretic turned round upon finding his figure.

“That person is…”

“Take a rest for a while, and get some treatment, Heretic. He’ll take care of Ha Chun-Sung.”

“Yes.”

Heretic complied with Yashin’s words without any complaints.

When Heretic disappeared with Teleport, the two remaining continued their conversation.

“I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yeah, Ha Chun-Sung is mine.”

Yashin began to move.

* * *

Floor 22.5.

Currently, with Floor 23 ahead, I was relieving my fatigue.

I’d invested my energy and time to break through from Floor 10 to Floor 22 over the past month, so I thought I should take a day off.

‘Sword Queen probably went straight to clearing as soon as possible.’

I smiled lightly as I remembered Sword Queen, who had been chasing me.

Her first impression wasn’t good, but she wasn’t that bad.

‘I’m sure she’ll keep climbing Crown Road, too.’

Lying in the bathtub of the hotel, I let out a long sigh.

The fatigue accumulated from all that running seemed to be finally relieved.

‘I wonder what the next Floor will be like?’

Maybe it was from targeting a new Floor every day, but I had a habit of getting lost in thought while thinking about the next Floor.

Everything felt new, even though it was the fifth regression. Maybe that could be attributed to the Constellation change.

For the past four times, up until Floor 50, it was just an unending repetition.

‘Well, I’m getting a lot of rewards because of that.’

The reason why I could stay at such a hotel was because I received a considerable amount of goods as first clear compensation.

I then remembered that I had not been rewarded by ‘Parman’s Flute’.

Coming out of the bathroom, I wiped off the water, put on a gown, and decided to get the reward right away.

“I’ll receive the clear reward.”

A sword then fell into my hand.

[For clearing Floor 22, you will be rewarded with a Heavenly Star Sword.]

Oh, I hadn’t encountered a weapon reward in a long time.

The grip of the sword was engraved with a Constellation.

Just by looking at the exterior, it was quite beautiful. When I drew the sword and looked at the appearance of the Heavenly Star Sword, I saw a black blade, as if the universe was engraved onto it.

With that, my smile looked quite satisfied watching the pattern of stars passing by.

“Pretty things are good. Because it looks like it has value.”

A person’s dignity comes out when the things on their body are luxurious.

Thinking that ‘Parman’s Flute’ gave me a decent item, I sheathed the sword.

I thought the dao I was using was getting dull recently, but thanks to that Constellation, I received a new weapon.

Soon after, I checked the baptism granted by ‘Parman’s Flute’.

[The Pied Piper]

A popular star with the monsters.

You now have the best ability that catches the eyes of monsters.

If you activate your ability, a monster will run at you from even a kilometer away.

But be careful.

Because the monsters are rushing to reap your life.

(This is the baptism given by ‘Parman’s flute’.)

That’s a very useless skill.

‘It’ll be easy to level up with it, though.’

However, I was already so strong that the difference between others was heaven and earth, so it was a baptism that wasn’t very useful to me.

Well, something was better than nothing, so I plunked down onto the bed and picked up the remote control.

When I turned on the TV, the news was just coming on.

The news was run by the Constellation, ‘Courting Information’, and reported daily incidents.

Of course, only information up to Floor 50 was reported, so any information beyond that was unknown.

“My story is coming up.”

It just so happened that my story was being reported on the news.

[Ha Chun-Sung, a supernova-like figure who suddenly appeared, is now climbing Crown Road at the fastest pace among the participants. How far will his solo career of 22 Floors go?! The public eye is on him.]

It was reported in such a manner.

Afterward, interviews related to this were also shown in the video.

“Grand Wizard, that bastard.”

And Grand Wizard was among them.

The face I saw a few months ago, not looking very different, gave an interview with a bright smile.

He ended the interview by saying that, as someone who cleared Floor 2 with me, he believed I would make it.

Geez, it was just like ‘Courting Information’.

They probably already knew everything about me.

Still, it was a violation of the rules to disclose the participants’ personal information, so the report didn’t tell them how I became so strong.

After that, I turned off the TV and decided to take a nap first.

* * *

The next morning.

Hearing the noisy chirping of birds, I stood up, yawned, and looked around.

‘Yeah, I decided to rest for a while and then clear Floor 23.’

I got up while stretching and headed straight to the shower room.

But as soon as I turned on the water to wash my face, my expression slowly began to change.

It was because of my face.

“Fuck, what the hell…”

It had turned into the common face of a mob character, like one that appeared in a video game.

[You are becoming ‘Villager 1′. Erosion rate: 1%]

[The ‘Proprietor of Floor 23’, ‘The Spirit of All Things’, laughs at you.]

And then, letters were arranged into words floating midair.

Looking blankly at the text, I muttered while feeling strange, and my expression slowly began to change as if something had come to mind.

“Floor 23?”

“……Clear condition.”

[‘The Spirit of All Things’ presents the conditions for clearing Floor 23.]

[Stage ‘The One and Only Warrior’. A demon king that remained asleep for a long time has appeared! Please knock down the demon king, but be careful! Your memories are gradually being covered with the memories of ‘Villager 1’. The world of ‘The One and Only Warrior’ has a different time axis from the outside world. Please be careful, as the time is faster inside than outside.]

“Fuck.”

Once again, a curse came out.

Now I was sure.

What the words in front of me meant.

And I realized what the gap between yesterday and today was for.

I entered Floor 23 yesterday and lost my memory of it. The Constellation was covering it with the memory of the villager.

Sweeping my hair irritably, I opened the door and walked outside.

“Oh, Chun-Sung. Are you going to work again today?”

“Yes, hello. Old man Val.”

[You are becoming ‘Villager 1’. Erosion rate: 2%]