“Joo Yeonwoo.”
“Yes.”
“Ordinary people, when you say something like this to them… they usually ask what you’re talking about.”
If he were really innocent, the first emotion that should have appeared was confusion.
Then maybe indignation.
“Or they ask what’s going on. And after hearing why I said something like that, they’d say it’s ridiculous.”
If he truly had nothing to hide—
“They wouldn’t skip past all of that and immediately ask whether I really think they could do something like this.”
They wouldn’t behave as if they already knew why I was suspicious.
“I see.”
Yeonwoo nodded calmly.
“I’ll be more careful next time.”
Like an engineer acknowledging they need to check a broken part.
That misaligned reaction—
so eerily wrong—
I couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You—what are you? What do you know?”
I stepped backward and gathered mana at my fingertips.
Transparent energy rose, forming a sphere that aimed straight at him.
Would this even work on him?
I didn’t know.
But desperate fear made me glare at him like a cornered animal.
“Noeul.”
“Don’t come closer!”
He obeyed—
he stopped exactly where he was, as if nailed to the floor.
What is he thinking?
Does he think this distance doesn’t matter?
Well… considering he somehow corrupted my System window earlier…
My thoughts tangled in panic as he spoke again.
“There’s no need for you to be this afraid.”
“Not be afraid?”
“Yes. I am your ally.”
I barked out a laugh.
“Ally?”
After doing all this suspicious garbage?
But Yeonwoo answered with a straight face.
“Yes. I have no intention of opposing you or harming you.”
“……”
“Not in the tutorial, not on this floor—have I ever tried to attack you?”
His tone was gentle, like someone coaxing a frightened child.
“I’ve been trying to protect you from the beginning. Because I need you.”
“Protect? Me?”
My face twisted so hard it hurt.
“Why?”
“Because I need you.”
“What do you even know about me? We’ve only known each other for a week.”
We had only been in this Tower for a week.
Yes—
only a week.
It made no sense.
How could he kill people so casually?
How could he always stay so calm, as if he already knew everything?
What was that thing he just did?
What kind of power does he have, and what exactly is he trying to do?
The clues in my head were too flimsy to explain his inexplicable actions, and the uncertainty only made the confusion worse.
“Let me correct you. It’s been more than a week.”
His words cut straight through the chaos in my thoughts.
“Is that really what matters right now?”
“It matters.”
Those unreadable black eyes were still fixed on me without a single tremor.
When I glared back, he muttered something to himself.
“…So this is how you react in this timeline.”
“……”
“It makes sense. You always hated the unknown the most.”
Psycho.
The way he said it made my skin crawl, and I frowned even harder.
But he didn’t seem bothered at all.
“I suppose there’s no helping it. This time, it’s better to reveal it early. I have no plans to be your enemy—yet.”
Was that meant for me, or was he just monologuing?
His cryptic muttering grated on my nerves.
“Are you curious about my secret?”
“……”
“No need to be so wary. If you want, I’ll tell you.”
He moved with an exaggerated, theatrical posture—like a puppet performing a drama.
“I am a regressor. I have repeated the same stretch of time over and over, in order to save the world.”
For a moment—
my thoughts froze.
“A… regressor?”
“Yes.”
A regressor.
A common trope in webnovels—someone who returns to the past with knowledge of the future.
And yet, even in this suddenly fantastical world I’d been thrown into, it felt too absurd to process.
“…A regressor?”
“Yes.”
Even now, after my world had turned into a literal fantasy, the idea felt too unreal to accept.
Maybe he really was just insane. Delusional.
“You never thought anything was strange about me?”
“I thought plenty of things were strange. How you somehow knew my skill when I never told you, your bizarrely accurate information, and… well, now.”
But despite acting like a lunatic, he did possess some kind of bizarre power.
A power that somehow violated the rules of the System—something even I, after just a week, could recognize as impossible.
“That’s why I’m interrogating you like this.”
“Yes. All of that was because I regressed. I climbed this Tower once already, and then I came back.”
“So… you knew more than everyone else. And you approached me for a reason.”
“Because of the knowledge I brought back. You’re a very valuable person. I needed to be close to you from the start.”
And the annoying thing was—
the word regression fit the situation like the missing piece of a puzzle.
It made too much sense.
“What about earlier? The glitch in the message? Was that you?”
“Yes. Just as you guessed. I lost most of my powers when I came back, but I can still manage small tricks like that. Although only in special spaces like this one.”
Small tricks, special spaces—
the nuance suggested he normally couldn’t interfere with messages or the System.
So he wasn’t some overwhelmingly supreme being.
He was more like… someone like us, but with a cheat.
Someone stuck in the same world, except he had “regression” as a special advantage.
“Why did you do it?”
“There wasn’t enough trust or time to convince you. I needed to prevent you from choosing a Constellation, even if I had to use a drastic method.”
“…You’re saying that was for my sake?”
“Yes. You’re an important person. I’d like to explain more, but I can’t. There are restrictions.”
Restrictions?
“There are restrictions on that, too?”
“Regression isn’t easy. There are many things binding me. I also have to watch out for the Tower Master.”
His tone—
Something about it loosened some of the tension curled inside me.
The way he said it…
he sounded less like some omnipotent being manipulating us from above, and more like someone only slightly ahead of us, operating under his own limitations.
Someone who had privileged knowledge, yes—
but not an untouchable god.
“Does it make sense now?”
And—
It actually did.
For the first time, his behavior had a plausible framework.
All of his behavior finally had an explanation.
As the riddles unraveled a little, the fear I felt toward him softened—just a little.
“So you’re a regressor… and you came back in time to save the world?”
“Yes.”
“And to save the world, you need a companion—me?”
“Correct.”
That meant he had no reason to harm me recklessly.
For some reason, the tension drained out of me all at once.
I dispelled my skill.
“…This Tower must be pretty brutal, huh? Brutal enough to mess people up?”
“Well. From what I’ve heard, once people start climbing the Tower, they tend to lose the sensibilities of an average 21st-century person. I can’t say for sure myself.”
It really did seem like his warped personality came from the Tower’s environment.
Or he simply snapped because of regression.
That happens all the time, doesn’t it? In regression novels.
“…Just try to keep that in mind. You don’t look like a normal person to me.”
“I see. I’ll keep that in mind. Then—does this mean you no longer consider me hostile?”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
“In that case, may I come closer?”
At that, I let out a small sigh.
“Do what you want.”
“Thank you.”
The moment I gave permission, he closed the distance in a few decisive steps.
He was still an unsettling man in every way, but… this much was acceptable. Probably.
“The door to the next floor will open soon.”
“All right. But before we go, I want to know what’s ahead.”
One thing was certain—
If he really was a regressor, he was an incredibly useful card to keep.
So there was no reason not to make use of him.
“Will you tell me?”
Because in this unknown world, I had to survive.
And I steeled my resolve once more.
I would escape this damned Tower with my brother—
even if it meant using this frightening man.
Looking back later, it was a naive choice born of total ignorance.
“Yes. As much as you’d like.”
After all—back then, I had no idea just how deeply obsessed he was with me.
