Chapter 392

Calamity (5)

The short video posted on YouTube was extremely simple, and at the same time, more shocking than any video in the history of humankind.

The video began in the middle of the Pacific, nothing but open ocean stretching in every direction. A YouTuber riding in a helicopter pointed toward a small boat, barely visible in the distance. Facing the camera, they counted down. Three, two, one.

-Craaaaaack!!!

Right after, the ocean beneath the boat froze silently, but with ferocious speed. The endless expanse of sea turned into a massive block of ice in an instant, a surreal sight to witness.

The camera zoomed in on the face of a man standing on the ice far in the distance. Exhausted-looking, but with eyes that didn't waver. He stared straight into the lens and spoke.

"I'm a regressor. And... humanity is on the verge of extinction, right now."

-Shocking... regressor asks humanity for help

-Does this sound like something that makes sense? A regressor? Can you prove it?

-Can't be proven. But it can't be, so what are you gonna do about it? Didn't you see the video? Guy froze the ocean into an island. Even if it's not really a regressor and it's just a madman, you'd have to believe him at this point.

-Yo it's not just a YouTube video, there's a webtoon too? Similar content.

-Wait he drew his own life story into a webtoon? What the hell lmaooo

-I'm reading the webtoon right now and there's a civilian version and a player version, what's the difference?

-Player version has stuff from inside the Tower. Civilians can't see inside the Tower anyway so I guess that's why they split it?

-I stopped climbing the Tower at Floor 8 and the content after that doesn't show up for me...

-Well what did you expect?

YouTube videos. Novels. Webtoons. Audiobooks. Community posts. News articles. Even newspapers, that relic of a bygone era.

Through every medium imaginable, my story spread, expanded, and reproduced itself over and over. The story laid out, in detail, every trait I had, a brief account of everything I'd experienced, and the exact situation I was facing right now.

I couldn't afford to grow any stronger. But in my current state, I couldn't bring the golem down either. So I needed a way to defeat the golem while staying exactly as strong as I already was, no stronger. I couldn't find that way on my own. I needed everyone's help.

"Whoa... this is really about him?"

"His ability is insanely weird. Getting hit once makes him regress?"

Everyone, and I mean everyone, chewed on my story, tore into it, treated it like a toy to play with for their own entertainment. It weighed on me hard, mentally, but I couldn't afford to look away from any of it. Looking away would've defeated the entire point of spreading the story in the first place.

-So there really is a regressor. Kind of figured someone like that would show up once the Tower appeared in the first place.

-I could do a hundred times better than Kim Jun-ho if it were me. Make me the regressor.

-So basically Kim Jun-ho's just riding on Choi Ji-won's coattails? Isn't he a loser?

-Watch your mouth, Kim Jun-ho would end you if he saw that lol

-Sounds easy when you say it out loud, but doing it yourself would probably be brutal. Not gonna lie, I already hate going to work every day, yeah;;

-But is it even possible to repeat the same actions as before just to eliminate variables? I don't think I could do that.

-Guess players just have insane memory.

-Still kind of jealous though, all you gotta do is clear the Tower and you're basically king of humanity

-All his traits are broken as hell too? I kinda want that life

-Did the guy above even read the post? Not being able to die even when you want to sounds pretty damn miserable

-But are the monsters showing up because of players? Why can't he get stronger? Does that mean the stronger these guys get, the stronger the monsters on Earth get too? Shouldn't there be a law banning people from climbing the Tower?

-So the regressor took responsibility and killed every single one of those monsters, and you're still complaining, you selfish bastard

It was fascinating, and embarrassing, and it made me angry watching people curse at me without knowing a damn thing, and then I'd find some comfort seeing people take my side.

All kinds of emotions swirled together, but none of that was the main point.

-So basically, things are so screwed right now that the regressor is asking us for help?

-Just going by the description, this golem thing sounds like a full-blown humanity-ending weapon, is the timing really right for this to show up?

-Judging by how the kids who went into the Tower reacted, they were all writhing around, so I guess the people who made the Tower aren't exactly stable either, yeah;;

In the end, my story boiled down to one single conclusion: help me. That strong regressor, strong enough to freeze the ocean, had run out of strength and was asking for help.

Honestly, up until now, I'd been trapped in the obsession that I had to be the one to do it. I'd carried everything myself, decided to end it all on my own.

And this video now was tossing that burden back onto all of humanity. Grabbing ordinary people who'd been living their peaceful, ignorant lives by the collar and shouting, this isn't just my problem.

If I lost, humanity would go extinct. So all of humanity needed to rack their brains and hand me a solution. Help me. Give me... a way forward.

I'd already proven my strength by freezing the ocean. And the fact that someone like me needed to ask for help was itself proof that the danger humanity faced went beyond anything anyone could imagine.

People despaired. They tried hard to act like they weren't scared, but even without fully realizing it, they turned a little wild, a little rough around the edges, at the knowledge that the end was coming. There was an undeniable truthfulness in the regressor's words, and even as people tried to shrug it off with there's no way, a cold sweat ran down their backs anyway.

The voices that had been chattering, laughing, joking around gradually quieted down. Smiles stayed plastered on their faces, still acting surprised, still acting playful, still performing that easy, unbothered attitude at the news that a regressor existed.

-So then.

-So then, I mean.

People finally started thinking seriously. For the sake of survival.

-So in the end, the regressor can't get stronger, and if he doesn't have enough strength to take down that golem... what are the options?

-If we can't come up with a solution, are we all actually screwed? For real...?

Ten thousand people, a hundred million people, all of humanity, thought and thought and thought again. What could be done to bring the golem down. What way could there be to beat the golem without the regressor getting any stronger.

A human being is, in the end, a fusion of the life they've lived and the knowledge they've gained. No one can fully imagine something they've never experienced. I was no exception. I was Korean, male, and a regressor, so my entire way of thinking was locked inside that frame.

But out there in the world, there were billions of different lives.

Physicists tried to destroy the golem through its material composition and resonance frequency. Chemists worked out catalysts that might alter the golem's composition. Theologians and historians dug through ancient texts searching for beings similar to the golem, and for their weaknesses. Architects dug into the structural flaws in the load a structure the size of the golem would have to bear.

Each individual idea was small, sometimes downright absurd. Most were nothing more than fragmented notions locked inside a narrow point of view.

But when those "limited perspectives" gathered, and gathered more, colliding with each other, wearing each other down, mixing together, gathering again, when billions of flashes of insight piled up on top of each other.

-What about this?

In the end, results no one could have thought of alone, plausible and hopeful ones, began to take shape. This was collective intelligence. This was the power held by the vast mind that was humanity itself.

The golem sought to end humanity by cutting off its "communication."

So I would fight back by communicating with all of humanity.

The first plan I intended to try wasn't especially likely to succeed, but it was one worth attempting no matter what.

-So basically, the regressor can't get any stronger from here, right?

I couldn't afford to grow any stronger.

-So in the end, that's a limitation specific to the "regressor," isn't it?

I couldn't afford to grow any stronger.

-Then couldn't someone stronger than Kim Jun-ho just take down the golem instead?

-You think that's gonna work?

-Someone who could pull that off might exist somewhere out there. Maybe someone who died without ever getting their chance to shine, or someone too scared to climb the Tower who's secretly a total genius. There's Choi Ji-won too, right? Didn't she never actually finish climbing the Tower? On her own?

-So what you're saying is...

-The regressor lives strictly as support, and helps someone else get stronger. From the sidelines.

If I couldn't get any stronger, and in my current state I couldn't bring the golem down.

"...That actually makes sense."

Make someone stronger than me. Search through every last human being on Earth, find the genius who never got their chance to shine, and give wings to those who were already strong.

I would raise the person who'd bring the golem down.

With my own two hands.