The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 21

#21. Guilt (2)

Amidst the girl’s cries, Kwon Kyung-soo gritted his teeth.

Another person had died before his eyes.

And by the hands of a young student.

All this time, Kwon Kyung-soo had been helpless.

He could do nothing, even as he witnessed the inhumane act before him.

Kwon Kyung-soo despaired at his own powerlessness.

‘Shit…’

Kwon Kyung-soo suppressed his emotions as he thought.

Perhaps Jin Jae-hee was right.

Maybe his attempts to protect him stemmed from a tiny bit of compassion and pity left in him as a human being.

He might have been comforting himself, thinking that saving him was the right thing to do.

But it was all a delusion.

Now, after having killed so many people, his shallow sympathy could convince no one.

Not even that middle school girl.

He could only lament his helplessness before her.

“You.”

Jin Jae-hee called out to the trembling Kwon Kyung-soo.

Kwon Kyung-soo only raised his eyes to look at her.

His eyes were bloodshot, as if they would burst at any moment.

Strong anger and raw emotion surged wildly within him.

Jin Jae-hee coldly said to him, “You’re annoying. Be careful.”

Swish- Clang.

After saying that, Jin Jae-hee sheathed her sword.

And silently turned back.

To where Kang Si-on had fallen.

Kwon Kyung-soo’s clenched fist trembled.

‘…Am I the bad guy? Am I the weird one…? Aren’t you all the strange ones? What’s wrong with everyone’s heads? We’re human…!’

Kwon Kyung-soo desperately hid his emotions.

Silently, he bit down on his lower lip.

* * *

The survivors of Hong Team boarded the escalator one by one.

Hong Team decided to move their base to the 11th floor.

Lee Se-beom suggested it, and everyone agreed.

In truth, they were merely following along.

No one expressed their own opinion at this point.

Si-on was carried on Se-beom’s back.

With Kim Dong-gil’s death, there was no longer any force in the mall that could oppose Hong Team.

In any case, this brought a temporary peace for the time being.

Even while moving to the 11th floor, they searched the mall, but couldn’t find any survivors.

Fires still lingered above the 9th floor, but they were mostly extinguished by the sprinklers.

No one else survived inside this mall.

Except for the 12 people here.

They reached the 11th floor.

It was a movie theater.

Corpses from the first battle were scattered everywhere.

Most of them were probably killed by goblins.

“The theater would be good. At least there are seats there.”

People agreed with Kwon Kyung-soo’s words.

The first theater was chosen as their resting place.

It was also filled with the corpses of goblins and humans.

Everyone began to clear away the bodies.

Watching them, Jin Jae-hee said, “Dump them in the elevator.”

People were bothered by her expression ‘dump’, but eventually decided to follow her words.

There was no suitable place to store the bodies.

Drrrrr!

Jin Jae-hee opened the elevator doors.

It was a deep pit.

The bodies were thrown one by one onto the roof of the stopped elevator.

The corpses piled up like Tetris blocks, soon filling up to the 4th floor.

People returned to the first theater.

Now, there was nothing for them to do.

With Kang Si-on unconscious, all thought processes had stopped.

Until now, they had relied solely on Kang Si-on, doing as he said, but with the loss of their leader, no one stepped forward.

Meanwhile, Lee Joo-yeon continued to check on Kang Si-on’s condition.

Se-beom and Kyung-soo were staring blankly at the scene, focusing on Si-on.

Tear- Chururuk.

Tearing off the relatively clean cloth that had been taped on with blue tape, blood flowed down his thigh.

It was quite a large wound, making it difficult to stop the bleeding.

Still, Si-on’s condition had improved a lot.

“He won’t die, will he?”

“He won’t… die, probably. But there’s no hospital… If we leave him like this, he won’t be able to walk properly.”

Joo-yeon answered weakly to Se-beom’s question.

Se-beom coldly said to Joo-yeon, “It doesn’t matter. Once we get out of the mall, we’re strangers. He just needs to stay alive until then.”

“Se-beom, you.”

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

Se-beom glared sharply at Joo-yeon.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with his words.

The two siblings and Kang Si-on had only met a week ago; they weren’t even ‘acquaintances’.

They were currently bound together by the ‘rules’ [the game’s rules], but as siblings, they had no reason to stick with Si-on.

Joo-yeon replaced her answer by bowing her head.

“I’ll go get some food.”

Kwon Kyung-soo, who had been listening to the conversation quietly, interjected.

Looking around, most of the Hong Team survivors were lying down or hanging their heads.

No one seemed willing to step forward easily.

In the midst of this, Kwon Kyung-soo volunteered to go get food and left the theater.

As Kwon Kyung-soo opened the theater door, Jin Jae-hee entered through the opening.

She seemed to have gone somewhere alone.

Kwon Kyung-soo nodded slightly in greeting, but Jin Jae-hee ignored him.

She went straight to Lee Joo-yeon.

Jin Jae-hee handed Joo-yeon the bandage she was holding.

Surprised, Joo-yeon turned to Jae-hee.

She handed Joo-yeon the bag she had been carrying.

It was full of various medical supplies.

“W-where did you get this?”

“I brought it. Anti-inflammatory drugs, bandages, gauze. It’s all there.”

“Ah… Thank you.”

Joo-yeon took the bag from Jae-hee and examined the contents.

They were proper medical supplies.

Not as good as a hospital, but still.

Seeing that, Joo-yeon smiled and began to look at Si-on’s wound again.

Tearing off the dirty temporary gauze, she poured anti-inflammatory drugs on Si-on’s wound.

Splash.

At that moment, Si-on frowned but didn’t wake up.

Joo-yeon carefully placed clean gauze on the wound and wrapped it with a bandage.

Since there was still bleeding, she didn’t loosen the tourniquet that had been tied as a precaution.

Instead, she tightened it even more.

Fortunately, the knife had narrowly missed the artery.

If it had hit the artery, even Lee Joo-yeon wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

“I’m so glad. Really.”

Lee Joo-yeon gave a bitter smile, looking at the sleeping Si-on.

Jin Jae-hee watched her and said, “Tell me if you need anything else.”

“Ah. Yes. Thank you.”

And Jin Jae-hee left the theater without a word.

Creak-.

The theater door was stained with blood and corroded.

The loud hinge sound was annoying.

She lit a cigarette and sat at the entrance of the theater.

It was to take a break for the first time.

At the same time, it was to watch the theater in case anyone came.

“Hoo-.”

The cigarette smoke that came out of her mouth scattered.

In the distance, corpses were scattered everywhere, and there was a stench.

Originally, Jae-hee didn’t smoke.

Not even until her 5th year in her previous life.

But the damn world and the disgusting smell of corpses were not something that could be adapted to, no matter how much time passed.

That’s why she smoked several times a day, trying to forget the smell even for a short time.

Swish-.

Jae-hee hunched her body, with a cigarette in her mouth.

A series of lonely battles.

The first round was almost over.

The people in the theater now would think that everything was over.

But they wouldn’t know.

That the game had only just begun.

And.

That the first round was just a demo before the full-fledged game.

“…”

Jae-hee trembled a little, crouching down.

If he dies, it’s completely over.

She had to aim to protect him, as well as test him first.

The reason Jin Jae-hee had left him alone was part of the test.

She only dealt with what she judged to be something she had to solve.

In any case, she had to imprint on Kang Si-on of this life what kind of existence she was.

But trying to solve everything alone almost led to Si-on being killed.

She bit the twisted cigarette again, putting strength into her fingers.

“Let’s get a grip…”

Jae-hee muttered without realizing it.

There will be no second mistake.

It’s a difficult task.

But she had to do it.

When the 2nd round starts, she will put down all emotions and move only to protect Si-on.

Everything is for surviving the game.

To do that, she will kill people over and over again.

“…Over and over.”

Jae-hee thought so and smoked her cigarette quickly.

In a dark movie theater, full of corpses and a rotten stench.

* * *

Joo-yeon was dozing off in front of Si-on.

She hadn’t slept for several hours already.

Besides, her physical fatigue was now at its limit.

Se-beom called out to Joo-yeon.

“Noona.”

Joo-yeon was startled and shook her head.

Then she wiped the saliva from her mouth and looked at Se-beom.

“Huh? Uh… Why?”

“Noona, you’re misunderstanding something right now.”

“Huh?”

Se-beom created a heavy atmosphere.

At that sound, Joo-yeon woke up instantly.

It was the first time Se-beom had ever talked with such weight.

Se-beom continued to speak.

“We’re not a charity. We’re not a volunteer group either. We don’t have an obligation to save anyone. At the same time, we’re not great people either.”

Se-beom remembered the argument he had with Lee Joo-yeon and Si-on earlier.

Se-beom had to make it clear to his sister.

The way his sister had been acting so far was a series of extremely dangerous scenes.

Joo-yeon asked carefully.

“What’s wrong, Se-beom?”

Se-beom had been annoyed, but he had never been angry with Joo-yeon even once.

Joo-yeon was twenty-seven years old. Se-beom was only twenty.

There was an age gap, but Se-beom had been a younger brother who followed his sister a lot since he was young.

Joo-yeon and Se-beom grew up in a wealthy family.

Joo-yeon had been bad at studying since she was young and liked to play and eat.

Her parents didn’t like that about Joo-yeon.

But Se-beom was different.

Se-beom was good at studying, followed his parents’ words well, and was a talent who would surpass his parents.

So Se-beom liked Joo-yeon.

In that family that only knew how to study, the only person who could live according to his own will and make him shine was Lee Joo-yeon.

When he came home from elementary school after being beaten, his older sister, who was a high school student, would always come to school and scold the bad kid who hit him.

No matter what happened.

No matter what happened, Se-beom was on Joo-yeon’s side.

But this time, he couldn’t just let it go.

“We can’t be good people.”

“B-but. You said it too. If this man dies, we’re done for.”

“I’m not talking about that!”

Thwack!

Se-beom grabbed Joo-yeon’s wrist.

Se-beom said to her, who was very angry, “When Noona is taking care of this man, you’re not just taking care of him because our lives are at stake, are you?”

“…What’s wrong with that…?”

“I’m telling you not to misunderstand!”

Se-beom became even more excited.

Some of the sleeping people tossed and turned, but didn’t wake up.

Se-beom said straight to Joo-yeon in an excited tone.

“This man… the man lying here now…! He’s just a tool for our siblings to live here. This man is just using us as tools too. Am I wrong?”

“Se-beom, you…! What are you saying.”

“That rebuttal that Noona is making now! That’s the problem with Noona that I’m talking about! …Listen carefully, Noona.”

Se-beom pulled Joo-yeon’s hand a little.

Joo-yeon’s eyelids trembled as if she was surprised.

It was because Se-beom had never been this angry before.

“The world where good guys survive is over now. I will definitely save myself and Noona. If following this man is the way to do that, I will do it. If we have to kill people to survive, I will do that too. Why? Because that’s the only way our siblings can survive.”

“…”

“So Noona, put away your personal feelings. Get rid of that pathetic pity. Don’t have any more feelings for anyone. Foolishly! Is this changed world really a joke? People are dying like flies?”

Joo-yeon lowered her head a little.

“Be a little more cold-hearted. Noona. We’re us. This person is just this person. This person is a man who knows how to weigh things. He’ll abandon us whenever he needs to. I know. The man named Kang Si-on. From a long time ago. Do you understand now?”

Swoosh.

Only then did Se-beom let go of Joo-yeon’s hand.

There was a reddish handprint on Joo-yeon’s hand that Se-beom had been holding.

Joo-yeon carefully held that handprint.

Her wrist was tingling.

But her heart ached more than that.

She kept silent for a while.

Then she lowered her head and said.

“I understand… I’m sorry.”

Kwon Kyung-soo, who had been listening to the siblings’ conversation.

He had returned with food three hours ago.

And he checked that they were asleep and carefully tossed and turned.