Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 116: Thirtieth Floor, Rest Area (1)

Doppy, in particular, didn’t have a fun time. It was its first time on a ship, and it had suffered severe seasickness. And if that wasn’t enough, it experienced land-sickness upon reaching the waiting room, which only settled down after I bought it some anti-nausea medicine from the shop. Once that kicked in, it finally managed to eat a little before drifting off to sleep.

Out of nowhere, Ha Hee-Jeong sent me a message, saving me from my boredom.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Dang, you got here first? When did you arrive?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): About six hours ago. Did you manage to get the top reward?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Not quite... Four of the crew members died.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Wait, four crew members?

Her reply caught me off guard. Ha Hee-Jeong had a sharp mind and excelled at deduction games like Mafia. For things to turn out this way, something had to have gone significantly wrong.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Yeah, turns out they’d poisoned the drinking water. Three people died less than four hours in.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): That quick? Not exactly the luckiest start.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Exactly. It was absurd. The fairy said I’d be lucky for twenty-four hours, but it feels like it didn’t stick around after the twenty-eighth floor.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): At least you managed to catch the killer afterward, right?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Yeah, I used invisibility magic during the storm to move around unnoticed. I didn’t have perfect timing, but I still caught them right after they murdered a crew member.

Turning invisible during a storm, what a coincidence.

Our strategies were fairly similar. I supposed a climber without a stealth skill would have to just run around frantically.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): That’s close to what I did. I hid in the shadows with Master of Shadows to catch them in the act.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Haha, if you’ve got stealth skills, you have to use them. So, how many did you manage to save?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Me? Seven.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Seven? Impressive. You only saved four in my previous life. I guess you spotted the killer early this time.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Wait, I only saved four before?

I had been about to mention the fact that there were two killers this time, but her comment shut my brain down.

There is no way I was that clueless, right?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): I think so. It was either four or five. I don’t remember the exact number.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Come on, I’m not that dull.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Who knows? Maybe things just went sideways. I can’t remember every detail from every one of your trials.

I wondered what in the world had happened during the twenty-ninth floor’s challenge in her previous life. Not that it really mattered now. This time, I had saved seven people, and that was what counted.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Actually, I didn’t figure it out right away. There were two killers this time.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Wait, two killers?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Yeah. I revealed one pretty quickly, but then the tower’s message said there was still another left.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Whoa, so even a standard floor like this one got changed after my regression?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Exactly. When the message appeared, I was dumbfounded.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): I would have been just as confused. Especially since I was confident I knew how it would work.

After a brief pause, Ha Hee-Jeong sent a more serious message.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): I guess from now on, even if the trial seems similar, we can’t assume it’ll play out as expected.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Yeah. I learned that myself this time.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Well, you did well. With only a few casualties and two killers caught, I bet your reward was worth it. What did you get?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): A Skill Level-Up Voucher.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Nice, that’s rare. Looks like you got a decent reward for dealing with two killers.

Although I had already been confident that the voucher was a valuable reward, hearing it directly from Ha Hee-Jeong made it feel even more satisfying.

She quickly followed the compliment up with a piece of advice I had already considered.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Save it for later, though. It’s best to use it when your skill levels cap out.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): I know. Give me a little credit.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Geez, I try to give advice, and that’s the response I get?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Haha. So, what reward did you get?

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Just some achievement points and a +3 boost to my mana.

Given that she saved five crew members—slightly above average—it seemed like a fair reward. However, for a regressor like Ha Hee-Jeong, it probably felt disappointing.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): A bit of a letdown.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Tell me about it. If only they hadn’t poisoned the water.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Nothing you can do about it now. Chin up.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Thanks. You did well too. Let’s rest and meet up in the rest area soon.

Just as we were about to wrap up our conversation, I remembered how restless I had been feeling not too long ago. Making sure to catch her attention before she went to sleep or trained, I asked Ha Hee-Jeong for advice on how to kill time in the waiting room.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Hey, Hee-Jeong. Got any tips for passing time? I’ve already done plenty of training, and I’m bored out of my mind.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): Bored? And why don’t you want to do more training?

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): We’ve got two days left and there’s no way I can train that entire time and stay sane. Besides, as you should know, none of the training opponents are strong enough to challenge me.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): That’s true, but thinking about it in the long term, I’m not sure you should learn that now. Killing time isn’t a great habit to develop. Hmm...

Killing time is a bad habit?

That could only mean there would be more long waits in the future.

Suddenly, I thought of the marshmallow experiment—how waiting would result in a sweeter reward. To be honest, I had always been somewhat impatient, taking whatever was in front of me without a second thought. Still, since Ha Hee-Jeong had previously climbed past the ninetieth floor, I should trust her judgment.

It seemed she needed a bit of time to think, and her next message arrived after a pause.

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Thirtieth Floor): For now, buy some pebbles or something similar in the shop and play with Doppy. You could try Gomoku[1], Go, or even marble games.

***

[7 hours 33 minutes until the rest period ends. Please take a rest.]

Unfortunately, the pebbles didn’t hold our interest for long. The nostalgia I felt teaching him the rules had made it fun at first, but Gomoku quickly proved too simple to be engaging. We went on to marble games after that, but still abandoned them after about only an hour, and as for Go, neither of us knew it well enough to give it a fair try.

What on earth did I do to pass the time in Ha Hee-Jeong’s previous life?

Even for a novice in most games, there was a big difference between entertaining yourself alone and playing with a partner. If I was losing interest this quickly while playing with Doppy, I wondered what activities I had used to occupy myself while alone.

Is there something creative I can do?

I thought about it, but nothing specific came to mind. Sighing, I decided to browse the Community instead.

[Finally caught the murderer after they killed seven people.]

[7 hours 30 minutes left until the next rest area. Better get some sleep now so I can stay up all night and party.]

[Word Chain Game Room. English speakers only.]

[I can’t wait for the rest area! Any good-looking people heading to Zone 41? Let’s grab drinks.]

[If you’re the last one left with the killer, does the trial end after a 1v1?]

[I heard someone caught the killer immediately. How did they even do that?]

[There are more idiots than I expected. When you’re down to four people, it should be obvious.]

[Word Chain Game Room. Koreans only.]

[Sounds like a psycho—apparently, they just beheaded whomever they thought looked most suspicious right after spawning on the ship.]

[Nonsense Riddles Room.]

Most posts were climbers' attempts to kill time rather than discussing the twenty-ninth floor or the rest area. Apparently, quite a few people felt similarly bored.

Given that about half of the climbers had arrived in the waiting room during the stormy night, idling for more than two days was enough to make anyone restless. Still, with the promise of a rest area, the atmosphere in the Community was closer to that of a festival.

Maybe I will try the word chain game.

I entered the Korean word chain room and left a comment, and within seconds, dozens of replies followed.

- Oh Ji-Hye (Thirtieth Floor): Cha In-Pyo[2].

- Seo Ho-Soo (Thirtieth Floor): Pyo In-Bong[3].

- Park Ji-Soo (Thirtieth Floor): Pyo ji pan(Signpost).

- Lee Joon-Young (Thirtieth Floor): If we’re on “signpost,” then Pan ja chon(Shantytown).

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Chon gu seok(Rural site).

- Kim Chan-Ho (Thirtieth Floor): Seok bak sa(Master’s degree).

- Yang Hyuk-Jun (Thirtieth Floor): Oh? It’s Kwon Su-Hyeok!

- Oh Ji-Hye (Thirtieth Floor): Wow, it’s really you, Su-Hyeok! Nice to see you here!

- Seo Ho-Su (Thirtieth Floor): Su-Hyeok, welcome, welcome.

- Son In-Wook (Thirtieth Floor): Haha, Kwon Su-Hyeok has to be really bored if he’s here too.

Everyone’s response left me momentarily frozen.

I had only entered to play word chain, yet the greetings kept pouring in. For a moment, I considered closing the Community, but then I would be back to square one with nothing to do.

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Thirtieth Floor): Hello, haha. Let’s keep going, shall we? Continuing from “master’s degree,” I’ll go with Sa jin ki(Camera).

- Yang Hyuk-Jun (Thirtieth Floor): lol sure thing. Gotta be awkward for you. Ki Sung-Yong[4].

- Kim Chan-Ho (Thirtieth Floor): Yong Seong-Gi.

- Kim Haeng-Sook (Thirtieth Floor): What is “Yong Seong-Gi”? Don’t use weird words like that.

- Kim Chan-Ho (Thirtieth Floor): Weird? Yong Seong-Gi is a type of fishing rod!

- Kim Kyung-Ju (Thirtieth Floor): Seriously? Is that true?

- Sung Dong-Hyuk (Thirtieth Floor): No idea. Never heard of it.

Almost immediately, I regretted keeping the Community open.

***

[Welcome to the thirtieth floor of the Tower of Ordeal: Rest Zone 1.]

[All aggressive actions are prohibited within the rest area. Climbers are invited to rest and relax as much as they would like. Time remaining: 47 hours 59 minutes.]

The rest area’s scenery—which I had been excited to see—unfolded before me. This was my third visit, and the beautiful sight was becoming familiar.

Probably because I had left my old party, Doppy and I found ourselves alone in the vast green field. Soon enough, though, other climbers began to appear across the field.

“Su-Hyeok!"

“Su-Hyeok Oppa!"

I turned to the left and spotted my party members waving enthusiastically at me—Seo Ho-Su, Seo Ha-Rin, Cole, and Hakin. Since I hadn’t spent much time with them recently, seeing them was genuinely heartwarming.

Waving back, I started walking over. It obviously wasn’t fast enough for them, as Ha Hee-Jeong and Seo Ha-Rin called out, urging me to hurry.

“Hey, come on! We need to grab a spot!”

“Yeah, hurry up, Oppa!”

The warm, inviting scene brought a contented smile to my face.

1. Gomoku is a two-player strategy game where players take turns placing stones on a grid, aiming to be the first to align five in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. It’s simple to learn but requires strategic planning to win. ☜

2. A famous actor in Korea. ☜

3. A famous comedian in Korea. ☜

4. A famous soccer player in Korea. ☜