The Regressor Only Protects Me

Chapter 4. Killing (1)

Blood pooled and flowed in one place.

Not only that, it sprayed in all directions, splattering onto everyone present in [O].

“Ah… Ahhh!!!”

“No more… I can’t take this anymore…”

“Oh no… Oh no…”

People collapsed on the spot, either sobbing or despairing.

Only I stood on both legs among them.

K approached me, clapping his hands.

“Amazing. Quick judgment, crisis management, and even a satisfying revenge. Wow. Truly impressive.”

“……”

I didn’t respond.

K stepped closer, wiping the blood off my cheek with a finger.

Then, he whispered to me.

“As promised, I’ll give you the item.”

In K’s grasp was a glowing orb of light.

I just stared at it.

Humans cannot hold light in their hands.

So I stood still.

K pursed her lips and spoke.

“Oh, right. Lower species don’t understand the concept of items. My bad. Opening your inventory is simple—just say, ‘Inventory!’”

She smiled brightly as she explained.

I glanced at her expression, then murmured softly.

“Inventory.”

Flash!

In that instant, a hologram appeared before my eyes.

A 9×9 grid-shaped window materialized.

The moment I grabbed the light, it appeared in the first slot of the grid.

When I saw the item, I frowned immediately.

[Smith & Wesson Model 617, 10 rounds.]

It was a revolver that looked like something straight out of a movie.

When I hovered my finger over it, a guide on how to fire it popped up.

Even in an unfamiliar world, I knew one undeniable truth: a gun is an absolute weapon in a ruined world.

After all, guns are one of humanity’s greatest inventions.

I shifted my gaze toward her.

She was smiling brightly, muttering away as usual.

“How about it? Aren’t you glad you made that bet?”

“……”

“That one? Nobody else has it. All conventional firearms are banned within the League. That’s classified as an ‘item,’ part of the goods we sell. In other words… it’s a massive advantage that’s exclusively yours.”

Firearms refer to weapons typically used by regular military or police forces.

If I took her words at face value, this gun I now held could very well be the only one of its kind in the entire world.

I hurriedly closed the inventory.

Although no one else could see it, it was a reflexive act.

I asked K.

“Selling? Does that mean you sell other goods to us players?”

“Hm? Uhhhh… Did I say that?”

K suddenly looked flustered and mumbled her words.

When I kept glaring at her, she let out a long sigh and muttered.

“Haah. This is why I hate smart ones. If I tell you now, I’ll get fired, okay? So, just pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“Well, whatever.”

It didn’t matter.

As long as I had the gun, it didn’t change the fact that I held a huge advantage in this ruined world.

“The bullets. Use them wisely, okay? They’re way more expensive than they look.”

“Don’t concern yourself.”

“Pfft… So cold, so cool-headed.”

Boom!!!

At that moment, a loud noise echoed throughout the store.

Even the people trembling like mad looked up at the ceiling in shock.

The noise came from upstairs.

And the faint vibrations I had been feeling since earlier.

The tremors under my feet sent chills down my spine.

If these vibrations were what K referred to as “them” earlier…

“Whoa, no way. They’re already here. We’re in trouble. Everyone! My adorable pets have finally arrived!”

K once again drew everyone’s attention.

She bounced around, weaving between the seated people.

Then, she shook each of the collapsed individuals, shouting.

“Geez. Survivors! You don’t have time to sit and despair! Now’s the time to face reality!”

It was at that moment.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

A man’s scream echoed.

He was bleeding on the escalator, running from something.

“Ahh! Save me! Save me!”

But soon, he was struck down by something flying at him from above.

The tremors grew stronger.

I began to step back instinctively.

The calamity was about to begin.

Dozens of green monsters poured down from the upstairs escalator.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

Everyone froze, unable to move a single step.

K, at some point, had pulled out fireworks and set them off with a shout.

Bang, bang!

“Alright, whatever! The tutorial starts now! Start, start, start! Do your best to survive!”

With those words, K disappeared into the air.

One by one, the people began retreating.

I clenched my fists.

As tightly as I could.

I had never been in a fight.

As a child, when a stronger kid approached, I would quietly slip away.

I always hated fighting.

Fighting is an utterly barbaric act.

Someone once asked me if that meant UFC fighters were barbaric too.

I replied to the kid who asked.

“UFC isn’t fighting; it’s a sport.”

Fighting involves harming each other for some kind of gain.

At some point, I swung my fist.

Not at someone, but at the air.

Whoosh!

My fist sliced through the air, extending forward.

The act of attacking felt so awkward.

It made me wonder if I had really swung my fist.

My mind grew complicated with these thoughts.

In the end, I opened a book.

The more you pursue knowledge, the more it lets you experience higher realms of the world.

I loved exploring those realms.

But the world I now faced was on a whole different level.

A truly different world.

Crash!

A green monster leaped over the display and tackled a man.

The man screamed as he fell, and the nearby green monsters swarmed toward him.

Crunch, crunch, crack!

I saw human bones for the first time.

Bones are really white, aren’t they?

The man’s bones snapped while he was still alive, crushed and gnawed on by the green monster.

I stumbled back.

Unconsciously.

Even if I wanted to run, there was no place to escape.

The building’s outer walls were already covered in an unknown black smoke, making it impossible to escape outside.

“Inventory.”

A gun.

I opened the inventory.

I reached for the handgun but paused for a moment.

Simply put, taking out the gun at this moment seemed like the right decision.

But with only ten bullets, it didn’t seem possible to handle the dozens of monsters before me.

Even if I somehow managed to use all ten bullets to hit two monsters each and take care of the ones in front of me, I would be at a severe disadvantage in the next stage.

There could be even more monsters upstairs.

Using the gun was unreasonable—at least in this tutorial stage.

‘Think… Think it through.’

There’s always an answer to everything.

No phenomenon is unsolvable.

Newton came up with the law of gravity after watching an apple fall.

The situation I was facing now was no different.

There had to be a way to survive.

I rolled my eyes, scanning my surroundings quickly.

I stored every phenomenon happening in the area into my brain as if taking snapshots.

The store was filled with darkness, but thanks to the scattered smartphones’ lights, I could occasionally make out the view.

A monster ran but collided with a display case it hadn’t noticed ahead.

Even though it was a thin display, the monster didn’t try to avoid it and hit it directly.

A packaged mop stick was lying over there.

Two monsters fought over a woman’s leg, and one ended up killing the other.

Another monster rushed toward a child but slipped and fell.

Three monsters surrounded a man and a woman on a display case.

They couldn’t climb it, but it seemed like they could topple it.

I gathered three pieces of information.

First, the monsters have very low intelligence.

At best, they’re at the level of a dog.

Second, the monsters have poor balance.

They can only maintain balance while running, but when standing, their thin legs make them wobbly. Because of this, once they charge, they can’t change direction easily and only run straight ahead.

Third, due to their thin muscles, the monsters can’t climb display cases taller than their height.

‘Alright. I can do this.’

I had a plan.

I unwrapped the towel from my bag and wrapped it around both hands.

Suddenly, a chill ran through my side.

Instinctively, I twisted my body, just as a sharp blade stabbed into the spot where I had been standing.

Swish!

“Kii-heheheh! Kyahhh!!!”

The monster’s blade narrowly missed me.

The creature bared its bloodstained teeth, letting out a grotesque laugh.

I stood up slowly, gripping the towel in my hands.

My heart pounded like crazy.

‘I have to…!’

I gripped the towel even tighter.

I had to do it.

I had to do it here.

I had to kill that monster.

“Kyahhhhhh!!!”

The monster charged.

It came straight at me, its balance already broken.

I twisted my body to the left.

The monster, unable to stop midway, ran past me.

It soon lost its balance and fell forward.

Crash!

The monster tried to get back up.

But I lunged at it and climbed on top of its body in one swift motion.

The monster’s height was barely a meter.

It felt like pinning down a child.

But I had to kill this creature.

I had never killed anything—not even a sparrow—my entire life.

But at this moment, I had to kill this monster.

I wrapped the towel around the monster’s neck.

I pulled back with all my strength, veins popping in my hands.

Squeeze…!

“Kuhhh… Kehh… Kck… Krrk…!”

The monster struggled and writhed as the towel strangled it, but eventually, it stopped breathing.

As its body went limp, I finally released my grip.

The monster slid from my hands and collapsed.

For the first time… I had killed a living creature.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on the thought.

I got up and ran toward the mop stick I had noticed earlier.

There was no time for reflection.

I tore open the packaging and took out the mop stick.

Holding it tightly, I stepped slowly into the darkness.

Some people were resisting the monsters’ attacks.

They had managed to kill a few, but others seemed to have fallen victim.

I shouted at them.

“The monsters only move in straight lines! Dodge diagonally!”

I wasn’t shouting to save them.

If they kept fighting, I could survive.

Only by working together could we handle the monsters here.

Some people, heeding my words, dodged sideways when a monster charged at them in a straight line.

Then, they began to kill the monsters, one by one.

I moved forward, gripping the mop stick tightly.

The monsters only charged in straight lines.

When they hit obstacles, they got back up and charged straight again.

A simple pattern.

Weak bodies.

In contrast, most humans here had bodies taller than 160 cm.

This was a challenge humans could overcome with their strength.

Whack—Crunch!

I swung the mop stick, shattering a monster’s head.

“Aaaaaahhhh!!!”

“You damn bastards!!!”

The people started to methodically take down the monsters around me.

Crunch, crunch!

They counterattacked, and green monster blood splattered everywhere.

The people gathered in groups and began pushing the monsters back.

But the area was still dark.

I noticed the scattered smartphones around the store and shouted.

“Those who can’t fight, shine some light! Quickly!”

“Y-Yes!”

“I-I got it!”

The elderly and children who couldn’t fight picked up the smartphones.

Holding three in one hand, they shone light on the monsters.

Flash!

Light spread across the store.

“Kyahhhhh!!!”

“Kyahh! Kyahhh!!!”

The monsters, directly exposed to the light, recoiled and turned their gazes away.

This was new information.

‘They… hate light.’

I didn’t miss the opportunity.

I couldn’t let this chance slip away.

As the disoriented monsters writhed, I smashed their heads one by one.

More people began to follow me.

Before long, the store returned to silence.