The Regressor Only Protects Me - Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Flag Retrieval (2)

“One more step.”

“Yes…!”

Whoosh!

Three people spraying fire extinguishers.

Three people shooting arrows.

Three people handing out arrows.

I took an arrow from one of the men and placed it on my bowstring.

I couldn’t tell if it hit the target or not.

But as soon as we sensed movement, we all fired in the direction of the sound.

Swish, swish!

I kept shooting arrows toward the source of the noise.

The arrows sliced through the white smoke, flying continuously.

On the other side, we heard the shouts of the enemy.

At the same time, Kim Dong-gil’s voice echoed.

The real battle had begun.

Whoosh. Hiss.

The students continued spraying fire extinguishers around them.

They swung the extinguisher nozzles in every direction, desperately trying to create as much “smoke” as possible.

Their efforts paid off in the end.

“U-uh, h-hyung. The extinguishers are empty.”

“Don’t ask, just keep using them.”

“Y-yes…!”

The student hurriedly grabbed another fire extinguisher and sprayed it indiscriminately.

The thick white smoke emitted from the fire extinguishers covered everything around us.

Even with a flashlight, it would be hard for them to distinguish friend from foe.

By now, the entire third floor was filled with smoke.

We had used nine extinguishers already.

But extinguishers were still just extinguishers.

They weren’t actual smoke bombs.

The haze would clear soon enough.

I could only hope my plan would work before that happened.

I watched the front carefully.

The silhouettes of the enemies grew larger and smaller.

This meant they were moving quickly.

Just as planned.

And now was the moment.

I turned to Kwon Kyung-soo, who had just returned, and spoke.

“Mr. Kyung-soo, now’s the time. Hurry.”

I gave him the order, and he moved immediately, despite being out of breath.

The main unit, armed with spears, descended the stairs, while Kwon Kyung-soo’s detachment climbed upward.

Now, only Lee Saebom, Lee Joo-yeon, and I remained here.

I looked at the siblings and spoke.

“Remember. Just kill one person, then retreat immediately.”

They both nodded almost simultaneously.

Using a towel, I firmly tied the Goblin’s Dagger to my hand.

The siblings also gripped their daggers tightly, staring ahead.

At this moment, my heart started pounding uncontrollably.

A few minutes—or maybe just seconds—from now, I was going to commit murder.

Soon, several figures rushed toward us from close range.

“It’s now.”

Whoosh!

As soon as they came into view, we charged all at once.

“Ack… Kyaaa!!!”

A startled woman from the Blue Team screamed, but without hesitation, I stabbed the knife into her heart.

Thud!

Then, with all my strength, I pushed her down.

Splat! Splash!

Her blood spurted out like a fountain.

The woman, pinned beneath me, struggled and screamed.

Keeping the blade lodged in her, I twisted it in a cross motion.

Crunch!

There was a breaking sound.

The Goblin’s Dagger snapped, and the woman’s heart stopped shortly after.

Thump, thump, thump!

My heart pounded.

It raced wildly.

I grabbed the kitchen knife the woman had been holding.

When I turned my head, I saw that the siblings had each taken care of one person as well.

They signaled to me that their targets were dead.

We retreated immediately.

“Huff… huff…”

I had to hold my breath, but it wasn’t easy.

We moved carefully to avoid being spotted by the enemy.

What we had just done was murder.

But I had demanded this of the siblings.

I had told them, no matter what, to never feel pity.

The moment they allowed compassion to creep in, the ones who would die wouldn’t be the Blue Team—it would be us.

In a new era, new laws were necessary, and the new law demanded that we kill others to survive.

I had insisted on this firmly.

And they followed through, just as I had said.

The surroundings were still thick with smoke.

The sound of the Blue Team’s footsteps rushing in echoed all around.

At the same time, the screams continued unabated.

The operation had only just begun.

“Let’s fall back. Quickly.”

Clutching the kitchen knife, I ran toward the stairwell.

Lee Saebom and Lee Joo-yeon followed close behind me.

There was no one left from the Red Team on the third floor.

The battle raged on.

People clashed and stabbed each other with knives.

The smoke obscured everyone’s vision.

Because of that, they stabbed anyone who emerged from the smoke without hesitation.

“Die!! Die!!!”

“Aaaah!”

“Gaaah!!!!”

Screams rang out from everywhere as blood splattered.

This place had already become a slaughterhouse.

People wielding weapons tangled with each other, aiming to take lives.

Two women attacked a fallen man, stabbing him repeatedly, while a man lunged at a woman, driving a kitchen knife into her abdomen.

An elderly man wielding a hammer smashed a young man’s skull from behind.

A woman, wandering tearfully in the white smoke, was struck by an emergency axe flying from somewhere, splitting her skull like a knife cutting into a cake.

Some formed groups and restrained anyone they encountered.

“Over here! Stab them!”

“Ugh… Aaaaargh!!!”

The restrained victims screamed, but the attackers didn’t hesitate.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

And then, someone else rushed in and repeatedly stabbed the restrained person in the abdomen.

The beams of flashlights danced wildly, illuminating the chaos.

The shadows cast by the flashlights created grotesque puppet shows as tragedies unfolded everywhere.

The shattering of glass echoed loudly.

At the same time, a woman with punctured lungs died calling for a mother who would never come.

Corpses piled up, layer upon layer.

Some tripped over the dead and fell.

Kim Dong-gil captured all these scenes with his eyes.

“Ha-ha-ha! You dare… you dare ignore my goodwill?!”

Consumed by madness, Kim Dong-gil laughed as he watched the carnage.

His guards stood beside him, eyes sharp as they scanned their surroundings.

Kim Dong-gil checked his status window.

He was confident of victory.

But at that moment, his pupils contracted.

‘What?’

The number of Blue Team members was decreasing significantly.

Kim Dong-gil glanced around anxiously.

He saw nothing.

The inside of the store was dark, and the occasional beams of light were filled with white smoke.

Silhouettes of people running around were visible, but he couldn’t tell who was who.

In the tense, chaotic situation, the screams continued to echo.

The store’s floor was already flooded with blood.

But something was off.

No matter how he thought about it, something felt wrong.

The Red Team was fighting the Blue Team on equal footing.

‘This doesn’t make sense. They only have, what, twenty people at best?!’

The Blue Team’s numbers were overwhelmingly greater than the Red Team’s.

Even if their visibility was impaired, it didn’t make sense for the Red Team to fight this effectively.

A man, clutching his bleeding arm, ran toward Kim Dong-gil.

“M-Mr. Branch Manager! The Red Team bastards… they’re armed with knives!”

“What?”

Impossible.

Kim Dong-gil’s heart began to race uncontrollably.

He was the branch manager here.

Knives were only available on the restaurant floor.

The weapons in the furniture or miscellaneous goods stores were within the Blue Team’s territory, making it impossible for the Red Team to have them.

This was a fact.

At most, the lower floors had scissors.

Scissors couldn’t possibly compete with kitchen knives.

But now, the Red Team was armed with knives and fighting back?

No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

“Mr. Branch Manager! We can’t see anything!”

“M-Mr. Branch Manager…! The Red Team’s resistance is too strong.”

People rushed to him from all directions, reporting the situation.

Kim Dong-gil adjusted his glasses, deep in thought.

Sweat dripped down his left cheek.

No matter how he thought about it, something wasn’t adding up.

At that moment.

Something occurred to Kim Dong-gil, and he shouted to the others.

“Fall back!!! Stop!!! Blue Team!!! Retreat!!!”

At his command, the fighting ceased, and one by one, the Blue Team retreated toward the escalator.

The screams from the other side continued.

There were still many dead and wounded.

Even from where he stood, Kim Dong-gil could see more than seven corpses.

“Move back quickly! Hurry, you idiots!!!”

Kim Dong-gil kept shouting, and the Blue Team’s main forces crowded toward the escalator.

Soon, all the Blue Team members gathered at the escalator.

“Huff, huff.”

“Ugh… ugh…”

“Urgh… ughhh!”

All around, people covered in wounds were gasping for breath.

Kim Dong-gil stared forward.

But the battlefield, now abandoned by the Blue Team, was eerily silent.

At that moment, Kim Dong-gil’s chest sank with a chilling realization.

“…Damn it. Damn it, no way.”

Step, step.

Kim Dong-gil quietly walked forward on his own.

A subordinate nearby tried to stop him, but he brushed them off and kept walking.

Time passed.

Soon, the white smoke cleared.

The Blue Team’s flashlights illuminated the area ahead.

And where the light shone…

There were only Blue Team members lying in pools of their own blood.

Seeing this, the Blue Team soldiers fell into despair.

“W-what is… this?”

“…Does that mean we’ve been killing each other this whole time?”

There wasn’t even a single wounded member of the Red Team in sight.

Only the Blue Team.

All this time, the Blue Team had been fighting among themselves.

Now, the sight of the Red Team holding kitchen knives made sense.

“Damn it… we’ve been tricked.”

Kim Dong-gil’s clenched fists trembled violently.

He had been utterly defeated.

They had fallen entirely into the enemy’s scheme.

Inability to distinguish friend from foe.

Fear among his people.

Faced with an approaching figure, they stabbed indiscriminately.

Moreover, these were ordinary citizens without formal training.

Driven by fear, they stabbed at anything that moved.

“Mr. Branch Manager… Mr. Branch Manager… please… please save me.”

A man bleeding profusely grabbed Kim Dong-gil’s ankle as he collapsed.

His abdomen was torn open by a knife wound.

Yet the man still begged Kim Dong-gil for his life.

But Kim Dong-gil was no longer rational.

At that moment, he began to stomp furiously on the fallen man with his other foot.

“You stupid! Idiot! Why! Are you dying fighting each other?! Huh?! Huh?! Huh?! Can’t you see?! Don’t you have senses?! You worthless commoner! You filthy commoner! That’s why you’ll always be stuck at the bottom! Huh?! Huh?! Idiot! Idiot! Such an idiot!”

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

With every stomp, blood splattered everywhere.

As he lost himself in rage, his subordinates ran up to him and spoke.

“What should we do now? Shouldn’t we just charge down to the first floor?”

“Let’s just kill every single one of those bastards!”

“Huff… huff…”

Kim Dong-gil forced himself to calm down slightly.

When he moved his foot aside, the man’s face was already unrecognizable, crushed beyond recognition.

Kim Dong-gil glanced around.

The aftermath of their infighting was all around.

There were few unscathed bodies left.

If they continued like this, it would be a massacre.

At the very least, the Blue Team needed to secure the Red Team’s flag.

He decided to shift his strategy.

The Blue Team, which had been on the offensive, now focused on defense.

“We’ll grab the flag and retreat to the ninth floor. No matter what, we defend there.”

Kim Dong-gil referred to the flag monster located in the opposite store.

One of his startled subordinates stepped in to block him.

“You can’t! We need to attack again! We can’t just let this go!”

Kim Dong-gil glared sharply at the subordinate.

“Are you questioning me right now?”

The subordinate hesitated before lowering his head.

“…I will follow your orders.”

The Red Team’s base was probably fully prepared for retaliation by now.

If they went down now, it would be a massacre.

The only saving grace was that the Blue Team’s leader wasn’t here.

Because of that, the Blue Team wouldn’t face total annihilation in an instant.

Catching the objective monster wasn’t difficult.

On the blood-soaked third floor, filled with Blue Team casualties, the broadcast echoed.

[The Blue Team has acquired the objective flag!]

And five minutes later, another announcement followed.

[The Red Team has acquired the objective flag!]

First floor, Red Team base.

A broadcast echoed through the base.

[The Blue Team has eliminated the objective monster!]

As expected, the Blue Team had killed the objective monster.

This part had been anticipated.

The Red Team was hiding behind barricades, aiming their arrows at the front.

But the Blue Team didn’t advance any further.

I finally lifted my head.

“Situation resolved.”

At my words, the other defenders finally let out a sigh of relief.

The defensive operation, fortunately, was a success.

In a situation where visibility was poor.

Against an unseen enemy.

They had likely become entangled and killed one another in the confusion.

Even if they came face-to-face at close range, it wouldn’t make a difference.

They, like us, had only known each other for two days.

The chances of them recognizing each other’s faces were slim.

I exploited that fact to lure them into a trap, ensuring minimal casualties on our side.

Luckily, the plan had worked.

All I had done was light the fuse.

The three students next to me enthusiastically spoke.

“H-hyung. You’re amazing! It really worked?”

“Honestly, I didn’t think it would work. That was incredible!”

“Oppa, how did you come up with a plan like that so quickly?”

The students were as excited as if the game had ended, but it wasn’t over yet.

“Keep watching the front. It’s not over.”

“Yes!”

“…Yes! Got it!”

The students, energized, resumed keeping watch over the front.

We still had the Red Team’s objective monster to deal with.

We had repelled their first attack.

Now it was our turn to break through their defenses.

Their decision not to come down here meant they had sent forces to fortify the ninth floor.

“Well, since Kwon Kyung-soo went ahead as the vanguard, he should accomplish something, right?”

Lee Joo-yeon casually asked as she chewed on Goblin jerky.

Kwon Kyung-soo, along with three others, had taken advantage of the third floor’s chaos to ascend the stairs.

Their primary mission was to kill the monster, though success wasn’t guaranteed.

If they faced overwhelming numbers or risked defeat, they were ordered to retreat.

Lee Saebom spoke on my behalf.

“They probably didn’t kill it. I noticed earlier that not all the Blue Team members came down. They must’ve left a defensive force on the ninth floor.”

“Then what do we do?”

Lee Joo-yeon asked anxiously.

There was no choice.

To avoid penalties, we had to ascend to the ninth floor.

The enemy would have already fortified their defenses.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it wasn’t impossible.

I gave new orders to the students.

“Guys, get more fire extinguishers. In five minutes, we’re moving out again.”

The students nodded and scattered to fetch more extinguishers.

People gripped their mop-handle spears, awaiting my command.

The next attack would begin when Kwon Kyung-soo returned.

The timing was perfect.

Clank!

Kwon Kyung-soo descended the stairs.

He approached me, caught his breath briefly, and spoke.

“There were already about ten people guarding the monster. All I could do was distract them.”

“It’s fine. You did well.”

Ten defenders.

By now, that number had likely increased to dozens.

Regardless, the primary objective of this attack wasn’t to eliminate the Blue Team.

The goal was the monster.

All we had to do was kill the monster.

I checked my inventory.

I hadn’t used a single bullet yet.

It was time to use the gun.

Shoot the monster and retreat.

That was the core of this operation.

I looked at everyone and spoke.

“We’re moving out again. Follow me.”

We had to strike before the enemy could reorganize.

I drew the gun from my inventory.

Walking ahead, I led the way as the Red Team forces followed behind.

But as we stepped onto the escalator, a sound echoed that drew everyone’s attention.

[The Red Team has eliminated the objective monster!]

Startled, I turned to Kwon Kyung-soo.

He shook his head, just as confused as I was.

What in the world just happened?

Standing on the escalator, I looked up toward the upper floors.

All I could see was darkness.

My thoughts quickly led to one conclusion.

The regressor, Jin Jae-hee.

She was still up there.

‘But how?’

That was the question.