The Regressor Is Obsessed With Me Chapter 17

17. Cooperation (1)

After that, I exchanged information with Chae Saebyeok.

“There’s no one with scouting-type skills like Dongwoo or Dohwa.”

“Well, the first-floor trial required combat ability… so most people ended up with combat-focused skills?”

“Yeah. Lots of physical enhancement types—strength boosts, regeneration boosts, things like that. A few rare cases have skills like mine, where you can infuse mana into objects or shoot it out, but at most there’s only one or two.”

“In that case…”

[The Harmed Sister is pleased by the sight of a close sibling pair!]
[The Harmed Sister donates 500 Grace!]

“Oh—thank you.”

That Constellation definitely likes sibling affection.

By the time we finished sketching out our plan, we returned to Joo Yeonwoo.

“You go in first and rest.”

Just before we reached the hut, Saebyeok slipped away, muttering something about “preparing things.”
He clearly wasn’t ready to face Yeonwoo yet.

[The Harmed Sister is disappointed!]

“Well, can’t be helped.”

Considering they were grabbing each other’s collars not long ago, the fact they weren’t fighting already was progress.

I opened the door. The now-familiar man was exactly where I’d left him—sitting quietly.

“You’ve returned.”

He greeted me like this was his own house.

“Yes, I’m back~ Thanks for waiting.”

I sat beside him and explained:

“We decided to take down that ‘territorial boss’ monster.”

“That’s irrational.”

As expected, he rejected the plan without changing expression.

“You don’t even know how strong the monster is.”

“We’re going scouting tomorrow. And even if seeing it doesn’t help, seeing is still better than guessing.”

“Twenty people won’t be enough.”

“So confident.”

His tone made it clear the idea wasn’t just bad—it was impossible.
But still… what could I do?

“Well, what if we have more than twenty people? I’m thinking about forming an alliance.”

Because that’s the future Saebyeok wants.

“You mean cooperating with the other groups around here to defeat that monster.”

“Exactly.”

“I cannot understand it. Why go through such unnecessary trouble?”

[The Administrator of the Planetarium agrees with Joo Yeonwoo.]
[The Harmed Sister opposes Joo Yeonwoo’s view.]

I turned to him. He was already watching me with those unreadable dark eyes.

“No, there isn’t a need. Not normally.”

Honestly? I agreed with him.
Why worry about strangers when I can barely keep myself alive?
How stupid can you be?

But…

“Well, if it’s possible, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to try.”

That tiny scrap of conscience just wouldn’t shut up.

“It’d be nice if everyone could survive, if possible. That’s all.”

Blink.

He stared at me like he was trying to decipher a foreign language.

“It’s a high-risk choice.”

“I know. If it gets too dangerous, I’ll run.”

“Will you really?”

“I’m not a saint like my brother. I’m just… a moderately decent human being.”

Good if everyone wins—but if not, I’ll at least protect myself.
That’s who I am.

But Yeonwoo still looked like he couldn’t understand any of it, expressionless and somehow… sulky.

“It is an irrational decision.”

“Mm. Probably is—by your standards.”

Appealing to conscience clearly didn’t work on a man like him.

“So how about I persuade you in a more rational way?”

I folded my fingers, then raised one.

“One. The more allies, the better. If this succeeds, we’ll gain a lot of friendly forces.”

“Useless dead weight is unnecessary. And most of them are dead weight.”

“Well, having something is better than nothing. Ah—actually, that reminds me.”

I raised a second finger.

“Two. The fewer enemies, the better. If we vanish on our own, don’t you think people here will be upset? They might team up later to hunt us down.”

“Again, most of the people here are dead weight. Not worth worrying about.”

“And again—having something is better than nothing. That’s how the world works.”

[The Abandoned Princess agrees with you.]
[She says the thing you think is useless often becomes the thing you end up needing most.]

Exactly.
The world is unpredictable.
Try living with softer edges, regressor.
Take a loss once in a while.

“…I still cannot accept this.”

Still expressionless. Still logical. Still somehow sulking.

“Well, then—three.”

I lifted my ring finger.

“If you help, I might start liking you. I like good people, you know.”

Honestly? The weakest reason so far.
‘Help us so I’ll like you’—what a cringe line.
But he was the one who said he needed me.

Might as well gamble.

“You know, I am an important ally. So earning my goodwill could—”

“Understood.”

His reply was immediate.

“…Huh?”

“I’ll cooperate.”

I stared.
He was still poker-faced.

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m being sincere.”

…Huh.
Maybe I was actually important to him.

If he had insisted on rushing ahead, I would’ve needed to drag Saebyeok kicking and screaming after him.
My brother’s conscience wasn’t strong enough to abandon the survival advantage of having a regressor around.

“Uh… thank you?”

I thanked him awkwardly.
He stared back silently.

A strange tension lingered between us.

[The Mother Who Grants Children finds the situation interesting.]
[The Mother Who Grants Children sponsors 100 Grace.]

Who the heck is that supposed to be?

[The Abandoned Princess advises you to choose your romantic partner carefully.]

“It’s not like that!”

I blurted out instantly, flustered.

“Ahem—anyway!”

I cleared my throat loudly to bury the embarrassment.

“We’re keeping the extermination plan a secret for now. We’ll announce it only after forming alliances.”

Right now, people here felt safe.
Too safe.
They weren’t thinking about the future.

“So you plan to stir public opinion from the shadows first?” he asked.

“Yes. People move only when they feel uneasy.”

‘How long can we stay like this?’
‘Isn’t the food running low?’
‘Did you hear human hunters might attack other camps?’

A little anxiety. A little pressure.
That’s all it takes.

“Once they start feeling uneasy, they’ll look for solutions.”

“And that solution will be killing the territorial monster.”

In a group that banded together to reject violence…
No one would dare say “let’s kill people for hearts.”

They’d cling to the ‘moral’ option first.

“In the meantime, our job is to form alliances. To make that extermination actually possible.”

“Time is the key, then.”

“Yes. So… let’s start moving tomorrow.”

I smiled slyly.

“You did say you’d help, right?”

Since he agreed, I fully intended to make use of him.
There were several parts of this plan where a regressor would be priceless.