I run.
I run with everything I've got.
If there is one thing I regret, it is that my current body's specs are those of a man in his early twenties—slightly above average, and a military service graduate.
'It's not on the level of a Hero who has cleared the Tutorial.'
The Tutorial is a process to create a Hero, a single warrior capable of fighting the demons.
That is why we sardonically called the Tutorial the 'Hero Factory'—or simply, the Factory.
Before a car rolls out of the factory, its body is nothing more than a solid tin-can mock-up before it is properly fitted with an engine or functionality.
Only after becoming a Hero do you finally gain the strength to run one hundred meters in five seconds and lift buildings without effort.
Because of that, I cannot shake them off completely.
"Hey!! Hey!!"
Urgent voices from behind.
It's not just one or two.
"You know something!"
"Tell us what you know!!"
'Damn it.'
The pursuers are catching up.
If they were goblins, I could lure them in and deal with them, but these are not goblins.
"Hey, Yusiu!!"
Humans.
Humans who had just signed the contract and were forcibly teleported to this forest.
Among them, those who think themselves fairly athletic are chasing me.
The reason is simple.
"If you hand over the info, *huff*, we won't chase you anymore!"
Because I acted conspicuously from the very beginning, they think I know something and are chasing me.
'Sharp eyes, I'll give them that.'
Keeping a close eye on anyone acting alone in the Tutorial has become something of a cliché.
I was never particularly well-versed in that sort of thing, but among my comrades in my first round, there were occasionally those who talked about such things.
"Siu-ya. The Tutorial, as a genre...."
From acting like a veteran in the Tutorial, to going beyond and imitating such a veteran.
"The important thing is not standing out. Everyone did that in the factory I was in, but there was this one guy who loved otherworld reincarnation stuff, so people just trotted after him. Ah, I'm not talking about me."
...And even forcibly banding together around someone who possessed information.
*Thud.*
I stop.
Because I had kept running through the forest, a cliff appeared before I knew it, and I had been driven to a dead end.
"*Haa*, *haa*, Yusiu...!"
A man stood ten paces away, gasping for breath.
The others had given up midway or were still walking, but looking at the face of the man who had succeeded in chasing me to the end, I recalled a memory.
"Yes, Changhyeon-hyung."
A fourth-year senior.
One might ask why a graduating senior appeared at the new student orientation, but he had been truly unfortunate enough to get dragged to this Factory.
'He's a good person.'
A man who had come to personally deliver dozens of chickens to feed the juniors, representing the seniors, simply because he had his own car.
The typical kind, muscle-bound good-natured pushover—Gim Changhyeon.
"You know what this place is...? That's why you ran, right?"
"No."
"Don't... lie, *huff*. Damn, did you do nothing but run in the army...?"
"Not exactly."
I was not as drenched as Gim Changhyeon, but I too was soaked in sweat.
Because I had been pacing my breathing according to the standards from when I was fighting actively before the regression, this Tutorial body had drained more stamina than expected.
"Have you perhaps read some fantasy web novels?"
"What?"
"Being forcibly dragged into a Tutorial and such. It comes out in webtoons too, you know."
"No, that's... Weren't you the type who didn't really watch that stuff?"
"I watched it in the army."
"Ah."
The army.
That place is an unknown world where even a social butterfly can come out as an otaku.
In truth, when I was in the army, I didn't have the leisure for personal time, let alone web novels or webtoons, but the important thing was that the pushover in front of me was not approaching any further.
"It's not that I know something about this world; it's simply more comfortable for me to move alone."
"Really?"
"Of course. How about it, want me to seal it with a pinky swear?"
I stuck out my tongue and pressed my thumb to it.
While holding only my pinky out, of course.
'I'm sorry, Mother.'
Even though I was caught up in a natural disaster, I had already committed the immense unfilial act of dying before my parents.
On top of that, telling a lie swearing on my mother to hide the truth didn't even amount to spitting into the ocean.
"No, th-there's no need to go that far. Then why did you run?"
"They said goblins would pop out. Would you just sit still?"
"That's not..."
"I'm not doing this because I know something."
Perhaps time had been drawn out a bit by the conversation with Gim Changhyeon.
From behind, one by one, a group with physiques similar to Gim Changhyeon began to approach.
"*Huff*, *huff*. Hey, you, speak up. You, damn it, know something...?"
"Hidden piece! If you know, spill it now!"
They began demanding from me as though I owed them money they had left with me—no, as though I had borrowed money from them.
"Hidden piece or whatever, I need to know something to say something."
"So hand over what you know!"
"What I know?"
How should I talk about this?
That even if one hundred and eight prospective Heroes pass with a 99.7% clearance rate, the difficulty is so brutal that they will be massacred once they cross over to the other world?
'As if I'd do that.'
There is no reason to talk about it needlessly.
Because crushing the morale of those prospective Heroes is not a deed that would aid the Goddess.
"I don't know shit. Everyone is moving on guesses."
"What...?"
"That clearing earlier was obviously the perfect place for goblins to come pouring out. How do you expect to survive here if you can't even notice that?"
"What did you say, you bastard?!"
One bulky guy rushed at me and grabbed my collar.
"Hey, Bak Changsu! Calm down!"
"This bastard still thinks he's in the fucking army...! We end up in a place like this after he was playing sergeant, so he just—"
"Fuck off, dumbass."
Not letting go of my collar, I pushed the guy back just hard enough that he struggled to force me away.
"Where does a bastard exempted for mental illness think he can—"
"You bastard—"
The bulky guy released my collar and tried to raise his fist.
Startled, Gim Changhyeon ran up to grab Bak Changsu's hand, but before that, I instantly let go of my strength.
"Huh?"
As the strength left Bak Changsu's hand gripping my collar, my body tipped over the cliff just like that.
'Please.'
Please.
'Let there be no idiot who already died.'
The drop below the cliff was nearly thirty meters.
I silently offered my condolences to the man who couldn't even approach the edge to watch me fall, and quietly closed my eyes.
*Thud.*
One killed by a comrade in the Tutorial.
Goddess Point +1.
Ah.
Damn it.
'To think there was someone who died before me.'
# Remaining Lives: 2/3
....
It's fine.
I still have two coins left.
* * *
The sky.
"...I never imagined two people would die even before the goblins were summoned."
The angel, Estiel, tilted her head at the data displayed on the screen before her.
"I know it happens from time to time, but to think two cases would occur in my assigned sector."
Estiel pulled up the data of two individuals from the summoners' roster.
[Kyaaah!]
A woman who died after being pushed off a cliff while fleeing through the forest before the goblins appeared.
It was an accident.
To the point where the term 'death by falling' suited it perfectly; after stumbling in the dense forest, a branch pierced her abdomen and she died.
Cause of death?
If one had to pin it down... yes.
"You bastard! If only you hadn't said we had to run because goblins were coming!!"
"I-I didn't know! Sh-she just tripped!!"
"You killed someone and that's what you say?!"
"How is it my fault that something went wrong while running away because goblins might come out?!"
The goblins are coming.
You have to run away quickly.
Whether you find weapons or whatever, you have to scatter first.
...Those who said 'Let's stick together first!' had the fastest average time of death in the Tutorial, but there were already several precedents of dying like this as well.
"The higher-ups say that prior information about the Tutorial actually helps the prospective Heroes, so it is not a major concern, but... hmm."
*Click, click.*
"Still, it is fortunate. Considering they will die in droves later, it is simply losing a stack early."
Estiel finished processing the deceased with mechanical, practiced movements, as though she had been doing this for a long time.
"Still, congratulations. Even the pitiful one who died first is embraced by the Goddess. However...."
After resurrecting one.
"...This one, hmm."
Estiel's finger stopped on one man.
Yusiu.
The man who had signed the contract first.
The man who would have monopolized Goddess Points through the title 'First to Die' had there been no one who died by tripping.
"...He seems to be acting with knowledge, yet it is too much to say that he is."
Whether one should say he is running wild.
Or reckless.
"To think he would be the first to fall victim to 'comrade killing.'"
He had been quick-tempered, so he signed the contract first, and to survive alone, he was the first to break away from the group.
That was all.
Chasing after such a man to demand information he might not even have, grabbing his collar and trying to hit him, ended up killing him—
"...Hmm."
There were many questionable parts.
But Estiel had already passed judgment.
"I-It was an accident! An accident, damn it! Hey, don't go!"
"...Sorry, but I can't go with you."
"Hey!! You guys, I won't let this go!!"
Though it was ambiguous to call them comrades, Estiel imposed a penalty on the first to kill a comrade.
And as per regulations, she awarded one Goddess Point to the victim of comrade killing.
"...Could he have been acting with knowledge?"
Estiel's hands itched.
"Reporting a regressor...."
The button labeled [Resurrection] next to the name Yusiu.
And somewhere, a [Report] button marked with a red exclamation point.
"Bear in mind. Anyone who appears to have used the power of regression must be secured. Whether it is [Death Regression] or [Time Reversal], it does not matter."
The Chief Angel had said.
"We must know why we failed. Why he regressed. Why he had no choice but to regress after being defeated by the Demon King's army."
For the Goddess's victory.
For the survival of the angels.
"...No."
Estiel reached not for the report, but for the resurrection button.
"I cannot do that."
*Lick.*
*Thump, thump.*
Estiel grew curious.
If that man were truly a regressor, what sort of actions would he show?
That was an unknown variable, but what was certain was that if she reported him now, the Chief Angel would descend immediately and take his soul.
"..."
*Whir.*
After resurrecting at a random location, the man immediately shot up and checked the time.
And then he began moving at once.
After looking at the sky—precisely, at Estiel.
"...A Hero's achievements under one's jurisdiction are the assigned angel's bonus."
*Smirk.*
"I'll be looking forward to it. To your clearing of the Tutorial."
Estiel winked at the man, closing one eye.
And then.
"...Huh?"
Estiel saw.
"Come down."
The words the man spoke while looking at her, their eyes meeting.
"I will use Goddess Points."
"..."
*Thump, thump.*
Estiel suppressed her trembling and folded her wings toward the ground.