How a Regressor Conquers the Tower of Urban Legends
Chapter 39
I sat inside the airplane and thought.
There was no point rushing anymore.
I'd already confirmed that jumping out of the plane wouldn't save me.
Which meant now was the time to think.
"..."
First, I needed to establish two major possibilities.
The first.
The mechanics of the eighth floor had changed from the moment I entered.
That was entirely possible.
This airplane reacted to the actions of the people who came before me.
The floors I'd climbed so far had also changed depending on what previous participants had done.
The increased speed hadn't appeared in the earlier records either.
And traces of previous participants' actions remained everywhere.
"..."
I looked at the mascot, which had once again knocked the attendants unconscious and was now feeling along the walls in search of something.
Then I started searching the floor myself.
The second possibility.
The exit itself was wrong.
If that theory was correct, everyone who jumped from the airplane had died.
I opened the notebook again.
According to No. 11's entries, at least the people before me had all descended and somehow found an exit.
According to what they wrote, anyway.
The others were the same.
"..."
I looked out the window.
The sky was still red.
The salt pillars below still towered proudly toward it.
"...!!!"
"Yeah. Seems that way."
The mascot came over, gesturing wildly.
I nodded.
"There doesn't seem to be one."
The mascot had searched.
I'd searched too.
The conclusion was simple.
There was no way to reach the cargo hold from the passenger cabin.
"If I'd known this would happen, I would've watched an airplane layout video before going to bed."
Why had the algorithm never recommended something useful like:
How to enter the cargo hold during a plane crash and locate an elevator door.
Instead, every night after work, I'd just collapsed like a corpse and watched random videos.
I looked forward.
We'd searched the entire passenger cabin.
We'd even opened every overhead luggage compartment.
There wasn't a suitcase inside.
Not even a speck of dust.
Which meant there was only one place left.
"Of course my life is like this."
I let out a long sigh and looked at the firmly closed door ahead.
The most heavily guarded part of the airplane.
The cockpit.
"Getting that open is going to be the problem."
The mascot nodded.
"Can you rip it open by force?"
"?"
"Yeah. Thought so."
Sometimes I forgot.
The mascot was only about as strong as an exceptionally powerful human.
And ordinary humans couldn't tear open a locked cockpit door with their bare hands.
"..."
Let's think.
"???"
"You think I'm too calm?"
"!"
The mascot nodded.
I closed my eyes.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared.
But I had one thing I could rely on.
"The phone hasn't called yet."
"?"
The mascot stared at me as though I were ridiculous.
But I had the phone.
Whenever I was truly in danger, it called me.
Of course, I had no idea why it hadn't called during the two times I'd fallen to my death.
Still...
"...!!!!!"
"Do you two know each other or something?"
"..."
The mascot firmly shook its head.
Seriously.
Just talk already.
Still, it was hard to complain.
It clearly disliked the caller, but it had never once refused to cooperate because of that.
I scratched my cheek.
Then...
Ding.
A cheerful chime sounded.
The in-flight announcement began.
<It seems there are no more passengers who wish to disembark.>
<In that case, the copilot and I will become part of the salt pillars together.>
<We hope you had a safe journey, and we wish you nothing but happiness in the road ahead.>
The announcement ended.
At the same moment...
CLUNK!
"Ugh!"
The airplane shook violently.
"Wait. Did the pilot actually leave?"
"!!"
As if answering our question, the cockpit door unlocked with a soft click.
"..."
"..."
The mascot and I looked at each other at the exact same time.
"...!"
"Let's do that."
I let the mascot go first and followed behind.
It opened the cockpit door.
"..."
An empty cockpit greeted us.
"I had a feeling."
Beyond the unboarded front windows, the blood-red sky spread before us.
BZZZZ...
At the same moment, the phone began ringing.
There you are.
I was wondering when you'd call.
"I've been waiting for you."
<Sorry to keep you waiting so desperately.>
"Just save me."
<All right. At this rate, the plane will automatically crash, so I'll tell you what to do.>
CLUNK!
The plane shook violently again.
The voice chuckled in my ear.
<Do exactly as I say.>
"..."
<First, press the button in front of you, and then...>
I followed the caller's instructions.
I pressed some unknown button and pulled something else.
The airplane gradually stabilized and began flying properly again.
<I hope you memorized that.>
The voice was still laughing.
I sighed.
"So what next?"
<Sorry, but preventing the crash has already used up most of this phone's usefulness.>
"What?"
<What did you expect from a phone that only costs two ornaments?>
"...Are you sulking?"
<Of course not.>
He sounded sulky.
And why was he acting like the low price was my fault?
I didn't set the price.
The building did.
Maybe he understood what my silence meant.
The voice sighed and continued.
<Anyway, it's genuinely difficult to tell you anything more. With the phone in its current state, this is about the limit.>
"Sure, sure."
<First, ordinary methods won't work... though you've probably already discovered that yourself.>
"Yes."
<You can reach the cargo hold through a hatch in the cockpit floor. Be careful not to touch the machinery inside.>
"Understood."
<Hmm. I'll probably get punished for saying this, but I should tell you anyway.>
"What?"
I frowned.
Then the voice spoke.
<What I'm telling you is not the answer.>
"What?"
<What I'm giving you is only the answer to the situation you're currently in. Don't forget that.>
