WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 76

──────

Nightmare Floor 6 (2)

The moment I saw the messages, I stopped time and organized my thoughts.

[Penalty applied!]

[The number of enemy monsters summoned doubles!]

[Enemy monsters gain Stage 1 resistance!]

The enemy had three cores in total.

It looked like I couldn’t just destroy them in any order I wanted. There was a sequence.

And if I got that sequence wrong, I took a penalty like this.

“Double...”

So six Ogres would spawn at a time now?

It wasn’t a total disaster yet, but if it kept doubling every time I got it wrong...

“A few more mistakes and I’m fucked.”

If dozens of Ogres started flooding each lane, there was no way I could handle it.

And what was Stage 1 resistance?

Did their defense go up?

Either way, it meant the enemy got buffed, which was bad news.

Think.

First, it wasn’t Lane 1, so it had to be Lane 2 or 3. Fifty-fifty.

If I got that wrong too, then one would be confirmed, and I could destroy that one.

If I got it wrong again between the two left...

Including the mistake I just made, that meant I could be wrong up to three times.

Then it would be 24 Ogres per lane.

Of course, that was assuming the order was fixed.

What if the order reset every time I got one wrong?

Hmm... that would be completely hopeless.

I prayed it wasn’t a reset.

“Do I have to rely on luck again?”

Or maybe there was some clue that revealed the order.

I resumed time.

Pop.

Right on cue, six Ogres spawned.

I split Flame Strike across them, wiped them all out, and ran to my base.

As I moved around, I saw that destroyed turrets didn’t regenerate. At least that was a relief.

I went to Lane 2 and checked the situation.

The Ogre count had gone up to six, but Pli was handling them easily. This side was fine.

I immediately checked Lane 3 too.

Searing Zone was doing great too, burning the Ogres and not letting them approach the turret.

Good, I could still hold at six.

I stopped time again and thought.

“Which side do I push...?”

I had to choose between 2 and 3.

I had no choice but to be careful.

If I got it wrong, the monster count would double again. Resistance would go up too.

...Instead of just making a blind fifty-fifty pick, I decided to inspect the field more.

There might be a hidden clue somewhere about the order.

“I should clear all the turrets first.”

When I got the order wrong, cores regenerated, but turrets didn’t.

So I decided to wipe every turret on all three lanes first, then think.

I went back to Lane 1.

I entered the enemy base and cast a fresh Searing Zone on the spawn portal.

Fwoosh!

The newly summoned Ogres burned and collapsed.

Lane 1 could be handled like this with spawn-killing.

Then I rushed back to Lane 3, where Searing Zone had expired. Busy, busy.

I cleaned up the Ogres approaching our first turret, then destroyed the enemy’s first turret.

[Destroyed the first turret in Lane 3!]

[Destroyed the second turret in Lane 3!]

I pushed through the first and kept going straight into the second.

I ran to Lane 2.

“Go block at that bridge now, Pli.”

I sent Pli, who had been blocking Ogres in Lane 2, over to Lane 3.

[Destroyed the first turret in Lane 2!]

[Destroyed the second turret in Lane 2!]

Then I took out both the first and second turrets in Lane 2 too.

Like that, I alternated Pli and Searing Zone between the two remaining lanes and finished destroying every turret on every lane.

After entering the base in Lane 2, I studied the core closely.

Hmm...

Obviously there wasn’t a number written on it or anything.

I dealt with spawning Ogres while looking around the base.

It wasn’t really different from ours.

Except that it was red, in contrast to our base’s overall blue glow.

I rotated Pli and Searing Zone around and inspected the bases in Lanes 1 and 3, and our own base too, the same way.

I wandered all over the field observing everything for a long time, but...

I got nothing useful.

I stopped time again and sank into thought.

...Did they really want me to just guess?

Damn, I really hated that.

Floor 4 had left me with PTSD, so relying on luck felt seriously awful now.

But if there was no other method, what could I do?

I was about to stop overthinking and destroy Core 3, then paused again.

No, wait.

Let me try reading the Tower’s intent.

When I picked Lane 1 at the start?

Maybe that was what the Tower wanted too.

If people saw 1, 2, 3, most would pick 1 without thinking much.

Then if someone picked 1 and got it wrong...

Wouldn’t they usually pick 3 more often than going in order to 2?

But what if even this line of thinking was the Tower baiting me?

...Forget it, this is getting too complicated.

This wasn’t rock-paper-scissors. Overthinking this felt pointless. No mind games.

If I changed and got it wrong, I’d be even more pissed, so I decided to stick with my original choice: 3.

Before breaking Core 3, I moved to Core 2 first.

If I shaved Core 2’s HP beforehand, I could save a lot of time later.

I reduced Core 2 to near 1% HP.

Then I charged the Warp Device and set this spot as the warp point.

With this setup, if Core 3 was wrong, I could warp back here and instantly break Core 2.

[9:59]

I activated the Warp Device.

Lane 2 was covered by Searing Zone, Lane 1 by Pli, and I moved to Core 3.

Before warping to Core 2, I’d need to cast a fresh Searing Zone on Lane 3...

So factoring in core-break time and Searing Zone cooldown, I started breaking Core 3 when the warp timer had around 160 seconds left.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I’m not asking for much.

It’s fifty-fifty, so give me at least this much luck...!

I handled spawning Ogres and soon destroyed Core 3.

[Wrong order!]

[Penalty applied!]

[The number of enemy monsters summoned doubles!]

[Enemy monsters gain Stage 2 resistance!]

“Fuck.”

The curse slipped out the moment I saw the messages.

Nothing ever came easy.

The shattered Core 3 regenerated.

I immediately deactivated Searing Zone in Lane 2, waited for cooldown, then recast it in Lane 3.

[0:01]

Right on time, I warped to Core 2.

“...?”

But when I got there,

the HP I had definitely cut to 1% was back to full.

Shit, no way...

Did getting the order wrong regenerate all the other cores too?

I clicked my tongue and started pounding the core with my mace.

Either way, this was the last one.

If the order hadn’t reset, Core 2 had to be correct.

Ogres spawned from the portal.

Doubled again, now a full 12.

They charged me while I attacked the core.

I fired skills at them too. But...

“...They got tougher?”

I could feel the Ogres had gotten more durable.

So resistance really did mean higher defense?

Still, I dealt with all of them without much trouble and kept breaking the core.

I was more worried about the lanes I had left open than this side.

At this point, Pli was probably starting to struggle... was it getting pushed back?

I couldn’t go check now, so all I could do was shatter this core as fast as possible.

“...This is the right answer, right?”

No way they actually reset the order every time I got it wrong, right? Right?

Honestly, that would be crossing the line.

And then...

[Wrong order!]

[Penalty applied!]

[Enemy monsters gain Stage 3 resistance!]

“...”

Bad feelings really never missed.

I immediately stopped time.

I’m seriously gonna lose it...

It really reset every time I got it wrong?

Now there were 24 Ogres. Stage 3 resistance.

This was heading straight into impossible territory.

Even worse, I still hadn’t destroyed even a single core.

...As always, clearing Nightmare made my teeth grind.

I calmed down and forced my thoughts to steady.

It’s fine. When I failed the draw on Floor 4, it was way more hopeless than this.

But I still found a way in the end.

“Think.”

Think. Think.

Did it really reset the order every single mistake?

Then with three straight failures, I was basically done already.

One more mistake and it would be completely unmanageable.

Unless I got every single one right from now on, how could this possibly be clearable...

I almost hoped I had missed something.

But I had spent forever inspecting the field earlier and found no hint about the order at all.

“...Destroy all three cores at once?”

What if I used Pli and Searing Zone to destroy all three at exactly the same time?

...No, that seemed impossible.

How could I do that with zero timing error? And even if I could, there was no guarantee it would count as correct.

If I got it wrong, I could trigger three consecutive wrong-order penalties in an instant.

In frozen time, I kept thinking and thinking.

I desperately needed a flash of inspiration.

Come on, brain cells, neurons.

If you don’t come up with something, I really die!

It felt like I had spent almost half a day with time stopped, thinking nonstop...

but still nothing came.

Right when I started thinking I really had to leave everything to luck,

“...?”

suddenly,

my eyes landed on our base core far away across the bridge.

A red core.

...Come to think of it.

Why was our core red?

Looking around, our side and the enemy side were color opposites in everything.

Our side had a blue base, blue portal, blue turrets.

The enemy side had red everything.

But only our core was red, the same as theirs.

I had noticed it earlier too, but brushed past it without thinking...

“...No way?”

A thought hit me.

What if that wasn’t our core, but an enemy core?

It sounded absurd, but Nightmare difficulty was never normal.

What sat in the middle of our base, like it was obviously ours, could actually be an enemy core.

Could they have set up that kind of bullshit trick... it was possible.

No, the more I thought about it, the more convincing it felt.

Because this was weird... if everything else was blue, why was only the core red?

“Then where the hell is our real core?”

No clue.

Anyway, I had to choose.

Do I destroy that thing or not?

I couldn’t decide easily.

What if I was mistaken? What if that really was our core?

I agonized for a long time.

Then I finally made the call.

...The situation was hopeless either way.

Instead of praying I could destroy all three reset-order cores without another mistake, I’d rather pray this was the answer.

I released stopped time and sprinted toward our base.

I reached it in an instant and started smashing the core with my mace.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Its HP started dropping bit by bit.

Ah... wait, no, maybe not?

Is this really right?

My mind kept swinging back and forth even while I broke it.

No matter how I thought about it, this felt insane.

Then again, Nightmare was never something you cleared while sane.

Fuck it.

If this is wrong, sorry, humanity.

[Lane 2 first turret has been destroyed!]

A message popped up mid-way.

“...Already?”

Our turret had been destroyed.

The empty Lane 2 first turret must have fallen already.

With Ogres up to 24, no wonder it couldn’t hold...

I didn’t stop. I kept smashing the core.

Last 1% HP.

My hand hesitated for a moment, but I shut my eyes tight and brought the final blow down.

And then...

Crack!

The red core collapsed and broke apart.

Inside it, a small blue core appeared.

[Destroyed the enemy core!]

[Destroyed cores (1/4)]

“...Ha.”

I saw the message and let out a hollow laugh.

This bastard Nightmare was truly insane.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried