WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Upbeat Newbie the Infinite Regressors Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 41: Multiplayer (2)
──────
Boom!
The asphalt caved in beneath Park Junyoung’s feet.
“Hye-min, please!!”
Ring, ring. Ring, ring.
No matter how many times he called, there was still no answer.
Park Junyoung was on the verge of losing his mind.
“Please, please!”
He was almost there.
In another 30 seconds, he would reach Food Street near Konkuk University Station, where the incident was happening.
‘God, please don’t let me be too late!’
Barely able to catch his breath, Park Junyoung ran with all his strength.
Then he saw it.
“Aaaah!”
“Don’t panic! Take it slowly!”
Management Bureau agents directing the evacuation.
Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks.
Public servants in all kinds of uniforms.
Panicked civilians screaming, and camera flashes going off everywhere.
Park Junyoung’s burning body suddenly went cold.
Boom!
Not yet. He still didn’t know anything.
He couldn’t be certain of anything until he saw it with his own eyes.
“Hye-miiiin!!!”
He leaped over the barricade and ran toward the scene.
And then he saw her.
“D-Dad!”
His one and only daughter. His reason for living.
His daughter, Park Hye-min, was wrapped in a blanket, evacuating under the guidance of Management Bureau agents!
Thud.
Ever since putting on that black suit, he had never willingly gone down on his knees.
Now they touched the ground on their own.
“Th-thank you. Thank you...”
“Dad! Cough! Dad!”
In the middle of their dramatic reunion, Park Hye-min quickly covered the marks on her neck with the blanket.
For a moment, relief drained all the strength from Park Junyoung’s body.
Once he collected himself, he held his daughter for a long time before speaking.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine! The Infinity Difficulty challenger saved me!”
“!”
Park Junyoung’s eyes widened.
‘The Infinity Difficulty challenger saved Hye-min?’
That snapped him back to his senses.
He couldn’t stay here.
He had to hurry over and help their savior, the Infinity Difficulty challenger, who must still be fighting hard.
His heart was still pounding, but knowing his daughter was safe had to be enough for now.
It was time to stop being Park Junyoung the father and become Agent Park Junyoung again.
“Hye-min, listen to the agents and get to safety. Leave this to your dad...”
Just then.
Clap, clap!
Park Hye-min clapped her hands to catch her father’s attention.
“No! They said staying out of the way would help more right now!”
“What?”
“That’s what the Infinity Difficulty challenger said!”
At that moment.
Craaaash!
With a roar that shook the earth, a huge armored knight shot into the sky.
This wasn’t a drop tower ride.
How could a person fly straight up like that?
Park Junyoung’s eyes widened at the unreal sight.
And the surprises didn’t end there.
“O Suuun!!!”
The armored knight’s shout rang out.
At the same time, an enormous heat ray shot from the mace in their hand.
Zzzzzing!
Even from this far away, the air grew hot.
As the heat ray swept past, buildings began melting like ice cream.
It was literally a flash of light.
But the Infinity Difficulty challenger vanished in an instant, seeming to leave an afterimage behind.
Whoosh!
They flew into the air and got behind the armored Paladin.
There, they raised their sword high and struck the armored knight down again.
Craaaash!
Boom!
The armored knight crashed onto the melted asphalt.
Despite being slammed into that field of lava, the knight got up without a moment’s hesitation and raised their mace again.
Watching it, Park Junyoung could only feel utterly powerless.
He had grown smug, thinking Floor 6 would be manageable now and wondering just how much stronger he could become.
Now that confidence seemed ridiculous.
He knew their difficulties were different, but could the gap really be this huge?
Just then.
“Dad, come on!”
His daughter tugged at his hand.
“...”
After watching that fight, Park Junyoung understood.
With strength at the level of Normal difficulty’s Floor 5, he would only get in the way on this battlefield.
The Infinity Difficulty challenger hadn’t told everyone to leave for no reason.
Even the civilian evacuation had already been completed by the other Awakened, who seemed to be the Infinity Difficulty challenger’s representative.
Park Junyoung looked at the female Awakened, who was sending out strand after strand of mana threads.
Her mask made it impossible to tell exactly where she was looking, but he felt as though their eyes met for a brief moment.
He lowered his head to her.
The Infinity Difficulty challenger had their hands full holding off that huge armored knight.
So he wanted to express his thanks to her, at least, since she seemed to be acting on their behalf.
He bowed.
Perhaps he hadn’t imagined their eyes meeting, because the female Awakened gave a small nod in return.
Taking his daughter’s hand, Park Junyoung thought to himself.
He had to become far stronger than he was now.
* * *
‘Thank goodness!’
I’d nearly jumped out of my skin when Agent Park Junyoung came into view.
I knew exactly what he was like.
He was a hot-blooded guy who absolutely adored his daughter.
I’d thought he would lose his mind and charge in if he found out someone had been strangling her. But somehow, I could sense him moving farther away.
Thanks to Pinocchia making the civilian evacuation her top priority, the only ones left here were me and this bastard.
In short, now that Agent Park Junyoung was far away too, there was no room left for dirty tricks like taking hostages.
The bastard looked around a few times for an innocent civilian to grab, then smacked their lips and shouted.
“Huff, huff! You disgusting demon! I will purify you!”
That was already the third time I’d heard that line.
Oh, why had I been sitting here listening to the same line three times?
Because this bastard wasn’t the Slick I knew.
They’d come back with one hell of a power-up.
Even on my first attempt, Slick’s first phase hadn’t been much of a problem. Now, though, it was a completely different story.
Even when I stacked Armor Break and unloaded it, their armor only dented a little.
As expected of the Monolith. It knew how to keep up with the times while mixing in a spoonful of classic tropes.
‘Sure. The defeated villain returns stronger than ever. It was about time we got a taste of that one.’
“O Sun!!”
Fwoooosh!
But wasn’t that kind of villain usually just there to show off how strong someone else had become?!
Where was Trunks, slicing Mecha Frieza in half?!
Zip, zip, zip!
I drew the Snake Dagger and threw it at the bastard.
On Floor 2, I would have sliced clean through their mace, closed in, and finished them off.
“That won’t work!!!”
Clang!
Mace in hand, they darted around (Whoosh!) and knocked my dagger away.
The way they scuttled sideways with their legs spread like a crab looked fucking ridiculous, but they neatly avoided my dagger as it kept changing course.
After playing tag with my dagger for a while, they finished charging their mace and swung it hard.
Booom!
Their lava attack spread across the ground in a fan shape.
I immediately recalled my dagger, gathered explosive strength in my legs, and jumped.
Rooooar!
Lava erupted from the ground that had been bubbling in that fan-shaped area.
‘Is a ground AoE attack allowed to do that much damage?’
Even Akainu would be impressed, you bastard!
For the record, there were reasons I was trading blows with them like this.
First.
The powered-up Slick hadn’t just gotten stronger. They’d gotten smarter too.
They were no longer the idiot who charged in shouting about purification.
It was hard to land a solid hit with Armor Break and the Black Iron Sword.
That left me chipping away at them with the Snake Dagger, my broken item with MAX penetration and cutting power.
But the bastard was taking hits from my Black Iron Sword like a total brute while focusing all their attention on the Snake Dagger.
They knew it too.
If this thing stabbed a vital spot, phase two would begin immediately.
Oh, and I was saving the Pendant of the Sun for phase two.
Second.
The reason I wasn’t pushing myself to deal more damage.
Pinocchia hadn’t joined me yet.
Unlike the vanilla Monolith, which forced me to play solo, the causality DLC now let me enjoy multiplayer with Pinocchia.
There was no reason to push too hard and suffer the tragedy of having to regress.
‘It’d be a waste not to enjoy this.’
You remembered your promise to play Go with me outside the Tower too, Monolith!
Of course, if people had been dying, I would have gritted my teeth and fought with everything I had.
I wasn’t a psychopath who would think, ‘This Run’s ruined, so why not have some fun?’ while people were dying around me.
‘But that’s not what’s happening now, is it?’
The Management Bureau had bought us a little time, letting Pinocchia and me arrive before it was too late.
In other words, there hadn’t been any casualties.
So, since this bastard had gone to the trouble of showing up in reality, enjoying myself instead of going on about duty was only polite to the game’s creator!
‘More importantly, if phase one is like this, I can’t even imagine what the tentacle nightmare of phase two will be like.’
So both the bastard and I were feeling each other out, waiting for Pinocchia to join us.
We spent a little while watching each other’s moves and building up chip damage.
Then.
“Master!!”
Scattering red light from her core, Pinocchia flew over and landed beside me.
Perhaps because she had used up so many mana threads evacuating the civilians, she had become noticeably smaller.
She had somehow tied her loose clothes in place with mana threads.
Grrrrr.
The already shrunken Pinocchia began growling like a puppy.
I could feel her killing intent even through her mask.
“How dare you hurt my master?”
“...?”
‘Hey, your left arm.’
Oh.
Only then did I look at my burning left arm.
My clothes had melted, and so had my skin.
I’d been wondering why she was so furious when she’d been all smiles before we left. Apparently, seeing my burned left arm had made her snap.
I lowered my voice and spoke gravely.
“Calm down, Pinocchia. Don’t fall for the enemy’s taunts.”
“...I haven’t taunted anyone.”
“Shut up, Slick.”
“B-but!”
“It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry about it.”
Seriously.
My core had gone berserk before and nearly burst my body like a balloon. Compared to that, what was a little burn?
I tore off some cloth and wrapped it around my arm.
There wasn’t really any need, but Pinocchia showed no sign of taking her eyes off it.
Fwoooosh.
Watching me, Pinocchia began breathing fire.
The lower half of her mask melted into a sticky mess.
“I’ll burn you just the same.”
I’d figured she could breathe fire.
But seeing only the bottom half of your mask melt away is a little scary, Pinocchia.
Just then.
Slick, who practically had “single” written all over them, shouted as they watched us fuss over each other.
“You’re both full of shit!”
Apparently, that was the limit of how much dialogue the cutscene allowed.
The bastard pointed their mace toward the ground, then swung it like a golf club.
Crack!
In that brief instant, I clearly saw some of the power in their mace flow into the flying debris.
‘Are those bombs?’
I made the call fast.
“Pinocchia! Knock them away!”
“Haaaah!”
Zip, zip, zip, zip!
Dozens of mana threads grabbed the fragments at once and flung them into the air.
Boom, boom, boom! Boom!
As expected, the fragments began exploding like fireworks.
With the bastard caught in an awkward stance, this was our chance.
I sank low, planting my feet.
Then I thrust out the Black Iron Sword and charged like an arrow.
At the same time...
“Pinocchia!”
“Yes!”
She understood right away.
Having dealt with the fragments, Pinocchia charged alongside me.
“Come!!!”
Slick shouted, their face twisting.
The bastard unleashed all the power they’d been saving to strengthen themselves.
But they weren’t the only one who’d been holding back.
Besides, even if she’d gotten smaller, Pinocchia was still a decisive battle weapon.
I rushed in from the right, and Pinocchia from the left. As we battered them, Slick managed to block a few blows before dropping to their knees.
“Gaaaah!”
We were only missing the star-patterned shield. Otherwise, this was exactly that scene from Aveng*rs.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Pinocchia was absolutely furious as she beat Slick.
We’d been hitting them from both sides, but one side of their body was much more badly bruised.
Naturally, that was the side Pinocchia had been pounding.
“Ghh, you cowards!”
The bastard knelt there, bound by Pinocchia’s mana threads.
‘Cowards? Now that hurts.’
Blame your own fate for not giving you a friend to queue up for duos with.
Just then.
Fwoooosh.
Pinocchia breathed fire as she spoke.
“Shall I burn them, Master?”
Watching her, I considered it for a moment.
‘Hmm.’
They looked like they had MAX fire resistance. Was there any point?
Even my Armor Break didn’t work on them.
I could use the Pendant of the Sun to force an Aura coating, but that was my trump card for phase two.
So, naturally, Dundo’s Snake Dagger would finish phase one.
I told Pinocchia to keep the mana threads in place and move back, then threw the dagger with all my strength, like a dart.
Thwack!
“Ghaaak!”
A hole opened through Slick’s heart with almost disappointing ease.
Of course, there was a reason for that easy defeat.
The real fight started here.
“Ghh, uuuugh...”
Slick’s body trembled briefly as it stiffened in death, then went limp.
“Pinocchia! Get back!”
“Yes!”
Phase two was starting.
I immediately pumped up every bit of power I’d been saving.
Whiiiiine.
If phase-one Slick had been that strong, I would have to stay sharp for phase two.
Twang! Twang!
“Graaaaah!”
Slick’s corpse, tightly bound in mana threads, began swelling in an instant.
“H-huh?!”
Snap, snap, snap!
Even Pinocchia, who was controlling the threads, was startled.
The threads couldn’t withstand the tension and began snapping.
“Cut them!”
“Y-yes!”
The moment Pinocchia cut her mana threads...
Fwoooosh!
Those familiar tentacles began bursting madly from the bastard’s abdomen.
Fwoooosh!
And by that, I mean they kept coming, endlessly, reaching all the way into the sky.
“What the fuck?!”
“Master!”
A wave of black tentacles swept across Food Street.
Pinocchia and I were separated in an instant.
“Maaaster!”
“Ghh!”
At this rate, I’d end up as Extra Number One, killed during the phase-two cutscene!
Forget holding anything back. Buried in a mass of horribly slimy tentacles, I shouted.
“O Sun!”
Fwoooosh!
The one-use buff from Heretic Exterminator, Elena, filled my body.
1 stack, 2 stacks, 3 stacks...
7 stacks!
Unfortunately, it didn’t reach the original buff’s 10 stacks.
But right now, I was grateful for even this much!
Inside that tentacle hell, unable to see a thing, I honed my power as much as I could.
Whiiiiiine!
Layer by layer.
Pure destructive power was honed and compressed once more.
Without an inner image, it was only a one-use coating, but Aura was still Aura!
It meant I could wield the equivalent of the Snake Dagger’s MAX penetration and cutting power across a much wider area!
I gathered every last drop of strength, then coated the Black Iron Sword in Aura.
“Ghhh!”
Just before I was crushed to death, I barely managed to swing the Black Iron Sword.
---------!
For an instant, all the noise around me seemed to vanish, and a golden line was drawn across the world once again.
Slash!
The tentacles were cut apart in an instant.
Gasping for breath, I raised my head.
“Haa, I thought I was going to die, you... bas...tard?”
Now.
Here’s a question.
Why did I end that line with a question mark?
“I will purify you all.”
Correct!
Because a tentacle giant taller than a 20-story building was standing there with a clenched fist, posed like a baseball pitcher! Fuck!
Whiiiiiiine!
Pinocchia was trapped in the bastard’s tentacle fist and seemed to be putting up a fight.
Red-hot rays shone from that enormous hand as it gave off smoke.
The problem was that the bastard’s regeneration far exceeded Pinocchia’s output.
For the record, the part I’d cut off with my Aura coating was, no joke, only about the size of their big toe.
I immediately threw the Snake Dagger at their heart.
Thwack!
Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle.
Not even close.
Worse, something inside had apparently grabbed the Snake Dagger’s handle. I couldn’t even retrieve it.
“That doesn’t even tickle.”
The bastard’s voice echoed from every direction, like a broadcast playing through all the street speakers at once.
Watching them, I desperately tried reciting the demonic Lord’s Prayer.
A retry was already guaranteed at this point.
So I might as well try something.
“You ignorant fools! The end times draw near...!”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
Whoosh!
Splaaat!
The bastard’s booming laughter.
Pinocchia, hurled at me so fast I couldn’t even make out her shape.
And my body bursting apart in an instant.
This was my first death outside the Monolith...
No, it wasn’t!
This was my second death outside the Monolith.
* * *
Whoosh!
The moment I came to, I saw my basement training room and Pinocchia.
“Master!”
Pinocchia, who had been waiting for me in the training room, called out brightly and came toward me.
Whew. Unlike waking up in bed, this really snapped me awake.
Was this what they called coming full circle?
Both the beginning and the end of my regression routine involved Pinocchia running at me, going, “Hug meee!”
Things had been so hectic that I’d even forgotten my routine for a moment.
What had Pinocchia done here again?
“Hmm?”
Pinocchia narrowed her eyes and sniffed.
‘Oh, she got curious about the pendant, and then we ordered sashimi.’
My memories finally cleared up, and I got my head straight.
“That’s strange. It definitely felt unpleasant before.”
With a peculiar expression, Pinocchia fixed her gaze on my pendant.
After that, well.
I zoned out for a bit, then told her about my heroic deeds as we moved to the living room.
I ordered sashimi.
Not a mountain of it like last time, of course. Just enough for me.
I ordered pizza and fried chicken separately for Pinocchia.
Watching me closely from beside me, Pinocchia practically had question marks popping up over her head.
“Huh? Master! Why did you order so little sashimi? With the invincible sauce I learned to make, we could eat it forever without getting tired of it!”
“...”
Come to think of it, I’d given her a lesson in manners for being picky about her food while Heretic Exterminator’s people were going hungry, hadn’t I?
“Let’s try it first. If it’s good, we can order more.”
“Awww...”
Pinocchia immediately drooped, thinking she might not get to use the secret saaauce she’d seen on YouT*be.
Anyway.
‘Let’s see...’
I headed for the shower, reviewing the battle.
‘No matter how I look at it, I’m in for some serious retries, aren’t I?’
And not just the usual kind.
On this route, I had only one day.
I had to become strong enough to handle phase-two Slick in a single day.
Once I realized that, I couldn’t have been happier.
The reason was simple.
I still had to wait a week between visits to the Monolith, but after just one day, Slick would personally come out to meet me in reality.
What did that mean?
It meant I now had hope of making each day even more fulfilling.
The Monolith hadn’t forgotten to look after its Player’s mental health.
I guess I’ll have to... worship it, won’t I?
Footnote:
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