WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 102

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The regressor is under maintenance (3)

Rustle.

I turned the page.

The beginning of the report was structured in a question and answer format. Someone would ask a question, and a survivor of the 4th floor would answer.

Q: What was your experience on the 4th floor like?

A1: It was horrible. I don’t even want to think about it again.

Q: Please explain in detail what you mean by horrible.

A1: One of the players had lost his mind and assaulted an NPC woman, and the NPC faction immediately retaliated. However, since that unhinged player was the strongest person on the 4th floor, a bloody massacre ensued. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen so many corpses.

Q: What happened after that? Don't monsters appear on the 4th floor?

A1: At dawn on the third day, the monsters swarmed in. Everyone was asleep, so we didn't even know the monsters had invaded. The weaker players couldn't fight back and were killed, and only the very strong players survived. Even after barely surviving, the stench of blood filled the castle, making it torture to fall asleep.

"...Hm."

To say it again, we had prepared very, very thoroughly.

We had blocked all the castle wall gates, of course, and in our spare time, we had scoured the inside of the castle and found nearly all of the hidden elements. You could say we had scraped the bottom of the pot clean.

But if we had spent two days in a daze like this person, without any preparations... we would have undoubtedly suffered tremendous damage.

Q: What happened afterward?

A1: Almost all the players died on the first day. The remaining ten of us holed up in a room inside the castle and started to hold our ground, and we were able to survive the last two days without any major problems.

Q: What about the NPCs? Do you know what happened to them?

A1: I don't know. I never went outside the room, so I have no idea. I can't remember very well.

"Hmm..."

So because none of the people summoned to the floor had made any preparations, they were all annihilated.

It was certainly one of the possible scenarios, but it was too extreme. There wasn't much information to gain from it, either. Personally, I had hoped it would prove the hypothesis suggested by Gyeong-nam, that 'the attacks stop when the number of otherworlders equals the number of players'.

Leaving the disappointing Q&A behind, I once again flipped through the pages. After about an hour had passed, I finally saw a Q&A in the style I was looking for.

A8: We cooperated with the NPCs and decided to protect each other. It was a judgment call that the NPCs weren't just given to us for no reason. I had a gut feeling that they were directly linked to the rewards.

Q: I'd like to hear more details.

A8: Didn't the tutorial emphasize 'moral values'? I concluded that the main value of the 4th floor must be cooperation.

"This one has a good flow."

A8.

This person was quite sharp. It seemed they didn't think of completely blocking the castle walls with construction, but they did make their own preparations, such as dispatching some players to scout the area around the castle and setting up traps.

As I was reading the report with such interest.

A8: But the judgment I made was wrong. The value of the 4th floor is by no means 'cooperation'.

Suddenly, A8's tone turned aggressive.

Q: What do you mean, you were wrong? I'd like to hear the details.

A8: The difficulty of the 4th floor is too high. It's not a difficulty level where you can survive while protecting the NPCs. The first wave on the third day was manageable, but the wave on the fourth day was on a level we couldn't block.

Q: Please continue.

A8: On the fifth day, we made the bold decision to abandon the NPCs. When we did, the difficulty suddenly felt drastically easier. It was just a matter of each of us protecting ourselves, so there was nothing difficult about it.

"..."

A8. This person abandoned the NPCs the moment the difficulty increased. The reason they tried to protect people in the first place was because of the reward, so there was no reason to protect them to the point of risking their own lives.

Right. So what happened next?

A8: But... when there were about four hours left on the timer, 'those things' appeared.

Q: 'Those things'?

A8: 'Those things' were...

-The Q&A was suspended as survivor A8 was complaining of sudden dizziness.

"...What?"

It really was cut off right there. Even when I turned the page of the report, it just had a record of a Q&A with A9.

"Hmm..."

Given the circumstances, the otherworlders must have been slaughtered indiscriminately. It was a long shot for ordinary people without any protectors to survive on the 4th floor.

And probably... the number of players and the number of otherworlders became the same.

And 'those things' mentioned earlier must have appeared.

"Haaa..."

First of all, Gyeong-nam's theory was wrong. 'You will once again realize what it means to die' was by no means a positive expression. There was no way something that gave a person a memory so horrible they felt nauseous just thinking about it could be positive.

But the description of 'those things' itself is lacking. I'll probably find out more if I keep reading.

After organizing the information I had gained in my head, I turned the page of the report again. However, the subsequent Q&As were not much different from the previous ones, a series of ordinary contents.

To summarize the common points that could be gathered from the survivors' testimonies...

First, the players who suffered devastating damage in the first wave on the third day did not suffer any greater damage afterward. Most of the people who barely survived the third day were said to have survived until the fifth day.

Second, the people who tried to protect the otherworlders all gave up in the end or compromised by saving only a few. And they said they saw 'those things'. The expressions varied from person to person, but they all had in common that they abstractly described it as a horrifying sight.

Third, people who didn't prepare didn't feel a big change in difficulty, but people who did prepare felt a drastic change in difficulty.

Fourth, people who cleared the 4th floor say they will never protect an NPC again.

The important thing here is the third point. The fact that the difficulty changes the moment you prepare is noteworthy.

In this round, we went through all sorts of efforts to carry out construction, like blocking the gates of the castle walls and blocking the entrance to the castle. But the monsters came in by melting the entrance we had blocked as if to mock it, and a winged monster even appeared.

In other words, monsters appeared that directly countered our efforts. It was the same for other people too.

If you prepare for the monsters in advance, a monster that neutralizes that preparation appears the next day. A single solution could not last more than one day.

But it is effective for 'one day'. This is the key.

If I hadn't known, I would have just trusted what I had prepared and leisurely held out, but now that I've noticed, I just need to come up with a new countermeasure. This meant I had obtained incredibly useful information.

"Haaa."

My mind felt a little tired, maybe from reading so many words. But there was still a lot of the report left. I briefly massaged the bridge of my nose and then started to read the report again.

Even if what I've read so far has been repetitive, there might be something noteworthy in the latter half, right?

So I read, and read, and read again.

When the codename of the person answering went past A20, A30, A40, and finally reached A60.

"...Huh?"

I let out a sound without even realizing it.

A61: We couldn't help it. I feel sorry for Count Julius, but we did our best. I'm sorry we couldn't protect him and his people, but we can't die to save them, can we?

"...Who is Count Julius?"

It was a name I'd never heard before. Was there someone like that? Was he a hidden piece?

Q: Please explain in detail.

A61: We abandoned Count Julius and his people. But he lied first. From the moment we were first summoned, he consistently put on a brave face. That his people were all trained soldiers, that he was an archmage, that his knights could split mountains...

Q: Was that not true?

A61: Absolutely not. His people were all farmers. There weren't even twenty trained soldiers.

"...What is this about?"

'The moment we were first summoned'. His soldiers. His knights.

An ominous thought came to mind, and I frantically flipped through the report with quick hands. The keywords I was looking for were titles like baron, count, and so on.

"...My god."

The result was surprising.

Count Julius. Marquis Jungtel. Viscount Gorbachov. Baron Irving.

The otherworlder nobles mentioned in the report all had different names. Their described appearances were also different. Their personalities were all unique.

"...Baron George is..."

He was not mentioned even once. This could only mean one thing.

The Goblin Shaman in the tutorial comes back to life even if he dies. He revives as many times as the tutorial repeats, and he dies again.

Any effort to save the Goblin Shaman is meaningless. Even if he survives once, he will die again anyway, and even if he dies once, he will come back to life anyway. He is a being completely bound to the Tower.

But... Baron George is not like that. The nobles summoned to the 4th floor are not summoned again. They are not repeating existences, but complete, unique ones.

In other words, the otherworlders are not simply a natural environment prepared for the 4th floor. They too are life forms struggling to survive for real. They are not NPCs that can be easily discarded.

"..."

Realizing that, a heavy feeling settled in my chest. I had one more reason to save Baron George and his people. The sense of responsibility on my shoulders also became much heavier.

"Get a grip."

No. Nothing changes. I just have to save them all. Instead of doing this, it's right to gather information.

I opened my eyes wide again and was about to read the report carefully, when.

Ring, ring, ring.

"...What is it?"

The sound of music broke my concentration. My cell phone was flashing, and the ringtone was going off. I was about to just turn off the phone to finish reading the report.

"..."

[Choi Ji-won]

Seeing the words written on the screen, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Click.

As if possessed by something, I pressed the receive button, and a voice flowed out from the phone.

"Jun-ho-nim... can we meet right now."

Ji-won's voice was trembling.

Footnotes:

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