WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 126

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The regressor is tired (1) [Start of Part 2]

Have you ever heard of the unknown creature called the Yeti?

Those who have heard of it would probably imagine a giant ape over two meters tall, covered from head to toe in white fur. I knew about them because a Yeti had appeared in a card game I used to play often.

Anyway, these creatures called Yeti usually live in cold mountain ranges, stir up blizzards, and serve to block climbers from ascending the mountains. When you get down to it, they’re really just big, white-furred gorillas.

“Grrrk, grrrrk…”

That’s why I once considered the Yeti a total pushover. After all, I had immense physical abilities gained from my trait levels and sharp swordsmanship honed thanks to my doppelganger. A human, the lord of all creation, had gained wondrous powers, so there was no way I’d be afraid of a mere white gorilla.

“Just… die already…”

“Grrrk…”

But the Yeti I met in person was far more threatening than I had expected. It was one of the most fearsome foes I had ever encountered.

-Clear Condition: Defeat the master of Mt. Lüften, the Yeti.

On the steep mountainside, where sharp coniferous forests grew as if to pierce the sky, and large clumps of snow poured down from above.

“Grrrrrk…”

Something pale was barely crawling on the ground with withered arms, digging through the snow that covered the floor. That thing, which looked like a white furry worm, was the aforementioned Yeti. And why was it in such bad shape?

“It's already… been two weeks…”

It was because I had been locked in a struggle with this Yeti for two long weeks.

But before that, I'll explain what happened during that time.

After barely clearing the 5th floor, I took a two-week break with Ji-won and then regressed. After that, I quickly cleared the 5th floor again and immediately entered the 6th.

-Clear Condition: Defeat the cursed woman, Medusa.

-If you make eye contact with Medusa, your body will slowly turn to stone, starting from your extremities.

“Oh…?”

The concept for the 6th to the 9th floors was simpler than I thought. A monster from fantasy would appear, and the player had to defeat it alone. Looking at it that way, it might seem incredibly difficult, but…

The one who designed the 6th to 10th floors had prepared various mechanics so that even the weakest players could survive.

The Medusa on the 6th floor was nothing more than a woman with snakes for hair if you wore the glasses sold in a nearby village.

The Banshee on the 7th floor would instantly burn away if you sprinkled it with the holy water you could get from the old church.

The Vampire on the 8th floor would melt on its own if you just waited in the starting cabin until sunrise.

The large boar on the 9th floor would collapse after greedily eating the poisoned bait that was left out for it.

Assuming you properly used the information you gained after entering the Tower, the difficulty up to the 9th floor was quite easy. It felt more like solving a series of puzzles than engaging in life-or-death battles with monsters.

The problem was the 10th floor. I had figured out the weakness of the Yeti on the 10th floor a long time ago.

The creature is only active for exactly six hours a day and sleeps in a cave for the other eighteen. You could easily kill it by avoiding its thick fur and plunging a knife into its neck during that time.

So why am I still struggling, you ask? The problem is the magical cold aura surrounding the Yeti.

Perhaps because Yetis are creatures that bring blizzards, the temperature around its body was exceptionally low, so much so that if a person approached it, their movements would automatically slow down, and their skin would instantly turn a pale blue.

Yes, the skin would necrotize. It also meant that I would regress.

“Shit, shit…”

Throwing a weapon from a distance was completely ineffective because of the fur covering its entire body. But if I tried to get close, I would instantly regress because of its cold aura.

It was truly the worst kind of enemy. A monster on par with the golem from the 3rd floor, one that directly countered a regressor.

It got to the point where I thought I might be trapped on the 10th floor forever. Since it was another cold mountain range, the nightmare of the 4th floor came rushing back to me.

However, after observing the Yeti carefully, I was able to discover its weakness.

The creature cannot leave a certain area. Seeing that it always went to the same places, its range of movement was clearly fixed.

“…So you eat, too?”

Besides, being a fantasy creature, it still had to eat. It usually slowed down creatures like birds or gazelles with its unique aura and then devoured them, but the important thing was that it did, in fact, eat.

If I can't kill it directly, I'll starve it to death.

I’ll kill every living thing it could eat beforehand and get rid of them all. Then, it will have to die.

From then on, I started killing every animal I saw and throwing them over the cliff, and I grilled and ate some of them myself.

"Guooooooh!!!"

"You're slower than me, you bastard!"

At first, the Yeti tilted its head, wondering where all the animals had gone, but it soon noticed my presence and gave chase. However, my agility was clearly superior. I maintained a distance where it seemed like I was about to be caught but never was, and I annihilated every living creature the Yeti could possibly eat.

“Grrrrrrrk…”

The result, after two weeks had passed since then, was that skinny, furry worm over there.

“…Just die already…”

Of course, I was at my limit too. The 'meals' I'd eaten were nothing more than roughly grilled wild animals that reeked of game, and sometimes I even had to eat the meat raw without grilling it.

Furthermore, since I had thrown all the uneaten creatures off the cliff, there was no living thing left on this mountainside. That meant I had run out of meat to eat as well.

The Yeti struggled to lift its head and glared at me. I refused to back down and glared right back at it.

‘Hurry up and die. Please, please, just die…!’

Perhaps my desperate wish had been conveyed.

“…Grk.”

The Yeti's head drooped.

Vwooom.

Before my eyes, the long-awaited blue portal appeared.

“Hoo, hoo…”

I quickly passed through the portal and returned to my studio apartment without even checking the rewards.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

The moment I returned, Ji-won approached me with a worried look. It was only natural for her to be concerned, since I hadn't emerged for two whole weeks from the 10th floor, a floor she herself would have cleared in no time.

"By any chance… you couldn't get close to the Yeti?"

"…That's right. If I got close, I'd instantly regress. So I waited until it starved to death."

"…My goodness."

After grasping the situation, Ji-won shook her head and then suddenly threw her arms around me in an embrace.

"…I was worried. I thought something might have happened to you."

"To be honest, I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to get out, either."

"Hey!"

"Alright. I'm sorry."

"…As long as you know."

"…Yeah."

The conversation checking on each other's well-being came to an awkward halt, and their eyes met.

Since we were pressed close together, a pleasant scent wafted up, tickling my nose.

"…"

"…"

No more words were needed. Ji-won gently closed her eyes, and our lips slowly drew closer…

Sniffle.

"...?"

I sniffled without realizing it. A runny nose? This is the first time since the status window appeared, isn't it?

Come to think of it, my throat felt a little scratchy, and the feeling of a runny nose about to start was tickling my mucous membranes.

It's been a really long time, but… this was a symptom I remembered.

“Ji-won…”

“Yeah?”

“I think I might be coming down with a cold…”

"A cold? You, Jun-ho?"

It wasn't that I was coughing. I didn't have a fever, either. But I could faintly feel that unpleasant sensation unique to a cold, like my body was slightly heating up. A virus was lurking in the back of my throat.

Was it because I had spent two weeks rolling around on a snowy mountain without eating properly? Or was it because, unlike on the 4th floor, my Hero trait hadn't activated?

I had just confirmed the fact that even a superhuman body could get sick if exposed to an extreme environment for a long time. It was information I never wanted to know.

“…”

Of course, the fact that it ended with 'just' a cold was also proof that my body far surpassed that of an ordinary person. A normal person would have died long ago in that environment.

Besides, these days a cold is barely considered an illness. Taking medicine doesn't make it go away any faster, but catching one isn't a huge problem either. You just cough a little, run a bit of a fever, feel sick for a day or two, and then you can return to your daily life.

“What if I regress because of this cold?”

But what about a 'regressor who regresses upon taking damage'? What if the cold virus itself counted as 'damage'? What if the moment the dormant cold in my body fully bloomed, a regression began?

What if the timing of the illness blooming was right after entering the Tower, and I became trapped in an eternal time loop from that point on?

“…”

“…”

Ji-won's expression stiffened as she, too, recognized the gravity of the situation. Right now, it was just the faint feeling of a cold, but she realized it could evolve into a deadly dagger at any moment.

"Jun-ho."

"Yeah?"

"Let's have you drink a potion first."

Ji-won casually handed over an Intermediate Potion, something that traded for its weight in gold in the real world. I took the potion, immediately entered the 1st floor, and gulped down the potion that was duplicated by the floor's effect.

"...Why isn't it working?"

This was a potion that could heal severed limbs, yet for some reason, the tickling sensation remained.

Was it because I was exposed to the Yeti's magical cold for too long? A cold that couldn't even be cured by an intermediate potion.

I let out a slow breath…

Of course, I still had the Lowest-grade Elixir from the 5th floor, but... I felt it was too precious to use here. After checking my condition, I took the portal back to my studio apartment.

"How is it?"

"It's not working."

"..."

Ji-won gently bit her lip. The situation was even worse than she had thought.

"Do you want to regress? If you regress, there might be a way to clear it without catching a cold. It doesn't matter if my memories disappear since I didn't do anything anyway."

Like the cool girl she was, Ji-won's first suggestion was to regress.

"…I tried everything, but there was no other solution besides starving it to death."

Unfortunately, however, I didn't have any miraculous method to kill the Yeti right now. The Yeti was surprisingly smart, so it didn't fall for traps and wouldn't eat prey it hadn't caught itself.

"…"

"…"

In the end, the best I could do was to try to prevent this budding cold from getting any worse.

“For now… just lie down. I'll make you some abalone porridge. Even if you get hot, bear with it and stay under the covers.”

“…O-okay…”

“You, don't even think about moving until you're all better. Got it?”

“Yeah…”

And so, for two weeks, I was trapped motionlessly under the covers, forced to eat nutritious food.

『 The United States Government Officially Recommends Climbing the 2nd Floor… 'Internal Investigation of Survival Rate Shows It Is Not Dangerous.' 』

『 'Tower'-Sourced Items, to Become the Future Food Source for Humanity... Major Corporations Worldwide Begin Investigations. 』

『 Player Association Launched… Inaugural President is 'Mighty Michael' Michael Zetter.』

『 South Korean Government Awards Presidential Commendation to Player Choi Ji-won… For Being the First in the Country to Successfully Clear the 10th Floor. 』

Time flowed relentlessly, and three months had passed since the first tutorial began.

In real-world time, it had been two months since I entered the tutorial, and one month since I had cleared the 5th floor.

In other words…

[Mighty Coin]

[+19832.41%]

“Wow.”

I had become a rich man.

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