Regression is Too Much - Chapter 128

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 128

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The regressor is tired (3)

Caucasian, fifty-two years old and married with two daughters. Pastor of a small neighborhood church. Favorite food was pizza, and mowed the front lawn before breakfast. Frequently forgot Bible verses so he kept a Bible app on his phone. Recently concerned about his developing paunch.

These were the words that described the person called William Smith. He'd been a friendly, warm pastor you could find anywhere. Until the Tower appeared, that is.

"Wh-whoa...? I'm alive...?"

"Huff, huff... Oh Lord..."

William, who'd survived a brush with death in the Tutorial, discovered he'd awakened a healing ability while supporting an injured person.

And after returning to reality and investigating information, he also realized that his healing ability was far more powerful compared to other healers. When others could only prevent wounds from worsening, he could actually cure the injuries outright.

If he'd been a thoughtless fool here, he would have thought to use his ability to make big money, or tried to gain attention by uploading videos of himself healing wounds on YouTube and such, but...

"Honey, I think I need to hide my ability."

"I think that's right too, William."

The Smith couple chose to hide the ability. William’s power was tremendously useful for those in need, but it wasn't exactly suited for protecting his own body. And in a period like this when society's foundations were shaking, it wasn't wise to show off treasure everywhere when you lacked the ability to protect it.

"Honey, can't we just forget all this and live normally? You don't have to climb that Tower..."

"...Jenny got hurt. I can't just die without even protecting a member of my family from player terrorism."

However, when his daughter was injured due to player terrorism, William Smith also resolved to climb the Tower. If you're the head of a household, you need the power to protect your family. He did have a shotgun hidden away in the attic, but that alone made him far too anxious.

[You have cleared Floor 2.]

[You have cleared Floor 3.]

And so, William Smith slowly climbed the Tower. Thanks to suppressing most of his ability, he didn't draw more attention than necessary, and William was satisfied with that fact as well.

Until the experience on floor 4 completely shook him.

"That man. Even though no one acknowledged him, he silently saved people."

How petty was a man who hid his power just because it might be dangerous? Great power came with great responsibility, yet he'd been avoiding his responsibility.

Love your neighbor as yourself. He didn't know if the transcendent being who created the Tower and the Lord of the Bible were the same, but William hadn't been following God's teachings. Once he realized that fact, shame washed over him.

"Didn't the grandmother next door say her knee was bad?"

"That's right."

"...When she comes to service tomorrow, I should take a look."

Of course, that didn't mean he'd set some grandiose goal like 'I'll save every person on Earth!' First, starting with neighbors who needed a helping hand.

American churches also served as hubs where neighborhood people gathered, so naturally William was well-connected in the community. That meant he already knew full well who was hurting where.

"Oh, Smith! Thank you so much..."

After healing the next-door grandmother's knee, somehow word spread, and the people seeking him out gradually increased.

"Mr. Smith, actually I have a chronic back condition..."

"Pastor Smith, I smashed my thumb fixing the shed..."

At first, it was neighbors. Due to the terrorism happening nationwide these days, all the major hospitals were completely saturated. Instead of going to hospitals, neighbors sought out the church.

However, in a society where social media had become mainstream like nowadays, there was no such thing as a secret.

-My half-necrotic ring finger came back. Here's proof with a photo.

After a user who'd visited the church following a post made by a neighborhood adolescent boy on a community site uploaded verification, William Smith's church became uncontrollably famous.

From the next town over. From neighboring states. From the opposite side of America. Sometimes even from overseas.

"Flights were paralyzed by terrorism, so I drove from Michigan to California. Please, please, could you just treat my child once?"

"I received a terminal diagnosis... Pastor, you're my last hope..."

"If you'll treat me as top priority, I'll give you ten million dollars."

"...I'll treat people in the order they arrived. Please wait."

The crowds flooding in now formed entire masses of people, but there was a limit to the number of people he could heal in a day.

Lines naturally formed, people cut in line, the government intervened accordingly and issued number tickets, those tickets were bought and sold, people pitched tents and slept rough, or simply bought houses in nearby neighborhoods. Actually, housing prices in the neighborhood where William Smith lived skyrocketed.

A phenomenon close to a modern-day gold rush was happening on the other side of the globe in America...

"That's what they said."

"..."

Ji-won's story had ended.

When someone you knew was busy doing good work, what could you say? You just had to accept it and move on. Besides, wouldn't it be too shameful to brag saying 'I'm Kim Jun-ho who saved people on floor 4~'?

"Hmm..."

Did anyone know a skilled healer? All my existing friends were ordinary people so there was no way they'd know, and since I'd avoided getting involved with other people as much as possible, my player network was catastrophically sparse.

"Ji-won, by any chance..."

"..."

Ji-won's network was just as catastrophic. Except for friends she'd made during her all-girls high school days, she really knew very few people.

The players in my contacts were... firefighter Park Cheol-jin. Then Kang Chan. Ahn Gyeong-jun. That was it. Yoon Joong-hyun's contact information had vanished because of the regression.

First, firefighter Park Cheol-jin. He had a decent acquaintance with me, and was really, really close with Choi Ji-won. He had enough leadership to lead a gathering of people who'd survived the Tutorial.

"Cheol-jin ahjussi’s been busy lately too... he probably hasn't met any new people..."

However, due to the recent string of terrorism, he'd been devoting himself to his main job. They said he hadn't even been able to attempt floor 4 since clearing floor 3.

"Kang Chan is..."

Kang Chan. That guy was apparently busy creating a guild these days. At first he'd called it a gang, but changed it to guild because it felt too thuggish.

The name was grandiose as a guild, but I'd heard it was just a community where people gathered to cooperate with each other, share information, and share items. From Chan's perspective with his strong burst damage but penalties, a guild's existence would be essential. Oh right, Ahn Gyeong-jun and Ahn Gyeong-nam had both joined that guild too.

"...Maybe there's at least one healer there?"

Harboring faint hope, I cautiously sent a message to Kang Chan.

-Hello, this is Kim Jun-ho who cleared floor 3 together. The reason I'm contacting you is...

Shortly after sending the long message, the '1' indicator disappeared. After some time passed, Kang Chan's reply arrived.

-Our guild has no healing ability users. Actually, there aren't any skilled healers in Korea at all.

The story Kang Chan told was shocking.

-Do you know about William Smith?

Thanks to William who'd recently become a hot topic in North America, healers' stock value had been hitting the daily limit consecutively. The wealthy had judged that it was better to hire one skilled healer rather than stock their homes with expensive potions, and any healer with reasonably strong abilities had already been scouted after receiving offers of massive annual salaries.

-Maybe because healing abilities are non-combat abilities to begin with, almost no one tries to climb the Tower. When you can comfortably earn money in reality, why bother climbing the Tower? Even if you find someone, you'd probably only get the dregs. Sorry I couldn't help.

"..."

He was right. Even if it were me, if I had an ability that let me milk easy money, I probably wouldn't risk my life climbing the Tower.

"What do I do..."

A mere cold yet potions didn't work on it. I couldn't find a skilled healer either. Using an elixir felt wasteful. What was I supposed to do in this situation?

After the three of us, me, Ji-won, and even Bung-bung, held marathon meetings, the conclusion we reached was simple.

"Floor 11, I think we should enter right now."

Time had already passed considerably. My physical condition showed no signs of improving further. We should just accept the risk and enter Floor 11 immediately.

To be truly efficient, regressing here and then starving the Yeti to death one more time would be right, but... my condition had genuinely improved over the past two weeks, and I was sick of looking at that mountain range now. Just imagining that gamey meat was enough to make me dry heave.

"What do you want for your last supper?"

"...Should we get soup and rice?"

"..."

"What, why? Women can't like soup and rice?"

After roughly finishing dinner with Ji-won, who'd lost much of her shyness thanks to sticking together all this time, I completed the final checks. We planned to enter floor 11 simultaneously.

Weren't floors 6 through 10 solo floors?

The guidebook stated that the archangels each oversaw five floors. Raphael had overseen floors 1 through 5, and some guy whose name I didn't know had overseen floors 6 through 10.

Just because floors 6 through 10 had been solo floors didn't mean Floor 11 would be the same.

"Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's enter on time."

To put it simply.

Unconditionally, entering together with Ji-won was advantageous. The difference between having and not having Korea's strongest player's help was extreme.

Of course, traveling alone would be more aloof and cool, but... when Earth was about to be destroyed at any moment, what good was coolness or style? Not taking a bus when you could was foolish, not admirable.

"..."

Exchanging wordless glances, Choi Ji-won and I nodded, then entered our respective portals.

[You are entering Floor 11.]

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