WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 131

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The regressor is tired (6)

"Wait, aren't you from Floor 2..."

"...Jun-ho-nim?!"

One human and one angel who recognized each other. When you run into an elementary school classmate by chance and one of them doesn't remember the other, the atmosphere turns awkward in an instant, but if both recognize each other, warmth and joy well up from deep within the heart.

"Hey, weren't you on Floor 2? What are you doing here, man!"

"Hehe, there's actually quite a story behind this!"

The angel grinned broadly while waving a placard that read 'Buying Rare Items' back and forth. Along with the placard, their white hair swayed left and right.

"To sum it up, I'm a substitute!"

"A substitute?"

"Yes! The angel who was previously in charge of Floor 11 received disciplinary action due to an unfortunate incident, so I ended up taking over as the guide for Floor 11!"

Instinctively, I got the feeling that this 'unfortunate incident' was very closely related to Floor 11's current state. Right, there must have been an incident serious enough to get an angel fired, which is why Floor 11 turned out this way. I tried to ask the angel more about the 'incident,' but...

"Jun-ho-nim!"

"Uh, yeah..."

The placard angel set the placard down on the ground for a moment and grabbed both my hands, pulling them close to their chest.

"For the past two months, I've been thinking I absolutely must tell you this! Would you please listen!"

"Uh..."

"Thank you! Thank you for defending me on Floor 2! Thank you for keeping me from getting disciplined! I was really, really scared..."

The placard angel looked at me with sparkling eyes. With their hands clasped over mine in what looked almost like a prayer, they seemed to be pleading.

"Uh, well... sure."

"Please call me Anael! That's my name!"

"R-right. Anael."

Honestly, I felt pretty awkward since I'd done it without thinking much of it, but it seemed to mean something different to Anael. Their face was beaming with joy and wore a bright smile. The halo above their head sparkled continuously, radiating light.

"Meeting again like this must be fate, don't you think! Actually, when I saw you having that conversation with the archangel-nim on Floor 2, I thought to myself, this climber is going to become someone great! I should say you showed real promise! And what I hoped would happen actually did! To think you'd climb all the way to Floor 11 this quickly!"

Anael continued chattering away endlessly while still not letting go of my hands.

"H-hieek...!"

They suddenly jumped in place and quickly backed away. Their face had turned pale, and their gaze was fixed behind me, as if they'd discovered something terrifying.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

I was startled too and quickly turned around, but there was nothing behind me. Just Choi Ji-won looking at me as if nothing was wrong.

"Ji-won, did you see something?"

"Hm? No? I'm not sure what you mean?"

"...Really?"

"Yeah. I was just watching my boyfriend being all friendly with a pretty angel."

"..."

A chill ran down my spine. That day, I learned something for the first time. Even though Choi Ji-won usually acted easygoing and tomboyish, she was actually more jealous than I'd expected...

After the situation settled down somewhat, I asked Anael to tell me about the 'unfortunate incident.'

"Actually, I'm not really sure!"

"...You don't know what happened?"

"No! I meant I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to tell you this! If any other player had come asking for this kind of information, I would have ignored them right away!"

Anael tapped their fingers against the air. There was probably something only they could see, like players had their status windows. An angel window or something like that.

"It's a bit ambiguous since there are no relevant regulations, but... well, we're close, aren't we! I'll tell you!"

"..."

The military has a saying, 'If you're wondering whether you should do it, don't. If you're wondering whether you have to do it, do it,' but I didn't bother bringing that up. If things got really bad for Anael, I could just regress anyway.

"This happened when the previous person in charge was here, so I can't be entirely certain, but I'll tell you what I know!"

At some point, though they didn't know the exact timing, around when players first entered Floor 11, the dwarves had been well-disposed toward humans. After all, they understood that the reason they'd come to the Tower was 'to help the climbers,' so they decided to fulfill that role.

"Take a look at these weapons we made! They're incomparable to what humans can craft, don't you think?"

"People often mistakenly think dwarves only work well with ore, but that's not true. Wood, glass, clay. If you're a true craftsman, shouldn't you be good at everything?"

And so, after the first player to enter Floor 11 stayed for three days, squeezed out every benefit, and cleared the floor, the dwarves felt deep satisfaction.

Indeed, as can be seen from the ancient tale of Baekya and Jongjagi[1], a craftsman's joy lies in having someone recognize their work. When a warrior with outstanding ability recognizes the true value of an item and purchases it, how could they not be happy?

"Hmm, I sold two of my spears. But not a single one of your axes sold."

"Th-that's... it's just because the climber happened to use a spear! When a climber who uses axes comes in, my axes will sell like hotcakes!"

"Oh, three more humans are coming. Let's see who sells more this time."

Not long after the first player cleared the floor, even more players entered Floor 11. The atmosphere was so positive that competition broke out among the dwarves over who could sell more.

"...They got robbed?"

"Yuker's shop was cleaned out. They took the entire safe with them."

More precisely, the atmosphere was positive until one shop got robbed.

"Damn it, damn it!"

"Shameless bastards..."

The culprit had already purchased a passage stone and cleared Floor 11. For a craftsman, 'selling items for money' means more than just economic activity. The value of an item is the craftsman's value. The reason a high price is attached is because even more sweat and passion went into it. And they stole that.

"...So humans from other worlds are no different either."

"Fuck, I thought the chosen climbers would be different somehow..."

Among some dwarves, the radical opinion emerged that 'climbers are just as detestable bastards as everyone else!' But that was only a minority view.

"Drink. Drink and forget."

"Right, there are bastards worth drowning in a beer barrel everywhere, aren't there. Why would climbers be any different?"

"Sure. You can't condemn everyone based on a few."

The majority of dwarves took the stance that it just happens sometimes.

Of course, they were shocked that a player had stolen from them, but for craftsmen, being robbed was a fairly common experience, so they just wanted to chug some beer, tear into lots of meat, and move past it as a minor incident.

"Gelbin isn't coming back?"

"No way..."

And the next night, one dwarf was found brutally murdered in the forest.

The culprit was obvious. During the day, there had been a group of players who spent money freely and immediately cleared Floor 11.

"Goddamn bastards..."

"Damn it, damn it..."

They'd sold items made with blood, sweat, and tears, only to be repaid like this. No matter how jovial and magnanimous dwarves might be, this crossed the line by far.

"...Not all climbers are like that."

"Right. There are definitely decent climbers too."

However, they still retained a shred of reason. Just because some players committed crimes didn't mean they should blame all players. Though anger and contempt had risen to their chins, the dwarves held back.

The next day at lunch, three dwarves were found as horribly mutilated corpses. The culprit had cleared Floor 11 early that morning.

"Those fucking bastards!!!"

"I'll throw them into the furnace and kill them!!!"

Finally, the dwarves exploded. The reason that said 'we shouldn't generalize about all climbers' had long since been swept away by hot-blooded rage. Just as the dwarves gripping their weapons were about to attack the sleeping climbers...

"Wait, wait. Hold on."

The fortress's elder stopped the excited dwarves.

"What do you plan to do now?"

"We'll kill those bastards!"

"...Even if you ambush them, can you kill them?"

"..."

The dwarves were excellent craftsmen and outstanding warriors, but their opponents were among humanity's top players. It was a bad matchup.

Could they win a full-scale battle against them? Against those blessed by the gods?

Even if they did win, climbers would keep coming in the future. Could they continue this endless war against all of them? Would the archangel just stand by and watch?

Their boiling blood cooled down and reason slowly returned. It was true that the climbers were detestable, and it was true they needed revenge, but the method couldn't be physical confrontation.

"Don't sell anything. And block them."

"Block what?"

"Them from leaving Floor 11."

There was one fundamental reason climbers committed these evil acts. Because they could just escape from Floor 11 before getting caught. If they blocked the escape route for now, this current trend would stop.

"But... didn't the angel say we absolutely have to sell the passage stones?"

"We'll sell them. For about 1 billion gold."

This was also quite an impulsive decision, and it could cause various side effects, but...

"Fucking bastards..."

Dwarves weren't the type to just take it lying down.

"That's everything!"

"..."

"..."

Anael's story had ended, but neither Ji-won nor I could say anything. From our perspective, we felt quite wronged being persecuted for things we hadn't done, but we also understood the dwarves' position.

To put it bluntly, if two consecutive murder cases happened in Korea and the culprits were both from the same country, hostility toward that country would become extremely intense. We weren't in a position to criticize the dwarves for discriminating against us.

"What are we supposed to do about this?"

Earning trust is difficult. But more difficult than earning trust is rebuilding broken trust. Floor 11 was thoroughly tangled up. The guilty parties had long since escaped Floor 11, leaving only the unfortunate victims glaring at each other.

This really was the kind of major incident that would get the angel in charge fired.

"So, did your predecessor get fired for failing to prevent this situation?"

"No!"

"...Then?"

"The previous angel stopped the escalating conflict and immediately reported to the archangel-nim to ask how they should respond!"

"...Huh?"

That was the most exemplary response I could think of. First settle the situation, then ask your superior for guidance on future actions. Even though they'd handled it so well I wanted to applaud, why did the previous angel get fired?

Anael's answer to my question was quite shocking.

"The previous angel was fired for 'the crime of reporting such useless nonsense'!"

"..."

"The archangel-nim said, why are you making such a fuss about something that was bound to happen!"

Separate from the fact that the archangel in charge of Floors 11 through 15 was extremely sensitive, my prediction had completely missed the mark.

Anael's predecessor wasn't fired for standing by while Floor 11 fell apart. They were fired for making a fuss over something so inevitable, asking why they were bothering with such trivial matters. The perspective had been different from the start.

"...I'm starting to get a feeling for what concept this floor has."

Floor 11 had been ruined by human selfishness. It had been ruined by villains who preferred extorting and murdering other sentient beings instead of making honest efforts.

All of it was probably just as the archangel intended.

[1] A reference to a classical East Asian story about craftsmen and appreciation of their work, likely analogous to the famous Chinese story of Boya and Zhong Ziqi about finding someone who truly understands one's art.

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