WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 134

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The regressor is cunning (1)

"Create a common enemy?"

Ji-won's beautiful face instantly became expressionless, creating a chilly atmosphere. Since I had PTSD from the tutorial, I couldn't help but get scared when Ji-won made that expression.

"Jun-ho... you're going to be the one doing it, aren't you?"

Ji-won pressed me with a cold voice.

"Yeah."

"Are you insane?"

"No, it's just..."

We'd already fought once before over a similar issue.

She hadn't understood why I stubbornly refused to step into the spotlight. She thought I was overreacting since regression wouldn't be discovered just from becoming famous.

'I don't like it when the things you did get mentioned as my achievements.'

'Can't we just become famous together?'

'Huu. Fine. If that's really what you want...'

In the end, she respected my wishes too, so I barely managed to accept the arrangement where Ji-won took the front while I supported from behind... but me taking on the villain role seemed to be a different story.

"What are you, some tragic protagonist? You usually take such good care of your mental state, so why are you volunteering to be the villain? Do you like getting cursed at? Should I curse at you?"

Ji-won reflexively tried to smack my back but barely held herself back. If I'd gotten hit on the back just now, I would've regressed straight away.

"Calm down, Ji-won. First of all, what you're thinking won't happen. I know too. I know what you're worried about."

Of course I knew what Ji-won was worried about. She didn't want my name spreading negatively.

"The person called Jun-ho from Korea won't be cursed at. And later we'll definitely get that bastard Jang Roe too. How about listening to what I have to say first?"

"...Fine."

"Look, my plan is simple."

After I regressed, one mysterious overpowered psychopath killer would appear. Terrifying enough to make both the dwarves and players tremble in fear.

"...Are you going to kill people?"

"Of course not."

Naturally, I had no intention of killing people. However, I wanted the players to hold the fear that they 'could die' in their minds.

When I finished explaining the entire plan, Choi Ji-won reluctantly nodded her head.

"So, your role is important, Ji-won."

"...It does seem like it would work..."

In the end, the core of this plan was Choi Ji-won. It depended on how realistically well she could act.

"...Okay. Let's do it."

"Okay."

Now that I had her agreement, all preparations were complete. All that remained was execution and trial and error.

"Alright, now let's regress..."

"Wait. Before we regress, there's something we need to do."

"...What?"

"After you regress, are you going to explain all this again? Convince me again? Come here."

Ji-won's memories were maintained only in cycles where we both felt intense emotions.

In fact, in cycles where we got through things smoothly without incident, her memories weren't maintained.

And whether then or now, one of the most intense emotions was...

"Do you love me?"

"Of course."

Love.

After repeating regression dozens of times and attempting that many experiments, I was able to figure out the most efficient means to make both the dwarves and players frightened.

"Ji-won. How about this skull? Doesn't it give off a vibe similar to that of a Goblin Shaman?"

"It's good, isn't it?"

With this...

It would definitely be effective.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 11.]

"Haah..."

"What now?"

"I miss women..."

"For fuck's sake. You're trapped here and the first thing you think about is women?"

"...But dwarf women have beards."

"Crazy bastard."

Regardless of what his companion denounced him as, the French player Julien missed women.

"Why did I even enter floor 11? Am I an idiot?"

His reason for climbing the Tower wasn't noble or grand. Simply put, the title of 'successful player' was extremely advantageous for picking up women.

Sure, you could say risking your life for such a reason was ridiculous, but to Julien, the Tower so far hadn't been that difficult. Except for floor 4, he'd never really felt his life threatened.

In his view, there was exactly one difference between top-tier players and those who weren't. Courage.

Whether you had the courage to overcome the fear of death and challenge the next floor. If you had that courage, this Tower was a honeypot where the return far exceeded the risk.

"Should've just been satisfied with floor 10..."

Right, that's what he thought until getting trapped on Floor 11 like this.

Who knew he'd be trapped on one floor for no reason at all? Even wanting to talk with the dwarves, they just glared so there was no answer in sight. He could only endlessly save money and wait.

"Isn't there some pretty female player appearing somewhere..."

"Forget it, let's go find that herb you saw before."

"A woman."

"What?"

Julien bolted upright from his lying position. Whether his companion was flustered or not, his gaze was fixed on a figure visible in the distance.

"...New face. Asian. Incredibly pretty."

"...You can see that?"

"But she's covered in blood. Looks badly hurt."

There shouldn't be strong monsters at the forest entrance. Probably a female player with only courage had entered floor 11.

"Well, lucky for me."

Julien rubbed the soot on his face against his forearm and approached the bloodied woman.

"Miss, why are you in that state? Need help?"

With a sleazy smile, Julien naturally tried to put his arm around the bloodied woman's shoulders.

"..."

Crackle!

"Whoops..."

He unconsciously stepped back, pushed by the intense aura he felt from the woman. This wasn't because Julien was terribly weak, but rather the result of carelessly assuming the woman would be weak.

"So, you're a skilled miss. Why would someone like you be in such a state? Do you need a potion perhaps?"

However, they say a man only needs enough strength to lift a spoon.

The fatigue accumulated from sleeping rough, the hunger from not eating properly, and even the intense aura felt from the woman couldn't stop Julien.

"Well... I can give you a potion. But you know these sell for a lot, right? Normally if there's input there should be output..."

Julien approached sleazily without giving up.

"Hey, hey! You idiot!"

"What?"

"Look at her face!"

When his companion who'd been climbing the Tower with him stopped him in shock, Julien finally looked closely at the woman's face.

Pretty. But it was definitely a face from his memories... where had he seen it?

"It's Choi Ji-won! You moron!"

"...Huh?"

The moment he heard those three syllables, Choi Ji-won, countless stories flashed through his mind.

She faced the master of the city head-on on floor 2 and won.

She even summoned an archangel and completely changed floor 2.

On floor 4, she displayed an unbelievable performance and saved everyone.

"Uh, uhhh..."

Even if only half the rumors about Choi Ji-won were true, she was one of humanity's heroes.

"P-potion! You need one, right? Here it is!"

Julien immediately pulled out a potion from his pocket and sprayed it on Choi Ji-won.

It wasn't submission to power. Though Ji-won was certainly much stronger than Julien, Julien was confident in his own skills too.

What Julien was feeling now was... respect.

It was the small person climbing the Tower to grab his share expressing respect to the hero climbing the Tower for all humanity.

"Huu, thank you..."

"...What happened?"

Julien asked carefully as Ji-won tended to her wounds. He'd felt it earlier. This woman possessed skills worthy of her reputation. She definitely didn't have the skills to get hurt at the forest entrance.

"It couldn't have been another player..."

The players on floor 11 roughly remembered each other's faces. They were all renowned players, and he knew their personalities were decent. Had some new monster appeared perhaps?

"...No. A person did this. Though I don't know if I should call that thing a 'person.'"

However, Ji-won shook her head and flatly denied Julien's words.

"Can you explain in detail?"

"...A crazy killer seems to have entered floor 11."

The body of humanity's hero, Choi Ji-won, was trembling finely.

"...Be careful."

As if just recalling that scene gave her chills.

Ji-won had entered floor 11.

And she'd been critically wounded by a crazy player and barely survived.

These two shocking rumors spread among the players in an instant. It was mainly effective because they were all trapped on floor 11 with nothing particular to do.

Reactions to the rumor were largely divided into two types.

"...Shouldn't we prepare too?"

"That Choi Ji-won got beaten?"

First, people who felt a sense of crisis and wanted to prepare in their own way. The Frenchman Julien and the German Felix's group belonged to this side.

However, envy and jealousy naturally followed just from the fact of being successful.

"Isn't Choi Ji-won just fucking weak?"

"Doesn't it seem like she got beaten by some bear and is bullshitting because she's embarrassed?"

The second type of people took this opportunity to cut Ji-won down as much as they could.

Of course jealousy was ugly, but their claims weren't completely without merit.

"If such a player existed, we would've known already. Just when Choi Ji-won entered, a crazy killer happened to enter too?"

"You have to say things that make sense."

The timing was far too coincidental. 'Choi Ji-won is lying' had a bit more persuasiveness than 'by chance a killer and Choi Ji-won happened to enter together.'

"Hey. Why can't you trust people?"

"Do you trust the internet?"

The players were arguing intensely over whether Choi Ji-won's words were true or not.

"Where did she say it happened? I'll go check it out."

All this dispute seemed to end when one giant announced he'd go directly to where Choi Ji-won was supposedly hurt.

The giant known as a Russian wrestler lacked some technique, but was a man recognized for his destructive power thanks to dumping all his stat points into strength on his status window.

"When's he coming back?"

"Taking a while..."

"Oh, there he comes."

People had inwardly imagined the giant returning with a big smile.

However, what they faced was the giant with his entire body drenched in blood.

"Hey, you idiot. Didn't you say you were confident?"

"Geez. I knew that bastard would be like this."

At first the players mocked the giant. But the giant's complexion wasn't ordinary.

"...A skull, he was wearing a skull."

The giant who'd stepped forward confidently had a face pale as a sheet.

"He, he... he completely toyed with me..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Every attack missed by a hair. Just, just... it felt like he knew in advance how I'd fight..."

Though his wounds had already been healed by potion, the giant frantically scratched at the areas that had been wounded.

"And... that bastard... had no intention of killing me... I was nothing but a toy..."

"..."

"He didn't inflict fatal wounds... very shallowly... just the skin... like carving it out... giving wounds... chillingly..."

There was no such thing as 'swordsmanship that only inflicts shallow wounds' in the world. Martial arts were for subduing opponents after all.

In the end, receiving only shallow wounds meant... there was a tremendous skill gap and the opponent was toying with him.

"I'm… scared... I'm scared..."

"..."

The sight of the giant with his large frame chattering his teeth and trembling was enough to silence the players who'd mocked him at first.

Following the confident giant, similar incidents repeated several times... Only then did a sense of crisis slowly begin to spread among the players.

"Are we all going to die at this rate?"

A sense of crisis that if they stayed like this, they might all get killed.

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