Regression is Too Much - Chapter 14

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 014

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The status window is way too unfriendly (1)

[You can acquire a trait.]

"...A trait?"

All of a sudden? I can get a trait?

The moment that thought crossed my mind, my body froze in the middle of scratching the back of my head.

"..."

Actually, it was not just me who was stuck.

The scrawny guy lying flat on the ground, begging for his life.

The girl clutching her own neck with both hands as if she could not breathe after seeing the thug get cut down, the guy with glasses who tried his hardest to appear calm yet could not stop his knees from shaking, and even the extra guy who had collapsed onto the floor when his legs gave way.

None of them so much as twitched, and not a single sound reached my ears.

It felt less like I was paralyzed and more like time itself had come to a halt.

[You can acquire a trait.]

"...And what exactly am I supposed to do about that."

Maybe the Tower had kindly stopped time so I could pick my trait at leisure, and that part was fine…

But it just told me to choose without actually showing any options.

Something like 

1.  A nice skill.

2.  An even nicer skill

3.  A skill that looks like total garbage at first glance but is secretly broken, so the protagonist will obviously pick it anyway

If the choices were laid out like that, at least I could agonize a little before deciding.

Telling me to pick a trait and then giving zero explanation, who taught you manners like that.

My eyeballs were the only things I could move, so what the hell is the jerk who made this status window even doing.

"...Hmm?"

Right in the middle of silently cursing everything, I suddenly sensed a strange aura and flinched without thinking.

An aura that was sickening, sublime, and terrifying all at once.

Astonishingly, the aura oozed from the body of the scrawny kid lying face‑down, the three strands pushing against one another, weaving a bizarre shape as though they would merge but never quite touching.

"..."

No one had taught me this, and the status window had not announced it, yet I instinctively understood.

That was emotion, the emotions the scrawny kid held toward me. Just by looking, I could taste each emotion on my tongue as vividly as if I were licking them.

The red aura was fear.

It was the fear of someone who knew I possessed the power to split that thug clean in half in a single motion.

The blue aura was revulsion.

The disgust directed at a murderer who had casually taken another human life.

Last of all, the yellow aura was awe.

An instinctive awe shown toward overwhelming strength, admiration, wonder, and a touch of fear.

"..."

So this skinny punk had been seeing me like that.

A terrifyingly strong killer.

Personally, I figured anyone with a regression ability would manage at least this much, but from his point of view, it probably looked incredible.

Killer, yeah. That part was true, but you were about to kill someone yourself a moment ago. Talk about hypocrisy.

So, why was the Tower showing me these emotions.

The answer was obvious, if I chose one of those emotions it would become a trait, since it had told me at the start that I could acquire one.

"Hmm…"

But when it came time to actually pick, I hesitated.

If traits vanished whenever I regressed, then it would not matter what I picked here.

I could sample all three traits over multiple cycles, decide which one I liked, and finally take the best one in the run where I resolved to push past the tutorial.

But what if traits stayed fixed once chosen, what if they followed me even through regression.

And what if, in the next cycle, I could not get a trait from the scrawny kid again.

This would be the first trait I obtained, regression was an innate trait so I would set that aside.

In games too, the traits you pick early on heavily influence the rest of your playthrough.

If I chose fear here, I would probably get a trait that suppressed foes with terror, or maybe that powered me up when the enemy felt fear, simple and strong.

If I picked revulsion, well, would it incite an instinctive loathing, the ability was not very intuitive so I could not quite grasp it.

Since that disgust stemmed from murder, maybe it would grant a trait that let me kill humans more effectively, wow, saying it out loud made me sound like a complete psychopath.

Last was awe, and to be honest that one was not all that intuitive either.

It felt a bit off from the usual illusion type vibe of simply looking strong.

According to the dictionary, awe means to respect and to fear at the same time.

I did want to complain, why mix fear in when plain respect would do.

Then again, if someone cut a person in half right before my eyes I guess I would be scared too.

"Hmm…"

Fear, revulsion, or awe.

The deliberation was brief and the decision swift.

Shuwaaa!

The instant I settled, the yellow aura rushed toward me as though it had read my mind.

I had chosen Awe.

My reasoning was simple.

Fear and revulsion both sounded like powers that would make me stronger quickly and easily.

Terror alone offered endless ways to exploit it.

I could come back with knowledge from the future and tell someone, I know everything about you, you die tomorrow, and even the toughest person would probably collapse and wet themselves.

Getting strong right now mattered, sure, but I was painting on a much bigger canvas.

One day, when I conquer this Tower.

When I emerge back into the world outside.

When I become a hero known around the globe.

If my power was nothing more than spreading terror or revulsion, would I ever receive the proper recognition as a hero?

Some handsome, well spoken guy would steal all the glory, and I would be relegated to an urban legend known only to insiders.

Even setting that aside, fear and disgust made cooperation with others incredibly hard.

Which would mean I would have to keep soloing everything forever.

Considering how the Tower worked, that did not seem like a smart option.

In a web novel I had read, The Tutorial Is Seriously Fucking Hard, the protagonist ended up trapped in the Tower despite his overwhelming power.

Why? Because he had no companions to help him.

If a floor required teamwork to clear, fear and revulsion would be a fatal handicap. In the end I was sure Awe, which was both functional and cool, was the right answer.

"...Ugh."

The yellow aura that had been flowing into me slowly stopped.

I did not feel any particular change in my body, it felt exactly the same as always.

Still, I had one excellent tool for self‑reflection.

"Status window."

[Name: Kim Jun‑ho] [LV:5]

[Traits]

-Regression [EX]

-Awe [C]

"Hmm."

I lightly tapped Awe with my fingertip.

-Awe [C]

-Praise for your greatness. Fear of what cannot be understood.

"...What the hell is this."

Did the bastard who built this Tower major in Korean literature or something.

Or was his hobby watching people struggle with vague, poetic choices.

The so‑called explanation was just a string of airy words.

I was not expecting game style tooltips like Deals 160 percent attack damage.

But you should at least tell me what it does and how it works.

I unconsciously reached for the back of my neck and realized my hand could move again. Oh right, I had pressed the status window with my own hand too…

"..."

Time stop had been lifted, it was so quiet that I had noticed late.

"Save… save…"

The scrawny kid was still sprawled on the ground, trembling…

But the group with glasses boy had changed quite a bit.

The glasses guy whose legs had been shaking had calmed down somewhat.

The extra who had collapsed was barely managing to stand.

And the girl who had been wheezing with shortness of breath now had a bright red face.

Her face was so flushed I worried she might drop dead any second.

"...Are you all right?"

I asked before thinking, she just looked that bad.

"..."