WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 148

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The regressor is training (9)

"Finally, finally!"

I had been lying blankly on the bed ripping pages out of a book, but I quickly got up from my spot. Finally, people had entered. I didn't know whether to be happy or sad that they'd entered after 11 days, but... at least it wasn't 20 or 30 days.

"...No. Stay calm. Just a moment."

I was about to rush out of the room with a smile of joy, but then I realized what a state I was in and hurriedly stopped. Hair that hadn't been washed in over three days, drool marks clearly visible on my cheeks, and most importantly, I wasn't wearing a single piece of clothing right now. If I went out in this state, there was a high possibility of causing unnecessary misunderstandings.

"...Let's wash up first."

After roughly throwing the clothes scattered on the floor toward the bathroom area, I quickly jumped into the shower booth. Originally, if a man needs to, he can finish a shower in under three minutes.

"Hey, I can hear water running over there?"

"What, what is it? Get your weapons ready first. Stay alert."

"Jinsu, I don't see Jinsu? Where did Jinsu go?"

"Just a moment! I'm a person! And I'm washing up! Please wait just a bit!"

Hearing the murmuring sounds in front of my room door, I shouted hastily, then quickly finished my shower. At this level, it should be presentable enough... no, I couldn't shave. But the commotion outside the door had grown louder, so I had no choice but to come out of the bathroom.

"Isn't Jinsu in there? There are exactly five doors too."

"Hello?"

"From what I can see, inside here... hello."

As the door opened, two men and two women stopped talking amongst themselves and looked at me. Four pairs of bright, sparkling eyes fixed on me.

"..."

My first impression of them... they're young. Not middle or high school young though, more like college freshmen young. There was that characteristic freshness about them, I'd say they were probably around 20 years old.

"By any chance, are you here alone?"

A man stuck his head out to the side, looking behind me. His gaze swept thoroughly through the room, but he didn't seem to find what he was looking for.

"For now, um... shall we go to the next room and talk?"

About 10 minutes later, after exchanging our stories, the initially tense atmosphere had relaxed considerably.

The group of four in front of me had become friends through the internet. Originally they were a party of five, but apparently the man named 'Jinsu' who played the leader role got separated somewhere else.

"So, you're saying you've been here for 10 days?"

"Exactly 11 days, actually."

"Whoa..."

The bespectacled woman covered her mouth with both hands in shock.

"Mister, have you seen a guy around our age? His name is Jinsu..."

"I haven't seen him. And why are you calling me mister..."

"Sob..."

The short-haired woman became noticeably gloomy upon hearing that the man named 'Jinsu' wasn't there.

"Well, now that things are roughly sorted out, shall we proceed?"

"This mister must be bored. Let's hurry up. Hurry."

"No, why do you keep calling me mister..."

Even the two men shrugged their shoulders and urged us to quickly proceed with floor 12.

How should I put this? Should I say they felt full of baseless confidence? In any case, I didn't sense any tension from them. They didn't have that tautness characteristic of top-tier players, you could say.

"..."

If it were the usual me, I might have just thought 'hmm, are they idiots?' and moved on, but the current me would have to spend 11 days again the moment I regressed. If we proceeded without tension like this, someone might die or we might fail to clear.

"Everyone, it's important not to be tense, but shall we at least do some minimum preparation before we go?"

So I spoke in a very gentle tone, saying something to invoke at least minimal awareness, but.

"Pfft, mister. Don't worry."

"We're pretty good, you know? Just watch."

The two men actually burst out laughing and shook their heads. And the way they kept glancing at the two women, it seemed they had feelings for them. Fuck, are they showing off right now because there are women here?

Should I just beat the shit out of them right now and activate my Awe trait? No, hold back. It won't be too late to do that after the floor's contents are revealed. Drawing the character for 'patience' in my mind, I continued what I was trying to say.

"Still, shouldn't we at least know each other's abilities? It might be a floor like floor 3 where we need to cooperate. First, my trait is the 'Swordsmanship' trait, an ability that lets me handle a sword well."

"Mm... that much is fine."

"Sounds good."

And so the abilities of the four were revealed. The two men had traits that improved physical abilities, and the bespectacled woman said she had a trait that visualized enemy weak points. What was unusual was the short-haired woman.

"I have a trait where fire bursts out from my whole body, but... there's a problem..."

"A problem?"

"This... it's always active... so I always have to hold it back..."

She said that because of her trait, her whole body was always on fire, and she was holding it back with willpower. So should I think of her as like a female Hulk?

"Jinsu has a trait that controls water, so I need to be with him..."

The woman anxiously fidgeted with her hands. It seemed dangerous to be near that woman. I had an ominous premonition that I might regress because of that ability.

"Then, we're done preparing, so let's go!"

"Let's go, let's go!"

In any case, the minimum preparations were finished with this. The moment five boisterous players stood in front of the large door.

[ 5/5 ]

Whirr.

"...It was an automatic door."

The door slid open to the left and right. Inside, a long corridor gaped its mouth wide open.

"...Shall we go?"

"Let's go. I'll stand in front."

They weren't complete idiots after all, as even the two men who had been bouncing around until just before had noticeably calmed down. Right, if they had kept fooling around even after entering here, I wouldn't have held back either.

"..."

"..."

Step. Step. Step.

Five people carefully walked through the silent corridor. About five minutes seemed to have passed.

More than that, the message window should be giving guidance soon. When is the explanation going to pop up?

"Ah, over there."

"It's a door."

When boredom was starting to take over tension, the long corridor ended and a translucent glass door appeared. When we gently opened the glass door and entered, what we saw was a small room.

In the center of the room, five metal chairs were arranged in a circle, and on the opposite side of the entrance was an elevator door. The reason I specifically mentioned 'elevator door' was because there was an upward arrow-shaped button next to it.

After completely grasping the structure inside the room, a message window appeared before my eyes.

<Floor 12>

-Pass three rounds of 'tests.' Each person can participate in each test only once, and if you fail the final test, no rewards will be given.

-All rewards will be given individually after clearing floor 12.

"...What does this mean?"

"Hmm."

Tests? Suddenly? Am I missing something? I felt like this floor was particularly unhelpful.

-Then, please have everyone take a seat.

Whether everyone was flustered and making sounds of confusion or not, a mechanical voice echoed through the space. The only seating places in this space were the metal chairs placed in the center. Since there were exactly five of them, they seemed to want us to sit here.

"...Shall we sit for now?"

"...Yeah."

After exchanging glances, we carefully sat down on the chairs. The moment all five people sat down on the chairs, the voice was heard again.

-Then, before starting the first test, each person will select their reward.

[1] Lesser Potion x 10

[5] Custom Item Box (B~D)

[10] Universal Pill, increases all stats by 3.

"...?"

As soon as the message window appeared before my eyes, I looked around, but a barrier had already surrounded me, blocking my vision and sound, and my legs wouldn't move as if they were attached to the chair. It seemed that choosing rewards was a thoroughly solo process.

"Hmm."

I wasn't entirely sure, but... the rewards seemed to get better as the numbers went up. Honestly speaking, I'd reached a level where I didn't need Lesser Potions anymore, and pills that increased stats were always valuable.

However, the numbers in front concerned me too much to choose a reward without thinking. What do those numbers mean? I felt like the bigger the number, the worse it would be...

"Mmm..."

Normally, I would have chosen '10' without any thought and then regressed if the situation went wrong, but right now, one regression came with an 11-day penalty, so I couldn't help but be cautious.

No, let's be bold. I can't avoid regressing anyway. If that's the case, it would be better to gather as much information as possible and then regress. Having made my decision, I pressed [10] firmly.

-All climbers have completed their selection.

The barrier surrounding me disappeared, and the others became visible again.

"Ah, you're back?"

"Look at this. The elevator door opened."

It seemed I had taken particularly long to decide, as the others had already gotten up from their chairs.

Above the 'elevator door' they were examining was the number [35], and the elevator door was already open, as if they had already pressed the arrow button next to it.

"This button is interesting, isn't it?"

I still didn't know the two men's names... for convenience, I'll call them acne guy and mole guy. Anyway, as acne guy said, when I headed into the elevator, what was there wasn't a typical elevator button but something closer to a calculator button. Seeing there was also a clear button and an enter button, this was definitely closer to a calculator.

[Only one person can take the 'test' at a time.]

Ignoring the message that appeared at the edge of my vision, I entered the number [99]. It was an action taken to figure out what this button meant.

[You can only enter numbers 35 or below.]

Once again, a message window refusing my input. This time I entered [31] as instructed, then slightly stuck my head out of the elevator to check the number written above, and the number that had been [35] had changed to [4].

"Ah."

At that moment, I understood floor 12's task.

This... was a group project.

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