WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 154

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The regressor is training (15)

"Huh?"

"Oh?"

The elevator doors closed before the other players could even properly react. What I had to worry about from this point on was the cleanup. The three dead weights could probably be handled easily enough, so the only one I actually needed to convince was the short-haired woman.

Whirr.

The elevator moved regardless of whether I was lost in thought or not. After a brief moment, the doors slowly opened, and before the black mannequin holding a club could even fully stand up.

Swoosh! Thwack!

The dwarven sword I threw lodged itself right into the mannequin's skull, and the elevator doors, which hadn't even fully opened, closed again. Wasn't I not supposed to just throw a fine sword like that? Who cares, I was going to regress anyway. The advantage of being a regressor was that you didn't have to be precious about items.

Wait, what if the other players tried to jump me? Would I need to go back and pull that sword out?

Whirr.

But before I could even react, the elevator started moving again. I had succeeded in speedrunning the test, but I'd lost my sword. Damn it, I should have just played it safe and taken the mannequin down normally instead of showing off.

About 30 seconds later. Whether I had a sword or not, the elevator doors opened again, and four players with peculiar expressions were waiting for me.

"Hey, picking 1 is a bit much, don't you think?"

"What exactly are you trying to pull here?"

At first glance they seemed angry, but their expressions were complicated. So they did have some conscience after all. It appeared they understood that they were in no position to be questioning me.

"Look. Aren't you all in a situation where you can't even pull your own weight? Hm? Do you really think you have the right to raise your voices at me?"

"..."

They had confirmed that I was far superior in terms of combat ability, and it was also true that they had no shame. The very act of saying 'I don't think I can clear this, so could you please take on a little extra for me' was insane to begin with.

"But if you do this, won't we all die?"

"We can't all just die together like this..."

And so, the players murmured their complaints in voices that had shrunk considerably. They too were operating under the assumption that failing the test meant death.

"Who said you die if you fail the test?"

"...What?"

"I'm saying it doesn't necessarily have to be that way."

-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.

"If all of us choose difficulty [1], we can survive. We just won't receive any rewards for failing the test. Nowhere does it say we die."

All I had to do was explain the loophole in the rules that I had discovered. What if I was wrong? What if failing the test did mean death? Then I would just regress. For now, I had no choice but to believe my hypothesis was correct.

"You're saying we can survive even if we fail the test?"

"Well, if that's the case..."

Mole guy and acne guy visibly relaxed upon hearing my explanation. It seemed these people had been racking their brains for a way to survive from the very beginning.

"B-but it says that if we fail the final test, we won't receive any of the rewards..."

The bespectacled woman, on the other hand, still seemed reluctant. Indeed, it was written that if they failed the final test, no rewards would be given. In other words, even the rewards earned from the first and second tests would not be distributed.

"So are you going to take on everyone else's share?"

"...Fine."

But this too could be shot down simply by reminding her of just how shameless she was being. I told you, you're in no position to be complaining to me.

Of course, there was one person who was free from all this blame.

"...What about me?"

The short-haired woman. She had faithfully done her part up until now and hadn't done anything problematic like dumping her responsibilities onto me. Of course, even without me, this round's test would have been impossible to clear regardless, but still, from her perspective, it must have felt unfair.

To be honest, I didn't need to feel indebted to her, but.

"Here, take this."

"What is this? An eli... huh?"

"It's something valuable, so just hold onto it for now."

For the sake of smooth progress, I invested a precious elixir in her. So that she would keep it safe until I regressed.

"Alright, let's think positively here. We were about to potentially all die, but at least we're getting out alive, right?"

"...Okay."

Whether my persuasion worked or not, the players filed into the elevator one by one. If things went in the worst possible direction here, the last person would be forced to handle all the remaining points and would have to enter [126].

[1]

But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the number input didn't lock up even as the last person entered. When the short-haired woman finally came out last, the number displayed on the elevator panel was [125].

"..."

"..."

Was this a simple test failure? Or was this its own form of clearing? The moment I unconsciously gulped.

-All tests have been passed. However, the final test has been failed.

-As a penalty, no rewards will be given.

-You have cleared floor 12.

"Phew."

"W-we're alive."

A blue portal appeared in the center of the room. Right, come to think of it, it said to 'pass' all the tests, not to 'succeed' at them. Thankfully, my hypothesis had been correct.

"Well then, I'm leaving."

Without checking the other players' reactions, I immediately threw myself into the blue portal. The laboratory-like interior was going to give me a mental disorder at this rate. I wanted to go home as soon as possible.

After quickly passing through two portals, the familiar scenery of my studio apartment finally came into view. Now that I noticed, the taste of the air was slightly different too. My apartment's air was a bit mustier, but it had a certain warmth to it. Yeah, this was it.

But where was Ji-won? Her traces were scattered here and there, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. Just as I froze in slight panic.

Beep beep beep beep. The sound of a door lock from the entrance.

"...You're back!"

Choi Ji-won, with a convenience store bag in one hand and Bung-bung gripped in the other, widened her eyes the moment she saw me. She must have thought it could be an intruder rather than me, seeing as she had Bung-bung half-drawn.

"Jun-ho!"

She carefully set Bung-bung against the entrance wall, then threw herself into my arms. Yes, this sensation and this scent were what I had been missing.

"What happened? Why did it take so long? I was worried..."

"Well, the thing is..."

Ji-won, who smelled wonderful as if she had just washed up not long ago. Her complexion had grown slightly haggard, but her skin was still fair and her clothes were neat.

What a relief. I had thought Ji-won would have been excessively worried, but she was in better shape than I expected. She hadn't suffered too much emotional distress after all. The moment I felt reassured by seeing her, my eyes drooped shut and sleep crashed over me.

"I have a lot to tell you, but can I sleep a little first and then talk? You seem to be doing okay, so..."

"Y-yeah. Yeah, sure. Sleep well."

I pulled Ji-won tightly into my arms and collapsed onto the bed. The warmth of returning from the extraordinary back to the ordinary. The familiar scent of the pillow. The soft blankets. My brain, which had been constantly throbbing with stress, finally ceased its activity.

"...I've been keeping up with everything because I never knew when you'd come back, you idiot..."

And I fell into a deep sleep.

Two days after clearing floor 12. Ji-won and I didn't ask each other anything and just focused on resting. We ate delicious food, went out to see fun things, and bought interesting stuff on the street. There was a difference between resting 'actively' and resting 'lazily,' and we rested actively. To the point where two days felt short.

Repeating the same actions in a confined space, then spending time with the person I loved, it was blissful. Yeah, this was what life was about.

"Ahh, I finally feel alive again."

Once I felt that my mind and body had sufficiently stabilized, I finally opened up about what had happened on floor 12. The fact that it took a whopping 11 days for other people to arrive. The story of how I suffered endlessly because of a liar, and barely managed to come up with the option of 'running away' before making it here. Ji-won nodded continuously as she listened to my story with empathy.

After the story, which was either long or short depending on how you looked at it, Ji-won gazed at me with slightly reddened eyes.

"...You worked hard."

When she gently embraced me, I also closed my eyes and savored her warmth. I was happy.

"By the way, Jun-ho."

"Yeah?"

"I know this is late, but I prepared a present for you."

Discreetly wiping away a single tear, Ji-won pulled out her phone and tapped out a message. After a short while, a call came in on her phone. The screen displayed 'Association.'

"While you were gone, I thought about what I could do."

She held the ringing phone out in front of me, swaying it gently from side to side.

"So I've laid the groundwork up to the point just before becoming an Association-affiliated player. I made sure there would be no repercussions even if you turned it down."

"You don't mean..."

"Exactly."

That's right.

"You needed information, didn't you?"

Thanks to the groundwork Ji-won had laid, we could now repeatedly regress and extract information from the Association.

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