WeTried Translations
Translator: ZEROSUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regression is Too Much
Chapter 157
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The regressor grows stronger (2)
I regressed, and regressed, and regressed again.
Quite a long time had passed since I returned to floor 12. I'd been regressing so frequently that I had no way of counting how much time had elapsed, so I honestly couldn't say exactly how long it had been.
Any infinite regressor would relate, but when you repeat a large number of regressions in a short period of time, your sense of reality starts to dull. The same situation keeps repeating, so you can't tell if this is a dream or real life.
(Not an infinite regressor? Then just go with it.)
"...Something feels off."
Right now was no different. I had been handling the 'chill mana' inside my body as I always did, but the sensation was somehow different. A bit awkward, maybe. Like I couldn't control it the way I wanted. Oh, by the way, 'chill mana' was the new name I'd given my mana. Calling it 'cold mana' every time sounded lame.
Anyway, while I was handling my mana with that strange sense of discomfort, the moment I felt a stinging ache in the muscles around my chest, I realized what I'd done wrong.
"...Oh. I forgot to drink the elixir."
I had forgotten to drink the elixir that I was supposed to take immediately after regressing. It was like repeatedly challenging the same boss in a game and forgetting to use your buffs. When a person's mind starts to slip, they make mistakes in the most basic areas.
"I need to take a break."
Feeling that my body was in rather poor shape, I just lay down right where I was sitting. Should I go see Ji-won? No, right now I should just let my mind cool off by thinking about other things.
"..."
Fog was lingering along the floor as a result of the chill I'd been emitting (think of what comes out when you open a fridge), and the ceiling light shone down. As I stared blankly up at the light, a cold sensation circled around my chest area. Perhaps because I hadn't drunk the elixir, the mana's presence felt even stronger.
"When you really think about it, this whole thing is quite bizarre."
I had stayed on the mountain of floor 10 for an incredibly, incredibly long time. I was pretty sure it was at least three months, and it could have been even longer. I had failed quite a number of times trying to starve the Yeti to death. But back then, I'd had no idea my mana would change like this.
If I had to guess, the mountain on floor 10 was no ordinary mountain. A mountain inhabited by fantastical creatures—there had to have been some kind of spiritual energy saturating the place. And because I'd been there for so long, my mana had naturally been affected.
And this couldn't simply be dismissed as a lucky stroke of fortune either. This 'chill mana' was far more dangerous than I had initially thought. The cold was one thing, but when exposed to this mana, muscles would seize up. Every regression I'd experienced until now was because the muscle located in my chest, my heart, had seized and stopped.
"...If I didn't have regression, I might have died long ago."
Your heart stops because of your own mana. Talent or whatever else is meaningless in that situation. Unless you happened to have a fellow player nearby who could urgently feed you a potion, it was instant death. Unless you had an invincibility trait or a resurrection trait, this power was more likely to be a poison than a gift.
So could I control this mana now? The results of my training were certainly there, but I still couldn't perfectly control it.
First, I had figured out several conditions for handling the chill mana. When wrapping mana around my entire body, I couldn't breathe heavily. My heart couldn't beat rapidly. If my body heated up, it would repel the chill mana, so I had to maintain a calm state. But in a prolonged fight, your body inevitably heats up. In other words, I couldn't maintain the mana-enhanced state for long.
"But I regress if I take a hit anyway."
Of course, since I regressed whenever I took damage, I couldn't drag fights out anyway. You could say I was inherently built for short, decisive battles. So this penalty wasn't all that severe.
Ultimately, the problem circled back to square one: 'if I use chill mana at full power, my heart stops.' When wrapping mana all around my body to boost my physical capabilities, all my muscles stopped responding, and I'd managed to overcome that through sheer willpower and the help of my traits. By focusing on my whole body, I found I could still move.
But the heart was beyond willpower. Humans can't control their heart muscle by will, and since the chill mana pooled near the solar plexus, using mana at full power always left the heart exposed. My new trait allowed me to endure it briefly, but the key issue was that the window didn't exceed five seconds.
"Hmm..."
This was the part I was deliberating over. What could I possibly do to overcome this? If not for the rewards Ji-won had secured for me, I might have given up long ago.
Oh, I hadn't mentioned the rewards Ji-won gave me. I'd already used them. The Universal Pill was as simple as eating it, and from the Random Trait Box, an E-grade trait called 'Mysterious Aura' appeared.
-Mysterious Aura [E]
-People will feel that something is different about you when they see you. However, they will find it hard to pinpoint exactly what. It's just, well, a mysteriously different vibe.
While there were traits like 'Hero' that had outstanding effects even at low grades, this Mysterious Aura trait looked like garbage just from the description. What the hell was I supposed to do with a 'mysteriously different vibe'? If I were a cult leader, maybe I could put this trait to fantastic use, but for the moment it seemed like a complete downgrade from both my Curiosity and Awe traits.
Of course, those two rewards weren't the main event. The real prize was the A-grade Trait Selection. In the past, I had used this selection with tremendous anticipation, and the result was slightly disappointing.
I had expected thousands upon thousands of traits to scroll before me, where I could pick whichever one I liked, but the choices that appeared numbered only 100.
Among those 100 options, there were genuinely fascinating picks. From traits that simply boosted physical abilities, to traits that provided entirely new methods of attack. There were so many traits that looked broken just from their descriptions. Part of me wanted to regress repeatedly and acquire all 100, but the (Unique) restriction was the problem.
-A-grade Trait Selection (Unique)
-A Unique selection from the same source can only be used once.
Honestly, that made sense. If a group pooled together and funneled dozens of A-grade Trait Selections into one person, it would create an absolute monster who could clear the Tower way too easily. As a bonus, it would conveniently keep regressors in check too.
Anyway, after carefully reviewing all 100 traits, the three I narrowed it down to were.
-Indomitable [A]
-Unbending, therefore indomitable. Your willpower will not be easily broken.
-Iron Skin [A]
-The greatest weapon is the body itself. Your skin becomes as tough as steel.
-Chill Affinity [A]
-The cold is no longer your enemy. You gain significant affinity with all forms of cold.
In the past, I had agonized over these three choices. Indomitable would be a huge help for my fragile psyche, Iron Skin would prevent me from regressing over trivial injuries, and Chill Affinity would assist me in handling the chill mana.
It was the first time since entering the Tower that I'd faced such a dilemma. Agonizing because all the options were attractive, what a luxury. I, who had always been choosing between the worst and the slightly less worst, never imagined I'd be faced with such an indulgent problem, and precisely because of that, I was even more careful.
"Jun-ho. Are you an idiot?"
Unexpectedly, it was Ji-won who ended my lengthy deliberation.
"I can acquire the trait first and test its performance. What are you sitting around worrying about?"
"...Oh, right."
And so, with Ji-won's help, after three regressions, we concluded that 'Chill Affinity' would be the most beneficial.
My mental state could be managed somehow with Ji-won supporting me. And the Iron Skin trait felt like a waste. It blocked light attacks without a scratch, but couldn't stop attacks thrown with real intent. (Ji-won, whose durability was already high thanks to her Sword and Soul as One trait, recruited volunteers online to test it.)
But the Chill Affinity trait was remarkably effective. It significantly mitigated the freezing of my body. So I chose 'Chill Affinity' with the A-grade Trait Selection, and I remained deeply satisfied with that choice.
"Hmm..."
Thanks to this trait, using mana at a low output didn't freeze my heart. The problem was going full power. And chances were, an enemy at difficulty [70] would require full power.
Or maybe I could try sustaining a gentle output continuously? If I kept a low-intensity mana flow going, maybe some answer would emerge. Yeah, let me try that this cycle.
Having made up my mind, I took out an elixir, drank it, sat on the bed, and began slowly circulating my mana. Handling mana was demanding work, but it had a strange addictiveness to it, and I'd often find that time had flown by before I knew it. Especially when the mana moved the way I wanted it to.
"..."
And in this particular cycle, whether I was lucky or something had clicked, I was able to reach an unprecedentedly deep state of concentration.
So deep that I didn't even notice 11 days had passed.
In a modern society where competition is the norm, being called 'upper-mid-tier' doesn't sound like much, but in the player world, the story was a bit different.
If you compared yourself to fellow players, there were truckloads of people stronger than you, but the moment you set ordinary people as the benchmark, you started to look like a god.
Overwhelming physical abilities. Supernatural powers beyond human comprehension. A 'status window' that let you check your own condition. It would actually be stranger not to become arrogant. Even players who didn't climb the Tower strutted around on YouTube and social media, so just imagine how high the noses were of those who actually climbed it steadily.
"Whoa, what is this place? There's a microwave here?"
The man that Kim Jun-ho had been calling 'acne guy' was no exception. This young man, who had just entered floor 12, had an extremely high opinion of himself. Partly because he'd never fought against another player in the Tower, and partly because whenever he encountered someone stronger, he'd mentally reassure himself with 'if we actually fought, I could hold my own.'
"Hey, where are you guys?"
"Over here."
"This place has a modern vibe, huh?"
While Kim Jun-ho would survey his surroundings warily upon entering each floor, acne guy flung the door open loudly, without a care in the world. He'd heard his teammates' voices, so he had nothing to worry about.
"...Oh?"
But when he opened the door and stepped outside, he spotted a remarkably suspicious door. Its design was identical to the one he'd just come out of, but cold smoke was slowly seeping out through the gap.
"Hey guys, want to come out here for a sec?"
Normally this would be the point where you'd heighten your guard, but acne guy was in a state of extreme arrogance. Without waiting for his teammates, he opened the suspicious door.
"Huh?"
Whoosh!
The moment the door opened, white smoke burst out and acne guy's body seized up. It wasn't that he'd frozen from the cold. If anything, it was closer to his muscles being startled into rigidity. But the important thing was the fact that he couldn't move.
"...!"
While acne guy stood there in shock, the smoke drifted away and the room's interior gradually came into view. His pupils, which had been blankly staring forward, began to tremble violently.
White mist billowed along the floor, and his legs, stiffened from the cold, refused to move. It was clearly a situation where he should have been struggling, yet for some reason, a surging curiosity kept him from looking away.
A bed on the far side of the room. A man sitting cross-legged upon it. Now that he looked, the fog, or chill, or whatever this smoke was, it was all flowing from that man.
"..."
Acne guy could be described as 'arrogant,' but in this moment, he could not bring himself to wield that arrogance.
The man sat with his eyes closed, wreathed in white mist, a sword laid across his lap as he focused in deep concentration.
"...A sage?"
He looked like an immortal sage from a legend.
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