Regression is Too Much - Chapter 16

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 016

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The status window is way too unfriendly (3)

Have you ever played a game called Maple Story?

In that game the daily quests and the special events force you to kill a set number of monsters, and they do not let you choose just any random target.

The monsters have to be within a certain range of your own level, people call them level‑range monsters or level‑range mobs.

It is there so you cannot farm easy rewards by slaughtering creatures that are far too weak for you.

[The gap between you and the monster is too great, you gain no experience.]

Seeing that message makes me think of that game, maybe it is just me.

“…Haa.”

If I make a rough guess, the word gap printed in that window keeps catching my eye.

The Tower must have decided that a guy like me with an EX‑grade skill is some kind of absurd overpowered protagonist.

To be fair, that is not entirely wrong.

Given enough time, I might really become an untouchable monster. Just the fact that I can regress infinitely must raise my standing by dozens of tiers.

But right now, all of this is nothing but tyranny.

Think of how many goblins I have killed.

Think of how hard I have pushed through the bushes.

I put in the work, yet just because I own a broken skill, I cannot use the stat window everyone else has. I do not get levels either.

From where I stand the only word that fits is ‘this is bullshit’.

I have confirmed that the achievement level remains even after a regression, if only I could gain normal levels I could have grown so much easier.

Whoever gave me the power to regress clearly does not want me to take an easy road.

I let out a sigh and turned my eyes to scrawny.

His tale about killing a strong goblin and getting rations had sparked an uneasy thought.

“Scrawny.”

“Yes, hyungnim.”

“Tell me everything the big goblin dropped.”

“Uh… the Golden Marble… some experience points…”

“And?”

“Oh, a pack of five‑hundred‑millilitre water bottles, a single bottle, and two big boxes of chocolate bars. I fed most of it to the goblins I control so not much is left… shall I give you what remains?”

“…Chocolate bars, you said?”

“Yes!”

Chocolate bars. Chocolate bars, plus a bundle of water.

It is the exact same set of items I have seen so often. More precisely, the set I used to see whenever I lazed around the clearing like an unemployed bum.

“…Hmm.”

Even though she only swung her sword in one corner of the clearing, Choi Ji‑won always had those razor‑sharp senses that seemed to survey everything.

Could someone like her fail to notice the presence of an unusually strong monster?

After killing plenty of goblins I learned they sometimes drop edibles, but more often they drop useless junk.

Yet Ji‑won always brought back high‑quality provisions, still factory sealed.

If…

If all this time Ji‑won had been picking out only the strong monsters and every ration she carried back came from defeating those stronger ones…

Then Ji‑won would have earned a pile of Golden Marbles every single cycle.

And the problem is that I am only realising that now.

“…”

Which means she got Golden Marbles and hid them.

“This murder case has nothing to do with you, right?”

“Yes, sir, no connection.”

“Good, keep up the work.”

I had squeezed out every bit of information I could, so I finally let scrawny go.

I uncovered one more secret of the status window. I gained a new trait that is equal parts promising and shady.

I learned a method to obtain Golden Marbles.

I got a lot out of this run, though I have no intention of regressing just yet.

There are three top‑priority facts I need to pin down through repeated regressions.

First, how and where to secure Golden Marbles.

Second, the boss’s location.

Third, the location of the Minotaurus that killed me.

Of these, I have solved the first. The exact spots will pile up as I stack more cycles.

Given enough time and enough cycles I might map out the position of all fifty marbles.

Why do I care about the Minotaurus’s location? The answer is simple.

The Minotaurus is really, really strong.

It is strong enough that even Choi Ji‑won, who boasts overwhelming power thanks to her broken trait, cannot guarantee victory.

Anyone who has read a few web novels will have guessed it by now.

That bastard reeks of a hidden boss.

A monster in the tutorial so strong it feels like it was never meant to be beaten.

The protagonist who regresses from the future uses some arcane trick to barely defeat the hidden boss and snags an invaluable reward nobody else has ever found.

That is my goal as well.

Someday, when I have grown strong enough, perhaps I can bring down the Minotaurus.

If the day comes when I clear the tutorial stage, it will be after I have slain the Minotaurus.

To do that, the prerequisite is knowing the Minotaurus’s location beforehand.

Since one hit sends me back I cannot afford to squat in the clearing for a week waiting for it to show, the smart move is to keep searching and bash my head against it.

The last thing I must learn is where the boss is.

That is what I am pursuing right now.

“Hmm… this place is enormous.”

No matter how much other people’s business is not my job, I am not a cold‑blooded man who can watch them die without batting an eye.

If a regressor like me can pinpoint the boss’s hideout, defeating it becomes only a matter of time.

When there is a way to save everyone it feels too heartless to leave alone and move to the next stage.

Sure, I might weed out scum like the thug I killed earlier, but either way, I plan to slay the boss, open the portal, and rescue the crowd.

“Hah…”

Maybe I walked straight for two hours.

Grass, trees, rocks, grass, trees, the same terrain on repeat.

I saw no suspicious cave or primitive hut where a boss might lurk.

The only change was the smell.

A faint reek of rotting fish drifted from somewhere.

I remind you, this place is closer to a jungle.

Rotting fish in a jungle, it feels out of place.

“…Guess I had better check it.”

If you find something odd you confirm it with your own eyes, that is only natural. I followed the rotten fish smell, walked a bit farther, and finally reached my destination.

“Hmm…”

The endlessly repeating backdrop of grass and trees was gone.

Spread before my eyes lay a swamp so vast its far edge was out of sight.

I turned my head left and right, all I could confirm was the sheer scale of the swamp.

I have never seen a swamp this large. It felt almost like an ocean.

Common sense says a swamp cannot spread this wide, but this is the Tower.

Judging from what I can see, the tutorial zone seems to be an island ringed by a massive swamp.

Well, it is a tower after all. It would make no sense if the playable area stretched on forever.

It looks like the Tower kindly marked the swamp with a sign saying, Do not cross here, just play inside, buddy.

Of course, part of me wonders if I ignore the swamp and keep going I will smack into the Tower wall, and if I feel the bricks carefully a hidden piece will pop out.

“…This is not it.”

Ominous bubbles occasionally broke the surface of the purple swamp, the sight alone made my skin crawl, and I felt zero desire to dip a foot in.

Come on, it screams poison. I do not even see signs of life.

Throw a small squirrel in there and I bet only the bones would float up a moment later.

Even if I can regress, sticking my body in that mess is out of the question.

It is practically suicide.

“…Guess I should head somewhere else.”

Since I came all the way here I might as well walk along the outer rim. Being at the far edge the boss could be nearby.

Like pushing mobs off a cliff in a game, if I could drop the boss into the swamp I might win without a fight.

“Well then…”

Just as I muttered to myself and took a step forward, a slightly fishy yet bitter taste spread in my lungs.

It was a familiar taste and a familiar smell.