Regression is Too Much - Chapter 179

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 179

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The regressor agonizes (1)

"It's a dragon."

Right after seeing the footage, I reached out to Association President Michael Zetter.

"Any reply?"

"...Nothing."

Nothing came back. He'd always been quick to respond before, so he was probably just swamped.

"Then let's at least warn everyone else we can."

"Okay."

From that point on, Ji-won and I used every means we had to get the word out. Get out. Monsters are coming. A dragon has appeared in America.

Maybe because the monsters were already appearing, whatever usually filtered our messages wasn't working. People were reading everything we sent.

-A dragon, you said...?

-Is this some kind of YouTube thing?

Still, telling people a dragon was coming did nothing to make them believe it.

-Even if we run... where would we go?

-The subway station's probably the best bet... anywhere you'd recommend?

And honestly, there wasn't anywhere in Korea worth running to. Some emergency flyer somewhere said to evacuate underground if a nuclear bomb dropped, but a dragon and a nuclear bomb were not the same kind of problem.

"For now... come out of your apartment buildings and head to the subway. Or anywhere near a military base."

I cut the call short and went back to the keyboard, combing through social media.

-Wait, is that actually a dragon?

-I just saw it too. Flying east. The photo only caught the tail, though.

-This isn't some movie viral thing, right? Is it real?

Online opinion was still split, but as evidence kept flooding in, the mood was tilting toward 'wait, is this actually happening?'

-I'm in Harrisburg. Dragon just flew over.

-Philadelphia here. Dragon spotted.

-New York... it looks like it's coming this way.

Videos started appearing of people stepping outside, necks craned at the sky. More and more were calling family, calling friends, spreading the word. Within half an hour, every waking person on Earth had one thing on their mind.

-It's CGI.

-Too much evidence for CGI.

-American conspiracy.

-Movie viral campaign.

-Some big YouTuber project.

"Hey, let's go outside. Apparently there's a dragon in the sky or something."

"Seriously? Can you see it from here?"

"No idea. But they're saying it's heading toward New York, so probably."

Rumors bred more rumors, circled back, spread all over again. In the middle of all that noise.

"Hello everyone! Can you see me?"

One young man had gone ahead and started a YouToob live stream on his own.

"This is New York, and can you see that on my screen right now? It's a dragon. An actual dragon! Wings, claws, scales, the whole deal!"

The digital camera he normally used for birdwatching was now tracking a dragon across the sky. The angle was awkward, he'd mounted it at his apartment window, but unlike everyone else going live on their phones, this stream was genuinely sharp. That mattered.

Less than five minutes after he went live, the viewer count blew past one million. He hadn't touched any settings before starting, so the computer running the broadcast was buckling under the load and the stream kept cutting in and out.

"Wow, a million. Insane. Is it fake? Honestly, I have no idea. I can barely even read the chat! Slow down a little, please!"

The kid was having the time of his life. People with superpowers were already a thing, sure, why not dragons. Subscriber count was going to absolutely explode.

"Oh, it's getting closer. Hold on, I need to adjust the lens a bit..."

-Barely even see the dragon.

-Fix the camera already.

"..."

But the dragon kept descending. The hands that had been darting over the controls with such excitement began, at some point, to slow.

Those massive teeth. Slit pupils. Tongues of red flame lolling inside its open mouth.

"H... hey..."

The closer it came, the heavier the air felt. His heart slammed against his ribs. The screen was shaking. No, his hands were. He looked down and saw his legs trembling past any direction from his brain. Something wet on his chin. He wiped it and came away with drool.

"P... please..."

Not just him. By now, every citizen in New York was gripped by a chill they couldn't name. The people who'd been holding phones up at the sky dropped them. Every bird, every rat, every living thing in the city broke and ran for the limits. People still asleep in their beds came awake drenched in cold sweat.

They'd come out on a whim. Figured it was just some incident. Thought it might be the kind of dragon you'd find in a cartoon.

There were plenty of excuses. But what good is any excuse when there's no one left to hear it.

"Help me!"

"Move! Get out of the way!"

"AAAAAHHHH!"

Like prey facing a predator, every human in New York understood it at the most instinctive level possible.

They were about to die.

"..."

Flap. Flap.

The dragon hung over New York, wings moving in long, slow beats. Those slit pupils tracked the humans scattering below.

Hwoooosh...

Its throat began to glow red. Any skilled player nearby would have said:

'Is that the breath from the stories? You can't stop that.'

"H... aah..."

The young man streaming from his apartment had soaked through his pants. On his screen, the inside of the dragon's maw, blazing red, was captured in sharp, terrible detail.

"...Huh?"

And then, suddenly, a figure appeared on the dragon's back.

-It's the Association President.

Michael Zetter was standing on the dragon's back. His entire body was covered in items of unknown origin, a massive golden axe gripped in both hands.

He had appeared out of nowhere. As if he'd always been there.

"?!"

Too focused on charging the breath, overcommitting to the buildup. The dragon's reaction to the sudden intruder came a beat slow. Just a beat.

"Hffh!"

One swing of the axe, and the dragon's wings were severed clean off.

"KUOOOOOO!!!"

Dragons don't rely on their wings to stay airborne, but the flight magic lives inside them. With its weak point struck, the enormous body began to drift downward, slow and certain.

CRAAAASH!!!

A last act of defiance. As it fell, the dragon released the fire it had been holding in its mouth.

A dark night. The heart of New York blazed, brighter for a moment than noon.

White flooded the screen, and then.

-The broadcast has ended.

Every live stream running out of New York, on every platform, cut out at once.

"..."

Ji-won and I stared at the blank screens without a word. What we'd just seen was too much to process. Neither of us could find anything to say.

"This... if the two of us worked together, could we win against that?"

"...I don't know."

It was only a brief glimpse, but the dragon had looked genuinely monstrous. Could my cold mana stop a breath like that? Not a chance.

And Michael's movements had been on a completely different level from before. He'd clearly kept climbing the Tower, kept growing stronger. Unlike us.

"..."

We'd stopped climbing and we were falling behind. No question about it. I couldn't picture Ji-won winning against something like that. She probably felt the same. If it had seemed winnable, she would have said so, the way she had with the Minotaur.

"..."

Ji-won stared down at her phone, expression set. I kept forcing myself back to the keyboard, scraping together whatever information I could.

"A large bird... in Canada..."

"A giant wolf appeared somewhere in the western US."

"A five-meter-tall orc showed up in Russia."

"Three giant chickens at the France-Germany border... apparently they're dying now. Should be dealt with soon."

America went first, and now monsters were appearing all over the world. Not every country was hit, and the creatures' strength varied wildly.

Was it as simple as picking a higher number on Floor 15 and getting a stronger monster? There had to be more to it.

"I don't know the exact rules, but... is this all of them, for now?"

Still, even at this point, one thing was certain.

Each monster had been born from one player entering Floor 15. These creatures were the remnants left behind by the earliest players to clear that floor. If they could get through this wave, there would be a lull before any more showed up.

"...I hope things go well over in America."

I fought to keep my leg still and stared holes into the computer screen. Had Michael won? Western US, that was William Smith's territory. The one with recovery abilities.

A hand tapped my shoulder twice.

"Hm?"

"...Jun-ho."

Ji-won held out her phone, face ashen. On her screen was a tiger, enormous and soaked in blood.

"A giant tiger appeared on Namsan... people are dying right now..."

"..."

"People are... people are looking for me... asking where Choi Ji-won is... what she's doing..."

She bit down on her lower lip until blood came, and looked up at me with eyes gone wet.

"...Jun-ho."

"...Yeah."

"I... even if I die here... I think I have to go."

I wanted to say it was too dangerous. The words didn't come.