WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 187

──────

The regressor reflects (2)

"Good to see you, Jun-ho-nim!"

"Why are you here?"

Grinning at me from ear to ear was Anael, the white-haired angel. Our connection had started on Floor 2. I'd thought it ended when they helped me on Floor 11, but... running into them again on Floor 16 was the last thing I ever expected.

"Wait, do angels just move around this often? What exactly are you?"

"That's... I'm a stand-in! Too many eyes out here, so let's head over there first!"

Wings fluttering, they grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward a secluded temple.

"..."

"Ah, ah..."

Ji-won's face was darkening by the second. With the hand Anael hadn't grabbed, I caught Ji-won's wrist. The three of us shuffled along like kids playing train.

"We've arrived!"

Inside the temple, Anael dropped cross-legged onto the floor. The pose nearly matched the seated Buddha painted on the wall behind them.

"So, what would you like to know? Normally I wouldn't, but since it's you, Jun-ho-nim, I'll tell you everything!"

"First off. Why are you here."

"As I mentioned, I'm a stand-in! An unfortunate incident happened a week ago, and that's how I ended up here!"

"An unfortunate incident?"

"To explain that, I need to explain this floor's task first! This briefing is required for every climber!"

Anael stirred both hands in the air as if shaping an invisible sphere, and white light began glowing between their palms. Like they were forming a spiraling ring.

"Here we go. This is the 'rock,' the heart of this floor! You can call it a stone, a boulder, whatever you like!"

The same large rock I'd seen just moments ago. Floor 16's entire objective, from the very start, was to leave a mark on that rock.

"To wound this rock, you must grow stronger!"

Two fingers pressed together, they tapped the light-formed rock as they spoke.

"Starting out strong doesn't count! Only the strength you've gained since entering this floor is recognized! The rock carries a divine blessing, you see! Climbers usually grow stronger naturally, surviving one life-or-death situation after another, but very few have ever truly trained themselves on purpose! This floor is meant to fix that!"

They reached back near the Buddha statue, pulled out a worn book, and set it down in front of me.

"We're not just telling you to get stronger! This floor has all kinds of support prepared for effective growth! Far faster than training on the outside! All it takes is one thing: a fierce will to push yourself past your limits! Only those who can let go of themselves will move beyond this floor and on to the next!!!"

Apologies to the passionately lecturing Anael, but I had already grasped the concept.

"So basically, if you're stronger than when you came in, you can scratch the rock?"

"Correct!"

"...Good. Now tell me how you ended up here."

Training, honestly, was my specialty. I'm no genius. I spent years flailing against the wall of talent, fighting to break past what natural ability alone couldn't carry me through. Ji-won, for reference, is a hardworking genius, which makes her a genuinely unfair existence.

So what mattered to me now was how Anael had ended up here.

I was... just a little suspicious of them. A Floor 2 angel appearing on Floor 11 was strange enough, but the same angel showing up on Floor 16? Suspicion crept in on its own. Something felt orchestrated.

"Oh! That's simple! Because the previous angel made an enormous mistake!"

Whether they sensed my wariness or not, their smile didn't change.

"The previous angel had configured her authority incorrectly, and the rock, the very heart of Floor 16, was stolen in one piece! Apparently someone with a subspace ability just slipped the rock right inside their subspace!"

"...It was stolen?"

"Yes! It's protected by a mysterious divine blessing, but it seems no one accounted for someone just picking the whole thing up and walking off with it!"

"Good grief."

"So in exchange for a special reward, the rock was returned! Since the previous angel had made such a tremendous blunder, I, who had a favorable performance review, was sent here in her place!"

"..."

My suspicion evaporated. There was a legitimate reason, and that was enough.

Theft, then. First person I thought of was Dok Su-hee, holder of the Inventory trait. I didn't know the exact limits of her ability, but if it had grown... slipping that enormous rock into her Inventory might not be out of the question. A week ago fit the timing, too. If she'd been climbing hard while I was trembling my way through Floor 10, it all tracked.

"What a protagonist type."

To even think of stealing the whole rock. That was the kind of scheme you'd only expect from the lead of a web novel. And then leveraging it to negotiate a reward on top of that.

Just as I was about to sink into thought, Anael dusted herself off and stood.

"Oh, another player just entered, so I should go give the briefing! If anything else comes to mind, please ask anytime and I'll do my best!"

They shot off toward the top of the large rock. Left in the temple were just Ji-won and me.

"..."

"Ji-won?"

"What."

"Want to look around? See what the others are doing."

"...Fine."

I guided the mildly sulking Ji-won out of the temple and we walked through the surrounding buildings.

After a while, the complex broke down into three main areas.

The first was the 'hidden piece' zone, the cluster of temples encircling the rock.

The buildings there all had something odd about them. Strange markings carved into wooden walls. A worn book left near the floorboards. An ancient scroll wedged into a gap in the ceiling.

Every single one contained some form of martial art, a 'hidden piece.' The variety matched the number of weapon types, and within each category, an enormous range of fighting styles was laid out.

"Is it really okay to just show us these?"

"It's Ji-won, so. Besides, they were already like this. Whoever came through before turned the place upside down."

The peculiar thing was that, despite the label 'hidden,' nearly everything had already been uncovered. One of the players who'd previously cleared Floor 16 had been dead certain that legendary martial arts lay buried in these temples, and spent an entire month here combing through every inch of it. The scattered secret scrolls were the traces of that obsession.

"These don't look like very high-level martial arts."

"...Really?"

"Yeah. Learning them won't make you stronger, Jun-ho."

Standard-issue at best, according to Ji-won. Useful for someone with no fighting foundation, but worthless for anyone who'd crossed a certain threshold.

The central temple area was a natural pass.

Next was the wide training ground up the hill.

Plenty of players were sharpening their skills there even now, but we didn't linger. Honestly, it was just a large open yard and nothing more.

The last spot was a cave at the end of a forest path. Several small, shallow caves had been dug into the rock face, currently serving as private training rooms. Supposedly the last place most players stayed before leaving Floor 16.

"What about food, sleep, and bathrooms?"

"Food, the angel brings around on schedule... sleep, just pick any temple and lie down. There's a separate bathroom."

"Thank you."

"Oh, and there are plenty of clothes in that building over in the corner."

After getting the basics from a passing player, Ji-won and I settled on the forest path and looked out over the temple complex below. The autumn colors across the temple were genuinely beautiful.

"Well, this should wrap up fast. Just need to get a bit stronger, right?"

This floor looked easy. No life-or-death situations, and the floor itself was doing everything it could to help you grow. Generous, in every sense.

Though the Tower had been this giving since Floor 11, and that unease hadn't left me. What was it building toward? Or was all of this meant to prepare us for the monsters from Floor 15?

"Let's clear it quickly and get to Floor 17..."

"...So, what does it mean to get stronger?"

"Hmm?"

Just as I was laying out the plan ahead, Ji-won threw a philosophical question at me out of nowhere.

"I genuinely don't know what the phrase means. You could get physically stronger, grow more comfortable with your traits, or refine your weapon technique. Is it just about hitting the rock harder? Even that feels ambiguous."

She'd gotten fixated on the precise definition of 'strength.'

"Say someone who had completely finished growing entered this floor. Would they just never be able to leave? That doesn't make sense either. The 'strength' they mean here isn't ordinary strength, I think."

"...Ji-won."

"Some higher conceptual kind of... hm? What?"

Listening to her, a grim thought had started crawling up in my own head.

"The baseline for getting stronger, it's measured from the moment you entered this floor, right?"

"Right."

"But every time I regress... I'll be stronger with each cycle, won't I?"

"Oh no."

"So that means..."

No. This wasn't some passing dark thought. This was a very real problem sitting right in front of me.

"The threshold for clearing Floor 16 keeps rising every time I regress...?"

I needed to get off this floor as fast as humanly possible.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried