WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 191

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The regressor reflects (6)

I, Kim Jun-ho, do not define myself as a martial artist.

It's true that I wield a sword well, true that I've put considerable time into swordsmanship, true that the weight of iron clanking at my hip has become a familiar sensation. But my essence is not in martial arts. To me, it's a means.

If I could win without fighting, I'd gladly take that. If I could get stronger without training, I'd take it without a second thought. I still catch myself daydreaming about an [SSS-grade Trait Selection] dropping from the sky out of nowhere. The reason I end up choosing the hard road anyway is simply because I believe it's necessary.

On top of that, my values are still stuck somewhere back in my ordinary-person days. My own strength feels foreign to me. That pressing a finger firmly against a wooden desk can crack it, that squeezing a coin hard enough will bend it, that I could wander into a zoo and take a nap beside a lion without the slightest danger. None of it has really sunk in.

In other words, for me, strength is a kind of bonus. If the numbers in my status window go up even a little, I've grown stronger. Gain one new trait, however trivial, and I've grown stronger. Swap to better gear and that counts too. How strong I actually am in any objective sense, I don't particularly care. If I did, I'd be going around picking fights with other players.

Ji-won, by contrast, devoted her life to kendo.

She first picked up a sword in elementary school and never let it go since. On the occasional dates when we walked hand in hand, I sometimes found myself running my thumb over the roughness of her palm.

When I once asked, "What if you used a potion to get rid of the calluses?" she smiled with mild embarrassment and declined. Even those calluses, earned through training, she regarded as part of her life.

Ji-won practiced with a sword for at least two hours every single day. Rain, snow, travel. No exceptions.

Every day, Ji-won grew stronger. Swinging a sword had long since become part of her daily routine, nothing more.

Her eyes were always aimed at the top. In swordsmanship, she had no intention of losing to anyone. She was accustomed to being the best, and she treated it as a given.

Lately, though, a new goal had appeared before her. Something she had to surpass.

"I... might have been telling myself I wasn't truly strong unless I reached the level of Michael Zetter at his peak."

Why had Ji-won proposed regression in the first place? To become stronger. To change the world. So what was the target she had set for herself?

The peak of that era. Michael Zetter. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she must have decided that nothing short of the man who fought a dragon in single combat and saved America would do.

With the bar set that high, there was no way small, steady gains were ever going to satisfy her.

"Mm. Thinking about it this way, it does seem right."

That unwillingness to compromise, the strictness toward herself, the refusal to be satisfied with minor progress and the drive to keep pushing endlessly onward. Right now, all of that was working against her.

"So, if the hypothesis I just laid out is right..."

To overcome this floor, she had to surpass the standard she had set for herself.

Two ways, naturally. Put in a staggering amount of effort and clear that bar, or lower the bar itself.

"Well, it's not a system where just thinking 'I've gotten stronger!' is enough, right."

If all it took was thinking, "Hm, I'm stronger now," everyone would have cleared Floor 16 in a day. There had to be a standard rooted in something real.

Either way, the easiest method available right now was obvious.

Ji-won lowering her own standard.

If she could let go and accept her own strength for what it was, things would be simple. Wasn't that what they always said? Accepting yourself matters.

"Ji-won, what do you think?"

"I..."

She sat on the ground with her legs drawn together, staring blankly at the floor.

"I think I need some time."

"How much?"

"I don't know. But I won't disappoint you."

"Okay."

If Ji-won said she needed time, she did. If not Ji-won, who in this world was I supposed to trust?

"I mean, even if I regress, I can clear it quickly enough... we'll work around whatever pace suits you."

I'll say it again, I trust Ji-won. A woman who practiced swordsmanship two hours every day without fail wasn't going to be beaten by her own mindset.

"Breathe in some fresh air... take in the scenery... do whatever you feel like. You just don't realize how remarkable you are."

"...Thanks."

These things don't happen overnight. Push it too fast and the side effects are brutal. It comes slowly, gradually.

I was willing to wait as long as it took. Of course, I hadn't expected that wait to stretch to a full month. But I had no complaints at all.

And so, back to the present.

Ji-won had said she wanted some space to concentrate. I'd respected that and kept my distance, but enough time had passed. A quick hello couldn't hurt.

"Ji-won! I heard something interesting from Anael."

I headed up the mountain path, expecting she'd be training in the cave. Lunchtime was approaching, and I'd been hoping we could eat together while we talked.

"...Ji-won?"

But Ji-won wasn't in the cave. The area was enclosed on all sides, so there was really nowhere to go. Where had she disappeared to?

"Choi Ji-won? She went down the mountain a little while ago. What are you doing up here?"

"Oh, really? Thank you."

We must have missed each other on the way up, so I turned back and headed down in search of her.

Past the winding mountain path, across the wide training ground, and finally near the large rock that jutted up from the earth.

"Ji-won!"

I found her at last.

She stood in front of the rock. Her clothes were a little dirty, her ponytail had come undone, and Bung-bung was in her hand.

"Oh, Jun-ho. You're here?"

"What are you doing here? I was worried."

"Mm... I was sorting through my thoughts. About the direction I need to move in from here. I thought over the method you mentioned, too."

She was talking about lowering her standard. But her expression was anything but bright.

"Just to clear Floor 16, changing myself is the easier path. It's probably faster, too. I just have to change one thing about myself."

Gripping Bung-bung with both hands, Ji-won raised it slowly above her head.

"But... that doesn't feel like my way."

Even someone as unschooled as me could tell. This was the jodan-no-kamae[1] stance from kendo.

"I'm not saying your method is wrong. But I have my own way."

The flow of mana was quiet. She wasn't using any trait. Just closing her eyes and concentrating.

And yet something strange radiated from around her. A sensation of being pulled in. A heaviness that pressed against my chest. That sourceless pressure, what was it?

"Why am I so weak?"

She stood completely still, sword raised.

"Why can't I move the way I want to?"

Her sword began to descend. Slowly, so slowly. Too slow to be an attack, too precise to be anything random.

"Maybe... I've been too tied to kendo. I got so used to it that I never even thought to break free from it."

The posture that the word "perfect" alone couldn't do justice to, the kind you'd only see in a painting, began to shift. Her straight back leaned slightly forward. The gap between her hands on Bung-bung widened. The mana inside her started to simmer, little by little.

"Kendo... isn't swordsmanship made for players. No matter how much I've refined it, added to it, stripped it down... the ceiling is clear."

What emerged was a Ji-won I didn't recognize, in a stance I had never seen. Feet lined up vertically. Sword held horizontally. Strange. Unfamiliar. But.

"So I made a new set of clothes that fits me. A new swordsmanship built for players. One that works at extreme speed, that can fight from any tricky position. A swordsmanship without limits. Boundless."

She looked stronger than any Ji-won I had ever seen.

Tap.

Bung-bung grazed the surface of the rock, just barely, and a tiny fragment of stone fell to the ground. From nearby, Anael broke into wild applause and threw open a portal.

"The name for the swordsmanship... I haven't decided yet. It's not even finished. Let's figure it out together, later. But with this... it's possible. Surpassing Michael Zetter."

Ji-won hadn't compromised. Rather than pulling her standard down, she had thrown herself forward with everything she had and cleared it entirely.

Future growth? With a new sword style now in hand, every single day would be dazzling progress. No need to worry about what comes after regression.

Geniuses do not create something from nothing. They do not conjure knowledge out of thin air.

But a genius... is someone who can take twenty-odd years of accumulated experience and forge something entirely new from it. That is why it is called heaven-given talent. Genius.

"Shall we go? I've been eating temple food for so long, I want something good. What about gnocchi?"

Ji-won looked up at the blue portal with a satisfied smile.

"...Ha."

It's terribly embarrassing to say this out loud, but…

I'm glad I met her in the Tutorial.

[1] Jodan-no-kamae is one of the five classic stances in kendo. The practitioner holds the shinai (bamboo sword) raised directly above the head, creating a posture of overwhelming offensive pressure. It is considered a "heaven" stance, aggressive, committed, and carrying significant symbolic weight in traditional Japanese and Korean sword culture. Ji-won adopting this stance before breaking from it entirely underscores how deeply entrenched she was in formal kendo before her breakthrough.

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