WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 192

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The regressor reflects (7)

Martial arts, at their core, are the most efficient method for defeating an opponent.

From the opening stance to the way you move, from the line of attack to the specific body part being struck—everything is built on precise calculation.

Be it hrowing an opponent to weaponize their own body weight, driving the leg with centrifugal force for a clean kick, channeling core strength into a punch aimed at a vital point or slamming into the torso to rattle the spine at its foundation.

Weapon-based martial arts don't stray far from this either.

The spear's greatest advantage is its reach. Controlling that distance is the heart of spear techniques. The sword's greatest advantage is the stability of combining offense and defense into a single motion, so longsword swordsmanship centers on defense.

Besides those are the dao, flail, axe and javelin, along with whips and their chain-linked relatives. Every weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, and the martial arts built around each evolve in the direction of hiding those weaknesses while pushing those strengths to the limit.

But what if a superhuman used those same techniques? The story changes.

Three major variables emerge. Combat speed climbs dramatically. The constraints of stance fall away entirely. And then there is mana, which refuses to play by the same rules.

Spreading your legs wide to achieve a stable offense-defense stance? A superhuman can flip their entire body on just their tiptoes. Speed and agility beat stability every time.

A whip swung at speeds too fast to dodge? At the superhuman level, air resistance becomes excessive. It gets in the way more than anything else.

Traditional martial arts, weapon techniques included, were never designed with superhumans in mind. Movements built to wring maximum efficiency within human limits become useless the moment those limits no longer apply.

"Come to think of it, what I did with my doppelganger was something like that."

So Choi Ji-won had dismantled the martial art she knew, kendo, analyzed every piece of it, and rebuilt it from scratch. What was necessary, she kept. What wasn't, she cut without hesitation.

The result was a new style of swordsmanship that resembled kendo and yet was entirely her own, something that raised the floor and pushed the ceiling even higher, built to draw out everything Bung-bung had to offer... or so Ji-won explained.

"So... even if you regress back to Floor 16, you can clear it quickly now?"

"Right. The swordsmanship is still unfinished, and there's a lot left to develop."

When you thought about it, what Ji-won had done wasn't so different from what other players did. Players with no martial foundation at all generally learned the techniques Floor 16 provided, and while those were considered low-level, they were built with superhumans in mind from the ground up.

"In a way, it's actually a good thing... I suppose."

Those who had blown through Floor 16 quickly, whether out of overconfidence or because their threshold happened to be low like mine, never got this chance to look honestly at themselves. Personally, I was grateful for that.

"So..."

Either way, the great drawn-out commotion of Floor 16 came to a close with SSR-grade Choi Ji-won evolving into UR-grade Choi Ji-won.

The question now was what came next.

"Honestly... from here, things get a bit murky."

"In what way?"

"Giving you time to grow is a problem. Not giving you time is also a problem."

Regress from here and go straight into Floor 17? What if Floor 17 turned out to be brutally difficult? What if it demanded another enormous investment of time? In the worst case, what if Ji-won or I ended up in real danger?

That possibility made the case for giving Ji-won time now to sit with her breakthrough.

On the other hand, if I gave her plenty of room to grow?

The first concern was Floor 16. If she grew too much, there was a real chance her subconscious would shrug and think, 'This counts as getting stronger? Hmm, that's all it takes.' That was a risk.

Floor 16's whole concept was also a problem. It had set self-discipline and growth as its central task.

If Floor 16 was built around that, what about Floor 17? Wouldn't it present something similar?

"So the worry is getting too strong before it counts against you."

If 'growth potential' itself was a resource, then getting stronger meant burning through it. Training without limit carried its own risks.

"Actually... there's something you're misunderstanding."

Ji-won shook her head at my worrying. She was eating the potato gnocchi she'd ordered through a delivery app, talking between bites.

"Right now, the option of 'training' simply isn't available to me."

"...Isn't available? Wouldn't it be better to take some time and let everything settle before moving on? Isn't this a bit hasty?"

"Mm... no. It would be pointless."

She skewered a piece of gnocchi with her fork and slid it into my mouth. I took it and listened.

"What I'm lacking right now is experience. Combat experience. I need to face more situations, fight more people. Shutting myself away somewhere and grinding in isolation is too slow."

"...Is that right?"

"It is. Do you know how I was planning to get through Floor 16? I was going to spar with you. Just briefly."

The swordsmanship Ji-won had built was designed for combat between superhumans. Every possibility she could conceive of as 'Choi Ji-won' was already folded into it, and she was now at the stage of absorbing experience from the outside.

"Climbing the Tower faster would actually help me grow more. When we regress, let's go straight to Floor 17."

"...I see."

I twirled some brisket pasta and slid it into Ji-won's mouth. Bung-bung, perched on the chair beside us, gave a full-body shudder. Presumably furious about the display.

"But... we're already four and a half months in. Isn't it a waste to regress right now?"

"What do you mean?"

"America. Since the timeline has already stretched this far, why not invest a little time over there?"

Right. In about a month from now, that secret warehouse would be built somewhere in the United States.

"We check whether there are any useful items in there... pick up some elixirs while we're at it... get something out of the situation."

It wasn't like I felt no guilt about taking things. But everything returned on regression anyway, and it wasn't like I was keeping any of it for myself. Sharing it around seemed fine.

"The warehouse aside... that book. The research the president supposedly tried and failed with. Gathering some information on that side of things would be worth doing too."

There was also the matter of that strange book the president had researched and apparently failed to unravel. Having come this far along the timeline, every advantage worth claiming should be claimed.

"Right, I think that makes sense. The timeline has slipped this far anyway."

Ji-won nodded, though she didn't look entirely at ease.

"The problem is... I only have a rough idea of where it is. Not the exact location."

The warehouse sat somewhere in the Arizona desert. She had a general sense of the area, but the desert was vast, and given that the place was a secret facility by nature, finding it wouldn't be easy.

"And since it's a fairly important warehouse, there will be guards. We'd need to do more thorough reconnaissance first. If we get caught on the spot, we'd have to regress immediately."

"That's true..."

"So can you give me a little time? Let me make some calls."

"To who?"

"The American contact who gave me this information in the first place. They'd know better than anyone."

"Alright. I'll use the time to sort through a few things on my end."

The most urgent messages were already handled, but I hadn't yet reached out to the Grim Reaper. Four months had passed, so whatever results had come from the people he'd been watching should have surfaced by now.

What choices had those bastards made. And what would I have to do in turn. The connections built with Kang Chan and the other Korean players in the previous cycle were all gone now, but the one with the Grim Reaper was still intact.

"Where... could it be..."

Sifting through an email account I hadn't touched in ages, I could barely remember the username. I'd set it up on some unfamiliar site under an unfamiliar ID just to avoid being traced, and that was the problem. Go through enough regression cycles and the memories that don't carry much weight tend to slip away like this.

"Ugh..."

"..."

While I was struggling to track down the account, Ji-won came shuffling back, looking sheepish.

"Oh, Ji-won. What did they say? Do you have a location?"

"Um... well..."

Flustered, in a way I almost never saw from her. She wore the look of someone who couldn't quite believe she was about to say this, and told me the truth.

"They said... they can't share it."

"...Can't share what?"

"The information."

"...Why?"

This was Ji-won. The Ji-won that America courted, that China trembled before, that Japan envied. The Player Association's most cherished ally.

But there was one thing I hadn't accounted for.

"...Word got out that I was stuck on Floor 16. Apparently people have started looking down on me. Saying I'm washed up. So they said they couldn't give me the information."

"..."

Right. The players who had been on Floor 16 had eyes and ears. And the one person every last one of them had been watching was Ji-won.

Word of Ji-won struggling badly for far too long following her entry into Floor 16 had spread too widely, too naturally, and as a result her reputation had gone into free fall.

"..."

"..."

The trip to America was on hold.

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