WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 204

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The regressor endures (1)

America.

A hotel near the desert.

"Did it work?"

"Yeah. I talked like I already knew, so they relaxed and gave me the details. They asked how I knew, so I said Michael Zetter told me."

"Good. But that still means we lied, so we'll raid the warehouse and regress right away. We probably can't take the items with us anyway, right? Let's just chug the elixirs."

"That alone should be enough."

After checking the plan one last time, we got into the rental car and headed into the vast desert. Desert was the right word, but visually it looked closer to a wasteland. It was not packed with sand like Egypt's deserts, and the ground had a reddish tint overall.

At some point, the rattling car left the paved road, and we even had to change a tire after running over a cactus. We were heading far beyond where people normally traveled, so this level of trouble was expected.

"Here?"

"Yeah. We just need to walk a little farther."

"Then..."

By the time we reached a point about thirty kilometers from the destination, Choi Ji-won and I put on the gloves and face coverings we had prepared and got out of the car.

"They said there were no guards, but better to be sure."

"Yeah. I don't trust everything that person says."

This was supposedly a secret American warehouse. There was no way it had no guards at all. From far away, we moved carefully, watching for hidden people or any glint of lenses.

"...Looks like it wasn't a lie."

The person who gave Ji-won the information was not lying, at least about this part. I honestly expected soldiers to be waiting, but there was no one.

We pushed through the stinging sand wind, goggles on to keep sand out of our eyes, and kept moving until we finally reached the entrance Ji-won had mentioned.

"...How is anyone supposed to find this?"

Without information, we never would have found it. The bunker entrance hidden under sand looked, from a distance, like a random metal sheet standing upright. It barely looked different from the other junk you might see in a desert.

I carefully brushed away the sand and dust, and the hidden entrance was fully exposed.

"Ugh..."

It definitely looked abandoned. The metal was heavily rusted, most of the white painted letters were worn away, and the entrance hung slightly open. Seriously, was it okay for the entrance to a secret warehouse to be flapping open like this? Sand was blowing straight inside.

"This is the place, right?"

"According to the intel, yes..."

"Okay."

It did not seem likely there would be two bunkers in this enormous desert. Regression was guaranteed anyway, so we had to go in.

"It's cleaner inside than I expected."

"...Isn't it dirty?"

"No, I was making that meme joke... never mind."

"What? What meme?"

"Nothing. Let's focus."

We went down the stairs one step at a time, scanning every direction. This was no ordinary storage site. It was a secret warehouse of the United States Government. It would not be strange at all if there were hidden traps. If a landmine exploded and killed us here, then what? Were we going to sue?

"Hoo..."

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Our footsteps echoed on the old metal stairs again and again, then finally stopped. The long staircase ended, revealing a basement corridor.

The narrow corridor was lit. In a worn-out bunker like this, working lights were usually a good sign. Electricity meant someone had maintained it, and that meant we had found the right place.

"...This place feels off."

But many of the lights were dead, and most of the ones still working flickered. Instead of reassuring me, it made the place feel eerie. Was our information wrong? Or had we entered a different bunker next to the one we were supposed to find? It was too late to turn back, so all I could do was simmer in anxiety.

"For now, stay as alert as possible."

"Got it."

I focused as hard as I could and walked through the old bunker. The farther I went, the less this felt like a bunker and the more it felt like a hidden underground base. Bunkers were usually built around broad central spaces, but this place was made of narrow passages connected to multiple rooms.

"Hmm..."

The rooms we passed had nothing special. A bed, a desk, one small locker. Anyone could tell the facilities were military. They looked like the naval living quarters I had once seen in a documentary.

"Ah, let's go left here."

"What about right?"

"There are traces of people on the left. Look at the floor. The dust isn't settled evenly. People have already passed through."

"...You can tell that?"

While exploring this maze-like basement space, Ji-won's sharp senses were a huge help. She picked up tiny clues, like dust patterns on the floor and subtle signs on the walls, and guided me forward. If I had come alone, I probably would have burned the entire day wandering around. Ji-won really was Ji-won.

How long had we walked? My concentration was at its limit, and the face covering pressed against my skin had started to feel damp.

"...Huh?"

We opened a locker Ji-won said looked suspicious, and inside was a secret passage leading to another area.

Up to now, the path had been narrow, rusty, and filled with a stale metallic smell. This new space was modern, with bright white tile and clean lighting. It felt like a lab. Part of the ceiling was even glass, exposing complex machinery above us.

"Got it."

Anyone would call this suspicious. I was sure we had found the right place, and at the same time I felt uneasy about what we might have to fight through next. This was a secret American warehouse. It would not be strange if a whole military brigade was waiting inside. Hell, it would not even be strange if Michael Zetter himself was waiting.

"...There's no one here."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I even checked with mana. Really nothing."

But Ji-won's conclusion, after focusing her senses to the limit, was genuinely shocking. As far as she could detect, the only living people in this modern space were the two of us.

"Is it a trap?"

"What kind of trap?"

"...Right. What kind of trap?"

I stepped into the space with a lingering sense of unease. I was lightly biting the inside of my cheek so I could regress instantly if anything turned strange. Ji-won and I carefully searched the wide white area.

"...Why is there nothing?"

Amazingly, truly amazingly, we found nothing at all. Not just no people. The treasures and elixirs that were supposed to be here were completely gone.

A decaying bunker at the entrance. A long maze-like path after that. A modern facility at the end. It was like a horror game that started in a ruined house and led to the evil core laboratory, except there was nothing there. It made no sense.

"At least America definitely had a hand in this place. The lights are on. So we're definitely not in the wrong place."

I pulled off my damp, sweaty face covering and looked up at the glass ceiling, where unknown machinery was visible. The fact that power was running alone made one thing clear: America had originally planned to do something here.

"Then why is there nothing here?"

"I think... it's a butterfly effect."

"A butterfly effect?"

"Yeah."

A cliché that showed up all the time in regression stories—the butterfly effect.

Some tiny thing I had done casually, without thinking, affected the future and came back as a huge difference. Nothing else could explain this situation.

"So, until the point where we saw that future with monsters appearing, America was probably still using this place as a warehouse. It was probably stacked with elixirs and items."

But after that, time passed. We stayed on Floor 16 and trained martial arts. On Floor 17, we verified mana. On Floor 18, we explored a wuxia world and obtained an elixir. On Floor 19, I wrote a book to check my martial arts.

"...When you lay it all out, it really isn't much."

"Yeah."

If you only looked at the final cleared cycle, excluding regressions, the time we spent in the Tower was not very long, and what we did was not all that much either. But in all those small steps, some change clearly happened, and the result was that America's warehouse disappeared.

"Ghh..."

There was no other plausible explanation. So the conclusion was fixed as "it happened because of the butterfly effect," but I had no idea what process led there. What could make a warehouse vanish overnight? Why was all the construction still intact, but only the items and guard forces were gone?

"...This feels bad."

"Hmm... should I call the Association contact who gave me the info? I think that person might know."

"No. Even if you call, do it after we regress. Calling now is too suspicious."

"Got it."

There was nothing more we could learn from what we saw, so we trudged back out and sat on an old bed.

"Should we just regress now? If we go back to the city and it gets out that we came here, getting questioned will be a pain. This future is already fixed, so gathering information after we return to the past won't be too late."

"Yeah. I think that's right too. Regress right now?"

"Yeah. That's the plan."

After organizing my thoughts, I gently bit the inside of my cheek, and the familiar dizziness soon swept through my head.

Back then, I didn't know.

What this empty bunker meant.

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