WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 213

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The regressor endures (10)

I rode over and arrived at that same lab again.

If there was one difference,

"..."

"..."

it was that the agents and soldiers were subtly afraid of me.
To be exact, they were not truly afraid of me. They were mistaking themselves for being afraid.

Anyway, once I was guided in and reached Professor Kim, I sat down right away and declared,

"Areum is an ordinary person now."

"...W-What exactly are you saying?"

Professor Kim clearly could not process it. There were several reasons he was gasping, but one of them was probably this chill. His muscles kept locking up, so breathing had to be difficult. If you had no idea what was happening, it would feel like your body was freezing from extreme tension. Stiff muscles, short breath, dropping body temperature, anyone could mistake that for fear.

Was this originally one of the chill's functions? No. It was a side trick I picked up while erasing Areum's mana. Instead of forcefully freezing muscles, I tried making them naturally flinch and tense up, thinking people would feel less of a sense of wrongness that way. It worked better than expected.

I got to the point immediately.

"Take her and run your tests. There is not a single grain of Zeta left in her body now."

"...Please wait a moment."

Professor Kim called someone through his in-ear and had Areum taken away. After she left too, only the two of us remained in the room.

"...Who are you?"

Only then did Professor Kim let out a deep breath. At first he seemed to think the dizziness was just in his head, but now it looked like he had held his breath too long and ended up short on oxygen.

"...Who am I, you ask?"

I answered him plainly in my head.

I am Kim Jun-ho. A player. A climber. A regressor.

"...Pardon?"

"I came from the future, fifty years from now, to be precise."

"...Pardon?"

"Professor Kim. Or rather, Professor Kim Yong-seung. Thanks to you, the Republic of Korea enters an unprecedented golden age, and because of you, it falls."

"Uh, uhh..."

How did I know his name? I looked him up on an iPad. I knew his face and surname, so I checked prominent professors until I found him. I guessed the person leading a project like this would not be stupid.

"Your research on Zeta succeeds. Humanity finds a new resource and leaps forward, and new technologies appear everywhere. The only reason I could even come to this era is that you found a way to use Zeta, no, mana."

"..."

"But because of that, humanity is destroyed."

"Like nuclear weapons... did people just start firing Zeta particles at each other?"

"No. A disaster I cannot tell you about arrived, and humanity was too strong."

This world was a world inside the Tower. Which meant it was already a world destroyed by the Tower.

"The disaster struck each race differently depending on how strong they were. And because of mana, humanity as a race was rated far higher than it should have been."

Most likely, Professor Kim did succeed in his research. He probably developed excellent ways to use mana, maybe even methods to naturally condense it. Even then, this world still failed to climb the Tower to the end and perished.

I guessed mana itself was one of the causes. In stories, trial difficulty changing based on the strength of each world was common enough.

If mana was discovered after the Tower appeared, that might be different. But if it was discovered before, it could come back as a disaster. Of course, all of this was still my speculation.

"...That is hard to believe."

"You still need to believe it. I have lived through far more than you can imagine."

I clenched the corner of the wooden table with my fingers. The table cracked and caved in with grooves shaped like my fingertips. Professor Kim stared at my arm, but found no sign of any device. The faint chill spreading from my body made everything more convincing.

"Taking that power from Areum was part of the same plan. I came here to prepare for the future, and to warn you."

"...Hah."

Professor Kim stared blankly at the split wooden table and let out a dry laugh. Fair enough. If I were him, and someone claiming to be from the future suddenly barged in and wrecked everything while I was deep in research, I would think it was absurd too.

Of course, I was not planning to smash things and run away.

"Take this."

"...What is this?"

Four Intermediate Potions I had stored in the subspace inside my fingernail. Two were normal, and two were frozen solid with my mana packed inside.

"These are potions. Think of them as panaceas that can even cure cancer. I put my mana separately into two of them."

"...Cancer cannot be cured."

"That is why I called them panaceas. Research these."

It was safer to push healing technology through potions than to push over-technology through mana. If this man truly researched all of this because he was worried about humanity's future, these potions would help. I even considered just giving him an elixir outright, but honestly, that would have been too much.

This was a kind of apology.

An apology for solving conflict by brute force because I could not find a proper way to untangle this mess. An apology for cutting through a knot with a blade because I could not unravel it. An apology for lying.

"Professor!"

At that moment, the door burst open.

"Zeta is truly no longer detected in the subject's body. There is no condensation reaction either."

"...Understood."

A researcher had returned with Areum at perfect timing, and Professor Kim gave a weak nod.

"If... if the world really was ruined because of me... then I should be the one to take responsibility..."

"Before that, I have one request."

Floor 21's task was, "Survive for seven days." No matter what I did, I could not leave before seven days passed, so I tried to use that wasted time as well as I could.

"Oppa, maybe I should become a chef later. Hehe."

Areum smiled brightly. She must have loved making pizza herself at that job-experience theme park.

"Did you have fun?"

"Yeah! So much!"

I took Areum out everywhere during that time. Back to the amusement park, to the zoo, to the movies, I did everything she said she wanted to try. Where did the money come from? Professor Kim covered it.

Those days were pretty fun for me too. It felt like going back to childhood after a long time. It also made me think, so this is what it feels like to have a daughter.

Of course, good times always end.

"Oppa."

"Yeah."

"Do you have to go?"

"Yeah."

About thirty minutes remained. The calculation was exact. In thirty minutes, I would return to reality again.

The seven-day survival condition might have been a lifeline to someone. To me, it felt like a shackle. If it were structured like previous floors where I could choose whether to leave, I would have wanted to stay longer. But the word survival looked like it would never allow that.

"..."

I stared blankly at Areum.

After I leave, I do not know what will happen to this world. Will it freeze in place, disappear, or continue on? I cannot observe that part, so I can only imagine.

Because I stopped mana research, this world might collapse faster. Or it might last longer. This world is waiting for the same ending anyway, ruin and absorption by the Tower. That is why it exists inside the Tower.

If the world was doomed no matter what, then everything I did would become meaningless.

"..."

Right as my mood started sinking, warm heat touched my fingertips.

"Oppa."

Areum. I still did not know her that well. Even after investing all that time, I could not confidently say we had become truly close. Maybe it was because I had deliberately held back my feelings. We had to part ways someday.

"Thank you."

Still, when I saw her place both hands over her belly and bow straight at ninety degrees, I felt all my effort had not been wasted.

"Thanks to you, I ate lots of good food... and got out of that stuffy place... and I do not have to get weird injections anymore... it is all thanks to you. Teacher said I should say thank you in moments like this."

"..."

I had already checked the orphanage she would live in. I had also taken care of the basic arrangements. I gave Professor Kim a separate heads-up, so at least she would not live an unhappy life.

"I am thankful too."

That time was not meaningless.

I could not find a clever way, so I crushed things with force. I piled lie upon lie. Even so, it was not meaningless.

I protected a human heart. I did not place a person on the scale of efficiency. I protected my conviction.

"...Be happy, no matter what."

Part of me wished this world would simply stop, so she could carry only happy memories.

"Yes! I will be happy! Oppa, you have to be happy too!"

The gears of the clock that had turned nonstop for seven days came to a halt.

-You have cleared Floor 21.

-You have acquired the trait 'Girl's Cheer'.

And then, I was back on Floor 1.

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