WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 215

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The regressor is too strong (2)

-Entering Floor 22.

My blacked-out consciousness surfaced. While absently circulating the mana drifting through my body, I spread it in every direction to secure my safety. The whole sequence was smooth and natural, so much so that even I was impressed.

"Oh."

Was it Floor 16? I remembered what Anael, the placard angel, said: "Not only traits, everything is connected. Touch one thing, and it affects the others too." Training precise mana control seemed to have improved my overall handling. It was less "I got stronger" and more "I got more efficient."

More importantly, where was Ji-won? She did not seem to be nearby. I tried spreading my mana to find her, but it would not extend far, like I was stuck in thick water.

"Hmm..."

I looked around and saw trees and grass. It was not a dense, overgrown forest, just one that felt pleasantly alive. The sky was blue, the sun was warm... the scenery was so beautiful it almost felt unreal. Ah, I saw something over there.

Nothing else stood out, and Floor 22 had not given me any task yet, so I headed straight for the thing in the distance.

"...A village?"

Now that I was closer... yeah, it was a village. Wooden buildings painted in warm tones. Roads lined with charming cobblestones. Villagers smiling as they wiped away sweat. The view between the trees looked like something painted by hand. Like what you would get if you asked AI for "a happy medieval village."

"...?"

What ruined that beautiful scene was a bunch of hollow-eyed armored weirdos staring with wide eyes. Every one of them wore gleaming armor and carried sharp weapons, sitting in the middle of town and glaring at each other. I could feel a lot of mana inside them too... no need to say it. Players.

"Dwarven armor really has become a uniform."

Because I resolved the dwarves' conflict on Floor 11, now all players were wearing shiny dwarven armor. It had become the easiest way to identify players. More importantly, why were all the players here?

Still uneasy, I stepped into the village entrance, and every vacant gaze snapped toward me.

"He came."

"He is here."

"Strong."

"We should register him."

They stared at me and started moving their hands busily. That sudden synchronized motion from all of them was so mechanical it gave me chills.

"Uh, uhh..."

The moment I unconsciously took a step back,

Ding.

{'Welcome to the Starting Village!'}
{'Beginner adventurers, please make sure to speak with Village Chief Alex!'}

A message window popped up in front of me. I was used to random strings appearing out of nowhere, but this felt off for some reason.

"...What is this now."

Different. Yeah, the UI was different. The font was different, and even the color of the box around the text was subtly different. The old message windows felt dry, like they only said what they had to say. The text in front of me now looked flashy and polished.

In other words... like a game.

<Floor 22>
-Have the courage to walk the road others did not. Prove your courage.
-Items obtained on Floor 22 can only be used on Floor 22.
-Rewards are determined by the rarity of the collectibles you submit to the Exchange. Submission is allowed only once.

"Ah, Jun-ho! There you are!"

Right as the old message window appeared, I saw Choi Ji-won coming toward me from the other side of the village.

For now... we needed to go see the village chief.

Finding the chief was not hard. His house was the second largest building in the village.

"Welcome! Have a seat."

The village chief greeted us with a grin as wide as a washbasin. The problem was... we had not said a single word yet. He just welcomed us with that huge smile the moment we arrived.

"Young beginner adventurers like you are truly rare these days. Young people have no spirit anymore. Back in my day... ah, right. Young folks these days hate hearing that, do they not? My apologies. Hahaha."

"...Excuse me?"

"Since you are just starting your adventure, everything must feel unfamiliar and awkward. But do not worry! I will do everything I can to help you!"

There were clearly two of us, Ji-won and me, yet he addressed us as a singular "you." Even when we spoke to him, he ignored us and kept reciting his lines. More than that, his lip movements and voice were slightly unnatural...

"This feels like a game."

A game. Yeah, definitely a game. If this place was not reality but some kind of virtual space, it made sense that my mana could not spread freely. It explained why the chief was acting strangely, and it explained the weird UI earlier too.

"Outside the village, you can find all kinds of things. Animal hides, useful herbs, a bag someone lost, and if you are very lucky, maybe even a legendary mineral! Bring it back to the village and submit it to the Exchange, and its value will be decided through an auction 12 hours later."

The chief kept talking while we stood there thinking.

"Of course, getting valuable goods is not easy. Tell me, has anything that starts from nothing ever been easy? To help beginners like you, the village shop sells various items. Naturally, they are not free. Help the villagers with their work, earn wages, and buy what you need. For details, go experience it yourself! Begin your adventure!"

He rattled off his lines in one burst, then sat in a rocking chair by the fireplace and started drinking cocoa.

"...Excuse me?"

"For details, go experience it yourself! I will rest for a while."

"..."

Yeah, I got the general idea. The village structure was similar to Floor 11.

Find rare items outside the village, submit them to the Exchange, and Floor 22 ends. But judging by how much they emphasized "adventure," finding them was definitely not going to be easy this time.

"He came out."

"He is out."

As soon as we stepped outside the chief's house, countless stares stabbed into us. More precisely, into Choi Ji-won.

"...Why are you all staring like that?"

Ji-won asked, clearly irritated, but nobody answered. They just kept swallowing and staring at her. Men and women, young and old, all focused on Choi Ji-won... it felt disgusting.

Apparently I was not the only one who felt that way. Ji-won frowned, pulled out Bung-bung, and rested it on her shoulder.

"Are you trying to fight? What is this supposed to be?"

"Wait. It is not like we are doing this with bad intentions."

Only then did one of the watching players speak.

"You just got here, right? Want to know why we are acting like this?"

"...Please tell us."

"We are all like this because of hidden pieces. You probably noticed already, but this is not reality. Think of it as some kind of virtual reality. Even the laws of physics are a little different, and the way people respond is awkward."

The player continued in a hollow voice.

"Most of all, whoever made this must have read a lot of web novels... there are hidden pieces everywhere. If you do things that are hard to find, or do bizarre actions, you can get rare loot. If materials you can normally obtain are graded up to [A], hidden ones can give [S], and in some cases even [SSS]. I heard three people from the advance group got SSS-grade rewards."

"...So you are all doing this because of hidden pieces?"

"Yeah. If you are going to clear Floor 22 anyway, should not you do it with better rewards so your survival rate goes up later? About half the players staying on Floor 22 are searching for hidden pieces outside the village, and the other half, us, are searching inside the village. Wasting time hurts, but the rewards are tempting enough to take that risk."

"..."

"It is not that we are hostile to you, Choi Ji-won. We are just... curious. Please do not misunderstand."

After he finished speaking, the concentrated stares slowly dispersed. It did not feel like he told the full truth, but it also did not feel like a complete lie.

"...Jun-ho, come with me for a second."

After staring at them for a moment, Ji-won led me out of the village. Once we got far enough that no one could hear us, we discussed it and decided it was best to trust them for now.

"Should we regress first?"

"Yeah. If we regress in the village, explain everything in more detail."

"Okay. See you in a bit."

Out of habit, I bit the inside of my cheek and started organizing my thoughts.

Now that I had a rough grasp of Floor 22's structure, restarting from the beginning was obviously better. This time, as soon as we started, I needed to check suspicious places and look for the hidden pieces they mentioned.

I still had not figured out what the shop's "items" were, and I still did not know the exact reason those people were camping in the village square... but time would solve that. If you repeat regressions enough, you learn this kind of information whether you want to or not.

More importantly, where should I check first? The advance group had probably scraped the village interior clean. Even if anything remained, those bastards would take it first. The first place that came to mind was the mountain peak in the distance. The highest point, or maybe a nearby cave, probably had something. Or I could follow the river all the way downstream. Getting hidden pieces itself was not a major concern. As long as Choi Ji-won was with me, it was like holding a cheat key. The problem was not whether we could clear it, but how we would clear it.

"Jun-ho?"

My long train of thought ended when Ji-won called me. She was looking at me like she could not understand what she was seeing. Wait, long train of thought?

"...Huh?"

The inside of my cheek still throbbed. I lightly licked it with my tongue, and a sharp sting came with the metallic smell of blood. Right, the taste of blood. I had not tasted that in a very long time.

...

The unease that had run down my spine spread through my whole body, and my blood ran cold.

This place was inside a virtual reality game. In other words, not reality.

That meant even if I got hurt here, my real body somewhere else would not be injured at all.

"Oh my god."

It also meant I could not regress.

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