WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 218

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The regressor is too strong (5)

7 AM. A time anyone would call morning, and when working people usually start moving. The villagers were bustling around too, as if they followed that same routine.

"Choi Ji-won? What are you doing here?"

"I was waiting."

Still, unlike the fresh morning air, the scene at the village entrance did not fit at all. Two groups facing off. Everyone was in gleaming armor, with weapons at their waists or on their backs, which made it look even worse.

"Uh, don't come any closer."

"Stop right there."

Two people were blocking the entrance. A man and a woman. Their armor and gloves were a little dirty.

The reason was simple. They had tried to physically block the Exchange entrance.

To make a barrier even strong superhumans could not break through easily, they had hurried over with a huge chunk of metal. After all that effort, they got this message:

[Obstructions that interfere with village passage cannot be installed.]

And the metal chunk was moved outside the village. All that trouble for nothing.

"Why are you telling us not to come in?"

"What is this?"

The people trying to enter the village looked even worse. They had sprinted while chugging potions to move as fast as possible, then got thrown around in absurd cold, so no one could honestly call them fine. Still, broad smiles hung on their faces, and they held glass bottles filled with glittering liquid.

"Didn't we just meet earlier? We went through hell in the snowy mountains, so we're freezing. Could you step aside for a second? We desperately need a hot bath."

At first, the people trying to enter put on an act.

Like they knew nothing. Like hungry, freezing strays. They tried to slip quietly into the village, but,

"We already know."

"...Well."

I, Kim Jun-ho, pulled out a Friend Registration Ticket from my chest, and the others clicked their tongues and backed off. Their attempt to get an easy win failed. We had already been exposed.

"Tsk..."

"Damn..."

"Hey, don't panic. It's not like they can do anything anyway."

Some people instinctively stepped back after seeing Choi Ji-won's cold expression, but a few quick-minded ones came forward instead. Even if a fight broke out, they had something to rely on.

"Wait. I have a proposal."

"...What are you talking about?"

"Our submission deadline is in four hours. Once that happens, we get our rewards and leave this place."

"..."

"Could you wait until then?"

People in the group exchanged looks. The proposal was more reasonable than expected, so they hesitated.

"I'm out."

"Me too. We're trying to piggyback anyway, so waiting a little won't hurt."

"Yeah. I don't want bad blood with Choi Ji-won over this. Who knows, we might meet again."

People started backing away one by one, then quickly scattered. Around five stayed behind.

"You're not leaving?"

"I've already seen someone submit a hidden piece."

A grim sneer spread across the lips of those who remained.

"Hidden pieces all get special treatment. Their initial grade is insanely high, but once submissions actually go through, the grade drops fast. Probably because they don't want a fixed way to keep getting S-grade or higher."

A man added that if party members discovered it together and submitted at the same time, the grade did not seem to drop as much.

"...So what are you trying to say?"

"If we submit together right now, maybe the rarity drops a little and we get around S-grade. But once your submission window closes, rarity falls off a cliff. Why do you think we don't use hidden pieces the vanguard already found? There's an SSS-grade relic right under this floor right now. Submit it now and you won't even get C-grade."

He tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe.

Honestly, if late submissions of already discovered hidden pieces could still give high grades, Floor 22 would not function as a trial in the first place. Anyone could just submit an already found SSS-grade item and call it a day.

"Wait, that's what this is?"

"Seriously?"

Most players did not even know that failing to submit at the same time put them at a disadvantage, so they rushed forward. Their greed overwhelmed their fear of Choi Ji-won.

Now the minority was backing away, and the majority was approaching.

"Hey, but is this right? Both of their colors looked damn red with the talisman... aren't they insanely strong?"

"Shut up, idiot. Because of the Crime Flag..."

"Because of the Crime Flag, you were about to say you can't enter the village if you commit violence?"

The one who cut him off was Choi Ji-won. Choi Ji-won and I had also considered the possibility of a violence penalty, and we had gathered information by walking around the village.

"If you harm another person, you're banned from entering the village for 72 hours. The auction timer also pauses."

"Yeah, you know your stuff. So step aside. You have no way to stop us."

"But what happens if you die here? Just curious."

"...You get sent somewhere called the Mine, and they release you after a week of labor."

"Can't you also pay and revive immediately? That's what people in the village said. You hid that because you wanted to backstab us, right?"

"Why ask when you already know?"

"Only one reason."

The moment Choi Ji-won's eyes sharpened.

"To stall."

-Boom!

I had been silently listening from behind. I dropped my stance fast and slammed my palm against the ground.

Pure white mana spread from my fingertips and crawled over the ground like a spiderweb, so fast it was hard to react.

"Damn it!"

"Shit!"

Players with sharp reflexes who had not dropped their guard leaped backward and dodged that ominous attack, but most failed to respond and were hit directly.

"Haha, even better!"

"If those bastards die, we're heading straight to submit. Damn, maybe we can even get SS-grade from this?"

No, some players looked like they took the hit on purpose.

If you committed a crime near the village, guards would deploy. While the guards dealt with us, they would revive quickly and run to the Exchange. They had stayed long enough that they had plenty of money saved up from labor. Meaning instant revival was possible.

Even if they died now, time was on their side. No, they wanted to die right now.

"Hahaha!"

"Haha!"

That was what they thought.

"Huh...?"

No matter how long they waited, the guards showed no sign of moving. No, if you committed a crime, your body was supposed to show a red outline in the first place.

More than that, their bodies would not move at all.

"This actually works?"

I looked surprised myself even though I was the one who did it.

My mana control had improved, and I exploited the game system rule that an attack only counted as an attack if it dealt damage. I had tried a technique that neutralized targets without physically harming them, and I had not expected it to actually succeed.

"Cough, guh..."

"Y-you okay?"

"Potion, potion..."

"Here, I'll feed you."

"Huff, huff, huff... my heart stopped for a second..."

Still, the mana cost was huge, and it required extreme concentration, so it was nowhere near practical in real combat yet. The strain on my own body was serious too.

"I can't use this in a real fight..."

From my point of view, this technique put a heavy burden on my body, demanded enough concentration to make my nose bleed, and carried the massive risk that I myself also could not move.

"What, what is this..."

"..."

From the players on the receiving end, this was complete nonsense. Sure, their opponent was strong, but they were top-tier players too. If all it took to freeze twenty top-tier players was some mana burn and a nosebleed, anyone would do it a hundred times, a thousand times. This was, this was... cheating.

"No, there's still an answer."

"What?"

"Let's burst our mana outward."

But they were top-tier for a reason. They did not give up.

"This energy covering us right now, it's mana. If we release mana hard enough, we can break out."

He was not wrong.

They had been caught helplessly this time, but this was a wide-area technique. If they focused, it could be broken.

Their bodies were coated in cold mana like candied fruit. That coating had stiffened their muscles and stopped movement, but if they blasted mana out from inside their bodies, they could break the coating.

"I recommend you don't."

Choi Ji-won shook her head as if she had expected even this.

"Look around you."

"...What are you talking about?"

"Aren't you all standing way too close together?"

"...Damn."

Right. Breaking the coating and getting their bodies back was possible.

But they had bunched up tightly to resist.

"If you break, you'll become criminals."

The violent mana burst needed to remove paralysis would strike the players next to them. Naturally, that was violence, and it would trigger a Crime Flag.

"..."

Even if they got their bodies back, it meant nothing if they became criminals and could not receive rewards. But if they sat still and did nothing, the rewards would be taken anyway.

"What will you do?"

"...Forget it."

Those who had dodged thanks to quick reactions, and those who had stayed back from the start, both raised their palms and backed off. There might still be another hidden card, and they had already seen far more of my strength than expected. It was late, but not making enemies now seemed smart.

"Hahaha."

A smile appeared on my lips as I trembled.

"I'm pretty good."

A perfect victory.

"Jun-ho, you worked hard."

"You too, Ji-won..."

When we returned to reality, my body felt refreshed, but my mind was exhausted. It was the first time I had ever used mana at full output like this. It was also my first time chugging potions like water. I always had to end fights quickly, so this drawn-out battle of attrition hit me hard. It had been my longest fight since Floor 4.

"The reward is... whoa."

When I opened the reward box, I found a rough-looking helmet along with a large number of potions.

-Helm of the Rebel [A+]
-Gain significant resistance against all mental-type attacks.

"Ooh..."

For a regressor who had to worry about mental-type attacks, it was good.

"..."

Still, it was disappointing. The reward grade was S+, but the item was A+. And even though an SSS-grade reward existed, we only got S+.

"Ji-won. Since we're already this deep, shouldn't we take an SSS-grade out to make this worth it? The vanguard said they actually got SSS rewards too."

There was a way for both me and Choi Ji-won to get SSS-grade rewards.

Find two SSS-grade hidden pieces and submit them at the same time. Finding them... if we kept regressing, we could probably pull it off somehow.

"Getting better rewards would be nice... but is it possible? There has to be a limit to stopping everyone by force like this..."

And if we wanted two SSS-grades, interference from other players would be brutal too. One already caused this much chaos. Taking two at the same time would not be easy.

"It's possible."

Of course, I said it would not be easy, but I never said it was impossible.

"Let's do this."

I had a solid plan in mind.

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