WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 229

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The regressor is mentally weak (8)

"Hey. I get that you're some incredible bastard... and you said you were the one who designed this leaf."

One player shook the frozen leaf.
Maybe because the mana had become unstable, the tip of the frozen leaf tore off on its own.

"But now you're telling us to stop? Just because that leaf split in half, we're supposed to stop? I don't even know what you're trying to do anymore."

"Right. You gave us the leaves, but... isn't interpreting them our part?"

With cold eyes, they stared at the pale man and woman.
At some point, the distance between the pair and everyone else had grown quite large.

"If we want to clear this... killing them is probably right."

"Probably."

-Shring.

The players drew their weapons and aimed them at the man and woman.

Some people joked, "I wish I'd get summoned to the Tower too," but the Tower was never an easy place.
More than half died in the Tutorial Stage alone, and the other floors were no different.
Without a great trait, without the quick and inventive talent to use it, and without unbreakable will, climbing the Tower was a challenge every moment, a trial with your life on the line.
There were a few floors where your life was safe, but climbers could not know that before entering.

And the players who had climbed this far in such a short time?
They were never pushovers.
Killing monsters had already become routine for them, and if needed, they were ready to kill people too.
Some of them had probably already done it.
Now that they believed the thing in front of them was an inhuman creature wearing a human form, there was no reason to hesitate.

"It's really, really not true... please..."

"We were wrong... please spare us... please..."

"..."

Even the people who had steeled themselves were not cold enough to kill someone begging pitifully for their life.
A monster that had completely thrown away its human heart... at least, there was none like that here.

"Why aren't you resisting? Are you giving up your life without even fighting?"

"...There are two of us, and eight of you."

"If you resist, you could at least take one or two of us with you."

"...What would that accomplish? We gathered here to survive together."

"...Or maybe the monsters are acting to make us let our guard down."

"Yes, that is possible too. We are not asking you to lower your guard. But... please don't kill us. Please. I have to live."

"I do too, I have to live too... You can tie us up... you can even cut off both our arms... just let us live..."

Once they realized desperate pleading worked, the man and woman started bowing so hard their heads practically hit the ground.
The players watching them could only swallow hard.

Could they kill them?
Yes, they could.
If one person made the first move, the others would probably follow right away.
They had no hesitation at all when it came to killing monsters.

The first trigger.
Everyone was hesitating to pull it.
Those two were claiming they were human.
They were begging desperately to be spared.
No one knew what was inside, but on the outside, they still looked human.
For someone to step forward and say, "Let's just kill them first," was not something a normal person could do easily.

In the end, what they needed was certainty.
They needed certainty that those two were monsters.

"Wait, just wait a second."

And the one who had to give them that certainty was staring at the leaf split in half, muttering to myself.
All I kept saying was to wait.

"..."

"..."

The players exchanged looks, then slowly backed away and lowered their weapons.

"Move farther away. Stay where we can still see you."

"Put your weapons on the ground... no, just take off all your clothes and stand over there."

"T-thank you, thank you!"

"Like we said earlier, we haven't lowered our guard. We're waiting for a judgment."

The players kept glancing at me.
Since I was the one who handed out the leaves, they seemed to have decided to trust me for now.

"Ugh..."

But I had no time to care whether they were watching me.
My head was too tangled, far too tangled.

I did not know the structure of this floor.
No, to be exact, I had known it, but I forgot it because of the mist.
The problem was how broad those "forgotten memories" were.

"How many... times... did I do this?"

I vaguely remembered entering Floor 23, looking around, finding a desolate village, and reaching the campfire.
Everything else... I did not know.
Had I regressed?
Or was this my first time?
My mind was completely blank.

And this leaf split in half.
What did this mean?
What was I trying to signal?

"..."

I glanced at the shivering naked man and woman.
Did I, before losing my memories, predict this situation?
I did not know.
I could not remember, so I did not know.

The most ideal and rational choice here... was to regress.
Regress, then think through the situation carefully and move in a better direction.

"...!"

But what if... I had already repeated regression several times?
What if this exact situation had repeated many times, and each time I regressed I took some kind of measure... but always delayed the critical decision and regressed again, only to arrive at this moment once more?
What if this moment, where I was considering regression, was not the first time?

Or... what if my memories did not return even after regression?
What if I regressed to gain an information advantage, but remembered nothing?
What if, because of the mist, I only remembered that I regressed, but remembered nothing that happened on Floor 23?
Then I would be trapped in an endless time loop, repeating the same actions like a hamster wheel...
No, that could not be it.

If that were true, I would never have come up with the idea of leaving marks with leaves.
Some memory was being preserved.

Then let me go back to the start.
The one who intended this situation was me, with information about Floor 23.
That much was certain.

There were two possible cases here.
"Perfect Kim Jun-ho," and "imperfect Kim Jun-ho."

If the one who scattered the leaves was imperfect Kim Jun-ho...
then even if I interpreted the meaning of this split leaf correctly and acted exactly as intended, there was still a chance of failure.
Because that would mean someone who did not fully understand was experimenting to gather information.

But what if the one who handed out the frozen leaves was "Perfect Kim Jun-ho"?

A version of me who repeated regression over and over.
A version of me who figured out who was a monster, who was human, and what structure this Tower had.
Assume that version of me was all-knowing, someone who had uncovered every cause and effect.

If that version of me designed this, then the frozen leaf was the result of trial and error.
A precious product of repeated failure and effort.
Naturally, that included even the leaf split along a diagonal line.

That version of me would have recognized even the dilemma I was having now.
Because I would already have gone through it while regressing.
Which meant there was no chance I was repeating the same action now.
If that were happening, I would have introduced some variation and changed reality.

"The probability is..."

If I looked purely at the chances of clearing...
the better odds were to assume "Perfect Kim Jun-ho" set up this board and act accordingly.

If clumsy Kim Jun-ho set the board?
Either way, I would gain information through this process, and I could take one step forward based on that.
Memory was definitely being preserved.

If Perfect Kim Jun-ho set the board?
Then this was a direct clear.
No need to hesitate, I only needed to do my best to interpret that intent.

But if I doubted "Perfect Kim Jun-ho" here?
If clumsy Kim Jun-ho set the board, that doubt did not matter much...
but if "Perfect Kim Jun-ho" set it, then that doubt led straight to failure.
Thinking in strictly rational terms, it benefited me to assume the one who handed me this leaf was "Perfect Kim Jun-ho."

No, if I really was "Perfect Kim Jun-ho," I would have expected myself to reach this point.
Then from here on, I just needed to interpret the meaning of this leaf.

"Hmm..."

A frozen leaf cut along a diagonal line.
To be honest... I had no clue at all.
I still had not fully grasped Floor 23, so there was no information I could extract from this leaf alone.

Should I just... kill those two?
Were they really monsters?
Actually humans, not monsters?
Or maybe monsters that were somehow useful?
If not that, NPCs?
Illusions?
I had far too little basis to judge.

"..."

"P-please spare us..."

"Please..."

Do not panic.
Stay calm.
Act the way I always did.
If I acted naturally, I would understand this leaf's meaning in due course.
If I were "Perfect Kim Jun-ho," that was how I would have intended it.

As usual.
As usual.
If I acted as usual here, how would I act?
How would "Perfect Kim Jun-ho" have predicted my behavior?

"I've got it."

Right.
Before making any judgment, before taking action, there was always one thing I did first.

"First, let's proceed through Floor 23 normally. We need more information."

"...Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

Information gathering.

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