WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 231

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The regressor is mentally weak (10)

Half. The meaning of that leaf, cut in half on a diagonal...

"...I got it."

Finally. I finally understood.

"I know what the leaf means."

A frozen leaf. It was a marker, and proof someone was "human." If all seven people who got leaves were actually monsters, there would have been no reason for me to leave a leaf for myself.

But I had a leaf too, and that frozen leaf was clearly not a monster marker, but a human marker.

Then a question naturally followed. If the other two were human, why did they have no leaves? And why was I holding only half a leaf?

"The key is the diagonal line."

"...What?"

"It's not just half. It's a diagonal line."

A line drawn diagonally. A diagonal line. If it only wanted to show "half," it would have sliced the leaf cleanly across. But it was diagonal.

A slanted line. A diagonal line. A rising diagonal from left to right means connection and integration, while also containing the meaning of "half."

A line of death. It means this Penalty is so harsh you can barely endure it.

Four lines. That means the four directions: east, west, south, and north.

"...Hey. Isn't that going too far? You're saying all that from one half-cut leaf..."

"Shut up and listen."

I was probably only half right. The proposition that there were no monsters and everyone was human was true. The lower half of the leaf remained, meaning we are humanity sharing the same roots. Therefore, that man and woman were human.

"Hey, somebody stop this bastard. He keeps spouting nonsense..."

"I said shut up and listen."

"...!"

I released mana, paralyzed the mouth of the player trying to heckle me, then continued my reasoning.

Then why half? Why had the leaf been split?

The part I got wrong was simple.

"We don't need to wait until monsters appear. We're supposed to go find them ourselves."

The proposition that this was a floor you could clear by camping and waiting was wrong from the start. It also meant I had to act before I broke down. Look at this leaf. Doesn't it look like it was sliced in one stroke by a sword? It means don't wait, act.

"The diagonal line means east, west, south, and north. From now on, we split in all four directions and find the monsters. If we have to, we destroy buildings. If buildings aren't enough, we turn over the ground itself. The monsters are hiding somewhere. That's certain."

"...Is that bastard sane?"

"Wait, wait. Listen, friend."

A player who looked fed up was about to say something, but another player stopped them and whispered something.

"If that guy goes wild, that'll be a problem too."

"Let's just do what he wants for now and buy time."

"Fine, so we just destroy all the buildings, right? Let's do it."

"..."

Did they think I couldn't hear them? They still didn't believe me. Fine, just watch. This was 'Perfect Kim Jun-ho's' plan. No way it was wrong.

-Boom!

-Rumble!

Well, whatever the process, the players started smashing up this dreary village. At first, some wondered why we were doing this and what meaning it had, but soon...

"This is kind of fun?"

"Kahahahaha!!!"

They began enjoying the act of destruction itself. Nobody said it out loud, but they must have been under a lot of stress.

"...Poor bastards. Must've had it rough. Looks like they snapped."

"...?"

A player smashing stone blocks beside me stared at me with a strange expression. Maybe they were embarrassed I read their thoughts.

-Kaboom!

Not even if you rubbed your eyes could you find the old shape of that gloomy but orderly village anymore. All that remained was a massive cloud of dust, endless debris, and players with oddly refreshed faces.

"I feel better."

"Yeah, definitely better. Damn, that felt good."

Sometimes people get the urge to smash everything. There's a strange pleasure in destruction itself, and it loosens an exhausted mind.

But even after all that destruction, the "monster" I insisted on still did not appear.

"..."

"..."

Suspicious eyes started turning back toward me.

"T-there's something here...!"

The naked man who had been doubted the whole time called everyone over after finding something. There was clearly an artificial tunnel there, cleverly hidden between stone blocks so it couldn't normally be found. Now that the stone blocks were broken, its outline was exposed.

"...I'll go in."

A player with a stiff expression entered the tunnel, then soon came back out carrying two writhing masses of tentacles. Just looking at them gave off an energy that made your face twist up. As I stared, deeply traumatic images started replaying in my head...

-Crunch!

Right before that could happen, the player holding the tentacles tore them apart.

-You have eliminated two False Entities.

-No climbers have died. Clear rewards have improved.

-You eliminated the False Entities before they came out to hunt prey. A great achievement! Clear rewards have greatly improved.

-You have cleared Floor 23.

A blue portal opened with a low hum.

"..."

"..."

The players stared at the portal for a moment, then looked back at me. Their eyes no longer looked at me like I was a lunatic, but something closer to a prophet.

"Really... the leaf really had that meaning? And he figured it out?"

"You two really were human? Not monsters?"

"I-I'm telling you, it's true..."

"Then the Tower set things up so players would fight each other, while claiming 'you can clear it if you endure'? Those trash bastards."

"How were we supposed to figure that out? Does that even make sense?"

"...Someone did figure it out."

The moment every gaze turned to me again.

"What did I tell you?"

As I let out a faint wave of mana, a mystical fog spread over the ground. The Mysterious Aura trait was probably doing its part too.

"If you can read the meaning in the leaf, you can clear Floor 23."

All of this was a stage set by 'Perfect Kim Jun-ho.' If you can't cash in on that, you're an idiot. I wasn't wrong. I wasn't incompetent. I was a man worthy of standing beside Ji-won.

"...I'm sorry. I thought you were insane."

"We misunderstood. We're sorry."

"Th-thank you for helping us survive. Thank you, really."

Players bowed and apologized. If I just stood there and accepted their thanks, I'd be an amateur. A real master knows when to make an exit.

"I have no intention of blaming ignorance. I'll take my leave."

I passed through the blue portal, cool but dignified, and returned to Floor 1. At this rate, stories about the immortal sage should spread. Hopefully I could use that later.

"Fuu."

I created a soft chair, sank into it, opened my subspace, drank a potion, and relaxed every muscle in my body. Stress slowly faded, and my head started throbbing. Looks like my memories were finally coming back.

Yeah, I succeeded. Following my own plan, I perfectly conquered Floor 23. I still had to repeat regression countless times this run too, but in the end, I seized victory...

"..."

Huh?

"?"

Something was weird. My memory was weird. More precisely, the total amount of memory that returned was absurdly small. The memories of repeated regressions I had imagined were gone, and only the memory of one regression where I made a plan remained.

What happened? When I traced it back slowly, this was what I remembered.

Right before heading to the campfire, in other words right after starting this cycle, I thought of the possibility that monsters might not exist. What if all ten were human? How should I respond?

The solution was simple. Ask people.

"Do you know a man who looks like this? He said he was kind of famous."

"Uh, yeah. I know him. Pretty famous, actually. Why him?"

"Then maybe this woman too."

"Yes, I know her. I can tell who you mean from the rough description."

"...Damn."

The man and woman who weren't at the campfire, but appeared after the mist wrapped around us, were real people. Players identified them just from rough facial features and the weapons they used. They were not monsters, but real humans.

I froze for a moment after realizing that shocking truth. Then I saw smoke closing in around us. No time.

"Take this first. Everyone stick it on your shoulder."

"H-huh? What's this?"

"Take it now! There's no time!"

I shoved out leaves filled with dense mana, then hurriedly spun my thoughts. I needed to leave a message for myself. Then the simplest method was...

-Smack!

I sprayed mana like I was throwing it and carved rough letters into a nearby wall. "The others are human too," a very direct sentence. Unless you were an idiot, if you saw this...

"What?!"

But the moment the surging smoke touched the wall, the carved part instantly restored itself. The leaves lying on the ground vanished too. But the leaves held by players exposed to the mist stayed intact. Then maybe only objects held by players were outside its range?

If I'd known, I would have grabbed a pile of leaves, written on them, and held them...

"Urgh...!"

I thought too long. I was exposed to the mist in an instant, and I tried to tear my cheek, but my body wouldn't listen. I didn't have enough strength to burst mana inside myself and trigger regression. In the very last moment, all I could move was a tiny speck of mana.

"..."

I tried to carve an X on the leaf. It meant the other two weren't enemies. But maybe I forced too much strength. I failed to control my mana, and the leaf I was trying to mark with an X tore on a diagonal.

After that, well, I came to my senses in the mist, and then this whole mess happened. So after first entering Floor 23, I had only regressed twice.

That 'Perfect Kim Jun-ho' thing? It didn't exist. Dozens of trials and errors? Same thing, didn't exist. The leaf? It hadn't been cut diagonally. I had just failed while trying to carve an X.

All the ridiculous things I did this cycle?

All of it was my misunderstanding. I believed a plan existed and acted like a madman. That was all.

"..."

Then what was this just now? Clearing Floor 23 in one shot? Saving everyone with no sacrifice at all, without falling for the Tower's trick?

To sum it up in one line...

"...What the hell."

I successfully, perfectly conquered Floor 23 without a single sacrifice.

Because I jumped to the wrong conclusion that there was a plan made by a version of me that had gone through countless regressions.

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