WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 233

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The regressor is brave? (1)

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I spread out the snacks we bought at the convenience store and cracked open canned beer. We were in comfortable clothes. I feel this every time, but Ji-won looks pretty in anything.

"...Blegh."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"It's too bitter..."

"...Good grief."

We bought a beer called "Super Dry," but it was not dry at all, just bitter as hell. At this rate they should have called it Super Bitter. Why call it Super Dry?

Anyway, this was a short break. A little drinking session to clear our heads before moving up to the next Floor.

I had no intention of running Floor 23 again. Honestly, we got lucky. Floor 23 is the kind of place that deals heavy damage to your mind the more times you repeat it, so if I had stayed there too long... I do not know.

I told myself not to think about things that would give me a headache and just enjoy the moment, then grabbed another snack.

Maybe because it was so late, weird thoughts kept popping up.

"Sometimes I think about this."

"About what?"

"I wonder if we're making too big a deal out of this."

Watching the other players on Floor 23 made me realize it. They were ready to kill if they had to. Same with me. I actually killed someone in the Tutorial. It got erased, but still.

"But even if those people are killers... they did not seem evil."

Even if they could say, "I've killed someone," they were not bad people. They were rational. They felt compassion. They hesitated before doing something terrible. In other words, they were far from the cold-blooded, heartless psychopaths I fear.

A father who kills to protect his son, and a psychopath who has never killed but is rotten to the core. Wouldn't the first one be more decent? That's what I mean.

"Once you're already used to cutting people... killing clear villains might not change you that much... I keep thinking that."

"..."

Choi Ji-won listened to me and quietly sipped her canned beer. Her cheeks were a little red.

"...Are you drunk?"

"Yeah. I figured out how to circulate mana better, so I can actually get drunk now. Hehe."

She tilted her head almost ninety degrees, rested her chin on her hand, and stared at me.

"Honestly... even if you kill someone, I think it might be unavoidable."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. Some people... might never change. If someone's consistently trash... there's no helping it."

"..."

"Even so, I still want you not to kill... because that feels like a line of resistance inside you. You said you wanted to be a hero, right?"

"...Right."

"A hero doesn't feel like someone who kills just because it can't be helped... and I think you'd be disappointed in yourself too... that's why I'm saying this. I trust your judgment completely... but when it comes to killing, I want to stop it even if I have to force it."

We were climbing the Tower in a frenzy. We were already a million light-years away from normal life. Those ruthless players on Floor 23 were not like that from the start. They became abnormal to adapt to an abnormal world.

"Climbing the Tower itself wears down your humanity... so I guess what I mean is, I don't want that to speed up. Ugh, trying to use hard words makes my head hurt."

She grinned awkwardly and took another sip. She licked the damp beer foam from her lips, crossed her legs in one smooth motion, and was just about to say something.

-Uuuung.

Her phone buzzed, and the tipsiness vanished from her face as she checked the screen.

"...Oh, I got a message."

"What kind?"

"You know how I said I'd ask that older player? About how other people cleared it."

The Association was a complete mess, and Michael Zetter himself was the one driving it into the ground... so there was no way to contact them for information. So we chose the next best option and used Ji-won's connections. (I wanted to use mine, but Kang Chan is climbing the Tower very slowly... and I still cannot reach Dok Su-hee.)

Ji-won contacted the older player she had gotten close to on Floor 23 and gathered information that way.

"She said she's super well connected across Europe. Hold on."

Ji-won typed quickly on her phone. After a rapid exchange, she started explaining.

"So... this is information she got from one of her contacts."

"Yeah."

"Usually... people clear it when someone dies."

According to the player who provided the information, Floor 23 was "a floor that gets easier to clear when a human dies." Once there is the smell of a human corpse, the tentacles hiding in caves crawl out. Then you kill the tentacles while they are defenseless and busy eating the body.

"...There are people like us who survive for five days and clear it... but not many."

"..."

How did they learn that? Well, they probably experienced it firsthand.

Was the rough bitterness in my mouth from the alcohol, or from what I just heard?

"L-Let's skip that."

"Yeah, let's."

"Want to talk about rewards? We finished all the snacks anyway."

I pulled out the equipment I got as a Floor 22 reward and set it on the table.

-Bracelet of Growth [S]
-Gain 30% additional experience points from combat.

The reward I got after suffering through Floor 22 was this bracelet. It looked like twisted thread braided together, so thin it almost looked like nothing at a glance.

In games, low-level zones usually give rewards like big weapons or armor, but as your level rises, rewards naturally shift to accessories or passives.

"Mm, it's insanely good for me..."

Gain 30% additional experience points. The description was concise, but gear with concise descriptions is usually the truly good stuff.

The source of a player's physical ability is stat points. The way to get stat points is leveling up. And this gives 30% more experience points, the thing that lets you level up. Even someone who knows nothing would call that overpowered.

"Jun-ho, doesn't this do nothing for you?"

That was the problem. It had no effect on me, because I still had no level.

"Still, it's not a loss."

I could not use it right now, but the reward itself was clearly excellent.

Later I could give it to Michael Zetter, or Dok Su-hee. Assuming she reformed. For now, I could just treat it like a matching couple bracelet and keep it.

Next was the reward from Floor 23, and mine was a little different from Ji-won's.

-Concentrated Royal Jelly (Unique)
-When consumed, increases one selected stat by 20.

-Royal Jelly (Unique)
-When consumed, increases one selected stat by 10.

The first was my reward, and the second was Ji-won's. Since I personally tore through the village and dealt with the tentacles, that probably created the difference. (If you're asking whether the standard rule is to regress and drink elixirs twice... yes, but I really did not want to go back into Floor 23.)

More importantly, 20 stat points is huge. You get 5 stat points per level-up, so this is basically four levels' worth.

Ah, and for reference, funneling both into one person failed. The (Unique) effect seemed to apply across all elixirs in the same category. Anyway, I swallowed the wriggling blue jelly, opened the status window, and raised my stat.

"Where did you put it?"

"Me? Vitality."

"...Vitality?"

"Yeah. Either way, if I get hit once, I regress... but I saw potential on Floor 22."

On Floor 22, I was incredibly strong. I am usually strong, but I was much stronger there.

Why? Because my body held up.

So if I keep investing in Vitality and get my body to the point where it can handle this chill, then I can break out of my shell and take off. Thanks to my achievement level, my other stats are already rising across the board anyway, and I did not feel short on attack power.

Anyway, reward settlement was finished. My body got a little sturdier, and a small new bracelet appeared on my wrist. Rest well for one night, then keep moving forward. I was tired... but just a little more. If I climb the Tower just a little higher, I will get time to rest.

"Ready?"

"Of course."

They said Michael Zetter climbed from Floor 24 to Floor 29 in just one week. There was no reason we could not do it too.

After Ji-won and I kissed, we steeled our resolve. I had done well so far. So I could keep doing well. As long as I had Regression... I would win.

On Floor 21, the angel said humanity's greatest weapon was courage.

"Let's go."

And right now, I was afraid of nothing.

-You have entered Floor 24.

-You have entered Floor 24.

There was a time when I thought I was afraid of nothing...

-Flicker. Flicker.

A bare incandescent bulb on the low ceiling flickered unsteadily. I sat up on a bed. When I moved, the mattress let out a squeaky creak.

"...Ji-won?"

No answer came back. Only skin-crawling silence drifted in the air. I carefully pulled back the curtain around my bed and realized there were six beds in this room.

"...A hospital?"

Yeah, a hospital. This interior was straight out of one.

-Step.

Peeling paint crackled under my feet. The walls and floor were all yellowed and old. It felt less like poor maintenance and more like total neglect.

And unlike a normal hospital, there were no windows here. Just the flickering bulb. The eerie silence. Thick cement walls, a door leading outside, and the beds.

And attached to those beds were things that looked like cuffs for binding hands and feet.

"..."

My breathing sounded loud. It felt like something could jump out at any moment. Like the instant this silence broke, something terrifying would happen.

I could not even think about leaving the bed where I first woke up, and I stared endlessly at the door, the only way out of this place. The dented door carried a dread that made it feel like it could move at any second.

No, right now, even...

-Ding!

"...Fuck."

I flinched at the sudden sound, but it was just a message window notification. Damn, my heart almost stopped.

I let out a breath of relief and slowly read the objective for this Floor.

<Floor 24>
-Escape.

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