WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 240: The regressor is brave? (8)

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I had finished assessing the situation. Floor 24 was half destroyed, and the angel in front of me was on the verge of being replaced. Looks like placard angel Anael might get reassigned to a higher floor.

But more important than that,

"Floor 24 is ruined! Ruined, I tell you! Reflect on what you've done!"

"Uh... Angel-nim?"

"What is it!"

"So... what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

"..."

"Sorry for sounding shameless, but... there really is nothing I can do for you, right?"

In short, this was not my problem.

There are people like this everywhere. When their life falls apart, when they get cornered, they call a friend just to whine. They tear up and tell you how hard this is, how doomed they are.

But rationally, that helps with nothing.

Instead of whining to a friend, it is more efficient to spend that time figuring a way out.

This situation was the same.

"I-I'm sorry. I wrecked the floor you worked so hard to design. And I put you in trouble too, Angel-nim. But still, there isn't anything I can do, is there?"

"..."

"From what I can tell, this happened because the archangel in charge is not here... and that is not something I can fix."

Now that I thought about it, I got annoyed. This angel seemed like the dumb type. Was I her boyfriend or something? Was I supposed to empathize? What changed if I reflected?

"Huh?"

No, maybe something could change. If there was a recording of me reflecting and apologizing, the punishment might get lighter. Wait... was all that rambling meant to draw that out of me?

"Phew... I am glad you reflected."

The angel who had been screaming at me calmed down in an instant and leaned against the wall. So all that rage was an act? More than feeling tricked, I just felt sour.

"Then I will help process your clear. Normally your status window would guide this part, but things got tangled, so I will issue your reward manually."

"Ah, okay."

As if she had achieved her goal, the angel returned to a businesslike tone and pulled something from her robe.

"Choose one of these."

From left to right, the items were a notebook, an eyeball, and a mask.

"These copy the characteristics of the Anomalies that exist... no, that used to exist on Floor 24."

The angel picked up the notebook first.

"First, this notebook's pages burst into flames when someone nearby lies. You can tear out a page and still use that effect, but you must tear out a full sheet, and there are only ten pages total, so keep that in mind."

The notebook looked completely ordinary. You could sell it at any stationery shop and no one would blink. If you had not cleared Floor 24, you would never suspect it came from the Tower.

"Next, this eye has this property. If you stick it to a wall, it stays."

She pressed the eyeball onto the wall like clay. The grotesque eye clicked side to side, then melted into the wall and vanished. The surface wrapped around it like an eyelid.

"I just put a little of my aura into that eye. If it finds a stranger, this is what happens."

The buried eye snapped open, turned bloodshot, glared at me with pure hatred, then,

-Pop!

It exploded on its own.

"It explodes like that, and I receive a signal."

"Ooh..."

Just like the notebook, this looked insanely useful.

"But what counts as a 'stranger' exactly?"

"It is based on the familiarity felt by the aura's owner, in other words the mana user's sense of closeness. If they perceive someone as unfamiliar, it triggers an alert."

Until now they kept giving stuff like potions, Elixir of Experience, equipment, and so on. Then suddenly I got things this practical? I had to fight hard to keep the corners of my mouth from rising.

"Lastly... this mask can change your appearance for one hour. Would you like to try it?"

"...Yes."

"Put on the mask, then imagine the appearance you want. If the gap from your real body is too large, there may be side effects."

"Hmm..."

The moment I had to think of someone, my mind went blank. Who should I pick? Ah, right.

"Take a look."

The angel brought both hands together, then spread them apart, and a mirror-like image shimmered in the air.

"Whoa."

Reflected there was me as Kang Chan himself. The sharp face, the dangerous vibe, all of it copied perfectly.

The only unusual part was that this was not the Kang Chan I had seen in the future, but the Kang Chan from Floor 3, when we went through everything together. It clearly did not copy that person's exact body. It copied the appearance I wanted.

"After one hour of use, the mask breaks on its own, so please use it carefully."

The mask I had worn vanished the instant the angel took it, and a new one immediately formed and was placed in front of me.

"Notebook. Eyeball. Mask. Which one do you want?"

"Hmm..."

Honestly, all three were useful. More precisely, they were not especially useful inside the Tower. They were far, far more useful outside it.

Notebook? It catches liars, which is always good. It would be perfect for interrogating someone.

Eyeball? Great in reality and great in the Tower. Putting one in my studio apartment would be reassuring. It could stop thieves or intruders too.

The mask... if I ever needed to deceive someone, that thing would be incredibly efficient. Pull information while wearing the mask, then regress. Best case. It was the kind of item I could keep using for a long time.

Still, if I had to pick only one...

"Hmm..."

First, the notebook was out. Detecting lies is great, but I already had Choi Ji-won.

She does not detect lies directly, but she is extremely sensitive to physical reactions in people. A living lie detector with around 98% accuracy. Since we move together anyway, this notebook had limited value for me.

Next, the eyeball. Also insanely useful, yes, but it did not pull me right now.

An intruder in my studio apartment? First, my apartment's location itself was not public. A certain level of secrecy was still intact.

Sure, if we were talking about the Government of the Republic of Korea or bigger, they could find where I lived. But they wanted our favor, not a fight, at least so far. So they had not touched us. If I was not prioritizing Tower use, this dropped down the list.

But that last mask... I could use it very well in reality and in the Tower. The possibilities were endless. If I tested it and the effect was not good enough, I could regress and choose another.

"I will take the mask."

"Understood."

The angel handed me the mask with a blank face, then immediately opened a portal to reality.

"..."

She did not say anything, but her eyes clearly said, Get out already.

Fine, I would.

"Heh heh..."

Next time, though, it would be different.

* * *

Right after I passed through the portal and returned to my studio apartment,

"How did I clear it? I... honestly don't know."

Choi Ji-won, wearing soft microfiber pajamas, shrugged.

"I've never watched scary movies, you know? Maybe because of that, once I stepped outside it felt really... the atmosphere was... weird."

"You, no way."

"Yeah. So I just switched with Bung-bung. I closed my eyes and waited inside, then Bung-bung said it was cleared and told me to come out."

"...That is seriously busted."

Maybe because Floors 23 and 24 kept using mental attacks, but nothing seemed to work on Bung-bung, whose nature was a sword from birth. Bung-bung was developing a human heart thanks to Choi Ji-won, but at the core it was still a sword. You could not shove a ghost in front of a sword and ask, "Scared?" and expect a reaction.

"I just ignored everything and walked through. You can't do that?"

"As if I can."

Ignoring Bung-bung's brief jab at me, I explained what happened on Floor 24.

"...Is that allowed?"

"Nope, apparently not. So I got kicked out. Looks like the archangel is absent too, so they probably cannot fix it for a while."

"..."

Choi Ji-won stared at me blankly as if her brain had frozen for a second, then dismissed it with, "Serves the angels right."

"But next cycle, I think it might be better not to use that method."

"Why?"

"We talked about this before, but clearing in advance by altering the floor... that basically takes away other people's chance to grow. Floor 24 is on the easier side. Do we really need to take that chance from them?"

"Hmm..."

She was not wrong.

I cleared Floor 24 in a bizarre way, sure, but normally people could clear it within roughly twenty regressions. As long as they did not give up, they could just restart.

But if I altered Floor 24 and stole other players' experience? If it were an extremely dangerous floor, maybe, but for this one too? Did we really need that? She had a point.

"Okay. I will do it your way, Ji-won."

"Thanks, Jun-ho."

"Then tonight we watch a horror movie."

"...Huh."

That night, I fell asleep after watching horror movies with Choi Ji-won.

"Eek!"

Ji-won's screams were pretty cute.

* * *

Even if Choi Ji-won had not suggested it, I had planned to use a different method next cycle. Clearing Floor 24 by smashing walls was too slow and too inefficient.

So what was I going to do? I had already cleared Floor 24, so of course I should coast through it in an instant.

After confirming Ji-won had fallen asleep, I took out an unused phone and contacted Grim Reaper.

-Grim Reaper. Have you cleared Floor 24? I need information.

-No, I have not cleared it. But I can connect you to someone who has.

-Is this person trustworthy?

-They're one of us. You can trust them.

The nickname of the person Grim Reaper introduced was Shadow. Judging by the profile image, a caricature of a character in a suit, Shadow looked like someone who never grew out of their edgy middle-school phase.

-Please enter through this link.

-Thanks.

-It's an honor to be of help to an immortal sage. By any chance, do you like the Shinsengumi?

"What is he even talking about."

This Shadow guy was not normal, but the link he sent was the real deal.

It was an internet wiki titled Ghost Wiki. At first glance it just looked like a site collecting famous ghost stories, but if you entered the separate page only players could see, it had detailed records of the ghosts appearing on Floor 24.

"Oh, ohhh..."

Normally, upper-tier players do not share information. There is no point arguing over floors they already cleared, and the information itself usually circulates only inside their private inner circles. That is the opposite of Floors 1 through 10, where information spreads widely because there are so many random people.

So why was this Ghost Wiki packed with data? Because many players were fascinated by strange beings that did not exist in reality. Not just one or two people contributed to the wiki, and each story was vivid.

"Damn... ghosts and all... this guy's nuts."

I started building a plan while devouring the wiki pages.

After the corridor turned right for the first time, there was a large mirror in the fourth hospital room. If you showed it to the dancing ghost, the ghost ran away.

The living door opened if you brought a human mannequin from a room with a lab-like vibe and put it in. The reason was simple. The organs inside that mannequin were real.

For the skin-flaying monster, you just had to drop hairs from the wig in the clinic room. It mistook them for real and vanished on its own.

Beyond that, the wiki had careful strategies for countless Anomalies I had never seen, and I crammed all of it into my head while calculating the most efficient route.

"The moment I enter, I grab the human mannequin first... then I find the teddy bear in the room across..."

If I had to compare it, this was a speedrun with a guide open.

"I can finish this in one hour flat."

On puzzle floors, Regression was god and I was invincible.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 24.]

* * *

Right after regressing, I moved without hesitation according to the plan.

"...Huh?"

And then I felt it immediately, a sense of wrongness. Even with my fighting spirit removed, even with my mana gone, even with my mind dulled, the wrongness was massive enough to drown out all of that.

Floor 24... barely had any ghosts. More precisely, the ones blocking the corridor had disappeared.

The smiling dancing woman.

The book that burned you if you lied.

The living door.

The skin-flaying monster.

None of them appeared.

"...What is this."

As if it had been that way from the very beginning.

Footnotes:

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