WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 247

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The regressor gets lost (1)

<Floor 25>
-Defeat the King of the Maze and escape.
-Poison has spread throughout Floor 25. You may not feel much at first, but moving will get harder over time. Ordinary people die in about one hour. Climbers die within 2 to 3 hours. Please be careful.

Right after regressing, I loosened up and carefully scanned my surroundings.

The place I stood in was clearly enclosed by artificial stone walls. A narrow path about 3 meters wide, with tall walls rising on both sides. Because of the translucent ceiling, I could not see the sky.

Behind me was blocked off. Ahead, right, and left were open. Even those paths were not random. They bent at exact 90-degree angles.

"A maze."

Just like the name King of the Maze suggested, it was unmistakably a maze. There had been one on Floor 3 too, the mirror maze, or something like that.

This place was so wide and tall that comparing it to that one felt almost unfair. The strange part was that there was light even though the ceiling was sealed. And the air had a green tint to it.

The green air was probably because of the poison. The light, I had no idea. There were no torches or lamps in sight.

Anyway. If this place was a maze, then the word escape made sense. Escaping a maze was never easy.

Back in middle school, or maybe high school, my friends and I once made a maze in Minecraft multiplayer for fun. It was not even that big, and the layout was basically copied straight off the internet.

Still. It was surprisingly hard to get out. No, ridiculously hard.

Mazes were easy when you looked at them from above. You already knew the start and exit, so you just ignored dead ends and traced the path that connected.

But if you explored in first-person, it was a completely different story. You did not know where you were or where the exit was. After enough time passed, your memory of where you were and how far you had come got scrambled.

There was a reason the left-hand rule existed. Unless your spatial awareness was godlike, escaping a huge maze head-on was practically impossible. Memorize the route in your head? No chance.

At least there was one good thing. I only had to clear this floor once.

The moment I cleared it and returned to reality, Choi Ji-won would have found the answer, and I could just copy it. All that mattered was one success. Clear it once and Floor 25 was done. The first clear was the beginning, the end, and everything.

"Hmm."

I could not use normal methods. I only had 20 minutes. "Wander around until I clear the maze" was not even worth considering. Maybe absurd luck could make that work someday, but it would take too long.

The left-hand rule was out too. That method meant following the maze's left outer wall all the way, and with a maze this big, it would blow way past 20 minutes.

Then what trick could clear this floor?

"If we're talking classic maze tricks..."

The first thing that came to mind was ignoring walls. Break them, pass through them, do whatever it took to deny that the wall even existed.

If that was allowed, I could just break the wall behind me and leave. Well, assuming I knew where the King of the Maze was.

-Tap tap.

When I knocked the wall with the back of my hand, the sound was heavy as hell. It felt exactly like hitting a real wall. The thickness had to be insane.

"...Still, I should test it."

I gathered mana and slammed the wall behind me over and over. The wall was stone, and with my cold-wrapped sword it broke fast, but...

"...This is way too thick."

I dug over 5 meters in and still saw no end. I broke the left and right walls too, just to check. Those were around 3 meters thick. Breakable, yes, but still thick enough to be a burden.

"Huff, huff..."

Using that much force sped up my breathing, burned a huge amount of mana, and the chill near my heart started flashing warning signs. Breaking walls to escape was probably not it.

Of course I had no plan to stop there. Did I need to obsess over walls only? Paths did not have to be just front, back, left, and right.

"The ceiling or the floor."

When I poked at the floor, it seemed to be packed solid with stone. The direction I had hope for was the ceiling.

That ceiling up there. No matter how I looked at it, it was translucent enough that it felt like something existed beyond it.

"Let's try."

Breaking through the ceiling would be huge. If going above it counted as escape, that was a massive win. Even if it did not, I would still get a full view of the maze from above. That was basically the whole map.

-Pak!

I wrapped sharply rotating mana around my hand and drove it into the wall. Not soft enough to be tofu, but it dug in like clay.

"And now."

Once my hand was fully embedded, I stopped the mana rotation. My hand locked firmly in place inside the wall. A little trick using the fine mana control I learned on Floor 21. I used the same method on my feet and climbed quickly.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The mana drain was brutal. On Floor 25, mana equaled survival time, so this was a real burden.

Still, I planned to regress anyway, and I was climbing fast, so I did not bother worrying.

Pak!

"Got it."

Maybe because I climbed in a blank state, I had already reached the ceiling. I glanced down. Maybe 10 meters? 15? Pretty high.

"Hoo..."

Carefully, I drew the sword at my waist. Up close, the ceiling did not look that sturdy. It was basically translucent glass. I could faintly see space beyond it too. If I broke through, the maze below would spread out in plain view.

I kept both legs and my left arm fixed to the wall. I scraped together every bit of mana I had left, about half, and loaded it into the sword. If this broke the ceiling now, next time I could break it first instead of climbing.

"Here I go."

Bad posture, but mana could still make a heavy strike possible even like this. I gripped the handle tight with my right hand and focused on my shoulder joint.

-Swiiiish!

My sword thrust with full power...!!!

"...Huh?"

It stopped right before touching the ceiling. It was not blocked. It did not bounce off. It just froze.

"..."

I pushed harder, but the sword would not move. Just... just... no use.

Was this the archangel's power? It was not about hardness. It was impossible by design. Like hitting an invisible wall in a game that cannot be bypassed.

Right, so they blocked the tricks.

"...Smart."

I let out a sigh and inhaled a lungful of green air.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 25.]

"This is wrong."

No matter how I thought about it, my approach was wrong. I would never clear it like this.

This was a precious chance Choi Ji-won bought with sacrifice. I needed to clear with as few regressions as possible and save both mental strength and stamina. Right now, I was rushing too hard.

Let me summon ordinary Player A again. No, someone who reached Floor 25 was not ordinary. Let me summon smart prodigy A.

When A came to his senses on Floor 25, how would they move?

They would probably touch the walls or ceiling first, like me. Then give up right away. The return was too pathetic for the effort.

On top of that, poison was spread through the maze, so there was a time limit. Even assuming they kept drinking potions and moved for a generous three hours, no, four hours...

That meant not just me, but normal players in general, could not clear this maze by wandering around blindly. A maze existed to confuse people in the first place.
The left-hand rule? That could get you out, sure, if finding the King of the Maze was not required.
If the objective were only escape, maybe. But the King's existence demanded a different solution from the left-hand rule.

So how was A supposed to escape this maze? Was wandering until poison took them the only future?

No way.

There was something. Something had to exist to guide the way. Otherwise this would be impossible to clear in time. Four hours meant, "do not pray for luck, find the answer." That was my read.

"First, let's move a bit. Left."

To find the clue, I started walking. Staying at the start point gathered zero information. As I walked, I studied the vines growing on the walls and the wall patterns in detail.

Come to think of it, poison was everywhere, so how were these vines alive? Were they immune? Or did poison gas not affect plants in the first place? No idea.

After walking for a while...

"Hmm."

After about three minutes, I learned one thing.

"...Dead end."

That thing was that I knew nothing. I was not a maze expert, not some genius. Maybe I was just a regressor with too much time. I could not find a single clue in this maze.

I managed to backtrack and return to the start point, but there was zero progress. What now? At this rate, I might really have to smash my head against this until luck clears it.

"This time... forward."

I still could not stand still. This time I walked straight ahead and watched my surroundings closely. Again, nothing changed. Stone walls, vines, translucent ceiling, and...

"Huh?"

No. There was a change.

Different. The feel of Mana Filter was different.

Until just now, it felt like fine beach sand catching deep in my throat. Now it felt like rough sand scooped from a playground.

Normally, it was too subtle to notice, but to me, a mana specialist, the difference was clear. Looking closer, mana consumption had also gone up just a little.

Mana Filter's mana cost had increased. What did that mean? Why was it fine when I went left, but higher when I went forward?

I did not know. Honestly, I did not know yet. I still could not be sure of anything.

But I understood it on instinct.

"This is it."

This was the path leading to the answer.

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