WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 248

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The regressor gets lost (2)

"...Left? Ah. Right."

I walked through the maze, focusing on how much mana I was consuming. Strangely, every time I chose a certain path, my mana consumption gradually increased, and that gave me confidence.

Why was my mana consumption increasing? Most likely because the poison was getting denser.

Then why was the poison getting denser?

There could be several reasons, but if I interpreted it in the way most favorable to me,

if this thing called the King of the Maze was producing poison... it made sense.

"This could be one of the hints."

Like I guessed before, this maze could never be cleared by ordinary means. It made no sense to tell us to escape a giant maze in just a few hours.

I would even go so far as to say this: using poison density to find the path was the right answer. At the very least, it was one right answer. There were no real hints otherwise.

"Straight first. Then left. Then straight again. Then right."

So remembering every path I had walked was naturally part of the job. I would move along the same route in the next cycle anyway, and if I remembered the route, each cycle would go much more smoothly. A regressor's greatest weapon is information. Never forget that.

"Straight first, then right. After that..."

"Grrrk."

How long had I been walking like that? I was so focused on memorizing the path that even I could clearly hear something growling.

"What the hell."

So I was not alone in this maze? Was that the King of the Maze? I moved toward the sound, about twenty meters away, and what I saw was

"...A goblin?"

"Grrr..."

A white goblin was looking around in the middle of an intersection. It was even holding a bizarre spear, and the aura coming off it was pretty vicious.

"Go."

"Keeek!"

Of course, it was not on my level. Not just me, any player who could reach Floor 25 could kill it easily. If I had to compare, maybe it had the fighting power of a pro fighter. Powerful movements, quick footwork, but nowhere near superhuman.

"Keeek..."

What was unusual was that the half-dead goblin started crawling somewhere. Even with its life clearly fading, it frantically turned its head and dragged a long trail of blood across the floor.

"...I feel a little bad."

It looked so pitiful that I put it out of its misery. Seriously, why did it not just charge at me? What was that about?

Well, feeling bad for the white goblin was one thing, but why was a goblin here at all? Why was a monster like that running around in a maze filled with poison gas?

And more importantly, where was it heading? Why had it been drawing aggro with loud growls?

"..."

After choosing the "right path" about four times in a row, I ran into a white goblin. Could that really be a coincidence? I had a feeling this was also one of the Tower's hints for escape.

Until now, I had been distracted by talking to myself, circulating mana, and memorizing this and that.

But what if I had not been so tense about the poison gas itself, and had calmly watched my surroundings?

Could I have heard that faint "grrrk" from the starting point and chosen a direction from it? Or if not, what if I had a tracking ability like Choi Ji-won and could see where goblins were?

"I see..."

The moment I realized that, new information started pouring in. The shapes of the vines growing on the walls looked meaningful. At first glance, they looked random, but when I looked closely, some were almost arrow-shaped.

"No, now that I look, even the ceiling...?"

The ceiling color was slightly different from the starting point too. The ceiling at the start was a little dark, but this place had a slightly brighter tone.

I checked the floor just in case, and it was not pure stone either. Plants were slowly growing over it. More greenery...!!! Even tiny bits of soil were scattered around...!!!

"Ah... so that's it."

Only then did I understand the concept of this floor. "Poison gas" was just a tool to push people into tension and excitement. The moment a time limit appeared, people panicked. Blood rushed to the brain, and they could not make proper judgments. If you got swept up in that excitement and ran around the maze, you died. Unless you were absurdly lucky, escape was impossible.

But what if you did not get swept up by the poison gas and stayed calm? Then the maze itself was one giant map. It directly told you where to go to escape.

If I did not have Regression, I might have panicked and run around like those idiots. But I was a regressor. By calmly observing my surroundings, I had nailed the core of this floor.

After figuring out this floor's strategy,

"Left here."

I went left, the direction the giant worm had crawled.

"Straight."

I followed the direction the vines grew.

"Right."

I checked the brightness of the ceiling and turned right, and I started moving forward at a speed that was not even comparable to before. I checked mana consumption now and then just in case, and every path I chose turned out to be correct. My judgment was not wrong.

Just when it felt like I would keep advancing like a sailboat riding a favorable wind,

"...What the hell."

I ran into a terrifying obstacle.

The fallen spider had been moving left. The vines pointed left too. The left ceiling was brighter, and the left floor was greener. Everything inside the maze was signaling me to go left.

But mana, and only mana, told me to go right here. The poison density itself was very slightly thicker on the right.

"...Hmm."

I had no time to sit and deliberate. Judging by how my mana was scraping the bottom, I had about five minutes left. I had no idea how much farther I had to go, but one thing was clear: I had to decide quickly.

Mana, or the rule I had found. I did not hesitate long.

"Right first."

I would come back after regressing anyway, so why not try both? It was just a matter of order, and I wanted to try right first. I was also confident in handling the power called mana.

The right path I chose was a little different from before. There were still forks, but thanks to the Mana Filter, choosing was not difficult. The strange part was that monsters, vines, floor, and ceiling stopped sending any signals at all.

Mana kept telling me to move forward, but with no other clues, I felt pretty uneasy. I would run out of mana soon. Still, since I had come this far, I wanted to see it through, but then

"...It's blocked."

What I faced at the end was a dead end. It looked like choosing the right path was the wrong choice after all.

I thought trusting mana was the answer. I was wrong. I messed up.

"...Damn."

Still, that was fine. I was a regressor, so I had a second chance. Or maybe not? If I were not a regressor, could I not just go back and take the left path? Either way, let's do it again. Next time I can do better.

I settled my mind and released the mana inside my lungs, right before regressing.

-Whoooosh.

From beyond the wall that clearly looked blocked, I felt an extremely faint breeze. The wind was thick with poison, enough to make the mana in my lungs throb violently.

"...?"

Sensing something strange, I crept toward the wall. Then I stretched my palm out wide and pushed it forward.

-Slip.

My hand passed straight through the wall. I waved around the hand buried in it, and it seemed there was a separate space beyond.

"..."

Judging by my remaining mana, I had about thirty seconds left. I made my decision and shoved my whole body through the wall.

Inside a void where I could not even tell up from down, left from right, where all I could see was pitch-black darkness,

I met the gaze of a huge cow's innocent eyes.

"..."

"..."

The giant cow head sat alone on what looked like the floor, and when I looked closely, it seemed to be slowly rising out of the black ground. Its trapezius was just starting to show. Like a giant monster slowly emerging from water.

-Blink.

The cow blinked. I blinked too. I had no idea what to say.

It felt like secretly using the computer at dawn and getting caught by your parents.
Like coming home at 4 a.m. after getting completely drunk, only to find Ji-won still awake and waiting.

I had seen that creature before, with only its head poking out of the floor. More precisely, I had seen it countless times in the Tutorial.

"...Minotaur?"

"...Moo..."

The Minotaur rolled its round eyes and awkwardly avoided my gaze. Like it was saying, "Let's just move past this."

Honestly, I did not really understand what this situation was.

"...This feels like a place I was not supposed to come."

Again... it looked like I had discovered something.

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