WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 250

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The regressor gets lost (4)

The King of the Maze was truly taciturn. No, rather than taciturn, "not interested" felt more accurate.

He stayed silent through my barrage of questions, and sometimes, as if annoyed, muttered, "You moron," before giving me a reluctant answer. His stance was clear. He had already explained everything necessary, so why did I keep clinging to him?

"Come on, say something. Is there really no way?"

But I could not just wait forever either. I did not have much time to begin with. It already took ages just to get here, and this guy was uncooperative on top of that, so it was frustrating as hell.

Choi Ji-won cleared this floor in ten minutes, so there had to be some kind of trick. This guy clearly had no intention of telling me. Meanwhile, time kept ticking away.

Since I could not kill him... I had to test things, right? I really hated attacking someone who was not resisting, but I had no choice.

"Uh, are you really going to stab me? You really are?"

"...A waste of effort."

"Hey, I really do not know. I warned you."

I squeezed my eyes shut and drove my sword deep into the man's chest. The King of the Maze let out a low groan, but still stared at me with that same blunt expression.

"No way... I stabbed your heart."

"I said it was a waste of effort."

"...Whew. I did not want to do this either."

"..."

About three minutes remained. I was really, really sorry, but I had no choice.

I carried out all kinds of experiments on the non-resisting King of the Maze, things that are hard to even put into writing.

"...Why are you not dying?"

"..."

No matter what I did to him, the King of the Maze did not die. If any body part was damaged, it naturally reattached after a short while, and even in conditions where life should not be able to continue, he breathed and spoke just fine.

Have you ever seen a severed head speak? I promise you, you do not want to.

Anyway, I failed to "defeat" the King of the Maze within three minutes. Thinking maybe I had missed something, I went back to him and repeated all kinds of experiments again.

"...A waste of effort."

"Oh my god."

This man did not die no matter what happened. Whether I froze him with mana, cut him with a sword, locked his joints, or suffocated him, I can guarantee the grotesque sights did far more damage to my mind than he took to his body.

I even steeled myself and tried striking his soul... but I could not touch the King of the Maze's soul. Something was there, but it felt like punching a rubber balloon. I got no impact at all.

"...Is this not it?"

By then I was starting to panic. Huh? Is there really no trick? What is this? This is weird.

Next cycle, just in case, I tried the straightforward route. I ran through the maze at the absolute limit of my speed and gathered the "items."

As a result, by the time I regressed, I had managed to collect only two of the five items the King of the Maze asked for. Even with a rough memory of the map and the fastest route I could manage.

If I ran at full speed, I might barely pull off three, maybe four... but I was not used enough to the Mana Filter to run flat out yet, and even at full speed, collecting all five items was unrealistic. I was sure now. The straightforward method would not work.

So the next thing I tried was,

"Goodbye."

-Stab!

"Gwooooh..."

With a mournful dying cry, the Minotaur rolled back its eyes. This time I did not waste time and came straight to the Black Space, then drove my sword into the crown of the Minotaur's head, the only part barely sticking out above the surface.

The Minotaur, with no arms or torso, begged me with desperate eyes, but a monster was still a monster. The only mercy I could offer was to send it off without pain. At least it probably went peacefully.

"...Huh."

The problem was that even after killing the Minotaur, I got no reward at all. At least a message like "An additional reward will be granted." could have appeared. Or my achievement level could have risen, at minimum. My status window showed no change, and the Minotaur's corpse simply slid away under the black floor.

Honestly, I did not think this was normal. No matter how much players had improved, a Minotaur was still a Minotaur. In a one-on-one situation, the overwhelming majority of players could never guarantee a win against that thing. On top of that, by the time players met the Minotaur, a lot of time had already passed. Their bodies would already be poisoned, so they could not even be considered in peak condition.

And yet it gave no reward at all? Not even an achievement level increase?

"...An error?"

It was far more reasonable to see this as an "error" rather than an intended outcome. This was inside the Black Space, a place you normally were never supposed to enter, so it made sense that rewards were not being issued.

Yeah, it made sense... but what was I supposed to do then? No reward, and I had wasted time.

"...Whew."

I sighed and bit the inside of my cheek again. There had to be something. There had to be.

[You have taken damage.]

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

Regression repeated itself. There was not a single cycle where I did not try. Every run was a blood-and-sweat stretch where I set one goal and charged toward it.

I could not memorize the whole maze, but I memorized the route to the King of the Maze. Now I could run there in under five minutes. I was not happy about it. I had spent that much time.

Ah, there was one small result. After repeating regressions, I understood how this King of the Maze operated.

He answered only questions that, by his standards, were "worth answering." You could call it completely arbitrary, but he was a king, so I just accepted it.

Once I understood that rule, I asked several questions that I thought hit the core, and each time the King of the Maze answered willingly.

"So, why do I have to gather these things before I can kill you?"

"I am... an immortal being. I was born that way. So by gathering those materials, you lower the rank of my existence. It is, in a sense, a ritual."

"Then if you die, does an exit appear? Like in the Tutorial?"

"..."

Sometimes, the King of the Maze drew a line by staying silent like this. Most of those were questions asking "what happens," in other words, questions about the future.

It did not feel like he did not want to answer. He probably just physically could not say it.

Anyway, I did dig up a fair amount of information...

"So... this really does seem to be beneath Tutorial Island... and the King of the Maze challenged a god, so the entire world got cursed..."

The "King of the Maze" had originally been the ruler of one world, immortal, and supposedly a good king, but after making some mistake with a god, his world collapsed and he was trapped in the Tower to receive eternal punishment. A boring story.

The problem was that it was not very useful information. Just background knowledge that was nice to know, but not important.

I still could not find the answer to the question, "How do I clear this floor?" I had tried nearly every normal method I could think of, and even bizarre stunts close to nonsense, but all of it failed.

"..."

When I first entered Floor 25, I was relaxed. While searching for a solution, I became irritated and angry. Now I was afraid. I was afraid I might really never get out of here.

Floor 25 consumed a lot of mental strength. I had to focus on mana every single moment. True "rest" was impossible.

Right after regressing was a problem too. Because of the poison, the moment I regressed, before inhaling, I had to pinch my nose shut, fully exhale everything in my lungs, and form the Mana Filter. It was not a difficult motion, but it gnawed at my nerves every time.

It was not that I was going insane or falling into madness. I was just... drained. And tired.

"No... how did you do it..."

Choi Ji-won. How on earth had she cleared this floor in ten minutes? What had she done?

Why was nothing clicking for me? What did I do wrong?

How. How did Choi Ji-won do it. What method did she use?

"I wish someone would kill the King of the Maze for me."

Could the Minotaur kill him? It felt like if it stomped on him hard enough, something might happen.

What if I forcibly dragged it out of the Black Space, then gently lured it over to where the King of the Maze was? If I grabbed its horns and pulled, would it come out?

"..."

Wait.

The Minotaur?

"..."

A terrifying idea came to me. Honestly, I thought it could work.

If the King of the Maze could not be defeated with any normal method,

then I had no choice but to try a method outside common sense too.

"Excuse me."

"..."

Hearing my voice, the King of the Maze glared at me, moving only his eyes.

"Uh, do you absolutely have to stay here? Can you go outside?"

Maybe the question surprised him, because his brows twitched. Had I sparked his interest? He answered me kindly.

"...I do not care. But the ritual to free me cannot be carried out anywhere but he-"

"Then that is enough. Want to follow me for a moment?"

If he could leave this place, then maybe this would work. This was the final measure I had come up with.

"Uh, there is somewhere interesting."

Let us put the King of the Maze into the Black Space, the place no one was supposed to enter. Let us see if he still endured even there.

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