WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 254

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The regressor is troubled (1)

-You have entered Floor 26.

"Whoa."

The muscles I had kept tense in case of a sudden attack went slack. Nothing had confirmed this place was safe yet, but I found my mouth hanging open as I looked around anyway. Part of it was trusting the skintight armor I had made with the Ring of Transformation.

"Wow..."

Ji-won was the same. We started scanning our surroundings like a couple who had just moved to the city from the countryside.

Skyscrapers rose into the sky. Beside them, magma bubbled and boiled. Beside that, a snow-capped mountain buried under eternal ice. And beside that, a jagged rock cliff.

A steampunk district where machines built from steam engines walked around. A sci-fi zone with drones flying overhead. A fantasy realm where an elf stretched lazily. A wandering swordsman sipping bamboo leaf liquor. Something monstrous crouched in silence down a shadowed back alley.

Centered on the wide circular plaza where we now stood, all these different, wildly varied worlds, lives, and buildings stretched out in every direction.

Was this what it looked like when dozens, hundreds of worlds got mixed together? Worlds that should never have belonged in the same place coexisted in some inexplicable harmony. It felt like tossing napa cabbage, doenjang, pizza, cake, and ramen into one pot and somehow getting something that worked. Hard to put into words.

"...Choi Ji-won."

"Who's that next to her?"

Against this avant-garde backdrop, the central plaza stood apart, existing on its own. It looked like a colosseum built of pure white marble, and a handful of people sat scattered around it, all staring at Ji-won and murmuring to each other.

"Choi Ji-won. That you?"

One of them walked over, footsteps deliberate, and pushed her face right up to Ji-won's. Anyone could tell she was looking for a fight.

"That's me."

"Hmph..."

The woman looked Ji-won up and down, then stepped back a couple of paces.

"Heard the rumors. Guess they weren't exaggerating. Welcome."

"..."

"Who's this next to you? Boyfriend?"

"A companion."

We had agreed beforehand that if any other player asked about our relationship, we would say "companion," so Ji-won answered without hesitation. The woman glanced between me and Ji-won, said "Welcome" once more, then turned and walked back toward her group.

"..."

"..."

Once the woman was far enough away.

"What was that about?"

"Someone I know. Italian, I think. Gets pretty famous later. So she was here this whole time."

"Yeah? I don't really know the players from other countries."

I shrugged and went back to looking around Floor 26. There were more players here than I expected. A lot more.

And above all, every single one of them was strong. Not one person here was someone I felt certain I could beat on a first encounter. (That was factoring in regression, too.)

"What is this place."

A density of players I had never seen before. A strength that towered far above what I used to think of as "average." I was still trying to work out what that meant when—

"Welcome! Climber... Jun-ho-nim?"

An angel came flitting over, then stopped short, eyes going wide.

"...Anael?"

"Jun-ho-nim! It's an honor to see you again!"

This was the placard angel I had kept running into ever since Floor 2. Anael.

"Did someone else screw up and open a spot again this time?"

"Correct! Sharp as ever!"

Anael's smile stretched wide across his face. Still smiling, he pulled paper pamphlets from somewhere on his person and handed one to each of us.

"What's this?"

"A simple map of Floor 26!"

"...?"

I unfolded the paper pamphlet, and there it was, a detailed layout of Floor 26 drawn up like the map of a theme park.

<Floor 26>
-Choose whether to be satisfied here, or to cross the line.

A message window appeared right after. This Floor's description was... pretty cryptic. Maybe this vague strangeness was the whole concept of this Floor.

"Floor 26 is a resting place, a hub! Some climbers call it the 'Meeting Plaza'! Call it whatever you like! What matters is that Floor 26 has two defining traits!"

Anael held up two fingers toward us as we studied the pamphlet.

"First! Physical and magical violence is forbidden on Floor 26! Not a loose rule like Floor 2's, this one is enforced as 'divine authority'! Even entertaining the thought of breaking it can bring consequences, so please be careful!"

"...Violence is banned?"

Ji-won, listening, raised a fingernail to scratch the back of her hand, but—

-Thump.

"Huh?"

Her nail stopped right before touching her skin. It didn't look like she'd stopped on purpose. Probably some measure in place, like the ceiling back on Floor 25.

"...So this wasn't allowed on Floor 2 either?"

"The archangel in charge is different there!"

Anael brushed past that lightly and folded down one finger.

"And second! Floor 26 is a Floor shared by all players, and you can come here anytime from Floor 1!"

"You can come here anytime?"

"Yes! Returning to Floor 1 and coming back to Floor 26 are both entirely free! That's why it's a 'hub'!"

"...Ah."

Only then did it click why my future self had struggled so much with gathering information. No matter how hard I searched, there had been no community for top-tier players, and back then I'd just assumed they kept to themselves.

But if a Floor like this existed, there was no need for a separate community. Important information and item trades could all happen right here.

"Huh..."

It wasn't quite a built-in status window gallery for swapping opinions, but this was more than enough to count as a massive community hub for players.

That explained the unusually high population too. Players currently leading the charge, way past Floor 26, would still stop by here from time to time. A place where every player at "Floor 26 and beyond" gathered. That was exactly what Floor 26 was.

"So there's nothing separate we need to do here? It just clears automatically?"

"Correct! And you'll receive a reward on top of that! Once you return to Floor 1 later, you'll find a special new function has been added!"

"...This Floor just hands everything out for free."

This whole Floor seemed built entirely for the players' benefit. Convenience, rewards, an entire Floor you could coast through.

"That said, please don't take it too lightly!"

Sensing my mood, Anael's usually upbeat tone shifted, just slightly.

"Floor 26 is... a kind of turning point!"

He spread his arms wide and slowly spun in place.

"I imagine you've already realized that the higher you climb the Tower, the stronger you become! The nobility of a being can be measured by the loftiness of the spirit, but a finely honed body raises one's standing just as well. Different directions, sure, but both are undeniably marks of a fine human being!"

He stopped spinning and pointed at me and Ji-won.

"In that sense, Jun-ho-nim and Ji-won-nim... could be called truly excellent examples of humanity! Your minds are sharp, and your bodies are just as well trained, aren't they? If value could be assigned to a person, your names would sit near the very top!"

Anael's pointing hand moved slowly from left to right, and a line appeared between us and him. Not a physical line, but one made of light, floating in midair.

"But from here on... from Floor 26 onward, climbers cross a certain line."

Something serious settled into his eyes. This was the first time I'd heard Anael speak in such a calm, grave tone.

"The Tower's lower Floors tested various aspects of humanity. Quick thinking, wit, deduction, teamwork, the drive to improve... You could say they focused heavily on a person's character, their humanity. Even with less raw force than others, a righteous mindset was enough to clear these Floors."

That was true. The Floors past Floor 4 had each demanded some philosophical value from humankind, designed so that clearing them required meeting certain conditions.

It meant that even someone like Mr. Kim, with a low level and mediocre traits, could climb the Tower quickly on nothing but guts. Unlike the towers in most other fiction, this one was 'relatively' safe, in that people weren't dying in droves.

"But from here on. From Floor 26 onward, one's personal 'strength' becomes the baseline requirement. Without talent. Without a tolerance for violence. Without the resolve to fight your way forward... this is a Floor where we no longer recommend continuing upward. We emphasize this every single time, for the sake of climbers' lives."

But Floor 26 onward was different. Absolute physical strength was required. On top of philosophy, a lack of power could get you killed in an instant. That was what Anael was saying.

"And one more thing. If you go further past Floor 26... you will gradually leave the boundary of what it means to be human."

"...What does that mean?"

"As I keep saying... Jun-ho-nim and Ji-won-nim are still, at this point, wonderfully, remarkably human. So if you advance beyond this... you head toward true transcendence. Toward existing as something beyond human."

"..."

"Climbers who aren't ready to move beyond humanity, to go further, to go past it... should stop here as well. That is the meaning built into this Floor. It's a concept that includes responsibility, identity, and raw power itself, all at once."

It reminded me of what the King of the Maze had said on Floor 25. That he'd struggled so hard to be free that he'd ended up losing his freedom.

What Anael was saying now carried a similar thread. I climbed the Tower to protect humanity from annihilation while holding on to my own humanity. I grew stronger.

But if the result of that... was that I ended up surpassing humanity, becoming something more than human. Would I regret it, or would I be satisfied? Without meaning to, I found myself sinking deeper into the question.

"Well! It's entirely up to each climber's choice! But before heading to Floor 27, I do recommend giving it some real thought!"

Back to his usual tone, Anael stepped back.

"I need to go greet another climber who just entered! Please come find me again sometime!"

"Uh, uh, sure!"

He was already gone before I could ask why the previous assigned angel had been swapped out. I'd have to ask some other time.

"...If a mind that's still human exists inside a body that's transcended humanity, is that still human? No, wouldn't the mind end up warped by the body's influence eventually?"

"Ji-won. Let's think about that later."

I grabbed the arm of Ji-won, who'd gotten completely absorbed in the question Anael had left us with, and started walking toward the spot marked "Market" on the map.

That's one thing. This is another.

"Let's just look around first."

Worry could wait.

Right now it was time to explore Floor 26 in more detail.

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