WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 261

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The regressor proves himself (1)

A newly discovered use for Flash Step. This technique wasn't really meant for people weaker than me. It was a blade honed for opponents equal to or stronger than I was.

And if I had to name someone around me stronger than I was...

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

Choi Ji-won. Nobody else really fit the bill. It wasn't like I could ask Michael Zetter to spar with me.

So there we stood, inside a briefly rented gym, wooden swords in hand, facing off. Someone so familiar glaring at me with such an unfamiliar look on her face gave me a strange sense of dissonance. Like the Ji-won from the Tutorial days had come back.

"Let's start with the basics first, Jun-ho."

Saying that, Ji-won raised her sword straight and settled into a defensive stance. Was this how a master in a wuxia novel looked when yielding the first strike?

"I wouldn't know."

I charged in a single stride, like some junior with wounded pride. The distance between us, once fairly wide, closed in an instant, but my focus stayed locked entirely on Ji-won.

A thrust? A slash? Or the old trick, faking a thrust and switching to a kick?

No. None of it felt like it would work. She was too solid, too unshakeable. Even without regression, I'd be the one eating the hit. Our skill gap was too wide for any little trick or feint to land.

"Hah!"

So, an honest overhead strike. Both hands gripping the sword, putting my full weight behind a heavy downward blow. A big, obvious attack is easy to counter. Just don't block it, dodge it.

Fwoosh! Clack!

But Ji-won didn't dodge like some coward. She met the attack head on. And she didn't just block it, either, she even flicked it slightly aside. Considering that a top-down strike is supposed to be the most destructive kind of attack, even without using mana, that meant the raw physical gap between us was enormous.

"Guh..."

My breath got stolen from me. Now it was my turn to defend. A fairly straightforward thrust came flying in, and I caught it against the flat of my wooden sword, scraping it off to the side while closing the distance at the same time. Now. I spun my body halfway around, going for her with my elbow...

"No you don't."

I tried to hit her, but I was half a beat too slow. Ji-won had already kicked out my planted foot, and I lost my balance.

Fwomp.

As my body tipped over, losing balance, Ji-won caught me gently. The pose people call a princess carry. I twisted in humiliation, but Ji-won just grinned wickedly and refused to let go.

"Hey!"

"Ah, okay, okay."

Anyway, that brief exchange taught me something. Swordsmanship... unfortunately, I still couldn't beat Ji-won. My style of swordsmanship was built for quick, decisive fights, so the moment the flow got stolen from me like that, the outcome was pretty much sealed.

Ji-won said she'd spotted my problem just from that short exchange, and gave me some pointers.

"Jun-ho. Here, follow along. Not hard, right?"

"It's pretty hard..."

"..."

"..."

Maybe you only truly see once you've grown enough. Like thinking you'd reached the summit after pushing through the clouds, only to realize the sun had been hidden the whole time. Ji-won's grasp of swordsmanship, fused together with her mana, had already reached some far-off level. Wait, was this even possible?

"Genius or not, isn't this a little much?"

"Well, that's because I have Bung-bung."

"...Ah."

According to Ji-won's explanation, since she'd already become one with her sword, her understanding of the "sword" itself as a concept had risen, and on top of that, having two selves sparring inside her own head gave her a massive boost. Basically, she lived in a permanent state of sparring.

"You really are something else, noona."

Maybe I needed to take back what I said about beating her with Heart of Eternal Winter. While I'd been getting stronger, Ji-won had gotten stronger, stronger, and stronger still. Her thrusts were simple thrusts, her slashes were simple slashes, but the depth of technique packed into them had grown far more vast than before. I was almost worried she'd reach some transcendent state and ascend into an immortal on the spot.

"Let's go again."

But since when had I been some prodigy on Ji-won's level? Since when was my goal to beat her fair and square through pure swordsmanship?

Use any means necessary. Winning was what mattered. Even if it got a little dirty, the result was what counted.

"So, we're keeping the mana output pretty minimal?"

"Okay."

Unlike before, when we hadn't used any mana at all, we now faced each other while stirring up a small amount.

"Here I come."

My movements turned more cautious. Instead of big wide swings, I extended my sword carefully, chipping away bit by bit. I picked only attacks that carried low risk even if they got blocked.

"...!"

But that turned out to be the wrong call too. We were clearly trading blows, and since Ji-won was holding back, the physical gap between us wasn't huge, but little by little, I was getting pushed back. My breath kept getting stolen. On the surface it probably looked like a fierce back and forth, but I could feel the word defeat tightening around my throat with every passing second.

The differences were small. A tiny step taken while blocking an attack. A subtle twist of the hip while attacking. A hand extended that looked like it meant nothing. These small, trivial movements piled up, and up, and up, building "composure" for Ji-won and "impatience" for me.

Someone getting slowly ground down like this usually only has one option left, going big to try and turn the tide. If I was going to lose standing still anyway, I needed to force some kind of change. The problem was, my opponent was expecting exactly that.

"Here!"

The moment I crouched and set up for a big horizontal slash, Ji-won closed the distance immediately. Her plan was to block it before the swing gained full force, then finish me off. After all, the best time to block an attack was right before it landed.

Clang!

Just as she intended, my sword got blocked, and her extended hand came within a hair of my throat.

Fwoosh!

"Huh?"

I shifted half a step back in an instant, stopping just before I could grab Ji-won's throat in turn. Her hand, which had been reaching for my throat, had shifted into a knife-hand strike aimed at my Adam's apple, but it was too late.

"I was faster, wasn't I?"

"...Yeah."

Only a hair's difference, but the win was mine.

"This is actually pretty great."

Ji-won shook out her wrist, nodding along.

"They call it super-high-speed movement, but honestly, it's basically teleportation. I really thought you'd charge in the same direction. I was ready to counter with my free hand... but I didn't expect you to move backward."

"Turns out, from practicing it, I can't move side to side, but forward and backward is free."

Useless against something huge, or a monster that just rams straight into you, but for martial artists like Ji-won, the type who dodge every attack by the thinnest margin, I figured this would work incredibly well. Flash Step. Not just that, it seemed like it would also work great for simple ambushes.

"I'll keep using this going forward..."

Next thing to think about was the Ring of Transformation. Thanks to clearing Floor 25 in record time, the Ring of Transformation could now even change the material of my clothes, and I planned to make full use of this "transformation" feature.

"How's this."

To push the "immortal sage" concept going forward, I figured I should dress a little more like one.

Going full flowy robes would probably look strange... but what about something like the martial robes from wuxia novels? I actually ordered one and tried it on, and instead of feeling awkward, I found myself leaning toward thinking it looked cool. Good, satisfying.

A man in a martial robe, scattering white mist around him? Anyone would take one look and think immortal sage. Maybe I should grow my hair out a bit and tie it back? Wouldn't people start asking if I'd reverse-aged into a youth? My mouth kept twitching up at the corners despite myself.

"Hmm, then I guess I'll..."

Instead of her current steel armor, Ji-won went with leather armor layered over modern clothes, and it looked far more natural, prettier too. Looking at the two of us like this, we looked like a pair of cosplayers.

"...Should keep our memories, right?"

"You think?"

We enjoyed a short date, then regressed right away. This cycle too, we skipped Floor 26. No contribution ranking to worry about for now, and no business on Floor 26. No need to talk with Michael Zetter either.

There was only one thing left to do.

"Let's go."

Clear Floor 27.

You have entered Floor 27.

Dark night. Wind blowing. Flecks of snow clung to my face, melted from body heat, then froze back into thin ice.

"What's this. You're here."

"Come on in. It's cold."

A voice from behind. It came from inside a log cabin buried under a soft blanket of snow. I pushed the door open and stepped in to find two players warming themselves by a cozy fireplace. Both had used the Ring of Transformation they'd gotten on Floor 25, so their appearances varied, but I could tell they were players just by looking at their eyes. Their eyes were open unusually wide.

"...Choi Ji-won?"

"What? I never heard anything about you coming to Floor 26?"

Since we'd headed straight for Floor 27 the moment we entered Floor 26 this time, word of Ji-won hadn't spread at all. Both players stared with round eyes.

"Do you two know what this floor is like?"

"No... this is a floor where you need five people gathered to proceed. One more person needs to show up..."

Clatter!

"Ah! Cold!"

Right on cue, a woman in a bikini scrambled into the log cabin, and the moment the [4/5] floating in midair changed to [5/5]...

"Wait, why are you in a bikini..."

"I transformed it, why, is there a problem?"

"No, no problem, just..."

"Wait. Wait. I hear something."

From outside came some kind of commotion. A human voice. Human footsteps. The players, who'd been bickering among themselves, immediately grabbed their weapons, and the voice, drawing steadily closer, stopped right in front of the door before...

"Welcome, my friends!"

A man with a thick beard and dull blond hair threw the door open, muscles rippling. He'd stripped off his shirt despite the falling snow.

The man swept his gaze around the log cabin, then broke into a bright grin and said,

"You've come here for a glorious death too, haven't you?"

"...Excuse me?"

Are you ready to die.

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