WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 276

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The regressor advances (2)

It was a little past five, an awkward hour to call evening. The sound of meat sizzling filled the air.

"You know, being a firefighter, we normally don't get days off, no vacations, nothing like that. A day off like today doesn't come around often."

Park Cheol-jin laughed heartily and poured soju. With practiced hands, he wrapped a piece of pork belly in lettuce and popped it straight into his mouth. When he'd first met me, it had been a while, so he'd used that half-formal, half-casual speech out of awkwardness, but now he spoke to me easily.

"If I stepped away while I'm still in my prime, huh, things wouldn't run right. Thanks to the status window, I'm still flying around out there."

He finished the wrap in one bite, flexed his arm to show off his bicep, then slapped the muscle loudly with his other hand. For someone his age, it really was an impressive build.

"Didn't you say on Floor 3 that you'd climb the Tower harder than anyone else?"

"No, that's… ahem."

Choi Ji-won smiled and jabbed right at the weak spot. Park Cheol-jin, despite his tiger-like face, looked away.

"Well, uh, when my wife got sick I sort of forgot about it for a while… and once she got better, man, did she nag me for it… I couldn't win that fight."

"Pfft, mister. What is that."

"I understand completely."

"Hey! Kim Jun-ho!"

Park Cheol-jin hadn't climbed the Tower since. I think I'd heard he stopped after Floor 3. There were probably several reasons, but the "practical" one was likely the biggest. He was the head of a household, and a firefighter responsible for people's lives. (He'd used an Elixir to cure his wife's cancer.)

"Honestly, the real reason I quit climbing was something else."

Park Cheol-jin picked up a piece of meat and set it on Choi Ji-won's plate, then mine.

"When we went into Floor 3… there was a fire in my jurisdiction. Three people died."

"…"

"…"

"It hit me then, how hollow it all felt. Here I was trying to save the whole world, and I couldn't even save someone dying right in front of me. Figured I didn't need to climb any higher to be enough to save people from a house fire."

He picked up his soju glass and raised it for a toast.

"Meanwhile, people so much finer than me were running all over the place trying to save the world."

"Ha, haha."

"Cheers?"

"Cheers!"

Clink!

Mana kept us from getting drunk easily, but there was still that particular atmosphere alcohol brought with it. For now, just eating and drinking together was enough to be happy.

"…Ah."

Yeah. It had been happy.

"Um… you're Choi Ji-won-nim, right?"

"Could I maybe… get a picture…"

Park Cheol-jin, despite his tiger-like face, had a pretty easygoing style. Of course the place he'd picked to meet us was just an ordinary neighborhood barbecue joint, the kind whose charm was being loud and comfortable.

"Wait, is that really Choi Ji-won?"

"I saw it on Twitter, and it really is."

"Isn't that thing's name different now?"

Before long, the outside of the restaurant had gotten crowded, and a middle-aged woman, maybe the owner, maybe not, walked over holding paper and a pen.

"…Sorry. I didn't think that through."

Park Cheol-jin looked genuinely sorry. He'd known Choi Ji-won was famous, but probably hadn't realized it was this bad. Still, it was fine.

"It's a bit early, but want to head to round two?"

I'd already made arrangements for something like this. It had actually been Choi Ji-won's idea, but right now it seemed like exactly the right call.

Players usually stuck together. Partly because ordinary people couldn't relate to what they'd been through, and partly because there was real synergy in being around each other.

Some of them went so far as to name their own groups, rent office space, even incorporate as a company. People called these groups all kinds of things.

Guilds. This particular one, run by Kang Chan, was Steel Guild. Kang Chan sat at the head of the office, with players who looked like executives lined up behind him.

"Welcome to Steel Guild."

Kang Chan wore a sharp suit and greeted us with a flat expression. His hair was neatly styled now, a far cry from the buzz cut he used to have, but that particular dangerous air of his hadn't changed at all, like a beast stuffed inside a business suit. His face stayed as blank as ever.

"…What's that."

Wait, his eyebrow had just twitched. He must have spotted the box of soju Choi Ji-won and I were carrying. I'd only told him "I'll just drop by sometime," never mentioned I'd be bringing alcohol.

"…Kim Jun-ho. And Choi Ji-won. This is an office. I do care about building relationships in my own way, but showing up like this out of nowhere…"

"Wait, haven't we met before?"

"Yes! That's right! At the Tutorial!"

"Oh, right! Right! When everyone was gathered waiting, I think you were standing next to me!"

Kang Chan tried to say something, but right then, Ahn Gyeong-nam and Park Cheol-jin recognized each other. Ahn Gyeong-jun waved happily from the back without a word.

"So… Chan-hyung-nim. Were you close with Choi Ji-won-nim by any chance?"

"As expected of hyung-nim."

"Would I be permitted to ask for permission to ask whether we might take a photo together?"

"…"

And those fussing idiots were the strong ones who'd followed Kang Chan since the Tutorial. Faces I recognized. Later on, when Steel Guild rose to become Korea's top guild, their influence would prove massive. Every single one of them was no ordinary player. As someone who'd studied Korean players closely, I remembered them well.

Their looks were absolutely brutal, but the way they acted was oddly cute.

"Hff."

Kang Chan read the room and let out a deep sigh. He'd probably already realized the mood had completely tipped over into a party.

"…Just a little while."

And so the socializing began. At first, it really had started out as just that, socializing. Everyone wanted to get closer to Choi Ji-won, wanted to get closer to me too, and Park Cheol-jin had his own followers among the crowd. We talked about everything from Tower stories to personal interests, all of it fun.

"Ugh, talking so much made me thirsty…"

"Yeah, seriously…"

"Is there anything to drink…"

"There's soju right there…"

"…"

"…"

Yeah, that was how it went for a while. Except for a few soft-hearted ones, these people were, at their core, warriors with souls built for it. (Or just middle-aged men who liked to drink.)

"How about just one glass?"

"Chan-hyung-nim. One glass should be fine, right?"

"…Just one."

Everyone knew it wouldn't end at one.

One glass became two, became three, became a bottle, became more crates being bought…

"Hey, Jun-ho."

"Yeah?"

"There are some Tutorial survivors who want to come see you. That okay? They want to show their thanks, want to join in…"

"Ah, sure. I mean, if Kang Chan's fine with it."

"Yeah? I'll call them then?"

Park Cheol-jin called more people over.

"Ji-won-noonim! Would it be all right if some women who really respect Ji-won-noonim joined us! They're all players!"

"Wait, why noonim…"

"Strong means noonim, strong means hyung-nim! Even Chan-hyung-nim is younger than us by age!"

"Ah, okay…"

"Thank you!!!"

Kang Chan's executives called more people over.

"Drink up!"

"Drink and die!"

The mood ripened.

"…"

Even Kang Chan, blank-faced the whole time.

"Ha."

Let a faint smile touch his mouth.

Fighters above a certain level had mana, which gave them stronger alcohol tolerance than ordinary people, but that didn't matter.

"Is it okay to be this loud???"

"We rented out this whole floor!"

The mood, that particular giddy atmosphere unique to nights like this.

"Hahahahaha!"

It made everyone smile.

Night deepened. The side dishes had gone cold. Nobody was drinking anymore.

"Uh, ugh… mmph."

"Khrrr… pfft… khrrr… pfft…"

The people Park Cheol-jin had brought were already passed out flat. (Most of them had given up climbing the Tower entirely.)

"Pfft, come on, hyung. How am I supposed to believe that. We just met today and you're doing this?"

"I'm telling you it's true. Want me to show you a picture?"

The people still awake weren't drinking or eating more, just trading small talk while scrolling their phones. The heat of the earlier drinking session had cooled, replaced by this easy, quiet small talk drifting back and forth.

You could call it a kind of lull.

"…"

If you asked me, I liked this quiet mood better than the loud drinking earlier. My body could avoid getting drunk thanks to mana if I wanted to, anyway. Maybe I just preferred the kind of sincere exchange that came through in a calm atmosphere like this.

Still… it had been fun. Enjoyable. If I regressed, this drinking session would never have happened, and that thought left a little ache. Even if I regressed and held another one like it, I knew I could never feel exactly this joy again.

"Ji-won-ah."

"Hm? Ah. Hold on."

I pulled Choi Ji-won away from the women players she'd been talking with and headed toward the emergency stairwell. The cold air felt good.

Looking out through the stairwell's small window, I spoke carefully.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"You're the one who reached out to Firefighter Park Cheol-jin."

Something that had never happened before. It was obvious who'd been behind it.

"Did I really look that weak?"

"…Yeah."

Choi Ji-won shyly admitted she was the culprit. Just like she'd said, I really had gotten no small comfort from it.

"The Tutorial people kept saying how thankful they were. Said they survived because of you."

"Right…"

"And Kang Chan too… at first he seemed a little awkward, since it'd been a while. But later he got serious. Said he saw potential in me. Asked if I wanted to join his guild."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I turned him down, but it still felt good."

Choi Ji-won worried about my mental health. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to add "close people" to my life like this. That she'd gone this far meant I must have looked pretty pathetic to her.

My head, heavy with all that worry and deliberation, felt lighter now. Yeah, I'd gained more people I was close with. But most of them were people I already sort of knew, and people who wouldn't die going forward. I already knew, from a future vantage point, that they'd survived.

"Everyone kept telling me I was amazing. Asked how hard I must have worked to get this strong."

People affirmed me. They told me my way of doing things hadn't been wrong. They told me I was doing well enough.

Cold logic cut in with, so what, does it change anything if these people compliment you? But people sometimes find comfort in things that mean nothing at all.

"Thanks."

"Good, as long as you know."

Choi Ji-won gave a bashful little laugh.

"Let's go back. They'll get suspicious. It's fine with Cheol-jin-ajusshi, but it's a little embarrassing in front of those other people."

"Suit yourself."

We slipped back into the office and joined back into the conversation.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Ah, Jun-ho-nim. No, get this, this guy…"

Let's enjoy this moment. Whether to regress or not, what to do about Floor 27, the world, the future, the past, forget all of it. Just enjoy this mood right now. That was what I decided.

"Mind if I join you all."

"…Huh?"

"Ah?"

Before an incredibly unexpected figure showed up.

"…Zetter?"

It was Michael Zetter.

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