WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

________________

Chapter 283

──────

The regressor fights (2)

'Sorry, but a job's a job.'

'Jun-ho, you've gotten pretty cocky lately. Won't do.'

'Come at me.'

My chill blanketed the room, Choi Ji-won's blue lightning crackled in every direction, sword clashed against sword, fierce sparks scattered, and what should have been practice turned into an exchange far too vicious to call sparring...

"You doing okay?"

"It hasn't even been that long. You scared me. By the way, why does your hand smell weird?"

"...Touched something I shouldn't have."

Nothing had happened. Obviously.

"So, uh, what do I even call the drone. Anyway, can I forfeit this match?"

"Forfeiting. Is possible. However, forfeiting from your very first match may negatively affect your ranking."

"Well, whatever."

Unless we planned on fighting each other for fun later, there was no reason for us to fight seriously right now. And if we did fight, I'd probably lose anyway.

"Guess it's because we entered at the same time? They matched us against each other."

"The timing was probably almost identical. I figured this might happen."

"Yeah, makes sense. So, how's the info gathering going on your end?"

"Ah, I asked around earlier in the waiting room."

We shared what we'd each picked up in the short time we'd had. Some was about this Colosseum, or arena, whichever it was called. Some was about this sci-fi setting in general. I'd gathered plenty on my end, and Ji-won had picked up her own share of solid information too.

Of course, in the middle of all that.

"This match is being recorded."

"So what."

"Penalties may be applied going forward in the ranking matches."

"No, more importantly. I petted one of those yeti-looking furry creatures earlier..."

"..."

The drone floating in the air said something, but I ignored it. So what if there was a penalty. At worst it'd delay my clear a little. I was planning to win every fight from here on out anyway, so it wouldn't matter much.

Or would it? Was there actually a workaround?

"Oh, there's something I'm curious about. What happens if both people forfeit at the same time?"

"I do not understand the intent of your question."

"So, right now we've got a match scheduled. If both fighters forfeit at the exact same moment... what happens then?"

"...Calculating. The match will be voided, and a new match will be scheduled."

"Then let's do that. Right, Ji-won?"

"...You're pretty sharp with this kind of scheming."

"Guess I always have been."

And with that, we'd found a way to dodge the penalty too. This match could be wiped from the record.

"This is being recorded."

"Go ahead."

"The footage will be released later, which may negatively affect your reputation and betting odds."

"Can't be helped, I guess."

Ignoring the drone, I turned back to my conversation with Choi Ji-won. She'd apparently run into a friendly fish-type creature in the waiting room, a total motormouth, and picked up a ton of random trivia because of it.

"Apparently after the first match, they hand out some kind of device."

"A device?"

"Yeah. Looks like a small band. Press it and stuff pops up in front of your eyes, I guess. Like a status window."

"Ohh."

That was the info on the band they gave out as standard equipment.

"Later on, people can bet on our matches too, and apparently we get a cut of the profits. So the higher your rank climbs, the closer you get to becoming an actual billionaire. Oh, and you can buy gear or food and stuff, but from what I saw in the waiting room, it doesn't count as an item. I don't think you can bring it back to reality."

"So it's more like a temporary buff you can use here?"

"Right."

"Huh..."

And that covered the info about spending money here. Practical and useful stuff, all of it.

"So sci-fi as a genre is basically about science pushed to its absolute extreme."

I, on the other hand, had a slightly better grasp of this particular world's setting. I hadn't gone deep into sci-fi as a genre, but I'd at least skimmed the surface enough to know a thing or two.

"You get stuff like monomolecular cutters or antimatter, sure, but that's usually reserved for war-scale settings... and this place is more like some kind of sports organization. So we probably won't see weapons that terrifying here. What we might see instead is superpowers, or cyborg types. Could be people with modified bodies too."

"Oh, like a walking robot sort of thing?"

"Something like that."

"Ah-ha."

"That's about all we need to worry about. Opponents who might use some weird technique. We're not exactly here to explore the universe anyway, the goal's to clear as fast as possible and get out."

I was curious about the sci-fi setting, sure, no denying that, but exploring the world was a different matter entirely. There was already a similar space back on Floor 26.

"I'd like to forfeit, then."

"I'd like to forfeit too."

"...Since both parties forfeited simultaneously, the match is voided. Please return to the waiting room and stand by for your next match."

It didn't seem like we'd get free time until after the first match wrapped up, so we agreed to head back to the waiting room without a fuss. We planned to meet up later in the "break room," but as it turned out, this one building alone had over twenty break rooms, and there were about fifty buildings of similar size. If there were really a million fighters registered, a scale like that made sense.

"...The newbie's back."

"Looks unharmed."

"Seems kind of strong."

"He touched my fur earlier."

Back in the waiting room, the bald bearded guy from before was gone, and the shaggy creatures started muttering again the moment they saw me. Turned out it was some unfamiliar language I didn't know, one I only understood thanks to the player perk. So that was why they'd assumed I wouldn't understand.

"Hey. I can hear you."

"He touched my fur, so..., what?"

"I said I can hear you."

"..."

"..."

The shaggy creatures clamped their mouths shut. It must have been a rare language, because they looked thoroughly rattled, and watching that gave me a weirdly satisfying little kick. Kind of a lowbrow pleasure, if I'm honest. That whole hidden-strength vibe. I sat there smirking to myself while I waited.

"It is Kim. Jun. Ho.-nim's turn."

About ten minutes passed, and the drone came back to fetch me again. I found myself back in that arena-like space from before.

"Hey, human. Bite down hard."

Standing there waiting for me this time wasn't the pretty swordswoman, but a hulking figure with a mechanical arm.

"Get lost."

"Gack...!"

He couldn't even keep up with my movement properly. He had some kind of monocle-looking goggle over one eye, but the performance on it must not have been great. Or maybe he saw it coming and just couldn't dodge.

The whole fight took one second. Point nine seconds to draw a breath, point one second to hit him with the scabbard.

"So, uh, Mr. Drone? Sir? Drone-ah."

"..."

"Where do I get that device thing?"

Easy. Exactly as expected.

Regrouping with Choi Ji-won turned out to be way harder than the fight with the hulking guy had been. The building was ridiculously huge, packed with living things, not all of them human, and the layout was a maze. I scoured every break room in the building trying to find her, and the unfortunate part was, she'd done the exact same thing. In the end, we ran into each other not in a break room but smack in the middle of a hallway.

"Did you win?"

"Obviously."

"Heh, obviously you did."

Either way, now that I'd linked back up with Choi Ji-won, I felt like I had a whole army at my back. Sure, this Colosseum was a solo fighting arena, and whether she was around or not made zero practical difference, but there was still such a thing as peace of mind. Just her being there was reassuring.

"Oh, I saw this while I was wandering around. Want to check it out?"

Choi Ji-won grabbed my arm and pulled me along. Following her, I spotted something like a massive bulletin board.

"This is where you can see the full player list, including the top-ranked players. You can check mid-to-lower rank info through the device too, but apparently the very top ranks are only viewable here."

Just like she said, the board displayed numbers next to each fighter's name, along with a rough sketch of their face. Some had no face at all, just a question mark in place of it. If that was how it worked, weren't the ones who actually had their faces drawn getting the short end of the deal?

"Hm."

Anyway. So this was the list of top-tier rankers. My goal was to break into the top hundred, but the fastest way to climb rank was always to hunt strong opponents. If there was someone in this list who looked manageable, picking a fight with them directly might not be a bad idea.

"?"

"What's wrong?"

Why did I feel a weird, nagging sense of wrongness the longer I looked at this ranking board?

"...Something's off here."

"Hm? Like what?"

"No, this."

Rank 1. The Emperor. No recent match record. Never fought anyone, apparently, and never appeared publicly, not even in private, from what I heard.

Same story with Rank 7, Arthur. His activity just stopped dead at some point too. Asked around, and word going around is people assume he retired.

"...Really strange."

Rank 22. 49. 78. 82. 91. 99. 111. 114.

It wasn't just the top hundred or so, either. Between roughly rank 100 and rank 300, there were a ton of names with zero recent activity. Fighters who hadn't made a single move in at least the past month. Something was definitely off.

"Ah."

My question got answered the moment I spotted a photo belonging to some guy named "Zetter" at rank 311. This was Michael Zetter. His rank being stuck at a measly 311 was probably because he'd just barely hit rank 100 and cleared out immediately after.

That made it simple. The identity of everyone who'd gone still and vanished.

"Players."

And that could turn into a pretty serious problem for me. Anyone who's played a PvP game with this kind of ranking system would already know.

"...Camping the spot."

Camping a spot is inherently unkillable.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried