WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 292

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The regressor fights (11)

It took three days for Colosseum Management to cave. They ignored public opinion. Ignored it again. Ignored it a third time. Then finally, they sent an envoy.

"This is the contract."

The android dispatched by Colosseum Management spoke. (The android hadn't taken a form designed to appeal to an average human male. Which is to say, it had more fur than most androids.)

"Do not harm Guntar. Deliver the medicine and leave immediately. Keep personal conversation to a minimum." There was a lot more of it.

"The condition is that you only deliver the medicine. If you don't agree to this, you cannot meet Guntar-nim."

"Fine."

While Choi Ji-won stared at the android with a look of disbelief, I finished signing the contract without hesitation. Apparently there could be lawsuits and other penalties for breaking it, but whatever, I could just regress if it came to that.

"We're good now?"

"Follow me. Do you have the medicine with you?"

"Right here."

Things had worked out well. We could finally meet him.

Guntar.

The android led us down an endless corridor. Doors lined both sides at even intervals, roughly half open and half shut.

"This is a special residence the Colosseum has arranged."

The android said as it walked.

"The deeper you go, the better the facilities get. It's the Colosseum's way of differentiating tiers, though some residents dislike how long the walk becomes."

The android walked, and walked, and walked some more. The corridor that seemed endless finally ended, and at the very last stretch, one door remained.

"Is this it?"

"It is."

Guntar's quarters were the best of them all. Maybe because we'd come this far, but I hesitated for a moment without meaning to.

"Let's go."

Ji-won took my hand gently, and with that, I stepped forward with conviction.

Vwwwoom.

The door opened automatically. I realized only then that it hadn't been a real door at all, but some kind of hologram.

"..."

Inside... it was dark. Every light was off. The room was spacious, but there were no windows and no furniture, and scraps of half-eaten food lay scattered across the floor like unwashed laundry left out of the basket.

In short, it looked like a trash heap with the lights turned off.

"Wait, didn't they say this was the best one?"

"This space can be modified freely by its user. A better facility means a wider range of possible modifications."

"Then what is this?"

"This is the room in its original, unmodified state."

So this was basically the players' Floor 1, in a sense. Meaning Guntar hadn't touched anything. If he was going to eat, he could at least clean up after himself. Or finish the food. What was the point of eating some and just leaving the rest?

Either way, the room was pointlessly huge, so finding Guntar wasn't hard.

"...What's with him?"

Guntar was curled into a ball in a dark corner, sleeping. I thought I'd heard that beastmen usually used beds too. Why was this one curled up like a puppy in the corner?

"Guntar-nim. You have visitors."

"..."

The android called out to Guntar while clearing away a half-eaten chicken leg, but Guntar just stirred and didn't get up.

"Guntar-nim?"

"Get out."

Between the curled folds of his body, a pair of yellow, feral eyes flashed open.

"Get out. Now."

"Hey, we came here to help."

I held up both palms to show I meant no harm, but—

"I said get out. Didn't you hear me?"

He bared his teeth at us now, snarling a threat. The smell of raw meat drifted out through his open jaws.

"We heard you lost your memories. Doesn't that frustrate you? We can help."

This time Choi Ji-won stepped in, the one who'd been watching quietly. She brought up "memories" directly from the start, and took a step closer.

"Talk to us for a bit. How much do you remember, and why you've been targeting and killing people—"

"Get out before I kill you!!!"

Shwaak! Guntar sprang up like a coiled spring and swung his claws, but Choi Ji-won avoided the strike by simply stepping back once.

"Huff. Huff. Huff."

"..."

"I don't know... I don't know..."

Guntar slumped back down to the floor.

"I don't know what I don't know... I... I don't know anything... I just... I hate humans... so get out, quickly..."

He clamped both hands over his ears and curled up in the corner, as if he didn't want to hear anything at all.

"Hah..."

I let out a sigh, but I also felt some relief. The worst case I'd imagined was him charging at us weapon in hand the second he saw us. This was better than that. More importantly, the two of us were human too, and he wasn't trying to kill every human on sight. There was still room for him to come back from this.

"Well, I already knew you weren't doing great."

"..."

"Try drinking this."

"...Do you actually want to die?"

"You said you don't even know what you don't know, right? Drink this and you might get better."

"..."

"No, I mean it. I'm a beastman enthusiast, remember? I just want to help. Why else would we have come all the way here?"

"..."

Guntar held my gaze in silence for a moment, then—

"Give it here."

He suddenly snatched the elixir from my hand and downed it in one long gulp.

The moment the bottle was completely empty—

"...!"

His dull, matted fur regained its sheen. The hollowed flesh beneath his eyes slowly filled back in. Life. Life was returning to him.

He was no longer the half-dead Guntar from before. The vigorous, gleaming Guntar from his prime had returned...!!!

"Nothing."

"Huh?"

"It didn't work. I still don't remember anything."

But his eyes still glinted with the same venom. No different from before.

Nothing had changed. Why?

I'd definitely given him a Lesser Elixir. But calling it "lesser" undersold it. This thing was basically a cure-all.

Lesser Elixir [S]
'A liquid made from god's tears, extremely diluted.' Consuming one full bottle heals all physical dismemberment. Unlike the original, it has a slight effect against curses.

It wasn't limited to healing physical damage. It should have improved his health, boosted his mana pool, cleared his mind—all sorts of extra effects.

"...Was this a curse?"

No. That couldn't be it. I didn't sense anything mana-related off about him, and if there had been, Guntar himself would have noticed.

Then what was it?

"Wait, wait, just stay still a second."

I focused on my own soul and slowly opened my eyes. My proficiency with this technique wasn't high, but it was enough to at least make out the rough outline of another person's soul.

"...Huh?"

Guntar's soul... didn't match the shape of his body. It was twisted in some strange way, writhing, and, and...

"Argh..."

My eyes started aching, so I stopped focusing. If I'd pushed a little further, I definitely would have regressed. My eyes, my brain, my soul all throbbed. Guntar's soul was not in a normal state.

"You, you okay?"

"Yeah... give me a second..."

Me blinking, and Ji-won worrying over me.

"..."

And Guntar, staring blankly down at the now-empty elixir bottle.

Something in Guntar had degraded at the level of his soul itself. Was the Empress the cause? Or something else? I couldn't say for certain, but one thing was clear: things were badly tangled. The elixir wasn't working. Guntar couldn't be cured with an elixir.

I thought this was going to go smoothly, so why was it this tangled. Frustrated, I muttered without meaning to.

"This is seriously annoying. Maybe I should go confront the angel about it."

"..."

"If I ask that Jake guy, maybe he'd have a decent answer... huh?"

A chill suddenly crawled up my spine. Guntar hadn't moved an inch, still holding the elixir bottle, his bright yellow eyes fixed on me. Blank. Full of killing intent. Ready to kill.

"..."

"..."

"Hey?"

"..."

"Angel?"

"Die."

The instant the word "angel" left my mouth, everyone moved at once.

Guntar, whose eyes rolled back the moment he heard "angel." Choi Ji-won, drawing her sword in alarm. And me, trying to step back and realizing my waist felt strangely empty.

Wait. Wait a second. Let me offer a small defense here. My hand is most at home with a sword, and that's why I think I can call myself a "swordsman." I don't have the kind of deep attachment to this sword that Choi Ji-won has with Bung-bung, but I still treasure it plenty. I take good care of it.

"Ah?"

"Watch out!"

So the fact that Guntar was able to snatch the sword from my hip wasn't because my skill was pathetically bad—it was because his movement was that uncanny. I know losing your sword is a disgrace for a swordsman, but that move of Guntar's just now was hard to respond to even accounting for my lapse in guard.

It was a strange, twisted motion, like someone who'd spent an entire lifetime studying nothing but how to steal a sword at close range. Because I'd let my guard down and the distance was so close, he took my sword.

Choi Ji-won was also too close to activate Heart of Lightning Flash. Activating it here would send lightning arcing out and trigger a regression. But swinging Bung-bung to cover me would come a beat too late.

The sword aimed for the underside of my jaw. Rising from below, sharp and sudden. A strike as precise as an assassin's. I had no weapon to block with. No time to raise mana. The Transparent Gloves? Some other means of defense?

"...Transform!!"

At the very last possible instant, I shifted the immortal-sage-style Eastern cloth robe I was wearing into a form that wrapped my entire body! From the outside it looked no different from ordinary cloth, but its defense was identical to dwarven armor! Guntar wouldn't have time to raise mana either! Armor like this wouldn't be pierced...!!!

Crack.

"Ah."

Just as expected, the cloth armor wasn't pierced.

It just so happened that my jawbone broke instead.

"...Fuck."

Still, I learned one thing.

Whatever had happened to Guntar to make him this messed up... an angel was involved.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 28.]

Jake, commonly known as the "Newbie Lover." Despite his rough looks, rumor had it he was secretly kind to newbies, though no one had ever confirmed whether the rumor was even true.

No, in fact, nobody had ever seen this man fight.

"Wasn't he a rank 10,000 something?"

"Huh? I thought he was ranked around 200,000."

"Isn't he just some nobody stuck at rank 700,000 forever?"

"Doesn't he use a sword?"

"I thought it was an axe."

Well known, but perceived in wildly different ways by everyone. His true nature remained unclear. At this point it might as well count as an urban legend, but for some reason, no one seemed particularly interested. Because Jake was just Jake.

"Hey."

"...?"

"Come with me a second."

No. Someone was interested after all.

A regressor.

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