WeTried Translations
Translator: ZEROSUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 329: The past (8)
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After leaving the laboratory, Zetter headed for the secret meeting room set up in the basement of the Player Association. He was waiting for the call.
Just because he had called didn't mean everyone gathered right away. Some people weren't checking their messages, and some were still climbing the Tower. During that waiting time, Zetter thought and thought again inside his time flowing ten times slower. Which path would help humanity. He racked his brain over what would help this world.
Endless thought experiments. The heat from his own brain was enough to warm the room, and the sugar and water he consumed in the process added up to a truckload.
How should they treat the regressor? Should they support him? What if he collapsed even with their support? What if the regressor avoided responsibility? What if he accepted it instead? What if he actually liked it? What if he hated it? What if they invested everything in the regressor, and he ran? What if he declared himself ruler of Earth? And what would Zetter do then?
"President."
"Ah. Is everyone here?"
"One person is still missing."
Zetter's endless deliberation ended the moment Team Alpha finally gathered. They were all people Zetter could trust, and in turn, they trusted him.
A prophet. A Long-range Teleportation user. A shapeshifter. Someone who could turn their body into electricity. Someone who could synthesize chemical compounds through molecular combination. A clairvoyant. A dream manipulator. A miniaturizer. A memory extraction user.
Just looking at the lineup made it clear this organization was, right now, the strongest in the world. Not the hollow shell called the Player Association, but Zetter's real main force. Humanity's strongest group of players.
And the last one to arrive at the meeting room was—
"It's been a while since everyone's gathered like this, huh?"
The Inventory user.
Dok Su-hee.
This was the beginning of yet another tragedy.
* * *
Zetter had already sacrificed every single American once before, though the current Zetter didn't know that. Even if he had known, it probably wouldn't have mattered much.
Why had Zetter made that unilateral decision to sacrifice people? Because he'd judged there was no risk. Because it had been "trivial" enough that acting on his own judgment felt fine. It was all going to be undone anyway, so what did it matter?
"The reason I've gathered all of you, my teammates, is to discuss our direction going forward."
"What kind of direction are we talking about?"
"...There is a regressor in this world."
But when it came to how to treat a regressor, even Zetter, who trusted himself as much as anyone, grew cautious. This was a choice that could genuinely warp the future of the world, and the risk of getting it wrong alone was too great to bear by himself.
"A regressor... what does that mean?"
"There's a player in Korea who can move through time. A player who can bend the world however they please. I can't explain the details, but I managed to prove it through experiment, and I've found out who it is."
"Wh—what does that even..."
Team Alpha had seen just about everything there was to see, but even to them, Zetter's declaration came as a shock. Suddenly? A regressor?
"I don't know the exact conditions. How many times they can turn back time. What limits exist on the time travel. What actions are required to trigger it. I know nothing, but at the very least, it's clear that time travel is possible. It would make sense to assume it's possible more than once."
"..."
"Time travel is a power that can warp everything. If you think about it simply, 'completely neutralize them before they can use time travel' could be the winning condition, but the other side surely knows that much too. No matter how hard we prepare, if we don't finish it in one shot, the regressor is bound to win in the end. That's what it means to be able to see the future."
"D-don't we have a prophet too?"
"Prophecy isn't that kind of power," Mahesh said. "Prophecy itself can be interpreted many different ways depending on how you read it, and the odds of it showing me the exact moment I want aren't high either."
"Ugh..."
At Mahesh's answer, the shapeshifter buried his head on the table. He suddenly turned into a cute puppy and started scratching furiously at his own head.
"No, if a power like that exists... isn't that just too broken? That's basically an invincible ability, isn't it? You can't even kill them, they can grow infinitely stronger inside time if their will holds out, and even in the Tower they can always grab whatever reward they want, right?"
"The real problem to begin with is that it's impossible to even detect an ability like 'time travel' in the first place. I don't know how the President managed to find out this time... but will we be able to use that method again going forward?"
"It's possible, but it might be hard to catch the exact timing. And if it fails, the risk is huge."
"Then there's a good chance we could get hit without even realizing we've been hit."
Team Alpha had gathered the rarest and most broken abilities in the entire world, but even they couldn't help whining in front of a "regressor." No, still, though—how could a power like this even be allowed to exist?
"Of course, that's only if we end up hostile to him."
Zetter said, calming the mood.
"I know who the regressor is. He doesn't reveal himself, and he's diligently climbing the Tower. His basic character leans good, and it's likely he shares our goals."
"O-oh..."
"You could call it a blessing for humanity. If the person with this power had been wicked, we'd have had to struggle just to deal with him. And if we failed, he'd become the ruler."
Shhk.
Zetter slid a photograph across the table. It looked like a photo taken from very far away and forcibly enhanced, the fine details slightly warped, but it was clear enough to make out who it was.
"His name is... Kim Jun-ho. Does anyone know this man?"
"No."
"I'm not sure."
"I don't really..."
"Su-hee, you?"
"...I don't really know either."
Of course, Dok Su-hee recognized Kim Jun-ho. At this point in time, she carried memories of "Floor 3." She'd agonized over it again and again before arriving at the conclusion that Kim Jun-ho might be the regressor, and now that Zetter had put the photo in front of her, she had to do everything she could not to look flustered.
Contrary to Kim Jun-ho's guess, Dok Su-hee had no memory of catching a tiger in the future. Whether or not Dok Su-hee knew it, Kim Jun-ho hadn't felt a strong enough emotion, and right now, Dok Su-hee had no idea at all what was going to happen in the future.
"It's natural that none of you know him. What matters is how we'll treat this man going forward..."
Zetter had noticed a very small flicker of unease in Dok Su-hee, but decided to let it go for now. He trusted his teammates, and he figured Dok Su-hee would tell him the reason for that unease later. Even if she was hiding something, he believed she wouldn't lie.
"Ah, hot!"
"What, what's wrong?"
"No, the table suddenly got hot..."
"Huh?"
But then, from the drawer of the table they'd been meeting at, a burnt notebook slid out.
"This is..."
"The one from Floor 24..."
"The one where the pages burn if you lie... that notebook..."
"Ah, I must've forgotten it here last time. Was it in there?"
"Wait, then that means..."
Every gaze turned toward Dok Su-hee, who had just shown that small flicker of unease.
"Dok Su-hee."
"..."
"I think we need to talk."
He couldn't trust her anymore.
* * *
Back during her Floor 3 days, Dok Su-hee had carried an arrogant protagonist mindset: I have to save the world, so of course every reward belongs to me. But after joining Team Alpha and meeting countless powerful people, that sickness had naturally cured itself.
Having shed her arrogance, Dok Su-hee had become quite an excellent player, and an excellent player needed sharp situational judgment as a basic requirement. So Dok Su-hee's judgment, too, came fast.
"I—I'm sorry. I got so flustered I lied without even meaning to. This man... Kim Jun-ho, I met him on Floor 3."
"Floor 3, you mean the one where you choose the difficulty?"
"Yes. Do you remember I was missing an arm when I first came in? This man was the one who blew it off. Seeing his face again after so long... I guess I panicked, or something. I think I just fumbled the answer without thinking. Sorry."
She never lied. But that didn't mean she told the whole truth either.
Dok Su-hee's answer was textbook, and understandable too. Seeing the photo of the man who'd once blown off her arm, she'd lied without meaning to. She felt sorry about it.
"Well, if that's the case."
"Su-hee, still, you shouldn't lie. We're like family here."
"Yes. I'm sorry."
So the other teammates were ready to let it go. Something like, well, it happens.
"Dok Su-hee."
But Zetter, inside his time flowing ten times slower than everyone else's, had watched every gesture, every glance, the way her throat moved as she swallowed and let it pass, the way her pores had widened more than before. Michael Zetter, who had observed all of it, trusted his gut instinct that he shouldn't let this go now.
"Did you know Kim Jun-ho was the regressor?"
"..."
"Answer yes or no."
Zetter asked, holding out the notebook whose first page had burned. There was no more room for lies now.
"...Yes."
"What?"
"S-Su-hee..."
"I borrowed a transcendent power to remember that fact. How did you know he was the 'regressor'?"
"..."
"..."
"Answer me."
"...I'm sorry. I can't say. Please trust me."
"No, forget it. That's enough."
Dok Su-hee said nothing more, but Zetter had already gathered enough of a clue. It had to be some inherent ability of the regressor's own. The fact that she always traveled together with Choi Ji-won, maybe that was because the regressor's companions could share memories. It was a plausible hypothesis.
"Then let me ask again. Dok Su-hee, I'm asking you."
"..."
"You."
Zetter's goal now was to dig out as much information as possible. Whether Dok Su-hee was hiding more than this. How he could make use of it if so. Trust, honestly, was an inefficient emotion to begin with.
A companion who had lost her Trust would simply be dealt with "efficiently" from now on.
"What do you think we should do about Kim Jun-ho?"
"..."
With every gaze fixed on her, Dok Su-hee, without meaning to, squeezed her eyes shut.
"I think..."
Dok Su-hee said, her voice trembling.
"I think we should just... leave him alone..."
That they should just leave the regressor be.
Footnotes:
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