Regression is Too Much - Chapter 331

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 331: The past (10)

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Dok Su-hee, an excellent player, had made the best possible move when caught lying.

Michael Zetter, an even more seasoned and formidable player, made the perfect move for this exact situation.

"...Hah. Su-hee-yang."

He responded to the situation flawlessly.

"Hah... honestly. Do you think I'm joking around right now? What, no emotions? I'm giving my life to save the world right now. I don't have time to trade jokes with you."

He let out a hollow laugh, then furrowed his brow and glared at Dok Su-hee. Anyone watching would have called it the look of an angry human being, a clear, vivid "emotion." If an angry Zetter stormed out of the meeting room right now, no one would have suspected a thing.

Of course, this was only possible because his Adaptation trait had done its job perfectly. The furrow between his brows, the faint flush rising in his face, even the way his front teeth showed just slightly. All of it was a manufactured expression, mimicking ordinary human emotion.

But humans were, by nature, creatures ruled by sight. The other teammates let out sighs of relief, thinking Dok Su-hee had just spouted nonsense.

Of course...

"...Don't leave. Answer me."

Only Dok Su-hee and Michael Zetter knew this was an act.

Dok Su-hee couldn't forget the inorganic look she'd glimpsed a moment ago. And Zetter recognized that he'd made a mistake. He'd spent too long agonizing before Dok Su-hee arrived, his brain apparently overloaded, and for one instant he'd forgotten to put the mask back on.

The reason Zetter hid the fact that he'd lost his emotions was simple. It would obviously affect his leadership. People valued emotion, and tended to view emotionless people negatively.

Of course, to Michael Zetter, who thought with extreme efficiency, all of that was nothing but empty formality, closer to an illusion humans had invented for themselves. Still, his policy was to use whatever tools were available, so performing emotion was just one more tool.

"President. No, Michael Zetter."

Of course, simply being caught was already checkmate. Zetter had tried to leave the meeting room even a little late, but Dok Su-hee got there first.

"Here. Say it into the notebook. Say I haven't lost my emotions, that I'm in a completely normal state."

The notebook. The one that detected lies, obtainable on Floor 24, which she'd pulled out earlier. It was also the reason Zetter had tried to leave the room in a hurry.

Removing that notebook now would be far too unnatural. But taking it naturally wasn't an option either, since Dok Su-hee, the Inventory ability holder, had priority over it. So the best option had been to simply leave. Dismiss Dok Su-hee's words as nonsense and walk out immediately. Dok Su-hee had noticed that plan and pressed him hard with "Aren't you the one with no emotions?" and Zetter, bound by his rule of never lying outright, had answered.

A seed of doubt had already been planted in the teammates' minds. The seed of "is it possible Zetter really has no emotions?" If he simply left now... that label would follow him forever.

In the end, Zetter made the most efficient choice available in this situation. A frontal breakthrough.

"Let me state this clearly, first."

Zetter chose his words carefully.

"I haven't lost my emotions. They've grown faint."

"...Wordplay."

"The emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure have grown faint, and my capacity for empathy has declined too. Admittedly... there's a part of me that's become machine-like. That much I can't deny."

Zetter looked around at his teammates as he spoke, then thumped his own chest right after.

"But I recognize that I could be wrong. If I'd truly turned into some deranged machine, as Dok Su-hee claims, I wouldn't have called this meeting at all. I would have judged and decided everything on my own. I recognize my own problem, and I'm working to overcome it."

"That's..."

Even Dok Su-hee had nothing to say to that. Because it was true.

"And in fact, I believe that having no emotions lets me make more correct choices. Unlike ordinary humans who get swayed by their feelings and mess things up, I can always think rationally. And a Player Association president needs exactly this kind of composure. Am I wrong?"

"...Human society doesn't divide up as neatly as a machine."

"That's a fair point. And that's exactly why I have this team, why I have other Association staff, to support me against whatever mistakes I, being what I am, might make."

Momentum. Dok Su-hee was losing ground on momentum. Zetter had taken the stance of "sure, it's true I have no emotions, so what?" and given how well Zetter had performed up to now, Dok Su-hee had nothing solid to counter with.

"What Dok Su-hee says is true. I'm somewhat twisted. But if I step down from the president's seat, who would take my place? Tell me."

"..."

"If there's someone who could do better than me, I'll gladly step aside. If there's a better candidate than this emotionless Michael Zetter, recommend them right now."

Zetter's rhetoric was slippery, and impossible to refute. Dok Su-hee knew Zetter had gone wrong somewhere, but if asked to name an alternative, she had no confidence to offer one. Because it was true that Zetter was competent.

"Then I'll use the same logic Mahesh used when he talked about the regressor."

In the end, the only thing Dok Su-hee could stab at was the "future."

"It's true that Zetter has done well so far. But can that emotionless man keep doing well going forward? Without a single mistake? We might already be twisting, without even realizing we're making mistakes."

"..."

"I acknowledge how impressive Zetter is. He is... truly an impressive person. But was I the only one who felt it earlier? His opinions are excessively efficient. He doesn't factor in other people's emotions. What if the regressor gets angry and refuses our support? What if he blames Zetter out of rage instead? Zetter can't consider other people's feelings, precisely because he has none of his own."

Dok Su-hee's argument was valid, but it lacked weight. Everything she'd said so far had only been "hypothetical," something that "might happen" in the future.

"...I'll trust the president."

"Even if he has no emotions... he didn't have them since before we even met him, right? Then the Zetter-nim I knew is exactly the same as always."

"Sorry, Su-hee-ya. I still think supporting the regressor is the right call."

The teammates... chose Michael Zetter. They chose to maintain the status quo. None of them had seen Zetter's madness with their own eyes, and they were teammates who'd trusted and followed Zetter like a father up until now.

On top of that, this whole incident had started with Dok Su-hee's lie. Whether to leave the regressor alone had nothing to do with Dok Su-hee's lying, but people were, by nature, animals incapable of judging things with cold rationality.

And it mattered a great deal that Zetter had shown himself to be so relentlessly competent up to now. He was a leader people could trust, and he was the Player Association president. No one else existed who would devote body and soul to the work as much as he had. (The fact that Zetter had once sacrificed every American alive had been erased, unremembered by anyone. Not even by Zetter himself.)

In legitimacy. In politics. Dok Su-hee had lost ground on both fronts. Now, everything she'd said felt like nothing more than the ugly thrashing of someone who'd already lost.

"Dok Su-hee. I won't hold it against you for accusing me of having no emotions. But there will be a punishment for lying. For now, return to your room and wait there."

"..."

"Remember the contract we signed. What you're doing goes against the world's interests."

Every member of Team Alpha signs a contract upon joining the team. A contract stating, "I will not act against the public interest." Zetter was invoking that now.

The contract wasn't physically here right now, but... if Zetter went and brought it, Dok Su-hee would have no choice but to obey his words, and she'd have to endure whatever "punishment" he decided on too.

Dok Su-hee. No, only Dok Su-hee had roughly guessed at what that "punishment" would be. Zetter had several means of preventing a player from entering the Tower, and he'd use one of them to keep Dok Su-hee confined.

And Team Alpha had a "memory extraction" ability holder. Zetter would probably have Dok Su-hee's memories pulled out. All memories related to the regressor, extracted completely. And the word extraction meant erasure.

Dok Su-hee, having lost all her memories, would become a loyal member of Team Alpha again. She'd follow Zetter, climb the Tower diligently, carry out missions. She'd become a fine agent working hard to protect the world. Zetter would support Kim Jun-ho, and a strengthened Kim Jun-ho would bring peace to the world.

Yes. That would be a fairly decent future too. That, too...

"...I can't accept that."

No. It couldn't end like this. Dok Su-hee couldn't accept it. She was the strongest Inventory ability holder alive, and someday, a reliable companion who'd walk beside the regressor. Maybe... she'd even imagined moving beyond that, into something more. She was a special human being, and she couldn't accept a future like this.

And Kim Jun-ho. Kim Jun-ho wouldn't want this intervention either. At the very least, the process of confirming his opinion should have come first. Zetter's approach, calling it a variable and not even considering asking Kim Jun-ho, was wrong.

The contract wasn't here. If it were, he would have used it already. The meeting room was... small. A somewhat unfavorable environment, sure, but still one suited to creating a variable.

Right now, in this moment, Dok Su-hee's goal had changed. Escape this basement meeting room. And tell Kim Jun-ho the whole truth. Build trust through him, and become the regressor's companion. A perfect plan.

What followed unfolded as rapidly as if one second were an hour.

"I think I need to go back home. Please don't stop me."

"Dok Su-hee."

"If you stop me... you'll regret it."

Dok Su-hee gritted her teeth. Seeing that, the other teammates shot up from their seats.

"Step back. I, the president, will handle this."

Michael Zetter took off his suit jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. The teammates evacuated out of the meeting room.

"We were companions. I won't kill you."

His optic nerves thickened. His heart pounded like a drum, thump-thump-thump-thump. His skin hardened, tougher than steel.

"...Just let me go."

"Not possible. You're obviously headed straight to the regressor. I can't tolerate a variable."

"...I don't have the confidence to keep myself from killing you. I'll ask Jun-ho oppa to spare your life instead, after he regresses."