WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 334: The past (13)

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"I'm, I'm sorry..."

"No. This isn't something you need to apologize to me for."

At a research facility under the US Department of Defense responsible for managing nuclear weapons, I listened to the official's explanation.

"I'm sorry. I was afraid of disciplinary action..."

They knew that a nuclear warhead shell had gone missing around the time Dok Su-hee had visited on her tour. Even if it was only a shell and not the actual warhead, it still had to be tracked under strict protocols.

But out of fear of punishment, they'd filed a false report, claiming the shell had been "scrapped due to a manufacturing defect" instead of admitting it had simply vanished. There'd been a certain complacency behind it too. What could possibly happen with just a shell?

"So, could it be that because of that shell..."

"No. Nothing happened. Su-hee-yang mentioned it, so I only came to confirm. Here, this is the shell you were looking for."

"Thank you..."

I had come to check whether Dok Su-hee might actually possess a real nuke. My purpose was accomplished.

I teleported back to Player Association headquarters. There, I refused every meeting and shut myself in my office for seven days. The only contact I had was Mahesh, who occasionally brought me water and something with sugar in it.

A week passed like that.

"Any word on Dok Su-hee."

"Still nothing."

Dok Su-hee never appeared on Floor 26. Plenty of top-tier players had ties to the Association, and I had asked them to keep an eye out, but not one of them had seen her.

"Chairman. The VIP keeps requesting a call."

"I'll go in person."

The President had been trying to reach me, and it seemed like he had a great deal on his mind.

"My head feels like it's about to split lately. I think I might actually be losing it."

"What's the matter?"

"Crime rates have spiked. When you look into the assault cases, most of them turn out to be over trivial things. I can hardly believe it, but... it's like people have gotten more on edge than before."

"Is that even possible?"

"How would I know. What do you think. Does it seem possible to you?"

"..."

The entire American population growing "on edge" all at once. Proving something like that was obviously impossible. Obviously impossible, but.

"I don't know."

Reality was reality, so whatever had happened had happened. But Mahesh had mentioned earlier that player crime rates had stayed about the same or even dropped...

Maybe it only affected regular people.

Could be some effect of mana, I thought.

"This is beyond anything I can control. Could you increase the frequency of player patrols...?"

"That's not something I can force. But I'll make the request. I'm a representative, not a leader."

"...Understood. And..."

"That matter, right now... we still haven't reached a conclusion on our end either. I think it'd be better to discuss it again later."

"...Fine."

The agenda the President had wanted to raise was simple. The regressor matter. Instead of giving an answer on the spot, I returned to the Player Association and immediately convened a meeting of Team Alpha.

"Please, I want you all to be honest with me."

I asked.

"Do you think... I've gone wrong somewhere."

I already knew, having heard it through Mahesh, and I'd confirmed it myself by enhancing my own hearing. My team members were... in turmoil.

They'd sided with me in my conflict with Dok Su-hee. That didn't mean they wanted the two of them fighting. It was the same logic as not wanting either side to win when your dad and your little sister were fighting.

A conflict between the two of them? That could happen. But none of them had expected it to escalate to the point of risking their lives, to the point of half destroying headquarters. And the nuke. Even knowing it was a bluff, the fact that Dok Su-hee had pulled out a nuclear bomb was shocking on its own. One shocking event after another had piled up in quick succession, and they still hadn't recovered from it.

"Talking with the President today, I felt it. That I might have... gone a little wrong somewhere."

And when I had listened to the President's words, I'd naturally thought of it as an opportunity to expand players' influence. A chance where players could suppress crime while social order was in chaos, where individual players could be turned into heroes in the process, where overall social influence could grow. It was exactly the kind of opportunity I had always been hunting for.

This is beyond anything I can control.

But the President's face, as he said that, had been full of worry. Full of every kind of negative feeling. Suffering so visibly it was hard to watch, and even I had seen it.

"Do you think... I've crossed a line I shouldn't have?"

In the middle of all that, calmly weighing costs and benefits the whole time, I had come to realize that I myself might have gone a little wrong somewhere.

Maybe with Dok Su-hee's situation too. Maybe there'd been a better way.

I never assumed I was always right. If anything, I understood that pushing forward despite being wrong was more dangerous than anything else. That was exactly why I wanted feedback from my team.

"My thoughts are..."

"The way I see it..."

It was a change that came a little late. But I changed. And that small change would go on to have a massive impact on everything that followed.

"Let's regress."

And time was like water. Left untouched, it flowed wherever it wanted to flow.

Which meant that even after regression, the same events would repeat.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 19.]

* * *

Dok Su-hee and my fight, the defeat, the flight, all of it repeated again. Even my change.

"You're certain."

"Yes. I'm certain."

"...You won't regret it."

"...Yes."

The same thing had happened in the previous cycle too. My team debated it over and over. Some argued Dok Su-hee was right, some argued I was right, and some argued they needed to walk a middle path somewhere between the two.

"Dok Su-hee..."

"Still hasn't come out."

"..."

I removed the trap I'd installed in the conference room and sent Mahesh to Floor 26 to try to talk to her, but Dok Su-hee still refused to show herself. There was no way to know whether she had some scheme in mind, or whether she simply hadn't regained consciousness yet.

Regardless, a meeting had to reach some kind of conclusion. My team arrived at what they considered the most reasonable conclusion. It leaned closer to my position, and as a result, I was able to hold onto my own conviction.

With the report finalized, I gathered Team Alpha's opinions and presented a recommendation to the President, who agreed with part of it.

"But I think that 'plan' from before needs to be reinforced a bit more. The risk I'm taking on is too big."

"Yes. Understood. I completely understand."

"And... here's what I think. Is it really right for the two of us to be the ones deciding all of this?"

The President wasn't a rigid, closed-minded man, but he also wasn't someone who could ignore everything else and chase pure efficiency the way I did.

What he felt right now was an excessive sense of responsibility. The office of President of the United States was supposed to carry a heavy burden of responsibility to begin with, but this was on a different scale entirely. This was a matter that genuinely put the fate of humanity on the line.

"What would you like to do?"

"...Summon the world leaders."

The President called a meeting. Leaders from around the world would gather in the United States.

* * *

"The air's a bit stuffy in here."

"It is. Feels like we've come pretty deep underground."

This wasn't the first time the US President had summoned leaders from every nation. But it was the first time he'd taken them this deep, this far below ground, and been this careful about security.

"We'll be fine, right?"

"We'll be fine."

Security concerns meant no bodyguards could accompany them, but that was fine too. Association President Michael Zetter was here. No one could confirm it for certain, but rumor had it that man couldn't even be killed with a gun. If that was true, he was essentially chaos incarnate, capable of killing anyone he wanted, so worrying about safety was a waste of time.

"It's been a while."

"Ha, have you been well?"

Since the US President hadn't arrived yet, the hall was thick with quiet posturing and covert dealmaking. And speculation about the meeting itself.

"What do you suppose this is about?"

"I was wondering the same thing."

Some recently discovered genetic issue? Or the war in the Middle East? What could possibly be important enough to summon every head of state in the world, on this short notice, down into a place like this?

"It's probably... something to do with that 'book.'"

"Hmm."

"That's plausible."

Some of the sharper leaders guessed it might be related to the Book of Truth, the privilege and source of power exclusive to the American President. Other leaders found the theory fairly convincing too. Maybe some prophecy about the future had come out, and their support was needed to prepare for it, they thought.

"Ah, he's here."

"Let's be seated."

The US President entered at that moment, Michael Zetter taking his place behind him. Some of the leaders noticed the President's expression looked deeply troubled and wondered what was going on, what could have caused it.

"Today's agenda is..."

None of them, not a single one.

"The regressor."

Had any idea what the President was about to say.

Footnotes:

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