WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 340: Ruin (1)

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"I tried to stop the President, right up to the end. In the end, he took my call."

"..."

"But by then it was already too late. I tried reaching Ji-won-nim afterward, but she was inside the Tower, so the call couldn't get through."

Choi Ji-won grabbed Jun-ho's hand without thinking. Her trembling fingers laced through his, but nothing came back from him. He just stared blankly into empty air.

"Why..."

In the end, Ji-won was the one who had to ask.

"Why... do you people get to decide things on your own? Who do you think you are?"

"..."

"Who are you to be Association president, to be President, and think you can control us like this? Who are you to place your expectations on us, believe we'd conquer the Tower, and bet everything on that?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it!!!"

Her breathing turned ragged. Composure was the first thing anyone learned when studying martial arts, but even Ji-won couldn't stay calm in a moment like this. Not even while sharing a trait with Bung-bung.

"You could have just... asked us first..."

"..."

"Or at least told us beforehand... Why tell us now, after everything's already blown up? To ease your own guilt? Or to save face while you still can?"

"...I thought I had to tell you, even if it was late."

"You people always talk about efficiency. Is this efficient handling? Is it? From where you're standing?"

Zetter did have his own excuses. But none of them would be convincing enough to satisfy Ji-won right now. In the end, it was Zetter's own convenience, and the fact remained that he'd completely ignored what Jun-ho and Ji-won wanted.

"...I'm sorry."

That was all he could say. Sorry. My fault. Words that never reached the person who'd actually been hurt.

"No... no..."

Ji-won's face was already out there. Her identity, her background, even interviews with old classmates — she'd already seen it all streaming live on the news.

She herself was fine with it. She'd had her face known before, from competitions and the like, and she'd trained herself enough to feel numb to that kind of thing.

Still, it had been hard at first. It hurt. Watching people who'd never even seen her face call her a bubble, a fake hero manufactured by the media, or spread rumors about who she'd slept with to get famous — it made her blood boil. She'd wanted to walk right up to them and ask, could you say that to my face?

Even Ji-won had struggled to adjust. So what about Jun-ho? How would he take it?

His mind hadn't been healthy to begin with. Ji-won felt more keenly than anyone how unstable regression had left him, and that instability was exactly why he'd been rushing to climb the Tower faster. She could still see it clearly — the moment he confessed that repeated regressions made ordinary people start looking like NPCs to him.

And in the middle of all that, his identity just gets spread out of nowhere? To the whole world, no less? Could Jun-ho hold himself together?

"Whew, whew..."

No. She had to calm down. Guessing at this the way she was doing now made her no different from the people who'd made this decision. What mattered was Jun-ho's own will.

He might take it surprisingly calmly. He might just grin like it was nothing. Wait. Wait and see, listen to what he thinks, and judge from there.

"Get out."

"...Understood. If there's anything you need, at any time..."

"Get out."

After chasing Zetter off, Ji-won carefully laid Jun-ho down on the bed. He didn't even blink, just stared blankly into space. At least his breathing kept a steady rhythm — small comfort as that was.

Grabbing Zetter by the collar and shaking him wouldn't change anything right now. If Jun-ho had been in his right mind, he'd have started by looking for a way to fix this. He'd have annoyingly lectured her that getting angry in a situation like this didn't help anyone.

"Okay, okay... calm down, Ji-won."

As she steadied her breathing, the Hero from Floor 29 flashed through her mind. That woman had clearly known. She must have known, which was why she'd reacted the way she did.

Jun-ho had started feeling unwell a day after entering Floor 29. And clearing Floor 29 took a minimum of three days. Truly the bare minimum. He had to earn the Hero's recognition three times, and earning it once took a full day.

Which meant.

"...No."

The regressor couldn't undo this.

* * *

A day passed. Jun-ho still lay in bed. He didn't blink, like a puppet. He didn't sweat. He ate nothing.

Ji-won stayed put beside him just the same. Her phone had been off for ages now, and she watched nothing — not the TV, not anything. She just sat quietly by the bed, holding his hand.

"This the place? This it?"

"Should be, right? Who lives in a dump like this. The regressor, of all people."

"Yo, turn on the live stream first... uh, huh! Who are you! Hey! Hey!"

Ji-won's sharp senses picked up that the quiet around the studio apartment was artificial. More precisely, people had been coming to visit, and someone had been chasing them off. The government must have stepped in. She could tell just from watching the delivery driver get stopped by someone every single time, subjected to some kind of inspection, before finally leaving the food at the door.

Should she look? Should she not? Better not to look. But shouldn't she at least get a sense of the situation? No, wait — they should look together once he woke up. What should she do...

Ji-won held his hand with one hand, and gripped her powered-off phone tightly in the other. Should she look? Did she really need to look?

Let's look. Yeah, let's look. Keep Jun-ho from seeing it, and just look herself.

Having decided that, Ji-won finally turned her phone on.

"...Ah."

And regretted it immediately.

-Who's Kim Jun-ho?

-Are the Americans out of their minds? Expect us to believe this crap?

-Why's the regressor Korean? Is even god a Korea-worshipper now?

-I went to middle school with this guy lol

The YouTube video posted by the United States Government had crossed three hundred million views within two days. It introduced a person named "Kim Jun-ho" while claiming, at the same time, that he was the regressor.

The actual content inside wasn't much. There wasn't any real proof that Jun-ho was truly the regressor, and it didn't include any footage of him in action. Most of it was made up of accounts from other players who claimed to have witnessed the person "Kim Jun-ho."

But the fact that the United States Government itself had posted it. The fact that the President himself had appeared in the video and said, "He is the regressor, and he will save all of us." The fact that the regressor named turned out, quite absurdly, to be Korean. The fact that a follow-up interview had the President confirm it himself.

-The President's got dementia, doesn't he.

-This guy's talking nonsense because he's scared of getting impeached lmaooo

-How do you even know he's the regressor you idiots, time resets and memory resets with it

-They probably have a method, dumbass, you think the United States Government spouts random garbage out of nowhere?

-They might

-But it's so random it kind of feels true

-So this one guy's supposed to clear the Tower alone? Humanity's not going extinct then?

-If he's got regression and still can't clear it he's a straight up idiot yeah

-So what kind of regression is it supposed to be anyway? They just say Time Traveler and don't explain anything in detail

-Maybe even they don't know

-No way, dumbass

Opinion split about evenly. Half believed it, half denied it.

-Yo, still good news though yeah, broken ability so we're probably not going extinct

-The regressor was actually real lmaooo

-Knew something like this would happen the moment the Tower showed up

There were people who reacted positively, at least.

-Looks like a diversion tactic to me. United States Government trying to pull our attention somewhere else.

-Same, probably some order from the Jews or whatever.

-Player abilities keep coming out all over the place so now they're just making stuff up whenever they want yeah, if that guy's the regressor I'm god

There were people who didn't believe any of it.

But the group Ji-won found most disgusting was the mockers.

-It's been like half a year now and he still hasn't cleared the Tower? With a regression ability? Been slacking off this whole time or what?

-Sounds like no talent and no effort either. Don't know what cycle he's on now, but if this is where he's at by this point, no hope left. Humanity's cooked, cya

-Regression's supposed to go to the untalented ones as a rule... boring if a genius gets it

-Doesn't seem fun either watching a scrub like Jun-ho get it though lol

-If I had regression I'd have cleared the Tower ages ago, what kind of idiot gets a good ability and just wastes it, such a nuisance...

-What happens if the regressor catches you talking shit like that

-Thor can't catch me lol

"..."

People who knew absolutely nothing.

People who had no idea what kind of regression Jun-ho's was, what he'd been through in the Tower, or how he'd overcome it.

Because they knew nothing, they were saying things they had no right to say, so easily.

Everyone knew Kim Jun-ho now. Everyone knew the regressor. Everyone... truly, everyone...

"Ji-won."

At that moment, Jun-ho called out her name, eyes already open.

"Huh, yeah? Jun-ho! Are you awake..."

"I can see the status window now."

The first thing he said, absurdly enough, was that he could see his status window.

[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!] [The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]

Yes. Jun-ho had grown stronger. Too much... stronger.

"Ha ha."

Exactly as everyone had wished.

Footnotes:

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