WeTried Translations
Translator: ZEROSUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 342: Ruin (3)
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Half resigned to my situation, I decided it was better late than never to actually think this through. Was I going to spend the rest of my life like this? Getting my name dragged through the mud, my face plastered everywhere, taking abuse from strangers I'd never met? I wasn't about to unleash my power and become some tyrant, so clearly, I needed to do something.
The problem was that the situation had gotten pretty tangled. Clearing Floor 29 took at least three days, and the President had already made his move on day two. He'd offered up people to the Book while I was still inside the Tower, which meant I couldn't stop him through any normal method.
"..."
Offering people to the Book. Zetter offering up every American had been bad enough, but I couldn't wrap my head around the President tossing criminals into it either. Even among criminals there had to be degrees, and surely some of them didn't deserve it. Did being more morally lax than average really justify being fed to a book? Did it justify being stripped of an afterlife?
He wasn't in his right mind. And oddly enough, that seemed like the explanation that fit best. As far as I could tell right now, the President sitting in the White House wasn't thinking straight. He'd been waiting for my call with a confident smile on his face, like he genuinely expected me to say "Thank you!"
"I'm not exactly stable myself, though."
I was only holding onto my sanity right now because of Ji-won. I was hardly in perfect shape either. But being mentally unstable wasn't an excuse. I'd collect on this debt.
Well, let that go for now. What I needed to focus on was how to break out of this situation.
"In the end, I have to get to people."
I saw three major variables: Michael Zetter, the President, and the Hero. Unless I could exert influence over these three, the future wouldn't change.
The easiest route was the Hero. The reason clearing Floor 29 took three days in the first place was that the Hero only granted recognition once a day.
You'd think that was just the Tower's rule, right? But if someone was that strong, there had to be a way to bend the Tower's rules. From what I could sense, there wasn't much difference in strength between an Archangel and the Hero. She was probably just playing along quietly inside the Tower because of some contract. If I had to compare, the Hero was even stronger than the elder on Floor 15.
So if I came clean about the situation and negotiated with her...
"Ah."
Only then did I catch the contradiction in my own reasoning.
"Contradiction? What contradiction?"
"Would the Hero even believe me?"
If I had overflowing power the way I did right now, the Hero might believe what I told her. There'd be room for her to sit down at the negotiating table.
But why was I trying to negotiate with the Hero in the first place? Wasn't it to keep my personal information from spreading?
If I had no power at all and said "this is going to happen," would the Hero believe me? It wasn't like I knew some fatal secret of hers, and she didn't strike me as the type to trust people easily.
So sitting at that negotiating table required power, but the whole reason I wanted to negotiate was to avoid the situation that would give me that power. It was a contradiction, plain and simple.
"Unless... there's some piece of information that would make her believe me."
If that existed, maybe I could work the Hero angle. But right now, it wasn't possible. So, pass on the Hero for now.
"Next is Zetter."
Next up, Michael Zetter. Judging by what he'd told us and how he'd acted, he was likely to cooperate no matter what I said. He recognized that what he'd done was wrong, and I gave him credit for genuinely wanting to fix it. The problem was just that the mess he'd already made was so enormous.
"Zetter has problems too..."
Except Zetter had issues of his own. First, the man hadn't even managed to locate the President. (I knew now. I'd been looking at the entire planet at once.) Second, I had no way to communicate with him.
There was only one way to pass on information anyway. I'd need a companion regression. But a companion regression with Zetter?
Not trusting the man himself was one issue, but the bigger problem was that the condition for regression was "emotion." Michael Zetter's emotions had grown so thin that even attempting a companion regression with him was impossible. So Zetter was no help either.
By process of elimination, there was only one option left.
"The President, then..."
Right now he was sitting in the White House, grinning ear to ear, waiting for my call. If I could pull off a companion regression with him, I could solve this whole problem. It was the only answer.
"Except that's not possible right now either."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Look at my state."
I was far too unstable right now. If I talked to the President and got angry, I might just end up killing him mid-conversation. I couldn't even move properly. Look at this bed, already wrecked. What kind of conversation was a wreck like me going to have with anyone?
"So for now, like I said before... I'm going to take some time to adjust. You tell the President. Through Zetter or whatever."
"Uh, okay... got it."
With the situation roughly sorted out, I headed straight for Floor 1.
Being able to move again came first.
* * *
A week passed. Time flowed ten times slower inside Floor 1's Training Chamber, so for me it had been 70 days.
Over that stretch, what I focused on most was learning how to calm myself down. Moving my body normally again hadn't been a problem, I'd managed that fine after about two weeks. But my mana kept trying to run wild the moment I let my guard down, and settling that down had become the top priority.
If I just lay still in bed, it was fine. But the moment I moved, or my emotions flared up, my mana responded in kind, and this wasn't storm-level interference with reality, it was full hurricane-level. There was no way I could go back to reality like that.
Looking for some solution, I asked Ji-won and scoured the internet from every angle. In the end, what I settled on was meditation.
Sitting cross-legged like a monk, meditating morning and night, and to my surprise, my mana gradually settled. Ji-won always used to preach that cultivating the mind mattered more than training the body. I never expected that to actually be true.
So today too, I sat blankly in place, continuing my meditation like always. Anyone who's tried meditating knows that when you just sit there doing nothing, all sorts of stray thoughts start crowding your mind. The whole point of meditation is to clear them all out, but today, for some reason, I just couldn't focus. My mind wouldn't empty out.
"This is frustrating."
Back when I used to read web novels, I'd get frustrated whenever the protagonist got dragged around by everyone else. Come on, a protagonist needs to drive the story forward, not get jerked around by whatever nonsense other people pull.
But now that I was actually in the protagonist's shoes, I understood why it happens sometimes. Part of me wanted to flip the whole table, lose my temper, and slaughter everyone in sight. But reason kept butting in on every single point, saying, hey, that's not right.
Somewhere deep in my chest, a wicked little voice was whispering, why not just flip everything over this once and rule as king? It wasn't even impossible. If I showed my strength here, everyone who doubted me would eventually come to believe in me, my already-strong Hero trait would grow stronger still, and if every human on Earth fell under its influence, I would literally become a ruler. The Empress? Zetter? Or some unknown power whose name I didn't even know yet? A fight only means something when both sides are on the same level, and right now, I was on a different level entirely.
Yeah. Maybe I'd let ugly thoughts take root. Maybe, wanting revenge on Zetter and the President, I'd have turned into a monster. If it weren't for one single person.
Choi Ji-won. She was the last brake keeping me in check. Thinking about how disappointed she'd be if she saw me like that, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. She was serving as my conscience in my place.
"Phew."
Calm down. My mental state must have really deteriorated, if I was entertaining thoughts like that.
Being cooped up on empty Floor 1 for so long, I guess it made sense. By now, I'd gotten used to reining in my mana, and I could move my body reasonably well. It was time to try a different approach.
"Jun-ho, what about this?"
That was around when Choi Ji-won suggested a different kind of training.
* * *
At first, I flatly resisted the idea of going back to reality. The moment my focus slipped even a little, other people's voices would ring out vividly in my head.
"...Jun-ho?"
"Hm?"
"Feels good?"
"...Yeah."
Right now I was in Africa, running my hands over a wild lion with real enthusiasm. It had put up a fight at first, but by now it took my touch without complaint.
There are studies saying that petting animals is good for mental health. But petting a dog or something like that stopped giving me any real stimulation a long time ago.
Which was why Ji-won suggested we go around petting wild animals instead. Lions, monkeys, tigers, elephants, and so on.
"How is it. Feel like proper training?"
"...It's surprisingly hard, actually."
I had to be gentle enough not to hurt the animal while also keeping my mana settled so the wild creature, with its sharp instincts, wouldn't bolt in fear. On top of that, since I happened to love touching thick, shaggy fur, my mind actually felt steadier for it. (Having to focus hard enough to tune out all the humans chattering on Earth was a nice bonus too.)
"Hooo..."
So soft. So soft. It felt almost addictive.
I kept stroking the lion with a faint smile, and by the time enough time had passed...
"I think I'm about ready now."
"Okay."
Ji-won pulled out her phone and reached out to Zetter.
Time to go meet the President.
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