WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 347: Ruin (8)

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There's something unyielding baked into the word "stubborn." Something that won't budge no matter how the wind blows, no matter how the rain falls, no matter how hard you push against it from the side.

"I'm against it. No, it's not happening."

Choi Ji-won's attitude right now was exactly that. Stubborn. There was no room for negotiation here, and I couldn't find a single crack to work into.

"It's not that serious, is it?"

"It's exactly that serious."

The ring the angel had given me. A ring that could erase one trait. This ring was something I'd originally planned to save for the "worst case."

My trait, Regression, turned back time when I took damage. So what would happen if I regressed from natural aging, or from a death caused by illness? A person can't live forever... but what if even death triggered a regression?

Then I would live forever. No, to be precise, I would become "unable to die." A human daring to challenge eternity would inevitably go insane, so that was an ending I didn't want.

But I had this ring. A ring that could erase any trait. I didn't know if a ring given by an archangel could actually neutralize Regression, which looked like a top-tier trait... but assuming it was possible, I could welcome a peaceful rest whenever I wanted.

"And what if you get stuck forever, just like you said? Absolutely not."

I understood why Ji-won was worried about me. It was something I'd worried about myself, in the past.

"But there's no answer here either."

Still... even accounting for that, the current situation had no answer at all. It wasn't simply that my identity had leaked. The problem was that my "strength" had leaked right alongside it.

People had already started expecting things. They believed, vaguely, that I would solve everything, the same way they believed in the American President. Maybe I could solve it, once. But after that?

If my goal had been to rule the Earth, I'd have welcomed this with open arms. But... I didn't want this. I didn't want this kind of crushing responsibility. I didn't want to be shoved onto a throne I never asked for.

"But..."

Ji-won had known my nature for a long time now, so when I showed a moment of weakness, she couldn't push back as hard anymore. She probably knew how much stress I was under, how cornered I felt.

"What about regressing someone else instead?"

Ji-won forced out another suggestion. But I'd already thought through this one too.

"A day and a half after the moment of regression, the President spreads my name around. So whoever does the companion regression needs to be someone who can stop the President within that day and a half. Is there anyone besides Dok Su-hee?"

"...What about regressing the President?"

"That guy can't be regressed. His soul's already been offered to the book, so he's outside the reach of my ability. At best I could regress the Korean President, but the problem is the American President is in a state where he won't listen to anyone. When he tried to leak my identity, his entire core staff fought tooth and nail against it. He was crazy enough to ignore even that. Unless it's someone like Dok Su-hee, who's got both the trust and the firepower... I'd call it impossible."

"..."

"Oh, there is one method. Regress someone I trust, and have them secretly kill the American President. Then there's no risk of my identity spreading, and the people working on it will know it was me, so they'll back off. Word might trickle through the underworld eventually, I can't help that, but at least the immediate fire gets put out. But that's not the direction we want, is it?"

At some point Ji-won had lowered her head and just kept listening to me. Maybe it was because there was resentment mixed into my voice.

"So... right now the ring is the best option. If I use the ring..."

"No, no. Wait a second."

Only then did Ji-won pull me into a tight hug.

"For one thing... it's not even certain, is it? Erasing the book's trait doesn't mean everything goes back to normal. We don't even know that."

"That's something I can just ask the Book."

"That's true, but... yeah, maybe Dok Su-hee will surface someday. Wouldn't that be better?"

"...'Someday,' you mean?"

"Su-hee, even if she's in a bad mental state right now, it's not going to last forever, right? Let's wait. Let's just wait. She'll come out eventually. She'll come to her senses and come out eventually."

"...You know what 'let's wait' actually means, right?"

"..."

Ji-won understood my words immediately. I didn't have time. Why not?

"The monsters are coming."

In about six months... monsters would invade Earth. Chaos unlike anything ever seen would hit the world, and people would die.

Could I just stand by and watch that happen? No. I'd stop it. I'd do everything I could to stop it. I didn't know if I could stop it perfectly, but either way, I'd be able to drastically reduce the damage.

But after that? If a regressor who suddenly appeared prevented every bit of that damage? What about society?

Whether I wanted it or not, I would become Earth's guardian. Not just now, but going forward too.

Maybe it'd be fine, just this once. I was going to try to save the world afterward anyway, so it wouldn't matter, in a way. Ji-won had already been enduring stares like that from the start. There was no reason I couldn't do the same.

"...I can't do it."

No, I don't think I can. I'm not that kind of bold person. I don't want my whole life laid out on a chopping block for the public to dissect. I just... wanted to become moderately famous, get a moderate amount of praise. That's all I ever wanted.

"Still, the ring is out of the question."

"Then... what do you want me to do."

In the end there was no option besides the ring, so what exactly did Ji-won want to do? I carefully pried myself out of Ji-won's arms, who was still hugging me.

"Honestly, this might look pathetic from where you're standing. You've... been enduring this for a long time already."

"No. I don't think that. It's different for everyone."

"Then I guess it was just my own inferiority complex. Either way... I don't want this situation. I can't do it."

"The ring..."

"There's no other way."

"..."

Right. That was the problem. There was no other way.

"Using the ring doesn't necessarily mean everything gets solved either. So, I'll just ask the book. I'm not saying I'll do it right now."

"But..."

"Hm? There's nothing wrong with just asking, is there?"

"There's got to be... got to be some other way..."

"...I'm going to go ask the Book."

I understood how Ji-won felt, but I couldn't just keep waiting in a situation with no alternative. If we were going to wait, I needed to start thinking right now about how to stop the monster invasion. Better to just go ask the Book for an answer instead.

I'd already turned my back and started preparing to head to America when...

"The mask."

"...What mask?"

"The Floor 24 reward. The mask. What if we used that?"

I heard Ji-won spring up behind me. A mask?

"If someone we can trust, like, say, Firefighter Park Cheol-jin, wore the mask and transformed into you... wouldn't the President meet with him then?"

"..."

Right, the mask that had been the Floor 24 reward. Using the mask made it possible to transform into anyone you wanted for one hour. If we just showed that appearance to the President, at the very least, a "conversation" would become possible.

"I don't know how the conversation would go, but regression isn't a one-and-done thing. Whoever does the companion regression will build up know-how too... don't you think it's possible?"

I couldn't say the odds were high. But it wasn't a completely unreasonable plan either.

"How would we even get the mask to Park Cheol-jin, the firefighter."

The problem was, there was no way to get the mask to him in the first place. We had the mask, sure, but there was no way to deliver it to Firefighter Park Cheol-jin outside the Tower, so to begin with...

"Zetter. If we contact Zetter, it's possible."

"Zetter?"

"Yeah. That guy owes us. So if you contact Zetter, explain the situation, and borrow the mask... and then approach the President, it should be entirely possible."

"..."

That put things in a different light. Michael Zetter was in a state where he felt guilty enough to fly all the way to Korea and wait outside our house. Whatever his true intentions were, he'd show cooperation for now, at least.

If I could get my hands on the mask with Zetter's cooperation, and use that same cooperation to catch the President's attention while wearing it... and if the President, delighted that "the regressor has finally come!" was told the whole truth...

Then. It might be possible. Yes, it wasn't impossible.

But this too was a matter of probability. I couldn't say it would definitely succeed, and there was also the downside of dragging Firefighter Park Cheol-jin into this massive regression of mine.

But if I used the ring. I could erase the Book, the root of all this evil, from the start. If we used the mask, we might stop the immediate crisis, but there was nothing we could do about the fact that my identity had already spread to the top brass of every country in the world.

Should I dodge the situation for now, the way Ji-won suggested. Or should I use the ring and try to change everything from the root.

Up until now, I'd always respected Ji-won's opinion. I think I'd gone along with her judgment almost every single time. I knew my own mind wasn't entirely sound, worn down by the sheer pressure of being the regressor, and because of that, I'd usually assumed Ji-won's opinion was the right one.

But at this final fork in the road. Just this once.

"...I'll go to the Book first."

I trusted myself. Not Choi Ji-won.

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