Regression is Too Much - Chapter 350

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 350: Ruin (11)

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"Ji-won-ah?"

I opened the bathroom door. Not there.

"Ji-won-ah?"

I went outside. Checked the convenience store she always went to. Not there.

"...Ji-won-ah?"

I turned on my phone with trembling hands. I kept typing typos into the search bar, something like "pdiwon" or "cheojiwm," until I finally, one letter at a time, spelled out "Choi Ji-won" correctly.

"...It shows up."

The search results came back normal, a Namuwiki page sitting right at the top, followed by a scroll of articles and photos. Not what I'd feared most, the total erasure of a person named Choi Ji-won.

So then why? No. I had a guess. But it couldn't be that. It shouldn't be that.

I fumbled through my phone to check contacts. I'd never memorized all of Ji-won's number, which was strange considering how much time we'd spent together, but that was exactly why. We were always together, so I never needed to. Still, I remembered the first four digits, so I typed the rest from memory, one digit at a time.

-Choi Ji-won

"..."

It was different. Not "Ji-won-ah ♡." No. That couldn't be right. No. It wouldn't be.

I reached for the call button, hesitated, threw the phone onto the bed, then picked it up again and agonized over it. Finally I admitted there was no other answer and pressed the call button, gently. The moment my finger touched the screen, I flinched back like I'd touched something burning hot.

-Brrrring.

The call connected. Hope that she'd pick up and dread that she wouldn't crossed each other in my chest.

-Hello?

She picked up. A voice so familiar it was sickening.

"...Ji-won-ah."

-Yes?

"Choi Ji-won."

-Ah, yes. Jun-ho-nim. What's going on?

"..."

I hung up. I couldn't accept it. I threw on clothes and headed straight for Choi Ji-won's place. I couldn't even think about whether this was right or wrong anymore. I had to go. I had to see it with my own eyes.

Bus? Taxi? No. I ran. I leapt over rooftops, smashed through brick walls, burned mana without a second thought, and ran. I couldn't hear the sound of phones filming me, couldn't hear people shouting. All I could think about was Choi Ji-won's house, getting there.

By the time I reached her door, gasping for breath—

-Creak.

The door opened. Right, Ji-won's senses were sharp. Of course she already knew I was coming. I'd expected that much. I had expected it. But.

"Um..."

That look in her eyes. Not affection. Not revulsion. Not even anger.

"Is something wrong? Can I help you with something?"

Concern filled her eyes. Not concern born of affection, but concern tangled up with confusion, the kind of concern one human shows another out of basic human decency. The look you give a companion.

"...No, it's nothing."

It was so sharp I couldn't bear it, like a blade stabbing again and again into my chest, and I ended up fleeing. My breath wouldn't come, like a stone had been set on my chest. My vision blurred. I wished someone would hit me over the head, hard. Get knocked out with a hammer, then wake up being nursed back to health by Ji-won.

That couldn't be real. This had to be some temporary glitch. Something must have gone wrong in the process of erasing the book from the world, just a brief error.

That couldn't be real. The book never warned me about anything like this. A being that claimed to know everything, not telling me this? It didn't add up logically.

That couldn't be real. This was Choi Ji-won. The Choi Ji-won who had climbed the Tower with me the whole way. My lover, my teacher, my friend, my companion.

That couldn't be real.

It couldn't...

"..."

It could be.

Choi Ji-won had forgotten me.

* * *

The moment I got home, I bit my tongue. I regressed with the familiar pain, and came to alone on Floor 29. Alone. Yes.

I ignored some woman trying to talk to me and mechanically earned the Hero's recognition. Three days later I returned to my studio apartment, and Choi Ji-won still wasn't there.

I cried. Even when I was hungry, even when I was thirsty, even when sleep pulled at me, I just cried. Even a player's body still needed to eat and sleep. My eyes sank hollow, my arms and legs grew thin, my lips cracked dry. My whole day boiled down to crying, searching for Choi Ji-won on my phone, and collapsing into exhausted sleep.

By the time I'd cried for so long I lost track of the days, the first thought that came was I want to die. I just... wanted to die. It wasn't some conclusion I reached through reasoning. It was simply what surfaced, naturally, from being so depressed, so exhausted, so miserable.

If I just stayed still like this, wouldn't I die eventually... right around when that thought crossed my mind, the reason I'd kept suppressed finally stirred back to life. My reason was soaked in the same depression too, barely functioning, but it could still manage the bare minimum.

"Why?"

That question was bound to come, sooner or later. Why? Why on earth? How?

I'd erased the book's existence. All I did was destroy the book through the ring. So why had my bond with Choi Ji-won vanished? Why?

"Ah."

The thought wouldn't continue. Sugar, calories, I was running low. I hauled my creaking body up and shoved whatever I could grab into my mouth. It was half spoiled, the taste and smell awful, but I was in too rough a state to even register that.

"The book."

With some nutrients finally in my brain, I recalled what the book had said. What had it told me? Definitely... definitely...

□You will disappear. And the past will be rewritten.□

Not this.

□I can know all things, but I do not know everything.□

Not this either.

□The connection to the World's Center will be severed.□

This. This is it. This has to be it.

Truthfully, I didn't know much about regression. Everything I knew about my own trait was based on guesswork. None of it was ever written down anywhere, clearly stated.

So then, the severing of the connection to the World's Center... it made sense that it had affected 'companion regression.'

"My head hurts."

My mind was still foggy. I washed my hair, barely, and went outside. I figured walking might help clear my thoughts.

"..."

Every street, every food stall, everything reminded me of her. It kept jabbing at that hollow space inside me. No. Focus. Again.

"My world has completely severed its connection to the 'World's Center.' The World's Center still exists, but it no longer has any influence on this world."

The bench where Ji-won and I used to sit.

"The reason is that the 'Book of Truth' is so deeply tied to the World's Center that removing the book means removing the connection to the World's Center as well."

The chicken skewers Ji-won used to love.

"So let's build a hypothesis here. What if my 'companion regression' was connected to the 'World's Center'? Whether the information was stored there, or whether maintaining memories routed through the World's Center somehow... either way, what if it wasn't a power completely unrelated to it?"

The street Ji-won and I used to walk.

"What companion regression and the 'World's Center' have in common is that both are free from my Regression power. There's enough of a connection there."

Choi Ji-won's scent lingered on every street. In every space.

"So then, separating this world from the 'World's Center'... is no different from removing companion regression."

Having realized the whole truth, I stopped short in some park.

Countless couples strolled by, hand in hand. Laughter. Happy smiles. Delicious food. Photos capturing memories. Happiness.

In this park where everyone was overflowing with happiness, I sank down to the ground.

Truthfully, I'd known already. I'd done a rough search through internet communities for Choi Ji-won's history, and confirmed that a human named Kim Jun-ho had been erased from the path her life had taken.

Choi Ji-won wasn't a hero in this world. She was still an outstanding player, sure, but she hadn't achieved anything close to a hero's feats, and her personal combat strength fell well short of what it had been when we were together.

The book said the past would be rewritten. So this world had to be a timeline where I'd never connected with Choi Ji-won. A timeline where our bond had broken off after Floor 3.

"Ah."

It was my fault. Because I erased the book with the ring. Because I tried to take the easier path. Because of that, my bond with Choi Ji-won was gone forever.

"Ah."

Had there really been no other way? Really? If the black mage from Floor 27 asked me, "Did you truly give it everything you had?"... could I really say I'd given it everything? Could I swear there wasn't even a 0.0001% chance?

I couldn't swear it. There might have been a way. I was the one who gave up early, hiding behind the excuse that it was too hard. It was all my fault. And this was the karma I had to pay.

"Ah."

Just the sound of breath leaving my lungs. A short syllable. Ah.

"Ah."

Maybe it was a compressed expression of the storm of emotion inside me, or what people call a "sigh."

"Ah."

It looked like a human soul, every emotion draining out of it.

"..."

From a distance, I watched that scene. Watched one human, who had barely clawed his way back to life, turn back into a living corpse.

And ironically.

"...Thank god."

I truly thought, thank god. Thank god, over and over.

Thank god that wasn't me. Thank god this wasn't the reality closing in on me. Thank god the book showed me this future. Thank god, truly, thank god.