WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 358

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Regression (6)

Tall trees. Grass rippling gently in the breeze. Two hundred humans gathered in a clearing. The sun beating down. Dirt that felt less moist than outright damp. A faint gurgling sound in the distance. The barest trace of poison in the air.

Every bit of it matched my memory. Yeah, this really was the Tutorial. Where all of this had started, where I first climbed the Tower, the place that still showed up in my dreams sometimes.

"Man... I don't even know what to say."

I looked around, and around again, soaked in a strange nostalgia. In real time it had only been about half a year, but by how it felt to me, it might as well have been childhood I was remembering, something from much, much longer ago.

I'd felt something like this before, back when I visited my old middle school after starting college. Admiring how the building looked exactly the way I remembered it, while looking back at how endlessly I myself had changed, feeling that bittersweet mix all at once.

Okay, enough sentiment. I had things to do. Things to handle. A plan already laid out.

If everything matched, my plan would go off without a hitch. This was a Tutorial I'd been able to clear even back when I was pathetically weak. Bending it to my will now would be simple.

No, wait. Almost everything matched.

Except for one thing.

"...Who are you?"

"...Excuse me?"

Choi Ji-won didn't recognize me.

Choi Ji-won not recognizing me threw me for a bit of a loop.

...Okay, fine, I'll be honest. I panicked quite a lot.

No, actually, forget the bravado. Sorry. I panicked like hell. I genuinely thought it might be irreversible and nearly burst into tears on the spot. I'd gone through all this hell specifically to bring Choi Ji-won's memories along through the regression, and here I was thinking the Choi Ji-won I knew had just been erased. Pure panic.

"Hello there! Welcome to the wonderful process of wasting your life..."

"Shut up, just shut up!"

"Gu, guaaaack!!!"

Even after regressing again out of sheer reflex, nothing changed. She still didn't recognize me at all, and in my panic I ended up subduing the Tutorial's fairy the moment it showed up looking threatening. (Worth mentioning: the status window carries over through regression. Meaning every stat I'd earned from 'achievements' up to this point had also carried over, which meant I was currently walking around as an absolute broken munchkin. Oh, and I got the achievement too. Gave a nice pile of stats.)

Only after I'd gotten every possible bit of that madness out of my system did I finally calm down a little.

And once I actually thought it through, this situation wasn't as nonsensical as it first seemed. Of course Choi Ji-won had no memories. That was, in a sense, exactly how it should be.

"Right, this is before Choi Ji-won ever received her memories."

Choi Ji-won only became aware of the past after clearing Floor 4. Which meant it genuinely made no sense for her memories to be intact right now.

How could the woman who'd first experienced companion regression on Floor 4 possibly hold onto her memories back here in the Tutorial? If her memories were going to carry over, that should only kick in once she entered Floor 4. That was the logical order.

The only reason I hadn't caught this earlier was because I'd focused and jumped straight back from Floor 6, skipping everything in between. Naturally, once I climbed my way back up to Floor 4, Choi Ji-won's memories should return.

No holes in the logic. It clicked together like teeth on a cogwheel. Still, that didn't stop me from feeling incredibly, incredibly anxious about it. If her memories still didn't come back by Floor 4, I could just regress again. And if regression couldn't fix it either... I'd worry about that when I got there.

Anyway, having recovered my cold, clear head, I regressed back to the very start of the Tutorial once more. Honestly, I did feel a flicker of curiosity, what would happen if I tried regressing further back than the Tutorial itself, but that wasn't worth testing.

If it just dropped me back into reality before I entered the Tower, fine, lucky me. But there was no guarantee the Regression trait would even find me again, and there was a real chance I wouldn't get summoned to the Tower at all. I didn't want to gamble like that while knowing absolutely nothing about how time itself worked here. Not knowing the return, not knowing the risk. We call that kind of thing being a complete moron.

Anyway, back on track. Once I'd steadied myself, I approached Choi Ji-won carefully. Surprisingly, she'd been aware of me the moment she came to her senses inside the Tower, but the disappointing part was that her awareness leaned less toward "romantic tension between a man and woman" and more toward "bracing for a dangerous predator."

"Nice to meet you."

"..."

Choi Ji-won glared at me without answering. Her hand hovered near her waist, ready to pull Bung-bung out at a moment's notice. The hostility in her eyes stung a little, but I calmed myself down with the thought that once her memories came back, I'd get to tease her mercilessly about this later.

"I know this is hard to believe, but would you hear me out?"

"...Does that even make sense?"

Of course she didn't believe me. Getting dropped into some strange place out of nowhere was bizarre enough on its own, and her sword was talking to her, and on top of all that a strange man had just told her, "I'm actually a regressor, and you and I have gone through everything together and dated for a long time and we're extremely close." Not believing that would honestly be the sane reaction.

"There was that thing that happened in middle school, and... I also told you about that story with your father... and how you always say good night to Bung-bung before bed..."

"Aaaaaaargh!!! Stop! Just stop it! I get it already!"

But whether she believed it or not didn't change the facts. Choi Ji-won could instinctively sense lies, so she must have realized there wasn't a single false word in what I'd said. Which was exactly why she was even more confused now.

"...So why are you doing this to me. By your own logic, all I'd have to do is wait for my memories to come back."

Since we were still at the Tutorial stage, I couldn't even bring up "Floor 4" directly, but Choi Ji-won had roughly pieced the context together and shot me a sideways glance. Why was I doing this? Did I think I was doing it for fun? (Okay, some part of me was doing it for fun.)

"We came up with a plan, and the plan needs you."

Our plan absolutely required Choi Ji-won. It had been built from the ground up assuming she'd have her memories. Sure, I was strong enough now that clearing this floor on my own would be no trouble, but this was the very starting point of everything. If you want to build something sturdy, you drive the cornerstone in deep first. Everything had to unfold, perfectly, exactly as planned. And that meant her cooperation was essential.

"I could let you, Ji-won, no, let you, experience the regression right now. But that could tangle up your memories, and it's something I've never tried before, so there's risk."

"..."

"So just hear the plan out first. If it doesn't sit right with you, say so. Look, everyone else is already getting ready to head out of the grass. People are going to die if this keeps going."

Time had passed, and the people who'd been frozen in fear were starting to talk among themselves. Someone had even shouted "status window" loudly a moment ago. Once that happened, curiosity about the status window would outweigh fear of the unknown, and people would naturally start gripping their weapons and heading out of the grass. The plan had always depended on being executed the instant everyone came to their senses, so there wasn't much time left. I needed to act while everyone was still inside the clearing.

"...Fine. I'll hear you out, at least."

"Good."

I spread mana around us while explaining the plan as quickly as I could. Choi Ji-won's expression, calm at first as she listened, slowly turned red, and at one point she even asked back.

"...So you're saying the future me agreed to this?"

"Yes."

"..."

Somewhere in the middle of repeating regressions to get back to the Tutorial, a question occurred to me.

"Ji-won-ah. Something just came to mind, out of nowhere."

"About me?"

"No, just in general."

"...Okay."

"I once said that later on, I'd put on a mask and mess around like some dark hero, saving people."

"You did say that."

Back when I used to imagine the future, I was pretty sure I'd said something like that. Hide my identity and act as a hero. Never reveal who I really was, just enjoy the praise, pure and simple.

"But lately I've started thinking that might actually be necessary for real."

Just look at how things had gone. I'd been walking around with my face out in the open, and it led to someone suspecting I was a regressor, and it actually got confirmed and spread through the whole neighborhood, didn't it? Sure, I planned to deal with the "Book" eventually, but a weakness that had already been exposed once wasn't something I could just leave unpatched.

"Anyway... once I make it back to the Tutorial this time, I'm thinking I'll move quietly, keep my identity hidden for real."

"And?"

"Would the Hero trait still activate even while I'm hiding my identity?"

It started as simple curiosity. The result turned out to be more surprising than I expected.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Even when I hid every trace that could give away my identity while saving someone, the Hero trait still activated. It even activated, briefly, when I gave a completely different name. (Weaker than usual, sure, but the fact that it activated at all mattered more.)

Meaning the Hero trait didn't require the target to specifically be "Kim Jun-ho." As long as the essence underneath was me, it activated no matter what wrapping I put on it.

"If that's the case..."

I didn't need to reveal my identity at all. I didn't have to stand out in front and risk exposure as a regressor, didn't have to get dragged through endless nonsense because of it. Meaning my fragile little mental state wouldn't have to take the hit either.

"But there's still a gap."

Say I climbed the Tower while keeping my identity hidden. Say I kept operating in reality too. Say I got away with it for now. Could that really hold up forever?

The Book made it obvious, this world was overflowing with absurd abilities. And with people still being summoned into the Tower even now, the pool of abilities would only keep growing over time.

Somewhere in there, wasn't it likely someone had an ability that could expose a hidden identity? Maybe not. But I couldn't say for certain it didn't exist. Someone, somewhere, would eventually get curious about who I really was, and they'd dig.

"But what if there's no reason to dig?"

What if the identity was easy enough to guess that nobody needed to bother finding out? What if someone was openly living a double life, and everyone else just chose to look the other way out of consideration?

"Choi Ji-won, you're going to have to play that role."

"..."

"You're going to be the hero."

That was it.

Starting now, Choi Ji-won had to become a powerhouse thoroughly obsessed with playing hero...!

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