WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

________________

Chapter 371

──────

Regression (19)

"Registered Eom Hong-jun-ssi's contact info... confirmed the Japanese brat's fine... Kang Chan too... but the US side's a bit thin."

One day before the regression. I was reviewing the information I'd gathered again. Korea was growing at a steady pace overall. Kang Chan in particular, who'd received the Floor 3 reward in my place, was growing at a ferocious rate. He seemed to be climbing floors much faster than before.

I'd reached out to the Japanese brat as well, and he'd actually stayed quiet, and the other Korean players were growing strong at roughly the same pace as they had in the future I remembered. If there was one disappointing part, it was that I didn't find a single player I didn't already know.

"I figured the past changing might make some monster pop out of nowhere..."

Korea apparently had no hidden talent like that. Well, considering how small the population was, maybe that made sense.

Next was the US. I'd warned Michael Zetter, but that warning only covered "don't dig into my identity," and Zetter had taken his seat as Player Association president right on schedule, same as before.

The differences here were that Zetter was climbing the Tower faster than before, and that Dok Su-hee hadn't ended up under Michael Zetter this time. Rather than building a group of players around himself, Michael Zetter seemed focused on climbing the Tower faster on his own.

Of course, since I hadn't made separate contact with the Association this time, the quality of my information wasn't great. I had no idea what Dok Su-hee was up to or where she was, either. I decided to look into the US side later, once I had time.

"Guess I just regress now and climb the Tower again."

The situation wasn't perfect, but it was under control. Most importantly, the "hide my identity" part had gone off successfully. If there was one variable, it was that Choi Ji-won had also stopped climbing the Tower, so her fame was nowhere near what it used to be. That was something I'd need to keep an eye on too.

Well, the most satisfying part was that searching my own name online only turned up celebrities. I let out a satisfied sigh and turned off my phone. I'd more or less accomplished what I set out to do.

"Ji-won-ah. I'm about to regress. I'm going straight to Floor 5 right after clearing Floor 4. Don't worry too much if you can't reach me."

"Uh, Jun-ho-ya? Speaking of Floor 5..."

Choi Ji-won had been glancing at me sideways, and now she spoke up, sounding a little worried.

"I don't have the memories, but... there's this uneasy feeling that won't go away."

Floor 5 copies a climber's past self from the Tutorial and sets it up as an enemy. In Choi Ji-won's case, she'd received the future's growth in the present, meaning at the point of Floor 4, so she had a huge edge over her past self. But my case was a little different.

"Jun-ho, you... you're sure you're okay?"

My status window carries over. If a Floor 5 version of me showed up as the enemy, that doppelgänger wouldn't be much different from who I am right now. The only real change was that I'd gotten a lead on "divine power," and that wasn't going to swing things much on its own.

"I'm fine."

But I had confidence. More precisely, I wasn't worried.

"For one thing... the copying itself might just fail."

Right now, I was clearly a player outside any normal spec. Copying me in this state wouldn't come easy. So I figured there was a good chance the copy itself would simply fail.

"And even if the copy does succeed... I'll still be fine."

And even if it did succeed, I had something I could count on.

"I know myself pretty well."

Even if it really came down to a fight, there was no way I'd lose.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 4.]

Floor 4 played out almost exactly like before. The one difference was that I'd figured something out about divine power.

"This... actually feels kind of similar to regression."

It was a sensation I'd noticed back in the Tutorial too. There was something in the same vein as that dizziness I felt during regression. How to put it, the results ended up completely different, but the roots felt similar? Kind of like the relationship between sikhye and makgeolli, or milk and cheese. You could vaguely feel the resemblance, right?

"So regression is ultimately based on divine power too, huh..."

Well, if I dug even deeper, this status window itself, and the status windows planted in everyone else, were probably made entirely of divine power. But from what I could guess, this regression thing wasn't something that happened easily.

That pure white machine on Floor 4 draws divine power from the Tower to create monsters. So what about my regression? Where does this ability pull its power from? Maybe...

-00:13:10

Enough with the complicated thoughts. Floor 4 was wrapping up soon anyway.

"It's been a pleasure, Eom Hong-jun-ssi."

"Ah, yeah! Had fun too!"

Leaving behind Eom Hong-jun, looking like a golden retriever collapsed from too much walking, I cleared Floor 4. No need to go back to reality.

"Let's go."

I was heading straight into Floor 5 anyway.

-Entering Floor 5.

Needless to say, Floor 5 looked exactly like it did in my memory. First, a black veil wrapped around my body, then the veil vanished, revealing what lay beyond.

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations to you!"

A pure white structure. Baby angels flying through the sky. The blare of trumpets. I myself had changed a great deal, but the impression this sight gave off hadn't changed one bit.

"Hm."

Meaning none of it moved me at all. However sacred the sight looked, I already knew it had been built "to look sacred," so I watched it all with detachment.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

Right after, a pillar of light came crashing down, and Raphael stepped out from within it. I ignored every word he spouted, relying on my memory to fix my gaze quietly on one direction.

"A savage method like the Tutorial isn't my style. Every floor I designed was made so that you could earn exactly as much as the effort you put in."

Not yet.

"No matter how excellent a trait you're given, I wanted you to face trials and overcome them. If you did, you'd receive a fitting reward. Of course, sacrifice is inevitable in this process. I imagine some of you resent me for that."

Not yet.

"Now, the task on Floor 5 is truly simple. You just need to feel, for yourself, how much stronger you've become since you started. That's all there is to it."

Now.

<Floor 5>
-Clear Condition: Defeat the enemy before you.

A man came walking steadily toward me from the direction I'd been watching. I'd wondered whether he might not even show up, but here he was after all.

His appearance was ordinary. A hoodie, jeans, messy black hair, eyes that looked a little tired. The kind of face you'd usually see splashed with water in the morning. My own doppelgänger.

"Guess I really did get a lot stronger."

But unlike that ordinary appearance, the presence rolling off him could only be called overwhelming. A terrifying chill circling his whole body, black eyes that seemed to see straight through everything, a cheap iron sword held loosely but somehow radiating menace.

That's probably how I looked, seen through someone else's eyes. A flicker of tension ran through me on an instinctive level, but I also felt some relief. A certainty that things had turned out exactly as I expected.

"Well, I guess we don't really need the detailed explanation, do we?"

First, the soul. Unlike my own soul, which gave off a brilliant light, his soul was restrained. Controlled, maybe. Well, that part alone, sure, that could go either way.

But the truly decisive difference was.

"You know it too."

I had vitality. I had room to spare. I could walk over slowly, throw an arm around his shoulder, pat him on the back. I could offer comfort.

-...Yeah. I know.

But his eyes were dead. No life in them at all. He carried the air of someone who'd given up on everything.

My doppelgänger knew everything about the Tower. He knew exactly what it meant to skip Floor 1 and come straight to Floor 5 the moment the Tutorial ended.

But the truly decisive difference, beyond even that.

-Choi Ji-won's memories came back, huh. Good for you.

I had Choi Ji-won. He didn't. That was the whole difference between us.

Even if, hypothetically, my doppelgänger resolved to fight. Even if a blood-soaked battle, one stretching on nearly forever, followed from here.

I'd be the one who won. I had a mental anchor to lean on, and all he had was the faint hope that "maybe Choi Ji-won will be there when I get back to reality."

A regressor's fight is a fight of willpower. It was obvious which side held the advantage there.

We stood staring quietly at each other for a long while, and at some point he looked at me and gave a dry laugh.

"I lose."

The moment he said it, a blue portal opened. Knowing that nothing I said could offer him any comfort, I passed through the portal without a word.

Looking at him, a slightly mischievous idea did cross my mind, but it seemed dangerous enough on its own that I decided not to try it separately.

Right now was the time to keep moving forward.

Floors 6 through 10 all shared the concept of taking down monsters. Not through brute force, though, these floors were designed so that if you used the information and tools you were given, in the right place at the right time, you could take the monsters down efficiently.

A floor where losing your composure and flailing around gets you killed, and where scrambling to do something, anything, keeps you alive.

"Huh, my body's not stiffening up?"

Of course, none of that applied to me. Not when I could stare straight into Medusa's eyes and feel nothing.

The monsters that show up in the Tower would be impossible for an ordinary player to resist, but I could face them head on and take them down without much trouble. Well, obvious, sure, but obvious for a reason.

I blew through Floor 6, Floor 7, all the way to Floor 8 in no time. Made it to Floor 9 without a single break. There was no reason to hesitate when I could just kill whatever monster showed up in front of me. Nothing about it looked dangerous either.

Around this point, I figured that if some variable was going to show up, it would probably be on Floor 10, the floor where I'd first gotten this "chill" of mine.

"You there, climber-nim."

But variables, by nature, tend to jump out from the places you least expect.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried