WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regression is Too Much
Chapter 055
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Choi Ji-won is too strong (6)
“…”
It's time to regress.
There's never been a more perfect time to regress.
Ji-won was too strong, and she fought too well. So well that she had the master of the city backed into a corner.
That was the problem.
Things might have been different if Ji-won's final strike had landed, but the cornered master of the city activated her hidden trump card, the ‘Heart of Lightning Flash’.
-Heart of Lightning Flash [S]
Upon activation, consumes all possessed mana and replaces it with Lightning attribute mana. All physical abilities, including reaction speed, are drastically increased, and all attacks inflict additional lightning attribute damage. The user continuously takes damage for the duration, and Heart of Lightning Flash' persists until all Lightning attribute Mana is depleted.
I didn't know if the Heart of Lightning Flash the master of the city was using was completely identical to the trait I possessed.
But… I was sure of one thing. It was impossible to fight that woman now and win.
From the moment Ji-won's attack missed, I should have considered this attempt a failure. Just as I had given up, biting the inside of my cheek and resolving to regress.
“Ji-won… dammit…”
I saw firefighter Cheol-jin, lost in thought.
I saw Ji-won slowly getting to her feet, her arms trembling uncontrollably.
“…”
Suddenly, I felt a sense of shame.
They were doing their absolute best right now.
Even though they could have just ignored the residents of Floor 2 and moved on to Floor 3 without any issue.
For the sake of the greater good, they were pouring out everything they had.
But what about me?
The moment I decided we had lost, I was already thinking about how to regress. Come to think of it, I've been like this ever since coming to Floor 2.
In the Tutorial, I was often forced to regress, but on Floor 2, thanks to the no-violence rule, I could choose to regress.
“…The desperation is gone.”
The me who would make risky gambles to scrape together even one more piece of information until the very end was gone, and in his place was a complacent me who thought he could just try again.
Here I was, about to tear down the results that Choi Ji-won, Park Cheol-jin, and the residents had worked so hard to build, all with a casual mindset.
I can't give up like this. I have to try something.
‘Don't stop thinking. Don't give up.’
Think. There must be a plausible way.
A way…
A way to change this situation…
“Ah.”
There was one.
“Cheol-jin-nim.”
“Uhm… Ah, what is it?”
“Please wait just a moment. Baron Licht, you come with me.”
I turned on my heel and started running into the winding alleyways. The full-body leather armor I had discussed with the tanner before.
The same full-body leather armor that Ji-won had said was unnecessary, I needed it.
“Give up.”
Ji-won's arm was trembling finely.
“Just run away.”
She clenched her teeth so hard she could taste blood in her mouth.
“...”
Ji-won herself could feel in her bones just what an absurd monster she was facing.
She knew that if that being started to use her power in earnest, she would be turned to ash in an instant.
And yet, she did not back down.
She slowly took a middle stance, tightening her grip on Bung-bung. That was the kind of woman Choi Ji-won was. A woman who never gave up once she set a goal.
“Hap!”
And so, Ji-won squeezed out every last bit of her remaining strength and charged at the master of the city.
“If you insist on drinking the penalty…”
Before she could even take a single step.
Flash!
A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck Ji-won on the head.
“Ah.”
Cheol-jin gasped. Ji-won was falling. She had even dropped Bung-bung from her hand.
“I won't kill you. The archangel wouldn't like it.”
Just one blow.
Just one blow was enough to subdue Ji-won.
“You're next.”
The master of the city's gaze turned next to the players who were watching the fight from the alley.
“You piece of sh…”
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
The players who finally tried to run were all struck by the divine punishment that rained down from the sky and fainted.
“I guess you all thought I was some animal in a zoo?”
A clear blue sky. A cluster of clouds floating gently by. Warm sunlight.
Rumble!
Lightning striking the plaza. A roar so loud it felt like your eardrums would burst. Shards of stone scattering everywhere. Screams.
A disaster. This was a disaster.
How much time had passed?
The only one left standing in the plaza was the master of the city. Most of the players had been unconscious for a long time.
“Ugh, ughh…”
A few players with high stats and levels, including Cheol-jin, managed to remain conscious… but that was all they could do.
It was hard to even lift a finger. They had been completely neutralized.
“…This is it.”
The master of the city was savoring the silence. She had won. Victory was hers.
She felt she might have used an excessive technique, but it was still better than being defeated. After all, she was the master of the city.
“Now then, how to clean up this mess…”
Step. Step.
The master of the city's brow furrowed at the sound of footsteps breaking the silence.
“…Is that the guy who ran away earlier?”
Thick leather armor meticulously wrapped around a body, leaving no skin visible. A large hood obscuring the face.
A figure clad in full-body leather armor slowly walked out toward the center of the plaza, and the gazes of the few remaining spectators all turned towards them.
“…Jun-ho-nim?”
Firefighter Cheol-jin recognized that armor immediately.
It was the idea Jun-ho had brought up in the past when they were discussing how to fight the master of the city. The idea of wrapping the entire body in leather to block the lightning damage.
“Indeed… if it's leather armor…”
“I may be a liberal arts major, but even I know that electricity doesn't pass through leather…!”
The fallen players nodded their heads slightly, as if to say it was a good idea.
“…”
Cheol-jin, on the other hand, was pessimistic.
The opponent was too strong.
In front of that master of the city, who exudes the majesty of a thunder god, would leather armor even mean anything?
The master of the city was too powerful to confront relying on just a single suit of thick leather armor.
“…”
But Cheol-jin couldn't stop the man before him. There are some things you know without them being said.
The man's steps were filled with determination. Even if told to stop, he probably wouldn't listen.
Trudge. Trudge.
And so, the man who walked up before the master of the city, holding a single sword.
Swish!
Gripping a longsword, he charged straight at the master of the city.
What is courage?
It is the emotion that allows one to do what anyone could do, but not everyone can.
To challenge a monster that is madly spewing lightning from its entire body, armed with only a single sword.
Simply because he believed it was the right thing to do.
At this moment.
He was truly brave.
“Jun-ho-nim…!”
The moment Cheol-jin reflexively reached out his hand.
“Get lost.”
Rumble!
A bolt of lightning that fell from the sky blinded Cheol-jin.
“…”
A brief moment passed.
By the time Cheol-jin's blurred vision returned.
“Ah…”
In the very center of the plaza, there was a man sprawled out pathetically, smoke rising from his body.
“You didn't actually think that would work, did you?”
The sliver of hope vanished.
Park Cheol-jin's head drooped. Tears fell in droplets, wetting the dry stone floor.
It was a complete defeat.
“Hoo…”
Having regained her composure, the master of the city rubbed the back of her neck. Had she ever used this much mana before?
Was it because she used such an excessive technique? Even the sparks that had been flying from her armor had vanished.
‘That was dangerous.’
As a price for getting momentarily excited and using ‘Heart of Lightning Flash’, her body ached like crazy all over. If she hadn't deactivated it early, it probably wouldn't have ended with just a few days of rest.
Originally, ‘Heart of Lightning Flash’ is a technique that cannot be deactivated until all mana is consumed.
Originally, her mana was entirely of the Lightning attribute. If she paid a sufficient amount of mana, it was possible to calm the lightning energy and deactivate Heart of Lightning Flash.
She had used up almost all of her mana in return… but it was fine. She had shown the climbers what she was made of.
“You should have known the difference between courage and recklessness.”
She walked towards the fallen man. The closer she got, the stronger the smell of something burning became. Still, she had controlled her power, so it should have just ended with him fainting.
“Shall we take a look at this face?”
She wanted to see the face of the foolish man who dared to oppose her, trusting in nothing but a scrap of leather.
She flipped the prone man's body over with her foot and pushed back the hood to check his face.
And, just as she had imagined, the face of an unimpressive man was revealed.
“What a sight. The way your beard is all burnt and shriveled.”
The master of the city sneered.
“…Eh?”
The expression on firefighter Cheol-jin's face, which had been streaked with tears, twisted strangely.
A beard? Did Kim Jun-ho have a beard?
Cheol-jin, who had barely managed to push himself up, hurriedly checked the fallen man's face.
“…What?”
The person, who had said he wouldn't mind dying if it meant he could defeat the master of the city, was lying there, unconscious.
It was not Kim Jun-ho.
Then, where is he?
Cheol-jin's eyes, which had been frantically searching for Jun-ho, suddenly froze.
Because everyone had been focused on the man in the leather armor, no one had paid any attention to the narrow alleyway behind him.
“…”
Inside the dark alley.
Kim Jun-ho, with his knees bent, in a stance, glaring at the master of the city.
“Hoo, hoo…”
And Baron Licht, his hand on Kim Jun-ho's back, panting and gasping for breath.
Once he registered the two of them, he finally felt a frightening aura.
An intensity that seemed to suck in the surrounding space. Eyes that seemed to blaze with fire.
“That's…”
The powerful ones, including Cheol-jin, recognized that stance.
It was the same stance the master of the city used when she drove Ji-won into a corner.
It's that technique, the one that let her move at a speed that was invisible to the eye.
“No way…!”
In that short amount of time, he learned the technique just by watching it? From a common-sense perspective, that makes no sense.
“But…”
If it's the same man from the Tutorial.
The man who sliced off the head of the Minotaur, an enemy that seemed irresistible, in a single blow.
Somehow, it felt like it might be possible.
“This is the limit. There's no point in gathering any more mana.”
Blood trickled down from Baron Licht's nose.
“…Huh?”
Just as the master of the city finally shifted her gaze to the alley entrance.
“You let your guard down.”
The figure of Kim Jun-ho, who had been holding his stance, vanished.
A single long line streaked across the open space.
Silence.
A complete silence fell over the plaza.
“…”
Cheol-jin gaped, as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
There was even a player who kept rubbing their eyes, as if thinking they had seen something unreal.
Jun-ho stood far off, having passed the master of the city.
“Heok, heok, heok…”
However, his legs were trembling like mad, and seeing him exhale with a pale face, he seemed to be in very bad shape.
The master of the city, on the other hand, stood tall and proud.
Her armor, aside from the dented part from where Ji-won had hit her, was fine, and there were no visible wounds on her skin.
“Did he fail…”
Did the attack miss?
Just as the players were struggling to understand, pondering over and over.
“Hoo… huhu…”
Jun-ho managed to show a faint smile on his pale face.
“…Huh?”
Cheol-jin finally noticed what had changed.
In Jun-ho's hand was a brown object he hadn't seen before.
It was a familiar design. Because it was the very pouch that had been hanging from the master of the city's waist.
Jun-ho nonchalantly opened the mouth of the pouch in his hand.
“…Is this an item too? The inside is bigger than I thought.”
After checking its contents, he immediately turned the pouch upside down and shook it out without delay.
Clatter.
A small, diamond-colored box fell from within the pouch.
Its shape was identical to the bronze, silver, and golden boxes he had seen so often.
“…”
The master of the city, who had been staring blankly at the box slowly knelt down, and whispered in a voice thick with emotion.
“Thank you…”
In the bruised plaza, filled with the smell of burning and swirling dust.
The woman's sobbing was the only sound that broke the silence of this plaza.
Author Note:
Floor 2 has reached its end...
To be honest, I have many regrets... It's a floor that should have appeared a little later, or in the latter half of the story... It was a design mistake...
I like the concept of Floor 2 itself, but the problem was that its atmosphere was different from the Tutorial.
There wasn't that fun of the protagonist getting unfairly screwed over... the development was a bit bland...
If I had added a modern part to give it a variation, I should have still competed with a familiar flavor... but it's quite regrettable that I gave it two variations. The uniqueness was too excessive...
I will return with a development for Floor 3 that is both familiar and new. Thank you always for reading!
Footnotes:
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