WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 069

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The Regressor accepts his fate (5)

“Father!”

My mind was hazy.

“Father!”

It was a heavy kind of haziness, the kind that feels like you're waking from a long sleep and spreads from the deepest parts of your brain.

“Father!”

“Uh, huh?”

“Father! Are you alright?”

My eldest daughter-in-law was gently tapping my shoulder.

“Ah, what a relief… Honey!”

My eldest daughter-in-law, sighing in relief, brought my eldest son into the hospital room, and soon after, my other sons filed in one after another like a string of sausages, filling the empty space.

“Father…”

My sons surrounded the bed with worried faces.

“Why the long faces? It's not like I've only been sick for a day or two.”

Seeing my sons' faces, my mind felt a little clearer. My memories, which had been murky like spilled ink, were slowly returning.

Right, this was the VVVIP room in the hospital where I had been admitted for the past two years. My health had been steadily declining, but I hadn't realized it had gotten bad enough for my memories to become this jumbled.

“Father, but they said your expression was troubled while you were sleeping…”

“I had a dream. A dream of the time I was struggling on the 3rd floor. Why? You want me to tell you about it?”

“Ah, Father! We've already heard it enough for it to be nailed into our ears!”

The eldest son let out a small laugh. The gloomy atmosphere brightened a little.

“Yes, even those incredibly difficult times have all become memories now that I look back…”

70 years after clearing the Tower. Humanity had regained its peace.

The god who had called for humanity's destruction retreated after a crushing defeat at my hands, vowing to return another day, and I became the hero who saved mankind.

I had lived for some 70 years as the world's greatest celebrity, grasping both wealth and honor. My body was incomparably healthy compared to other old men, but the problem was with my mind.

“I think it's time for me to go.”

Was it because I had repeated regression in the Tower too many times? For the past few years, my memories had often become confused, and I frequently fainted without warning.

“My sons.”

“Yes, Father.”

“I… am preparing to leave now.”

My body was healthy.

That's the problem. Only my body was healthy.

I was afraid of what I might do with a mind that wasn't sound. I couldn't let a senile old man wield the divine power latent in my body.

“…Father.”

The eldest son hung his head low. He was the one who had consistently held onto me for the past few years whenever I spoke of dying, but it seemed he could feel that my current resolve was firm.

“All this time… I was truly, truly happy. I considered it my good fortune that you were my father.”

“Father, me too!”

“Father…!”

My family members, vying to be first as they shed tears.

I gave a hollow laugh, accepting each of their complaints, before clearing my throat with a small cough.

“Now, now, everyone, please step back. I think I need some time alone.”

“…Thank you for everything, Father.”

Wiping away their tears, my family left the hospital room one by one.

I watched them leave for a moment, then pulled aside the curtain next to the bed and looked down out the window.

[Jun-ho Grandpa! You must give birth!]

[You are the pride of our Republic of Korea.]

[The entire nation is cheering for you to shake it off and get back up!]

Bouquets and banners filled one wall of the hospital. Even at a glance, there were over a hundred of them.

“It's not 'give birth,' it's 'get well,' you brat…”[1]

Seeing that, I could be sure.

In the Tower that sought to destroy humanity, my own struggles had been worthwhile.

What I had done was not wrong.

“…You did well, Jun-ho.”

After praising myself, I slowly scattered the mana circulating around my heart.

Gradually, life drained from my body.

It was a peaceful and quiet death.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 66.]

“Uwaaaah!!!”

I gasped for breath, fumbling over my body.

Not the ageless body where unprecedented power slept, but a flimsy body in its twenties was what I felt.

Where am I? This isn't the hospital room. What am I doing?

“…You're awake?”

Su-hee looked down at me from the side as if I were pathetic.

Seeing her face, my memories slowly returned.

Right, I was in the middle of progressing through the 3rd floor. I had opened the right stone door and reached a room with the same design as the one on the left.

The last thing I remembered was being in there when a mysterious voice suddenly said, 'Courage is important for a warrior, face your fear,' before I lost consciousness.

Did the Tower make me see 'the scene I fear most'? The fear I felt just before was so vivid.

“It seems to be a setup where the one who overcomes their 'fear' first wakes the other person up. You're welcome, right? For waking you.”

“…Thank you.”

Wiping my damp neck, I thanked Su-hee.

“But what kind of illusion did you see to be sweating so much?”

“…I saw the worst-case ending I could imagine.”

My goal isn't just to clear the Tower.

If I can't find a way to get rid of this Regression skill someday… I might fall into an eternal cycle after actually clearing the Tower. If that happens, my mind will slowly shatter into pieces.

My thanks to Su-hee were by no means empty words. The timing of my awakening was good. I was afraid of what I might do, a version of me whose mind had broken after realizing that rest would not be granted.

The things a madman with immense power can do are literally endless. It's questionable whether my mental state would even be intact after returning to reality from watching an illusion of myself committing insane acts.

“By the way, Su-hee-ssi, what kind of illusion did you see?”

Su-hee was smiling lightly, but a single tear was trickling down her cheek.

“…Me?”

Su-hee wiped away the tear with a grin.

“I saw the driving force that makes me move forward.”

“…”

“Well, we cleared it, so that's what matters. Right? It seems about two hours have passed, should we just wipe off our sweat and move on?”

Her lips were smiling, but I could faintly feel a sorrowful emotion.

“…I've wiped off all my sweat. Let's go quickly.”

I didn't press further and got up from my spot.

The right path must have been all about overcoming fear, as there were no additional illusions or forked paths.

“Ah, you're here?”

As we walked straight along the path, we found Chan and Gyeong-jun waiting, leaning against a wall.

“You cleared it faster than I thought.”

“Yes. Dolls made of dirt? Machines? They attacked from all sides… but the spirit from Spirit Descent wiped them all out.”

“…That spirit was quite strong.”

Chan hyung-nim nodded at Gyeong-jun's words.

If even Chan hyung-nim acknowledged it, then that native fellow must be really strong.

“M-more importantly. We were investigating this place because it's extremely suspicious.”

Come to think of it, Chan and Gyeong-jun were waiting at the entrance of some room without going in.

“…What is this place?”

Looking roughly from a distance, I could see a space like some kind of den.

Torches flickered precariously on the walls as if about to go out, and structures resembling wooden supports were embedded in the walls.

The large chunks of metal rolling on the floor were an added bonus.

“A mine… maybe?”

Yes, the first image that came to mind was a mine. The underground tunnels I'd seen in books looked something like this.

“B-but the ceiling is too high for that…”

Gyeong-jun's point was valid. I'd heard that mines usually have low ceilings, forcing you to duck your head, but the ceiling of this space was high. At least over 20 meters.

“Besides, this metal. It's no ordinary metal.”

Gyeong-jun held out a silvery, shining lump of metal to me.

“Would you like to try hitting it?”

“…You want me to hit it?”

“Yes. Hit it gently.”

“…”

I carefully tapped the metal chunk with my fist.

“Ugh…!”

I had only tapped it very lightly, but I felt a heavy impact on my fist. It felt as if the metal had hit me back.

To the point where if I'd hit it just a little harder, I might have regressed.

“What is this…”

“I've run a few experiments, and I don't think this is an ordinary metal.”

Gyeong-jun, who had broken through the left room in an instant thanks to the spirit from his Spirit Descent, had conducted various experiments while waiting for us. As a result, he was able to grasp the properties of this metal in quite some detail.

“This metal… has a property of returning the impact when it's struck with a force above a certain level.”

“…It returns the impact?”

It was a property that would make a science major jump in surprise. Returning impact.

“Yes, though we'll need to investigate in more detail…”

A mine where a rare metal rolls about. I wonder if it implies something. I don't know how I'm supposed to take this.

“For now… shall we go in?”

Just worrying about it won't solve anything. In the end, you have to stick your head in the tiger's mouth to find out what the problem is.

This time, I took the lead again, and Chan hyung-nim took the rear.

“…Hm.”

There must be something here. It was an environment where it wouldn't be strange for something to pop out, like the wolf that was hiding on the ceiling.

But even though I was walking with my senses heightened to their peak, I couldn't feel anything.

Gulp.

The silence felt like the calm before a storm, and I swallowed without realizing it.

I wonder if we'd been walking for about 10 minutes.

“…The chunks are particularly large here.”

I could see several chunks of metal that were much larger than elsewhere. Was it a sign of something? I moved forward without lowering my guard.

Around the time we had completely passed the mysterious metal chunks.

“?!”

Because I had my senses on high alert, I was able to notice it immediately.

Behind the party. I could feel a strange phenomenon.

“Careful…!”

I tried to warn them, but it was already too late.

The large metal chunks we had just passed began to float into the air. The indiscriminately shaped chunks gathered together, taking form.

The speed was so fast that I could barely see the assembly process.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

In literally an instant, the metal chunks had merged into the shape of a giant with two legs and two arms.

“Son of a…!”

We were caught from behind in a flash.

Footnotes:

[1] One of the banners for Jun-ho has a common and endearing typo in Korean. It reads "꼭 낳으셔야 해요!" (kkok naeusyeoya haeyo), which means "You must give birth!" The writer intended to write "꼭 나으셔야 해요" (kkok naeusyeoya haeyo), which means "You must get well." The two words are pronounced identically.

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