Regression is Too Much - Chapter 79

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 079

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The Regressor racks his brains (10)

After finishing the conversation with Su-hee, and after Chan finished off the golem in a single punch.

"..."

The four of us were able to reach the final room once again.

"What's this?"

I ignored the box placed in the center and quickly ran into the room to examine the red door first.

"Uh, uh uh... Don't touch it carelessly... Who knows what will happen if you put your palm on it..."

"I'll just touch it a bit with my finger, not my palm."

I gently placed a finger on the red groove that was meant for a palm. The tip of my finger glowed faintly, then quickly faded.

"This is... blood."

I could tell by touching it. The red door wasn't originally red. It had been coated with people's blood, turning it crimson.

"Blood?!"

Gyeong-jun was extremely flustered, and…

-You will clear Floor 3 upon passing through the door before you. However, only one person may pass through the red door. Additional rewards will be given for passing through the red door.

Just then, a message window appeared before our eyes with perfect timing.

"..."

Just like the last time, the flow of the air grew heavy with awkwardness. In an instant, the situation had turned us into enemies.

"...Would you all mind listening to me for a moment?"

Just like the last time, I corrected the others' misunderstanding. I appealed to them that there was no need to fight in this room, and that we should cooperate to open the stone door on the right first.

"You don't clear the 3rd floor as soon as you open the door. It says you clear it by 'passing through' the door. It doesn't matter if the four of us open the normal door first, and then one person opens the red door."

"...Okay. That's persuasive."

Gyeong-jun and Chan, who had been on edge, calmed down, and an atmosphere where we could have a rational conversation was once again established.

"...Then, shall we open the normal stone door first?"

Rumble.

And so, the four of us gathered to open the stone door, and a blue portal revealed its form.

Right. Up to this point, it was the same as the last time. What would be different starts from now.

"So... how do we decide who goes into the red door..."

"Just a moment."

Su-hee cut off Gyeong-jun, who was about to speak about the red door.

"Everyone. I will be the one to go inside that red door."

Instead of backstabbing them out of the blue like last time, she confidently declared that she would enter the red door.

"What? Huh? What did you say? What does that even..."

"...Is she sane?"

But even though she chose a relatively more rational method, the reaction was fierce.

Gyeong-jun and Chan stared at Su-hee with expressions that said, what are you talking about right now.

"I will explain from here."

There was a chance that letting Su-hee explain would cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so I decided to step in here.

"...I'll hear you out. You have a strangely good sense of insight."

Chan's sharp demeanor softened, and Gyeong-jun, whose eyes had been spinning, barely managed to calm down.

"First, I will tell you about Su-hee-nim's past."

I started by explaining about the tutorial's boss, the Goblin Shaman.

The heroes of the tutorial. And the Goblin Shaman's betrayal. All the way to the story of how the people who chose death placed a heavy responsibility on Su-hee's shoulders. I laid out Su-hee's story as concisely as possible.

"..."

The atmosphere grew even heavier than before. Because death was a topic that carried a weight that words could not describe.

A moment of silence passed like that.

"I still don't understand."

The first one to speak was Chan.

"I've heard Su-hee's unfortunate story. However, everyone carries their own stories."

"..."

"What I'm saying is, I don't see the need for us to give up the reward from that red door."

What he said was true.

Among the people who had made it to Floor 3-5, was there anyone without a story? Chan, Gyeong-jun, and I all had something we were carrying. Chan's words were an undeniable truth.

"...I think it's okay."

But Gyeong-jun wiped his reddened eyes and placed a hand on Su-hee's shoulder.

"How... how hard must it have been... She's just a young student, how much pain must she have gone through in this Tower..."

"..."

"I'm strong enough... strong enough to take care of myself in this Tower. I believe the rest of you are the same... In terms of increasing our survival rate, I think it's right for Su-hee, who is the weakest among us, to take the additional reward."

Gyeong-jun smiled as he looked at Su-hee.

"We're all climbing this Tower to survive in the end, aren't we?"

"...Hoo."

Chan, who listened to Gyeong-jun's words until the end, rubbed his brow as if annoyed and shifted his gaze to me.

"...Fine. I have no intention of going against the majority. But Jun-ho, I have to ask you this one thing."

"...Go ahead."

"Do you think it's right for Su-hee to go through the red door?"

"...Yes."

"Fine, then I'll agree too. I'm not trusting Su-hee... I'm trusting the version of you I saw on the 3rd floor."

Saying so, Chan stepped back from the red door. It seemed like he was going to take his share from the box.

"Well, that's great, Su-hee-ssi!"

Gyeong-jun was happy as if it were his own business, and he ruffled Su-hee's hair. It seemed he had grown fond of her in that short time.

But a moment later.

"...Huh?"

Gyeong-jun suddenly dropped to one knee with a look of incomprehension and supported himself with a hand on the floor.

"...?"

It was a sight I had seen before. In the previous turn, Gyeong-jun had collapsed just like that after being hit by Su-hee's paralysis poison.

With a feeling of 'no way', I shifted my gaze to Chan, and…

Flash!

With a bright light, Chan was trapped inside the Goblin Shaman's protective barrier.

"..."

I was so surprised that words wouldn't come out. After carefully choosing my words, what came out of my mouth was a simple question.

"...Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"...I told you I would persuade them."

"But..."

The culprit of it all, Su-hee, tilted her head with an unfazed expression.

"You could have failed to persuade them. I know it's cowardly, but it was necessary."

"..."

"So, in my own way, to be sure..."

Su-hee rattled off excuses.

Her eyes were favorable towards me. Because the Awe trait was activating.

But at the same time, they were tinged with madness. A madness that would allow her to do anything to achieve her goal.

Only then was I certain. That Dok Su-hee was not normal.

"You'll understand, right? It's not just for me, it's for the people who died because of me."

Saying so, Su-hee approached the red door.

Su-hee's story was endlessly tragic, and her will to climb the Tower was noble. But I guess her character was a separate issue.

Su-hee was... simply justifying her evil deeds with her story.

"Well then..."

Su-hee placed her palm on the red door with a bright smile.

"...How could you?"

Gyeong-jun couldn't bear to watch and squeezed his eyes shut.

"...Damn it."

The moment Chan clenched his teeth inside the protective barrier.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

An explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the red door where Su-hee was standing.

The explosion wasn't particularly large, so its aftermath didn't reach us standing on the other side of the room, but…

"Kyaaaaaaaaaak!"

Su-hee was caught in the explosion at point-blank range. Her arm was instantly blown to pieces. Her body flew like a puppet with its strings cut.

Her body bounced on the floor a few times before flying all the way to us on the opposite side of the room.

"..."

She was breathing, but Su-hee seemed to have lost consciousness from the shock. Blood flowed endlessly from the severed limb.

"...What, what is this...! Even if she betrayed us, she's just a child...!"

Gyeong-jun trembled and tried to support Su-hee. But his body was paralyzed, and he couldn't even do that.

Gyeong-jun, who had been twisting his body trying to move somehow, suddenly rolled his eyes back and stood up. I didn't know the reason, but he had succeeded in using Spirit Descent.

"...Traitor."

But Spirit Descent Gyeong-jun didn't seem to have the slightest intention of helping Su-hee.

"I have no loyalty to help a traitor. She tripped on her own greed, so it's quite satisfying to watch. If this were my homeland, I'd have thrown her to the lions."

He let out a scoff, then released the Spirit Descent state, and Gyeong-jun, having regained his body, floundered on the floor due to the paralysis poison.

"..."

And Chan, from inside the protective barrier, was looking down at Su-hee without a word.

"A ridiculous end."

That was all he said.

In that moment when everyone had turned their backs on Su-hee.

"...Su-hee...!"

I, the only one who wasn't paralyzed, supported the fallen Su-hee and examined her wound.

"..."

The wound was severe. But, it wasn't life-threatening. And since her arm was gone without a trace, using a potion would be meaningless.

-Awe [A]

-Praise for your greatness. Fear of what cannot be understood.

-You can use a degraded version of a trait from a target affected by Awe one time.

-Dok Su-hee: Inventory (SSS) >>> Synthesis/Explosion (B-)

She ended up with a slightly more severe injury than I expected but...

In any case, with this, things had gone according to plan.

Su-hee had lost her right arm in an unforeseen accident.

A considerable amount of time had passed, but she showed no signs of waking up.

I thought that the traitor deserved a proper lesson, but the result was more gruesome than I expected. I was looking down at Su-hee with a complicated expression that included a slight sense of satisfaction.

"...It's not your fault, Jun-ho-nim. It's okay."

Gyeong-jun, interpreting my expression in his own way, placed a hand on my back.

"...More importantly, look over there."

Gyeong-jun pointed at the red door. No, it was hard to even call it red anymore.

Perhaps the explosion on its surface had blown off a significant portion of the blood scabs stuck to it.

The once-red door now had an ambiguous color, a mix of grey and red.

"The trap seems to have been a one-time thing..."

Once again, the conversation had returned to the starting point. Only one person could obtain the additional reward.

In that case, who would take the additional reward?

"..."

After a brief staredown where everyone was gauging each other's reactions.

"Kim Jun-ho."

Chan looked straight at me and spoke.

"You should go."

Author's Note:

Floor 3...

Overall, I wanted to write a floor where all the characters had the qualities of a protagonist.

Gyeong-jun, the growth-type protagonist with a good-natured, mentor-and-combat-role spirit.

Chan, the misunderstanding-type protagonist who maintains a misconception about himself based on his high-risk killing intent ability and the overwhelming power that supports it.

Su-hee, the monopolizing-type protagonist with her own story and a madness-leaning tendency. (To be honest, a regressor would have fit this role better, but I thought it wasn't right to introduce another regressor here).

I think the concepts were good but...

The sudden betrayal was my mistake. I apologize. I should have laid enough groundwork, but I was inexperienced...

Footnotes:

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