WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regression is Too Much
Chapter 008
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The pony-tailed girl is way too strong (4)
I regressed.
“…I’ll give only the bare-bones briefing and get it over with, alright? I hate this too, but it’s the procedure. Can’t help it.”
‘What went wrong? Ah, my wrist was too stiff.’
While the sprite chattered I sorted out the insight.
“Everyone! I don’t know whose trick this is, but in a crisis like this, we have to stick together!”
I urged the people to go hunt the boss.
At first, the lines were awkward and changed many times, but I said the exact same words every loop now.
Almost a routine, the speech slipped out of me automatically.
After the speech ended, Choi Ji-won blocked my way.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
I swung like a madman, learned some more.
“…I’ve cut you enough slack for today. I need my own practice, so I’m off.”
When the lesson ended,
Thud!
[You have taken damage.]
[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 0.]
I regressed.
There were moments when my heart felt ready to snap. The devil’s whisper that told me to give up tempted me every second.
But I regressed,
and regressed again,
and regressed again, and then one day—
at last.
“Ha… hahahaha.”
My sword touched the sky.
“What’s this? Why’s he fallen over laughing in the middle of swinging?”
‘Must be having a nice dream. Wake him up.’
“Get up.”
Tap.
She nudged me with the tip of my shoe, but I did not twitch.
“…Annoying.”
Whack!
[You have taken damage.]
[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 0.]
“Mm… not bad, exactly…”
Choi Ji-won pondered how to speak without hurting my feelings.
“Not bad. Really, not bad… but could you hold your own in a real fight? Probably not… I’d like to coach you longer, but I need time for my own training. Sorry.”
She patted my shoulder in encouragement, then started swinging as usual. Normally this was the cue to regress again, but I had no strength left.
“Ha… haha…”
I’m an idiot. Not a normal idiot, a world-class moron.
What made me think I could pull this off?
Three years? Swing a sword every day for three straight years? Me?
The kid who couldn’t study properly for three years of high school? My homeroom teacher would snort if he heard.
I had no grasp of my limits.
I wasn’t a web-novel hero with iron will.
I wasn’t an avenger ready to burn my body for a goal, nor a regressor out to save the world.
I was just… just an ordinary guy.
It felt like months of practice, yet my swordplay still didn’t rate a single “not bad.”
I didn’t have the rock-solid mentality to keep crashing into a wall either.
I sprawled flat on the dirt, powerless.
“…”
I wasn’t a chosen hero.
Just a petty citizen you could find anywhere. Getting tossed into a tower doesn’t flip a person overnight.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Swaaash!
Choi Ji-won was slashing like crazy.
‘Ji-won.’
“Mm?”
Because her beloved blade, Bung-bung, spoke to her, Ji-won halted mid-swing.
She had finally begun to get the feel, that tantalizing sense of something forming at her fingertips.
Bung-bung must have known it too. It wouldn’t interrupt unless it was vital.
“What is it?”
She wiped sweat with the back of her arm.
Bung-bung could read Ji-won’s thoughts with ease, but Ji-won still couldn’t read all of Bung-bung’s.
She wasn’t yet used to her trait, so they had to talk out loud, it was an irritation.
‘That man earlier. Kim Jun-ho.’
“…Kim Jun-ho?”
Kim Jun-ho, the man she had just coached.
Whatever his trait did, his style resembled Ji-won’s own. At about second-and-a-half rate, nothing special.
“Why him?”
So Ji-won couldn’t grasp why Bung-bung brought him up.
‘…Ji-won.’
“Why keep calling me?”
‘Because of your trait, your senses are sharpened dozens of times over.’
“…I know that.”
‘The world you perceive now is very different from before.’
Ji-won flicked her foot in annoyance.
“I know. That’s why I’m hammering out these boring downward cuts, right? To close the gap between perception and reality. Why bring it up?”
Bung-bung couldn’t move, being a sword, but Ji-won felt it shake its head.
‘For your own body, yes, you’re right. I’m talking about other people.’
Ji-won was a master of swordplay, so she had adapted to her own body. Martial arts start with understanding one’s body, after all.
‘Your bar is set much higher now. His moves weren’t bad.’
Her heightened senses had been with her less than five hours.
“Time feels slow” was a natural reaction.
But the raised bar had been applied to Kim Jun-ho.
His every move looked sluggish, frustrating, only because Ji-won wasn’t yet used to her new senses.
“…Really?”
Realizing she had misjudged him, Ji-won turned her head. There, flat on the dirt, lay Kim Jun-ho, eyes lifeless.
“…”
He was clearly crushed by her words.
“…I should apologize and tell him the truth.”
Just as Ji-won started toward him to set things straight—
Thunk.
Kim Jun-ho raised a fist high,
Thud!
and drove it straight into his own chest.
[You have taken damage.]
[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 0.]
I made up my mind.
This time, I will do nothing.
People will die?
Screw it. I’m done caring.
The timeline vanishes the moment I regress anyway. What I desperately need now is warm rest. I’ll just relax.
“Greetings, lowly humans cheerfully wasting your lives! Lovely to meet you!”
I ignored the sprite’s appearance.
Ignored the weapons distribution, the shouts of “Status Window!” and the exodus to the forest.
I meant to wait till Ji-won came back with food.
“…Yawn.”
This time I really won’t do a thing.
Really.
I knew Ji-won would return with supplies after a day and a half.
So my job was to kill time while starving.
“…What are you staring at?”
“Sir, you’re digging the ground.”
Fwoosh!
“Ack! Why throw dirt this way!”
“Beat it, you punk!”
I watched a middle-aged man dig industriously, and got dirt flung into my mouth.
“Hic… sniff…”
I tried chatting up the short-haired girl who sniffled, only to retreat when Ji-won glared mid-swing.
Rummaged through the weapon pile beside another guy (didn’t find any hidden piece).
All in all, I wasted time productively.
I must be born for the loafer’s life.
Why is doing literally nothing… so blissful?
If there’s ever a floor with beds, I might keep regressing just to laze around like this. I had more time than anyone in this tower.
Night passed.
“If we stay, we’ll all starve. I will leave this clearing to find a water source. Who will come with me?”
Firefighter Choi Cheol-sun, stern as a tiger, led the middle-aged crowd away.
Their departure came with distant human screams, my lullaby as I lay on the ground.
“Oh… wow! Unni! Can we eat this?”
Choi Ji-won returned with food.
I had been through this loop.
Last time I rushed her to take me as a disciple, got smacked, regressed.
But this time was different.
How?
I planned to sit quietly like the others and accept the rations.
“…Tastes good.”
Nibbling the calorie bar in peace brought a smile to my face.
Again, doing nothing yet feeling happy.
This was healing, this was a vacation.
A small gift to myself after all that sword work.
And I was curious.
Was this clearing truly a safe zone?
A tower, as I knew it, bore malice toward humans. It would never let us settle comfortably like this.
“…”
Curious? Then I’ll have to test it.
Footnotes:
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