WeTried Translations
Translator: ZEROSUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regression is Too Much
Chapter 082
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The Regressor is flustered (3)
Whoosh.
A chilly, sharp wind clawed at my face.
“What the hell!”
“…Ahjussi. Try to be quiet.”
“Oh, another one’s arrived.”
The surprise from the cold was brief, as the first thing I saw upon opening my eyes were people. Not just one or two, but a whole swarm of them.
Looking down at myself, I saw I was wrapped from head to toe in thick winter clothes. The space felt crowded, not just because the clothes were bulky, but because there were so many people.
“Wow, just how many people are here…”
“98 people.”
I had mumbled it to myself, not expecting a reply.
I turned my head toward the voice and saw a middle-aged Caucasian man with a kind smile looking at me from within the crowd.
“It’s nothing special. It’s floating up there.”
The man pointed upwards with his fingertip. As he said, when I lifted my head to the sky, there was text floating in the air.
[98/100]
“…Thank you.”
I answered curtly and immediately turned away. He might think I have no manners, but I have no intention of getting too friendly with others. Not unless they show some potential, like Kang Chan or Ahn Gyeong-jun.
“…”
More importantly, where was this place?
I pushed my way forward through the crowd. The wall of people made it hard to see what was ahead.
After a struggle of about 30 seconds, I was finally able to break free from the crowd, and…
Thump.
“Aish…”
The tip of my nose lightly bumped into something invisible. It was a good thing my speed was slow because of the crowd.
I reached out a hand and felt around in front of me, touching a transparent, hemispherical protective barrier. The reason people were clustered together wasn’t just because it was cold, but because they were trapped.
“This thing seems like it’ll disappear once 100 people gather…”
I took my hand off the barrier and lifted my head.
At the very top, I could see a sky so blue it seemed frigid and a fierce flurry of snow falling. I lowered my head a bit and saw a mountain range that seemed to want to pierce the sky. When my gaze finally reached the ground, I saw a dry dirt floor where snow was beginning to pile up, ending at the castle wall that surrounded this space.
That's right. This place was inside a castle wall. We were surrounded on all sides by stone walls.
“Hmm…”
When I turned around, I saw a rather crude-looking old castle. It wasn't a magnificent castle like one from a fantasy world, but a design that should be called a fortress. It was blunt, old, and solid.
If that's the case, this place seems to be something like the castle's courtyard…
“Hey, hey. 99 people are here.”
“The clothes make it so it’s not cold…”
“My legs hurt from standing…”
I could hear people making a fuss as they looked at the sky. It seemed everyone was focused on the head count.
“…Excuse me.”
“…Yes?”
I spoke to a man with narrow eyes who was rubbing his hands while looking at the sky. There was no particular reason, except that he seemed to have been here for a long time, judging by how much snow was on his clothes.
“That… what is that over there?”
About 100 meters away from this protective barrier where the players were standing, on the other side of the courtyard, there was a black, hemispherical object there.
Something black and glossy, completely incongruous with the ancient castle walls.
Its size seemed to be at least three times larger than the barrier we were trapped in, and just looking at it made me needlessly nervous.
“Ah, that… I don’t know. It’s probably nothing. It was there when I first arrived.”
But the man with narrow eyes answered dismissively. He seemed to genuinely believe it was fine.
“…But what if something pops out of it?”
“Uh, well… then we’ll have to fight, I guess. But I don’t think so. Usually, when a floor starts, they give you weapons, right? But since there's nothing like that inside the barrier, I’m just guessing that it’s nothing.”
“…I see.”
I thought he was just being thoughtlessly optimistic, but he had a reasonably valid point. Right, they should at least give us weapons. It’s not like they want everyone without items to just die.
“More importantly, Ahjussi. You’ve got a bit of a crazy vibe, you look like you can fight well… If we have to compete against other players, how about forming an alliance…”
“I’m sorry.”
I rejected the man’s offer and walked a full circle along the edge of the barrier.
The snow is heavy, the castle is old, and the mountains are high. I start to wonder if I should have waited for Choi Ji-won, and my mind felt needlessly restless.
“…It is pretty cool, though.”
The mountain range, standing proudly amidst the falling snow, was beautiful in itself. It even made me want to try climbing to the summit. It was a strangely captivating feeling, like looking at an old Windows wallpaper.
“Hey, hey, hey! It's 100 people!”
“Did the mission pop up? I can’t see it.”
It was the shouts of other people that pulled me out of my untimely reverie.
I instinctively lifted my head to the empty air and saw the number had been updated to [100/100].
“…Is it starting?”
The moment I muttered that, a message window appeared before my eyes.
[The required number of people have gathered.]
[Floor 4 will now begin.]
<Floor 4>
-Clear Condition: Survive for 5 days. When the timer ends, you will automatically clear the floor and be moved to Floor 1.
-120 : 00 : 00
As the message appeared, the protective barrier that had confined about 100 players vanished.
“Wait… survival?”
“I think we’re kind of screwed…?”
But no one moved. Everyone was frozen, reading and re-reading the message window before their eyes.
The 1st floor isn’t really a floor, but more of a rest area and base camp.
The 2nd floor, although I twisted and turned it, was a peaceful floor where no one got hurt or died. In fact, because I changed the 2nd floor, it now apparently serves as a sort of teacher, helping inexperienced players get used to combat.
The 3rd floor was incredibly, incredibly tough… but that was because I was on the hardest difficulty. Hearing other people's stories, it seems it wasn't overwhelmingly difficult, assuming they chose a difficulty that matched their skills.
In fact, according to a post I saw on the internet, the clear rate was roughly over 70 percent. It was a structure where if one person died, everyone was wiped out, so there were no trolls.
In other words, everyone was in a state of relaxed vigilance. The fact that the 3rd floor emphasized ‘cooperation’ likely played a part in fostering a sense of camaraderie among the players.
But suddenly, the mission for the 4th floor was ‘survival’.
Simply put, if you’re alive, you clear it. It's an incredibly easy condition, but at the same time,
“…What’s going to appear?”
It was like a declaration that whatever was coming would threaten their survival.
The frozen people simultaneously recalled the Tutorial. The Tutorial that only allowed a 25% survival rate unless the hidden boss was killed—the despair, blood, screams, and the struggle they felt back then.
Whoosh.
Though 100 people stood there, only the sound of the wind could be heard in the courtyard.
“Hey, hey, hey! Run!”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
What broke the untimely silence was a group of five people rushing toward the castle.
“Food, find food first!”
The group, consisting of three men and two women, each held a weapon in their hand, and from their extraordinary gleam, they seemed to be items. It looked like they got a gold reward on the 2nd floor and chose weapons from it.
“Uh, uh-huh!”
“Hey, let’s go too!”
Only then did the thought that they might be competitors dawn on them, and most of the people started running towards the castle.
The judgment of the first group to run was correct. If food was limited, there was a very high probability that food would become power.
Also, with the snowfall getting heavier, they probably had the idea to get indoors first.
After some time passed, only a few people remained in the courtyard.
Only about 10 people were left in the courtyard, including the middle-aged Caucasian man with the gentle smile and the man with the narrow eyes who had asked about teaming up earlier.
“…”
“…”
There was a brief exchange of glances, and in that moment, I was certain.
First, the people who remained here were confident. That is, they were confident they could obtain food by force if necessary.
And second, they… were sharp-eyed.
“Everyone’s quite perceptive.”
Said the man with narrow eyes, smiling.
His gaze was fixed on the black hemisphere on the other side of the courtyard.
The moment the message appeared and the atmosphere became chaotic because of the people running to the castle.
Crackle.
The black hemisphere began to crack.
Ordinary people didn't see it because they were panicking, but the people here had noticed it.
Crackle. Crackle.
At first, it was just a small hairline crack, but the cracks gradually spread.
Crash!
Soon, it was completely destroyed with a cloud of black smoke.
Right, what would come out.
A monster? Weapons? Food? Or an angel?
Thanks to the strong, sharp wind, the smoke was pushed away in an instant. The inside would soon be revealed.
“…”
“…”
The 10 players glanced at each other and cautiously approached the hemisphere, and…
Inside the finally revealed hemisphere…
“Cough, cough…”
“Gasp, gasp…”
“Ughhhhh…”
There were people, a lot of them.
Their number far exceeded that of the players. At a rough estimate, there were over 300.
“Uh, uh…”
“What is this…”
Although they knew something would come out, they hadn't expected a whole crowd of people. As the bewildered players stood around, unsure of what to do.
“Cough, is anyone there!”
From within the smoke, a man walked out, coughing repeatedly.
“I am Baron George! Help, I need help!”
A long beard. Old-fashioned attire. Although it was translated and heard in Korean, it had a somewhat unfamiliar accent.
It was very, very highly probable that he was not an Earthling.
“…”
A high mountain. A raging snowstorm. An old castle. And the sudden appearance of hundreds of people from another world.
The 4th floor… began just like that.
Author's Note:
Floor 4...
I'll show you something special...
Footnotes:
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