WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regression is Too Much
Chapter 009
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The regressor is too lazy (1)
Was this clearing really a safe zone?
Amazingly, it truly was.
All the time I spent here, I had not felt the slightest hint of danger.
If you pushed through the bushes and stepped outside, goblins teemed everywhere. Yet for some reason, they never crossed into the clearing.
The air stayed warm, no rain robbed us of body heat.
Initially, I kept my nerves taut in case something happened, but when nothing happened, the tension unraveled in an instant.
Real healing had finally begun.
Five days had passed since I decided to do absolutely nothing. Counting from my latest regression, it had been six.
Why skip straight ahead in time?
Because there was nothing worth reporting.
Life is like that.
People who burn themselves at the front line of life, striving with everything they have, produce daily stories and gossip material.
Today someone did this, over there I heard that, remember the fellow I mentioned, turns out there is this rumor, and so on.
But jobless types who scratch their bellies at home and fiddle with a computer all day, even when they meet friends, they have nothing to say.
Yesterday I spent the whole day on the computer. Today I stayed on the computer. Tomorrow I plan to stay on the computer again.
The only variation is the menu of rice I eat each day, and sometimes even that does not change. So a monotonous routine lies light-years away from interesting conversation.
What have I done these last five days? Nothing.
I lay around, ate whenever Ji-won brought food, napped when bored, and when distant screams reached us, I offered a silent prayer.
Life was so peaceful I could not believe we were inside a tower.
If I wrote this as a web novel, the title would be something like I Alone Heal in the Tower Tutorial or Since a Mere Brush Triggers Regression I Just Want a Quiet Life.
Am I not bored?
Of course I am, but boredom is better than hardship. Besides, it was not all boredom.
I managed to find a conversation partner.
“Can you believe it? He said he’d protect me, told me to follow, and then grinned so sleazily!”
“Oh, the guy with the glasses and the bowl-cut hair? I think I saw him too.”
“Yes, that’s him! I got chills, but the moment Ji-won unni glared he flinched and scurried off.”
“Haha, Ji-won-ssi is scary all right.”
“Hehe, isn’t Ji-won unni awesome? She’s my role model.”
Who is talking right now? The same short-haired girl from before.
Remember her? The one who asked if we had anything to eat at night.
Her name was Baek Da-hye.
Before being summoned to the tower Baek Da-hye had been a college student. She was timid by nature, but essentially good-hearted, and she had a cute face.
Had she not been dragged into the tower, she would have lived as a well-treated social butterfly, admired by plenty of men… truly unfortunate.
“This is my friend! Say hello!”
“Did you two know each other already? You look close.”
“Nope! We became friends after we arrived.”
“So this is what an extrovert looks like?”
I also got introduced to the woman who always sat next to Baek Da-hye.
Her name was… Kim Se-in, if I remembered right. We had not grown close yet. She spoke so little we had barely talked.
Zap.
“Um, is there something you want to say?”
“… ”
“No? Right…”
Kim Se-in sometimes sent me probing glances that gave me goose-bumps, so honestly I doubted we would ever be friends.
Still, she did stand out for one thing—her blond hair.
Apparently one of her parents was foreign, so I decided to remember her as the half-blood blond, Kim Se-in.
A word about other people…
The man who had been digging the ground vanished yesterday. The hole he dug remained, the shovel remained, only his body was gone.
Had he really uncovered a hidden piece? Did he eat a legendary elixir and run wild with surging power?
Or maybe he found the entrance to a secret dungeon and was challenging it now?
Whatever happened, I would check another time if I got the chance. I could always ambush him in hiding.
As for the fellow who rummaged through the weapon pile, he gave up long ago and left the clearing. Looks like he never found the legendary weapon.
What a shame. If he ever discovered one, I could have nabbed it right after regressing.
The rest of the people in the clearing, I did not know their names, but we recognized each other’s faces.
When our eyes met we exchanged small nods, like awkward neighbors. A tiny society had formed here.
Any inconveniences living in the clearing?
Well… first of all, bodily needs.
One nameless man wrestled with the grass for a while and set up a makeshift latrine.
Dig a hole with a shovel, do your business, then cover it again—it worked, except every sound was audible. The women wanted to die of embarrassment, and even buried with dirt, a certain smell still drifted.
After the digger disappeared, using his old pit as a toilet felt slightly better.
Thanks, mister.
If you were in the middle of a dungeon expedition… sorry. When you get back the pit will stink like crazy.
Another nuisance was the tower’s little pop-up messages.
[Remaining Golden Marbles 27/50]
“Tch, come on.”
A window floated right before my relaxed eyes.
The tower loved to jab at us this way.
Hey, others are hustling to gather marbles. What are you doing? Not escaping the tower? That was the vibe.
Yeah, yeah, I’ll handle it my way.
“Jun-ho-ssi, Ji-won unni is back!”
Baek Da-hye called cheerfully. I turned and saw Choi Ji-won standing with both arms full of supplies.
“Oh, Ji-won-ssi, hold on! Let me help.”
Since I only ate, I had to help somehow. Lying around made me feel guilty.
I took the bundled water bottles from Ji-won, ripped the plastic naturally, and began handing them out.
Say what you will, life felt good.
Next day.
A day like any other.
I lazed around and chatted about this and that.
Ji-won practiced her sword, then when she felt the time had come she left the clearing to fetch supplies.
Everyone here knew she would return with food and water after roughly an hour. We were like nestlings waiting for the mother bird to bring nourishment…
So what? Mother bird and baby birds were both satisfied.
“What will lunch be today? I’m already hungry.”
Da-hye rubbed her belly in jest. Come to think of it, I was getting hungry too.
“I liked the chocolate bar last time. Really filled me up.”
“Right? I want another chocolate bar. Ji-won unni should be back any moment, I can’t wait.”
Dugudugudugu.
Da-hye drummed on the ground and made a rolling sound with her lips.
“Hey, don’t pound the dirt. The ground is wobbling.”
Soil flew, and the floor seemed to shake. The earth was soft, so even her drumming made it tremble.
“Come on, stop hitting… huh?”
“…”
Da-hye’s face, when I turned, had frozen in terror. I glanced down. Her hand had stopped long ago, yet the vibration continued.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Was Ji-won making trouble again?
Maybe firefighter Cheol-sun, who had gone out with a huge axe, was chopping wood?
Thump. Thump. Thump.
No. I put my palm to the ground and felt the vibration rippling through the soil. Something massive was really moving.
“Run! It’s coming that way!”
KWA-AA-ANG!
A colossal detonation drowned what might have been Ji-won’s voice.
“…”
The entire clearing went rigid, wondering if we had misheard. Only blond Kim Se-in shot to her feet.
What happened? Monsters fighting? But a blast loud enough to shake the world?
And why… had the vibration stopped now?
“Kim Jun-ho!”
Se-in cried my name in panic.
I had never heard her call me before.
“Above! Up theeeere!”
Se-in shrieked a tearing scream.
Only then did I notice the darkness around me, as if a shadow had fallen. The instincts I had honed through countless regressions screamed that I was screwed.
I slowly tilted my head upward.
“Uwaa-a-a-a-a!”
“…Shit.”
The last thing I saw was a gigantic bull-headed monster plummeting from the sky, bellowing.
KWA-A-A-A-A-A-A-ANG!!!
“No, don’t! Ah—”
[You have taken damage.]
[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 0.]
Footnotes:
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