WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 092

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The night is too dark (1)

Even though we had blocked every possible entrance, 31 otherworlders had died.

“…”

My gaze inadvertently drifted toward Joong-hyun. I had wondered how there were no casualties among his people... could he have used them as meat shields?

"...That's not it. The players were all under control. There is no way that happened."

"The assailants were monsters. Not the players."

Joong-hyun furiously denied the meaning behind my stare, and Sir Thomas also chimed in to support his words.

"...The passage that we blocked in a hurry was the problem. We used such large chunks of stone that there was a small crevice."

Sir Thomas said, looking at the castle.

Unlike the other passages that had been meticulously sealed, the one they blocked right before the monsters arrived had a small gap between the stones.

Of course, it was not a large crevice, and it was the kind of perfectly normal mistake that even a small child couldn't pass through.

"...It was a cat-like beast. It had three pairs of eyes, and it was about the size of a ten-year-old child."

The enemy was not human. Therefore, common sense did not apply.

The gap was extremely narrow, but it was wide enough for a small and flexible beast to pass through.

"We killed a total of twelve beasts. There are seven injured. Thirty-one are dead. Our guard was weak because we carelessly assumed it would be safe inside the castle... the vast majority of the dead were killed before the soldiers arrived."

“…”

I'll say it again, players are all superhumans. Having reached the 4th floor, even the weakest player is stronger than an ordinary person.

That is why I had forgotten. I had forgotten just how terrifying monsters could be from an ordinary person's perspective.

"By any chance, is the Baron-nim..."

"The Baron-nim is safe. However..."

Sir Thomas bit his lip, unable to continue. He paused to catch his breath before finally finishing what he was about to say.

"...My apologies. The Baron-nim said he needs some time. If you have a message for him, I will deliver it on your behalf."

"...No, that's alright. I'll see him later."

"...Yes. Of course."

Sir Thomas bowed his head and walked away, his winter clothes completely stained with blood.

“…”

When a monster dies, its blood and fat disappear along with it. But Sir Thomas's clothes were soaked in blood.

He must have had to face a life fading away in his own arms.

About six hours passed as the monsters could no longer get over the castle walls, which naturally gave us some time to rest. By the time it was fully midday, the atmosphere was completely different between the players and the otherworlders.

"Wow, I gained 10 levels."

"All that hard work on the first day really paid off."

"Let's keep it up."

"Hey, hey, they'll hear you. Keep it down a bit."

First, the players, while not expressing it openly, were mostly in a festive mood.

It was a line of defense we had been steadily preparing since the first day. Thanks to blocking the area where the castle gate used to be, the monster horde was filtered once, and by blocking the castle's entrances, the front line was narrowed.

On top of that, I was handling one passage by myself, so the more than ninety other players only had to take shifts to block the remaining passages. With such thorough preparations, it was only natural that there were no casualties.

Moreover, they could farm experience points by killing monsters. There had never been so many monsters from the Tutorial to the 3rd floor. As long as their safety was guaranteed, there could be no better hunting ground.

"Are you feeling a bit better?"

"Thank you, thank you so much..."

Of course, the path wasn't so easy that those who chose the easiest routes in the Tower, the Silver Sigil on the 2nd floor and difficulty 1 on the 3rd, could survive without a scratch. They were little more than slightly stronger ordinary people, and the enemies were monsters.

But we had an all-purpose healer, William Smith. His role was likely also instrumental in the fact that there were no player deaths.

To sum it up, everyone had been terrified because the mission was 'survival'... but now it seemed the survival difficulty was not that high, and it gave a lot of experience points. There was even a player who joked about wanting to stay after the five days were over.

"...My wife, my wife..."

"...No. It can't be..."

Conversely, the atmosphere among the otherworlders was unspeakably grim.

There were three hundred otherworlders, and among them, fewer than twenty were capable of combat. A weapon swung by a sturdy blacksmith might be somewhat threatening, but it wasn't enough to easily subdue a beast. To make an analogy, they are closer to the worker role in an RTS game.

If beasts were to infiltrate as they had, the otherworlders had no choice but to be brutally massacred.

"...Shouldn't we be helping them?"

For that reason, a portion of the players argued that they should help the otherworlders. A prime example was Baek Da-hye, the girl who stuck around with the glasses guy.

"To be honest, we have plenty of leeway, don't we? We were about to fight each other to get more experience points. How about we dispatch some people as defense troops? Or... what about lending them the magical tools from the second floor..."

As Baek Da-hye said, thanks to the thorough groundwork, the players currently had room to spare. Also, after investigating the magical tools found in the hidden room on the second floor, we confirmed they had many useful built-in functions, like creating a defensive barrier or setting off a flash of light.

"We're all people, shouldn't we at least help a little..."

Baek Da-hye's words were extremely rational and made sense.

"Why should we?"

But this was inside the Tower. A space where logic is twisted.

"Frankly speaking, aren't they just NPCs? Does anyone get sad when minions die in a game? They should consider themselves lucky we didn't use them as meat shields."

There were some who did not see the otherworlders as their own kind at all.

"It's unfortunate, but it's too early for us to be certain we have the leeway. We made it through today safely, but there are still two days left. How do we know if we'll have a surplus or not? How do we know what will show up?"

There were also those who refused for reasons of self-preservation.

"In the first place, when we first formed the alliance, didn't they say they would survive on their own? We did our part. There's nothing to be sorry about. It's their fault for being too weak."

Those words weren't wrong. When we formed the cooperative relationship in the first place, I did think that something like this might happen. I believe the otherworlders had all mentally prepared themselves as well.

...But death is something whose weight feels entirely different when it becomes a reality.

The evening sunset faded, and the sky was dyed a deep indigo.

Thud. Thud.

“…”

“…”

About twenty men, including Baron George, were silently digging at the ground. The remaining fief citizens, now numbering less than three hundred, were quietly watching the scene.

Thud. Thud.

How long had they been digging? Once the pits were complete, men walked over from the direction of the castle, carrying planks covered with cloth.

"Emily… She was a bright child."

Only then did Baron George open his mouth.

"She made frequent mistakes because of her clumsy nature, but she was the best cook in our fief. It seemed like she just eyeballed the ingredients, but I don't know how she made it taste so good."

They gently laid the cloth-wrapped body in the ground and covered it well with earth. Blood flowed from the men's hands because the ground was frozen, but no one showed any sign of it.

"Miki. This fellow was hot-tempered but a warm-hearted kid. I thought he was always just brawling, but one day he caught a thief and brought him to me."

Even the players who had belittled the otherworlders as NPCs found this scene hard to watch and left the area.

"Alice."

"Darren."

"Michael."

"Melissa."

Each time a name was called, a pit found its owner. Soon, when all the pits had been filled.

"...May they have gone to a good place."

Having finished his silent prayer, Baron George finally met my gaze.

"...Why have you come?"

“…”

I had intended to ask, 'Are you alright?'. But there was no way he was alright. A man who memorizes the names of every single one of his people, there was no way he could be alright.

"Ah."

As if he just noticed something, Baron George patted my shoulder.

"I know very well that you did your best. It's just... this damn place that's wrong."

Then he looked around at the other fief citizens and looked at me again.

"...We have something to discuss among ourselves. Would you mind giving us a moment?"

“…”

The truth is, I hadn't come to offer comfort. I came to discuss our plans for the future.

It was because I had subconsciously thought, 'Well, I'll just save them in the next run.'

My gaze turned to the fief citizens who were holding their breath and shedding silent tears. The deaths of others had shocked me, but it wasn't intense enough to make me cry.

What is the reason they are grieving?

When you die, that is the end. You can never meet them again. That is why humans fear and grieve death.

But not me.

If I regress, a dead person walks around perfectly fine again, and mistakes can be undone. If I accept a small sacrifice, I can grasp the result I want. Death, which is endlessly heavy for others, is comparatively light for me.

"I will see you at night."

...I had already stopped grieving for the dead.

The sun set, and a complete darkness arrived once again. There was no sign of the moon, and it felt as if the cries of the beasts had grown louder.

Rumble.

“…”

“…”

The castle walls began to shake. It was a phenomenon I had experienced once before.

-33 : 00 : 16

"The monsters have started piling up. They're fast."

The second raid had begun.

Footnotes:

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