WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

Chapter 099

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The night is too dark (8)

"No, this is, well,"

"It's alright…"

Baron George, looking anything but alright, forced a smile and said he was fine. A trickle of blood flowed from his mouth.

How did it come to this? Why? For what reason? Just as my mind went blank and my breath started to quicken.

"The elixir."

That's right. The elixir. I had the elixir. The elixir I got as a reward from Floor 2. I hadn't used it yet. I could definitely save him.

"Just a moment, please wait just a moment."

I reached into my coat with a trembling hand and pulled out a small glass bottle. Yes, it was a Lowest-grade Elixir, but an elixir nonetheless. A wound like this…

"Huh?"

The glass bottle with the old-fashioned design was empty. The golden liquid that should have been inside was nowhere to be seen.

"…"

Looking closely, I saw a crack in the glass bottle. It seemed the liquid had leaked out through it.

"No way…"

That refreshing sensation I had felt in my chest during the battle. The feeling of fatigue vanishing as my concentration sharpened.

"No… no…"

The elixir bottle must have cracked during the fierce fighting. The elixir must have trickled out and steadily healed my body.

"This can't be happening…"

It certainly helped me. But because of that, I couldn't save Baron George now.

To be blunt, I didn't care if all the other residents died. I was planning to regress anyway. I felt pity for them, but they were essentially strangers, and I didn't harbor any deeper feelings.

But Baron George… We had been through a lot together. Even though I tried not to get attached, an affection had grown between us. I promised I would protect him. And now, that person was dying right in front of me. The very situation I had been most wary of had become a reality.

"William. William Smith. You can use healing, can't you? What are you doing? Someone's dying here."

"…I'm sorry."

"Just do something… anything…"

I knew I was being unreasonable. William was incredibly exhausted. He had probably used his healing ability to the point where he could no longer move.

Should I regress? After coming this far? I need to see the end, don't I? Shouldn't I just endure it? But am I just going to let him die?

Tap.

Baron George carefully grabbed my tormented hand.

"…Jun-ho. There's something… I must… apologize… for…."

He squeezed out each and every word in a strained voice.

"That day… on the third day… at the entrance…"

I immediately knew what he was talking about.

The night of the third day. Just before the monsters breached the castle walls.

Baron George and I had been in the passage, talking about this and that, discussing our plans for the future.

"Back then… I lied…"

Baron George barely managed to move his deathly pale lips.

"The truth is… I said it didn't seem like the monsters… were specifically targeting us, but…"

"…"

"…Those things… they were definitely targeting us, the people of the barony… I could feel their gazes…"

A single tear rolled down from Baron George's eye. His eyes filled with regret.

"I'm sorry… I was afraid you would abandon us… afraid all the people of the barony would die… so I deceived you…"

Baron George squeezed my hand one last time.

"Thank you… and again, I'm sorry…"

With those final words, he stopped breathing.

"…Ha."

It was absurd.

"I knew… that much all along…"

-00 : 15 : 02

Sir Thomas covered the body with a cloth.

They said Baron George had pushed one of his people out of harm's way, getting injured himself instead. I finally understood why the otherworlders were so quiet. It was a moment of silence.

"…Is everyone out in the hallway to honor the Baron-nim?"

"…No. It's because the rooms… are being used for another purpose."

"…Ah."

Over a hundred of the barony's people now filled the hallway. But to put it another way, it meant that out of the initial three hundred or so, only about a hundred had survived.

Monsters turned into a halo of light when they died. But otherworlders and players left corpses behind.

Where could all those bodies be?

"…"

I had no choice but to join the silent procession. What on earth could I say in a situation like this? It felt like if I opened my mouth, only a sigh full of sorrow would come out.

That I did a good job, all things considered? That because of my efforts, this many people survived?

That kind of positive thinking was impossible. In a situation like this, there were no winners and losers. There were only losers, and even more tragic losers.

As I stood there, clenching my teeth and staring silently at the floor.

"Jun-ho-nim."

I heard a voice call my name, so I slowly turned my head to look behind me.

Baek Da-hye.

Da-hye, her eyes not just swollen but red as if they were about to burst, was waiting for me by a door. A chunk of flesh was torn from her shoulder, and seeing that it had healed in that gouged state, it looked like William had treated it.

"Jun-ho-nim."

Baek Da-hye repeated my name. Her voice was hollow. As if something had been carved out not just from her shoulder, but from her heart as well.

But I was having a hard time too. I wasn't in any state to talk with her right now.

"…Da-hye-nim. I… I'm… having a very difficult time right now. Not at this moment, but maybe if we could contact each other in the real world…"

"Jun-ho-nim."

Suddenly, an ominous thought struck me. A chilling sensation crawled up my spine and gripped the back of my neck.

"…It's not true, is it?"

"…"

"Tell me it's not true."

"…"

"Ah."

Gyeong-nam was lying on the floor. His expression was peaceful, but the place where his lower body should have been was empty.

It wasn't just Gyeong-nam. Dozens of players lay scattered on the floor, covered with clothes.

"I wanted to tell you our story."

Da-hye began to speak calmly.

"After you pushed the monsters back, Jun-ho-nim, the players were conflicted."

Whether they should follow Kim Jun-ho now, or if they should hold their ground here.

If they stayed, survival was almost guaranteed. They had defended well so far, and thanks to Kim Jun-ho, the number of monsters had just dwindled, so there wouldn't be any major crises ahead. There were winged monsters, but as long as they stayed indoors, fending them off wouldn't be difficult at all.

But if they did that… the otherworlders would be annihilated. They had no means to protect themselves after moving to the second floor. It might be different if Kim Jun-ho protected them, but judging by the scream heard at the end, he wasn't in his right mind.

"That's when… this person insisted that we had to step up and help."

Da-hye gestured with her chin towards a corpse. It was a face I remembered. It was the woman with the jutting chin who had argued about why they should have to sacrifice themselves for the otherworlders.

The woman who had insisted it was right to abandon all the otherworlders had changed her mind at the very last moment.

When a strong person took the lead in persuading them, the mood shifted. The players kicked their doors open and started moving toward the second floor.

"The situation was not good. Thanks to you clearing the path, Jun-ho-nim, we bought some time to move, but that was it. Monsters started swarming in through the other passages."

They herded the otherworlders into a straight hallway and the players guarded both ends. They made the best decision they could in a moment of crisis.

"But…"

Defending the entrance of a narrow room with a small number of people was one thing, but blocking an entire passage was another story. Unless you were a superhuman like Jun-ho, ordinary players couldn't withstand that pressure.

After a few frightened people fled, those who remained couldn't even take shifts and had to clench their teeth and endure. And that's how they died.

"The ones who died… are the ones who stayed until the end. There are probably more who ran away. They must be hiding somewhere now, waiting for the time to run out."

The people who did the right thing died. The cowards who ran away survived.

"I think you made the right decision, Jun-ho-nim. I think you did what you had to do."

This was the woman who had consistently shown sympathy for the otherworlders. The woman Gyeong-nam had emphasized to be soft-hearted.

"But… Gyeong-nam died trying to protect me. Now I don't know what's right and what's wrong anymore."

That same woman was now staring down at Gyeong-nam with dead eyes.

"…I'm sorry."

It's my fault.

I was the one who pushed forward with an unreasonable plan, thinking I had to protect the otherworlders.

Other people aren't regressors like me who have experienced hundreds of battles.

Other people haven't chosen to only face difficult challenges like I have.

Other people aren't climbing the Tower with grand goals like me.

This is only the 4th floor. The tutorial may have been hellish, but it's still too early for people to have become sufficiently skilled. I'm only relatively proficient because I used my time differently.

"It's… my fault…"

Even if they hadn't cooperated with my plan, they had done well enough for ordinary people who had just reached the 4th floor.

But because they were too good-hearted, they pushed themselves too far to protect the otherworlders. And they died.

"…"

The moment I lowered my head, a message window appeared before my eyes.

-00 : 00 : 00

[Results]

[Players] 54 / 100

[NPCs] 109 / 300 (No bonus due to failure to keep key NPC alive)

-Penalty Status (None)

-A reward equivalent to 10900 points will be given to all survivors.

-Contribution Rank 1 [Kim Jun-ho] , 2 [Yoon Joong-hyun], 3 [William Smith] will receive additional special rewards.

[You have cleared Floor 4.]

When I slowly lifted my bowed head, I was on the 1st floor. I wasn't even given the chance to be forgiven by Da-hye.

Thud.

The 1st floor was in the form of a luxury hotel room that I had temporarily changed it to, and on the far side of the room, a large box dropped. It was probably the reward for the 4th floor.

"…"

I couldn't even bring myself to check it and just collapsed onto the bed.

I slowly steadied my breathing and silently shed tears.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry…”

By the time my eyes were swollen shut, I finally began to plan for the future.

Choices. Choices. Choices.

This whole tragedy was, in the end, the result of my choices. There were wrong choices, and there were right choices.

In the end, people died. Because of my choices.

But I am a regressor. I have the chance to correct my wrong choices.

I can repeat my life over and over again to eventually arrive at the perfect answer I desire.

That's right, there's no need to apologize. I just have to fix it and make it right.

"…"

But… When will I stop? When will I be satisfied?

Do I really have to clear the 4th floor perfectly?

Let's say I save Baron George. Let's say I save Gyeong-nam. But what about the rest? Do I have to save them all?

The Tutorial? I achieved a perfect result in the Tutorial. But the 4th floor is different from the Tutorial.

The 4th floor lasts for five whole days. Repeating it just 10 times would be 50 days. Repeating it 100 times would be 500 days. On top of that, people die. The negative impact on my mental state is immense.

Do I have to repeat this terrible experience over and over to save every single one of these people?

On the 2nd and 3rd floors, I compromised, even if just a little.

On the 2nd floor, I didn't regress because I was afraid of meeting the archangel again, and on the 3rd floor, I didn't regress because I was afraid of what might happen to me if I saw Dok Su-hee again.

Compromising is easier.

These were people who would have died helplessly if I hadn't been there in the first place. It's more accurate to say that more of them survived because I intervened.

I've done enough. There's no need to overdo it. Let's just… compromise appropriately.

"No."

I grit my teeth. I recall the sight of Gyeong-nam's corpse. I recall Baron George, gripping my hand tightly.

I recall Choi Ji-won smiling in the clearing during the Tutorial.

"I have to do it."

This is different from the 2nd and 3rd floors. People's lives are on the line. Getting past this half-heartedly now is no different than creating a small crack in my heart.

Even if I seem fine for now, I will inevitably break down someday with this moment as the starting point. I cannot compromise.

Of course, saving everyone on this insane difficulty?

It's impossible. But I have to do it.

"If not me, then who?"

Because it's something only I can do.

Footnotes:

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