WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Abandoned Tank is a Disaster-class Awakener ◈

Chapter 1

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Crack-crack-crack!

Cracks spread across the surface of the blood-red crystal.

The Life Force Vessel.

Inside the red crystal floating above the Lich's head, a black heart beat grotesquely.

More than half its surface had cracked under the barrage we had just unleashed. Blood-red light leaked through the fissures, casting a glistening glow over the ruined castle.

One more solid attack would finish it.

“Damage dealers, focus on the Vessel! Ignore everything else!”

At my shout, the Wraith Knight's greatsword came crashing down over my head.

Boom!

A heavy vibration traveled up my Qi Art-reinforced forearm and into my shoulder, but my feet did not budge.

I stepped inside its reach and clenched my right fist.

Hum!

Golden patterns spread across the old bandages wrapped around both my hands.

Whoosh!

I drove a fist condensed with holy energy into its chest.

Crunch!

Its rotten ribs shattered all at once beneath the dented breastplate.

Then,

Fwoosh!

Holy power exploded, burning away the death energy filling the undead's body in white flames.

But before it could collapse,

Whoosh!

A spearblade flew in from the side.

Clang!

I knocked it aside with my fist and struck its neck with my elbow. When I drove another punch beneath its crooked helmet, its skull burst from within.

My role in this Floor 70 Raid Party was tank.

I stood at the very front of the Vanguard, taking the enemies' attacks and buying those behind me time to unleash their firepower.

But that was not where my role ended.

Even while enduring enemy attacks, I could deal damage comparable to most damage dealers with fists packed with powerful Qi Art.

Damage and tanking.

In this world, where roles were clearly divided after Awakening, it was rare for an Awakener to perform both roles at once. Among Korea's top ranks, I was the only one.

And thanks to that performance,

“Captain! We're ready!”

A shout came from behind me.

“Let it loose!”

Two streams of sword energy tore through the air first.

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

Flames swallowed the space behind them, and finally, a golden flash pierced the center of the Life Force Vessel.

Booom!

The blast shook the crumbling castle walls.

I blocked the way in front of our team's healer so the enemies would not target her, then stared through the smoke.

It should have broken.

This time, it should really have been over.

But when the smoke cleared,

“Huh!”

My heart turned cold.

The blood-red crystal was still floating there.

The cracks had deepened. The black heart inside was clearly visible, and it looked so fragile that it might shatter at a touch.

But it had not broken.

“...Why?”

The damage calculation had been perfect.

There was only one variable.

“Ah, what a mistake...”

Park Jun-hyeok stood there with a devastated look on his face.

He had newly joined the team for this raid. He was the Association chairman's son and the third damage dealer assigned to the operation.

Because of his mistake, our calculated firepower had fallen short.

It was not even a huge difference. Just a few percent, perhaps even less.

Thump!

The heart inside the Vessel beat loudly.

I looked up.

“Everyone retreat! It's summoning them again!”

Before I could finish speaking, the entire ruin shook.

Rumble!

The corpses scattered along the path we had taken began trembling all at once.

Broken necks twisted back into place with a crack, while scattered bones were pulled together by black energy. Rusty swords without owners scraped across the ground, and blue flames reignited in every empty eye socket.

Clack, clatter!

Beneath the ruined castle gate.

Above the cracked walls.

Below the stairs we had climbed while coughing blood.

Dozens, then hundreds of undead soldiers rose again.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists.

“We'll form up again. I'll hold the front line, so focus only on the Vessel as soon as your mana recovers. Healer, do not leave my side under any circumstances.”

“Captain, can we do it again?”

“We have to.”

This was our final attempt.

If we failed again, Korea would suffer immense damage as the price for violating the Tower's limit.

I calculated our strength again.

How long I could hold out.

The healer's remaining mana.

The cooldowns of the two damage dealers' main skills.

And Park Jun-hyeok.

More precisely, the things he wore.

Silver pauldrons and a saint's cross.

A holy robe that amplified purification power.

Holy-element rings on every finger and a Purification Censer hanging from his waist.

Sacred Relics that would not have been enough even if the entire Vanguard split them among themselves had been piled onto that one man.

The sight was laughable and disgusting, but at least on the seventieth floor, those Sacred Relics did their job.

The Purification Censer slowed the undead's regeneration. The cross and holy robe suppressed the Lich's death energy.

Even Park Jun-hyeok's lacking firepower was somewhat supplemented by the holy power flowing from his equipment.

It was not because he was strong that we needed him.

We needed the equipment he wore.

With that alone, we could try again.

I would endure, open a path to the Vessel once more, and this time, finish it for certain.

That was when it happened.

“...I can't.”

A trembling voice came from behind me.

I turned around.

Park Jun-hyeok was backing away step by step.

All color had drained from his face. His eyes swept over the rising undead, unable to focus properly.

“What?”

“H-how are we supposed to do this again?”

“Get back to your position.”

“They all came back to life!”

“Then we kill them again. Move to the rear right!”

“What if we can't break it this time, either?”

Instead of answering, I took the sword of an undead rushing toward me.

Clang!

I deflected the blade with my wrist and drove my fist into its jaw. Golden holy power burst out, blowing away everything above its neck.

I grabbed the shaft of the second one's spear and twisted it, then shoved back the third.

“Captain! The left side is giving way!”

“I'm going! Hold the formation!”

We could still do it.

As long as I stood here, another chance would come.

But the sound from behind me was not swords clashing.

Riiip.

The sound of thin paper tearing.

My blood ran cold.

“...Hey.”

When I turned around, Park Jun-hyeok held a Return Scroll torn in half.

White light was rising from his feet.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“I, I can't do this.”

“Cancel the return!”

“If we stay here, we'll all die!”

“You bastard!”

I shoved an undead aside and ran toward him.

“If you leave, it's really over!”

Park Jun-hyeok's lips trembled.

“I, I... I don't want to die.”

In that moment, I realized it.

He was no longer hearing anything.

Not how weighty the mission the Vanguard had undertaken was.

Not what would happen if this raid failed.

He was thinking of none of it.

“Stop!”

I reached out.

My fingertips were about to touch his pauldron.

Flash!

Light erupted.

He vanished.

Along with the party-wide Sacred Relics.

“...”

I froze, gripping empty air.

Less than a few seconds later, I could feel the change in the battlefield against my skin.

The holy power pressing down on the air had weakened.

With the Purification Censer gone, the corpses' regeneration visibly sped up. The lich's death energy grew even denser.

One damage dealer was gone.

But it was not simply that five had become four.

The holy power had diminished.

And above all,

Hum-hum-hum!

The Life Force Vessel that five people had failed to break now had to be broken by four.

Impossible.

No matter how long I held out, it was a problem I could not solve.

“Captain!”

One of the damage dealers came to my side.

His bloodied lips trembled.

“We need to withdraw.”

“How much mana do you have left?”

“Captain!”

“How many minutes until your main skill is ready?”

“That isn't the problem!”

For the first time, he shouted at me.

“That bastard took all the equipment with him! Even when three of us attacked it earlier, we couldn't break it. Now there are only two of us!”

I knew.

That was why I did not want to hear it.

“I just need to hold them longer.”

“Captain.”

“I'll take the whole wave. You two focus only on the Vessel. If it doesn't work the first time, we'll try a second. If that doesn't work, we'll try a third time.”

“My mana will run dry before then.”

It was the healer.

I turned toward her.

Though she was breathing hard with a pale face, she clutched my arm.

“Let go.”

“No.”

“Let go.”

“You're trying to stay behind alone, Captain.”

My hand tightened.

“Let's go together.”

The healer's eyes reddened.

“If you die too, Captain, then it's really over.”

The other damage dealer pulled out a Return Scroll as well.

“We know what will happen when we go back. That's why this is driving us even crazier... but this isn't right.”

He gritted his teeth and looked deeper into the castle.

“We can't clear it with four people.”

Clank, clank.

The undead were closing in.

Dozens of swords and spears flashed beyond the ruins.

But I kept searching for another answer until the end.

How much longer would I need to hold on?

How many more would I need to kill before a path opened?

If we could reach the Vessel one more time, would we somehow manage it?

But no matter how many times I ran the calculations, the answer was the same.

We could not.

The moment the Sacred Relics that bastard had run away with disappeared, the Floor 70 raid was over.

I was simply unable to accept that fact.

“Captain.”

The healer spoke again.

“Please.”

I looked toward the inside of the castle.

The Life Force Vessel above the Lich's head had already recovered its complete form.

Not even a trace remained of the cracks we had carved into it by risking our lives moments ago.

It was right in front of us now.

It was not because we were weak.

It was not because we did not know how to clear it.

It was because one person could not hold his position.

My fists trembled.

Booom!

Unable to bear it any longer, I slammed the ground.

Holy power burst out, gouging a deep crater into the stone floor. Cracks spread in every direction like a spiderweb, and stone fragments flew.

“Goddammit!”

I shouted until my throat felt torn.

With gritted teeth, I took out a Return Scroll.

A single sheet of paper caught on my fingertips.

Deeper inside my clothes, my hand touched a small book I had never shown anyone for a long time.

The item I had received on the fiftieth floor.

But not yet.

I withdrew my hand.

“Everyone, return.”

Riiip.

As I tore the Return Scroll, I looked toward the castle one last time.

“...Goddammit.”

My vision turned white.

And so, Korea's Vanguard failed to clear the seventieth floor.

* * *

[The time limit to clear Korea's seventieth floor has expired.]

The Tower's message rang throughout Korea.

Someone kicked back a chair, and disaster alerts began blaring from phones across the country almost simultaneously.

But the Tower had no interest in humanity's despair.

[Failure penalty will now be carried out.]

The upper levels of the Tower glowed white-hot.

The light condensed in an instant until it could not be viewed with the naked eye. The brilliance piercing the clouds shifted direction.

West.

The sky burned white.

Booooom!

A beam from the Tower struck Incheon.

Buildings at the point of impact could not even collapse.

Concrete and steel frames, roads and vehicles lost their shape instantly within the light. The delayed shockwave swept across the surrounding area.

Crash!

Windows poured down like heavy rain.

Vehicles overturned.

Even from far away, a massive pillar of smoke was visible.

People who had failed to evacuate.

People searching for their families.

Rescue teams rushing into the wreckage.

But the Tower looked down upon all of it and continued to the next procedure.

[Failure Penalty 1 has been completed.]

[Failure Penalty 2 will now be applied.]

The price of failure was not only a beam of destruction.

[A new curse will be engraved upon Korea's Tower.]

[Curse: Severance]

[Effect: Within the Tower, an Awakener's skills have a set chance of being sealed.]

It was a short explanation.

But to Awakeners, those words were as terrible as news of a destroyed city.

If a tank's defensive skill was sealed the moment a boss's attack fell, they died.

If a healer's recovery skill was blocked when they reached for a dying companion, they died.

If a damage dealer's skill failed to activate at the moment they needed to land the final blow, they died.

Until now, they could survive by fighting perfectly.

From now on, even if they fought perfectly, bad luck could kill them.

[The curse has been permanently recorded in Korea's Tower.]

The failure to clear the seventieth floor.

In exchange, part of Incheon disappeared, and Korea's Tower was left with a curse that would plague every future raid.

* * *

Bang!

I slammed my fist onto the desk.

Even as real-time reports of the damage in Incheon continued to come in, Park Jun-hyeok's face would not leave my mind.

All he had needed to do was hold on.

No, he did not even need to do anything remarkable.

He only needed to stand in his place.

But he could not even do that. He ran away first.

So I wrote the raid report.

Failure to destroy the Life Force Vessel.

Park Jun-hyeok's lower-than-expected firepower.

Unauthorized return.

The support effects of the Sacred Relics taken with him.

And the determination that continuing the raid with the remaining four people was impossible.

On the final line, I wrote clearly:

『The direct cause of the failure to clear the seventieth floor was Awakener Park Jun-hyeok's unauthorized withdrawal during combat.』

But while I received first aid and rested, they moved first.

The Association held an emergency press conference.

A news ticker scrolled beneath the television in my hospital room.

『Awakeners Association: “Floor 70 tragedy caused by field commander Kang Seong-un's error in judgment”』

“...?”

I had clearly read it, but for a while, I could not understand it.

Regardless of my confusion, the Association spokesperson read from a prepared statement.

“Kang Seong-un was excessively optimistic about the raid's success and insisted on aggressive tactics. It has been confirmed that the situation worsened because the decision to withdraw came too late, even after the frontline collapsed.”

Crunch.

Without realizing it, I tightened my grip, crushing the water bottle in my hand.

“What?”

A reporter asked,

“There are claims that Park Jun-hyeok was the first to return.”

But the spokesperson did not appear flustered in the slightest.

“That is untrue. At the time, Park Jun-hyeok was carrying out the field commander's order for an early withdrawal.”

Me?

I had told that bastard to leave first?

What they released next was the Association's official report, which interpreted Park Jun-hyeok's return as “an early withdrawal following the commander's instructions.”

The report I had submitted provisionally was classified.

It was not released to the public.

Then familiar faces began appearing on screen.

Lee Seon-hwa, the team healer who had clutched my arm on the seventieth floor and cried as she begged me to return with them.

“It is true that Kang Seong-un was determined to continue the raid until the end.”

She bit her lip for a long moment.

“However... I do think that, in the end, his decision to withdraw came a little too late.”

She pointed out the mistake in my judgment.

That was not the end.

The next person was a damage dealer.

“The field decisions were entirely the captain's. We were in the position of following orders.”

The reporter asked,

“Did Park Jun-hyeok not withdraw on his own?”

The silence stretched on.

He could not look at the camera.

Then,

“...I believe the Association's findings are correct.”

Perhaps because his conscience bothered him.

He did not tell a direct lie.

“Ha ha...”

I laughed.

Yes. Of course.

It was not that I did not know why they had betrayed me.

Raid rights.

Equipment assignments.

National support.

Awakener qualification management.

The Association held all of it.

As Korea entered the age of Awakeners, the Korean Awakeners Association had become the apex of all power, holding authority that nothing could stand against.

And they knew very well how to use that authority.

* * *

『Kang Seong-un's Reckless Raid, Did It Lead to Disaster?』

『The Fall of the Floor 70 Hero』

『Vanguard Received Hundreds of Billions in Support, Who Bears Responsibility?』

People who had never entered the Tower sat on television screens, judging my decisions.

The internet was worse.

- What did the people of Incheon do to deserve this?

- If you're the captain, you should take responsibility.

- Playing hero and blew up an entire city.

- They say Park Jun-hyeok came out first under orders, so why do you keep trying to muddy the waters?

- We raised him with our taxes, and this is what we get.

- Kang Seong-un should have died instead.

The people who had praised me as a hero until yesterday began to condemn me.

“...”

My finger stopped at that final comment.

You should have died instead.

I stared at those words for a long time.

Strangely, I was not even angry.

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand.

A red mark smeared across it.

Perhaps because I had not slept properly for days, a capillary around my eye had burst.

Looking at the blood-mixed tears, I laughed.

“...Yeah.”

My voice was completely hoarse.

“That would have been easier.”

If I had died, at least I would not have had to see this.

I had lived for Korea.

That much was not a lie.

Even when other countries offered me several times what I received now, I refused.

Even when China promised a dedicated raid team and separate Sacred Relics, I stayed.

When Japan offered me naturalization, I simply laughed it off.

Meanwhile, the people around me left one by one.

Tired of inadequate support.

Pushed aside by connections.

Worn down from fighting the Association.

Each time, I said,

“Still, I have to stay.”

Whenever they asked why, my answer was always the same.

Because it was my country.

It was where I had been born.

It was the country that had raised me when I was an orphan with nothing.

After I Awakened, it was the country that gave me the chance to climb the Tower.

So I thought I had to repay it.

When there were not enough people, I entered one more time.

When support fell short, I endured with my own body.

Even when I knew the raid schedule was unreasonable, I headed back into the Tower whenever I heard our country's place in the International Ranking would fall.

The results remained on my body.

A scar across my back.

A burn on my left side.

One finger that had melted from poison and never fully recovered.

I thought of them as medals.

Proof that I had protected my country.

But when the country needed someone to take responsibility, it put forward my name first.

They tore off the label of hero and replaced it with one that read culprit.

Only then did I realize.

I had loved my country.

My country had never loved me.

A hero when needed.

A shield when danger came.

The one responsible when a problem arose.

That was my place.

It was unfair.

More unbearable than being betrayed by Park Jun-hyeok.

More unbearable than being abandoned by the Association.

I was unbearably furious with myself for having endured it all for years.

Why had I stayed?

Why had I held on when others left?

Why had I filled even the gaps that were not my responsibility with my own body?

That night, I left the hospital and returned home.

Then I took out the thing I had touched at the end of that battle.

The book that had been tucked deeper inside my clothes when I pulled out the Return Scroll on the seventieth floor.

The reward for being the first to clear the fiftieth floor.

At the time, I had been the only person to inspect the reward.

I told the Association that a useless consumable item had appeared.

It was the first thing I had hidden from the Association.

At the time, I did not know why I had done it.

But now, I thought I understood.

Instinctively, I had felt it.

That I must never give this to anyone.

I opened the cover.

『Book of Regression: Returns the user to the point in the past where their strongest wish lies, while preserving their memories.』

The original reason I had hidden it was nothing special.

If Korea ever fell into a truly irreversible crisis.

If we could no longer clear the Tower.

If the moment came when everything collapsed, I would return to the past then and save more people.

Until the very end, I had planned to use even this for my country.

“You fucking idiot.”

A laugh escaped me.

Mocking myself,

Rustle.

I turned the page.

[Would you like to proceed with regression? Once you return to a point in time, it can never be reversed.]

The system message issued a warning.

“...”

My finger stopped.

Then I remembered the comment still on my phone screen.

You should have died instead.

“Fine. I'll give you what you want.”

I would not stop them anymore.

If the Association drove talented people away, I would let them go.

If they gave all the good equipment to well-connected nobodies, I would not give up my own equipment to make up for it.

If America offered good terms, I would listen.

If Japan climbed ahead of us, I would let them.

This time, they would bear the results they had created with their own hands.

Fwoosh!

With my resolve, intense light poured from the Book of Regression.

Looking into that light,

“Damn Hell Joseon.”

I lowered my finger.

“I'll leave without a single regret.”

Flutterflutterflutter!

The pages began flipping wildly.

Red light filled the room. The walls and ceiling stretched long as they were sucked behind time.

My vision turned white.

In that final moment, I smiled without regret for the first time.

Soon, they would know.

They would know why Korea in my previous life had been able to become an Awakener superpower.

They would know whom they had abandoned.

Footnotes:

Joseon is the Korean dynasty predating modern Korea. “Hell Joseon” is an expression criticizing South Korea as an unbearably harsh, literally hellish, society.

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