Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Ch. 17 .｡.:✧ Final Regression (1) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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[If you clear the game and satisfy the escape conditions, the game immediately ends and you return to reality.]
[Escape Condition 1: The affection rate of all heroines must exceed 95%.]
[Escape Condition 2: The final boss ‘Draken’ must be defeated.]
The text I had seen to the point of being sick of it appeared before my eyes once again.
But from now on, it’s fine to think of escape condition 1 as nonexistent.
I will never get involved with the sickening main heroines again.
Even if there is a risk of death lying in wait, I will only aim to conquer the final boss.
The moment I opened my eyes with renewed determination.
[If you fail to satisfy the escape conditions when clearing the game, you will return to the starting gniotn toyu liwl be unable to rgrsese from tehn on.]
Whoa, fucking hell. You startled me.
Suddenly, my vision was filled with text and it went crazy.
What the hell was going on?
Just as I was surprised by the system window’s unannounced strike,
“Kiek! The enemy of my father! Kek!”
As always, our Blin rushed at me, shedding tears and wielding a club.
But the timing was off.
“Can you be quiet for a bit! I’m thinking right now!”
“Kek!”
Smack.
A crisp sound rang out and Blin toppled over.
In a fit of anger, I unconsciously chopped his head with my hand…
But for some reason, Blin wasn’t moving after falling over.
“Hey. Get up. You’re not dead, are you?”
“…”
Judging by the lack of an achievement pop-up, he didn’t seem to be dead.
No, maybe the achievement window was broken too.
Just in case, I sat on the fallen Blin with a large lump on his head and continued assessing the situation.
“Status window.”
[Username: Yoo Jin]
[Age: 21]
[Initial Trait: Guardian Knight]
[When protecting someone, stats are amplified. When inactive, base stats decrease by 5 as a penalty.]
[Traits with a synchronization rate exceeding 90% are automatically restored.]
[Trait: Inspect]
[Reveals information about items.]
[Trait: Thakia-style (lv.10)]
[You learn the forgotten ancient one-handed swordsmanship. Your understanding of one-handed swords increases.]
[Trait: Merida-style (lv.9)]
[You learn the traditional Elvish one-handed swordsmanship that was adapted from human swordsmanship. Your understanding of one-handed swords increases.]
[Trait: Frost-style (lv.9)]
[You learn the swordsmanship of the Frost royal family. Your understanding of two-handed swords increases.]
[Stats]
[Strength: 9(-5) *Guardian Knight penalty applied]
[Stamina: 7(-5) *Guardian Knight penalty applied]
[Mana: 12(-5) *Guardian Knight penalty applied]
[Agility: 18(-5) *Guardian Knight penalty applied]
[Luck: 4(-5) *Guardian Knight penalty applied]
Everything from the initial trait to the swordsmanship traits and stats were all the same.
Not a single text or level had changed, everything was exactly the same.
I thought it might have just been a simple text bug earlier, but
[Relationships]
[Jdjlile Daienrngk Yduglai Petesnbzjuurzgjk Yekrainla Fzjrgofsjtdk]
“Ow, my eyes hurt.”
It didn’t seem to be the case.
There were broken parts in the status window too.
It was a window that showed my relationships with the characters in the game, which was updated in real-time, but it had completely disappeared.
‘This doesn’t look good.’
That was the only noticeable error for now.
My physical condition was fine and my initial belongings and money were all still there, so apart from feeling a bit eerie, I didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.
But I couldn’t relax just yet.
Ominously, the part where the error occurred was the section that informed me of the fact that if I failed to satisfy the escape conditions when clearing the game, I would return to the starting point.
“Does this mean I can’t regress anymore?”
It was a system that had considered plausibility to the point of creating its own settings as it pleased.
There was no way even a minor text error would have occurred by chance.
If everything else was fine and the problem only occurred when that window popped up, there was no other way to interpret it.
I could no longer regress.
It meant the trick of picking a heroine, running straight to kissing, and regressing when things didn’t seem to work out was blocked.
Thinking that, the future seemed bleak.
“Let’s think positively. Positively.”
At least the bug occurred now.
If it had happened while I was in the middle of memorizing the locations and structures of dungeons?
I would have had to challenge the final boss without being fully prepared.
It was fortunate that the bug happened now when I was fully prepared.
I had at least avoided the worst-case scenario.
I decided to think of it that way.
“It doesn’t change anything anyway.”
Even if regression was blocked, my goal didn’t change.
It had always been the same from the beginning.
Defeat the final boss and return home.
While avoiding the trio of main heroines who were not worth getting involved with.
The only thing that changed was that only a 1-coin clear was allowed now.
Everything else was the same.
I had memorized everything about this game except for the final boss’s face, so there was no way I couldn’t clear it, right?
‘Kids these days like difficult games, right? Let’s crank up the difficulty! Let’s make a Young game for once too!’
“Ah, fuck! Boss!!!”
The words the boss had said back then came to mind and my head became cluttered.
It wasn’t difficult to predict how the RPG team, who had obediently followed whatever the boss said, had set the difficulty.
They probably cranked up the difficulty as if sprinkling red pepper flakes.
I could easily imagine them going, “Hehehe, since it’s the final boss, there has to be tension, right?” and creating phases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… until their brains stopped functioning.
It was really fucked up.
Someone who only played occasional healing cultivation games was about to challenge the endgame content meant for hardcore shut-in gamers.
My head suddenly started throbbing painfully.
“I have to do it… What else can I do…?”
There was no point in agonizing over it while clutching my head.
I had to do it.
Only then could I go home.
Although my voice was already filled with moisture, I decided to steel my resolve.
Come to think of it, I was also a shut-in gamer on par with hardcore gamers now.
I had basically been playing the game with full-dive VR for 12 years.
It was such a long time that the system might have blocked regression because it thought I was too slow.
Yeah. If I couldn’t clear it this time, I was an idiot.
I wouldn’t be able to say anything even if ‘Idiot who was trapped in a game for 12 years and died without being able to clear it’ was written on my tombstone.
“Kiek…! It’s crushing me to death! Who’s on top?!”
“Oh. You’re awake.”
“Kiek! The enemy of my father! Kek!”
I felt something wriggling under my butt.
Blin had woken up.
My eyes reddened slightly at the news that he was alive and not dead.
Honestly, how miserable must Blin be too?
Not only was it unfair that he lost his entire family, but he always died from the beginning, treated like an achievement reward vending machine.
“Hey. Try to calm down a bit.”
“Kek! Do I look like I can calm down? You try losing your father, sister, and brother!”
“Why are you hitting below the belt? It hurts…”
I didn’t want to kill Blin in this playthrough.
Even more so because it was the last one.
Of course, it wasn’t because I had grown fond of him, but considering that I had been carrying his wooden club around as a sacred object and using it to maintain my mental stability, I owed Blin a lot.
“I’m going to kill you! Kek! Kiek!”
“Blin. Let’s do one thing together. I can help you take revenge for your family.”
“Kek! How can I trust that?!”
Blin’s struggling gradually weakened.
And intelligence slowly rose in Blin’s eyes that had been filled with anger.
A fact I never thought of back when I cursed wondering how a goblin could have high intelligence.
If there was intelligence, conversation was possible.
“You have nothing to lose anyway. You were destined to die, so why not try trusting someone once before you die?”
“…”
Silence flowed for a while.
Blin grabbed my outstretched hand with a displeased expression.
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked]
[Alliance with a Monster!]
[As a reward for the achievement, the trait ‘Mana Control (lv.1)’ is given.]
…
These days, ominous rumors were circulating in the free adventurer district.
They said some suspicious person was attacking at night and stealing everyone’s assets.
They said even if you tried to stay awake and fight back, you would only be suppressed and robbed by the guy.
Those were roughly the rumors.
“Hahaha! Are you an idiot? You could have just laid out traps and waited, but you stupidly fell for it again?”
“No, that bastard is really strong! He’s not at the level of an adventurer! He even flies around!”
At first, everyone ridiculed the guy who got robbed.
But as night deepened and victims continued to appear one by one, the situation reversed.
“What’s going on? I had laid traps in front of the door, but suddenly a sword pierced through the door and destroyed the traps? As if he had some kind of clairvoyance ability!”
“Could it be that he’s using magic?”
“Why would a mage be playing a robber in this vagrant town! Even if he just breathed, he would make much more money than robbing here!”
“That’s true…”
The adventurers who had bragged about being strong were all defeated.
The last thing they remembered about the robber was his bizarre appearance with a sack covering his face.
They all fainted without even getting a chance to see his face.
And when they woke up, without fail, all their assets had been stolen.
The robber persistently targeted and robbed only adventurers.
As a result, there was even an incident where the citizens, who used to bring protection money to the adventurers, praised the robber as a righteous thief.
Rumors even spread that a mage sponsored by the citizens had come to make the adventurers penniless.
Fear quickly spread among the adventurers.
“I’d like to make a deposit. All my assets!”
“Customer. Your voice doesn’t suit our store, so it’s unpleasant. Please leave.”
“Aw. If the employee says so, I have to follow.”
“Next customer, please.”
“I…!”
“Please leave.”
The adventurers’ guild was crowded every day.
People who were afraid of being robbed by the thief started using the guild’s banking service without exception.
The guild had not only S-rank adventurers but also former mages and knights as employees who provided round-the-clock security.
It was safe if it was the guild.
That was the common perception of everyone.
“Kek! All the guards are knocked out! Blin’s words were true!”
“Be quiet and follow me. We have to steal all the gold by midnight.”
“What are we going to do with human money?”
“We can’t use it.”
“Then why are we stealing it?!”
“Because it will inconvenience the humans!”
“I’m convinced! Kekekeke!”
That night.
For unknown reasons, all the guards at the guild were knocked unconscious and the triple locks on the warehouse were all unlocked.
Hundreds of goblins bloodlessly invaded inside.
Under Blin’s guidance, a spectacular scene unfolded of hundreds of goblins orderly carrying and moving sacks of gold.
When the sun rose, the goblins all retreated and disappeared.
And the adventurers only discovered the adventurers’ guild that had been completely burned down.
In front of the burned ruins.
When the tied-up employees opened their eyes, there was a crowd of angry adventurers gathered in front of them.
“What happened, employee!”
“Customer. Your voice is too loud. Please lea…”
“This crazy bastard! You still think you’re the boss! Give me back my money!”
“Mine too!”
The adventurers started beating up the employees who had been submissively obeying them.
It was as if they had been freed from a strong hypnosis that the adventurers’ guild must continue to exist.
The sound of the employees, who still hadn’t come to their senses, being beaten up by the adventurers rang out clearly.
Around then.
A man left the free adventurer district leisurely with a smile on his face.
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