Chapter 16: Status window is too unfriendly (3)
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Have you ever played a game called "Maple Leaf Story"?
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In this game, there are daily quests and events that force you to defeat a certain number of monsters, but not just any monsters.
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It has to be monsters within your level range. They're called "Levmon" for short.
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It's a measure taken to prevent players from easily farming rewards by slaughtering weak monsters...
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Seeing this message, I can't help but think of that game.
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"...Sigh."
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If I make a rough guess... the words "significant disparity in the power" written in the message window is the key point.
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Perhaps in the eyes of the system, a punk like me with an EX-grade skill appears to be an unreasonably overpowered target.
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Actually, those words might not be that wrong.
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If enough time passes, I might become a monster that no one can reach.
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Just the fact that I can regress infinitely means that my level of power has risen by dozens of stages.
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But from the current perspective, this is nothing but unreasonable.
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How many goblins have I killed?
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How hard have I worked to push through the dense thicket?
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I did my best, but just because I have a cheating skill, I can't use the ‘stat’ window others have or level up?
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From my point of view, all I can say is that it's really f*cked up.
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Since I confirmed that achievement levels are maintained even after regression, if I could have gained regular levels, I could have become stronger much more easily.
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It seems like the one who gave me the regression ability doesn't want me to have it easy.
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I sighed and turned my gaze to the scrawny man.
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"Scrawny."
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"Yes, Hyung-nim?"
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"Tell me everything about the big goblin you caught."
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"Um... It dropped a golden bead... and experience points..."
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"And?"
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"Oh, and there was a bundle of 500 ml water bottles, a barrel, and two big boxes of chocolate bars. I didn't leave much and fed them to the goblins under my control... Should I give you what's left?"
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"...Chocolate bars?"
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"Yes!"
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Chocolates... There were chocolate bars. And there was even a bundle of water bottles.
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It's a composition I've seen before.
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To be precise, it's a composition I often saw when I was idling like an unemployed person without doing anything in the vacant lot.
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"Hmm..."
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Choi Ji-won, who only keeps swinging her sword in a corner of the vacant lot, possesses a sharp sense that seemed to see through her surroundings.
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Wouldn't she, of all people, be able to sense the presence of particularly strong monsters?
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After catching quite a few goblins, I found they occasionally dropped food, but they dropped useless things more often.
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However, Choi Ji-won always brought high-quality food, even in packaged form.
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If...
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If Choi Ji-won had been selecting only strong monsters to defeat all this time, and all the food she brought from the field was obtained from defeating strong monsters...
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Choi Ji-won would have obtained numerous golden beads each time.
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And the problem is that I just found out about this now.
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"..."
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She had hidden the golden beads even after obtaining them.
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"This murder case has nothing to do with it, right?"
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"No, it doesn't."
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"Okay, let's work hard."
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Since I seemed to have gathered all the necessary information to proceed, I let go of the scrawny man.
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I also discovered the secret of the status window.
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I acquired a good but unpleasant trait.
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I also discovered how to obtain golden beads.
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I gained a lot from this round. Of course, I had no intention of regressing like this.
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There are three most important pieces of information I need to discover through regression.
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First, how to secure golden beads and their locations.
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Second, the location of the boss.
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Third, the location of the Minotaur that killed me.
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Among these, I have found the first one. The exact location will accumulate as I repeat the regression.
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After enough time passes and rounds accumulate, I might be able to identify the locations of all 50 golden beads.
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And the reason why I'm curious about the Minotaur's location is... it's simple.
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The Minotaur is truly, incredibly strong.
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Choi Ji-won, who boasts overwhelming power with fraudulent traits, cannot guarantee victory against it. It's really damn strong.
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If you've read some web novels, you might have noticed something here.
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This bastard. It reeks of a hidden boss.
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A monstrously powerful monster, not created to be defeated in the tutorial.
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The protagonist, who regressed from the future, manages to somehow defeat the hidden boss with mysterious skills and enjoys a valuable reward that no one else has ever discovered.
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My goal was the same.
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If I become strong enough someday, wouldn't it be possible for me to defeat the Minotaur?
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If the day comes when I surpass the tutorial stage, it will be after defeating the Minotaur.
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For that, the prerequisite is to know the Minotaur's location in advance.
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Since I'm in the position of regressing with just one hit, it would be inefficient to sit and wait at the vacant lot for a week for it to appear.
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It would be more efficient for me to constantly seek it out and bash its head.
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And lastly, what I need to know is the location of the boss.
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It is also the goal I am currently moving towards.
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"Hmm... This place is really vast."
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After witnessing someone's death, I am not cold-blooded enough to remain indifferent, even if it's not my job.
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As a regressor, if I can identify the boss' location, defeating him is only a matter of time.
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There is a way to save everyone, so it wouldn't be fair for me to advance to the next stage alone.
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Of course, I will avoid the thugs like the ones I killed earlier... But I do intend to defeat the boss and open the portal to save everyone.
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"Hmm..."
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I walked straight for about two hours, repeating grass, trees, rocks, grass, trees...
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There were no suspicious caves or primitive huts that could indicate the presence of a boss.
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The only thing that changed was the smell.
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A faint smell, as if rotten fish drifted from somewhere.
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Again, this terrain is closer to a jungle.
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A smell of rotting fish suddenly in the jungle? It didn't quite fit.
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"Well, let's go check it out."
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If I discover something strange, it's only natural to personally confirm it.
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I followed the smell of rotten fish, and after walking a little longer, I finally arrived at my destination.
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"Hmm..."
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The background that had seemed to repeat endlessly with grass and trees had disappeared.
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What unfolded before my eyes was a swamp that stretched so wide that its end was not visible.
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No matter how long I've lived, I've never seen a swamp this big. It felt like looking at the sea.
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Logically, it doesn't make sense for a swamp to be formed this wide... But this is the Tower.
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Based on what I see now, the tutorial area seems to be a swamp surrounding a large island-like shape.
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Well, it's called a tower, so it doesn't make sense for the range of activity to be endlessly wide.
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It seems like the Tower kindly indicated, ‘Don't try to escape. Just stay and play inside,’ with this swamp.
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Of course, if you ignore the swamp and keep going straight ahead, you'll eventually reach the wall of the Tower, and maybe if you touch those bricks wall, a hidden piece might pop out? I had such thoughts.
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"...This is not it."
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I didn't even consider the thought of stepping into the purple swamp that emitted an ominous bubble and made me feel sick.
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No, it looks like there's poison in it. There aren't even traces of living organisms visible.
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If you throw a small squirrel in there, after a while, only the bones would float up.
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Even if I can regress, it's out of the question to enter that place.
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Needless to say, it was close to an act of suicide.
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"...Now, should I go somewhere else?"
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Since I've come this far, it wouldn't be bad to walk along the outskirts.
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As it is the outermost area, maybe the boss is nearby.
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Just like pushing monsters off cliffs in games, if I can make the boss fall into the swamp, I might be able to defeat him easily without fighting.
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"Well, then..."
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As I muttered to myself and was about to take a step, I felt a slightly bitter and nauseating taste in my mouth.
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It was a familiar taste and a familiar scent.
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This is... the taste of blood.
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***
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"...F*ck."
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I didn't know that just by smelling poison, I would regress.
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Seriously... it's unfair, just unfair.
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