Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

Chapter 41: Ch39. [Regression]

Sarissa ran, but this time, she knew what was coming, even though not by much.

She avoided the main streets, ducking into alleyways and looking for anything she could use as a weapon. She lasted longer that night, but in the end, she died again.

And the cycle continued.

Each time she died, she woke up exactly one hour before, forced to relive the nightmare. At first, she tried to save people, but it never worked. Some events seemed to be unchangeable, like the monsters appearing, and the streets running red.

The more she fought against fate, the crueler her death seemed to become.

But she learned. Every death taught her something new. She memorized enemy patterns, escape routes, and weak spots. She scavenged materials and made makeshift weapons, armed herself with knowledge that no one else had.

And then, she killed her first monster, the system's voice echoing in her head immediately after her first kill.

[You killed a Creature – Tutorial Goblin]

[You have received: ??? EXP]

[You leveled up]

[You have unlocked the Achievement – First Blood]

[Due to the Achievement's effect, your kills will render you twice the regular amount of EXP]

Sarissa didn't have time to dwell on the system messages. The goblin's body collapsed at her feet, its crude dagger clattering against the pavement. She bent down, fingers trembling as she picked it up. The blade was chipped, its edge stained with something dark, but it was better than nothing.

She forced herself to breathe, to focus. The cycle of death and regression had stripped away her fear, replacing it with cold determination. She knew she only had an hour before everything reset again.

Before she was forced to fight, to run, to die again. But now, she had something different.

Power.

It wasn't much, just a single level, a single kill, but it was proof that she could change things.

The next time Sarissa regressed, however, her eyes widened before waking up again, as the system's voice echoed in her mind.

[Skill – Regression: Level 01 – is active]

[Due to the player's low level, the skill's effect will take the player 01 hour and a half back in time] @@novelbin@@

The seed of an idea began blooming in her mind, and this time, she didn't run.

She sought out the goblin again, striking first this time. Her movements were clumsy, unrefined, but she had already learned from experience that the creature hesitated when startled, that its wild slashes left openings. She used that knowledge to drive the dagger into its throat.

[You killed a Creature – Tutorial Goblin]

[You have received: ??? EXP]

[You leveled up]

Two kills. Two levels.

It wasn't enough to change much, but it was a start.

Over the next few regressions, she refined her method. She stopped relying on pure instinct and started strategizing.

She also learned that the supposition she had made back when she regressed the tenth time was correct.

For every level she gained, she could regress half an hour further in time, and so, she used that knowledge to deepen her resolve to search for more power.

Sarissa stole from abandoned stores, arming herself before the monsters arrived, scouted paths in advance, memorized the best vantage points, and experimented with different ways to fight.

And she kept dying.

The deeper she went through her current regression, the harder it was for her to plan ahead and equip herself before being attacked by the monsters, but she tried to manage every situation the best she could until she died.

Some deaths were quick, like an ambush from a bigger monster. Others were agonizingly slow, trapped under rubble, bleeding out while she anxiously waited for the system's voice to echo in her mind again.

But every death was a lesson.

Soon, she wasn't just fighting goblins. She started hunting them.

Sarissa tracked their movements, and ambushed them before they could join in larger swarms. She figured out how to cripple them, how to turn their weapons against them.

And then, one day, or rather, one turn, something changed.

The system spoke to her differently.

[Your skill has leveled up]

[Skill – Regression: Level 02 – is active]

[The player can now rewind time by 03 hours]

Sarissa stared at the message, her breath coming in short, uneven gasps. Three hours.

She had more time. More chances.

It wasn't enough to save her parents, not yet. But it was enough to start preparing for something bigger.

That was when she realized what Regression truly was. It wasn't just a second chance. It was a weapon.

With three hours at her disposal, Sarissa didn't just plan her survival. She started planning for dominance.

She experimented with different weapons, regressing through every blade, blunt object, and firearm she could find in each turn. She practiced striking vitals, refined her combat stance, adapted to fighting different types of monsters, and soon, her stats were already in the two digits.

She became ruthless.

She didn't waste time trying to save people who were doomed. She didn't let sympathy slow her down. If a choice needed to be made between her survival and someone else's, she chose herself without hesitation.

She had already seen the city burn too many times to pretend that she could save everyone.

Sarissa kept leveling up, kept pushing herself, and with every turn, she made the monsters fear her instead.

Until the day she hit Level 20, And the world changed again.

She was already able to regress 72 hours in the past, having already amassed an impressive amount of stat points. So, when she opened her eyes back in the main square, feeling dizzy due to the accumulated exhaustion of not stopping to rest in none of her turns, afraid that she would not be able to go back as close to when her parents were killed as possible, she opened her stats window, and her eyes widened.

[Name: Sarissa Andreadis]

[Affiliation: None]

[Level: 20]

[Classpect: Wonderland's Treasure]

[Skills: Regression – Level 05; Resilience – Level 10; Focus – Level 10; Weapons Proficiency – Level 15; Mad Fire – Level 01]

Her stats were still sort of low, but she already knew that the Goblins had weaknesses, so it did not bother her. However, when her eyes landed on the last skill in the tab, her heart beat faster, and she opened the skill description in the blink of an eye.

[Skill: Mad Fire]

[Skill Description: Summons a fiery flare that, until extinguished, can be controlled by the player at will]

'I can do magic, now...?' Sarissa's lips curled upwards ever so slightly.

As soon as havoc wrecked around her, she tried using her new skill, and her hands erupted with a bright red flame, the fiery tongue spreading forward and sideways like an uncontrollable explosion.

Soon after, though, her parents began screaming, engulfed by the mad flames.