Chapter 54

I’m Not a Regressor

Chapter 54: Unlosable Game (1)

A week after the demon beast subjugation operation’s completion…

It was only natural that stories about the demon beast subjugation caused an uproar in the entirety of Korea.

It would be strange if the appearance of a demon beast that could turn humans into demon beasts didn’t turn into an issue. Foreign countries also raised public awareness as they looked into the incident with great care. In addition, attention was also concentrated on the hero who stopped what would have been an irreversible disaster.

—The Lightning Wolf, Gwon Ohjin.

The stories of him being the first to discover the situation and eliminating the boss of the demon beasts alone spread like waves to the point that it even made top headlines of dozens of presses.

‘It’s become hard to go outside thanks to that.’

He was currently living in semi-seclusion with the pretext that he was recovering from his injuries, though he did lose consciousness for around three days from the aftereffects of using Exceed.

‘Let’s see…’

Ohjin picked up his smartphone and entered a famous community site. The most popular posts were filled with stories about the Lightning Wolf. as expected. He clicked on one of them and entered the post.

[WoofWoofKim: Damn, isn’t the Lightning Wolf seriously just insane~?!]

⌞JerryM: It’s only been half a year since he awakened, does this even make sense? I guess he’s a North Star’s apostle for a reason;

⌞Butterfly Valley: Sex

⌞WoofWoofKim: Honestly, isn’t he at the level of the Seven Stars??

⌞MommyNingguang: Bullshit, he’s still not on level of them

⌞WoofWoofKim: Dude, I’m not sure about right now but don’t you think he’ll become a Seven Star easily in the future?

⌞Butterfly Valley: Sex

⌞JerryM: Wouldn’t the Black Lion become one first?

⌞MommyNingguang: Nope; Do you guys think that title of the Seven Stars is just being thrown around? They’ll get shit on in 1 second even if you bring a truckload of Black Lions and Lightning Wolves.

⌞WoofWoofKim: That’s pushing it; Well, they’ll probably get shit on but not in 1 second, dude;

⌞Butterfly Valley: Sex

⌞WoofWoofKim: All the people who write those kinds of comments always turn out to be dumbfucks that haven’t done it before lmao

⌞Butterfly Valley: Shut the fuck up

Everything was somewhat overwhelming, but…

‘They evaluate me highly, as expected.’

For Ohjin, who was approaching the half-year mark since he awakened, just being brought up and compared with the Seven Stars was ridiculous.

‘There’s still a lot of talk that I’m way beneath the Seven Stars, but…’

It was a given.

There was still a large gap to close until he could match up with the Seven Stars.

“Well, I might be able to reach that level soon.”

Would it end simply with him rivaling the Seven Stars?

Ohjin had conviction he would be able to reach a realm even beyond what they had reached.

‘I’ll need to be able to do at least that much to maintain my title of Regressor.’

The stigma of Lyra and the Black Heaven…

Honestly, the Seven Stars were a breeze with just those two.

It was only a matter of time.

“I should try my best when the opportunity is given.”

What he was aiming for wasn’t the Seven Stars.

His goal was something far beyond.

The transcendental celestials and even beyond that.

‘A realm where not even our Goddess can set foot in.’

Once he arrived at that realm…

‘Then…”

Ohjin put on a fishy smile. 

Once that time came, there would no longer be any reason to live on while painstakingly deceiving others. 

‘Well, I’ll think about that once I get there.’

There was something else he had to focus on more urgently.

“…The Black Star Organization.”

As the recent incident became an issue, the name of Choi Jungchul, who could be said to be the main culprit, spread far and wide. It was only natural that the guild ‘Pandinus’ was brought up, as it was the guild he was affiliated with, but…

“‘Choi Jungchul isn’t affiliated with the Pandinus guild’.”

From what the Pandinus guild’s announcement stated, Choi Jungchul was never affiliated with them, and they had never made contact.

‘They’re obviously lying.’

In reality, Choi Jungchul’s name wasn’t in the directory they published.

Which meant…

‘They were planning to dispose of him in the first place.’

It was outright cutting ties, but since there was no physical evidence that connected Choi Jungchul to the Pandinus guild, it was hard to make an objection to their claims.

The Pandinus guild instead redirected the arrow at the Starlight Lake guild, which Choi Jungchul was once a part of, and denounced them as the masterminds of the incident, claiming they were trying to put the blame for their crimes on Pandinus.

It wasn’t a denouncement done with words alone.

They even presented detailed evidence that Choi Jungchul made continuous contact with the Starlight Lake guild after his withdrawal and pressured them.

The Starlight Lake guild announced that they weren’t involved in the incident and that they only made contact with Choi Jungchul a couple of times during the process of seizing his assets, but public opinion didn’t flow in their favor.

‘Thanks to that, the other top ten major guilds are starting to get involved.’

The Starlight Lake guild was a guild where the best ‘healing-type’ Awakeners gathered.

It was stating the obvious, but healers would rarely go around gates alone.

Due to that characteristic, the Starlight Lake guild would inevitably make a lot of contact with other guilds, with the famous top ten major guilds being amongst them.

No.

At the level the Starlight Lake guild was at, they very rarely got involved with other guilds—excluding famous major guilds.

With the current situation being as it was, the arrows of criticism were loosed at the Starlight Lake guild and all of the top ten guilds that they made frequent contact with.

“Was this their goal from the start?”

Ohjin, who was observing a couple of news reports, clicked his tongue.

There were barely any stories about Pandinus that should have been the target for the arrows of criticism, and instead the articles were filled with conspiracy theories about the Starlight Lake guild.

“Those bastards used their heads.”

Smirk— 

Ohjin laughed as if it was absurd.

“Ohjin, didn’t you say you were going to the Sanctum?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Ohjin, who was looking at his smartphone, got up from his spot.

Since the situation was more or less organized…

There was a need to go report the situation to Vega.

“Then I’ll come back soon, Ha-eun.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Ha-eun waved her hand as she saw him off.

‘I should get there soon, our Goddess is probably worried sick.’

* * *

[M-My child!]

As soon as he arrived at the Star of the Weaver Girl’s sanctuary, Vega rushed out in haste.

It seemed like the restriction’s aftereffects were quite severe, as she was maintaining the small size of around 30cm even inside the sanctum.

[Are you hurt anywhere? Is your body okay? Do you feel strange anywhere? What happened to that evil demon beast?]

Questions poured down like a storm.

“Don’t worry, can’t you see that I’m fine?”

[B-But!]

Vega’s eyes teared up as she stomped her feet.

‘Seriously, why is our Goddess so cute.’

“Why were you so late, human! Do you know how worried Lady Vega was?”

Riak approached him as he furrowed his brow.

“I know.”

“She pulled on my fur every five minutes as she bawled her eyes out.”

[I-It wasn’t that bad.]

“Do you think she only cried?! Lady Vega even engraved your face on the sanctuary wall and prayed for your safety for days!!”

As he turned his head around to the sanctuary wall, he could see that his face was actually engraved on it.

[N-No! I have never done such a thing!!]

“She even secretly placed her lips on the drawing as she wished you good luck!! How could you be this la—!”

[Kkyaaaaaaaa!!!]

Crackle! Boom!—

“Kugk!!”

Riak, who was hit by blue lightning, was flung back far away as he rolled across the floor.

Gray smoke rose out of Riak’s mouth as his body spasmed.

‘He isn’t dead, right…?’

[K-Khm!]

Vega quietly organized her messy hair and cleared her throat.

[It seems that Riak has seen hallucinations.]

‘The details seem to be too specific for hallucinations, though…’

[A-Anyways!]

Vega hid her heated red cheeks as she continued.

[So what happened after then…?]

“I’ll explain slowly.”

He explained what had happened in detail after Vega disappeared from being unable to endure the restriction.

Naturally, he excluded the fact that he used the Black Heaven to absorb the star relic’s power and the stigma of Aquarius.

[E-Exceed? Are you saying you used Exceed?]

“Yup.”

Ohjin thought that it was a skill he improvised, but it seemed that it was a skill she knew as well.

[What… I-It makes no sense.]

Vega’s face stiffened as she opened her mouth.

* * *

* * *

[Ha…]

Vega placed her hand on her forehead as if she was having a headache.

[Even if it’s something you experienced once before, this is….]

“Is it something to be that surprised about?”

Ohjin obviously knew how great of a skill Exceed was since he used it himself, but he wasn’t sure if being able to use it right now was something that should be considered absurd even when taking the fact he should be a ‘Regressor’ into consideration. 

[Of course it’s surprising. ‘Exceed’ is a skill that can be learned once you reach 7… no, 8-Star at minimum.]

‘What?’

Though it was inferior when compared to the official 9-Star classification of a ‘high-rank Awakener’, If one were to be 8-Stars, they would still be amongst the very best.

In any case, it was certain that it was a skill unimaginable for a mere 4-Star rookie to learn.

‘I guess it’s reasonable to be surprised in this case.’

Let’s say that there was an incredibly complicated and hard game.

Would clearing it once change that hard game’s difficulty to infant-level?

Maybe if it was tens, hundreds of repetitive plays, but just one would not be close to enough.

‘But—in Vega’s perspective—I’m entering high-level boss zones as a low-level and sweeping through them just because I cleared it once.’

In that case, it would explain why she was that surprised to some degree.

However…

There was one truth she didn’t know.

‘I haven’t cleared the game a single time.’

Just how was he, who was nothing but a 4-Star, able to learn a skill that could only be learnt once reaching the 8-Star rank?

[It can only be said that you were born with natural talent in controlling mana.]

‘Talent… It’s probably hard to find another word that could explain it.’

“It’s nothing, it’s just because I’ve done it once before.”

[No, explaining it with that alone is impossible.]

Vega sternly shook her head and continued.

[It seems almost as if… you were born to hold dominance over all stigmas.]

“……”

Ohjin’s face slightly hardened.

“I wouldn’t go that far. And, well, isn’t there nothing bad about acquiring it quickly?”

[Hmm. No. It isn’t good in this case.]

“It isn’t good?”

Vega opened her eyes keenly.

[Exceed is a skill that places extreme burden on the body. You’ll need to reach at least 6-Star for your body to endure it to some extent.]

“Ah.”

Indeed…

Ohjin had entered the overload state when had he used it in the fight against Choi Jungchul.

He had also passed out for three days thanks to it.

[It is my wish that you do not use Exceed in the future,] Vega said as she flew up on top of his head and sat down.

Dazzle—

“Alright. I’ll be careful.”

As long as it wasn’t a dangerous situation, there was no real reason to use a skill that damaged his own body.

[Pshaw! What I meant was not to be careful, but to never use it!]

Vega flared up as she pulled on his hair.

‘Ow.’

“Hahaha! Alright.”

[Fuu. The situation is unfortunate when this lady should be keeping a thorough eye on you…]

“When do you think you’ll be able to materialize yourself again?”

[It seems that I’ll have to stay still in the sanctum for around three weeks.]

A total of around one month.

‘Vega really did push herself back then.’

[Sigh. If I had it my way, I’d tie you up tightly in the sanctuary during that time.]

‘You’re scaring me, Mama Vega.’

[…But it appears that it’s not suitable for the current situation.]

Vega narrowed her eyes.

[It seemed like those malicious apostles of Scorpio held hands with the Black Star Organization.]

“Probably.”

They were making excuses that they weren’t, but it was evident that the Pandinus guild and Black Star Organization were connected.

[Those evil beings! Trying to throw the blame onto others despite committing such inexcusable atrocities!]

Vega seemed to have recalled Choi Jungchul as she shouted out in an angry voice.

[It feels so vexing that there’s no way to stop their malicious tricks.]

“No way to stop their malicious tricks? What are you talking about?”

Vega’s eyes widened.

[Didn’t you just say that there’s no evidence to prove their connection?]

“I did.”

Without a doubt, there was currently no evidence that was able to make the arrows of criticism that were aimed at Starlight Lake point back at Pandinus.

However…

As he had always done…

—What wasn’t there could simply be created.

The edges of Ohjin’s mouth slyly tilted up.

“I’ll take care of this matter on my own. Don’t worry about it.”

[But, how…]

“Really, don’t worry about it.”

It wasn’t anything too difficult.

There was no need to rack his brains, nor was there any need to prepare complicated deceits.

‘After all… it’s an unlosable game for me anyways’

‘Now, then.’

Ohjin stuck his tongue out and licked his lips.

‘It’s been a while since I returned to my main profession.’

Of all things…

‘You shouldn’t have used scams in front of me.’

____

T/N: Some of the nicknames of the ones who commented on the community site are novel authors.

Butterfly Valley (나비계곡) : Author of ‘I’m Not a Regressor’ and ‘Player who returned 10,000 Years later’.

WoofWoofKim (멍멍킴) : Author but no works known to an English audience.

MommyNingguang: Just simping for the character Ningguang in Genshin Impact.

____