Chapter 58:

‘It wouldn’t be easy.’

Such thoughts crossed my mind

‘Did he regress to this point?’

The plot clearly stated that Adonen had a regression skill. So, I thought this mission would be over once I killed him. But, I overlooked some crucial facts. Which is, there were so many different kinds of ‘regression’ in the world.

‘….Loop?’

‘What!?’

I could feel my face hardened while Adonen walked towards me as he waved his sword.

So that was the reason why he bravely blocked the streets and picked fights with everyone around. He was searching for a strong warrior to kill him and then he would regress and use ‘Swordsmanship robbing’ to take away their ability.

Adonen would take their Swordsmanship after getting killed over and over again.

The fact that one could steal someone’s swordsmanship in this world where swords were everything, it was akin to becoming a predator of the predator.

‘So it’s the infinite loop….’

‘I have…. It’s the black hole of love, right?’

Recently, I studied quite hard about trends and cliche, such as regression, reincarnation, possession and many other genres because the protagonist that I’ve hunted seemed to follow those trends.

I couldn’t follow the trends in my youth, because not long after I enrolled in middle school, I awakened as a hunter and moved to the battlefield for 16 years. In those years, I spent all my time either in a dungeon or in the gym except when I was sleeping. So I couldn’t read all these genres because I didn’t have enough time to watch movies or read novels. 

Of course, all those words were nothing but excuses.

Had I been a little more careful and took my time to observe him, I would’ve known that his regression ability was an infinite loop type.

This was obviously my mistake. All my life I’ve been acting like a cornered rat trying to fight desperately against a cat who tried to eat me. But for the first time ever, I felt like I’m the cat. I forgot the fact that the cat wasn’t the only one out there but there were also wolves and tigers.

‘…You are right. Thank you. But, I feel like you become much kinder these days. Why is that?’

As I stood still, Adonen spoke.

“What, you’re not coming? Come to think of it, it’s weird. Do you hold any grudge against me? I wonder why you killed me in such a hurry.”

Despite his questioning I didn’t feel the need to give him any answer and let him know that I had the memory from the point before the regression.

“What kind of bullshit are you saying?”

“Hm… Nevermind then. It seems like the reason you killed me wasn’t because I was blocking the way.”

Adonen rushed in as soon as he finished talking. Out of reflex, I almost raised the ether blade to fight him.

‘Will he analyze my trajectory if I swing my sword?’

I couldn’t completely stop myself from using the ether blade. However, I had many weapons in my arsenal to cover up the need of using a sword.

Fwoosh!

“What the hell?”

Using magic, I made the ground as slippery as an ice by reducing its friction point. Because of that, Adonen who charged towards me slipped and fell down.

And then, I took out some grenades from my inventory and raised my hand towards the air. The grenades in my hand started to scatter and floated around me.

My wind magic wasn’t strong enough yet, it could only move the lightest grenade. But that was enough.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Boom!!!

I pulled the pin and threw the grenades towards Adonen one by one. I tried to use every single one of it as strategically as possible. No matter how much power a single grenade had, it wouldn’t have enough damage to kill a level-51 enemy.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The grenades exploded in sucesion. The continuous explosion blocked the paths between Adonen and me. And then, I took out my mega shooter from my inventory and jumped.

The ‘jumping trampoline’ magic casted on the ground by the flower pot was helping me to jump even higher. As soon as I landed on one of the building’s roofs, I took an aim at Adonen and pulled the mega shooter’s trigger. It wasn’t possible to continuously shoot with the mega shooter, I only have 3 shots.

“This crazy….”

I wouldn’t be able to kill Adonen with a mega shooter alone. In the first place, I didn’t like the fact that I had to do all this troublesome stuff when I could kill him with a few swings of ether blades. But still, it was better than being robbed by his skill.

At times like this, I felt really fortunate that I had magic and science besides swordsmanship.

I loaded a ‘shield breaker’ bullet on the mega shooter and shot.

Fyung!

Boom!

“Keuk.”

The ‘Shield breaker’ bullet disperse the mana around Adonen’s body as soon as it hits. The scattered mana would soon regain their shape, but that small gap was enough.

I rushed toward Adonen to strike at that gap.

Seuk!

Adonen’s forehead was marked with a ‘Ether Radiant’ symbol.

I forced him to lay on his back by kicking his abdomen and pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang!

A new message came to my mind together with the loud gunfire.

Jiing!

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 18, Year 712 Current time: 19:13]

[…..The world line starts to twist.]

[Skill ‘Protagonist Hunter Lv. 3’ is activated to detect changes in the world line.]

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 11 hours and 1 minutes ago.]

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 18, Year 712 Current time: 8:13…]

Jijik!

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 18, Year 712 Current time: 19:14]

[Moving to A74 world line.]

At the very least, he’s dead.

However, I later came to know that it was not the right move.

[The protagonist, Adonen, activates ‘Swordsmanship robbing(SS)’ Skill.]

[The Swordsmanship robbing (SS): Analyzes and identifies the swordsmanship of the person who kills him and makes it his own.]

[Progress: 2.80%]

Even though I didn’t even use the ether blade, Adonen progress still went up albeit slightly. 

In addition…

[Protagonist Adonen has invoked ‘pattern analysis (A)’ Skill.]

[His body will slowly adapt to the enemy’s attack.]

It seemed like Adonen’s ‘Pattern analysis’ skill wasn’t limited to swordsmanship but also worked on other attacks.

“Hu… I didn’t know that you’ll use some magic. But, now that I’m aware of it, I’ll steal it too! Now die!”

The protagonist came at me again.

I fought him with the same kind of weapon I used before. I killed him again.

[Moving to A75 world line]

****

I killed him, I killed him again, I killed him all over again.

The system clearly said there was a way to kill the main character of Infinite Loop. So at first, I made a strategy to kill him until he regressed into a baby.

But…

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 11 hours and 1 minutes ago.]

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 18, Year 712 Current time: 8:13…]

Jijik!

[Current date……]

The point of return of Adonen’s regression was fixed.

February 18, Year 712. 8:13 a.m.

Adonen went back to that exact time every time he died. And for every time he died, our contact time became more and more further than before.

‘Should I capture him and raise him until he’s old enough to die from a natural cause?’

I could cut his limbs and gag his mouth to prevent him from killing himself, but….

Raising him means I had to feed him something. It wasn’t a plausible plan because he would bite me as soon as he opened his mouth to eat the feed.

Because of his ‘Pattern analyzing’ he’s able to read my attack more and more perfectly, making it harder for me to deal with him.

Of course it would be easier to deal with him if I used a weapon unfamiliar to him.

[Moving to A98 world line.]

But then, there wouldn’t be any reason to hunt him repeatedly(?)

[Moving to A99 world line.]

“You fucker. You aren’t helpful for my growth.”

Just like that, I’ve killed him more than 20 times and moved on to the 99th world line.

‘Adonen was also mentally exhausted.’

But that didn’t mean much. Because I was getting tired too.

Unlike Adonen who rested on an 11-hour interval, I fought him constantly. That’s why I had to take the ether blade out again. I was exhausted enough to not care about his ‘Sword robbing’ skill.

However, this body that had lived on the battlefield for more than 10 years wouldn’t crumble that easily.

[Moving to A100 world line.]

And now, I’m moving to the 100th world line.

….

….

….

“He’s not coming?”

Adonen no longer came to find me.

****

The next day arrived

I couldn’t rent any room because I didn’t have any money of this world. I took out a bread from my inventory and ate it. I’m glad to have something to eat even though I am homeless.

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, 19 February, Year 712. Current time: 7:19]

The sky was still dark. The sunrise time of this world seemed to be one hour later than that on the earth.

From the way he looked at me every time we fought, I thought he’d come back anytime. But, throughout the night, Adonen didn’t come at all. He probably thought that fighting me wasn’t helpful to him because I rarely used the ether blade. 

It was a good thing to have enough time to think by myself. But the problem is, I still didn’t have enough clue on how to kill a person with a regression ability who returned infinitely every time they died.

In the first place, is it possible to kill him physically?

‘I know Adonen is mentally weak…’

When I went to the center of the city with that thought in my head, I found Adonen challenging a tall female swordsman who was likely to be 180cm tall.

“Crazy bastard, he was meaninglessly active.”

Tang! Tang!

Level 51 Protagonist, Adonen and the female swordsman.

It was not a fight but a one-side beatdown. The female swordsman was too strong for Adonen.

Just by shaking her sword lightly with one hand, Adonen was slammed to the ground. But Adonen always stood again and rushed towards the female swordsman. As if Adonen were asking her to kill him. 

It was so obvious to me because I knew his skills, but it didn’t seem to make sense for the female swordsman.

“You are weak. Devote yourself more and come find me when you are stronger.”

In the first place, the female swordsman looked like she had no intention of killing a novice like Adonen. She used the side of the sword to slap the rushing Adonen on his cheek.

“Keuk.”

Adonen flew and crashed to the ground. Perhaps, because of the impact he couldn’t get up. He was breathing heavily on the floor.

However, the female swordsman’s face hardened.

[Supporting actor Misclean invokes skill ‘Strong Sword of Blood (SS).]

“You have such a strong will.”

“Hook, hok…”

The sun rose before in the sky.

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 19, Year 712 Current time: 8:49.]

Adonen laughed silently as he looked at the sun that rose in the sky.

And suddenly, he jumped at the female swordsman.

Swoosh!

….. His throat was cutted. He died.

Looking at the scene in front of me, I could only shake my head.

‘Looks like I have to wait for another day to meet him.’

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 0 hours and 1 minutes ago.]

Adonen regressed once again.

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 19, Year 712 Current time: 8:49….]

Ting!

[Current date: Imperial Calendar, February 19, Year 712 Current time: 8:50.]

“…….Hm?”

Something is wrong….

It’s 19th? Not 18th?

When I came back to my senses the duel repeated once again. It was the scene where Adonen was running towards Misclean.

His throat was once again slitted by Misclen.

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 0 hours and 1 minute ago.]

[The protagonist, Adonen, activates ‘Swordsmanship robbing(SS)’ Skill.]

[Progress: 3.97%]

He ran again and he died again.

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 0 hours and 2 minutes ago.]

[The protagonist, Adonen, activates ‘Swordsmanship robbing(SS)’ Skill.]

[Progress: 4.13%]

He ran again…

He died again…

[The Protagonist Adonen invokes the skill ‘Designated Return (URS)’ and returns to 0 hours and 7 minutes ago.]

[The protagonist, Adonen, activates ‘Swordsmanship robbing(SS)’ Skill.]

[Progress: 5.79%]

Adonen charges and then Misclean slits his throat.

Those scenes were repeated for several dozen of times in just a few minutes.

On one side, there was a protagonist with a regression skill who had become stronger after dying for so many times. He was capable of fighting a prolonged battle.

While on the other side, there was a supporting character who lost her strength everytime she killed the protagonist.

“What the hell….”

Misclean looked haggard. Her swordsmanship became slower than ever. The swordsmanship that feels as light as a feather had become as rigid as a steel bar.

She tried to swing her sword with all her might, but her movement had noticeably slowed down. She looked like she was  gradually forgetting how to wield a sword.

[Moving to A134 World line.]

As time went by, Misclean became shorter for an unknown reason, her muscles also slowly disappeared. On the contrary, Adonen’s muscles grew much bigger than before.

This situation was the result of the protagonist’s correction. 

The supporting actor, Misclean, was probably one of the strongest characters in this world.

Adonen, who happens to meet such a strong character, grew rapidly as he stole the power of the supporting character.

If things kept going on like this, Adonen would surely overwhelm Misclen. And after the 100th circle, the victor would be decided.

‘But, I wouldn’t let it happen.’

I got up from my seat and loaded a bullet to the mega shooter.

The weaknesses of Loop-Type regression had already been identified.

****