After Regressing, I Gained the Power of the Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
Beep—beep.
Red light flashed from the Measurement Ring wrapped around Sang Hyuk’s wrist.
[Awakening Condition not achieved.]
Kim Seo Yun’s hand stopped.
She peeled away the Responsive Pads one by one from Sang Hyuk’s arm.
The pads, reattached many times over, had worn edges.
“The waveform came up a little late. Let me just increase the stimulus intensity one more time—”
“Seo Yun.”
Sang Hyuk sat up from the measurement table.
“That’s seven times already today.”
Kim Seo Yun closed her mouth.
The inspection screen before her displayed the same result, line after line.
Scrolling up through the records showed only the dates changing, stretching back several years.
A shelf in the corner of the Measurement Chamber was packed with boxes.
Each bore Sang Hyuk’s name and the date of examination.
The ink on the lowest box had bled so badly it was barely legible.
[Name] Sang Hyuk
[Classification] Conditional Awakener
[Trait Name] ???
[Trait Hierarchy] ???
[Status] Awakening Condition not achieved.
The Infinite Tower had chosen Sang Hyuk.
And yet his trait had never opened.
A Player who could only gain power by finding the condition.
The world called such a person a Conditional Awakener.
For years, Sang Hyuk had searched for the Awakening Condition.
Kim Seo Yun had repeated the tests countless times at his side.
As results accumulated, fewer family members visited the Measurement Chamber, but she alone had never left.
“Rest for a bit, then we’ll try again.”
“We can stop now.”
“No, we can’t.”
Kim Seo Yun discarded the worn pad and tore open new packaging.
“There has to be something. Your status window isn’t like a typical Conditional Awakener’s.”
Whoooom—!
Then a low vibration cut off her words.
The ceiling lights extinguished, and red emergency lights flickered on.
The screens covering the Measurement Chamber walls all blazed to life at once.
[Beginning National Achievement Settlement for the Republic of Korea.]
[National Stability Requirement] 1,500,000
[Current National Achievement Points] 480,000
[Deficit Points] 1,020,000
As the final line appeared, the air in the Measurement Chamber froze.
A stir rippled through the corridor, and researchers crowded toward the open doorway.
Since the Infinite Tower appeared, National Achievement had become a survival score.
For every point below the requirement, reality fractured.
Korea had always fallen short.
This number—the scale itself was different from before.
[Deficit Points have exceeded 1,000,000.]
[Extinction-Class Rift Opening Conditions met.]
The Seoul sky shown on the screen tore open.
At first it was only a thin black line.
The line split wide along the Han River, and within it, crimson lightning poured down.
Crash—boom!
The glass windows of high-rise buildings shattered like waves.
The road buckled, and vehicles speeding across it collided with one another.
The moment people on screen looked up, an enormous hand descended from within the torn sky.
Kaboom!
This time, the impact struck from beyond the screen.
The walls of the underground research building trembled, and ceiling panels cascaded to the floor.
Kim Seo Yun grabbed Sang Hyuk’s arm.
“Let’s go.”
The two of them bolted down the corridor.
Beyond the emergency door, the test building was already dark.
An equipment box blocking the entrance tumbled over from the vibrations.
Wristband-shaped prototypes scattered across the floor.
[Ilseong Standard Mana Defense Module]
[Phase 1 Field Compatibility Assessment: Unsuitable]
Red seal stickers were layered thickly across the box.
Ever since the age of Players began, Ilseong had been falling one step behind.
They had money and factories, but they couldn’t manufacture equipment that Players could trust in the Tower.
Now even their last defensive gear had failed certification.
The sealed test building was the result of that failure.
Then Kim Seo Yun’s phone rang.
[Video Call Incoming: Kim Do Hyun]
Kim Seo Yun answered.
On screen, Kim Do Hyun was directing staff evacuation, dust settling on his suit.
— Seo Yun. Get the underground personnel out through the north exit.
“Where are you, Father?”
— The main building.
Then the screen split as Kim Sang Jun joined the call.
Blood flowing from his forehead was dripping past one eyebrow.
— The west entrance has collapsed. We’ll reroute the transport vehicles through the underground passage.
— Check on the remaining personnel first.
Kim Do Hyun on screen loaded an injured employee onto the elevator first, then looked back at the camera.
— Where’s Sang Hyuk?
“He’s with me.”
— Get him on the non-combatant transport first.
Sang Hyuk silently opened his clenched fist.
Deep nail marks scored his palm.
Non-combatant personnel.
A label attached to him—selected, yet without strength.
Kim Seo Yun immediately seized Sang Hyuk’s wrist and ran out of the research building.
Outside was a chaos of smoke and people.
One corner of the parking lot had caved in; the injured were being carried out on torn-off doors.
Kim Seo Yun brought Sang Hyuk to the front of the transport vehicle.
“Get in.”
“Come with me.”
A groan sounded from beneath the collapsed outer wall.
A researcher with her leg pinned under a steel beam was reaching out her hand.
Kim Seo Yun’s gaze turned toward her.
“Just let me pull her out first.”
“Don’t.”
“I’ll catch up right after.”
Kim Seo Yun pushed Sang Hyuk into the vehicle and sprinted toward the pinned researcher.
The transport door slammed shut.
The moment Sang Hyuk gripped the handle, the parking lot floor cracked violently right behind the vehicle.
Boom!
The transport jolted sharply upward.
The driver immediately slammed the accelerator.
As the transport pulled out of the parking lot, the collapsed outer wall engulfed Kim Seo Yun from view.
Sang Hyuk pulled out his phone and immediately called Kim Seo Yun.
Only the ringing tone came through.
The same thing happened when he tried again.
He called Kim Do Hyun and Kim Sang Jun in turn, but neither of them answered either.
Then a voice message Kim Seo Yun had sent arrived belatedly.
Her voice cut through between blasts and static.
— Sang Hyuk. I’m sorry I couldn’t find your Awakening Condition after all.
Static continued for a long stretch.
— But your Trait definitely isn’t ordinary.
– So don’t give up. No matter what happens, survive.
The voice ended there.
Sang Hyuk squeezed his eyes shut.
His clenched fists trembled violently.
He felt stifled, as though the air had been stolen from his lungs.
As the transport vehicle rose to ground level, he saw Seoul burning.
Ilseong’s glass headquarters, rising in the distance, was engulfed in flames as well.
The Ilseong logo atop the building flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the light died completely, and the upper floors of the main building collapsed into smoke.
Sang Hyuk opened his status window again.
[Trait Name] ???
[Trait Rank] ???
[Status] Awakening Condition not yet achieved.
Even as Korea crumbled, that single line never changed.
* * *
Three years later.
Clang.
The iron doors of the Japanese Archipelago Refugee Camp swung shut.
People who had received their rations sat pressed against the cafeteria floor.
A yellowed band encircled Sang Hyuk’s wrist.
[Nationality] Republic of Korea
[Status] Refugee
[Classification] Non-Combat Personnel
The Dimension League opening match was being broadcast on a massive screen at the front of the cafeteria.
Eight years of preparation that the Infinite Tower had granted humanity were coming to an end.
The elite players of each nation stood in the arena.
Familiar information materialized above the man at the front.
[Planetary Earth Representative]
[First Seat] Changcheon
[World Ranking 1st]
[Lv. 102]
Gasps erupted throughout the cafeteria.
“Changcheon is here.”
“The First Seat himself came out. We can hold this time.”
“All sixteen Seats and rankers from every nation are assembled. We can win this.”
Korea had fallen, but the world’s great powers remained standing.
At their head stood warriors Sang Hyuk could never reach, no matter how much of his life he devoted to the pursuit.
People believed these fighters would protect humanity.
The Korean mother and child sitting next to Sang Hyuk held the same faith.
The mother divided the bread she’d been given and offered the larger piece to the child, but the child’s eyes never left the screen.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“If those people win, can we go home?”
The mother’s hand, still holding out the bread, hesitated for a moment.
Then she stroked the child’s head and forced a smile.
“Yes. If they win, we can go back.”
Only then did the child take the bread.
At that moment, a roar erupted from the screen.
As Changcheon raised his sword, the Seat holders and elite warriors behind him drew their weapons in unison.
It was humanity’s strongest force made manifest.
Changcheon pushed off the ground at the front and swung his blade.
A brilliant blue light burst from the sword and consumed half the arena.
From across the field, a towering figure in a black helm lifted a long sword.
With a single swing, it parted the blade.
Screech.
The blue light that had consumed the arena was cut in half and extinguished.
Changcheon’s sword shattered alongside it.
A heartbeat later, his armor split open and blood erupted forth.
Changcheon’s severed body fell to the arena floor.
The cheers inside the restaurant died.
The world’s strongest had been cut down in a single stroke.
The Heavenly Seats and top-ranked players from each nation who rushed after him fared no better.
Each time the massive figure swung his blade, the bodies and equipment of the rankers were cleaved together.
Even the counterattacks they managed to land left not a scratch on his armor.
When the last ranker fell, crimson text flooded the screen.
“The opening match of the Dimension League has concluded.”
“Planet Earth has been defeated.”
“The dominion of the defeated civilization passes to the victorious dimension.”
A child’s hand trembled as it gripped the bread.
The mother pulled the child close, but this time, she could offer no words.
It wasn’t only Korea that was weak.
Korea simply fell first.
And in the moment the final sentence on the screen vanished—
Thud!
The iron gate of the refugee camp buckled inward.
Before people could even rise from their seats, a second impact came.
Crash!
Thick gray fingers forced their way through the gap in the doors.
Two massive hands seized the door panels and wrenched them apart, tearing the thick steel like paper.
The Players standing guard unleashed their skills upon the creature.
Boom-crash!
Fire and blades engulfed the massive body, yet not a mark appeared on the gray skin.
The towering figure, nearly three meters tall, stooped as he stepped through the torn doorway.
Between ashen lips, yellowed tusks gleamed.
“The occupation of the Japanese Archipelago begins.”
“Ruling species: Giant Orc.”
That day, the end of humanity commenced.
* * *
Eight months later.
A small hand reached across the workbench.
A Magical Stone, no bigger than a thumbnail, rolled into Sang Hyuk’s basket.
[48/50]
The number changed to 48.
Sang Hyuk picked up the Magical Stone and placed it back in the adjacent basket.
“Fill your own first.”
The skeletal child’s lips moved in a smile.
It was the same child who had asked in the Japanese Refugee Camp whether he could go home.
A shackle thicker than his arm was clasped around the child’s wrist.
Three months ago, the child’s mother had been carried out on a stretcher and never returned.
Since that day, Sang Hyuk had divided his ration of bread, always placing the larger half before the child.
The child would sometimes offer a Magical Stone in return, insisting it was payment for the debt.
Clang. Clang.
A ore cart loaded with stone was dragged along by iron chains.
With each revolution of the wheels along the grooves in the floor, black mineral dust spilled across the ground.
Hundreds of humans lay prone throughout the Underground Cavern, sorting blue Magical Stones from piles of ore and placing them in their baskets.
No one straightened their back.
It was because of the footsteps passing between the workstations.
Thud. Thud.
Each time the gray feet struck the ground, the surface of the water bowls rippled, and the metal ring at the end of the leather whip scraped across stone.
Giant Orc overseer.
It took seven minutes for him to complete a circuit.
Sang Hyuk had memorized the intervals of the footsteps and even the direction the whip scraped.
For a non-Player like Sang Hyuk to survive eight months in this place, the method was simple.
Never raise your head.
Never stop your hands.
Never involve yourself in others’ affairs.
Choose only the option most likely to keep you alive.
And so, this time too, Sang Hyuk kept his head down as he placed the final Magical Stone into his basket.
[50/50]
I’d filled today’s quota.
For a moment, relief flooded through me—the small satisfaction of having survived another day.
That’s when I heard something rolling nearby.
Clink, clink.
A Magical Stone slipped from the child’s hands and clattered beneath the work table.
The child reached into the empty air, groping for it.
But the small body, dragged through night shifts for days now, had already reached its limit.
His eyelids drooped, and he pitched forward.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The bell rang to signal the end of work.
At the same moment, metal covers crashed down over each basket, locking in the final count.
[Today’s Quota: Shortfall]
[Shortfall Count: 1]
[Collective Ration Cut: 10 People]
The overseer’s footsteps stopped.
“Grrrk.”
He turned, checking the number on each basket as he walked past.
His gray feet halted in front of the child.
[49/50]
The child’s eyes opened too late.
He fumbled beneath the work table, but the dropped Magical Stone was nowhere to be found.
“One fails to deliver, so ten go hungry.”
The overseer uncoiled his whip.
Dried blood crusted dark between the metal rings.
Even grown men couldn’t endure three strikes from that whip.
The people around us stepped back, one by one.
No one would meet the child’s eyes.
I didn’t move either.
If I stepped in now, I’d die a pointless death.
The overseer would make an example of me too.
If I stayed silent, I’d eat today and might survive until tomorrow.
The child was already too weak.
Even if he lived through this, how many more days could he last?
The arithmetic was simple.
I knew the answer.
The overseer raised his arm, whip in hand.
The child didn’t beg for mercy.
He just curled his body against the floor, shielding his head with both arms.
The shackle around his wrist struck his cheek.
Thud.
That’s when a Magical Stone fell from my hand.
‘Damn it.’
I stepped forward.
And I pushed the child’s shoulder.
As his small body tumbled toward the ore pile, the whip lashed across my left shoulder.
Crack!
The metal rings tore through my work clothes and bit deep into flesh, and my knees buckled to the ground.
“Nngh…!”
When the overseer yanked the whip free, the embedded rings ripped away strips of skin.
“A worm protecting a worm.”
A massive foot pressed down on my chest.
Crack!
My ribs bent inward.
Blood rose up my throat and spilled from my mouth.
I tried to push myself up on my elbows, but my arms wouldn’t obey.
This was the price of breaking eight months of careful rules.
The moment the overseer raised his foot again.
At the edge of my vision, an Elderly Worker moved.
He grabbed the child by the collar and dragged him behind the ore pile.
Small feet disappeared into the darkness.
The child was alive.
‘……that settles it, then.’
The enormous foot that had been raised came down again, crushing Sang Hyuk’s chest.
The sound of bones breaking echoed from within his body.
This time, not even a scream escaped.
Through his dimming vision, the collapsing Ilseong headquarters loomed.
The moments when his family’s signals cut out one by one, and the sight of the First Seat—Earth’s representative—being split in half, all flickered past in succession.
Each time, Sang Hyuk had only watched.
Yet in that final moment, he had managed to protect one small child.
The Overseer’s foot rose again.
This time, it was aimed at Sang Hyuk’s head.
‘This is it….’
Just as Sang Hyuk resigned himself to everything and closed his eyes,
[Awakening Condition achieved.]
His dimming vision stilled.
Sang Hyuk thought he must be seeing things.
For years, the same sentence had been fixed in his status window.
[Awakening Condition not achieved.]
But not now.
Before his eyes, a different message hung clear.
[Awakening Condition achieved.]
‘Now? Of all times?’
He couldn’t understand why the condition had triggered now, of all moments—just before death.
Then new text appeared.
[Trait Name]
Awakening.
The moment he’d waited for so long.
Yet it had to come now, seconds before the end.
Even through the terrible agony, a hollow laugh spilled from his lips.
‘Infinite Tower… you bastard.’
It felt as if it were mocking him right up to the final moment.
Then.
His faltering heart contracted sharply.
Thump.
Scorching blood rushed through his entire body in an instant.
Black light bloomed from the edges of his vision.
「Privilege activates.」
The Orc’s foot had already descended nearly to his face,
but a new message appeared first.
「Time Rewind.」
The descending foot stopped in mid-air, then rose again.
Blood pooled on the ground rose up in scarlet droplets, flowing back into Sang Hyuk’s mouth and wounds.
The torn flesh of his shoulder sealed shut; his shattered ribs returned to their place.
The mining cart, which had receded, clattered and rolled back to its original position.
The black stone dust scattered across the floor rose up and was sucked back into the mining cart.
While everything moved backward, only Sang Hyuk’s heart beat on, strong and vital.
The world.
began to rewind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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