After Regressing, I Gained the Power of the Demonic Dragon - Chapter 41

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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 41
The moment Last Hit Is Mine finished his excuse, the settlement window materialized.
「Beginning settlement for the Iron Rookie League match.」
[China Fixed Faction <Bi Yeon Faction>]
[Colossus Proxy Match Record: 5 Wins 1 Loss]
[Winning streak has ended.]
「The match’s Most Valuable Player has been selected.」
[Match MVP]
[Republic of Korea / Lv.23 / Private]
[Iron Rookie Individual Record: 4 Wins 0 Losses]
[Winning Streak: 4 Consecutive Wins]
[MVP: 4 Consecutive Times]
[Acquired Individual Ranking Points and League Currency as victory rewards.]
[Individual Ranking Points and League Currency awarded as additional MVP bonuses.]
[Republic of Korea Channel League Season Score +3]
[Sang Hyuk Participation Match Republic of Korea Season Score: +12]
Bear Storm’s exclamation rang through the team communication.
“You haven’t missed MVP once in four matches!”
“If I’m going to do this, I might as well do it right.”
Last Hit Is Mine beamed with satisfaction as if it were his own achievement.
Sang Hyuk didn’t bother responding.
Moments later, the Colossus the three had been piloting and the Arena’s landscape scattered into light.
Whoosh!
Sang Hyuk returned alone to the settlement space.
The national season standings appeared before his eyes.
[Channel League National Season Ranking]
[Republic of Korea: 64th / 64 Countries]
The ranking didn’t budge even with this victory.
A standard victory in the Iron Rookie tier earned 3 points.
Twelve points accumulated across four matches fell far short of closing the gap with the nations ahead in a single leap.
Sang Hyuk closed the rankings.
There was a ceiling to the points obtainable from a single Iron Rookie match.
But Sang Hyuk had no intention of staying in the Iron Rookie tier forever.
Win every day.
Continue winning even after reaching Lv.31 and advancing to a Regular Channel.
With each channel Sang Hyuk climbed, the weight of a single match would grow.
* * *
Not long after the match ended, the results were posted on PlayerNet.
[Impossible Left 4 Wins 0 Losses in Iron Rookie! 4 Consecutive MVPs!]
[Korea/Lv.33] NewbieGuardian: 4 wins 4 MVPs lmao he really doesn’t drop a single one.
[Korea/Lv.42] SojuWithRiceBowl: Took down the Bi Yeon faction solo with their Colossus, 5-0 undefeated specialists on first try. What more does he need to prove in the rookie league.
[Korea/Lv.30] RangerCalculator: Beep boop! Calculation range exceeded. Impossible Left’s matches don’t run on this calculator anymore lol
Soon, the two people who had participated directly in the match appeared as well.
[Korea/Lv.23] Bear Storm: I’m Bear Storm, from the same faction. I couldn’t even stand up until the match ended. Impossible Left took down all three of the Bi Yeon faction’s Colossi. I really got carried hard.
[Korea/Lv.22] Last Hit Is Mine: Bear, you need to correct that. I was the one who cracked the last Colossus’s core. I did at least 0.2 of the work.
[Korea/Lv.23] Bear Storm: Didn’t you surrender before the match even started?
[Korea/Lv.22] Last Hit Is Mine: The result is what matters. The enemy let their guard down, so the strategy worked.
Laughter poured into the comment section.
But what the two left behind was more than just laughter.
The fact that Impossible Left had participated in the Channel League without missing a single day over four matches came back into focus.
The points he brought directly were twelve.
It wasn’t a number that would flip the rankings immediately, but it carried a different meaning to the other Korean players.
[Korea/Lv.33] NewbieGuardian: Yeah, I just hit participate too. Impossible Left’s putting in 3 points every day, felt weird letting my ticket gather dust.
[Korea/Lv.42] SojuWithRiceBowl: I’m running today’s too. Might as well go when the Korean players pile up together.
[Korea/Lv.38] BathroomBeforeBossRoom: Wait, why did the Bronze waiting line suddenly explode like this. Did everyone here just hit participate? lmao
[Korea/Lv.24] ThreeAlarmsCustom: I just hit it and got matched with two Korean players in the same faction right away lol The matchmaking window is totally different today.
[Korea/Lv.28] ChickenBeforeTheMatch: Got matched too. China fixed faction on their side. Still, I should do my best today. Heading in.
[Korea/Lv.33] ImpossibleLeftDevotee: Impossible Left’s leading from the front, how can we just sit still. Let’s fill the matchmaking window with the Taegeuk flag today!
Posts about hitting participate in the Channel League came cascading onto PlayerNet.
And it wasn’t just the low-level players who stirred.
They pulled out participation certificates that had been shelved—from Bronze and Silver players, and those in even higher channels.
That day, the number of matches featuring Korean players began to rise faster than usual.
* * *
That night.
Korean Player Association Headquarters Channel Operations Center.
Match results streamed endlessly across the massive display at the front of the room.
[Iron Rookie League Match Concluded]
[Republic of Korea Victory]
[Bronze Channel Match Concluded]
[Republic of Korea Defeat]
Another result appeared on the adjacent screen.
[Silver Channel Match Concluded]
[Republic of Korea Victory]
It wasn’t victories alone that accumulated.
There were plenty of defeats too.
Yet today felt different from ordinary days.
The match roster—where the Korean flag was usually hard to spot—filled rapidly.
From the rookie leagues through the regular channels, matches featuring Korean players kept starting.
“Participation applications continue to increase,” a staff member announced.
He pulled up the newly opened match list on the screen.
“It started right after Sang Hyuk’s Colossus proxy match ended.”
National Strategy Director Seo Jin Ho stood at the rear of the operations center, watching the real-time aggregation display.
The screen showed each nation’s season points alongside the score differential separating them from the rank above.
South Korea remained at the very bottom.
But as victory points accumulated across multiple channels—from Bronze to Grandmaster—the gap with 63rd place visibly narrowed.
The moment the final victory points were reflected.
Whoosh!
South Korea’s name at the bottom of the rankings shifted up one position.
[Channel League National Season Rankings Updated.]
[Republic of Korea: 64th → 63rd Place]
The operations center fell silent.
“Run the verification again.”
“I’ve already checked three times.”
The staff member’s voice trembled.
“It’s definitely 63rd.”
Someone shot up from their seat.
Another employee kept their eyes fixed on the rankings, both hands covering their mouth.
A single round of applause broke the silence.
Then applause erupted across desks throughout the room.
One staff member smiled while continually rubbing at the corners of their eyes.
Someone photographed the rankings on their phone, refreshed the screen, and snapped another shot.
For the first time that season, South Korea had climbed out of last place.
The season wasn’t over yet.
They could slip back to 64th, and 16th place—where the National Season Reward Tier began—still felt distant.
The official national ranking hadn’t changed either.
But now there was a country below South Korea on the rankings table.
For those who had managed the Channel League, that single position meant far more than it appeared.
The operations center staff had grown accustomed to scanning from the very bottom to find South Korea’s name.
Today they would need to raise their eyes one line higher.
They had languished at the bottom for so long that even this small shift felt strange.
A staff member pulled up a breakdown of today’s accumulated points on the display.
At the top was the 3 points Sang Hyuk had earned in today’s matches.
Below that stretched a long chain of victory points from the Korean players who had participated that night.
“This is the wave that Sang Hyuk created,” someone observed.
Seo Jin Ho nodded.
“I know.”
This miraculous rise in rankings had been possible because players who witnessed Sang Hyuk’s winning streak had pulled out their shelved participation certificates.
Then one staff member spoke up.
“Director, couldn’t we display his next match on the operations center screen?”
“I’d really like to see it too.”
“Me too. I don’t want to miss a single match featuring you anymore.”
“I’m already curious what kind of change you’ll bring next time.”
Laughter and agreement rippled through the operations center.
A faint smile spread across Seo Jin Ho’s face.
“Excellent. Let’s watch together from the next match onward.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In exchange, please also record the participation rate before and after each match.”
Seo Jin Ho gazed at South Korea’s name, now ranked 63rd.
“I need to see how many more players his victories will move in the days to come.”
* * *
It didn’t take long for the updated rankings to spread across PlayerNet.
[South Korea Channel League National Season Rankings]
[64th → 63rd]
[Korea/Lv.33] NewbieGuardian: We’ve got a country below us now!!!! South Korea isn’t 64th anymore!
[Korea/Lv.42] SojuWithRiceBowl: Wow, how long has it been since Korea wasn’t at the very bottom of the rankings? I’m actually crying ㅠㅠ
[Korea/Lv.33] ImpossibleLeftFanatic: The moment Impossible Left pulls off a four-win streak, this miracle happens… All praise to Impossible Left ㅠㅠㅠ
[Korea/Lv.36] RulesWatcherDaily: Calm down. It’s not the official national rankings that went up, it’s the Channel League season standings. The reward tier only goes from 1st to 16th place.
[Korea/Lv.38] BathroomBeforeBossDoor: Who said anything about rewards already? ㅋㅋㅋ The important thing is we finally got out of dead last!
Responses from overseas players soon followed.
[Japan/Lv.63] Sakura: They’re actually crying just because 64th became 63rd?
[China/Lv.58] HanBing: This won’t be enough to escape the bottom tier. Impossible Left has only brought in 12 points so far, hasn’t he.
[Korea/Lv.42] SojuWithRiceBowl: It’s 12 points now. Once the tier goes up, the points per match will become far bigger.
A moment later, Beijing Swordsman also left a comment.
[China/Lv.68] Beijing Swordsman: 12 points by itself isn’t large.
[China/Lv.68] Beijing Swordsman: But other players moved because they saw those 12 points. If the Black Masked One keeps winning in the Regular Channel, the pace will be incomparably faster than today.
The counterarguments fell silent for a moment.
A victory in the Iron Rookie League was worth 3 points.
In the Regular Channel, higher tiers and larger battlefields meant the possibility of earning far more points.
If Impossible Left maintained his current win rate and climbed higher, South Korea’s ascent through the rankings would accelerate dramatically.
* * *
Back in reality, Sang Hyuk checked the rankings on his phone.
[South Korea: 63rd]
The 12 points Sang Hyuk had personally brought in were all that showed under his name.
But the contribution record that followed was filled with the scores of Korean players who had participated afterward.
Sang Hyuk studied those names for a moment.
Before the return, Korean players had grown accustomed to surrendering without attempting the climb.
They postponed participation because victory seemed impossible, and stockpiled challenge tickets because the rankings wouldn’t rise.
The gap with other nations only widened.
This time was different.
The moment Sang Hyuk won, other players began to participate.
Their victories moved South Korea’s ranking again.
Sang Hyuk’s gaze shifted upward across the rankings table.
[National Season Reward Tier: 1st–16th Place]
There was still a long road ahead.
But the path forward was clear.
Clear the Rookie Channel quickly and move to the Regular Channel.
Keep winning after that and climb to even higher channels.
The stronger Sang Hyuk became and the larger his stage, the more points he could bring to South Korea.
Just then, a message arrived from Kim Seo Yun.
[Kim Seo Yun: The Association’s official inspection got moved up to tomorrow morning.]
[Kim Seo Yun: Taiseong filed an objection. The 22nd floor record only proves the performance of the single unit Impossible Left used—they said they can’t determine the variance in the mass-produced models.]
[Kim Seo Yun: The Association decided to conduct the inspection themselves by selecting the equipment and operators. Come to the Research Building before the inspection starts.]
[Kim Sang Hyuk: Got it. I’ll come before it begins.]
Sang Hyuk checked when he needed to arrive at the Research Building and waited for midnight.
Since the official inspection was scheduled to start tomorrow morning, he planned to finish a day’s worth of climbing the moment the daily challenge ticket was issued.
Shortly after midnight passed, the daily challenge ticket refilled.
「You have been granted a Daily Individual Challenge Ticket.」
[Individual Floor 23 Challenge Available]
[<Undiscovered Footprints>: 2/10]
Sang Hyuk opened the Floor 23 entry menu.
This time, too, the target was SSS.
With the third Undiscovered Footprints in hand, he was eager to test Decline and Devour—now evolved to the second stage—in actual combat.
Sang Hyuk chose to enter without hesitation.

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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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