Not A Regressor - Chapter 125
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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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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 125
Night Falls at Daybreak (1)
“Haa.”
I draw in a deep breath.
Closing my eyes firmly, I concentrate my consciousness on my left chest.
━A dense darkness settles in.
Within the darkness that cascades down like the night sky, constellations of vibrant colors shine brilliantly.
‘The stigma of Lyra Constellation.’
I reach my hand toward the constellation shining most brilliantly among them.
Azure mana flows along the constellation and spreads throughout my entire body.
-Crackle crackle crackle!!
Blue lightning wraps around my body and surges upward.
Click.
I draw a spear from my waist and grip it with both hands.
Lan, na, chal.
Following Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories, the fundamental basics of spear technique flow into me.
‘I don’t need to be bound by it.’
I erase the basic spear movements flowing through my mind.
After all, I’m not a warrior who has staked my entire life on a single spear.
As long as I know how to thrust and cut, that’s enough.
‘What matters more is.’
Whoosh.
I slowly exhale the breath I had drawn in deeply, suppressing the mana circuits throughout my body as if pressing them down.
[《Exceed Lv5》is activated.]
[Using the skill for extended periods will result in an ‘overload’ state.]
Blue lightning wraps around my body and blazes fiercely.
When I first learned it, the side effects were so severe that I would lose consciousness for days just from using it, but now it’s become a skill I can use as naturally as breathing.
‘It’s still difficult to maintain for long periods.’
Still, thanks to consistent training, as the Exceed skill’s level rose from 3 to 5, the duration increased significantly.
Previously, the limit was at most five minutes, but now I can maintain it for up to fifteen minutes without overload.
It’s no longer a self-destructive skill that erodes my lifespan, but rather a buff skill I can use.
“Let’s see then.”
Kwon O-jin walks to the wall of the Training Grounds and flips a switch.
Hundreds, thousands of beams of light scatter chaotically from the laser pointers installed on the wall.
Of course, unlike the laser weapons from science fiction novels, they have no lethality whatsoever—merely the garish lighting used to amp up the mood in karaoke rooms.
‘━If I touch that light, I die.’
I whisper a lie to myself.
‘My flesh burns away, is crushed, is ground to pieces.’
I imagine it.
The light flickering before my eyes is not simply light shot from a mechanical device, but rather the lethal feathers shot by the King of Owls.
Over and over,
over and over,
over and over.
I repeated lies to myself.
“Ugh!”
Crackle.
I moved my body in sync with the afterimage of lightning.
Hundreds, thousands of lasers carved irregular patterns as they swept through the Training Grounds.
-Whoosh!
While dodging the chaotically moving lasers, one grazed my left forearm.
Crackle!
In that instant, blue lightning flickered across my forearm before
the flesh charred black.
“Huff, hah!”
Cold sweat trickled down my forehead.
A sharp thrill spread through me, followed by a stinging pain.
This wasn’t mere image training. The moment the laser touched me, the mana within my body moved of its own accord, burning the contacted area pitch black.
As if brainwashed, my mana unconsciously responded to the ‘lies’ I’d told myself.
‘Not even hypnosis training, damn it.’
This training method was something I’d devised recently.
I’d repeated lies for image training so many times that I’d reached a level where actual wounds formed.
Of course, even doing this couldn’t replicate the exact tension of real combat.
-Zzzzzing!
“Hah! Hah!”
But it yielded far more results than mindlessly repeating training.
‘Hourglass Constellation’s stigma.’
In that moment.
The chaotically moving lights froze in place as if time had stopped.
Within the slowly flowing time, I stepped forward and moved between the lasers.
‘Cheon Do-yoon.’
I conjured the image of the old man I’d encountered that day in my mind.
The wrinkled elder materialized before my eyes, releasing an eerie, cackling laugh.
-Crackle!!
Blue flames blazed along the spear’s edge.
I thrust the lightning-wreathed spear toward Cheon Do-yoon.
-Hehehehe. Slow, aren’t you, Vega Star’s wolf.
The imagined Cheon Do-yoon sneered and evaded the attack.
As Cheon Do-yoon swept his hand lightly, black feathers formed into the shape of a long blade and shot toward me.
“Huff, huff!”
I exhaled roughly and adjusted my grip on the spear.
I thrust my spear upward to intercept the black feather streaking toward my brow.
Clang!
Though the feather hadn’t actually made contact with the shaft, a sharp jolt of impact rippled through my palm.
‘Insufficient.’
What I possessed now wasn’t enough to stand against him.
“Hah.”
Kwon O-jin concentrated his focus on his left chest.
Beneath the dense, dark storm clouds, a dragon coiled majestically, its body hidden among the billows—I reached out my hand toward it.
I couldn’t wield it freely yet.
But to a certain extent, I could draw upon the dragon vein’s mana.
-Whoooosh!
The azure flames blazing along the spear’s edge took on the form of a dragon.
A blue dragon wrought of lightning coiled around the shaft.
“Haaaaaaaa!!”
Boom!
I stomped the ground roughly and drove the spear downward.
The azure dragon coiled around the shaft unfurled in six directions before converging into a single point and lancing toward Cheon Do-yoon.
-Hehehehe.
Cheon Do-yoon, torn asunder by the azure dragon, scattered into the void with that distinctive eerie laugh.
“Phew.”
I steadied my ragged breathing and switched off the laser pointer.
-Ding!
[You have successfully wielded a portion of the dragon vein’s mana!]
[You have acquired the skill《Azure Dragon Seal Lv1》. Due to the influence of《Lightning Lv9》, it rises to《Azure Dragon Seal Lv4》.]
[《Exceed Lv5》has risen to《Exceed Lv6》.]
[《Lightning Flame Lv4》has risen to《Lightning Flame Lv5》.]
“Ooh, they’re climbing steadily, aren’t they?”
Perhaps it was thanks to that extreme visualization training—deceiving myself into believing.
Recently, several of my skills had been climbing one or two levels at a time.
‘Though the crucial Lightning is still only level 9.’
As Riak had said, ascending from Lightning level 9 to level 10 wasn’t easy.
“He said something special happens when it reaches level 10…”
But since I’d already learned Lightning Flame—supposedly the level 10 reward—in advance, I couldn’t predict what would emerge.
‘I’ll think about that later.’
I scrolled through my status window and stared intently at the section labeled ‘Beggar’s Stream’.
‘I still can’t figure out what this is.’
I’d made several attempts while focusing on training this time, but I still couldn’t determine what Beggar’s Stream was or how to use it.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and closed the status window. Staring at something I don’t understand won’t make it any clearer.
“Ugh… this hurts like hell.”
In the midst of moving frantically, I hadn’t noticed the numerous charred wounds scattered across my body.
‘I should get these treated before heading home.’
I soaked in a massive bathtub filled with water I’d prepared beforehand, treating my wounds before making my way home.
-Click.
“Big sis~!”
I approached Ha-eun, who was sitting on the living room sofa.
“…You’re back from training?”
“Mm.”
“You worked hard.”
Ha-eun turned her head away with a bitter expression.
‘Here we go again.’
She’d been like this ever since we returned from the Dungeon last time.
“Why do you keep making that gloomy face?”
“Don’t worry about it, you fool.”
“How can I not worry when it’s about you?”
“Ugh….”
Ha-eun’s shoulders trembled slightly.
She gazed at me with trembling eyes before suddenly rising to her feet.
“Just wait a moment. I’ll prepare dinner for you.”
“Save me.”
“Huh?”
“No, I mean I’m really looking forward to it.”
Ha-eun let out a snort and headed toward the kitchen.
After finishing dinner and showering, I collapsed onto the bed.
“Are you going to sleep already?”
“I’ve been training pretty hard lately, so I’m a bit tired.”
Ever since I began intensive image training recently, my body had become so battered that fatigue accumulated quickly.
“…Alright. Get some rest.”
I drifted off to sleep.
“….”
Silence settled over the room.
Ha-eun flopped onto the bed.
Since the prosthetic leg she’d ordered hadn’t arrived yet, the area below her right leg felt empty.
“Sigh.”
I exhaled deeply, gazing up at the ceiling.
“…How pathetic, wallowing in self-pity like this.”
I muttered in a voice tinged with self-reproach.
As Ha-eun stared blankly at the ceiling, she carefully raised herself up.
Apparently exhausted, Kwon O-jin had fallen asleep in less than a minute after lying down.
-Whoosh.
I sat down beside Kwon O-jin’s bunk bed as he slept below.
Carefully, I reached out and ran my fingers through his hair.
Thump, thump.
A sharp pain pierced my chest like an awl.
—Sister!!!!
The events from the dungeon flashed through my mind.
The collapsing floor. Kwon O-jin desperately reaching toward me.
‘Again… I only received help.’
I bit my lip hard.
I wanted to be useful to him, but in the end, I became nothing but a burden once more.
‘It’s always been this way.’
No matter how far back I searched through my memories, I could only recall being protected by Kwon O-jin.
Always, always, always.
He always stood before me.
“….”
I felt anxious.
What if one day he grew tired of me and left my side?
What if he abandoned this burden of a person and went to someone else?
‘Isabella, perhaps.’
I pictured the beautiful woman with platinum blonde hair.
The young lady of one of Europe’s most distinguished families.
Though my ‘rank’ was still higher than hers, Isabella was also a super rookie receiving worldwide attention, so I couldn’t know when she might surpass me.
Not that it mattered—she was a supporter-type who was treated as nobility in the party, and she could already provide Kwon O-jin with tremendous help.
What about me, in comparison?
“…I hate it.”
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut.
The thought that he might leave, just when we’d finally come to be together again, filled me with unbearable dread.
‘Kwon O-jin.’
I gently stroked his sleeping forehead, lost in thought.
A distant past so old I couldn’t even remember when it was.
Suddenly, the memory of when I first met him surfaced in my mind.
‘He was so gloomy back then.’
When Kwon O-jin first arrived at the Orphanage, he was a quiet child—the type people called withdrawn.
I, who was something of a leader among the orphanage children at the time, tried speaking to him several times, but he never responded.
Then came the day the Bald Director beat me severely.
Sneaking up to the Rooftop to escape the Director, I found Kwon O-jin standing there blankly, and we had our first real conversation.
‘What did I say back then?’
Now, I couldn’t quite remember.
What I did remember was that after that day, Kwon O-jin began calling me ‘sister’ and gradually following me around.
“Thinking about it like this, it really has been forever.”
I gently caressed Kwon O-jin’s cheek with my hand as he slept, a faint smile lingering on my lips.
‘I won’t let him be taken away.’
Ha-eun bit her lip firmly, her eyes gleaming with resolve.
Let them call me shameless if they wish.
Let them say I’m selfish—I don’t care.
‘Kwon O-jin is mine.’
I clenched my fist with determination.
Ha-eun rose from the bed and returned to her own, lying down once more.
There was only one way to keep Kwon O-jin, whose departure I could never predict, firmly by my side.
“Let me see….”
I pulled out my smartphone and opened the search bar.
“How to confess to your younger brother… no, damn it, you sick bastards, this isn’t incest.”
Ha-eun furrowed her brow and opened a new search.
“How to make a confession work on a younger man….”
Click, click.
In the darkened room, only the glow of the smartphone sparkled like starlight.
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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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