Not A Regressor - Chapter 139

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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 139
The Land Abandoned by Stars (1)
“O-jin! Wake up! Wake uuuup!”
“Cough!”
A dull impact reverberated through my abdomen.
As I opened my eyes with my body bent at an angle, I saw Ha-eun straddling my stomach.
She wore dolphin shorts that exposed her thighs and a loose white box tee, making it difficult to know where to look.
“What, what is this?”
Kwon O-jin checked the smartphone on the nightstand with a bewildered expression.
The time was 5:38 AM.
The sun hadn’t even risen yet.
“Hehe! If you keep dawdling, you’ll miss the airport shuttle!”
Ha-eun’s eyes gleamed like an elementary school student the night before a field trip as she shouted.
Kwon O-jin looked up at her straddling him with an expression of disbelief.
“But the flight is at noon. What could I possibly miss?”
“You fool! That’s exactly how people end up missing flights!”
“There’s a limit to this, you know. Sister.”
There were still over six hours until the flight time, yet she was already making a fuss.
“Anyway! Stop talking and hurry up and get ready!”
Ha-eun forcibly yanked the blanket away and hurled it across the room as she shouted.
Kwon O-jin sighed in resignation and tried to sit up.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
“Huh?”
Just as she was urging me to get up, she suddenly pressed her hand firmly against my chest.
As I tilted my head and looked up at her, I saw Ha-eun hesitating with her cheeks flushed red.
“What’s wrong?”
“J-just wait a moment. I need to prepare myself mentally.”
Mental preparation for what?
“Phew. Okay.”
Ha-eun took a deep breath with her hand over her heart, then swallowed hard.
From her position straddling me, she slowly bent forward and gently pressed her lips against mine.
“Mmm.”
Her hair tickled my cheek. The sensation of our lips meeting was incredibly soft, accompanied by her slightly excited breath.
Ha-eun’s tongue tip gently prodded mine before retreating shyly inside.
“Phew!”
She pulled away, exhaling the breath she’d been holding.
She turned her head away from my gaze, then hesitantly opened her mouth while fidgeting with her index finger.
“A m-morning kiss….”
“….”
Damn, this woman.
Where on earth did my sister learn such seductive tricks?
I’m going crazy.
My heart was pounding so violently it felt like it would shatter my ribs and burst free from my chest.
We’d spent so much time together that I thought there wouldn’t be anything that could make my heart race even after becoming lovers.
Yet Ha-eun’s slightest touch mocked that assumption, leaving me breathless and trembling with each contact.
If others saw this, they’d probably cringe themselves to death.
But what did it matter?
Even if it was embarrassing beyond measure.
I was so happy I thought I might lose my mind.
“Sister.”
“Huh? Y-yes?”
Ha-eun glanced at me and turned her head away.
The air grew hot as if sunlight were already streaming through the room despite the dawn not yet breaking.
I reached out and gently caressed her cheek, then opened my mouth.
“You’re heavy.”
“What the hell?”
Ha-eun’s face scrunched up instantly.
“You tactless bastard…!”
A sharp fist struck my chest.
I felt a sharp pain radiating from my chest, yet I burst into delighted laughter.
I was happy.
Happy enough to melt my brain, to paralyze my tongue.
—Beware of snakes.
Cheon Sang-gil’s ominous warning echoed through my mind.
…
I gently grasped Ha-eun’s arm as she playfully pounded my chest.
This warmth I held in my hand.
I wouldn’t let it slip away anywhere.
* * *
“The airport! So this is the legendary Incheon Airport!!”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled brilliantly as she looked around like a country girl who’d just arrived in Seoul for the first time.
“Wow! Wow! It’s seriously sooooo huge!”
“…Sister.”
Please stop, I’m embarrassed.
“Man, who would’ve thought we’d actually go on an overseas trip together like this! You really do learn something new every day when you live long enough!”
True.
Back when we were at the Orphanage, I never imagined a day would come when the two of us could travel abroad together.
“It’s not a trip, I told you. Oh right, did you bring the translation device?”
“Of course! I’ve had it on since this morning!”
I chuckled softly and checked the flight reservation.
‘It would’ve been more convenient if I could travel through the Star Palace.’
Unfortunately, Japan couldn’t be reached via the Star Palace.
There was no entrance to the Star Palace in Japan to begin with.
‘The land abandoned by the stars… that’s what they called it.’
It was a derisive term used to mock Japan for lacking a Star Palace.
‘Just because there’s no Star Palace doesn’t mean there are no Awakened.’
Still, whether due to that influence or not, Japan had an unusually small number of Awakened.
Even those who existed were mostly Awakened with low Star ranks.
There wasn’t a single high-ranking Awakened beyond the 9th Star in all of Japan.
‘That’s probably why the Seahorse Faction, the lowest-ranking faction within the Black Star Society, managed to occupy it.’
According to the information I obtained from Cheon Do-yoon, the Seahorse Faction’s power was so meager compared to the Owl Constellation Faction that it was almost pathetic.
The difference was stark from the fact that Kusanagi Sosuke, the 7th-ranked Black Star Society Executive and the so-called King of Seahorses, was only an 8th Star Awakened.
‘The gap between 8th and 9th Star is like heaven and earth.’
I could confirm that clearly when Ha-eun advanced to the 9th Star this time.
‘Regardless, he’s the perfect prey.’
If Kusanagi Sosuke had been a 9th Star Awakened like Cheon Do-yoon, I wouldn’t have been able to hunt so fearlessly.
Even with my recent advancement to 7th Star, fighting a 9th Star Awakened would still be beyond my current capabilities.
“O-jin! O-jin! Let’s hurry and check out the duty-free shop!”
Ha-eun, excited to be at an airport for the first time, dragged me along.
A faint smile crossed my lips.
“Is there something you want to buy?”
“Cigarettes! They said they’re cheap here!”
Right.
My sister was a smoker.
I’d almost forgotten since she rarely smoked when she was with me.
“Okay. I should look around and see if there’s anything I want too.”
Kwon O-jin followed Ha-eun toward the duty-free shop.
In the past, I would’ve teased her about smoking even as a joke, but that reason disappeared once Ha-eun became a high-ranking Awakened.
‘With her body reconstructed, waste products no longer accumulate in her system.’
For her now, cigarettes were a perfect indulgence with no harmful effects as long as she didn’t bother those around her.
‘It’s really broken, when you think about it.’
Two more steps until becoming a 9th Star Awakened.
I suppressed the urge to climb those remaining two steps quickly and followed her inside.
After buying cigarettes at the duty-free shop, we passed through the Gate to board the plane.
As we walked toward the Passage after ticket verification was complete.
Kwon O-jin turned to Ha-eun as if remembering something.
“Oh right, do you remember what I told you yesterday?”
“Huh?”
Ha-eun tilted her head for a moment before clapping her hands as if it came back to her.
“That I need to take off my shoes before boarding the plane?”
“Yeah.”
“Hehe. You brat… what exactly do you take your older sister for?”
Ha-eun stared at Kwon O-jin in exasperation, then thrust out her left foot clad in sneakers.
“I even wore sneakers to make them easy to take off!!”
“You’re the best, sis.”
“Haheng! This is what you call ‘preparedness’, you punk!”
Kwon O-jin watched Ha-eun walk ahead with a satisfied smile, his shoulders shaking with amusement.
* * *
We arrived at Osaka International Airport.
“Oh, you absolute bastard!!”
Ha-eun descended from the plane with her cheeks flushed in mortification, glaring at Kwon O-jin.
I could see flight attendants behind her smiling as they watched.
“Wow, I never thought you’d actually believe that.”
“You… you’re terrible…!”
She twisted his side with devastating force as he burst into laughter.
Even as I felt pain as though my flesh were being torn away, my shoulders trembled with mirth.
“Sis, don’t you ever get tired of teasing me? Huh? You don’t get tired of it?”
“I don’t.”
Every moment is entertaining.
It feels new each time.
“Ugh, seriously!!!”
“Hahaha!!”
I led the rampaging Ha-eun out into downtown Osaka.
After dropping our luggage at the hotel near Namba Station, we headed back out.
“So, shall we go look for those Seahorse guys or whatever?”
Ha-eun stretched as we walked from the hotel, her knuckles cracking as she flexed her fists.
“What’s this? I thought you’d want to go sightseeing right away.”
“Well, I’d like to, but we should free Vega’s seal first.”
Ha-eun smiled wryly as she spoke.
“But if I ascend to the Black Heaven stage this time, I’ll definitely be able to use that Black Heaven or whatever, right?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
To begin with, it’s uncertain whether hunting the Seahorse Faction will even allow Black Heaven to achieve its sixth awakening.
“Either way, we do what we can.”
“…Wouldn’t it be better if I just absorbed a bit of my eye?”
“I said no.”
“But still…”
Ha-eun touched the area around her left eye covered by the eye patch and let out a short sigh.
This sister of mine was consistently indifferent to her own body.
“You two were so desperate to get at each other.”
“Well… if I’m being honest, it’s partly because I got kidnapped like an idiot.”
I scratched my head and continued speaking.
“And that thing, you know—always fluttering around like a gnat, whining ‘my child, my child’—I kind of miss that actually.”
No matter what I said, I was quite close with Vega.
“I should be able to break the seal soon, so don’t worry too much.”
“Tsk. Well, you did come here spouting nonsense about obtaining Adam’s Apple or whatever, so it would be awkward if you left too quickly anyway.”
Ha-eun clicked her tongue and nodded.
“So how are you planning to find those Seahorse Faction guys?”
“I did hear about a few branch locations.”
Originally, the plan was to secretly infiltrate their branch in Osaka and gather information about Kusanagi Sosuke by following their trail.
“For now, I’m thinking of meeting someone named Sakaki Ryo first.”
Kwon O-jin held up the contact information he’d received from Cheon Sang-gil.
“Okay. Did you contact him?”
“Yeah. He said he’d send a car to the hotel, so I should ride in it.”
“What kind of person is he?”
“I’m not sure… when we talked on the phone, there wasn’t anything particularly strange about him.”
Other than his somewhat blunt tone of voice, there were no other distinctive features.
‘He said his personality was quite unique.’
I figured I’d only understand what was unique about him once I met him in person.
“Hmm, well, we’ll find out once we go. When’s the car coming?”
“It should arrive soon.”
Kwon O-jin checked the time on his smartphone.
The meeting time was set for 4 o’clock, so the car should arrive any moment now.
-Vroom.
“Ah, is that the car?”
I looked toward where Ha-eun was pointing.
An elegant limousine was heading toward us.
“Wow, a limousine? That’s fancy… huh?”
Wait, what the hell.
What is that?
-Vroom!
-Vroom!
-Screech!!
Behind the limousine, ten black vans came rushing in as if forming a formation.
As the limousine stopped, the vans surrounded it like a protective escort.
-Click!
The doors of the black vans opened, and men in black suits with menacing expressions poured out.
About a hundred suited men lined up in a single row with sharp precision, as if conducting a military drill.
Thud!
“We have come to receive the boss’s guest!!!!”
“”””We shall serve you with utmost care!!!””””
A line of suited figures bowed in unison.
“….”
Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun stared at the suited figures with their mouths agape.
“What the hell…?”
The acquaintance who was supposed to introduce them was yakuza?

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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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