Not A Regressor - Chapter 146

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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 146
A Man (2)
I drew an image in my mind while releasing the magical power of the stigma bundled tightly in my left chest.
The image I conjured was a bomb.
A powerful lightning bomb brimming with terrifying thunder that could sweep across dozens of meters in radius.
I contained that image within a glass bottle,
and hurled it.
-Crackle crackle crackle!!
The glass bottle filled with blue lightning shot forward, creating a small gust of wind.
Kurosaki Sosuke’s eyes, bound to the chair, narrowed slightly.
Clear water droplets floated in the air, forming a perfect sphere around the glass bottle wrapped in lightning.
The blue lightning bursting from inside the bottle dissolved without piercing through the thin water droplets, fading away.
“Since when… did you know?”
Eyes that had sunk into darkness.
With just that change in his gaze, the fragile impression that seemed like it would crumble with a single touch vanished in an instant.
From trembling prey cowering in fear, to a cunning hunter waiting for his quarry to fall into the trap.
A thick, viscous killing intent, like dense water mist, engulfed the basement.
“From the beginning.”
Kwon O-jin smiled leisurely within the suffocating killing intent that would have prevented an ordinary person from even breathing properly.
“…How?”
Sosuke stared at Kwon O-jin with an expression of incomprehension.
Even his own subordinates didn’t know his true identity—how could this man have seen through his deception the moment they met?
“Didn’t I say it? If it were me, I would have asked you to save my younger sister.”
“You’re telling me you saw through the lie with just that? You expect me to believe that?”
“Of course, I didn’t figure it out from just that alone.”
Kwon O-jin let out a soft laugh and crossed his legs.
“For the past few months, you’ve been meticulously hiding the location of the Digestive Facility. Yet, by a remarkable coincidence, the moment I arrived in Japan, the location of the Digestive Facility was exposed?”
Yes.
That much could be understood.
One could assume the Kuroshi Organization’s months of effort had finally borne fruit.
But.
“There being no security measures whatsoever around the Abandoned Hospital, not even a single guard, doesn’t make sense, does it?”
It was as if the doors were wide open, welcoming the Kuroshi Organization’s visit.
“…Even so, that alone wouldn’t have allowed you to know my identity.”
Sosuke asked, narrowing his eyes.
As he said, it would have been difficult to find a connection between Yuji and Sosuke simply because their security was lax.
After all, there was too great a gap between the publicly known information about Kurosaki Sosuke and Sakai Yuji.
Who could possibly think that Kurosaki Sosuke, called the King of the Seahorse Faction and reigning as a figure of terror, and a one-armed developer with a gaunt appearance on the verge of collapse were the same person?
“Your arm.”
“Your arm?”
Kwon O-jin pointed at the empty space where Sosuke’s left arm had been severed.
“That arm—you said it was cut off when he rebelled against Kurosaki Sosuke, right?”
“…Yes.”
Humans instinctively trust those weaker than themselves.
After all, even if betrayed, such a person poses no significant threat.
This wasn’t a matter of reason or logic, but of emotion and instinct.
That’s why famous twist films cast the crippled as the culprit.
Kurosaki Sosuke had deliberately made Sakai Yuji one-armed to exploit this human psychology.
There were few ways to demonstrate weakness as clearly as a missing limb.
But.
“Why the arm?”
“What?”
“Don’t you find that strange?”
“…Strange how?”
Kwon O-jin’s shoulders bobbed as he chuckled and continued.
“According to you, Sakai Yuji was the only developer who could rebuild the Land Forsaken by Stars, right?”
If that were true.
“He should have cut off the legs, not the arm.”
Kurosaki Sosuke’s eyes widened.
The legs. Not the arm.
Those words from Kwon O-jin’s mouth echoed relentlessly in his mind.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped unbidden.
Now that he thought about it, the question was painfully obvious.
Cutting off a developer’s arm reduced work efficiency, but severing the legs prevented escape—far more ‘efficient’.
“You weren’t in your right mind either.”
But that was purely theoretical.
How many would actually consider efficiency when faced with a trembling person whose arm had been severed before their eyes?
It was simply.
“What do you even think people are?”
Only someone who viewed people not as people, but as tools or livestock, could ask such a question.
“Haha! I never thought I’d hear that from someone who captures living people to make elixirs.”
Kwon O-jin burst into clear laughter and clapped his hands.
“Anyway, now you understand how I knew your identity, right?”
“Why did you do it?”
“Huh? Do what?”
“Why did you pretend not to know even though you knew my identity?”
Sosuke asked, narrowing his eyes.
If he’d known from the start, he could have revealed it immediately.
So why reveal it now, three days later?
“Because I knew you’d end up sacrificing your own flesh and blood to achieve your goals.”
“…Sacrificing my own flesh and blood?”
Kwon O-jin smiled faintly and nodded.
“You would have needed that kind of ‘sacrifice’ to accomplish your objectives.”
For example.
The Seahorse Faction you’d built up all this time.
“Ha, so you know all about my goals too.”
“I do.”
I couldn’t help but know.
“The fact that Sakai Yuji was actually Kurosaki Sosuke doesn’t really matter.”
What mattered was why Kurosaki Sosuke had clung to the identity of Sakai Yuji in the first place.
“You were trying to erase the existence of Kurosaki Sosuke itself.”
What’s the best way for a criminal to erase their crimes?
Disappearing without a trace?
Getting extensive cosmetic surgery to disguise yourself as someone else?
No.
The best way is to make everyone believe the ‘criminal’ is already dead.
After all, no one can pursue someone who’s already dead.
“What, did you lose your nerve when you heard that Cheon Do-yoon was dead?”
“….”
Sosuke shook his head with an exhausted expression.
“I’m beaten, completely beaten. I can’t handle this.”
I never thought my plan was flawless from the start.
But I never expected it to be dismantled so thoroughly.
As Sosuke leaned back against the chair in defeat.
-Thud, thud.
Heavy footsteps descended the stairs.
Sakaki with a rigid expression and Ha-eun with a contemptuous gaze came down into the basement.
Behind Sakaki, members of the Kuroshi Organization, including Koshiro, filed down into the basement one after another.
“Sakai Yuji… or rather, Kurosaki Sosuke.”
Sakaki’s eyes gleamed fiercely as if he’d heard the entire conversation, glaring at Sosuke.
“What? Were you all gathered outside eavesdropping?”
Sosuke smirked and scanned all the people who had entered the basement.
“You damn fool!!!”
Boom, boom!
Sakaki let out a roar so loud it made ears ring, grabbing Sosuke by the collar as he sat bound to the chair.
“All of it… was it all just an act!!!”
Over the past three days, how much had he agonized and struggled over Yuji’s situation?
He felt pathetic for not being able to bring his sword down on Yuji, who knelt begging to be killed.
“Honestly, I was scared, but I believed our man among men was different! I trusted you wouldn’t kill him!”
Sosuke laughed wildly despite being grabbed by the collar.
“But you know what, our crazy bull? There’s something you should know.”
He twisted his lips upward.
“The act I was putting on━ it wasn’t just me.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sakaki’s brow furrowed.
-Thud!!
A rough sound of feet scraping against the ground came from behind him.
In that instant, a chill of killing intent grazed the back of Sakaki’s neck.
When Sakaki spun around in alarm, what he saw was,
“…I apologize, boss.”
Koshiro, gripping a blade with both hands.
With an expression as though he might cry at any moment, Koshiro raised the blade and brought it down toward Sakaki’s back.
Just as the transparent water droplets fell from the blade like it had been pulled from a puddle, about to pierce Sakaki’s heart.
-Click.
As if he had known this would happen.
Kwon O-jin, who had appeared beside Koshiro, seized his arm.
“…Ah.”
A gasp of relief escaped Koshiro’s lips as his hand was caught.
As though he was grateful the attack had been stopped.
A faint smile spread across his face.
“Sigh.”
Kwon O-jin, who had seized Koshiro’s arm, exhaled a deep breath.
“…I was hoping this madness wouldn’t happen.”
Muttering a rough curse, he kicked Koshiro’s abdomen harshly.
Boom!
Koshiro was sent flying backward and crashed into the wall.
The blade that had been in his hand clattered across the floor.
“What is… this….”
Sakaki’s expression was several times more shocked than when he had learned that Yuji was actually Kurosaki Sosuke, his mouth hanging open blankly.
….
Kwon O-jin looked down at Koshiro, who lay collapsed on the floor, with a bitter expression.
If he had simply kept quiet, I wouldn’t have bothered bringing it up first.
But now that he had drawn his blade against Sakaki, concealment was impossible.
“Sakaki, do you remember when you used Yumehanaashi?”
“…I remember.”
“Sosuke was definitely caught by Yumehanaashi at that time.”
Yet despite that, he had not spoken the ‘truth’.
How could he have done such a thing?
The method was simple.
It was tediously simple, and disappointingly dull.
“Umehana was a fake.”
“….”
“And at that time, there was only one person who could have switched the real Umehana with the fake one.”
Kwon O-jin looked down at Koshiro, who hung his head in silence.
He wasn’t unconscious.
There was no way an Awakener of the Shield Faction would lose consciousness from merely being slammed into a wall.
“Koshiro….”
Sakaki stared at Koshiro with trembling eyes.
“Why? Why on earth…?”
The image of Koshiro calling himself his oyabun flashed through his mind.
He remembered that voice, ringing out with vigor as Koshiro proclaimed his desire to become a man like him, eyes shining brightly.
Koshiro was far more than a mere subordinate to him.
He was a disciple, a son-like figure.
“Why, why, why, why, whyyyy!! What on earth were you thinking, Koshiro!!!!”
Sakaki cried out as if wailing.
“…Oyabun.”
Koshiro’s shoulders trembled as he bit his lip.
Kwon O-jin gazed down at Koshiro for a moment, then turned his head toward Sosuke.
“Why do you think Sakai Yuji followed Kurosaki Sosuke?”
“What are you talking about? Sakai Yuji is a fictional person created by that bastard….”
“Why do you think he followed Kurosaki?”
“….”
Sakaki’s expression hardened like stone.
His fist, gripping Sosuke’s collar as if remembering something, trembled.
Kwon O-jin exhaled a short breath, then continued with a bitter expression.
“It wasn’t Sakai Yuji’s younger sister who was poisoned… it was Koshiro’s younger sister.”

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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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