Not A Regressor - Chapter 171

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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 171
Interlude – The Goddess’s Atonement (3)
Kwon O-jin’s swinging hand came down against Vega’s buttocks.
—Smack!
[Mmph!]
Vega’s breath caught, her body trembling at the impact.
The lingering softness remained on his palm.
Kwon O-jin shook his hand frantically, as if trying to erase that sensation from his mind.
“Is that enough now?”
His head burned as if it might ignite.
He had never imagined feeling such emotions toward Vega.
His heart thundered in his chest, pounding like a drum.
Either way, he’d given her the satisfying spanking she wanted, so now he just needed to calm the surging excitement building within him.
As he thought this and began to lower his arm—
[Already… is it over?]
Huh?
“You want more?”
[Surely this alone cannot be called atonement.]
“….”
Kwon O-jin bit his lip with an anxious expression.
He felt as though his grip on reason would snap after just this once.
And she wanted him to do it multiple times?
‘Forget it.’
He squeezed his eyes shut and raised his hand again.
—Smack! Smack!
The crisp sound rang out satisfyingly.
With each blow from Kwon O-jin’s palm, the silver dress Vega wore rippled and swayed.
[Mmph! Ah! Ugh!]
Vega exhaled low moans, her eyes scrunching shut.
To receive proper punishment, she had removed the protection of her ‘divine form,’ so each strike sent a sharp sting radiating through her buttocks.
‘How… shameful.’
But worse than the pain was the unbearable humiliation.
Being spanked by Kwon O-jin, who regarded her as a child born from his belly, created an overwhelming sense of depravity and shame she could scarcely endure.
Her head burned so intensely she feared she might melt away entirely.
‘And yet.’
This shame too was part of the ‘punishment.’
After all, many forms of punishment do not merely inflict pain—they impose psychological humiliation and degradation.
If this was to be counted among such punishments, she could not stop the spanking simply because of shame.
[Forgive me… my child.]
As the blows continued, she repeated her apologies.
The sin of not trusting my own child.
When I was proud of him, calling him the Star Against Heaven, the sole existence destined to save the world—I turned around and doubted him just like that.
‘How foolish.’
I don’t trust him because he’s a regressor who knows the future.
I don’t have faith in him because he’s the Star Against Heaven destined to save the world.
I trust him because he is Kwon O-jin.
Because he is a hero who fights for what he seeks to protect, no matter what hardships and adversities stand before him.
That is why I believed in and trusted him.
And yet.
‘I’ve been watching my child from his side all this time, seeing exactly what kind of person he is.’
Haven’t I witnessed with my own eyes how desperately he fought for Ha-eun, for me?
When others doubted him, the least I should have done was defend and protect him from my side—and instead, I doubted him myself.
‘It’s only natural that I receive punishment.’
In fact, even this degree of corporal punishment felt insufficient.
—Smack! Smack!
The corporal punishment continued relentlessly.
Vega’s buttocks, now that she had deactivated her divine protection, swelled a deep crimson.
A stinging pain spread like ink across her skin.
[Haah.]
Why was it?
Vega’s voice seemed to carry a faint moisture, as if touched by tears.
A voice that shook reason itself.
Kwon O-jin hastily lowered his arm and averted his gaze from her.
“I-I think that’s enough, isn’t it?”
[….]
Vega gazed at Kwon O-jin with a wistful, longing expression.
As if about to say “just a little more,” Vega’s lips trembled before she flushed deeply and shook her head vigorously.
[Thank you for giving this foolish Constellation a chance to atone.]
“…There’s really nothing to atone for, though.”
[No. This is my fault.]
Vega offered a faint smile and gently pulled Kwon O-jin into an embrace.
Ordinarily, in such situations, the one who strikes comforts the one who was struck.
Yet here, like a mirror image reversed, Vega—who had received the corporal punishment—was tenderly comforting Kwon O-jin instead.
[If I commit wrongs again in the future, please deliver such sharp punishment as you did just now.]
“You want me to do this again?”
Kwon O-jin swallowed hard and urgently shook his head.
To spank a goddess’s buttocks again and again like some madman.
He had no confidence his reason could endure it.
[Is it… not acceptable?]
“Ugh.”
Vega gazed at me with slightly raised eyes, her expression tinged with melancholy.
Unable to resist that gaze, I swallowed hard.
“…Later.”
[Heheheh. I shall place my faith in you alone.]
Vega hummed a cheerful tune and flashed a delighted smile, prompting me to return an awkward grin.
‘Our goddess seems to have developed some rather peculiar tastes.’
I felt dizzy just imagining what kind of chaos would unfold when Ha-eun eventually discovered this.
[By the way… was the technique you used in the final match truly Thunder Divine Body?]
“Yeah, that’s right.”
This time, as Thunder Transmission reached level 10, I acquired a skill called Thunder Divine Body.
[Sigh. Truly… it’s difficult to believe even while witnessing it with my own eyes.]
Vega shook her head in disbelief.
Thunder Divine Body was a technique that transformed the physical body itself into thunder, allowing one to transcend the laws of physics and unleash extraordinary power.
It was a supreme-tier skill that even high-tier awakeners of the Lyra Constellation could barely grasp the fundamentals of, yet I had mastered it at merely 7-star.
“Well, it seems to have some errors in actual combat application for now.”
To use Thunder Divine Body, I had to compress the thunder to an extreme degree through dozens of charging cycles.
After that lengthy preparation, I could only transform a single arm at best.
The duration lasted mere seconds, making it a technique with significant practical limitations.
[The very fact that you’ve mastered this technique at your current level defies all logic.]
Vega continued in a worried tone.
[As I mentioned when you used Exceed before, techniques that don’t align with your star level carry grave side effects—do not use them recklessly.]
“I don’t intend to use it carelessly either.”
In situations where multiple conditions align perfectly, I could deploy it as a finishing move.
In the world of superhumans where dozens of exchanges occurred in a single second, Thunder Divine Body remained a difficult skill to utilize.
‘Still, the mere fact that I can use something like this is what matters.’
The power of Thunder Divine Body had overwhelmed Xiaoran, a high-tier awakener of Polaris, in a single stroke.
Of course, she had been in a state without weapons or stigmata.
Even accounting for that, it was undeniable that this skill possessed tremendous potential.
“But Thunder Transmission doesn’t end at level 10?”
I had assumed level 10 was the maximum since reaching it brought significant changes.
Yet I didn’t see the ‘MAX’ indicator that appeared when reaching the maximum level.
[Thunder Transmission can be developed up to level 12 at maximum.]
“Ah, so it’s the same as star level.”
Awakeners’ star levels were said to grow from 1 to a maximum of 12.
Of course, even among the Seven Stars, known as the world’s strongest awakeners, no “12-star awakener” existed.
‘Currently, the officially announced maximum is 11-star.’
Considering that each star level’s gap widened at higher stages, I couldn’t even fathom how monstrous an 11-star being would be.
“Then I need to push toward level 11 now.”
I gazed at the Thunder Transmission skill marked “Level 10” with a satisfied smile.
If the gap between level 9 and 10 was enormous, then the gap between 10 and 11 would be even greater.
[Don’t be so impatient. You’ve only just reached level 10.]
“Now that you mention it, what level is Riak’s Lightning Stigma?”
Vega was naturally the master of the Lyra Constellation, so she would be level 12.
I suddenly wondered what level the Holy Spirit, who had inherited a fragment of her soul, might be.
[Level 10.]
“Huh?”
My eyes widened.
‘What? The same level as me?’
I hadn’t expected that Riak, who had inherited a fragment of Vega’s soul, would be at the same level as myself.
[Sigh. Now do you understand how absurd what you’ve accomplished is?]
“Mm.”
Hearing it put this way, I could truly grasp how unreasonable it was for someone still at only 7-star rank to have achieved Lightning Stigma level 10.
[Well, even at the same level 10, there must be a vast difference in reality.]
“That’s true.”
There was bound to be an enormous gap between a novice who had just entered level 10 and Riak, who had reached level 10 tens or hundreds of years ago.
[Sigh. Riak needs to break through that ‘wall’ soon… I’m worried.]
Vega exhaled a deep sigh.
‘So the wall Riak mentioned was level 11.’
Before meeting me, I had often heard that he had fallen into despair, unable to overcome that wall for a long time.
“Well, that guy should be able to do it.”
[Hmm. Are you saying that because you know the future?]
“Who knows?”
I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders.
[Well, setting that aside. Aren’t you quite tired?]
“I am a bit sleepy.”
Though I had received treatment from Albaile.
The accumulated fatigue hadn’t been completely healed.
[Then come here and get some sleep.]
Vega pulled my hand.
[Hehe. I’ll sing you a lullaby right here beside you.]
“No.”
Are you really my mother?
* * *
“Yaaaawn~”
The middle-aged man stretched with a prolonged sigh.
He trudged through an alley shrouded in murky darkness.
A desolate street near Incheon Port.
Nine years ago, during the Gate Incident, Yonghyun-dong was swept away by a torrent of monsters and left abandoned without reconstruction, now bearing the eerie atmosphere of a ghost town.
It was a street where no one wandered except for homeless vagrants.
“Ugh. What demon beast appeared in a place like this?”
He clicked his tongue and looked around restlessly.
Rumors were spreading rapidly among Incheon residents that the recent disappearances in this area were the work of magical beasts that had escaped from the Gate.
For the Mirinai Guild, the large organization currently managing Incheon, this was a rumor they couldn’t simply ignore.
‘I could just send a few idle hands to check it out.’
To demonstrate to Incheon residents that they took the rumors seriously, the Mirinai Guild had dispatched him—a vice-guild master—to Yonghyun-dong.
“Why does an 8-star awakener have to get involved in this mess?”
He sighed once more and walked down the street shrouded in thick darkness.
The stench of rotting food waste carelessly discarded on the ground assaulted his nostrils unpleasantly.
After more than an hour of searching the area.
“See? It’s just a baseless rumor.”
The man spat out a crude curse, then hawked up a thick glob of phlegm.
Clang!
He was about to turn away after irritably kicking a can lying on the ground.
-Shhhhhhhhh.
A sound like escaping gas came from the far end of the alley.
The man narrowed his eyes and looked toward the source of the sound.
“What?”
When he took a step toward it.
-Crack!
“Gasp!”
A dark blue spear blade burst through the man’s chest.
Blood gushed from the man’s mouth as his chest was pierced.
“What… what?”
The man’s eyes trembled violently.
Like a broken doll, he slowly turned his head backward.
“Shhh, shhhhh.”
There stood a creature clad in black armor that covered its entire body like a medieval knight.
Despite being concealed by the armor, it was instantly clear that this was no human—it was a ‘demon’.
-Whoooosh!
This was because of the ominous dark blue flames burning between the gaps in the armor.
Dark blue eyes gleamed from between the helmet’s visor, fixed upon him.
“Ah… ugh.”
The man trembled in terror as he stared at the demon.
The demon pulled the spear from the man’s chest and seized his throat with one hand.
Crack.
The jaw of the helmet split open, revealing sharp teeth and a crimson tongue.
“Please… save me…”
Before his desperate plea could even finish.
-Crunch!!
The demon swallowed the man’s entire head whole.
The Black Armor Demon’s form was stained with blood flowing from the man’s severed head.
Crunch! Crrrunch!
The Black Armor Demon clawed through the chest of the headless man.
Perhaps it was because of the superhuman physiology that came with being an awakener.
Within the ravaged chest cavity, the heart still pulsed intermittently.
“Hisssss, hisssssss.”
The demon’s teal eyes gleamed as its lips curled upward.
It seized the pulsing heart with its claws and tore it free.
Blood cascaded down its throat like a waterfall as it chewed the awakener’s heart—infused with the power of stars—with grotesque satisfaction.
As it continued this “meal,”
“Hehehehe. Tasty, isn’t it?”
A viscous voice echoed from the darkness beyond.
“Hisssssss!!”
The Black Armor Demon spun urgently and thrust its spear forward.
Clink.
The teal spearhead, white as snow, was stopped by a slender finger.
“Now, now. Behave yourself.”
A woman emerged from the pitch-black darkness.
More girl than woman—her frame was delicate and frail.
Platinum blonde hair with waves that shimmered in the darkness, cascading long, draped over a body clad in an obsidian dress.
She appeared so fragile that the slightest touch might shatter her.
Yet despite her delicate appearance, an aura of such suffocating darkness emanated from her that it stole one’s breath.
“Won’t you help me for a moment?”
The woman smiled sweetly and extended her tongue.
Her thin, elongated tongue stretched past her chin, reaching down to her chest.
Yes.
Just like.
The Snake’s tongue.

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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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