Not A Regressor - Chapter 179

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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 179
Living Armor (4)
“Shhhhiiiiissshhh.”
A sinister sound, as if gas were escaping from a rupture.
Pitch-black armor enveloping the entire body, and between its seams, searing teal flames dancing with malevolent intensity.
“Ah, it’s here.”
“H-he’s arrived!”
The cargo ship, which had been as raucous as a marketplace moments before, fell into a silence as absolute as death itself.
The Black Star Society members who glimpsed those gleaming teal eyes through the helmet’s visor froze rigid like frogs confronted by a serpent, their broken minds capable only of muttering the same refrain: “He’s here.”
Living Armor.
The Grim Reaper sent directly by The Snake to punish those who dared defy his word.
“A-ahhh.”
Trembling, trembling, trembling.
The Black Star Society member’s legs quivered like aspen leaves as they met Living Armor’s teal gaze.
A monster encountered in South Korea after fleeing from The Snake.
At first, they had mocked the notion that the notorious Snake would send merely a single creature as his pursuer.
But that arrogance proved short-lived—when hundreds of Toad Faction members were slaughtered by a single armored reaper, the situation transformed entirely.
Power so overwhelming it bordered on despair.
Each time the spear wreathed in teal flames was thrust, the Toad members fell with pathetic ease.
“P-please, spare me. I don’t want to die.”
Faced with Living Armor’s devastating might far exceeding all expectations, Juan had stepped forward in desperation.
Yet even he could do little more than flee after a brief struggle.
A monster that even the Black Star Society’s fifth-ranked enforcer could not withstand.
The Toad members had no choice but to hide from the Grim Reaper sent by The Snake.
After commandeering a large cargo ship and concealing themselves within it while deliberating whether to flee South Korea, their safe house was discovered.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!!”
One Black Star Society member, trembling with a pallid face, spun around with a desperate cry.
In the instant he took a step forward, screaming for mercy.
“Shhhhiiiiissshhh!”
Living Armor’s eyes blazed with sinister brilliance.
Crackle!
The spear enveloped in teal flames pierced through the chest of the Black Star member who had turned to flee, faster than the blink of an eye.
“Kyieeeek!”
“I-insane!!”
They couldn’t even properly perceive the spear’s thrust.
All their eyes registered was the teal light flickering like ghostfire.
It was as if they had switched off a light and found someone dead in the room when they switched it back on.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
“D-damn it!!”
“Run! We have to run!!”
Fear spreading like poison.
When the Black Star Society members, seized by panic, tried to flee like moles exposed to the cold.
Boom—!
“Where do you think you’re going without my permission!!”
The entire massive cargo ship, stretching hundreds of meters, shook from the impact.
Juan, who had been shouting orders to depart immediately from the command cabin, glared at his fleeing subordinates with wide eyes.
Juan’s skin, which had been gleaming with a solid bronze luster, became grotesquely distorted and warped.
The muscles in both his legs swelled to an unnatural degree as black demonic energy coiled around his body.
Crack—!
Juan lightly kicked off the ground and seized one of his fleeing subordinates, lifting him into the air.
“Those who flee will be dealt with by my own hands!”
Rip—!
Juan tore the subordinate’s body in half with a single motion.
“Aaahhhhh!”
“Ugh… ah.”
Witnessing the brutal sight of a man being split in two, the Black Star Society members stopped their flight and trembled violently in place.
The Living Armor clad in pitch-black armor was terrifying with its ominous sounds and lethal strikes, but Juan had also become a figure of terror through years of tyranny and indoctrination.
“Fight!!”
Juan screamed with veins bulging in his neck.
I couldn’t fathom how he was mimicking that voice, but unless we departed before the monster arrived, we had no choice but to stand and fight.
‘It’s too late to run now.’
The last time we managed to escape was thanks to the maze-like alleys surrounding the area.
In an open place like the harbor, there was nowhere to run.
“The only way we can survive and return is to kill that monster!”
Juan threw the corpse—blood and entrails spilling profusely—high into the air where his subordinates could see it clearly.
His subordinates, who had been fleeing from the Living Armor, one by one turned around and drew upon the demonic power of their stigmas.
Their skin became grotesquely distorted and uneven.
The grotesquely swollen leg muscles pulsed like living organisms.
“Go forth, my warriors! Don’t tremble before a mere serpent!”
Juan raised his hand high.
A cold voice pierced through the scorching heat and echoed across the deck.
“I am the Heavenly Demon!! I am the one destined to become the master of the Black Stars!”
“Uaaaaaaaah!”
Words that amounted to brainwashing.
Juan’s years of effort in repeated indoctrination bore fruit—the Black Star Society members, who had been fleeing in terror, now let out fierce war cries and charged toward the Living Armor.
—Boom! Bang!
The Toad Constellation stigma’s ability was physical enhancement.
In particular, leg strength increased explosively.
It was an extremely simple and straightforward ability.
“Hraaaaah!!”
“Dead!”
Precisely because of its simplicity, the ability shines in any situation.
It was as intuitive as ‘the body grows stronger,’ and no absolute power existed in this world.
A stigma that conjures lightning? A stigma that summons blizzards?
None of it mattered.
No matter how special an ability was, it became worthless without a body strong enough to back it up.
Juan spread both arms wide and bellowed with the fervor of a preacher.
“Fight! Kill! Never forget that the Toad Constellation stigma you possess is the greatest and strongest stigma of all!”
“”Raaaaaahhhhh!!””
The Black Star Society members charged forward with roars following Juan’s cry.
“Shhhhiiiiing.”
But the world was never resolved by mere momentum and passion alone.
As the Living Armor swung its spear with an ominous sound, the bodies of the charging Black Star Society members were torn apart grotesquely.
“Shhhhiiiiing!!”
Crack! Snap! Crunch!
It pierced a Black Star Society member who leaped high through the air with its spear, skewering him from groin to crown, then seized the blade cutting into its flank with one hand and twisted it.
The blade bent like taffy without piercing the armor.
It pulled the warped blade taut while roughly grasping the Black Star Society member’s neck.
Crunch.
The helmet section of the armor split open with a crunch, revealing pristine white teeth and a blood-soaked tongue.
Crunch. The Living Armor, having half-devoured the Black Star Society member’s head, turned its body to seek its next meal.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
At that moment, an awakener clung to the Living Armor’s arm.
Just as the Living Armor’s blue-green eyes gleamed and it tried to crush the clinging awakener’s head—
“Die! Die, you monster bastard!!”
“Aaaahhhhh!! Damn it!!”
“Go to hell!!”
Toads swarmed from all directions, clinging to the Living Armor’s body.
They forced their fingers into the armor’s seams and tried to tear the plating apart with brute force.
For the Living Armor, whose body was composed of armor itself, their attempts to tear it apart were equivalent to ripping skin and muscle raw.
“Shhhh, shhhhiiing!”
The Living Armor twisted its body as if brushing away annoying insects.
The Living Armor’s savage, beast-like movements suddenly halted.
“Hrrrraaaaaahhhhh!!!”
Juan seized the opening and unleashed an explosive roar, driving his foot forward.
Sacrificing his subordinates as stepping stones, grasping a single moment of opportunity in his grasp.
Thud, crunch crunch!
The grotesquely swollen leg muscles were enveloped in black demonic energy.
“Die, you monster!!”
Booooooom!!
Juan descended like a meteor, his foot lashing out and striking the Living Armor.
A colossal impact rippled outward as though the cargo ship itself were trembling, and the Living Armor’s breastplate caved inward.
“Ahahaha! This is the price for defying the Heavenly Demon!!”
Juan’s lips twisted into a triumphant smile as he unleashed a barrage of explosive kicks.
His legs, fortified by the power of the Toad Constellation stigma, hammered down upon the Living Armor’s body like artillery fire.
The Living Armor staggered backward under the tempestuous onslaught of Juan’s assault.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whack.”
“How fitting for a lackey of such a foolish woman—one who doesn’t even recognize her true master!!”
Juan’s mouth twisted into a sneer as his shoulders heaved with satisfaction.
Huan Sukothai.
Born into Thai royalty, he had lived his entire life bathed in the reverence and admiration of all.
Even after the Gate connecting to the Demon Realm opened, this remained unchanged.
Though he had failed to claim the stigmata of the Zodiac Twelve Palaces or Polaris, the blessing of the Black Star had allowed him to rise boldly to the rank of Executive within the Black Star Society.
But then.
‘I am the Heavenly Demon! I, Huan Sukothai, am the Heavenly Demon!’
A name reached the ears of one who harbored ambitions to expand his power and swallow the entire Black Star Society whole.
The Heavenly Demon.
The absolute being who had founded the Black Star Society and before whom all the Black Stars bowed their heads.
Rumors abounded, yet no one within the Black Star Society truly knew anything concrete about this Heavenly Demon’s existence.
All they knew was that the Snake followed the Heavenly Demon with fanatical devotion.
‘The Heavenly Demon is nothing but an illusion conjured by the Snake.’
If the Heavenly Demon truly existed, it made no sense that he had not shown his face even once in nearly a decade.
After long deliberation, Juan had reached a conclusion: the Heavenly Demon did not actually exist.
In other words, the throne was without a master.
‘And the only one capable of sitting upon that throne is myself—Huan Sukothai.’
From that point forward, Juan began calling himself the Heavenly Demon.
There were two reasons.
One was to become the ruler of the Black Star Society, and the other was.
“Hehehehe. I shall teach that presumptuous woman who her true master should be.”
The Snake Zodiac Queen.
Platinum hair like molten gold, eyes of emerald brilliance.
A woman whose delicate frame seemed as though it might shatter at the slightest touch, yet whose presence radiated an allure that contradicted her fragility.
Juan could never forget the shock of that first encounter.
Born into royalty and having known countless women, even he had never encountered a woman possessed of such unique charm.
A poisoned apple.
Yes, she was like a poisoned apple—a woman embodying both beauty and peril in equal measure.
‘If I become the Heavenly Demon.’
I could claim her as my own.
I could make the serpent carrying the poisoned apple within her belly mine.
That was the second reason Juan called himself the Heavenly Demon.
“Hahahaha! Go tell your master! I, Juan, am the true Heavenly Demon…!”
Before Juan’s cry could finish.
Whoooosh!
The teal flames blazing between the pitch-black armor flared up violently.
Juan’s subordinates clinging to his body were engulfed in the inferno.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“Cough! Hack!”
The Toad Faction members shrieked and writhed in agony.
The Living Armor, its entire form consumed by teal flames, fixed its gaze upon Juan.
“Wh-what?”
Juan stumbled backward, his expression twisted in shock.
The moment his eyes met those gleaming teal pupils between the helmet’s visor, a terrible realization struck him—something was gravely wrong.
“Tch!”
As Juan desperately kicked off the ground and launched himself backward through the air.
Whoooosh!
The teal flames enveloping the Living Armor’s body converged upon the spear’s blade.
“What—what is this?”
The flames gathered on the spear transformed into the shape of a spectral war horse.
A phantom steed wreathed in ominously burning teal fire.
The Living Armor mounted the spectral war horse and charged toward Juan.
“Kyaaaaaaah!!”
The phantom steed defied gravity itself, galloping through empty air.
As the spectral war horse approached Juan at terrifying speed, it raised its front hooves—wreathed in teal flames—and brought them down with savage force.
-Crunch!
“Cough!”
Juan’s sternum caved inward as blood erupted from his mouth.
The Living Armor raised its spear high and drove it straight through Juan’s skull.
-Thud.
The Black Star Society’s fifth-ranked executor.
Huan Sukothai’s ambition to become the Heavenly Demon ended as pathetically as this.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Having dispatched Juan, the Living Armor breathed heavily as if exhausted, its movements unsteady.
The intensity of the teal flames that had engulfed its entire body in the aftermath of summoning the phantom steed had noticeably diminished.
Whoosh.
The spectral war horse the Living Armor had summoned was reabsorbed into its spear and vanished.
“Huff.”
As if to replenish its expended magical power, the Living Armor turned its body toward the corpses scattered nearby.
Squelch!
It approached one of the nearby corpses, shattered the ribcage, and tore out the heart.
Crunch. It opened its maw wide and swallowed the heart whole.
The power of the star condensed within my heart flowed into him—
“…Huh?”
Nothing.
Despite having chewed and swallowed the heart whole, not a shred of magical energy could be felt.
“Huh, huh.”
The Living Armor tilted its head in incomprehension, tearing open the heart of Juan’s corpse that it had just killed, but—
The result was the same.
Like a fruit with nothing but its shell remaining, the corpse contained not even a handful of magical energy.
“Huh… Why… the magic… huh, is… gone?”
A sinister voice flowed from between the Living Armor’s helmet.
Its blue-green eyes rolled about as it surveyed its surroundings.
“Oh, what’s this? You could talk all along?”
“…!!”
The Living Armor spun around urgently, gripping its spear.
A young man stood atop the towering stack of containers, looking down at it.
Slightly drooping eyes and hair with a subtle waviness.
Despite his gentle appearance, the man emanated a dangerous aura as if laced with poison.
“Thanks to you, I ate quite well~”
Kwon O-jin patted his belly and let out a chuckling laugh.
The black mist that had been spreading like fog seeped into his body.

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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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