Not A Regressor - Chapter 19
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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 19
Black Star Society (2)
“Gack, cough! Wh-what…?”
The man’s eyes bulged wide as he gripped the spear that had pierced through his abdomen.
Blood cascaded down in torrents.
A dizzying agony radiated throughout his entire body.
Yet more than the searing pain of the punctured belly, he was far more shocked by the fact that the young man before him had emerged from *inside* the Cave.
“Seems you’ve misunderstood something.”
Crunch!
I twisted the spear piercing his abdomen with brutal force.
The wound tore open wider, and blood sprayed upward.
“Krraaagh!!! Gahhhhh!!!”
“I’m the one asking questions here.”
I leaned down with a bloodstained smile.
“Nonsense!!”
Whoosh!
The man swung his fist wildly.
A sinister black aura bloomed from his clenched knuckles.
But.
Before his vicious punch could even land.
-Crack! Crackle crackle!!!
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!”
Azure lightning erupted from the spearhead embedded in his abdomen.
Like a freshly caught fish flopping about, the man convulsed before going limp against the ground.
The man, who had been thrashing about like a freshly caught fish, soon collapsed limply on the ground.
“Well then, feel free to talk nonsense now, won’t you?”
I pressed my knee against his chest and spoke.
“Tell me everything you know about the Black Star Society.”
“…ha.”
The man let out a hollow laugh, unbothered.
He glared at me with arrogant eyes and opened his mouth.
“I have no reason to answer you… Kyaaaaaahhh!!!”
Snap!
I seized his left index finger and wrenched it out.
“Is that so? Then I suppose there’s no helping it.”
I hadn’t expected him to cooperate willingly anyway.
“You don’t want to talk?”
“Gasp! Gasp!”
“Then starting now━”
In situations like this, the fastest and most reliable method was.
“Don’t say a word.”
Pure, primal violence.
—Crack, crack-crack!!
One finger at a time.
I grasped and twisted, tearing them free.
“Kyaaaaaahhhhh!!!”
One, two, three.
The severed fingers scattered across the floor.
When all the fingers on his left hand had been torn away.
“Guh… guh.”
The man’s mouth drooled white foam as his trembling lips parted.
“I… I’ll… talk.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll… talk… I said.”
“No.”
I seized his other hand and shook my head.
“What are you babbling about?”
“…What?”
“Didn’t I say not to say a word?”
Crack!!
I grasped and twisted the fingers of his other hand, snapping them with a bright smile.
“Gyahahahahaha!!!”
“You said you didn’t want to talk? Then don’t say anything.”
“N-no. That’s not—”
Crack-crack!!
One by one.
I twisted and tore the fingers from his other hand just as I had the first.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!! I’ll… I’ll talk!!!”
“Nah, no need.”
“The… the Black Star Society!! I’ll tell you everything about the Black Star Society!!”
“I said there’s no need?”
“P-please!!! I’ll answer anything, just….”
“I said there’s no need, you bastard!!!!!”
Slam!!!
I seized his head and slammed it violently against the ground.
“Why!!!”
Slam!!!
“There’s no need to talk!!!!”
Crash!!!!
“Stop trying to keep talking, dammit!!!!”
He let out a frenzied shriek, driving his head down repeatedly.
For an ordinary person, such an impact would be instantly fatal, but my opponent was no ordinary human.
I wasn’t sure how many stars they possessed, but fundamentally, all Awakened gained superhuman bodies upon their awakening, so they wouldn’t die from an impact of this magnitude.
“Ugh… Gah… I, I’ll talk… I, I want to talk.”
The man trembled violently, opening his mouth pitifully.
The man who had glared at me with such arrogance now wept pathetically, like a three-year-old who had stepped on a Lego brick while playing in the living room.
‘I think this is enough.’
I looked down at the trembling man and smirked.
‘Yeah, this really does work like a charm.’
Irrational and absurd violence.
When humans face frenzied brutality that transcends reason and common sense, they inevitably become consumed by trauma-like terror.
‘There’s nothing scarier than a madman you can’t reason with.’
The fact that even the man’s pants were soaked confirmed the effectiveness.
“So you want to talk now?”
“Yes, yes! I, I want to talk!”
“Then go ahead. Tell me what the Black Star Society is. What the hell do the Black Star bastards do?”
The man slowly nodded his head.
“The Black Star Society is an organization created by the Constellations of the Black Star… the Black Star Constellations.”
“…The Black Star Constellations?”
“Yes, yes!”
What the hell are the Black Star Constellations?
“In the past… when all stars were consumed by darkness… the Constellations born at that time are the Black Star Constellations.”
“Damn it, how am I supposed to understand if you explain it like that?”
“Eeeek!! I, I only heard it that way from the Director!!!”
The man curled up like a mole exposed to cold air.
“Anyway. So. Awakened who follow these Black Star Constellations or whatever, right?”
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
“Then tell me your organization’s scale and where you’re holed up.”
“B, Baekun Mountain! Our branch is located on Baekun Mountain in Cheolwon!”
“You own the entire mountain, you bastards? You need to give me the exact location.”
“Aaahhh!! I’m sorry!!!”
As I barked at him menacingly, the man trembled while tearing at his hair.
“There’s a broken observatory building at the summit of Baekun Mountain! It, it’s in the basement of that place!!”
“How many members?”
“A, about fifty.”
Damn.
That’s quite a lot.
“You said that’s a branch, right? So where’s the headquarters?”
“I, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, you bastard?”
Next, let’s try pulling out the toenails.
“I-I really don’t know!! Only Director Jeong knows the location of headquarters!! Someone like me doesn’t even know where the other branches are!!”
“Hmm.”
He didn’t seem to be lying.
‘Well, it makes sense. They wouldn’t leak information to small fry like this.’
An organization spouting insane rhetoric about making the Constellations pay for their sins would naturally operate under strict security protocols.
“Is that Yujin guy the Director?”
“Y-yes, that’s right!”
The man nodded rapidly like a broken metronome.
“But I seriously don’t get it.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Why follow some suspicious bastard like that in the first place?”
I couldn’t fathom why anyone would pledge loyalty to an organization that looked like nothing more than a cult.
“….”
The man kept his mouth shut for a while before finally speaking in a low voice.
“…He gave it to us.”
“What?”
“Yujin gave us… the Sacred Stigma.”
“Ah.”
A short exclamation escaped my lips.
I recalled the sight of people gathered before the Star Palace, offering fervent prayers to the Constellations.
‘So he was using the Sacred Stigma as bait.’
I couldn’t fathom how he granted the Sacred Stigma, but I could certainly understand why people followed such a suspicious group.
‘In a world where people would kill their own parents just to become Awakened, there’s no shortage of such individuals.’
That’s the kind of world this is.
‘Well, it doesn’t seem like there’s any more information to extract.’
Time to wrap this up.
-Squelch.
I pulled the spear from his abdomen and aimed it at the space between his brows.
“W-wait!! Please wait!!!”
The man cried out desperately.
“I-I have… a daughter! Please… please spare my life…!”
Drip, drip.
Tears streamed down his face as he shook his head sorrowfully.
“You have a daughter?”
“…Yes. The truth is, I joined the Black Star Society for her sake.”
I bit my lip and squeezed my eyes shut.
“If I suddenly disappear, that child will….”
In this insane world, a child who lost their parent couldn’t possibly survive intact.
That was something I knew better than anyone.
—Thud!
The man’s forehead struck the ground harshly.
“Please!! For the sake of my child, I beg you to spare my life…!”
“Mm.”
“Or at least… at the very least, please grant me time to say farewell to my daughter!!! I’m begging you!! I’m pleading with all my heart!!”
Tears streamed down his face as he sobbed pitifully.
I gazed down at the prostrate man with narrowed eyes.
“Her name.”
“Pardon?”
“What’s your daughter’s name?”
“…Choi Ye-rin. That’s her name.”
“How old?”
“Ah, she’s nine years old! She’s still far too young to navigate this world alone….”
“When’s her birthday?”
“Pardon?”
I pressed the bewildered man, as if questioning why I would ask such a thing.
“Quickly. Answer the questions I ask. When’s her birthday?”
“December… the 14th.”
“What’s her favorite food?”
“…Why are you asking such things?”
“Won’t you answer?”
“Pizza… ah, no—chicken!”
“Height and weight?”
“Um… 131 centimeters and… th-th-28!! 28 kilograms!!”
“I see.”
I nodded as if understanding.
Choi Ye-rin, nine years old, born December 14th, favorite food chicken. 131 centimeters, 28 kilograms.
“Now then.”
A smirk twisted across my face.
I gripped the spear tightly, twisting my lips upward.
“Answer the questions I just asked—in reverse order.”
In that instant, silence descended as if time itself had frozen.
“—P-pardon?”
The man’s eyes widened in shock.
His mouth fell open.
I could see his legs trembling like aspen leaves.
“Weight and height, favorite food, birthday, age, name. Answer them.”
“Th-that is. I mean. 28 kilograms… next. W-wait… just a moment!”
“What? Don’t remember well?”
Well.
It’s no wonder you don’t remember.
“Lies are naturally difficult to reverse, after all.”
But I can manage it.
-Squelch.
Blood cascaded down the spear blade as it bit into flesh.
“Ah, ah! P-please, save me, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to dieeeee!!!”
The man descended into panic as the spear point touched his skull.
“One last question. Where is your branch located?”
“Ch-Cheolwon. B-Baekun Mountain summit….”
“I see.”
That wasn’t a lie.
-Crunch!!!
“Gack, hack!”
The spear blade pierced cleanly through the space between his brows, shattering his brain as it passed through his skull.
“Exhale.”
Thud.
The tension drained away, replaced by a wave of languor.
‘The Black Star Society.’
I swept back my hair, my brow furrowing.
“This is going to be troublesome.”
I’d caught the attention of some distinctly suspicious individuals.
Not that merely drawing their notice would be the end of it.
‘I thought they’d be easy marks to fleece, but instead I’ve kicked over a hornet’s nest.’
And I’d even swindled these dangerous bastards in the bargain.
“Ugh.”
I pressed my palm to my forehead as a headache throbbed.
‘They won’t just let this slide, will they?’
Whether it’s revenge or silencing me.
For whatever reason, they’ll appear before me again.
‘And I can’t exactly face them alone.’
Fifty is far too many.
“…I need to devise a strategy.”
But that wasn’t something I could do right now.
“Well… this could be an opportunity if I look at it the right way.”
I stripped the robe and armor from the corpse, its head still pierced through.
On the left side of his chest, I saw a stigma unlike anything I’d ever encountered before.
‘Is this the stigma of the Black Star?’
I reached out and placed my hand over the stigma.
Gurgle.
Black mist flowed from my palm, enveloping the stigma.
A repugnant surge of mana—identical to what I’d absorbed from the sacred relic—flowed into my body.
—Ding!
[Black Heaven absorbs the Sacred Mark of the Owl’s Seat!]
[The quantity of the absorbed Sacred Mark of the Owl’s Seat is too insignificant to activate the mark.]
The Sacred Mark of the Owl’s Seat, then.
“I wonder what ability the Black Star’s sacred mark possesses?”
*Ssshhh.*
O-jin extended his tongue and licked his lips with ravenous hunger.
* * *
A brilliant Milky Way stretched across the night sky.
The white-haired elder gazed upward at the starlit heavens, where countless stars glimmered like cascading light, his eyes narrowing to slits.
—*Flap flap!*
At that moment, a black owl descended and perched upon the elder’s shoulder.
“Mm-hmm. He’s arrived, then?”
The white-haired elder, who had been nodding as if conversing with the owl on his shoulder, slowly turned his body.
Standing before him was a young man in a black robe, kneeling on one knee with his head bowed respectfully.
“Hehehehe. So Yujin has come?”
“Yes, Executor.”
Yujin, kneeling before the white-haired elder, swallowed hard, his throat dry.
Despite having served under this man for years, whenever he faced him, his entire body would stiffen under such overwhelming pressure.
‘…It’s only natural.’
The white-haired elder standing before him was the Black Star Society’s Executor, ranked sixth in the hierarchy.
The King of Owls—Cheon Do-yoon himself.
‘But.’
At least today, he possessed a card that could liberate him from this suffocating pressure.
“Good—did you bring the item safely?”
“Of course.”
Yujin carefully withdrew the sacred relic from within his robe and set it down.
A black chalice, slightly larger than a fist.
Within it dwelled the power of the Black Star.
“Hehehehe!!”
The elder let out a distinctive laugh, his smile radiant.
“Well done, Yujin.”
“Heh. It was hardly a difficult task.”
Yujin shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“Owls.”
The elder raised his hand lightly.
—*Flap flap!!*
With the sound of wings beating, dozens of mysterious figures in black robes emerged from the darkness.
The elder gestured toward Yujin.
Yujin nodded and picked up the black chalice, advancing toward the intricate and bizarre formation etched into the floor.
“After an eternity of waiting, this day has finally arrived.”
Placing the black chalice at the center of the formation, Yujin spread both arms wide with a triumphant expression.
“Do you see it! That abhorrent sky!”
Flap!
The robe Yujin wore billowed violently in the fierce wind.
“That radiant night sky shall be consumed entirely by Black Stars!!!!”
“….”
“….”
Beneath the deeply drawn hood, intense eyes flashed brilliantly.
No words were spoken.
Yet all dozens of Black Star Society members watched the ceremony with ragged, heated breaths.
“Now!!”
Yujin screamed as he poured mana into the formation etched upon the ground!
“Behold! The Black Stars blessing our path forward!!!!!!!”
Uuuuoooong!!!
The formation carved into the floor flashed with black light━
“This is merely the beginning!!!”
Nothing happened.
“Soon, blessed artifacts shall manifest across the land━ Huh?”
Yujin stared down at the formation, its black light now extinguished, his expression bewildered.
“…What?”
Tap. Tap.
No matter how much he touched it, flipped it, or turned it over.
No response came.
“Why isn’t it working?”
Dozens of eyes bore into him.
I could see the old man’s expression contort harshly.
“W-wait! J-just a moment!!”
━Failed.
“….”
“This can’t be! This can’t be happening!!!!”
Yujin’s eyes widened to their absolute limit.
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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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