Not A Regressor - Chapter 211

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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 211
The Serpent’s Head (4)
“Ugh!”
The moment Cheon Sang-gil sensed the danger and desperately tried to pull his body back.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Blue lightning erupted from Kwon O-jin’s fingertips, coursing through the wet hanbok and striking him with devastating force.
“Cough, cough!”
Cheon Sang-gil collapsed to the ground, gasping in agony.
Crack! Crackle!
Lingering blue sparks danced around his body.
“Hey, what are you doing to Grandpa O-jin?!”
Ha-eun rushed over with a shocked expression.
“No.”
“Huh? What do you mean no…?”
“That’s not Cheon Sang-gil.”
This was merely something wearing his mask—something else entirely.
Kwon O-jin’s eyes had turned cold as ice as he gazed down at the collapsed figure on the ground.
“If it really were him, he wouldn’t have fallen from an attack of this caliber.”
“That’s…”
“Kwon O-jin is right, Elder Sister.”
Isabella, who had followed behind, nodded in agreement.
“Ugh… how… how did you know?”
The collapsed figure on the ground looked back at Kwon O-jin in confusion.
Perhaps it wanted to ask how he had seen through the deception.
“I thought something was off from the beginning.”
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue lightly.
That sense of incongruity that had surfaced in his mind when he first received contact from Cheon Sang-gil.
At the time, it had been merely a question, but as the situation unfolded, that question transformed into suspicion.
“Why was I the first person he contacted?”
Rather than Isabella, the guild master of the Cheonhye Guild, or even Ha-eun, who had destroyed the black pillar that erupted beneath Sokcho Downtown during the demonic beast attack—why had he called me first?
Why.
Why contact me first?
“If you wanted to gather Suhoseong, you should have contacted Isabella first. If you wanted to call someone who participated in the Sokcho demonic beast attack, you should have contacted my sister first.”
Besides, I didn’t even have a particularly close relationship with Cheon Sang-gil.
The collapsed figure on the ground looked up at Kwon O-jin with an absurd expression.
“You attacked me… over something so trivial?”
“Well, honestly, I only thought something was off back then. I didn’t actually suspect anything.”
If I had, I wouldn’t have come to Sokcho in the first place.
But.
“Isn’t it too much of a coincidence to be mere chance?”
A rift that opened ten days ago, and Cheon Sang-gil discovered it in just three days.
The fact that the rift was created specifically to target Kwon O-jin alone, and that Cheon Sang-gil contacted only him while bypassing Isabella, Suhoseong’s key liaison, and Ha-eun, who had once trained under him.
Each individual circumstance could be dismissed as coincidence, but when this many coincidences overlapped, suspicion was inevitable.
“…Tch.”
The figure of Cheon Sang-gil lying on the ground—or rather, someone wearing his face—swallowed hard.
The creature, which had been writhing in apparent agony, lifted its head and twisted its mouth into a sinister grin.
“Even if you’ve discovered my identity, it’s already too late.”
Gurgle, gurgle.
In an instant, its face began to distort and shift through dozens of different visages like clay being molded.
Soon, its entire body transformed into a creature of black viscous liquid.
It resembled the silhouette of a criminal from a detective show—a formless, shadowy entity.
I narrowed my eyes, studying the creature composed of black slime.
The moment I saw its form, a single name flashed through my mind.
‘Doppelgänger.’
A monster with the ability to freely alter its appearance.
There were only rumors of such a creature existing in the Demon Realm—it had never once been discovered on Earth.
‘Now that I think about it, I obtained Transformation in Sokcho as well.’
The ability I’d gained from Choi Jong-chul when he transformed into a demonic beast was Transformation itself.
Could there be some connection to the Doppelgänger?
Unable to find answers to the questions swirling in my mind, the Doppelgänger, now wearing a form of black slime, bared its pristine white teeth and spoke.
“Now that you’ve come here… you will die by ‘that one’s’ hand.”
The Doppelgänger, having uttered its ominous warning, quickly scrambled to its feet and began to flee.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Huh!”
Isabella appeared before the Doppelgänger in an instant, her eyes cold and sharp as frost as she glared at it.
Small drops of blood gathered at her pale fingertips and fell to the ground.
“Kwon O-jin hasn’t finished speaking yet.”
Splash, splash, splash!
The blood droplets that fell to the ground formed a small pool.
Crimson chains erupted from the pool, coiling around the fleeing Doppelgänger’s body.
“Ugh! Let go, let go!”
The Doppelgänger thrashed in panic.
Isabella approached with unhurried steps.
“Damn it…!”
The Doppelgänger spat a curse as its body began to shift with a gurgling sound.
It transformed into my appearance.
Wearing my face, it gazed at Isabella with tender eyes and opened its mouth.
“Isabella. Surely you’re not going to attack me?”
It was a unique power possessed only by the Doppelgänger—the ability to read the desires of others and transform into the person most precious to them.
The sense humans relied on most was sight.
Even if my mind knew it wasn’t real, the moment a being with the exact same face and voice as the person I loved most appeared before my eyes, I couldn’t help but be momentarily flustered—
“What exactly are you doing right now?”
A voice that had dropped to a low, dangerous register.
The bright blue eyes that had gleamed with radiance contracted, darkening like the vacant gaze of a doll stripped of all emotion.
“…Huh?”
The Doppelgänger trembled violently, sensing a suffocating, horrific killing intent.
Crack!
Isabella, now wearing Kwon O-jin’s form, drove her fingers into the transformed Doppelgänger’s collarbone.
Flesh tore open as black viscous fluid gushed out in torrents.
“I asked what you think you’re doing.”
“Aaahhhhh! Gaaahhh!! Uuuaaahhh!”
Crack, crack-crack-crack! Crack!
She gouged at the collarbone with brutal ferocity, as if hollowing out the flesh of fruit.
Accompanied by the sickening sound of bone splintering, a harrowing scream erupted from the Doppelgänger’s mouth.
“Not just anyone… how dare you, how dare you, how dare you… mimic Kwon O-jin?”
Isabella methodically dismantled the Doppelgänger wearing Kwon O-jin’s form, her voice dripping with lethal intent.
She tore out the clavicle, severed the muscle and fat beneath it, then twisted and wrenched free the scapula connected to the collarbone.
“Kugh! Krrrgh! Krrgh!”
With each brutal dismemberment, the Doppelgänger rolled its eyes back, frothing white foam from its mouth.
Just as Isabella seized the thrashing Doppelgänger’s arm and tore it free, then drove her fingers into the opposite collarbone—
“Wait a moment.”
Kwon O-jin grasped Isabella’s shoulder.
The light returned to her eyes, and a radiant smile bloomed across her lips.
“Yes, Kwon O-jin!”
The innocent, guileless smile of someone who, mere moments before, had been mercilessly crushing bone and tearing flesh without a shred of mercy.
A single drop of black blood that had splattered onto her cheek rolled down along the curve of her smile.
“…Is she actually okay?”
Ha-eun whispered in a horrified tone.
Kwon O-jin nodded reassuringly.
No matter how sharp fangs were, as long as they weren’t directed at me, what did it matter?
“She’s fine.”
At least to me.
“Ah, ah… ah.”
Kwon O-jin approached the collapsed Doppelgänger.
“Where’s the exit?”
“The exit… doesn’t… exist.”
“Don’t feed me bullshit.”
Crunch!
“Aaahhhhh!!”
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed coldly as he trampled the severed surface of the Doppelgänger’s arm with brutal force.
Where there was a way in, there had to be a way out.
The reason information about the Demon Realm remained less than five percent discovered wasn’t because people couldn’t enter—it was because they chose not to.
“You… here… cannot… survive….”
“Isabella.”
“Yes~ Kwon O-jin!”
“Eeeek! W-wait! Wait just a moment!”
As Isabella approached with a radiant smile blooming across her face, the Doppelgänger’s complexion drained to a sickly pallor.
He trembled violently, unable to meet her gaze, and pointed with quivering fingers toward a towering rock formation.
“If… if you head straight in the direction of that rock, a c-crevice should appear.”
“Is that so?”
Kwon O-jin nodded and brutally stomped down on the Doppelgänger’s legs.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!!”
Both legs were crushed mercilessly, as though caught in an industrial hydraulic press.
“The chains binding Isabella will hold, right?”
“Yes. They should maintain their effect for about a day.”
Kwon O-jin nodded and turned his body toward the direction the Doppelgänger had indicated.
“If you lied to me, you’ll see me again.”
“Kugh… hgh…”
The Doppelgänger writhed like an insect and nodded.
[So my child possesses such a cruel side as well.]
Vega, who sat gripping my hair, spoke in a somewhat shocked voice.
Having witnessed only my heroic moments until now, this darker aspect of me felt rather unfamiliar to her.
I asked with a slightly stung expression.
“Are you disappointed?”
[Not at all. To save the world, one must sometimes harbor poison in their heart. Do not concern yourself.]
Vega shook her head and extended her small hand to stroke my hair.
A ticklish sensation, like brushing feathers.
I smirked slightly and moved my steps toward the rock the Doppelgänger had indicated.
As I walked slowly toward the rock formation.
“Kwon O-jin… over there.”
Isabella squinted and glanced to one side.
“What is it?”
“I smell blood.”
And it was very strong.
“…Let’s go.”
“I’ll take the lead, Kwon O-jin.”
Isabella walked ahead protectively, shielding me.
After walking for nearly twenty minutes—the distance was considerable—we finally arrived at the location she had mentioned.
A small clearing formed between towering rock formations.
Within it lay hundreds of corpses scattered across the ground.
“What the hell is this…?”
“They’re from the Cheonhye Guild.”
Kwon O-jin squinted as he examined the corpses.
Bodies torn apart violently, crushed beyond recognition.
As if they had been sucked into industrial machinery, the state of the corpses was utterly gruesome.
[It seems like they were trying to protect something.]
Vega, gazing at the scattered bodies with sorrowful eyes, finally spoke.
True to her words, the condition of the corpses suggested they had died defending something precious from an intruder.
Kwon O-jin nodded and found what the Cheonhye Guild members had sacrificed their lives to protect.
“O-jin! I think it’s here!”
Ha-eun pointed to a narrow crevice formed between the rocks.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted around her, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
A narrow gap between rocks.
What lay within was…
“G-Grandfather…!”
It was Cheon Sang-gil’s corpse, lying dead with his left chest completely hollowed out.
Enough time had passed since his death that the stench of decay emanated from the body.
“…”
Kwon O-jin gazed down at Cheon Sang-gil’s corpse and slowly closed his eyes.
I had anticipated this when the Doppelgänger appeared in Cheon Sang-gil’s form.
But seeing the corpse directly like this made my heart heavy.
‘I hadn’t caught the serpent’s tail.’
I had.
Caught the serpent’s head instead of its tail.
And it was the head of a serpent with particularly vicious fangs.
Rumble!
The entire Rocky Area trembled with a thunderous roar.
Kwon O-jin bit his lip firmly and raised his spear.
“They’re coming.”
Hundreds of demonic beasts leaped down from the towering rocks above.

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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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