Not A Regressor - Chapter 333

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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 333
Treasure Hunt (12)
Crunch, crunch.
Fragments of gold disappeared into Deimos’s mouth like he was crushing hard candy.
Muscles and flesh grotesquely swollen to unnatural proportions.
A horrifying visage that seemed to embody the very word “greed.”
“Huh, huuuh.”
Eyes glazed over as if intoxicated by a drug.
Viscous saliva dripped from his gaping maw.
“More, more… I need more treasure.”
His eyes, gleaming with madness, fixed upon Baek Moo-gang.
What he gazed upon was the sword gripped in Baek Moo-gang’s hand.
The blade Kwon O-jin had casually tossed was merely one among his collection of hundreds, perhaps thousands of legendary swords.
“My treasure… how dare you…!”
Crack! Snap!
With the sound of bones twisting, his grotesquely bloated form—several meters in size—lurched forward.
A hideous shriek born of greed and madness tore through the air.
“How dare you covet the treasures of Deimos!”
Not a single treasure could be surrendered.
Not a single piece of gold could be given away.
Every treasure in the world must become his flesh, his bone, his blood.
Because.
-Are you hungry?
A voice echoed through his mind.
A distant past—a young man approaching him as he lay starving in the darkness of a mine tunnel.
I recall those eyes, sunken like an abyss, and the fierce blue flames burning within them.
-Would you like me to show you a way to never be hungry again?
He whispered with unparalleled tenderness.
He promised with unparalleled kindness.
-This is the refined form of the stone you’ve been mining every day. We call it gold.
Ah.
How could I ever forget?
The brilliant golden radiance that illuminated the dark, dreary mine tunnel.
Its beauty was so breathtaking it brought tears to my eyes.
-Isn’t it strange? You mine gold while enduring the pain of your body breaking apart, yet you’ve never even seen gold until now.
It was strange.
It was irrational.
It was absurd.
-There’s a way for you to possess all this gold… would you like to know?
It was a proposal sweet enough to melt away all reason.
I had no choice but to reflexively shake my head.
The statement was so absurd that I thought he was lying.
Hahaha.
The young man laughed with a clear voice, his expression radiant.
-I have never lied. Not once.
Kuuuuuung!
A tremendous impact shook the interior of the Treasure Vault.
“Grrrrrrr!”
Deimos unleashed a guttural roar and swung his holy sword toward Baek Moo-gang.
Kwazazazazazak!
A torrent of white flames engulfed the surroundings and crashed down upon Baek Moo-gang.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Sir!”
Baek Moo-gang’s entire body, swept up in the white flames, began to blacken and necrotize.
Kwon O-jin urgently pushed off the ground and rushed forward, throwing his fist against the cascading white flames.
Blue lightning poured from the Thunder God’s arm, deflecting the white flames.
“Vega! Grant me your blessing!”
[Understood!]
Brilliant silver radiance seeped into Kwon O-jin’s body.
The holy mark inscribed on his left chest blazed with fierce light.
“Hnngh!”
I condensed the surging mana into my right arm.
My arm drawn back as if drawing a bowstring.
I stomped the ground roughly and drove my fist forward.
━━━━━━━!
A torrent of lightning that consumed even sound itself engulfed Deimos’s body.
“It’s… useless!”
Deimos took the full force of the lightning torrent head-on and rammed Kwon O-jin with his massive body.
“Cough!”
The impact of being struck by a dump truck.
Kwon O-jin spat blood and was sent flying backward.
“Don’t… hurt a good person!”
Baek Moo-gang cried out through gritted teeth, swinging his sword.
Despite wounds so severe that his entire body had turned blackened,
the holy mark’s power contained within his sword bore an even sharper, biting chill.
Zzzzzzzzzzzt!
The ground froze along the path of his horizontal slash.
The frigid sword energy carved through Deimos’s grotesquely bloated body.
“Krrrrr!”
From collarbone to pelvis.
A massive sword slash tore across Deimos’s body, so deep that his internal organs were visible through the wound.
Splurch, splurch!
He shoved a handful of gold into his mouth, and the gaping flesh knitted itself back together in an instant.
“Hgh.”
With his wound healed, Deimos brutally swatted away the charging Baek Moo-gang.
Boom!
The heavy impact sent Baek Moo-gang’s body crashing into the wall.
“Ugh, ah.”
The sword that had been gripped in Baek Moo-gang’s hand clattered to the floor, rolling to Deimos’s feet.
Deimos picked up the fallen blade and opened his mouth wide with a grin.
Crunch, crunch!
Having devoured the sword whole, Deimos walked slowly toward the fallen Baek Moo-gang.
“Do you wish to reclaim your holy sword?”
He waved Deneb’s holy blade playfully in his hand, taunting him.
“My… treasure… give… it back!”
Baek Moo-gang crawled desperately across the floor, reaching his hand toward the holy sword.
Deimos raised his massive foot and stomped down on Baek Moo-gang’s arm.
“Aaaahhh!”
Crack!
With the sound of bone shattering, Baek Moo-gang’s arm bent at a grotesque angle.
“It hurts… my arm, it hurts.”
Baek Moo-gang curled into a ball like a shrimp, clutching his broken arm.
“Will you still not surrender?”
“….”
Without answering, he unsteadily pushed himself to his feet.
He was so battered that it would have been no surprise if he collapsed at any moment.
“The treasure… it’s precious.”
Yet within his weathered eyes, his gaze burned with unwavering resolve.
“I… must find the treasure.”
Baek Moo-gang stared intently at the pristine white blade held in Deimos’s hand as he spoke.
“Ha.”
At the sight of that unflinching gaze, Deimos let out a hollow laugh.
“Then what will you do if I devour your treasure?”
Gape.
Deimos brought Deneb’s holy sword before his gaping maw.
“No, don’t!”
Baek Moo-gang cried out desperately and threw himself at Deimos.
Thud!
Kicked once more, Baek Moo-gang tumbled pathetically across the floor.
Deimos looked down at Baek Moo-gang rolling on the ground with cold eyes and opened his mouth slightly.
“Treasure belongs to the strong.”
It always has.
From the narrow, suffocating mine tunnels.
Always.
“You have no right to possess this treasure.”
“….”
Baek Moo-gang’s pupils trembled at those words—that he had no right to possess the treasure.
He clenched his weathered jaw and forced his tattered body upright.
“I… know.”
From the moment I first received the treasure.
I’ve always known I had no right to possess it.
Because I was a fool.
A worthless wretch who could do nothing alone.
But.
But.
But.
“It’s… something precious that someone… gave me.”
Never.
“I won’t… let go of this treasure!”
I couldn’t abandon it.
“Uuuuaaaaaaah!”
I roared and charged at Deimos with bare fists.
The weapons scattered across the ground were swept away by the tidal wave of lightning and shattered to pieces, and even the black sword Kwon O-jin had given me was devoured by Deimos.
Whoooooosh!
The stigma of Cygnus Constellation blazed with brilliant light, blooming snowflakes into the void.
Pure white snowflakes gathered and took the form of a single blade.
A sword of snowflakes that felt even more noble than Deneb’s holy sword.
The Sword of White Snow was swung toward Deimos.
Crash!
A tidal wave of snowflowers engulfed Deimos.
“I told you it’s useless!”
White flames erupted from the holy sword, colliding with the snowflower torrent.
“Ugh!”
“Aaaah!”
The impact created by the collision of snowflowers and white flames crashed down upon both Deimos and Baek Moo-gang.
The impact was severe enough to inflict critical wounds on both of them.
“Heh, hehehehe!”
Deimos greedily devoured the gold and regenerated his wounds once more.
The wounds were too severe for complete regeneration, but his condition was far better than Baek Moo-gang’s battered form.
With his grotesquely swollen hand, he seized Baek Moo-gang’s body.
“Aaagh! Ah, ugh.”
Crack, crunch!
A crushing pressure like a high-pressure press bore down mercilessly on Baek Moo-gang’s body, and anguished moans spilled from his lips.
Deimos’s mouth twisted upward into a savage snarl.
“No matter how much you struggle.”
His eyes blazing with madness, he poured more force into the arm gripping Baek Moo-gang and bellowed.
“The treasure is mine….”
“Hey.”
“…!”
Deimos’s eyes widened as he whirled around.
So consumed by his battle with Baek Moo-gang that I’d completely slipped his mind, I now stood directly behind him.
“Come on, you’re really going to ignore me like that?”
Thwack!
A black spear pierced through Deimos’s back.
“Cough!”
Deimos staggered, coughing blood.
Following Baek Moo-gang’s attack, he’d suffered another fatal wound before his body could fully regenerate—even a Demon bearing the title of “Grand Duke” couldn’t walk away unscathed.
“Graaaah!”
Impaled on the spear, Deimos desperately crawled across the floor, stretching his hand toward the gold.
Clang!
Six strands of wire seized his arm.
“Ah, aah. Mine, mine….”
“It’s not yours, you bastard.”
I walked toward Deimos.
‘I have to finish this now.’
The Treasure Vault still brimmed with gold and treasures that could serve as sustenance for Deimos’s regeneration.
I had to send him down in one final blow, ensuring he could never rebuild his body again.
[My, my child! If you expend any more mana, it will be dangerous!]
Vega’s urgent warning reached me.
True to her warning, my own body was in a precarious state as well.
‘I’ve maintained the Cerebral Form for far too long.’
I’d been sustaining the Cerebral Form—something I could normally maintain for at most thirty seconds, perhaps a minute at most—for over five minutes now.
No matter how much Vega’s blessing protected me, maintaining the Cerebral Form any longer was dangerous.
But.
-A precious, person… gave, it to me.
The image of Baek Moo-gang struggling to his feet in his tattered form flashed through my mind.
I laughed softly and drew my mana to its limit.
“Graaaah!”
Perhaps from using mana so excessively.
A searing pain, like a branding iron scorching flesh, radiated from the stigma engraved on my left chest.
[Stop! Stop this! No more…!]
“Because it’s precious to me.”
Precious enough to endure alone for years in the distant Demon Realm, searching desperately.
Precious enough not to abandon it even as my skin died and my arms shattered and broke.
“I understand that feeling.”
Not like Baek Moo-gang’s treasure, a mere object.
I too have a treasure I wish to protect.
Even if it means trading everything in this world for it.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle!
My right arm, transformed into a neural body, erupted in brilliant blue lightning.
‘If one arm isn’t enough.’
With both arms converted to neural bodies, I interlaced my fingers and brought my hands together.
Like swinging down a hammer, I drove my clasped hands downward.
“Krraaaaaaaahhhhh!”
A torrent of blue lightning engulfed Deimos’s entire body.
“Ah, ugh.”
Deimos’s grotesquely bloated form shrank back to his original shape.
I seized Deneb’s holy sword from Deimos’s fallen hand.
“Heh, heheheh. Heheheheheh.”
Deimos let out a sinister laugh and turned his head toward me.
“Struggle… all you wish.”
The light gradually faded from Deimos’s eyes.
“Soon now… that one… will awaken….”
His faltering voice trailed off before he could finish.
“….”
After staring down at Deimos in silence for a moment, I turned toward Baek Moo-gang.
“Here is the treasure you were searching for.”
I handed Deneb’s holy sword to Baek Moo-gang.
“Ah, ah.”
Baek Moo-gang accepted the holy sword and trembled, his shoulders quivering.
He carefully caressed the area near the sword’s hilt.
Click.
Grasping the bottom of the hilt and twisting it, a small compartment was revealed inside.
And then.
Clang!
The holy sword clattered to the floor.
“What…?”
“Heh, heheheh.”
Baek Moo-gang held something in his hand, withdrawn from the hilt, and wore a radiant smile.
Square-shaped and light.
A worn, grimy envelope.
“Sir, that’s….”
“My Grandmother wrote me a letter before she passed. I’m an idiot, so I kept it inside my sword’s hilt so I wouldn’t lose it.”
“….”
Baek Moo-gang held the envelope, stained with fingerprints, and smiled brightly.
“This is my treasure.”
A gift from someone precious.
I embrace my one and only treasure against my chest.
“I’m sorry… Grandmother.”
I remember the day she died.
I remember the day I failed to save her.
I remember.
I recall.
-I’m sick of dumplings! I won’t eat them!
The sad eyes watching me throw a tantrum.
The hard calluses embedded in her wrinkled hands as she gently stroked my back to console me.
Her lonely silhouette heading to work, dragging her aching body forward.
“I’m so… sorry for finding you so late….”
I curl my body as I clutch the envelope.
I sob and whisper endlessly.
I’m sorry for making you wait.
I’m sorry for being an idiot.
I’m sorry for complaining about the side dishes.
I’m sorry for making your life harder.
I’m sorry for failing to protect you.
I’m sorry for not making you happy.
“For letting me… meet you….”
I’m sorry.

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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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