Not A Regressor - Chapter 47

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 47
Subjugation of Demon (3)
‘What is this?’
Kwon O-jin narrowed his eyes in confusion, turning to look at Choi Jong-chul and Park Jung-woo.
Besides those two, there was also a bald man with a scorpion tattoo on his head.
It seemed those three formed one team of the Subjugation Squad.
‘This doesn’t seem like a coincidence.’
Kwon O-jin opened his eyes narrowly.
The bald man’s scorpion tattoo was one that members of the Pandinius Guild commonly inscribed on their bodies.
And.
That same tattoo was also etched on the back of Choi Jong-chul’s neck.
‘So that’s how it is.’
I could roughly grasp the situation.
‘He must have left the Starlight Lake Guild and joined Pandinius.’
If that were the case, it made sense why Park Jung-woo and Choi Jong-chul were together.
“Huh? Why so quiet? We haven’t seen each other in ages, and you’re making me feel unwelcome.”
Choi Jong-chul grinned with a sly smile.
Kwon O-jin shrugged and chuckled.
“No, I’m just surprised. What happened with the Starlight Lake Guild? How did you end up joining Pandinius?”
“…You’re asking me that?”
Choi Jong-chul’s expression twisted savagely.
Crunch.
He clenched his fists roughly.
“Didn’t you promise me back then? That you wouldn’t say a word to the Guild Master?”
“Oh, that?”
Well, of course.
“It was a lie.”
….
Tremor.
Choi Jong-chul shook, grinding his lips roughly.
“Ha ha. Because of you… I lost everything.”
He was expelled from the Guild for violating Guild regulations and picking a fight with an Apostle of the Weaver Star.
And that wasn’t all.
As a penalty, all the money he’d saved, sacred relics, and sacred stones were seized.
“That’s quite unfortunate.”
As if it had nothing to do with him at all.
He spoke with an unbothered smile.
“Ha, ha ha!! Well, not entirely.”
Choi Jong-chul stroked the scorpion tattoo etched on his neck and laughed with a bitter edge.
“Thanks to you, I was able to find an even better nest.”
“Not Scorpio, yet it slipped right in.”
“Hehe. Aquarius stigmas are in high demand, after all.”
True enough.
Aquarius, boasting unparalleled performance among healer-class constellations, was welcomed wherever it went.
“Well━ though these days it’s not just Aquarius anymore.”
With a meaningful expression, I licked my lips.
“That so? Good to hear.”
I was curious what that remark meant, but I didn’t bother asking.
There was no way they’d answer honestly anyway.
“So if business is done, why don’t you get lost now?”
“Haha! Yes, of course. We have things to attend to as well.”
Choi Jong-chul licked his lips with his tongue extended long.
“What? You’re ending it like this?!”
Park Jung-woo erupted, demanding to know what I was talking about.
“Right now, that bastard’s neck━!”
Choi Jong-chul grabbed the shoulder of the enraged man approaching.
“Hehe. Calm yourself, Jung-woo.”
With his characteristic sly smile, he glanced over at me.
“There’s no need to get so worked up… you’ll get to see something amusing soon enough.”
Tee-hee-hee.
His shoulders trembled as he laughed.
“….”
Kwon O-jin stared at Choi Jong-chul with deeply sunken eyes.
“Well then, let’s look forward to our next reunion.”
Choi Jong-chul twisted his mouth into a smirk and turned his body.
I thought he was leaving, but.
“Hehe. Was it Ha-eun?”
He suddenly changed direction and began walking toward Ha-eun.
“The eye patch suits you so well.”
His sticky gaze swept from the top of Ha-eun’s head to her feet.
Greedy desire gleamed in his raised lips.
“Huh?”
Smack.
Ha-eun’s expression twisted as if she’d discovered a half-crushed cockroach while eating a hamburger.
“What are you pulling?”
Ha-eun suddenly thrust her left foot upward in a surprise attack.
Whoosh!
Drawing a smooth arc, she kicked between Choi Jong-chul’s legs.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
Choi Jong-chul’s eyes bulged wide as his body twisted into a pigeon-toed stance.
‘Ouch.’
That’s going to hurt quite a bit.
“Kya-ack~ Ptui! A pathetic little thing no bigger than an ant’s fur dares to mouth off at me.”
Do ants even have fur?
More importantly, what does it even mean to be the size of an ant’s fur?
“Ugh… hnngh.”
Choi Jong-chul trembled violently, his teeth grinding against his lips.
He glared at Ha-eun with murderous eyes and clenched his fists.
“Let’s see how long you can keep smiling like that.”
With those final words, Choi Jong-chul spun around and walked toward Sokcho Downtown.
“Heng!”
Ha-eun raised her middle finger at Choi Jong-chul’s retreating back.
“…Ha.”
Kwon O-jin watched Choi Jong-chul’s receding figure and let out a hollow laugh.
‘I’m going to see something entertaining soon, aren’t I?’
Regardless of anything else, I could tell that Choi Jong-chul was seriously an idiot.
“Making such reckless threats.”
Did he really think I was some fool from a 90s shounen manga who would patiently wait until later? What a delusion.
He was sorely mistaken.
‘Let’s not wait until later—let’s meet right now.’
I wonder if he’d say the same thing then.
I smirked and activated the Canis Major stigma.
Through my explosively heightened sense of smell, I committed Choi Jong-chul’s scent to memory.
‘Actually, this works out perfectly.’
I stuck out my tongue and licked my lips.
The stigma Choi Jong-chul possessed was definitely an Aquarius stigma.
It was a stigma I’d been wanting to get my hands on for some time anyway.
“Ugh. That weird bastard just ruined my mood.”
Ha-eun frowned in displeasure.
“O-jin! Let’s hurry up and hunt down some demons and collect the bounty!”
She tugged at my arm and shouted.
“Sure.”
Heh.
I lifted the corners of my mouth into a smile.
I leisurely made my way toward the downtown area, where ash-colored smoke was rising.
‘I’ve got more prey to hunt than just demons now.’
Of course, I had no intention of stopping with just Choi Jong-chul.
The Bald Man and Park Jung-woo who were with him too.
It was best to eliminate all potential seeds of discord beforehand.
‘Things are getting complicated with the Pandinius Guild.’
Killing those three would mean antagonizing a top-ten Guild, but I didn’t care.
“Casualties during subjugation operations are inevitable, after all.”
I gazed at the city teeming with demonic beasts, wearing a bloodstained smile.
* * *
Boom!
“Grrrraaahhh!!!”
From the gaps between the rubble of collapsed buildings.
A demonic beast that had been hiding burst into the air with a savage roar.
It was roughly two meters in size.
Its upper body resembled a human, but its entire lower half was composed of serpentine coils—a chimeric abomination.
“Kraaaack!”
The demonic beast slithered forward and unhinged its maw.
Its jaw split into four segments, revealing rows of razor-sharp fangs.
“Hgh!”
Thud!
Park Chang-hyun intercepted the charging beast with an enormous shield.
The impact reverberated through his arms with tremendous force.
“Hngh!”
Screech, screech, screech!
The demonic beast’s strength was so overwhelming that even Park Chang-hyun, bearing the stigma of Taurus, was driven backward.
“Kwon O-jin!”
“Yes!”
While Park Chang-hyun held the line, Kwon O-jin pushed off and launched into the air.
Twang!
The wire shot from the wire shooter latched onto the steel framework, propelling Kwon O-jin’s body skyward.
“Hah.”
A sharp intake of breath.
‘Lightning Strike.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
I drive the spear downward with full force!
“Screeeeeee!!!”
The demonic beast convulsed violently, its shoulder pierced through by the silver spear, shrieking in agony.
Whoosh!
The long serpentine tail that formed its lower half lashed out like a whip.
“As expected, it won’t die in one hit.”
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue lightly and twisted the silver spear free.
Zing!
Channeling mana into the wire shooter, his body rocketed back into the air with a sharp whistle.
“Leave the finishing blow to me!”
Whoooosh!
Hiding in the rubble and waiting for an opening, Ha-eun flicked her finger toward the demon beast.
Crimson flames, like the breath of a dragon, swirled and engulfed the creature.
“Craaaaaack!!”
The demon beast, writhing against the clinging flames, soon turned and began to flee.
“What? It’s running again!!”
Ha-eun pointed at the fleeing demon beast and shouted.
“Kwon O-jin!”
“I see it.”
Kwon O-jin, suspended in the air using wires, extended his right arm toward the fleeing demon beast.
Twang! Twang! Twang!
Three strands of wire shot out and tangled around the demon beast’s body.
‘Thunder Burst.’
Crackle!!
“Screeeeeech!!”
Blue lightning coursed through the wires, consuming the demon beast’s body.
Thud!
The demon beast, now completely motionless, collapsed to the ground.
“Phew~ Each one of these is no joke.”
Park Chang-hyun wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“At minimum 5-star… no, almost 6-star level.”
Kwon O-jin examined the demon beast’s corpse as he spoke.
‘Considering the demon beast’s characteristics, it’s probably 4-star, or maybe 5-star.’
Mutant monsters—demon beasts—possessed far greater power than ordinary monsters of the same rank, so if graded by ‘star’ classification, they would likely rank lower than expected.
“Haha! Still, our party’s balance is good, so it’s not too difficult to handle!”
Park Chang-hyun broke into a good-natured laugh and raised his shield with a flourish.
Kwon O-jin nodded.
‘The balance is certainly solid.’
Park Chang-hyun holding the line steadily at the front, myself able to move freely between close and ranged combat, and Ha-eun with her powerful ranged firepower.
It was a near-perfect composition—except for the lack of a healer.
‘Thanks to that, stamina consumption is minimal.’
I could have handled several demon beasts on my own, but doing so would have exhausted my stamina reserves quickly.
“The only downside is the loot is pretty pathetic for the difficulty of taking these things down.”
Ha-eun extracted a small black essence stone, no larger than a bottle cap, embedded in the center of the demon beast’s forehead and clicked her tongue.
As she said, the demon beast’s essence stone was inferior in both size and quality relative to the difficulty it posed.
“Haha. Still, the bounty should be quite generous, and besides…”
Park Chang-hyun smiled brightly and struck the shield in his hand against the ground with a bang.
“This is for the Sokcho residents who are trembling in fear right now—not for money! Isn’t that right, Kwon O-jin?”
“…Ah, yes. Of course.”
“Haha! I was truly impressed seeing you refuse that interview earlier! That’s what an Awakener should be like!”
Kwon O-jin smiled wryly and nodded.
Truthfully, whether the residents of Sokcho trembled in anxiety or not was of little concern to me.
‘It would be nice if they simply assumed that on their own.’
In any case, the subjugation of the demonic beasts was proceeding remarkably smoothly.
But.
‘These creatures… something feels off.’
Kwon O-jin narrowed his eyes as he gazed down at the corpse of the demonic beast.
It was the same last time, and it was the same this time.
Every time they hunted a demonic beast, they would turn and flee at the end.
‘That much doesn’t matter.’
No matter how ferocious a demonic beast was, as a living creature, it was natural for it to flee when its life was in danger.
The problem was.
‘They all flee in the same direction.’
Could it truly be that every demonic beast fled in the ‘same direction’ when their lives hung by a thread?
“Hmm.”
Kwon O-jin fell into thought, arms crossed.
I wanted to call Vega and ask her about it, but with Park Chang-hyun present, I felt reluctant to summon her.
As I continued to ponder.
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!”
A anguished scream echoed from far away.
“Huh?”
“That voice…?”
Ha-eun and Park Chang-hyun turned their heads simultaneously.
Before they could move.
-Boom!!
“Kugh!!”
Kwon O-jin kicked off the ground violently and sprinted toward the source of the scream.
‘That scream just now.’
That voice was unmistakably.
“Hack! Cough! Cough! Cough!”
Upon arriving at the source of the scream, I found Park Jung-woo collapsed with a massive wound across his chest.
‘As I suspected.’
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed sharply.
I turned to confirm Park Chang-hyun’s location.
‘There’s not much time.’
Then.
“Are you alright!!!”
Kwon O-jin rushed urgently toward Park Jung-woo.
“Hack… Ugh!”
Park Jung-woo nodded faintly, pressing his hand against the wound on his chest.
“Who would do such a thing…!”
“A demon… I was attacked by a demon… *cough*!”
Park Jung-woo spat blood.
“Get a grip!!!”
Kwon O-jin seized Park Jung-woo by the collar and shook him violently back and forth.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Park Jung-woo’s head swayed as it hammered against the wall like a mallet.
“Ugh! I, I’m fine now….”
“You’re bleeding this much and you say you’re fine?!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
He shook harder, gripping the collar with greater force.
Blood streamed down from Park Jung-woo’s head.
‘This can’t be…!’
Did the demon attack his head too?!
“Aaah! No! W-wait! Aaah!”
I felt Park Jung-woo thrashing desperately.
“Kwon O-jin! What’s happening?!”
Chang-hyun, who had rushed over belatedly, was approaching us.
“Jung-woo! Please, come to your senses!!!!”
“Cough! Hack! Damn it! Damn it!!”
“Why is this happening?! Why?!”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Blood pouring from his head drenched Park Jung-woo’s body.
The wounds from the demon were getting worse.
“No, this can’t be!!!”
With an urgent cry.
Crunch.
A sickening sound of something breaking echoed.
“O-Kwon O-jin, this is….”
Park Chang-hyun, who arrived moments later, trembled as he gazed down at Park Jung-woo’s bloodied, collapsed form.
“….”
Kwon O-jin turned his head, his face drained of all color.
“He’s… dead.”
No warmth remained in Park Jung-woo’s limp body.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————