Not A Regressor - Chapter 63

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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 63
Heavy Rain (5)
Thud, thud.
The sound of footsteps echoing across the floor reverberated one last time.
‘It’s not just one.’
The footsteps I heard from above weren’t from a single person.
At least five.
Or perhaps more than ten.
‘Should I go up and fight?’
I had confidence in my abilities.
Not arrogant bluster, but objective reality.
The stigma of Lyra Constellation and the Black Heaven, along with my innate talent for wielding stigmas.
It was an undeniable fact that I possessed power far beyond that of an ordinary 4-star Awakener.
But.
‘Something feels wrong.’
Through my sense of smell, heightened to an extreme by the Canis Major stigma, a thick wave of magical energy flowed in.
The scent was so overwhelming I worried my nose might go numb—it was on an entirely different level from the stench that had emanated from the three Owls I’d just eliminated.
My proficiency with the Canis Major stigma wasn’t particularly high.
But I could clearly tell that this was an opponent I couldn’t handle.
‘Who is it?’
Ashad Khan?
Another Executor?
If not that.
‘…No, it’s not Cheon Do-yoon.’
If it were someone of that caliber, I wouldn’t even be able to sense them with the Canis Major stigma.
My head would be flying before I could even feel their presence.
‘I’ll run for now.’
Whoever it was.
They were an opponent I couldn’t afford to face.
“Don’t make a sound and follow me.”
I muttered in a low voice.
I felt Jang Seok-ho nod in response.
Whoosh, whoosh.
I crawled slowly across the floor in a prone position.
I moved gradually toward the lower level.
First, I needed to put as much distance as possible between us and them.
‘A building with three basement levels should have a ventilation shaft, right?’
My plan was to descend to Basement Level 3 and escape through the ventilation shaft.
It was the kind of method you’d see in heist action movies, but it was the only realistic way to slip away without being noticed.
“Did you see where the ventilation shaft is on this level?”
“Ah, no. I didn’t see it.”
That made sense.
He’d been too frantic searching for his son to notice where the ventilation shaft was located.
“Take your time. Come down without making a sound.”
Jang Seok-ho nodded and removed his shoes.
He descended carefully, his socked feet treading softly on each step.
Basement Level 3, where we arrived, was crammed with corroded air conditioning units stacked like forgotten relics in an abandoned warehouse.
‘Damn it.’
One careless touch and the whole pile would come crashing down.
Carefully.
I moved with utmost caution, searching for the ventilation shaft.
Then.
—Crash! Boom!!
‘Goddammit!!!’
An air conditioning unit in the corner suddenly collapsed.
Neither I nor Jang Seok-ho had touched it.
It simply gave way on its own.
Probably something Jang Seok-ho had disturbed during his initial search of the third level, finally giving way now.
‘Just my rotten luck.’
Like breaking my nose after falling backward.
“Hide nearby.”
I raised my window.
It would be far too optimistic to think they wouldn’t come down to the third level after hearing that commotion.
Escape was out of the question—we’d have to fight.
But.
“….”
No matter how long I waited, I detected no sign of them descending the stairs.
“…What’s this?”
Why weren’t these bastards coming down?
“Um, what’s happening?”
Jang Seok-ho approached and asked.
They should have come down after hearing that noise, yet they remained completely still in their original position.
“….”
A bad feeling washed over me.
‘The fact that they’re not coming down even now….’
Could it be.
“Damn it!!”
I grabbed Jang Seok-ho by the shoulder and rushed toward the stairs.
“W-What’s wrong?!”
“Shut up and follow me!!!”
I rushed up the stairs desperately.
But before I could even reach the second floor.
—KUUUUUUUUNG!!!!
The surroundings trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
Crack! Crackle!
I watched the staircase shatter and collapse.
Kwon O-jin bit his lip harshly.
My premonition had been correct.
‘These bastards!’
From the start, they never intended to come back down.
Their plan was to collapse the entire factory and bury us alive within it.
‘I need to escape—’
Before the thought could even finish.
—KWAAAAAAABOOM!!!!!
A second explosion erupted.
A gray waterfall of concrete and rebar crashed down over Kwon O-jin and Jang Seok-ho.
“Ugh!”
Crackle!!!
I hastily erected a wall of lightning.
Hundreds, thousands of tons of earth and sand collided against the lightning barrier and were repelled.
But that was only temporary.
—Boom! Kaboom!
“Grrgh!”
Explosions detonated within the cascading debris.
Third, fourth, fifth.
Relentless explosions erupting in succession.
‘Damn it!’
Did they load an entire truckful of bombs and detonate them?
And these weren’t ordinary explosives either.
The shockwaves penetrating through the earth carried unmistakable traces of mana.
The power was incomparably greater than any conventional explosion, proportional to the mana expended.
The lightning wall I’d created cracked with a sharp sound.
—KUUUUUUNG!!
The lightning barrier shattered into fragments as a gray tidal wave consumed everything around it.
My body, robbed of solid ground, plummeted endlessly downward.
A dizzying impact lashed across my entire being.
For roughly thirty seconds.
The explosions that seemed eternal finally ceased.
“Grrgh!!”
Kwon O-jin clawed through the debris covering his body and broke free to the surface.
Grit and sand forced their way into my mouth, grinding unpleasantly between my teeth.
“Ptui!!!”
I turned my head and surveyed the surroundings.
‘Insane.’
The entire expanse of land spanning roughly two hundred meters around the Factory had collapsed.
A massive crater had formed where the Factory once stood, as if a meteor had fallen from the sky.
“Ah… ugh.”
Then came a faint groan.
It was Jang Seok-ho’s voice.
“Where are you?!”
Kwon O-jin rushed urgently toward the sound of the groaning.
Between concrete and concrete.
I could see Jang Seok-ho’s body.
“Hngh!”
Crack!
I lifted the massive concrete slab with my bare hands.
Jang Seok-ho’s form, collapsed beneath it, was revealed.
“Ah….”
Both legs crushed beyond recognition.
A sharp steel rebar pierced through his abdomen, and where his eyes should have been, they were filled with fragments of stone.
━He cannot be saved.
Even if he still clung to life by a thread, it was far too late to do anything.
He would.
Soon.
Die.
“O, O-jin. Are… are you… alright?”
He asked in a voice so faint it seemed ready to break.
I looked down at the bracelet adorning my wrist.
Three knots devoid of light.
Before the explosion swept over me, there had been only one knot without light.
“…I’m fine.”
“Ha, haha. Thank… cough! goodness….”
Delirious words.
There was nothing to call “fortunate” about any of this.
“The… information… I promised… to give you… here.”
Jang Seok-ho extended a trembling hand toward me.
In his palm lay a small USB drive.
“….”
Why was he trying to give this to me?
The deal had failed.
Not a single promise had been kept.
I hadn’t saved his son, nor had I even managed to save him.
And yet.
Why.
“Please… I have… one request.”
Stitching together his fractured breaths.
Gasping, struggling.
The desperate plea he’d spat out while grinding his forehead against the floor.
Once more.
“If… if I survive this… find our Hyun-woo… please find him.”
“….”
A sensation like insects crawling across my skin.
My tongue burned as if scorched by flame.
What should I say.
That there’s no need to search.
That your son died long ago.
Should I say that.
“Ha, haha. The kid was… a bit mischievous, you see.”
I didn’t know.
Despite all the countless lies I’d told.
Despite deceiving others as casually as eating.
“He might cause trouble.”
To a father asking me to find and save his already-dead child.
What lie would suffice.
I couldn’t say.
“Still… he’s a good… boy. Please… save him.”
Why should I even care.
I’d already obtained everything I wanted.
No—I’d obtained more than I ever wanted.
I’d gotten useful relics and information for free, so wasn’t that enough.
Now I just needed to promise I’d definitely find his son, then cleanly forget about it all.
Go home.
Act as if nothing happened, flirt with Ha-eun, and go shopping for dinner.
Hadn’t she said she wanted beef.
Since it was getting late, a light hamburger would do just fine.
It was simple.
Nothing difficult about it.
No need to even hesitate.
“….”
Throb, throb.
My head aches.
We met just a few hours ago.
There’s no grand narrative, no meaningful backstory.
It’s simply one of countless misfortunes.
So why.
Why, why, why.
━Why does this feel so damn bitter.
“Oh! Ashad Khan!! This bastard’s alive?”
A glib voice rang out.
“Hiya… surviving that explosion… so the rumors about Noerang were true!”
Noisy.
The ending is always the most important part of a lie.
Don’t interrupt me.
“I’ll handle it and be right back!”
Tap-tap-tap!
The glib voice drew closer.
“Gaaaah━ Cough?!”
I grabbed the rushing man’s head.
-Crack!!
I drove it down toward the protruding rebar.
The rebar pierced through his brow and tore through the back of his skull as it pulled free.
Sticky blood clung between my fingers.
“Shut up and stay quiet.”
I slowly rose to my feet and surveyed the men surrounding me.
“I’m━ thinking right now.”
Within the depths of my dark eyes, a ghostly blue flame flickered to life.
“Thinking, he says.”
Step, step.
A man with bronze-hued skin approached leisurely.
The thick aura I’d sensed when they first entered the factory.
The source of that suffocating magical presence.
‘Ashad Khan.’
The mid-level administrator of the Black Star Society I’d heard about endlessly.
“What are you thinking about? Don’t tell me you’re actually considering a way to escape from here?”
“No.”
I answered firmly.
“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t be thinking about it this long.”
“Hoo. Simple, you say?”
Ashad Khan’s eyes gleamed with intrigue.
He looked me over from top to bottom, arms crossed.
A soft chuckle escaped my lips.
I tilted the corners of my mouth upward slightly as I asked.
“So what were you thinking about so intently?”
“Your mother.”
“…What?”
“When she passed away, she asked me to look after my foolish son. I feel like I’ve broken that promise.”
“….”
Ashad Khan’s eyes narrowed.
A metallic whisper rang out.
He drew forth an elegantly curved scimitar.
“…You are truly despicable.”
I couldn’t understand what he was saying.
But I could tell he was deeply displeased.
“P-please… r-run away. Ashad Khan is… dangerous….”
Jang Seok-ho forced the words out through gritted teeth.
Even though I hadn’t given him an answer yet.
Standing at the edge of his life, he cried out desperately toward a hope that remained unanswered.
-Whoooosh!
I sprayed healing droplets created from the Aquarius stigma onto Jang Seok-ho.
It only prolonged his suffering, nothing more.
“Just hold on a moment without dying, old man.”
Still.
I had one last lie left to tell him.

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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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