Not A Regressor - Chapter 66

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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 66
Heavy Rain (8)
“Wh-what is this?”
Stumble, stumble.
Ashad Khan staggered backward, his mouth hanging open in shock.
As if rewinding a video in reverse.
I watched Kwon O-jin rise to his feet with wide, disbelieving eyes.
“Th-this is impossible!!!”
It shouldn’t be possible.
It mustn’t be possible.
I thought it was over.
I was relieved, thinking it was finally done.
Why.
How.
“How in the world!! How can you possibly stand up!!!”
He shrieked like a wounded animal.
“A mid-boss needs a second phase—wouldn’t it be anticlimactic without me?”
Kwon O-jin chuckled and took a step forward.
Both the wire shooter and spear had been destroyed during the battle.
-Crackle, crackle!!
Yet a single stigma of the Lyra Constellation still burned brilliantly above his left chest.
“Ugh…!”
Ashad Khan twisted his face in fury and conjured another storm of black feathers around him.
“Kah! Ah, uh. Aaaahhhhh!!”
Ashad Khan convulsed in agony, his screams tearing from his throat.
Crack! Crunch!
Grotesque tendons bulged across his entire body with a sickening sound like bone warping.
His once-taut bronze skin shriveled rapidly, deep wrinkles blooming across his face.
His spine curved as the firm muscles of his limbs withered and twisted into skeletal thinness.
In an instant, he appeared to have aged twenty, perhaps thirty years or more.
‘What is this?’
I narrowed my eyes.
Simply overexerting the power of a stigma shouldn’t cause such sudden aging.
‘This is as if…’
He were drawing power at the cost of his very ‘lifespan’.
“Could it be… the price of the ‘blessing’?”
I laughed, hollow and breathless.
Fundamentally, the price of a blessing is borne by the Constellation.
It’s the Constellation bound by the laws of constraint, not the awakened one.
But if an awakened one blessed like this was reduced to such a horrifying state…
‘Is he forcing his apostle to bear the price that he himself should shoulder?’
Of course, he couldn’t make them bear the full price.
If that were possible, everyone in the Black Star Society would have received the Black Star’s blessing and run rampant.
Regardless.
So this so-called blessing could only be granted by forcing his own apostle to bear the ‘price’.
“That owl’s star doesn’t seem to be much after all?”
Compared to our goddess, it’s pathetic.
“Shut your mouth!!”
Ashad Khan roared savagely, wielding the Gokdo with brutal force.
-Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!
Black wings’ feathers mixed with the torrential rain, targeting Kwon O-jin.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!!!
A terrible explosion swept over Kwon O-jin.
Kwon O-jin let out a bloody laugh as he took the massive explosion head-on.
His body, caught in the blast, became a tattered mess in an instant.
“I told you.”
Crack! Pop!
Shattered bones found their place.
Blackened, charred skin regenerated rapidly.
“From now on━ it’s my time.”
Boom!
I planted my feet firmly.
Throwing myself into the storm of black wings, I swung my clenched fist.
-Whoosh!
My fist, wrapped in blue lightning, was blocked by black feathers and bounced back.
“Ha, hahahaha!!!!”
A maniacal laugh erupted from Ashad Khan’s mouth.
“No matter how fast your body regenerates, if your attacks don’t land, it’s all useless!”
Indeed.
Just as he said, piercing through the storm of black wings was impossible for me right now.
“Feel the owl’s magnificent power!!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!
The storm of black wings pushed me back roughly.
I squeezed out what magic I could and swung my fist at the storm, but.
Still, I couldn’t break through the storm and reach Ashad Khan.
“The old bastard still talks too much even in his age.”
Spit.
I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth and twisted my lips into a grin.
‘If I can’t break through that storm with a single blow.’
Then the answer is simple, isn’t it?
‘I’ll just keep smashing until it breaks through.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
I swing my fist, crackling with lightning.
My fist, unable to pierce through the Black Wing’s tempest, shatters—bone tears through skin and bursts outward.
It doesn’t matter.
In this torrential downpour so violent I can barely open my eyes, shattered bone is hardly a serious wound.
‘Once more.’
I swing my fist.
‘Once more.’
Without stopping.
‘Once more.’
Relentlessly.
-Boom!! Boom!! Booooom!!!
The tempest of black feathers surrounding Ashad Khan begins to tremble.
“Ah, ahhh.”
Ashad Khan’s jaw hangs slack as his body quivers uncontrollably.
“O, o-jin, stop.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
Like a battering ram pounding against fortress gates sealed shut.
My fist, wreathed in blue flame, hammers against the Black Wing’s tempest.
Each time the tempest wavers.
Fear seeps slowly into Ashad Khan, consuming him.
“O, o-jin, please, stop.”
Why.
How, exactly.
By what means.
How can he keep swinging his fist without stopping?
“No, noooooo!!”
I can understand wounds regenerating rapidly.
But even so.
That doesn’t mean the ‘pain’ disappears, does it?
“Are you not feeling pain at all!!”
“No. I’m dying from the pain right now—what nonsense are you spouting?”
Kwon O-jin furrows his brow and swings his fist again.
Each time it touches the Black Wing’s tempest.
Fingernails shatter, fingers break, wrists twist.
Blood vessels, muscle, and bone tangle and flow.
It hurts.
So much I can barely think straight,
so much I wonder if I’m going mad.
It hurts.
But.
-Crash!!
I don’t stop swinging my fist.
As my shattered arm regenerates, I pour mana into it and strike again.
“How… how is this possible?”
Ashad Khan stared at Kwon O-jin with a pallid face.
If he wasn’t immune to pain.
How could he possibly continue swinging his fist?
━Imagine it.
Driving your fist with full force against a shield bristling with sharp spikes.
Thrusting your own hand into a blender filled with razor-sharp blades.
No matter how quickly wounds regenerate.
Who could repeat such madness?
“There’s nothing I can’t do.”
A smirk tugged at my lips.
I swung my fist toward the storm of black feathers.
-Ding!
[You maintained consciousness and mana control under extreme conditions!]
[《Lightning Lv7》 skill has risen to 《Lightning Lv8》.]
[《Lightning Flame Lv2》 skill has risen to 《Lightning Flame Lv3》.]
[Warning! Severe physical damage has accumulated to critical levels!]
[Continued damage will impose an ‘increased pain sensitivity’ penalty!]
A red message window appeared following the blue ones.
Thank goodness.
If it had been a penalty that prevented movement, I’d be in real trouble.
I let out a cackle and clenched my freshly regenerated fist.
-Boom!!!
Once more.
I swung my fist toward the storm of black feathers.
I could see the storm shaking violently.
“Ughhhh!!”
So this was the increased pain sensitivity penalty the system had warned about.
A far more intense agony shot through my arm than before.
Where it had felt like a hammer striking down on my arm, now it felt like the weight was being pressed and crushed into it.
“Ugh, hehe!! Damn. This really fucking hurts.”
It doesn’t matter.
“Hnngh!!”
Crash!!
I swung my fist.
I swing my fist.
I swing my fist.
[You maintained your magical power without losing consciousness in an extreme state!]
[《Thunder Lv8》 skill has risen to 《Thunder Lv9》.]
[《Thunderflame Lv3》 skill has risen to 《Thunderflame Lv4》.]
I ignore the pain.
Ignoring it is hardly—
—a difficult task at all.
“Y-you’re in-s-sane.”
Ashad Khan spoke in a pallid, trembling voice.
His words were difficult to comprehend.
“What do you mean, insane?”
-Boom!
Black feathers scatter and flutter downward.
The end was not far away.
“It’s hardly a difficult task, is it?”
That’s right.
Enduring pain was nothing particularly difficult.
-Boom!! Boom! Crash!!
Most of the black feathers had fallen away.
Ashad Khan, who had been hidden within the feathers, became visible.
“W-what!! What do you mean it’s not difficult!!!”
He cried out in convulsive desperation.
“It’s not difficult.”
Boom!!
Once more.
I swing my fist.
“You just have to endure it, don’t you?”
That’s right.
No matter how agonizing.
No matter how unbearable.
Endurance solves it.
If you simply persevere, you can overcome anything.
“You just have to hold on, don’t you?”
I turn my head.
Lying collapsed on the ground.
I see Jang Seok-ho writhing like an insect.
Will endurance ever resolve his suffering?
Can perseverance bring his dead son back to life?
-Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!
I swing my fist.
I don’t stop.
There’s no reason to stop.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced.
A memory from six years ago.
Ha-eun lying in a Hospital bed.
Her trembling form, stripped of both eyes, shaking in an unfamiliar darkness.
I remember the vast helplessness I felt then.
No matter how much I endured, no matter how much I persevered, no matter how much I bore it.
What was lost never returned on its own.
‘Compared to that, this is easy.’
Pain can be ignored.
Suffering can be endured.
“If it’s something that can be solved by enduring—then it’s nothing at all.”
In this world.
There were only things that couldn’t be solved no matter how much you endured.
-Kwaaaaaang!!!
A storm of black wings erupted.
“…Ah.”
Ashad Khan, collapsed on the ground, looked up at Kwon O-jin with a face twisted in terror.
A black sky.
In the thick darkness where even starlight couldn’t be seen,
only a pair of blue eyes gleamed.
“A, a demon.”
Why was it?
Standing against the black sky,
his figure felt like something other than human.
“Ah, ugh.”
He crawled frantically across the ground, fleeing.
“Ugh, ugggghhhhh!!”
Screaming, pathetically.
The arrogant and haughty demeanor Ashad Khan had displayed at first was nowhere to be found.
-Thud, thud.
Low footsteps echoed.
The footsteps of a monster.
“What demon? You’re just a normal person spouting nonsense.”
Kwon O-jin firmly stepped on the head of Ashad Khan as he crawled across the ground.
“If I were a demon, I would’ve lost control and died long ago.”
If I were truly a demon.
If I were an inhuman existence incapable of feeling any pain or sorrow.
Was there truly a reason to cling to life while my entire body fell apart?
“Because you’re human, you endure even when it feels like you’re dying from the pain.”
Crunch!
I stomped down on his head, crushing it completely.
Thinking of what he’d done, I wanted to kill him even more brutally.
“…Damn it.”
Honestly, my body was in no condition to continue.
The moment I let my guard down even slightly, I’d collapse into unconsciousness.
Still.
‘There’s… still work to be done.’
Whoooosh!
The torrential rain streamed down my cheeks, pooling at my chin.
Drop by drop.
The falling water became muddy rivulets flowing away.
A man lay collapsed in the shallow pool of muddy water.
“Ah… ugh.”
With both legs crushed.
With both eyes beaten shut.
Clinging to the thinnest thread of hope.
He thrashed about.
“Did… did I beat Ashad Khan?”
He asked in a trembling voice, as if unable to believe it.
“Yeah. I won.”
“Ha, haha! That your brain… could be this strong… I never… thought…”
Jang Seok-ho’s lips twisted into a grin.
“…And.”
Kwon O-jin lifted his head.
Whoooosh!
He pushed through the cascading rain toward Jang Seok-ho.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Something… to tell me?”
Jang Seok-ho’s voice trembled with dread.
The fragile thread of hope he barely clung to,
seemed on the verge of snapping.
….
I looked down at Jang Seok-ho, his body quivering.
As always.
I let a hollow lie slip from my lips.
“I found it.”
“…Found what?”
Jang Seok-ho’s voice trembled.
“Your son—I found him. Those bastards had him.”
“Th-that! Is that really true?!”
He cried out, his voice brimming with joy.
“H-Hyun-woo is… he’s there?”
Jang Seok-ho crawled across the floor with desperate urgency.
Even if his son were truly here, those eyes crushed beneath stone would see nothing at all.
And yet.
He crawled forward until he reached my feet.
“Yeah. He’s unconscious right now… ah, just wait a moment.”
Kwon O-jin brought his hand to his throat.
The video Jang Seok-ho had shown me.
I recalled the bright, crystalline laughter that had poured from it.
‘I’d barely heard his voice beyond the laughter.’
It didn’t matter.
From laughter alone, I could infer and mimic his voice well enough.
Mimicking someone’s voice had always been a specialty of mine.
‘And I have this too.’
Gurgle.
My larynx shifted delicately, my uvula retracting inward.
Transformation.
With the trait I’d obtained from slaying those demonic beasts, I could reproduce his voice far more perfectly.
“Ah… Dad?”
Through the pouring rain.
A boy’s voice rang out, as if he’d just awakened from sleep.
“H-Hyun-woo?”
Jang Seok-ho asked, his voice quavering.
“Dad? Is… is it really you, Dad?”
“H-Hyun-woo!! Hyun-woo!!”
“Ah, Dad… my b-body!”
“…I see.”
Jang Seok-ho’s lips, which had risen in radiance, fell sharply.
“…I’m sorry, Hyun-woo.”
“Ah, Dad? What are you saying? Sorry for what?”
“….”
Firmly.
He bit his lips.
“Dad’s body hurts too much… I need to sleep soon.”
“…Sleep?”
“Yeah. When our Hyun-woo is sick and sleeps, he gets better quickly, right?”
“So… so Dad will get better soon too?”
A melancholy smile tugged at his lips.
“No… Dad is very… sick. I need to sleep for a very long time.”
“…How long?”
“Well. When our Hyun-woo grows up…. Then…. Then I might wake up.”
“When I graduate elementary school?”
“Ha, haha! No…. A little longer….”
“U, until middle school?”
“….”
As if suppressing something.
Jang Seok-ho’s face contorted.
“It will take… much longer… than that.”
The words squeezed out.
“But… I will… definitely come back. To see our Hyun-woo…. I prom, ise.”
“Okay!! Then I’ll wait until then! I’ll study hard too!”
A clear cry seeped through the rain.
“Hyun-woo… there’s… an older brother next to you, right?”
“Y, yes!”
“Follow that brother… and listen… well….”
His voice.
Grew fainter.
“You have to… stay healthy… don’t you?”
Water streamed down Jang Seok-ho’s cheeks.
Was it blood flowing down his cheeks, or rainwater, or tears?
Who knows.
I don’t know.
I will never know, for all eternity.
“My Hyun-woo….”
Trembling, trembling.
I reached out my hand.
“Before Dad goes to sleep… I want to hold our Hyun-woo’s hand… just once.”
It wasn’t a difficult request.
Crack, crackle.
I used Transformation to reduce the size of my hand.
I gently grasped his trembling hand.
His palm was cold.
Chillingly so.
“Ha, haha.”
A dry laugh sprouted at Jang Seok-ho’s lips.
“Thank… goodness….”
The falling rain drenches my dry laughter.
“Our Hyun-woo… safe….”
The rain soaking my laughter trickles down my chin and seeps into the earth below.
Will flowers of laughter bloom in that soil now?
“H-hap….”
Thud.
Jang Seok-ho’s hand fell.
No more words followed.
“….”
-Whoooooooosh!
From the black sky above,
heavy sheets of rain continued to pour.

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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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