Not A Regressor - Chapter 69

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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 69
Mind, Energy, Body (2)
“Th-this makes no sense!!!”
Riak scratched at the floor with an angry growl.
Clear claw marks etched themselves into the vinyl flooring.
“Get your paws off the floor, you mutt.”
What was he doing to the New House right now?
“It’s a scam!!”
Huh?
“This is a complete scam!!!”
Riak glared at Kwon O-jin as if he’d been gravely wronged.
“You fraud of a con artist!!”
Well, no.
He was a con artist, that much was true.
But at least the fact that I could use Thunderflame was 100% pure truth with not a shred of deception mixed in.
“I showed you directly, damn it. What scam?”
Kwon O-jin thrust his palm forward, where azure flames danced and burned.
Though the size and clarity fell far short of the blue flames that crowned Riak’s fangs.
Yet the fact that the azure flames dancing in his palm were Thunderflame was an undeniable truth.
“Grrrrr.”
Riak brought his snout close to Kwon O-jin’s palm and sniffed deeply.
“…Hah.”
Then.
He shook his head in disbelief.
“No matter that you’re a Star of Defiant Fate, how is this even….”
He trailed off, unable to comprehend.
“Star of Defiant Fate? What’s that?”
Ha-eun tilted her head and looked back at Riak.
Flinch!
Riak’s shoulders trembled slightly.
“K-khem! It’s what we call one born with the destiny of a great hero!”
“…A great hero? O-jin?”
Ha-eun looked back at Kwon O-jin as if she’d heard something absurd.
She grabbed his cheeks and stretched them out, then snorted.
“Pfft! How does this punk look like someone born with the destiny of a great hero?”
“Ugh.”
Whether it was Vega or Ha-eun.
Why did they all insist on treating my cheeks like dough?
“So… does that mean I get nothing even if Thunderbolt reaches level 10?”
If the reward I could obtain when Thunderbolt reached level 10 was Thunderflame.
So I’ve already received my reward, meaning I won’t gain anything else.
‘That’s a bit anticlimactic.’
Even without such a reward, since this skill was fundamental to the Lyra Constellation stigma, I’d need to train intensively.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss.
“Hmm… I don’t know about that either.”
Riak narrowed his eyes and continued.
“No awakener besides you has ever received the Lyra Constellation stigma. If I had received a stigma from Vega, I would have received one, but… you can’t compare a spirit and an awakener on equal terms.”
As he said.
A spirit and an awakener couldn’t be compared on the same level.
“Perhaps.”
Riak fixed Kwon O-jin with a sharp gaze.
“When Brain Lightning reaches level 10… you might receive an entirely different reward.”
“An entirely different reward?”
“Yes. You might gain something entirely new that hasn’t existed before. Humans are beings with infinite potential beyond any ‘star.'”
Whether humans were truly such magnificent beings was beside the point.
The speculation that I might gain something new was quite intriguing.
“Well, either way, I’ll find out once I level it up.”
It’s a skill I need to level regardless of whether there’s a reward or not.
If I could gain something new as Riak speculated, I couldn’t ask for more.
“…By the way.”
Riak looked up at Kwon O-jin, narrowing his eyes.
‘Didn’t he say that when he regressed before, his memories of the Lyra Constellation stigma’s techniques disappeared?’
Of course, even if memories disappeared, there would be parts he remembered unconsciously.
He was the Star of Defiance.
A hero who had traveled back through time to rewrite his fate.
‘But.’
Even considering that.
‘Where in the world did such a monster come from.’
Honestly, at this point, I was beginning to wonder why he hadn’t saved the world in his previous life.
“Haa. Isn’t the Heavenly Demon actually you?”
“What nonsense are you spouting.”
Huh.
How did this bastard figure it out.
“Hmph. I’m just saying.”
Riak scoffed and turned his head away.
“Heavenly Demon? What’s a Heavenly Demon?”
Ha-eun asked with wide eyes.
“Nothing, lizard woman.”
“Hey. I told you not to call me lizard woman.”
“Hmph! There’s no one besides Vega who can give me orders!”
Riak snorted with a growl.
“You arrogant little mutt!”
Ha-eun charged at Riak with fierce determination.
“Kyaaang! W-what are you doing, you lizard woman!!”
“Hiyah!”
She climbed on top of him and tickled his belly.
“Hehehehe! N-not there!!”
“Kyahahaha! So that’s your weak spot!!”
Ha-eun rolled around with Riak in her embrace, causing a commotion.
Perhaps it was because his power was restricted.
Or maybe his belly truly was his weakness.
Riak offered no real resistance and simply lay sprawled out, accepting Ha-eun’s touch.
“They’ve gotten quite close already.”
Kwon O-jin watched the two rolling on the ground and smiled bitterly.
“Oh, that’s right. Vega.”
[What is it?]
“Do you know what an ancient Constellation is?”
I asked, recalling the Quest I had just received.
[…Where did you hear that from?]
Vega’s eyes widened in surprise as she asked.
I answered in a low voice so Ha-eun wouldn’t hear.
“I heard it from the Heavenly Demon a long time ago. I’d forgotten about it until now, but it just came back to me.”
[Hmm.]
Vega swallowed, her arms crossed.
From her reaction, it seemed she knew what an ancient Constellation was.
[How much do you know about the Constellation?]
“The Constellation?”
Eight years… no, nine years ago.
When Gates suddenly opened across the world and monsters poured out, transcendent beings appeared just as suddenly.
Beings capable of granting humans the power of stigmas, awakening them as Awakeners.
That was all I knew about the Constellation.
‘If I were a regressor, it would be natural for me to know everything about the Constellation’s true nature, wouldn’t it?’
But there was a limit to how much I could bluff about things I didn’t know.
Especially when the other party was a Constellation themselves.
“I don’t know much. Back then, I was too busy fighting every day to have time to learn such things.”
I gave a vague answer for now.
[I see.]
Perhaps because the trust I had built up so far was quite solid.
I didn’t sense any suspicion from her.
[A Constellation is a being created by giants called Titans, who wove the power of stars into form.]
“Titan?”
[A giant born from the primordial age. Hmm… to put it simply, it’s closer to a ‘Creator’.]
“Huh.”
A Creator, out of nowhere.
The scale was so vast my mind struggled to keep pace.
“So… the Constellation is what this Creator made?”
[Indeed.]
Vega nodded and continued.
[The Titan created the Constellation to manage multiple worlds simultaneously. The Divine Law itself is a mechanism that constrains the Constellation—the administrators—from arbitrarily exerting influence over the worlds.]
If I think of it like a game, the Titan would be the developer, and the Constellations would be the administrators.
[But… in the distant past, there was once an age when all Constellations perished.]
“All the Constellations were destroyed?”
[Indeed.]
What on earth could destroy the administrators of a world created by the Creator itself?
‘…Wait.’
Don’t tell me.
[Heh heh. You seem to have figured it out.]
Vega smiled faintly and continued.
[The primordial darkness—the Black Heaven—devoured all the stars in the night sky.]
In other words.
The world had already been destroyed once in the past by the Black Heaven.
[The ancient Constellations refer to those Constellations that were consumed by the Black Heaven at that time.]
“….”
Right.
So that’s how it was.
‘That’s why the Quest reward is an ancient Constellation.’
The distant past.
It meant extracting one Constellation that had been devoured by the Black Heaven and giving it to me.
“Then the current Constellations are….”
[After all the stars were once consumed by the Black Heaven, they were born anew.]
“….”
Kwon O-jin pressed his forehead with his mouth firmly shut.
My head throbbed painfully.
‘So that’s why Vega said the Black Heaven has the power to destroy the world.’
It made sense to say such a thing, given that the world had already been destroyed once by the Black Heaven.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
No matter how much I insisted I had no intention of destroying the world.
The mere fact that I possessed the Black Heaven would inevitably mark me as a criminal.
‘In the first playthrough, I actually did destroy the world.’
Though I have no memory of it.
Considering all the circumstances, the Demon Celestial’s true identity was none other than myself.
[Do you understand now what the ancient Constellation is?]
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
I smiled nonchalantly while organizing the chaos in my mind.
‘For now, I should focus only on what I can do and what I must do.’
The world’s destruction, the Black Heaven—
there was no point in agonizing over such things.
‘The future has already begun to change.’
From the moment Lee Shin-hyuk died.
From the moment I became a regressor.
A completely different future from the first cycle had already begun to unfold.
What mattered now was how I should move within this new future.
‘That’s already decided.’
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed with sharp resolve.
I turned my head and surveyed my surroundings.
The New House.
Ha-eun giggling softly.
Vega perched on my shoulder, and Riak sprawled on the floor, panting heavily.
The warm comfort seeping into my skin.
‘I won’t let go.’
Even if I had to deceive the entire world.
I would never lose this handful of warmth I held in my hands.
“Alright then. Let me just stretch a bit and—”
[Absolutely not.]
“No way.”
Vega and Ha-eun pressed down on my shoulders and forced me back onto the bed.
[Don’t you realize what condition your body is in?]
“What nonsense is this guy spouting after lying around for four days?”
“Uh, um.”
The two women’s momentum was overwhelming.
I looked at Riak with pleading eyes, seeking his support.
“Sigh.”
Riak approached with a deep exhale.
“I do think Vega and that lizard woman are being overly protective of you, but…”
He continued, narrowing his eyes.
“Just stay put this time.”
“Ugh.”
I swallowed my protest.
‘There’s so much left to do.’
I didn’t have the luxury to rest like this.
I needed to gather my strength faster, even by a fraction.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Riak clicked his tongue and looked up at Kwon O-jin.
“Have you ever heard the saying about heart, technique, and body?”
“Well, sure. I’ve heard of it before.”
It wasn’t an uncommon phrase in martial arts novels.
“In your case, the balance between those three is completely shattered.”
“The balance is shattered?”
Riak nodded.
“First, the heart. This is….”
He shook his head with a look of disgust.
“Honestly, even calling you insane would be too generous. I’ve lived a long life, but I’ve never seen anyone as twisted as you.”
What is this.
Is he picking a fight with me?
“At least in the realm of ‘heart,’ there’s no one in this world who could compare to you. Not even among the Constellations and the demons of the Demon Realm.”
“Uh… hmm.”
He was really going that far with it.
“Second is ‘technique.’ There’s nothing much to say about that. You’re a monster.”
“Are you complimenting me or picking a fight?”
“Both.”
Hmph.
Riak snorted.
“The problem is ‘body.’ Compared to your ‘heart’ and ‘technique,’ your physical form is pathetically inadequate. Even calling it the worst would be too kind.”
“Huh? That bad?”
Kwon O-jin tilted his head as he looked down at his own body.
“But I’ve trained pretty intensely.”
I’d never neglected basic physical conditioning even before awakening.
And that was especially true after awakening.
“…Are you really not understanding the reason?”
“I don’t get it.”
“Sigh.”
Riak let out a deep sigh as if disappointed.
Then.
He turned to Vega and opened his mouth.
“Lizard woman.”
“Huh?”
“Strip his clothes off.”
“…What?”
Vega’s eyes widened in shock.
“Y-you want me to strip Kwon O-jin’s clothes off?”
“It’s necessary. Do it now.”
“….”
Gulp.
Ha-eun swallowed hard, her throat dry.
The corners of her mouth began to curl upward in a bright smile.
“W-wait, sister!”
“I’m only doing this because she told me to!”
Ha-eun grinned wickedly and lunged at Kwon O-jin.
[Hmmm! I shall lend my aid as well!]
For some reason, Vega joined in too.
“Aaaah!! W-wait!! What are you doing?!”
Kwon O-jin thrashed about in desperation, but.
Perhaps because his internal injuries hadn’t fully healed yet.
He couldn’t muster the strength he needed.
“Come on!!! Hurry!! Take it off, you bastard!!!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Ha-eun burst into delighted laughter as she began stripping off his clothes.
“Ah, there’s no need to remove his pants.”
“Kyahahaha!! His back!! Let’s see his back!!!!”
“No need to remove his underwear either.”
[Ooh! What a fine specimen!]
“No.”
Riak’s voice no longer reached the two women.

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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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