Not A Regressor - Chapter 8

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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 8
Hyenas (2)
“You bastard!!”
A man whose face had flushed crimson with rage spewed crude profanities from his lips.
Even for a shameless brigand preying on another’s kill, it seemed he still harbored affection for his parents.
I found it almost pitiful that his mother would never witness this spectacle, having already passed away.
“Die!!!”
A resonant hum filled the air.
A stigma blazed with light beyond the man’s armor.
The stigma of Canis Major.
The stigma’s power—amplifying the body’s sensations—flooded through his entire frame.
-Whoosh!
A blade swung with brutal directness, aimed straight at my head.
The speed was respectable, but the trajectory was far too predictable.
‘He’s completely lost it.’
I slipped backward with unhurried ease, evading the strike.
Having accidentally cleaved his ally’s skull and endured mockery for it, the brigand was in a state of extreme agitation.
His irrational blade cuts traced monotonous arcs through empty air.
‘This will be simple.’
Even for a 3-Star Awakener, engaging someone in this state presented no real difficulty.
In fact, I suspected I would have held the advantage even if he’d maintained his composure.
There existed a chasm between the crude stigma of Canis Major and the stigma of Polaris—one that a mere 1-Star difference could never bridge.
-Whoosh!!!
I sidestepped the descending blade aimed at my head and thrust my spear toward his right flank.
A razor-sharp strike exploiting the opening.
-Clang!!
“Ugh!”
Even facing death, a 3-Star remained a 3-Star—the man barely managed to intercept my spear thrust with his blade.
But the assault didn’t end there.
“Canis Major amplifies the body’s sensations, doesn’t it?”
I twisted my lips into a cruel smile.
If his physical sensations were amplified, then the pain he experienced would be amplified as well.
Which meant—
-Crackle crackle crackle!!!
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
Blue lightning coursed along the spear’s shaft.
A scream of agony erupted from the man’s lips as he gripped the blade.
“Hnn!”
I couldn’t afford to squander such a perfect opportunity.
Like a serpent ascending a pillar, my spear’s edge flowed up his arm and pierced cleanly through his throat.
“Cough! Gack.”
The man spewed dark crimson blood from his mouth, his eyes rolling back into his head.
That was the end of it.
It took less than five minutes for both 3-Star Awakeners to collapse.
‘If we’d fought properly, it would’ve been much harder, I suppose.’
There was no need to dwell on that.
This wasn’t a sport, so why should I bother fighting fair?
“Now then.”
Time to start harvesting from these humans.
-Rummage, rummage.
Humming to myself, I stripped the armor from both men and rifled through their pockets.
“Ugh, dirt poor. And they’re 3-Stars? What is this?”
As I checked the contents of their wallets, I frowned.
Combined, they had 275,000 won.
For 3-Star Awakeners, this was pathetically meager.
“Tsk.”
Of course, if I used their cards, I could get more money, but it was risky to use traceable cards so openly.
Murders between Awakeners inside Gates were typically overlooked, but if I made it obvious, the Awakener Association would send investigators.
“The armor is too damaged to sell anyway.”
I’d just take the weapons.
-Clink, clink.
I tied their swords together and hung them at my waist.
Taking their cards and using them would be dangerous, but simple stolen goods like this wouldn’t draw anyone’s attention.
In a world where people died as easily as insects on the roadside.
“…And.”
I narrowed my eyes.
I gazed down at the left chest of the disarmed man.
Hidden beneath his shirt, but there would definitely be a Hound Constellation stigma there.
Regardless of how inferior the grade, it was still a ‘stigma’ nonetheless.
‘I should be able to absorb it with the Black Heaven.’
Actually, it’s quite a risky move.
If I carelessly absorbed the Hound Constellation stigma and Vega noticed it, I’d be finished.
But.
‘The Black Heaven definitely had a trait called “Black Veil” among its characteristics.’
A trait that completely conceals the aura of the Black Heaven.
‘The reason Vega couldn’t detect the Black Heaven was probably because of that trait.’
And the description stated that the same trait could be applied to any stigmas I possessed.
‘If that’s the case.’
I could absorb the Hound Constellation stigma without Vega detecting it.
Since I’d already confirmed she couldn’t sense the Black Heaven, there was no reason to doubt this ability.
“Good.”
I pulled my lips into a smirk and placed my hand on the chest of the fallen man.
-Glug, glug glug.
Black miasma flowed from my fingertips.
The black miasma moved rapidly toward the stigma as if starved, drawn to its presence.
-Ding!
[Black Heaven absorbs the Stigma of Canis Major.]
[All second blooming conditions for Black Heaven have been met!]
[Black Heaven begins its second blooming!]
Glug glug glug!!
The black miasma writhed violently.
“Ugh!”
Darkness surged from every inch of my body.
The black miasma that had escaped from the Seven Voids coiled around me.
━Searing.
A pain as if a red-hot iron skewer had been driven into my skull.
And with it,
[Through Black Heaven, you read the ‘records’ contained in the Stigma of Lyra.]
[Black Heaven’s blooming stage is too low. Readable records are limited.]
Once more.
Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories flooded into my mind.
-…You awake?
The first thing I saw was a tall young man.
The young man looked down at Lee Shin-hyuk with cold eyes.
Lee Shin-hyuk, his expression hazy, slowly lifted his head and glanced around.
His blurred vision gradually became clear.
‘A hospital room?’
In the memory, Lee Shin-hyuk lay in a spacious private hospital room.
Through the digital clock on the hospital room wall, the date was visible.
‘November 21st, 2020.’
Since it was currently November 7th, this was a memory from exactly two weeks later.
-Where is this….
-It’s a hospital.
-A hospital?
-You’ve been unconscious for two weeks.
Lee Shin-hyuk asked, his eyes wide open.
-Two, two weeks?
-Yeah.
The young man, who appeared to be Lee Shin-hyuk’s younger brother, nodded matter-of-factly.
In his cold gaze as he looked down at Lee Shin-hyuk lay a chilling anger.
-Why did you enter the Gate without permission?
-I, well….
-Didn’t I clearly tell you to bring at least one of our guild members with you?
-Everyone seemed busy, so….
-So you just went in alone anyway?
-…I’m sorry, Woo-hyuk. I thought it would be fine since it was only 1-star.
-Sigh.
The young man called Woo-hyuk exhaled a deep sigh.
Lee Shin-hyuk lowered his head, his expression thoroughly dejected.
Just then,
-Knock, knock.
A sound of knocking on the hospital room door.
Lee Woo-hyuk rose from his seat and opened the door.
Through the crack of the open door, the figure of a woman wearing glasses appeared.
-Guild Master. Do you have a moment?
-What is it?
-You know the newly formed Gate that appeared in Mokdong on the 15th, right? This time, Chang-hyun found a Sacred Relic in that Gate.
-Chang-hyun did?
-Yes. But from what I heard, something seems odd….
Crackle.
My vision flickered and blurred as if static had filled it.
The two voices gradually faded away.
And then,
“Gasp!!”
The searing pain that had been tearing through my head vanished.
-Ding!
[You have successfully inherited some records of Awakener Lee Shin-hyuk.]
[《Compass Spear Technique Lv4》 has risen to 《Compass Spear Technique Lv5》.]
[You have acquired 《Pathetic Excuse Lv2》.]
As the pain disappeared, a blue message window materialized before my eyes.
“…The more I awaken, the more memories of Lee Shin-hyuk can I obtain?”
I slowly recalled the memories that had just flashed through my mind.
‘Lee Woo-hyuk. A newly formed Gate that appeared in Mokdong on the 15th. And…’
A Sacred Relic.
An artifact in which the power of the stars is concentrated.
While the abilities of Sacred Relics varied widely, some possessed power potent enough to narrow the gap between 1 and 2-star awakeners.
‘So in other words, a Sacred Relic appeared inside a Gate that forms in Mokdong eight days from now?’
Information I never could have anticipated.
“This is….”
My eyes gleamed with sharp intensity.
A golden opportunity to obtain a sacred relic.
Or perhaps even more than that.
“This could prove useful.”
It was excellent lubricant to keep the ‘con’ running smoothly.
‘I wonder if I can’t read their records?’
I tilted my head and gazed down at the corpses of the two men.
Since I had absorbed the stigma of Canis Major, just like with Lee Shin-hyuk, their memories should have flowed into me, yet there was nothing.
[The absorbed ‘Stigma of Canis Major’ is too faint.]
[Failed to extract records from the stigma.]
Ah, I see.
“Well, looking at them, they’re clearly lacking—there’s no way they’d carry a deep stigma.”
Even if the Constellation of Canis Major was among the lowest-ranking Constellations, it wouldn’t be foolish enough to grant a deep stigma to trash like these.
‘Regardless.’
This was an extraordinary harvest.
Not only did I reach 2-stars, but the Black Heaven has also awakened.
‘Though I’m not entirely sure if the Black Heaven awakening is entirely beneficial.’
I couldn’t be certain whether it was right to continue nurturing the Black Heaven in this manner.
The Black Heaven was an unknown force whose very nature remained a mystery.
But.
‘I have no choice.’
Now that I know awakening the Black Heaven allows me to obtain Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories, I cannot stop here.
For someone wearing the mask of a regressor, what mattered most was none other than the memories of the ‘true’ regressor.
“Well then.”
I closed my eyes tightly and focused my consciousness.
A blue light erupted from my left chest.
‘Let me see what the Stigma of Canis Major is like.’
The moment I activated the stigma, my senses amplified several times over.
Especially my sense of smell became abnormally acute.
“Ugh!”
I covered my mouth and bent over as tens of thousands of scents poured through my nostrils.
The sensation of even the rustling of nearby leaves burrowing into my nose one by one.
‘I’ll need to get used to this before it’s actually useful.’
I shook my head and switched it like a toggle, reactivating the Stigma of Lyra.
Unable to use two stigmas simultaneously, as the Stigma of Lyra activated, my physical senses returned to normal.
-Crackle!! Crackle crackle!!!-
Blue lightning blazing around my body.
“Hmm?”
I stared at the fiercely burning blue lightning, my eyes widening.
‘The lightning has grown deeper?’
For some reason, the blue lightning blazing around me had become noticeably more intense.
Crackle! Boom!
As a test, I sent a bolt of lightning toward the floor, and with a heavy explosion, the ground charred and burned.
‘The power of the stigma has definitely grown stronger.’
The sensation was somewhat different from when I advanced from one star to two stars.
Back then, it felt like the ‘quantity’ of stigma I could handle at once had increased, but now it felt like the ‘quality’ of the stigma itself had deepened.
I furrowed my brow at the sudden realization and fell into thought.
“Ah.”
It didn’t take long to find the answer.
‘They said the stigma’s power was adjusted to match the blooming stage of the Black Heaven.’
I had been so flustered back then that I completely forgot about it.
“…Wait, so all this time that was the stigma’s power being adjusted?”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
‘If that’s the case, just how strong is Vega, the owner of the stigma?’
A dizzying sensation spread down my spine.
I etched a new resolution into my mind—I must never let her find out.
“I suppose it’s time to prepare to head back.”
Leaving the scattered corpses behind, I approached the mutant Anthrone’s body.
As I rummaged through the corpse, a black essence stone the size of a 500-won coin emerged.
‘Black?’
Essence stones typically emit a bluish light.
“Hmm… I wonder how much this will sell for?”
My eyes gleamed as I pocketed the black essence stone.
The weight of two swords at my waist and the heavy pouch naturally brought a smile to my face.
‘If I sell the swords too, I should get at least 500,000 won.’
A regular essence stone was worth roughly 800,000 won, and with the mutant’s essence stone added, I’d earned at least 3 million won in a single day.
“Insane.”
Long live Awakeners.
* * *
Creak.
As I opened the rusted door, the familiar smell of mold tickled my nostrils.
“You’re back?”
Ha-eun, who had been standing near the door leaning on crutches, hurried toward me.
“Why aren’t you lying in bed?”
I asked, my eyes widening in surprise.
“Don’t be silly. Do you think I just lie around all day?”
She said this as she slowly reached out her hand.
Her pale fingertips touched my cheek.
Gently tracing.
Her hand traced across my cheek, hair, neck, and shoulders in turn.
It was quite ticklish.
“…What are you doing?”
“….”
Without answering, she continued patting down various parts of her body before letting out a short sigh.
“At least you didn’t come back beaten to a pulp.”
Ah, so that’s what this was about.
A soft chuckle escaped me.
A smile spread across my lips.
“What? Were you worried I might be hurt?”
“Yeah. If my bread shuttle breaks down, that’s a disaster.”
“What do you mean, bread shuttle?”
“Hehe! You’ve been my bread shuttle since the Orphanage, haven’t you?”
Ha-eun giggled and tapped my head playfully.
“So~ what did our bread shuttle bring home for dinner tonight~?”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“Huh?”
“Just kidding. I brought hamburgers.”
“A Whopper set?”
“A Guinness Whopper set.”
“Will you marry me, sis?”
What is this woman saying?
“Sure. Should we set a date, honey?”
“Huh? Y-you’re serious?”
“No.”
Obviously.
“Y-you bastard!”
“Stop the nonsense and let’s go inside.”
I lifted Ha-eun and carried her to the bed.
I handed her the hamburger set from the bag.
“….”
For some reason, Ha-eun didn’t even touch the hamburger.
“What? Aren’t you going to eat?”
“….”
An abrupt silence settled between us.
Ha-eun’s lips trembled slightly before she carefully opened her mouth.
“You… you really did become an Apostle of the North Pole, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“….”
I squeezed her fist gently and continued.
“Just because I became an Apostle of the North Pole doesn’t mean I’ll recklessly enter high-rank Gates. Even if it’s a waste, I’ll always form a proper party before entering.”
“I’ll be thorough about my own safety, so don’t worry.”
“…Hmph. You always talk a big game.”
Ha-eun reached out and pinched my cheek lightly.
“Your Constellation is… Vega, right?”
“Yeah.”
“…What’s she like?”
“What do you mean?”
I tilted my head at her, and Ha-eun’s cheeks flushed slightly.
“Well, I mean. She’s that famous Weaver Star, after all.”
“…?”
“Ugh! I’m asking if Vega or whoever is pretty!”
“Oh.”
So that’s what she was asking about.
“She’s beautiful.”
To exaggerate, she was breathtakingly gorgeous.
—Stretch.
“Aaaah!”
My cheek stretched painfully as a sharp sting shot through it.
“Hey, what—”
“I’m just annoyed.”
“It’s so unfair.”
Whoosh.
Ha-eun pulled the blanket over her head and turned away.
“Oh, right. I’m thinking of going there tomorrow.”
“…Where?”
Peek.
Ha-eun lowered the blanket slightly and turned her head.
I unwrapped the hamburger wrapper and brought it close to her lips as I spoke.
“The Awakener Association.”
Nom.
Her small mouth took a bite of the hamburger.

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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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