Not A Regressor - Chapter 96

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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 96
Constellations of Antiquity (7)
“Lee Woo-hyuk of the Black Star, then….”
A man with a long scar running down the right side of his eye clicked his tongue softly while gazing down from the window.
In the direction of his gaze, a young man was relentlessly driving back hundreds of demonic beasts.
-Crrrunch!
A deafening explosion loud enough to reach the top floor of the high-rise building.
With each swing of Lee Woo-hyuk’s blade, dozens of demonic beasts were torn to shreds and obliterated.
“I never expected the Black Star to come to this place.”
Park Geon-woo gazed down at Lee Woo-hyuk with burning intensity.
He caressed the spear strapped to his back with reverent care, exhaling in barely contained excitement.
‘I’d like to cross blades with him once.’
To see how well his spear would fare against the Black Star’s sword.
He wanted nothing more than to leap down and test it himself right then and there.
-Whoooosh! Whooooosh!
“Ah, so you want to fight too, do you?”
Park Geon-woo gripped the spear on his back, speaking to it in a tender voice as though addressing a beloved.
“Just be patient a little longer. Soon you’ll drink your fill of blood without restraint.”
He smiled faintly, patting the trembling spearhead with affection.
‘It’s not time yet.’
His warrior’s blood boiled with barely contained fervor.
But he couldn’t afford to ruin the plan by fighting Lee Woo-hyuk now.
Swish.
He carefully withdrew a black goblet from his pocket.
“Attack while avoiding him as much as possible.”
As he issued the quiet command, the black energy contained within the goblet rippled gently.
The dark force that had once filled the cup to the brim now had dwindled to less than half.
“Tsk. At this rate, I won’t be able to hold out much longer.”
Park Geon-woo clicked his tongue lightly and returned the goblet to his pocket.
He gazed down at the fierce battlefield below, a subtle smile creeping across his lips.
‘Well, the objective has already been achieved anyway.’
The core of this plan wasn’t to kill the awakened ones, including the Black Star Lee Woo-hyuk, but to “sacrifice” the non-awakened who hadn’t been chosen by the Constellations.
And already, enough non-awakened had lost their lives in this catastrophe.
“Hehe. Don’t grieve too much. All of this is a sacrifice to manifest the will of the great Black Star upon this world.”
Park Geon-woo smiled faintly as he looked down at the corpses torn apart by the demonic beasts.
Spin.
After gazing out the window for a while longer, he turned without hesitation.
‘It’s time to leave.’
He couldn’t afford to linger here and risk drawing the Black Star’s attention.
“Hehe. Well, there’s no way he’d reach this place anyway.”
Beneath the high-rise building where he now stood, a rift leading to the Demon Realm gaped open.
As long as the rift remained, demonic beasts poured forth endlessly—even Lee Woo-hyuk couldn’t possibly break through that horde and reach the top floor.
“No matter how ferocious a lion is, it doesn’t have wings.”
He gazed down at Lee Woo-hyuk, who fought desperately, a cold sneer playing at the corners of his mouth.
Twenty minutes remained before the rift to the Demon Realm would seal.
For at least that duration, this place was an untouchable sanctuary—
“I’m flying! Flying! Damn it all!!!”
“Huh?”
What was that sound?
Park Geon-woo lifted his head toward the source of the voice.
-CRASH!!!
The window shattered spectacularly as a young man tumbled into the building.
Black hair with a slight curl.
Eyes gleaming fiercely, at odds with his gentle gaze.
“…Kwon O-jin?”
“Man, I thought I was done for.”
Kwon O-jin brushed glass shards from his body and stood up.
He turned his head to survey the surroundings, then looked toward Park Geon-woo with a grin.
“So you’re the one controlling the demonic beasts?”
“…How did you get here?”
Park Geon-woo stared at Kwon O-jin, bewilderment written across his face.
The floor where he’d positioned himself was the fiftieth level.
A height exceeding two hundred meters.
Yet he’d reached it by jumping?
“What trick did you use?”
“I hit a home run.”
“…?”
“What, you don’t know what a home run is?”
Was he a Hanwha fan?
“Anyway, we’re not exactly in a position for a leisurely Q&A session, are we?”
Even if they asked each other, neither would answer honestly—questions were a waste of time.
-Click.
Kwon O-jin pulled a metal rod from his waist and shaped it into a spear.
“Let’s settle this first, then we can have our little chat.”
“…You’re quite confident.”
“Should I whine about how my life’s ruined before we even fight?”
If he’d never intended to fight in the first place, that would be different.
Once committed to battle, the thought of defeat had to be erased from the mind.
‘And.’
I hadn’t come this far without calculation.
‘Worth a try.’
I’d ascended to the 5th Star through my confrontation with Ashad Khan.
With Black Heaven achieving its fourth bloom, the stigma of Lyra Constellation had grown exponentially stronger.
Even if my opponent ranked higher than Ashad Khan among the officials, I was confident I wouldn’t fall easily.
‘If I were facing an enemy I absolutely couldn’t handle, Vega would have stopped me by any means necessary.’
But Vega had only said she’d ‘found’ him—she never told me not to go or to flee immediately.
Even though the Constellation of Polaris had detected him despite the constraints, she hadn’t said such things.
‘That means it’s an opponent I can definitely fight and win against.’
And there was one more thing.
I had one hidden trump card in mind.
‘Though I’m not sure if it’ll actually work.’
Even if my planned trump card fell through, it wouldn’t be a major problem.
‘If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just bolt straight to where Lee Woo-hyuk is.’
I had no hesitation about retreating.
Fighting to the bitter end against an opponent I couldn’t defeat would be far more foolish.
“Then enough talk—let’s see what you’ve got.”
Kwon O-jin leveled his spear at Park Geon-woo.
“A spear, huh. Now that I think about it, Noe-rang uses a spear too.”
Park Geon-woo let out a low chuckle and twirled the spear he gripped.
A short spear less than two meters long.
Unlike Kwon O-jin’s, it was specialized for thrusting.
“Let’s see the true skill of the so-called Apostle of Polaris!”
Without any preliminary movement.
Park Geon-woo’s body shot forward like a beam of light.
-Clang!!
“Ugh!”
Kwon O-jin hastily retreated and swung his spear in a short arc.
With a clear metallic ring, his body slid backward.
“This is only the beginning!”
Park Geon-woo’s sharp thrusts came surging forward.
With each spear strike, black feathers materialized around the weapon and shot toward Kwon O-jin.
-Clang! Clang-clang-clang!!
A barrage of spear strikes.
Each black feather became like a spear blade, targeting Kwon O-jin.
“Ugh!”
Kwon O-jin barely managed to block the attacks, swallowing his groans.
‘Damn, he’s really strong.’
The opponent’s skill was definitely a tier above Ashad Khan.
Someone who’d reached at least the 8th Star.
‘Yeah, it has to be at least this level.’
Thump, thump.
Perhaps it was because it had been so long since I’d faced a true powerhouse.
A thrilling tension I hadn’t felt since Ashad Khan surged through my spine, spreading like wildfire.
“You dare spout such arrogance with merely this level of strength!”
Park Geon-woo pressed his advantage, driving Kwon O-jin back with overwhelming force.
—Clang! Clang! Claaang!
Kwon O-jin barely managed to deflect the relentless spear strikes while his mind raced ahead.
‘Should I use Exceed?’
A difference of one or two stars might be manageable.
Without Exceed, it was nearly impossible to bridge the fundamental gap in specs between a 5-star and an 8-star.
‘No, not yet.’
Defending against attacks while lagging so far behind in both strength and speed was no easy feat.
‘For now—I can hold on.’
The spear technique of Compass that had flowed into me through Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories.
By wielding a spear art that freely commanded all directions and angles, I was barely compensating for the overwhelming gap in specs.
“…Indeed. Your spear technique alone is worth acknowledging.”
Park Geon-woo regarded me with admiring eyes before letting out a faint sneer.
“But ultimately, the spear technique you wield is nothing but a soulless imitation.”
“What?”
Soul?
What’s this bastard suddenly going on about soul for?
“Tell me—what do you think of the ‘spear’?”
“I think it’s a weapon that can’t channel aura.”
“What? What kind of nonsense is that?”
Sword aura sounds fine, but spear aura sounds like it might get censored.
“….”
Park Geon-woo stared at me with an expression of utter disbelief.
“Hearing such drivel spill from your mouth explains perfectly why I sense no soul in your spear technique.”
He caressed the spear in his hand with utmost reverence.
“You and your ilk view the spear as nothing more than a tool for slaughter.”
“Then what else would it be?”
Park Geon-woo’s eyes grew distant and profound as he extended the spear before him with deliberate grace.
With measured precision, he brought his feet together, twirled the shaft, and struck the ground with a resounding thud.
“The spear is the truth that pierces all existence. It is the horizon dividing the void from the real.”
“Huh?”
All existence… what?
“It embodies both the nature of flow and strength, and contains the principle of the supreme ultimate—”
“Thunderbolt.”
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!!!
“Gah—ack!!!”
Park Geon-woo’s body was hurled backward violently, struck by the exploding lightning.
“That’s utter nonsense.”
A horizon dividing truth from falsehood?
The principles of yin and yang?
“A spear is simply a weapon made to pierce and tear through people, nothing more.”
What arrogance was this, spouting endless philosophy about the myriad things and eternal truths, only to use it for killing in the end?
“Stop wasting breath on empty words and swing that spear again.”
Whoosh!
I brought the spear down savagely, wreathed in crackling electricity.
-CLANG!!!
“Ugh!!!”
Park Geon-woo desperately raised his spear, barely deflecting the attack.
“You, you, how dare you…!”
Did he think his faith in the spear had been mocked?
Park Geon-woo’s face flushed crimson as he gripped his spear tightly.
“Then prove you can defeat me with pure spear technique alone!!”
“Pure spear technique alone?”
“Yes! Let’s compete without using stigmas!”
Park Geon-woo pointed his spear at Kwon O-jin and declared boldly.
“Without using stigmas, then….”
Kwon O-jin nodded.
“Fine. Let’s settle this fairly with spear technique alone.”
“I’ll prove you wrong.”
Park Geon-woo moved his spear with fluid grace.
The blood of a warrior, etched into his very soul, burned hot within him.
“A spear is━ not merely a tool.”
In a world where chasms opened and monsters swarmed, the only thing that had ever protected him was.
Not family, not friends, not lovers.
A single spear.
This one spear had guided him to the Black Star.
“A spear is part of my body.”
Body and spear as one.
That pinnacle realm one could only reach by mastering spear technique to its absolute limit.
He had already attained it long ago.
“Come.”
Park Geon-woo pointed his spear at Kwon O-jin.
A stance as perfect as a painted portrait.
Even without using stigmas, the aura emanating from him was so intense it stole one’s breath away.
“Here I come.”
Without yielding to the suffocating pressure.
Kwon O-jin raised his spear.
Without using a stigma.
For a collision of pure spearmanship and spearmanship alone━
“Exceed.”
Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
The stigma of Lyra Constellation blazed ferociously as azure lightning coiled around Kwon O-jin’s entire body.
“What? What, what is this?”
“What do you mean, you bastard.”
A lie.

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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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