The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 14

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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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The Maxed-Out Player’s 100th Return – Episode 14
14. Moving
Clack, clack.
The owner set down the side dishes on the table with an expression like he’d just bitten into shit.
“Boss, smile a little. If you serve customers with that face, they’ll all run away.”
“What?”
The owner, who’d been glaring with eyes like an axe blade, bit his lip and tried to suppress the seething rage inside him.
‘Stay calm. Just get through today keeping this bastard happy, and I can avoid the fine.’
After today, I wouldn’t see him again anyway.
With the resolve to grit my teeth and endure just one more day, the owner forced a smile onto my face.
“Is that better?”
“Who speaks informally to customers? Just because someone’s young doesn’t mean you can speak informally to them.”
“…Is that better, sir?”
“Yes. You look much better when you smile.”
Watching Ryu Min smile back at him, the owner silently clicked his tongue in disapproval.
‘Crazy psycho bastard.’
The owner turned and headed into the kitchen.
His face, glimpsed for a moment, was filled with rage.
Seeing that expression, Ryu Won asked carefully from beside me, worried.
“Hyung, is this really okay?”
“It’s fine. You have no idea how badly that owner treated me.”
“But what if he retaliates later…?”
“Don’t worry about pointless things.”
Retaliate?
Could he possibly retaliate with force against someone who was a Player?
‘It hasn’t happened in any of my previous returns, but if it did…’
I’d simply retaliate in kind.
Or better yet, I’d retaliate even harder to make sure he never even thought about it.
Soon the owner brought out the meat I’d ordered.
“Your meat… is ready.”
It was the most expensive cut in the restaurant—prime rib.
Sizzle.
Listening to the meat sizzle, Ryu Won swallowed hard.
‘Not pork belly, but Korean beef.’
Ryu Won was thrilled at the prospect of eating such an expensive dish for the first time.
“Eat plenty.”
“Yeah, you eat plenty too, hyung!”
With the owner gone, the brothers began their meal.
“Wow, this is so delicious, hyung. Is this Korean beef?”
“Yeah. It’s one of the tastiest cuts of Korean beef.”
“I’ve heard people rave about how delicious it is, but I never imagined it would be this good. It just melts on my tongue!”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
Ryu Min looked around the dining hall with a satisfied smile.
Business must have been terrible—even during peak hours, there were still no other customers.
Ryu Min called out to the owner several times during his meal.
“Owner! Could I get some more garlic?”
“Owner! Could I get some more sauce?”
“Owner! I’d like another bowl of rice!”
“Owner! I’d like four more servings of premium brisket….”
“Damn it! If you’re going to order, order it all at once! You can’t just keep summoning me like this!”
The owner finally exploded.
“Then when I worked for you, did you treat me reasonably?”
“….”
Ryu Min’s words left the owner speechless.
“Bring me four servings of premium brisket, quickly.”
“How much more are you going to eat….”
“It’s coming out of the wages you didn’t pay me anyway, so what’s the problem?”
“Ah, no. I’ll bring it right away.”
Ryu Min unleashed all the workplace abuse he’d endured onto the owner without restraint.
The owner was undoubtedly learning the hard way that the customer was king.
‘Damn it, if I can just get through today… just today….’
After the owner silently endured his torment, the meal finally ended past nine o’clock.
Ryu Min and his younger brother rubbed their bellies with satisfied expressions.
“That was delicious.”
“That was great, hyung.”
Ryu Min stood up and turned to the owner.
“It’s pricey, but the food is worth it. Thank you for the meal, owner.”
“Y-yes. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
The owner’s face had grown gaunt, as if eons had passed.
“A-are you leaving now?”
“Yes.”
“What about the report?”
Ryu Min stared at the owner quietly.
The owner clasped his hands together and looked at him with desperate eyes—he clearly didn’t want to be reported.
“You’re not going to report me, right?”
“No. I won’t.”
A broad smile bloomed across the owner’s face.
“Ha ha! Really? Thank you….”
“It’s already out of my hands. I already filed the report on my way here.”
“W-what?”
Ryu Min flashed a sinister smile at the bewildered boss.
“I’ve already reported your conduct to the Ministry of Labor. I’ve also filed a criminal complaint, so you’ll need to appear in court soon. I suggest you prepare yourself mentally.”
“W-what?”
“As for the unpaid wages, you can transfer them to my account according to the Ministry of Labor’s directive later. Consider today’s meal as interest on the money I haven’t received yet.”
“….”
“I’m not sure if you’ll be able to run a business going forward, but good luck. Let’s not see each other again. Come on, Won.”
“Y-yes, hyung.”
As the brothers left the store, the boss stood frozen in stunned silence for a long while.
* * *
[Lottery jackpot swept at a convenience store in Seoul. A staggering 100 consecutive wins….]
[Only one person won 100 consecutive games. The same numbers drawn 100 times….]
[GS24 Yeonhui Branch jackpot winner. Single person claims 22.4 billion out of 25.8 billion won!]
[Approximately 2.24 billion won per game. An unprecedented prize amount sparking complaints from other jackpot winners.]
Ryu Won looked up from the article on his phone.
“Hyung, there’s an article about this?”
“Yeah. I saw it.”
“The comments are going crazy asking how anyone could possibly pick 100 games, saying you must have come from the future.”
“Well, they would.”
“Hyung, did you really come from the future? How did you get the numbers exactly right?”
“I dreamed them. Very vividly.”
Though hard to believe, Ryu Won didn’t press further.
The fact that his brother had become a Player was already unbelievable enough.
“So 1.8 billion people really were trapped and only 900 million came back alive?”
“That’s what they’re saying. There are plenty of articles about it online.”
After January 1st at 5:20 AM.
Everyone who didn’t wake from the narcolepsy died of cardiac arrest.
There were countless articles about it, and the news covered nothing but that.
Some conspiracy theorists on video platforms claimed otherwise, but they were a tiny minority.
It was a reality that was hard to believe, yet impossible not to believe.
“The whole world is in chaos and you still don’t believe it?”
“I just can’t wrap my head around it….”
Ryu Min chuckled at his younger brother’s words.
Indeed, it would be hard to believe without experiencing it firsthand.
“Things will only get more chaotic from here. We’ve only survived the first round so far.”
The world would fill with chaos every month as the population dwindled.
The economy would collapse and social systems would break down.
Some were even saying the age of dystopia was beginning.
‘If Players start wielding their power on top of this, the chaos will only accelerate.’
That’s why I needed to accumulate as much capital as possible right now.
Money was always useful, and there were plenty of ways to spend it.
“Won, what do you think of the place we saw at the real estate office yesterday? Do you like it?”
“Of course! It was amazing! I’ve never seen such a spacious, expensive place in my life! I’ve only seen it in photos, but….”
“Among places available for immediate move-in, that one was the best. The security is excellent too.”
I was planning to move to Galleria Forest in Seongsu-dong.
The asking price was a staggering 7 billion won, but I hadn’t spent that much money.
I’d signed a monthly lease contract instead of a purchase agreement.
“But hyung, why did you sign a monthly lease? You have plenty of money—why not just buy it outright….”
“I don’t have the money.”
“Huh?”
I spoke casually to my younger brother, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
“I invested everything except 1 billion won into cryptocurrency.”
“What? Cryptocurrency?”
What was he talking about? Cryptocurrency?
My brother asked as if he’d been struck by lightning.
“Are you talking about Bitcoin?”
“Yeah.”
“You poured 14 billion won into that?”
“Yep.”
“Hyung! What on earth were you thinking…!”
I raised my hand to tell him to be quiet.
“I know. I know what you’re going to say. It probably looks pathetic. Reckless. But it’s not.”
“Do you have some reason to believe in this?”
“That’s why I went all-in, keeping only 1 billion won.”
“….”
Overnight, 15 billion won had come and vanished.
Of course, it wasn’t vanished but invested, yet to Ryu Won’s eyes, it might as well have disappeared.
Even a middle schooler like Ryu Won knew the risks of cryptocurrency.
“Are you really sure about this? It’s your money you earned, so it’s not my place to interfere, but….”
“I’m sure. You don’t need to worry about losing it at all.”
“Well, if you say so….”
I couldn’t be reassured.
It wasn’t even regular stocks—it was cryptocurrency.
It could literally vanish overnight like a puff of smoke.
Understanding my brother’s concerns, I reassured him.
“Don’t worry about money. I can just win the lottery again and earn more.”
“Huh? The lottery?”
“I didn’t just dream the numbers for one drawing.”
I told him I’d seen the numbers for a total of five lottery drawings in my dreams and could match four more in the future.
“Of course, I won’t know if they’re the winning numbers until I check.”
“Wow….”
You’re telling me you can predict four more winning lottery numbers?
‘If first prize keeps hitting from now on…?’
Ryu Won covered his mouth with his hand.
‘Fifteen billion each, four times—that’s sixty billion? Sixty billion more coming in?’
If the first-prize numbers matched what the dream had revealed, his older brother would become filthy rich.
“Hyung! You remember all the numbers, right? You can’t forget!”
“I won’t forget.”
‘I’ve done this countless times before.’
For Ryu Min, a returner, memorizing lottery numbers across five cycles was child’s play.
“Anyway….”
Ryu Min checked the time on his phone and stood up.
“Let’s grab lunch outside and get ready to head out.”
“Huh? Where to?”
“Oh, I didn’t mention it?”
Ryu Min broke into a broad smile.
“Today’s moving day.”
* * *
Crunch—
The brick crumbled under Hwang Yong-min’s fist.
“Wow, this is insane!”
As he threw another punch, the alley wall caved inward in multiple places.
Each time, exclamations spilled from Hwang Yong-min’s lips.
It couldn’t be helped.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled to possess power that transcended human limits?
“Being able to use the status window and inventory in reality too… this is incredible.”
Even the runes applied directly.
‘A rune that doubles my strength? My gacha luck was amazing.’
While runes didn’t have formal tiers, it was obvious at a glance.
The [Rune of Strength] he’d drawn was absolutely broken.
‘I wanted to build strength anyway, and this rune shows up.’
With such a rune, he’d poured all his stat points into strength.
And the results spoke for themselves.
It let him crush bricks with his bare fist without effort.
Though his knuckles were starting to ache a bit.
“At this level, even Tyson would envy this cheat fist.”
Hwang Yong-min, grinning from ear to ear, brushed the dust from his knuckles.
“Testing’s done. Time to move to real combat? Hehe.”
Crack-crack— He rolled his knuckle joints as he began walking.
His destination was a shabby multi-unit residential building.
None other than Ryu Min’s home.
‘That arrogant little shuttle dares to look at me like that?’
It hadn’t been many days, but the scorn and glint in his eyes from the Bell-ringing Ceremony Site remained vivid before me.
‘Did you think I’d just let this slide? You’re done for, Ryu Min, you bastard.’
I hadn’t seen the bastard since returning to reality.
I’d tried calling him as usual, but he wouldn’t pick up.
‘You think disappearing will solve this?’
It didn’t matter that he wasn’t answering.
I knew exactly where the shuttle lived.
‘I’ll straighten out those bad habits myself.’
Whether he’d survived the first round or not, I’d find out soon enough when I went to his place.
Even if he’d somehow survived and turned out to be a Player like me, I was confident I could beat him.
A loser gaining strength was still just a loser.
“Here it is.”
Hwang Yong-min pressed the doorbell in front of Ryu Min’s home.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—
No answer, no matter how many times I rang it.
I pressed my ear against the front door, but there was no sign of anyone inside.
‘The bastard’s home but deliberately not coming out?’
Obviously he knew I’d come looking and was cowering inside like a pathetic coward.
“Ah, not home? Can’t be helped then. I should go.”
I called out loudly as if leaving, then pressed my ear firmly against the door.
‘If I hear even a sound, I’ll break down this door and get in.’
With strength enough to shatter bricks, there was nothing holding me back anymore.
That’s when it happened.
“Huh? Hey, student? What are you doing there?”
At the voice from behind, I turned my head.
An old man was approaching me.
“What are you doing in front of someone else’s home?”
“What’s it to you, Grandfather? You’re not the owner.”
“I am the owner of this place.”
My eyes widened.
“Really?”
“That’s what I said. Why are you acting like this? Did you come looking for a friend?”
‘A friend?’
A smile played across my lips.
“Yes, that’s right, a friend. Since you’re the owner, you can open the door, right? He suddenly stopped answering his calls, so could you open it for me?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
The old man clicked his tongue without answering, and I furrowed my brow.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Looks like your friend stood you up.”
“Huh?”
“There’s an empty room there. I came to check since the student said he’d vacated it.”
Hwang Yong-min’s eyes widened.
“What are you talking about?”
“The student living here moved somewhere else.”
‘Moved?’
Hwang Yong-min’s eyebrows twitched.
“When?”
“Today.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“How would I know?”
Hwang Yong-min ground his teeth, trembling with rage.
‘This bastard just moved without saying a word?’
He’d never imagined his pawn would slip from his grasp like this.

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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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