The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 199

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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 199
199. The First Trial
‘Damn it.’
To be honest, John Delgado had been anticipating this.
That Yang Chui-wen’s organization members would behead Black Scythe.
That they would avenge him against that damned bastard.
But.
[I have located the target ‘Black Scythe’.]
[The target is currently 501 meters away.]
[Follow the arrow ahead to track the target.]
After entering the Other World and using tracking, Black Scythe appeared on my search.
There was only one thing this could mean.
‘Black Scythe, that bastard is still alive!’
Black Scythe being alive meant Yang Chui-wen’s operation had failed.
‘How is this possible? I confirmed until the end that Black Scythe was living there, and we executed the plan perfectly. So why couldn’t we kill him?’
It was a simple operation—infiltrate the Villa after midnight and slit his throat.
According to the plan, Black Scythe should have died shortly after entering the Other World.
‘But he’s perfectly alive.’
I could only understand what happened after returning.
For now, I knew nothing.
‘If things are like this, should I execute the next operation?’
Swingman’s operation came to mind—to reconcile with Black Scythe and become close to him.
‘Damn it, I can’t do that. Am I insane to… with that bastard…’
To bow my head and flatter the mortal enemy who severed my limbs?
Could there be anything more humiliating than that?
‘Swingman, you demonic bastard…’
I wanted to kill that Indian who conceived such a damned operation, but there was nothing I could do now.
I had to find Black Scythe according to plan.
‘Sigh. I really hate this.’
I had been so certain Yang Chui-wen’s operation would succeed that I wasn’t mentally prepared.
As I cursed Swingman once more, Angel appeared and explained about 12 Rounds.
‘Clear five trials? Form a five-person party?’
Forming a party wasn’t the problem.
I had already gathered nearly two hundred Despair Cult followers.
I just needed to select the most capable ones and form a party from them.
‘The problem is I don’t have information about the trials.’
I couldn’t just pick anyone carelessly.
Without knowing what trials would appear, I had to select the most diverse range of job classes possible.
But watching people move with such urgency made me anxious.
Besides, hadn’t Angel herself said so?
He said he would eliminate the two who fell behind.
‘I can’t hesitate like this. I need to find a party quickly….’
The given mission made my feet reluctant to move.
‘Damn it, am I really supposed to bow my head and enter Black Scythe’s domain?’
Since I happened to need a party anyway, now was the opportunity.
I could find Black Scythe, apologize for what happened last time while groveling, and ask him to form a party with me.
‘No, I can’t. My pride won’t allow it even if they beat me to death.’
No matter how many hidden blades I carried, I didn’t have the courage to do such a thing.
Even if they offered me a fortune, I had no confidence in swallowing my pride before someone I wanted to kill.
“Ha… damn, huh?”
John Delgado, who had been sighing, habitually activated Tracking and widened his eyes in surprise.
‘What is this?’
The distance between me and Black Scythe had decreased from before.
No, for some reason, it was decreasing in real time.
As if he were coming toward me.
[You are currently 363m away.]
[You are currently 222m away.]
[You are currently 113m away.]
…
…
[You are currently 31m away.]
Once the distance became visible to the naked eye, John Delgado tore his gaze from the message.
And he slowly opened his mouth in shock.
Black Scythe was truly approaching me.
“Hey there, John Delgado. How have you been?”
“….”
Black Scythe waved his hand like a close friend, speaking with a shameless expression.
“Your limbs are fine, right?”
“….”
“They’re still attached, you say? Thank goodness.”
John Delgado maintained his silence.
I was too bewildered to even ask what was going on.
‘He came to find me directly….’
I was curious about the reason, but I was afraid to ask.
Didn’t I have my limbs severed the last time I misspoke?
‘What the hell is this bastard trying to pull now….’
I wanted to kick that mouth and rip out his tongue, but I knew it was impossible.
So I spoke while hiding my panic.
With better manners than before.
“Um, what business did you come to find me for?”
“I’ll be direct with you, John Delgado. Join my party.”
John’s eyes widened considerably.
It was a proposal he never expected.
“A, a party? What do you mean….”
“We have an open slot on our team. You’re the only one I can think of to fill it.”
Now that I looked closer, Black Scythe had come with other companions.
Two men and one woman.
But one of the men had a familiar username.
“Huh? Jeffrey?”
Jeffrey—wasn’t that the assassin Swingman had hired to find Black Scythe’s location?
“Jeffrey, why are you here?”
“Do you know me?”
Jeffrey deliberately pretended not to recognize the Necromancer.
Ryu Min had instructed him to act like a stranger.
John tilted his head uncertainly in response.
‘They don’t recognize me without customization?’
Conversely, this Jeffrey had the same username but looked different in the Other World—he must have customized his appearance.
‘Could he have given a false username?’
The possibility occurred to me that the Jeffrey I’d met in reality might not be this Jeffrey.
“Do you know Jeffrey?”
“Oh, no. I must have mistaken him for someone else.”
John Delgado awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
It made no sense that Black Scythe would be traveling with the very person who had been tailing him.
And the guy clearly looked like he was seeing John for the first time.
This wasn’t the time to worry about Jeffrey anyway.
I had just received an unexpected proposal.
‘If I just join, that makes exactly five.’
If I accepted the offer right now, I could form a five-person team and escape the final two-person bracket.
Since John had been without a team, there was no reason to refuse.
‘Plus, I can naturally stay close to Black Scythe.’
If I took that hand and became a comrade, I might eventually achieve my goal of betraying and killing Black Scythe.
‘I was dreading having to swallow my pride and approach him, but this works out perfectly.’
If he extended his hand like this first, it would be easier for John.
But he didn’t readily take Black Scythe’s hand.
Something felt off about it.
‘What’s the reason? Why would he want to party with someone like me…?’
One wrong word and I might get hit again, but I had to ask.
I needed to understand his true intentions.
“Why… why do you want to party with me? There must be plenty of people you could replace me with….”
“I don’t take questions. Decide: are you in or out?”
“….”
Black Scythe was utterly unreasonable.
He offered no explanation, simply demanding I choose whether to join his team or not.
‘He doesn’t intend to kill me. Once I become a party member, even Black Scythe cannot harm me.’
But then, why?
As John pondered the reason, Ryu Min offered no time for deliberation.
“You have ten seconds. Decide quickly.”
“Pardon?”
“If you don’t decide, I’ll assume you’ve refused and find someone else. Ten, nine….”
“Wait, please.”
“Eight, seven….”
As the seconds dwindled, John’s anxiety intensified.
It felt as though this moment alone would grant him access to Black Scythe—that such an opportunity would never come again.
With that realization, his muddled thoughts crystallized with sudden clarity.
‘Yes, that’s right. For now, for the sake of the operation, I’ll join Black Scythe’s….’
With three seconds remaining, John’s mouth opened.
“I, I will. The team.”
“Understood. Now join hands and recite the party formation incantation.”
All five clasped hands and simultaneously chanted the party formation incantation.
Golden luminescent characters coalesced into rings that locked around their wrists.
[Ah, the 7,389th party has just been formed. Do your best. There aren’t many spots left, you know.]
Angel’s taunting words drove the remaining players into greater desperation.
They scrambled frantically to avoid being among the final two, yet losers inevitably emerged.
[Kuhuhuhuh! Finally, 7,880 teams have been formed, and how unfortunate—two players remain!]
“No, this can’t be!”
“Please, Angel! Have mercy….”
[You should have begged the other players to form a party with you, not me. Tsk, tsk. Adios!]
“Noooooo!”
Their screams echoed like phantoms as the two players vanished without mercy.
[Well then, since all the teams are set, shall we begin the Quest?]
With Angel’s words, the scenery transformed.
* * *
“Huh?”
Ryu Min’s team, moments ago in the Monochrome Space, now found themselves in a dimly lit cave.
Though my party members were startled by the sudden transition, I remained composed.
‘So it begins.’
Each team was likely witnessing the same landscape.
All of us had been dropped here, where the Cave of Trials awaited.
“Black Scythe, where are we…?”
“It’s started, it seems. The cave is visible, after all.”
Ryu Min stepped forward calmly, leaving his frozen party members behind.
“We don’t have time to dawdle. The team that clears this quickly survives, as they said. I’ll lead the way, so follow closely.”
With those words, Ryu Min walked ahead without so much as a glance back.
“Wait, just a moment! Let me cast buffs on you!”
Min Ju-ri hurried after him, urgently casting buffs.
Jeffrey and Ju Sung-tak moved to follow their leader as well.
Only John Delgado remained behind, staring blankly at the retreating figures of his party members.
‘Damn it, we’re really a party like this?’
Though they’d formed a party on a whim, Black Scythe paid him no mind.
He asked nothing and simply told him to follow, walking off into the distance.
‘Is this guy insane?’
To take someone who was practically an enemy as a party member.
He was a man whose intentions were impossible to read.
‘If I had my way, I’d drive a blade straight through the back of his head….’
But he knew that would be meaningless now that they were in a party.
In fact, they were in the same boat now—they had to survive together.
‘Sigh, whatever his intentions are, let me just go along with it for now. After all, I’ve already gotten close to Black Scythe as planned, haven’t I?’
He followed the group, taking solace in the fact that he didn’t have to swallow his pride.
In the meantime, Democracy, the only woman in the party, turned back and spoke to him.
“John Delgado. Come receive these buffs.”
“Buffs?”
Bless and Swift, even Safety Barrier.
John’s eyes widened in disbelief as he received three types of buffs.
‘Insane! She’s boosting my stats this much?’
A 70% increase to all stats, plus 70% to attack and movement speed, and even a protective barrier against surprise attacks.
John could only greet her with wide eyes and watch as the Buffer rushed forward again.
* * *
Ryu Min walked forward, sensing through his presence detection that his companions were following well.
From the first trial to the fifth.
As long as he knew the strategy, there was nothing difficult about it.
‘The first trial requires a tank.’
Soon a dead-end wall appeared, and he stopped.
His companions arrived in succession and stood before the wall like Ryu Min.
“The path is… blocked?”
Once Min Ju-ri and John Delgado arrived last, all five were gathered, and the conditions triggered as a message appeared.
[Welcome to the Cave of Trials.]
[Now, let us begin the first trial.]
【First Trial】
└Endure monster attacks for 10 minutes
└Success ▶ Next trial unlocked
└If failed ▶ One party member will be eliminated through voting
“Endure the monsters’ attacks?”
John muttered as if questioning the meaning, but the message wasn’t finished yet.
[Monsters will soon flood into the Cave.]
[The monsters are under an invincibility effect, making it impossible to inflict any damage on them.]
[If the party members endure for 10 minutes without sustaining significant damage, the trial will conclude.]
[Conversely, if the damage sustained by party members exceeds the set threshold, it will be considered a failure even if you endure for the full 10 minutes.]
[If you cannot overcome the trial, one party member will be eliminated through internal voting.]
“It seems monsters will flood in here.”
“Wait, so if our allies take damage, we fail even if we endure?”
John was flustered, but the others remained composed.
They already knew from the prophecy.
‘The first trial requires a tank. I need to shield my allies by taking the hits myself and endure against the monsters.’
A mission that truly tested a tank’s qualities.
But Ryu Min’s team had no tank.
Yet Min Ju-ri followed Black Scythe because the prophecy had mentioned it beforehand.
To trust Black Scythe no matter what happened.
“Everyone, get behind me.”
As Ryu Min stepped forward, the party members pressed themselves against the dead-end wall.
John also took his position, using Black Scythe as a shield as instructed.
‘What’s he planning? Is he going to block the monsters alone? They’re invincible, so he can’t even kill them?’
I didn’t know what Black Scythe would do, but for now, all I could do was watch.
[Monsters will appear in 10 seconds. Please prepare for their emergence!]

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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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