The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 22

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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 22
22. Jo Jung-sik
Jo Jung-sik was a rather famous gangster boss in Seoul.
The Jung-sik Faction was so dominant that few gangsters didn’t know of them.
Especially remarkable was that he’d risen to leadership at the young age of thirty-one.
And in Seoul, a city known for its ruthless standards at that.
‘It’s talent, pure talent. Heaven itself decreed I’d become a gangster from childhood.’
Jo Jung-sik himself acknowledged that he was gifted.
The environment for becoming a gangster, physical condition, audacity, fighting prowess, courage—
He lacked nothing.
Without these qualities, he could never have established an organization bearing his name in Seoul.
‘But why? Why the hell did I have to get dragged to this godforsaken place?’
He’d snuck away to watch a bell-ringing ceremony without his organization knowing, only to be suddenly pulled into the Other World.
‘I ended up creating the nickname Life is Documentary on a whim, but…’
The fact remained that he’d been dealt a terrible hand.
No amount of cursing changed anything.
He simply had to survive by slaying the green monsters.
‘Damn god. I’ll survive this hellhole no matter what.’
He cursed the deity while slashing at goblins.
Though born from desperation, Jo Jung-sik adapted surprisingly well.
He even achieved second place in his sector, clearing the first round without difficulty.
‘My fighting skills haven’t dulled one bit, have they?’
Slaying goblins was easy.
Especially with the [Rune of Insight] he’d obtained from random rune fragments—it proved invaluable.
‘Predicting the opponent’s movements in advance? This is almost too simple.’
Yet Jo Jung-sik was dissatisfied that he’d only managed second place.
‘Who’s first? Black Scythe?’
He was already familiar with the nickname Black Scythe.
That person who’d rushed forward first while everyone else hesitated, slaughtering goblins left and right.
‘What kind of monster is this bastard to kill a hundred in just ten minutes?’
Even he, who’d devoted his entire life to fighting, had needed over twenty-three minutes.
‘Is he some kind of special forces operative? Damn it.’
The boss of the Jung-sik Faction, respected throughout Seoul, had only managed second place.
His pride couldn’t help but be wounded.
From that moment on, Jo Jung-sik began paying close attention to Black Scythe.
‘I’ll take first place in the next round, no matter what.’
A month later, when the second round began and the Quest was revealed,
Jo Jung-sik couldn’t hide his disappointment.
‘What? We’re selecting a sector representative? What about rankings?’
For Jo Jung-sik, who’d anticipated a ranking showdown with Black Scythe, the situation was deeply frustrating.
‘And I’m supposed to spend three hours here discussing nonsense with these incompetent fools?’
The fact that I had to debate with these mediocrites—so far beneath me, the second-ranked player—was deeply frustrating.
‘Should I follow that bastard into the Forest? There might be prey to hunt.’
I watched Black Scythe disappear into the Forest and hesitated for a moment, but Jo Jung-sik made a different choice.
‘No. Hunting isn’t what matters right now. What matters is securing this powerful position as the zone representative.’
The benefit of command authority—the power to enslave every human being—kept Jo Jung-sik rooted in place.
‘Actually, this works out perfectly. Black Scythe would’ve only gotten in my way. Here, I am king.’
Jo Jung-sik held his ground with singular determination to claim the zone representative position, observing the situation carefully.
I was calculating the right moment to make my move when something unexpected happened.
That Min-cho Youth bastard stepped forward as representative and began manipulating the crowd.
‘What? This agitator scum?’
Jo Jung-sik’s brow furrowed as the Min-cho Youth suddenly stepped up to persuade the others.
What particularly irritated me was the System Message that appeared every time Min-cho Youth spoke.
[Min-cho Youth is using the Rune of Persuasion to enchant the players.]
[Your level is higher than theirs; you are unaffected by the persuasion.]
My rune had seen through the Min-cho Youth’s power.
‘The Rune of Persuasion? Is that how he’s manipulating everyone?’
The message made the situation clear.
‘So higher levels are immune to persuasion?’
Everyone else was level 5, but Jo Jung-sik’s current level was 6.
The [Level Up] reward for placing second in the zone rankings had been a stroke of genius.
‘That dog of an agitator. I need to kill him first.’
Jo Jung-sik wasted no time stabbing the Min-cho Youth to death.
The crowd seemed shocked by the sight, but for someone from the Gangster Organization, this was nothing.
“H-he killed someone!”
“That man just killed someone!”
Jo Jung-sik let out a cold sneer at the panicked crowd.
“So what? Everyone dies anyway. I just sent him a little early.”
“Then you should die too!”
At someone’s accusation, Jo Jung-sik laughed coldly.
“Yeah, I’ll die someday. Just not today.”
“Murderer!”
“If you’ve got a problem, come at me.”
Jo Jung-sik raised his dagger, but no one dared approach.
“Why are you hesitating? I said come on if you’ve got complaints!”
“He’s insane. That guy’s completely insane.”
“If you won’t come, I’ll come to you.”
Jo Jung-sik charged into the crowd.
As I swung the dagger, blood sprayed from two necks.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“That crazy bastard!”
“What are you doing swinging that at people!”
“Hahahaha!”
Jo Jung-sik rampaged like a madman, stabbing anyone within reach.
In reality, this would’ve made headlines as an indiscriminate knife attack, but this was the Other World.
There were no journalists to photograph the scene, no police to rescue the victims.
And certainly no CCTV footage to serve as evidence.
“Die! Die, you worthless insects! Hahahaha!”
Blood sprayed with each swing of Jo Jung-sik’s dagger.
Players with no prior connection to him collapsed on the spot, their lives snuffed out.
“Everyone, stop him!”
“Let’s all kill this crazy bastard together!”
To eliminate their common enemy—Life is Documentary—the players drew their weapons and clashed with one another.
Even if he was ranked second, a coordinated assault from multiple opponents should have subdued him quickly.
But things didn’t unfold as planned.
“Damn it, watch your blade! Be careful!”
“What? Damn it? You look young—watch your mouth, kid.”
“How would you know my age, old man? Your boomer mentality is showing. Damn it.”
“You little bastard!”
The players who’d agreed to face Jo Jung-sik suddenly turned on each other.
And then they crossed a line they shouldn’t have.
Squelch—!
“Ugh!”
“Oh, big brother! Are you okay? Hey, you asshole! What gives you the right to stab my brother? Everyone! There’s another murderer here, help me!”
With weapons in hand, even petty arguments escalated into bloodshed in seconds.
“Die!”
“Kill all the murderers! Otherwise we’ll be next!”
“You bastards!”
The discussion turned into a battlefield in an instant.
The spark Jo Jung-sik had ignited spread to innocent bystanders.
“Ahhhhh!”
“It hurts!”
“Gaaahhh!”
Jo Jung-sik’s rampage finally ceased when no one dared approach him anymore.
“Huh? Why are these bastards fighting each other like idiots?”
Jo Jung-sik, bewildered, stabbed someone standing nearby.
“Everyone, stop!”
I shouted, but the frenzied crowd’s ears were deaf to my voice.
“I said stop, you bastards!”
At Jo Jung-sik’s roar, people turned their heads and gradually lowered their weapons.
I realized I had gotten swept up in the atmosphere and grown excessively excited.
“Why are you all fighting like it’s a matter of life and death? Have you become enemies?”
At that sharp remark, people looked embarrassed and stepped back from one another.
It wasn’t something Jo Jung-sik should say, having attacked without warning.
“Don’t pointlessly kill each other and reduce the number of achievers. Just vote for me later.”
“W-what gives you the right to tell us to vote?”
“Don’t want to? Then die by my hand right now.”
As Jo Jung-sik drew his dagger again, the person who had spoken flinched and retreated.
The blood smeared here and there testified to just how psychotic Jo Jung-sik was.
“No more talking. If you don’t want to die, vote for me. Anyone who doesn’t vote for me—I’ve memorized your nickname and face, and I’ll definitely kill you in the next round. Understand?”
“….”
No one answered, but Jo Jung-sik had enough sense to read the room.
‘They’re all terrified of me.’
I knew fear well.
Intimidating and threatening others was my specialty.
‘They’ll all vote for me out of fear of retaliation.’
The outcome was a foregone conclusion—my overwhelming victory.
Black Scythe or whatever, the zone representative would almost certainly be me.
‘Heh heh, people really do listen once you draw a blade.’
It seemed certain that I would become the zone representative.
‘Once I’m the representative, I can wield the tremendous power of command authority, right? Heh heh.’
I had already decided what order to give first as representative.
‘Black Scythe. I need to kill that annoying bastard first.’
I decided to command everyone to kill Black Scythe first.
Eliminating my rival and obstacle, becoming first place myself.
That was the ending Jo Jung-sik desired.
* * *
Shing—!
Ryu Min’s scythe cleaved through Nol’s waist.
[You have eliminated Nol!]
[3x Experience Buff is active.]
[Experience +3.15%]
[Gold +20]
[Current Kill Count: 265/100]
[All stats increase by 100% due to the Massacre Rune effect.]
[You have leveled up!]
He died in a single strike without landing a proper attack.
It was thanks to the Reaper’s Rune doubling weapon attack power and the Massacre Rune doubling all stats.
‘And with the Death Seal adding another 2x damage multiplier, there’s no way he could survive.’
Hunting was already easy, but after advancing my class, it became even easier.
‘Of course, my leveling speed has plummeted as a result.’
Unlike before, the experience I gained had dropped to less than half.
From level 10 onwards, where I could grow stronger through class advancement, the required experience jumped dramatically.
So despite hunting 200 monsters over two hours, I’d only managed to gain 6 levels.
‘Even with the 3x experience benefit, I’m only getting 2-4% per kill. No wonder leveling feels glacial.’
Still, being level 16 puts me overwhelmingly ahead of other players.
Most hadn’t even reached level 10 yet, so they didn’t even know sub-quests existed.
‘Time’s up anyway. Guess I should wrap things up.’
I stashed my scythe in my inventory and opened my status window.
Unlike my previous stat allocations, I’d invested my points into Luck this time.
‘Since I have the Random Gold Pouch, investing in Luck is the smart play.’
High Luck has countless benefits.
When hunting monsters, I occasionally receive bonus gold, and item drop rates increase.
Plus, critical hit chance rises—and for a powerful dealer like the Reaper, the synergy was exceptional.
‘Critical damage ignores the enemy’s defense, which is fantastic. Plus, the damage comes out at 2x the normal attack.’
Though each stat point only raised critical chance by 0.1%, so the probability of landing a critical was still low.
‘My current Luck is 30. That’s only a 3% chance.’
But if I kept stacking it and eventually reached 300?
Every attack would have a 30% chance to trigger a defense-ignoring critical hit dealing 2x damage.
That would be an absolutely massive advantage.
Just then, a message appeared before Ryu Min’s eyes.
It was time for the vote.
[Time remaining until vote: 00:00:00]
[The voting period has arrived.]
[All players in this zone are being summoned to the starting point.]
In the blink of an eye, my surroundings changed.
I was instantly transported from the Forest to a vast Clearing.
“W-who are these people? They just appeared out of nowhere?”
“Judging by that ‘summon’ message, these must be the players who went into the Forest?”
The players at the starting point were shocked to see those who had entered the Forest.
But those of us from the Forest were equally stunned.
“W-what is this chaos? There are dead bodies everywhere!”
“What on earth happened here?”
The bloodstains and corpses scattered throughout were more than enough to panic the players who’d ventured into the Forest.
We’d expected to find players debating in the Clearing, not… this carnage.
But only Ryu Min remained unfazed.
I’d anticipated all of this.
‘I knew a fight would break out. It happened in the previous cycle too.’
Of course, I also knew what had caused the conflict.
Ryu Min turned his head, following the gaze of those around him.
Standing there was someone with the nickname Life is Documentary, arms crossed over his chest.
‘Just as I expected—Jo Jung-sik has seized control.’
Jo Jung-sik.
The leader of the Jung-sik Faction, a born fighter and a talented individual who had claimed second place in this district.
But his abysmal personality made it risky to bring him along for the final round.
‘A time bomb waiting to detonate at any moment—it would be better to eliminate it quickly, but….’
The time wasn’t right yet.
I needed to establish Jo Jung-sik as my representative and exploit him during the third round.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Jo Jung-sik turned to look at me.
“Hey, Black Scythe.”
He approached with a swagger, then suddenly flashed a smile.
“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for a while.”
“What do you want?”
“Nothing major—I just have a proposal for you.”
Jo Jung-sik wiped his nose and spoke with calculated indifference.
“I’ll be blunt. Come work under me.”

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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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