The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 245

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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 245
245. Putting It Off
“I need more time to think about it.”
“What?”
“I can’t make a decision right now.”
Ryu Min didn’t reject Min Ju-ri’s confession.
He simply postponed it, saying he needed time.
‘If I reject her outright here, Min Ju-ri’s mental state won’t survive it.’
It took courage, yes, but this confession came with a glimmer of hope.
Yet if I were to coldly reject her—
Wouldn’t her disappointment crumble her like a sandcastle?
And if her mind shattered like that?
Could she survive until Round 20?
Ryu Min was skeptical about it.
‘She might even turn her back on Black Scythe.’
Rejection would be the worst possible outcome for Min Ju-ri.
It could negatively affect both Ryu Min and Black Scythe.
That’s why, if a confession was inevitable, he hoped it would come as late as possible.
‘But I never expected it to be today….’
Judging that an immediate rejection could be the worst choice, he decided to postpone.
It was the best decision for both of them.
“You want more time…?”
“Yeah. It was so sudden… I need time to sort out my thoughts.”
“…I understand. I’ll give you time. Let me know when you have an answer.”
With those words, Min Ju-ri stood up and left the Cafe without looking back.
Watching her departure, Ryu Min tilted his head in confusion.
‘Did I do something wrong?’

* * *
The room was silent.
Ryu Min’s gaze drifted vacantly toward the wall clock.
Tick-tock—tick!
The minute hand pointed precisely at twelve.
‘Round 15 starts in just twelve hours….’
Ryu Min stared at his phone, lost in thought.
‘The one who cares more should reach out first, right?’
He scrolled through the text conversation with Min Ju-ri.
-Three weeks ago-
[Min Ju-ri: Have you made up your mind?]
[Ryu Min: Not yet….]
[Min Ju-ri: I’ll wait for your answer.]
-Two weeks ago-
[Min Ju-ri: Min. Do you need more time to think?]
[Ryu Min: Yeah, just a bit longer.]
-One week ago-
[Min Ju-ri: Your answer?]
[Ryu Min: Ah, just a little more.]
[Min Ju-ri: It’s been over two weeks and you still need time?]
[Ryu Min: Sorry. I want to decide carefully.]
Three weeks ago.
Ever since Min Ju-ri’s unexpected confession, I had been dodging her answer.
And today, with twelve hours remaining until Round 15.
I had to make a decision.
‘I have to meet her today no matter what.’
I couldn’t put it off any longer.
‘I need to share the Round 15 strategy and hand over the invisibility potions….’
I had shared the strategy with the Death God Cult followers under the name Black Scythe.
I had given invisibility potions to Seo A-rin and Yamtti.
‘The only person who hasn’t heard the strategy yet is Min Ju-ri.’
Min Ju-ri hadn’t even attended the Death God Cult’s regular meetings.
That meant her mental state was unstable.
‘Did I put it off too long?’
I felt sorry, but a gentle evasion was better than a blunt rejection.
A direct refusal might actually shatter her mind.
‘Given how much I’ve avoided answering, Min Ju-ri must have sensed it. That I’m indirectly rejecting her.’
Unless she was a fool, she would understand.
If she had any intuition, she would know.
Because feelings exist.
‘Still, the persistent questioning must stem from wanting a definitive answer—yes or no.’
But I lacked the courage to speak.
Right now, with everything suspended, at least hope remained. But if I rejected her outright?
Wouldn’t that strip away even that hope?
‘If I did that, things might become far worse. She might not even speak to me at all.’
Well, it didn’t matter if my real self didn’t talk to her.
As long as my relationship with Black Scythe remained undisturbed.
‘I want to maintain our current colleague relationship, but if Min Ju-ri heard a rejection, would she truly be okay mentally….’
That was what frightened me.
Losing Min Ju-ri as a colleague.
Losing Min Ju-ri as a friend.
‘Either way, I need to suggest meeting today. If it gets any later, there won’t be time….’
Just then, a text message arrived on Ryu Min’s phone.
[Min Ju-ri: I want to see you.]
Ryu Min replied immediately.
[Ryu Min: Yeah, let’s meet. How about the Cafe we went to before 2 o’clock?]
[Min Ju-ri: Sounds good.]
‘I wanted to see her anyway, and she contacted me first.’
Ryu Min grinned and grabbed his coat.

* * *
1:30 PM—the perfect time for coffee.
Under normal circumstances, the Cafe would have been bustling, but its interior was quiet and sparse.
The street visible through the display window was much the same.
‘The Survival Game changed so much.’
Finding a young person on the streets of Seoul now was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
Every Cafe had converted to unmanned operation.
‘Actually, I prefer it. A quiet place is better for serious conversations.’
During all this time, I’d sent messages that were subtle forms of pressure, but each time I’d been refused.
Perhaps because of that, Min Ju-ri’s eyes held a certain resolve today.
‘Today I’ll definitely get an answer.’
A response to Ryu Min’s confession.
Of course, Min Ju-ri wasn’t a fool.
She wasn’t unaware that Ryu Min had been subtly hinting at his answer all along.
‘Maybe I already know the result. And yet….’
And yet I desperately wanted to hear the answer from Ryu Min’s own lips.
Otherwise, I’d never escape this torment of false hope.
‘It’ll probably be a rejection….’
My mind was turbulent, but it was fine.
I had plenty of time to think, and that’s why I’d come to the meeting place early.
Ding—
As the cafe door swung open, I saw the face of the man I loved.
Ryu Min, my high school classmate whom I’d harbored a crush on for four long years.
Now that I’d finally gathered the courage, I wasn’t about to back down.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah, you came early?”
“Mm.”
“What do you want to drink? My treat.”
“No. I can’t keep accepting your kindness forever. I’ll buy. Sit down. Double espresso, right? Add an extra shot.”
“Yeah.”
When I brought the coffee, Ryu Min accepted it with a bewildered expression.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
For a while, we both just sipped our coffee in silence.
‘Oh no… how do I ask him? I’m losing my nerve.’
I was afraid, but I had to do this anyway.
Even if I heard rejection.
My lips finally parted.
“Um… don’t you have something to tell me?”
“Ah.”
Ryu Min offered a somewhat awkward smile.
Or rather, an uncomfortable one?
“You want to hear the answer to what I asked before?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, but I need a bit more time…”
“Again?”
As he tried to postpone his answer once more, I felt something surge inside me.
“How much more time do you need?”
“…”
“Three weeks is already plenty, isn’t it? That’s more than enough time to sort out your thoughts.”
“It’s not something I can decide so easily…”
“Ryu Min!”
I called out sharply, meeting his eyes directly.
“Stop dragging this out and make a decision. How long are you going to keep stalling? Don’t you understand how much pain this causes me? It’s like torture—false hope.”
“…”
“While you were taking your time, I’ve thought about it a lot too. Whether my feelings for you are genuine. Whether they’re just a fleeting flame that will burn out.”
My eyes burned with absolute conviction.
“But the more I thought about it, the more certain I became. That my decision was right. Even if I come to regret it, I need to tell you how I truly feel.”
Everything is hardest at the beginning.
Once I’d opened my heart, the words came pouring out without hesitation.
“So now I want to hear it. Your honest feelings. I can’t wait any longer.”
“….”
“Tell me. Do you like me?”
Ryu Min lifted his head and spoke with a serious gaze.
“I do like you.”
Min Ju-ri was taken aback by his answer, but only for a moment.
“But only as a friend, not as someone I’m romantically interested in.”
At his firm rejection, Min Ju-ri’s expression hardened like stone.
It was the answer she had anticipated, yet hearing it felt like a dagger carving through her chest.
“I’m sorry. It’s not the answer you were hoping for.”
“No, thank you for being honest with me.”
“….”
“….”
Silence descended between them once more.
A silence far more awkward than before, suffocating in its weight.
‘It hurts.’
So this is what it feels like to be rejected by someone you’ve loved in secret.
Min Ju-ri no longer knew what to say.
Her mind felt wiped clean, as if formatted.
Just as the awkward tension continued to tighten around her throat, Ryu Min broke the silence first.
“I’m sorry. But you’re truly a wonderful friend to me. Someone I don’t want to lose.”
“….”
“So can we forget about what just happened and go back to being friends like before?”
‘Friends…?’
It felt strange.
A word that had felt so close just moments ago now seemed impossibly distant.
‘Can we really go back to being as comfortable with each other as before? Pretending the confession never happened?’
Doubt crept into Min Ju-ri’s heart.
Perhaps she had opened Pandora’s box.
Perhaps delaying and postponing her answer, as Ryu Min had suggested, would have been the right choice after all.
“Ju-ri.”
“Hm?”
“You didn’t answer. Are we still friends?”
“Y-yes. We’re friends. Friends.”
Min Ju-ri suddenly found herself wondering.
Were there any cases of people confessing, being rejected, and successfully returning to friendship?
Was it really right to go back to being friends as if the previous moment had been erased from memory?
“I’m relieved. That we can remain friends.”
“….”
“Then I’ll tell you the strategy for Round 15 now.”
“U-um….”
Min Ju-ri fell into confusion as her confession seemed to vanish into thin air.

* * *
‘Did I hear that correctly?’
After parting with Min Ju-ri, Ryu Min found himself worrying unnecessarily.
Throughout his explanation of the strategy, she had seemed unable to concentrate.
‘She showed no signs of backing down further, so I had no choice but to reject her confession….’
Yet I couldn’t shake the doubt about whether I’d made the right decision.
I’d even caught glimpses of Min Ju-ri’s tangled thoughts about whether they could return to being friends.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter. Once we clear the round, that’s all that matters.’
I’d given her the invisibility potion and explained the strategy for Round 15.
Though she’d be struggling with the rejection, Min Ju-ri would have no choice but to move forward for the sake of survival.
‘Honestly, I even considered using a memory-erasure potion to wipe away the confession. But it felt wasteful to use such a precious item just to erase a confession.’
Contrary to my concerns, Min Ju-ri didn’t look particularly shocked.
There was no need to erase her memories.
‘If we continue as friends like before, Min Ju-ri will eventually come to terms with her feelings.’
With that thought, I returned home and lay in bed five minutes before midnight.
And as midnight arrived, my eyes closed without my even realizing it.

* * *
When I opened my eyes, a completely different world unfolded before me.
‘Round 15 has begun.’
People appeared one by one in the Monochrome Space.
I stood motionless, mentally reviewing what needed to be done this round.
‘The five key members who received the invisibility potion should have no trouble with the first mission, the second mission can be cleared easily by using the Despair Cult followers, and for the third mission, Christine’s performance is what matters most.’
With the healing skill I obtained as a temporary ability, protecting Christine shouldn’t be a problem.
I planned to keep watch on Berber throughout, so nothing unexpected should occur.
‘The only variable in this round would be the Angels….’
I had no idea when the Archangel would appear again.
She might have hired players like last time.
‘I can’t afford to be careless.’
Just as I was keeping my guard up.
“Ah, hello there, Black Scythe.”
Someone approached and greeted 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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