The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 303

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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 303
303. Why Is He Like This?
“L-Lord… Lord Patriarch? Are you alright?”
“Lord Patriarch?”
I called out to Heo Tae-sik again, but he showed no sign of understanding.
If he had understood, would he be staring at me with unfocused eyes while drool streamed from his mouth?
He looked as though his mind had abandoned his body entirely.
“Alex, why did Patriarch Heo come here?”
“What other reason could there possibly be?”
Alex tightened his grip on his staff, his expression grave.
Victor and Sophia watched Heo Tae-sik with cautious eyes.
Having just learned of the poor relations between Alex and him, wariness was inevitable.
“Patriarch Heo. If you’ve come for revenge, please abandon that notion.”
“We would be grateful if you would simply leave.”
Though I tried to dissuade him, Heo Tae-sik paid no attention.
“Grrrrr….”
He merely answered with a bestial growl.
Then Alex’s group realized something was amiss.
“He doesn’t seem to understand us at all.”
“And he’s making strange sounds.”
“Doesn’t his skin look redder than before?”
His abnormal state was evident to anyone paying even slight attention.
When Heo Tae-sik, who had been motionless, began moving again, Alex cried out.
“Don’t come any closer! I’m warning you!”
“Grrgh, grrgh.”
“Pretending not to understand like last time won’t work! The Other World has a translation function!”
Despite the warning, Heo Tae-sik closed the distance.
“Grrrhhhh….”
“Back off, I said!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Alex menacingly conjured a spear of ice and hurled it.
Whoosh!
Though he aimed it at the ground as a warning, Heo Tae-sik didn’t flinch.
The only difference was that I had provoked him.
“Roooaaarrr!”
In an instant, horns sprouted from Heo Tae-sik’s forehead and wings unfurled from his back.
His body swelled by thirty percent, and a demonic tail grew from his spine.
It was the demonification I had witnessed in our previous battle.
Alex didn’t hesitate and launched a preemptive strike.
Otherwise, he would surely die.
“Alex!”
Whoooosh—!
Victor cried out for me to stop attacking, but it was already too late.
If I didn’t counter the countless ice spears shooting toward me, I’d become a shish kebab.
But Victor’s fears never came to pass.
Heo Tae-sik darted upward with lightning speed, evading the assault.
Uuuuuung—
Ten black arrows materialized around Heo Tae-sik as he ascended.
Victor’s group found themselves in mortal danger, but Sophia stepped forward to shield them.
“Guardian’s Veil!”
The skill unfurled just as the black arrows descended upon them.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-crash—!
The impact was so devastating that it sounded as though a bomber had passed overhead.
Yet Sophia’s barrier held firm, unbroken by the onslaught.
“Is everyone all right?”
“Y-yes.”
“Thanks to you.”
Victor and Alex, standing behind Sophia, answered while feeling their blood run cold.
Without Sophia, they would have been torn to shreds and scattered across the ground by now.
“What are you doing, Patriarch Heo?! Come to your senses!”
“Let’s talk this through instead! Please?”
Though both shouted, Heo Tae-sik ignored them entirely, dropping something instead.
The black seed that fell to the ground sprouted vines and expelled a demon.
“Kiiiiiiiii—!”
It was Requiem, a supreme-tier demon.
“Kyaaaah!”
Requiem lunged at the group without hesitation upon seeing them.
At first glance, it resembled a hunting hound, but its body exceeded three meters in length.
I thought its massive frame would make it sluggish, but that assumption shattered instantly.
Crash! Bang—!
“Ugh!”
The force battering against Guardian’s Veil was beyond imagination.
“I can’t hold much longer. It will collapse soon. You need to decide—fight or flee.”
At Sophia’s words, Alex’s eyes shifted.
No more defensive posturing.
“Understood. From this moment forward, I classify them as enemies and will engage with full force.”
Sophia’s barrier shattered immediately after.
Crack—!
Requiem surged through the gap, its maw opening wide to devour from the head down.
At that instant.
Whoooosh—!
Alex’s flame storm, which he had prepared in advance, surged directly into Requiem’s mouth.
Boom!
“Kyaaaagh! Hgyaaaagh!”
No matter how long that creature had lived in Hell, there was no way it could endure a inferno blazing inside its mouth.
As it shrieked and convulsed, its palate completely scorched, that was when Sophia struck.
“Chains of Binding!”
Sophia’s skill wrapped around Requiem’s legs, restraining its movement, if only for a moment.
Without delay, as if ice spears had been waiting for their chance, they pierced Requiem’s face in rapid succession.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Crash!
Requiem collapsed, its face bristling with ice spears like a grotesque pincushion.
They thought they could finally breathe, but the party had no time to rest—they hurled themselves out of the way.
Dozens of black arrows once again painted the sky.
“Dodge!”
Boom-boom-boom-boom-crash!
The three scattered figures furrowed their brows and turned to check on each other.
For them, the safety of others took priority over their own.
“Are you alright?”
“Brother? Are you hurt?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine. Got scraped up a bit, but…”
Victor’s calves were drenched in blood—hardly a minor scrape—but it was nothing to worry about.
Whoosh.
A top-tier healing potion made quick work of the abrasions, mending them in an instant.
“Come down here!”
Alex, unable to contain himself any longer, hurled a Lightning Spear toward the sky.
Crackle-crackle!
He was confident the projectile’s speed would make it impossible to dodge, but Heo Tae-sik simply twisted his body and rendered the desperate strike utterly futile.
“Tch.”
Heo Tae-sik, smiling as if mocking him, suddenly hardened his expression and dove down like an arrow.
“Gasp!”
As the tremendous speed brought him within striking distance, Alex hastily erected a barrier.
But Heo Tae-sik’s strength was extraordinary—a single punch shattered the barrier.
Crack!
Heo Tae-sik’s enlarged hand, transformed by his demonic form, seized Alex’s throat in one swift motion.
As pressure mounted, Alex’s vision went white.
“Gack! Guh-hack!”
“Khehehehe.”
I couldn’t breathe.
In mere seconds, I would suffocate and die.
Though I understood my fate, there was nothing left I could do.
Unable to bear the sight, Sophia swung her sword.
“Haaah!”
She aimed to sever his arm in one stroke.
But Heo Tae-sik’s remaining hand caught her blade.
A horrific screech of metal—!
“Ugh!”
Though Sophia’s Guardian class placed her in the tank position, she still possessed considerable strength stats.
Yet Heo Tae-sik’s grip showed no wounds, and his strength didn’t yield an inch.
Despite being merely a dark mage.
“You insane cult bastard! Let Alex go!”
“Kehehehe.”
Heo Tae-sik’s contemptuous laugh rang out as he tightened his grip on Alex’s throat.
“Gack! Kheugh!”
Just before death claimed him—
Unable to watch any longer, Victor drew his weapon and charged forward.
“No, brother!”
Even if I couldn’t help, I couldn’t stand by and watch my comrade die.
With that resolve, I charged in ready to gouge out his eyes, but the deranged Heo Tae-sik wasn’t ignorant of my intent.
His tail pierced straight through my heart as if to kill me instantly.
A sickening puncture—!
Victor’s eyes bulged wide as his chest was impaled.
The tail had pierced directly through his heart.
Yet Victor didn’t die. He moved.
Moving still, he drove his dagger straight into Heo Tae-sik’s eye socket.
“Ugh, ugghhhhh!”
Though his bare hand could block a blade, his eye wasn’t nearly as durable—Heo Tae-sik shrieked and released Alex.
Thanks to that, Alex, who had climbed to the very threshold of death, finally gasped for breath.
“Khaaaaah! Khaaaaah!”
Watching Heo Tae-sik writhe in agony, Victor’s expression turned bewildered.
“How… how am I still alive?”
My chest should have been pierced, yet no blood flowed and I felt no pain.
I didn’t understand why, but there was no time to ponder.
A dull thud—
“S-Sophia!”
Sophia suddenly collapsed, bleeding profusely.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
“Cough…”
Blood spread from her chest in answer.
In that moment, a skill flashed through Victor’s mind.
“You didn’t… use Sacrifice, did you?”
A Guardian’s level 60 skill, [Sacrifice].
A sacrificial skill that can only be cast on one designated person—it allows you to take someone else’s death in their stead.
Seeing blood suddenly pour from her chest confirmed it beyond doubt.
“You, you said you wouldn’t use that skill! You promised me you wouldn’t!”
“…Oh, you actually…believed that…? How foolish….”
“You fool! Why did you cast it on me! You knew perfectly well I don’t have any life potions!”
“…Hehe, live…. Live instead of me….”
Sophia couldn’t finish her words before her eyes closed.
“Nooooooo!”
Blood tears streamed from Victor’s eyes.
He wanted to save her, but he had no potions prepared for this.
Life potions that revived others were simply too difficult to gather materials for.
Of course, that didn’t mean there was no way to save Sophia.
‘Krishi. The only other person besides me with a resurrection skill.’
If he called her, he could revive Sophia.
The problem was that he’d have to summon her here and save her within ten minutes.
But that wasn’t the only immediate problem.
“Grrrrrrr….”
If Heo Tae-sik didn’t let them go, Alex, Victor, and everyone here would die.
It didn’t look like he had any intention of letting them leave.
Whoooosh—!
“Ugh!”
Heo Tae-sik, who had suspended Victor in midair with black chains, trudged forward.
Murderous intent radiating from his entire body.
“Grrrrgh….”
Just as Heo Tae-sik raised his hand as if to tear out Victor’s heart while he still lived, it happened.
“Master?”
When he turned his head, Um Jun-seok was staring at Heo Tae-sik with a bewildered expression.
“What, what is this….”
Alex was barely clinging to life like someone who’d been dead and resurrected, and Sophia lay as a cold corpse, blood streaming from her chest.
Victor’s chest would have been pierced through if he hadn’t called out when he did.
Shing—!
“Stop, Master!”
Though he didn’t understand the full situation, Um Jun-seok drew his sword first.
Since the Master was the only person he could rely on, he’d tracked him down—but what in the world was happening?
“No matter how much we’re forced to kill each other in this round, this isn’t it! You’ll never be forgiven for this! So please stop….”
He realized words wouldn’t work after seeing the light in Heo Tae-sik’s eyes.
“Grrrrgh….”
Unfocused eyes as if reason had abandoned him, a bestial, grotesque cry—
Putting it all together, this was an opponent beyond reason.
“I apologize, Master. Please forgive my insolence. Aaahhh!”
“Grraahhh!”
Um Jun-seok charged forward, raising his sword.
Even though I was talentless at the mundane profession of warrior, my body had endured through nineteen rounds.
I didn’t know if I could defeat the Master when even those three sprawled bodies couldn’t, but my resolve remained unbroken.
‘I won’t go down easily….’
But then.
Clang!
Watching my sword shatter so effortlessly in Heo Tae-sik’s grip, I found myself speechless.
Despair washed over my mind, leaving it reeling.
Crack—!
“Ugh!”
My throat was seized in an instant, and my feet lifted off the ground.
“Guh….”
Unable to mount any real offense, thrashing helplessly, self-loathing consumed me.
‘A worthless wretch like me, struggling to survive like this.’
Wouldn’t it be better for my comrades if someone useless like me simply died here?
As such thoughts crossed my mind, my body suddenly dropped downward.
‘So this is death.’
I thought so, but what fell was not my neck—it was Heo Tae-sik’s arm.
“Gasp, gasp.”
Lifting my head as I caught my breath, I saw my savior with cold eyes retrieving the scythe, looking down at Heo Tae-sik.
“What’s wrong with this bastard?”

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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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