The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 309

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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 309
309. The Survivors
When people first heard that the 19th round’s mission was survival, they grew anxious.
-How are we supposed to endure 72 hours without food or water?
-If we can’t reduce our numbers to 72 or fewer, we all disappear. What do we do?
-Aren’t we going to end up killing each other?
Their worries became reality, and people truly did die.
But when they learned it was due to the Demon’s interference, people felt a wave of relief.
-Our humanity hasn’t died yet.
-Exactly. No matter what, we wouldn’t kill each other, right?
-There’s no way people could be that monstrous.
-From now on, no one else will die.
However, 48 hours after all the demons were eliminated and the round began, people came to understand something.
They had grossly underestimated human cruelty.
“Die, you bastard!”
“Mother fucker!”
“All Orientals should die!”
“Damn slanty-eyed bastards!”
No matter how many virtuous people you gather, humans can change in an instant.
That was the nature of humanity—malleable depending on circumstances.
Therefore, conflict arose wherever one looked.
Especially when sleep-deprived and without food or water, people became increasingly volatile.
“P-please stop fighting! Stop this!”
“Who the hell are you to tell us what to do!”
“Kill that bastard too!”
[The 50th casualty has occurred.]
[The 51st casualty has occurred.]
[The 52nd casualty has occurred.]
Trying to stop them only increased the death toll.
It was absolute chaos.
Everyone was obsessed with killing, as if they would slaughter anyone who irritated them even slightly.
“Why are you all doing this? This isn’t what the buff was supposed to be used for!”
Min Ju-ri shouted, but no one listened.
Well, they heard her, but they didn’t respond.
They simply repaid her kindness with the edge of their blades.
“Don’t interfere! You want to die too? Fine, then I’ll kill you——”
The man approaching Min Ju-ri froze mid-step.
Four fairies, three golems, and two spirit knights materialized, surrounding Min Ju-ri.
“Anyone who approaches will be killed. Feel free to come closer and find out if I’m serious.”
“…Tch!”
At Seo A-rin’s threat—not quite a threat—the man turned and re-entered the fray.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes. Thank you, Seo A-rin.”
“Compared to what Min Ju-ri did, this is nothing.”
Min Ju-ri laughed shyly, understanding Seo A-rin’s meaning.
She had been willing to sacrifice herself in place of another before the lion-faced Demon.
“Why did you do that back then?”
“Do what?”
“Why did you try to save my life?”
“Me? Save you, Seo A-rin?”
Min Ju-ri was flustered by the direct question.
“Well, I think you’re misunderstanding. I wasn’t specifically trying to save you. Yamtti was there too, remember?”
“That may be, but… you were still willing to sacrifice yourself. How could you find such courage?”
Min Ju-ri’s answer was simple.
“If I’m going to die anyway, it’s better if I can save someone else in the process.”
Simple arithmetic—sacrifice one to save two.
“You’re remarkable, Min Ju-ri. Your judgment reminds me of Black Scythe in some ways.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Min Ju-ri and Seo A-rin smiled at each other.
But it was short-lived.
[The fifty-third casualty has occurred.]
The steady stream of death notifications forced them to remain tense.
“Shouldn’t we stop them?”
At Min Ju-ri’s question, Seo A-rin shook her head coldly.
“No. Let them be.”
“But—”
“You saw what happened just now. If we interfere, we’ll only suffer for it. And this isn’t a situation we can talk our way out of.”
Roughly thirty people were tangled together, drawing blades over trivial disputes, yet they had to merely watch.
“Watching is good. Look at how many are fighting.”
“Huh…?”
“If all those people die, how many will be left?”
“Seventy-two or fewer?”
Seo A-rin nodded.
“It might be better to let them fight. We have no way to stop it anyway.”
The other companions shared the same thought, watching without intervention.
Jo Yong-ho, Russell, John Delgado, Ju Sung-tak, Yamtti, Um Jun-seok, Dorothy, Alex, Victor, Sophia, and others.
All the companions they’d met in Twin Gorge.
They were hoping these people would destroy each other.
Otherwise, they might have to kill them with their own hands.
Had their desperate wish been granted?
[The seventieth death has occurred.]
[The deceased player’s nickname is ‘Ali’.]
[Ten minutes have passed since death, so I will proceed to eliminate the player.]
[Current remaining players: 73]
[Eliminated players: 70]
[Time remaining until round end: 23:17:49]
After a fierce and brutal struggle, the death toll had reached seventy.
Now, if just one more person died, the remaining players would number seventy-two, and the survival condition would be met.
And as fate would have it, only one person had survived the bloodbath.
“Huff… huff…”
Leonard, the sole survivor, gazed around with eyes burning with the will to live.
In the chaos of battle, everyone but him lay dead.
I couldn’t remember how many I’d killed, but it hardly mattered.
I was already exhausted beyond measure.
“Gasp… gasp…”
Yet Leonard couldn’t lower the sword gripped in his hand.
He felt the gazes of others watching him from across the way.
“No, no, don’t come! Don’t come any closer! Do you want to die too?”
His vision wavered, creating the illusion that a group was approaching him.
Leonard seized his sword convulsively and retreated, maintaining his guard.
He understood it well.
That his death would complete the count of seventy-two and ensure everyone’s survival.
“You think I’ll die so easily? Don’t make me laugh! I’ll cling to life with everything I have.”
Convinced that they were coming to kill him, Leonard spun around and fled.
Though Seo A-rin’s group had merely been watching.
“He shouted something and just left.”
“He must have thought we meant to harm him.”
“Well, with only one more death needed for everyone to survive, he probably figured he’d become the target.”
Seo A-rin and Min Ju-ri exchanged words while watching Leonard disappear into the distance.
Though his death would have guaranteed their survival, they felt no regret.
They had no intention of killing him.
They simply stood in stunned silence, witnessing the carnage before them.
“Let’s go.”
“Where to? That direction?”
“We should check if there are any survivors. Though there probably aren’t…”
The group followed Seo A-rin toward the area littered with corpses.
Bodies lay sprawled everywhere, matching the number of death notifications.
There were no survivors.
“Let’s erase the traces. If we leave them like this, monsters might feed on them.”
“Understood.”
The group that had agreed disposed of the corpses cleanly.
Though the outcome was grim, these were people who had once been comrades, trusting each other and watching each other’s backs.
At least it was better than leaving them to be devoured by monsters.
“Shall we go if we’re done here?”
“Where to?”
“We can’t stay here.”
The group nodded and began moving forward slowly.

* * *
You could tell how much time had passed by checking the Quest window.
However, people generally avoided looking at the Quest window.
The reason was simple.
Every time they saw the remaining time, disappointment washed over them.
[Time remaining until round end: 12:03:39]
“Ugh, still twelve hours left?”
Min Ju-ri’s face twisted in disgust at the sight of the timer.
Seo A-rin and the others who heard her words wore the same expression.
It felt like they’d been here for quite a while, yet time crawled by.
“I’m so hungry….”
“I’d give anything for a sip of water….”
At first, the inability to sleep had been torturous, but that was resolved now.
They’d taken turns keeping watch in a suitable location where monsters didn’t spawn, sleeping among trustworthy companions and satisfying their need for rest.
There was no reason for their stamina to deplete.
With nothing to do but rest and a healer in their midst, there was nothing truly difficult.
Yet the real hardship wasn’t that at all.
Hunger.
The inability to eat anything was the greatest problem.
Even Christine’s healing couldn’t satisfy the gnawing emptiness.
They couldn’t even wash themselves properly.
As a result, everyone looked grimy, like homeless people who hadn’t eaten in days.
“With nothing to eat, I’m going mad from hunger. It feels like we’ve all checked into a fasting retreat together.”
“Forced dieting… I never even did this back when I was an aspiring actress….”
“Don’t actresses diet?”
Seo A-rin shook her head.
“Others do, but I never needed to. I’ve always had a metabolism that doesn’t let me gain weight no matter what I eat.”
“Ah… it’s your constitution. I’m jealous.”
“I’m more jealous of Min Ju-ri….”
Seo A-rin’s gaze drifted toward Min Ju-ri’s chest, but she pretended not to notice, embarrassed.
“Ahem, anyway, shouldn’t we try to meet other players instead of just staying together?”
“We can’t. How could we trust anyone else?”
Currently, there were twenty-four of us, including the mercenaries.
These were the elite members Black Scythe could trust, the ones he’d summoned to Twin Gorge.
The whereabouts of the remaining forty-nine players remained unknown.
Well, I could track them down if I wanted to, but I chose not to.
Accepting them as allies could invite all manner of trouble.
Besides, they wouldn’t trust us either.
“I think this is the right approach—camping together and holding our ground like this.”
“I suppose so.”
The twenty-four of us remained stationary in one location, conserving our strength.
There was no point wasting energy unnecessarily.
Yet even this waiting proved more grueling than anticipated.
We had to endure hunger while somehow filling the slowly creeping hours.
“I wish we at least had smartphones.”
“Tell me about it.”
Without phones, conversation was our only way to pass the time.
Perhaps that was why.
Through all their talking, Seo A-rin and Min Ju-ri had grown considerably closer.
Though not yet close enough to drop formalities.
Then it happened.
An unexpected notification appeared before us.
[The seventy-first death has occurred.]
[The deceased player’s nickname is ‘Leonard’.]
[Ten minutes have passed since death. The player will now be eliminated.]
[Remaining players: 72]
[Eliminated players: 71]
[Time remaining until round end: 11:57:28]
[Player count has fallen to 72 or below.]
[The total elimination penalty is removed.]
[All players secure survival rights for this round.]
It was a notification as welcome as rain after a drought.
“Leonard? Isn’t that the person who survived the battle back then?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“How did he end up dying?”
“Starvation, maybe? Or killed by a monster.”
Both were likely possibilities.
He’d already exhausted himself tremendously during the fighting.
“At least we don’t have to worry about being eliminated anymore.”
“As long as we survive the remaining time, that is.”
Survival was now within reach if we simply endured.
That realization rekindled the dying embers of hope within every player present.
There was nothing to do but sit still and endure.
They were in the middle of such a conversation when it happened.
“Huh?”
Seo A-rin sensed someone approaching.
“Someone’s coming.”
Just as she said, a group was drawing near to their party.
“Don’t be alarmed. We haven’t come to fight.”
“Besides, there’s no reason to fight anymore, is there?”
The group showed empty hands, making their peaceful intentions clear, and approached Seo A-rin’s party.
Seo A-rin remained cautious.
“Then what brings you here?”
“Do you happen to have any food? I’m starving to death.”
Everyone felt deflated by such a simple reason.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any either.”
“We haven’t even had a drop of water and we’re all famished.”
The moment they realized their predicament was the same, the group’s faces fell.
“Would it be alright if we joined you?”
“Of course. There’s no harm in sticking together.”
The players who had fought to the death before reaching 72 were now in different circumstances.
They had neither reason nor strength to kill one another.
As time passed, people began gathering one by one, as if reassured.
And finally, all 71 survivors except Black Scythe managed to assemble in one place.
“Phew… There’s still three hours left.”
Seo A-rin sighed while checking the remaining time, then looked at Min Ju-ri.
Her eyes were restless, as if searching for someone.
“What’s wrong? Are you looking for Black Scythe?”
“Oh, no.”
Min Ju-ri whispered so others couldn’t hear.
“I was looking for Ryu Min.”
“Ryu Min?”
“He should be visible, but I can’t seem to find him.”
“…”
The number of people here was 71, excluding Black Scythe.
A small enough number to count with the naked eye.
“Why can’t I see him?”
Watching Min Ju-ri stand up and move about, Seo A-rin sighed.
When she returned, Seo A-rin spoke with an expression that said she could no longer overlook this.
“Min Ju-ri. Do you really not know? Or do you just not want to believe it?”
“What? What do you mean?”
Seo A-rin glanced around before whispering her response.
“You still don’t believe it? That Black Scythe is Ryu Min?”
“They can’t possibly be the same person.”
“They are the same person. I heard it directly from Ryu Min.”
“I heard it from Min too. But I dismissed it as a tasteless joke.”
“It’s not a joke. Would Ryu Min make jokes like that?”
“….”
Hearing her speak with such conviction, Min Ju-ri found herself reconsidering.
“Are you really saying these two are the same person?”
“Yes.”
“But their appearances are different. Their personalities too….”
“Appearances can be altered. Didn’t you witness it yourself?”
“Oh.”
Min Ju-ri recalled it belatedly.
The moment when Black Scythe appeared in Hwang Yong-min’s form after she had been transformed into a sheep by the lion-faced demon.
And the moment when he deliberately shifted back into Black Scythe’s appearance.
Even transformed into a sheep, Min Ju-ri had witnessed that scene with absolute clarity.
“But the personality….”
“That’s also a concept. Ryu Min deliberately pretended to be someone else to wear the mask of Black Scythe.”
“So it really is….”
Just as Min Ju-ri opened her mouth in disbelief.
“Huh? L-look over there! A demon!”
A demon had appeared.
Not a trick of the eye—a genuine demon with crimson skin.
But the people around them rubbed their eyes as if they had misperceived.
Because a familiar man stood beside it.
“Isn’t that… Black Scythe?”
Black Scythe had appeared alongside the demon.

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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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