The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 359

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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 – Side Story Episode 4
4. An Sang-chul in the 101st Cycle (Part 1)
Oseong Group—one of the nation’s most prestigious mega-conglomerates.
An Sang-chul had entered a place that everyone dreamed of joining.
It would be no exaggeration to say he had achieved his dream.
Of course, he hadn’t entered as an ordinary employee.
He had joined the Security Team.
“Your duty is to protect the organization’s assets and the safety of our company personnel.”
At first, when he was an ordinary employee, that was indeed his role.
But as he rose through the ranks, he began protecting key executives, and eventually found himself responsible for guarding the Chairman himself.
As the head of the Security Team.
“Sang-chul.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“I need you to protect my son, Ma Gyeong-rok.”
‘Is he referring to Young Master Ma Gyeong-rok?’
Ma Gyeong-rok was the eldest son of Oseong Group, two years younger than An Sang-chul.
Though destined to become the successor and part of Oseong Group’s royal family, An Sang-chul had rarely crossed paths with him.
He had only known the name.
“Ma Gyeong-rok was born as the eldest son. That means he could become prey to his siblings at any moment.”
“….”
“Whether Ma Gyeong-rok will be my successor or one of his siblings remains uncertain, but he mustn’t become a target before the cards are even revealed, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Are you concerned for Young Master Ma Gyeong-rok?”
“Of course I’m concerned. He’s my son.”
The Chairman let out a dry chuckle, as if questioning why such an obvious thing needed to be asked.
“As the eldest, Ma Gyeong-rok will attract public attention. He’s receiving excellent business education and is the most promising candidate among his siblings, so I must be more careful. I cannot allow him to be damaged in any way.”
An Sang-chul reflected on this.
The Chairman was expressing his request to protect his son in a rather roundabout manner.
“Many will target Ma Gyeong-rok. So I need you to guard him well. Don’t worry about an old man like me anymore.”
“If that is your wish, I shall do so.”
“Good. I’m counting on you.”
From that moment onward.
An Sang-chul became Ma Gyeong-rok’s right hand.
“Good day. I am An Sang-chul, Chief of Security Team 1. As of today, I have been assigned to your protection. I look forward to working with you.”
“I look forward to it as well. Ah, but the title ‘Young Master’ makes me uncomfortable. From now on, please call me Representative.”
Ma Gyeong-rok was indeed a representative.
He had founded and was operating a company called Cheonma Consulting, and it was performing quite well.
‘For a first meeting, he seems quite gentlemanly.’
Ma Gyeong-rok possessed the dignity befitting an heir to Oseong Group.
He never spoke informally to his subordinates and knew how to adjust to others’ moods.
Even when drinking whiskey, he carried himself with considerable refinement.
‘My first impression of him wasn’t bad.’
That was certainly the case at first.
But it didn’t take long for that impression to shatter.
“C-Chairman? What are you doing here at this hour…?”
“Hmm, I didn’t want An Sang-chul to see me like this.”
Ma Gyeong-rok, who had been crouching in the corner, rose to his feet.
When An Sang-chul turned on the Warehouse lights, he couldn’t help but be shocked.
“…!”
A sea of blood.
Wondering what he was doing in such a place at night, An Sang-chul found the Warehouse floor drenched entirely in blood.
Whose blood was it?
That thought came first, and he quickly confirmed it.
‘What?’
A dead animal lay at Ma Gyeong-rok’s feet.
A pig of medium size.
“Were you following me?”
“I-I’m terribly sorry.”
“No, it’s my fault for moving without reporting to my subordinates.”
An Sang-chul, who knew well that this sounded like criticism but was purely a joke.
Because that’s what Ma Gyeong-rok had been like all this time.
But a young master with a hobby of butchering animals…
He never could have imagined it.
“Pigs are easy to obtain. They’re something we eat easily in daily life. You can bring them alive if you pay. It’s similar to what butchers do.”
An Sang-chul listened quietly to Ma Gyeong-rok’s voice.
Somehow it seemed sorrowful rather than sinister.
“I have desires different from others. When this writhes in my chest, I spend those nights awake with open eyes. Even fatigue recovery medicine doesn’t help. I thought this was simply insomnia, but it wasn’t.”
Ma Gyeong-rok jabbed at the pig’s corpse repeatedly.
With the knife he held in his hand.
“I had a desire to kill. You can call me a psychopath. I don’t deny it. I could confirm it clearly by killing pigs. On days I committed murder, I slept well.”
“Young master…”
“Call me Chairman, An Sang-chul.”
Ma Gyeong-rok, smiling as he looked at him, was the same as the Ma Gyeong-rok he knew before.
Somehow a sorrowful smile.
That sight tore at An Sang-chul’s heart.
He had been bearing his mental affliction alone.
“It must have been difficult all this time…”
“Hmm?”
Was it because he was meeting someone who understood him for the first time?
Ma Gyeong-rok was looking at An Sang-chul with a puzzled expression.
“You understand me even though you’ve witnessed my psychopathic depravity?”
“There’s nothing to understand or not understand. I am the shield and limbs of Oseong Group. I am no different from the Chairman’s hands and feet. I will always stand by your side.”
“….”
Ma Gyeong-rok stared at An Sang-chul with cold eyes for a long moment.
As if trying to see through his true intentions.
“You seem sincere.”
“I am sincere.”
“Good. Then, will you keep my secret? The one I haven’t even told my father?”
“I will keep it.”
“A secret I couldn’t tell my father, and now Director An knows it. I suppose I should hope Director An doesn’t get fired?”
Seeing him throw out a joke with a laugh, this was indeed the Ma Gyeong-rok I knew.
An Sang-chul felt relief at that fact.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“I need you to handle the cleanup. It’s been surprisingly difficult trying to do it alone. And I can’t even eat it.”
The pig, with its entrails completely spilled out and hacked to pieces, was truly not in a state fit for consumption.
“How have you been hiding it all this time?”
“I’ve been handling everything here. The blood-stained clothes I burned, and the pig’s corpse I buried in the ground. Isn’t this the perfect environment for such work?”
Certainly, it was an ideal environment for such tasks.
A dilapidated warehouse standing alone in the mountains, devoid of any people.
If one were to kill and bury a pig in a place like this, who would ever know?
It was a place where one could bury a human and no one would find out.
“Chairman. I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Is it… do you ever think about killing a person…”
At the cautious question, Ma Gyeong-rok answered with a laugh.
“I’ve thought about it, of course. But how could I kill an innocent person? My entire career is on the line. Unfortunately, I’ll have to settle for the pig.”
“You may not know it, but there are many humans in this world who are worse than pigs.”
At those words, Ma Gyeong-rok’s eyes gleamed.
“Are you suggesting I replace the pig with criminals?”
Once I said it, he understood immediately.
“Yes. If you find it difficult to suppress your urge to kill, I’m simply suggesting there are such alternatives.”
“Hmm….”
Ma Gyeong-rok stroked his chin as if considering it seriously.
“That doesn’t sound like a bad alternative. It’s also a contribution to society.”
Ma Gyeong-rok smiled at the corners of his mouth.
“Of course you’ll help me clean up the trash, won’t you? Director An?”

* * *
Ever since I made that suggestion, Ma Gyeong-rok changed his target for execution.
From pigs to people.
“P-please! What did I do wrong?!”
“Name: Park Cheon-sik. Attempted rape of a female victim, escalated to murder when things didn’t go as planned. Claimed diminished capacity due to intoxication. Sentenced to fifteen years but released after thirteen due to exemplary conduct. With a resume like that, isn’t it obvious what you did wrong?”
“You bastard! You investigated me?”
“Would I have brought you here without doing my homework?”
An Sang-chul’s voice was glacial, but the man bound like a pig showed no sign of remorse.
“So what!? I faced legal judgment and served my time properly! I’ve already been punished!”
“No. The Chairman believes your punishment was insufficient.”
“Insufficient? Do you have any idea how hard I suffered in prison? You bastards wouldn’t understand….”
The bound man glared at me and Ma Gyeong-rok.
‘How dare he look at the Chairman that way?’
I wanted to gouge out his eyes, but I restrained myself.
The Chairman was simply observing, after all.
“It’s been over thirteen years! You’re doing this now for revenge over something that old?”
“It’s not revenge.”
Ma Gyeong-rok, who had been silent until now, spoke and stepped forward.
“This isn’t something done out of such petty emotions. It’s work imbued with something far more noble and clear in purpose.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Street cleaning. I’m a janitor now. I’m simply removing garbage that pollutes society with good intentions.”
“You’re calling me garbage? After I served my full sentence?”
“Once garbage, always garbage. Haven’t you heard that saying?”
At Ma Gyeong-rok’s mockery, Park Cheon-sik’s hostility intensified.
“You bastards, I’m reporting all of you. I got a good look at your faces! The police will track you down easily! They’ll trace my phone location and find everything!”
“The pig is quite noisy.”
Thunk!
The blade drove through his throat.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
“Gack, gah….”
“Much quieter now.”
Ma Gyeong-rok smiled faintly as he repeatedly withdrew and thrust the blade.
Neck, chest, abdomen, ribs, thighs.
He stabbed indiscriminately, as if searching for the most satisfying spots.
As if seeking out the best places to pierce.
“Phew.”
After dozens of stabs, Ma Gyeong-rok looked somewhat exhausted.
“This is just as tiring as killing a pig.”
Park Cheon-sik had become nothing more than a limp corpse.
The floor was drenched in blood, but he paid it no mind.
Clothes, shoes, everything—burn it all and replace it with new ones. That’s all there is to it.
“I wanted to hear what he had to say, but there wasn’t much to it. Just noise. Next time, I won’t bother giving him time to speak. I’ll just kill him.”

* * *
The Chairman’s murders became cleaner after that.
The criminals dragged to the Warehouse always showed the same reaction, and disliking that, he would slit their throats without giving them a chance to speak, then butcher them like pigs.
The work of selectively killing criminals proceeded smoothly.
Strictly speaking, they weren’t criminals.
They were released convicts with criminal records.
“The police came by yesterday.”
“Pardon?”
“A guy who was released recently passed through our district, and they asked if we could check the CCTV footage.”
An Sang-chul’s heart sank.
“Surely we haven’t been discovered….”
“They didn’t seem suspicious. Besides, we’ve already established an alibi, haven’t we? If worse comes to worst, Manager An will testify to it.”
“Of course.”
“They just came by to confirm things, so there shouldn’t be any problem.”
It was a relief.
If something went wrong by any chance, everything would fall apart, so he was being careful not to leave evidence either.
He couldn’t afford to become a burden to the Chairman.
“Just to be safe, I think we should extend the interval. Once every two months.”
“Is that frequency sufficient for you?”
“It’s fine. These days, unlike before, I sleep well. It feels completely different from the pig days. I can manage for two months.”
The Chairman’s insomnia seemed to have been resolved.
It was truly a relief.
But then he suddenly brought up something unexpected.
“Since I’m sleeping well lately, my mind works better and my mood is good, so I’m thinking of expanding the business. Do you know of an actress named Seo A-rin?”
“I haven’t heard of her.”
“That makes sense. She’s a rookie actress. She has a good face, and she seems to act fairly well, so I’m thinking of providing material support. It’s a kind of investment.”
To be honest, I was a bit surprised.
I thought he only cared about business, but I didn’t expect the Chairman to venture into the Entertainment Industry.
But the truly surprising part came next.
“So here’s the thing—I’d like you to cover for actress Seo A-rin.”
“Pardon? Cover, as in…?”
“Watch and protect her like a manager would. From now on, actress Seo is essentially an asset I’ve invested in.”

* * *
An Sang-chul, lost in recollection of the recent past, exhaled silently within himself.
Even he didn’t know why memories of the Chairman had suddenly surfaced in such a moment.
There was simply a sigh escaping at the bleakness of the present situation.
[Hehe, but don’t worry too much about it. We won’t be taking everyone. Only humans between the ages of 15 and 29 will participate in the Survival Game at this point in time.]
The words came from Angel, floating in the sky.
Having just obliterated a person’s head with a mere glance, there was no reason to doubt the truth of it.
‘Between 15 and 29… does that mean they’re taking me and Seo A-rin standing beside me as well?’
By cruel coincidence, An Sang-chul was exactly 29 years old.
He fell right on the cutoff line.
Yet on the other hand, he felt a strange sense of relief.
Because he would be able to protect the Chairman in the Other World as well.

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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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