The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 376

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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 21
21. The Life of Ryu Won in the 100th Cycle
I couldn’t believe this situation.
“Hyung. Wake up. Hyung….”
I shook his body, but my older brother remained unconscious.
It couldn’t be helped.
After all, he was fighting alone and in solitude in the Other World.
‘But this long?’
There had been times when he fell into narcolepsy for three days straight.
Compared to that, this couldn’t be considered long.
It was only morning, after all.
But it was always the time he would wake up.
So the fact that he wasn’t waking up meant something had gone wrong, didn’t it?
‘Hyung. Could it be…?’
There was one way to confirm whether he was still fighting in the Other World.
It was to check if he was breathing.
But I was afraid to check.
The thought that the worst-case scenario I imagined might come to pass terrified me.
‘Please, please hyung….’
With trembling hands, I brought my hand to his nose.
There was no breath.
My heart sank.
‘It can’t be. It’s not, right? Hyung?’
Doubting myself, I checked near his chest.
Normally, his chest should rise and fall, but….
‘There’s no movement at all.’
To know for certain, I placed my hand over his heart.
His heart wasn’t beating.
‘Hyung….’
To be absolutely sure, I felt for his pulse.
There was no pulse.
Hyung.
My idol, Ryu Min hyung, had… left us.
He hadn’t returned from the Other World….
“Uhhhhhhhhhhh, waaaaaahhhhh! Waaahhhhh!!!”
I wept like a fool.
I wept for a long time.
My only pillar of support had vanished.

* * *
【Title: Black Scythe’s Family? Please Read This Post】
└Content: What happened to Black Scythe? Is he still in the Other World? Hasn’t the Final Round ended? If Black Scythe’s family is reading this, please leave a comment with any news.
[16 Total Comments]
└Right? Why is there no news? It’s almost lunchtime already.
└If it had ended, it would’ve ended by now. Why aren’t they reporting on it?
└The journalists probably don’t know either. Whether he survived or not.
└Only Black Scythe would know. Or his family.
└There’s no way he’s dead, right?
└That can’t be. Black Scythe, who’s always been in first place, couldn’t possibly be dead.
└Then why is there still no news? If he’s dead, say he’s dead. If it’s still ongoing, say it’s ongoing. How are we supposed to know without being told? Seriously.
└People on the internet really don’t think before they speak. What if he really is dead?
└What should I do? What should I do? I guess they just died. 1.8 billion people died, so what does it mean that one person died?
└That’s true. Even if Black Scythe came back alive, it wouldn’t change the situation.
└If he survived, I’d be seriously jealous. He’d be able to make a wish.
└There’s still an idiot who believes that wish-granting nonsense.
There were more comments after that, but I didn’t read them.
I just closed the window.
I couldn’t bear to look at it.
“Brother….”
My brother’s corpse, left untouched since lunchtime.
Is it too soon to call it a corpse?
When he’s not breathing and his heart isn’t beating, I can’t exactly claim he’s in a coma, can I?
“Haah….”
I stopped by the Restroom and caught sight of myself in the mirror.
Both my eyes were swollen from crying so much.
It felt like there were no tears left to shed.
‘Brother….’
But thinking of my brother who wouldn’t return.
Thinking that I was now alone.
Tears streamed down my cheeks from eyes I thought had run dry.
‘…I can’t just stay like this. People will want to know.’
Following the comments I’d seen on the community, I decided to inform people.
Of my brother Black Scythe’s death.

* * *
[Breaking News! Black Scythe fails to return from the Final Round….]
[Even the Survival Game’s supreme ruler cannot overcome the wall of the final stage….]
[Black Scythe, the sole player who fought fiercely to survive, a star extinguished.]
My brother’s death rapidly became headline news.
Though I expected the last ember of hope to feel snuffed out, people remained coldly indifferent.
└Black Scythe is dead….
└He really was an incredible person.
└I never thought he’d fail to endure the Final Round….
└What’s the big deal about one person dying? You people sure are meddlesome lol
└lol Right. Did the president pass away or something?
While some expressed sorrow, others wore sneers.
‘They’re not wrong. Those of us who didn’t participate in the Survival Game are merely bystanders.’
But that doesn’t apply to me.
My only family, my pillar of support.
And I was his only family.

* * *
I held my brother’s funeral in a fog of despair.
Many came to mourn his passing, yet I felt no joy.
Not because the funeral hall was filled mostly with reporters and citizens.
‘This won’t bring him back.’
My brother, Ryu Min, no longer exists in this world.
Never again.

* * *
After the funeral, I stopped eating and drinking for a long time.
A spacious, expensive home overlooking the Han River.
The vast inheritance my brother left behind.
Even the Angels who no longer appeared.
I possessed everything—a life so complete that anyone who saw it would think I had nothing to envy—or so they would believe.
But that was a lie.
‘What meaning does a life without my brother hold…’
I was alone.
Father and Mother had departed, and now my brother too.
Each day was meaningless, hollow.
Death would have been preferable.
‘Some religion said that suicide leads to Hell. Perhaps that would be better.’
What meaning could a world where I alone remained possibly hold?
What was the point of surviving without my brother?
‘I have no strength. Brother… I have no strength to live without you…’
Standing at this height, gazing down at the night cityscape, I contemplated.
Would it hurt if I jumped from this height?
I wouldn’t even feel the pain before death, would I?
If I died, could I meet my brother?
Did Heaven or Hell truly exist?
Regardless, anything would be better than here.
A world without my brother is Hell itself.
Yes, this is escape.
What I’m attempting is a desperate struggle to flee from this world.
Having rationalized it this way, the next day I began searching the internet.
-How to commit suicide
-How to die without pain
-How to die without burdening others
I searched for methods of death, not methods of enduring life.
I lacked the strength to navigate a world without my brother.
‘I’m not as strong as my brother… I simply cannot bear this.’
Since the funeral had already concluded, my brother would never rise from his grave.
Yet it still felt like a lie, as though he might appear at any moment and speak to me.
However, my brother’s traces had been erased from this world.
Completely.
Though my brother accomplished much under the name of Black Scythe, it all ended in failure.
Not a single one of the 1.8 billion Players survived, and even my brother, our final hope, vanished into ash.
The world was defeated, and the youth and young adults were annihilated.
Not a spark of hope remains in this world.
In my world too.

* * *
The package had arrived, so I retrieved it from in front of my Home.
Inside the box was a thick, sturdy rope I’d ordered from an online shopping mall.
‘Now, shall I prepare?’
I searched the internet for how to tie knots.
While watching my phone, I methodically tied the knot.
I prepared everything.
In a calm, quiet atmosphere.
My preparation to leave this world.
‘Brother, I’ll be following you soon.’
I finished the knot and hung it from the ceiling.
I secured it firmly so the rope wouldn’t slip.
Even if several people hung from it, the rope wouldn’t come loose.
‘That’s it. The preparation is complete.’
Feeling a slight sense of accomplishment, I stepped onto the chair.
The loop I’d fashioned for my head welcomed me.
‘If I want to leave quietly without burdening others, this is the only way.’
Just once.
If I could endure that single moment of pain, I could depart.
I could be freed from this Hell.
I placed my head into the circular knot.
I checked that it was snug around my neck.
There had been no difficulty executing things up to this point.
But when the moment actually came, I hesitated.
My hands and feet, which had been steady just moments before, trembled uncontrollably as if they’d malfunctioned.
‘It’s… it’s fine. Just… endure once more…’
There was nothing left to cling to anyway.
This world without my brother.
I steeled myself, summoning my courage.
The chair toppled over.
I heard the sound of it falling.
A strangled cry tore from my throat!
“Gasp!”
My neck constricted instantly, and breathing became impossible.
‘My… my neck feels like it’s breaking.’
The human survival instinct.
It was truly remarkable.
As death drew near, I instinctively wanted to live.
Just moments ago, I had cynically declared there was no reason to live, yet here I was proving myself utterly wrong.
‘P-please… save me… save….’
My feet thrashed desperately, but found nothing beneath them.
The flailing only tightened the noose around my neck further.
A single rope was all that supported my 67-kilogram body.
It wrenched at my throat as though it would tear it apart.
Fortunately, my hands weren’t bound, so I clawed frantically at the cord above my head.
This allowed me to breathe slightly, but barely.
“Gasp….”
My throat was constricted unbearably.
My arms had no strength left.
Just before consciousness slipped away.
Thud—
I crashed down hard on my backside.
Immediately, I loosened the rope around my neck.
“Gasp, gasp…. I… I’m alive….”
It was fortunate.
The rope I had secured came undone at the critical moment.
But something was strange.
‘Huh…? Why is it so short?’
The rope dangling from my neck was noticeably short.
If the secured rope had simply come undone, it couldn’t have been this short.
Moreover, the end of the rope was smooth, as though it had been cut by something.
‘What is this…?’
As I lifted my head in confusion, I….
“…!”
In that instant, I could only doubt my own eyes.
Standing before the door was the brother I had longed so desperately to see.
“B-brother!!”
“Won. You’ve had a hard time, haven’t you?”
His voice and smile were unmistakably my brother.
It was definitely him.
No illusion. Nothing else.
The brother before me was real.
“Brother. Y-you were alive? H-how….”
“Wait. Don’t cry and listen to me.”
My brother furrowed his brow in a scolding manner as he held back my tears.
“I know it’s been hard without me, but trying to kill yourself? How does that make my heart feel any better?”
“Brother….”
“You have to endure. No matter how difficult, the living must continue living. What are you doing? Do you really want to be scolded?”
My older brother’s stern expression as he reproached me.
Even that sight was something I longed for, something that gladdened my heart, yet the gravity of the moment left me speechless.
“Don’t you dare die. Never. If you die without me here… I will never forgive you.”
“Brother….”
That was when it happened.
My brother’s form dissolved like a mirage, and my eyes widened once more.
“Brother? Noooooo!”
I immediately leaped from my seat and searched through the entire Home, but
my brother was nowhere to be found.
As if he had never been there in the first place.

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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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