The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 21

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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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Episode 21. USAA (2)
Rick Wesley’s gaze settled on Song Ji-hu.
A man in his mid-twenties. C-rank.
Unremarkable build, unflashy clothes. It seemed almost impossible that this young man was the one who had turned the entire world upside down.
But the moment Rick Wesley looked into Song Ji-hu’s eyes, his instincts flashed a warning.
What lay within those gray irises was neither tension nor fear.
A stillness so profound it was almost uncanny—unmoved, unflinching, confronting him without the slightest reaction.
‘This is not ordinary.’
Rick Wesley’s decades of experience negotiating with world powers and S-rank Hunters whispered the same verdict. This man is dangerous.
“Money isn’t… necessary.”
The short, clear statement made Rick Wesley’s expression harden visibly.
There was no negotiation more frightening than one where the other party said money wasn’t needed. If your opponent wanted money, you could simply adjust the calculator until you found common ground.
But when your opponent had no interest in money, you couldn’t even begin to guess what cards to play.
Still, he had to try. It was always cleaner to settle things with money when possible.
“One hundred billion dollars.”
The conference room froze. Yoon Young-su’s fingers, which had been moving across his tablet to parse the situation, stopped dead.
One hundred billion dollars. Converting to Korean won, it exceeded thirteen trillion—an astronomical sum offered as medical expenses for a single person.
‘So that’s why he mentioned the money would come in.’
But Song Ji-hu didn’t blink once.
His expression didn’t shift, his breathing didn’t falter. He took it in the way one might listen to a comment about the weather.
Rick Wesley’s brow twitched microscopically.
‘Is he serious? Absolutely no reaction to one hundred billion dollars?’
A C-rank Hunter barely past his twenties, and he remained this composed in the face of such a figure.
Rick Wesley had never encountered a man so unmoved by such a sum.
“Write down the amount you desire yourself.”
Rick Wesley withdrew a blank check bearing the official seal of USAA from inside his suit jacket and slid it across the table.
“I understand. USAA’s actions are not merely the concern of one guild. International relations and state interests are entangled here. This may well become the standard for future treatment expenses.”
The check slid across the table and came to rest before Song Ji-hu.
Song Ji-hu regarded the check for a moment. Then his gaze returned to Rick Wesley.
His expression remained emotionless, but it was clear he had no interest in the money.
When he showed no reaction even to the blank check, the temperature in the conference room plummeted.
Conversation died. Smiles vanished from faces. All eyes turned to Song Ji-hu.
“If not money…”
Rick Wesley leaned forward and played his next card.
“What about technology transfer? USAA’s exclusively held S-rank and higher Dungeon conquest data, mana research sources, monster analysis materials—all of it.”
“Not necessary.”
Song Ji-hu’s refusal took less than a second. He had lived through six regressions—the future technologies and knowledge USAA possessed were far behind what he already knew.
“What of equipment? I can provide the strongest S-rank Artifacts currently in existence, whatever you desire…”
“Already being commissioned.”
Ryu Jin—the man who would become the world’s greatest blacksmith. Song Ji-hu had already placed his order with him.
Rick Wesley tapped the table once with his finger—a subtle gesture to contain his frustration.
“USAA could dispatch S-rank personnel for a set period. Whether as guards or combat support.”
“Eun Seo-jin here is sufficient. I intend to build my team by hand-selecting members myself.”
Song Ji-hu’s goal was to assemble his own team.
Outside personnel were expendable—he could do with or without them.
“Then…”
Rick Wesley drew his final card. The heaviest proposal, staking the very weight of the USAA name itself.
“USAA will become the official backing for Zero Point Guild. Including the diplomatic protection of the United States government.”
The air in the conference room froze once more.
The world’s number-one guild, together with its government, standing behind him.
For any guild, for any Hunter, this was an offer impossible to refuse.
“Not necessary.”
But Song Ji-hu refused again, without hesitation.
Technology, equipment, personnel, backing.
Every card in USAA’s hand had been laid on the table, and all had been rejected.
Rick Wesley leaned back in his chair, and for the first time, the easy smile faded from his lips.
‘What exactly does this bastard want.’
He had conducted countless negotiations over the past decade and more.
The greedy blinded by avarice, the fearful paralyzed by terror, the idealists lost in their convictions.
He had faced thousands of men, but Song Ji-hu fit none of those categories.
Park Jung-ho, seated beside him, couldn’t even wipe the cold sweat trickling down his face as he gauged Rick Wesley’s expression.
Watching Song Ji-hu reject every single one of USAA’s proposals without exception, two thoughts struck him simultaneously.
‘Is he insane, or a genius?’
Or perhaps…
‘Both.’
Rick Wesley placed both hands neatly on the table. Beneath the negotiator’s mask, a pure curiosity emerged.
“Then, Song Ji-hu. What exactly is it that you want?”
***
Even as all eyes converged upon him, Song Ji-hu kept his body sunk deep into his chair, meeting Rick Wesley’s gaze directly.
USAA had laid all their cards on the table. Now it was his turn.
“Incur a debt.”
An answer so utterly vague it seemed to grasp at clouds.
“In exchange for saving Ollie Barkley’s life, USAA will owe me a debt.”
Song Ji-hu’s eyes fixed squarely on Rick Wesley.
“And when I call upon you, you need only come once.”
Rick Wesley’s eyelids twitched faintly.
“That’s… all?”
He had rejected ten billion dollars, pushed away a blank check, and spurned the world’s greatest patronage—only to demand a debt to be called upon just once when needed. It made no sense.
The scales were catastrophically unbalanced. How could ten billion dollars and a single favor ever weigh the same on any scale?
While everyone thought precisely that, Rick Wesley calculated the true weight of that condition.
USAA would be in debt. That meant the full military might of the world’s number-one guild could be summoned at the behest of one man—Song Ji-hu.
Just once.
Merely once, but when, where, and under what circumstances that one favor would be called—only Song Ji-hu held that power.
What if it were an international conflict? What if USAA had to take a side?
The guild’s independence would suffer catastrophic damage, and its standing in the international community would crumble.
Then the value of that single favor would far exceed thirteen trillion won.
‘This bastard… truly doesn’t want money.’
Not money, but leverage. Not a transaction, but a chain binding USAA to him.
The situation had been so urgent he’d come without preliminary briefings.
His information on Song Ji-hu was desperately thin; he could only judge by what unfolded at this table, right now.
Meanwhile, Ollie Barkley was dying. Deep lines carved themselves across Rick Wesley’s brow as he wrestled with the dilemma.
Everyone in the Conference Room was weighing the substance of Song Ji-hu’s proposal.
‘Not ten billion dollars. A debt.’
Yoon Young-su, tablet in hand, stared blankly at Song Ji-hu. He would never possess the audacity to reject ten billion dollars himself.
What was Song Ji-hu seeing? It defied comprehension.
Eun Seo-jin sat wordlessly beside Song Ji-hu.
But she recalled the bitter, relentless hatred she had felt within his mental realm.
Where that debt would be spent, Eun Seo-jin grasped instinctively.
“I understand what concerns you.”
Song Ji-hu spoke again, watching Rick Wesley’s hesitation stretch on.
“As you fear, I won’t take a side in international disputes or drag you into political quicksand.”
Song Ji-hu’s voice was measured.
“I will limit that single favor to two circumstances: Gates and humanity’s common enemies.”
Rick Wesley’s eyes widened.
“You’re sincere?”
Gate management—that was routine work. Common enemies—crushing evil was America’s pretext anyway.
Public opinion, Congress, the media would raise no objections.
Under those terms, there was no burden whatsoever.
It wasn’t merely burden-free; it was practically asking him to do it for nothing.
“We can include that language in the contract.”
At Song Ji-hu’s answer, Rick Wesley leaned back in his chair, studying him anew.
A picture was forming. This man would not gamble away the game for personal gain.
Someone willing to discard ten billion dollars wouldn’t fall for pocket change, and the limits he’d proposed would actually enhance USAA’s image.
“You truly mean it.”
And on top of that, he had ability.
If he could heal Mental Contamination, then allowing him to retire the debt was hardly a loss.
If his mere presence reduced contamination levels, cycling hunters through his company would profit USAA alone.
‘Did he lose someone dear to a Gate?’
He’d have to dig deeper into this man once he returned to America.
“Agreed.”
Rick Wesley made his decision.
“Additionally, I’ll provide 5 billion dollars in support and arrange regular rotation deployments of USAA’s B-rank and higher hunters to the Zero Point Guild.”
He added with the faintest upturn at the corners of his mouth. With terms like these, Song Ji-hu would have no choice but to respond.
“And regarding the single promise you just mentioned—I’m prepared to expand that to three occasions.”
One opportunity had become three.
On the surface, it looked as though USAA was taking a loss, but Rick Wesley’s calculation told a different story.
Three contact points meant three joint operations.
This would give him the opportunity to understand Song Ji-hu as a person, and forge an unbreakable bond between the two guilds.
And if the assessment proved favorable, that bond would translate into long-term gains for USAA.
“Excellent.”
For the first time, a faint smile crossed Song Ji-hu’s lips.
“Then shall we draw up the contract right away?”
With that, a deal between the world’s number-one guild and its smallest had been sealed.
To others’ eyes, Song Ji-hu might have looked like a fool for refusing 10 billion dollars and accepting 5 billion instead.
But Song Ji-hu’s calculations were entirely different.
‘In a few months, when the Mana Concentration Phenomenon occurs, everything changes.’
Every hunter across the globe would want to be deployed there.
At that moment, USAA’s rotation deployments would naturally expand—of that he was certain.
‘And the most important thing: those three promises.’
Three cards to mobilize USAA’s full strength against the Abyss Lord.
‘There’s no one as consistent as Rick Wesley.’
In his previous life, Song Ji-hu had entrusted his back to Rick Wesley again and again, and Rick Wesley was someone worthy of that trust.
So he knew.
What kind of man he was, what deals would earn his assent, and what deals would make him stand on principle.
Rick Wesley of that time had been a good man in the end.
He would be the same this time.
The Seventh-Time Returner Collects Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Publication Date
: July 13, 2026
Publisher
: Ace Systems Media
Editor
: Ace Systems Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Ace Systems Media under contract with the copyright holder,
and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from our company and the author.
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UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260709064

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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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