The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 28

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 28. Incheon Gate (1)
The road toward Incheon was absolute chaos.
The opposite lanes were packed solid with vehicles fleeing Incheon Harbor.
Police and military sirens wailed without pause, while helicopters circled overhead broadcasting evacuation orders.
Yoon Young-soo raced ahead, the Hunter Association emergency vehicle pass plastered across his windshield. Skid marks blackened the asphalt as the tires screamed.
“We really need to get a helicopter.”
Eun Seo-jin nodded, remembering his days of active duty.
“We should. Ground vehicles have too many limitations. Don’t worry—that’ll get sorted soon enough.”
“Understood.”
Tension filled the car. Song Ji-hu sat reclined in the back seat, his eyes locked on his phone screen.
Since the A-rank Mutated Gate classification was confirmed at Incheon, available hunters had been streaming into the city one after another.
Footage of various guild vehicles and helicopters arriving played across the display, while scrolling text showed the Hunter Association mobilization status.
Then a man’s face flashed briefly on screen.
Short hair, broad shoulders. An unrefined but solid impression.
A man carrying a shield the size of a house on his back, trudging steadily toward the gate.
Just from his back, it was unmistakable.
[Breaking News] A-rank Tank Im Jae-hyuk arrives at the scene.
“The shield has to be out front. That’s how we keep the kids from getting hurt.”
Im Jae-hyuk answered the reporter’s microphone with a gruff laugh in his Gyeongsang dialect.
But the back of his hand gripping the shield bore thick sinews alongside corrupted, discolored skin.
Mid-stage Mental Corruption. By the numbers alone, it could worsen at any moment.
‘He’s exactly the same in this life too.’
A bitter smile spread across his face.
A man who stepped into danger before anyone else. In this life too, he was exactly as Song Ji-hu remembered him.
“That’s him, Im Jae-hyuk the Hunter…! In a situation like this, he’s the first to…!”
Song Ji-hu stared at Im Jae-hyuk on the screen.
The man who bought him rice soup in his second life while he fought like a madman, saying “You’ll die if you fight alone.”
The man who carried him on his back for dozens of kilometers to escape in his third life, after he’d been stabbed and betrayed.
Even in his fourth life, when he’d made enemies of the entire world, the man who alone trusted him with his back, saying “That’s not like you.”
And in the final moments of his sixth life.
“Ji-hu… run… You need to survive.”
The man who rose using his shattered shield as a cane, and blocked the Abyss Lord with his own body while bleeding out.
“Mmm… this hot taste of friendship. Quite exquisite. The finest dish of the day.”
The lord’s mocking laughter echoed in his ears. Song Ji-hu’s hands clenched. His phone case groaned under the pressure.
He breathed, forcing down the emotion. Now was not the time for sentimentality.
‘Sentimentality will only ruin the mission.’
Only then could he save everyone deployed to this gate.
“It’s the Association President. Should I transfer the call? He seems to want deployment.”
Yoon Young-soo’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“Tell him five minutes. Just make sure the road to the gate is clear.”
“Understood.”
As Yoon Young-soo relayed the message, Song Ji-hu gripped the hilt of his Compass Sword at his waist with sudden force.
***
The Incheon Gate site was pandemonium.
At Base Camp, hundreds of meters from the gate, military personnel, police, Hunter Association staff, and guild forces had all converged.
Beyond the triple perimeter cordon, a blood-red portal flickered obscenely.
It pulsed at regular intervals like a heartbeat, exhaling crimson mist.
“Ugh… I still can’t get used to this smell.”
The closer one drew, the more goosebumps prickled the skin. Add to that the sharp, metallic stench of mana contamination.
Every hunter gathered there wore the same grim expression.
Even if operations staking lives were routine, Mutated Gates were a different beast entirely.
Mental Corruption accumulated far faster compared to ordinary gates. A fight that ate away not just flesh and blood, but mind itself.
Into that heavy atmosphere, Song Ji-hu walked.
“Huh…? That person, could it be…?”
“That C-rank who heals Mental Corruption, right?”
“Wasn’t he C-rank? Isn’t this too dangerous?”
“He probably won’t go in. Just having him cast a Mental Barrier would be enough.”
Ripples of agitation spread through the gathered hunters.
And beneath that agitation lay a strange mix of expectation and relief.
“Hunter Song Ji-hu…!”
And the moment Song Ji-hu appeared, Park Jung-ho emerged from the tent and pulled him into an embrace.
“You’ve made it safely! That resolve of yours! The Association will never forget it!”
“This is a national emergency—of course I had to come.”
Song Ji-hu matched Park Jung-ho’s political theatrics with practiced ease.
“Hahaha…! Thank you, thank you. Come inside at once!”
Reporters surged forward with their microphones, but Park Jung-ho waved them off and guided Song Ji-hu into the command center.
The assembled hunters’ mouths twitched upward at the sight.
“What’s the situation?”
“Phew….”
Park Jung-ho wiped his sweat and pointed to the monitor as he explained.
“The Gate’s size has stabilized, but the internal Mana Concentration keeps rising. And….”
Song Ji-hu studied the graph on the monitor and murmured.
“At these readings… we’re looking at around six hours until Gate Break.”
“…You can read graphs too? Right. About six hours. If we do nothing, the waters off Incheon are finished. And….”
Park Jung-ho’s voice dropped an octave.
“We sent in a scout team right after the mutation to assess the interior. Ten of them.”
“What…?”
Song Ji-hu’s exasperated sigh coincided with the monitor switching to a new feed.
A hunter lying on a makeshift cot.
His face had gone past pale—it was nearly gray—and his hands wouldn’t stop trembling. His eyes darted constantly, unable to focus.
<The walls… the walls were moving. The path suddenly changed… and the voices… the voices never stopped.>
The hunter on screen gripped his own ears.
<The other hunters suddenly went mad….>
Song Ji-hu paused the video.
“All the hunters who went in and came back out showed Mental Corruption readings above three. And that was in less than ten minutes.”
Park Jung-ho rubbed his face with a dry hand.
‘Forced separation, mental attacks, and a labyrinth. It’s as expected.’
That was fortunate, at least. If it had been a dungeon with different mechanics, this would’ve been far more troublesome.
“Did all those hunters escape?”
“Well… three are still trapped inside.”
Song Ji-hu’s eyes narrowed. That was information he hadn’t heard on the way here.
Sending a scout team into a Mutated Gate? What kind of nonsensical administrative procedure was this? And from the so-called head of the Association, no less.
Tch—
Song Ji-hu glared at Park Jung-ho for his blunder. A Mutated Gate, and he’d sent in only ten scouts?
That violated basic protocol entirely.
“Who are the hunters still inside?”
“Park Jung-guk, Jang Jin-geol, and Im… Jae-hyuk.”
At that name from Park Jung-ho’s lips, Song Ji-hu pressed his palm to his forehead.
Of all people, Im Jae-hyuk. This was the worst possible scenario.
If anything happened to Im Jae-hyuk in there, Song Ji-hu would never forgive Park Jung-ho.
“Have you decided on a Gate clearance strategy?”
There were only two ways to clear a Gate.
First: wait until Gate Break occurs, then annihilate the monsters that pour out from the outside.
Depending on the scale of the break, the entire surrounding area could be devastated. The harbor—critical infrastructure—was right there, and residential zones were dangerously close.
Second: enter the Gate directly and clear the dungeon.
Dangerous, but clean.
“Right now… we’re still debating the approach.”
“We go in.”
Song Ji-hu spoke without hesitation.
“I’ll place a Mental Barrier on the external perimeter team, and I’ll enter as well.”
Deep furrows carved themselves into Park Jung-ho’s brow, and his pupils trembled sharply.
“You’re going in yourself? Do you understand what’s happening in there!”
“The footage you just showed me is the answer.”
Song Ji-hu’s voice remained measured.
“It’s a labyrinth that launches mental attacks, isn’t it? And my skill is designed to defend against mental attacks. If you just push hunters in without any means to block mental assault, their strength becomes meaningless.”
Song Ji-hu stepped forward and pointed at the monitor.
“Walls shift, parties fracture, whispers corrode the mind. We need someone inside responding in real-time.”
Park Jung-ho couldn’t bring himself to nod easily. The logic was sound. But.
“Ugh… if you’re hurt, that’s the end of it. There are tens of thousands more you could save later—they matter more than the three in there.”
“To save those tens of thousands, don’t we first need to contain this Gate?”
Park Jung-ho bit his lip. Rationally speaking, it was the best proposal on the table.
“Ugh… there’s no option to wait outside?”
Park Jung-ho did not nod readily, hesitating instead.
No matter how he looked at it, politically it was the worst kind of gamble. If Song Ji-hu failed here?
There was no way Park Jung-ho could bear the accusation of having driven humanity’s hope—watched by the entire world—into the jaws of death.
“Then we perform a Gate Break….”
“This is an A-rank Mutated Gate. After the Break, can you handle the cleanup cleanly? And what about the Hunters already inside?”
“Well, that’s….”
And if they waited for a Gate Break to protect Song Ji-hu, then tried to dispose of it, only to have monsters slip out and cause heavy casualties? Not to mention the lives of the Hunters inside couldn’t be guaranteed either.
‘Still… protecting Song Ji-hu might be the better choice….’
The moment Park Jung-ho was about to voice his opposition after all this deliberation.
“Chairman! You need to come see this!”
“What is it!”
Park Jung-ho was about to shout at the interruption during such a critical moment.
The sound of multiple helicopters suddenly filled the air near the field command post. Not just one—three of them.
“Wh-what—!”
As the helicopters touched down and their doors opened, men in dark suits descended in perfect formation, lining up with military precision.
It was a security team from USAA. And stepping out from their center was Rick Wesley.
The Hunters at the site stirred restlessly. Why was USAA suddenly appearing here?
The stream of Hunters in combat fatigues bearing the USAA insignia descending from the helicopters suggested this was no casual visit.
A total of eleven Hunters.
Rick Wesley passed Chairman Park Jung-ho and walked straight toward Song Ji-hu.
‘Right on schedule.’
The support for the Gate that he had requested from Rick Wesley.
“Hunter Song Ji-hu. I’ve come as promised.”
Rick Wesley extended his hand, flashing a broad grin.
“I should’ve deducted one of those three favors you owe me, knowing it would come to this.”
“Are you backing out?”
“Heh heh… as if.”
Rick Wesley clasped Song Ji-hu’s hand between both of his with an exaggerated laugh.
“Five A-rank Hunters, five B-rank Hunters. USAA stands behind all of your decisions today, Hunter Song Ji-hu.”
The USAA Hunters standing behind Rick Wesley bowed in unison.
Elite Hunters from the world’s number-one guild offering their respects first to a C-rank Hunter—a bizarre sight indeed.
Camera flashes erupted from the journalists like mad.
“Why USAA…? Usually they don’t pay much attention unless it’s a joint operation.”
“Didn’t those two have some negotiation a few days ago? Could Song Ji-hu have set this Gate as a condition during that deal?”
“Come on… who could’ve known a Mutated Gate would open now?”
“R-right? So then… they really just want to look good in front of Song Ji-hu?”
At that same moment, a single thought crystallized in the journalists’ minds.
‘Exclusive!’
The reporters began snapping shots frantically while simultaneously transmitting breaking news articles to their newsrooms.
[USAA Decides to Enter A-rank Mutated Gate!]
[What is the Connection Between USAA and Song Ji-hu?]
Nothing was confirmed yet, but the fact that USAA was participating in the Mutated Gate because of Song Ji-hu became established fact under the journalists’ fingertips, flooding the internet.
The Seventh-Time Regressor Collects Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Production Date
: July 13, 2026
Publisher
: ACES Media Inc.
Editor
: ACES Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACES Media Inc. under contract with the copyright holder.
No part of this work may be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the publisher and author.
This e-book is protected under copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260709064

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————