The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 31

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

Episode 31. Incheon Gate (4)
Song Ji-hu’s stride carried not a trace of hesitation—the kind of certainty you’d expect from someone retracing a dungeon they’d already cleared.
The first fork in the passage. Just as he moved to step into the right corridor—
“This way.”
Without even turning his head, Song Ji-hu twisted his body and veered into the narrow left passage that had seemed like a dead end.
The two USAA-assigned hunters trailing behind exchanged bewildered glances as they followed.
And precisely three seconds later.
A grinding rumble—
The ceiling and floor of the right corridor they’d been about to enter locked together and sealed shut. Stone dust that had been drifting in the air exploded outward like a storm, striking their cheeks.
If Song Ji-hu hadn’t stopped and changed direction, they would’ve been crushed to pulp between those massive boulders by now.
“…Jesus.”
One of the USAA hunters’ jaw dropped open. The timing of the halt and the direction change were far too precise to dismiss as coincidence.
It wasn’t just once. At the second fork, it happened again.
“We’ll go straight ahead. When I give the signal, run.”
Song Ji-hu stopped in the middle of the open intersection and began counting silently, his lips moving.
“Three, two, one, now!”
The moment he bolted into the forward passage before the wall could shift, the hunters followed close on his heels.
A horrible grinding screech—
Like a broken gear being forced into alignment, the sound echoed behind their backs.
As this pattern repeated, the hunters eventually set aside their questions and simply moved as Song Ji-hu instructed.
A sharp crack—
Where Song Ji-hu threw the stone, a flash erupted and magical arrows rained down like a downpour.
He watched the attack in silence until it stopped, then smoothed his clothes and resumed walking with complete composure.
If he were merely good at finding routes, that would be one thing. But he was turning at precisely the moment walls shifted, stopping his steps before traps sprung.
The cardinal rule for conquering a Labyrinth dungeon is simple.
Reconnaissance and caution—moving forward one careful step at a time, huddled together, searching for the path.
Yet this man ignored every conventional wisdom and advanced as though he already knew the way, strolling through a familiar neighborhood.
“…How?”
One of the hunters finally broke his silence, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. The question was written plainly across his face.
“The Labyrinth has patterns. If you can identify them and understand the possible combinations, it’s simple enough to solve.”
“That doesn’t make sense. In all my years, you’re the first person I’ve ever seen clear a Labyrinth like this, Mr. Song!”
It was unbelievable, but it was happening right before their eyes, so they had to believe it.
“Hmm….”
Song Ji-hu fell silent. More precisely, he didn’t have a moment to spare for further explanation.
Three separate tasks were running simultaneously in his mind—work that would drive an ordinary person to madness in less than a minute.
First: reading the Labyrinth’s patterns and plotting the optimal route.
Second: guiding Eun Seo-jin to the destination through her field of vision.
Third: guiding Marcus’s team to the destination through his field of vision.
And sharing all three streams of information. A thick vein pulsed visibly at Song Ji-hu’s temple.
“Haaah….”
Despite the Labyrinth’s cold temperature, Song Ji-hu exhaled a long breath of heat.
Eun Seo-jin advanced in silence, wielding her blade in the direction Song Ji-hu indicated, and Marcus, after a few passes, had begun executing his instructions flawlessly.
“Move! Move!”
Marcus led his team forward at a run. The moment they passed through the wall, the Labyrinth’s structure began to twist and shift.
With his newly acquired skill combined with memories of the future, Song Ji-hu held the entire Labyrinth in the palm of his hand, arranging the board itself.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Heavy footsteps echoed from the darkness ahead, and Song Ji-hu raised his fist.
“Battle stations.”
The moment they rounded the narrow corner, the passage was choked with monsters—Golems, Skeletons, Slimes, Orcs—all swarming in their path.
“It seems the Labyrinth isn’t pleased that we’re avoiding its traps.”
A sharp whisper of steel—
Song Ji-hu drew the Na-chim from his waist.
‘Here we go.’
A fluid slash—
The blade found the precise gap between the neck joints of the foremost Orc.
Silver liquid traced the blade’s centerline, shimmering as Song Ji-hu’s force flowed into the steel.
‘Beautiful feeling.’
Despite severing the joint, what remained in his fingertips was merely the sensation of cutting through clay.
Thunk—
The Orc’s head fell to the ground, as though it had just realized what had happened.
Crack!
Song Ji-hu planted his foot on the crumbling Orc’s body and launched himself into the air. Twisting at the waist, he gathered the centrifugal force and swung his blade once more.
Screech-screech-screech!
As the Na-chim cut through the air, leaving a silver afterimage, the Golem behind him split clean in two.
When he pierced the exposed core with the tip of his blade, a bone-chilling sound like nails on glass accompanied the Golem’s crimson gaze extinguishing.
The massive stone form crumbled lifelessly, sending up a cloud of dust.
Hum—
The retrieved Na-chim’s blade vibrated faintly, as if satisfied. The sword resonated with Song Ji-hu’s will.
‘A fine blade. Better than I imagined. Especially the way it tears through them—there’s something almost tailored about the damage.’
Song Ji-hu gripped the Na-chim’s hilt firmly. Despite the leather and metal, it felt warm in his palm.
‘Yes, a truly good partner.’
The Na-chim’s silver liquid flickered brighter, as if answering its master’s praise.
“Cleanup complete. Your combat ability… that’s no ordinary level. For an A-class Variable Labyrinth, the way you dispatched the monsters was remarkable.”
The USAA Hunters gazed at Song Ji-hu with wonder after finishing off the remaining monsters.
It struck him that even if he told anyone outside what he’d displayed here, few would believe him.
“I only managed a few alone. And I happened to acquire a rather good weapon.”
They’d already been curious about where such a weapon could come from.
“By any chance, where did you….”
At that moment, the Labyrinth’s resistance to expelling Song Ji-hu intensified.
“We should move forward.”
Boom-boom-boom!
The walls’ movement cycle began shortening at a frantic pace.
From seven minutes to five, then down to four.
Monsters poured in from all directions, and the intensity of the Whispers gnawing at the mind only grew stronger—but it was meaningless resistance.
After all, this Labyrinth too operated within three predetermined Patterns that simply repeated.
Even as the Patterns shifted, even as the cycle shortened, every variation remained within the framework Song Ji-hu had already grasped.
After passing through three more junctions, dust bloomed before his eyes, and the sharp copper stench of blood brushed his nostrils.
“Who’s there! Stop!!”
A voice, wary and taut with alarm, cut through the darkness.
One Hunter held a trembling gun trained forward, while three injured survivors leaned against the wall behind him, gasping for breath and clutching their heads.
The first separated party—torn away when the space had warped upon entry.
“I’m Song Ji-hu. I’m here to rescue you.”
Song Ji-hu sheathed the Na-chim and spoke calmly.
“…Song Ji-hu? Mental Barrier…!”
At those words, the Hunters’ tension dissolved. The mere mention of Mental Barrier brought overwhelming relief.
Song Ji-hu immediately cast the Mental Barrier on everyone again.
Whoosh—
As the nearly spent barrier was wrapped anew in a silver shroud, the Whispers cut off, and the Hunters who had been writhing in agony all exhaled deeply in unison, their gasps one shared breath of salvation.
At the same time, color rapidly returned to their ashen faces.
“I think… I might actually live.”
“Thank you. Truly….”
The physical trauma was nothing but light abrasions, but their mental fortitude had been drained completely by unshielded exposure to the Whispers.
“We move together. First priority is regrouping. Help me support them.”
Without looking back, Song Ji-hu took the lead again, and a mage Hunter clutching a staff hurried after him, asking breathlessly.
“H-how on earth did you find us? Every time the walls shifted, we lost all sense of direction!”
“I have decent instincts. I just moved around until the Pattern became clear.”
“The Pattern?”
The Hunter’s jaw hung open in disbelief.
“You read a Pattern in this A-class Variable Labyrinth? How is that even pos—”
“Let’s keep moving.”
The USAA Hunter simply nodded at the mage, as if to say follow.
“We’ll move fast.”
As Song Ji-hu led the regrouped Hunters forward, his mind was focused elsewhere.
‘Eun Seo-jin and Marcus’s team won’t have trouble.’
They possessed not just the strength to endure, but the strength to break through the Labyrinth itself.
What Song Ji-hu had to do now was move them like chess pieces toward a single objective.
Send Eun Seo-jin and Marcus the route; have them converge separated Hunters in their respective zones as they advance.
The end goal was to guide all teams to converge at one location.
And that location was already decided.
The Deepest Chamber of the Labyrinth—where his radar detected a faint aura, like a candle guttering on the edge of extinction.
‘Jae-hyeok is there.’
Song Ji-hu’s brain was screaming under the strain of multitasking.
Throb.
A sharp pain radiated from his right temple, as though struck by a hammer.
A drop of blood fell from his nostril, tracing a path down to his upper lip before falling away.
Song Ji-hu wiped the smear of blood away with his sleeve. Compared to the agony he’d endured across hundreds of deaths, this headache was barely a nuisance.
And pain like this had become familiar.
***
By the time Song Ji-hu had safely gathered the second group of five stragglers, his expression had hardened.
The group that had just arrived was the surviving recon unit, including Park Jung-guk and Jang Jin-geol.
Some of those who had ventured deepest into the Labyrinth early on and become isolated.
Their condition was far worse than he’d anticipated.
‘Mental Detection.’
A single flickering spark of consciousness in the Deepest Chamber of the Labyrinth—its signal had grown weaker since he’d first sensed it.
Time was running out.
Song Ji-hu picked up his pace. The USAA Hunters followed in his wake, and the rest scrambled after them in disarray.
Simultaneously, he transmitted the final route to Eun Seo-jin and Marcus through Mental Connection.
[Eun Seo-jin. When the right wall opens, go straight!]
[Marcus! Hold position. After Eun Seo-jin arrives, move left down the corridor!]
The scattered Hunters began converging one by one, flowing toward the Labyrinth’s deepest point as a single force.
All of them were exhausted, yet they followed Song Ji-hu’s orders faithfully.
And as the final pieces locked into place—
The vast cavern of the Deepest Chamber of the Labyrinth.
All personnel arrived simultaneously at this location under Song Ji-hu’s direction.
The Seventh Regression Collector of Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Date of Publication
: July 13, 2026
Publisher
: Acesmedia Co., Ltd.
Editorial Director
: Acesmedia Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Acesmedia Co., Ltd. in accordance with the copyright holder’s contract.
No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or duplication 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
—————