The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 42

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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 42. Ollie Barkley — Second Round (3)
Song Jihoo’s eyes opened slowly. The Annex Building’s first-floor private room. His palm still rested on Ollie’s shoulder.
“You’re awake.”
Eun Seojin sheathed his sword and steadied Song Jihoo from behind.
“…Insane. Oh, the Contamination Level is…!”
As Song Jihoo came to his senses, the commotion from the USAA personnel washed over him unfiltered.
“This doesn’t make any sense….”
“What’s wrong?”
Turning his head, Rick Wesley stood frozen before the monitor, his mouth half-open as if he’d seen a ghost.
[0.7]
He rotated the monitor toward them, his voice trembling.
“At this level… isn’t this practically civilian range?”
Rick Wesley’s legs gave out, and he sank to one knee without realizing it.
Thud—
He’d tried to put pressure on his legs, but the strength wouldn’t come.
Beep—beep—beep—
[0.5]
And with a mechanical tone, the Contamination Level dropped again.
“Insane, 0.5? That’s practically newborn level…!”
No matter what, there was only one reason for their astonishment.
Ollie Barkley—S-rank Hunter of USAA and America’s most beloved Hunter—had returned alive from Hell.
Completely alive.
“I’m waking up.”
Ollie Barkley, lying on the bed, pushed open his heavy eyelids. His floating consciousness sharpened rapidly into focus.
Ollie’s first move was to lift both his hands and clench them, then open them to the air. There was no tremor.
No voices either. The whispers that had rung maddening were gone—nothing but a complete, perfect silence.
It had been so long since quiet like this. Tears began to well slowly in Ollie’s eyes.
Ollie looked at Song Jihoo.
“Bro….”
His voice was wet and cracked with emotion.
“You saved me.”
“We did it together.”
In truth, if Ollie hadn’t regained consciousness, it would have been difficult to inflict a fatal wound on the Shepherd.
“Ollie….”
A USAA staff member moved to support Ollie as he slowly tried to sit up from the bed.
“No, I’m fine.”
Ollie managed to get to his feet on his own.
His legs trembled faintly, but he gritted his teeth and stood fully on both feet, his weight entirely his own.
No one supporting him. Just his own two legs.
“Oh, Ollie, Ollie….”
Rick Wesley finally stumbled to his feet and gripped Ollie’s shoulders tightly with shaking hands.
A silence full of unspoken words passed between the two Americans.
Then Song Jihoo rose slowly from his seat. Eun Seojin, waiting behind him, automatically cleared a path for his movement.
“Mr. Song.”
Rick Wesley, who’d been holding Ollie’s shoulder, turned to face Song Jihoo.
Then he bowed his head to him.
Not a diplomatic gesture, but the deep bow of one human being to another—profound gratitude.
Song Jihoo did not turn away. He accepted it calmly with a respectful nod.
“You’ll be entering a Recovery Period now. In about a week, you should be able to resume normal activity.”
“…Make me a promise.”
Ollie, standing beside the bed, wiped his tears and smiled broadly. It was the hearty smile of the Texas gunslinger he’d seen in the Mental World.
“From now on, whenever you call, even if it’s the pit of Hell itself, my guns will blaze for you.”
Song Jihoo nodded with satisfaction.
“I’ll look forward to that. The path I walk won’t be an easy one.”
“I already knew that.”
Ollie nodded, recalling what he’d experienced in the Mental World.
A dungeon nested not in a Gate, but within a Hunter’s own mind—what kind of situation was that? It was something never heard of, never seen. Clearly, such a path could not be easy.
“I see. Will you be heading back to the United States right away?”
“Hmm… I could, but….”
Rick Wesley grinned and looked at Song Jihoo.
“I’m thinking I’ll stay another three days or so.”
Song Jihoo, catching the meaning behind those words, broke into a grin.
“I’ll be meeting with the Yakumo Guild the day after tomorrow, it seems.”
“The timing is rather remarkable.”
Song Jihoo clasped Rick Wesley’s hand.
***
“How are you feeling?”
As they left the Annex Building, Eun Seojin asked with evident concern. There had been quite a lot to handle during the first treatment of Ollie Barkley, after all.
“Ah, yeah. I’m fine. That first time had complications, but this is different.”
“That’s a relief.”
Just then, a sedan pulled up smoothly.
“Where would you like to go, sir?”
Once Song Jihoo climbed in, Yoon Youngsoo glanced at him in the rearview mirror.
“Home.”
“Home… The Hunter Association should have someone waiting there by now.”
“That’s exactly why we’re going.”
Song Jihoo caught Yoon Youngsoo’s eyes in the mirror and saw the moment it clicked—the driver had fully grasped just how enormous a ship he’d climbed aboard.
“Schedule the meeting with the Yakumo Guild for the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow is for rest. And if they press, you can cite USAA as a reason.”
“USAA… Understood.”
Yoon Youngsoo nodded immediately, grasping the implication at once.
“It’s strange, isn’t it? I’ve never had to negotiate from a position of strength like this before—not with the Association, not with foreign guilds.”
“You’ll need to get used to it.”
“I suppose so. We are Zero Point, after all.”
Yoon Youngsoo was only now beginning to truly feel the weight of Zero Point’s power.
He’d always believed that while an individual might heal Contamination, no single person could ever outmatch the strength of a nation.
But then came USAA, followed by the Awakener Strategy Advisor, and now the Yakumo Guild and Hunter Association both scrambling desperately for his attention.
Song Jihoo was demonstrating, in flesh and blood, that an individual could indeed stand above an entire nation.
“How should we approach the negotiations? There must be details we should coordinate beforehand.”
“No preliminary coordination is necessary. The side that needs something should present their offer first. We simply evaluate what the Yakumo Guild brings to the table. USAA’s terms will naturally be our benchmark.”
“Understood. I’ll handle it without issue.”
Yoon Youngsoo even hummed a little tune as he drove.
It was clear that the stress of dealing with the Yakumo Guild and Hunter Association these past few days had been weighing on him.
“I’m placing my full trust in you.”
At those words, Yoon Youngsoo’s smile deepened.
***
The Association Headquarters’ top floor, the President’s office.
Park Jeongho had his head buried in his enormous desk.
More precisely, he sat with both hands cradling his head, groaning in distress.
“I’m going to lose my mind, I swear….”
Since taking office as Association President, he’d never experienced a headache like this.
“Why did that bastard have to show up….”
And not just any guild—USAA from the United States, and Yakumo from Japan. Both backed by full state support, which made these visits practically diplomatic incidents in their own right.
“It’s all that Song Jihoo bastard. Song Jihoo, Song Jihoo, Song Jihoo. And where does he get the nerve….”
The problem was that neither guild—not USAA then, and not Yakumo now—had made any proper public appearance. Both were laying low, half-submerged.
“Recovery, my ass. I saw them coming out of the Gate moving perfectly fine. What does USAA have that lets them keep Song Jihoo on such a tight leash?”
He couldn’t say much, though—USAA had used the excuse that they were overseeing Song Jihoo’s recovery as their justification.
“The Incheon incident… It has to be because of the Incheon incident. That’s why he’s pulling this crap on me now.”
Park Jeongho sighed and drummed his fingers on the desk, muttering to himself.
The manual violation of sending a scout team through a gate under transformation. That had to be why Song Jihoo was orchestrating all this against him.
“But is it worth such an aggressive move? He said he was close to Im Jaehyuk? There doesn’t seem to be any connection, so what the hell….”
It was an incomprehensible mess. And because he’d somehow made himself the necessary intermediary for every external matter, he was bearing the full brunt of this diplomatic storm without gaining anything in return.
Knock-knock.
“President….”
Just then, there came a knock, and his secretary entered.
“What is it?!”
“Th-the Yakumo Guild has contacted us again.”
“Ugh….”
Park Jeongho’s head sank even deeper into the desk.
“They’re asking when the meeting with the Zero Point Guild will be scheduled, and they’d like to confirm once more, very politely….”
“…Very politely.”
Park Jeongho glared at his secretary with bloodshot eyes.
“Courtesy is courtesy, but what kind of courtesy is this? They’re questioning us. That’s what this is!”
“Well… yes, I suppose so.”
“Contact USAA directly! You said Song Jihoo is in a meeting with them right now! Go there and demand answers!”
Park Jeongho’s voice rang out sharp and clear.
“They can’t go after USAA directly, so they come after us because we’re an easy target! Ugh!”
The secretary flinched and took a step back.
“Falling out…”
Park Jeongho, who had been tearing at his hair, muttered dejectedly as he watched strands cascade down from his scalp and flutter to the floor.
He stared at his falling roots with hollow resignation, then leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling.
“How did I… become the Association President? How did I end up on a leash held by someone like Song Jihoo?”
At first it was good. No—it was only good at first.
When the usually arrogant nations had made excuses about schedule adjustments, he’d believed himself to be at the very center of diplomacy.
He’d mistaken it for the most glorious period of his life. But now he couldn’t even bear the word “good” on his tongue.
That sensation of being at the center of diplomacy.
“A shrimp caught in a whale fight. Or… maybe just a fish… at best.”
But whether shrimp or fish, the position in the middle that gets crushed and split open was all the same.
“So… what should I… say?”
“That’s why you should’ve secured a meeting time first! Who waits five days for someone to show up? And then, when it comes to the Americans and Song Jihoo, you don’t say a word, but you strut around with us…”
That the meeting time didn’t work out, that this was diplomatic discourtesy toward Yakumo, that Korean protocol was insufficient.
“If you felt disrespected, why are you taking it out on me instead of going after Song Jihoo!”
Park Jeongho slammed his desk. Of course, just like Yakumo, he couldn’t confront Song Jihoo directly either, so he was just sitting here seething alone.
“What kind of mess is this at the end of my career.”
Just then, the secretary, checking his phone, called out to Park Jeongho with a bright smile.
“President!”
Park Jeongho barely lifted his head to look at his secretary.
“What? Is Yakumo causing trouble again?”
“We’ve received contact from Zero Point!”
Park Jeongho’s body sprang up like a coil, and his chair tumbled across the floor.
“Seriously?!”
“Yes! Yoon Youngsoo contacted us directly. Day after tomorrow at 2 p.m.—they’re holding the meeting with Yakumo Guild at the Association Conference Room!”
Park Jeongho threw both hands up in the air.
“Finally…! Finally, these damned bastards!”
The secretary hesitated at Park Jeongho’s unexpectedly enthusiastic outburst.
“Hahaha! I’m about to go mad with joy! Contact Yakumo right now. Tell them that since we’ve secured the meeting you wanted so badly, get your asses to the Association by 2 p.m. tomorrow!”
The secretary began to seriously worry about his own safety as he watched Park Jeongho laugh while tearing at his hair.
The Seventh Return User Collects Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Publication Date
: July 13, 2026
Publisher
: ACESMEDIA Inc.
Editor
: ACESMEDIA Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
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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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