The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 47

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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 47. The Old Knight Commander’s Key (2)
“What in the…”
Even Yun Young-soo, who had come from the Association and visited a considerable number of Gates, stared wide-mouthed as the Gate finished materializing.
“A Gate… forming right before our eyes. What on earth is this thing?”
“I’m not certain either. I was about to investigate it myself.”
It was starkly different from Gates that normally appeared. While conventional Gates had a deep crimson haze obscuring their interiors, the Gate that Song Ji-hu had created offered a clear view of what lay beyond.
Beneath an ashen sky, the silhouette of the Fallen Kingdom spread out before them.
Toppled spires, banners bleached pale and hanging motionless. A vast dead city from which all color had been drained away.
“So that’s where the charred wood smell was coming from… A scent drifting through the Gate itself…”
“A kingdom laid to ruin…”
The entire space, which had once surely been someone’s life, stood faded to ash-gray like an enormous tomb marker.
“Everyone, prepare yourselves. The Gate is open—we should enter.”
At the Gate’s entrance loomed a colossal stone gate, rising majestically as if to pierce the heavens. Song Ji-hu’s gaze fixed upon its surface.
Carved into the moss-covered, fractured stone was a symbol—one that matched exactly the emblem etched into the Old Knight Commander’s Key in his possession.
‘So that’s why it resonated. Then does this mean an Irregular Dungeon must be cleared in this manner? Is that how we obtain the items and heal the Hunters so we can enter this place?’
Another scattered puzzle piece seemed to click into its rightful place.
“First, I should measure its Rank.”
Yun Young-soo hastily withdrew the Portable Measuring Device from his pocket and turned toward the Gate. But then—
“Rank… cannot be measured?”
The device’s screen displayed no numbers, only a blinking error message.
“This Gate… is dangerous. Can we really proceed with just the personnel we have here?”
Yun Young-soo’s fingertips trembled slightly. A Rank unable to be measured meant a Calamity Rank Gate exceeding S-class, or something beyond even that.
In other words, only three Hunters entering a place of unknown peril? This was little better than a suicide mission.
“The maximum number of Hunters allowed entry through a Gate is ten.”
“It will be fine.”
Hummmmmmm—
As Song Ji-hu drew near the Gate, the key in his pocket began resonating violently.
As if it had finally recognized the place it had been lost from all these ages.
‘A world already consumed by a Lord. That much is certain.’
While everyone else stood frozen before this unknown Gate never before seen, Song Ji-hu’s face—standing directly before the entrance—showed not fear, but faint certainty and anticipation.
‘If Regression was a door that crossed time… then this bullet is… a door that crosses worlds.’
Song Ji-hu stepped toward the Gate without hesitation.
“We may not clear it in one attempt. We might need to return midway. If that happens, we can recruit more people then. Please keep watch out here while we’re inside.”
Song Ji-hu turned from his contemplation of the ashen world to face Eun Seo-jin and Im Jae-hyuk.
“Let’s go.”
At that command, Im Jae-hyuk and Eun Seo-jin calmly followed Song Ji-hu’s lead.
Yun Young-soo watched the three figures recede into the Gate, his expression hardening.
‘What on earth is in there…’
The unmeasurable readings, the unknown world beyond. As Song Ji-hu walked into it without the slightest hesitation, Yun Young-soo found himself swallowing dryly once more.
***
Beyond the Gate, the moment his feet touched the crumbling earth, an alien air pierced his lungs.
“This is quite an otherworldly place. Most conventional Gates have environments nearly identical to Earth’s.”
“Right. Like what Seo-jin said earlier… but the gravity here feels slightly lighter. My body feels less heavy than usual.”
“A different world rather than a dungeon… The air smells rather musty.”
It felt like they had opened the door to a tomb sealed shut for ages untold.
“Hmm… Gate scholars would have been thrilled to see this.”
Eun Seo-jin crumbled the soil beneath his feet between his fingers. Even the earth itself crumbled like ash, while the sky overhead held neither sun nor moon—only ashen clouds stretching endlessly.
“There are no life signs whatsoever.”
“Let’s advance for now.”
As Song Ji-hu moved forward, Im Jae-hyuk naturally raised his shield and took point.
Beyond the massive city walls lay the remains of devastation. Toppled stone structures. Fountains gone completely dry, banners faded and hanging limp.
“What was this place once?”
“It feels like a kingdom…”
“The real question is what caused it to become like this. There don’t seem to be enemies anywhere.”
Song Ji-hu gazed thoughtfully across the windless city.
‘But there are no corpses. If people died here, there should be bone fragments at least.’
The traces remaining in the streets were strange. Overturned carts, shattered vessels, houses left standing open and abandoned.
As if every living thing in this city had been torn away in a single moment, leaving no trace behind.
“This place feels as if… time itself has been frozen.”
“Exactly… It’s really peculiar. This world is clearly dead, has been for countless ages, yet not even a speck of dust settles on the vessels. Not on the doorframes, not on anything.”
At Im Jae-hyuk’s unsettling remark, Song Ji-hu picked up the scattered vessel from the ground. Dust billowed beneath the ashen sky—he could see it clearly.
“You’re right.”
Song Ji-hu gazed at the ashen world, lost in thought.
If this was nothing but a husk abandoned after the Lord harvested its souls, it made sense. A world drained of every soul would have no momentum left to carry even time forward.
‘Did Earth become like this after my Regression?’
This place was a colossal tomb—even death itself had been frozen here.
‘If it’s the remnants of a world devoured by the Lord.’
Song Ji-hu took in the vast ruins. Somewhere in this expanse lay something—or perhaps a clue that would lead him to the Lord.
It was then.
Zing—!
The key in his pocket trembled faintly, pointing in a single direction. Song Ji-hu’s gaze followed where it indicated, like a compass needle.
“Let’s head that way.”
At the city’s very center, the silhouette of an enormous castle loomed faintly through the haze.
“Heading toward the center ought to reveal something, at least.”
As Song Ji-hu murmured to himself and moved forward, Eun Seo-jin and Im Jae-hyuk followed in his wake.
.
.
.
.
.
The footsteps of three people echoed through the ruins, breaking the silence.
With every step, Eun Seo-jin swept his gaze across their surroundings, never lifting his hand from his sword hilt. Im Jae-hyuk’s usual banter had vanished—his face was tense and alert.
The silence of this dead world was sinister in itself. It was too quiet, too perfect. Like the eye of a storm.
How long had they been walking?
“Prepare for combat.”
Suddenly, Song Ji-hu’s pace halted.
A chill crawled down his spine like a snake. In that same instant, the stagnant air of the world trembled faintly.
Grrrunch—
From somewhere deep within the kingdom.
Something that had slumbered long opened its eyes, slowly and deliberately.
Thud—
At first, it was only a faint tremor running through the ground. But that tremor steadily gained weight and substance.
Boom…! Boom…!
Far beyond the fog-shrouded castle, something immense awakened from its slumber and began to rise, turning toward them.
“What in the…”
Im Jae-hyuk craned his neck upward endlessly. Ten meters? No—it had to be at least fifteen.
“Run.”
The three of them bolted toward the Half-Destroyed Castle at the city’s center.
As they drew closer to the middle, the landscape grew increasingly horrible in its stillness.
In the middle of a street stood a soldier frozen mid-swing, his blade held high. Before him, another soldier had stopped mid-motion, shield raised to block that very blow.
Buildings that had been collapsing remained tilted at the exact same angle. Roofs engulfed in flame had hardened with the very shape of fire preserved within them. The feet of those who had been fleeing hung suspended in the air, their bodies fixed in the posture of pushing off the ground.
“Horrible.”
Dozens of arrows hung frozen in the air, never having fallen. A scream hung suspended in someone’s gaping mouth.
“If that’s the case, it makes sense that dust hasn’t accumulated. If the time axis itself is locked—if the world itself is literally frozen.”
“Horrible indeed… I’ve never seen a Dungeon like this.”
In the moment the Lord harvested this world, time itself froze. The entire realm had hardened into an enormous diorama.
“This is sickening.”
As they made their way toward the central castle, Im Jae-hyuk glanced at the soldiers’ faces and muttered. His usual careless smile was nowhere to be found.
“It’s incomprehensible. They’re dressed identically, yet there’s no distinction between enemy and ally. Was a civil war waging here?”
Eun Seo-jin spoke quietly. His eyes read the final battlefield that had unfolded in this city as clearly as an open book.
“A city of this magnitude… stopped completely in a single instant… How strong could that thing possibly be?”
Eun Seo-jin licked his dry lips and cast a fleeting glance at the enemy drawing slowly toward them.
Even Eun Seo-jin, who had spent his entire life with a blade, felt his fingertips grow cold before the overwhelming scale of death. What in the world could freeze an entire realm in a single moment?
“We’ll find out soon enough once we face it.”
“Fair enough. We can’t flee with the enemy right in front of us.”
Song Ji-hu fixed his gaze on the approaching castle.
‘Is this the world after the end?’
No one understood what this sight meant better than Song Ji-hu. If they failed to stop the Lord, Earth would face this same future—fragments of a shattered world.
‘There’s definitely a clue here. It wouldn’t have called me to this place without reason.’
Feeling as though he stood in the heart of a tomb, Song Ji-hu stepped into the Half-Destroyed Castle.
“Something’s off….”
Oddly misaligned traces began to catch Song Ji-hu’s eye.
“Let’s head to the center for now.”
Eun Seo-jin climbed the stairs toward the highest point of the Half-Destroyed Castle.
“There’s something strange about this….”
Even Im Jae-hyuk cocked his head at this inexplicable oddness when they arrived at the Throne Room.
“Ah.”
Song Ji-hu, who had grasped the nature of the strangeness, let out a brief sigh.
“It feels like looking at a tomb that’s been looted by grave robbers… doesn’t it?”
At those words, Im Jae-hyuk’s eyes widened as if he had finally understood, and he looked toward Song Ji-hu.
“That statue’s pedestal over there. At first glance it looks like it’s been weathered and crumbled, but….”
“Every spot where a jewel would be has been pried clean away… you can see the traces.”
Song Ji-hu nodded at Eun Seo-jin’s words.
“It’s not broken—it’s the mark of someone deliberately prying out only the valuable pieces….”
Song Ji-hu ran his fingertips across the empty pedestal, his brow furrowing.
‘That’s not the Lord’s way… he doesn’t bother with spoils like this.’
Yet the thing approaching this place now was far too large and crude to be him.
As far as Song Ji-hu knew, there were five executives serving the Lord in total.
‘Is there someone else? A sixth executive?’
He couldn’t yet determine who it was. Only a chill creeping down his spine was clear.
“This is where it ends, then….”
“Wait here. There’s something to find in this place.”
Song Ji-hu slowly closed his eyes. Then, gripping a compass in one hand and the Old Knight Commander’s Key in the other, he spread his residual will throughout the entire space.
The first thing that caught him was the vast emptiness of a world stripped of its soul entirely.
Millions of souls that once filled this land—all of them, not a single one remaining. That emptiness was so profound that even Song Ji-hu’s consciousness felt as though it would be sucked in, vertiginous and distant.
‘…There.’
In the deepest part of that space, at the center of the Throne Room, a single, faint will that had not yet been completely extinguished was dimly pulsing.
The moment Song Ji-hu opened his eyes.
Grrrrr—
The frozen landscape began to shift.
Bloodred light kindled one by one in the hollow eye sockets of the mummified soldiers.
Crack—! Crunch—!
With the sound of rusted joints being forced to bend, everything that had been still and filling the Throne Room began to move all at once.
As if a soldier who had held his sword mid-strike finally meant to complete that blow.
The sentries of the dead world, infested with the Lord’s remnants, surged toward the intruders in unison.
7회차 회귀자가 재앙들을 수집함
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: 2026년 07월 13일
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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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