The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 5

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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 5. Eun Seo-jin (1)
“…Eun Seo-jin? Is that correct?”
Her voice dropped an octave. The security guards stationed nearby turned their gazes toward Song Ji-hu in unison.
“Yes.”
Song Ji-hu nodded calmly. The staff member hesitated for a moment, then picked up the intercom phone.
“I’ll confirm whether a visit is possible. I’ll need to verify your identification.”
When Song Ji-hu produced his Hunter license, the staff member checked the name and picked up the handset with a surprised expression.
“Would you mind waiting in the waiting area?”
The staff member gestured toward the chairs in the lobby with an awkward expression, and Song Ji-hu nodded, rising to move.
“…Please connect me to the doctor in charge of Isolation Room 13. A visit request has come in.”
A voice sounded through the staff member’s receiver.
– Isolation Room 13, is that right?
“Yes.”
A brief silence.
– …I’ll check. Please wait a moment.
As the staff member moved to verify the visit approval, Song Ji-hu leaned back against the chair and recalled the face of a man who had shone most brilliantly in his sixth life.
Eun Seo-jin.
A prodigy of incomparable talent. He had awakened as an S-rank Hunter in his mid-twenties and earned the title “Swordmaster of Eternal Frost” within two years—the greatest swordsman in the Republic of Korea.
It was said that the cold radiating from the twin blades in his hands could freeze not only the movements of enemies but their very souls.
Yet because he shone so brilliantly, he was consumed by the Abyss first. He was stronger than anyone, but he crumbled to mental corruption faster than anyone else.
The world was now forgetting yet another genius.
‘What if….’
Song Ji-hu recalled the final moments of his sixth life—that hellish battlefield. The Abyssal Lord harvesting the souls of his comrades with overwhelming power.
‘What if Eun Seo-jin had been there on that battlefield.’
What if that mad genius blacksmith Ryu Jin, who had appeared covered in third-degree burns, had been at his side intact.
But it wasn’t just those two. The names of countless hunters from not only Korea but across the entire world flickered through his mind, rising and falling like waves.
‘The ending would surely have been different.’
They were not merely S-rank Hunters. They were the most critical ‘variables’—the ones who could stand against the Abyss and break this cursed cycle.
“Then it won’t be possible… Yes, yes… I’ll inform them that the patient’s condition is unstable.”
As the word of refusal reached his ears, Song Ji-hu closed his eyes and activated Residual Consciousness.
Fragments of emotion scattered throughout the hospital building rushed toward him like a tide.
Fear. Despair. Pain. Madness.
Within the sea of negative emotions that blanketed the entire hospital, he felt one presence distinctly cold and sharp.
Song Ji-hu steadied his breathing and pushed Consciousness Projection to its absolute limit. As if trying to break past the bounds of C-rank, a tearing pain flooded through his soul, but he clenched his teeth.
‘Basement level 2… or perhaps level 3.’
Toward that particularly frigid place amidst the countless fragments of emotion.
‘Reach him.’
From Song Ji-hu’s mind, a wave as thin as thread extended outward. It was not words. It was not sentences. It was merely the projection of emotion.
Warmth.
Light.
Hope.
Trust.
Salvation.
The most primal and pure emotional morse code—capable of thawing a frozen soul.
***
Basement level 3, within its deepest recess: Isolation Room 13.
Inside a chamber sealed in triple layers of reinforced glass and magic circles. It resembled a tomb more than a hospital room or isolation ward.
There was no bed, no window, no furniture of any kind. Only white walls and floor, and a single man kneeling at the center.
Eun Seo-jin.
What had once been brilliant in him was now pitiful. His silver hair, nearly white, hung limp and obscured his face, while his skeletal frame could not even be hidden by the restraint suit he wore.
Around him, thin ice crystals continuously formed and dissolved.
Uncontrolled cold and bodily mutation from mental corruption already eating away nearly to his eyes—evidence that an S-rank Hunter’s power was spiraling toward runaway.
But the most horrifying was his eyelids, which for three years had never once opened, yet moved ceaselessly.
He was not here.
***
An ice-built courtroom.
An endless nightmare born from Eun Seo-jin’s trauma.
Bang—!
“Defendant Eun Seo-jin. You have betrayed your comrades and endangered the lives of your party members. Do you wish to offer an explanation?”
From the highest judge’s bench. The body was a black shadow, but the face bore the likeness of Eun Seo-jin’s master, Baek Mu-jin.
“…No.”
Eun Seo-jin slumped in the defendant’s seat, bound by chains of ice, her voice barely a whisper. Her lips could only tremble uselessly.
“You’re lying!”
Five shadows rose from across the courtroom. All of them her former party members. Or rather, puppets wearing their faces.
“You abandoned us!”
“…No! I… I never meant to….”
The moment Eun Seo-jin opened her mouth to protest.
“You killed us with your mental corruption!”
“Traitor! Traitor!”
“It’s all your fault! If it weren’t for you, we’d still be alive!”
“Murderer!”
Eun Seo-jin’s lips trembled violently. Yet her voice refused to come. She was a criminal stripped even of the right to defend herself, left only to endure an endless procession of guilty verdicts.
Bang!
“Guilty. Eun Seo-jin, you are guilty!”
The judge’s gavel came down. And the courtroom collapsed. Walls crumbled, the ceiling fell, everything swallowed by ice.
And then, exhausted in body and spirit, the battle began again. And again.
The same courtroom. The same trial. The same guilty verdict.
Three years.
One thousand and ninety-five days.
Twenty-six thousand, two hundred and eighty hours.
Hell, repeating endlessly.
Eun Seo-jin had long since abandoned resistance. She no longer protested, wept, or raged.
‘This is… right. I endangered my comrades.’
Like a frozen doll, she simply accepted the looping verdicts of guilt without end.
“I… I….”
The final verdict. This time it was truly the end. Eun Seo-jin’s mind shattered completely.
The judge’s gavel rose high, and the Abyss Lord was about to harvest his soul.
Crack—!
“Warmth…?”
At death’s very threshold, something warm seeped into Eun Seo-jin’s chest.
A warmth beyond words, a heat she hadn’t felt in years.
“Ah… ahh…!”
A cry escaped Eun Seo-jin’s lips, tinged with that precious warmth.
“What is this…?!”
The courtroom shook. The shadows on the judge’s bench twisted, the jurors screaming as they crumbled.
Eun Seo-jin’s eyes snapped open.
***
Isolation Cell No. 13.
“Nh… ngh…!”
Eun Seo-jin’s body convulsed. Her eyelids trembled, then slowly opened.
A pristine white ceiling. A cold, sterile isolation cell. Yet warmth still lingered in her chest.
‘Who… are you…?’
Everything inside the isolation cell lay frozen solid. Walls, floor, ceiling, surveillance cameras, magical circles—all buried beneath thick ice.
Someone was calling to her.
Grrrrrr—!
Suddenly, uncontrolled cold erupted from Eun Seo-jin’s body.
“Krraaaaaaah—!”
The uncontained cold began spreading outward, consuming ever more space.
“Alert! Isolation Cell No. 13 is going berserk!”
“Vitals spiking! Cryogenic output exceeding critical threshold!”
“On the verge of collapse! Mental disintegration is imminent!”
“Prepare the Catastrophe Containment Protocol! Emergency report to the Association!”
“If an S-Rank goes berserk in the middle of the capital… this becomes a second Guangzhou!”
The command center descended into chaos. Monitor screens went dark one by one, alarm sirens wailing loud enough to tear eardrums.
“Sedatives! Deploy sedatives!”
“They’re not working!”
“The entire ward is frozen solid!”
Ice spread through the corridors. Sharp icicles crawled along walls and ceiling, jagged spikes extending in every direction.
“Send in the containment team! Now!”
“Activate security protocols! Evacuate the patients!”
“Evacuate! Everyone evacuate!”
Medical staff and security guards screamed as they bolted down the stairwell. The entire third floor transformed into an ice cavern in the blink of an eye.
And in the heart of it.
Eun Seo-jin knelt, gripping his chest with both hands.
The first external intrusion since he’d sealed himself away—and the warmth contained in that single thread of contact. It was a glimmer of hope, perhaps a salvation found in the depths of agony.
***
First floor lobby.
A thin trickle of blood ran from his clenched lips. Yet the corner of his mouth curved upward in a faint smile.
‘…I reached him.’
In that instant.
A low rumble shook the air.
The entire building trembled.
The siren wailed.
The alarm shrieked through the structure like a madness, and ice crystals erupted from the floor in a cascade.
“Ahhhhhhh—!”
“Run!”
The building descended into chaos. People screamed and stampeded toward the exits.
While everyone else bolted for the entrance in a panic, Song Ji-hu remained motionless. He wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, then turned toward the stairs leading downward.
“Sir! It’s dangerous! You need to evacuate—!”
Ignoring the employee’s cry, Song Ji-hu descended the staircase. Second floor, third floor. With each step downward, the temperature plummeted.
Basement level three. The security doors were so thoroughly frozen that they crumbled to powder at the slightest force.
Basement level three was encased entirely in blue-tinted ice—walls, floor, ceiling, everything.
[Target detected]
[Mental contamination rate: 98% (terminal stage)]
[Mental Dive hazard level: S]
The compass spewed information endlessly, blaring warnings in red as it screamed danger.
Yet Song Ji-hu pushed forward down the corridor, each step heavy with effort.
Isolation chamber 13 at the end of the hallway, its door half-ajar. Biting cold seeped continuously through the gap, sharp enough to freeze flesh.
Song Ji-hu pulled the door open without hesitation.
A violent gust roared forth.
Fierce cold engulfed him like a storm. His hair, his clothes, everything was instantly coated in frost.
Song Ji-hu did not stop. He advanced toward Eun Seo-jin, one step at a time.
Eun Seo-jin, kneeling on the ground, slowly lifted his head.
Silver hair. A face drained of all color. Eyes hollow, yet holding within them the faintest glimmer of light.
Their gazes met.
In that moment, Eun Seo-jin’s lips trembled.
“…You…?”
After his lips worked soundlessly for a long moment, Eun Seo-jin’s voice emerged fractured and raw.
Song Ji-hu approached him slowly. Ice spikes bristled from all around, targeting him, but he paid them no mind.
As he knelt before Eun Seo-jin, their eyes came level.
Song Ji-hu’s ash-gray eyes fixed directly on Eun Seo-jin’s empty gaze.
‘The critical moment. The timing is perfect.’
And Song Ji-hu spoke.
“I intend to drive him from your mind.”
A brief silence.
“Will you consent?”
Eun Seo-jin’s eyes wavered. Hope and fear, trust and doubt—a complex tangle of emotions. Instinctively, he knew the truth: that without intervention, he would not last much longer.
And that this man before him might be his final hope.
And so Eun Seo-jin….
‘I want to live.’
Eun Seo-jin nodded, the motion barely perceptible, and the corner of Song Ji-hu’s mouth curved upward with cold precision.
“Good.”
Compass gripped in one hand, he reached the other toward Eun Seo-jin’s shoulder.
In that instant.
A torrent of force erupted.
Eun Seo-jin’s body detonated with a defense mechanism. The entire chamber transformed into an enormous block of ice. Song Ji-hu, Eun Seo-jin, everything—trapped within.
Yet Song Ji-hu’s hand had already made contact with Eun Seo-jin’s shoulder.

The compass vibrated with violent intensity.

“Entry.”
The world inverted.
Within the ice, the consciousness of two people connected.
Song Ji-hu smiled faintly within the ice.
A Seventh-Loop Returner Collects Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Date of Production
: July 13, 2026
Publisher
: ACES Media Inc.
Editor
: ACES Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACES Media Inc. under contract with the copyright holder,
and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company 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

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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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