The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 58

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

Episode 58. Self-Tempered
Matsumoto Leo’s expression darkened as he watched Song Ji-hu accept the card he’d labored over all night to produce—as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Five billion dollars, helping you three times, providing information. It’s all separate from what we promised before.”
“I know.”
In any ordinary transaction, offering this much would warrant a bow, or at the very least an expression of gratitude. But Song Ji-hu showed none of it.
He was simply unmoved—as if all of this had been in his own pocket from the start.
“Ha….”
Before that cool gaze, Matsumoto’s shoulders sagged helplessly. The fact that he’d laid down his hand and yet hadn’t moved a muscle in the other man’s expression filled him with exasperation.
“Well, we’ll excavate the Abyss together. I like this.”
……
Song Ji-hu continued, his tone matter-of-fact.
“You can find the information I want, can’t you?”
Matsumoto Leo’s throat tightened visibly.
This was a test. A test to gauge the Kage Guild’s capabilities, and a check on whether they possessed any utility at all.
“Of course! Ha! What do you take us for! I set information as a condition because I knew we could handle it!”
Matsumoto Leo bristled as he answered.
‘This is the best move. I know I’m being used… but I have no choice.’
Matsumoto Leo shook his head firmly.
‘Rather, I must keep Song Ji-hu close.’
When dealing with an unknown entity, watching from the nearest vantage point was fundamental to intelligence work.
The distance from which you could spot an enemy first. The distance from which you could glean the most from an ally.
The alliance was both a gesture of gratitude and Kage’s way of placing surveillance on this question mark of a man named Song Ji-hu.
‘He saved Haruka. That doesn’t change. But….’
A benefactor and a safe presence were two different things. The moment he forgot that distinction, he’d forfeit any claim to lead Kage.
Matsumoto Leo looked at Song Ji-hu and asked.
“So, what information do you need?”
“Everything on the Abyss’s branch organizations in Japan and Korea.”
“Fine. I’ll bring it in a week. Not a single detail left out.”
“A week?”
It was merely a confirmation, but to Matsumoto Leo’s ears, it sounded like Song Ji-hu was asking whether that was really how long it should take.
“Ha! Four days. I’ll have it in four days.”
?
Matsumoto Leo turned his back and left without even waiting to hear Song Ji-hu’s response.
“Was he always like that?”
Song Ji-hu chuckled quietly as he watched the man bristle at his own thoughts.
“Still… I’ve definitely eliminated one negative variable.”
In his previous lives, Japan had always been an unpredictable wildcard—now he’d brought them into the fold as an ally. After America, now Japan too.
The board against the Abyss Lord had shifted one square further in his favor.
Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
[Ryu Jin: Jae-hyuk, the shield is finished! Come pick it up!]
It was the Zero Point guild chat. It seemed Yim Jae-hyuk’s shield, the first piece they’d begun working on, was complete.
“Beyond the smell of metal….”
Ayase Haruka murmured softly to herself, a smile crossing her face.
“There’s a good spirit dwelling in it.”
“Because a good person made it.”
***
It wasn’t because all the equipment was finished. It was simply that Yim Jae-hyuk’s shield, the first piece they’d started on, was now complete.
“I suspect Ryu Jin wanted to showcase his own skill. It’s a kind of showcase.”
“Other than my compass, I haven’t really completed any proper equipment.”
As Yoon Young-su said, it was the craftsman’s desire to finally prove his true ability to Eun Seo-jin and Yim Jae-hyuk.
In that sense, Song Ji-hu held quiet expectations. Just as he had in his previous lives, Ryu Jin’s equipment was worth the reputation—just look at the compass alone.
“Oh… is that my shield?”
When the key members of Zero Point gathered in Ryu Jin’s workshop, Yim Jae-hyuk grinned widely upon seeing something covered with cloth on the workbench.
“Should we unveil it?”
Whoosh—
In that brief moment as the cloth slid away from the shield, a subtle tension filled the workshop. Even Eun Seo-jin’s usually stern eyes gleamed with anticipation.
And what was revealed was a single shield. A design both neat and weighty, imbued with the will to protect.
Across its blackened surface, intricate silver patterns were etched in delicate profusion.
“Wow… the design is incredible too?”
“It looks a bit smaller than what you used to have, though.”
Its overall shape was closer to a buckler, though a rather large one.
Yim Jae-hyuk’s expression grew slightly uncertain upon seeing it. He was a tank—a massive wall of a man who protected the entire front line and his allies behind him wholesale.
But this was a buckler, a fairly large one at that. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed sized for one-on-one combat.
“Uh, Ryu Jin? This looks a bit… small.”
Yet Ryu Jin had anticipated this, grinning widely as he lifted the shield and handed it over to Yim Jae-hyuk, speaking with quiet confidence.
“This shield has three functions built in. First, Wide-range Taunt. Second, Defense Range Expansion. And third, a Counter function that absorbs and deflects incoming attacks.”
Ryu Jin’s fingertip traced gently across the spot where Suho’s core was embedded.
“And above all else… there is will imbued in it. The resolve never to break, no matter what.”
“You could feel that? You weren’t even inside the Gate with us.”
“True. The metals we brought back from there, they… spoke to me about it.”
Even after the explanation, doubt lingered on Yim Jae-hyuk’s face. Setting aside performance, this was a matter of preference.
“Try holding it for now. You’ll understand naturally once you do.”
As if reading his hesitation, Ryu Jin offered the suggestion with assurance.
Recognizing the sincerity behind the gift, Yim Jae-hyuk reluctantly picked up the shield and examined it from every angle, his head tilting with puzzlement.
“Huh…?”
Something felt off. The moment Yim Jae-hyuk experimentally channeled his mana into the shield.
“This…?”
Yim Jae-hyuk’s shoulders jerked upward in surprise.
“It feels… alive?”
His usually relaxed voice cracked with bewilderment.
“This… isn’t normal.”
Through the sensation flowing across his fingertips, Yim Jae-hyuk instinctively understood: this was an item he could never purchase, no matter how much wealth he spent.
The shield responded to Yim Jae-hyuk’s mana as if recognizing its true master, emitting a subtle glow.
And then—with barely any additional mana channeled—
“W-What the—!”
A golden barrier bloomed from the buckler. The barrier swelled continuously, soon filling the entirety of Ryu Jin’s spacious workshop.
“Huh.”
Moreover, the golden barrier that had erupted from the shield did not merely expand. Just as Ryu Jin had said, the will of those who had protected the kingdom wavered across its surface like a phantom of hundreds of overlapping shields, unfurling endlessly.
“The mana consumption is almost negligible…?”
That was what shocked Yim Jae-hyuk most profoundly. Maximum output with minimum mana expenditure—a shield that seemed almost dreamlike in its efficiency.
“This…?”
Yim Jae-hyuk’s mind reeled. Normally, expanding size demanded enormous mana reserves. Which meant low mana consumption translated to endurance—the ability to sustain longer.
What virtue could matter more to a tank?
“If I can control it freely like this…?”
Yim Jae-hyuk’s expression transformed in an instant. The doubt that had clouded his face gave way to an ear-to-ear grin.
“I could manage offense and defense simultaneously.”
Yim Jae-hyuk repeatedly cycled his mana in and out, watching the defensive barrier shift in size fluidly with each surge and withdrawal.
“This is it! This is exactly the shield I’ve always wanted!”
Its apparent smallness had been mere appearance. Worn unobtrusively on the wrist in everyday use, it expanded at the moment of need.
“Ryu Jin, you really…?”
Yim Jae-hyuk stepped forward with gratitude flooding his face, as if to embrace Ryu Jin.
The hesitation he had shown upon first seeing the buckler’s shape vanished without a trace.
“Oh, and one more thing…?”
But there was more, as evidenced by the peculiar smile curling Ryu Jin’s lips.
“This wasn’t intentional, but…?”
Ryu Jin turned his gaze toward Song Ji-hu.
“When I forged the shield, I blended metals infused with your aura into the base, and something rather interesting emerged as a result.”
Song Ji-hu tilted his head curiously, his eyes moving to Yim Jae-hyuk’s shield.
At that moment, Yim Jae-hyuk channeled mana once more.
“Ah.”
Song Ji-hu immediately nodded, understanding something.
When Yim Jae-hyuk drew forth mana, a faint aura unique to Song Ji-hu alone wove subtly through the barrier’s grain.
An Anti-attribute—the precise antithesis of an Abyss Lord, a fatal venom against the very essence of lordship.
‘That’s Ryu Jin for you.’
His forging, which drew something from the depths of the soul, often transcended even the maker’s own intent.
“Truth be told… this is more accident or some kind of event than anything deliberate. I didn’t plan for it—it just happened as I worked.”
Ryu Jin himself couldn’t explain properly how such a thing had emerged. He could only say that it was what the metal itself desired.
“That’s fortunate.”
Very fortunate indeed. While Zero Point’s purpose included clearing Gates, the ultimate goal was the elimination of Lords.
“Once the Kage Guild’s request is finished… we should hold a meeting. Director Yoon, please arrange the schedule.”
“Yes, understood.”
Eun Seo-jin, hearing this, gave a quiet nod as well.
First, because she would finally learn the identity of the mysterious enemy that Song Ji-hu had been seeking.
Second, because she looked forward to the sword that Ryu Jin would forge for her.
She had already verified Ryu Jin’s skill by observing Song Ji-hu’s Compass, but seeing Yim Jae-hyuk’s Shield this time only solidified that conviction.
‘What form will my blade take, having passed through this blacksmith’s hands?’
In truth, no Hunter could help but hold expectations for their weapon.
While it’s said that a master calligrapher needs no fancy brush, surely finer work flows from a better brush.
In Eun Seo-jin’s impassive eyes, a faint anticipation kindled for the first time in a while.
“Hey, little sister. Nothing to do right now?”
Yim Jae-hyuk, who had been enthusiastically working with his Shield, suddenly stopped and turned to look at Eun Seo-jin.
“No, just… nothing in particular.”
“Then help me out.”
As Yim Jae-hyuk tapped his Shield, Eun Seo-jin’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
“No matter how good this thing is, if your hands aren’t used to it, it’s just a lump of metal. There’s a world of difference between what your head knows and what your body knows.”
Once he finished speaking, the playfulness faded from Yim Jae-hyuk’s face, and he spoke to Eun Seo-jin more carefully.
“Honestly, after coming back from the Gate this time, I’ve learned a lot. Just being a wall by myself… it wasn’t enough.”
It was only that day when he truly felt it—that merely being a shield was not enough.
At Yim Jae-hyuk’s words, Eun Seo-jin also gave a careful nod.
“So wouldn’t it be good if you trained with me too? Besides, there are even those Japanese Hunters here.”
“That sounds good.”
Eun Seo-jin, too, had gained much understanding from the last Gate.
‘To keep up with the Guild Master’s speed…’
The power of being an S-rank Hunter alone was far from enough. She needed to hone her blade further, to move half a beat faster.
Having committed to following Song Ji-hu, she could not allow herself to become a burden at his back.
Song Ji-hu, watching the scene unfold, gave a quiet nod to himself.
‘They’re moving on their own.’
Without him having to drag them along one by one, they had begun sharpening their own edges.
It was a good current.
The Seventh Regression: A Calamity Collector
Author
: Song Tan
Production Date
: July 21, 2026
Publisher
: ACS Media Inc.
Editor
: ACS Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACS Media Inc. in accordance with the rights holder’s contract,
and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under 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
—————