The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 61

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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 61. On the Spider Web (3)
“I need to finish this and get out.”
Song Ji-hu exhaled as his entire body creaked with real-time strain.
Fighting an Apostle in the Mindscape was proving far more demanding than he’d anticipated.
As Song Ji-hu endured the pain, Ayase Haruka slowly reached out her hand.
And she severed the false Oracle that had been choking her of her own accord.
Even though Song Ji-hu had cleared the path, it was hers alone to cut that final thread.
“No. You’re fake.”
In the moment she spoke the rejection aloud for the first time with clear, unwavering conviction against the lie that had weighed her down for countless years—
her power awakened, blazing with its original crystalline light.
The Torii Corridor, which had seemed ready to collapse and rot at any moment, straightened and aligned.
The black water pooling on the ground receded, revealing the original stone path that had lain buried beneath.
In place of the stench of decay came the scent of aged wood and incense. A distant bell chimed once.
The voice that had been torn into thousands of fragments, maddening her with their discord, converged into a single Oracle.
The healing—everything settling back into place, aligning perfectly—was unlike any resolution of a Mindscape Dungeon Song Ji-hu had witnessed before.
Rather than scattering, the False Priestess’s form quietly seeped into Ayase Haruka’s shadow. A perfect purification in which even the trauma of betrayal and mistrust became integrated as part of the self she now held wholly within herself.
As the False Priestess was absorbed, she left one final word.
“Now, at last, you hear me.”
Whirrrrr—
The moment the Mindscape purified itself, the Soul Revolver in Song Ji-hu’s possession resonated.
A strand of essence that had emerged from this mental space was stored in one of the revolver’s chambers: one spent round, four empty chambers, and one half-full.
A platinum-hued essence distinct from those of Eun Seo-jin and Ollie Barkley—one that carried a sacred quality.
‘S-Rank. This is S-Rank caliber. Every time I heal an S-Rank’s mental world, essence deposits into a chamber….’
Song Ji-hu’s eyes narrowed as he recalled the roster of S-Ranks still needing aid.
‘Three of the four I’d originally targeted are saved….’
Of the list he’d compiled right after his Regression, only Yoo Han-gyeol remained—though he wouldn’t have awakened as a Hunter yet.
‘There are plenty of other leads coming in too….’
Heal one more S-Rank, and he could charge another round. Open another door leading somewhere.
Even if he didn’t know where that door led.
***
In the Special Treatment Room of the real world.
Cold sweat rolled down Matsumoto Leo’s spine as he watched the two of them.
The subtle convulsions racking Haruka’s body as she lay on the bed had begun to subside.
Whether that was a good sign or a bad one, he couldn’t even guess.
He could only hope that the lessening meant something favorable.
“The healing must be progressing well, yes?”
He posed the question to Eun Seo-jin and Yoon Young-su, who had watched Song Ji-hu closely countless times before. Eun Seo-jin gave a slight nod.
“It’s not a bad sign.”
Nothing could be read from Song Ji-hu’s face. He simply lay with his eyes closed, utterly still.
Matsumoto gripped the hilt of his sword, hoping that assessment was correct. The Kage priestesses keeping vigil beside them felt the same way.
Each time the gauges surrounding her flickered or moved, their shoulders shifted in unison.
Somewhere, someone swallowed dryly—the sound unnaturally loud.
“Ah…!”
Then, in an instant, both Song Ji-hu and Haruka flinched, as though about to open their eyes.
“Everyone, be quiet!”
Every gaze in the room fixed upon them, and everyone held their breath.
“Haruka…?”
Clarity had returned distinctly to Ayase Haruka’s pupils as she lay on the bed.
“Haruka…?”
Matsumoto Leo knelt on one knee and called her name with care.
“Are you all right?”
Song Ji-hu, at least accustomed to this, quickly regained his senses and drained the restorative Yoon Young-su offered him.
Then he watched in silence as Matsumoto Leo gently spoke her name.
“Leo….”
“Yes…?”
“I can hear you fine. Don’t call me like that. And it’s loud.”
“Ah, yes!”
Ayase Haruka waved her hand dismissively at Matsumoto Leo, wincing as though her head ached.
“The Oracle….”
“The Oracle has come back…!”
“The Priestess has returned!”
The moment her eyes—which had grown clouded—regained their former clarity, the Kage priestesses who had come with her sank to the floor, hands pressed over their mouths as they wept openly.
“You’ve all suffered so much because of me these past months, haven’t you?”
Everyone in the room who had been watching Ayase Haruka open her eyes with such emotion now turned their gaze toward Song Ji-hu with a reverence that bordered on awe.
To the priestesses, Ayase Haruka was far more than merely another priestess.
And so they offered Song Ji-hu their gratitude with profound formality.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.”
In their eyes, Song Ji-hu had cured an affliction that nothing in this world—no person, no medicine—had been able to touch.
He appeared to them as something transcendent, a being who defied the laws of human nature itself, turning the impossible into the possible.
“Complete recovery… How is it even…?”
Matsumoto Leo checked the Mental Corruption readings he had measured for Ayase Haruka in the meantime and confirmed they had dropped below five, shaking his head in disbelief.
He found himself newly aware of just how right his decision to stand with Song Ji-hu had been.
Then the priestess, who had been comforting the others, turned her head toward Song Ji-hu.
“Thank you truly. And….”
Ayase Haruka tilted her head as if listening to something unspoken, then nodded several times, a faint smile crossing her lips.
“The Oracle comes through more clearly now than before.”
“The Oracle has descended?”
Matsumoto Leo focused all his attention on Ayase Haruka’s words.
“Yes. That person says I must stay close by your side.”
“What…?”
He had already said he would remain at her side until the treatment was complete—which had made things awkward enough—and now, with her recovery finished, to hear those same words repeated, Matsumoto Leo wiped his face with an air of exasperation.
But there was nothing to be done. It was an Oracle, after all.
‘Three already.’
Song Ji-hu gazed at the almost comedic scene unfolding before him, running his fingers across the Compass in his chest pocket.
‘The Shepherd, the Gardener, the Spider.’
He already had the tracking coordinates of three Apostles in his grasp, and as long as he reached the locations where their true forms dwelt, capturing them would be no problem whatsoever.
In his previous six lives, Song Ji-hu had always been the one hunted. Except on the rare occasions when fortune favored him.
But now, for the first time, he stood in a position to hunt.
“Damn… bloody hell….”
Matsumoto Leo could not win against Ayase Haruka.
“Leo. Bloody hell? Your mouth’s awfully foul, isn’t it?”
“Haruka… that’s not what I meant—”
“Haruka now? Come on, that’s too much… we’ve known each other for years.”
And with Haruka’s complete recovery, the unequal alliance between Kage and Zero Point solidified perfectly.
“Did those two know each other already?”
“Yes, they attended the same high school.”
Even as they bickered, when Ayase Haruka immediately answered Song Ji-hu’s question, Matsumoto Leo hung his head.
“Ah… so that’s how it is.”
“So that’s how what is!”
Song Ji-hu let out a soft laugh, Matsumoto Leo suddenly raised his voice in protest, and Ayase Haruka shot him a look.
“Is that how you treat your benefactor, Leo?”
“Ugh….”
Moreover, Ayase Haruka was a healer and buffer-type Hunter. She would be enormously valuable to Zero Point, which had previously consisted only of combat-focused Hunters.
‘If Ayase comes, Leo will follow. That won’t be bad at all.’
Attack, defense, production, and support—all the pieces a proper Guild needed were filling in, one by one.
***
In a corner of the Abyss where not a glimmer of light penetrated, the Spider had called a gathering the moment it returned to headquarters after escaping the dungeon.
“Why won’t they come…!”
The Spider wove together the scattered incidents that had been clouding its mind—a mixture of rage and fear. The Gardener and Shepherd were injured. The Collector was dead.
And underlying all of it was something pushed back temporarily: the shortage of Soul Counts among the S-Rank Hunters they were meant to deliver to the Sovereign.
“That Asian. It’s clear now—that one who heals Mental Corruption, right? Yes. That Japanese priestess too; she was a soul that should have been delivered in the end.”
Until now, the Apostles had written off these incidents as separate misfortunes. Bad luck, or perhaps humans had simply gotten fortunate and found a way.
“Why call us again? We only gathered recently.”
“Right. It’s not like we’re even that close, for crying out loud.”
When the time came, the Apostles appeared one by one at their posts.
The Spider stood before the others, silent for a moment as it gathered its thoughts.
“I found him.”
The Spider’s dozens of eyes gleamed in the darkness.
“One. It’s all the Collector, the Gardener, and the Shepherd—it’s one.”
Fear and certainty churned together in Spider’s voice without her own awareness.
For a moment, the Abyss filled with silence as the Apostles struggled to comprehend her words.
“Nonsense.”
If it were true, that human would be an unprecedented monster—one who had faced three Apostles alone and lived.
“…That’s hard to believe.”
“Even if the Gardener and Shepherd fell, the Collector? There’s no way that’s possible. Besides, he was supposed to be elsewhere.”
The Priest’s voice trembled faintly at the edges—the tremor of disbelief.
“I’m speaking from direct experience.”
Spider herself thought the same. She couldn’t believe it—wasn’t that why she’d come here, only to retrace that fact once more in her mind?
“That man… he knows all our methods. Don’t ask me how. I don’t know myself. The Gardener and Shepherd—neither was coincidence.”
The space itself, woven from darkness, rippled like water. The boundaries where the Apostles sat wavered, then sharpened again.
No one spoke easily. Each sank into their own calculations.
“A single man… Have you identified him?”
“Asia. Definitely the one who’s been healing Mental Corruption recently.”
It was the moment the Apostles first recognized Song Ji-hu as an entity—and singled him out as a unified threat.
The instant Spider’s report ended, the scattered Apostles began to think in earnest.
“So who will handle him?”
At those words, every eye rolled.
“Think carefully before you speak. Each of you has your own work to manage. Remember, our task is only to hasten the hour of the Lord’s awakening.”
“I’ll probe first. My hands are the least occupied at the moment.”
The Priest spoke, pressing his palms together.
“If you can’t resolve it, I’ll step in.”
“Then do that, and have the Shepherd and Gardener move more actively. While we tie things down here, we need to harvest more souls.”
Before the common goal, all nodded without objection—they were agreed.
“Then, let’s go out. Once we settle things quickly, we can go see that man’s face.”
The Slaughterer left the space first, and the Apostles departed one by one.
And again, nothingness—a void where no one existed.
In the deepest place, a fragment of consciousness that slumbered stirred faintly.
The Seventh Returnee Collects Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Production Date
: July 21, 2026
Publisher
: ACESMEDIA Inc.
Editor
: ACESMEDIA Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACESMEDIA Inc. under contract with the copyright holder.
No part of this work may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
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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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