The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 82

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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 82. Kate Langford (1)
Bang! Bang!
“Whoever you are, get out!”
After a long moment, a coarse voice burst through the speaker as if scraped raw by sandpaper.
“From USAA…!”
“I said get out!”
The voice cracked with irritation.
“I’m going to rampage and become a catastrophe soon! I know it better than anyone. So I’ll die on my own terms without asking for your help. Don’t worry about it, stay away from here, and all of you just disappear!”
A brief silence followed. This was someone who understood her own condition well.
How she was falling apart, what fate awaited her—and so she had chosen to distance herself from others on her own two feet, to lock herself away.
It was the exact same choice Jonathan Walker had made at his final moment.
Ollie Barkley stepped forward and opened his mouth.
“This is Ollie Barkley.”
“…….”
The irritable shout from before did not come.
“And just now.”
Ollie Barkley’s voice hesitated for a moment.
“Jonathan… I’m coming back from seeing Jonathan Walker off. Kate.”
A long silence stretched out.
Wind stirred the dry grass. A siren wailed distantly in the far distance, then faded.
“I don’t want to lose any more comrades so meaninglessly.”
Ollie Barkley stood before the door, his hat gripped in his hand, while Song Ji-hu watched his back quietly.
Click.
The heavy door opened. Its thickness was beyond imagination, as if it were a nuclear bunker.
The interior was so dark that one could barely see a hand’s breadth ahead.
As seen from outside, the windows were ringed with massive sheets of metal, and the wallpaper layered over them bore chaotic claw marks as though torn by some wild beast.
Unopened boxes of pain medication were stacked like towers on the dining table.
“Kate.”
“Long time, kid.”
Beyond the boundary between light and shadow, Kate Langford stood, her eyes gleaming like a serpent’s.
“I don’t suppose I can ask how you’ve been.”
“You’re clearly doing fine. I’ve heard the news. You went to Korea, didn’t you?”
As light pressed further toward her, Kate Langford withdrew a step deeper into the darkness.
The skin beneath her eyes was dark. Her skeletal hands trembled constantly, and physical mutations had already ravaged her—scales of some kind covered her entire body.
And the way her eyes narrowed as if something continued to bother her, the way she tilted her ear slightly toward him as if having trouble hearing—all classic symptoms of mental corruption.
‘Hmm… 91. Still has some margin left. Thank goodness.’
Song Ji-hu nodded to himself, relieved at the mental corruption reading floating before his eyes.
It was clear the Harvest Festival’s crown had not yet connected.
‘Which means she’s still human.’
And at the same time, he checked his wristwatch.
[4:55]
‘Consecutive diving… that would take too much out of me. I don’t have the time or the reserves.’
Entering someone else’s mental world, excavating their trauma and fighting—it was no small feat.
‘Besides, I don’t need to turn another S-Rank into an anomaly right now. It would only raise more suspicions.’
Then Song Ji-hu stepped forward.
“Langford. Since time is short, I’ll be direct.”
And with that, he drew out his USAA Card.
“For now, just think of me as this sort of person.”
As Song Ji-hu extended his hand, Kate Langford’s body instinctively stiffened.
‘Immovable Heart.’
Rather than wait for a response or ask permission, Song Ji-hu immediately activated the skill.
Hum—
A Silver Barrier wrapped around Kate Langford. Once, twice, three times.
“What is this….”
It was not healing but merely a measure to stem the flow—enough, however, to buy time.
“Ah…?”
And in the next moment, the noise vanished from Kate Langford’s world. The noise that had scraped at her nerves without ceasing for even a single second over the past months suddenly cut off entirely.
Perfect silence. It was so long since she had experienced such quiet that her brain took several seconds of delay just to recognize what it was.
Thump.
Kate Langford’s knees buckled. She sank limply into a chair, tears streaming down her face.
“…What is it?”
She covered her ears.
“What is this? Why is it… so quiet?”
“I can’t cure it completely, not right now.”
Song Ji-hu lowered his outstretched hand.
“But it won’t get any worse. Come back in a few days and I’ll give you proper treatment. Just bear with it until then.”
Kate Langford lifted her head and looked at Song Ji-hu.
“You’re….”
“Hush. It’s probably nothing.”
Song Ji-hu’s eyes crinkled gently above the mask.
“Every morning when I wake up, I think the same thing. Is today the day? The day I turn into a monster here? The day I destroy with my own hands the city I’ve protected for over a decade?”
She steadied her breathing and extended her hand toward Song Ji-hu. With her other hand raised to her lips, she placed her index finger there.
“There must be a reason.”
Her eyes traced the upper edge of the mask—wondering what price he’d demand in return, what invoice this kindness would become. Then she laughed softly.
“Anyway… first I should say thank you for coming before I managed to destroy everything.”
Ollie Barkley, standing by the window, turned his head quietly.
“Then… I’ll see you again later.”
As he left the house, Song Ji-hu glanced back once.
“I hope you do.”
The door clicked shut again.
‘That makes the second variable created.’
[4:24]
Inside the vehicle heading toward the next destination, the needle of the Compass vibrated noticeably in a narrower range. It no longer swung left and right.
‘We’ve entered Nevada, then.’
Song Ji-hu tucked the Compass into his pocket.
“We’ll be arriving at the Gate soon.”
In the middle of Nevada’s desert, a single Gate rippled, stained a vivid crimson red.
The USAA assault team was preparing to enter—checking equipment, gathering supplies.
Matsumoto Leo gave Song Ji-hu a look. A question: wasn’t he going in?
“We’re not going in. We’re short on time… and the Hunters should handle this one.”
Instead, Song Ji-hu walked toward the Gate. There, he placed his hand on the surface of the rippling red Gate.
It felt alien—neither cold nor hot, just the sensation of touching something, nothing more.
Song Ji-hu closed his eyes.
‘Thread of Memory.’
Where Residual Thoughts only sputtered out disconnected words, the Thread of Memory could deliver whole sentences exactly as desired.
Song Ji-hu drew one thread from among countless memories.
At the same time, a vast flood of images poured into his mind.
Like an old, stuttering projector film—the Gardener manipulating the Gate, a man standing beside him. A map in the man’s hand came into focus.
Red dots scattered across the entire United States. Next to each dot marking Seattle, Denver, Houston, Chicago were numbers scrawled in disarray.
Contamination levels, harvest order, estimated timing.
Even as he watched the footage, Song Ji-hu began fitting the dots, city names, and times together into a single schedule.
“Haah….”
Song Ji-hu slowly opened his eyes.
‘…Thank you, Gardener.’
His mouth curved into an oblique smile. A faithful, meticulous administrator.
‘Thanks to your subordinate’s diligence, I’ll be able to save far more.’
Song Ji-hu withdrew his hand and began rapidly jotting down the relevant information on paper.
“Send this to Rick Wesley.”
Returning to the car, Song Ji-hu handed the list to Ollie Barkley. As Ollie examined it, his hand faltered.
“Is that all?”
“That’s all.”
Beside him, Matsumoto Leo’s eyes widened as he scanned the screen.
“How… where do you even get this kind of intel? This should be top-secret information.”
Rick Wesley’s voice crackled through the earset.
– Confirmed. We’ll redirect personnel to those areas.
In a situation where they were scattering Hunters across the entire country, never knowing where the next attack would strike, this information was like rain in a drought.
– Just how reliable is this data?
“One hundred percent.”
Beyond the earset, Rick Wesley’s orders continued without pause.
“And this is where the real operation begins.”
At those words, Rick Wesley quieted the surroundings as though settling in to listen intently.
“Scatter all the Hunters on the list.”
– But wouldn’t it be better to keep them gathered in one place?
“No. That’ll only heighten their vigilance.”
Rick Wesley, Ollie Barkley, and Matsumoto Leo all fell silent, listening to Song Ji-hu.
“Quietly disperse them across the country. Without anyone knowing. The justification can be anything. What matters is that no one senses anything amiss.”
Those carrying the Fragments had to be under the Abyss’s watchful eye—every minute variable being monitored to ensure the Harvest Festival’s success.
‘But what if those Fragments started moving unpredictably across the country, without any pattern?’
Once one thing went wrong, the rest would follow in a cascade.
“They’ll go mad. They might not achieve their desired goal.”
Over the line, a stifled laugh mixed with a sigh burst through.
– It’s a tremendous relief that you’re not an enemy of the United States. Truly.
Rick Wesley hung up with a relieved laugh.
[3:00]
Three hours remaining. Song Ji-hu checked his Wristwatch and pulled out a Compass. The needle had become fixed, pointing directly toward the center of the city.
It seemed an Apostle had come in person.
***
In the heavy shadows of Las Vegas, a grotesque form descended onto the street.
It wore human clothes and mimicked human gait. All the people passing by paid it no mind.
Only its pace was noticeably faster than anyone else’s.
‘It’s probably nothing.’
The Gardener forcibly suppressed the uneasiness churning within.
‘It must have been an error. Errors existed in the previous world too. Such things can happen anytime.’
The lingering effects of the wounds inflicted by that one had left the Gardener on edge. Add to that Jonathan Walker’s disappearance and the preparations for the Harvest Festival.
‘Once I cover everything with this, it’ll be fine. In the end, all that matters is the Sovereign’s resurrection.’
As long as the chain reaction unfolded smoothly from the second occurrence, the first could be dismissed as merely an incident.
And then, a hundred meters from Kate Langford’s house, the Gardener stopped.
“It… stopped?”
The Gardener’s pupils trembled violently, dilating wide.
“…The corruption has… stopped?”
Ninety-one. Exactly ninety-one—the same as when checked hours ago.
That couldn’t be.
Of course, the progression of corruption could temporarily slow.
Through the host’s strong willpower, bonds with others, rest—or skills like Emilia Jones’s, which the Apostles feared most for its ability to delay Mental Corruption.
But stoppage? Never. It only ever slowed. Unless Song Ji-hu’s skill was involved.
“But Song Ji-hu is on a plane right now. Emilia Jones is tied up on the New York front. So how in the world…?”
The Gardener stood motionless in place, utterly bewildered.
Then it began moving urgently, as though fleeing.
A nearby Mutation rushed to a Gate, placed its hand on the surface, and scanned its status. Everything was normal.
“Check Song Ji-hu’s current location.”
– Two hours before landing. What’s the situation?
“Any unusual activity within the American Association or USAA?”
– Rick Wesley’s USAA Black Ops team is moving, but there’s no other unusual activity.
There was indeed nothing out of the ordinary. USAA was still opposing this Catastrophe, half in a daze.
‘The pattern has broken. Were humans capable of this much?’
Minute as it was, a small gap had formed where the gears no longer meshed.
“Who on earth could it be…?”
There was no answer. With each possible cause eliminated, darkness deepened.
“What is moving out there? And something we haven’t grasped at all… is there something else?”
The Gardener fixed bloodshot eyes on the run-down house once more.
Then approached as if entranced. One step, two steps. Then it halted abruptly.
What would be gained by entering? The status was already known. There was nothing more to see inside.
Rather, if direct contact stimulated the vessel into premature Rampage? If it Rampaged but the harvest couldn’t be completed properly? In this situation, that responsibility would fall on the Gardener alone.
And more than anything, a chilling inexplicability kept the Gardener’s feet rooted.
The sensation that something beyond comprehension was occurring behind that door. A baseless premonition that opening it would mean facing that thing.
So the Gardener turned and walked away.
***
– Nellis Tower, Zero Point One. Requesting approach clearance for runway 21R.
“Zero Point One, Nellis Tower. Cleared to land 21R. Wind two-two-zero at eight knots. No hazards reported.”
– Landing clearance received. Zero Point One.
The radio cut out as Zero Point’s private aircraft descended slowly through the desert heat.
The dull thud of wheels touching the runway merged with the roar of reverse thrusters, and the aircraft taxied into the hangar and came to a stop.
The ramp lowered, and a black SUV carrying Rick Wesley slid swiftly beneath it.
The Seventh-Turn Returnee Collects Catastrophes
Author
: Song Tan
Date of Publication
: August 20, 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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