The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 10

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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 10
Interest in Han Geon-woo evaporated as quickly as it had kindled.
‘What’s this? An Awakener with a Lock on their record?’
There had been witness testimony, but the Association had flagged one of today’s newly awakened individuals, which meant the record was locked.
This could only mean one thing: the Awakener had already registered with the Association.
‘Let’s proceed with the examination,’ someone said flatly. ‘We can discuss the details afterward.’
Han Geon-woo had no choice but to submit to the inspection, and his deception was laid bare.
Only then did the scouts side with the Cheonha Guild staff.
‘You’re blacklisted! No guild in this world will ever take you in!’
As predicted, interest gave way to fury, and Han Geon-woo’s name was added to the Blacklist.
The Cheonha Guild dismissed him without hesitation and vowed to make his tower climbs a living nightmare with every obstacle they could devise.
“Damn it. I’m finished…….”
Han Geon-woo was consumed with regret over his own actions.
Betraying Cheonha and seduced by the promise of Horus Guild—he had crossed a river he could never ford back.
Now the only person left was that bastard who’d made the proposal.
Yet no matter how long he waited, the man never showed his face.
“Son of a bitch. I won’t let this slide.”
He had memorized every detail of that face.
If he couldn’t crush him with strength, he’d curse him—make everything the man attempted crumble to dust.
Whirrr—
His smartphone rang.
The number was unfamiliar.
‘Guild bastards?’
Were they going to harass him over the phone now that they’d put him on the Blacklist?
Fine.
Let them try.
Come on, you miserable dogs. Let’s hear it.
Flush with drink and reckless confidence, Han Geon-woo answered with a sneer.
“Who the hell is this!”
[It’s me.]
“Me? How the hell am I supposed to know who you mean?”
[Horus.]
At Horus’s name, Han Geon-woo’s mind snapped into focus.
He quickly straightened his grip on the phone.
“Wa—wait, is it really?”
[Yeah. The one you killed.]
The memory came flooding back—that promise to call later, the number he’d been given and held onto.
Han Geon-woo’s eyes stung with tears.
“I thought you’d stabbed me in the back…….”
So there was still honor in him after all.
[I did, though.]
Scratch that. Forget it.
Heat was suddenly rushing to his skull.
“You want to die? You’re admitting it?”
[People told me you really went overboard and got yourself blacklisted. That true?]
“That’s all because I did what you told me to do!”
[You should’ve played it smarter.]
“Shut up! This is all on you. Take responsibility.”
[Right. Since you’re blacklisted, the Horus Guild offer’s off the table.]
“You goddamn son of a—”
Bang!
Han Geon-woo slammed his fist against the floor, unable to contain his rage.
He should’ve never listened to that bastard in the first place.
Even if he’d left Cheonha, he had Indomitable—a skill that could carry him to Grade A. He could’ve easily found a mid-tier guild.
But he’d been seduced by the name Horus.
[That’s why I’m calling with another proposal.]
“A proposal?”
[Join the guild I’m building.]
“……You piece of shit. Your big offer is just to join some startup guild?”
Building a new guild from the ground up was like plucking stars from the sky.
Established guilds already had the pie divided up completely—so how could a fledgling guild muscle its way in?
Yet people were nurturing them anyway, and they all had solid backing.
[What if the Association backed me?]
“What……?”
[Wouldn’t that change things?]
“Ha, you expect me to believe that?”
[Believe it or don’t. That’s your choice.]
“Do I look like an idiot? Why would the Association help someone founding a guild?”
[I’m not like the others.]
“……You’re serious?”
If those words were true, wouldn’t this be a once-in-a-lifetime offer?
If a skilled fighter—someone who’d snuffed out his life so easily—had the Association’s backing, then even a newcomer could grow fast.
[Why would I bother lying?]
He swallowed hard.
With full Association support, it really did seem possible.
“Are you sure about me? I tried to kill you.”
Yet he couldn’t quite make sense of it.
Why extend an offer to someone who’d tried to murder you in the first place?
[You reminded me of someone.]
“Huh?”
Reminded him of someone?
What did that mean?
[So what’s your answer?]
“……I, if you’re sure about me, I want in.”
[Okay.]
“And, one more thing.”
[What.]
Han Geon-woo hesitated a moment, then spoke slowly.
“I’m sorry……about trying to kill you in the Tutorial, I mean.”
He wanted to wash away the guilt of his past transgression first.
Though they called it a Tutorial, he’d genuinely tried to kill him.
All to show off that he’d obtained the Indomitable skill and joined Cheonha Guild, a major operation.
[It’s fine. He never seemed like much of a threat anyway.]
He accepted the apology without ceremony.
“I swear I’ll never betray you.”
[I like that loyal stance of yours. From now on, call me big brother.]
“……How old are you?”
[Want to die?]
At those chilling words, cold sweat trickled down his spine.
Perhaps it was because he’d already died once at his hands.
The question didn’t sound like a joke at all.
* * *
The Association’s process was swift and efficient.
They assigned him a mid-level apartment near the Association headquarters, and without him needing to lift a finger, staff moved his belongings and furnished the place with top-grade appliances and everything else imaginable.
“Wow, this is insane…….”
While Seong-un sat on the sofa, his friend Seo Jae-pil was too busy admiring the apartment’s interior.
Seong-un deliberately played dumb.
“Why? Doesn’t your guild set you up like this?”
“Hey, why would they give an apartment to a nobody like me?”
“You’re in the Horus Guild?”
“Tch, just the item support alone costs hundreds of millions. They don’t throw in apartments on top of that.”
“That’s a shame.”
Seong-un whistled and drew out the sword he’d received from the Association.
===
[Asgard Sword]
-Type: Sword
-Grade: A
-Attack Power: 250
-Critical Rate: 2 ~ 2.5%
-Durability Remaining: 100%
-Special Ability (1): Upon taking damage, triggers [Passive: Asgard’s Mercy] at low probability
-Special Ability (2): Upon striking, triggers [Active: Asgard’s Wrath] at low probability
===
‘Having backing is definitely nice.’
He hadn’t even begun the climb yet, and all his equipment and armor were Grade A.
In his past life, he’d gone in carrying a sword distributed during the Tutorial.
As for the Tutorial—if not selecting a weapon granted bonus points, then from the towers onward there was no factor tied to weapon choice.
In other words, using high-grade weapons and armor wouldn’t change the clearance score.
“It’s a shame, really… Someone like you should’ve joined a Guild instead of the Association.”
Once the inspection was done, Seo Jae-pil settled onto the sofa, his regret written plainly across his face.
He’d wanted to pull Seong-un into Horus Guild one way or another when he’d insisted on climbing alone, but Seong-un had chosen the Association instead.
“Forget the Guild. More importantly—are you doing okay?”
“Huh?”
“You said you couldn’t clear the thirteenth floor.”
“Ugh… I’m dying of embarrassment.”
To put it bluntly, Seo Jae-pil had failed to clear the thirteenth floor.
“You came back alive. That’s what matters. What’s there to be embarrassed about?”
“I prepared everything I could and went up. But it still didn’t work…”
“Thirteenth floor? You must’ve gotten stuck in the maze.”
“How did you know that?”
The thirteenth floor.
The scale alone was incomparable to the maze he’d faced during the Tutorial.
The difficulty was substantial, and the pattern shifted every time—even memorizing a strategy guide cover to cover wouldn’t prevent getting stuck.
The problem was that whenever you took a wrong turn in a maze, various traps would trigger.
If unlucky enough, you’d be caught in those traps and never escape—losing your life in the process.
Just because the climb had failed didn’t mean despair was warranted.
Coming back alive meant you could try again.
“Usually when people get stuck, that’s where they stay stuck, right?”
“Ugh… I could scream. I memorized every single pattern.”
“You can try again next time.”
Seong-un himself had failed the thirteenth floor sixteen times before barely making it to the fourteenth.
There was no reason to brood over an initial failure.
“…But anyway, are you serious about bringing a Blacklist member into the Guild?”
After returning from the tower to Earth, he’d checked Seong-un’s messages.
His first reaction had been confusion, but after hearing the whole story, worry crept in.
“You weren’t eavesdropping, were you?”
“I wasn’t trying to! I just happened to hear it all.”
Seong-un narrowed his eyes, giving him a cold stare, and Seo Jae-pil jumped to his feet, waving his hands defensively.
“Fine, I’ll admit it.”
“It’s not admitting—I’m telling you it’s true. So, are you serious about it?”
“Yes.”
At first, he’d simply thought the man was an idiot.
The type who got blinded by greed and caused nothing but trouble.
But when he’d seen him at the Association, there was a desperation burning in his eyes.
Seong-un had seen his own past self reflected in that gaze.
It wasn’t mere greed—there was a deeper reason driving him.
So he’d tested him using the Guild as bait, and the result was more than satisfactory.
‘A man who’ll do anything if you just fulfill his desperation.’
It was a worthwhile acquisition—so he’d marked him as his first Guild member.
“You really do like taking the hardest path.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Fine. Do whatever you think is right.”
Seo Jae-pil let out a long sigh and stood up.
“Leaving already?”
“Yeah. Looks like you’re about to start climbing, so I should get out of your way.”
The real reason he’d come today was to catch up with Seong-un after so long.
He didn’t want to keep pushing the Guild on someone who’d turned it down to join the Association instead.
“Be careful out there. Don’t rush back in just because you failed once.”
“Wait, are you seriously giving me advice right now? You haven’t even cleared the first floor yet! Ha!”
Seo Jae-pil’s face twisted into an absurd expression as laughter burst from him.
At that smile, Seong-un found himself thinking.
The moment he began his ascent, the entire world would stir.
Would that pure smile endure when it did?
“You won’t regret hearing me out.”
“You’re right. I’ll take your words to heart.”
Seo Jae-pil was only just beginning his climb, yet his words carried no falsehood.
An ascent demands that you stake your life on it.
Impatience clouds judgment, and clouded judgment leads you across a river from which you cannot return.
Seo Jae-pil waved his hand, committing Seong-un’s counsel to memory.
He added an invitation to contact him anytime, should anything be needed.
“Then shall we get started?”
Seo Jae-pil left, and Seong-un remained alone, donning his gear.
[Enter the Tower of Destruction, Floor 1?]
The method of entering a tower is simple.
Unlike the Tutorial, which requires waiting for a match, this system allows entry whenever the climber wishes.
[No party exists.]
[Are you certain you wish to begin your ascent? *Upon re-entry, your evaluation score will be penalized.]
The score penalty applies only to climbers who have yet to clear a single floor.
Even if one qualifies for an S Grade, a re-entry penalty could lower it to A or B Grade, so the decision must be made carefully.
“Begin.”
Seong-un declared his intent to enter without a moment’s hesitation.
[Entering the Tower of Destruction, Floor 1.]
* * *
The darkness faded in less than a tenth of a second.
Before him stretched a landscape entirely different from Seoul, South Korea.
The ground was a circular stone platform carved from luminescent blue stone, and beyond it stood clusters of small wooden huts gathered close together.
[You have entered the Village of Beginning.]
This was the first floor.
The Village of Beginning.
The theme: monster subjugation, the same as the Tutorial.
However, unlike the Tutorial or smaller towers, there were steps that must be completed.
[Begin a Sponsorship Broadcast?]
A Sponsorship Broadcast.
Upon clearing the Tutorial Tower, a Community had been unlocked.
This Community was not an ordinary one—it was a system accessible only to climbers, through which they could watch broadcasts and donate their accumulated Gold.
It could be viewed as a tool for the later waves of climbers, yet those who attracted vast audiences and swept up Gold were effectively the vanguard.
It had to be that way—content that could capture people’s interest, from high-floor climbs to low-floor strategies, was simply too difficult for the later waves to produce.
“Begin.”
Of course, for Seong-un, it was not difficult at all.
A few impressive displays, and people would naturally flock to him.
‘It’s not just Gold donations I’ll receive.’
The Tower distributed items and titles based on broadcast rankings.
Since fortune was among those rewards, climbers never missed a broadcast.
Especially large guilds, which actively promoted their members, made gathering viewers far easier.
All these factors combined drove the later waves to desperately seek admission into a guild.
[Sponsorship Broadcast has begun.]
[Set your nickname?]
A nickname.
“Seong.”
In his previous life, the nickname Seong-un had chosen was Seong.
With no need to deliberate, he selected the same nickname.
Being a later-wave climber, there were zero viewers in his channel.
Likely, no one would enter until the floor was cleared.
It had been the same in his previous life.
You cannot be satisfied on the first taste, so he felt no real concern.
Or so he thought.
-Hi
As if waiting for his cue, a single viewer entered Seong-un’s channel.
The nickname was unknown.
Unless the viewer donated directly, Seong-un could not discern their nickname.
“Hello there.”
He hadn’t expected a viewer to actually show up.
There were so many people, and channels sprouted like weeds—plenty of them had zero viewers.
Honestly, he hadn’t held out much hope, but here was a viewer after all.
-Wait, why does this guy look like a mannequin?
A mannequin.
The Association had used the Lock system to seal away all of Seong-un’s information.
That’s why the viewers couldn’t recognize his face.
“I wonder why that is,” he said, playing along.
Seong-un feigned ignorance and stepped off the stone platform.
The Greatest Returnee Devours the Tower (Serialized)
Author │ Yeon-i Yo
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Yeon-i Yo 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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