The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 23

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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 23
“Damn it! We need to move faster!”
Urgency flickered across the faces of Jang Byeong-jun and his staff, who stood watch outside.
As the tremors came in rapid succession and their intensity grew fiercer, Jang Byeong-jun ordered his team to reinforce their perimeter.
And when debris came flying and swallowed the Apartment Tower whole, they rushed inside.
They had to hurry to Seong-un on the middle floors, but one problem stood in their way.
“Damn it all—of all things, a splitting one.”
The debris should have been shot at the middle floors, but in an instant it consumed all the way down to the first level.
More precisely, the debris had split and settled on every floor.
To reach Seong-un, they would have to complete each floor’s trial and ascend level by level.
“A maze, of all things!”
The first floor was a maze.
The entire interior of the first floor began to fuse into one, forming a labyrinth.
Somewhere at the end of this maze lay stairs to the second floor.
“I’ll search for the exit immediately!”
“As fast as you can!”
Jang Byeong-jun, who normally never lost his composure, found himself unable to remain calm now.
Before the maze squirmed the Blood Ant.
For them, it was barely a low-level pest—a monster they could crush with one fist—but for Seong-un, who had just finished climbing the second floor, it was something far more dangerous.
‘Just hold out a little longer, I’m asking you.’
All they could do now was hope the Monster Rookie endured until they arrived.
* * *
At that same moment.
Seong-un had finished exterminating every Blood Ant, then opened the apartment door and stepped into the hallway.
Whoosh—
The hallway was already a sea of flames.
Seong-un spotted the staircase beyond the fierce inferno.
“So the way forward is through here.”
Jang Byeong-jun and his staff, waiting outside the building, must have begun their ascent.
With every Blood Ant in the apartment eliminated, he could simply wait in peace—but Seong-un did not.
“This is an excellent chance to level up.”
Seong-un had an upcoming use in mind.
His Strength had reached 85, but considering the difficulty ahead, his stats needed to rise across the board.
In that situation, the Level 26 Blood Ants appeared to him like a tempting main course.
Seong-un took a step and walked into the flames.
Whoosh—
With each step, the fire rose savagely and engulfed him.
The burns were agonizing, yet strangely, his skin soon stopped burning.
The Traces of One Who Endured All Things protected him.
“Krrrieeee!”
Halfway down the hallway, Blood Ants came pouring forth again.
“Nothing’s going to be easy, then.”
Seong-un was currently on the eighth floor.
The top of this structure was the fifteenth floor—somewhat low for an apartment tower.
But being more than halfway up, it still boasted considerable difficulty.
Simply cutting through the flames would not be enough to ascend.
Slash—
Seong-un swung his blade, cleaving the heads of the two leading Blood Ants sideways.
“Krrieee?!”
“What’s the matter, surprised?”
The swarm of Blood Ants could not pin him down.
True, the narrow hallway restricted their movement—but it restricted theirs as well.
Especially for dozens of creatures swarming together, the confined space became a liability.
Seong-un trampled across the corpses of Blood Ants, clearing a path forward and ascending to the next floor.
Ninth floor.
Tenth floor.
Eleventh floor.
At a pace that belied his Level 18 status, he reached the twelfth floor.
“Ughhhh!”
On the twelfth floor, three people were struggling against a boss standing before them.
[Lv.32 Blood Ant Queen]
A Level 32 Blood Ant Queen.
And surrounding it to protect the queen were Blood Ants.
Facing them, meanwhile, were three Association employees.
He’d taken a rare vacation day to rest at home, only to find himself caught in this mess.
“Pardon? Who are you?”
One of the climbers locked in standoff noticed Seong-un’s arrival.
The Association classified Seong-un’s existence as confidential, but truthfully, no security was ever absolute.
The rumors had already spread far and wide, and with the Management Division maintaining active protection twenty-four hours a day, any employee who wasn’t a fool would know the Monster Rookie lived in this Apartment Tower.
“I’m the Monster Rookie.”
At those words, the employees’ faces went pale with shock.
“What? You were home this whole time?”
All the employees, Seong-un included, had been caught up in an incident inside the Apartment Tower.
“Yes. More importantly, what are your Levels?”
The employees answered quickly to his question.
“Twenty-three.”
“Twenty-six.”
“Twenty-five.”
A misfortune Debuff…. Its effect was remarkably consistent.
How was it possible that all three employees caught in this attack were such low Levels?
Moreover, climbing all the way to the twelfth floor, Seong-un hadn’t encountered another soul.
In other words, most of the employees living in the Apartment Tower were outside and had avoided being caught in this.
“How did the three of you end up caught in this?”
“Oh, we’re roommates.”
Roommates.
Someone like Seong-un received special treatment and lived alone, but the others used dormitory-style housing with three people bundled together.
“There are no others?”
He wondered if anyone else remained, but seeing all three shake their heads at once, it seemed there weren’t.
“Well, that’s fortunate.”
Seong-un walked past them and moved forward.
“Wait, it’s dangerous!”
He’d heard the news that the Monster Rookie had received consecutive EX+ Ranks.
But the number of floors he’d cleared was only two.
Could someone called the Monster Rookie really stand against monsters that even they—climbers of the fifth and sixth floors—couldn’t muster the courage to face?
“I’m not going alone. We’ll all go together.”
The numbers were substantial.
It wasn’t a level he couldn’t subjugate alone, but with enough personnel to fully exterminate the Blood Ants and still have strength left over, there was no reason to move alone.
“Understood! I’ll take the front with both Shield and sword.”
“I handle a bow. I’ll provide support from the rear as long as you hold the front.”
“By coincidence, I also handle a bow.”
There was no mage, buffer, or healer.
‘A shame.’
Burn damage kept rising as the pain continued to accumulate.
If there had been a healer, burns like this would’ve been nothing.
“I also handle a sword, so I’ll provide covering fire from the rear. Let’s go.”
Seong-un kicked off the ground and leaped forward.
Whoosh—
As the distance closed, the Blood Ants erupted in unison, spewing flames.
Seong-un had no chance to evade, engulfed entirely in the blaze.
“Damn!”
An employee cursed and charged forward toward the Blood Ants, his body hidden behind a Shield nearly as large as his frame.
“Screech!”
As the Shield pushed through a Blood Ant, the rest moved in perfect unison, forming a circle around the employee.
Slash—
In that instant, Seong-un, engulfed in the flames, cleaved the head of the Blood Ant at the front in two.
Spurt!
Two employees then aimed and released their drawn bowstrings, sending Arrows that found their marks on the creatures.
As their attention scattered, Seong-un swung his sword without hesitation, cutting down Blood Ants left and right, and several of them surrounding the employee sensed the danger and shifted their target to Seong-un.
‘Certainly easier.’
With their attention divided among the employees, the difficulty of the hunt dropped significantly.
They belatedly noticed and rushed toward Seong-un, but more than a dozen Blood Ant corpses already lay piled before him.
Seong-un kicked one of the bodies in front of him.
With his Strength stat elevated, even a light kick sent the Blood Ant’s corpse flying upward, and it crashed down onto one of the rushing ants.
“Screeeee!”
The Blood Ant irritably brushed the corpse aside with rough motions and surged forward faster.
But Seong-un didn’t miss that brief opening—he was suddenly upon them, his blade flashing without hesitation.
* * *
Lee Tae-hun, the staff member who had been surrounded by Blood Ants, felt his mind go blank in an instant.
Attacks coming from all sides—no shield could protect against that.
But when Seong-un drew the Blood Ants’ attention, their movements stuttered for a moment, and in that gap, the employee activated Shield Art.
As Shield Art activated, the Shield glowed faintly, and any Blood Ant that touched it was hit with a three-second Stun, freezing their movements.
Lee Tae-hun had created an opening by Stunning the Blood Ant, and now he charged forward with his Shield raised, breaking free from that trap.
Barely escaped from danger, he turned his head to find the Monster Rookie—and the Monster Rookie was already cleaving through more than half the Blood Ants.
‘How is that even possible? They said he hadn’t even reached the third floor yet?’
The Monster Rookie had Climbed only to the second floor.
Yet the raw power he was displaying now would be believable even at the tenth floor.
So this is what makes EX+ Rank truly different?
“Screeeee!”
At that moment, one Blood Ant lunged at Lee Tae-hun.
Caught off guard while watching, he was startled and barely managed to raise his Shield in defense.
He’d almost died if he’d been even a moment slower.
The real problem was the Blood Ant going for his back.
‘Damn it! There was another one!’
Activating Shield Art had consumed a great deal of his Mana.
With his Mana nearly depleted, activating Shield Art again was impossible.
Whoosh!
Thunk!
An Arrow suddenly flew in and struck the Blood Ant’s head with perfect accuracy, and its body went limp.
“Hey! Get your head in the game!”
Lee Tae-hun’s savior was his roommate, Cha Jeong-hyun.
“T-thank you!”
“Thank-yous later!”
Lee Tae-hun, now alert, pushed the Blood Ant back and thrust his sword forward, piercing the creature’s throat cleanly.
“Shriek?!”
The Blood Ant with its throat pierced trembled violently, then went still.
“Phew…….”
Lee Tae-hun let out a relieved breath.
* * *
Crunch—
Seong-un’s blade severed the Blood Ant’s torso without mercy.
Only about twenty remained now.
“Screeeee!”
The Queen had already constructed a cocoon-shaped barrier of flame to protect itself.
The remaining Blood Ants clustered around the Queen to shield her.
Whoosh—
They spewed flames to block Seong-un’s approach, but he walked through the inferno without hesitation.
[Your skill Traces of One Who Endured All Things has advanced by one Level.]
At last, Traces of One Who Endured All Things had upgraded to Rank D.
The corner of Seong-un’s mouth lifted.
To raise the Level of a resistance skill like this, continuous exposure to that element was necessary.
Since Seong-un had been constantly resisting fire damage from the Blood Ants, the skill’s advancement was natural.
“You’re in the way. Move.”
Seong-un attacked the remaining Blood Ants, and with the help of the other staff members, they eliminated all the Blood Ants except the Queen.
“What do we do about that……?”
Lee Tae-hun, exhaustion written plainly across his face, pointed at the Queen with one finger and asked.
“We destroy it.”
“Destroy it……?”
That barrier of flame?
“Step back for a moment.”
“Ah, yes.”
Lee Tae-hun stepped back without hesitation.
Seong-un, positioned before the shield, settled slowly into stance.
His current Strength stat stood at 85.
The Blood Ant Queen was Level 32.
Even with a Level gap of fourteen, his Strength stat was more than enough to bridge it.
Seong-un raised his sword overhead and brought it down in a single fluid motion.
Crash!
Screech—
Just as he’d calculated, his destructive force exceeded the Blood Ant Queen’s defense.
He lifted the sword again and fell into a rhythm of repeated strikes.
The Greatest Returnee Devours the Tower (Serialization)
Author │ Yeon I-yo
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Publishing House │ J Plus Media, Inc.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Yeon I-yo 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media, Inc. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the express permission of the publisher and author.
Violation of this restriction may result in civil and criminal 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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