The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 54

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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 54
Seong Un stopped in his tracks and turned his head.
“Regret?”
“Yeah. Thanks to you sealing the Small Tower perfectly, the difficulty of the enhanced Tower of Destruction will now be double the average level of first-time entrants going forward.”
“So it doesn’t end with just one incident?”
He asked deliberately, feigning ignorance.
“Of course not. The Small Tower’s enhancement will keep happening consistently from now on. Do you grasp the gravity of the situation yet?”
Double.
It was practically a death sentence.
The higher the level, the more lethal a doubling becomes.
For instance, if a Level 100 Climber entered alone, the average difficulty would double to 200.
But if a Level 150 Climber went in solo, that level would become 300—doubled again.
A staggering leap of 150 levels.
Of course, if lower-level Climbers went in as sacrifices, the tower’s difficulty wouldn’t become completely impossible to manage.
‘The problem is I don’t know the exact location of that tower.’
When a major event occurred, they should be able to place some sort of seal preventing high-level Climbers from entering the Small Tower, but without knowing its precise location, there was nothing they could do.
“So what are you saying we should do?”
Seong Un furrowed his brow.
“There are ways to restore the difficulty to its original state, if you look hard enough.”
“Ah, so your gratitude was just an excuse.”
It seemed Seong Un had hit a nerve; the Administrator laughed awkwardly.
“Well then, what are you going to do?”
“If there’s a method available, I’d certainly like to restore it to normal.”
“Hmph. So you want to hear about that method?”
“Tell me.”
The Administrator snapped his fingers.
A message appeared before Seong Un.
[Equal Exchange]
Equal Exchange.
A familiar term.
Previously, when he’d entered the Tower of Gold, he’d paid a price and obtained items in exchange.
In other words, to lower the difficulty, he would need to pay an equivalent price.
“What do you think? If you pay the price, we can prevent the difficulty from rising.”
“You’re asking me to abolish the existing Upper Limit, aren’t you?”
“This is why I like sharp ones like you.”
What the Administrator wanted was to abolish the Upper Limit for Floors 7 through 10.
Adjusting the difficulty of the lower floors of the Tower of Destruction fell within the Administrator’s authority.
In fact, the Administrator had raised the difficulty to its maximum after witnessing Seong Un’s remarkable consecutive performances.
But because the Upper Limit existed, they couldn’t raise it any further—and afterward, Seong Un had continued to record absurd ratings like “EX++” grade.
To implement additional restrictions, the Administrator needed to eliminate this Upper Limit entirely.
“What if I refuse?”
“Then the difficulty remains elevated. You don’t have to agree, but if you miss this opportunity, you’ll beat your chest and regret it later. By then, it will have slipped beyond my reach.”
Seong Un nodded as if he understood, then spoke.
“I refuse.”
“What?”
The Administrator’s face went blank—he hadn’t expected Seong Un to decide without even hesitating.
“It’s unfortunate that the difficulty has risen, but what does that have to do with me?”
Seong Un tilted his head with an unbothered expression.
It was the Administrator who grew flustered as a result.
“You’ll regret it, I’m telling you. This is 100% genuine.”
“I’m serious too.”
“One stage.”
The Administrator held up one finger.
“Hmm?”
“If I raise it by just one more stage, couldn’t we prevent the difficulty from increasing?”
“Is that even possible?”
“Of course. The Small Tower is still under my jurisdiction.”
So that was it.
Anyone following the conversation this far would understand.
The manipulation of the Small Tower’s difficulty had been Seong Un’s objective all along.
There’s no reason to use a Small Tower as a weapon and deal damage otherwise.
‘Damn it, you filthy bastard.’
Leoniss seemed to catch on as well, hurling curses toward the Administrator.
“One step…”
Seong Un paused to consider.
For reasons he couldn’t fathom, it appeared the Administrator held all authority at the moment.
Yet from the next Small Tower onward, there was a strong possibility it would transfer to someone else.
‘It’s annoying, but accepting it is the smarter move. No point in destroying the surroundings for nothing.’
He found himself in strong agreement with Leoniss on that front.
‘Yes. Let’s give it a try.’
The difficulty had already risen high enough to brush against the Upper Limit.
If a single step was added here, the subjective increase would be tremendous—yet this remained the best choice available.
‘Right. For the sake of protecting this ground you live on.’
‘Protecting… yes.’
In his heart of hearts, he harbored no genuine desire to become Earth’s savior.
In his previous life, the greatest reason he’d started climbing towers was simple: ‘to survive.’
It had been a time when strength meant the difference between life and death.
That conviction remained unchanged.
And yet he accepted the Administrator’s proposal because doing well alone wouldn’t solve the problem.
‘I need to achieve a certain level of symbiosis.’
Earth’s civilization had to be preserved as much as possible.
Humanity’s overall strength needed to reach a level that could endure the Racial War beginning at floor thirty—far better than it had been in his previous life.
If the difficulty doubled, it would extinguish one engine of growth, and if he was unlucky, that entire region could be laid to waste.
From a future-focused perspective, raising the difficulty by one step was rational.
“So you’re going to do it?”
When Seong Un fell silent for a moment, the Administrator began to press him.
“I will.”
In the end, Seong Un accepted the Administrator’s offer.
“No takesies backsies!”
[Beginning Equal Exchange.]
The Equal Exchange was established with merely those words.
[The Upper Limit for floors one through ten is hereby abolished and newly recalibrated.]
Upper Limit abolished.
The Administrator’s mouth curved into a wide smile, satisfied at having achieved his objective.
“One step.”
“Why ask the obvious? Though to you, it might not feel like just one step.”
The Administrator finished with that cryptic remark and vanished.
‘It might not feel like just one step…’
It seemed the Administrator had made full preparations in case the Equal Exchange actually took hold.
‘Can we even take that bastard down?’
‘Is there a chance we’d be crushed trying?’
No one knew the extent of the Administrator’s power.
One thing was certain: even Seong Un, who had climbed to the eightieth floor, was nothing but a pup before an Administrator of the lower floors.
‘I know that! I’m just saying it because that bastard gets on my nerves.’
Leoniss, having once been a Climber himself, understood perfectly how formidable an Administrator truly was.
“There’s no helping it. Let’s focus on the climb for now.”
Now it was truly time to begin climbing floor seven.
Before setting out, Seong Un opened his broadcast feed.
-Broadcast on
-Why watch a guy who won’t even reveal his rewards? lol
-Seong Un, just tell us straight. You not gonna reveal rewards again this time?
Over ten thousand viewers flooded into Seong Un’s channel in an instant.
The moment they entered, they unleashed their complaints—because Seong Un had ended his previous broadcasts without revealing rewards.
And it had happened three times already.
“Oh, so you’re upset because I haven’t revealed my rewards?”
Seong Un smiled softly and asked.
-Of course you should reveal them ㅜㅜ
-Seriously dying to know what kind of reward an EX-grade even gets
-You’re gonna reveal it this time, right?
-Only being able to send 3,000 Gold in donations is so annoying.
If the supporters had pooled together and accumulated at least a hundred thousand Gold, Seong Un would probably have revealed the reward too.
So you’re saying he would have revealed it if there was more Gold?
You’ve got it completely wrong.
Seong Un had chosen coexistence, but that didn’t mean he viewed humanity favorably.
The reason was simple.
All humans are selfish and full of desire.
They merely suppress it as much as possible.
Beneath the surface of consciousness, a thick greed writhes and twists.
Some would deny this fact, but most of the humans Seong Un had observed throughout his years were exactly this way.
Even those who began with altruism and gave freely showed their true nature when backed into a corner.
‘That’s why someone who can perfectly control it is truly remarkable.’
There were a rare few.
Humans who, no matter how much they suppress it, cannot help but let something slip through—yet somehow manage to restrain such unnecessary emotions and willingly offer their very lives. Sages.
In his previous life, Jin Ho—that sage of a monk—had opened Seong Un’s heart, which had distrusted humanity, and softened the deep-rooted distrust that had taken firm root within him.
It was no exaggeration to say that Seong Un could choose ‘coexistence’ now precisely because of the monk’s teachings.
‘If I reveal the reward, someone will come deliberately hunting for it.’
How many such sages could there possibly be?
Most of them would be honest about their desires.
Especially in a place where anonymity was guaranteed.
‘What if you just turn off the broadcast?’
Leoniss scrolled through the comments and offered his opinion to Seong Un.
He too seemed bothered by those comments.
‘No. Through this broadcast, people are changing.’
Indeed, after streaming the first and second floor climbs, hadn’t SSS+ and SS+ ranks appeared?
In his previous life, those were scores he still couldn’t see.
So he wouldn’t abandon this broadcast.
“I will not reveal the reward. If you’re unhappy with that, you’re welcome to leave the broadcast.”
If you don’t like the temple, the monk simply leaves.
-Yeah, okay. I’m out ㅂㅂ
-I’m not watching Seong Un’s broadcast anymore
-They told us to leave, so we leave.
Despite the comments, the viewer count barely dropped.
“Just a moment.”
Seong Un selected a few comments, forcibly removed those users, and went further—he blacklisted them.
Once blacklisted, they could never watch Seong Un’s broadcast again.
After hitting close to ten people with the blacklist, the mood of the comments shifted.
-Let those who want to leave just go ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Just blacklist everyone complaining about the reward not being revealed
-Are you here for the reward? I’m watching because I’m curious how to clear floor 7
-Right, if you’re unhappy just get out
Seong Un let out a quiet laugh.
‘Where do they think they’re swinging their weight.’
Ultimately, Seong Un was the one in charge of this broadcast.
[Mission has been registered.]
[Floor 7 Evaluation Score EX Clear – 3,000 Gold]
[Do you accept?]
And the mission Gold had already accumulated to 3,000 in less than a minute after the broadcast started.
“I’ll begin.”
Seong Un accepted the mission and began his climb.
* * *
“Phew! He really is incredible.”
Pyo Ji-hun had returned to the Mansion and watched Seong Un’s broadcast, unable to suppress his laughter.
Just before he was about to start the second floor climb with renewed determination, Seong Un had begun broadcasting, so he’d postponed it for a moment.
‘Idiots, you should be watching how he climbs, not asking about the reward.’
At the comments demanding the reward, Pyo Ji-hun found himself frowning without realizing it.
The most crucial thing to focus on in Seong Un’s broadcast was the climb itself.
Just as he’d been able to reach SSS+ rank by studying Seong Un’s climbs, one should be stealing his techniques rather than wondering about rewards.
If Seong Un got upset and turned off the broadcast, it would be a disaster.
‘Oh!’
Contrary to such concerns, Seong Un silenced everyone by blacklisting a few viewers.
His skill was one thing, but that fearless confidence even before tens of thousands of viewers was more than enough to earn Pyo Ji-hun’s admiration.
Ding-dong—
“Ah, this is important timing.”
Pyo Ji-hun opened the door with an irritated sigh.
Standing before him was a familiar face.
“Uncle, what brings you here?”
It was Pyo Byung-gwon, Pyo Byung-woo’s younger brother.
To Pyo Ji-hun, he was an uncle and served as an executive at the Jingeom Guild.
“You left the guild without a word and never contacted anyone, so I came to find you.”
Pyo Byung-gwon wore a hurt expression.
“I apologize. I simply thought there was no reason to reach out.”
At those words, Pyo Byung-gwon offered a gentle smile.
“That’s fair enough. Though I wish Su-hwan were as mature as you are, Ji-hun.”
Pyo Su-hwan.
His younger cousin, who had begun climbing two years before him.
When they were younger, they got along well enough, but ever since Su-hwan started climbing, he had begun to subtly look down on his older cousin Ji-hun.
There had been moments when Ji-hun considered forcing an awakening on him.
‘Ji-hun, if something goes wrong doing that, your father will be heartbroken.’
Each time, somehow knowing, Pyo Byung-gwon would urgently stop him.
He couldn’t throw away such blessed talent, he’d say.
An invitation would surely come soon enough—just be patient a little longer.
Had that monster never appeared, Ji-hun might still be listening to those words.
A feeling he had never experienced, even from his father the Sword Saint.
Yes.
Inferiority.
That overwhelming talent which had transformed him—once called a genius—into an ordinary person in an instant.
For Pyo Ji-hun, who had been content with his current reality, that emotion was profoundly alien.
Yet that very feeling bred impatience within him, setting him in motion.
It happened during the month when Pyo Byung-gwon was away traveling overseas.
“It’s fine. More importantly, I’m rather busy at the moment. I’ll contact you next time.”
Seong Un had just begun his climb.
The time would come when he ascended the seventh floor, and for that day, Ji-hun could not afford to miss this broadcast.
“Can’t you spare a moment for a conversation?”
“I’m sorry. Please be careful on your way out.”
Pyo Ji-hun closed the door without hesitation.
An Unparalleled Returnee Devours the Tower (Serialized)
Author │ Yeon Yi-yo
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ Room 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Yeon Yi-yo 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and its contents 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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