The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 56

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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 56
‘This is rough.’
He’d suspected it, but there were no living NPCs in the village or its surroundings.
They’d been completely wiped out when the difficulty was adjusted.
Because of this, there was no NPC left to guide him toward EX Rank, only the half-destroyed houses where they’d once lived.
Uoooooooh—
Moreover, a thick illusion blanketed the village, and with each step Seong Un took, monsters tormented him.
Unlike the first region, even the 파명로 couldn’t break through it, so he had no choice but to endure the illusion entirely on his own.
‘If I’d just walked in without preparation, I might’ve collapsed here.’
The Trace of One Who Endured All.
Even with 파명로 added to it, this ascent was proving difficult.
[Sponsored broadcast forcibly terminated.]
As if that weren’t enough, the sponsored broadcast that had been running was forcibly cut off.
‘Just as I thought—it crashed.’
The moment he entered the interior of the town, the broadcast began to lag.
The chat window that had been scrolling rapidly started to stutter, and before long it froze as if locked in place.
The broadcast had crashed.
No doubt the increased difficulty was to blame.
Kuuuuuung—
This time, the ground itself began to pull at Seong Un.
His body compressed under the weight, every muscle screaming in agony.
Seong Un shifted his footing and stepped into the half-destroyed house.
Whoooosh—
Instantly, the crushing pressure that had been bearing down on him vanished, and the illusion that had plagued him dissolved as though washed away.
In the sudden quiet, Seong Un looked around cautiously.
‘What’s that?’
Then his eye caught on a desk.
Dust had accumulated on it, but it was the only piece of furniture that remained intact.
On the desk lay a leather-bound journal.
Seong Un approached the desk and picked up the journal, flipping through its pages.
—How unjust. How cruel. Why can’t I gain freedom through death?
The words were written in blood.
Just from the opening alone, he could sense the depth of the author’s resentment.
‘The owner of this house definitely left this behind.’
The NPC Chirnoelle.
This NPC was the same as Hudin, whom he’d found on the first floor.
Hudin was aware that he was trapped in the passage of time, living a repeated existence, and for that reason craved death.
And Chirnoelle, too, had wanted to end that repetitive life just like Hudin, but had failed.
‘Or rather—should I say she succeeded in this timeline I’ve entered?’
She wouldn’t find freedom, but at least she had met death.
At the Administrator’s hand.
Like Hudin, to regain freedom, she would have had to fulfill her role.
And that role was to guide the Climber toward EX Rank.
Seong Un turned the pages rapidly.
—What have I done wrong to suffer this ordeal? Is it because I developed the hallucinogen and caused harm to everyone? But there’s an antidote for that! If I can only succeed in distributing it, couldn’t I escape this curse?
The Antidote.
The reason the half-destroyed house could block out the illusion from outside.
It was thanks to this very Antidote.
Even though the difficulty had increased, the Antidote that Chirnoelle developed retained its efficacy, and the reason was that because this Antidote lay on the path toward EX Rank, the tower itself had automatically adjusted to account for it.
Seong Un turned the pages again.
—I pray that someone else will distribute this Antidote on my behalf and free us from this dreadful curse…… The Antidote is currently stored in the laboratory below my research facility.
The research facility is located not in the second region, but in the eastern edge of the fourth region.
Furthermore, entering that place requires meeting certain conditions.
—To enter there, you will need my fingerprint. If anyone else attempts to force their way in, the research facility will automatically detonate.
That condition was none other than Chirnoelle’s fingerprint.
Normally, he would have had to visit the research facility alongside this NPC to obtain the Antidote, but Chirnoelle’s corpse was currently missing.
‘This is done for. Without the body, how am I supposed to get the Antidote?’
Leonidas had been right.
To complete EX Rank, he needed to obtain the Antidote, but there was no way to get it now.
If he tried to find the research facility and force his way in, the security sensors would trigger and detonate the whole thing, and EX Rank would be gone.
‘That’s absolutely not happening.’
There had to be a way forward.
As proof, when he’d entered Chirnoelle’s house, he’d been freed from the relentless illusions that had tormented him before—just like during his last life when he’d climbed the seventh floor.
The pattern was the same.
Seong Un began searching through the house methodically, floor by floor.
He needed to find out if there was a way to search for clues, like he’d found the journal Chirnoelle had left behind.
‘Nothing so far.’
Second floor. Third floor.
And then the fourth.
Except for the book on the first floor, he found nothing.
“Strange. There should be a clue somewhere.”
As he prepared to search the final first floor, his foot came down on a particular spot.
The concrete beneath the sole of his shoe gave slightly, accompanied by a faint tremor.
It felt distinctly different from the solid, hard floor he’d been walking on.
‘Here it is.’
Seong Un drew the Asgard Sword and brought it down against the floor.
Crack!
The blade pierced through with surprising ease.
He yanked the sword free and jumped back.
Crackle-crackle—
Fractures spread across the floor, and then came a thunderous crash as the ground collapsed inward.
Concrete debris fell, sending up a thick plume of cement dust and particulates.
Seong Un waved his hand, waiting for the dust to settle, then moved forward slowly to peer down into the hole.
“A coffin?”
A single coffin lay buried beneath the concrete rubble.
He saw nothing else.
Seong Un dropped through the opening, approached the coffin, methodically cleared away the debris, and lifted the lid.
“So it was here.”
Inside the coffin lay a single Finger Mold.
It radiated warmth so convincingly that it could have been mistaken for a living finger.
‘Is this what opens it?’
‘Seems like it.’
His Superhuman Senses were telling him this was the key to the laboratory.
Mana flowed from the finger, wrapping around it.
* * *
[Channel information cannot be confirmed.]
A Climber’s broadcast had crashed.
The community erupted in chaos.
[Wait, the broadcast crashed for you too, right?]
-Shit, I was watching fine, then it suddenly lagged and kicked me out
└Looks like the channel itself went down?
└What’s going on? It’s never crashed before.
└You don’t think Seong Un did it on purpose?
└If it was intentional, the channel wouldn’t have disappeared entirely. You can’t even find it now.
It wasn’t just the community.
The channel collapse sent shockwaves across South Korea, across the entire world.
The channel of Seong Un—the one that had reached EX++ Rank—had crashed mid-climb on the seventh floor. It was a catastrophe.
“Damn it… is this actually okay?”
At that moment, Seo Jae-pil, who had been watching the broadcast intently, gnawed at his nails in anxiety.
No matter how much Seong Un was called an Irregular, the seventh floor he’d just witnessed wasn’t operating at normal difficulty.
The first region—which should have been a simple illusion—was in a completely different class from any illusion he’d seen before.
A massive monster appeared and attacked Seong Un, and with each strike, Seong Un’s body flinched.
That meant the illusion was stimulating his pain sensation as well.
It was fine that he’d somehow made it past the first region, but the real problem was the village in the second region.
The village was devastated—not a single survivor remained.
With no NPCs to speak of, he couldn’t even access the shop. It was a hopeless situation, and then the broadcast began cutting out, finally crashing entirely shortly after.
Vrrrr—
His smartphone vibrated.
Already anxious out of his mind, seeing the caller ID sent a surge of anger through him.
“Goddamn it! Stop calling me!”
The number belonged to none other than Seo Jae-pil’s mother.
Ever since the Jeju Island café incident, he’d never learned how she obtained it, yet she’d been reaching out to him.
At first, not recognizing the number, he’d answered—but the moment he heard that familiar voice, he’d hung up.
Still, she called again.
Seo Jae-pil didn’t pick up. He ended the call.
He had no desire to hear her face, let alone her voice.
* * *
Escaping the village proved far from simple.
Even with Attribute Resistance and the power of Malmyeongro bolstering his effort, no path out revealed itself.
‘This is the house we came out of earlier.’
Just as Leonidas said, a half-ruined house stood before them.
The very same one Seong Un had entered moments before.
‘No. This is an illusion.’
‘An illusion?’
‘Yes.’
Seong Un nodded and approached the house, stopping before its door.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Breaking through it.’
With that, he drew his sword and brought it down hard.
Shink—
The door split, dissolving into mist and vanishing.
‘How did you know?’
‘Before we left, I made a small scratch on the door. But this illusion showed no such mark.’
As they’d exited, he’d channeled mana through his fingernails to sharpen them, then inflicted a minute scratch—unnoticed by Leonidas.
He’d prepared for unforeseen circumstances, never imagining the scratch would become the key to unraveling the spell itself.
‘Is that so? You could’ve told me. I panicked because I didn’t know.’
‘I didn’t anticipate this myself.’
‘Then let’s move quickly! I don’t like this place. If we stay much longer, something terrible will happen.’
Leonidas urged Seong Un forward.
Ahead lay the path into the third region.
‘Hmm.’
Yet Seong Un turned away, heading in the opposite direction.
A powerful instinct told him not to go that way.
‘Hey, what are you doing? Let’s get out of here!’
Leonidas’s voice grew sharp.
In that moment, Seong Un detected something off about Leonidas—a departure from his usual demeanor.
“How bothersome. Did you really think you could fool me with an illusion?”
Seong Un spoke aloud, testing the figure before him.
‘Wow, you really are sharp, aren’t you?’
A different voice echoed in his mind—not Leonidas’s.
The unsettling tone sent chills crawling across his skin, and Seong Un let out a dry laugh.
“Disappear.”
‘Keh-heh-heh! Brace yourself. There’s still plenty more to come.’
With that, he broke free from the illusion.
[Your Superhuman Senses skill rank has increased by one stage.]
[Your Trace of One Who Endured All skill rank has increased by one stage.]
[You have achieved a remarkable feat.]
[You have completely dispelled an illusion. Bonus points awarded.]
By shattering such a powerful illusion, two of his skills had advanced in rank.
‘Hey! Snap out of it! Hey, come on!’
Leonidas’s urgent voice reached him, signaling that he’d awakened from yet another illusion.
“……You’re really loud. I’m awake, so please keep quiet.”
‘Wow, I thought I was losing my mind. You just stood there like a statue the moment we left the house, staring blankly at nothing.’
“I did that?”
‘You did! There was no way for me to snap you out of an illusion that strong……. I thought I’d go crazy.’
Seong Un turned around.
Behind them stood Chirnoelle’s house, where she’d left the Antidote.
‘It had a real grip on you.’
The illusion had caught him the moment they’d stepped outside.
If he’d listened to that voice and moved into the third region instead?
‘I might have died.’
Just the thought of it made my skin crawl.
Seong Un shook his head and pressed forward.
When he’d first entered the second zone, the illusions that had tormented him were gone—wiped clean.
By shaking off what had just assailed him, he’d dismantled the second zone’s illusion entirely.
‘Damn it. Does this even make sense? You said removing the cap would only raise it by one level?’
‘That appears to be the case.’
One level up.
He’d made his choice based solely on that, never imagining the difficulty would spike this sharply.
Could the strain on his mind be making it feel worse than it actually was?
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard for the equal exchange.’
Leonidas apologized, blame heavy in his voice.
‘No. I made my own judgment and decided it was acceptable. There’s no need to apologize.’
Even if Leonidas had objected back then, Seong Un would have gone through with the equal exchange.
It had been the best option available.
‘…Be careful.’
Leonidas offered the warning briefly.
He wished Zecrothe’s Blessing would activate, but illusions had no hit detection—there was no way to trigger it.
Was this the helplessness of being unable to offer aid?
There was a faint weariness in his tone.
‘I will.’
An Unprecedented 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, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th Building)
Email | [email protected]
Website | www.jayplemedia.com
© Yeon I-yo 2026
※This work has been published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violations of this restriction may result in both criminal and civil 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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