The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 66

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 66
Born in Kazakhstan, Ruslan had been abandoned by his parents in childhood and had scraped by miserably, drifting through back alleys.
He’d stolen food and money mostly, and when caught, the beatings had been so severe that he’d brushed against death more than once.
Yet he survived.
Ruslan.
A name he’d given himself, having been born with none.
For him, grinding through that bitter existence, the Tower had been wings.
As part of the Advance Team entering the Tower, he’d grown strong rapidly, and with that strength, he’d brought order to the back alleys.
Building himself up that way, he’d married and fathered a daughter.
He’d thought nothing but happiness awaited him now, but then his daughter fell ill, and not long after, she collapsed and lost consciousness, slipping into a coma.
From that moment, Ruslan’s life had plummeted to the bottom of the abyss.
Mana Addiction Syndrome.
A state in which the body could not accept Mana, the new substance that emerged with the Tower.
Treatment itself was impossible; she barely clung to life through medical life support, but even that condition was deteriorating rapidly, and astronomical sums of money were bleeding away. He’d been keeping his head above water by taking on massive commissions, but even that was reaching its limit.
He had to find a solution before time ran out.
And a month ago, someone had come to find the desperate Ruslan.
“I can cure your daughter’s Mana Addiction Syndrome.”
A cure for Mana Addiction Syndrome.
“Stop spouting nonsense and get out. How exactly do you plan to solve it?”
“Lehelern.”
The moment a business card bearing Lehelern’s emblem appeared, Ruslan’s pupils shook violently.
It was one of Russia’s representative guilds.
Currently led by Igor Volkov, who had cleared the 22nd floor and stood at 48th in the World Ranking.
“And how exactly would you solve it?”
Ruslan’s attitude shifted; he invited the man to sit.
“By implanting a circuit.”
“A circuit? Is that even possible?”
“Yes. Fortunately, our guild happens to have someone with such skill.”
“…So what would I need to do?”
“Eliminate the Irregular from South Korea. By any means necessary.”
Complete the commission, and save his daughter’s life.
There was no reason to refuse, yet it all sounded absurdly far-fetched.
Eliminate an Irregular from another country?
Ruslan had heard the rumors about Irregulars, of course.
A monster growing steadily under the protection of the South Korean Association itself, locked away and guarded.
How on earth was he supposed to eliminate such an Irregular?
“Hmm…”
As Ruslan hesitated, the man offering the commission smiled darkly and added more.
“We’re not simply handing you a commission. Lehelern will actively help you prepare.”
“Help me prepare?”
“Yes. Take the personnel we send you. Even if they’re weak, they can buy you time to eliminate the Irregular.”
“…Why would you go this far?”
“It’s simple. We’ve assessed you as the strongest unregistered climber on record.”
Ruslan was a climber who’d never registered with the Association.
He’d begun climbing before the Association even existed, operated in the shadows, and had missed his window for registration. Now, with his only daughter’s Mana Addiction Syndrome draining his coffers, he’d been driven to accept illegal commissions.
Such commissions were effectively illicit; he couldn’t register with the Association.
“I understand, but…you’re essentially asking me to throw my life away.”
Even if he eliminated the Irregular, he couldn’t return.
It amounted to the same thing as being told to forfeit his life.
“In exchange, your daughter will live.”
“…Then show me. If I see improvement, I’ll accept.”
“Very well. Where is your daughter now?”
“You mentioned someone with such skill? Bring that person here.”
“I am that skilled person.”
The man making the offer was the one with the skill.
Ruslan, half-doubting, half-hopeful, led him to his daughter’s room, where Raya lay barely breathing with the aid of life support equipment.
“Can you do it?”
“Yes. Please step aside for a moment.”
Without hesitation, he reached out to Raya and began adjusting the Mana circuits within her body.
After what seemed like an eternity, a miracle occurred.
Raya, who had been keeping her eyes closed, slowly opened them.
Since she had fallen into a comatose state and years had passed before she opened her eyes for the first time, Ruslan approached her and wept.
After that, he accepted the commission without hesitation, and now he stood before the Irregular facing death itself.
* * *
“Heh heh…. You think I’d tell you that?”
The man, Ruslan, twisted his lips upward even as blood spilled from his mouth.
“If you tell me, I might let you live.”
“The commissioner’s information is classified. Cough! And since reinforcements didn’t arrive in time, the bet was never settled. Cough! …Just kill me already.”
“Must be incredibly valuable information if you’re willing to die for it.”
“That’s obvious. Cough!”
Ruslan continued to cough up blood.
“Then, would it be all right if I took out a new commission instead?”
Seong Un found himself reluctant to kill him.
When they had crossed blades, Ruslan proved to be no mere swordsman relying solely on the system.
His clean, economical movements and combat instincts spoke of genuine talent.
Though he had fallen to the brink of death through carelessness, there was no denying that he was abundantly gifted.
“Stop talking nonsense and kill me.”
“What exactly were you promised? I could offer you something even greater than that.”
“Cough! Mana Addiction Syndrome…. Do you think you can cure that?”
“I can.”
“…What?”
“Mana Addiction Syndrome is essentially a condition where the circuit becomes blocked midway, causing an overload. All you need to do is clear that blockage, and it’s easily resolved.”
Mana Addiction Syndrome.
Occasionally people had such a constitution.
In his past life, medicine to cure such a condition had been developed, so it posed no problem. But in this current time, it hadn’t been invented yet.
‘So this man must care for someone afflicted with Mana Addiction Syndrome.’
It seemed the man who asked to be killed had promised someone he would cure their addiction.
If that were the case, then all Seong Un needed to do was offer to treat the syndrome himself, and the problem would be solved.
Having worked through the calculation, Seong Un approached him and whispered softly.
“What do you think? Interested?”
“Is that… true?”
“Believe it or not, that’s your choice.”
Ruslan’s eyes trembled.
He had no choice but to hesitate.
If he didn’t join Seong Un now, death awaited him.
“…Fine. If you let me live, cough! I’ll accept your commission.”
“Before that, we need to dispel the sorcery outside. Do you have a Dispel Talisman?”
“I don’t. My only role was to eliminate you.”
“Those people outside—they’re not your subordinates?”
Seong Un gestured toward the subordinates who lay unconscious from electrical burns.
“…They were convenient enough to work with, but they were sent by the commissioner.”
“So there’s no Dispel Talisman?”
“That’s right.”
“In other words, you were meant to be used as a suicide weapon.”
“……”
It was the truth, so there was nothing to say.
“Seong Un!”
Just then, Jang Byung-jun’s voice came faintly from outside.
“Looks like I won the bet after all, doesn’t it?”
“It would seem so……”
“It’s going to hurt a little.”
Seong Un pulled out the short sword that was lodged in him.
Splash—
Since he had struck a vital point, blood spurted from the wound as he withdrew the blade.
“Cough!”
“Seong Un! Are you in here?!”
The door to the barracks burst open and Jang Byung-jun rushed in urgently.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
Seong Un waved his hand toward him.
“Are you all right?! You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?!”
“Yes. As you can see, he’s perfectly fine, but this man here seems rather dangerous.”
“Who is this person……?”
“A mercenary sent to eliminate me.”
“Eliminate……. You absolute madman?”
Jang Byung-jun’s face darkened at the word eliminate.
“Ah, but that’s no longer a concern. I’ve brought him over to my side instead.”
“Brought him over?”
“Yes. I’d like you to treat this mercenary.”
“No……. Treat him? He tried to kill you. Why don’t we just finish him here and burn the body, dispose of it completely?”
He was talking about leaving not even bone dust behind—and Seo Jae-pil, listening from a distance, flinched at his shoulders.
Seong Un gave Seo Jae-pil a thumbs up.
If he hadn’t intervened and created that opening, the outcome could have been reversed.
“Ahem.”
Seo Jae-pil’s expression grew sheepish.
“No. If I do that, I won’t be able to find out who hired someone to kill me.”
“But…….”
“I’ll leave everything after that to the Association.”
Once the commission was complete, he would hand the matter over to the Association for disposition.
At that, Jang Byung-jun nodded.
“Understood.”
“Guh…….”
From blood loss, Ruslan’s body trembled and his eyes rolled back.
It wouldn’t be strange if he died from shock due to severe hemorrhage, but true to a climber who’d ascended beyond the fifteenth floor, he held on remarkably long.
It looked as though he might endure for another ten minutes or so.
“More importantly, how did you get here? The sorcery must have been formidable?”
“Ah, I nearly ran into trouble in the middle, but fortunately the Dispel Talisman arrived early and saved me.”
When Jang Byung-jun entered alone, he’d floundered in the Hallucination Swamp.
He struggled desperately against hallucinations so harsh they were nearly unbearable, but failed to escape.
If the Dispel Talisman hadn’t arrived quickly, his mind would have shattered.
“Team Leader! We’ve recovered all the bodies!”
More than thirty corpses lay strewn from the entrance of Dobongsan National Park to this barracks.
“Good. Take all those unconscious ones as well.”
“Yes! Is the hostage safe?”
“Oh, right. There was a hostage.”
Jang Byung-jun turned his head toward Han Jin-woo as if only just remembering.
Han Jin-woo, who had been kidnapped, stood beside Seo Jae-pil.
While Seong Un and Ruslan fought, they’d taken Han Jin-woo and moved far away.
Thanks to that, Han Jin-woo escaped unharmed and without serious injury.
“Team Leader…….”
How could you forget the hostage?
The guard’s expression said as much, but Jang Byung-jun simply ignored it cleanly and pointed to the fallen Ruslan.
“Take him too. Keep him alive no matter what.”
“Yes? Surely not the ringleader?”
“That’s right.”
“Understood. I’ll keep him barely breathing.”
Just as the guard approached Ruslan—
“Kugh——ack!”
He let out a cry of agony, blood pouring from every orifice, and then shock seized him.
“What? Why suddenly——?”
The guard looked down at him in alarm, checking his condition.
“Ah……! Ah……!”
Ruslan opened his mouth, his eyes bloodshot and crimson from hemorrhage, looking at Seong Un.
Seong Un, realizing these were last words, stepped closer.
“Speak.”
“Our daughter…… photograph…….”
With a trembling hand, he pointed weakly toward his chest.
Seong Un reached into his inner pocket and drew out a photograph.
It was a family photo, taken in quiet contentment.
“Lehelern…….”
Ruslan spoke those words and breathed his last.
“He’s dead.”
“Yes. Still, we managed to find out.”
Lehelern.
If memory served, that guild belonged to Russia and would be one of the five major guilds currently representing the nation.
The reason he remembered was because of an unprecedented catastrophe—a representative guild collapsing overnight without warning.
‘Surely they didn’t mean to eliminate me.’
It was somewhat unexpected.
“Recruitment, nothing. Elimination. Damn bastards.”
Unlike Seong Un, who maintained his composure, Jang Byung-jun was seething with rage.
He’d known that Irregulars were being checked in foreign territory, but he never anticipated such an aggressive attempt to remove one.
“We should at least capture them…. No, that won’t work.”
Like Ruslan had been, they too lay as cold corpses.
Apparently, their orders were to kill immediately if anything went wrong.
‘Different Sorcery spells trigger depending on the situation, it seems.’
In situations meant to provide support, they bound their targets’ hands. In the opposite case, they executed without mercy to seal their lips.
Lehelern.
A filthy, contemptible organization indeed.
“For now, I think it’s best we return.”
“Agreed. But could you look into this man for me? I’d like to know more about him.”
“Understood.”
The Legendary Returnee Devours the Tower (Serialized)
Author │ Yeon Yi-yo
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Publishing House │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
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 Yi-yo 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. No part of the contents may be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and the author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil liability.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————