The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 2

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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 2
Episode 2.
Exactly two weeks had passed.
Ju Do-gyeom had forgotten about O Jin-seok.
If the future unfolded as he remembered it, the man would die regardless — there was no point dwelling on it.
So instead of wasting thought on him, Ju Do-gyeom focused on raising his physical condition for entering the Dungeon.
He completely overhauled his diet, ditching the haphazard eating he’d relied on to save money, and paired it with exercise that wouldn’t strain his body beyond its limits.
To concentrate on this, he even paid for membership at a training center that was a fair distance away but quite decent.
And then there were the expensive Nutritional Supplements just beginning to hit the market around this time.
He’d bought a considerable amount of products containing Magic Power materials with noticeable effects on actual physical growth.
In just two weeks, he’d already spent over 400 won.
Even accounting for how much he’d scrounged and saved, given his perpetually thin wallet.
“Tsk…….”
The sound escaped unbidden, but there was nowhere else to pull money from.
As he’d noted, his parents were dead, he had no friends, and he had no credit — not in this era.
The only source of money left was loan sharks again.
Then suddenly, O Jin-seok — whom he’d pushed from his mind — surfaced in his thoughts.
‘Is it today, actually?’
If things went according to schedule, he would die tonight.
Should he seek him out and ask to borrow more?
‘That won’t work.’
Then use a different loan shark instead?
His head shook side to side.
The Red Zone had plenty of loan sharks, but one as ruthless as O Jin-seok — with his usurious rates and side business in human trafficking — was rare.
To be precise, Ju Do-gyeom didn’t know of any.
And why would he?
Even as a Regressor, Ju Do-gyeom hadn’t memorized the personal details of every loan shark operating in this era.
In any case.
While he had no qualms about stiffing a bad man, defaulting on someone he barely knew ran counter to his nature.
So visiting another loan shark was off the table.
‘Ultimately, I need to make do with the 200 I have right now.’
No, wait.
Not even 200.
100 of that was already earmarked elsewhere.
Stock investment.
Within days, at the start of March, an American pharmaceutical company that was still trading for only three dollars would develop an Emergency Mana Recovery Potion for Hunters and receive FDA approval, triggering twenty consecutive days of explosive gains.
After that, the effect would prove far more modest than expected, and with repeated use the returns would diminish rapidly until the product was shelved, but with maximum leverage applied over the short term, a hundred thousand won could yield quite substantial returns.
For Ju Do-gyeom in his current state of poverty, it was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to ignore.
‘I’ll have plenty of uses for money going forward.’
In the distant future.
When Europe and the American Continent had both fallen and people crowded into the last fortress, money would lose its meaning.
But until then, its power remained considerable.
In fact, there were surprisingly few things that could be resolved through strength alone.
That’s why he needed to exploit every piece of information he had.
The Butterfly Effect — where a Regressor’s choices alter the future?
‘I should keep it in mind, but I shouldn’t get too caught up in it either.’
Frankly, he couldn’t imagine the Butterfly Effect being triggered by maxing leverage on a mere hundred thousand won.
Actually, what mattered more, as he’d said before, was his unusually vivid memory.
Even right now, it was evident.
Precisely ten days from now, on March 2nd, the new drug from Ardent Bioscience — the pharmaceutical company that would surge in price — would be revealed as far less significant than anticipated.
‘At 8 p.m. Korean time on March 21st.’
The date, he could rationalize.
It was a massive event, and he’d watched the news coverage with such intensity back then that the date was seared into his memory.
But to remember the exact time as well — that was strange.
It suggested something beyond a mere Regressor’s privilege.
‘Vivienne.’
There was a high probability that her Grand Magic had played some role in this.
Memory, after all, was crucial to maximizing the utility of regression.
‘I’ll find out when I see her next and ask.’
With someone like her, even now at this point in time, she would certainly know about regression and—
After all, he should be able to grasp the Grand Magic he’d created himself.
Ju Do-gyeom didn’t waste time on needless deliberation.
Instead, he focused on how to maximize the money and hours remaining to him.
As he’d said repeatedly, the first thing he needed to obtain was—
‘The Thousand Kill Stars.’
Rather than planting madness in his brain, it was an absolute power to kill anything whatsoever.
He concentrated solely on that.
As Ju Do-gyeom continued his training, his mind had already slipped into a state of pure focus.
* * *
Late that night.
Ju Do-gyeom was on his way home from the training center, having finished his workout.
Whether broken or without power, the streetlights lining the alley in this common Red Zone no longer cast any glow.
In the gap between them, where no CCTV reached—
“Gasp, gasp……!”
The sound of ragged breathing and a thick stench of blood came rushing toward him, striking sharply at Ju Do-gyeom’s nostrils.
Following the smell, he turned his head.
A man covered in wounds, running through the darkness, caught his eye—and his face brightened with recognition before he called out urgently.
“You……!”
“I’m Ju Do-gyeom.”
“Yes, Ju Do-gyeom!”
The man who approached, calling his name, was O Jin-seok.
In this neighborhood—
in the Red Zone, he was a notorious loan shark and organ trafficker.
He spoke in an urgent voice.
“You, you borrowed money from me a while back, didn’t you? Me, help me out. Will you?”
Ju Do-gyeom wasn’t listening to him.
His mind was too tangled in thought.
Originally, at this point in time—
O Jin-seok was supposed to meet his death at the hands of a mysterious Hunter.
And Ju Do-gyeom would learn of it like any news, through neighborhood gossip.
That was the end of it.
But now O Jin-seok stood before his very eyes.
He’d clearly been attacked by that ‘mysterious Hunter’—
yet he was alive nonetheless.
Several reasons came to mind.
‘Because I borrowed money from him?’
Or because in this era he hadn’t been moving through dangerous places?
‘A single small action changes the future.’
When he thought about it, it was only natural.
It was something he’d need to keep in mind as he moved forward.
Even as a Regressor, not everything would unfold as he wished.
It was just as Ju Do-gyeom came to accept this truth—
“Damn it, damn it all! Are you even listening? Help me out! Not here—somewhere to hide! Just find me somewhere to hide and that’s enough! Then I’ll waive the interest, the interest, I promise! You’ll only owe the principal, that’s all!”
Ju Do-gyeom let out an inward chuckle despite himself.
‘Even now, he won’t forgive the principal.’
In a way, the man was remarkable.
That’s precisely why he’d become a notorious loan shark even in this harsh Red Zone.
“Listen, answer me, you bastard!”
“Be quiet.”
Ju Do-gyeom brushed away O Jin-seok’s hand, which had seized his arm.
O Jin-seok stared at him, his expression bewildered.
“What I owe you is money. Not my life.”
If he wanted to beg for his life, he’d have to do it elsewhere.
He hadn’t even lived as a human being, after all.
O Jin-seok didn’t understand Ju Do-gyeom’s words.
In truth, he barely heard them.
A moment’s shock had transformed into rage, drowning out all sound around him.
His eyes bloodshot with killing intent, he drew a sharp blade from his coat.
‘Fine then, damn you. Help indeed.’
He’d stab him dead.
Stab him to death, drag the corpse across into China.
Sell it and turn a profit.
His thinking had shifted.
Ju Do-gyeom frowned at O Jin-seok’s resolve.
“I don’t think that’s your best option.”
He wasn’t certain of the details, but wouldn’t running away increase his chances of survival?
He could at least open an escape route for him.
“Shut your mouth—!”
O Jin-seok’s voice pitched to a shriek as he lunged forward, his blade’s point aimed straight at Ju Do-gyeom’s heart.
He was fast.
He was a Hunter, after all, not an ordinary man.
Even if he was only F-rank.
Had Ju Do-gyeom been himself from that earlier time, he would have died without even managing to react.
The gap between a civilian’s physical abilities and a Hunter’s wasn’t something mere training could bridge, and the Killing Intent O Jin-seok radiated was genuine.
The kind of thick, seasoned murderous aura only those who’d killed many people could emit.
In another life, he would have frozen simply at the sight of it.
But Ju Do-gyeom, now a Regressor?
It barely registered.
He let the Killing Intent wash over him without concern and read O Jin-seok’s movements.
The direction of his feet, the tension in his shoulders, the placement of his fingers, the target of his gaze.
All of it—in a single instant—crystallized in the mind of the man once called the War God.
So it was simple.
No matter how fast his opponent was.
Whoosh—!
A light pivot of his body to the side was all he needed to slip past the strike.
“……!!”
That was when O Jin-seok’s shock truly hit.
Ju Do-gyeom released his own Killing Intent.
As he’d said—the kind of thick, seasoned murderous aura only those who’d killed many could emit.
But the density was different.
O Jin-seok, at this point in time.
No matter how many he’d killed as an unscrupulous loan shark and organ trafficker.
‘That era.’
The future Ju Do-gyeom had endured.
An age of despair where, even as monsters and calamities trampled humanity, wicked men steeped in greed and self-interest sowed chaos in the ruins.
Could the Killing Intent of a War God who’d walked through all those years and returned to this place be compared to it?
It was beyond any comparison whatsoever.
Merely by revealing it fully.
“Hgh—hghhhhhh—!”
Clang—!
O Jin-seok let out a bestial cry, his blade clattering from his grip as he collapsed where he stood.
In the eyes that met Ju Do-gyeom’s dark gaze, something writhed—the look of a man who’d witnessed something no mortal should.
O Jin-seok spoke.
“Sp—spare me…… please spare……”
Then he began wringing his hands desperately, pleading in frantic gasps.
Ju Do-gyeom remained silent, watching him for a moment in quiet stillness, then slowly turned toward the house.
* * *
Some time passed after that.
A figure descended to the ground, her long robes billowing, and tilted her head with a puzzled frown.
“……What is this?”
In her field of vision lay O Jin-seok, curled against a wall in a dark alley, trembling violently.
Tap.
She approached deliberately, making sure he heard her coming.
Only then did the man slowly lift his head—O Jin-seok.
“Hgh—hgh hgh…… hgh hgh……”
A hollow laugh spilled from his lips, his eyes empty and unfocused.
He’d gone mad.
The Shadow slowly drew her blade and aimed it at the space between O Jin-seok’s brows as she asked.
“……What did you see?”
What could he possibly have witnessed that would shatter this man—who’d abandoned even his own subordinates to flee—so completely?
“Hehehehe…… damn dogs…… damn dogs…….”
The answer that came back fell short of his expectations.
It was something he’d anticipated.
After all, it would have been foolish to expect a rational response from someone who had already lost their mind.
The Shadow nodded slowly.
“Hmm…….”
In the same breath, a short exhale escaped him, and he swept his blade across, severing O Jin-seok’s neck in one clean stroke.
Thud—!
O Jin-seok’s head fell.
The Shadow spoke with cold precision.
“Madness alone cannot serve as atonement.”
It would be different if his mind had been sound but something else broken.
With the execution complete, the Shadow sheathed his blade.
His gaze turned toward the dark alley beyond.
A flicker of something danced in his eyes.
‘Who was that?’
No lingering trace of mana remained—not even a guess was possible.
He found himself wishing, suddenly, that things were different.
The Red Zone had so few cameras.
“Hmm…….”
The Shadow drew out a long breath and slipped away down the alley.
In the thick darkness, only the faint scent of peonies lingered before fading swiftly into nothing.
* * *
The next day, Ju Do-gyeom received word.
O Jin-seok’s loan-sharking operation had been annihilated.
O Jin-seok himself, the ringleader, had been discovered in an alley with his head severed.
‘The location’s slightly different, but…….’
Still, events had unfolded along the trajectory of the future he’d known.
‘This should be acceptable enough.’
And that was that.
Having truly forgotten about O Jin-seok, Ju Do-gyeom threw himself back into his training.
Days passed. Days flowed on.
Saturday, March 7th.
Exactly thirty days since the Regression.
Ju Do-gyeom stood before a mirror mounted on one wall of his gosiwon room.
He examined his reflection and nodded in satisfaction.
‘The basics are in place now.’
What did that mean?
That he was ready to enter a Dungeon without hesitation.
There was no reason to delay.
Ju Do-gyeom opened his mouth and spoke.
“Dungeon entry. Designate destination: Cannibal’s Mansion.”
Instantly.
『User Ju Do-gyeom, entering designated Dungeon ‘Cannibal’s Mansion.’』
A System message materialized.
The body of Ju Do-gyeom, standing in that cramped room, vanished in an instant.

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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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