The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 21

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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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Chapter 21
Chapter 21.
Lee Young-sik, chairman of the Taeseong Group, and his only daughter, Lee Seo-a.
Father and daughter locked in each other’s arms.
As Ju Do-gyeom watched the two of them, a strange sensation stirred in a corner of his chest.
Paradise Fantasy.
The faces of his parents, glimpsed in that place, rose unbidden in his mind.
—Do-gyeom.
—Ju Do-gyeom. Our son.
Though he knew them to be false, their voices lingered in his ears.
Ju Do-gyeom closed his eyes quietly.
Longing was not the sort of feeling one could swallow away.
One could only fold it carefully and tuck it deep within the heart.
Through the cracks of that concealment, the unwanted intruder in his mind began to stir restlessly.
‘Be gone.’
A single command.
The madness subsided once more.
The inner silence returned.
When he opened his eyes, the room was filled only with the joyful cries of a reunited family.
A small voice threaded through the gaps.
“…Thank you.”
It was Kang Tae-woo.
He spoke without even turning his head, his gratitude barely audible—yet sincere.
Ju Do-gyeom heard it, but made no reply.
The protagonist of this room was not himself, after all.
* * *
Lee Seo-a fell asleep again.
Exhausted from crying at length.
But this was not the loss of consciousness as before.
Only a simple, ordinary sleep.
And back in the reception room.
The moment they sat facing each other, Lee Young-sik rose from his seat.
Then, slowly, he knelt.
“Chairman…!”
Kang Tae-woo cried out in alarm.
Lee Young-sik silenced him with a look.
Kang Tae-woo’s body went rigid.
Only then did Lee Young-sik look toward Ju Do-gyeom, bowing his head as he spoke.
“First, I owe you an apology. I threatened my benefactor with far too many mortal dangers.”
“That’s not necessary.”
Ju Do-gyeom answered evenly.
Lee Young-sik continued.
“And thank you. Thanks to you, my daughter was able to open her eyes again. It is a debt I can never repay.”
A major corporate chairman, kneeling on the floor.
Ju Do-gyeom’s feelings as he looked down at that figure were, to be honest, strange.
‘Lee Young-sik.’
In his past life, he had been known as a ruthless man.
Why else would he have earned such epithets as the Hunter Slayer and the Golden Demon?
And those titles had come from hunters themselves.
Most of those he had killed so brutally were hunters.
He could understand why.
If the future had proceeded as originally planned, Lee Seo-a would have drawn her last breath three years from now.
Despite the many challenges from hunters, nothing had availed.
And exactly two years after that.
At the moment Ju Do-gyeom was just entering the Hunter profession, the Garden of Eden and Adam’s Apple would become known to the public.
It would be strange not to lose one’s mind.
In those days when Korea still stood intact, one of the hunters who had encountered Lee Young-sik said something like this to the future Ju Do-gyeom:
—If Korea hadn’t fallen when it did, this chairman would’ve been wanted as a villain, no matter how much money he had.
And yet that man.
During the invasion of Seoul, unlike other tycoons who fled in haste, he remained to the end and fell defending the city.
At that time, Ju Do-gyeom had regarded it as irony.
A man who had despised Hunters so intensely, yet died doing the very work of a Hunter.
But now.
Looking down at this man on his knees, he began to understand, belatedly.
‘In Seoul back then…….’
Lee Seo-a’s burial vault had been there.
He had not fled.
He could not leave his daughter behind.
Not a ruthless chairman.
He was, until the very end, a father protecting his child.
Ju Do-gyeom lingered over that truth for a moment, then rose from his seat.
And he extended his hand to the man kneeling before him.
“Stand, please.”
“Will you accept my apology and gratitude?”
“There’s nothing to accept or refuse. As I mentioned before, I came seeking something specific, so that’s all there is to it.”
Words so sparse they carried no emotion at all.
Yet Lee Young-sik felt his chest stir once more at those dry words.
Ironically, it was precisely such conduct that served as comfort to him.
At last, Lee Young-sik raised his head and gazed at the offered hand for a moment.
Then he grasped it firmly.
Just as he rose naturally with the aid of that hand and was about to bow again—
Ju Do-gyeom asked a question.
“Would it be acceptable if there were multiple things I wished for?”
Lee Young-sik faltered.
Then, shortly after, he nodded.
“Of course. Within the limits of my ability, I will grant you whatever you desire.”
“Then…….”
Ju Do-gyeom began calmly listing the things he wanted.
Originally, he had planned to claim only the Shapeless Weapon Form alone.
But his mind had changed.
Having experienced it now, he understood that a relationship with someone like Lee Young-sik would benefit them both the longer it lasted.
So he also made requests for various matters that seemed as though they might create some debt of heart between them.
He subtly expressed his willingness to become partners with one another.
Lee Young-sik, a businessman, caught on to it at once.
His response was favorable.
“If matters proceed this way, we would be in the same boat, would we not.”
“It would seem so.”
“A joyous prospect—to share a boat with my savior. Heh heh…….”
A confirmed villain tycoon of the future?
It didn’t matter.
Because that was not an event that would occur in this world.
Rather, it was welcome.
At the juncture when the world had begun its march toward annihilation, only those capable of losing themselves in pursuit of their desires—like Lee Young-sik—would survive.
‘This venture has yielded far more than I intended.’
His mood was quite good.
* * *
At the window of the Taeseong Group chairman’s residence.
Lee Young-sik and Kang Tae-woo watched Ju Do-gyeom’s receding figure.
A man who had stubbornly refused to allow them to accompany him all the way back.
He said he disliked commotion.
So they had no choice but to send him off alone.
The figure that Lee Young-sik watched was peculiar in some way.
In what way?
‘He looks lonely.’
Yet it was vast.
Not in the breadth of his shoulders or his height.
Though Ju Do-gyeom possessed those qualities in abundance as well, what Lee Young-sik perceived was his presence.
Ordinarily, such presence emanates only from those carrying much weight upon their shoulders.
As the head of a major conglomerate, Lee Young-sik prided himself on having observed many such individuals.
Yet among them all, was there anyone whose presence matched Ju Do-gyeom’s magnitude?
None.
At least not in his recent memory.
‘Ah……’
Just one person.
A face came to mind.
From the distant past.
His father, whom he’d seen in childhood.
The previous chairman of the Taeseong Group and the man known as a legend in Korean corporate history—Lee Tae-seong.
The group itself had taken its name from his.
That broad back, which had shouldered the livelihoods of tens of thousands alone, seemed to overlap with the young man’s now.
No.
‘……If anything, it looks even larger.’
That’s what his instinct was telling him.
It was a hard story to believe.
Setting aside the fact that Ju Do-gyeom had been an ordinary person not long ago.
He wasn’t even in a position of responsibility right now, was he?
Yet this feeling persisted.
“……There’s much I don’t know, then.”
The words slipped out quietly.
Kang Tae-woo, standing beside him, carefully opened his mouth.
“Shall I have someone watch him?”
Lee Young-sik laughed.
Then, his eyes devoid of warmth, he turned the question back.
“You’re trying to make me look like an ungrateful wretch, aren’t you, Manager Kang?”
“……My apologies.”
Kang Tae-woo lowered his head at once.
Lee Young-sik, as if to show understanding, gave that shoulder a gentle pat.
“I know what’s in your heart. But let’s not live that way.”
“……I’ll remember that.”
“I believe you.”
With his smile restored, Lee Young-sik turned his gaze back to the window.
Ju Do-gyeom’s figure had already vanished.
The street where he’d passed seemed strangely empty.
* * *
Chairman Lee Young-sik’s residence is in the Green Zone.
The safest region in all of Korea, and the most heavily guarded.
Ju Do-gyeom passed through it in silence, boarded the subway, crossed through the Blue Zone, and arrived at the Red Zone—the outer fringe of the city and his own residential district.
Was it because he’d been to the Green Zone, which reminded him of how the world had looked over a decade ago, before all this had begun?
The subway station interior, where the lights barely worked, and the landscape of the Red Zone as a whole suddenly felt unfamiliar to him.
Even as he thought this, Ju Do-gyeom, keeping his gaze steady and detached, spoke quietly.
“Might as well come out.”
A moment of silence.
Then it came.
From somewhere within the empty subway station, footsteps echoed.
Followed by the sound of something spinning.
Whirr-whirr-whirr!
Cutting through the air.
Ju Do-gyeom turned his gaze.
From the stairway leading up to street level, a man came descending, twirling a long iron chain attached with a Chain Scythe in wide circles.
That was not all.
The iron doors of the station, which had been shut, swung open, and several men appeared simultaneously.
Each gripping a weapon.
Their eyes fixed on Ju Do-gyeom, heavy with murderous intent.
Ju Do-gyeom wondered.
‘Who are they?’
Not Chairman Lee Young-sik.
There’d be no reason, and if he meant to kill him, the residence would have been more convenient.
Above all, he wouldn’t employ bungling amateurs like these.
With his wealth, he could hire far more formidable Hunters.
The problem was that aside from ruling him out, no other face came to mind.
Of course, the Red Zone of Seoul wasn’t a place where such incidents required any particular reason to erupt.
“There’s open hatred written all over it.”
Ju Do-gyeom spoke quietly.
The man who had been wielding the Chain Scythe snatched it from the air with a sharp crack—! and spoke.
“You know Lim Jeong-yeol?”
Ju Do-gyeom shook his head.
“I think you’ve come looking for the wrong person.”
“Zombie Buster Dungeon. The one with the Crossbow. You really don’t know?”
……
He didn’t know the name, but he could guess who it was.
There had been a crossbowman among the bandits who’d targeted him.
The man with the Chain Scythe spoke.
“My name is Lim Jeong-su. Jeong-yeol is my younger brother.”
“I see.”
He understood now.
How they’d obtained information about the Dungeon.
How they’d found him didn’t matter.
He could ask about that after everything was finished.
“You have plenty of reason to fight.”
Whoosh—!
Lim Jeong-su, who’d been spinning the Chain Scythe in a wide arc, shook his head.
“Wrong. It’s not a reason to fight……”
Shriek—!
The Chain Scythe shot forward in the same instant.
“It’s a reason for you to die. You bastard.”
Ju Do-gyeom dodged it lightly.
At the same time, he drew the Great Halberd from his Inventory and swung it wide.
The moment the Chain Scythe passed, five or six burly men rushing toward him were cleaved in half simultaneously.
Blood scattered through the air.
Expressions of shock on every face.
Ju Do-gyeom, who had halted the Great Halberd mid-swing after watching them, spoke quietly.
“I have no choice.”
He wasn’t merciful enough to spare someone who’d come explicitly to kill him.
The Great Halberd carved through space once more.
It passed through bodies.
Blood and screams erupted at once.
Within his mind, the Thousand-Kill Madness danced with ecstatic joy.
Ju Do-gyeom didn’t stop.
『Skill Five Senses Unified Energy (3-star) has been promoted.』
『Skill Flash Combat Technique (3-star) has been promoted.』
* * *
The next morning.
He picked up his smartphone and checked the news.
[Gruesome Scene Inside Red Zone Sector 5 Subway Station.]
[The Management Bureau has attributed the incident to conflict between local organizations and decided to close the case……]
[Red Zone Sector 10 Subway operations resume at 14:30. We apologize for the inconvenience to citizens.]
That was all.
After such a commotion last night.
In just over a decade, the world had changed this much.
The article about the subway’s operational restart had the highest view count.
Ju Do-gyeom looked at it with an indifferent gaze, then lowered his phone.
He closed his eyes and thought.
‘I should go shopping later today.’
He wanted to test out the new Occupational Skill he’d acquired the night before—the Universal Nourishing Soup—as soon as possible.
Otherwise, he planned to rest thoroughly.
‘Come to think of it……’
During last night’s incident, the Thousand-Kill Madness had been far more subdued than he’d expected.
Observing his inner depths, it felt as quiet as a still lake.
‘……Or was it actually satisfied?’
Ju Do-gyeom set the thought aside.
Having enjoyed such good fortune all day yesterday, it wasn’t strange to think that a streak of ill luck might accompany the finale.
‘Now that I think about it, I forgot to ask how he found me.’
The fault lay in having killed him far too casually.
Though there was no shortage of plausible reasons to guess.
Perhaps a magical item that transmitted only a user’s final moments, or a necromancer’s contract that showed the scene of death itself.
Such things were surprisingly commonplace.
To prevent such interference, it would be convenient to have a mage as a colleague.
‘A mage, then…….’
It didn’t seem like a bad candidate for the next partner after Kim Han-yul.
Otherwise, no particular sentiment arose.
At least this made the news now.
In the future he remembered, the world had become one where accidents like this were unsurprising no matter where they occurred.
‘……I should just sleep more.’
Unusually exhausted as he was, he simply closed his eyes a bit longer.
* * *
Late afternoon.
An unexpected sight appeared at the mouth of the alley where Ju Do-gyeom lived in the Red Zone.
A single sleek, high-end sedan.
A vehicle rarely glimpsed in the Red Zone these days, yet it sat squarely at the alley’s entrance.
Residents muttered in hushed clusters from a distance.
Ju Do-gyeom, unaware of their circumstances, was just stepping out with shopping bags in hand.
He meant to test the newly acquired recipe skill, the Universal Nourishing Soup.
With Ju Do-gyeom’s arrival, the sedan’s door swung open.
A man in formal dress descended and bowed slightly.
It was Kang Tae-woo.
Everyone who had been murmuring recognized him at once.
“Huh? That person…….”
“Isn’t he the Secretary-General of Taeseong Group? I saw him on the news.”
“Right, that’s him. But why would he be in the Red Zone…….”
The commotion grew.
Kang Tae-woo approached without the slightest concern and spoke.
“Would it be possible to speak briefly in the car?”

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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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