The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 22

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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 22
22.
The moment Kang Tae-woo settled into the car, he bowed his head in apology.
“Please allow me to apologize first.”
“……?”
“You said you dislike commotion, yet my arrival has caused exactly that. I am sorry.”
“I understand.”
He sensed Kang Tae-woo’s resolve not to repeat the mistake, so Ju Do-gyeom saw no reason to press the matter further.
“And yesterday, the chairman mentioned knowing little about Hunter Ju Do-gyeom, so I had considered assigning someone to observe you.”
“Mm?”
“I apologize. It was a thought I should never have entertained in the first place.”
“Then don’t do it.”
A measured response.
No recrimination, no lingering resentment.
Simply the calculation that what hadn’t happened posed no problem.
Kang Tae-woo felt it anew.
‘Different caliber altogether.’
An faint smile escaped him without thinking.
“You remind me of the chairman.”
“……Mm?”
“I mean you resemble the person I respect most, so I hope you won’t take offense at the comparison.”
“Ah, well…….”
As Ju Do-gyeom, unaccustomed to praise, fumbled for words, Kang Tae-woo steered the conversation forward.
“Let me move to the main purpose.”
He withdrew a black bag from beneath the seat.
As the zipper opened, neatly bundled stacks of cash came into view.
“First, one hundred billion in cash. You can spend it without worry about the source.”
It was one of the requests Ju Do-gyeom had made yesterday.
Money completely clean, untraceable to any registry.
He’d asked for roughly fifty billion if possible.
In a single day, it had doubled.
‘Efficient work.’
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Kang Tae-woo withdrew something from his pocket and offered it respectfully.
Upon receipt, it proved to be a small box containing a passbook, a card, and a seal.
“An account opened in your name. We plan to transfer an additional five hundred billion over the next six months, at approximately one hundred billion per month. Since the money will need to be cleaned, I ask your understanding regarding the time required.”
“……I never asked for this.”
“It is the chairman’s gesture of goodwill.”
Ju Do-gyeom stared at the passbook for a moment, then decided to accept it.
More money was always better.
Besides, he’d recently squandered his savings quite thoroughly.
Of course, the extravagance was only possible because he was confident he could earn it back anytime.
In any case.
Six hundred billion won without lifting a finger.
It was harder to find reasons to refuse.
“I accept with gratitude.”
“Not at all. And……once more, my sincere apologies.”
Ju Do-gyeom waved his hand dismissively.
No need for such things.
In truth, further apologies no longer registered with him.
Instead, he asked a question.
“Where are we headed now, exactly?”
“Do you have a particular destination in mind?”
“The Blue Zone Livestock Market.”
He could take the subway, but since he was already in the car, riding would be more convenient.
Not that he had any intention of buying one.
‘Everything becomes scrap in a few years anyway.’
Or would it? If he could move comfortably in the meantime, why not.
As he weighed the thought, Kang Tae-woo, smiling, replied.
“Of course. I shall drive you there, sir.”
“Yes.”
A brief answer, and nothing more.
Vroom.
The luxury sedan, carrying ten billion won, glided smoothly out of the Red Zone alley.
Their destination: the Livestock Market.
Ju Do-gyeom found himself unconsciously licking his lips.
Anticipation, pure and simple.
‘What will the Universal Restorative Soup taste like?’
How much would it raise his Mana?
For tonight’s menu, he’d settled on spicy beef soup.
* * *
Evening.
From the kitchenette of Ju Do-gyeom’s Single Room, something bubbled audibly, steam drifting out into the cramped space.
Today’s challenge.
Spicy beef soup.
The reason it wasn’t something more traditional, like oxtail or ox leg broth, was simple enough.
Short cooking time, spicy heat, and meat—all essential components.
It satisfied the basic conditions of a soup, while being the ideal candidate for an experimental dish.
A broth and a soup—wasn’t it all the same thing, really?
With this cavalier attitude firmly in place, Ju Do-gyeom reached for his smartphone.
His search: “golden recipe for spicy beef soup.”
Just as with the braised dish before, cooking revealed itself in proportion to what you knew.
A skill might handle the Mana, but the foundation of flavor always came down to technique.
Having finished his research, Ju Do-gyeom began prepping his ingredients.
Today’s star: a Dungeon-sourced mixed fowl he’d bought from the Livestock Market that afternoon.
‘Fat Bird.’
It looked unmistakably like a chicken, save for the copious fat clinging to its bloated frame—hence the name.
The wings were pure decoration.
In the Dungeon, it couldn’t fly to save its life, only waddled away in panic—easy prey even for novice Hunters.
Plentiful stock meant cheap prices: eight hundred thousand won per bird.
Its properties: stamina restoration and muscle fortification.
The vendor had sworn it was rich yet not greasy, and had a savory, toasted flavor—high praise, though hardly unbiased.
Thwack. Pluck!
A former god of war was plucking feathers.
Every single downy strand, with meticulous care.
He could have bought it already cleaned, but his skill knowledge and the Universal Cook class both specified an efficiency bonus—in Mana gain and taste—if the cook themselves prepared the ingredients from scratch.
His old comrades would have gasped if they’d seen this sight.
‘Using monster ingredients increases the effect, I remember reading.’
That knowledge had entered his mind when he acquired the Universal Restorative Soup.
The more Mana an ingredient carried, the better the result—and Dungeon-sourced fowl more than qualified.
And so.
He simmered the cleaned meat until tender, then shredded it along the grain.
He added bracken and bean sprouts.
He dissolved red chili powder seasoning into the broth.
Finally, as a finishing touch, he dropped in a single Intermediate Mana Stone, a reward from clearing the Garden of Eden.
It was expensive, but the efficiency gain would be worth it.
His meeting with the Taesung Group chairman had fattened his wallet, and in the Dungeons ahead, Intermediate Mana Stones would soon become commonplace—no point in fretting over one now.
The stone dissolved in the simmering broth like snow, vanishing into the liquid.
It never ceased to amaze him.
The way the Mana Stone melted away and transformed into food.
A fresh experience he’d never have known without becoming the Universal Cook.
He tasted the broth.
‘Perfect.’
Umami notes bloomed within the spicy broth.
The Universal Cook’s signature Dungeon-sourced spicy beef soup was complete.
Ju Do-gyeom ladled rice into a bowl, then took a generous spoonful.
“……Mm.”
Delicious.
The surface seared spicy; the depths were rich and deep.
The Fat Bird’s meat, shredded along the grain, lived up to every word the vendor had promised.
Rich yet not heavy, the broth carried a deep, savory aroma.
And more than anything else.
‘The mana… it’s definitely rising differently.’
The sensation was different from when he’d eaten the braised dish.
What had seeped in subtly before now pressed through warmly and forcefully.
One tier higher.
No—the difference felt closer to two tiers.
The soup was an upgraded recipe skill compared to the braise, and the Intermediate Mana Stone he’d invested no doubt accounted for much of it.
‘Satisfying.’
Ju Do-gyeom finished the bowl in one sitting.
Then he gazed at the ample broth remaining in the pot and considered.
‘I should invite a guest over soon and have them taste this.’
He had no supplementary knowledge confirming the effect worked on others, but something told him it would.
One face came to mind.
Kim Han-yul, his team member.
* * *
While Kim Han-yul was on his mind, he decided to finish what he’d set out to do.
Ju Do-gyeom withdrew two items from his Inventory.
A pitch-black scroll—Eve’s Gift.
And the Adam’s Apple he’d set aside.
He halved the apple and squeezed its juice, and golden droplets fell—tap, tap—onto the scroll’s dark surface.
Immediately after.
Whoooosh!
The scroll blazed with golden light.
The dark aura that had covered its surface washed away in the radiance, and beneath it, the true color that had been hidden was revealed.
Cream-colored parchment, embroidered with gold thread.
When Ju Do-gyeom unrolled it, system information materialized.
『Eve’s Gift』
『Expands any slot the user possesses.』
‘Excellent.’
That scrap of black paper—worth thirty billion, or eighty billion after consuming Blessing Potions—had just transformed into a treasure worth hundreds of billions.
A satisfying outcome.
Of course, he had no intention of using it himself.
Inventory expansion was always welcome, but this item was far too precious for that purpose.
If his Corpse Fusion leveled up and he gained the concept of summoning slots, there might be a use for it then.
‘But that’s not my primary strength.’
This belonged to Kim Han-yul instead.
For a Manifestation user, slots were combat power itself.
Eve’s Gift would be, quite literally, her wings.
Wasn’t it a waste?
Not in the least.
Kim Han-yul was certainly a calculating woman on the surface.
But Ju Do-gyeom knew better.
Beneath that calculating exterior lay a loyalty more solid than anyone else’s.
She could seem cold and indifferent to everyone.
But at the very end of the Pangaea Dragon War, it was she who threw her own life away to save the others.
The memory of her voice, singing toward death in that moment, had never left him.
—I’m grateful for everything. All of you.
Of course.
In giving her something this valuable, he fully intended to make full use of it.
A Regresser’s calculations were never generous.
“Heh heh…….”
A laugh that would have made Kim Han-yul’s skin crawl escaped Ju Do-gyeom as he returned the scroll to his Inventory.
Then he reviewed the day’s accounting once more.
Apart from what he’d used, he had left: a Title, a leaf from the Tree of Life, sixty billion in cash, and a partner in Lee Young-sik.
‘Right.’
Not hiding away in some corner, preparing for a distant future.
Pressing forward like this—that was the way.
The satisfaction ran quite deep.
* * *
The next day, afternoon.
An unexpected visitor arrived at Ju Do-gyeom’s Single Room.
Two of them, in fact.
Lee Young-sik and Lee Seo-ah.
Conscious of yesterday’s sedan commotion, they’d dressed inconspicuously and used discreet transportation, but they couldn’t hide the presence of bodyguards lurking in the shadows nearby.
And there was Ju Do-gyeom, facing these two people in his own room.
He spoke.
“What brings such distinguished guests to this humble place?”
“……?”
“……?”
The father and daughter’s eyes blinked in unison.
Ju Do-gyeom himself doubted his own tongue half a beat too late.
“Ah, my apologies. I meant to say the opposite. I have something of a condition with reversals.”
“……?”
“……?”
“It’s true. It’s the influence of my trait…….”
Too earnest a face to be a joke.
So it was an answer that made judgment difficult, but the father and daughter seemed willing to believe him nonetheless.
Honestly, from their perspective, they had no intention of holding something so trivial against Ju Do-gyeom.
“Ahem…….”
Lee Young-sik, clearing his throat, glances around the room once more to air out the atmosphere.
The feeling was strange.
The benefactor who had saved his daughter—a life as precious to him as his own—was living in a room barely large enough to lie down in.
“……It’s worse than I expected.”
“It’s convenient. Nothing to manage.”
At Ju Do-gyeom’s matter-of-fact reply, Lee Young-sik’s expression hardened with resolve.
He spoke.
“Let me be blunt. I’m thinking of founding a Guild.”
“I see.”
“……You’re not surprised.”
The world had been this way for over a decade now.
Major corporations had founded Hunter Guilds before—plenty of them.
But most had failed.
Taesung was no exception.
After that, they seemed to have quieted down, so to mention a challenge again would normally be shocking, but.
‘In fact, even in the future, this chairman founded a Guild.’
The only problem was that the Guild was used to raise the Hunter Slaughterer’s infamy?
On the surface, the results were quite good.
With Hunter forces among the finest in South Korea, it even earned the name of one of the Five Great Guilds.
“Really, I was hoping you’d be a little surprised. You’re truly impossible to read.”
“Thank you.”
“……Praise—yes, praise. Ahem, anyway.”
Lee Young-sik continues, pausing briefly with a cough to collect his thoughts.
“To elaborate further, I would pour all of Taesung’s capital into it. The finest equipment, the finest information, the finest treatment. And you would stand at its center.”
It was a striking proposal.
A central position in a chaebol Guild for a Hunter barely past initiation.
Had there been listeners, their eyes would have widened.
And if they knew that Guild would become one of South Korea’s Five Great Guilds in the future, the offer would be even more coveted.
But Ju Do-gyeom quietly shook his head.
“I’m sorry. I must decline.”
“……May I ask why?”
“Once I join an organization, there are things I must account for.”
Reports, approvals, considerations, face.
No matter how excellent the support, these are things that inevitably arise beneath the name of an organization.
And Ju Do-gyeom’s plan was the kind that could only succeed by ignoring all of it.
And could he ask to be the sole exception to all of that?
‘That wouldn’t be right.’
As much as he would receive, it would be a request that damages the organization.
“……What a pity. A real pity. I could have taken care of anything.”
“I’ll accept your kindness with gratitude.”
Lee Young-sik studied Ju Do-gyeom’s composed face and hesitated once more.
“Just one more moment to think it over…….”
“…….”
“Then, as a final point…….”
“There is none.”
“How decisive. Truly the last…….”
“Dad.”
Lee Seo-ah’s voice cut through.
In that same instant, a sharp pain lanced through Lee Young-sik’s thigh.
“……!!”
In place of Lee Young-sik, writhing in agony, Lee Seo-ah spoke, her face flushed crimson.
“I’m so sorry. He’s not usually like this…….”
Before she could finish.
Lee Young-sik opened his mouth again.
“If there are any specific conditions you’d prefer…… urgh……!”
“…….”
“Should I ask him to leave so we can talk separately?”
Lee Seo-ah spoke with a wry smile.
Just as Ju Do-gyeom was about to nod.
“Enough, I’ll stop. I’ll stop, I promise…… just don’t shut me out…….”
“…….”
Lee Young-sik’s voice came through, desperate and pleading.
It was an odd feeling.
* * *
After the brief commotion.
Lee Young-sik, having recovered his usual genteel composure, cleared his throat and spoke.
“Ahem…… well then, let’s consider that proposal withdrawn. There’s one more matter to discuss…….”
His gaze turned toward Lee Seo-ah.
“I’ve managed to find a house for you.”

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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
—————