The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 34

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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 34
Episode 34.
3x Gravity.
Drone training system at maximum difficulty.
Ju Do-gyeom had begun his training under what was currently the worst possible combination the Tae Sung Training Center could produce—save for extreme cold or heat environments.
The objective: destroy every drone in flight.
Though he’d started with considerable tension, his mindset shifted quickly.
‘This isn’t cutting it.’
3x Gravity.
His body felt far heavier at first, and adaptation proved difficult, but in truth, Ju Do-gyeom had faced similar circumstances many times before.
Situations where his entire body was pushed to its limit and refused to obey, his Magic Power drained to nothing, yet enemies still stood before him unscathed.
How many times had he fought in such conditions?
Compared to those ordeals, movement under 3x Gravity felt almost unrestricted.
As he’d said, it was merely a matter of adaptation.
‘Would things be different at 5x? Hmm…….’
A soft sigh of disappointment escaped him unbidden.
And with good reason—he had genuinely hoped for more.
‘My stamina’s already risen to C-Rank.’
He had buffs stacked in abundance.
If he could find a real combat situation here—or something close to it—where he could push himself to his absolute limit.
‘I felt like I could break through the wall.’
It seemed he’d have to wait for the next Dungeon instead.
Training was, after all, simply training.
He’d have to settle for maintaining his combat instincts.
It was as he was thinking this.
The drones, which by Ju Do-gyeom’s standards had been moving in a rather monotonous pattern.
Suddenly shifted their movement.
Wheeee-!
The loud whirring of propellers accompanied their dispersal.
They then laid down laser traps in a crisscross pattern near the location Ju Do-gyeom had instinctively marked as his next target.
His body, moving on reflex, ground to a halt, searching for an alternate path.
In that same instant, the drones racing across the interior at tremendous speed came to a complete standstill.
“……?”
Had something broken down?
It was then that Ju Do-gyeom’s doubt arose.
-Ah, a pleasure to meet you. I am Seon U-gyeol, the senior development researcher of the VIP Training Room.
A voice emanated from somewhere in the chamber.
Yet there was no visible speaker.
-I stopped by to inspect the equipment, and took the liberty of observing your training. Please allow me to apologize for this intrusion.
“It’s fine.”
Ju Do-gyeom replied curtly.
He’d never believed there wouldn’t be a CCTV in a training space like this anyway.
He thought it made no difference whether or not he was observed.
-I’m glad to hear it. Thank you for your understanding.
“Did you stop the drones yourself?”
-Yes. I thought it best to explain the situation.
Seon U-gyeol’s voice continued.
How the drone system was currently operating.
What changes he had made in that moment.
And what developments would occur going forward.
Much of what was said lay beyond Ju Do-gyeom’s comprehension, but in short, it meant the training difficulty would evolve automatically to match his level.
Ju Do-gyeom smiled faintly and replied.
“Excellent.”
-Yes, that’s… is this acceptable? We intend to collect your data as a VIP Hunter.
“It will only help me grow stronger faster.”
Data?
Let them have it.
If more powerful Hunters emerged from the information he provided, he would welcome it.
The world Ju Do-gyeom sought to protect could not be built by him alone.
-……That is a truly admirable spirit of pioneering. I hold you in the highest regard.
In the voice of Seon U-gyeol returning, something beyond mere elation vibrated through—a thrill that made the skin prickle.
‘What is this?’
Was it something worth going to such lengths for?
That was when Ju Do-gyeom found himself thinking it.
-Then I, too, shall stop holding back and devour the data to my heart’s content. Ufufu…….
“…….”
Ju Do-gyeom was certain of it now.
‘Seon U-gyeol.’
He didn’t know the man’s face yet, but one thing was clear—he wasn’t in his right mind.
‘Wait. Seon U-gyeol?’
The name felt familiar, like he’d heard it before.
He was trying to retrieve the memory when—
-System activating. Prepare yourself.
Without so much as a countdown, red laser beams from the drones screamed toward Ju Do-gyeom.
His body moved on instinct, his mind shutting down deliberation.
‘Who Seon U-gyeol is…….’
He could work that out after training ended.
Ju Do-gyeom’s body shot forward.
* * *
Beyond the CCTV feed.
Seon U-gyeol, watching Ju Do-gyeom’s performance unfold, burst into delighted applause without thinking, his mouth falling open.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.
“Wow…… it’s like art, really. How is a person even moving like that?”
He was fast.
But it wasn’t mere speed.
Optimal trajectory and economical motion that even learning AI couldn’t track were undergirding that velocity.
But if that were all, the AI could certainly keep pace.
Right now, Seon U-gyeol—the one called a genius—was directly intervening in the AI’s automatic learning, force-feeding it data.
But it wasn’t enough.
An instinct that transcended mere trajectory and efficiency.
The movement of a beast finding answers in extremity—something no machine could track.
In a domain beyond mechanical reach, Ju Do-gyeom was treading the razor’s edge.
“Even a shaman possessed by spirits couldn’t balance like that. Ehehehe…….”
The laughter that escaped was because his learning AI, unable to replicate that instinct, was nevertheless continuing to evolve in pursuit of it.
He could say with certainty.
In a short span of time, the AI drones he’d created had nearly doubled in capability.
And they were still developing.
The freshly manufactured drones were exhibiting their learned abilities with increasing refinement.
A question surfaced unbidden.
‘Just where is our VIP’s limit?’
When he’d first entered the control room, Ju Do-gyeom had been dominating the drones under 3x Gravity without apparent strain.
Now, though, sweat drenched his entire frame—his hair hung damp as if he’d just stepped from a shower.
His clothes clung to his form, tracing every muscle, and patches of his skin had flushed crimson, their natural tone completely overwhelmed.
He thought the end might be near, but the VIP’s pace remained disconcertingly unchanged.
If anything, it seemed to be accelerating.
‘An unfamiliar face.’
An unknown Hunter.
Yet unmistakably destined for renown.
‘……Which explains why the chairman gave him a VIP Card.’
Another burst of applause erupted from him.
Clap clap clap clap—!
“Ufufu, our chairman’s the best! The VIP’s the best!”
To think he could acquire data of such magnitude!
Goosebumps rippled across his back, and cold sweat began beading on the forehead of Seon U-gyeol, who sat motionless except for his fingers flying rapid across the keys.
‘This won’t be enough. Even if I’m exhausted, if I can’t see this through to the end…….’
He had to push further.
He grabbed the microphone.
-VIP. I hope our drones aren’t boring you with just laser fire? Shall we turn up the heat a bit?
Beyond the CCTV feed.
The man who had been silent for a moment smiled.
Without a word, he simply gives a slight nod.
In that instant.
A thrill shoots up through the crown of Seon U-gyeol’s head.
‘He’s really allowing this?’
It had been a half-joking suggestion anyway!
“Ah-hahahaha-!!”
His laughter spills out louder than he intended.
His hands move rapidly, quickly generating the newly configured system weapon.
Fabrication complete.
Starting with the next Drone to be generated, it will be equipped with his hastily crafted secret weapon.
Seon U-gyeol grabbed the microphone urgently.
Let’s see.
-Try nerfing this one too, will you? Ah-hahahaha-!
* * *
His entire body burns hot.
His mind has gone blank, incapable of coherent thought.
His vision and senses rage according to instinct rather than reason.
This was the situation Ju Do-gyeom had long desired.
‘To surpass one’s limit…….’
He must first reach that limit.
Even so, the strength to keep moving continues to emerge.
Fundamentally, his inborn mental fortitude.
Combined with the modest effects of stamina and Magic Power recovery sustained by the sacred meals.
Honestly, in a real combat situation this would be ideal.
But this is training.
‘I must be able to strip away even that.’
This is not yet my true limit.
‘More. Just a little more.’
Faster.
More of it.
Into even more extreme conditions!
Lasers pouring from the continuously spawning generation-type Drones.
Just as Ju Do-gyeom, watching from the sidelines, was about to throw himself into that most dangerous zone—
-VIP sir. Are our Drones perhaps boring you, only firing predictable lasers? Shall we crank up the intensity a bit?
“…….”
Ju Do-gyeom laughed without thinking.
Then he nodded.
Moments later.
-Try nerfing this one too, will you? Ah-hahahaha-!
With a hearty laugh, newly formed Drones join the fray.
What’s different about these?
The answer came immediately.
Whoosh-!
What they fired was no mere laser point that accumulated hit scores with no physical effect.
Actual projectiles with real physical impact.
The moment he instinctively evaded a few volleys with the most efficient, shortest movements and landed on the ground—
Countless lasers rain down.
As Ju Do-gyeom tried to surge forward again to escape them, his eyebrows quivered.
His feet wouldn’t come free from the wall.
‘Adhesive.’
So that’s what he was shooting.
“Ha……!”
Laughter erupts from him.
Boom-!
Internal Energy detonates beneath his feet, shredding his shoes and hurling his body forward.
Thanks to that, every incoming laser is dodged.
Blood seeps from his soles, a consequence of the Internal Energy he triggered himself.
But he feels no pain.
His eyes read the location and quantity of adhesive scattered across the training room earlier.
The paths available to him have narrowed further.
The number of drones had multiplied.
‘Good.’
It was good.
Ju Do-gyeom planted his foot into the ground.
Bang!
He poured power into his lower body and shot skyward into the void.
『Skill Seomjeon Bi promoted to 5-Star.』
Ju Do-gyeom’s Dae Bu, moving faster than a bullet, shattered every drone in its path in a cascading chain reaction.
Crash-boom-boom!
Explosions echoed one after another.
Ju Do-gyeom did not slow, pressing forward despite the din.
The Dae Bu whirled like a tempest, carving gales in its wake.
Explosions continued in succession, and drones plummeted to the earth like falling tombstones.
Lasers poured down onto Ju Do-gyeom’s trajectory ahead of time.
Should he drop to the ground, adhesive shells waited beneath his feet.
Ju Do-gyeom felt the meager Internal Energy left in him and the current the whirling Dae Bu carved through the air.
There was a current.
He rode it.
『Skill Unnyong Dae Palshik acquired at 1-Star.』
Then he twisted his direction.
Screech-crack!
His body cried out in agony.
As though it were impossible.
But it wasn’t.
Ju Do-gyeom knew.
‘He had done it before.’
The man he used to be.
He had run through the sky as he would through earth.
Boom!
With the sound of the void rupturing, Ju Do-gyeom’s form twisted in mid-air and shot forward.
The axe whirled once more.
Gales swept forth.
Drones exploded.
Within that sensation, Ju Do-gyeom unfurled Unnyong Dae Palshik again, treading the void and shifting direction.
With resolve not to touch the ground even with a fingertip, he unleashed Seomjeon Bi.
Boom!
Another detonation tore through the air.
Unnyong Dae Palshik once more.
And again Seomjeon Bi for airborne maneuver.
Gales erupting from the Dae Bu and a spectacular shower of explosions embroidered across the heavens!
—Insane!? This can’t be right!?
Beyond the microphone, Seon U-gyeol’s astonishment burst forth.
『Skill Unnyong Dae Palshik promoted to 2-Star.』
『Skill Seomjeon Bi promoted to 6-Star.』
Seomjeon Bi had crossed a threshold.
Ju Do-gyeom felt it instinctively.
From this moment forward, his movements would grow infinitely closer to true flight.
As if to prove it.
He twisted his direction once more, and the instant he pushed off the void toward where other drones were raging.
Crack!
Electricity pulsed through his form.
In the CCTV that Seon U-gyeol was watching, Ju Do-gyeom vanished.
—……!!?
He appeared suddenly in the very heart of the clustered drones and unleashed a tempest.
He had already transcended his limits.
Ju Do-gyeom was no longer thinking, no longer calculating his moves.
His body simply followed.
And whenever it threatened to break, he seized it by instinct alone and pressed on.
『Skill Jigyeol Gigong promoted to 5-Star.』
The breath he was instinctively maintaining to sustain this state brought about the promotion of Jigyeol Gigong.
The Seomjeon Bi that danced through empty space never ceased its forward momentum, pressing ever onward, and the axe descended with devastating force.
Crash—!
Every drone scattered throughout the spacious training room was obliterated.
Seon U-gyeol’s voice came through.
-P-Production… unit… inoperable. All accumulated energy has been exhausted…….
Ju Do-gyeom, already pushed to the absolute limit, did not hear those words.
His body burning crimson, he simply lowered himself to the ground.
“Haah—!”
He released in one long, measured exhale the deep breath he had held all that time.
At that very instant.
『Skill, Cheonryeok Bubeop (6-Star) has been promoted.』
『Secret Art – Gwangpung Nanbu acquired.』
『Strength Grade Increased: D+ ⇒ C-Rank』
Another barrier had shattered.
‘It’s been a while…….’
Proper training—the kind of training that mattered.
A smile of satisfaction played across Ju Do-gyeom’s lips.
* * *
Whiiiing—!
The door to the VIP Training Room, now a wreck scattered with the debris of shattered drones, slid open.
Against one wall, Ju Do-gyeom sat with his back braced, one knee bent, catching his breath.
A man stepped inside.
Seon U-gyeol surveyed both Ju Do-gyeom and the surrounding destruction once more, and inwardly sucked in a sharp breath.
‘A genuine, unbelievable monster.’
Where on earth had such a monster come from?
Amid questions and shock.
He steadied himself, arranged his features into a smile, and approached Ju Do-gyeom, opening his mouth to speak.
“Good to meet you. I introduced myself over the microphone earlier, but my name is Seon U-gyeol.”
Ju Do-gyeom, hearing this, slowly lifted his head.
Eyes clear as glass, dark and fierce.
The instant Seon U-gyeol met that gaze, his body gave an involuntary flinch.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke.
“Ah…… Seon U-gyeol. Right, so it was 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
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