The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 38

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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 38
38.
A villain with Danger Rank A+ appeared in the heart of the city.
And he abducted Lee Seo-ah, the precious jewel of Taesung Group who had risen from her sickbed just two years ago.
This fact flooded the internet within minutes.
And reacting even faster than the internet itself was naturally Lee Young-sik, chairman of Taesung Group.
His face turned crimson, a living volcano on the verge of eruption, as he seized the phone and bellowed.
“What the hell were those bodyguards doing!? You were right there on the scene and you let him slip away!?”
Choi Sung-hun, president of Highlander—the security team employed by Taesung Group and a hunter guild famous for ranking in the top ten of South Korea—answered in an urgent voice.
—I sincerely apologize, Chairman. I will take full responsibility and handle this matter by any means necessary.
“Responsibility? That kind of—”
Lee Young-sik’s voice climbed higher still.
Then he released a deep breath.
“Haaah……”
He continued.
“Let me be clear, President Choi. This situation must be resolved so completely that there’s nothing left to take responsibility for. Unless you want to live with regret.”
A top-ten hunter guild in South Korea.
The power and prestige it had accumulated were certainly formidable.
Even more so in this era.
But it could not compare to the history built by Taesung Group, which had operated as one of South Korea’s leading conglomerates for generations, and Chairman Lee Young-sik, who was writing legend as the second generation of the company.
If he so chose.
Unless it was one of the nation’s top one or two guilds, it was no strange thing for something to vanish without a trace within days.
—I will bear that in mind.
Lee Young-sik hung up after hearing the tension-laden words from Choi Sung-hun.
Then he gripped his head.
‘I should have followed no matter what.’
Or I should have prepared some other contingency.
A flood of regret crashed over him.
His teeth clenched, but then he shook his head.
‘Regret is pointless.’
Regret prepares for the future.
Now I must deal with the present.
Drowning in emotion and thrashing about will yield no answers.
He looked to his side.
Kang Tae-woo, who had been holding the phone, shook his head side to side.
“We cannot reach Joo Do-gyeom either.”
The situation was dire.
‘Joo Do-gyeom, did he fall to the same fate?’
He didn’t want to believe it, but it was possible.
With those Special Eyes of his.
Joo Do-gyeom had accomplished remarkable feats, but he had only been a hunter for a few months now.
If a Danger Rank A+ like Jin Woo-sung had moved against him, there would have been no way to resist.
No, let’s be blunt about it.
If Jin Woo-sung had made his move, who in all of South Korea could possibly stop him?
Only two people came to mind.
Mo Ran-hee, president of the nation’s number-one hunter enterprise.
And Noh Beom-seok, chairman of the Hunter Association and the symbol of South Korea’s military might.
The nation’s only S-Rank Hunters.
Which was precisely why a monster like Jin Woo-sung lived outside the city, watching carefully.
Thinking it through made it all the more unbearable.
‘Joo Do-gyeom……’
The young man he had genuinely regarded as his benefactor—it was right to consider him dead.
His teeth ground together.
‘I will have my revenge.’
It was the only thing he could do.
His hand reached for the phone again.
‘Choi Sung-hun alone won’t be enough.’
Noh Beom-seok and Mo Ran-hee.
One of the two.
Better yet, both of them, if he could secure their cooperation.
He was sifting through the contacts list when the thought struck him.
An unfamiliar number appeared on the screen.
Lee Young-sik’s expression hardened instinctively.
He gestured toward the front.
The tracking team members, summoned to this location shortly after the incident broke and waiting on standby, nodded in acknowledgment.
“Huff…….”
Lee Young-sik exhaled deeply and answered the call.
A brief silence.
Then came his words.
“……Who is this?”
Laughter erupted immediately.
-Puhaha! Why so serious, Chairman? Anyone looking at you would think you’d lost your daughter.
“Jin Woo-sung…….”
Crack—!
An involuntary grinding sound escaped his teeth.
Jin Woo-sung responded at once.
-Come on, you’re absolutely bristling. Even a puffed-up blowfish couldn’t match our Chairman Lee. Calm down and let’s talk, yeah? Talk. Wouldn’t that be better for both of us?
“Talk, fine. Alright. What kind of talk did you have in mind?”
His gaze fixed forward, toward the tracking team.
They shook their heads, alarm etched across their faces.
Lee Young-sik’s brow furrowed deeply.
-Ah, just to be clear, there’s no point stalling. Think about it. Chairman. You think this is my first rodeo? Eight years back or so…… not Korea, but back in Qingdao. Even those Chinese bastards couldn’t catch me then.
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
-Really? No way. Our Chairman Lee’s quite the joker. A man who keeps tabs on his neighbors. Or…… maybe you didn’t know I did it? That’s possible too.
Jin Woo-sung chuckled.
Lee Young-sik tried to exercise patience, but the discomfort on the tracking team’s faces didn’t fade.
Another sigh escaped him.
“Look…… Since a long conversation seems pointless anyway. Let’s cut to the chase. What do you want?”
-Chairman, I like that directness. But are you thick? Think about it. I come back to Seoul after so long, and I kidnap your precious princess—why? When I’ve got plenty of other things to do? Why bother?
“If it’s money you want, name the amount…….”
-Money…… Hmm…… As much as you think your daughter’s worth?
“What…….”
-I’ll drop you a location. Show some good faith. If you’re not happy with it…….‬
He let the threat hang deliberately, followed by a brief silence.
-Ehehehe—!
The call dropped with his laughter.
Lee Young-sik nearly hurled his phone in frustration, but held back.
A moment later, a text arrived.
The location was outside Seoul’s city center.
The Gray Zone.
“……Has he already escaped?”
No, wait.
Only ten minutes had passed so far.
He’d made contact while fleeing.
He had to keep his wits about him.
‘While he’s still in Seoul…….’
He made a call.
First, to Hunter Association Chairman Noh Beom-seok.
The conversation came through the direct line.
Noh Beom-seok’s response was affirmative.
Though he’d made it conditional—so long as he didn’t leave Seoul.
-If he gets outside, it falls outside our jurisdiction and things get complicated. And I’ll need you to show your sincerity. The Association’s been tough to run lately.
“……Of course.”
Though the man running the Hunter Association had the manners of a street thug, Lee Young-sik didn’t dwell on it—he’d known as much already.
Getting his cooperation was something to be grateful for in the first place.
He ended the call quickly and rang Mo Ran-hee directly.
She didn’t pick up.
He called the secretary’s office instead.
-I apologize. The President has entered a Dungeon…….
Only an unfortunate answer came back.
“If by chance you do come back, would you pass along a message for me?”
“Of course. Whose request is it?”
A soft laugh—the last one—and then the line went dead.
Even in that moment, Lee Young-sik set the phone down with steady hands and drew a measured breath.
Then he spoke.
“It’s fine.”
It’s fine.
At least we’ve salvaged something, haven’t we?
From the start, he hadn’t even dared to hope both of them could be moved.
Kang Tae-woo spoke.
“Call from the field tracking team. They’ve found traces. Heading toward the Red Zone.”
“They’re leaving the city, then. Tell them to apply maximum pressure to slow him down.”
“Understood, Chairman.”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
* * *
After hanging up, Jin Woo-sung stood with his hands clasped behind his back and spoke.
“The lamp under the lamp is dark. A famous old saying, but people in a hurry never think of it. Isn’t that right, young lady?”
His gaze turned toward the Green Zone—toward the basement of this An Family estate he had prepared long ago.
Lee Seo-ah sat there, shackled by the wrists and ankles in an iron-barred cell, her small, delicate frame perfectly still.
She spoke in a calm, measured voice.
“You’re not well known, Jin Woo-sung. If your father had realized you possessed a Clone Skill, he would have been far more thorough in his calculations.”
“Ah… for someone so pretty, you’ve got a dull way of talking. Can’t you be a little more playful about it? Who knows? Maybe I’m in such a good mood I’d just let you go. I’m not exactly the type who only cares about money, you know.”
“I won’t bother listening to things you don’t mean. You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“Harsh. Very harsh. How can you be so certain? What do you really know about me? The world may have some ugly rumors, but that’s all they are—”
“Because I know about your Clone Skill.”
……
“Jin Woo-sung. Your signature skills are Acceleration, Superhuman Strength, and Regeneration. They’re simple physical abilities, but the numbers are so high and you use them with such finesse that even most S-Rank Hunters struggle against you, don’t they?”
“Interesting. Go on.”
“If you use your Clone Skill well, and you’re lucky, you could kill an S-Rank Hunter. Even without luck, at worst you could escape. I know these secrets of yours now. If I walk out of here alive, I’ll spread the word. You won’t have kind feelings about that.”
Lee Seo-ah stopped there.
The rest didn’t need to be said—anyone could understand it.
There’s no reason to keep her alive.
No, in fact, there’s a clear reason she must die.
A brief silence passed.
Jin Woo-sung released his clasped hands and began to clap slowly.
“Not bad.”
“Too kind.”
“No, I mean it. It’s not exactly a difficult thing to reason through, but people—when their own lives are at stake, their minds just don’t work the way they want them to. You understand, don’t you? Look at your father. Under normal circumstances, even if he wouldn’t know about the Clone Skill, wouldn’t he have been more cautious? More thorough? The chairman who built the Taesung Group legend—that’s the kind of man I know.”
……
“But it doesn’t work that way. His daughter’s life is too precious to him. Yet paradoxically, when it’s your own life on the line, you don’t falter. Not from fearlessness exactly—your eyes are trembling quite visibly, after all.”
“Who wants to die? I simply refuse to become the fool who clings to foolish hope while facing death as the price of necessity.”
“That’s what I like about you. Lee Seo-ah, wasn’t it? Yes. Shall we talk seriously? If you don’t want to die, I’ll spare you. In exchange for money, of course. Come away with me. Out there. As it happens, my eighteenth wife’s position is open. For someone like you… I might even skip the usual order and elevate you.”
“I’ll decline. To be honest, I was confused until just now, but now I know for certain that I’m sane.”
“What do you mean?”
“How could I live with someone who has eyes like yours? I’d sooner bite my own tongue and die.”
A cold smile formed on Lee Seo-ah’s face.
At the sight of it, Jin Woo-sung tore through the iron bars in one motion and lunged forward, his fist hurtling toward her head.
Crack!
With the sound of air splitting, Lee Seo-ah’s black hair scattered violently.
Jin Woo-sung met her dark eyes and smiled thinly.
“Not a single blink. Is it courage, or did you have something else in mind?”
“I don’t see any reason to answer.”
“You’re too defiant. I don’t like that. Besides, I’ve already got the money, so maybe I should just kill you?”
“…Try, then.”
The bloodlust in Jin Woo-sung’s eyes erupted violently.
Just as his fist, which had paused for a moment, began to shimmer with power again—
Beep-beep-beep!
His phone rang.
Keeping his murderous gaze fixed, Jin Woo-sung pulled the phone from his pocket and pressed the answer button.
An older voice came through the line.
-Your Majesty, I’ve finally found him.
Jin Woo-sung, a cool smile playing across his lips, asked a question.
“Who?”
-……Joo Do-gyeom.
“Joo Do-gyeom?”
-Yes, a hunter by that name.
The Prophet’s voice trembled slightly—unlike his usual composure.
The original Jin Woo-sung would have found that strange.
But he wasn’t paying attention now.
Excitement outweighed curiosity.
Jin Woo-sung, his face alight with delight, lowered his fist and spun around to speak.
“That’s our Prophet for you. Fast work—I like it. So, did you pinpoint the location?”
-I haven’t located him yet, but it’s only a matter of time. At the place we were originally supposed to meet…….
“Never mind that. I’ll send you the coordinates. Come here. If you happen to figure out the location on the way, just call me again.”
-Understood…….
Before the words even finished.
Jin Woo-sung hung up, grinning widely as he turned to look at Lee Seo-ah.
And he saw it.
The eyes that had been so composed all this time suddenly crumble.
Jin Woo-sung’s mind raced.
‘Your Majesty? Found him? Joo Do-gyeom? Joo Do……gyeom?’
A smile bloomed across his face of its own accord.
Jin Woo-sung spoke.
“You…… know Joo Do-gyeom?”
* * *
Sunlight pouring down.
Within a splitting headache.
“Ugh…….”
Joo Do-gyeom opened his eyes, letting out an involuntary groan.

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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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