The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 65

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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 65
Episode 65.
Doppelgänger Hotel.
No Designated Rank.
Like the Cannibal’s Mansion before it, this was a Dungeon the system had left ungraded.
But as mentioned, it ranked third on the Hunter Community’s list of worst Dungeons.
In truth, at this level, the ranking itself held little meaning.
From the top five down, evaluations diverged depending on the individual Hunter’s abilities and disposition.
The higher the rank, the more votes came from Hunters who’d never actually set foot in the place.
Votes cast based on nothing but rumors and hearsay—a fear multiplier, if you will.
Still.
By Ju Do-gyeom’s own reckoning, having already lived through the future, the Doppelgänger Hotel’s difficulty certainly placed it in the top ten Dungeons of this era.
Of course, that was assuming the strategy remained unknown.
‘If you know it, though, things change entirely.’
Following Ju Do-gyeom’s plan, this Dungeon could actually prove easier to clear than any they’d faced before.
Provided, as always, that no unexpected variables emerged.
And so the three of them entered.
As their vision clarified, what appeared before them was the entrance to an overwhelmingly spacious Hotel Lobby.
A chandelier hung from the high ceiling.
Marble floors polished to a gleam.
Countless figures moved across it.
A guest pulling a suitcase.
A staff member holding a tray.
An elderly man seated on a sofa, newspaper spread open.
Everyone was attending to their tasks, yet not a single person acknowledged the three newcomers.
More than that, the silence was distinctly unnatural.
Footsteps and rustling fabric filled the air—but there was not a single word of conversation.
The warmth and scent that should have emanated from a space crowded with people were entirely absent.
It felt like mannequins had been released across a meticulously constructed stage set.
Kim Han-ryul swallowed hard.
Then he turned to Ju Do-gyeom and spoke.
“…Mink.”
“Clear.”
They had arranged the secret code beforehand.
Kim Han-ryul’s gaze shifted next toward Lee Seo-ah.
“Chungu.”
“….”
Lee Seo-ah let out a heavy sigh.
“…There’s no stopping him.”
“Confirmed. All good.”
Kim Han-ryul nodded, relieved.
Lee Seo-ah exhaled softly.
“Do we really need to confirm right now? Just because it’s the Doppelgänger Hotel doesn’t mean problems arise the moment we enter.”
“Better safe than sorry. Why not check things over first? It’s good practice.”
“…I understand.”
“You’re more agreeable than I expected. I like the attitude.”
“We’re inside a Dungeon.”
“Hmm….”
Kim Han-ryul let out a soft sound and linked his arm through Lee Seo-ah’s.
Lee Seo-ah jumped back in surprise.
“What—what are you doing!?”
“Let’s get closer as a team. I don’t actually dislike you, you know.”
“…I don’t dislike Kim Han-ryul either.”
“Then we’re in good shape.”
Ju Do-gyeom, who had been watching the exchange unfold, spoke.
“Good to see.”
It felt as though the joint training over the past few days was finally paying off.
Under that gaze, Kim Han-ryul’s expression shifted to something almost sheepish, and he cleared his throat.
“Ahem….”
His gaze turned forward.
Eerie and cold, the interior of the Doppelgänger Hotel was filled with nothing but Doppelgängers.
Goosebumps crawled up his spine.
“Ugh… I have to walk through that crowd to get inside. This isn’t some horror film.”
The Doppelgänger Hotel was avoided by Hunters for a reason.
Not because they were strong, but because the atmosphere was unbearable.
“Then, let’s go.”
Ju Do-gyeom spoke without hesitation and stepped forward into the lobby.
Lee Seo-ah followed close behind.
“Really, none of you are afraid at all!”
Kim Han-ryul grumbled and trailed after them.
The three moved through the expressionless crowd, cutting across the sea of faces.
None of the Doppelgängers they passed even glanced back at them.
Not yet.
Ju Do-gyeom was acutely aware of this fact as he made his way toward the desk at the back of the lobby.
Already, the end of this dungeon was taking shape in his mind.
The top floor.
Where the king of these counterfeits would be waiting.
‘As long as there are no unforeseen complications.’
This hunt would be finished by the end of the day.
* * *
They had advanced to roughly the center of the Hotel Lobby when it happened.
A message materialized before the three of them.
『This dungeon contains four rules.』
『First. Go to the desk and receive your room assignment.』
『Second. Take the Elevator to your designated room and enter.』
『Third. Remain in your room until checkout is requested.』
『Fourth. Do not quarrel with the hotel staff or guests.』
『Each time a rule is broken, usage restrictions according to hotel policy will be imposed.』
“……Every time I see this, it’s absurd.”
Kim Han-ryul muttered while staring at the message.
Don’t leave the room until checkout is requested.
In name it was a hotel, but in practice it was the rules of a prison.
They said the rooms were spacious and pleasant, but there was no food, no water.
It meant being trapped indefinitely in a useless room—good for nothing but brief rest.
But the problem didn’t end there.
The clear condition for this dungeon.
Defeat the Doppelgänger King, the hotel owner on the Hotel Top Floor.
There was no way to reach the top floor by obediently staying in your room.
In other words, clearing the dungeon meant breaking at least one or two rules inevitably.
And the usage restrictions that followed rule-breaking were absolutely vicious.
The most severe restriction was.
‘Spatial separation…….’
Inside this hotel filled with Doppelgängers, the party would be scattered in all directions.
Naturally, when they reunited, due to the dungeon’s nature, it became difficult to verify who was real.
There was a secret code, but even that wasn’t foolproof.
If enough time passed after entry, the Doppelgängers would delve into memories and copy those too.
The second restriction involved direct interference with the system itself.
It sealed Skills registered in the system or Ability Stats.
Skill Seal was manageable at least.
Apart from a few special cases, Skills could be technically imitated in some form.
Effectiveness would simply suffer.
But Ability Seal was different.
Being sealed meant a Hunter would regress to the level of an ordinary person in that one stat.
What could a Swordmaster do without Strength, a Mage without Mana, surrounded by Doppelgängers?
Kim Han-ryul had read reviews about this on the Hunter Community before.
It was a post from a Shield Hunter whose Strength had been sealed.
Unable even to drag his own body-weight shield, he’d spent an entire day running from things wearing his own face, finally escaping only because a teammate had brought an Emergency Escape Scroll.
The last line of the post read:
-I don’t care what kind of coercion comes my way, I’m never going back.
Below it, hundreds of similar comments were stacked.
In fact, the usage restrictions of the Doppelgänger Hotel arise primarily from this Ability Seal mechanism.
That’s why it ranks third among the worst dungeons.
Unsettling, filthy, and brutally difficult.
As Kim Han-ryul, turning over thoughts of the place, made his way toward the desk, he swallowed hard without quite meaning to.
Ju Do-gyeom opened his mouth.
“Kim Han-ryul. Lee Seo-ah.”
“Hmm?”
“Yes?”
“If there are no surprises, it’ll be over in no time.”
“……What are you saying?”
“Just hold steady. Don’t forget the password.”
“No, I mean—what does that mean, exactly?”
By then, all three had reached the desk.
A blank-faced employee raised his head.
A face identical to a human’s.
A uniform identical to a human’s.
But in those eyes lay nothing at all—like glass marbles emptied of everything.
Without a word, the employee slid forward something like a Hotel Key Card.
Rule one.
Be guided by reception.
The moment they took that card, all three would become orderly guests.
Ju Do-gyeom stared at the card being offered for a moment.
And instead of taking it.
He drew the Daebu from his inventory.
Kim Han-ryul’s and Lee Seo-ah’s eyes widened at the same instant.
No explanation had been given, but it wasn’t hard to guess what was about to happen.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke.
“Both of you—see you in a moment.”
Immediately after.
Schwing!
A silver arc traced across the desk in a single pass.
The employee’s head fell in silence.
Still in the posture of offering the card.
“Team lead……!”
When Kim Han-ryul’s voice rose.
Weee-weee-weee!
An alarm wailed through the entire hotel.
Every doppelgänger crossing the lobby froze in place at once.
And all at once, turned their heads toward the three.
The sensation of hundreds of empty eyes pouring down upon them.
『Rule violation detected.』
『One. Proceed to the desk and receive guidance.』
『Usage restriction activated.』
『Spatial separation.』
And.
The ground beneath them gave way.
The three felt themselves rushing impossibly far from one another.
Vision twisted, hands reaching out could not touch before.
Each vanished into their own darkness.
* * *
『Rule violation detected.』
『Four. Do not quarrel with the hotel’s staff or guests.』
『Usage restriction activated.』
『Ability Seal. Target ability: Strength.』
As the message echoed in his mind and Kim Han-ryul found himself breathing an involuntary sigh of relief.
His vision returned.
Kim Han-ryul stood in what appeared to be the Hotel Kitchen.
A gleaming prep counter.
Pots and pans hanging in neat rows.
And between them.
The Doppelgängers, who had been cooking with blank expressions, all stopped in unison and turned their heads toward her.
The alarm continued wailing.
Within that sound.
The Doppelgängers’ bodies began to melt like candle wax.
And when they hardened again.
Standing in the kitchen were dozens of Kim Han-ryuls.
The same face.
The same clothes.
Dozens of herself, all tilting their heads in the same posture.
One of them even grinned with her own face.
“…… Ugh, that’s creepy.”
A visceral discomfort entirely different from looking in a mirror.
Kim Han-ryul froze for a moment.
Then she smiled grimly and drew her weapon.
“Okay, I get it!”
She said hold the line.
If holding meant enduring, then enduring with firepower was her way.
A cascade of light fell behind her back, forming a massive white mechanical form.
New Mark Two.
The Gatling guns on both arms roared to life, spinning with a deafening shriek.
Rat-a-tat-a-tat-tat!
Countertops shredded, pots flew, and the things wearing her face were pulverized and scattered across the floor.
“Let me make one thing clear!”
Kim Han-ryul shouted at the advancing copies of herself.
“I don’t smile like that!”
Oil and flames sprayed outward, and the things with her face crumbled and collapsed into ash.
The kitchen became an inferno.
* * *
At the same moment.
Ju Do-gyeom found himself inside a darkened Elevator.
No one else was around.
It was narrow, dark, and silent.
‘So far, everything matches what I already knew.’
Those who break the rules are isolated.
Among them, the one who breaks the rules most egregiously ends up trapped alone in this dead lift.
In a past life.
There was a story Vivian had mentioned casually one night before sleep.
—The Doppelgänger Hotel? Oh, I know that place. Everyone there runs around like idiots, right? There’s a shortcut everyone misses.
If you go through the door, corridors full of Doppelgängers will be waiting for you.
The direct approach, but not a pleasant one.
Eventually you’d have to climb the stairs floor by floor until you reached the very top.
But Ju Do-gyeom didn’t go to the door.
Instead, he lifted the Daebu and traced a line above his head.
Screech—!
Space tore open like paper.
Beyond the rift, a writhing, sickly darkness rippled.
Ju Do-gyeom leaped through without hesitation.
What appeared was the surprisingly mundane space above the elevator shaft.
‘Even this matches what Vivian told me.’
He looked up.
A vertical passage stretched endlessly into the darkness above, dizzying in its depth.
The spine of the hotel.
The only direct route connecting all the way to the top floor in one shot.
Unfortunate as it was, it wasn’t an easy shortcut—just a simple climb wouldn’t suffice.
Slime-like Doppelgängers clung to various points on the walls.
The moment they sensed Ju Do-gyeom’s presence, they stirred sluggishly, and one by one began to shift into his form.
A nuisance, but faster than climbing the stairs nonetheless.
‘Still, a shortcut it is.’
Well.
This was Vivian’s knowledge, after all.
There was no room for doubt.
Ju Do-gyeom gathered strength in his legs.
And launched himself skyward.
In the darkness of the corridor.
Crack!
Blue lightning flashed from the Seomjeon-bi, illuminating the passage.
The instant the Doppelgänger completed its transformation into him, Ju Do-gyeom’s Daebu sliced through its throat.
Without breaking stride, he pivoted in midair and changed direction.
『Skill Unryong Daepai-sik promoted to 5-Star.』
At the same moment, he triggered Seomjeon-bi again.
『Skill Seomjeon-bi promoted to 7-Star.』
Its execution had become far more fluid, far more natural.
The reason was simple.
『Cheonji Muguk Singong promoted to 2-Star.』
His unique martial art, which had been split between two halves, was now wholly in his hands.
Light burning in his cold, dark eyes, Ju Do-gyeom moved like flight through the vast vertical shaft, tearing through at blinding speed.

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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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