The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 66

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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 66
66.
Kim Han-ryul emerged from the Kitchen into the Corridor, and hearing movement around the corner, raised his gun first.
From the other side of the corner came the telltale shimmer of violet Mana rising.
As they eyed each other warily, voices cut through the air.
“Jinx!”
“Can’t stop it!”
The moment they exchanged the Secret Signal Code, both rushed forward and pressed their backs together.
Kim Han-ryul and Lee Seo-ah.
Less than an hour had passed since Entry.
For a Doppelganger to replicate even memories took a minimum of half a day.
So whoever knew the Secret Signal Code now had to be real.
“You’re safe, Lee Seo-ah!”
“So are you. But these things—they keep coming.”
From both sides of the Corridor came a surge: Kim Han-ryul’s face and Lee Seo-ah’s face.
Dozens of himself and dozens of her.
It was unsettling enough to have your own face bearing down on you, but firing on your ally’s visage was something else entirely.
Still, they held their ground.
Even if they looked identical, combat prowess didn’t copy at one hundred percent.
The longer time passed, the stronger they became, but the known maximum was half the original’s strength.
The boss monster, the Doppelganger King, was the sole exception.
“Lee Seo-ah, just like we drilled it! I’ll handle the left!”
“I’ve got the right.”
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Kim Han-ryul’s Machine Gun swept the left side of the Corridor in a blanket of fire.
Crunch!
Lee Seo-ah’s violet maw swallowed the entire right side whole.
Ten days of synchronized timing proved itself.
Where bullets couldn’t reach, the maw consumed; where Mana ran thin on smaller prey, the gunfire mopped up.
The fallen Doppelgangers crumbled like ash-gray clay, seeping into the floor.
“But where did the captain end up falling to?”
“Not sure. He said it’d be over quickly, so… he must have a plan.”
“Some plan. Would it kill him to give us a heads-up?”
Despite the grumbling, her trigger hand remained steady.
When they’d cleared the wave for perhaps the fifth time, it happened.
Thud.
Something heavy fell somewhere down the Corridor.
Both their gazes snapped toward it simultaneously.
And then something strange occurred.
The Doppelgangers that had been surging forward like a tide stopped dead in their tracks.
Then they parted, left and right, like water cleaving.
Making way.
For someone.
Through that gap.
A man in black clothes stepped forward slowly, carrying an enormous axe.
A familiar expressionless face.
A familiar gait.
A familiar Daebu.
The axe head dragged across the carpet, drawing a low metallic whine.
Kim Han-ryul’s voice wavered.
“That’s… Bond?”
“…….”
Silence.
The two syllables that should have returned never came.
A Doppelganger wearing Ju Do-gyeom’s face.
Cold sweat traced down Kim Han-ryul’s spine.
The Doppelgangers in the Doppelganger Hotel could, after a certain amount of time passed, change into any Entrant they hadn’t encountered.
That time had come.
Which was why they’d devised the Secret Signal Code in the first place.
But for that moment to arrive the instant their captain appeared—of all times.
A cold sweat was inevitable.
Combat replication caps out at half strength.
But the opponent was Ju Do-gyeom.
“Half strength or whatever—that’s outright cheating!”
She’d watched with her own eyes as he severed a dragon’s neck in one stroke.
“Fire!”
The shout coincided with two New Mark Twos, summoned through replicated Manifestation, opening fire in perfect synchrony.
Lee Seo-ah didn’t hesitate either.
Gritting her teeth, she unleashed every scrap of Mana she could muster, a gaping violet mouth of pure power aimed straight at him.
Full power against the copy.
That much was only decent.
* * *
At that same moment.
In the darkness of the Vertical Passage, Ju Do-gyeom continued his ascent.
Crack—!
Each flash of blue lightning sent his form vaulting across entire levels.
His own faces, descending along the walls, were shredded by the Daebu and tumbled downward.
But among them was another.
Kim Han-ryul, gun in hand.
Lee Seo-ah, reaching out.
Ju Do-gyeom didn’t hesitate to cut them down.
Scrape—!
There was no chance those two would appear here.
So every last one of them was fake.
The judgment took less than half a breath.
But still.
‘This feeling—I can’t help it. It’s vile.’
A dungeon that forced you to slash down your comrades’ faces.
It was earning its reputation as the worst dungeon in every sense.
How much further had he climbed?
At last, the passage ended.
A sealed ceiling materialized before him.
Ju Do-gyeom didn’t slow—instead he thrust the Daebu forward.
Boom—!
The wall shattered, and his body burst through.
And at that moment.
The space convulsed once more, violently.
The presences that had clung to his back vanished entirely.
All the Doppelgangers chasing him were simply gone.
And the place Ju Do-gyeom had entered was.
A quiet, elegant room.
Plush carpet.
Soft lighting.
Through floor-to-ceiling windows that lined one entire wall, the glittering night of a neon-bright city stretched out in all its splendor.
A landscape that shouldn’t exist.
But that was what dungeons were like.
What mattered was one thing only.
He had finally reached the Boss Room.
That was when.
Screech.
From deeper within the room came the sound of metal dragging across the floor.
Low. Heavy.
A sound he knew by ear.
Of course he did.
It was the sound of the Daebu being dragged.
From beyond the boundary of the light, a man emerged slowly.
Black clothing.
Black eyes.
A massive axe.
Ju Do-gyeom himself.
I’d seen that face countless times on the way up, but this was different.
The very presence was different.
The Doppelganger King.
The owner of this Hotel had come out to greet the guest.
The creature opened its mouth.
“It’s my first time seeing a guest reach this far in such a manner.”
With Ju Do-gyeom’s face, in Ju Do-gyeom’s voice, it smiled with formal courtesy.
The first difference from a normal Doppelganger.
It possessed reason.
“Everyone climbs the stairs so faithfully. For days and days. When they tire and fall asleep, my staff tend to them with the utmost care.”
“The proprietor himself coming to welcome us. Your service is impressive.”
“It is the iron rule of this Hotel. Any distinguished guest who reaches the topmost floor shall be personally attended to by me.”
It slung the Daebu across its shoulder and continued with unhurried ease.
“And this guest is particularly special. This body.”
It raised its hand—or rather, Ju Do-gyeom’s hand—and spoke with admiration.
“Truly magnificent. Of all the bodies I’ve replicated, this one is unquestionably supreme. Every fiber of muscle is steeped in martial skill, and mana fills with each breath. How does one live to forge a body like this?”
“I suppose… diligently?”
“Ha. Such modesty.”
Beneath the words lay barely concealed fascination, and something far darker—contempt.
And with reason.
The second difference from a normal Doppelganger.
The Doppelganger King could draw up to 120 percent of its replicated target’s combat prowess.
The same body.
The same martial arts.
Plus a superior twenty percent overlay.
The ease of a king seated at the Hotel’s apex came from that.
“Let us be fair. The same body, the same techniques. Though I confess, mine are slightly stronger.”
“That hardly seems fair.”
“Hotel regulations.”
With brazen finality, it lowered its stance.
“I’m afraid this is where it ends for you.”
A crimson light poured from the creature’s eyes.
The Killing Intent Eye.
Replicated right along with Ju Do-gyeom’s strength, down to the very form.
And then it came at him.
The floor gave way beneath the Daebu as it fell.
Crash!
The carpet burst entirely where Ju Do-gyeom had retreated half a step.
What followed was the arc of the Yusseong-chu.
The chain cut through his vision, the weight curving in from his blind spot.
Unmistakably Ju Do-gyeom’s movement.
Unmistakably his martial skill.
And faster than ever.
The superior version with that extra twenty percent added to the original speed.
‘This is the first time watching my own techniques from outside.’
It was a strange experience.
The curve of the chain, the step of the footwork—all of it familiar to the eye.
Because it was familiar.
He could see it all.
Ju Do-gyeom watched the incoming weight without emotion.
And then.
Just before the two axes collided head-on.
The same crimson light blazed from Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes as well.
A sneer crossed the Doppelganger King’s lips at the sight.
‘Ignoring the same power of the Killing Intent Eye—’
Don’t you dare!
The thought that should have continued never finished.
A sharp, cutting sound.
The Doppelganger King’s Daebu split clean in two and scattered into empty air.

‘……!!’
The moment the King’s eyes widened.
Ju Do-gyeom’s axe, once in motion, did not stop.
Crunch—!
The King’s neck was severed.
『Skill Cheonlyeok Bubop promoted to 7-star.』
The promotion message rose silently, then faded.
On that face suspended in the void, a human expression appeared for the first time.
Shock.
The same expression the guests below had worn.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke calmly.
“A Unique Characteristic.”
A trait that exists only once in all the world.
“Thinking a mere Doppelganger could copy that—it’s arrogance.”
That creature’s crimson glow was nothing but a shell.
A hollow mimicry that had stolen only the color.
The real Killing Intent Eye had marked a point above its neck from the very beginning.
Thud.
The King’s head fell onto the plush carpet.
The severed body began crumbling into ash.
The entire Hotel trembled as if uttering a low cry.
The boss was dead.
‘Closure, then.’
Ju Do-gyeom retrieved the Daebu.
* * *
Moments earlier.
In the Hotel’s Corridor, two women were locked in deadly combat.
To put it plainly, it was hell.
Crash—!
The instant the Chain’s links unraveled, Kim Han-ryul threw himself forward without thinking.
Bang—!
The wall where he’d been standing moments before caved in entirely.
A Yusseong-chu.
A weapon he’d seen countless times from the sidelines.
But having it hurled at him—that was something else entirely.
“I know that Chain! I know it, but I can’t dodge it!”
“Move instead of talking!”
Lee Seo-ah’s jaws clamped down on the Chain’s trajectory, severing it.
In that gap, Kim Han-ryul’s net hammered the fake’s upper body.
But instead of retreating, the fake erased its footsteps.
Muyeong Sinbo.
A form that left only an afterimage before vanishing reappeared at Lee Seo-ah’s flank the next instant.
“Lee Seo-ah!”
Kim Han-ryul’s cry of alarm.
Instead of evading, Lee Seo-ah opened her jaws vertically before her.
A shield of teeth, raised in defense.
Crunch—!
The falling Daebu halted, clamped between violet fangs.
The recoil sent Lee Seo-ah tumbling backward into the wall, then rolling across the floor.
“Cough……!”
“Hold on! Just a bit longer!”
And this was only the half-strength version.
Every movement was precision incarnate—a perfect answer key—yet her body couldn’t keep pace.
And worse still, the fake Ju Do-gyeom was not alone.
While it pressed forward from the front.
Ordinary Doppelgangers surged in like waves from all sides.
Though crude by comparison, Kim Han-ryul’s Manifestations and the Devouring power Lee Seo-ah wielded were backing up the already-strained Ju Do-gyeom.
‘Thank the gods this Corridor is narrow……!’
Had it been an open plain?
The thought alone was horrifying.
Lee Seo-ah and Kim Han-ryul fought with everything they had, literally staking their lives on it.
It was a tightrope walk where a single misstep meant the end.
In the midst of the chaos.
One of the New Mark Twos was cleaved in half at the shoulder by the Daebu.
“My Mark Two!”
Even as he cried out, Kim Han-ryul’s mind was already working ahead.
A direct contest held no answer.
Which left only one path.
Pin it down. Devour it.
He poured Manifestation Rampage into the last remaining unit while simultaneously reconstituting the destroyed one in place.
He could have sworn he heard his magic power scraping against its limit, but he pushed through it.
And finally—in the moment when the fake’s movements lagged by half a beat.
“Now!”
With Kim Han-ryul’s shout, both New Mark Twos embraced the false Ju Do-gyeom simultaneously from the front and back.
『Skill, Manifestation Rampage (Rank 2) has been promoted.』
Her skill, which strengthened a designated manifestation for ten minutes, had achieved growth in its first real combat deployment.
The machines groaned and shrieked under the strain.
The fake’s axe tore through the armor and drove inward.
But those few seconds were all they needed.
“Swallow it whole!”
Lee Seo-ah’s violet maw consumed the pinned fake in a single bite.
Crunch—!
Daebu and all.
Shoulder and everything.
There wasn’t even time to watch it crumble into ashen mud.
The moment the fake vanished.
The Doppelgangers filling the space around them froze as one.
Across their vacant faces, something resembling confusion rippled for the first time.
Kim Han-ryul didn’t miss the opening.
“Run!”
The last round of gunfire pulverized the wall in front of them.
Simultaneously, the corridor floor—ravaged by the battle—collapsed inward with a deafening roar, taking the level below with it.
Dust swallowed their vision whole.
“Wh-what?!”
Kim Han-ryul snagged Lee Seo-ah’s wrist and rolled with her into the nearest guest room.
Before the Doppelgangers could turn this way.
The door slammed shut.
Both of them collapsed against it, their held breath pouring out in ragged gasps.
“Hah…… hah…….”
“Gasp…… gasp…….”
Neither had the strength left to speak.
After what felt like an eternity.
Lee Seo-ah spoke.
“We…… made it out.”
“Against our team leader, no less.”
They were both drenched in sweat from head to toe.
Kim Han-ryul’s shoulder was torn open and bleeding; Lee Seo-ah’s lips had drained to a pale white.
Half.
Against only half of him, and this was the result.
“……Now that I think about it.”
Kim Han-ryul stared at the ceiling, muttering.
“Our team leader really is a monster. Heh…… heh…….”

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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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