The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 7

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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 7
Episode 7.
Ju Do-gyeom’s brow furrowed with subtle creases.
There was only one thing he could deduce from this.
What had been implanted in his mind.
‘Cheonsal-seong.’
By the time he’d reached that conclusion.
A hand shot out suddenly from the gap between the alley walls.
Ju Do-gyeom sidestepped without even looking at his attacker, leaning his body back just far enough.
“……!!”
The man stared at Ju Do-gyeom in shock.
Ju Do-gyeom, without a word, seized the jutting elbow.
His assailant cried out in alarm.
“What the hell are you—”
The words never finished.
Crack!
The arm bent in a direction an arm should never bend, accompanied by the sound of bone breaking.
“Ahhhhh—!”
A scream pierced the air.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts—! You bastard—!”
Curses followed in the next breath.
It was hardly amusing.
Here was someone who’d planned to kidnap and rob him, and the moment his arm was caught, he howled about what was happening, then hurled insults.
And yet, this was the average citizen of the Red Zone in this era.
‘Or perhaps.’
It might not be limited to the Red Zone alone.
Even as such thoughts crossed his mind, Ju Do-gyeom moved with perfect composure, his eyes sharp.
His gaze shifted past the screaming man, toward the shadows at the mouth of the alley where another cluster of figures had emerged.
One of them glanced at the man sprawled on the ground and spoke with genuine alarm.
“You son of a bitch… Jun-ho…!”
In the same instant, trembling hands yanked a pistol from inside his jacket.
It made no difference.
By that moment, Ju Do-gyeom had already closed the distance with a light, rapid step, arriving directly in front of the man.
The problem came at this precise instant.
From within Ju Do-gyeom’s inner depths, an inexplicable ripple had begun to stir.
‘Cheonsal-seong.’
The moment he recognized it.
He plunged his hand into the dark pouch and seized the tail of the Steel Fish still living and breathing inside, yanking it free.
As if drawing a blade.
Slash!
The Steel Fish thrashed and writhed, flailing wildly.
‘…….’
“Ughhhhhh—!”
The one who screamed was the man holding the gun.
Panicking, he hooked his finger around the trigger anyway.
Thinking could wait.
‘Tsk.’
Ju Do-gyeom clicked his tongue inwardly and simply swung the Steel Fish he held with raw force.
At the same moment.
A crimson mark appeared on the thug’s temple, visible only to Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes.
It was quite large.
He understood instinctively.
A strike to that spot would mean the robber before him would ‘certainly’ die.
Revulsion at taking a life need not exist.
Yet Ju Do-gyeom exercised his will and altered the arc of the Steel Fish in mid-swing, aiming away from that red mark.
Thud!
“Aaahhh—!”
The robber, struck in the eye socket by a fish rather than a blade, dropped the gun and collapsed to the ground.
Ju Do-gyeom’s foot came to rest just beneath the man’s jaw.
Crack.
With a groan, the robber’s head snapped backward and consciousness fled.
In the same instant, Ju Do-gyeom’s fish whirled toward another thug who was rushing at him with a long sword drawn.
A sneer bloomed across the robber’s face.
‘Lunatic. Swinging a fish at a blade?’
Even if it was Dungeon-origin, it made no sense.
Besides, he was a Hunter.
‘A Steel Fish like that I’ll snap in two in an instant……!’
He’d make sure to give Ju Do-gyeom — who’d hurt his comrades — a rougher time.
Just before the whirling sword collided with the fish.
It suddenly changed direction.
Slightly lower than where it had been aiming from above.
Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes were tracking the red mark carved into the blade.
‘I need to confirm it.’
And then.
The overconfident robber’s eyes went wide.
His mind flooded with bewilderment.
‘……!???’
And well it might.
‘The, the blade…… was cut by the fish?’
Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?
‘This doesn’t make sense.’
He had no chance to voice the question.
The moment Ju Do-gyeom confirmed the identity of that red mark, his Steel Fish fell straight down onto the man’s crown.
Thud!
And so three men collapsed in an instant.
As the remaining robbers realized something had gone terribly wrong and turned to flee.
Ju Do-gyeom planted his feet and burst forward after them.
What followed.
“Aaaaagh-”
“P-please, p-help me-!”
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”
Screams and desperate cries for help were answered by Ju Do-gyeom’s reassurance.
Crack, thwack, bang-!
The Alley filled with the sound of violence.
* * *
Seven in total.
Having subdued the gang of robbers, Ju Do-gyeom returned the favor by robbing them in turn.
He took everything that looked remotely sellable, and when he found a Hunter mixed in among them, he beat the man awake and ransacked his Inventory as well.
Luck was on his side.
The Hunter’s Inventory held three Lowest Grade Mana Stones.
Whether the man had earned them himself or stolen them from someone else, Ju Do-gyeom didn’t know.
What mattered was that those three Mana Stones now belonged to him.
It was more than enough to cover the replacement cost of the Steel Fish, which had been battered beyond serviceable condition.
The effort of traveling back and forth to Yong Dungeon was another matter, but that hardly concerned him.
There was nowhere else suitable to sell the goods he’d taken from the robbers anyway.
So the next morning.
As Ju Do-gyeom settled into a subway car bound for Yong Dungeon, he slowly lifted his right arm.
Though a day had passed, the memory remained vivid.
The glazed eyes of the Steel Fish he’d held in his hand.
It was dead, of course.
Even for a Dungeon-origin creature as hard as a fish, it had bled from the blade and taken blows from a man.
For a common Steel Fish to survive such violent abuse would have been impossible.
‘But that wasn’t really the point.’
What mattered was that he’d hit a person with a fish for the first time in his life.
No — that wasn’t it either.
In that brief moment when he’d drawn the fish.
In that fleeting window, however narrow.
‘My consciousness vanished.’
In its place, his body’s instinct had moved him.
A clear manifestation of Madness.
Jin Woo-sung, for his part, had grown far less able to control his murderous impulse because of the Madness that came with Cheonsal-seong.
It was precisely this that made it possible to track his chaotic movements without much difficulty.
But Ju Do-gyeom.
‘Why on earth…’
Why did his Madness manifest in the form of grabbing and swinging a fish?
‘…Will it always be this way whenever I see a fish from now on?’
Or could the Madness reveal itself in other forms as well?
Caught in these questions.
Ju Do-gyeom gathered himself with deliberate calm.
‘There’s no way to know yet.’
It was only because he’d decided he couldn’t be certain about the Madness of Cheonsal-seong without more evidence.
And there was something positive to consider.
The mark of death that Cheonsal-seong created, which appeared in the form of red dots.
Even as he watched them, Ju Do-gyeom could consciously change his points of attack.
This was so despite his body naturally chasing after the mark of death.
Unlike Jin Woo-sung, his killing intent didn’t rampage, nor did uncontrollable rage boil within him.
‘The Madness has partially manifested, but in the aspect that matters most, I’m not actually out of control.’
Yes.
A bitter laugh nearly escaped him.
‘All things considered, swinging a fish isn’t so bad.’
That was the conclusion he’d arrived at.
* * *
One piece of knowledge embedded in Ju Do-gyeom’s mind by the Omnipotent Cook profession:
Food tastes better the sooner you dress and cook a living creature after catching it.
Isn’t that obvious?
True enough.
But Ju Do-gyeom had never held such thoughts before.
Before his regression, he’d had little interest in food, and because of that, he’d never cooked a single meal with his own hands.
But now things were different.
He had NewTube running while he learned how to clean Dungeon-origin fish.
The Kitchen Knife he’d brought from the Cannibal’s Mansion moved with surprising dexterity in his hands.
Following the basic formula for a braised fish dish, he placed the cleaned fish in a pot and brought it to a boil.
The crucial element was the sauce.
More precisely, it was the Mana Stone that would transform into the sauce.
The hard Mana Stone.
When Ju Do-gyeom sprinkled soy sauce over it and raised the heat, the Mana Stone melted like snow, mingling with the soy sauce to become a liquid.
He dipped the tip of his finger into it and tasted.
It had quite a promising flavor.
No—it actually tasted better than when he’d practiced braising with ordinary fish.
This was yet another mystery of a Hunter’s abilities, the enigma of skills.
Even though it’s an ability that imparts knowledge, the mere existence of a skill could produce such unusual phenomena.
Who in the world would have thought of melting Mana Stones and transforming them into braising sauce to eat?
It would’ve been impossible in the first place.
But Ju Do-gyeom could do it.
Because he was the Omnipotent Cook.
The rich aroma of sweet and savory soy-braised fish filled the cramped shared kitchen of the Gosiwon.
The fishy smell that should have wafted from the fish was suppressed instead.
Only the fragrance of umami-rich flavors reached his nostrils.
Because of this, a few of his fellow Gosiwon residents emerged from their rooms and watched his back, their mouths watering.
A man in his mid-thirties from the next room approached Ju Do-gyeom and asked.
“I could pay you—would it be possible to share some of this? The food looks absolutely delicious.”
“I’m sorry.”
Out of the question.
This wasn’t some ordinary braised dish—the ingredients included Dungeon-origin fish and Mana Stones.
So Ju Do-gyeom refused outright.
The man looked regretful, smacking his lips a few times before his expression soured and he retreated.
Probably he’d lodge a complaint with the Gosiwon owner before long.
If that happened, Ju Do-gyeom would have no choice but to leave.
After all, his behavior hadn’t exactly been sensible by ordinary standards.
‘I should start looking for a nearby officetel as soon as possible.’
He’d originally planned to move straight into the Blue Zone once he left the gosiwon, but that was no longer an option.
He’d have to find a short-term room somewhere, anywhere.
While turning these thoughts over in his mind, he reached for the perfectly finished Steel Fish Mana Stone braise.
Ju Do-gyeom caught it deftly, placed it on a plate, and pushed the spoon into its shell.
Then—
Crunch!
A fresh, crisp sound rang out.
‘Is it because the shell’s naturally hard? There’s that fried texture to it.’
The flesh beneath, where the spoon had sunk in, glistened with transparent oil and offered a tender, yielding feel.
Without hesitation, Ju Do-gyeom dipped the meat generously in sauce—a blend of soy and Mana Stone essence—and brought it to his mouth.
In that instant—
“Mmm…!”
An exclamation escaped him unbidden.
There was no particular reason for it.
It was simply delicious.
Personal opinion aside, it tasted noticeably—no, considerably—better than what he’d eaten from those cooks who’d had reputations for skill before his regression.
The outside was crisp, the inside moist, and the umami that coated his tongue was deep and rich.
A perfect harmony of soy and fish.
Placed atop a bowl of white rice—
“Mmmmm…”
Sounds of satisfaction tumbled out one after another.
Inside his body, mana was rising in steady waves.
* * *
The next day.
Ju Do-gyeom was promptly evicted from the gosiwon.
He felt no regret.
He signed a month-long lease on a single room in the Red Zone.
There, he prepared Mana Stone braise several more times.
Fish alone grew tiresome, so he mixed in meat as well.
Through these experiments, he discovered two significant truths.
First:
Ju Do-gyeom himself had become quite the epicure, quite different from before his regression.
Now that he thought about it, in his past life he’d had no interest in the taste of food itself.
More precisely, he’d found no real pleasure in the act of eating.
But now, without even trying, he could taste things properly.
This was likely the influence of his profession—the Omnipotent Cook.
And second:
This was somewhat disappointing news.
The mana-enhancing effect of Mana Stone braise had its limits.
With Lowest Grade Mana Stones, his mana had begun to stop rising entirely.
Put simply:
Mana Stone braise was not an infinite source of mana growth.
‘It’s been steadily increasing, though not enough to push me to the next rank, but starting yesterday it’s plateaued completely.’
Of course, there was still a minuscule amount—
the tiniest fraction of growth.
But at this point, the cost of preparing and consuming the Mana Stone braise outweighed the benefit.
So Ju Do-gyeom made the decision today to stop eating Lowest Grade Mana Stone braise altogether.
It was disappointing, but he had to accept reality.
Actually, there wasn’t even much to regret.
What other profession could grant such substantial mana gains so effortlessly, and outside a dungeon no less?
‘None.’
Even after scouring his extensive memories from before the regression, he couldn’t name a single one.
Moreover, the Omnipotent Cook profession was only just beginning.
‘If the name truly lives up to its meaning—if I can cook anything, literally anything—’
then the possibilities expand infinitely.
Ju Do-gyeom reached his conclusion.
‘At minimum, it’s an S-grade profession.’
The rank being spoken of here wasn’t determined by the System.
It was an informal hierarchy the Hunter community—the Hunters themselves—ranked among them.
Of course, the instincts of someone who’d lived once before and regressed were quite reliable.
He felt that the Omnipotent Cook was at least an S-grade job.
The highlight of that skill, however, lay in the cooking that would come after.
Cannibal’s Mana Stone (Special)
The special Mana Stone he’d saved for last became a Korean gochujang-braised fish.
Was it because his experience had accumulated over time?
Or was it the virtue of the higher-grade Mana Stone that had gone into it?
The food tasted unusually exquisite.
It was around that moment.
A System message echoed in his mind.

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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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