The Regressed Necromancer Prepares for the Apocalypse - Chapter 19

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Necromancer Who Returned Prepares for the End: Episode 19

After that… well, I’ll say it was easy.
Even if Do Jin had only managed to reach the lower ranks of D-grade, was outnumbered, and faced an upper-tier D-grade Player on the other side.
The accumulated combat experience and the speed of strategic adaptation it afforded were qualitatively different.

“Damn it! Stone Throw!”

Hong Jin Gu’s voice, still hidden behind the other thugs and relying only on attack skills.
It seemed he was determined to stick to the typical mage tactic of hiding in the rear and casting spells, nothing more.

“Well, no wonder.”

Players in the Tutorial Season were remarkably simple. Endlessly repeating the same Arenas across countless battlefields, they had discovered the strategies and adapted quickly.
It repeated itself without end.
Stripping away the individuality of Players.
Until they could not survive before the enormous transformation called the Main Scenario.

……

Looking down at the assassin thug who had been completely knocked unconscious from blocking a succession of unwilled attacks with his body, Do Jin let out a bitter smile.

“In the end, you’ll have reason to thank me too. Before the return, after all, the Players who survived were the ones who adapted quickly even in anomalous situations—the perceptive and resourceful ones.”

And so countless Players who had been grinding daily Arena Quests for money met their death in the early stages of the Main Scenario.
Among the mid-to-low level Player survivors, there were surprisingly many of criminal backgrounds like Hong Jin Gu.
Because they had tried to exploit the Arena in various ways, not just clearing the Quests handed to them.
Rather, before the massive upheaval of the Main Scenario, they could think and respond far more flexibly.
Of course, among ordinary Players too, the fortunate or quick-thinking ones had adapted and survived.
Do Jin was one of them.

‘Hong Jin Gu probably had something like this in mind for his strategy.’

Hong Jin Gu himself would use flashy earth-attribute skills to draw Do Jin’s attention.
The tank would focus purely on defense, occasionally the hunter would pull aggro.
And in the meantime, send in the assassin to knock Do Jin down beautifully… something like that.

“Everyone has a perfect plan.”

Until they get beaten down.

“Screech!”

The assassin Player, seized by the collar by Do Jin, could not activate Stealth.
At this very moment, his role was a shield.
……A shield against the Spear of Earth that Hong Jin Gu had just used and the falling rocks that had tumbled down from above.
His body, battered from all sides by stones falling from above and to the side, was beginning to reach a level that could only be called pitiful.

‘Honestly, the Servant Armament alone would be enough to defend against the rockfall.’

But he still didn’t want to reveal a new skill too openly before these other Players.
These thugs still had no idea that the Player before their eyes was the Necromancer, Do Jin.

“You cowardly bastard!”
“What organization do you belong to that you dare challenge us…!”

Seeing Do Jin’s underhanded tactics, the thugs became convinced he was one of their own kind.
And no wonder—unlike ordinary Players accustomed only to Quests,
Do Jin, seasoned by countless trials, conducted Player-versus-Player combat with such unsettling ease.

Crack!
Hong Jin Gu, his teeth gritted, barked an order at his fellow thugs. Though there were only two of them left.
For the record, the thug tank and thug hunter weren’t in much better shape than the human shield Do Jin held in his grip.

“All at once! Stones or no stones, we go all out. Got it?!”

At last, a real assault was coming. Do Jin deflected the relentless cascade of falling rocks pouring from above using the assassin he held in his hand, thinking coldly to himself as he did.

‘I’ve measured their level thoroughly now.’

And in that same instant, Do Jin’s lips moved.

“Tedious. Let’s end this.”
“……What?”
“……?”
“Wh-what……?!”

Before Do Jin’s words had even finished.
His hands and feet were already moving.

Whoosh—!
Smack! Crack! Thud!
The assassin Player’s body, gripped in Do Jin’s hand, was hurled violently into empty space.
The body, thrown with such force, took the full brunt of the still-falling rocks and tumbled into the space between Do Jin and the thugs, blocking their view.
In that fleeting moment when their sight was obscured—

He moved directly into their line of sight.

Boom!!!

“-Ack……?!”

Do Jin slipped deftly through the falling rocks like passing between sheets of rain, and drove his fist into the tank’s face.

“……?!”

And before the hunter beside him could even recover his wits.
Whoosh— Crack!!!

“-Ggh, urgh……”

The hunter took the heel of Do Jin’s massive backward leg strike square on the back of his skull and lost consciousness immediately.
Only one remained.

“Th-this is impossible……”

Hong Jin Gu, the ringleader of the thug crew.
Before his denial of the entirely unanticipated turn of events could even finish—
Thwack!!

“Gasp……”

With the tremendous impact delivered to his abdomen, Hong Jin Gu lost consciousness.
Flecks of foam trickling from the corner of his mouth.

* * *

“So…… the arenas in this area are essentially yours to claim?”

It was only natural that Do Jin had cleared the Quest in the Arena . In a standard Arena, if a Player lost consciousness, they were automatically disqualified.
What’s more, using rockfall as a weapon and having it recognized as a valid destruction method had proven effective.
So Do Jin had cleared the Quest and subdued the thugs in one sweep before time ran out—and now he was dragging all four of them outside the Arena and beating them senseless.
The four thugs were kneeling on the ground, their bodies covered in bruises large and small.

“Yes, that’s right, sir!”

The four thugs knelt with their faces and entire bodies covered in welts.
The reason was simple: true to form, they hadn’t accepted their defeat in the Arena and came at Do Jin in a mob after they logged out.

– You’re dead, you bastard!
– Let’s see if you’re so fine and dandy with a blade in you!

And Do Jin, rich with real combat experience, had beaten them all down flat.

– Damn it… This guy’s got some skill…
– Outside the Arena we’re just as good as him! We can take him with numbers!

They’d repeated this cycle a full five times.

– W-wait, sir, I’m sorry… Ack!
– Please spare us! I won’t… Gahhh!

For the record, Do Jin had deliberately prolonged those five fights. He knew from experience that vermin like this would crawl right back if you didn’t stomp them thoroughly enough.
These were thugs intoxicated by the superhuman strength Players possessed.
Do Jin understood well that if you crushed them decisively with the very power they worshipped, they would surrender in their hearts as well.

“Sir!”

Now the word “sir” flowed automatically from the thugs’ mouths.
Hong Jin Gu and the others, now broken in body and spirit, seemed to regard Do Jin as something like an executive of an underground organization.

‘A guy with fighting skills like that can’t be unknown.’
‘Is some foreign organization trying to expand into our country?’

Among criminals, too, the question of whether one had awakened as a Player mattered greatly.
Of course, their abilities were limited to use within the Arena, but—
Considering that the Arena itself was now treated as virtual territory among criminals, a Player’s strength and numbers had become a crucial factor in determining a criminal organization’s actual power and influence.

“The Arena can only be logged into by Players, can’t it? And clearing Quests isn’t even mandatory once you’re logged in.”
“So Arenas with poor rewards are basically left alone.”
“But to us, that abandoned Arena land seems like a waste. You can log in to an Arena with just about anything that isn’t a living thing, after all.”
“……….”

Do Jin fell into thought as the thugs muttered on.

‘What was Hong Jin Gu like before the return?’

In the Main Scenario Season, a man who had gathered criminal Players to form a minor power.
But before awakening as a Player, he was just another thug among many.

‘Even in the Tutorial Season before my return, Hong Jin Gu’s name wasn’t particularly well-known.’

Among criminal networks, perhaps, but among Players at least, Hong Jin Gu was nothing particularly special.

‘That was probably because criminal Players avoided streaming altogether and focused on acquiring illegal Magic Stones and Gold.’

As they say, old habits die hard—those who had turned to crime once never stopped, even after awakening.
Instead, they would have exploited the skills they gained and the Arena Login ability for their crimes.

‘I don’t know how he pulled off crime-related activities using an ability that only works inside the Arena…….’

By leveling up steadily and consolidating his connections that way, once the Main Scenario Season began, he would have risen to prominence as the guild master of a major guild.

‘But Hong Jin Gu was relatively moderate among them.’

It was absurd to call a man who casually orchestrated Player kidnappings moderate, I knew.
But that was the reality of the Main Scenario Season before the return.
By that standard, Hong Jin Gu was still the tame one.

‘So what about now?’

Hong Jin Gu hadn’t built much of a notorious reputation during the Tutorial Season. It was in the Main Scenario Season that he’d expanded his influence.
In other words, the current Hong Jin Gu hadn’t yet committed serious felonies.
Then?

‘Couldn’t I use this man for my purposes?’

He could likely be useful in two ways.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————