The Regressed Necromancer Prepares for the Apocalypse - Chapter 33

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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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The Returned Necromancer Prepares for the End — Episode 33

When exactly would they arrive?
Expanding the Test Guild’s presence through streaming, cultivating his comrades, focusing on his own leveling, attempting to hack the system once more…….
Yet through it all, Do Jin waited.
Having failed to uncover a single clue to cracking the system, he waited for the day when someone’s patience finally wore thin—when their spy came looking for him.

“At last.”

* * *

Do Jin logged into the Arena as he always did and drilled his spear techniques and skills in endless repetition.
Rest and level up, rest and level up, rest again and level up once more…….
Ever since logging out of the Vortex of Desire, Do Jin’s daily routine had been exactly this.
And the Arena where Do Jin logged in was always the same two places: the Under Arena, or the Test Guild’s Arena.

– Do Jin, you know what you mentioned the other day? Headquarters approved it.

The suggestion Do Jin had made just before entering the gambling den Arena—that they turn one of those useless arenas, the ones not even the Awakening Department bothered to manage, into a private facility of the Han River Group.
The Test Guild had successfully negotiated with the Awakening Department to privatize a suitable Arena under the Guild’s name. For reference, this Arena’s quest was striking at practice dummies.
And this Arena had become an indispensable training ground for Do Jin and Hae Won.
During the Tutorial Season, a Player cannot use their abilities without restrictions unless they log into an Arena.
In fact, the higher a Player’s level, the more stringently this applies—superhuman stats and an array of skills are virtually nonexistent outside an Arena.

‘Thanks to that, Players and ordinary people could coexist without friction.’

But then, if one trained as diligently in reality as ordinary people did, would stats grow or new skills be acquired?
The answer was no.
No matter how hard a Player trained in reality, they could not keep pace with the growth that leveling provided.
No—a Player’s actions in reality were not reflected by the system at all. This only became possible after the Main Scenario opened.
For example, a Swordsmanship-class Player training in a dojo for a whole year would be far less effective than raising the proficiency of the Swordsmanship skill even slightly.
Therefore, Players did not bother training in reality. They simply allocated experience earned in the Arena to their Status Window and called it a day.
Then why did abandoned Arenas exist scattered throughout South Korea—indeed, across the entire world?
Even without rewarding Mana Stones or Gold, their value would have been sufficient if used as training grounds for Players.
Why was that?

“Because the current Players simply aren’t passionate enough about leveling.”

Anyone who knew the future before the return would call it madness to even speak of.
Yet it was reality.
Players who climbed beyond a certain level and became celebrities were essentially entertainers now, their schedules packed accordingly.

“Beyond Arena streaming broadcasts, there were advertisement shoots, variety show appearances, YouTube broadcasts, event participation, meetings with power brokers in politics and business…… They’d need not two bodies but ten to fit it all in, let alone spare time for training.”

Given the choice, these current Players would rather sleep and rest—and that was the lot of most of them.
Still, lately, as Do Jin continued rolling out streaming broadcasts from the Under Arena and gaining popularity, some of them seemed to be wavering, showing signs of interest.

“If I had my way, I’d kidnap every last one of them and lock them in an Arena.”

It meant that while some star Players were too busy to focus on leveling, most Players were earning a comfortable living from Mana Stones and Gold in the Arena, enjoying their lives.
What more need be said? Before the return, Do Jin himself had been one of those majority Players.
There was not a single Player in reality as singularly devoted to leveling as Do Jin, staking everything on it.

“Though lately, there does seem to be talk of challenging the Under Arena popping up all over the place.”

Do Jin pulled up an internet forum on his smartphone.

– Isn’t Necro totally killing it lately?
– Is the Under Arena really that good
– It’s not that Under is good; it’s that Necromancer is just skilled at it. He’s never failed once, so he never takes a penalty.
– Come on, the rest of you players need to step up your game ㅋㅋ

It seemed the players were still maintaining a cautious stance.

‘Well, the risk you have to bear each time you fail is pretty steep.’

Do Jin, having thought that far, suddenly grabbed his head in both hands.

“Wait—maybe I’m the real problem here.”

Do Jin lifted his head and pulled up a notification window before his eyes.

Shocking Achievement!
You have become the first person in the world to hack the system.
A reward has been granted.

……

That’s right. Though it was embarrassing to tell anyone, this notification window had appeared as payment for successfully modifying the chariot in the Vortex of Desire Arena.
So why hadn’t this notification from months ago disappeared yet?
The answer was simple: because he still hadn’t confirmed it!

Would you like to confirm your reward?
(P.S. Reward Collection Condition: Available only when Player is Level 70 or higher)
Yes (Inactive) / No

“A reward collection condition? Never seen that before.”

When he’d returned to the Penthouse that day and tried to gleefully claim this unexpected reward.
How much he’d cursed when he saw that absurd condition.
It was like taking a child to a toy store and letting him only look.

“No helping it then. From now on, I’ll focus entirely on leveling up!”

At the same time, Do Jin began another form of training.
It was none other than…….

“……Done.”

Training conducted only when he logged into his private Arena alone.
It was training in hacking his own mana into the Arena system to manipulate the environment within.
The Arena that the Han River Group had secured from the Test Guild was, at most, a low-tier E-rank Arena where you faced moving dummies, extracted points, and cleared quests.
Thanks to that, Do Jin repeatedly conducted hacking drills using the dummies as his target, and…….

“……Done.”

Of course it wasn’t easy. Still, after succeeding once during the chariot race quest, he’d grasped the technique.

“Now I understand why the other players kept failing.”

No Player besides Do Jin had ever successfully hacked the system. It was because the pathways and shapes of mana that the system and players possessed were completely different.
It was like trying to force a rectangle into a narrow, winding passage.
But Do Jin’s mana, influenced by his unique skill, Death Energy, was different.
Unlike the mana of other players—orderly blocks fitted to a straight path—his was warped and distorted.
Therefore, it was perfectly suited to wedging itself into the gaps of the system’s complex, intricate mana circuitry.

‘But before the return, I was a Spear Knight—essentially a warrior class. So there was no way I could have detected those subtle differences in magical energy…….’

It was only after the return, when I became a Necromancer—a magic-oriented class—that I could handle magical energy with such delicacy and variety. That’s when system hacking became possible.

‘But the problem remains.’

Do Jin clenched his fists. Before his eyes stood the puppet of the Arena—the one he’d just finished hacking.
When it was first summoned, it had been nothing but a torso floating in empty space, with only two arms.
Now, after Do Jin’s modifications, it had six arms, each gripping a weapon, and two legs had sprouted as well.
But—
Crack!
The puppet crumbled helplessly before his eyes.

“……This time, ten minutes.”

In the Chariot Racing Quest, Do Jin had modified the chariot near the race’s finish.
Right after that, Hae Won awakened her attribute and created an ice bridge.
The moment they crossed the finish line, the chariot fell apart.
The time elapsed then: only three minutes.

“It’s taken longer than it did at first…….”

Still not enough.
Hacking even a single puppet from the Arena—a fragment of the system—demanded this much time and concentration. It simply wasn’t practical.
Would the only solution be to reach Level 70 and claim the hacking reward?
That wasn’t his only concern.
The more time passed, the more tangled Do Jin’s thoughts became.

Could system hacking and the “Traitors” be connected?

“…….”

Do Jin knew well enough that these musings were baseless speculation.
But having achieved success he’d never anticipated, he couldn’t help but suspect every possibility.

‘Before the return, I never found out how the Traitors managed to escape the Player condition.’

A Player’s actions could be conducted entirely in private. Status Windows and notifications displayed only to themselves—invisible to everyone else.
And so humanity could only speculate.

– They were persuaded or brainwashed by intelligent monsters.
– They cleared a Hidden Quest.
– They were infected with a virus—a digital Trojan horse.
– They hacked the system and modified their own Status Window.

“…….”

Do Jin methodically sorted through his thoughts.
Even during the Tutorial Season before the return, humanity had desperately sought to fully understand and control this mysterious system—all for greater development and prosperity.
So they’d tried hacking it with every method they could devise.
Later, during the Main Scenario, they’d researched and attempted to hack the system purely for survival.

‘But every attempt failed. Eventually, humanity was reduced to mere hundreds, and we didn’t even have the energy to keep researching.’

Do Jin recalled a thought he’d entertained half in jest back then.

‘Did the system hacking succeed because I’m a Necromancer? But I’m the first and only Necromancer. It didn’t even exist before the return, and none of the Traitors had that class.’

Then could the Traitors from before the return have possessed something like a dual class? A hidden Necromancer class alongside the one visible to outsiders……?

“No, that’s not it.”

Do Jin, worn down by overthinking, rolled his neck and stretched.

“If those bastards had been Necromancers, they’d never have gone to their graves without using that power till the very end….”

The more he thought about it, the worse his headache became. More than anything, the real problem was that he had no control group to compare this situation against.
If he misjudged now and bungled things.
There was no guarantee he could regress again.

“Get a grip, Do Jin. Even if I think about it, what I don’t know, I don’t know….”

Do Jin took a deep breath. He needed to clear the fog from his mind.

“Right now, what I can do and what I must do! In the end, it all comes down to confirming this bastard’s reward.”

Whether for entering the Hunter Cup or confirming the reward, first came leveling up.
If the outcome was uncertain, choosing a path even slightly different from before regression was the right move.
Even if there was danger, it was right to take the risk and walk an unfamiliar road.
Because if he didn’t open Pandora’s box—this reward for hacking the system—he’d lose not only catastrophe but hope itself.
So as a Test Guild member fulfilling his duties, guiding Hae Won’s leveling and quest clears as her senior, maintaining contact with Tyrone, and handling crucial tasks like selling shop items, he poured every other hour into the Arena….
Then one day, news began to reach his ears that made him prickle.

– Lee, you heard too? The system’s finally been hacked!

Tyrone Maxwell, from the United States.
Since forming a connection with Do Jin in Korea, he’d maintained steady contact with him.
Beyond mere item trading, they exchanged information circulating among Players, shared trivial gossip as friends, and slowly built their rapport.
That day too, they were video-calling as usual, partly to discuss items.
From Tyrone, who moved in the far larger Player society of the United States, came troubling news.

“Hacked?”

Even though Do Jin knew this concerned him directly, he responded as naturally as possible.
With the flat tone of someone who’d just heard an unfunny joke.
Yet through the video feed, Tyrone’s face looked grave.

– I thought it was just a rumor at first, Lee. But the stories going around aren’t trivial. Apparently the U.S. government is running a covert project right now!

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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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