The Regressed SSS-Rank Supporter Who Turned Dark - Chapter 27

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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 27
“Father! Be careful!”
“Don’t move!”
Father’s gun barrel pointed at me.
‘Ugh.’
With Father’s gun barrel trained on me, even someone as battle-hardened as I felt a chill run down my spine.
Father is a marksman.
In the special forces industry, he’s legendary as a gunslinger among gunslingers, so his skill must be extraordinary.
One wrong move and at least three or more bullets would pierce my chest in the blink of an eye.
Slowly, very slowly, I raised both hands.
I didn’t mind dying to anyone else, but not to Father’s bullets.
I needed to grow stronger quickly and free myself from the threat of firearms.
“Haha….”
Another me laughed as if bewildered.
“Why is the family atmosphere so tense? I can’t even joke around. The son has an axe, the father has a gun. Excuse me, sir. That one over there is your son.”
The other me pointed at me.
What is this situation?
“Then, who are you?”
Father’s gun barrel now turned toward the other me.
“As for me… I would say I am someone who is no one yet could be anyone.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Like this.”
The other me swept his palm across his face.
“…!”
Both Father and I gasped in shock.
The other me’s face had transformed into Father’s face.
“What kind of monster is this…?”
“Monster? That’s harsh language.”
At my muttering, the one wearing Father’s face showed an expression of hurt.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not some monster.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m not sure myself. Who I was, or where I came from. All I know for certain is that I know you, Master.”
“Master…?”
“You are my master, and I am your faithful servant.”
“Stop spouting nonsense and answer my questions.”
“Heh. I suppose I have no choice.”
He chuckled softly, then scattered like a whirlwind before vanishing entirely.
Where the mysterious figure had stood, a single golden card floated gently in the air.
[Mutation]
Magic Card
★★★
Imitation and Transformation
“Wait… surely not.”
Only then did I grasp the full picture, and as if entranced, I approached the [Mutation] card.
‘The card… impersonated me?’
‘It wasn’t really impersonating. I just played a little prank.’
The card’s voice echoed through my mind.
‘A prank? I nearly got shot to death by Father!’
‘How was I supposed to know that would happen?’
‘…?’
‘But nothing actually happened. So it’s fine, right? Isn’t it?’
‘Are you insane?’
The audacity of the Mutation card left me utterly speechless.
We’ll talk about this later.
Sigh…
“What just happened? What is that card?”
“It seems to be because of my ability.”
“Your ability?”
“It’s a long story…”
“Long or not, just tell me. I nearly shot my own son dead—I deserve to know what’s going on.”
How am I supposed to explain this?
I’m just as bewildered as anyone else.
“What happened?”
Alarmed by the sudden commotion, Mother wore an anxious expression.
“It’s nothing serious.”
“It’s nothing serious.”
Father and I answered simultaneously.
* * *
In the end, I had no choice but to explain my abilities to my family over dinner.
“So… your spirit blade isn’t a weapon form but a bundle of cards, and the cards absorb runes?”
“Yes.”
“And the cards can also appear in human form?”
“Apparently so.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“I’m still not entirely sure myself. What my ability actually is…”
“Right, that makes sense. You haven’t been a Hunter for very long.”
Father nodded in understanding.
“Yes, train hard from now on. The process of learning about your own abilities is what matters. You need to understand what you can do and what you can’t… anyway, be careful.”
Father trailed off mid-sentence, glancing at Mother before changing his tone.
He probably wanted to say that understanding yourself is what lets you survive longer, but he held back, not wanting to worry Mother and Eun-ha unnecessarily.
“What are we even listening to?”
“I have no idea, Mom.”
Mother and Eun-ha wore expressions of utter bewilderment, as if struggling to comprehend what they’d just heard.
“So you’re saying people actually jump out of your cards?”
“Probably?”
“No way. Is it like summoning or something?”
“It seems like it, but also… maybe not.”
“Whatever it is, it’s a fascinating ability. I’ve never heard of any Hunters who work with cards before.”
“Since this is my first time too, don’t go spreading nonsense about it.”
“I’m not an idiot, you know?”
Eun-ha pouted.
“By the way, people are saying your brother is really handsome.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The comments are going absolutely crazy! Everyone’s saying he’s incredibly handsome. Seriously. I guess all Hunters look good-looking to people. Fan accounts for you are already popping up on social media.”
“Stop talking nonsense and eat your food. Don’t fiddle with your phone at the dinner table.”
But Mother and Father’s reactions were different.
“Our son really is quite handsome, isn’t he?”
“Hmm. I wonder who he takes after to be so handsome… well…”
Eun-ha frowned upon hearing that.
“Mom and Dad, what exactly do you think is handsome about him? No matter how I look at it, he’s just ordinary. If you keep flattering him like that, he’ll actually start thinking he’s good-looking.”
Tsk.
This girl, I swear.
“You’re one to talk, so just eat.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You think you’re actually pretty because Mom and Dad keep saying you are.”
“Me? What?”
“Aren’t you?”
“People tell me I’m pretty everywhere I go. It’s exhausting, honestly.”
“They’re just being kind.”
“So you’re going to stop random people on the street and ask if I’m pretty or not?”
“Just don’t threaten them with a gun when you do… haha!”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Not because teasing Eun-ha was fun, but because I couldn’t remember the last time we’d bickered like this.
Before I returned to the past.
After Mother passed away, both Eun-ha and I had lost the ability to smile, unable to even exchange light jokes with each other.
And yet here we were now, bickering at the dinner table under our parents’ watchful eyes once more.
“Are you done talking, Cha Eun-sung?”
“Yeah, let’s just eat.”
“You tease me and then want to stop?”
“Just cut me some slack today. I’m exhausted.”
I wasn’t actually tired at all, but I made an excuse when tears threatened to spill over.
If I broke down crying after a petty argument with my Sister, nothing could be more embarrassing.
* * *
After finishing dinner, I returned to my room and spent time maintaining my equipment.
Any serious hunter treats maintenance time as critically important.
You have to keep your gear in good condition so it’s ready for the next battle.
‘Everything’s just consumable junk anyway.’
I threw my combat suit, plate carrier, tactical boots, and all my gear into a large trash bag and disposed of them.
If they were just dirty, I’d keep using them, but the problem was the sheer amount of monster blood caked on them.
Some monsters have incredibly keen senses of smell—they’d detect the blood scent on my equipment.
‘Will I be able to protect my family?’
I thought this while cleaning my gun.
‘It won’t be easy.’
People would call me crazy for saying it, but this was actually humanity’s most peaceful and livable era.
The world was still turning, society still functioning.
But once the transition phenomenon escalates and the Gates spreading across the world begin to erupt, everything changes.
Hunter mortality rates, already high, will spike dramatically, and once the number of fallen hunters exceeds those awakening, there’s no hope left.
No matter how powerful hunters become, they’re just pouring water into a bottomless vessel—slowly withering away.
[That incident]… wait.
‘What’s today’s date?’
I turned on my phone to check the year and date.
‘About a year left, then.’
[That incident] was the worst catastrophe that occurred about a year after I became a hunter—the death knell of humanity.
The Day of Sorrow.
The event where over 90% of the top-ranked hunters fell.
After this incident, humanity essentially lost all capability to respond to high-tier Gates or large-scale transition phenomena.
And as the next generation of hunters filled the void left by the top rankers, a generational shift occurred among hunters themselves.
I was one of the hunters who rode that wave of generational change.
“I have to stop it.”
The thought spilled from my lips in my urgency.
Humanity’s extinction?
Honestly, I’m not sure if I can prevent it.
But if I can just prevent the Day of Sorrow…
“Maybe it’s possible.”
Yes, if the current top-ranked hunters survive and endure, there’s at least a thread of hope worth considering.
At minimum, delaying extinction by several years seemed entirely feasible.
But how can I alone prevent the Day of Sorrow?
Actually, preventing the Day of Sorrow itself is simple.
The top rankers just need to use some information I possess.
Sharing that information is easy enough.
Posting a few lines on the Hunter Link Forum—how difficult could that be?
But convincing the top-ranked hunters to believe my information was an entirely different matter.
Given my current standing, few would believe me even if I claimed the moon was made of cheese.
Who would trust the words of a freshly awakened rookie hunter?
Even if they did believe me, that posed its own problem.
If word spread that I possessed foresight, hunters would likely wage war over me.
After all, only a handful of hunters fought purely for humanity’s sake.
‘I need to make hunters believe my information somehow, while keeping my identity hidden. That would be ideal. Then… the Hunter Link Forum is really my only option.’
The Hunter Link’s information-sharing forum had become a wasteland of fake news and false information, practically abandoned as a breeding ground for propaganda.
‘But if I keep posting consistently, people might gradually start believing me.’
With no better ideas coming to mind, I logged into HunterLink and opened the information-sharing forum.
‘The incidents about to unfold…’
I dredged up my memories, jotted down a couple of major events that would occur around this time, and posted anonymously.
[Post registered!]
On a forum where tens of thousands of posts went up daily, mine would be buried immediately, but if I kept writing whenever I had the chance…
Ding!
A notification chimed.
[Comment posted!]
Already?
It was bound to be hate comments…
[Comment posted!]
Another?
But that was only the beginning.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding… ding!
[Comment posted!]
[Comment posted!]
…
[Comment posted!]
Hundreds of comments flooded in within seconds.
“What… what is this?”
I was bewildered.
Why would users swarm over such an ordinary, throwaway post?
Curious about what had triggered such a response, I opened the comment section.
“Ah.”
Only then did I understand why my post had exploded, and I nodded to myself.
The content of the post was irrelevant.
The reason forum users couldn’t help but comment was because of the star displayed next to the author information.
[Author Rank]
★★★★★★★★★★
A 10-Star Hunter.
It was a rank that shouldn’t exist yet.
In this era, the highest-ranked hunters were merely 7-star at best.

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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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