The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 17

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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 17. Absurdly Easy (1)
Teya’s studio in Sangam, Mapo-gu.
“Ah, welcome, welcome!”
The moment Teya saw me, he hurried over, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
“Thank you so much for making the trip all this way!”
“It’s nothing. Seoul to Seoul, after all.”
“Honestly, I never thought you’d actually call. You’re absolutely hot right now, aren’t you? The broadcast networks and bigger streamers would be falling over themselves trying to reach you, but you chose me! I’m truly grateful for your loyalty!”
“Mm.”
If I told him I’d just contacted him because he was the first streamer I could reach, he’d be disappointed.
Sometimes the truth is best left buried.
“And the person standing behind you—you said they’d be coming along?”
“His name is Jeong Su-hyeok.”
Su-hyeok offered a crisp, formal bow—the bearing of someone with an elite background.
“For now, think of him as my manager, or something like that.”
I’d wanted to come alone, but Su-hyeok had insisted on worrying his way along anyway.
This Teya didn’t seem like the type to pull any scams, and it wasn’t as if having Su-hyeok around could hurt.
“You’ve even hired a personal manager already. You really are thorough, aren’t you?”
“Ha, well, I suppose I am.”
Su-hyeok, now an accidental manager for the day, let out a soft, long breath.
“So, speaking of the broadcast—are you thinking of becoming a streamer?”
“Yes. For now—”
“Wait!”
Teya suddenly cut me off and grinned.
“Speak comfortably with me, will you? It’s awkward hearing you use formal speech all the time.”
“Are you sure that’s all right?”
“Come on, you were fine with it back in the Underground Dungeon.”
“That was just because of the circumstances.”
“I find formal speech more awkward anyway, so please, speak comfortably~”
Well, since he’s pushing for it this much, there’s no need to be overly polite.
“Got it.”
“Great!”
“Anyway, yeah, I do want to stream. The goal might sound a bit mercenary, but it’s money and building up my value.”
“Ha ha! Besides money and clout, there’s nothing else to streaming anyway!”
Teya himself had made a name for himself as a streamer, which was how he’d been able to make contact with Eclipse.
I’d been secretly worried he’d take offense to my blunt admission, but it seems that won’t be an issue.
“So you’re aiming for what we call a ‘skill broadcast,’ then?”
Skill broadcast.
The kind where there’s no special gimmick—just overwhelming raw ability that becomes the broadcast itself.
“That’s right.”
“With your skill level, it’ll definitely work. But the competition in this industry has gotten pretty fierce lately, so you need to show something clear and dominant to build a loyal viewership.”
With a hundred streamers, there are a hundred broadcasts.
You need something compelling enough to make viewers filter out the other ninety-nine and choose yours—and then spend money on it.
“I’ll set up the stage for you perfectly! All you have to do is dance!”
“Actually.”
Su-hyeok approached Teya, who was practically glowing with excitement.
“How would the donations from today’s broadcast be split between the two of you?”
“Of course, fifty-fifty for you! Minus platform fees, of course.”
“Mm, that sounds fair.”
Today was essentially a trial run at being a streamer.
A chance to cement my identity properly in the process.
“This is a good opportunity, Jae-ha. You have to seize it.”
“Don’t worry.”
I gave Su-hyeok’s shoulder—tense as it was—a light pat before walking toward the studio that Teya had finished setting up.

“There are probably a lot of viewers waiting already. I made an announcement that a very special guest was coming.”
“I saw it on the way here. Most people have already figured out it’s me.”
I’d originally become famous through Teya’s broadcast, so it was only natural that viewers would guess the special guest coming next would be me.
If it were anyone else, they’d only be disappointed.
“Still, there’s a difference between guessing and seeing it happen for real.”
Teya stood in the center of the studio, having finished the last of the camera setup.
“You did check the plan I sent beforehand, right? Just stay outside the frame, and when I call for you to come on, that’s your cue.”
“Got it.”
I slipped quietly out of the camera’s view.
A moment passed.
“Broadcast… start!”
The stream kicked into full swing.
[Viewers: 916]
[Viewers: 2,340]
[Viewers: 5,301]
Viewers flooded into the broadcast monitor at a staggering rate.
Even watching from the side, I nearly gasped aloud.
-He’s on he’s on he’s on!
-Is today’s guest that Warrior? I’m hyped!
-Finally!
-I’ve been waiting since this morning to catch this broadcast
-That clip got insane views lol
-New viewers pouring in that don’t usually watch Teya either…
-So where’s the guest? Where’s the guest? Where’s the guest?
-Minotaur Warrior, come out!
The moment the chat activated, it exploded with a torrent of text.
Too fast for even my eyes to track.
Teya, who’d been building suspense while viewers poured in, finally
[Viewers: 10,314]
launched his greeting the moment the viewer count peaked.
“Hey everyone! Good to see you all~! Thanks so much for stopping by Teya’s stream today!”
Maybe it was because the viewer count had ballooned several times over.
His voice was thick with barely contained excitement.
“And as promised, today we’ve got a super-special guest!”
-Pretty sure we all know who it is already lol
-Only we get to know who this guest is…
-Is the Warrior coming out~?!
Teya deliberately kept the reveal just out of reach, dangling it before the viewers.
Right when their anticipation had been wound tight as a drum,
“You’re the one everyone’s been talking about lately, right? The legendary player who discovered the Minotaur Conquest Strategy and conquered the Underground Dungeon at Level 6—I present to you, Shin Jae-ha!”
On Teya’s cue, I stepped into frame.
-Whoa, face reveal right away?!
-Wait why is he so handsome? That’s not fair
-Please let him be short… please let him be short… please…
-I’m officially a Jae-ha fan from today on.
-With that face AND those skills? That’s cheating! Ahhhhh!
-Big bro!
-The Level 6 Warrior has arrived!
-“You all just listen to what I say.”
The response was hotter than expected.
I gave a modest wave and answered.
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you all. I’m Shin Jae-ha.”
-What’s with that reaction?
-Looks like he just dropped by the neighborhood lol
They seemed to want me to be more starstruck.
‘I’m used to this kind of attention from before the Regression anyway.’
Rise to Grand Master and you inevitably draw eyes.
Though that attention dried up quick enough once word got out that my Mana Circuit was half-destroyed.
“You’re pretty composed for your first broadcast, aren’t you? Don’t tell me you’ve done this before?”
“Well, it beats standing in front of a massive boss in real time, doesn’t it?”
-Fair point.
-That’s literally life-or-death lol
-The comparison seems a little extreme, hyung….
The first donation hit while the comments kept rolling.
[‘Marisol’ donated 1,000 won!]
<So what’s today’s content?>
A sponsorship message rendered in electronic voice.
Teya’s eyes glinted as he grasped the content.
“Alright, for part one I’m thinking we’ll just run through the Underground Dungeon clear footage and take some questions—I’m telling you, I’ve been itching to remove that mosaic.”
Teya brought up the screen.
It was the Underground Dungeon clear footage we’d released earlier.
The difference this time: the mosaic covering my section had been lifted.
-So it really was him….
-How in the world is that Level 6 movement?
-That order he called out—still art no matter how many times I watch it lmao
-This is already causing a stir overseas. They’re calling it the first successful strategy to conquer the Minotaur
I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but watching a video of myself with everyone else… it feels strange.
Like someone dragged me onto a stage during a school festival dance recital and now they’re screening the footage at the local cinema.
[‘Kimmukkim’ has donated 10,000 won!]
<How exactly did you figure out the strategy?>
An even more grandiose sound effect accompanied the sponsorship message that appeared.
‘Wow, five thousand yen.’
Suddenly my motivation for streaming ignited.
“The strategy? Oh, I just thought about it for a bit and it came to me.”
-I see.
-These geniuses really are….
-Just thought about it (something nobody’s managed to find until now)
-Why’s the bar for thinking so high lol.
-How to get into a top university. Think about the problem and solve it.
Either way, even if I told them the truth they wouldn’t believe me, so it’s better to keep up the genius image.
I’m going to put future knowledge to good use down the line, and I can’t spend my time explaining myself every single time.
[‘Susscream’ has donated 10,000 won!]
<Why are you so handsome? Life’s totally unfair.>
“Ah, I’m not really that handsome. This is pretty ordinary if anything.”
-?
-??
-I’m so sad I could f***ing cry…[Temporary restriction applied to this chat message.]
-Did I forget my own character
-If you’re gonna deceive us at least buy us chicken!!!!!!!!
The broadcast was flowing along quite smoothly.
Then, a sponsorship with a distinctly different feel exploded across the screen.
Boom-boom-boom~!
A grand fanfare arrived with a single message.
[‘MK Thunders’ has donated 1,000,000 won!]
<Hello. This is MK Thunders’ Strategic Planning Department. We’d like to speak with Shin Jae-ha separately—would you have some time for us?>
One million won.
Everyone froze at that astronomical sum.
-Holy sh*t
-1 million won?!
-That’s seriously MK Thunders, right?
-Insane
Teya immediately stepped forward in front of the camera and shouted loudly.
“Whoa~! Our generous patron just donated 1 million won~!”
Teya, who’d been keeping things casual in informal speech, shifted to formal language and began layering in respectful intonation.
“By the way, all major teams have unique usernames, so there’s no impersonation here!”
-So Thunders is legit then lmao
-Figures the Tier 1 team’s got the cash—drops 1 mil like it’s nothing kekekeke
-So Warrior got a love call from a Tier 1 league team?
I laughed quietly to myself without letting it show.
‘They took the bait.’
And if it’s MK Thunders, I’d met their prospects not long ago and laid everything out for them directly.
They’d been searching for me anyway, and now that they’d found me here, they were clearly trying to establish some kind of connection.
“Thank you for the donation first. I’ll provide my contact information separately later.”
I let it pass without making a big show of it.
[‘Deep Space’ has donated 1,000,000 won!]
<Hello, this is Deep Space. We’d like to give wings to Jae-ha’s brilliant skills…>
[‘FB’ has donated 1,000,000 won!]
<This is FB Scout Choi Yong-joo. I hope to arrange a favorable meeting with Jae-ha….>
Two more donations in the million-won range arrived in quick succession.
Both came from KPL Division 1 League teams.
Not top-tier, but teams of considerable scale just by virtue of competing in the first division.
“Wooooooh! Ah, wait… ahem! Thanks for the donations! Today’s insane!”
Teya had been cheering, but then glanced around and cleared his throat.
‘Streaming was the right call.’
Three Division 1 teams are watching.
That alone is enough to authenticate my value.
The mid-tier and upper-tier teams that haven’t paid much attention to me yet—not to mention the ‘Big Three’—will perk up the moment they hear this news.
And most importantly.
‘I’ve made 1.5 million won!’
Less than an hour into the broadcast and I’ve pulled in that much.
I suppressed the corners of my mouth from twitching with superhuman restraint.
After that, a few Division 2 teams trickled in with donations of 500,000 or 100,000 won, piggybacking on the moment.
“Thank you for your interest. I’ll reach out to the rest of you separately.”
-A man who can make Division 1 teams wait lmaoooo
-With that skill level, worth a shot though
-But he’s still only Level 6, right? Seems like hype
-That’s exactly why they need to recruit him before he levels up
A chat message suddenly caught my eye.
“I’m not Level 6 anymore.”
-Huh?
-What do you mean?
-You were Level 6 just a few days ago
-So you’re saying Level 7 at most now?
“Right—I haven’t mentioned the Division 2 broadcast yet.”
I folded my arms and smiled knowingly.
“The Division 2 broadcast is my Rank Placement Exam.”
-Placement Exam?
-If he’s opening that, then could it be…?
“Yes.”
I pulled up just the Level section of my status screen in front of the camera.
[▶Level: 10]
“I’m Level 10.”
A player who was Level 6 just days ago had rocketed to Level 10 in one shot.
At that unbelievable news.
-???????
-How did you do that?!
-Stop scamming! Stop scamming!
-Did you turn on a 10x experience cheat or something?
-Four levels in that timeframe?!
-Foul! Foul! Foul!
The viewers absolutely erupted.
“I was shocked too, you know? My senior was Level 6 not long ago, and now he’s Level 10… How did you pull that off, senior?”
“It just happened.”
I beat down the Minotaur and gained four levels all at once.
If you’re upset, go grind the Underground Dungeon at Level 6 and prove yourselves.
-Absolute genius!!!!
-The shamelessness is so thick I can barely breathe….
I’d warmed them up enough for now.
Teya was reading the broadcast energy when he glanced at me and nodded slightly.
“Alright, let’s ride this momentum! Here’s Division 2, like the senior promised! Starting the Rank Placement Exam right now!”
A Rank Placement Exam.
The system analyzes your skill level over three initial rank matches and places you in the rank that suits your ability.
-Either Stones or Iron anyway.
Placement Exams typically break down into two outcomes.
Most players start at Stones, the lowest rank. If you show decent skill or perform well in ranked matches, you get placed in Iron, one rank above.
But if it were that ordinary, it wouldn’t be interesting.
“I’m making a pledge.”
I stood up from my seat, rolling my shoulders as I made my declaration to the viewers.
“I’ll place Bronze or higher on the Placement Match.”
—Bronze?
—Starting at Bronze right off the bat?
—Is he insane? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Nam Si-woo couldn’t even do that.
—For real, even Si-woo God didn’t start at top-tier Iron, did he?
Of course the comments flooded with disbelief, but I was confident.
Confident that I’d graduate this Placement Match with the highest score anyone had ever achieved.
“Let’s begin right now.”
No point in dragging this out.
After quickly syncing the screen-share setting with Teya’s broadcast.
[Connecting to the channel.]
[Starting ‘Rank Match: Placement Exam’!]
I logged in immediately.
Challenger-Tier Player’s Return
Author
: Ki Sah-hon
Production Date
: August 10, 2026
Publisher
: Aces Media
Editor
: Aces Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Aces Media in accordance with the copyright holder’s contract,
and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or duplication may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260730114

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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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