The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 21

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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 21. Absurdly Easy (5)
Crack!
With each swing of the Hammer, the eyes of the Mage and Archer behind him grew sharper, more intent.
When he’d first claimed he could hold back a monster of that caliber alone, they’d been skeptical.
A Bronze Rank player soloing a Bronze Rank Defense—that was something you’d need to be a Silver Rank Warrior even to discuss as a possibility.
They’d thought it impossible for someone from the same Placement Match, and had approached the strategy with the mindset of a team resigning itself to one loss. Yet here they were.
‘He’s holding up better than expected…?’
‘No, wait—he’s not just holding up!’
He was truly holding back the monster Wave entirely on his own, with no assistance whatsoever.
And he’d already wiped out the first Wave entirely.
Though it was true that the first Wave was comparatively gentle, given how Defense Waves grew harder with each successive one—for a single Warrior to clear a Wave meant for five players was madness, a departure from common sense itself.
“Whoa…”
The two of them had lost themselves in watching Shin Jae-ha’s performance.
“Snap out of it!”
Jo Ik-deok brought his weapon down with a bang, jolting them back to focus.
“The young master is buying us time! We need to move faster!”
“Yes, yes!”
“I know!”
The Mage unleashed a spell while the Archer nocked an arrow.
But they weren’t attacking the monsters in front.
Boom! Bang!
The cliffs on either side.
They concentrated their strikes on the rock faces, not the monsters, exactly as Shin Jae-ha had ordered.
Bursting mana and a relentless barrage of arrows destabilized the stone layers.
“…Hmm.”
Sitting at the rear, watching it all unfold, Snake Eyes let the corners of his mouth curl upward.
‘I wondered what grand strategy he’d come up with.’
It turned out to be nothing special.
Sure, the fact that he was holding back the Wave alone was impressive, but everyone else was wasting their efforts completely.
‘Is he trying something else because it seems impossible otherwise? Or—ah! Is he zeroing out everyone else’s contribution so he can hog all the points?’
Hehehehe!
He laughed darkly.
Snake Eyes had earned quite a reputation in this rank bracket as a toxic troll.
He’d once harbored pro aspirations, but after being crushed by those more talented, he’d turned spiteful—a rotten player who now took malicious pleasure in sabotaging talented competitors.
The reason he’d targeted Teya’s stream was the same motivation.
To hinder, even slightly, the rise of this new star named Shin Jae-ha.
Or perhaps he’d enjoy watching a future celebrity grovel and bow their head before him, begging for Credit.
And by luck, he’d ended up in the same game—but he’d chosen to sabotage rather than cooperate.
“Confident in his abilities, sure enough… but unfortunately, he’ll be starting at the bottom of Stone or Iron tier. Kehe!”
No matter how much he struggled, with Snake Eyes in the mix, he’d never reach the legendary heights of someone like Nam Si-woo.
The thought was almost too delicious.
“Huff…!”
In reality, Shin Jae-ha was gradually tiring.
He’d already cleared three Waves entirely on his own, without a single monster slipping through.
[Wave 4 begins!]
The next Wave started immediately.
The number of monsters doubled from the third Wave.
-Is he supposed to solo this? The difficulty’s insane
-…Wasn’t he supposed to be soloing it anyway?
-Oh
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Right, this is a team match
Shin Jae-ha clicked his tongue at the approaching swarm of monsters.
‘From this Wave on, I can’t hold them all back alone.’
If he’d at least had a Class, it might have been possible.
But he only had two Skills.
To single-handedly bear the full weight of a fourth Wave that required five Bronze Rank players working at full capacity would be pure arrogance.
So starting this Wave, the positions would shift.
“Kahahaha! At last, it is my turn to shine!”
Jo Ik-deok stepped into the Gravity Realm as though he’d been waiting for this moment.
His role in this Wave was, as expected, ‘Support’—a dedicated support role for Shin Jae-ha alone.
It’s a rather late entrance for a support role assisting the main dealer.
‘Why deploy that Korean equipment now?’
The answer to that question came
from Jo Ik-deok’s skill itself.
“Hwoooaaagh!”
He roared and activated his skill.
[Battlefield Roar: Changban Bridge (C+)]

▶Recreates the bridge from legend upon the battlefield. Grants one designated target standing on the bridge the ‘Enemy of Ten Thousand Men’ buff for thirty minutes. (Required Stats: Mana 10, Strength 8, Luck 8)
In an instant, the Gorge’s passage transformed into the shape of a massive bridge.
Originally, ‘Battlefield Roar’ was a support skill that granted an attack power buff to nearby allies.
Jo Ik-deok had created a new derived skill by concentrating all of that onto a single person.
“Shin! Go!”
“Thanks!”
Power surged back into his weakened arms and legs.
Violet gravity intertwined with a fierce crimson aura, growing sharper still.
[Buffs: Recovery Acceleration (Lv.3), Luck Increase (Lv.3), Enemy of Ten Thousand Men (Lv.1)]
The newly appeared ‘Enemy of Ten Thousand Men’ buff in the buff window.
Its effect was simple.
In proportion to the number of enemies faced,
Boom—crash—bang!
his stats would dramatically enhance.
The form of a valiant general overlapped upon Shin Jae-ha’s body.
“None of you shall pass this bridge today!”
Shin Jae-ha, his momentum restored, brought his Hammer down.
Crack—boom—thunder!
The air exploded, the bridge trembled, and monsters shattered in its wake.
A dizzying sense of omnipotence dominated his entire being.
His mana and body moved without pause, slaughtering the swarming monsters in one-sided fashion.
-What? I thought he’d really break through this time
-Suddenly it’s one-sided again
-Shin Jae-ha! Shin Jae-ha! Shin Jae-ha!
-Honestly, it’s stupidly cool
The viewers were bewildered yet ecstatic as Shin Jae-ha not only held the fourth Wave but began moving freely again.
[With powerful gravity, you have brought countless foes to their knees.]
[The ‘Gravity Field’ skill evolves!]
Just then, the skill rose one tier higher, and the gravity realm settled down even more heavily.
[Gravity Realm (C)]

▶Deploy a barrier centered on yourself where gravity intensifies. You can freely adjust the barrier’s size to control the strength of the gravity. (Required Stats: Mana 15, Strength 10, Stamina 10)
An added capability alongside the reinforced gravity.
Now he could adjust the range and intensity of gravity far more easily.
“Perfect timing!”
What had been merely a field grew into a true barrier, making the gravity realm even more enclosed.
And for Shin Jae-ha, the ‘master of gravity,’ this place was
“Kiyaahoo!”
nothing less than the perfect and supreme battlefield.
Using the Enemy of Ten Thousand Men and his evolved skill as a foundation, he successfully completed the fourth Wave.
Ordinarily, such a thing would be impossible.
“All clear!”
But Shin Jae-ha had made it possible.
“Whew! Well done, sir!”
“I’ve told you not to call me that.”
Though they had achieved the feat of holding off through the fourth Wave, there was still no cause for optimism.
The fifth Wave—the final and most terrible army—would arrive soon.
‘The last Wave brings a boss monster along with it.’
Even if Snake Eyes suddenly had a change of heart and joined in, there was no way their current team could withstand it.
“Let’s retreat. Before the final Wave arrives.”
“Understood!”
He immediately dissolved the barrier and fell back toward where the Statue of the Goddess of Hope stood.
By now, the cliff should have accumulated enough damage.
After that, clearing should be straightforward.
Or so he’d thought.
“You’re here, Jae-ha?”
Before he saw what lay before him.
“Ugh… ah….”
“Ow…….”
Mage and Archer lay sprawled on the ground, both wounded.
“R… run away…!”
Mage, his glasses shattered, stretched out a trembling hand as he forced out the words.
“The moment the fourth Wave started, he suddenly attacked…!”
Before he could finish, Snake Eyes stepped down hard on Mage’s head.
“Wow, I really didn’t think you guys could hold out until the fourth Wave. I was genuinely impressed.”
“You… you didn’t…!”
“I started thinking, at this rate, you might actually clear it without me, right? And after all those things I said before, if you actually managed to clear it without me….”
Snake Eyes widened his eyes, twisting his face into a scowl.
“That’d be damn embarrassing for me.”
So he attacked Mage and Archer.
Whatever plan they were cooking up, if these two went down, Shin Jae-ha’s strategy would crumble to nothing.
“I went easy on them, so if you’d just given me some Credit, none of this would’ve happened.”
“…….”
“Come on, say something~ At this rate, I’ll take ten thousand Credit and you begging on your knees as an apology, yeah?”
Shin Jae-ha hung his head low, his shoulders trembling violently.
A genius Warrior who’d single-handedly held back four Waves, now frustrated and despairing because of him!
His legs quivered with a thrilling ecstasy.
“H… brother….”
Even Jo Ik-deok was startled, reaching to pat his back, when—
“Hehehehe….”
Suddenly, laughter scraped across their eardrums.
Thinking he’d misheard, he strained to listen.
“Hahahahaha! Kyahahaha!”
Shin Jae-ha threw both arms wide and burst into mad, uncontrolled laughter.
“You know, right? In team matches, if you intentionally attack an ally, you get hit with a severe Penalty. But there’s exactly one exception to that clause—do you know when it is?”
It was precisely this.
“When you attack someone who attacked your team first!”
Snake Eyes had attacked Archer and Mage with the deliberate intent to sabotage the game.
In other words, he’d become Lawless.
Lawless was commonly thought of as something like a “rogue living outside the law,” but the reality was this:
‘Go ahead and kill this bastard—the law won’t punish you for it.’
And Shin Jae-ha had been waiting for this moment.
For the instant that Snake Eyes became Lawless.
Clang!
The moment he picked up the Hammer, Snake Eyes raised his fist and deployed his Mana.
“Fight? I’m higher level than you and I have a Class. Plus you’re exhausted. There’s no way you can beat me…!”
“Your mouth never stops running, does it.”
As he stepped forward—
“Irritating.”
A violet Barrier spread open.
Gravity Realm.

This time he didn’t expand it widely.
Instead, he narrowed the Barrier’s range down to something incredibly tight—just enough to fit two people.
As a result, the gravitational intensity within the Barrier became—
“Guhhhhhhh?! Aaaaaargh!”
—enough to easily crush a lower Bronze Rank player.
Snake Eyes, suddenly pressed against the ground in an intimate kiss with the floor, screamed.
“W, what’s happening…! I can’t… move my body…!”
“How high did you set your Sensory Synchronization?”
Inside the Gravity Realm, he rested the Hammer casually across his shoulder and walked toward where Snake Eyes was pinned.
“I’m praying it’s below 40. If it’s not, you’re going to have some lingering effects for a while.”
“P-please… save me!”
He raised the Hammer high with one hand.
“Strike one!”
Crack!
He brought it down with all his strength.
“Strike two!”
Again.
“Strike three!”
“Strike four!”
“Strike five!”
Crack! Bang! Smash! Crack!
It took only five hammer blows to eject Snake Eyes from the channel and eliminate him.
[One player has fallen.]
[Remaining teammates: 4]
“Phew, that’s refreshing.”
Shin Jae-ha laughed, brushing his bangs back with satisfaction.
“That was magnificent, sir! The way you punished wrongdoing directly—it was just like the great General Guan Yu from the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms!”
“Heh… well, not quite that much….”
Caught off guard by the sudden praise, he scratched his head sheepishly.
“But what do we do now? We seem to be running desperately short on time to execute the next phase….”
He was right—Snake Eyes had thrown a proper wrench into their works.
The saving grace was that the accumulated damage to the cliff face wasn’t beyond hope.
Rumble…
Dust continued to pour down, and cracks were beginning to form.
A little more provocation and it would collapse, but Archer and Mage, the ranged dealers, were badly wounded.
There wasn’t time to count on Recovery Acceleration, and their support player was built more for buffs than healing.
‘And if I try to close in and strike directly, I’ll certainly get caught in it.’
‘That’ would kill us without fail.
In the channel, death meant immediate defeat.
Even in a team battle, if you died, you lost—regardless of whether your team ultimately won or lost.
“Jo Ik-deok! If you say the word, I’d give my life to—”
“Don’t talk nonsense. No one’s getting thrown away.”
There was no choice but to fall back on Plan B.
[Final Wave is beginning!]
[Boss Monster, the High Orc General, leads the final advance!]
The last wave had begun.
A towering High Orc clad in iron armor led a monster horde that had swelled to at least five times its previous size down upon them.
“Shriiiiek!”
Whatever it was screaming, it sounded something like “Avenge our fallen!”
‘The higher form of High Orc—the High Orc General.’
It was strong enough to be classified as a boss, but it was manageable.
If this ‘gamble’ worked, they could take it down in one blow.
Shin Jae-ha stepped forward and drew out a single item.
[Lower-Grade Magic Scroll](D)
▶A scroll containing all lower-grade spells. When torn, one lower-grade magic spell is randomly activated.
An item obtained after clearing the Astria quest.
He just needed an attack spell to come out of this.
Preferably one powerful enough to finish off the already-weakened cliff.
“Shriiiiek!”
“Raaaaagh!”
“Kyeee!”
The moment the monsters poured through the narrow passage and reached the base of the cliff—
Whoosh!
Shin Jae-ha tore the scroll.
Whether the magic he wanted would emerge or not was purely a matter of luck.
He didn’t normally prefer fights that hinged on such odds.
“But this time, I have something to trust.”
A buff slot occupied by a single buff.
One buff that everyone had thought would be useless.
[Luck Increase (Lv.3)]
[The Lower-Grade Magic Scroll is affected by Luck Increase.]
[The user’s desired direction is reflected in the probability.]
Riiiiip!
The Mana pouring from the torn scroll quickly took the form of a magical circle.
What materialized was.
[Fireball]

A sphere of flame, moderate in size.
Among Lower-Grade Magic, it ranked among the superior spells.
Whoosh!
The Fireball flew toward the location Shin Jae-ha had designated and struck true.
As a massive explosion erupted, the cliff face began to crack wider and wider.
“Screee?”
The High Orc General sensed something amiss and looked upward.
But by then, it was too late.
[Excessive impact has accumulated on the cliff face.]
[The cliff face is beginning to collapse!]
The cliff, already crumbling, was.
Crrraaaaaash!
Beyond stopping.
“Screeeee?! Shriek!”
Above the panicked monster horde, a landslide of rock and stone descended.
A wave of stone, a downpour of boulders, a storm born of falling debris.
“Keeeeaaagh!”
“Shrieeeek!”
Rumble rumble rumble!
Moments later, the cliff vanished without a trace.
All that remained was a stone mountain of rubble, and the monsters—or what used to be them—crushed beneath.
[You have successfully defended against the Final Wave.]
[You have protected the Statue of the Goddess of Hope.]
[Defense Clear!]
A perfect clear, certified by the system.
Jo Ik-deok, watching all of this unfold from behind, opened his mouth five times wider than before in shock.
“Hah…….”
Shin Jae-ha let out a hollow laugh.
He’d seen this before, yet still couldn’t quite adapt to the sight.
That rigid monster army, annihilated all at once.
“This is almost absurdly easy.”
The second Placement Match had ended.
Of course, with an unprecedented record.
Which meant, in other words.
The chat window erupted as if a riot had broken out.
The same went for the uncounted number of powerful figures watching this broadcast.
Challenger Rank Player’s Return
Author
: Knight Spirit
Production Date
: August 10, 2026
Publisher
: ACES Media Co., Ltd.
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 Co., Ltd. pursuant to a contract with the copyright holder,
and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and author.
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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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