The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 24

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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 24. Can You Pull It Off? (3)
Word about a certain player began spreading quietly through various communities and media outlets.
Someone who had discovered the official strategy for the Underground Dungeon that no one else had managed to find, who possessed insane skill and insight, and whom numerous league teams — even K1 itself — had allegedly approached first with offers of recruitment.
[So who exactly is Shin Jae-ha?]
A newly risen supernova warrior in recent times.
Shin Jae-ha.
-You still don’t know about Shin Jae-ha?
└Whether it’s Shin Jae-ha or whatever, who even cares!
└Hey, didn’t you hear? Someone figured out how to clear the Underground Dungeon
└Oh, that person was Korean?
└Stop living in the real world so much and get online… watch some streams too….
[Clip: Shin Jae-ha teaching a troll a lesson lololol]
(Video)
Man, that was so satisfying lololol
└The way the guy gets slammed headfirst into the ground the moment he uses a skill is seriously hilarious
└I’d been in a bad mood lately because of a troll I ran into before, so this really helped lol
└Wait, wasn’t that troll Bronze? How does an Unranked Shin Jae-ha overwhelm him like that?
└You dare apply common sense to our Jae-ha?
└Unranked… crushing… a Bronze match… does that even… make sense…?
[Videos of people Shin Jae-ha defeated are starting to surface as evidence]
Looks like he was flying around like a madman in General Matches too dddddd
└The way goblins get sent flying with a single swing of that Hammer…
└So he really did sweep through all those players solo? At like level 5?
└It wasn’t a surprise appearance… we witnessed Shin Jae-ha’s surprise appearance…
Shin Jae-ha became new content for the Korean player market, which hadn’t produced a star player of note since Nam Si-woo.
It stirred people up even more, given that South Korea had always lacked sturdy-built warriors compared to neighboring Japan, the United States, and China.
In particular, the Solo Wave Defense he had shown in the recent Valkyrie Gorge broadcast left a strong impression on people’s minds, kindling speculation and excitement.
Which naturally led to an inevitable topic of conversation.
[So who’s the real legend — Shin Jae-ha or Nam Si-woo?]
Nam Si-woo: South Korea’s greatest player to date, a top-tier warrior from a nation long considered barren ground for warrior talent.
Shin Jae-ha: A comet blazing across the sky, capturing everyone’s attention and expectations all at once.
For people who loved gossip, this was a piece of bait they couldn’t possibly ignore.
└Even so, dragging Nam Si-woo into this feels like a stretch…
└You comparing Nam Si-woo to Jaws? Shin Jae-ha’s won KPL tournaments multiple times lololol
└Shin Jae-ha is definitely incredible, but the shock I felt seeing Nam Si-woo for the first time… I can’t deny it.
└Only Nam Si-woo in all of Korea got Placement Rank Iron Peak, so what’s he comparing himself to
A player who, from the moment he entered K1 as a trainee, showed extraordinary talent and rose to become an immovable mountain in the KPL.
└So Nam Si-woo really did solo-carry a Bronze match when he was Unranked?
└Shin Jae-ha was chosen as leader at level 6 among level-20 players and cleared the Underground Dungeon. What was Nam Si-woo doing at level 6~
└Filtering out the anti-fans and fanboys, isn’t it a fact that Shin Jae-ha performs better in the same level bracket?
└Saying Shin Jae-ha can’t compare to Nam Si-woo is just because you didn’t watch yesterday’s broadcast lololol — if you saw him solo swinging that Hammer in the Gorge yesterday, you can’t say that
A player who had delivered overwhelming performances from the start, building enormous recognition in record time.
The debate over who was the superior warrior set the internet ablaze.
[Yeah, let’s just settle this one way.]
Shin Jae-ha said himself that he’d get a Placement Rank of Bronze or higher, so let’s use that to decide, yeah?
In the end, everything converged on a single conclusion.
└First Placement Bronze? Is that even possible?
└It’s never happened
└Does it even exist?
└Iron Peak is the max according to official records… Shin Jae-ha’s overreached lololol
The simplest metric for comparing the two.
‘First Placement Rank’ — let’s see that.
└So when’s he streaming? He did two Placement matches yesterday and vanished, so I’m dying of curiosity!
└An announcement went up! Tomorrow at 7 PM?
└Perfect timing. I’ll order chicken right after work and wait.
And so the anticipation for Shin Jae-ha’s first broadcast climbed higher still.
Higher than Shin Jae-ha himself had anticipated.
***
To say he wasn’t surprised would be a lie.
[● Viewers: 23,113]
Twenty thousand viewers? Are you kidding me?
On my first broadcast?
‘Wow.’
I’d estimated maybe eight thousand at most.
More than double what I’d projected.
The chat’s moving so fast I’ve given up trying to read it.
I put Jung Su-hyuk in charge as manager since he knows the broadcast scene pretty well, but even that wasn’t enough.
[Jung Su-hyuk: Jae-ha, help me out here.]
[Jung Su-hyuk: This is way beyond what I can handle on my own….]
He got swept under by the sheer volume of viewers.
“I’ll switch to followers-only chat for a moment.”
Once I changed the settings, things calmed down a bit.
The chat’s still moving at a dizzying pace, but now I can at least read a few messages if I focus.
‘I’ve covered all the miscellaneous stuff already.’
What’s left now
[Placement Exam: ■■□]
is just clearing the final Placement Exam match.
“Alright, let’s begin! The final round of the Placement Exam!”
As always,
I logged into the Channel with confidence.
[Entering ‘Channel’.]
[Prepare for game.]
.
.
.
[Ranked Match: Placement Exam — Individual Match]
[Genre: Story]
[Currently selecting scenario.]
[Please wait.]
This time, I didn’t get transported directly to a map.
A massive corridor, like a cross-section carved from the heart of the cosmos.
A space where countless enormous books hung suspended in the void.
‘The Cradle of Legends.’
When this place appears, it means one thing.
The genre for this individual match is ‘Story.’
Commonly called ‘Story Mode’—unlike regular Channel games where objectives are given the moment the match starts, Story Mode features its own narrative. Well, ‘narrative’ sounds grandiose; really it just means characters appear and there’s a plot.
It’s just a scenario with actual characters and a story behind it.
-Oh, got Story
-In the Unranked bracket, don’t you usually just see scenarios like “Goblin Den Subjugation” or “Escort the Supply Cart”?
Each scenario also has different objectives.
The “Goblin Den Subjugation” the chat mentioned means raiding a goblin nest alongside mercenaries, while “Escort the Supply Cart” has you protect a supply cart from bandits and safely reach the destination.
-The supply cart’s annoying because the driver gets scared so easily
-For real, he just needs to run but he freaks out the second there’s one bandit anywhere nearby and can’t do anything
At this stage, none of the scenarios are particularly difficult.
Most of them are just Grade E scenarios.
‘Still, I shouldn’t let my guard down. Up until now, there’s been a trap waiting every time I get complacent.’
I waited, keeping my wariness intact.
[Scenario determined!]
[Scenario: Escort the Supply Cart (Grade E)]
[Map: Country Hill]
A gray book from nearby flew forward and opened into a door.
“Not the best, but not bad.”
The bandits that appear in the supply cart scenario are easy enough to beat with one hand at my current level.
I was about to head in, relaxing my guard—when,
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
Suddenly my vision glitched as if the system had frozen, and the space began to twist.
[%$&#%#%&#^%#^!%%!%]
[!&&&^!^!%&#^!8276!^^%!!]
Messages flashing erratically, their meaning incomprehensible.
“What the—!”
It was the first time since logging into the Channel that I’d witnessed such a phenomenon.
If I had to find something remotely similar…
‘The final moment before the Return.’
The sensation I’d felt in that last instant—landing a blow on the ‘Existence Outside’ before dying—came closest to this.
Struggling against the chaos, I held on.
[Do■■ Seque■ ■■nge.]
[Detected ■■ residue from the designated ■■ayer.]
[Detection ■evel elevated to ‘Extreme’.]
A heavily corrupted message printed across the screen.
[Scenario reassigning!]
[Scenario: The Fallen Princess (Grade ???)]
[Map: Finnegans Plain]
The gray tome that had contained the carriage escort scenario vanished, and a new book emerged in its place.
It shimmered with vibrant, multicolored light as though studded with galaxies, particles of radiance dancing around it.
A kind of book I’d never seen in my life.
-Wait, what just happened? The stream cut off.
-Is something wrong?
-Huh? The book changed? I’ve never seen anything like that before.
-Is that… actually a book?
It seemed the viewers hadn’t seen that phenomenon at all.
“Huh…….”
So was this the special treatment they gave to Returners?
Whatever it was, I had no idea.
‘Doesn’t matter anyway.’
It’s still a Placement Exam, and clearing it is what counts.
“Seems there was a minor error just now. But have any of you ever seen something like that before?”
-No way.
-‘The Fallen Princess’? There’s still an undiscovered scenario out there?
-So we could get the first discovery reward too?!
-Why isn’t the rank showing up?
-I’m logging in right now, just wait for me.
Since no one recognized that scenario, it appeared to be one given to me alone.
“I’d better change the broadcast title. Final round of the Placement Exam. And the first public reveal of an unreleased scenario!”
Already imagining how much higher my market value would climb.
I stepped through the book’s doorway.
[Entering the Grade ??? Scenario, ‘The Fallen Princess’.]
[In a certain dimension, there once stood a kingdom that had flourished and reached its golden age….]
***
If I had to sum up the sight before me the moment I opened my eyes in a single phrase.
“Everything’s wrecked.”
Wrecked.
That was the only word.
Not that my situation was wrecked, mind you.
“Everything about this place is utterly wrecked.”
Collapsed buildings and debris so mangled it was impossible to make out their original forms.
Corpses scattered everywhere, bloodstains dried and twisted into grotesque shapes.
A vast city—one that might have evoked the grandeur of a medieval European royal capital had it remained intact—lay in complete ruin.
The destruction was so appalling that it was almost unbearable to witness.
‘Now I understand why the map’s called a plain.’
Everything around me had indeed been swept clean away, leaving the view wide open.
[Scenario Objective: Protect the last of the royal bloodline, Princess Iris, from death for four days.]
“As expected, it’s an escort type.”
The actual objective turned out to be standard escort fare, like in many other scenarios.
Keep a designated person alive, defend them from harm—and of course, if they die, you fail.
Though it says four days, once you complete the critical events, time automatically advances to the next day, so you don’t actually spend four full days in this place.
‘It’s structured a lot like watching cutscenes in a game.’
All you really have to do is play through the important scenes.
-An escort mission, and it’s a princess? Please tell me it’s not some noble with dark leg hair.
-Lucky man!
-Shin Jae-ha, you owe more taxes! This is unfair! Unfair!
She’s definitely a spoiled princess… definitely a spoiled princess… definitely a spoiled princess…
I swept aside the unhelpful chat and looked around.
Normally for an escort mission, you’d start right around the target, but no matter where I looked, there wasn’t anyone who appeared to be a princess.
In fact, there was no one at all.
“What am I supposed to be protecting?”
I muttered in frustration.
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!”
A piercing scream tore through the air like ripping fabric.
‘No way…!’
The event starts the moment I begin?
I bolted toward the sound without hesitation.
I concentrated my mana into my legs, pushing my speed to the maximum.
Moments later—an unseemly scene came into view.
“Kehehehe…! Everything’s going to fall apart anyway, so one last time…!”
“Before I die, I should at least hold a member of the royal family, don’t you think?”
“Your Highness, think of this as our final good deed. We’re poor folk too—surely you can grant us this small favor?”
Three brawny men were cornering a single woman.
Golden hair flowing abundantly, clear sapphire eyes—a woman whose elegant appearance screamed “behold, I am royalty” to anyone with eyes.
“P-please… gentlemen… you’re not yourselves right now! If we work together, we can defeat that… that monster!”
“Bullshit! Listen here, princess with flowers for brains—how the hell are we supposed to defeat that? We’re all dead anyway!”
“Hehehehe…! So stop resisting and come here!”
“Kyah! N-no, please don’t…! I beg you…!”
As the man’s rough grip dragged the tear-filled princess away by force—
“Fortunately—”
I grinned wickedly and gripped the Hammer with both hands.
“Not too late!”
Crash!
The Hammer struck one man’s head directly.
Like a home run baseball, he flew through the air and embedded himself in the ground.
“Gaaaah! W-what the—who are you!”
“What the hell is going on—!”
The other two assailants faltered backward in shock.
“Huh…?”
The princess looked up at me with wide, stunned eyes.
I’d arrived just barely in time.
I didn’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened if I’d arrived any later or hadn’t heard that scream.
I wiped the sweat from my brow somewhat nonchalantly.
“Who am I?”
I answered the attacker’s question obligingly.
“I’m the one who came to stop you bastards.”
The final round of the Placement Exam.
The beginning of “Doomed Princess.”
A Challenger-Tier Player’s Return
Author
: Ki Sa-hon
Publication Date
: August 10, 2026
Publisher
: ACESMEDIA Co., Ltd.
Editor
: ACESMEDIA Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACESMEDIA Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder,
and its contents cannot be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law and may result in legal liability if reproduced or duplicated without authorization.
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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