The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 28

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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 28. Because It’s Me, I Can Do It (3)
A derived skill: Gravity Armor.
The principle is simple.
The narrower the range, the stronger the gravitational barrier becomes—compress it to the absolute limit, down to the exact dimensions of my body, and exceed the output ceiling.
Right now the power has crossed 100%… yes.
“150%.”
Boom!
The moment I stepped forward, a heavy impact rang out as if a massive boulder had been dropped.
Spiderweb cracks erupted around the spot where my foot landed.
“Grrrrr…!”
The giant’s movements hesitated, as if sensing something wrong.
If it won’t come to me, I’ll kindly go to it.
I bent my legs and sprang forward, charging straight ahead.
Crash!
The ground behind me lay scorched, dust rising thick and heavy.
“Now I’m not sure which one of us is the giant.”
At least in terms of weight right now, I probably outweigh the thing.
Thinking nonsense, I faced it head-on.
Its massive single eye fixed on me, and it drew back its right fist in a wide wind-up.
“Trying to hit me again?”
If it wants to throw that badly, I’ll accept the blow.
Whoosh!
The fist aimed at me swung through a wide arc.
But this time, it didn’t send me flying like before.
Instead—
Crack!
The clenched fist shattered like taffy.
All I did was meet its incoming fist with my own.
“?!?!?!”
Sorry, but I have no intention of flying back as easily as last time.
“You got a hit on me, so now I get a hit on you?”
Before it could even withdraw that fist.
I raised my leg—wrapped in gravitational armor—and brought it down with full force.
Bang!
The ground split open as if an asteroid had struck, and its fist was crushed beneath my heel.
I grinned and poured more power into it; the giant lost its balance and bent one knee.
“Shriek…!”
Perhaps it judged that continuing this way would only drag it deeper into the trap.
It severed its own ruined fist and quickly retreated backward.
Some liquid—blood or something—oozed from the severed edge.
“What, are you a lizard? Cut off your limbs and run?”
Tentacles sprouted from the severed surface, then rapidly reshaped themselves into a hand once more.
“I envy that. If my limbs get cut off, they don’t grow back.”
So the creature possessed regeneration as potent as it had before the transformation—no, even stronger.
Since the final form had no subjugation records, I hadn’t heard from Iris the exact strategy for defeating it, but what to attack was laid bare before me.
‘That eye.’
Destroy that large, grotesquely-shaped eye, and it should fall.
Zzzzzzz…!
The problem was that my mana reserves were visibly running dry.
‘Damn it—that’s exactly why I wanted to save this for later.’
Before the Regression, Gravity Armor was one of my core skills.
But I hadn’t used it often, for two major reasons.
One was the heavy strain it placed on my body.
No matter how much I could ignore 80% of the gravitational weight, wreathing my entire body in transcendent gravity still imposed significant burden—even that remaining 20% took its toll.
But that problem was solved when my constitution changed to the S-rank “Lord of Gravity.”
The second constraint was a different matter.
‘Mana shortage.’
Gravity Armor demanded exquisite mana control.
Naturally, the amount of mana needed just to sustain it was beyond imagination.
Even with my mana efficiency pushed to its limits, at this level I could only maintain it for about three minutes.
‘I can pull this off because it’s me. If it were another player with the same stats, the skill wouldn’t have activated in the first place.’
So realistically, to defeat him,
I have to settle it all in the next strike.
“Breathe easy…….”
The Gravity Armor trembled and responded with each breath I drew.
A cool smile crossed my face as I gripped the Hammer’s handle with both hands.
Then I pushed off the ground and launched forward like a shot.
“Kraaa-raaa-raaa!”
The giant’s body swelled grotesquely, and hundreds of tentacles tangled through the air.
What formed was a downpour of fists.
Even I, who’d seen everything, gasped at the sheer scale of it.
‘If I had to fight something like this without stat adjustments, the Kingdom would fall to ruin.’
The rain of fists filling the sky descended in a torrent to kill me alone.
But against me in this armor, that much was nothing more than a drizzle.
Whooom!
I drew a fraction of the mana burning in real-time toward the Hammer.
Bracing myself firmly on both legs, I swung the Hammer with all my strength, gravity and mana intertwined.
[
Ascending Air Current]
The wind pressure from the Hammer twisted the trajectories of the fists into chaos.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
Fists cascading down in rapid succession on the innocent ground around me.
I seized the moment, detonating mana from my feet like an explosion to launch myself skyward.
Precisely forward, so I could meet the creature’s eyes straight on.
“Shriiek?!”
It hastily wound tentacles around its eyes.
It seemed to be scrambling to form a defense barrier,
[Buff: Goddess’s Spear (Lv.5)]
but I was equipped with the highest-tier defense-penetration buff.
‘If I can’t win with this one blow, then I’ve lost.’
So I burn everything and prepare the greatest strike I’m capable of.
Clang! Rattle-clang!
The Gravity Armor wrapped itself around the Hammer.
It swelled larger still, taking on a menacing form.
Whooom! Whooom!
Fine tremors emanated from the air around the Hammer.
‘Right here.’
I poured every last drop of mana I possessed into it.
Mana rushed into the Hammer, and blue sparks erupted around it.
“It’s complete.”
The strongest strike I’m capable of unleashing right now.
[The skill ‘Swing (E)’ has evolved into ‘Strong Swing (D)’!]
[The skill ‘Strong Swing (D)’ has evolved into ‘Focused Strike (C)’!]
The skill resonating with my realm leaped forward two entire ranks.
My lips curled upward despite my efforts to restrain them.
“Here I gooooo!”
With a shout, I hurled everything I had at the giant.
Boom! Kuuuuuuuung!
The sound of impact thundered twice.
The moment the Hammer made contact, it tore through the tentacle barrier and obliterated the creature’s massive eye completely.
The eye burst outward, leaving a gaping hole where it had been embedded.
“Krr…… augghhhh…….”
The giant emitted one final death cry, its body convulsed, and collapsed.
Fortunately, there was no cliché where it suddenly regenerated into a new pattern.
It simply melted away slowly, dissipating entirely.
In conclusion,
[You have vanquished the Calamity Giant, ‘■■’!]
The channel’s system confirmed it.
That I had felled this Calamity with my own hands.
Toward the chat window scrolling like mad, I smiled broadly and spoke.
“Conquest complete.”
***
[The fourth day’s main event has concluded.]
[The scene shifts.]
When consciousness returned, I found myself in a familiar place.
Iris’s Secret Base.
“Mmgh…”
My mana depleted, my body heavy as lead, I forced myself upright when a small hand shot out from beside me, gently holding me back.
“Please rest a little longer! You collapsed right after the battle ended.”
Turning my head, I saw Iris smiling down at me.
She was doing her best to appear composed, but I could see through it.
The slight tremor at the corner of her lips, the wet eyes flushed red.
‘She’s been crying and laughing quite a bit, hasn’t she.’
And no wonder.
We’d just escaped the brink of annihilation.
‘…Hm?’
Then mischief took hold of me.
It’s human nature, really—when an innocent child appears before you, the urge to tease them becomes irresistible.
“I’m sure you have many questions. But first, why don’t you have some of this—”
“Who… are you…?”
“…Pardon?”
I narrowed my eyes and clutched my head.
I even remembered to bite my lip hard, as if in pain.
“Ugh…! The truth is, I haven’t been able to remember anything since earlier…”
“That can’t… be…!”
“Where am I? Why am I here!”
My soulful performance drained the color from Iris’s face entirely.
She mumbled something about “losing his memory twice…!” and her nose twitched as she began to sniffle.
“Waaah! This is terrible… Even the heavens are cruel. To steal the memories of the hero who saved the world, not once but twice…”
“For now, this soup—”
“The soup? Oh, yes! If you drink this, you might feel a little better…!”
“No, I was hoping you would drink it instead.”
“Me…?”
“If you burn your tongue on the hot soup and your pronunciation becomes garbled, perhaps that will restore my memory…”
“……”
Blink. Blink.
Those enormous sapphire eyes stared at me blankly.
Unable to hold back the laughter bubbling up inside, I finally burst out with a laugh.
“Good evening, Iris.”
“Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!”
Her face flushed tomato-red with embarrassment as she hurled whatever came to hand at me.
“That was cruel! Cruel! You wouldn’t wake up, and I was so worried!”
“I know, I’m sorry. I won’t… Ow! That hurts! That’s a stone, isn’t it! A stone!”
“Why would you play such a trick! You’re horrible!”
After finally calming an agitated Iris down, I was able to hear what had transpired.
The Calamity Giant, defeated by my hand, had vanished without leaving even a corpse behind.
No other calamities or new monsters had appeared in its wake.
“I can feel it. That terrible calamity that threatened to destroy the Kingdom… it’s finally over.”
Iris clenched her fists tightly, her expression overflowing with emotion.
“At last… it’s truly over… I’m so grateful to you, Jae-ha!”
“You’re right. You have me to thank. Though—”
I had no intention of taking full credit for the victory myself.
“The information and records you remembered and told me about that creature, and the blessing you granted me—those made it possible to defeat it more easily.”
“…!”
“So let’s call this a shared victory. I’d say I deserve about nine parts, and you deserve one?”
“Pfft! Could you give me a little more credit!”
“No, no. That thing was tougher than expected, you know.”
At minimum, it wasn’t something you’d encounter in a Placement Examination.
You’d need to reach at least Gold rank before facing something with that kind of power.
Considering the complexity of its patterns, it could have been even stronger still.
“You know anyone can’t just grab something like that, right? I can only do it because it’s me.”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s only possible because you’re Jae-ha.”
“Somehow that feels like sarcasm….”
I pushed myself up and glanced to the side.
Iris stood there smiling beautifully, tears streaming down her face.
The cascading starlight flowed through her golden hair like liquid light.
“Thank you. Thank you so much for coming to me, Jae-ha.”
…That tickling sensation of déjà vu in my chest again.
I deliberately brushed it aside and stretched my lips into a smile.
“You’re too kind.”
This was the final round of the Placement Examination.
The curtain fell on the Doomed Princess.
With a peculiar sense that I would see Iris once more.
.
.
.
[Scenario Objective Cleared.]
[Rating: SSS]
[First time clearing this scenario!]
[Achieved the highest rating grade!]
[First time clearing a ???-rank scenario!]
[Secret Objective ‘Saving the World’ achieved!]
[Play results reflected in rank placement.]
[Placement Examination: ■■■]
[All Placement Examination scenarios completed. You can now check your placement rank!]
.
.
.
[Successfully subjugated the Calamity Giant, ‘■■’.]
[Obtained the First Key.]
[The Giant’s name is revealed.]
[Quirk]
[The Rising Oddity shrieks and vanishes.]
Challenger Rank Player’s Regression
Author
: Ki Sa-hon
Publication Date
: August 10, 2026
Publisher
: Aces Media Inc.
Editor
: Aces Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Aces Media Inc. under contract with the copyright holder,
and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
This ebook is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying 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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