The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 4

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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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Chapter 4. Eating Well and Moving On
Oh Jun-seo could say without exaggeration that these recent days were the prime of his life.
It wasn’t enough that he’d awakened as a Player with a fairly useful skill—a Scout had taken notice, and he’d managed to join MK Thunder as a trainee, no less.
True to a conglomerate team, the support was extraordinary.
High-end items that ordinary Players could never dream of, professional education systems, meticulous management—everything.
‘At least in my level bracket, no one can keep up with me.’
That’s what he’d thought.
Crack!
Before he saw this.
“What… what is this even…?”
The man in the hoodie who’d blown past him and sprinted ahead.
He’d smirked at him earlier—no decent gear to speak of, and wielding some log of a weapon like that.
Splat! Thud! Splat!
But now there was nothing funny about what he was watching.
Every time the man swung his arm, at least two goblins exploded.
“Phew, there’s plenty of them.”
He gazed at the green dwarves filling his vision like well-packaged chocolate, drool gathering at the corners of his mouth.
Then, launching off the ground, the man’s form vanished like a mirage.
What remained visible and audible were only goblins toppling in ceaseless sprays of blood, and—
“Screech!”
“Screeeech!”
—the wails that echoed out.
‘What is that… he’s absolutely not on my level!’
Oh Jun-seo’s legs trembled.
Channel’s casual matches typically pair opponents of similar Level or Rank.
It’s to prevent one person from dominating—what they called “stomping.”
Which meant that man had to be close to his own level, but….
“Where does he get off!”
The words spilled from his mouth unbidden.
The sheer volume of Mana, the efficiency with which he swept through goblins—
that was Level 20 minimum, upper-rank Bronze at least.
Rare even in that bracket.
“Oh Jun-seo! What are you doing!”
“Uh… what?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me! Hunt faster or that guy’s going to monopolize everything!”
Kim Su-jung, who’d joined as a trainee alongside him, urged him forward urgently.
Indeed, one man was hoarding all the goblins in this area.
“What… who is that guy!”
The young man and woman stared in bewilderment at the name displayed in the rankings.

1. Shin Jae-ha (78 kills)
2. Kim Su-jung (5 kills)
3. Oh Jun-seo (3 kills)
That name, dominating first place by an overwhelming margin.
***
Stats don’t lie to numbers.
Strength of 7 means you can exert exactly 7 units of force; Stamina of 6 means exactly 6 units of endurance.
‘My constitution gives me slightly higher physical stats than what shows, but—’
at least fixed numbers don’t fluctuate.
There is, however, one stat that breaks this rule entirely.
That’s Mana.
Mana is an unprecedented form of energy for humanity.
Beyond merely fueling skills, it can enhance the body or amplify the senses in countless ways.
And when it comes to wielding such Mana,
Crack-snap!
I’d call myself a specialist.
“One more down.”
The goblin’s head, struck by the wooden club, twisted into an indescribable shape.
A viscous liquid mixing blood and brain matter soaked into the ground.
“Shriek!”
Was it frustration at what had happened to their comrade?
The goblins, massed together, unleashed a volley of poison arrows toward me.
“Well, that’s quite touching camaraderie.”
I focused my mind, gathering the mana concentrated in my arms and shoulders back toward my solar plexus.
The sensation of a small sphere floating at the center of my chest.
I dispersed it again, this time concentrating the mana in my knees and calves instead.
Boom!
I leaped with all my strength.
My body shot forward like a cannonball, launching me thirteen meters into the air in an instant.
‘Mana efficiency varies wildly depending on how you use it.’
My current mana was barely six.
The lowest possible stat, almost no different from my baseline ability points.
Yet such a performance was possible for one reason.
My mana manipulation was more refined than even top-tier mages.
Before the regression, I’d desperately learned not to waste a single strand of mana outside my body, and it had become second nature.
Here I was—practically powerless, yet possessing the finest mana control of anyone.
It would have been a joke, if it hadn’t been true.
Before the regression, at least.
“Ughhhh…!”
As I dodged the poison arrows with my jump, fear and shock flooded the goblins’ eyes.
To catch all those creatures at once….
“This is the way.”
I spread my mana and activated the skill.
[Activating Gravity Field (D)!]
The effect of this skill is simple.
It expands a zone centered on me where gravity intensifies.
The problem is that I’m also affected by that gravity.
Whoooosh!
A round, translucent violet force field expanded outward, and my body grew heavy, pressing downward.
For the record, I’m still floating in midair right now.
Which means.
“Here I cooooome—!”
Due to the intensified gravity.
I plummet with tremendous acceleration.
This was the technique I’d used most frequently in my early player days.
[Cannonball
Technique!]
The goblins could only stare in horror as I fell at catastrophic speed.
They had no time to react.
Crash!
The Wooden Club pulverized everything around it.
[Goblin defeated!]
[Goblin defeated!]
[Goblin defeated!]
.
.
.
System messages flickering wildly across my vision.
I brushed them aside momentarily, then immediately ended the skill.
‘For now,’ I could only use it for this.
“Ugh, ahhhhh!”
“What the—!”
The surrounding players gasped in shock, staring at the devastated crater before them as if a meteorite had struck.
‘Khhh….’
A sharp, electric jolt ran through both my arms.
A shock I could easily endure—no, one that felt almost exhilarating.
It seemed to confirm that this was reality, not a dream or illusion.
“Khhh! Kyahahaha!”
“What… what is that person….”
“They annihilated an entire goblin pack, and now they’re laughing like a madman…!”
Because I was so thrilled.
“There’s still… more left, isn’t there?”
I plunged back into the forest.

[Match concluded.]
The match ended shortly after.
I wiped the sweat drenching my forehead and stretched my back straight.
“Ahhh~ yeah! Phew, that’s refreshing.”
It felt exactly like taking a bath to rinse off sweat after exercising to exhaustion for the first time in ages.
[Now presenting the results.]
<Ranking>
1. Shin Jae-ha (286 creatures)
2. Kim Su-jung (23 creatures)
3. Oh Jun-seo (19 creatures)
The results message transmitted to all players.
“286 creatures… not bad for something I did while just having fun.”
I’d been halfhearted, just getting a feel for things, yet I’d surpassed 250.
I was slightly disappointed I hadn’t cracked 300.
“286 creatures?!”
“Isn’t first place usually around 50? Maybe 60 at most…?”
“Who exactly is that person?”
“A major corporation trainee? Their equipment seems…”
A different kind of murmur rippled through the crowd.
Glances scattered my way, restless and intent.
Some of them came from the MK Thunder duo.
Both of their eyes were trembling quite noticeably.
‘Tsk, I do feel a bit sorry.’
When they’d mocked me earlier, I was irritated.
But thinking of my actual level now, this had simply been bullying on my part.
I deliberately met their gaze, then offered an awkward smile and bowed my head slightly.
“…!”
Their reactions split.
The woman nodded back in kind.
“Ugh…! That…! Nngh…!”
The man’s face flushed red and purple as he ground his teeth.
‘What’s his problem.’
Well, I’d done what I came to do anyway, so it hardly mattered now.
[You achieved first place with overwhelming numbers!]
[You’ve set an extraordinary record!]
[Your performance is reflected in the reward system.]
[Level up!]
[Ability Point +1]
[Mana +1]
[Strength +1]
“Oh?”
The rewards were quite substantial.
I expected the level to rise, of course, but two different Ability Points? That was remarkable.
Thinking back to other games where you barely gained a single Ability Point even after a standout performance, this was an exceptional number.
[+1,000 Credits]
And a whopping 1,000 Credits on top of that!
For an unranked casual match, that’s an eye-opening amount.
Most other players probably got around 100.
The Thunder duo who finished second and third likely received around 200.
Anyone ranked tenth or below probably got nothing at all.
“This is starting off with a really good feeling.”
Despite not having eaten anything all day, I felt full and satisfied.
‘Burp.’
I patted my contented belly and logged off.
“Thanks for the meal~.”
***
A moment later.
Snap!
Park Yong-dae, the MK Thunder scout who had brought Oh Jun-seo and Kim Su-jung to the facility, grinned wide and welcomed the pair back with bared teeth.
“Welcome back. That was faster than I expected.”
“…….”
“So? How was your first game as part of the Thunder roster? The equipment’s top-tier, so it must feel like a whole different world, right?”
He chuckled and tossed a crumpled paper cup into the trash.
“Who came in first? It was you, Jun-seo, right?”
“…No, sir.”
“Then it was Su-jung?”
“N-no, it wasn’t me either….”
Park Yong-dae’s expression darkened gradually.
“…What?”
Now that he thought about it, the atmosphere was off.
The guys who’d been bragging before logging in—boasting about who’d take first—were all visibly deflated.
Oh Jun-seo, in particular, was trembling so hard his sword hand shook with barely contained fury.
“You didn’t place first? What are you talking about? Don’t tell me there was a K1 trainee in the same instance?”
These two’s stats were still below rookie level.
The other Players they’d encounter in the same game had comparable ability points.
To beat them both and take first place in such a match, you’d need to be at least a trainee from one of the Three Great Factions.
“Bad luck, I guess. Those guys over there—”
“No, sir. He wasn’t a trainee.”
Kim Su-jung cut him off.
“Not just not a trainee—his only equipment was a big wooden club. His clothes were just a hoodie and jeans….”
“What are you—ah, you’re messing with me? Stop joking around and just tell me straight. Do I need to report this or what?”
“…….”
Both of them were utterly serious.
Or rather, too confused to find the words to speak.
The image of that man flickered through their minds like frames in a panorama.
“It’d be faster if you saw it directly.”
Kim Su-jung manipulated the system and pulled up the most recent match records.
The numbers recorded there were staggering.
[1. Shin Jae-ha (286 kills)]
“Two… two hundred eighty-six…?!”
Park Yong-dae’s jaw fell open, and he rubbed his eyes over and over.
But the number didn’t change.
Exactly 286 kills.
It was a shocking figure that should never appear at this level of the game—that simply couldn’t appear.
“The… the footage….”
“…Here it is.”
Channel gameplay is automatically saved for the thirty most recent matches.
Though only from the player’s own perspective.
-Ugh… who is that guy!
From Kim Su-jung’s viewpoint, one man’s rampage was captured on video.
Dressed in shabby clothes.
-Crack! Thud-thud-crack!
-Shriek!
-Bang! Splinter-crack!
-Wail!
Dozens of goblins had their skulls shattered like plastic toys.
Park Yong-dae swallowed hard without thinking.
“Jae… ha….”
Those three syllables burned into his mind with crystal clarity.
The Korean Player League. KPL.
On that vast battlefield.
“Shin Jae-ha…!”
The moment his name first became known.
The Return of a Challenger-class Player
Author
: Ki Sa-hon
Publication 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. under contract with the copyright holder,
and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
This e-book is 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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