The Regression of a Challenger-Level Player - Chapter 8

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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 8. Just Listen to Me (2)
Humid air clung to my skin, and the dungeon was thick with unease.
I knew this map.
‘Underground Prison Floor 131.’
One of those Dungeon-type maps that showed up in Team Battles. Infamously brutal.
“Ugh, why here on the very first run!”
A Warrior who’d entered before me let out a heavy sigh of frustration.
There was only one reason for that reaction.
The Underground Prison wasn’t just difficult—it was notoriously treacherous.
Not that it reeked of filth and decay, though.
‘It’s a nest of traps, savage monsters, and endless schemes designed to deceive Challengers.’
Every absurdity the world had to offer seemed gathered in this one place.
That’s why most players who drew the Underground Prison aimed not to clear it, but simply to advance as far as they could.
But there was something odd about this situation.
‘Wasn’t Underground Prison supposed to only appear at Level 20 and above?’
The Underground Prison didn’t show up until you were at least Level 20.
Before that, even if you entered, you couldn’t clear more than ten percent—so it was designed to only appear once you’d reached Level 20 and had the basic experience, skill, and stats to actually attempt it…
‘Did the Channel somehow manually adjust my matchmaking?’
I’d only played two Normal Battles, but I’d crushed both of them decisively—enough that if the Channel had recalibrated my skill level based on that, I wouldn’t find it completely unreasonable.
What bothered me was that there had never been a single precedent for something like this before.
“Whatever.”
Overthinking wasn’t in my nature.
I’d already lived through time itself once—what did something this minor matter?
“Hello, everyone!”
As I finished clearing my head, a man with unruly hair approached with a bright, cheerful smile.
In Team Battles, sharing information with your teammates was standard procedure.
You could roughly gauge each other’s equipment by looking, but multi-position players and certain classes required verbal confirmation—so it was practically mandatory.
“I’ll start with my introduction. I’m a multi-position Warrior and Archer who plays the Assassin class! I’m Level 24 and my class is Dagger Rogue.”
He had strikingly long bangs that practically covered his eyes.
“Wait… hold on a second… could it be!”
The moment the man finished his introduction, the eyes of the woman who appeared to be a Mage went wide as saucers.
“Are you Teya?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“Wow! I’m a real fan of yours! I watch your streams all the time!”
“Ha, this is embarrassing. Thank you so much!”
Streams?
‘Right, something like that did exist.’
People who streamed Channel gameplay online.
The man the woman called Teya seemed to be one of those types.
Now that I thought about it, he did stand out—his appearance and aura were different somehow.
“So you’re streaming right now too? I’m not really comfortable with my face getting out there….”
When the Warrior man narrowed his eyes with visible discomfort, Teya responded immediately.
“Don’t worry! The streaming system has automatic pixelation built in, so everyone except me can have their faces and names hidden in the settings. Privacy has become so important these days that of course that’s a given~.”
“Is that so? Then, well….”
The man scratched his cheek and began his introduction.
“I’m a Warrior. My class is Normal Sword User, and I’m Level 23.”
Next, the Mage and the Supporter spoke up in turn.
“I’m a Mage, and my class is Novice Mage. I’m Level 22.”
“Supporter… Believer class. Level 21.”
Once everyone had finished introducing themselves, attention naturally turned to me.
“Mm.”
I hesitated for a moment, then decided to just be honest.
It seemed better than lying.
“I’m a Warrior. I don’t have a class yet, and my level is 6.”
“…?”
“What?”
Everyone’s eyes changed in unison—exactly the same way.
A mixture of disbelief and disdain.
“Look here. Even if this is just a Normal Battle, that’s not a funny joke.”
“Tell us the truth. We need at least some idea of strategy.”
They apparently think I’m joking.
Seeing it once is better than hearing it a hundred times.
“No, I’m serious.”
I shared only the sections showing my Level and Class from my status window with the others.
▶Level: 6
▶Class: None
“What… what is this… it’s real?”
“How did a Level 6 even get sent to the Underground Prison?”
“How should I know?”
The Channel’s matching system threw me down here.
“Damn it, can the Channel even have errors?”
“It’s all messed up from the start. Being stuck in the Underground Prison is already annoying, but now we’re getting matched with a Level 6 bug…”
The Warrior and the Mage made their frustration plain.
I couldn’t blame them.
The Channel imposed penalties—Level reductions, stat decreases—on players who consistently performed poorly or contributed too little.
Matched with someone so low-level, they’d likely reasoned, clearing the Dungeon was out of the question, let alone executing a proper strategy.
“At least with Teya here, there might be some hope.”
“Is he really that skilled?”
“Of course! He got thirty thousand followers in just a short time, and there are even rumors of Eclipse recruiting him, and also—”
The Mage, apparently a fan, launched into a lengthy monologue.
“Ha ha, I’m not all that amazing, really.”
Yet his lips curled up at the compliment with unmistakable satisfaction.
“So you’ll be leading us this round, right?”
“I’m for it. You have the highest Level.”
Now they were casually deciding among themselves who would lead the team.
Even that much I could tolerate.
Then came the next moment.
“You there, Level 6… sorry, but please just hide in the back so you don’t get in the way. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
Before they could outright say they were going to siphon off my experience.
“That’s bullshit.”
My mouth moved first.
“…Excuse me?”
The Mage squinted, as if doubting her own ears.
“What did you just—”
“I said that’s bullshit. Pure bullshit. Even in a Normal Battle, deciding on a Leader unilaterally in a Team Battle and telling someone to hide in the back—how is that not complete nonsense?”
“Why are you speaking like that?! I was just being rational—!”
“More likely than the Channel having a bug and placing me here, isn’t it more probable that our levels are actually similar?”
The Channel’s system had never once produced a bug or error.
This wasn’t some game—it was reality.
“Us… at a similar level as a Level 6 like you…?!”
The Warrior’s face twisted.
“The Channel matches people of similar skill. Not that your level is low—just that mine is higher.”
“You bastard!”
The other man came stomping toward me, visibly incensed.
That’s when the curly-haired streamer stepped between us to mediate.
“Alright, let’s both calm down.”
“Calm down?! Over some measly Level 6—!”
After soothing and pacifying the furious Warrior,
he approached me and spoke gently.
“So, uh…”
“Jaeha. Shin Jaeha.”
“Ah! So you’re Jaeha!”
When he asked for my name, he naturally started calling me by it with familiarity.
“I understand you’re upset, Jaeha, but the Mage didn’t say anything completely unreasonable, right~?”
Teya laughed good-naturedly.
Objectively speaking, his point wasn’t entirely without merit.
Higher-level players did tend to have superior stats and more experience than lower-level ones.
The Mage’s decision to exclude me entirely from clearing the Dungeon was, to some extent, tactically reasonable.
Still, unilaterally judging teammates and proceeding without them was a clear breach of manners.
In certain cases, when players formed groups to deliberately isolate or oppose another player, it could even be classified as Teaming.
‘Unless the person turns out to be a troll or deliberately uncooperative.’
I’d only fallen behind in Level; I hadn’t done anything unreasonable.
For them to arbitrarily bench me and tell me to ride in the back was deeply insulting.
“I want to clear this Underground Prison. To do that, we need all five of us.”
I looked at them all as I spoke.
“I’d like to take on the Leader position.”
“Y… you? As the Leader…?!”
“A Level 6 Leader? Ha! A passing dog would laugh at that.”
I know it sounds absurd.
If I were in their shoes and someone so far below the average Level suddenly volunteered to lead, I’d oppose it too.
But I know something they don’t.
Everything about this harsh, cruel, filthy Underground Prison.
I’ve cleared it multiple times while climbing the ranks as a Challenger.
“Looks can be deceiving. If I become Leader, I can take responsibility and clear the Dungeon for you.”
Moreover, when a Leader guides a team in a Team Battle, their performance counts toward bonus experience and rewards.
“Jaeha. I’m not sure that’s….”
Teya tried to stop me.
So I played my trump card.
“Then how about this? You all said you wanted Teya to be the Leader, right?”
“Of course.”
“That’s what we’ve been saying!”
I turned my head toward the entrance to the next room.
This Dungeon worked by navigating through monsters and traps in each room until reaching the Boss Monster.
“Let Teya lead us through the next five rooms, and then I’ll lead us through the five rooms after that.”
Proving your worth as a Level 6 Leader was straightforward.
You simply had to demonstrate you deserved it.
“After clearing a total of ten rooms, you can each choose which Leader was better. Consider the strategy time, efficiency, safety—judge for yourselves. Then select whoever you think was the superior Leader.”
“Why should we do that?”
“If I’m not chosen.”
I withdrew Credits from my account.
[-16,700C]
Every last Credit I had.
“I’ll give this to you. And I’ll apologize sincerely.”
Clink!
The moment the heavy pouch of coins appeared, my teammates’ bodies tensed.
Over ten thousand Credits wasn’t a trivial amount.
“But if you accept me as your Leader, I’ll keep all the equipment that drops after defeating the Boss.”
“D… defeating the Boss….”
“What do you say?”
Everyone hesitated, swallowing hard, unsure how to respond.
“K… kahahaha! Puhahaha!”
Suddenly Teya burst into laughter and clapped his hands.
“Oh man! Our Jaeha knows how to put on a show! This is top-tier content right here!”
He nodded vigorously, genuinely delighted.
“I’m in. Absolutely in!”
With the person who arguably had the most reason to object now in agreement, the other three exchanged glances.
“If Teya’s okay with it… then I suppose it’s fine.”
“Free Credits? Only an idiot turns that down. I’m in too.”
“…sure.”
The contest for the Leader position was now settled.
“As you probably know, a Leader’s word must always be respected, and everyone must give their best effort in the strategy.”
“We get it. Besides, if you deliberately cause trouble, you eat the Penalty anyway.”
The chance of them ignoring my commands to make Teya Leader was practically zero.
Not unless they were willing to accept the Penalty and sabotage the run outright.
“Then let’s do our best together, Jaeha!”
“Very well.”
Teya grinned and extended his hand.
I took it slowly, smiling in return.
After we passed through ten more rooms.
“Let’s give it our all.”
For I am the one who will lead this team.
The Regression of a Challenger-Class Player
Author
: Ki Sa-hon
Date of Creation
: August 10, 2026
Publisher
: Aces Media Inc.
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 Inc. 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 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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