The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - Chapter 3

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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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003.

I stood up from the bench.
It felt embarrassing to sit here accepting praise without moving.
A soul worn down by years in the working world bowed its head.
“Th-thank you.”
“Thank me for what? It’s like making porridge and giving it away to others.”
Park Coach turned to address the other students.
“See that? You can all do it too. We should take a plane and compete in the Grand Prix. Right?”
“Yes!”
“Wow, our Seol is actually growing! This coach is moved.”
“Oh, Coach.”
Park Coach tilted his head back playfully.
The kids laughed at the sight of it.
Stop laughing, all of you…….
“Alright, let’s take about five minutes’ rest.”
The middle schoolers quickly scrambled to the bench and sat down.
I studied the coach’s face for a moment.
To be honest, I never expected to be praised for something so trivial.
“Your expression says otherwise. Getting praised like that just now.”
The coach came over and sat beside me.
I hesitated for a moment.
I couldn’t bring myself to lie to that youthful face.
“There’s been a shift in my feelings.”
“Mm, that happens at this age. You’re going through adolescence now.”
The coach smiled ruefully.
“Still, you should focus on what you need to do as a student. You did great building up your stamina today, but don’t struggle through your worries alone—talk to me about it, understand?”
The bitter edge of that smile caught in my throat.
At this point in time, I was twenty-six years old.
Socially, the best I could hope for was being a job seeker.
A young person had taken responsibility for a child all the way to the end, and now nothing remained.
‘Sorry. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’
That’s what he’d said to me before rolling day and night until he collapsed.
He’d gone independent at twenty, and after that we’d lost touch—I wonder what happened to him since then.
The coach ruffled my hair affectionately.
“Seol, let’s go all the way to the Olympics. Win a gold medal and get yourself a pension. Maybe even do some commercials like Yi-u. What do you say?”
“Okay.”
I couldn’t afford to live like before anymore.
And so we both felt a little warmer during that brief rest.
“If you’re rested, let’s get back to practice.”
The middle schoolers scattered to their usual spots.
Some worked on jump practice on solid ground, others did sit-ups.
I decided to do some gentle stretching.
Fortunately, my body was the same as it had been fifteen years ago, so it went fairly smoothly.
I hooked one foot on the edge of the bench and slowly stretched my legs.
“Ugh.”
Enduring the sharp sensation in my thigh, I opened the Blue Notebook.
It was a notebook where I’d been recording my practice progress around this time period.
‘I’d thrown this away too.’
The entries recorded recently went like this.
First, my lack of flexibility made it difficult to execute spins with stability.
My body wasn’t soft enough, so my axis wavered slightly during rotations.
The speed was good, but while turning I kept drifting to one side.
And second…….
‘Oh my.’
I was failing to land one particular type of jump.
‘Lucky this is before the season starts.’
After all, the jump wasn’t my only problem right now.
I glanced over at the students practicing.
A child was practicing jumps.
‘……there are six of them.’
How long will rehabilitation take at this rate?
I lowered my feet from the bench and stood up.
Standing rigidly, I lifted one leg behind me, grasped it with both hands, and drew it up over my head!
‘Ahhh!’
Startled by the sharp fold in my lower back, I quickly released my hands.
Undeterred, Park Coach simply turned to watch and began clapping.
“Nice form, though—think you can hold it for ten seconds?”
I apologize, but I’m afraid my back might snap.
Still, before the end of land training, I managed to hold the pose for a solid ten seconds.
Having my body respond exactly as I willed it was genuinely, thrillingly electric.
Now came the moment to do it all on the ice.
The middle schoolers gathered their bags and followed Park Coach outside.
“Come on, let’s head to the rink, kids.”
This was the real On-Ice training.

***

Two stops later, a pristine white building greeted us.
At this point in time, it had only been built a few months ago.
‘Before this place existed, I used to ride in Park Coach’s van just to practice.’
Between the fares and gas money from back then, a whole family could’ve gone to a Korean beef restaurant and eaten their fill with plenty left over.
If only I’d come a bit earlier—I would’ve taken that trip.
The Ice Rink sprawled before me in all its vastness.
Freshly maintained, its ceiling gleamed like a white mirror.
‘How long has it been?’
According to my Blue Notebook, today was one of our exclusive rental days.
Past the massive ice resurfacer, several modest spectator sections came into view.
“All right, everyone put down your bags and get your Figure Skates on.”
“Yes!”
I too drew in the cold air and opened my bag.
A plastic blade guard wrapped around the edge appeared.
And white Figure Skates, scuffed and scratched here and there.
I pulled them out, changed into them, and began tightening the laces firmly.
While I did, the children one by one laced up and stepped onto the ice.
Scritch, scritch—the sound of blades carving ice echoed from every corner.
‘My turn.’
I rested the blade guard on a lip along the boards and carefully placed my foot down.
And as soon as I put my weight on it……, my foot shot out from under me!
“Whoa!”
If I hadn’t caught the barrier, I’d have done the splits and crashed hard.
Balancing proved far harder than I’d imagined.
I’d actually pulled off tricks on ice in these things before?
“What are you doing? Get up there and warm up.”
“Right, yes!”
I glanced at Park Coach to read his mood.
The way things stood now, a Challenge Quest was the least of my worries—just not falling would be a miracle.
‘I need a prescription. A prescription.’
I took a deep breath and stepped fully onto the ice.
The first skating technique for beginners: Stamping.
Using the entire blade, you step carefully, pushing off simultaneously with each foot—a simple hopping walk.
Like actually stamping a seal.
I took a few slow steps.
‘That’s it.’
Now I could stand without clinging to the boards.
Then came the second technique for beginners: Leaf Drawing.
Most coaches teach it as vase-drawing, but honestly, what’s the difference?
I brought my feet together into a V-shape and glided, then rotated into a parallel 11-shape.
Squeezing my thighs tight while closing my legs brought them back together.
Repeat this enough times, and your body learns to move while drawing leaves—or urns, depending on how you look at it—on the ice.
Press through your heels and you glide forward; shift to your toes and you reverse.
Mercifully, my body remembered. The sensation was seeping back in.
Park Coach had been occupied all this time, watching the other skaters through their drills.
‘Wait—doesn’t this count as a Challenge Quest?’

[Assessment: self-training at this level falls outside formal Challenge Quest parameters. Quests are calibrated to rank-promotion examinations.]

……Well, then. No helping it.
I gritted my teeth and poured every ounce of focus into the sensation beneath my feet.
The third and final cornerstone for beginners.
To dance across this vast expanse of ice, you need speed—pure, fundamental speed.
So you bisect the urn.
Left skate slides outward, plant your right. Right slides, plant your left.
That’s the motion everyone pictures when they think “skating.”
At some point, I found myself gliding along the perimeter of the rink.
The air bit cold against my cheeks.
Lost in the rhythm, I’d traced a complete lap without noticing.
“Done.”
“Done with what?”
A shriek caught in my throat.
I quickly pressed myself against the Rink Side barrier.
Park Coach stood with his chin propped on his hand, an odd expression on his face.
He looked genuinely delighted.
“Look, you’ve always been wound tight at the start, but today you seem almost relaxed, yeah? Good energy. Your line work is clean, too.”
“Is it?”
“But you were drawing an urn—how many years has it been since we learned the Single Axel?”
I glanced back at the section of ice I’d just traced.
When I looked up again, the coach was studying my face steadily.
“What on earth happened to you?”
“……”
I’ve regressed fifteen years thanks to a Status Window, that’s what.
I swallowed the truth and scrambled for a plausible excuse.
Fortunately, one presented itself—a very convincing one.
“Coach, what if I went back to basics now? Started from the beginning?”
“From the beginning?”
“I’ve grown so much, and you always say body composition changes need careful management.”
“That’s true.”
Figure skating favors the small and light—the younger you start, the better. That’s the nature of the sport.
But growth is inevitable and inescapable. You simply have to endure it.
Knees ache every night with growing pains. Your frame expands and heavies, developing curves that shift your center of gravity.
“So since the Season hasn’t started yet, we’d have time. I thought rebuilding the fundamentals through the promotion test requirements might be good.”
“Hmm……”
Park Coach paused for a moment, then nodded readily enough.
“All right. Doesn’t look like it’ll take long, anyway. Let’s see how far you get today.”
“What’s today’s date?”
“March 10th.”
The Figure Skating Season runs from July 1st.
That left roughly one hundred days.
“That’s plenty of time.”
“Good. You know the mandatory element for this year is Flip, right?”
“Don’t worry.”
The moment Coach left, I summoned the Status Window.

[Challenge Quest 1: Complete the Level 5 Figure Skating Promotion Examination Requirements]

Level 5 was the minimum standard needed to compete as a Novice skater.
To compete in Junior Division events, you needed Level 7.
Most skaters earned that ranking while still in the Novice stage, before moving up.
‘The test date this year is mid-March, isn’t it.’
About a week left.
Time was short, but for me right now, it felt like the first step toward my future as a skater.
It might take a long time, or it might not take very long at all.
I remember every detail of the Challenge Quest anyway.
I decided to be a little more humble for now.
‘I need to go back to the very basics.’
I glided smoothly to the center of the ice.
One of the beginner Challenge Quests: forward and backward outside edges, and inside circles.
The name sounds complicated, but it’s really just drawing pretty circles according to the rules.
A Challenge Quest that evaluates how well you distinguish and use the edges of both skates.
It was just that fundamental in level.
I push the ice with my left foot, shift my weight to my right, and trace a semicircle arcing to the right.
Then I switch feet and continue drawing the opposite arc.
‘Good, I remember.’
After drawing four of them connected, I skate backward along the symmetrical path and return to my starting point.
The other Challenge Quest is just one lap around the Ice Rink, which I’ve already done.
I narrowed my eyes looking at the four circles.
‘The last one is… two variations of the Crossover in a figure-eight pattern.’
You know, that move skaters do when they’re racing fast along the edge of the ice during competition.
Just like before, I pushed off with my left foot and landed on my right.
But then I immediately planted my left foot again to the inside, shifted my weight, and landed on my right foot the same way.
That creates two large, smooth circles forming a figure-eight.
I returned to where the circles met and focused all my attention on my footwork.
Rotating my body backward while switching feet—the Mohawk Turn.
After that, I just skate backward in the same pattern and draw it identically to complete it.
Park Coach, who’d been watching, began to applaud.
“That’s it—even a bit faster would look good.”
“Thank you.”
I smiled awkwardly and glanced away.
‘But when you complete a Challenge Quest, do you just get the same points?
Right on cue, a popup appeared without delay.

[Challenge Quest 1 Reward: Special Ability (E~C) Lottery Ticket x1]

‘Oh?’
Come to think of it, I’d read this when I was being explained about points.
The next popup that appeared came with a convenient supplementary explanation.

[Special Abilities are detachable and can be acquired by deducting Points or using Lottery Tickets. Special Ability application during competition is limited to 3 or fewer.]

Ah, so you can’t use all of them.
‘Why can’t you use them all?’
[Your sporting spirit is far too corrupted.]
‘What are you talking about—the system itself is a fantasy.’
[Sigh.]
I snorted and slowly closed the window with my eyes.
Let me see if there’s anything useful to dig into.
The Returner’s Ice—Volume 3 in Gold
E-book Publication Date | 2026.06.05

Author | Corcoroli
Publisher | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing House | Potence

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Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

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© Korkarolli 2026

This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author, and unauthorized reproduction, copying, distribution, or sharing without written consent from both parties is prohibited.

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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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