The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - 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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004.

Looking at it more carefully, this Status Window had a strangely familiar interface.
Like a mobile game, I suppose.
Back when I was stir-frying offal, I’d mostly stopped playing—too exhausted—but I still remembered the basic system layout.
Anyway, during those five minutes of rest, I managed to figure out what this system was for.
The Status Window helpfully served up additional pop-ups on cue.

[Biological Metronome] (D / Points 3)
One who plays with rhythm. Instinctively, your choreography follows the music.

[Self Heat Generation] (E / Points 3)
Immune to muscle function decline from cold. You’ll be fine even without heating facilities.

At first glance, these seemed to be a sort of buff effect—separate from raw ability stats—that corrected in-competition and out-of-competition factors.
And seeing that they had price tags suggested you could buy them with Points.
‘So couldn’t I just buy one now and use it?’
I cleared away the stacked pop-ups and pulled up only the Points window.

[Points: 3]

There were indeed several buffs I could afford right now.
I hesitated for a moment.
Once I cleared the 5-rank quest, I’d get to draw one automatically anyway.
The trouble was, it’d be random.
……Come to think of it, isn’t buying with Points the smarter move?
[Ah, well then, how about we compromise by bumping up your Gacha Ticket grade instead?]
‘The management system really is sloppy, isn’t it……?’
It felt like talking to a new hire asking how to file year-end taxes.
We came to a dramatic compromise: the 5-rank quest reward became a C-rank Guaranteed Gacha Ticket instead.
By the way, here’s what I’m buying now.

[Biological Metronome] (D / Points 3)

Idols draw crowds because the pretty and handsome ones stand out, sure—but their real job is dancing well and singing well.
Since this was a sport performed to music, a sense of rhythm was essential.
Popular skaters generally fell into two types: those with good results and those with beautiful, flowing technique.
Either way, popular skaters tended to attract plenty of sponsorship.
“You’ve all memorized the choreography, right?”
“Yes, Coach.”
When break time ended, the kids gathered again in one spot.
Figure skating competitions proceed with each athlete taking a turn on the ice to perform their “Program.”
They select music of their choosing, tailored to set regulations, and showcase their choreography and technical skills.
According to the notes, today was about learning all the choreography and practicing from start to finish.
“Let’s go in alphabetical order by name. You can do individual practice while someone else is skating, just be careful not to collide. This is practice like the real thing.”
It was much like a ballet competition or a classical music recital, now that I thought about it.
“Then Su-jin first!”
“Coach, do I do all the jumps too?”
One of them raised her hand with the question.
The coach thought for a moment, then shrugged.
“If you can, go ahead—but since we’re still building the program, I’ll count singles as passing. If you’re jumping, try working on whichever jump you’ve been struggling with most.”
Hearing that was a real relief.
To be honest, I still wasn’t confident enough to land a double jump.
I was retying my skate laces when I cracked open the Status Window for a moment.

[Kim Ha-seol]
Age: 13 years old (Born February 27)
Height: 162 cm
Weight: 47 kg
Secondary Sexual Development Progress: 24%

Strength: B
Stamina: B-
Flexibility: C+
Precision: B+
Presence: C-

In that short span, my strength and precision had risen naturally.
Even accounting for Status Window correction, could it really climb like this?
‘If I could practice triple rotations sooner, that would be ideal.’
For now, I’d bought the special ability.

[Biological Metronome] (D / Activation successful!)

In the meantime, a girl named Kim Su-jin had begun her performance first.
A bright, cheerful violin melody poured across the Ice Rink.
During that time, the four of us, myself included, had made our way onto the ice.
‘She’s skating well.’
While I circled nearby in practice, Kim Su-jin’s choreography continued unfolding.
Just as I thought she’d attempt her first jump, she crashed down hard.
“It’s not over yet? Get up, quickly!”
“Yes…!”
I watched as she struggled to her feet, unsteady.
In figure skating, once the music starts, it cannot stop until the end.
Whether a skater falls or loses the beat.
Every single moment is reflected in the score—there’s no quitting.
There’s nothing to do but clench your teeth and complete whatever remains.
‘Her skating technique looks decent, though.’
Given how much my nerves were already shot, I decided not to dwell on it further.
After practicing a few turns and earning 1 Point, I dumped it all into my Presence stat.

[Presence: C- → C]

Since the base grade itself wasn’t high, I wasn’t sure how much impact it would have.
In any case, a total of three minutes and thirty seconds.
The first skater’s choreography practice had ended.
Her skill looked reasonably solid.
“How is it—did you get a better feel for your air position?”
“A little, yes.”
“Work on the choreography more on the ground too. You were practically phoning it in during the second half.”
The coach exchanged some feedback with the skater, then called out the next name.
“Kim Ha-seol! You’re next!”
“Yes, understood!”
I hurried out to the center of the ice.
Standing there, a sudden wave of nervousness washed over me.
‘How many years has it been?’
The past decade flickered past me like a lantern show.
Years when I couldn’t even bear to look at the Ice Rink.
The skates I’d saved up for eventually had to be sold to the secondhand market.
The coach waved his hand.
“Starting the music!”
“Got it!”
Even so, my body methodically assumed the starting position.
The Junior debut season Free Skating music was a medley from the opera Turandot.
I still remembered the choreography.
The things you encounter first tend to remain in memory the longest.
‘For the jumps, they said just one rotation is fine.’
Soon the orchestra’s grand melody burst across the Ice Rink.
I spread my gathered hands into the air in time with the beat.
And with a graceful arc, I began to glide across the ice.
In Junior Free Skating, a skater must perform a total of seven jumps.
And when the violin melody emerged, the first jump arrived.
I substituted a slight flick of my foot into the air instead.
With a sharp tap, my right foot landed softly on the ice and glided backward.
A Waltz Jump—one rotation short of a single Axel.
Then I continued the choreography toward the next jump.
What is Turandot in figure skating?
The original is an opera, and it’s a work so common that every skater performs it at least once—earning it the nickname of an overused classic.
To summarize the opera’s plot in one line: it goes like this.
‘A prince from the west issues a marriage proposal to an eastern princess, wagering that if he solves three riddles, she will marry him—but if he fails, she will have him executed.’
I traced a curve with my fingertips before settling back into position.
Another jump, flicking my right foot into the air just as before.
Tap!
Without the burden, the landing felt light as a feather.
When I first began working on this program, Coach Park suggested we try storytelling and shared some additional context.
Why had the eastern princess Turandot made such an extreme declaration?
‘Well, it turns out there was a backstory to it.
‘
I stopped in place and began to spin.
According to the backstory, the western kingdom had invaded the eastern kingdom and brutally murdered the previous princess.
With this context added, it became natural to imagine.
‘Could the murdered previous princess and Princess Turandot have been close?’
If her family had been taken from her that way, why would she ever want to marry a prince from the kingdom that killed them?
Regardless, they do marry by the end, but until that point, countless anguish and turbulent emotions must have churned within her.
I stopped the spin and continued the choreography.
The moment for the next jump had come.
With another bounce into a Waltz Jump, the rest was filled entirely with choreography.
As I performed, my mind grew clearer.
Now I understood the essence of why the princess had acted as she did.
After spinning through a pirouette, I gently lowered my raised arm.
All manner of lines and circles were traced across the ice with each passing moment.
The Step Sequence—the task closest to the very essence of a sport that draws figures on ice.
Princess Turandot had merely struggled to protect herself in her confusion.
Attraction to the prince and hatred born from loss.
Each moment of leaping, bending, and gliding across the ice.
The princess’s confusion and the prince’s courage in solving her riddles were being etched into the very tracks upon the frozen surface.
To be honest, I was bewildered at first, and though I don’t understand what kind of miracle this is, I had no intention of simply letting it pass.
If a miracle has been planted, shouldn’t it be made to bloom?
So I’m simply watering it.
I finished the choreography and began to spin.

***

Coach Park Chae-ram watched his student with a satisfied smile as he filmed.
The rhythm hadn’t wavered even as they entered the final stretch!
Usually, when a skater first moves up to Junior level, they’re so overwhelmed just executing the required elements that they lose the music entirely.
Moreover, she’d gained confidence in her skating itself.
The blade of a figure skate has two edges.
The inner edge on the side of the big toe, and the outer edge on the outside of the foot.
How delicately and skillfully one uses these edges becomes the measure of skating technique.
And right now, Ha-seol was executing bold edge work beautifully.
I’m not sure why she’s substituting Waltz Jumps for all the harder jumps, but since the assignment was choreography practice, there’s no point in criticizing.
Most of all.
‘The emotion runs deep.’
Of course, it was he himself who had deliberately shared the backstory of Turandot with her.
But could sharing it alone really create this level of immersion?
When he’d told her, she’d only nodded and said, “I see.”
The accumulated experience and contemplation of long years had seeped into her performance, and he wondered what word could capture that ripeness, that maturity.
‘Seasoning? Insight?’
I couldn’t think of quite the right word to describe it.
It seemed as though her mental state had shifted without her realizing it.
Much like how her skating had shed its hesitation.
‘It must have been difficult and frightening for her.’
She was a girl who’d buried her parents before even starting middle school.
With no blood relatives listed in the family register, there had been quite a commotion over guardianship until I stepped in.
After I agreed to take responsibility, she’d returned to training the very day after she removed her mourning clothes.
‘Maybe I should have just offered to coach her full-time from the start.’
I hadn’t wanted her to grow up this quickly.
Coach Park, oblivious to the fact that his protégé’s true self was an adult approaching thirty, bit down on his lip.
Kim Ha-seol bounced up into the air twice in quick succession.
The music swelled even grander, and only one jump remained.
The princess, awakened from her anguish, had made her choice.
The living would continue to live.
She finally accepted the prince who refused to abandon her.
The moment she launched into the final jump, she flowed directly into a Spin.
Love had triumphed, and the wedding was celebrated.
The resplendent orchestral score came to an end.
And so Kim Ha-seol stretched both arms high into the air.
A clean, flawless finish.
Coach Park set down the tablet and clapped.
It absolutely was not just because she was his full-time protégé.
She had truly skated beautifully.
“Well done.”
“Thank you.”
Kim Ha-seol caught her breath and drank the water he offered her.
Somehow she looked relieved.

***

Yes, it had felt refreshing and wonderful.
The next morning, I frowned at my full-length mirror.
“Sigh……”
A student’s duty has always been to attend school.
Even if one were a full-time figure skater, during the off-season a student had no choice but to show up in their school uniform.
Age twenty-nine.
It was time to head to Songgol Middle School for the new term……
The Regressor’s Ice Rink in Gold Chapter 4
E-book Release Date | 2026.06.05

Author | Corcarolli
Publisher | Huh Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing House | Potentia

Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260514092.0004
List Price | Not for Sale

ⓒ Corcarolli 2026

This e-book is protected under copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author, and any unauthorized reproduction, 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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