I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 66

Episode 66

“Isn’t that Kang Shin-hwa?”

“That’s right. The rookie who signed with Yanghwa Guild. The one who made a fuss about developing the highest-grade magic potion recently, wasn’t he?”

“Why is he here?”

“More than that, isn’t that Team Leader Yoon Byeol in his arms?”

“Branch Manager! Core readings stable! It seems the boss monster has been defeated!”

“What? More than that, did he just call what we’re doing here ‘shit’?”

Song Seong-rim stared blankly at the retreating figures of Shin-hwa and Yoon Byeol.

Shin-hwa was quite famous, so many people recognized him. Song Seong-rim was no exception.

Everything became clear.

The mysterious figure who had been sweeping through this dungeon with Yoon Byeol was none other than Kang Shin-hwa.

“…….”

Song Seong-rim shook his head repeatedly, checking Shin-hwa’s basic Awakener information on his tablet PC.

D+ Rank.

Since Shin-hwa’s rank increase in the dungeon wasn’t reflected, the visible information was as follows:

“Are you telling me to believe this? A D+ Rank swept through the entrance with Team Leader Yoon and even defeated the boss monster?”

“As of now, the possibility of a third party is close to zero.”

“This is unbelievable.”

Song Seong-rim clicked his tongue.

He had seen plenty of traces of battle on the way in, but he hadn’t seen a single monster corpse.

He had only seen over a hundred *ganghwa-hyung* Azra’s heads [enhanced type Azra monsters].

Song Seong-rim suddenly felt ashamed.

He had brought nearly 100 agents to this dungeon, which Kang Shin-hwa had practically handled alone.

Moreover, he felt even worse because he had been called out in front of so many subordinates.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? There are still monsters left inside! Exterminate them all!”

Song Seong-rim refocused on the purpose of their entry and issued orders to all the agents.

Investigating the situation could wait; they had to resolve the immediate problem first.

As KSA [Korean Special Ability Association], they had a duty to protect the safety of the Jeju Island residents and leave no room for future trouble, no matter how small.

That was their duty.

* * *

Some time later.

“Why didn’t you leave?”

“I thought Kang Shin-hwa might come back this way. So, I waited quietly.”

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I didn’t get soaked in the bad weather.”

“The woman’s condition doesn’t look good. Are you planning to treat her at the villa?”

“Yes. She has dimension stone fragments embedded in her body, so she can’t be treated at a regular hospital.”

After exiting the dungeon and heading towards the villa, I was able to meet the driver who was waiting for me.

Thanks to him, I was able to lay Yoon Byeol down in the back seat, turn on the heater to the maximum, and head to the villa.

If her injury wasn’t serious, I would have taken her to a regular hospital in Jeju Island.

Doctors have the medical knowledge for these things.

But Yoon Byeol’s case was different.

She was injured by dimension stone fragments in the process of detonating a defective dimension stone cluster.

The problem is that when dimension stone fragments are embedded in the body, they cause a chain reaction with the mana within.

Trying to easily pull out the embedded fragments like removing a splinter could affect the mana lines [pathways for mana flow within the body].

Therefore, the removal of the fragments and immediate healing had to occur simultaneously.

In Jeju Island, I was practically the only one who could do this.

Ten years after the Great Cataclysm [a world-altering event that introduced magic and monsters].

The Awakener world still had more questions than answers, with much remaining unknown.

Weeeing. Weeeing.

At that moment, Yoon Byeol’s suit kept vibrating.

Hoping for the best, I carefully took her smartphone from her chest.

[Do Not Answer on Weekends 1]

“Huh?”

The name that appeared with the number was unusual.

Do Not Answer on Weekends 1.

Was it her boss?

Or was it spam?

I decided to answer it for now.

I could always hang up if it wasn’t important.

“Hello, this is Yoon Byeol’s phone. Due to circumstances, I’m answering on her behalf.”

-Kang Shin-hwa? This is Na Mi-na!

“Ah…….”

I understood why Yoon Byeol had registered the name that way.

She must get a lot of overtime or special assignments on weekends. This kind of boss is hard to welcome.

-How is the dungeon situation?

“How do you think it is?”

I replied to Na Mi-na’s lively question with a cold tone.

I felt a sense of complacency from her as well.

A dungeon outbreak is never a predictable disaster that goes as planned.

According to Yoon Byeol, the dungeon core energy levels skyrocketed, jumping from stage 1 to stage 4.

And she sobbed, saying it was ‘unprecedented’.

The Great Cataclysm, the birth of the Awakener system, and the emergence of numerous outbreaks and monsters are all unprecedented variables.

I was angry that the KSA, which should consider all possibilities and worst-case scenarios, had failed to do so.

At this rate, a major incident would break out in the country soon, before I could even finish preparing for retirement.

-The Jeju branch’s support should be there. I requested them to join as quickly as possible, so leave the boss monster to them.

“I already took care of the boss monster. The Jeju branch agents are probably busy cleaning up the mess.”

-Excuse me?

“I cleared all the monsters from the main paths leading from the entrance to the center, and I’ve recovered all their corpses.”

-Shin-hwa cleared the boss monster? According to Branch Manager Song Seong-rim, the dungeon is rated A+. Then the boss monster’s level would be SS?

“Then I guess I caught that SS-class monster.”

-No, this is ridiculous…….

“Keep your monologues for after you hang up. I’m very disappointed in the KSA because of this incident. How complacent do you have to be to send only one stealth Awakener to scout the dungeon?”

-Shin-hwa, we have a clear explanation for that…….”

“That’s enough. Give your explanations to the media when it’s reported in the news later.”

I hung up immediately.

It wasn’t just a threat.

I was planning to make this incident public through Park Hyun.

That way, the KSA would have a chance to reflect, and manuals would be created to prepare for such situations in the future.

Drrr. Drrr.

The phone rang again.

I turned it off completely.

Yoon Byeol needed rest and treatment. I wanted to focus on that for now.

* * *

Thanks to the driver, I returned to the villa faster than expected. I first laid Yoon Byeol down in front of the fireplace.

I had the staff and everyone else in the villa go outside.

Her body was still wet from being soaked in the rain before getting in the car.

“Ugh. Ughhh.”

She shivered from the cold.

I carefully began to remove her enhanced suit.

The inner lining of the enhanced suit was stuck to the wound on her back, so keeping it on for too long would only make things worse.

Unintentionally, I ended up seeing her bare skin.

If I were still young, I might have felt a little bit of sexual attraction in this situation.

But whether it’s a man or a woman, there’s little difference in how I see bodies.

Only her toned abs, with no excess fat, caught my eye.

They were even more defined than my body, which had been honed by a year of porter work.

This meant she practically lived at the gym after work.

“She has wounds on her stomach too.”

As I removed the suit, the large and small wounds hidden inside revealed themselves.

It was surprising that she had supported me until facing 엑셀러 [romanized name], even with these injuries.

“Byeol, can you hear me?”

“Yes…….”

Fortunately, she seemed to have regained some consciousness.

“The wound on your back is severe. I’m going to remove the fragments, and it might feel strange, but bear with it.”

“I’m okay…….”

I felt sorry for her condition, as she couldn’t even finish her sentences.

I carefully adjusted her position on the mat in front of the fireplace so that she was lying face down.

Then, I covered the upper part of her back with a dry towel.

Now it was time to use my knowledge from my past life.

I immediately used my mana to prepare the healing needles.

Then, I brought my mouth to the area of her wound where the dimension stone fragments were embedded.

“Tss…… Tss…….”

Like sucking blood from a snakebite, I began to suck out the dimension stone fragments.

I had already sterilized my entire saliva with mana, so I didn’t have to worry about transferring germs to her.

Two tasks were performed simultaneously.

Sucking out the dimension stone fragments while quickly healing the area.

This was the only way to avoid damaging the mana lines and achieve complete recovery.

If an Awakener or medical professional without prior knowledge were to treat her, this process would take a considerable amount of time.

In the meantime, the person’s mana line’s durability and circulation would unknowingly decrease significantly.

Each time I sucked out a fragment, blew in a healing needle, and spat out the blood and fragments in my mouth.

Yoon Byeol’s complexion seemed to improve little by little.

‘It’s a bit creepy, though.’

However, my appearance, with blood all over my mouth as I licked her wounds to heal them, didn’t look very cool.

I happened to see myself in the wall mirror next to me, and I looked like a vampire.

Still, it was easy to separate the fragments from the wound since they hadn’t been embedded for long.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

I continued to spit the fragments into the stainless steel container next to me, and soon I was able to remove all the fragments.

Now, all that was left was to infuse her with mana, as she was almost completely depleted due to exhaustion.

The emergency treatment was over.

Now it was time to help her recover.

Some time later.

I continued to infuse Yoon Byeol with mana, promoting her mana circulation.

Thanks to her accepting my mana without much resistance, I could feel the mana flow throughout her body.

‘It’s a mess.’

Her condition was worse than I thought.

Not as bad as Jin Bo-mi’s when she was battling her illness, but there were many areas where mana circulation was blocked.

The bottleneck was severe.

Just as arteries harden as blood vessels narrow, the same was true for mana lines.

‘The reason Yoon Byeol was only SSS-rank before the Great Disaster wasn’t because she was a late bloomer, but because of a chronic condition.’

It was the moment I solved a mystery from my past life in this life.

It was amazing that she had reached SSS-rank 32 years later, despite her mana lines being in such a terrible state.

‘Just unblocking her mana lines would make it easy for her to reach EX-rank later, right? It seems she can’t even utilize half of her mana in her current state.’

I saw potential.

In any case, she was a person who made great contributions before and after the Great Disaster.

If I could solve her chronic problems, wouldn’t that naturally prepare for the future?

‘Nicholas is working hard instead. When he regresses later, I should seriously ask him to give me some praise.’

I chuckled, imagining his prickly personality as he reluctantly gave me a word of praise.

After all, I wasn’t using any significant power for her; I was just unblocking the blocked paths.

If I could secure a future talent with this much investment, there would be no better deal.

‘It’s really over when I retire!’

The moment I cut ties with the secular world and enter *shinhwa* Land [Shin-hwa’s Land, a personal retreat] in the South Pacific.

I hope to be free from all burdens and attention.

To do that, even if it’s a bit annoying now, it’s better to take action in advance when there’s an opportunity.

Whoosh!