I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 253

253.

“……”

I watched Limitless in silence for a moment.

It was a deliberate silence.

I had briefed my colleagues about Limitless several times, but seeing is believing.

-Fear is a disgusting emotion of insignificant humans. Are you afraid of losing your life to me?

Limitless laughed.

His face resembled a Hahoe mask [traditional Korean mask], giving him a perpetually smiling appearance.

If you were to ask if it was a pleasant smile, the answer is definitely no. It’s disgusting just to look at.

After 5 seconds passed.

-My power is growing.

He shrugged.

Swoosh!

His size slightly increased, and a long arm stretched out from the edge of his back.

Limitless created the arm in one go, as if pulling out noodles, and transformed it into the shape of a sword.

This was very similar to how I use bodily modification to transform my right arm into the shape of a sword.

The difference is that I can change it back, while his is permanent.

‘If I leave him like this, he might keep multiplying and become a real Thousand-Armed Guanyin [Bodhisattva of compassion]. The worst-case scenario.’

From now on, if left alone, Limitless will gain another arm, another sword, every 5 seconds.

To delay this, I have to constantly attack and break his concentration.

Of course, even if I break his concentration, an arm will inevitably appear after 15 seconds, regardless of whether he’s focused or not.

‘I’ve definitely faced more than enough proliferation-type monsters in my past life. Nicholas gave me a lot of advice too.’

My experience wasn’t lacking.

Rather, I had faced them so often that it would be more accurate to call me a ‘seasoned veteran.’

Usually, proliferation-type monsters have one inherent weakness.

That is that the increasingly numerous body parts are not completely newly ‘created’ but are replicated and rapidly produced from existing ones.

In other words, if you inflict meaningful changes, deformations, or blows to the original arm, the quality of the replicas will also be terrible.

‘Of course, Limitless isn’t stupid, so he won’t give it up easily.’

As expected, Limitless was actively using his newly created arm to defend the ‘original’ well.

Now that the number of arms is increasing, he will subtly move their positions, making it impossible to know which one is the original.

Normal Awakened would not be able to track it at all, but unfortunately, I am an Awakened who has modified his brain.

Even if he had a hundred, no, a thousand arms, I could definitely identify the original.

I had already finished doping.

Everyone was at their maximum combat power with maximum concentration.

For this battle, we even took stimulants with a slight narcotic component.

Fortunately, the withdrawal symptoms are just drowsiness, so we can finish the attack well and get some good sleep.

To that end, I had already booked first-class tickets for the return flight.

“Attack!”

Whoosh!

With my shout, everyone, including me, scattered in all directions.

I advanced forward.

Yoon-byeol, as always, drew a long arc, preparing to target the rear of Limitless.

Since everyone was wearing the special suits additionally supplied by Hwang Seok-cheol before coming here for this battle.

A mistake or two wouldn’t immediately lead to fatal injuries.

Perhaps that’s why my colleagues’ movements were more lively than I expected. Rather than being intimidated, they were aggressive.

“Maybe it’s because he looks so messed up, but I feel like sticking a healing spell right in his face.”

What’s different about this attack compared to usual is that Han So-jun was also positioned quite far forward.

This is because Limitless, who has dark attributes, is ‘extremely’ weak against healing magic.

Darkness and light.

Because they are completely opposite energies, we could expect tremendous additional damage.

Of course, this was also a strategy I created.

The point at which using a healer as an offensive option becomes mainstream is still 10 years away from now.

I’m setting the trend in advance.

To this end, Han So-jun and I had been training for attacks from the start.

Perhaps that’s why Han So-jun didn’t seem flustered or hesitant at all, and was positioning himself near me.

“So-jun, only target the arms that the guy can attack with. Any arm is fine. Just aim for whatever is comfortable for you.”

“Okay.”

“Since it’s healing magic, there’s nothing to lose even if it misses. If it hits me, I’ll recover. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes. Leave it to me!”

Battle start.

I leaped forward and jumped in front of Limitless.

Whir! Whir! Whir!

Three arms, three blades, intersect chaotically.

The number itself isn’t that high yet, but he’s wielding the swords quickly based on overwhelming strength.

Even an Awakened with very good dynamic visual acuity would not be able to easily follow the flow.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

But I maximized all my senses and blocked Limitless’s attacks.

‘He’s strong, as expected.’

I only collided with the blades three times, but I felt a tingling pain throughout my arm.

-Ugh, what is this?

But there were gains too.

Fountains of blood spurted from Limitless’s arm, which had been vigorously striking my sword.

‘Right, I had a strategic advantage, didn’t I? I guess I was a little nervous. I had completely forgotten about this fact.’

I chuckled.

Come to think of it, I had a ‘Stellard Sword,’ which is a higher-level concept than Limitless’s ‘steel’ sword.

Of course, the number is only one on my right arm, but sometimes qualitative superiority is much better than quantitative superiority.

-I don’t know what kind of tricks you’re playing, but it’s still not enough!

Swoosh!

Limitless’s body swelled up once more, and a fourth arm appeared.

It was an arm with the same wound as the ‘original,’ the replication target. It wasn’t bleeding, but it wasn’t replicated in its clean state.

-You little punks!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The rough gusts of wind created by Limitless scattered in all directions.

I used the Shield Stone and then defended against the attack relatively easily by covering my body with steel reinforcement.

“……!”

“Aaaagh!”

Yoon-byeol and Han So-jun were different.

Because they couldn’t strengthen their bodies themselves like me, they poured magic power into their suits to maximize their defense.

In the end, they were caught in the whirlwind and pushed back quite a bit.

It was heartbreaking to see them tumbling awkwardly on the ground.

Of course, they wouldn’t be injured, but their heads would be dizzy. Their whole bodies would be numb.

-Not bad, human.

“What do you mean, not bad? This isn’t the time to be admiring things, is it?”

-This is just the end of the warm-up. Don’t be complacent after a few exchanges.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Soon, Limitless’s entire body turned red, and his muscles and blood vessels began to swell as if they would burst.

It was a scene of creating his own physical and strength enhancements.

“You too? Hey, I can do it too.”

I also smiled and tried to strengthen my muscles. Modification is modification, and strengthening is a separate concept.

Muscle modification is just a foundation that helps you strengthen your muscles faster and more extremely.

“Hoo.”

I exhaled a hot breath and looked at the shape of the muscles that were pressing against the special suit as if it would burst.

Things were going well.

-Are you copying me?

“Stop with the nonsense and let’s get serious. It looks like it’s just starting now.”

I immediately rushed towards Limitless.

Even if I have the relative advantage of ‘Stellard,’ time is definitely not on my side.

I have to pressure him and push him.

If time passes and this guy’s body becomes twice as big as mine.

And to make matters worse, if dozens or hundreds of arms appear.

Then, even if I hold on, my colleagues will die one after another. I have to prevent that from happening.

* * *

5 minutes later.

‘I can’t believe it.’

Limitless’s expression was gradually darkening.

His Hahoe mask-like face was no longer smiling brightly, and the corners of his mouth were turned down.

Five minutes had passed, and the number of arms had increased to 20, but for some reason, Shin-hwa was not being pushed back at all.

Of course, they had both been injured.

Limitless had lost several arms due to Stellard’s excellent cutting power.

But those were all replicated arms, and they were arms that had already accumulated a lot of damage and could be discarded.

In Shin-hwa’s case, he had the most wounds around his neck and shoulders.

This was because Limitless could attack directly from the front, and it was the most difficult position to defend.

After the battle started.

Up until about 2 minutes had passed, Limitless thought he was making an ‘equal exchange.’

If he was hit once, he would definitely return the blow, and the same was true for anything more.

But around 3 minutes had passed, and the scales of victory gradually began to tilt towards Shin-hwa.

This was due to the joining of his colleagues, who had now gotten a feel for things and were systematically harassing Limitless.

Choi Ji-hyeok constantly applied slowing effects, making Limitless’s movements sluggish, and endlessly reduced his defense.

In addition, Yoon-byeol would sneak in like a ghost when attention to the rear happened to become lax.

She wasn’t constantly looking for opportunities from behind, but rather disappeared as if she didn’t exist.

Yoon-byeol’s presence would disappear from Limitless’s mind, and then she would suddenly appear.

This was due to Yoon-byeol’s unique ‘intuition’ and ‘instinct,’ which Shin-hwa couldn’t easily explain.

In other words, it was another talent that Yoon-byeol had bloomed.

In the midst of Shin-hwa constantly drawing attention, Han So-jun’s healing magic, which came in as an effective hit, was the worst.

Wherever the white energy wrapped around or brushed past, the skin melted and smoke billowed without fail.

It was as painful as pouring hydrochloric acid on raw flesh.

In the flow of the four people attacking organically as if they had become one, Limitless felt the fear of death.

Of course, 90% of the fear that Limitless felt was naturally due to Shin-hwa.

‘I’ve never faced a guy like this before…….’

Since opening his eyes in the dungeon, the number of Awakened who had died at Limitless’s hands exceeded four digits.

Limitless thought of himself as a god.

A perfect realm that humans could not dare to covet!

But that ‘god’ was about to be destroyed by the hands of a human who had come along after well over a thousand others.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Nearly twenty arms, twenty blades, relentlessly slashed through the space, aiming for Shin-hwa’s neck.

It was such a rough flurry that Limitless himself couldn’t even guess where the path of the sword would lead from and to.

But.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

“You’re dull, dull!”

Shin-hwa was blocking all the attacks too easily.

It was as if he had made time flow very slowly and was responding while watching each one with his eyes.

The flashy attacks were meaningless.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Only Limitless’s innocent, numerous arms were being cut by the Stellard Sword, spitting out innocent flesh.

-F

That’s right.

There was no word that could better represent Limitless’s feelings than this curse right now.