I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 105

105

“How is Shin-hwa the key?”

“No way… That’s impossible.”

Shin-hwa always exceeds expectations, but Seo Ye-hee thought this was too much.

“I’ll give you five seconds. Tell me if you have a better idea or alternative.”

“……”

She had no response to Shin-hwa’s words.

“Stop wasting time and move aside!”

Shin-hwa shouted.

Simultaneously, he amplified his magic power again, reinforcing every bone in his body.

It was the first time he had attempted a full-body reinforcement since altering his bones.

Usually, he strategically reinforced only the bones in areas needed for combat.

“This is really…”

Jin Bo-mi couldn’t easily speak.

Even knowing this was the only way, she doubted it would succeed.

She also worried that Shin-hwa might get seriously injured trying to save Han Seung-taek.

Han Seung-taek’s life was important, but not as important as Shin-hwa.

“Let’s keep our distance.”

“Okay, sis.”

Seo Ye-hee and Jin Bo-mi retreated far enough to be out of Shin-hwa’s sight.

They vigilantly guarded the outer perimeter in case more members of the organization appeared from outside.

The next moment.

“Waaaaaah!”

Shin-hwa roared powerfully, charging from the far end of the basement toward the iron door.

Despite the considerable distance, Shin-hwa’s sprint was relentless.

His body, quickly turning red-hot, accelerated and hardened as if he were a steel man.

And then.

Kwaaaang!

He collided head-on with the iron door without slowing down. Deceleration was out of the question.

“……!”

Jin Bo-mi couldn’t bear to watch and squeezed her eyes shut.

The sound and the shaking of the ground and basement ceiling made it clear that the impact was tremendous.

“Hmm, do I need to go faster than this?”

Shin-hwa roughly swept back his hair, disheveled by the air resistance.

He had tried colliding with about 50% of his maximum thrust, but the reinforced iron door remained untouched.

His body ached here and there, but he was still okay.

Reinforcing his bones and adding steel enhancement prevented any major injuries.

Thump, thump!

Shin-hwa knocked on the iron door and said,

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes! I can hear you!”

“The inside might shake violently, so stay as far away from the entrance as possible. Otherwise, you’ll get caught up in it.”

“Ah, okay! Excuse me, but what’s your name?”

“I’ll tell you my name if I succeed in rescuing you. If I fail, who knows if I’ll ask the Grim Reaper to write my name in his ledger?”

“Hahaha! I understand. I was actually asking with that in mind.”

It was a joke in a tense situation, but Han Seung-taek cheerfully returned Shin-hwa’s words.

It was also a desperate wish that no innocent person would be sacrificed because of him.

“Stick close to the wall. And prepare to hold your breath.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Hoo.”

Shin-hwa stepped back again.

This time, he retreated as far as he could to the opposite end of the basement.

Moreover, he lowered his center of gravity as much as possible and maximized the circulation of magic power to achieve maximum acceleration from the start.

Everything, without exception, to the maximum! It was the maximum firepower, pushed to a point where there was no more output to increase.

And then.

Kwaaang!

With a sonic boom, Shin-hwa’s body began to sprint. It was a destructive movement that could only be described as a ‘human rocket!’

* * *

At the same time.

‘What a grateful person.’

Han Seung-taek, trapped inside, was grateful to the man outside the iron door who was struggling to save him.

In fact, he had already given up on the idea of living.

Many triple-structured iron doors like this existed in the KSA’s [Korean Special Abilities Association] criminal detention centers.

They were mainly used to confine first-degree murderers or death row inmates awaiting execution.

The structure completely blocked the possibility of escape or rescue operations by external force.

For that reason, the iron door was incredibly thick, and the security password was managed so that only superiors knew it.

Because Han Seung-taek knew the structure so well, it was not difficult to let go of all attachments.

“……”

He wanted to face his end calmly, but a person’s heart doesn’t work that easily.

He wanted to live.

But knowing he couldn’t live, he paradoxically wanted to live even more.

“I’ll be a disgrace to the KSA……”

He was ashamed.

If he died like this, he would probably be the first executive to be openly kidnapped and killed by a criminal organization.

“Ugh.”

His breathing became increasingly labored.

As the air rapidly escaped, his vision was also rapidly narrowing.

It seemed like there was a lot of activity outside, but the iron door didn’t budge.

He didn’t expect it in the first place.

With this level of iron door, even detonating a large amount of dimension stone bombs outside would only result in a slight dent.

But right then.

Kuddeudeuk!

“……?”

He doubted his eyes.

In an instant, a deformation occurred, and part of the iron door caved inward.

“Is this even possible?”

He couldn’t believe it.

For such a large change to occur simply by colliding with the body, the amount of impact the colliding object had to endure would be unimaginable.

But there was no scream or groan of pain from the person outside.

“Yaaaah!”

Soon, Shin-hwa’s cry was heard.

Kuddeudeuk!

“……!”

Once again, a significant change occurred in the iron door. This time, the iron door caved in even deeper than before.

“Waaaaah!”

The cries continued.

And with each collision.

The iron door, which had maintained its rectangular shape like an unyielding ‘Wailing Wall’.

Bending, bending, and bending again, it had already begun to transform into a ‘C’ shape.

“What am I seeing with my own eyes……”

Han Seung-taek retreated further into the corner, shaking his head in disbelief.

He was also an S+ rank Awakened [person with supernatural abilities], a powerhouse whose strength was second to none.

But while he could crush a person with his strength, these iron doors were not even a consideration.

He had tested his strength a few times after being trapped, but all he managed to do was make a tiny scratch on the surface.

Kuoong!

Collision.

Kuooong!

Another collision.

Kuuuuoong!

Continuous collisions.

Han Seung-taek, who had given up on everything, was greatly surprised by the dramatic changes happening around him each time.

Kkigigik. Kkigik.

Simultaneous cracks were occurring throughout the iron door.

This was a phenomenon that occurred as the triple-structured iron door exceeded its breaking point.

Impossible to break through without bringing in expensive, high-powered heavy equipment to artificially destroy it.

The iron door was literally being smashed to pieces; an unbelievable miracle was unfolding before his eyes!

“Oh, God……”

The name of God he was calling for the first time in his life.

He borrowed the word God, but for Han Seung-taek, God was the man outside the door.

He was so curious to know who it was.

“Keuheok……!”

But in the meantime, the increasingly thin air was hindering Han Seung-taek’s breathing, and his vision was rapidly narrowing and darkening.

It was a lack of oxygen.

Right then.

“Open up! Just open!”

Han Seung-taek heard the sound of the man frantically pounding on the iron door in his fading consciousness.

It was his desperate struggle, hitting something with his body and repeatedly striking somewhere with his fists, almost ignorantly.

Was it about 20 seconds that passed like that?

“Kkeureuk.”

Han Seung-taek, clutching his increasingly stiff neck, was about to exhale roughly when.

Kwaaang!

The miracle finally happened.

And Han Seung-taek could see.

The identity of a man who appeared with the light of the rear fluorescent lamp wrapped around him like a halo.

“Ah, you……”

It was Kang Shin-hwa.

A young Awakened that South Korea was most focused on recently, someone he could never forget even if he wanted to.

* * *

“Wow, it actually worked.”

“The fact that you even thought this could work……”

“Well, it’s better than not trying, right? Anyway, let’s quickly support the branch manager!”

“Yes!”

The rescue operation was a great success.

The gamble of scraping together every last bit of magic power in his heart and throwing it paid off.

Of course, since he had to handle everything from start to finish with his body, the aftermath was quite significant.

Despite using all enhancements, he couldn’t fully absorb the shockwaves created by the collision.

His vision shook as if someone was grabbing his head and moving it from side to side, and his entire skeleton ached.

It was an opportunity to realize once again that he was not invincible and not a ‘machine’ with desensitized senses.

“Th, th, thank you…… Re, really…… Haa…”

Han Seung-taek, regaining consciousness and getting up with the support of Seo Ye-hee and Jin Bo-mi, repeatedly bowed to me.

Han Seung-taek, in his forties, was someone who would contribute a lot to the KSA in the future. That’s how it was in his past life.

‘However, in my past life, I was never in this kind of danger.’

It felt like one of the ‘inflection points of regression’ that Nicholas had warned about had occurred.

Because something that hadn’t happened before had newly occurred, someone who shouldn’t have been involved in the incident had become involved.

‘Well, it’s a happy ending, isn’t it?’

He decided not to think too complicatedly.

Unlike Nicholas, analyzing every situation one by one and calculating the cause and effect.

Seriously calculating the number of cases in the present and future was completely incompatible with his personality.

If things worked out well, that was the end of it. What more was there to think about?

Working hard to worry and fret was also a disease, a disease.

‘Now that I’ve saved Han Seung-taek…… then is it time to finish the remaining business?’

I recalled the memory I had left as the last course among the reasons I came here.

That was the Dummy Dungeon.

A place that appears when you go further down to the lowest basement floor of the 7th Black Tower where I am currently.

‘Let’s safely hand him over first.’

Since the situation was not completely over yet.

I was planning to safely have Seo Ye-hee, Jin Bo-mi, and Han Seung-taek join the KSA agents.

“Okay, let’s get out of here first. The branch manager’s condition hasn’t fully recovered yet.”

“Okay. Bo-mi and I will support the branch manager and go out.”

“I’ll clear the way first.”

I took the lead.

While going from the basement to the ground, I was worried that there might be resistance from the enemies.

But the guys who had already run away didn’t even show their faces.

Except for a few blind guys who were killed by Jung-hoon and Yoon Tae-ho while escaping along the expected route.

And then.

“Wow……!”

“Did you really save the branch manager yourself?”

The KSA agents who arrived at the scene after a time gap sighed in relief at the sight of Han Seung-taek’s safe return.

“Shin-hwa saved the branch manager; the two of us didn’t do anything.”

“That’s right. It’s all Shin-hwa’s credit.”

While Jin Bo-mi and Seo Ye-hee gave me the credit, I was already preoccupied with the next destination.

‘Top-grade dimension stone.’

Currently, in 2020.

A dimension stone higher than the top-grade dimension stone, which has not yet appeared in the Awakened world, exists in the Dummy Dungeon.

I didn’t want to miss it since it was a place where I could briefly and thickly, uniquely, and without overlapping with others, capture it.

I quietly spoke to Jin Bo-mi.

“I’ll be away for a bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back. If anyone is looking for me, buy me some time.”

“You have to come back quickly. Got it?”

“Even if you beg me to come late, I’ll come quickly. Because I don’t want to be in the Black Zone for long.”

I tapped Jin Bo-mi on the shoulder and quickly headed back to the depths of the 7th Black Tower.

The fruit that others have not yet obtained.

So, the fruit that only I can uniquely pluck was still lying dormant underground!