I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 259

“Ms. Marina.”

“Yes?”

“If you have that dream again, please tell me anytime, even if I’m asleep. Call, text, anything is fine.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“Yes, I do. For now. Any small comment, scene, anything, please tell me. I’m asking you.”

“If it were a good dream, I’d be happy to share, but… it’s a nightmare, so I feel bad telling you. No one likes hearing about someone else’s nightmares, right?”

“It’s okay. I’ve had experiences where my dreams come true. It’s a kind of precognition. I need you to tell me to prevent any possible situations.”

Marina nodded at Shin-hwa’s serious words.

Of course, the part about dreams coming true or precognition was a lie.

But explaining the real reason would require too much explanation, so he made something up.

‘In my past life, Nicholas trusted Marina the most among the Nine Lords, except for me.’

Shin-hwa seemed to understand why Nicholas was appearing in Marina’s dreams.

He tried to show Shin-hwa only his positive side, so his negative side seemed to be appearing elsewhere like this.

In the process of sending messages to the past, the positive and negative emotions split in half, each heading to different people.

However, Shin-hwa knows about Nicholas’s existence, but Marina doesn’t, so they have different perspectives on receiving the message.

‘Seriously, that Nicholas, what a tiring talent.’

He suddenly remembered what Nicholas had said in his past life.

‘Reading and manipulating other people’s thoughts, it often feels incredibly tiring.

There’s no such thing as a quiet life for me. I always hear something in my ear like a hallucination. And it’s very annoying.’

‘If I could reset my talent, I’d reset it to something like you, Kang Shin-hwa, a talent that only uses the body.’

He could understand the struggles of a mental ability user, even if only a little.

The fragments that guy was struggling to send to the past… He didn’t want to miss any of them.

“I’ll probably have another nightmare tonight, but I still need to sleep. Thinking about the dungeon raid ahead makes me desperate for sleep.”

Marina got up from her seat.

The W-116 dungeon raid, starting tomorrow, was making Marina very nervous.

It was a dungeon that the WSA [World Superhuman Association] had never successfully raided before.

The reason her license was issued quickly wasn’t to accommodate Shin-hwa, but because there were no raid reservations at all in the first place.

“Okay. Get some rest first.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep too, Shin-hwa?”

“……?”

When Shin-hwa just stared blankly at Marina’s subtle comment, Marina scratched her head awkwardly.

“No, I mean, aren’t you going to go to your room in the lodge and sleep? Not sleep in the same bed.”

“Who said anything about that?”

“I know, right? No one said anything… A guilty conscience speaks volumes. Tch.”

“Good to know. Hmph.”

Shin-hwa laughed.

“I’ll wake up at 6 AM, so don’t worry!”

Then Marina smiled brightly and waved her hand as she headed to the villa.

The small villa located on the southeast side of the island was practically finished, so there were no problems with sleeping there.

After Marina left his side.

Shin-hwa stared at the bonfire for a long time, biting his lip and widening his eyes as he fell into thought.

“Elijah Lowe, to reel this guy in…”

He fiddled with Akeroth’s artificial eye, which he had taken out of his subspace [a personal storage dimension].

Excluding Jang Dong-shik, who was close to being an ally, the only remaining Apostle was Elijah Lowe, just one person.

Elijah was definitely a difficult opponent.

‘If you think about it simply, he’s even more unpredictable than Leccero, that’s a fact.’

That was true.

At least with Leccero, all Nine Lords had experience fighting him in their past lives.

Of course, it was a fake Leccero, but the mechanics of black magic weren’t that different in the first place.

It’s like baseball players having different batting forms and averages, but not holding the bat upside down.

There is a basic framework that can be predicted.

But with Elijah, he had never fought him in either his past or present life.

And there were no combat or training videos of Elijah released to the public.

The only thing known was that he was an Awakened who freely controlled flames.

Shin-hwa had seen a glimpse of that at the banquet when he visited the Yanghwa Guild before.

“Flame… Incarnation, Elijah.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shin-hwa clenched his fist as he watched the bonfire flames, fueled by the sea breeze, burn even brighter.

The opponent is a being of fire itself.

He had to obtain the Flower of Attribute this time to establish a plausible countermeasure. Absolutely.

* * *

“Damn it, those bastards. They’re going to chase me to hell.”

Nicholas gasped for breath, maximizing the acceleration of the artifact shoes he was wearing.

Shine. Shine. Shine.

The purple gemstone he was clutching in his right hand was shining beautifully.

Dimension Stone.

A very important stone that allows messages to be transmitted across dimensions and time.

His own life was important, but the Dimension Stone was also important.

He needed this to deliver the message to Shin-hwa. Without it, it would be just a meaningless prayer.

“Don’t let Nicholas Hagen get away! If we kill him, the rest of the survivors are nothing!”

“Kahaha! The way you’re running away is like a terrified bug!”

The black mages of the Leccero Order were driving Nicholas to one side, like a hunting party.

At this rate, he would naturally be surrounded and killed, but Nicholas had no other choice.

‘The next point isn’t far away. If I get caught here, Leccero will interfere with my mind control.’

Nicholas frowned.

A fatal flaw of mental ability users is that the ripple effect is enormous if they are caught by the enemy.

Especially if the enemy is capable of abusing mental abilities.

If Leccero were to capture him, he would analyze his mind to the point of dissection.

And he could manipulate the messages sent to the past to confuse Shin-hwa or put him in danger.

Nicholas wanted to prevent that situation at all costs.

But just then.

Weeing- Weeiiing-.

The unique summoning sound of teleportation was heard, and two figures appeared next to Nicholas.

“Ah……?”

“Nicholas, are we a little late?”

The people who appeared using teleportation were none other than Nine Lords comrades, Marina and Zero.

Space movement was Zero’s specialty.

The side effect was that it caused excessive motion sickness over long distances, but everyone was used to it now.

Of course, Shin-hwa, who hated Zero’s teleportation because he suffered from that motion sickness his whole life, wasn’t here.

“Go. Marina and I will take care of this.”

Zero said indifferently.

Zero’s one eye, with white hair covering more than half of his face, was so red that it looked like his blood vessels would burst.

“Those guys are the Leccero Order’s elite. You’ll die if you get caught!”

“It’s better than you dying.”

Zero’s indifferent answer followed once again to Nicholas’s cry.

Marina also nodded from the side and added.

“It’s better to run away while there’s still someone to protect you. You know, we’re the last ones.”

“……”

Nicholas’s fingertips trembled. As she said.

Only three survivors remained in the Nine Lords’ seats, who had left due to death or betrayal.

Now, if two of them disappeared here, the last survivor would be Nicholas himself.

Because the traitor Isla Blanchett had her neck twisted and killed directly by Leccero. It was a moronic end.

“Marina, Zero.”

“If you have time to say sentimental words, run away as far as you can. Instead, be sure to tell Shin-hwa. That we only trust him.”

“How come a guy who used to be strong and tough when he was young has become a crybaby as he gets older.”

When Marina and Zero snapped at him as if scolding him, Nicholas hurriedly wiped away the tears he was shedding.

As they said.

Every second is urgent.

“I’m going.”

Nicholas turned around.

There were still things to do and missions to fulfill, and there was hope.

“Zero, let’s go!”

“Let’s show those Order guys what kind of bitter taste they’ll get if they mess with crazy lovers.”

“Haaaaat!”

As soon as Nicholas turned around, the two began to sprint forward with a shout.

Kugugugu! Kugugugu!

Marina, manipulating countless silver threads and controlling dozens of dummies that had been moving with them.

And Zero, creating attack paths for the dummies by utilizing his space distortion and transformation abilities.

The two’s last battle, risking their lives, no, prepared to throw them away, had begun.

“Now… am I the only one left.”

Kkudeudeuk.

Nicholas clenched the Dimension Stone, desperately suppressing the emotions full of anger and sadness.

Just one timeline.

Shin-hwa in 2020 stood on the only timeline that could change both the past and the present.

Not yet… There was still much to look forward to to give up with tears in his eyes.

* * *

The next day, dawn.

Marina and I, who had moved to nearby Asmodei Island, began the dungeon raid.

It has the official name W-116, but I knew what kind of flower would appear, so I secretly called it the Flower of Attribute Dungeon.

This dungeon had the characteristic that the internal difficulty increased along with the number of people.

In other words, it was a place where you couldn’t use human-wave tactics at all.

Rather, the more people there were, the higher the difficulty became, resulting in more harm than good.

Then is it a one-person dungeon?

That wasn’t the case either.

Of course, it was possible to raid up to a certain point with one person, but the boss monster was impossible.

To defeat the boss monster ‘Vargas’, a team of at least two people was required.

In any other formation, death was guaranteed with a 100%, no, 1000% probability.

“Shin-hwa briefed me in detail from A to Z, so I feel reassured.”

“You said you had experience up to point B in the middle, right?”

“Yes. We withdrew during the C point raid, so except for the boss monster… I’m basically familiar with it.”

This was also why I came here with her. Marina is an experienced veteran.

As the number of people entering had to be minimized due to the raid structure, an experienced and skilled person was essential.

Marina was the only Awakened who met these requirements in my opinion.

“But the problem is those guys… I guess we’ll have to go for a long-term battle after all? They’re such tricky guys.”

At that time, Marina pointed to the monsters that had begun to appear, strolling in front.

Attribute-type monsters.

Enemies that take only half the damage unless attacked with an attack of the ‘same attribute’.

It was also the most ‘frustrating’ monster setting for those who were fighting with a small number of people.

“Kuhuhuhu.”

They greeted us from the entrance.