I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 281

281

The next night.

I saw a meteor shower.

It was an omen that Ifrit, a boss-level monster possessing the Flower of Rebirth, would appear around tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, over the past day.

I fought my best, traversing the battlefield with Frauda’s elite forces, including Gaiz.

I thought he might reveal his true colors early, but contrary to expectations, Gaiz was more cautious than I thought.

He not only assigned a healing Awakened [a person with supernatural abilities] to support my recovery but also volunteered to provide direct support himself.

Perhaps this was to build rapport and break down my psychological defenses.

This place is a disaster for some, but also a land of opportunity.

I fought with all my might.

Of course, throughout the battle, I remained vigilant about Gaiz and the people around me.

“Let’s see….”

I got quite a few flowers.

If I were with my Team Mystic colleagues, I would have shared them on the spot and watched them change as they ate them.

It’s a shame, but I’ll have to keep them safe in my subspace and deliver them when we meet.

The original plan was to move with my three colleagues, but the situation became more serious than expected, so the plan was changed.

The KSA [Korean Special forces Association] received an emergency support request from the RSA [Republic of South Africa], and accordingly, the KSA requested support from the three of them.

In a disaster situation where every minute is critical, it would be ridiculous to force my colleagues to come to my side.

Having received contact from Lee Ha-sung and Na Mi-na, I told my colleagues to fully support the KSA.

With the three of them, the KSA agents would be much less likely to get hurt or be in danger.

I was confident that the priest’s debuff skills, Han So-joon’s healing abilities, and Yoon Byeol-i’s assassination skills were all top-notch.

Meanwhile, I carefully examined the flowers.

First of all, I ate the flower I needed early on. It was the Flower of Oblivion, which I didn’t remember seeing in my past life.

Thus, even I, a Regressor [someone who has returned from the future], have gaps in my knowledge. It’s nothing new, but that’s why it sometimes feels strange.

Anyway, the ‘Flower of Oblivion’ could erase the memories of people within a 50m radius, but only once.

It can’t erase all memories, but it erases their memories of what happened within 10 minutes.

It’s like getting a one-time ability like in that old movie where a flash of light erased memories.

Anyway, I ate one of those flowers, and now I’m looking at the flowers I’m going to give to my colleagues.

‘Flower of Light Resistance. This will be the best flower for the priest, who is weak to sunlight.’

A flower with a brilliant golden color.

Perfect for the priest.

If he eats this flower, he will no longer feel great discomfort from the sunlight, except for the full midday sun.

‘Flower of Divinity… This flower will more than double So-joon’s current divine power density.’

As you can tell from the name, the Flower of Divinity was almost exclusively for Han So-joon.

There’s no reason for me to be greedy, because if someone who doesn’t know how to handle divine power eats it, it has no effect.

In other words, the flower can’t do anything other than be eaten by the mouth and come out through the anus.

‘Finally, the Flower of Shadows.’

Finally, the Flower of Shadows, which intentionally enhances afterimages when moving.

It was perfect.

I wasn’t able to be with my colleagues, but I was able to get all the flowers I wanted to get for them. I was lucky.

Swish! Swish, swish!

I threw the flowers into my subspace.

Then, I began to review each of the battles that had taken place today.

The whole team was supposed to move again after a 30-minute break.

But it seemed to me that what I had expected would happen around that time.

‘Certainly, there were a lot of attacks that pretended to be mistakes and aimed at my back. Gaiz pretended to establish discipline by punishing them directly, but…’

Today, under the guise of coincidence, there were more than one or two skills that flew at me.

Of course, there were no skills that would threaten my life. Even if I got hit, it would only be a light scratch?

But since I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, I had no choice but to react after feeling the attacks coming from somewhere.

In the process, I mainly used liquefaction, steel enhancement, blink rings, etc. to respond…

It seemed to me that Gaiz was examining my ‘defense manual’ in this way.

Of course, I kept that in mind and showed a delayed defense as much as possible.

I even put on a look of embarrassment, barely blocking what I could have blocked long ago.

‘If you do a lot of good deeds, you should be rewarded… I don’t know why only these kinds of guys keep getting caught.’

I sighed.

‘Nicholas, I’m working hard while rolling around in this shithole. You too, hang in there, okay?’

I prayed to the North Star, which was clearly visible in the sky, with the earnest hope that Nicholas would hear me.

And.

‘Just you four.’

I picked out the four people I needed to be most wary of when the Frauda members, who were with me under the guise of colleagues, turned into enemies. It was Gaiz, the leader, and his three henchmen.

The three henchmen, whom I had been watching closely throughout the battle, were definitely key players, but their talents were so poor.

That meant that they had talents that were extremely hidden, if necessary.

‘Then, most likely, it’s mental.’

I was sure of it.

Awakened who use mental abilities have no choice but to have monotonous attack patterns.

Because they are people who attack invisibly.

So, when camouflage is needed, they often use flashy abilities that have somehow been bloomed [developed].

For example, shooting fire arrows… They only use skills for disguise.

But the movements of the three henchmen were exactly like that. Then, the three of them could be a mental group.

‘Yes, it’s mental. That’s how Gaiz’s rebound ability works well.’

The calculation was over.

I know Gaiz’s talent.

It’s an X-like talent that returns 90% of the damage the opponent inflicts on him.

A counterattack talent.

For example, if I unleash the Power Crash Fist on him without thinking, 90% of the damage will come back to me.

Of course, he knew how to use a sword as a secondary concept, so he only used a sword throughout this battle.

But in a battle disguised as hand-to-hand combat, I saw him subtly returning damage with a counterattack several times.

Gaiz thought he had hidden it perfectly.

But he could never escape my eyes, which could see every moment.

He caught quite a few large monsters in that way.

‘There must be a mechanism for the manifestation of talent. And as I always say like the truth, there is no such thing as an invincible talent.’

Unfortunately, it seemed that I would have to supplement the lack of information while fighting.

Well… it’s common.

It’s virtually impossible to fight with 100% perfect information.

‘Let’s see how good you guys are, who came here intending to aim at my back. How good are you guys?’

As the cold wind began to seep into my body, I shook myself off.

It’s time to warm up.

When the next sortie begins.

Then I’ll have to kill the monsters like crazy, and kill the bastards who are worse than the monsters who are trying to kill me.

* * *

“Keugeok! Keheok!”

“Eukeheoheoeok!”

“Kyaak!”

“…What?”

It didn’t take long for Gaiz to realize that something was wrong.

Right after Shin-hwa flew his body towards the large monster that appeared in front of him with all his might!

Gaiz took advantage of that moment to have his henchmen place a mental restraint on Shin-hwa.

Restraints are easy to place when concentration is completely elsewhere or when the defense mechanism is weak.

From a timing perspective alone, it was no different from seizing a golden opportunity.

Shin-hwa was completely focused on the monster, and the three henchmen’s restraints accurately targeted Shin-hwa.

But.

“Keugeuk…”

The result was the sight of his subordinates pouring out blackish-red blood from all the holes in their bodies.

Internal injuries.

It was also an irreparably serious internal injury.

He didn’t know why, but the restraint completely failed, and in the process, his subordinates were attacked in reverse.

Because it requires a high degree of concentration for a moment, there is a great risk of suffering very large damage if the restraint goes in reverse.

Despite such concerns, they confidently attempted it because they were confident that they would not be counterattacked.

They weren’t Awakened with low skills to the point of being pathetically counterattacked. All three were S-rank [the highest rank for an Awakened].

Something’s wrong. Something’s completely wrong.

But Gaiz was calm.

Shin-hwa was still running towards the monster in front of him without looking back.

The guy, who looked like a large Lycanthrope [a werewolf], looked sturdy enough to surpass the Troll King at a glance.

If he could suppress Shin-hwa’s movements, it would be easy to aim for his back.

In other words, the Lycanthrope and he would strategically cooperate with Shin-hwa as a common enemy.

‘The means and methods don’t matter.’

What does it matter what the method is, as long as you can kill him? Gaiz rushed towards Shin-hwa from behind.

…

There was no sound except for a very small breeze.

Boots of Silence.

It was an artifact that prevented any footsteps from being heard, no matter how fast you ran.

Gaiz was planning to surprise Shin-hwa, who had leaped towards the Lycanthrope, with a sword strike from behind.

Even if he counterattacks, he can just return it with a counterattack.

It was a shame that the plan to capture him alive with a restraint had fallen through.

But there’s nothing wrong with killing him.

He had been promised a considerable reward from Jin Geuk-myeong, and he had also agreed to cooperate in the Korean expansion project.

The next moment.

Guoooo!

The Lycanthrope roared and stretched out his hands roughly towards Shin-hwa.

It looked so powerful that if you were caught in those hands, you wouldn’t be able to stand it without being torn apart.

But.

Bang!

“…!”

Shin-hwa blew away the face of the Lycanthrope, who had been rushing in with great momentum, on the spot.

He used the Power Crash Fist, which Shin-hwa had never used in front of Gaiz.

And.

Papatt!

Using the Blink Ring, Shin-hwa quickly moved behind the Lycanthrope.

The problem here is.

“Damn it!”

The arms of the Lycanthrope, whose head had been blown off before he could even recognize his death, were coming towards Gaiz.

Paang!

Inevitably, Gaiz used a counterattack to fend off the Lycanthrope’s attack.

Unlike Shin-hwa, whose whole body was as hard as a fortress, Gaiz was not.

If he can’t counterattack.

All that can protect him is the high-end suit he’s wearing. He couldn’t make up for it with his body.

Thud!

The Lycanthrope, whose head had already been blown off, staggered and fell from the counterattack.

And Shin-hwa revealed himself from behind the collapsing Lycanthrope and smiled at Gaiz.

“Let’s finish this quickly, we don’t have time.”

“…”

“Don’t even think about surviving in a clumsy way, you better be prepared to kill me for sure. Come on. I’ll give you the first move.”

Shin-hwa provoked Gaiz.

Now, ahead of the final battle with Rechelo.

Gaiz’s life will be a good ‘sacrifice’ for his send-off ceremony. Shin-hwa was so sure of it.