I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 8

Episode 8

“Ggeueop?”

Mad Bear’s face was a mask of confusion as he swallowed Shinhwa’s saliva.

He wondered if he’d been too eager in his challenge.

The moment the saliva went down.

A tingling sensation erupted on his tongue, then a wave of icy coldness washed over his entire body as it traveled down his esophagus.

As Shinhwa had suspected, Mad Bear was indeed the guardian of Magos’s dwelling.

His mind was consumed by a single, overriding directive: eliminate intruders.

Both Magos and Mad Bear had been forcibly displaced from the Nas Continent by an unknown power, finding themselves in this strange place.

They didn’t know why, but they were quietly recuperating in this new world.

Then, an intruder appeared.

The previous uninvited guest, who’d shown up two years prior, had met a swift end, torn apart by Mad Bear’s teeth.

But this time, something felt different.

The instant Mad Bear swallowed the intruder’s spittle, he knew something was terribly wrong.

“Heot…….”

With a sudden, whooshing sound, the arms that had been reaching for Shinhwa’s head with such force went limp, dangling uselessly.

He was drained of all strength, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.

He was completely paralyzed, able only to blink.

Ssuk. Ssuk.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, Shinhwa was standing before him, stroking his head as if he were a docile pet.

“You were a tough one, alright. No matter how hard I hit you, you just wouldn’t go down.”

Lost in old memories, Shinhwa swiftly raised his right arm.

He channeled his power, making it glow a searing red, radiating intense heat that seemed to threaten to melt his very flesh.

The heat was intense, like metal pulled straight from a furnace, yet the expression on Mad Bear’s face remained placid.

Blink. Blink blink.

The massive Mad Bear could only blink, his paralyzed body a prison he couldn’t escape.

“At first glance, you seem to be around C-rank. And you became an SSS-rank giant monster in 10 years, right?”

The memory was crystal clear.

The sight of Awakened Ones being crushed like insects with every clap of his hands.

Among the victims was a colleague, someone Shinhwa had grown close to, sharing laughter and tears.

‘Father Choi.’

A colleague more often addressed as Father Choi than by his given name, Choi Ji-hyeok, flashed in his mind.

He was a debuffer, skilled in curse magic and necromancy, a perfect complement to Shinhwa’s abilities.

But he’d lost Father Choi right before his eyes, a casualty of his own momentary lapse in focus. All thanks to this beast from his past life.

“Seeing you again reminds me of someone I desperately want to save. I’ll kill you and save that person.”

Shinhwa gripped the fur on Mad Bear’s head, the creature still blinking, oblivious to its impending doom.

A C-rank monster.

To take this guy down in a single blow, he’d need firepower equivalent to a B-rank or higher.

And Shinhwa possessed the ability to unleash that kind of power, if only for a fleeting moment.

The next instant.

“Haaap!”

With a roar, Shinhwa brought his heated right arm down in a brutal slash across Mad Bear’s neck.

Mad Bear’s neck was as thick as a sturdy utility pole.

Swaaa! Swish!

Shinhwa’s arm, supercharged with heat, sliced through Mad Bear’s neck as if it were butter.

More accurately, it was like melting flesh and bone in an instant, then cleaving through the remains with sheer force.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Mad Bear’s head arced through the air.

The creature’s gaze, its eyes not even fully closed, remained fixed on Shinhwa.

It was a pathetic end, a far cry from his reputation as the ‘King of the Mountains’ and a fearsome predator on the Nas Continent.

“Ouch, it’s hot!”

At the same time, Shinhwa shook his right arm vigorously, the intense pain forcing him to halt his transformation.

Because he hadn’t fully transformed his arm and hand, the duration of his talent was limited.

If he’d pushed it for another five seconds, he’d be facing a future as a left-handed individual.

“Should I grab a quick bite here before heading in?”

He was hungry.

He needed time to prepare the heart extracted from Mad Bear’s corpse, and to replenish the mana he’d expended.

He was sick of cooking from his past life.

So much so that his colleagues at Nine Lord praised him, saying that his cooking skills were also maxed out.

Shinhwa, a true gourmet, had always enjoyed crafting various dishes with monster meat.

When prepared properly, he could create meat dishes so delectable they’d make expensive beef pale in comparison.

“If it’s the heart, it’ll definitely be tough, so I’ll have to use the intestinal fluid extracted from the toothed mantis’s intestines. That should do the trick.”

Shinhwa, having devised a recipe on the spot, immediately began gathering materials to start a fire.

A wild meal.

This was just one of the many ordinary meal routines that Shinhwa, who had weathered countless hardships, was intimately familiar with.

* * *

Thirty minutes later.

So Jung-hyun, in the midst of a drunken celebration with the porters at the dungeon entrance, was approached by a person in charge who had just arrived.

She was fully armored, clad from head to toe in enhanced combat attire. A vision in all black.

Black hair, cropped short.

And piercing, cold brown eyes that commanded attention.

“Are you team leader So Jung-hyun?”

She recognized So Jung-hyun from the prior identification checks and inquired.

So Jung-hyun nodded, glancing at the name tag on her left chest.

“Looks like you’re from Team 7, covering Guro, Sindorim, and Yeongdeungpo. You’re beautiful! Nice to meet you.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Unlike So Jung-hyun’s warm greeting, Yoon Byeol-i’s expression remained cold and detached.

“I’m here to take over the dungeon raid license scheduled for tomorrow…….”

“Hold on a moment. First, let me check the remaining personnel.”

Before So Jung-hyun could finish, Yoon Byeol-i moved through the group of Awakened Ones, meticulously counting heads.

It was the typical behavior of a seasoned management bureau employee, one who would casually bend the rules.

Yoon Byeol-i, a relatively new team leader, was adhering strictly to protocol.

Finally, after completing her headcount, Yoon Byeol-i noticed a name that hadn’t been accounted for.

[Judgment Grade: F-rank]

[Registered Occupation: Porter]

[Kang Shin-hwa]

Seeing Yoon Byeol-i’s puzzled expression, So Jung-hyun quickly explained.

“He said he went inside to take a look at the dungeon earlier. He was curious about what kind of place it was, especially since the KSA recommended suspending the raid.”

“So you let him go in?”

“It’s the Awakened One’s free will, what could I do? I informed him of the prior notice and the potential consequences.”

“Even so, isn’t that just sending him to his death? What time did he go in?”

“It must have been over an hour ago. We gathered at 9 o’clock.”

“The KSA raised the grade of the K-848 dungeon from D-rank to C-rank today at 9 o’clock. Even for me, a C-rank, it’s difficult to guarantee my safety inside, and you just let an F-rank porter go in?”

“I told you, it was Kang Shin-hwa’s own free will.”

“This is…….”

Yoon Byeol-i’s face flushed.

Truthfully, Awakened Ones dying in dungeons was a common occurrence. Nothing new or unusual about it.

However, a death occurring in a location where a raid suspension was recommended was far from ideal.

It meant that the remains of the deceased would have to be recovered during the dungeon investigation.

Recovering a corpse torn to shreds by monsters was a task she could never grow accustomed to, no matter how many times she faced it.

“If it’s a C-rank dungeon, at least five D-rank Awakened Ones are needed to easily raid from the entrance…….”

Her expression darkened.

Death seemed inevitable.

If he had tried to escape, he would have been out long ago. There was no way it would have taken over an hour.

“What do we know! Why are you so concerned about a guy who couldn’t control his curiosity and went in to die?”

“That’s what I’m saying! The KSA, which usually doesn’t even care about the welfare of porters?”

The branch manager of the Seoul branch said that the previous seniors had done a terrible job.

Judging by the porters’ reactions, it seemed to be true.

The senior didn’t uphold the basic principle that porters and attack teams are all Awakened Ones.

“I apologize for that. I sincerely apologize if there was anything unpleasant.”

“Tsk…….”

Since she immediately adopted a humble stance, the porters couldn’t continue their complaints and simply emptied their soju glasses.

First, she had to begin the investigation.

The reason she came alone was that she was also a C-rank Awakened One with exceptional stealth abilities.

Her reasoning was that there was no need for a large group to complicate the search; she could handle it alone.

“I’ll determine whether Kang Shin-hwa is dead, missing, or still alive. Thank you for your hard work.”

“What about the license?”

“Here. It’s the K-4885 dungeon license in Cheorwon. It’s a bit far because I had to find a place with the most similar conditions.”

“It’s not just a bit far, it’s…….”

So Jung-hyun wore a troubled expression, but it seemed to improve when he saw the documents attached to the license.

It seemed the KSA had taken extra care, and the raid difficulty was relatively low.

Seureung. Seureureung.

Soon, Yoon Byeol-i drew two daggers from her arms.

They were her signature B-rank artifact daggers, worth 10 billion won apiece.

“Ooh!”

Gasps of admiration rippled through the crowd.

It was like she was holding an expensive building in each hand.

But just then.

Koo-oong! Kwaang! Kuuung!

“……?”

A sudden explosion rocked the dungeon entrance.

At the same time, the ground trembled, and black smoke billowed from the point of the explosion.

“What, what is it?”

The porters, bewildered, panicked and scrambled backward.

They wondered if it was a monster outbreak, but it wasn’t.

“This is an exit gate?”

Yoon Byeol-i immediately recognized the nature of the gate.

Since it was the exit gate right next to the entrance gate of the K-848 dungeon, there was no need to second guess.

In other words.

It meant that the boss monster of this dungeon, or the key monster at its core, had been defeated.

“Could it be?”

Yoon Byeol-i approached the gate, a flicker of hope in her eyes.

Only one person had entered the dungeon.

Kang Shin-hwa, an F-rank porter.

An ordinary Awakened One with only a single line in his identification check, aside from his porter activity.

The next moment.

A man stumbled through the gate.

“Hoo! Hoo! Ouch, it’s hot! Magos, you bastard! Why did you struggle so hard until the end? You almost burned all my hair off. Hoo!”

It was Shinhwa, his clothes reduced to charred rags by Magos’s fierce flames.

“This is ridiculous…….”

All eyes, which had been glued to the gate, now widened in astonishment and disbelief.

A dungeon that a four-member attack team of average D-ranks had deemed impossible to clear.

An F-rank Awakened One had single-handedly conquered it and emerged victorious!

“Ah, th, th, this, can this be happening?”

Even Yoon Byeol-i, known as the Ice Princess for her rare displays of emotion, stuttered.

Impossible.

Something that should never have occurred.

It had unfolded before her very eyes!

The unlikely hero was Kang Shin-hwa, an F-rank porter.