The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 150

150. The Great Patch: Big Bang

The black object receded, and bright sunlight flooded my eyes.

I raised a hand to shield my face.

After days of relentless fighting, the zombies had vanished like melting snow, finally allowing us to escape the forest.

Looking up, I saw clouds gathering against the deep blue sky.

It was a sight I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.

Normally, it wouldn’t be a rare occurrence, but within the forest, the sky was perpetually obscured by the towering trees.

Even when there were breaks in the canopy, I never had the peace of mind to simply look up and appreciate it, as I did now.

Watching the clouds drift lazily, I finally felt like time was flowing normally again.

“Wow. It’s hard to believe this used to be a forest. It’s been cleared so thoroughly, like a construction site,” Choi Hyunji commented.

I looked around, taking in our surroundings.

As she said, the area resembled a redevelopment zone, cleanly prepped for new apartments.

The dense trees had vanished without a trace, the soil was overturned and flattened, and the area where Jin Jaehee’s blade had struck was now a small canyon with a stream running through it.

Of course, the distant toxic zone remained.

The purple-stained area was even more noticeable now that the surrounding landscape had been cleared.

According to Jin Jaehee, even during our fight, approaching the toxic zone was impossible.

She could launch projectile artifacts from a distance to excavate the contaminated soil, but she couldn’t neutralize the airborne toxins.

Therefore, we still couldn’t access the water source.

The horizon surrounding the toxic zone was still lined with dense trees.

I had no memory of any of it.

I’d been told I fought Jin Jaehee here.

Frankly, I couldn’t grasp how I’d managed to overwhelm her, but dwelling on it seemed pointless.

In this world, no matter how rationally I reasoned, things always defied expectations. The world was full of situations where I could only arrive at the wrong answers, even when striving for the right ones.

‘My brother is doing well.’

That was the most valuable piece of information I gained from this whole ordeal.

My brother was the one who defeated that powerful Green Dragon.

There was no need for excessive worry or fretting.

I simply needed to approach him at my own pace.

I chose to accept the truth and move forward.

“Where should we go, Myeongjun? This way? Or that way?” Choi Myeongjun asked, looking around uncertainly.

Then, Choi Hyunji, ever the skilled navigator, pointed north and declared, “We can go this way.”

“That’s a forest.”

“We have to go through that forest, you idiot,” she retorted.

As I passively listened to their bickering, Jin Jaehee quietly approached me.

“The scope of the updates is considerable.”

“A major patch, a Big Bang, right?”

“Yeah. It really makes me realize that five years have passed.”

A major patch, a Big Bang.

This was a large-scale update by the Committee, aimed at completely restructuring the League’s landscape.

A so-called reorganization patch that revamped the existing interface and updated it with a new design.

Of course, the fundamental goal remained unchanged.

Lord – Player – Wanderer.

The three quests assigned to each of the three factions remained the same.

In other words, the basic rule that the ‘group’ or ‘individual’ who completed their respective quests first in each round would win the League hadn’t changed.

However, the Big Bang introduced two primary changes:

Ⅰ. Partial rankings for each round, and activation of the main status window.

Ⅱ. The introduction of new races.

These two key points were highlighted in the notification window that appeared before me.

Jin Jaehee and Choi Hyunji received the same notification.

“What is this? Activation of the main status window…?”

“What is it? What? Am I the only one who can’t see it? Hyungnim [term of respect for an older brother or male friend]. Can you see it? All I can see is this race update?”

Ignoring the commotion around me, I slowly examined the updated status window.

For example, in my status window.

Previously, I could view the Lord’s status window and the Wanderer’s status window separately, but now they had been merged into one.

It had been streamlined for easier viewing.

Perhaps this was an update intended for those observing the League.

The first item listed in the status window was the title.

[F-Rank Player] [City-State King] [Wanderer] [Witch Executioner: Field Boss Ticket Clear (All Stats +5)]

The second was the personal status window and quest for the Wanderer.

[Wanderer, Kang Si-On.] [Round 3]

[Quest: Catch the Dragon (0/1)]

[Possessed Artifacts (Skills): Sphere, Legion of the Dead, Stone Spear.]

[Strength: 30(+5)/100] [Intelligence: 100(+0)/100] [Stamina: 10(+5)/100] [Artifact: 22(+5)/100]

“They’ve really turned it into a game now,” I remarked, studying the status window.

Jin Jaehee added, “Yeah. To make it easier to understand. Until now, we could only guess at the ability values of artifacts. We couldn’t see the exact values objectively. But now it’s different.”

Indeed, through artifact training with Jin Jaehee, we had been steadily improving by clearing small dungeons and training around Anyang.

But even if we felt stronger, there was no way to objectively quantify our progress.

It was like bodybuilders in the past who lacked InBody measurement equipment and could only visually assess their gains.

But now, everything was clearly visible.

[Strength] – Physical combat power.

[Intelligence] – Mental endurance required to maintain artifacts.

[Stamina] – Physical endurance.

[Artifact] – The degree of artifact activation.

As I hovered my finger over each stat, detailed explanations appeared.

I first asked Jin Jaehee about her status window to gauge the expedition’s overall strength.

“What about you?”

“Ah, me.”

Since the status window was private, Jin Jaehee kindly recited her stats.

[S-Rank] [Jin Jaehee]

[Strength: 82/100] [Intelligence: 66/100] [Stamina: 89/100] [Artifact: 54/100]

Truly impressive stats.

I expected as much, but seeing the objective figures was still astonishing.

Next, I decided to check Choi Hyunji’s stats.

“Choi Hyunji. What about you?”

Choi Hyunji, who had been staring at Jin Jaehee’s stats in awe, answered sheepishly, “Uh, uh? Me? Okay. Me, well…”

[A-Rank] [Choi Hyunji]

[Strength: 32/100] [Intelligence: 41/100] [Stamina: 10/100] [Artifact: 64/100]

Choi Hyunji’s stats were typical of a Wanderer or Player skilled in combat.

Jin Jaehee had mentioned that the average stats of well-known players in the League were around 40.

So, these were also excellent stats.

Which only highlighted how overwhelming Jin Jaehee’s stats were.

Once again, I recognized the power of being a regressor [someone who has returned from the future].

“Why? Me? Nothing?! Why! Me!” In the corner, Choi Myeongjun was visibly upset.

Unfortunately, since he wasn’t a player, his status window wouldn’t appear.

I turned away from him and refocused on my status window.

Below the personal status window was the Lord’s status window and quest related to my existing City-State King status.

It was the Lord’s status window, updated over the past five years.

[King of Mangyeong: Kang Si-On]

[Capital: Mangyeong]

[Cities Held: 79]

[Number of Citizens: 140,851]

[Regional Ranking: 3rd (Gyeonggi)]

[Resources: Food 1,935, Luxury Goods 2,805,190, Weapons 217,938.]

[Approval Rating: 68%]

[Troops: 15,851]

Aside from the improved clarity of the status window, the most surprising aspects were the number of citizens and the amount of luxury goods.

‘Surely Yoonha didn’t touch any of my luxury goods.’

If my assumption was correct, Ha Yoonha was currently the only Lord in the League without a ‘Lord Status Window’.

In fact, if the head of the Manan Police Station had granted her some of the Lord’s authority, as he had done for me, she could have started on equal footing with other Lords.

But Ha Yoonha couldn’t see or utilize such a status window.

Nevertheless, she had grown the citizen population to nearly 140,000 and almost doubled the number of cities held, all without touching the luxury goods I had been hoarding – the national treasury.

Of course, the troop numbers were low because a mobilization order hadn’t been issued.

The approval rating had dipped because I had left the force.

Even so, an approval rating of 68% was quite high compared to other forces.

I couldn’t help but smile.

‘Good job. You’ve managed it well.’

Designating Ha Yoonha as my successor was a stroke of genius.

She had achieved truly remarkable growth.

I was already eager to return to Mangyeong.

Just then, Jin Jaehee asked, “How’s Mangyeong? Is everything alright?”

“It’s going smoothly. No, it seems to be in an even better state than before.”

Since the leader I had groomed was thriving, it seemed my path as a wanderer would also be smooth.

I had been slightly worried.

I was concerned about returning to find no military warehouse or support structure.

Fortunately, there was no need to worry.

“Guys. Can you see it too? This update notice window.”

“I can see it too. Ah-. The appearance of different races… Is this what you’re talking about? Well, there are all sorts of them.”

Choi Hyunji and Choi Myeongjun exchanged glances as they read their respective notice windows.

This was the second major update.

And the key to clearing Round 3.

The introduction of new races.

In fact, the ghouls inhabiting Bitnam were also considered one of these new races.

Races capable of speaking human languages and forming societies, unlike wild animals.

And the only races capable of refining ‘red ore’.

Red ore was a new resource that had appeared in this world.

From now on, this red ore would be crucial.

Because it was the only ore capable of piercing the ‘Dragon’s Scale’.

‘Of course, I possess a stone spear capable of taking down a dragon in one strike. But…’

There would undoubtedly be other uses for it later.

Above all, I needed to conserve it for ‘disrupting order’.

First, I had to locate the dwarf race.

Dwarf race.

Honestly, I didn’t know much about them, but according to Jin Jaehee, they were a race of blacksmiths.

And only the most skilled artisans among them could craft various weapons using red ore.

‘Before arriving here, the emergence of guns might have been a result of processing this red ore.’

Of course, guns were purchasable items.

As K had mentioned during Round 1, guns could be purchased at the trade market or at stores run by the administrator.

But they were ridiculously expensive (I could only buy about 20-30 with my entire national treasury at the time) and inefficient, making them impractical for national-level procurement.

Besides, guns were useless against artifacts.

They offered little advantage even for individual players.

That’s why I hadn’t paid much attention when government rescue workers with guns appeared at Anyang Station.

Because guns were ultimately ineffective.

But red ore…

This was the essence of the major patch.

And this was already information I had obtained through Jin Jaehee.

Choi Hyunji, who was learning about it today, was staring at the notice window in surprise, but I was already prepared for the update.

If Ha Yoonha hadn’t touched my assets, the price of cigarettes would have skyrocketed like Bitcoin.

Cigarettes were now a luxury item rarer than gold.

Because cigarettes were consumable.

Of course, I could manufacture cigarettes like in the old Joseon Dynasty [Korean kingdom from 1392 to 1897], but mass-produced cigarettes were different.

Right now, the price might have jumped at least 3 times, or even 5 times.

I would find out when I visited the Mangyeong market.

I gazed towards the distant forest.

I wanted to quicken our pace.

I called out to the disorganized group.

“Let’s go now. We’ve wasted too much time here.”

The expedition that should have taken 3-4 days.

Had taken 5 years.

“Let’s go. Back to Mangyeong.”

We were going back to Mangyeong.

To the city I had built.

(Continued in the next episode)