The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 56

#56. Tamer (2)

Thump! Thump! Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!!!

The ogre charged, intent on destruction.

The building shook with each heavy step.

In this critical situation, Jin Jaehee remained composed.

Only Sion and Jaehee were calm.

The workers, at a safe distance, trembled or avoided eye contact.

Fwoosh-.

A sword materialized in Jin Jaehee’s hand in a flash of light.

Her artifact was activated.

Jin Jaehee leaped from the roof, landing gracefully in the snow.

Then, she calmly walked forward to face the charging ogre.

-Kuaaaaaaaa!

The ogre’s desperate roar echoed through the city.

An arrow remained embedded in its eye, and blood streamed down its face.

“Hoo.”

Jin Jaehee approached it calmly, exhaling slowly.

This was her chance to prove herself.

To demonstrate why she was the strongest, a returner, right before its eyes.

It wasn’t just for Sion.

On the roof, the attack team watched Jin Jaehee with wide, expectant eyes.

All attention was focused on her.

Jin Jaehee remained unfazed by their scrutiny.

Now, it was right in front of her.

-Kuaaaaaaaack!!!

The ogre swung a utility pole like a club.

Bang, grrrrrrr… Whoosh-!

The utility pole scraped against the building’s exterior wall as it hurtled toward Jin Jaehee.

But she wouldn’t be struck by it.

Wheeeeeek!

Jin Jaehee immediately crouched low, dodging the ogre’s clumsy attack.

Her expression remained serene.

-Guoooock?!!?

Jin Jaehee didn’t just dodge.

Flick. Thwack.

Jaehee, using the utility pole as a springboard, closed the distance in an instant.

She climbed onto the hand holding the pole and swiftly moved along its arm, past its triceps and deltoid.

-Kuaaaaaaaack!!!

The ogre tried to grab her, but it was futile.

The ogre’s movements were too slow to catch Jin Jaehee.

With her artifact activated, her personal stats were amplified.

Jin Jaehee’s physical abilities were now far beyond those of an ‘ordinary’ human.

While Sion was busy securing the police station and setting up a boiler, Jin Jaehee had been dedicated to rigorous personal training, truly embracing her role as a returner.

And an ogre like that was no match for the awakened returner Jin Jaehee.

Ta-ta-ta-tat- Whoosh-!

Jin Jaehee leaped forward.

The workers watching below couldn’t help but stare in awe.

From 6m above the ground.

Jin Jaehee launched herself towards the roaring monster’s hideous face.

“…….”

-Kuaaaaaaaa!!!!

She gripped the sword with both hands.

And until the ogre finally collapsed, her relentless flurry of sword strikes didn’t cease.

* * *

The woman stood atop the fallen monster’s chin.

Blood gushed from the ogre’s numerous wounds.

The crimson liquid stained the surrounding snow a gruesome red.

The ogre was completely immobilized.

Its Achilles tendons were severed, and all the nerves in its body were cut.

It could only blink, its eyes, with the arrow still lodged in one, the only sign of life.

Jin Jaehee had subdued the ogre in a matter of moments.

The workers who witnessed the entire scene from beginning to end shuddered.

For some reason, they felt more fear towards Kang Sion than Jin Jaehee.

It was Kang Sion who controlled her, who she protected, and who she was loyal to.

Jin Jaehee’s power was an extension of Kang Sion’s authority.

Pop.

Jin Jaehee pulled the arrow out of the ogre’s eyeball.

And calmly lit a cigarette.

She always had a habit of smoking after a significant event.

In fact, she smoked frequently, but this was the closest thing she had to a ritual.

The smoke she exhaled drifted in front of the ogre’s unseeing eyes.

When the task was complete, Sion came down from the roof and approached Jin Jaehee.

Facing the ogre in person was undeniably terrifying.

Its skin still twitched sporadically.

Sion followed Jaehee and climbed onto the ogre’s face.

The ogre’s body was slippery with blood.

Jin Jaehee, already perched on top, reached out and grabbed his hand to help him up.

Sion climbed onto the ogre’s body, looked into its eyes, and said.

“You took it down in an instant.”

“Yeah.”

Jin Jaehee replied, exhaling a plume of smoke.

Sion examined its body more closely.

It was a completely different experience from seeing the ogre in the dim light of the underground shopping district, relying on a flashlight.

He could even see the fine texture of its skin.

The ogre was still alive, despite the extensive wounds.

However, its body was completely subdued and unable to move.

“What are you going to do with it now?”

Jin Jaehee slowly approached and asked him.

Sion was still intently studying its eyeballs.

Then, he took a deep breath and answered.

“I’m going to tame it.”

“Tame……?”

“After observing them for a few days, I realized that they are also within the category of animals. I realized that they move by instinct. If we use this fact, we can definitely tame them.”

“Is that…… possible?”

It seemed absurd.

She had heard of animals being tamed, but there had never been a case of taming monsters.

At least not in Jin Jaehee’s past life, and even Kang Sion in her past life had never tamed a monster.

But Sion, standing before her, was attempting something unprecedented.

Something no one had ever considered.

Jin Jaehee asked with a hint of worry, but Sion remained confident.

“Would the people of ancient times have believed they could tame tigers? No, they were just creatures to be feared and avoided. But in modern times, tigers have been tamed. It’s still a dangerous undertaking, but I don’t think it’s impossible.”

After saying that, Sion took out a notebook from his inside pocket and consulted it.

It contained the ogre’s habits and behaviors that he had meticulously recorded over the past few days.

And Sion intended to instill ‘fear’ into it based on this observation log.

“Is there a reason why you chose this particular individual? It’s unusually small.”

As she pointed out, the ogre Sion had chosen was smaller than the others.

But Sion chose it precisely because of its size.

“Fear is a more fundamental emotion than lust for animals. They need fear to protect themselves. They need to be able to protect their bodies to reproduce.”

“……Fear.”

Jin Jaehee repeated Sion’s word, pondering its implications.

“And young individuals are the most receptive to learning through fear.”

“Could it be……?”

“Yes. I’m going to tame a baby ogre.”

Flick-. Stab!

With a swift motion, Sion plunged his sword into the baby ogre’s brow.

-Kuaaaaaaaa!

Even though it was a baby ogre, its cry was terrifying and loud enough to dispel any notion of it being a ‘baby’.

Then, Jin Jaehee glanced behind her and said.

“Wait. If it’s a baby…… their mother will come, right?”

“Why would I have lured it this way if that were the case? Ogres never venture beyond a certain distance from their territory. Maybe it’s because they’re abandoning their habitat. This baby ogre came this way because of instinct. It ran all the way here because its eyes were attacked.”

Sion now possessed knowledge beyond that of a typical returner.

“Then this place is……?”

“It’s outside the ogre’s usual hunting grounds. The mother won’t come here.”

Jin Jaehee couldn’t help but be amazed by his foresight.

Not only her, but all the workers around were equally impressed.

Sion looked at the workers below.

They nodded and went into the building across the street, returning with a large plastic container.

They struggled to lift the container onto the ogre’s torso.

When they removed the cloth covering it, it was revealed to be full of broken glass shards.

Jaehee’s pupils dilated when she saw the glass.

“Could it be……?”

“You’re catching on. We’ll wait until nightfall and then embed the glass shards all over this baby ogre’s body. I’ll explain it only once. Listen carefully.”

Sion continued his explanation.

The more he explained, the wider Jaehee’s eyes grew.

The ogre remains still at night.

Therefore, under the cover of darkness, the workers will carefully attach the glass shards to the ogre’s body.

During the day, the glass shards will sparkle in the sunlight, attracting the Snow Nepenthes [a fictional carnivorous plant], which will then ensnare the ogre.

Even if the ogre’s body regenerates, it won’t be able to escape.

Because it will be completely restrained by the Nepenthes.

The reason Sion chose this ‘ㄷ’ shaped alley was also strategic, due to the properties of the glass shards.

This place becomes completely dark at night, devoid of even moonlight.

The glass shards only sparkle when they reflect light.

In other words, the Snow Nepenthes will not be drawn into the alley during the nighttime operation.

Therefore, the workers can safely embed the glass shards into the ogre’s body under the cover of darkness.

“This completes the capture plan. This is as far as I’ve planned. I’ll have to figure out how to tame it from now on. Do you understand?”

Sion turned to Jaehee and asked.

“Uh. Yeah.”

She nodded.

Of course, she understood the plan.

But what she couldn’t comprehend was how he had conceived such an elaborate scheme.

“First, we’ll clean up the inside of the police station. That operation is already underway.”

As Sion mentioned, the plan to remove the chief of police was already in motion.

Choi Myungjoon.

He had begun to execute his orders.

* * *

To destroy an organization from within.

It’s a simple concept.

The reason I’ve been patient is because I already possessed sufficient power and authority.

If I had to give a second reason, it would be because I had to consider the approval ratings of the citizens within the police station.

Frankly, I didn’t care whether the citizens froze to death or were devoured by monsters.

My only goal is to find my brother.

To me, others are merely tools to be used, and I don’t share emotional bonds with them.

But to survive in this world, I needed their support, and I had to utilize their power.

If I had acted impulsively, there would have been too many unpredictable factors.

There was no guarantee that the majority of citizens would support me.

So I waited.

Until the opportune moment arrived.

To create a divide between the police and the citizens, and to wait for the time when the citizens yearned for a ‘revolution’.

Two police officers killed yesterday.

Three police officers killed yesterday.

One police officer died today.

What I ordered Choi Myungjoon to do was to assassinate the police officers patrolling at night, without leaving any trace.

Killing citizens would have been pointless.

Killing police officers was strategically significant.

As police officers began to die, the police force would inevitably suspect the citizens and begin to suppress them.

As planned, from the moment the first police officer was murdered, their control became more oppressive.

It’s the beginning of the rift.

And the citizen forces, unable to endure the oppression, would inevitably begin to resist.

It would lead to a revolution.

Today, I ordered Choi Myungjoon to kill another police officer.

The police officer who died today might have been a dedicated officer who lived a virtuous life.

If I had met him in a normal society, he might have been someone I could have befriended.

But none of that matters now.

We are beasts now.

We are beasts, driven by the instinct to survive.

That desire is shared by the citizens and myself.

That desire will ultimately transform everyone.

Early in the morning.

The corridors were filled with protesting citizens, even before sunrise.

The citizens, unable to tolerate the police’s retaliatory oppression, had risen up in revolt.

“Release the arrest team!!!”

“Liberate the citizens!!!”

“Release the arrest team!!!”

“Liberate the citizens!!!”

“The police chief must explain!!!!!”

The corridors were packed with citizens, pushing the police force to the end of the hallway.

The police, armed with shields and batons, formed a defensive line.

I stood in the back row of the protesters, observing quietly.

As police officers began to die, the police responded with increasing force, and the citizens’ patience reached its breaking point.

And today, the situation finally exploded.

“You bastards! I told you not to push!!!”

Flick- Thud!!!!

An elderly man in the front row was struck by a police officer’s riot stick.

Thump-!

The old man fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from his head, and died, solidifying the perception that ‘the police harm the citizens’ in the eyes of the crowd.

Since it happened right before their eyes, there was no denying it.

The citizens who witnessed the old man’s fall all raised their heads and glared at the police officer.

Their gazes were filled with murderous intent.

The silence of the crowd was deafening.

It was a truly terrifying moment.

“……!”

The police in the front line, unnerved by the sight, took a step back.

Among the crowd, only I was smiling faintly at the fallen old man.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

(Continued in the next episode)