Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
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I hadn't thought any of the protagonists I'd met so far were particularly special.
Viola's older brother, the siscon Hero.
He could swing his sword with such overwhelming power that he sliced through demonkin like they were paper.
Luna's childhood friend, Louis, who had a natural gift for magic.
His skills were still developing, but by the time he graduated from Schutra, he'd probably surpass the headmaster in magical power. That was the level of potential he had.
Cho Seo-hyun's younger brother and Seong Sua's fiancé. The top-tier hero, Cho Kang-hyeon.
I hadn't faced him directly yet, but according to the intel, he possessed abilities stronger than the Hero's.
...Watching them, all I could think was, "They're exceptionally talented and strong."
Special?
Eh, they're protagonists. That's just par for the course...
But then, a genuinely special bastard showed up.
'...'
Assuming the opponent was a regressor and that I knew it, the most important thing was how he acted.
After regressing, he absolutely couldn't show any deviation in his very first actions.
Hiding the fact that he knew about the regression was crucial.
I kept my inner composure steady and stood as naturally as possible.
And I was about to ask Armonia how I'd acted before.
'Armonia, first off, next...'
Armonia had already figured out what I was going to say.
She'd experienced this situation five times already, after all.
'Okay.'
With my mental reply, the protagonist and Min Ha-yeon emerged from the colosseum.
I stared at Min Ha-yeon just as Armonia instructed.
But that was the moment.
The protagonist bastard was staring right at me too.
'What the hell? Why's that guy looking at me like that? No way he's gay!?'
'Damn it... What the hell is going on...'
For now, I did as Armonia said and left the scene.
Once we were a good distance from the colosseum, Armonia spoke up.
'Shit, a day room without even a girl... Ah, there it is.'
I grumbled as I entered the Zephyrus Inn.
A woman in her mid-50s welcomed me with a smile.
"Oh my, welcome! You're our first customer today."
"Do you have a 3-hour day room available?"
"Of course! It's 150 points."
"Uh... How do I pay points...?"
"Hee-hee, you're a newbie who doesn't know yet. Hold out your left hand."
I extended my left hand, and the innkeeper grabbed my wrist.
After holding it for about three seconds, she let go.
Stunned by the sudden event, I looked at the back of my left hand.
There, in small fluorescent letters, was the number 850.
"For transactions, just cross your wrists like this."
"Ah, thank you."
"Be careful, though. Don't get distracted during a trade and accidentally hand over all your points. Heh-heh..."
"Haha... Thanks."
The innkeeper led me to a room on the second floor.
As soon as I entered, closed the door, a hologram popped up on the door panel, and the time started counting down.
"Whoa... It's like they mashed together medieval, modern, and futuristic into a total mess."
Armonia began the briefing in earnest.
'Crazy... I've lost a whole week.'
I had no memories, but time had completely evaporated.
In the first loop, the protagonist died during battle on day one.
And ridiculously so.
He tripped over his own feet mid-fight, hit his head on a rock on the ground, and died...
'...Is he an idiot?'
After those absurd deaths, he improved loop by loop, and in the previous fifth loop, he survived three days.
Armonia began sharing the protagonist's info.
'You got that from the first loop?'
According to Armonia, in the first loop, I stopped by a potion shop about three hours later and ran into Han Yeoreum's party by chance.
He approached me casually, asked my class, and upon hearing I was an alchemist, immediately invited me to join.
The reason? They needed a supporter to make and supply potions.
Luckily, during fights, he ignored me completely.
Actually, my skills were so abysmal he had no time to pay attention...
Each loop's battles had more variables than expected, leading to different scenarios every time.
In other words, if we just survived the early game, we'd be fine.
Plus, Han Yeoreum wasn't that smart—his memory wasn't great either, apparently.
'Man, out of all the guys I've met, this one's the biggest dumbass.'
'Yeah... What do we do?'
A regressor. No matter how I racked my brain, no solutions came to mind.
He'd keep growing stronger each time, while I'd stay stagnant.
He'd accumulate knowledge, and I'd reset to square one over and over...
It was an absurdly cheat ability.
'Wait! How does the regression even work?'
Regression as an innate ability didn't make sense.
There had to be some external factor involved...
'...Fuck, it's really all Enel bullshit.'
A Blessing was a passive that could inscribe anything applicable within the planet.
They'd clearly slotted regression into one.
But...
'That's weird too. No matter how many points he has, coming up with regression right away? You don't even know the concept unless you've played a ton of web games.'
'Fuck, why's a guy who looks like that wasting time gaming? Pisses me off...'
He should've been out one-night-standing and caught syphilis or something...
I had the situation roughly figured out.
Now I needed the details of what happened before.
'Come to think of it, the colosseum entrance is the regression point, right?'
'She sounded really regretful earlier. What happened at the end?'
Armonia showed me footage of what happened before the regression.
In the final battle, my party with Han Yeoreum was fighting the tutorial boss.
The boss was a bee the size of a human torso.
Named Shock Bee. Upon engaging, it summons as many Shock Bees as there are party members.
But mid-fight with those mobs, when a few Shock Bees landed on the ground, everyone around froze.
Everyone except me...
'What?'
I was immune thanks to magic resistance.
'...? I don't have magic resistance.'
My magic resistance was 0.
I'd never invested in it.
'Crazy... What about the Enel I spent?'
'Whoa, I'm gonna lose my mind.'
10,000 Enel down the drain.
No matter how flawless Enel was, once spent, it was gone.
Everything learned vanished upon regression.
No refunds...
I rewatched the footage.
The party's time froze, including the protagonist. As the only one who could move, I tried to run.
But the Shock Bees targeted the moving me and flew at me.
In desperation to survive, I hurled beans at the mobs and yelled.
(Argh, fuck, this is bullshit! What kind of tutorial boss has a skill like this?!)
(Suho-nim! If they use Paralysis Wave again, even you'll freeze! Run for now. Even if we regress again...!)
(Wait! Freeze?)
Then, in the footage, I shouted at Armonia.
(I found the solution! Armonia! The Blessing!)
A handsome version of me—like something out of a bathroom mirror vanity shot—appeared.
Frozen in place...
'...The end?'
'Freeze... Blessing...'
Even seeing it like this, I had no clue what past-me had been thinking before regressing.
'Guess I'll try writing it down.'
I tried inscribing a regression-related Blessing.
Something like:
-Retain memories and abilities upon regression.-
But Armonia immediately caught on and stopped me.
'...You've already tried.'
Not even actual regression—still cost 10 billion points to inscribe.
Enel conversion needed 1 billion.
Insane.
Wait...
'What if we make it one-time use?'
Even one-time, I doubted it'd survive regression without resetting.
But rejected.
'...Fuck.'
So goddamn smart, you tree bastard...
Past me. What brilliant idea did you even come up with...?
'Armonia, show me the other footage for now.'
I killed time watching the other videos.
From the footage, I gleaned some gains.
Thanks to Han Yeoreum dragging me into the party, I could at least talk to Min Ha-yeon.
And I figured out his personality.
'What a dogshit asshole... Ah, exactly the type of personality I fucking hate.'
'...'
Armonia kept going on like, "This is the nth time."
It pissed me off knowing she basically knew my future.
Han Yeoreum's personality went beyond asshole into outright loathsome on a human level.
To women, he'd flash a bright smile and melt their hearts with a smooth baritone.
To me, a guy? He'd give condescending looks and fill my head with irritation using that chirpy voice.
He treated men and women blatantly differently.
And the most baffling part...
'That bastard openly snuck into other women's rooms.'
In the fourth loop, I'd learned Stealth and tailed Han Yeoreum at night.
And every night, he'd sneak in and out of the women's rooms in the party.
Except Min Ha-yeon's...
Stealth let me gather useful intel.
Though the Stealth skill reset on regression...
Another 10,000 Enel evaporated.
'Damn... Weird. In the footage, he acted like a total jealous freak.'
I hadn't met her yet, but I could tell.
Han Yeoreum definitely loved Min Ha-yeon.
To the point where he'd get pissed if she even talked to me briefly. Full-on jealous husband vibes.
Yet he never went to her room...
'Let's dig deeper.'
With that thought, I headed to the potion shop.
On the way to the potion shop Armonia mentioned, something suddenly hit me.
'This guy's been spectating since the start but hasn't said a word.'
One viewer since the stream started, but no chat at all.
She said donations and chat were both possible.
'Ooh! Can't wait!! I loved those streamer games so much!'
This setup could make a killer streamer game with TS or reverse world tags. Bound to be popular.
Playing the newbie streamer, I tried chatting bubbly.
"Hey~ Don't be so quiet, say something~"
Armonia stayed oddly silent.
Right then, as my expectations swelled, the historic first chat appeared in Seong Suho's channel.