The Regressor is too Powerful in Martial Arts – Chapter 29

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Thanks to the sudden appearance of the Artist, the Association was able to catch its breath.

And for good reason. Until then, the Association had been under pressure from various guilds, the media, and the Awakeners because of the Sword Blossom’s post on her SNS.

It had even reached the point where the Association’s president himself was under investigation by the prosecution.

Fortunately, the president himself wasn’t ousted, but most of his aides, who could be called his limbs, were swept away, so his influence within the Association had diminished.

In that situation, the appearance of the Artist was a stroke of luck for the Association’s president.

“While investigating the Artist, insist that he’s something like our Association’s secret weapon!”

“What…? But….”

“Stop talking back and do as you’re told!”

No matter how strong Sword Blossom’s influence was, it wasn’t on the Artist’s level.

The reason was simple.

For an Aura Blade user like Sword Blossom, it wasn’t difficult to kill an ogre or a troll in a single blow.

But the Artist was beyond such a level.

With a single sword strike, he had wiped out all the ogres and trolls that were quite a distance away from him.

‘At that point, the Artist proved that he wasn’t an ordinary aura ability user.’

That was impossible with just the Aura Blade that everyone knew…

Because the Aura Blade couldn’t reach such a distance.

To reach such a level, it wasn’t enough to just lengthen the Aura Blade.

If that had been the case, everyone present would have noticed the Aura Blade.

But the Artist hadn’t done that.

Unless he had literally sent his aura flying… such a thing was impossible.

The Artist, who was presumed to be an aura ability Awakener, had done such a thing.

Naturally, people had no choice but to rate him higher than an ordinary Aura Blade user.

‘Even just looking at the first incident where the Artist appeared… that is, the incident in Yeouido, it was like that.’

But what about what he had done this time?

Although he had floated numerous swords as if to announce his identity when he first appeared, he hadn’t used them here.

Before investigating what had happened, people thought that the Artist had subdued all the criminals inside the large supermarket the moment he entered the building, but after a comparative analysis of the footage recorded on CCTV, a new fact was revealed.

‘Before the Artist had even entered the large supermarket… all the criminals inside had collapsed as if their hearts had been pierced in an instant.’

Meanwhile, the Artist had only stopped for a moment in front of the large supermarket and then looked at it.

He had accurately targeted and attacked only the criminals who couldn’t even be seen from where he stood in front of the supermarket.

No, it might not have been the Artist’s own ability.

‘It could have been the ability of the woman who was next to the Artist.’

Either way, it was certain that the power of the Artist and his companion wasn’t ordinary.

‘I don’t know the Artist’s purpose, but I think I have a rough idea of his personality, so I can use that.’

Therefore, the Association’s president decided to use the Artist.

Because from his actions so far, it seemed like the Artist and his companion were only interested in killing monsters and saving people.

Although when he thought ‘his actions so far,’ the Artist had only appeared twice.

In any case, if he made the man famous and created an image that he was close to the Association, he’d be able to use him somehow.

‘It’s not like the Artist will come forward and say that it’s a lie.’

Whether out of annoyance, or to maintain his mysterious image…

The Artist wouldn’t come forward to refute the Association’s claims.

The Association’s president, who thought that, announced that the Artist and his companion were agents of the Association.

Of course….

“What is he saying?”

“Would that monster be satisfied of being under a mere Association? Do you think that makes sense?”

“No way. The Association’s president must have been cornered and made a desperate move.”

Almost no one believed it.

It was also quickly revealed that the data the Association had released while saying that the Artist and his companion were agents of the Association was fabricated, and in the first place, since the Association’s executives had recently been filled with guild-friendly figures, the people from the various guilds could find out without much difficulty that it was false information created by the Association’s president.

And since the people of the guilds had no intention of hiding that information, they also informed the Awakeners who were not affiliated with a guild, and thanks to that, the Association president’s lie was scheduled to be remembered as the ugly struggle of a man on the verge of collapse.

Separate from that….

[Rather than being an aura ability user, the Artist’s power is closer to that of a psionicist. Just looking at how he accurately distinguished the locations of the criminals and hostages from the front of the supermarket, isn’t his power close to ESP (ExtraSensory Perception)?]

[Then what, are you saying he forcibly stopped the criminals’ hearts with telekinesis? Everyone knows that the psychic power used for psionic abilities has the property of not being able to penetrate another person’s body, right?]

[But that’s a story for when the psionicists’ levels are similar. If the Artist’s psychic power is superior to other people’s, it’s not entirely impossible. In fact, it’s been confirmed that among the criminals who were there, those with low levels all died, but those with high levels, although they fainted, had resisted the attack to some extent.]

[According to the words of the Awakeners who were at the scene, the psychic power meter didn’t pick up anything, and regarding this….]

It wouldn’t be strange for discussion programs about the Artist to fill all the broadcasts.

What were his abilities?

What was his purpose?

And even if the opponents were criminals, was his action of killing them instead of just subduing them the right thing to do, and so on.

It seemed as if everything in the world was revolving around the Artist.

It seemed like everyone wanted to know who the Artist was.

Of course, in reality, not everyone did.

“No matter how much we investigate about the Artist, nothing will come out of it, so let’s just focus on something else.”

A few enlightened people focused on something other than the Artist.

That is, they took an interest in the hostage situation itself this time.

In the first place, why did this hostage situation occur?

Why did the Artist, among the numerous incidents, appear in this hostage situation following the Yeouido incident?

“So? Those guys who held the hostage situation at the large supermarket… Why on earth did they do such a thing?”

“It seemed like a hostage situation they had prepared with determination, too.”

Although most of the hostage takers had died, those who were among the stronger ones had survived.

It would have been a natural thing to ask them why they had held the hostage situation.

Therefore, all of them were interrogated at the police agency, and….

“…What? This hostage situation was an experiment?”

They said something unexpected.

“That’s right. They said that they were going to analyze how quickly you police and Association people would move, and what kind of response you would have if they held a hostage situation.”

“…The reason you’re revealing this so easily is?”

“It’s nothing special. Did you think criminals like us would have something like loyalty? There’s no sign of the other guys coming to save me either….”

In the first place….

“Originally, after 24 hours had passed, I should have either escaped the supermarket or been immediately rescued even if I was caught by you, right? But the fact that there’s no news… Doesn’t it mean that I’ve been abandoned?”

“……”

“Ah, of course, I understand their situation. The Artist, was it? At this point where a monster like that annihilated us, including the executives, in an instant appeared, they’re probably all holding their breaths in fear of being caught themselves, let alone save us.”

Anyway…

“This hostage situation was an event carried out by a total of 18 organizations gathered together. Why? Shall I list the names of the organizations involved?”

“…Please do.”

“First, the name of our organization is….”

The survivors of the hostage situation were all executives of their respective organizations, and their testimonies were mostly consistent.

As they were in charge of their respective organizations’ members, their abilities were outstanding, and they had been confident, but their pride was completely shattered by the fact that they had been defeated by the Artist without being able to put up any resistance.

No, it was difficult to explain with just that. They were too cooperative.

They opened their mouths easily, as if they were people whose ‘will to resist’ itself had been broken.

The police found that point strange, but through cross-verification, they judged that what they said was probably not false information.

Or there was the possibility that the Artist had done something to them.

In any case, the police informed the media of this fact.

The fact that 18 whopping criminal organizations had formed an alliance and were preparing to do something big.

“I’m scared to even go outside the house carelessly now….”

“Son? You have to come straight home after your academy ends without stopping anywhere, okay?”

“Aah… What is the world coming to…?”

Naturally, people couldn’t help but feel anxious after hearing that story.

But perhaps because the criminals had been subdued so easily by the Artist, the criminals didn’t move for a long time, and thanks to that, as time passed, the story of the 18 criminal organizations gradually faded from people’s minds.

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About two months after the hostage situation at the large supermarket.

“Ehehe… What should we ride first?”

I smiled contentedly as I watched Lee Ha-eun smile brightly and look at the map.

“She must be so happy.”

“Geon-woo? Noona and Ha-eun are going on ahead, okay?”

“I’m coming too.”

I said that and followed Lee Ha-eun and Yeon Mi-rae, who had gone ahead.

The two of them were usually quite cheerful, but they looked even brighter today.

‘Well, today is the day Lee Ha-eun had been waiting for, the day we came to the amusement park.’

Lee Ha-eun had made a deal with her mother that if she attended her academy properly, she would go to the amusement park with Yeon Mi-rae as her guardian.

Of course, the person who had actually made the deal at that time was Yeon Mi-rae, but anyway, Lee Ha-eun had attended her academy diligently, and as a result, she was allowed to come to the amusement park.

Thanks to that, Lee Ha-eun and Yeon Mi-rae had come to the amusement park, and as a bonus, they brought me along as well.

‘By the way, I didn’t know that not only Lee Ha-eun, but also Yeon Mi-rae would have her eyes sparkle like that while looking around at the amusement park.’

Well, Yeon Mi-rae was still a high school student.

In fact, maybe saying that she would take Lee Ha-eun to the amusement park was just an excuse, and she actually wanted to come to the amusement park herself.

Well, she could have gone to the amusement park anytime, but since it wasn’t fun to play alone even if she did that, she took Lee Ha-eun with her.

‘Thanks to that, I was dragged along too.’

No, it wasn’t that I disliked it.

I also knew the importance of rest, and I knew that simply resting my body in my room wasn’t the only form of rest.

And besides….

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been here too.’

Although it was the first time I had come to this amusement park in this life, I had visited this place about three times before my regression.

I remembered coming here with a group from school.

Thanks to that, I got lost in my memories for a short while.

…Even so, the amusement park I was in now was a little different from the one in my memory.

There were rides that didn’t exist now but would in the future, and there were rides that existed now but would disappear in the future.

Its overall layout and form were similar to my memory, but the detailed parts were, as expected, different.

Thanks to that, I felt both a sense of familiarity and strangeness at the same time.

“……”

It might be pretty good to find out what had changed and how, and what hadn’t changed.

Getting lost in my memories and playing around like I used to, and according to my age, would also be a good rest.

So, shall I also recall old memories and enjoy the rides?

Since the current me was a young child not even ten years old.

“Geon-woo! Hurry! Hurry!”

Having thought that, I headed towards Lee Ha-eun and Yeon Mi-rae, who were beckoning me to come quickly.

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T/N – Some stuff happening in the background. I’m curious about the experiment though. What exactly were those 18 criminal organizations planning and who organized it in the first place?

Also, man, the MC really did sound like an old man at the end there.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.