The Regressor is too Powerful in Martial Arts – Chapter 43

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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However, since the other child… that is, Ryu Ah-yeong didn’t know my name, let alone Lee Ha-eun’s, the adults seemed to dismiss it as the cute lie of a child who was afraid of attention.

And….

Since the synthesis of Manifestation and Conversion psionic powers that I knew was something that the pre-regression Ryu Ah-yeong and Ryu Ah-min had created, I didn’t feel like the twins getting rewarded for this was unfair, but the Awakener System, which favored me, a regressor, showered me with rewards as if to make me feel better.

Though it was a reward, it was given to me in the form of points.

But those points were by no means small.

‘…This is more points than what I’ve gotten from the usage fees of the techniques I had registered in the database up until now….’

Well, it was understandable.

Because humanity’s combat power had increased by 3%.

Someone might ask if 3% was a big amount, but this 3% was 3% based on all of humanity.

So, 3% of the billions of people living in the world… That would mean that the combat power of at least tens of millions to at most hundreds of millions of people had been raised by just two children.

No matter how much I surpassed my pre-regression realm and aimed for the position of the world’s strongest, that feat was impossible for me on my own.

“…Thanks to that, I was able to reach my goal earlier than I thought.”

The night after I saw the news related to Ryu Ah-yeong and confirmed the reward message…

I was at the clearing where I usually trained with Yeon Mi-rae.

“System. You know what I’m thinking of doing, right?”

As if responding to my words, the Awakener System sent me a message.

Yes.

It was the strengthening of the Awakener System, which I had been thinking about for a while now.

Although I was receiving an enormous amount of usage fees every day thanks to the numerous techniques I had registered in the database, the upgrade required so many points that even I would have had to save up for a long time.

I had thought that the target amount of points would be gathered around the time I entered high school or the academy, but… this time, thanks to Ryu Ah-yeong, I was able to achieve the target amount of points much earlier than I had initially thought.

The problem was….

‘The Awakener System is also saying it, and it’s a problem that I’ve thought about before, but… I have no idea in what way it will be strengthened.’

Will it result in an increase of the number of humanity’s Awakeners?

Will the inconvenient Awakener System be revamped?

Or will it change in a direction to give me, Han Geon-woo, special treatment?

“…The time to worry about such things has passed.”

At least, this one thing was certain.

The Awakener System would surely evolve in a direction more favorable to the survival of humanity.

In that case, there was no reason to hesitate.

“Strengthen it.”

At my words, the Awakener System sent a message.

And seeing that message, I couldn’t help but feel anxious.

I’ve paid so many points for this. It’s not going to end in a strengthening failure, is it…?

As I was thinking that while waiting for the strengthening to end….

“…What? A video message?”

A video message.

I had never heard of the Awakener System having such a function.

Thinking that, I said to the system.

“Play it for now.”

At my request, a video was literally displayed before my eyes.

[Ahem…. Recording start.]

The video seemed to have been filmed in some kind of laboratory, and in the center of the screen, a man was holding what I assume was a script.

…And I knew who this man was.

Because his face photo was plastered prominently in the history books.

[First, to introduce myself, I am the doctor who created the Awakener System, Jacob.]

“……”

The genius who had lived at the time of the Black Fog’s first appearance… and the one who had analyzed the contents of the Black Fog to create the Awakener System to counter it.

[The fact that you are seeing this message means that you are a person who has decided to strengthen the Awakener System and has invested many points for it.]

In other words, this video message must have been a provision he had left behind.

[I don’t know why you’ve decided to strengthen the Awakener System. I don’t know what kind of person you are either. Nationality, gender, age, religion, ideology… I cannot guess any of it.]

[So, I’ll just talk as if that doesn’t matter.]

[First, this message is being recorded in English, the world’s common language at the time of recording, but the Awakener System will be playing the video in the language you are most familiar with.]

I was wondering why Dr. Jacob was speaking in Korean, but it was just the Awakener System translating it for me.

[If you were expecting that with the strengthening of the Awakener System, the Awakeners would become stronger or the ratio of Awakeners would increase, then I apologize. Because strengthening in that direction is impossible. Only the convenience of the Awakener System will be updated.]

Hearing those words, I clicked my tongue inwardly.

Updating the convenience of the system wasn’t bad, but still, increasing the number of Awakeners or making the existing Awakeners stronger would have been the best outcome….

[The translation system is also a part of that convenience update. From now on, Awakeners will be able to easily learn any language that the Awakener System can recognize.]

Besides that, Dr. Jacob explained one by one the functions of the Awakener System that would change with this strengthening.

…But listening to him, it felt like I was listening to some patch notes… Surely he didn’t leave a video message just for this, right…?

[With this, I’ll conclude the explanation of the changes after the strengthening of the system and move on to the main topic.]

Right after I thought that, Dr. Jacob brought up the main topic.

[Do you know about the substance called Aether?]

Aether?

Of course, I knew it.

A hypothetical substance imagined in physics as the medium of light.

Although its existence had once been denied, with the appearance of the Black Fog and the emergence of the Awakener System, it was being speculated that it might exist….

It was one of the candidate substances thought to be the source of the Black Fog and the Awakener System.

But for Dr. Jacob to bring up Aether here….

[Aether exists. To be precise, one could say that the Black Fog or the Awakener System is as good as a lump of that Aether.]

[Of course, that might not be the case.]

[It could be a completely different substance that I had just misidentified as Aether.]

[What’s important is that this Aether can change into any form.]

[And the result of that change is mana, aura, psychic power, spirit power, and so on… In short, the powers that the Awakener System will grant to the Awakeners.]

“……”

Although I had just casually heard an incredible story about the principle of the Awakener System, since there was nothing I could do even if I knew of this fact, I kept my mouth shut.

What was important was a different point.

‘He says that the Black Fog is a lump of Aether….’

Then what would happen if I burned that Aether with Samadhi True Fire?

What would happen if I made all of that Aether disappear?

[You are a person who has decided to strengthen the Awakener System and has invested many points for it. That means that you are in a position to gather that many points, and that you are a person who values the strengthening of humanity more than yourself.]

[So please….]

[Please use the information I have given you carefully and erase the Black Fog from this world….]

With those words, the video ended.

“……”

From the looks of it, Dr. Jacob had judged that if there was a human who would try to strengthen the Awakener System, it would be a person with a high social status and someone who prioritized humanity rather than themselves, and had left the video because of it, but….

Even if one knew of the existence of Aether, since one couldn’t clearly perceive it, then there wasn’t much a person could do even with a high social status.

In the first place, unless it was someone with outstanding senses like me, ordinary Awakeners couldn’t even properly distinguish the difference between energies like aura and mana.

They just guessed the identity of the energy through how it was used.

‘…Thinking of it in that sense, it was fortunate that the message came to me.’

Samādhi was the ability to see through to the essence of things.

If it was me, the user of Samadhi True Fire which contained the principles of such Samādhi, it might be possible to perceive Aether and burn it.

‘I’m going to be busy from now on….’

Up until now, my main focus had been on accumulating internal energy and building my body through the Divine Art of Harmony, and on honing my techniques, including my swordsmanship, through the doll, but I wondered if I should also meditate frequently from now on.

I had already frequently used Samadhi True Fire and had trained it much as a result, but….

‘The sea is the domain of the Black Fog. It means that the Black Fog is that huge.’

With my current Samadhi True Fire, I could burn a part of the Aether that made up the Black Fog, but I probably couldn’t burn the whole thing.

Even if Samadhi True Fire became stronger than it was now, it probably wouldn’t make a big difference, but who knew.

I might be able to gain enlightenment on a way to completely erase the Black Fog from this world while meditating to strengthen the Samadhi True Fire.

As I was thinking that, a message saying that the strengthening was complete covered my sight.

Turning my head for a moment to look at the neighborhood, it seemed like there was a commotion, as if the Awakeners who had seen the said message were all surprised.

‘It’s going to be noisy for a while.’

The Awakener System, which had had no particular changes for decades, had suddenly been strengthened.

The method of strengthening the system itself was widely known, but what was the reason why the system hadn’t been strengthened up until now?

Because it required an astronomical amount of points.

A vast amount of points that was judged to be impossible for one person to collect.

No, a vast amount of points that was judged to be difficult to collect even as a group.

‘In that situation, someone strengthened the Awakener System without any notice….’

Many people would try to find out who on earth had strengthened the system by paying such an astronomical amount of points.

Some would, purely out of curiosity, try to ask that person how they were able to collect so many points.

Some would, out of greed, want to know a way to get even a little more points.

And some would even try to find that person to take away the benefits, believing that there would be some if someone strengthened the Awakener System.

‘I don’t know how many innocent people will be harmed in that process, so….’

I would reveal that I had strengthened the Awakener System.

…Ah, of course, not as Han Geon-woo, but with the identity of the Artist.

Although I hadn’t mentioned it separately, I had continued to be active as the Artist ever since the bounty on my doll’s head.

Of course, there had been no major incidents like the Yeouido incident, but there had been frequent instances of my doll tracking down and wiping out the criminals called Villains in cooperation with the Cheol-hyeol guild.

As such, the name of the Artist hadn’t been completely erased from people’s minds, and so I decided to use this name.

‘The problem is that even if I say that I strengthened the Awakener System, few people will believe me.’

Although the Artist was a famous person, he was close to a newcomer who had appeared only a few years ago.

Few people would believe at face value that such an Awakener had enough points to strengthen the Awakener System.

Even if I gathered reporters and held a press conference.

No, in the first place, since the identity of the Artist was a wanted person with a bounty on his head, something like a press conference wouldn’t be possible in the first place.

‘And the story of the Artist being famous is only in Korea. Foreigners don’t really know much about me.’

Those who knew would know, but most people probably wouldn’t.

For that reason, even if I said I had strengthened the Awakener System, it wouldn’t have much meaning.

‘If I say it myself, that is.’

What if another being said it?

A being more impartial, and more unbiased than anyone else….

What if the Awakener System itself said that the one who had strengthened it was the Artist?

“In that sense, System…. Could you send such a notice to all Awakeners?”

At my words, the Awakener System displayed such a message.

Was it calculating what would happen if it sent such a notice to all Awakeners as I had asked?

“If the person who strengthened the Awakener System is not clearly identified, the number of victims will increase. You should know that too, right?”

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T/N – Hmmmm, a type of energy that can transform to other types of energies? Sounds familiar. I won’t say internal energy since the MC clearly stated before that his internal energy only mimicked the other energy types. But that’s not the case with the internal energy generated by the Divine Art of Harmony…

Also, I would say that this system upgrade sounds lame considering how many points it took to actually upgrade it, but we don’t have a clear picture yet of what exactly has changed with the system. So I’ll reserve my judgement for now.

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