The Regressor is too Powerful in Martial Arts – Chapter 44

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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At my words, the system, perhaps after pondering for a moment, sent me a message.

The system’s words were a little unexpected.

It was as if….

“…Are you worried about me?”

It wasn’t wrong.

If it was revealed that the Artist was the one who had strengthened the Awakener System, the number of people targeting the Artist would increase in the future.

Since this wasn’t just a matter of hunting criminals or a bounty anynore… other countries could directly intervene.

They would try to find the Artist by mobilizing all their means, such as satellites, spies, and hacking.

Perhaps those who were called the world’s strongest might even come to Korea directly to capture the Artist.

And since the higher-ups in Korea didn’t look favorably on the Artist, they wouldn’t stop such people.

The Awakener System also knew that, so it tried to refuse my request in order to protect me.

…I never thought the day would come when I’d be worried about by the Awakener System.

“…But at this rate, there’s no guarantee that innocent people won’t get involved.”

There was no guarantee that a future strong person wouldn’t be included among those innocent people.

There was no guarantee that those who could help me in the future wouldn’t be included among those innocent people.

…There was no guarantee that the people around me wouldn’t be included among those innocent people.

The system that had heard my explanation made a proposal.

…So, you’re telling me to stop my activities as the Artist so that I won’t be in danger?

“…No. The Artist is an identity that has many uses.”

And System, there’s something you’re overlooking.

“The Artist is, in the end, my doll. Not myself. So just because the Artist is in danger, that doesn’t mean that I’m in danger.”

I could throw away the doll at any time.

Although the materials used to make it would be wasted, the system could provide them to me again in the future.

So even if the Artist was in danger, that didn’t mean that I was in danger.

At my words, the system was silent for a moment.

I quietly waited for its response.

A short while later, all the Awakeners in the world received the following message.

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The information that the Awakener System had conveyed to the Awakeners was simple, yet it had a great ripple effect.

The fact that the Artist had strengthened the Awakener System was also important, but….

“It means that the Artist himself told the system to announce that he had strengthened the Awakener System….”

“And the system had accepted this.”

The Awakeners had confirmed that it was possible to send a message to someone they knew through the system by checking the changes that had occurred as the Awakener System was strengthened, but it was impossible for them to send a message to all the Awakeners in the world at once as the Artist had done.

This meant that the Artist had a higher authority in the system than other people.

When they realized that, people were largely divided into two groups.

“Perhaps… it’s also possible to take away an Awakener’s ability?”

“Seeing as the system takes things like aura or mana as a usage fee when you use a technique created by someone else in the database… it might be possible?”

The people who thought that feared the Artist and decided not to provoke him, while….

“If that were possible, he would have taken away the abilities of the criminals first.”

“More than that, I’m curious about how he was able to get so many points. Perhaps the uses for points have increased after the Awakener System was strengthened… I need to secure as many points as possible.”

There were also those who didn’t fear the Artist and tried to figure out his identity, just as Han Geon-woo and the system had feared.

The first place such people attacked was none other than the Iron Blood (Cheol-hyeol) guild, which was presumed to be connected to the Artist.

Of course, the Iron Blood guild wasn’t so easily bullied as there were powerful Awakeners there.

“What a bunch of annoying guys….”

“Grrrr….”

“Hey, hey. You’re only mixed with werewolf genes. You’re not a real werewolf. Why are you growling?”

“Ah, I did it without realizing….”

Furthermore, the people who had been rescued by the Iron Blood guild before that had monster genes implanted in them joined the Iron Blood guild. Because of that, the Iron Blood guild had become an outstanding guild that was among the top ten guilds in Korea.

Although they were only in the lower ranks because they still didn’t have an absolute strong person of the Aura Master or Archmage level….

“This too will be resolved if Yeon Mi-rae joins our guild….”

Since Yeon Mi-rae, who was famous as the youngest Aura Master, was slated to join the Iron Blood guild, even this was only a matter of time.

And not only Yeon Mi-rae, but the Awakeners whose lives had been saved with the Artist’s help and the numerous Awakeners who hated criminals were applying to join the Iron Blood guild.

Of course, the fact that many Awakeners were applying to the Iron Blood guild meant that….

“It seems that the Iron Blood’s guild master is in regular contact with the Artist… but it’s not yet confirmed.”

[Keep an eye on them.]

“Yes.”

…There were also those who entered the guild with ulterior motives.

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Yeon Mi-rae, Lee Ha-eun, and I were visiting the Iron Blood guild’s headquarters.

Not with the identity of the Artist and his companions, but with the identity of Yeon Mi-rae, who was slated to join the Iron Blood guild, and her disciples.

Yeon Mi-rae had requested a tour of the guild from the guild master Ji Hyeong-man, and the latter had readily accepted it.

Of course, it wasn’t a simple tour.

We had a separate purpose for coming to the Iron Blood guild.

‘Ji Hyeong-man had said that they were having a tough time because there were too many spies trying to enter the guild.’

I had heard that when we had briefly met while wiping out criminals recently.

It wasn’t that he had said it for me to hear. I just happened to hear him muttering that to himself.

‘Still, he’s a man who has managed the guild well all this time, so I should provide this much of a benefit.’

Today, I planned to create a list of spies and hand it over to Ji Hyeong-man.

Of course, I also planned to secure evidence.

By the way….

‘There are a few foreigners here.’

When I entered the Iron Blood guild’s headquarters, there were several foreigners here who seemed to be gathering information about the Artist.

Even so, it wasn’t as if the members of the Iron Blood guild knew much about the Artist to begin with, and those who did know about the Artist… and who knew that I sometimes helped them would pretend to not know anything and kept their mouths shut, so they probably wouldn’t have any success.

“Geon-woo, look at those people.”

I looked in the direction Lee Ha-eun was pointing at her words.

There, I saw people whose bodies were partially transformed in a strange way.

They were the ones who had been kidnapped by the subordinates of the Doctor whom I had killed and had monster genes implanted in them.

They were called the Mutant Team now, I think….

‘I was worried that Lee Ha-eun might be scared when she saw those people’s strange appearance, but….’

It seemed that wasn’t the case.

As Lee Ha-eun was looking at them with curious eyes, they, who were taking a break while drinking some beverage, also waved their hands at Lee Ha-eun.

“Kids, let’s go. We have to go greet the guild master now.”

“Yeees~.”

“Yes.”

Lee Ha-eun, and I answered Yeon Mi-rae like that.

Whatever our real purpose was, we had come here on a tour while following Yeon Mi-rae, so we had to follow her orders.

And so, we arrived at the guild master’s office where the guild master was said to be.

“…Hm? Ah, Cadet Yeon Mi-rae. Was today the tour day?”

Guild master Ji Hyeong-man muttered that upon seeing us.

And after exchanging a light greeting with Yeon Mi-rae, he was about to call someone to guide us around the guild.

I stopped him and spoke.

“Wait a minute, listen to me first, Ji Hyeong-man.”

“!”

And I had deliberately changed my voice.

It wasn’t the voice of the 11-year-old Han Geon-woo, but the voice of the future Han Geon-woo.

It was the voice that would be familiar to Ji Hyeong-man. The voice of the Artist.

If not the others, I could at least tell my identity to Ji Hyeong-man, who had helped me for several years and had been tight-lipped.

“I heard that you’re having a hard time because of spies these days?”

“…Haha… That’s right. But I didn’t expect you to appear here in the form of a child.”

…This is my real form.

But it seemed like Ji Hyeong-man thought that I had appeared before him in the form of a child using something like a transformation.

More importantly….

“Is it okay? There could be a listening device in my room….”

“Ah, that?”

I lightly went to a corner of the room, removed the outlet cover, and then took out the listening device that was inside.

Next, I dismantled the air conditioner and then took out the listening device and hidden camera that were inside.

Next, I cut his desk with a dagger and took out the listening device that was inside….

“No, wait…! Are you planning to destroy all of the furniture in here?! More importantly, why are there so many?!”

“Ah, I’ll restore what I’ve dismantled right away.”

Anyway….

“I’ve neutralized all the listening devices and hidden cameras since I entered the room, so it’s fine. I don’t know who installed them, but… they’ll probably think that the Aura Master Yeon Mi-rae detected them when she visited you and neutralized them.”

“…By the way, is it okay? To reveal your identity in front of Cadet Yeon Mi-rae… and that child.”

“These two know about me.”

More than that, the person who sometimes appeared next to me was Yeon Mi-rae.

When I said that, Ji Hyeong-man made an expression as if he understood.

“Ah, so that’s how it was. That’s why Cadet Yeon Mi-rae insisted on joining our Iron Blood guild….”

It seemed like he had solved the mystery of why Yeon Mi-rae wanted to join the Iron Blood guild all this time.

“More importantly, about the spies, bring all the guild members before us under the pretext of having them greet Yeon Mi-rae. Then I’ll identify the spies and hand over to you a list with evidence later.”

“…I don’t know how you’re going to identify them, but I understand.”

At my words, Ji Hyeong-man nodded his head with a solemn expression.

Ji Hyeong-man faithfully carried out my instructions.

He had naturally used the excuse of a meeting to convene the executives of the guild and brought Yeon Mi-rae, me, and Lee Ha-eun with him.

We probably wouldn’t be able to see all the guild members this way, but he must have judged that it would be good to first check if there were any spies among the executives.

“Everyone’s here. First, before we start the meeting, let me introduce you. This is Cadet Yeon Mi-rae, who is slated to join our Iron Blood guild after she graduates from the academy.”

“Hello.”

Yeon Mi-rae greeted them naturally, and then Ji Hyeong-man introduced the executives.

Every time Yeon Mi-rae and the executives greeted each other, Lee Ha-eun and I also bowed deeply while acting like ordinary children.

The executives looked at us with doting expressions and even gave us refreshments that had been prepared on the conference room table or pocket money.

“This, you have to buy what you want to eat, not give it to your unni or mom, okay?”

“Thank you!”

Lee Ha-eun seemed happy to have received pocket money just for following Yeon Mi-rae and me around and greeting them.

‘It seems like she has completely forgotten the purpose of our visit here today.’

For reference, Lee Ha-eun also knew that our purpose was to root out the spies who had infiltrated the Iron Blood guild.

It was just that she hadn’t understood the difficult words, so she only remembered that her job was to politely greet the people who were being introduced to us.

Meanwhile, while I was receiving refreshments and pocket money while saying thank you, my eyes were moving busily.

I could see the message sent by the Awakener System.

Yes, the method I had prepared to identify the spies was to use the Awakener System.

Because the Awakener System was more accurate than anyone else.

Generally, the Awakener System didn’t provide this kind of information to anyone, but it was prioritizing my safety this time.

‘And it had judged that not knowing the information of my opponents was a threat to my safety.’

So the Awakener System had given me the special privilege of being able to check the information of the person I was looking at.

Though it was a special privilege, it wasn’t free, and it did cost me a corresponding amount of points depending on the information, but since I was overflowing with points coming in periodically from the usage fees of the techniques I had registered in the database, it wasn’t a big problem.

‘Anyway, fortunately, it seems that there are no traitors or spies from other guilds among the executives.’

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T/N – First up, I’ll be using “Iron Blood guild” for the Cheol-hyeol guild from now on. It sounds cooler in English and there will be more Korean guilds later on, so I want to translate their names to English if possible.

Also, lol. I find it hilarious how much the system favors the MC and how much of a mother hen it acts when it comes to him. To be fair, as a regressor with decades worth of experience and knowledge, and with his Divine Art that produces energy that looks suspiciously like Aether, I don’t blame the system for prioritizing the MC’s life over anyone else’s.

Lastly, I’m pretty iffy about the MC revealing his true identity to the guild master of Iron Blood. Sure, the guy misunderstood and thought that the former was in disguise, but it’s still pretty risky. I’m fine with Lee Ha-eun and Yeon Mi-rae since they’ll usually be within reach of the MC, but the guild master won’t always be under the eyes of the MC.

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