I’m not a Regressor

Chapter 210: Snake’s Head (3)

“Kugh…”

It felt like his head was going to split apart.

Ohjin clutched his aching head and slowly opened his eyes.

‘This is…’

The sky was covered in black clouds.

Sharp stalagmites jutted out of the ground like giant swords, and bizarre-looking plants that he had never seen before grew between them.

Between the clouds covering the sky were seven black stars glowing with an ominous light.

Normally, one shouldn’t have been able to differentiate the black stars from the sky because it was like drops of ink against black paper, but for some reason, he could clearly see the seven black stars, even in a sky covered in black clouds.

You couldn’t see such a strange thing on Earth.

It didn’t take long for Ohjin to realize where he had ended up.

“…The Demon Realm.”

It was the world of monsters that one could originally only arrive at through the ‘First Fissure’—an extremely large gate with a diameter reaching 50km in the Arctic.

He had been sucked into that world of uncharted lands, and in a ridiculously simple way at that.

“Hah.” Ohjin chuckled and clutched his head.

‘Did I let my guard down?’

Objectively, saying such a thing was hard. After all, he touched the fissure only after he summoned Vega and made sure it was safe. In addition, he had entered hundreds of gates until then, and it was his first time coming across a gate that expanded and swallowed up its surroundings.

[My… child?]

Ohjin helped Vega, who’d collapsed near him.

She touched her head as if it hurt and abruptly flew into the air in surprise after observing the surroundings.

[Is… Isn’t this the Demon Realm?!]

“I think so.”

[J-Just how did this…?]

Confused, Vega recalled what had happened: the black fissure swallowed everyone up like a snake eating prey as soon as Ohjin’s hand made contact with it.

Her face paled.

[This is my fault.]

She was the one who said the fissure was safe.

“No. We can’t blame this on anyone.”

Who could’ve expected that to happen for the simple reason of making contact with it?

[I’m certain that the fissure was extremely stable… Not even I can understand why this happened.]

Vega furrowed her brow in frustration.

There was no way for her to know, but there was one thing on Ohjin’s mind…

‘The Black Heaven reacted.’

The moment his hand touched the black fissure, it started to expand at a rapid pace, like it was resonating with him.

In other words, that fissure was a trap specifically designed to suck Ohjin into the Demon Realm from the very beginning.

There was no need to think about whose deed it was. After all, they left traces of themselves in plain sight in front of the fissure.

The problem wasn’t who had done it, but rather…

‘How… do they know I have the Black Heaven?’

The Queen of Snakes was somehow able to find out something that not even a North Star could.

Ohjin bit his lip and clenched his fists.

‘Let’s think about this later.’

Finding a way out as fast as possible came first.

“Ugh… my back. What the hell happened?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

It was unknown if it was because he quickly wrapped his wires around them before getting sucked in, but he was, fortunately, able to find Ha-eun and Isabella not too far away.

“I’m alright. What about you two?”

“Other than feeling a terrible headache, yeah.”

“I’m also fine.”

A breath of relief left his mouth when he confirmed that they were okay.

‘Now that that’s dealt with…’

Ohjin’s eyes narrowed. “By any chance… did any of you hear a voice when you got sucked in?”

“Huh? What voice?”

“No. I didn’t.”

The two women shook their heads.

“Some whisperings along the lines of, ‘I’ve been waiting for you’. Seriously, did none of you hear it?”

“Did you have auditory hallucinations or something?” Ha-eun tilted her head.

It seemed that the two women hadn’t heard the voice.

He turned his head to face Vega, but her answer was the same.

[I couldn’t hear anything, either.]

“…Really?”

In that case, who was behind the voice?

“Maybe it was the Queen of Snakes. It’s likely that she’s also the one who made the fissure.”

“…No.” Ohjin quietly shook his head. “It was a male voice.”

He didn’t remember exactly what kind of voice it was, but he was sure that it was the voice of a male.

“Maybe the Queen of Snakes has a pair?”

“What are you on about?”

“You know… What did they call it again… oh, right! Futa—”

“Shut up.” He closed Ha-eun’s rambling mouth with his fingers.

“Uuuub!”

She frowned in displeasure and flicked out her tongue to lick his fingers.

Ohjin grimaced and moved his hand away. “That’s gross.”

“And who said you could dare touch my lips like that?” Ha-eun puffed air out of her nose and looked up at the sky. “What kind of sky is this fucking dark?”

Tsk—

She clicked her tongue and took a cigarette out of her pocket.

Sizzle—

The tip of the cigarette ignited, and flares began lighting up the surroundings like fireflies.

“Thanks.”

* * *

* * *

“But where did Gramps and the guild members go?”

“I don’t know. Let’s start by searching the surroundings.” Ohjin took the lead and walked past the tall stalagmites.

“Wow, Ohjin. Look at that.” Ha-eun pulled the hem of his clothing and pointed.

There was a tree growing in the small space between the stalagmites, and on the tip of the tree was a light-green fruit giving off a mystical light. The fruit was semitransparent and beautiful, like a gemstone.

“That fruit… is really pretty. Isn’t it?” Ha-eun’s eyes went hazy as she looked at the fruit, and she started to walk towards the light-green fruit like she was charmed by it.

Isabella urgently gripped her shoulder. “Snap out of it.”

“Huh…? What’s wrong?”

“I smell blood from that fruit.” She narrowed her eyes and threw a stone at the tree bearing the fruit.

Crunch!!—

Roots suddenly tore out of the ground and split apart the stone before ravenously swallowing it.

“Wh-What the hell is that?!” Her hazy eyes returned to normal.

Ha-eun looked at the roots destroying the stone and frowned. Finding it unpleasant, she threw the cigarette in her hand at the tree.

Fwooosh!—

Fierce flames burned the tree.

“Goddamn… I would’ve helplessly fallen for it if I was alone.”

She found it disturbing that she had been walking to the tree without even realizing it, and her shoulders trembled. She probably wouldn’t have died due to the sturdy body of a high-rank Awakener she had, but she would’ve still received a serious injury.

“…This place isn’t called the Demon Realm for nothing.” Ohjin activated the stigma of the Hunting Dogs and raised his guard.

When he cautiously took the lead—

“Fuu! So this is where you were!”

—Cheon Sanggil appeared, catching his breath.

It looked like he had run across a couple of demonic beasts since blood stained his Hanbok.

“Were any of you hurt?”

“Nothing much happened to us. What about you, Gramps?”

“Phew. I was ambushed by demonic beasts on my way to find you guys… but I was, fortunately, able to take care of them without much trouble.”

Cheon Sanggil exhaled a breath of relief and spoke in a dark tone. “I apologize. I didn’t expect this to happen.”

“It’s okay. No one here could’ve expected such a thing to happen.” Ohjin took out a canteen from his belt and handed it over to Sanggil.

“Thank you.”

“Could I ask you a few questions?”

“Of course.” He took a refreshing gulp of water and nodded his head.

“Where were you when you first opened your eyes?”

“I’m not sure… it was quite a distance away.”

“Do you have no estimate of how far it was?”

“Perhaps five kilometers? No, it should've been around ten kilometers away.”

Indeed, it was quite far away, considering that they were all sucked into the fissure simultaneously.

“Then did you start trying to find us as soon as you opened your eyes?”

“That is the case.”

“Approximately how many minutes did it take?”

“Hmm. O-One hour? I believe it was somewhere around there.”

“Then you must’ve woken up at the same time as us.”

It had also been around one hour since Ohjin opened his eyes.

“Didn’t you mention something about running into a group of demonic beasts on your way here?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of beasts were they? Could you describe how they looked or how large they were?”

“Hmm. Please wait a moment. This old man can’t remember that well with how dark and overwhelmed he was.”

Cheon Sanggil took a sip of water once again and continued.

“They were leopards around three meters tall. Though I call them leopards, that was only their heads. They had human bodies.”

“Like werewolves?”

“Correct.”

“How many?”

“I believe it was somewhere around one hundred. They were 7-Star monsters at least.”

That would mean he eliminated a group of one hundred monsters that were 7-Star in that short amount of time.

Ohjin exclaimed and nodded his head. “As expected of the First Star.”

“Keke. That’s the only thing this old man can brag about.” Cheon Sanggil chuckled and handed over the canteen he was drinking from to Ohjin.

He drank quite a bit of water thanks to being exhausted from his fight, but there was still a lot left since the canteen had its storage enhanced with mana stones.

“Then could I ask you one final question?”

“Be my guest.”

“Could you— Ah…” Ohjin accidentally dropped the canteen he was receiving. The water inside spilled everywhere and drenched Cheon Sanggil’s Hanbok.

“Oh, my.”

“I… I’m sorry.”

“Keke. It’s alright. Rather, it’s fortunate because it washed away some of the demonic beasts’ blood.” Cheon Sanggil smiled kindly and picked up the canteen for Ohjin.

“So, what was it you wanted to ask?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much.” Ohjin hung the canteen on his belt and continued, “The questions that I’ve asked until now… could you answer them in reverse order?”

Silence settled down.

“…What do you mean by that?” Sanggil looked at Ohjin with confusion written on his face.

Ohjin stared at him with cold eyes. “Can you answer them in reverse?”

“So… um.” He avoided his eyes, and his legs trembled as he broke out in a nervous sweat.

“What’s wrong?” Ohjin grabbed his shoulder. “Why don’t you try answering me?”