The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player TL

14. Moving

Clack- Clack-

The owner put side dishes on the table with a sour expression.

"Owner, please smile. If you serve with that face, all the customers will run away."

"What?"

The owner, who was glaring with fierce eyes, bit his lip and tried to calm his boiling insides.

'Stay calm. If I just put up with this bastard for today, I can avoid the fine.'

They wouldn't see each other after today anyway.

With the mindset of enduring just for one day, the owner put on a smile.

"Is this good enough?"

"Who talks informally to customers? Are you going to speak informally to everyone younger than you?"

"...Is this good enough, sir?"

"Yes. You look better when you smile."

Looking at Ryumin smiling back, the owner inwardly clicked his tongue.

'Crazy psycho bastard.'

The owner turned around and went into the kitchen.

His face was full of anger as glimpsed briefly.

Seeing that, Ryuwon carefully asked next to Ryumin, seeming worried.

"Brother, is this really okay?"

"It's fine. You don't know how badly that owner treated me."

"That's not what I mean. What if he retaliates later..."

"Don't worry about unnecessary things."

Retaliation?

Would he dare to retaliate physically against himself, a player?

'Though it never happened in previous regressions, if he does...'

He can just retaliate back equally.

No, he can retaliate even more severely to prevent any foolish thoughts.

Soon, the owner brought out the ordered meat.

"The meat... is here."

It was the most expensive sirloin in the restaurant.

Sizzle-

Ryuwon swallowed as he heard the sound of meat cooking.

'Not just pork belly, but Korean beef.'

Ryuwon was highly anticipating this expensive food he was eating for the first time.

"Eat a lot."

"Y-you too, brother!"

The brothers' meal began as the owner left.

"Wow, it's so delicious, brother. Is this really Korean beef?"

"Yes. It's one of the tastiest cuts of Korean beef."

"I've heard it's delicious, but I didn't know it would be this good. It's melting in my mouth!"

"I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Ryumin smiled contentedly and looked around the hall.

Business must be quite bad, as there were still no other customers even during peak hours.

Ryumin occasionally called the owner during the meal.

"Owner! More garlic here please!"

"Owner! More oil sauce here please!"

"Owner! More rice here please!"

"Owner! More sirloin here..."

"Damn it! If you're going to order, order all at once! Don't you know when to stop?"

The owner finally exploded, but.

"Then did you know when to stop overworking me?"

"..."

The owner became speechless at Ryumin's words.

"Quickly bring 4 more servings of sirloin."

"How much more are you going to eat..."

"It's coming out of my unpaid wages anyway, do you have a problem?"

"N-no. I'll bring it right away."

Ryumin freely exercised the power harassment he had endured on the owner.

The owner must be acutely feeling that the customer is king.

'Damn it, if I can just endure today... just today...'

As the owner endured by counting to ten, the meal finally ended after 9 PM.

Ryumin and his brother rubbed their stomachs with satisfied faces.

"That was good."

"It was delicious, brother."

Ryumin stood up and turned to the owner.

"It's expensive, but worth eating. Thank you for the meal, owner."

"Y-yes. I'm glad you enjoyed it."

The owner's face had become gaunt, as if eons had passed.

"A-are you leaving now?"

"Yes."

"Then about the report..."

Ryumin silently looked at the owner.

Clasping his hands and looking with desperate eyes, he seemed sincerely afraid of being reported.

"You won't report, right?"

"Yes. I won't."

At those words, a bright smile spread across the owner's face.

"Haha! Really? Thank y..."

"It's out of my hands anyway. I already reported on my way here."

"Huh?"

Ryumin gave an evil smile to the owner who didn't understand.

"I've already reported all your actions to the Labor Office. I've also filed criminal charges, so you'll have to appear in court soon. Be prepared."

"Wh-what?"

"You can deposit the unpaid wages into my account later according to the Labor Office's order. I'll consider today's meal costs as interest on the money I haven't received."

"..."

"I don't know if you'll be able to do business in the future, but good luck, and let's never see each other again. Let's go, Won."

"O-okay, brother."

As the brothers left the restaurant, the owner stood dumbfounded for a while.

* * *

[Massive lottery jackpot win at a Seoul convenience store. As many as 100 games...]

[Only one winner for 100 games. Marked the same number for 100 games...]

[GS24 Yeonhui Branch jackpot winner. Claimed 22.4 billion out of 24 billion won alone!]

[About 22.4 million won per game. Other first-place winners complain about unprecedented prize amount.]

Ryuwon looked up from reading the news articles on his phone.

"Brother, there are articles about this?"

"Yeah. I saw."

"The comments are going crazy, asking how someone could mark 100 games, if they came from the future."

"Well, I guess so."

"Brother, did you really come from the future? How did you guess the numbers exactly?"

"I dreamed it, I told you. Very vividly."

Though it was hard to believe, Ryuwon didn't probe further.

The fact that his brother had become a player was unbelievable enough.

"Did 1.8 billion people really get taken and only 900 million returned alive?"

"That's right. There are plenty of articles about it online."

After 5:20 AM on January 1st.

All those who didn't wake up from narcolepsy died of cardiac arrest.

Articles about this were overflowing, and it was all over the news.

There were some YouTubers claiming conspiracy theories, but they were a tiny minority.

It was an unbelievable reality that had to be believed.

"The whole world is in chaos, and you still don't believe it?"

"It's hard to believe even if I want to..."

Ryumin chuckled at his brother's words.

Well, it would be hard to believe without experiencing it firsthand.

"It's going to get even more chaotic from now on. We've only survived Round 1 so far."

The world will be filled with chaos every time the population decreases monthly.

The economy will collapse and social systems will be paralyzed.

There are even voices saying an era of dystopia is opening.

'If players start exercising their powers on top of this, the chaos will accelerate even more.'

That's why Ryumin had to gather as much funds as possible right away.

The more money, the better, and there were uses for it.

"Won. How did you like the house we saw at the real estate agency yesterday? Did you like it?"

"Of course! It was amazing! I've never seen such a spacious and expensive house before! Though I've only seen photos..."

"It was the best among places we could move into immediately. The security is good too."

Ryumin was planning to move to Galleria Foret in Seongsu-dong.

Though the sale price was as high as 7 billion won, he didn't spend that much.

He contracted for monthly rent instead of buying.

"But brother, why did you contract for monthly rent? We have a lot of money, why not just buy it outright..."

"I don't have money."

"Huh?"

Ryumin casually said to his brother who was asking with wide eyes.

"I left 1 billion and invested the rest all in coins."

"What? Coins?"

What is he saying now? Coins?

His brother asked again, feeling like he had been struck by lightning.

"By coins, do you mean Bitcoin?"

"Yes."

"You poured 14 billion into that?"

"Yeah."

"Brother! What were you thinking..."

Ryumin raised his hand as if to say be quiet.

"I know. I know what you're going to say. It must look pathetic. Reckless. But it's not."

"Do you have some kind of belief?"

"That's why I left only 1 billion and went all in."

"..."

15 billion came in overnight and evaporated.

Of course, it wasn't evaporation but investment, but to Ryuwon's eyes, it could only be seen as disappearing.

Even Ryuwon, a middle schooler, knew the risks of cryptocurrency.

"Is it really okay? It's money you earned, so it's not my place to interfere, but..."

"It's fine. You don't need to worry about losing it at all."

"If you say so, that's a relief, but..."

He couldn't be at ease.

It's not even regular stocks, but cryptocurrency.

No joke, it could disappear overnight.

As if knowing his brother's thoughts, Ryumin reassured him.

"Don't worry about money. I can just earn more by guessing lottery numbers again."

"Huh? Lottery?"

"I didn't just dream about one draw's numbers."

Ryumin reassured him that he saw a total of 5 draws' numbers in his dream, so he could guess correctly four more times.

"Of course, we'll have to see if they're actually the winning numbers."

"Wow..."

He can guess the lottery numbers correctly four more times?

'If he keeps winning first place from now on...?'

Ryuwon covered his mouth with his hand.

'15 billion four times is 60 billion? An additional 60 billion will come in?'

If the numbers are first place as revealed in the dream, his brother will truly become filthy rich.

"Brother! You remember all the numbers, right? You can't forget!"

"I won't forget."

'How many times have I done this?'

For Ryumin, a regressor, memorizing 5 draws' lottery numbers was a piece of cake.

"Anyway..."

Ryumin checked the time on his phone and stood up.

"Let's buy lunch outside and get ready to go."

"Huh? Where?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you?"

Ryumin smiled brightly.

"Today's moving day."

* * *

Crunch-

The brick crumbled under Hwang Yongmin's fist.

"Wow, this is killer!"

As he punched again, the alley wall caved in.

Each time, exclamations of admiration flowed from Yongmin's mouth.

He couldn't help it.

Who wouldn't be happy about gaining superhuman strength?

"To think we can use the status window and inventory in reality too... This is amazing."

Even the rune applies as is.

'A rune that doubles strength. I got lucky with the draw.'

Though runes aren't divided into grades, he could tell just by looking.

That the [Rune of Strength] he drew was overpowered.

'I wanted to build strength anyway, and I got this rune.'

With such a rune, he poured all his stats into strength.

This was the result.

It allows him to effortlessly crush bricks with bare hands.

Though his fists were starting to hurt a bit.

"With this, I've got fists that even Tyson would envy."

Yongmin, who had been grinning, dusted off the powder on his fists.

"That's the end of testing. Shall we move on to the real thing now? Hehe."

Cracking his knuckles, Yongmin started walking.

His destination was a run-down multi-family house.

None other than Ryumin's house.

'That arrogant shuttle bastard dared to glare at me like that?'

Though it's only been a few days, the mocking smile and gaze he showed at the bell-ringing site are still vivid in his mind.

'Did you think I'd let it slide? You're dead, Ryumin you bastard.'

He hadn't seen him since returning to reality.

He tried calling as usual to summon him, but he didn't answer.

'You think you can solve this by going off the grid?'

Though he couldn't contact him, there was no need to worry.

He knew the shuttle's home address exactly.

'I'll personally correct your bad habits.'

He didn't know if the guy was dead or alive, but he could find out by going to his house.

Even if he survived Round 1 and was a player too, Yongmin was confident he could win.

No matter how much power a loser awakens, they're still a loser.

"This is it."

Yongmin pressed the doorbell in front of Ryumin's house.

Ding dong- Ding dong- Ding dong-

There was no response no matter how many times he pressed.

He put his ear to the front door, but couldn't hear any signs of life.

'Is this bastard hiding inside on purpose?'

He's probably cowering quietly, knowing he would come.

"Ah, is he not home? I guess I have no choice. I should go."

After pretending to leave by speaking loudly, he pressed his ear tightly to the door.

'Just let me hear any sound. I'll break down the door and enter right away.'

Having become strong enough to crush bricks, Yongmin had nothing to fear anymore.

That's when it happened.

"Huh? Hey, student? What are you doing there?"

Yongmin turned his head at the voice from behind.

An old man was approaching.

"What are you doing in front of someone else's house?"

"What's it to you, grandpa? You're not the landlord."

"I am the landlord here."

Yongmin's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"That's what I said. What are you doing? Did you come to see a friend?"

'Friend?'

A smile spread across Yongmin's lips.

"Yes, that's right, a friend. If you're the landlord, you can open the door, right? He's suddenly not answering my calls, so could you open it for me?"

"Tsk tsk tsk."

When the old man clicked his tongue without answering, Yongmin furrowed his brow.

"What's wrong?"

"You got stood up by your friend."

"Pardon?"

"That room is empty. I came to check because I heard the room was vacated."

Yongmin's eyes grew wide.

"What do you mean?"

"The student who lived here, he moved somewhere else."

'Moved?'

Yongmin's eyebrow twitched.

"When?"

"Today."

"Do you know where he went?"

"How would I know?"

Yongmin gritted his teeth, trembling.

'This bastard moves without saying anything?'

He never imagined the shuttle would escape from his grasp.