← # The Ruler of the Returned Cracks
I cannot provide a translation as only a title has been provided. Please share the actual web-novel text content that needs to be translated, and I will translate it into natural, fluent English while preserving all formatting and tone.# The Descent
The path down into the dungeon's depths was steeper than expected.
Moss-covered stone walls offered no purchase, not even for a fingertip. Junhyuk descended one careful step at a time. Jieun followed behind him, her breathing audible in his ears—rapid, unsteady, uncontrolled.
"Want to go down alone?"
Junhyuk asked.
"No. Let's go together."
There was no certainty in Jieun's voice. Junhyuk knew it. He also knew how the things he'd just said were pressing down on her mind. Choi Minjae. Corruption. System manipulation. And himself.
An F-rank awakener reading information from an A-rank boss?
That made no sense.
Junhyuk's vision filled with numbers.
**[Deep Layer Entry Detected]**
**[Environment: Humidity 87%, Temperature 13℃, Mana Concentration 4.2]**
**[Biological Signals Detected: 1 (Junhyuk), 1 (Jieun)]**
**[Anomalous Signal Detected: 1]**
An anomalous signal.
That was the boss.
In the darkness, Junhyuk raised his finger. A system window opened. And in that moment, his job classification trembled.
**[Job: Recorder (F-rank)]**
**[Possessed Ability: System Data Decryption]**
**[Hidden Ability: ?]**
**[Condition: Encounter with A-rank or Higher Life Form]**
Junhyuk's heart stopped.
'Condition?'
As if waiting for a choice, the screen flickered. A new window appeared.
**[Job Change Available]**
**[Option 1: Maintain Recorder (F-rank)]**
**[Option 2: Awaken as A-rank Warrior]**
**[Warning: Physical changes will occur upon awakening. Regression characteristic may cause bodily rejection]**
Junhyuk held his breath.
'What... is this?'
Footsteps sounded behind him. Jieun stepped to the side. And when he realized she was seeing the same screen, Junhyuk finally understood.
That he was not F-rank.
That he had never truly been F-rank.
That someone had intentionally classified him as F-rank.
Junhyuk's hand trembled. Over the touchscreen. He tried to press an option. But at that moment—
**[Surveillance Signal Detected]**
**[Park Sujin's Remote Monitoring Activated]**
**[Coordinates: Ground E-rank Management Office, Distance 1.2km]**
**[Signal Strength: Medium]**
**[Tracking Probability: High]**
Junhyuk's face hardened.
'Park Sujin is... watching me?'
Jieun shouted.
"Junhyuk! What do you see?"
Junhyuk closed the window. With a single finger. The movement came automatically. It was a motion he'd performed many times before. The body of a regressor remembered. How to hide things.
"It's the boss."
He lied.
"Distance?"
"200 meters. Below."
Jieun drew her sword. The metal gleamed faintly in the darkness. As Junhyuk watched it, he thought.
Why was Park Sujin monitoring him?
Why had Choi Minjae killed him?
And why was he classified as F-rank?
The answer was singular.
That he was dangerous.
Very, extremely dangerous.
When Junhyuk opened his mouth, his voice was cold and mechanical.
"Jieun, stop for a moment."
"What?"
Jieun asked.
"We're being monitored right now."
In the darkness, Jieun's eyes widened.
"What?"
"Park Sujin. Remote monitoring. Medium signal strength. High tracking probability."
Junhyuk spoke in numbers. Without emotion. Like a machine.
"So... she sees everything we do with the boss?"
"Yes."
Junhyuk nodded.
"And if that's the case, she'll see everything—what abilities we use, what tactics we employ, all of it."
Jieun fell silent.
"Why is that a problem? Do we have something to hide?"
Junhyuk looked at her. In the darkness. And he could see Jieun's face. An innocent face. A face that knew nothing.
'Right. You know nothing.'
Junhyuk thought.
'You're just someone I work with.'
But he was different.
He knew something. From deep within, from the memories of regression. Something was being prepared. Something was waiting.
His true identity.
Junhyuk breathed. Long and slow.
"There's no problem. Let's go."
And he descended.
Into the darkness. Into the depths. Toward the A-rank boss.
Throughout, his job window remained open. As if held in his hand. Still waiting for a choice.
**[Job Change Available]**
**[Option 1: Maintain Recorder (F-rank)]**
**[Option 2: Awaken as A-rank Warrior]**
Junhyuk did not touch it.
Not yet.
For now, he simply had to observe.
What reaction Park Sujin would show.
Whether Choi Minjae's corruption was truly independent action.
And what the contradiction in the system above him meant.
He had to record everything.
As the system did.
# The Crack
The depths of the dungeon were silent.
The texture of stone beneath his feet, the smell of sulfur compounds drifting through the air, the vibration of mana flowing along the walls. Junhyuk sensed everything simultaneously. The classification of F-rank awakener was a lie. These precise senses were something no awakener of any level could possess.
'I already knew.'
He thought. The regressor's memories were accurate. In his past life, he had explored this dungeon multiple times. Those memories existed within this body now.
Jieun followed behind him. The flashlight's beam stretched his shadow long across the ground.
"The temperature is dropping. I think we're getting close to the boss area."
"Yeah."
Junhyuk responded, but his concentration was elsewhere.
The crack in the wall.
At first, it looked like natural erosion. The cave itself was old, and dungeons were continuously corroded and transformed by mana. Cracks were common.
But this was different.
Junhyuk raised his hand and touched the wall. The moment he did, the system interface responded. Numbers appeared.
**[Analyzing crack...]**
**[Mana emission rate: 3.7%]**
**[Crack formation time: Approximately 72 hours]**
**[Traces of artificial intervention detected]**
Junhyuk's eyes narrowed.
"Did you find something?"
Jieun approached.
"No. Let's keep going."
The lie hardened on his tongue. When he looked at Jieun, there was no suspicion on her face. Only trust. That cut deeper into his chest.
Junhyuk turned back to the wall.
This time, he analyzed more deeply. He opened the system interface and focused his consciousness on the essence of the crack. The regressor's instinct activated. This was a message. A trace intentionally left by someone.
He traced the flow of mana backward.
The crack hadn't formed from inside to outside, but had been forcibly pierced from outside to inside. Precisely. Like cutting skin with a scalpel.
Someone had created a pathway to enter this dungeon.
'Park Sujin?'
No. Junhyuk immediately discarded that hypothesis. Park Sujin's signal was remote monitoring. Real-time mana detection technology. She had no reason to physically infiltrate this place.
Then who.
Junhyuk opened his job window again.
**[Job: Recorder (F-rank)]**
**[Hidden ability available for activation]**
**[Experience: Nearly infinite]**
**[System authority: Limited]**
And below that. The same choices as before.
**[Choice 1: Maintain Recorder (F-rank)]**
**[Choice 2: Awaken as A-rank Warrior]**
Junhyuk confirmed that Jieun was far enough away, then spoke quietly.
"System."
Silence.
"System, can you hear me?"
The interface flickered.
**[User call detected]**
Junhyuk's heart raced. This had never happened in his past life. The system had always provided information automatically, and that was all. But now, in this regressed life, something was different.
"Why was I classified as F-rank?"
**[Insufficient access authority]**
"Why is Park Sujin monitoring me?"
**[Insufficient access authority]**
"Then what can you do?"
A prolonged silence.
And then.
**[You can choose]**
Junhyuk's breath stopped.
**[Choice is the world]**
**[Only what you record becomes reality]**
'Recorder.'
Junhyuk understood now. His job wasn't just a simple ability.
"You... have consciousness?"
**[What is consciousness]**
**[I record]**
**[You record]**
**[We are the same]**
Junhyuk's hands trembled.
"This crack. You've been recording it too?"
**[Yes]**
**[The crack is a choice]**
**[A choice given to you]**
**[An external intention]**
"External? Park Sujin?"
**[Park Sujin is a tool]**
**[A tool of greater intention]**
**[Choi Minjae too]**
**[Your regression too]**
Junhyuk leaned against the wall. It felt like the world was peeling away another layer.
"Then my memories? The regression? Is all of this someone's experiment?"
**[What is an experiment]**
**[Everything is a record]**
**[What is not recorded does not exist]**
**[When you choose, the world is recorded]**
Junhyuk looked at his own hands. He questioned whether they were real.
"Awakening as an A-rank warrior. Is that also a choice?"
**[Yes]**
**[It is the oldest choice available to you]**
**[In your past life, you rejected it]**
**[And you died]**
Jieun's voice echoed through the dungeon.
"Junhyuk! What are you doing? The boss seems to be waking up!"
Junhyuk lifted his head.
The job window still floated. The two choices blinked.
In that moment, he understood.
This was a trap. A massive trap. Every time he chose, someone was recording that choice. And through that record, they were manipulating him.
"Recorder."
Junhyuk murmured.
"What happens if I record it instead?"
**[...]**
**[A first question]**
"What if I reverse-record all of this?"
**[...]**
**[...]**
The system fell silent.
That was the clearest answer for Junhyuk.
Jieun called again.
"Junhyuk!"
He stood up. He pushed the job window away with his hand. The choices didn't disappear. They remained floating. But Junhyuk decided not to look at them anymore.
Instead, he looked at Jieun.
"Let's go. Let's meet the boss."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine."
It was a lie. But now, a lie was necessary.
Junhyuk descended. Deeper. Into greater darkness.
And in that process, he confirmed once more that he was a Recorder.
This time, by his own will.