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Prologue
“So back then, I was”
“Hey, enough with the old man stories!”
“Hahaha!”
Loud laughter mixed with the noisy chatter all around.
Everyone looked like they planned to drink themselves unconscious tonight. Even though the sun had only just begun to set, the atmosphere was already full of energy.
Ignoring his coworkers’ conversations, the man quietly stepped outside.
The sky was dyed a deep blue-green, a sunset unlike anything that existed on Earth.
Looking up at it, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Click.
Fsssh…
“…Ha.”
A dull yet refreshing scent filled his lungs.
The smoke drifting into the air glowed with a faint blue light instead of the gray color of ordinary cigarettes.
I always thought I was unlucky…
…But maybe I never had any luck to begin with.
How many years had he spent running forward without stopping?
After swallowing endless tears of blood, he had finally made it this far.
<World Quest Time Remaining: 35 Hours 27 Minutes 19 Seconds>
Maybe he had subconsciously wanted to check the time.
When the message appeared before him, Ahn Sihoo twisted his lips into a bitter smile.
Today’s cigarette tasted especially bittersweet.
It was the summer when he was in his mid-twenties.
To celebrate finishing his master’s thesis, he went on a family trip for the first time in a long while.
While driving peacefully along a coastal road, they were suddenly caught in a Dungeon Break.
A flash of light erupted.
His father, who had been driving, disappeared so completely that not even a body remained.
When Sihoo woke up, he found himself in an intensive care unit beside his mother, who had become completely paralyzed.
His older sister cried endlessly.
“At least you’re okay… Thank goodness you’re okay…”
Although his own body still ached a little, he had somehow escaped with almost no injuries.
Eventually, even his mother couldn’t hold on.
Her final words still echoed clearly in his ears.
“Live… happily… my son…”
Even in her final moments…
She had worried more about her useless son than herself.
Smiling…
Or maybe crying…
He couldn’t even tell anymore.
She quietly closed her eyes forever.
If only I had been hurt instead…
Maybe Mom would have survived somehow.
That day…
Ahn Sihoo awakened as a Hunter.
A Hunter who awakened after losing his family to tragedy.
These days, it isn’t even an unusual story.
A whole family wiped out during a Dungeon Break?
Sad…
But hardly headline news.
About as noteworthy as hearing,
“Three people died in traffic accidents today.”
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Later, he learned that the Dungeon Break had been a terrorist attack caused by villains.
From that moment on, he hunted them down like a madman.
For every dungeon he cleared…
He hunted villains ten times over.
Then one day…
When he returned home…
The person waiting for him wasn’t family.
It was his older sister.
She lay in the middle of their blood-soaked house, dying.
“Sihoo… stay healthy…”
She had worked herself to exhaustion, even giving up her holidays, just to support her younger brother after he became a Hunter.
Those were her final words.
She died in his arms.
The killers…
Were subordinates of one of the villains he had been chasing.
A Hunter who lost his family to terrorism, devoted himself to revenge, only to lose his last remaining family member as well?
Tragic…
But still…
Not unusual enough to make headlines.
It’s just another common crime.
Whether people died because dungeon raids failed…
Whether they died during Dungeon Breaks…
Whether villains murdered them…
It was simply that kind of world.
A world where anyone could die just by walking down the street.
After losing everyone he loved…
The only reason he kept living…
Was because he wanted to save the world.
He didn’t want anyone else to suffer the way he had.
A childish sense of justice that belonged in storybooks.
That alone kept him alive.
Well…
If he had to name one more reason…
“Sihoo. What are you doing out here by yourself?”
“…Shouldn’t you be inside resting?”
“What about you? Ugh, you smell like cigarettes.”
The woman who had walked over wrinkled her nose and waved her hand, scattering the faint blue smoke around his face.
“You keep smoking even though it’s terrible for you.”
“I bought these from the Akashic Market.”
“They help with fatigue and calm your mind.”
“Wow, what a great excuse. Is it basically drugs?”
Her long, blue hair swayed around her waist as she stood beside him.
For a while, they simply looked up at the sky together.
Without turning toward him, she quietly asked,
“Nervous?”
“Not really.”
“Figures.”
“Our great Sword Demon getting nervous? I’d be more worried if you weren’t excited.”
Sword Demon.
She was the only person who called him that.
Not because he wielded a sword like a demon…
But because he fought like a complete madman possessed by one.
Among Hunters, he was better known by another nickname:
The Slaughter Demon.
He had personally killed over two hundred villains.
A nickname like that was inevitable.
“Sihoo.”
“What?”
“What are you going to do…”
“…after the quest is over?”
Honestly…
He had never thought about it.
He didn’t know what he could do.
Or what he even wanted to do.
Then again…
Did he really have to do anything?
If they made it that far…
Wouldn’t it be okay to finally let everything go?
“I don’t know.”
“Thinking about it sounds like too much work.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
A cool touch brushed against his face.
Her slender fingers rested gently beneath his chin.
Not quite holding him…
Yet it’s more than just a casual touch.
Surprised, Sihoo looked down.
Kim Isol’s eyes were filled with tears.
He quietly flicked away the cigarette between his fingers.
“Are you crying, Sola?”
“No.”
Their eyes met.
Almost instinctively, he spoke.
“…Sorry.”
The apology came out automatically.
His voice barely contained any emotion.
His eyes had long since become dull gray.
Many people said that simply meeting his gaze gave them chills.
Grabbing the front of his jacket, Isol rested her forehead against his shoulder.
“There has to be…”
“Something you can do.”
“Something you want to do.”
“Sihoo.”
“Hm?”
“If we think about it together…”
“I’m sure we’ll find it.”
Drip.
A few tears fell onto the back of his hand.
She was crying silently.
He couldn’t even bring himself to wipe them away.
“…Sorry.”
“Just promise me one thing.”
She looked up at him and whispered through trembling lips.
“If you die before me…”
“…I will never forgive you.”
“…Okay.”
This time…
His answer carried a little more emotion.
Without thinking, he started to wrap an arm around her shoulders.
Then suddenly stopped.
It was the final evening before the last World Quest.
If he hugged her now…
Everything he had buried all these years might come pouring out.
And then…
He’d probably say something stupid.
“When this is over… there’s something I want to tell you.”
No.
Absolutely not.
Wasn’t that the oldest cliché in every novel?
“When I return, I have something important to tell you.”
And then…
They never returned.
In a world where things stranger than superstition happen every day…
There was no reason to tempt fate.
After hesitating…
He quietly lowered his arm again.
“You should head inside, Sola.”
“What about you?”
“I just need some time to think.”
“I won’t do anything stupid.”
“So don’t worry.”
“…Okay.”
“Don’t smoke too much.”
Kim Isol quietly stepped back.
She knew exactly how Sihoo lost his family.
She was his childhood friend.
The truth was…
That wasn’t what she’d come out here to say.
Even now…
At the very end…
She couldn’t make herself say it.
When the quest is over…
When we save the world…
Will I finally be able to tell you how I feel?
Can I become someone you can lean on…
The way you’ve always been there for me?
Can I give your life meaning again?
If I could…
I’d want nothing more.
Click.
Fsssh…
She watched Sihoo light another cigarette.
After several long seconds…
She finally turned around and walked back inside.
Exactly twelve hours from now…
The final quest…
The battle that would decide the fate of Earth…
Would begin.
Something’s wrong.
No…
Everything is wrong.
I wasn’t unlucky.
I simply never had any luck at all.
“Why…”
“Why…?”
At the very end of the enormous cavern…
Ahn Sihoo stood frozen before the shattered crystal.
No matter how many times he checked…
The Akashic Stream’s message didn’t change.
<World Quest Time Remaining: 5 Minutes 19 Seconds>
If they had cleared the quest…
A success message should have appeared.
Who cares about rewards?
What reward could be greater than saving the world?
Yet the timer kept counting down.
Where have they failed?
What had gone wrong?
Almost every one of his comrades had died…
Or suffered injuries too severe to continue.
Their sacrifices had allowed him to reach the final chamber.
At last…
He destroyed the dungeon’s core—
The massive crystal.
And yet…
The quest wasn’t complete.
His empty eyes fell upon a corpse nearby.
Kim, Isol.
She had thrown herself in front of the crystal’s desperate final laser attack…
Shielding him with her own body.
“Kim Isol.”
No answer.
She always looked him in the eye whenever he called her name.
Now…
She didn’t move at all.
“…Sola?”
You told me not to die before you.
Then why…
Why did you die first?
You were supposed to keep that promise.
Don’t force me to break it.
“Give up.”
A hollow voice echoed behind him.
The instant Sihoo turned.
Thrust!
“…Ghk!”
Something pierced straight through his heart.
Slash!
The blade that had emerged from his chest twisted inside him.
Even while suffering unbearable pain, he forced himself to look behind him.
“W-Why…?”
“You’re always so damn selfish, Ahn Sihoo.”
“I tried trusting you for once…”
“…Ha.”
“And this is how it ends.”
Was the speaker angry?
Mocking him?
He couldn’t tell.
His vision slowly blurred.
For one brief moment…
He wondered if this was all just a nightmare.
Maybe he was still asleep at the lodge.
Maybe he’d wake up…
And the final quest would finally begin.
I was supposed to clear the quest.
I was supposed to save Earth.
Then…
I was finally going to tell someone the words I’d kept buried for so long.
And…
Hear the words I’d waited so many years to hear.
Blood poured from his chest.
His body collapsed backward.
“You ruined everything.”
Crash!
“AAAH!”
A scream burst from his mouth.
His head slammed against something hard.
His breathing felt strangely difficult.
His body felt… awkward.
“W-What?”
“I just…”
“Huh?”
Wait.
His heart had literally been stabbed through.
How was he alive?
His scattered thoughts slowly came back together.
The reason he couldn’t breathe properly…
Was because only his hips were still on the bed.
The rest of him had rolled off.
His head was lying on the floor.
In other words…
He had simply fallen out of bed.
A song he had set as his morning alarm began playing through the speakers.
“I’ll always stay with you in your memories. Sweet dreams, my beloved.”
At that exact moment.
The bedroom door flew open.
“Son! What happened?!”
“Sihoo! What’s wrong? Why did you scream?”
“…Huh?”
“…Wh-What?”
Two familiar voices.
Both are breathing hard from running.
This…
Made no sense.
Slowly sitting up on the bed, Sihoo stared blankly.
“You’ve been overworking yourself lately.”
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“My goodness, you’ve lost so much weight.”
“Did you fall off the bed?”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“You don’t seem to have a fever…”
A cool hand touched his forehead.
The feeling…
Was unbelievably familiar.
Looking at the two women staring at him with worried expressions…
The only words he could manage were,
“…M-Mom?”
“…Sis…?”
“S-Sihoo?”
“Oh my goodness, what’s wrong?”
Voices he believed he’d never hear again.
Faces he could never forget…
Not even in my dreams.
“M-Mom…”
“Mom!!”
“Waaah!”
He burst into tears.
“What horrible dream did you have?”
“I’m right here.”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
“H-Hey!”
“You’re a grown man!”
“Why are you acting like a little kid all of a sudden?”
Even though his sister teased him…
She gently rubbed his back.
His mother’s warm embrace surrounded him.
Just like it had all those years ago.
Resting his head on his mother’s shoulder…
Ahn Sihoo cried like a child.
His sister’s comforting hand…
Hadn’t changed at all.
No matter how hard he tried…
He couldn’t stop the tears.
I’ve…
I’ve gone back…
Back to the past!
