Chapter 7
I awoke to the sting of the morning sun.
“Hah, what a relief.”
I had been anxious right up until I’d fallen asleep.
Just as I’d first thought, what if this whole situation was just some kind of illusion created by hell?
I had been worried that when I woke up, everything would be gone, and I would open my eyes in some unfamiliar place.
“It’s not a dream.”
As I gazed at the ceiling of my room from the past, now my reality, all my worries melted away like snow.
I sat up and looked around.
Even though I had tried to erase the traces of my hikikomori days, the remaining fragments of the past seemed to soothe Hyuk-min, telling him it was okay.
“I’m getting so greedy.”
I felt how my state of mind when closing my eyes and opening them had become completely different with each passing day.
At first, I thought this was just an illusion before going to hell, and since I had seen my parents, I wouldn’t have minded returning. But not anymore.
As I began to change my wrong choices from the past one by one, the new, changing environment sparked a sense of greed in me.
And every evening, as I closed my eyes, that greed became a heavy weight called ‘worry,’ making me sink deeper and deeper into a sea of anxiety.
But each time I faced my room from the past, now my reality, I could escape that sea of anxiety by riding a balloon called ‘relief’.
I got out of bed and walked to the window.
Gazing at the clear sky, I brought my hands together in prayer just below my chin.
‘To the unknown being, perhaps a god, who listened to my words, I offer this prayer.’
It was to that someone I had spent my life scorning and ignoring, calling them a lie.
For the first time in my life, I prayed earnestly to that unknown being, who might be a god.
The prayer had no content.
I’d never done it before, so I didn’t even know how.
I simply closed my eyes and thought deeply of the one who had sent me back here before my death.
That was all.
Slowly, I opened my closed eyes.
I turned my back decisively and walked out of the room.
‘I hope I’m still here tomorrow morning.’
It felt like a greedy wish, so I left the final prayer I couldn’t bring myself to say to that unknown being in the quiet room and walked out of the house.
= = =
I never skipped my morning workout.
The drastically changed Stats also changed the intensity of my morning workout.
The intensity was already beyond that of an ordinary person, reminiscent of a gymnast’s training.
‘Still not enough.’
No matter how much I’d grown, compared to the Hyuk-min of my past life, I was at the level of a child.
With that thought of inadequacy, I finished my workout with an all-out sprint to the Rogue Guild and began to catch my breath.
“Hoo.”
With a deep breath, I stood before the employee I had requested information from yesterday. As if he had been waiting, the employee handed me a piece of paper.
“We’ve obtained the Dungeon information, but the second piece of information you requested is still being compiled. They say you should be able to receive it by this evening.”
I took the paper and unfolded it.
Several photos, an address, the monsters that appeared in the Dungeon, their grades, and so on.
All the information about the Dungeon was written there.
Among them, one photo immediately caught Hyuk-min’s eye.
‘It looks like the entrance to a cave, but with an artificial stone wall and a half-bald NPC.’
With a smile, I crumpled the paper and handed it back to the employee.
“This is it. I’ll be back in the evening, so please have it ready.”
“Then this is…”
“Please throw it away.”
I had already stored the address in my head.
Now it was time to cause some trouble.
A huge incident that would shock the world.
“This incident will be on a whole different level from the ones before.”
I flashed a smirk and walked out of the Rogue Guild.
= = =
Sun-geut Beach in Goseong was a holy land for campers.
The dense forest satisfied both the sea and mountain conditions for campers, to the point where it was even more crowded than the swimming beach.
However, this was not Hyuk-min’s destination.
I took a taxi and passed it by.
Following the road straight on, I came to the border between the swimming beach and the forest. About 100 meters past that border, a cliff-like area covered in rocks and stones came into view.
‘This is it.’
The moment I saw the rocky cliff, I knew instantly.
This was the place where I had to cause trouble today.
“Please stop here.”
I stopped the taxi and got out.
“Thank you!”
After the taxi left, Hyuk-min unhesitatingly climbed over the guardrail and headed down toward the area thick with rocks.
“Whoa?”
Many people worried about Hyuk-min, as it was a cliff, not a path, but thanks to his heightened Stats, these rocks and stones were no longer considered obstacles to him.
He jammed his hands and feet into the crevices of the rocky cliff and began to descend using only his strength.
“Wow.”
“Is there a path over there?”
As I navigated the gaps between the increasingly steep rocks with swift and agile movements, voices of admiration could be heard from behind me.
It was about when I had been descending the steep rocky cliff for over 10 minutes.
The place I was looking for finally began to appear below.
A familiar gravel path from my past life, about 100 square meters in size.
The long-awaited gravel path revealed itself, nestled between the rocky cliffs that encircled it like a secret space.
Thud.
I landed in the center of the gravel path.
As expected, no one else was here.
‘It’s actually a relief.’
I looked around and began to compare the place with the photo I was holding.
Then, the tall, massive, artificial stone wall I had seen in the photo greeted Hyuk-min majestically.
“Well, well, another adventurer. Won’t you buy some goods?”
And just as naturally, the bald man NPC appeared.
Smirk.
“Found you.”
At the good-natured smile of the bald man NPC, a smile spread across Hyuk-min’s lips as well.
“Hm? What did you find?”
“No, nothing. More importantly, what are you selling?”
“Come over here.”
As I followed the man, I saw a stall set up on one side of the Dungeon entrance.
“That Dungeon over there is dark, so you absolutely have to take this and this with you.”
The NPC handed me a portable flashlight and a light stick.
However, what I wanted from the NPC wasn’t this kind of stuff.
“Instead of that, I’d like to receive a quest.”
“A quest, you say? Kuhuhuhu, you’re an adventurer who knows his way around a Dungeon. Of course, I’ll give you one.”
Ting.
The Status Window reacted to the NPC’s words.
A quest window suddenly opened in the air, and a quest appeared in the empty top slot.
[Would you like to accept the quest ‘Collect 15 Squeegee Wings’?]
It was an exceptional quest that gave not only experience points but also three of the NPC’s special Healing Potions.
“How about it? If you’re not confident, you don’t have to take it.”
“As if.”
When I pressed accept, the NPC laughed heartily and even clapped.
“Alright! Then you may depart!”
“Just a moment. Inventory.”
“Hm?”
I opened my Inventory window and took out the Immortal Demon Sword.
Then, just as I was about to turn toward the Dungeon, I plunged the Immortal Demon Sword into the bald man NPC’s chest.
“Kuk!”
Perhaps because it was shaped like a blunt dagger, it was hard to get the blade to pierce him.
But since I had thrust it with all my might, the blunt blade roughly tore straight through the bald man NPC’s chest.
“Keuk…”
The NPC’s eyes were suddenly filled with a look of injustice, as if asking ‘why’.
But, as if he had steeled himself for something, Hyuk-min twisted the deeply embedded dagger with a more serious expression than ever before.
Kwaduk!
“K-Kuaaaaaaaak!”
The NPC’s scream filled the empty gravel path.
A memory from his past life surfaced.
There was a time when the entire world had trembled greatly.
‘Who would have known?’
No one could have known.
That this kind-looking NPC, screaming right now, was actually…
‘A demon.’
Kugoong!
Suddenly, a vibration was felt from the ground.
The source of the vibration was not the NPC.
It was the Dungeon right in front of me.
The tremor had echoed from inside it.
“Is it starting?”
I naturally turned my body and looked at the NPC writhing on the ground.
His blood was red like a human’s, whereas a monster’s should have been blue.
“No wonder no one knew.”
The surprise was brief.
Kugoong!
A second tremor shook the ground, and the NPC’s body twitched once before its true form began to be revealed.
Drip, drip, drip.
The red blood turned black, soaking a patch of the ground.
Twitch. Twitch.
The NPC’s body spasmed as if having a seizure, and his skin slowly turned black.
After that, his bones and flesh began to deform, and the NPC, who had been crying out in what seemed like mortal agony, got up as if nothing had happened.
“How did you know?”
His eyes were as black as a demon’s blood.
The inky blood and eyes allowed no light to pass.
A perfectly black substance that didn’t even reflect sunlight.
“Tell me. How did you know I was a demon?”
The demon NPC demanded an answer, even as blood blacker than ink trickled from between his lips.
In response, Hyuk-min switched to a reverse grip on the Immortal Demon Sword and said,
“There are ways of knowing.”
No more questions, no more answers.
Feeling it wasn’t worth answering, he replied by kicking off the ground and charging forward instead of explaining how he knew.
“So it was a coincidence. What pathetic movements.”
But a demon was a demon.
Even with his heightened Stats, he must have looked hopelessly weak in front of a demon.
Chiiik.
I skidded to a stop right in front of the creature.
And then, just as I was about to twist my waist hard and move to slice its neck in one go!
‘Regression Mode.’
I used my trump card Skill.
Regression Mode was activated without a sound, without any opening from using a Skill.
Its unique nature caught the demon off guard.
“Wh-What!”
The demon’s eyes, which had held a sneer at my movements before I used Regression Mode, widened as far as they could go.
My front foot slammed into the ground, my muscles bulged.
Finally, for a moment, my agility became so fast that even the demon couldn’t track it.
Now the Hyuk-min of my past life, my drastically changed Stats made the swing of the blunt dagger create a sound like the air itself was exploding.
Chang! Chwak!
The demon’s black arm, which had transformed at some unknown point, was severed along with a spray of black blood.
The demon’s face crumpled in a fierce scowl as it expressed its rage.
“Kuk, a cheap trick…”
As it looked at its severed arm and was about to gather a large amount of mana to use a Skill!
The demon’s head, which was about to turn toward Hyuk-min, was suddenly snapped back.
Thwump!
Hyuk-min’s hand, now enormous, had grabbed the demon’s face and slammed it straight into the ground.
Tukung!
Jjeok!
It was so powerful that a large crack, about 50cm in radius, appeared on the gravel path, and the demon’s body, slammed into the ground, bounced up like a rubber ball.
“Keok!”
In that instant, a spray of black blood erupted from the demon’s mouth.
It didn’t stop there.
The demon’s body was launched into the air by the strong rebound.
Hyuk-min put all his strength into the Immortal Demon Sword held in a reverse grip and powerfully plunged it into the creature’s chest.
KUNG!!!
Hyuk-min’s hand, holding the Immortal Demon Sword, slammed the demon’s body, still in mid-air, hard into the ground by its chest.
The ground was deeply gouged, and the demon, speechless from the powerful impact, could only twitch.
Finally, on top of the demon’s body, was Hyuk-min, holding the Immortal Demon Sword in a reverse grip.
“Hoo-uk… Hoo-uk… Hoo-uk…”
As a result, the demon couldn’t put up any resistance and went limp with its last words.
Swoosh.
I pulled out the Immortal Demon Sword.
The fight had been so fierce that Hyuk-min’s body, as well as the gravel path, was stained black with the demon’s blood.
“Status Window.”
The demon’s movements had completely stopped.
It was completely dead, with no possibility of resurrection to be found.
I was glad I had gone all out, just in case.
As I caught my breath looking at the demon’s gruesome corpse, the sound I had been waiting for brought a deep smile to Hyuk-min’s lips.
Ting.
“As I thought.”
[You are the first to kill a demon.]
[A Title will be granted.]
I had caused a major incident.
An incident that had to happen someday, a necessary, worldwide incident.
[The Title ‘First Demon Slayer’ has been granted.]
[Would you like to equip the Title?]
For the first time, I pressed ‘No’.
Then, as if it had been waiting, a large message appeared on the Status Window.
[Congratulations!]
[‘Bang Hyuk-min’ has become the owner of the second Legendary Title.]
“It’s begun.”
Ting. Ting. Ting.
At the campground on Sun-geut Beach, by the guardrail Hyuk-min had climbed down, and even at the swimming beach.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and, as if on cue, let out exclamations of awe.
“Whoa!”
“Holy shit! What is this!?”
“Legendary!? What, what is it?!”
“Bang Hyuk-min, isn’t that a Korean name? Who the hell is that?”
“Whoa, this is insane!”
And so, a single major incident shook the entire world.
An announcement was made on the Status Windows of every single person in the world that Hyuk-min had become the owner of the world’s second Legendary Title.