The First Day of the First Loop
Walking home from the workshop… what the hell happened?
Kim-boss, half his hair torn off, stood up and scanned the surroundings.
I dug through my memories and recalled exactly where we were.
First day! This is the very first day I fell into this bizarre world!
I dug deeper into my memories, recalling the circumstances that had brought us here.
SUV on the way to the workshop… landslide… swept into the landslide… and then… something suddenly flashed…
Memories from fifty years ago were vague, after all.
I didn’t remember everything clearly.
“Hey, Seo-dae ri.”
Since I’ve regressed… how do I live from here on out…?
“Seo-dae ri.”
Normally in regression novels, the guy lives like a king using future knowledge. The only future knowledge I know… is that Mr. Joo’s daughter was born thirty years from now… small stuff like that.
“Seo Eun-hyun-dae ri!!!”
“Hot, Jeon-jangnim. Sorry, I got a little flustered.”
I snapped out of my reverie at Jeon Myeong-hoon’s shout.
Seo-dae ri.
It had been so long since I’d heard the title that I was momentarily stunned.
And I recalled the face I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Nephew of the deputy director Jeon Myeong-cheol at SJD Company, the company I used to work at.
At thirty-two, three years older than me, he had already snatched the position of jangnim with a parachute.
In that life, I really hated him a lot…
Still, thinking about meeting a fellow countryman again after fifty years made me genuinely happy.
At any rate, it was a fellow countryman after all.
When I thought that, it was time to live well.
Crack!
The jangnim suddenly slapped me across the face.
“Seo-dae ri! You bastard, you weren’t driving straight!!”
“Ah…”
I was dazed as the slap landed, and I completely erased the idea of fellow countryman that had just flashed through my mind.
I had forgotten.
This guy was a bastard.
“Because of you, what the hell is this! We’re stranded! You, you bastard…!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon was about to charge at me, furious.
Manager Oh got up from his seat and stopped him.
“Hold on. The landslide couldn’t have been avoided no matter what Seo-dae ri did.”
My memories of fifty years ago surfaced.
Yes, I had clearly been assigned to drive the company SUV.
“Manager Oh, how can you not be angry! Seo-dae ri was driving drowsily and caused this mess! Where the hell are we, and where did our SUV go! We’re stranded because of that guy!”
And I had done exactly that.
Yes, I had driven drowsily.
But why had I driven drowsily…?
Jeon Myeong-hoon.
This guy had assigned me his delayed work from the day before the workshop, so I had stayed up all night.
“If you’re going to drive drowsily, you should’ve handed the wheel to someone else! What kind of bastard situation is this!”
And I thought again.
Originally… the driver was supposed to be Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Yes. Originally the driver was Jeon Myeong-hoon. But he had forced me into the driver’s seat while he sat in the back and harassed the female employees.
“Because of that annoying bastard! We’re stranded!”
Ah.
Step by step, the memories from fifty years ago were returning clearly.
Back then I had been so flustered I couldn’t understand anything.
So I had apologized to Jeon Myeong-hoon without realizing it.
Even I thought I had been at fault.
But looking back on that memory from fifty years ago carefully.
Jeon Myeong-hoon… he never once felt a shred of conscience or shame?
I clearly had begged Jeon Myeong-hoon and the female employees to take the wheel for a moment several times.
But Jeon Myeong-hoon had refused while claiming he wouldn’t take the wheel himself,
and the female employees had been forbidden from taking it too. Even though they knew I would be drowsy from the night work.
And as a junior, I couldn’t ask the jangnim or deputy boss to take the wheel either.
I had driven for four hours straight without rest, following Jeon Myeong-hoon’s orders.
And then…
“Um… Jangnim, I have something to say.”
“You’ve got the balls. Yeah, because of Seo-dae ri, we’re stranded right now. If you have a conscience, you should apologize…”
“I was extremely drowsy, but from my memory, I drove the car properly while transfusing it with coffee. Even during the landslide, I tried to avoid it. But the scale was too huge, and the car was swept away without any chance to escape.”
Clearly, when dirt started falling, I had hastily stopped and reversed the car.
But the side of the mountain beside us had nearly collapsed entirely, and no matter how much I avoided it, it was an unavoidable disaster.
“I understand you’re angry, Jangnim. But it doesn’t seem like anyone is to blame right now.”
“This bastard… is scolding me right now! He doesn’t even know what he did wrong…”
“Hoo…”
I took a deep breath.
In the past life I didn’t know I had regressed, I had learned how to endure for fifty years.
How to endure when a gang of strong bandits beat me and took my money.
How to endure when an evil murim warrior humiliated me.
How to endure when a local official confiscated everything I owned and demanded a bribe.
Yes.
Enduring in front of those I could not handle was the truth.
But.
“Hey.”
“Wh-what? Hey? Seo Eun-hyun-dae ri.”
Enduring in front of those I could handle without reason is also something I had learned was not the way of a real man.
“You said it wasn’t my fault. Calm down.”
“Jangnim, let go of me. This bastard really…!”
Bam!
Jeon Myeong-hoon charged at me and slapped my face.
But the moment I took the slap, I stepped forward and delivered a headbutt.
Kwa-booom!
“Kwaaaaaak…!”
In the past life,
How many times had I been hit by a murim warrior?
How many times had I been hit while picking medicinal herbs in the mountains and encountering bandits?
How many times had I been beaten when bandits raided during a famine?
Hit after hit after hit.
Within that ignorant violence, I had obtained one thing the current Jeon Myeong-hoon and others did not have.
Violence.
Bam!
Thud!
Kwa-booom!
The moment the first headbutt landed, I rushed in without mercy and beat Jeon Myeong-hoon mercilessly.
“Eek, wait, wait…!”
“You, you bastard, I said it wasn’t me.”
When hitting a person,
The fear of having one’s face hit is immense.
The pain that comes while the vision is blocked by the fist.
And the fear of the merciless opponent.
I covered Jeon Myeong-hoon’s eyes with my fist and beat the area around his eyes.
“If you don’t know what you did wrong, just shut your mouth!”
Every time I hit him, the grudges I had harbored against Jeon Myeong-hoon all this time were released with a refreshing feeling.
Fifty years had passed, but the cruel bullying Jeon Myeong-hoon had given me had never left my memory.
“I… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“Hoo…”
When the arrogant Jeon Myeong-hoon finally apologized, I stopped beating him and looked around.
Kim-boss, Manager Oh, Kang-dae ri, Oh-dae ri, Kim-jum ni…
All of them were staring at me with fearful eyes.
Among them, Kim-boss spoke in a trembling voice.
“Seo, Seo-dae ri. No matter what, as colleagues in the same company…”
“Yes, that’s right. Sorry. But I suddenly snapped and did it. I’m sorry I scared everyone. And anyway, since I was the driver, I apologize for not acting more decisively at that moment.”
I bowed respectfully to Kim-boss and the other employees and apologized.
In truth, none of the others among them would ever matter to me.
But Kim-boss would end up mattering.
And Kim-boss is the kind of person who would reach the top of the world if he only practiced martial arts.
Of course, only within the murim world that was the world of criminals.
Even after I had regressed, I had abandoned the idea of blindly entering the provincial sect.
The provincial sect? I don’t even have a spiritual root.
The spiritual root, or spiritual quality, or spiritual vein.
Without it, it was impossible to learn the provincial sect methods or even sense the spiritual energy the provincial cultivators used.
What I wished for in this life.
Just…
That I could work a little harder than in the last life.
In the last life, after Kim-boss had learned martial arts and left,
He would occasionally come find me for a drink and leave.
But after he reached the peak realm, he never came to see me again.
But this life was different.
If I actively supported Kim-boss, a little bit of bean soup would fall my way.
For that, I needed to be good to him from now on.
“Yeah, everyone’s in a confused situation, but Jangnim pushed too hard. Of course, Seo-dae ri overreacted too. Apologize.”
“Yes, that’s what the boss said.”
I bowed to Kim-boss once more, then raised Jeon Myeong-hoon up and said,
“I’m sorry, Jangnim. I was too extreme. Really sorry.”
“You… this bastard…”
When I lowered my posture again, Jeon Myeong-hoon glared at me with renewed rage.
But when my eyes turned cold and sharp, he finally averted his gaze and shut his mouth.
“In any case, first we’re in a forest. Let’s walk out and look for a nearby village.”
Kim-boss said while looking around.
The sky was dyed crimson, it looked like sunset was coming soon, and the wind had turned chilly.
Normally, what Kim-boss said made sense.
But here, common sense had to be discarded.
Cultivators becoming immortals flying for eternal life. Murim warriors fighting for wealth and fame.
That was this world.
And the forest we had fallen into…
I recalled the name of the forest from fifty years ago.
Deungsunhyang.
The mystical land where countless yoo-su, ling-su, and provincial cultivators were said to ascend most easily, where heaven and earth spiritual energy gathered the most.
There were no villages, cities, or countries near Deungsunhyang.
Therefore, what Kim-boss wanted to do was meaningless.
Instead, what was important right now was…
Night was coming soon. I had to make a fire.
I finished my thoughts and told Kim-boss,
“Boss, is the signal working?”
“Hoo… the signal must be dead.”
“In my opinion, if the signal is dead, rescue will be difficult and we won’t know our location either. Night is coming, so rather than searching for a village we don’t know, it would be better to prepare to spend the night here.”
At my words, the jangnim who had been silent until now spoke quietly.
“What kind of talk… Seo-dae ri. Rather, night will be dangerous, so we should definitely look for a village…”
“Hmm, I think moving around rashly will be more dangerous. Then how about this?”
I pointed at the tallest tree nearby.
“Climb that tree and look around for a village or road. If there’s nothing nearby, do what I said.”
“Climb that tree…? Who’s going to climb…? Seo-dae ri?”
“Hmm, well, if no one else knows how to climb trees…”
I nodded unhurriedly and slowly climbed the trunk of the tallest tree nearby.
I had once climbed a sturdy tree to escape death from a wild boar while picking medicinal herbs in the mountains.
Modern people rarely climb trees, but
I, who had suffered every hardship in the life before regression, climbed to the top of a large tree with ease.
“What do you see down there! Seo-dae ri!”
From below, Kim-boss shouted.
As expected, around us was an endless sea of trees.
Not even the slightest trace of a road or village.
Instead, yoo-gwi and ling-woo were swarming among the trees.
I answered his shout from above, then pretended to look around carefully for a while before climbing back down.
“Haha, Seo-dae ri. You really know how to climb trees. That tree must be over eleven meters tall.”
“By the way, what kind of tree is this? It looks unfamiliar.”
Kim-boss patted my shoulder, and Manager Oh stared at the tree I had climbed with fascination.
I brushed dirt off my hands and told them what I had seen.
“There’s no road or village nearby.”
“Whoa, that’s strange. Even if we were swept away by a landslide, there should be a highway nearby…”
Kim-boss stroked his chin as if puzzled, and Jeon Myeong-hoon looked at me with suspicious eyes.
“Seo-dae ri… did you really see everything? Or did you say there was nothing just to make it up…?”
“Would I be lying while going crazy? I don’t want to sleep comfortably in the woods. If you don’t trust me, then you go up and look.”
At my words, Jeon Myeong-hoon backed away with a face like he had swallowed shit.
“In my opinion, even if we explore nearby, it would be better to first make a base and light a fire before doing anything. Night is coming soon.”
“That’s wise. Then… ah, let’s look for our SUV too. We were swept away by a landslide in a car, so commonsensically there should be a car nearby.”
Kim-boss clapped his palm.
But…
Here, commonsense doesn’t apply…
The SUV we had come in was gone.
It would be nowhere.
“How about sleeping in the car if we find it? They packed a lot of supplies for the workshop…”
This workshop was basically a picnic.
That was why there were plenty of camping tools and food in the SUV.
But there was no car.
Of course, after I regressed I knew, but he wouldn’t believe me even if I said the car was gone.
Instead of wasting energy convincing him, it would be better to just let him search.
“Then let’s divide into teams. One team searches for a place to stay, and one team searches for the car. We’ll gather back here before sunset.”
I proposed dividing the teams.
The team to find a place to stay included me, Oh-dae ri, and Kim-jum ni.
The car-searching team included Kim-boss, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Manager Oh, and Kang-dae ri.
We split up and searched around us.
“Um, Seo-dae ri. You said to find a place to stay, but how do we usually find such places?”
Oh-dae ri asked cautiously.
Probably because I had beaten up Jeon Myeong-hoon, he was a little uncomfortable with me.
“Staying in the mountains or forest is dangerous. Wild animals or mountain beasts might attack, and if we light a fire anywhere, there might be a wildfire. The best thing is probably a small cave. Ah, that kind of place.”
“Eomma, a cave?”
“You found it right away? Lucky!”
Of course, I had naturally guided them to the cave I had found fifty years ago.
In the past life, I had wandered for hours before finally finding this shelter.
It looked like good luck to Oh-dae ri and Kim-jum ni,
but it was not luck; it was destiny.
In the last life, there was nothing dangerous inside either, and it was a perfect place to rest.
I looked at the cave and gathered firewood and leaves from nearby.
“Ah, Seo-dae ri. You’re making a fire?”
“No fire, because wild animals might attack at night, and the night wind is cold, so I’m making a windbreak at the entrance.”
I wove large and small branches together and quickly covered the cave entrance like a fortress.
Kim-yeon-jum ni and Oh Hye-seo-dae ri let out a small exclamation of surprise.
“Wow… Seo-dae ri, you’re amazing.”
“Did you learn Boy Scouts?”
“Ah, well… something like that.”
Not Boy Scouts, but Old Scouts who had endured fifty years.
“We’ll light the fire later with Kim-boss’s lighter. Let’s gather firewood for the campfire.”
“Eomma, it looks just like the training camp when I was little.”
“Yeah, same as back then.”
The two female employees chattered happily while gathering suitable firewood and branches with me.
After a while,
It was time for the sun to set.
“Now let’s go to the clearing where we first fell. The four of you will gather there too.”
“Yes~”
“Ne~”
I headed to the clearing with the two female employees.
After a while, we met Kim-boss, Manager Oh, Jeon Myeong-hoon, and Kang-dae ri again.
“Did you find the SUV?”
“……”
Kim-boss shook his head with a gloomy expression.
Manager Oh and Jeon Myeong-hoon both wore worried faces.
Kang Min-hee-dae ri said with a hardened expression.
“Nowhere. We circled around looking, and it just vanished into thin air. No, commonsensically, we were swept away by a landslide in a car, so why are we out and the car is gone?”
She looked around with a worried face, as if the forest itself was terrifying.
“……”
“No choice. First, I made a place to stay for one night. Let’s go there and spend the night. The rest of the exploration can wait until tomorrow.”
“……”
The six of them, except me, followed me into the cave with gloomy expressions.
“Eomma, what is this?”
“Seo-dae ri made it.”
“Whoa, Seo Eun-hyun is a talented one. Did he live a natural life?”
Kang Min-hee-dae ri was surprised as she looked at the windbreak and cave entrance I had made,
and Manager Oh let out a small cheer and praised me.
Kim-boss nodded in satisfaction, and Jeon Myeong-hoon…
looked displeased, but because he was tired, he entered without a word.
“Boss, lighter.”
“Ah, here.”
Kim-boss took out the lighter and lit the firewood I had gathered.
We lit a campfire inside the cave and sat in a circle.
The smoke escaped through the holes I had made in the windbreak perfectly.
“Whoa… what happened. Seriously.”
“This is supposed to be commonsense…”
“……”
Everyone sat with worried, gloomy expressions. Then.
Gurgle gurgle
A gurgling sound came from Kim-yeon-jum ni’s stomach. Her face turned bright red.
“No, that’s…”
“Haha, it’s fine. We haven’t eaten dinner, so…”
I smiled brightly and handed out the wood fruits I had gathered earlier.
“Everyone must be hungry. Try this. They’re from earlier.”
“……”
“Is it okay to eat this? Are they poisonous?”
Jeon Myeong-hoon, now relaxed, asked while looking at me suspiciously.
I smiled and peeled the fruit and put it in my mouth.
“I learned herbal medicine when I was young. I know what’s safe to eat and what isn’t.”
There was a slight ambiguity in “when I was young,” but anyway, it was true that I had learned it before…
When I ate the wood fruits without hesitation, Kim-jum ni carefully peeled one and tried it too.
“Wow, this tastes just like fresh chestnuts.”
“It’s crunchy when you bite. I picked plenty, so everyone eat.”
Seeing this, Kim-boss and Manager Oh cleared their throats and started eating the fruits I had picked. Kang-dae ri and Oh-dae ri happily peeled and ate them.
Only Jeon Myeong-hoon stared at the wood fruits with displeasure, then lay down first because he was tired.
“Haha, seriously. In a situation that should be serious, thanks to Seo-dae ri it’s fun.”
“I even asked around the company. How hardworking he is. Also, I heard that Seo-dae ri was driving and got drowsy because of the night work the day before…”
“Our manager is really diligent~”
“Ah, thanks to Seo-dae ri we came camping.”
“Yeah.”
We all spent that night happily together.
I laughed to my heart’s content and chatted with my company colleagues.
The fact that I could laugh and chat like this tonight was probably the last night.
* * *
Early morning the next day.
I woke up earlier than anyone else the moment I smelled the morning air.
The memories from fifty years ago were gradually returning vividly.
First day, after wandering the forest all night and finally collapsing like I fainted after finding the cave. The next morning, that’s when it came.
Fifty years had passed, but the fear, shock, and pain from that time were still horrifyingly vivid.
I opened the windbreak outside the cave and stepped out.
Before dawn.
I walked around nearby and collected medicinal herbs good for pain and stopping bleeding.
Because it was Deungsunhyang, a forest filled with spiritual energy, the state of the medicinal herbs was extraordinarily good.
This was more like ling-cho.
And after waiting in front of the cave for a while.
The owner of this area had come.
Pu-bump!
Large as a rice bowl.
It had three tails, and the glowing green light flowing from it was a white fox.
Thud, thud… thud-thud…
The pressure of the owner of the area, and the things I had experienced fifty years ago.
Those memories made my body tremble with fear.
But having experienced the future was itself a tremendous gain.
“S-s-spirit, the, the owner of the forest. Greeting. I, I bow.”
I bit my trembling jaw and slowly bowed to the fox.
Once, twice, three times.
Three bows for meeting the owner of the forest.
The fox, as large as a two-story house, looked at me with green eyes and opened its mouth.
[I have a unique scent. Despite living hundreds of years, I have never seen a race with a scent like yours.]
“……”
Tap, tap, tap…
Before the monster fox did anything, my jaw kept trembling.
Then.
At the fox’s presence, the sleeping ones woke up.
Kim-boss, Manager Oh, Kang-dae ri, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kim-jum ni, Oh-dae ri, and others came out of the cave one by one.
And the next step was natural.
“Kyaaaaak!”
“M-monster!”
“It’s a monster!”
At those words, the monster fox frowned, as if displeased.
[Your insignificant race seems to have the intelligence of idiots and terrifying rudeness every time I see you. Normally I would rip all your limbs out, but…]
Thud, thud…
[Since one of you knows how to greet the owner of the forest, I will spare you.]
The monster fox’s gaze fell on me, who had knelt and bowed respectfully.
“L-let all of you! Greet the owner of the forest! S-stay standing and sit down first!!”
At my shout, the others, who had been dazed, kneeled with me without realizing.
The fox’s eyes met mine.
[A race that knows etiquette. So I won’t arbitrarily punish you… but your scent is so unique…]
Tap, tap…
Sticky liquid dripped from the corner of the fox’s mouth.
Saliva.
[I will let you taste one of your limbs. If you do, I will allow you to stay in my area for a while.]