Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue
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Ever heard of the term 'Igoggaeng'?
It's an acronym for a genre where a high school student from our world gets transported to another dimension and then proceeds to wreak havoc.
Apparently, there are a lot of fantasy novels like that. What? You think it's old-fashioned?
It's the only one I know, so what can I do? So, why am I bringing this up?
The answer is simple.
Because I was the star of one of those cliché Igoggaeng stories.
What? A lie?
You bastard, do I look like a liar to you?
You say I do?
Damn it.
Don't be like that, just hear me out for a minute!
It's not like it'll cost you anything!
It was the night before the college entrance exam, and anyway, it was pouring rain.
The fact that the D-Day countdown, which seemed like it would never end, had finally hit 1... it felt strange.
I went to the convenience store in the alley right across from my house to get some fresh air.
Looking back now, that was a truly insane decision.
I bought a carton of orange juice, and the moment I stepped out of the store, I was struck by lightning.
What happened next is what you'd expect.
Dimensional travel.
These days, people get thrown into other worlds without any explanation, or they get sucked into books or games, but it wasn't quite like that for me.
I had a one-on-one with some being that called itself a god.
It asked me to save its world.
Usually, people would love that, right?
Right? Since they wouldn't have to take the exam.
Yeah.
I'll admit, a single exam determines your college, and college determines your life, so I get it to some extent.
I'm well aware of the absurdity of having the rest of your life decided in one fleeting moment after nineteen years of living.
I understand hating the exam, hating to study.
But not me!!
Since I was a kid, I was in Gangnam's top school district, I spent my entire childhood in the academies of Daechi-dong, got into a science high school, and never once got a question wrong on the mock exams right before the real thing.
A genius? There are no real geniuses in Daechi-dong.
It's just a gathering place for normal people trying to keep up with them.
I can guarantee you, I'm proud to say I studied harder than anyone.
I'd even gotten permission from my parents to do whatever I wanted after I got into college.
And now you're telling me to save the world?
Go to hell.
You have no idea how I feel.
You don't want to take the exam?
That's something you'd say, after slacking off with everyone else.
You think I was in my right mind, studying while everyone else was out having fun?
Give me back my guaranteed college life!
* * *
It's a bit much to say it myself, but I'm pretty damn tenacious. If I weren't, I never would have been able to study like that.
I was the kind of person who'd never played the games most guys played, never read a novel or anything of the sort, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
The law of the jungle.
It was a world where only the strong survived, where it was natural for the weak to become prey for the strong.
It was competition and survival in a sense completely different from studying.
For someone like me, who had only ever known books, it was an incredibly cruel place to accept.
I set a single goal.
To return to my original world.
The romance of college and all that didn't matter anymore.
I needed a goal to live for, to survive for. I felt like I would go insane if I didn't have some kind of purpose.
I survived.
I made many sacrifices, saved the world, and now I stand here.
* * *
In the center of a grand temple, a golden table and chair stood alone.
With every step, the sound of my footsteps was accompanied by the clatter of my armor.
A young man with golden hair and clad in armor approached. He frowned as he looked at me, my head tilted back with my feet propped on the table.
“How arrogant.”
“We haven't seen each other in ages, and that's the first thing you say? It's been ten years, no... almost twenty, I think. Right?”
I took my feet off the table and looked at him. I knew his face.
Luciel. Failing to save him was one of the greatest regrets of my life.
In other words, it was because of Luciel's death that I was able to come this far.
He was the one who believed in me to the very end—me, an ordinary high school student who knew nothing but how to study.
The Luciel before me wasn't real.
Even knowing that, seeing Luciel's face, which had been slowly fading from my memory, felt incredibly strange.
This is that bastard's temple. He was the one who threw me into another dimension under the pretext of salvation.
Gods have no physical form.
Because of that, they always require some kind of medium. The fact that it had taken Luciel's form meant that I had unconsciously thought of him.
While it was nice to see Luciel's face on my way out, I was also deeply displeased that the being who summoned me was wearing his shell.
The continent of Arbelisia.
There, I was a hero, a champion. Regardless of the process, I had achieved my goal.
“Keep your promise, Lachesis.”
I rested my arm on the table and held out my hand.
One of the three goddesses of fate, the current god.
I'd only learned Lachesis's divine name relatively recently.
It would have been better if I'd known sooner.
“Are you referring to that old promise? You no longer possess the desires you had back then. Is there any meaning in returning to that time?”
“It's important. Very important. The desire for college and all that is gone now, but a symbol has a desire of its own.”
My condition was that if I saved the summoned world, I would be returned to the day before my college entrance exam.
To me, twenty years was a long time, but to that bastard, it was as brief as the blink of an eye.
I couldn't understand why it was dragging its feet like this.
Just as the dreadful thought crossed my mind, Lachesis spoke.
“I'm afraid I cannot do that.”
I took a breath and clenched the fist I had resting on the table.
There's no guarantee a god won't lie, and no law that says they can't.
If I had to make an excuse, I'd say I tried not to think about it.
I saved the world with the goal of returning home. Wouldn't it be too miserable, as a human, to entertain the hypothesis that I might not be able to go back?
I crossed my legs, folded my arms, and looked up at Lachesis.
Compared to the young face I had right before being summoned, I'd certainly changed a lot.
My voice was low and steady. Frighteningly calm.
“The reason? I at least deserve to know the reason.”
“It was my oversight. I should not have summoned you to that world.”
“You were the one who chose me. It's too late to call it a mistake now.”
“I did not know you would ascend to godhood.”
“So? You can't send me back?”
Lachesis remained silent and nodded.
“Do you know what they call a situation like this?”
I kicked my chair back and stood up.
“You save a man from drowning, and he thanks you by demanding your possessions.”
“I am truly grateful that you saved my dimension.”
I shrugged without replying to Lachesis.
At the same time, the space around us began to crack like shattering glass.
The floor collapsed, and in an instant, we were in a black, empty void.
“What is this…?”
“Don't move. I'm not very good at controlling my power.”
Dozens of massive spears materialized in the black void, all aimed at Lachesis.
“As I thought, you are a being that cannot be left alone!”
“You're the ones who made me this way! I told you not to move. You know these attacks aren't aimed at the physical body. I'm sorry, but I'll take you hostage if I have to. I will return to my world!”
“Why is returning to your senior year of high school so important to you? After decades stained with blood, you no longer have the desire to return to your original world. So why do you still insist on going back?”
“Because that is the sole meaning of my existence.”
If I hadn't at least had the desire to return, I never would have made it this far.
Lachesis burst out laughing at my answer.
“You've gotten quite good at lying.”
Feeling a sense of unease, I quickly reached my hand toward Lachesis.
The dozens of spears pierced through Lachesis's body.
Despite being impaled, Lachesis didn't bleed a single drop.
It was a doll-like body. With a spear through one eye, it lifted its head.
[Did you think we came to kill you without a plan?]
“So you finally show your true colors.”
The empty void began to split open, and hundreds, thousands of giant eyes appeared.
One by one, the closed eyelids lifted, turning their gaze upon me.
More eyes were still appearing, an innumerable amount. This was dangerous. I stretched out my hand.
Lachesis's body crumbled into dust. Feeling a sense of foreboding, I immediately focused my mind.
[How dare you!]
The voice echoing in my head held me in place. Chains shot out from the eyes, binding my arms and legs.
I was being slowly sucked down into the black void, starting with my legs. As the number of chains increased, it became difficult to even support my own body.
‘You think I'll die just like this?’
I lived for twenty years in that hellish world for the sole purpose of returning to that rainy day before the exam in my senior year.
Even if I can't go back to that time, fine.
But I'll be damned if I let myself be used and killed by the gods.
I focused my power into a single point. I drew an explosive image, erasing the mental world. The black space around me turned white.
I heard an unintelligible murmuring and ringing in my head. This time, I saw a black dot.
I knew instinctively that it was a path to another dimension.
Using all my remaining strength, I leaped into the black space.
‘Just wait! I will return!’