Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Regression (1)
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A black sky.
In the darkness where the sun had died and even the moon had faded.
A hill covered in countless corpses stretched out before him.
One heavy step after another.
A young man made his way up that endless mountain of corpses.
Staggering.
Wavering precariously, one step at a time.
Death.
Everywhere he looked, there were only crushed and mangled bodies.
Spilled entrails and oozing brains were rampant.
And then,
*Vwoooom!!*
A ray of starlight, as if to illuminate the darkness, poured down upon him.
[You have done well, Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok.]
A woman with silver hair flowing down to her waist, her dress woven from starlight, floated slowly in the air.
“…Vega.”
The blood-soaked young man uttered the name of the woman—no, the goddess—before him.
Vega.
Jingnyeoseong. The goddess of Geomungojari.
The most radiant Seongjwa among the countless constellations that lit up the night sky was looking down at him with a cold gaze.
[You have killed the Cheonma and saved this world.]
A stiff tone. An inorganic way of speaking, as if reading from a script.
“…Salvation?”
Lee Shin-hyeok's lips twisted.
*Kekeke.*
His shoulders shook as he burst out laughing.
“Salvation? You say I saved this world?”
A cracked voice escaped his parched lips.
“Bull—”
*BOOM!*
He stomped his foot violently and cried out as if wailing.
“—shit!!!!”
Clear tears streamed down his cheeks.
“What kind of salvation is this?! Everyone died at the hands of that monster, so what fucking salvation are you talking about?!”
*Thump.*
He collapsed to his knees, screaming in despair.
“The Sado of the Hwangdo 12-gung! The Chilseong!! Even all those damn Seongjwa!!”
Countless.
Thousands, tens of thousands of Gakseongja had joined forces.
The Seongjwa, who had fought and competed daily, had held hands.
To kill a single Cheonma.
To stop that phenomenal monster called the Haneul-ui Angma.
And—
“All of them… everyone…”
Died.
They were all dead.
“They… were all devoured….”
He hung his head limply.
The image of the monster tearing through an army of tens of thousands by itself, devouring a ‘Seongjwa’ whole, vividly resurfaced in his mind.
[But, in the end, the Haneul-ui Angma is dead.]
That's right.
There were thousands, tens of thousands of sacrifices.
The kind Sado, the valiant warriors, the noble Seongjwa.
Most of them had died.
But still, in the end.
He had killed the Cheonma.
[Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok, you killed him.]
He was the one who killed him.
“……”
Lee Shin-hyeok lifted his head with hollow eyes.
He saw the Cheonma, lying collapsed with a spear through his heart.
A face hidden by a pure white mask.
Lifeless blue eyes visible beyond the mask.
*Gulp.*
He swallowed dryly and quietly uttered the monster's name.
“…Cheonma, Kwon Oh-jin.”
Haneul-ui Angma, Heukcheon-ui Juin, Seongheun Posikja.
There were many names for him, but the feeling he inspired was always the same.
‘Fear.’
Overwhelming, absolute.
Fear.
The name Cheonma made an entire world tremble in fear.
Of course, it wasn't like that from the beginning.
In the past, Kwon Oh-jin was just another Gakseongja like him—no, even lesser.
‘But.’
The power Kwon Oh-jin had awakened, ‘Heukcheon’, had the ability to absorb the Seongheun that Seongjwa bestowed upon Gakseongja.
He used that power to devour the Seongheun of countless Gakseongja, and eventually, he even devoured the Seongjwa, the masters of the Seongheun.
‘The result of that.’
This hill covered in corpses.
Was the end of the planet called Earth.
[Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok. To you who saved the world by killing the Cheonma, I shall grant one wish in accordance with the ‘Byeol-ui Maengyak’.]
The goddess's low, subdued voice rang in his ears.
Lee Shin-hyeok's eyes burned coldly.
“…Grant me.”
As if squeezing the words out.
He opened his parched lips.
“Send me… back to the past.”
[…What?]
Vega's eyebrow rose.
[Are you asking for a regression?]
“Yes.”
[…Do you wish to repeat that horrific past?]
“It will be different.”
*Grit.*
Lee Shin-hyeok roughly ground his teeth.
“This time, it will be different.”
No one else but him.
He would make it different.
[Hmm.]
The goddess's eyes narrowed.
[To become the Yeokcheon-ui Byeol yourself, is it.]
The possibility of defying the world's destiny.
The only existence capable of rewriting the pages of a story whose end is already set.
Hoegwija.
The human before her had just wished to become that Hoegwija.
[A world's destiny, once set, does not change easily.]
“I know.”
[A future even more painful and despairing than the first may unfold.]
“I will change it.”
[There will be no second chances.]
“One is enough.”
Lee Shin-hyeok's eyes blazed with fierce determination.
[…….]
The goddess closed her eyes, lost in thought.
After a short while.
Her golden eyes, as if holding the starlight itself, turned to Lee Shin-hyeok.
[Very well. In accordance with the ‘Byeol-ui Maengyak’, I will send you back to the past.]
*Clench.*
Lee Shin-hyeok clenched his fists tightly.
“And one more thing.”
[The wish according to the ‘Byeol-ui Maengyak’ can only be granted once.]
“This isn't a wish, Vega. It's a proposal.”
He continued in his cracked voice.
“Grant me the Seongheun of Geomungojari.”
[…….]
The goddess's golden eyes wavered.
[You know, do you not? My Seongheun… cannot be withstood by a human.]
Just as she said.
No human had ever survived receiving the Seongheun of Geomungojari.
Its power was so immense that no one had been able to wield her Seongheun.
—Not even ‘that’ Cheonma.
He had never managed to obtain the Seongheun of Geomungojari.
[Even if you are the hero who killed the Cheonma… the chance of surviving my Seongheun is one in a thousand… no, not even one in ten thousand.]
“If I can't be that one, then there's no point in going back in the first place.”
Lee Shin-hyeok replied in a firm voice.
[…….]
Vega closed her eyes once more in thought, then slowly approached him.
[I understand, Yeokcheon-ui Byeol. I shall bestow upon you the Seongheun of Geomungojari.]
She placed a hand on Lee Shin-hyeok's shoulder.
[The moment you go to the past, as per the pledge, the Seongheun of Geomungojari will reside within you. And… I shall seek you out myself.]
“You'll seek me out?”
How?
If he went back to the past, wouldn't her memories disappear as well?
[Yes. Although only you will remember the events of this world… if you possess my Seongheun, the me of the past will at least be able to tell that you are a ‘Hoegwija’.]
In other words, her Seongheun was a kind of mark, a way to inform ‘the past her’—who would have lost all memory of this world—that he was a Hoegwija.
[If you can withstand my Seongheun, the me of the past will make you her Sado.]
“That's… quite reassuring.”
The corners of Lee Shin-hyeok's lips, which had been set in a hard line, softened.
He'd played it cool, calling it 'quite reassuring', but his heart was pounding as if it would burst.
Becoming the Sado of Vega, one of the ‘Bukgeukseong’, was something countless Gakseongja had yearned for.
[Then, I shall begin the fulfillment of the pledge.]
“Wait.”
Leaving Vega behind him, Lee Shin-hyeok turned around.
He headed toward the place where the Cheonma lay collapsed.
“Hoo.”
With a trembling hand, he grasped the pure white mask covering the Cheonma's face.
And then,
he removed the mask.
“…Ah.”
What was revealed beneath was the face of a young man with slightly downturned eyes.
“This… is Kwon Oh-jin's face.”
His features were too gentle and mild for someone who had made the entire world tremble in fear.
“…Hm?”
Lee Shin-hyeok's brow furrowed slightly as he stared intently at the dead Cheonma's face.
‘Where… have I seen him?’
He rummaged through the hazy warehouse of his memories, but in the end, nothing came to mind.
‘In any case.’
What was important now was that he had seen the ‘Cheonma's face’.
‘When Kwon Oh-jin first appeared, he wasn't that strong.’
He grew strong at an astonishing rate after he started devouring Seongheun with the power of Heukcheon, but when he first revealed himself to the world, he was just another run-of-the-mill Gakseongja.
‘Go back to the past, and kill Kwon Oh-jin.’
If he could just kill him before he became the monster known as the ‘Haneul-ui Angma’.
‘…I can save them.’
The things he'd lost, the things he couldn't protect.
The regrets he'd replayed countless times.
This time.
[There is not much time left, Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok.]
The goddess's voice urged him on.
Lee Shin-hyeok nodded and got to his feet.
‘I don't know anything else about him besides his face yet.’
It didn't matter.
He knew where Kwon Oh-jin had first registered as a Gakseongja.
As long as he knew his face, he could just wait there, find him, and kill him.
“Alright. Send me back to the past.”
Having risen, Lee Shin-hyeok approached Vega.
A massive halo of light enveloped Lee Shin-hyeok's body.
‘Cheonma.’
You, of all people.
You, who took everything from me.
‘I will kill you without fail.’
With that as his final thought.
His consciousness faded.
***
‘Ah….’
The sensation of floating through a vast sky.
Amid that distant sensation, a memory of the past flashed through his mind.
That day.
The memory of when he lost everything.
*“The sky is so dark.”*
The Cheonma standing before him looked up at the sky with a bitter smile.
The sky that day was a cloudless blue, and the dazzling sunlight was pouring down.
*“Don't you think?”*
As if he couldn't see the brilliant sunlight, the Cheonma asked him.
In the hand of the Cheonma, whose shoulders shook with a chuckle—
‘No.’
was his brother's severed head.
‘Woo-hyeok, Woo-hyeok….’
Lee Woo-hyeok.
His brother, who was strong enough to have been chosen by a Seongjwa of the Hwangdo 12-gung.
His brilliant and wise brother, unlike his own moronic self.
That brother was dead.
Right before his eyes.
*“Why, why are you doing this?!”*
He screamed. He wailed.
He begged through his tears.
*“Why the hell are you doing this to me?!”*
*Smile.*
The Cheonma smiled brightly and threw his brother's head at him.
*“Who knows?”*
Inside the pure white mask.
His blue eyes, staring at him,
*“If you hadn't… abandoned me there back then, maybe this wouldn't have happened?”*
were burning with cold fury.
“Kugh!!!”
The sensation of floating ended, and a dizzying, excruciating pain shook his body.
*T-ring!*
[The ‘Seongheun of Geomungojari’ now resides in Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok's body.]
[As the ‘Seongheun of Geomungojari’ settles, the existing ‘Seongheun of Nachimbanjari’ disappears.]
[Warning! The power of the Seongheun is too strong and is causing Gakseongja Lee Shin-hyeok's body to collapse!]
[Entering Juhwaipma state.]
A clear bell-like sound chimed as a blue message appeared before his eyes.
But he had no time to read the message.
“Keoheok!! Kahaak!!”
*Crackle! Crackle!!*
Blue lightning erupted, scorching his body.
A torrent of pain shook him.
“W-what? What's suddenly wrong with this bastard?”
Just then, a voice reached his ears.
“—Ah.”
So familiar.
A voice he could never forget.
‘What the hell?’
Lee Shin-hyeok turned his head, his eyes trembling.
There was no mistake.
The face he had confirmed with his own two eyes just moments ago when he removed the mask.
A face he couldn't and shouldn't forget.
There.
Right before his eyes.
was the ‘Cheonma’.
“Ah, ugh.”
The moment he saw him alive and breathing.
A maddening torrent of emotions shook him.
[Emotional turmoil is aggravating the Juhwaipma state!]
Why was the Cheonma.
Why was Kwon Oh-jin right in front of him?
The first face he sees after returning to the past is the face of the enemy who took everything from him?
“Kahak, keokheok!! Kraaaaaaaah!!!”
Lee Shin-hyeok collapsed on the spot, his limbs trembling as if he were having a seizure.
*Crackle!!*
His body convulsed violently, jolting each time a blue spark flashed.
[Due to Juhwaipma, the Seongheun of Geomungojari is running rampant!]
[The body is completely collapsing!]
*Crunch! Craaack!*
Lee Shin-hyeok's convulsing body began to twist.
“Kahak!! Krrk! Krrrk!!”
Blood surged up his throat, drenching his chin as it flowed down.
‘Ah.’
In his dying mind, the goddess's warning suddenly surfaced.
*“The chance of surviving is one in a thousand… no, not even one in ten thousand.”*
It was a very simple reason.
A surprisingly simple cause and effect.
‘So… I couldn't be that one.’
A sense of futility crushed him.
His consciousness flickered faintly.
He could no longer even feel the excruciating pain that had wracked his body.
“Why… did I….”
With that quiet question as his last.
Lee Shin-hyeok breathed his last.
***
“Nooooo!!! Why is this bastard suddenly acting like this?!”
Kwon Oh-jin roughly grabbed the collar of Lee Shin-hyeok, who had suddenly collapsed into a mad seizure.
“Hey! Breathe! I said breathe!!”
Of course, he wasn't sad about Lee Shin-hyeok's death.
He had only met Lee Shin-hyeok a few hours ago; their connection was too brief for even a love-hate bond to form.
The problem wasn't Lee Shin-hyeok's death, but…
“If you're gonna die, at least take those bastards with you, you son of a biiiiitch!!!”
…the pack of 2-star monsters currently surrounding them.
“Grrrrrr.”
The low growl of a beast.
The ferocious eyes of the surrounding monsters were fixed on him.
It might have been different if he had fought desperately and died a heroic death.
But what was he supposed to do when the guy just up and died at this critical moment, surrounded by a pack of monsters?
Moreover—
“Damn it! Damn it! Dammit all!!!”
he wasn't even a ‘Gakseongja’ who could fight monsters.
“Is there some way….”
A way? Like hell there was.
There was no need to even think about the fate of a powerless civilian surrounded by a pack of monsters.
‘Still.’
He couldn't just lie down and die.
Kwon Oh-jin searched Lee Shin-hyeok's body for anything useful.
“This is….”
Just then, the Seongheun carved into Lee Shin-hyeok's left chest caught his eye.
A Seongheun of a shape he'd never seen before.
Driven by instinct, he touched the Seongheun on Lee Shin-hyeok's chest with his fingertip.
It was then.
*T-ring!*
[Heukcheon begins its first bloom!]
[Heukcheon is absorbing the Seongheun of Geomungojari!]
“…What?”
Heukcheon?
What's that?
*Rumble!*
Before he could even process his question, a black cloud flowed from his fingertip and covered the Seongheun on Lee Shin-hyeok's chest.
And.
“Kugh!! Keoheoeoeok!!!”
*Crackle!! Crackle!!*
Blue lightning traveled along the black cloud and seeped into his body.
“Shiiiiiiit!!!! This fucking huuuuurts!!!”
To exaggerate a little, it was a pain like his balls were exploding.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Oh-jin screamed disgracefully and writhed.
How much time had passed?
*T-ring!*
[Successfully absorbed the Seongheun of Geomungojari.]
[The absorbed Seongheun's power is too immense!]
[The Seongheun's power is being adjusted to match Heukcheon's bloom stage.]
A blue message window appeared before his eyes, and the pain subsided.
“Hah, hah!”
He pushed himself up, panting raggedly.
He reached out a hand toward the blue message window in front of him, as if in disbelief.
‘This is.’
Isn't this the system window that only Gakseongja can see?
‘Why is this happening to me…?’
Could it be that he had just become a Gakseongja?
Flustered, he felt his left chest and touched the ‘Seongheun’, the symbol of a Gakseongja.
‘This was definitely on that guy just now….’
A Seongheun of a shape he'd never seen before.
As he was frowning and stroking the Seongheun,
*Vwoooom!!!*
Space tore open, and brilliant starlight poured down.
What appeared amidst the pouring starlight was—
[Hmm. I certainly felt the energy of my Seongheun in this place.]
a woman with silver hair as beautiful as the Milky Way.
She looked around, then her golden eyes sparkled as she approached him.
[The fact that you possess my Seongheun, which I have never given to anyone… I see.]
What did she see?
The woman who had suddenly torn through space and appeared was looking at him and nodding.
[The Yeokcheon-ui Byeol. The one who defies fate. The sole savior of a world whose end has been written—]
What is this woman talking about?
[You are the Hoegwija.]
“…Excuse me?”
I'm not?