Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: King of Violence, Returns (1)
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Whirrrrr!
A massive metal capsule shaped like a giant monster egg hissed open, and a man sat up, panting heavily.
“You fucking bastards! This game is such bullshit!”
Bam!
Whatever had pissed him off, he kicked the expensive capsule like he wanted to shatter it.
His name was Kwon Young-min. For the past few years, he had shaken the world as the rank 73 player in The Lord, an SSS-rank Ranker and the only solo player to earn a “King” title.
King of Violence, Rokan.
The reason such a grandiose name clung to someone at a mere rank 73 was simple.
Rankings were judged solely by level. They had nothing to do with actual combat prowess.
That was why players created their own system. From D-grade to SSS-grade. This was another ranking, one based on combat strength as judged by the players themselves.
In that ranking, Rokan was SSS-grade. It meant he was stronger than anyone.
At least, that was the common consensus among those who played solo without joining guilds—he was the strongest of them all.
In any other game, a single player could never surpass a guild. But The Lord was different. Achieve great feats, and you could seize immense power. Even as an individual, you could rival a guild.
The Lord.
Become an eternal, immortal absolute being that no one can touch!
That was the goal The Lord had aimed for from the start.
Young-min had devoted himself to becoming a man worthy of those words, racking up countless achievements in the game. He poured everything into it.
And because he was that strong, he never had to bend.
If they tried to wear him down, he’d break them. If they tried to block him, he’d smash through. He inscribed the power of violence into every fiber of his being.
That was his way.
At first, everyone mocked him. But as more and more fell to pieces at his hands, opinions shifted. Whether it was level drops or worse, anyone who tangled with his unpredictable playstyle—striking without warning or restraint—was bound to lose. Even renowned guilds had to yield a step or two.
And so, as the King of Violence, he reigned over The Lord.
“Fuck!”
But that reign ended today. For some reason, the top guilds had suddenly conspired against him and come charging.
It started with that bastard.
King of Genesis.
It began when the guy appeared out of nowhere and baited him into a one-on-one duel.
They shared the title of “King,” but when they actually clashed, the skill gap was massive. No—his specs were overwhelmingly superior. Young-min had absolute confidence in one-on-one fights against anyone, but this guy had monopolized every first-clear title from the game’s launch and grown unchecked. The difference was too vast to even consider facing him again.
The real trouble came after. Once he died to the guy once, the other Kings and top guilds issued kill orders and began an endless hunt.
He couldn’t even ask why. They couldn’t touch him in town—a revival zone and safe area—but the moment he stepped out, they swarmed like a pack of hyenas, tearing into him.
Of course, Rokan didn’t just sit there and take it. True to his reputation as the King of Violence, every time he died, he took at least ten heads. Sometimes fifty, sometimes over a hundred. Considering he was often surrounded by that many top-level players, killing ten elite SSS-rank Rankers single-handedly was astonishing. It was only possible because this was The Lord.
But even Rokan couldn’t hold out forever against their all-out assault.
“They’re spouting all this righteous bullshit!”
What infuriated him most was how the top guilds twisted the facts, manipulated public opinion, and roped in regular players with their “justice” and “greater good.” It was obvious they were just itching for a fight—a crude, pathetic fabrication. Peel back the layers, and the truth was plain to see. But no one wanted to look. Instead, they reported his location for guild bounties.
In that situation, the only thing Rokan could rely on was his own strength.
“You fucking bastards.”
Just like always.
Die, kill, kill, kill again.
A few level drops didn’t matter. As long as he had a single weapon in hand, he’d chase them down and slaughter them to the end. That was his style.
Keep killing, and eventually, the enemy would tire first and back off.
“You wanna go all the way, huh?”
But not this time. Even after hundreds fell to Rokan’s hands, no messages came offering negotiations or surrender.
They were in it to the end.
Rokan had no intention of bowing to such nonsense, either.
“Ptooey! Fine, let’s see who gives first. You think I got the title King of Violence for nothing?”
Young-min downed a glass of cold water in one gulp and climbed back into the capsule.
Then, as Rokan once more, he rampaged again.
As long as he didn’t lose any more items, he could sell what he had left and make a tidy fortune.
But he couldn’t do that. The Lord was everything to him.
Take The Lord out of his life, and nothing remained. To him, it was his youth, his passion, his relationships—everything poured into it, life itself.
That was why he kept buying gear and charging into battle. He repeated the endless cycle of death and slaughter countless times.
Finally, he carved violence into every corner of their bodies and minds.
“Arrrgh!”
In the end, on a battlefield stripped bare, a weakened Rokan let out a hollow cry.
That night, a ferocious storm brought thunder and lightning crashing into the city, causing a massive blackout.
* * *
“Ugh…….”
Young-min cracked his eyes open to the blaring alarm, his face twisting in a grimace. His head throbbed like a hangover, but worse, memories of the day before flooded back, making it unbearable.
“Those fucking bastards…….”
He’d died plenty, but he’d killed even more. A hundred top Rankers sent to the grave—they’d be scrambling to recover those levels. The guilds hit hardest probably dropped in the guild rankings, too.
‘Now what…….’
He’d hunted down especially hated ones, even burning pricey invisibility scrolls.
But now, it was all over.
He’d lost everything.
His SSS-rank Ranker status, the name King of Violence, all his items.
Gone.
He’d made a fortune through The Lord, but aside from bare-minimum living expenses, he’d dumped it all back into the game. With everything lost, Young-min had nothing left.
Even daily survival was a worry, but it felt like his entire life had been denied.
As the headache eased a bit, the hollow Young-min tried to sit up—and noticed something.
“Huh……?”
The capsule that should’ve been right beside his bed was gone.
“Did I request retrieval last night? No, this place…….”
Even if he had, they wouldn’t open the door to take it while he slept.
And above all, this wasn’t his place.
“What the hell……?”
The space felt strangely familiar. This was the one-room apartment in the college district he’d lived in years ago.
What is this? A hidden camera prank? He was utterly confused. He was sure he’d……
“Ugh!”
His head throbbed again.
Ding.
Right on cue, his smartphone buzzed with a message. From his college buddy Chan-eop, asking if he’d gotten home okay after heavy drinking the night before.
Seeing that name—someone he’d lost touch with while sunk in gaming—jogged his memory sharply. And then he saw the date on his phone.
May 12, 2018.
The black-history day when he’d learned his girlfriend—who he thought had waited through his military service—was cheating. They’d fought, he’d begged and cried, gotten dumped, then drowned his sorrows in booze.
“No way…… that was all a dream, right?”
What hit harder was realizing it was years ago.
What the hell was going on? What had happened?
Were his old friends pulling a prank since he’d ghosted them? But they weren’t that meticulous……
Confused, Young-min threw on some clothes and rushed outside. He barged into the nearest convenience store, grabbed a random item, and asked the clerk at the counter.
“Excuse me, what’s today’s date?”
“Uh…… May 12th, I think?”
“And the year?”
“Year? Obviously 2018.”
Asking for the year made the clerk eye him like a weirdo. ‘Young guy drunk in broad daylight, huh?’
Suddenly the villain, Young-min stiffly left the store. Come to think of it, this convenience store had closed and turned into something else.
“Really…… I’ve come back?”
Unbelievable, but he had no choice but to believe.
He’d really returned to the past.
Staring at his reflection in the store’s glass door, he even looked a bit younger. During his gaming binge, he’d barely seen sunlight—skin dry and flaky, dark circles down to his jaw.
But the real joy wasn’t that.
‘I can start over.’
If this wasn’t a dream, and all that hadn’t been a dream, The Lord would launch soon.
Then he could begin again, from the start.
‘Stocks or real estate……’
With foreknowledge from regression, he could dabble in stocks, real estate, or Bitcoin. But racking his brain, no surefire investment tips came to mind.
Spotty memories like these were perfect for wiping out his capital.
‘No, The Lord is all I’ve got.’
He’d poured every moment and ounce of focus into The Lord, so maybe it was inevitable. And Young-min knew: soon, The Lord would outpace stocks or real estate for making money.
If the devs went public, stocks could net a fortune—but they were still an unknown indie studio, unlisted.
That boom and IPO were far in the future.
Back in his one-room, Young-min fired up his computer. He scoured communities for one piece of info.
About The Lord.
If his memory held, the first mention of The Lord—which dropped without a Closed Beta Test and conquered the market—would hit a community around now and become holy ground.
Relying on hazy recall, he dug through gaming forums and finally found it.
Starting with “A friend of a friend of mine I know…….” The post was still dismissed as attention-seeking nonsense.
Current VR games were clumsy: FPS-style or limited white-room combat.
But an MMORPG with a map as vast as Earth, launching in just three months? No wonder it was called bullshit.
Industry consensus: even slightly improving today’s VR quality would take years.
Young-min himself, a standout in other VR games back then, had stumbled on the post late and trashed it as troll bait.
And that meant……
‘It’s real. The Lord launches in three months.’
Everything he’d known and lived through wasn’t a dream.
“You damn bastards, wait up. I’ll chew you all up.”
Flames sparked in Young-min’s eyes. His past flashed by like a montage. To-dos and a hit list for revenge etched themselves in his mind.
‘Eternal, immortal absolute being. Fine, I’ll become it if that’s what you want.’
The Lord.
Become an eternal, immortal absolute being that no one can touch!
Recalling The Lord’s slogan and goal, Young-min ground his teeth. He vowed to return as the King of Violence and crush them.
“Wait. This time, it’ll be different.”