The First Step of an Eternal Sentence

Day 21. "What the hell is this?" I collapsed, drenched in sweat after wrestling with the boulder for what felt like an eternity. There was no way a human was meant to push this thing. This was beyond cruel—it was a sick joke. How was I supposed to shove this up a slope?

"Damn it, damn it all!" Unable to contain my rage, I hammered my fists against the unyielding rock. Of course, the only thing that hurt was my own hands. Even as my knuckles split and bled, I couldn't calm my ragged breathing. "Argh! Aaaargh!" Adrenaline surged through me, and I spent a long time pacing and howling like a madman.

I was furious. But what could I do? Zeus, Hades, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Dionysus, and Hermes. The faces of those twelve gods were burned into my mind. I probably wouldn't be able to forget them for the rest of eternity. "To think I’m doomed to spend forever trapped here, rolling a rock." If I had committed some grand crime like destroying the world, maybe I’d understand. But this? Just because I defied them and bruised their egos? No matter how much I raged at their irrational cruelty, all I could do was run around screaming like a monkey.

The return of my past-life memories had left me confused, my modern values clashing with this reality. But looking back at the last twenty years of my life, I had nothing to be ashamed of. I had a life as Sisyphus. I had a family, friends, and a history of struggling to survive in this grim world. And it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had all been ripped away. It was too harsh to accept as just a story written in mythology, or as "fate."

"Hoo." How many hours had passed? I couldn't keep acting like a lunatic forever. I needed to calm down and assess the situation. I looked at the scenery around me. The altar with the rock was the center, and the sides and back were nothing but grassy fields. The sun was blazing, and it felt like nature itself, yet I couldn't hear a single bird chirping. The lack of sound was unsettling, making my skin crawl.

In front of me was the mountain. That was the direction I had to push the rock, and it was sloped. It felt like a game stage, divided into layers with different themes. There were volcanoes with flowing lava and snowy peaks whipped by blizzards. It felt like climbing a tower. The higher regions were hidden by clouds, making it impossible to see what lay ahead.

"Wait a minute... a game?" I tried to dig deeper into my memories. This scene, the slope I had to push the rock up, the stage-like structure. "I feel like I might have played this in my past life..." If this was a world based on a mythology game, it made sense that it differed significantly from the original myths. This rock-rolling stage might have been a bonus mini-game.

"The problem is, that's become my entire life now." Obviously, I had no intention of spending my life rolling a rock. It wasn't just a year or two—it could be a hundred, a thousand, or even tens of billions of years until the universe ended. Was I supposed to just roll this rock alone? Absolutely not. I had to find a way out.

"Can I even get out?" Zeus had called this place Tartarus. In other words, hell. He’d also mentioned it was Chronos’s time prison... I wasn't entirely sure what that meant. Chronos was a Titan, a generation older than Zeus. It seemed there were many kinds of hell. As a mere human, I could assume that escaping was impossible. As far as I knew, there was no happy ending for Sisyphus in the original myths.

However. "If this really is a game, that changes things." If it was a game I’d played... there was only one based on Greek and Roman mythology. I couldn't remember the name, but I recalled it being a dark fantasy action RPG. Players raised their characters to become heroes who wielded 'Mana,' unlocking 'Talents' to learn 'Skills' or 'Magic.' They grew by hunting monsters with those skills and magic, gaining experience. They could join guilds like 'Eranoi' to build power or even construct their own city-state, a 'Polis.'

"Wait? That’s exactly like the world I lived in." The possibility seemed high. Could I use those skills, too? "'Space Breaker'... was that it?" I remembered that name. It was a powerful skill that tore through space. It was impressive enough to wipe out giant monsters in a single blow.

"If it’s a skill that can truly tear through space, maybe I can get out of here." There was a way to check. The privilege that only a reincarnated modern person could utter. I pushed my shame aside and spoke the words. "...Status Window."

.......

Unfortunately, nothing popped up in front of me. "System, Stats, σύστημα." I even tried it in Greek, but the silence only mocked me pitifully. "Tsk." Was the status window only for the protagonist? "Come to think of it, all the game characters were heroes." Like Heracles or Odysseus—heroes from myths that everyone knew. And me? Sisyphus, a nobody among nobodies with zero recognition. Just a human with a mundane birth. An extra among extras. No epic poems were written about me, and I never participated in wars. What was it? A symbol of a pathetic human? Yeah. In my twenty years of life, I’d never felt a shred of mana. Mana was something reserved for those born with the right to wield it. Mana was the exclusive property of the gods. Usually, it was the demigods born with talent who wielded it. The vessel to become a hero was determined from the start.

"Ha." A hollow sigh escaped me. It meant there was no way for me to escape this place other than rolling the rock. "Wait, do I even need to be here?" A thought suddenly struck me. Where did they say this mountain range was? Acro... something mountain. This wasn't a game; it was reality. It was the world I lived in. Maybe I could just walk down.

"Let's go." I immediately turned and sprinted toward the forest. The moment I pushed through the pathless trees, I immediately exited the forest, and a clearing appeared. It was the same altar I had started at. "Damn it." I hadn't even moved long enough to lose my sense of direction. Had I run for ten seconds? It was as if the ends of the forest were connected by magic. I dove into a different patch of trees, but the result was the same. As I wasted time, the sun set.

They called it a time prison, but I didn't feel hungry or sleepy. My injuries healed much faster, too. The wounds from the torture I’d endured, and even the rib I’d cracked when I slammed into the rock earlier, had already healed. I didn't know the principle behind it. But the exhaustion and pain were real. When I ran, I got winded and my legs cramped. Did only physical laws apply here? In other words, death wasn't an escape either. It was a hell designed maliciously to torment the prisoner.

Two days, ten days. Three weeks passed. I didn't know if it meant anything, but I decided to mark a tally on the ground every day. On the day I made the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twentieth mark, I finished my exploration completely. The conclusion was simple: there was no way out. I had searched every corner of the space I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reach on foot. The starting point, the altar with the rock, was surrounded by grass. Everything beyond that was a dense forest. It was a forest of trees I’d never seen before. Primeval? High-altitude? Regardless, they were unpleasant-looking plants. No edible fruit grew there. Even if I wasn't hungry, having nothing to eat was a great agony. I tried chewing on some grass, but I only ended up cutting my tongue.

The layers that weren't forest, naturally, only had paths leading upward. The width was about 30 meters. The angle was a slope of 25 to 30 degrees. The ramp had high guardrails on both sides, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or rather, mechanisms to keep the rock from rolling off. I couldn't cross them, and I couldn't see what was beyond. When I tried to walk up the ramp, I couldn't move my body further after a few steps, as if a magnet were pulling me back. It felt like magic or something. It seemed to imply that if I wanted to go up, I had to bring the rock.

I started to get bored. I was tired of telling fortunes with blades of grass, tired of rolling around on the ground, and tired of having seizures like a madman while cursing the twelve gods one by one. "Haa." One day, I sat in front of the rock and stared at it all day long. It felt like the damn thing was challenging me to a staring contest.

"What am I really supposed to do?" Even if I pushed it to the top, it was structured to roll back down the other way. Judging by the impact, it weighed at least a ton. "...Shall I try?" I didn't want to. I really didn't want to. In my past life, I’d only signed up for a gym membership once. I’d impulsively signed up for six months and given up after a month. How heavy were the dumbbells I’d lifted? Definitely not as heavy as this rock. Still, I had no other choice. I eventually stood before the boulder.

"...Hoo." I sighed the moment I touched the rock. It was a perfect sphere with a smooth surface; if I applied force the wrong way and it slipped, it would roll right back down the slope. "There's no answer here." Standing before the rock, I felt overwhelmed. It felt like it was going to swallow me whole. "I can't even see the top." The starting point was a large altar. The mountain peak I saw when I tilted my head back was unimaginably far away. The course I could vaguely see was littered with all sorts of obstacles and ever-changing weather, a literal hell on earth.

"Let's do it." I spread my arms and placed both hands on the rock. The cold, inorganic texture already began to torment me. I bent my knees and braced my legs with all my might. "Nnnngh." Only by exerting every ounce of strength did the rock finally move with a grating, unpleasant friction that tortured my ears. As I reached the ramp and pushed it upward, my breath hitched and my arm muscles screamed in agony. Well, I’d started, so what else could I do? I’d just have to keep going until I succeeded. "Hnnngh." I kept pushing with everything I had.