The Heroine of the Original
"AAAAAAAGH!!!"
I was screaming. Pain beyond anything I could have imagined was rising from inside me.
Hot. Cold. A searing jolt. A crushing weight.
The sensations crashed over me in waves, and with them came an agony so terrible that no language could hold it. It was enough to make me wonder if I would die of shock.
But death never came.
I opened my eyes, the memory of being dragged away by villains five years ago still vivid in my mind. It hadn't been a dream. I had simply been remembering the past — the things those so-called parents of mine had done, selling me off so that villains could torture me under the name of experimentation.
I had gained power in order to survive, and in order to take my revenge. And the price of that power was this: I would always remember those most agonizing moments with perfect, searing clarity. Those memories ensured that my rage and my thirst for vengeance would never fade.
"So I'm finally going back."
And I would return to the world I had been born into. The world where my hated parents lived. The world where my contemptible younger brother — Baek Seo-jin, the protagonist of the original novel — still drew breath. The world where So Gang-seok, the man who had tortured me, and the villains who followed him still walked free.
I won't let any of them die easily.
I looked down at my hand. The mana wreathing my fingers shifted and twisted, changing shape at will. That was the nature of my power — I could freely convert it into any attribute, any property I desired. And it didn't stop at simply commanding the elements of nature.
As long as I have enough mana, I can even manipulate reality itself.
My power wasn't complete yet. Then again, completeness was a concept that would never apply to it. My strength grew endlessly with the passage of time.
The first problem is getting out of here.
The place I currently occupied was the Dimensional Rift — the void that existed between dimensions, a space where no ordinary living thing could survive. The mana that filled the Rift attacked any creature that entered, making survival impossible. Even mana itself was crushed here, rendering every power unusable.
And yet I, of all people, was receiving this mana's blessing. I needed neither food nor water. Any wound I suffered healed almost instantly. Even my fraying mind had been restored. The reason was simple: I was a reincarnator, someone who had crossed dimensions to be born again. For a reincarnator, the Dimensional Rift was the perfect place to recover.
Time to leave.
Five years ago, the villains had thrown me into the Dimensional Rift as an experiment — to see whether I would live or die. When I never came out on my own, they assumed I was dead. They had no idea I could survive without food or water, and so they pulled out.
Here, I had obtained the power that would make me strong. But adapting that power to my body had taken five full years of endurance. Now I had more than enough strength to protect myself once I returned to the world.
I'm strong enough now. Leaving won't be a problem.
I shaped my mana into clothing that fit my body. There was no way to obtain real clothes here, so I had to make them myself — but crafting something as simple as an outfit was nothing for my power. Dressed in a plain black shirt and black pants, I prepared to leave the Dimensional Rift.
I'll need to open a small crack to get out. Somewhere remote would be best.
The rift that led to this place wasn't even recognized as a Dimensional Rift in the world I had been born into. They simply called it a "crack" — an unknown, uninvestigable void where anything that entered, living or magical, simply died and faded away.
A woman's voice slipped into my mind, telepathic and even.
"We leave now, then?"
"Yeah. That's the plan."
For five years, I had not been alone in this place.
"Let's go, Lamia."
The one who had spoken to me was Lamia. Known by another name: The Black Snake That Devours the World. She had been the final boss of the original novel.
A soft rustle. A slender black snake coiled itself around my shoulder.
Anju-si, South Pyongan Province, in the northern reaches of the Korean Peninsula.
Even more than thirty years after unification under the government of the Republic of Korea, public safety in the north remained far worse than in the south. The reason was simple: this was where villains ran most rampant.
"Waaaaah! Daddy!"
A little girl who looked about seven or eight years old was sobbing uncontrollably. In front of her, a man who appeared to be her father lay collapsed, blood pouring from his leg.
"So-hee... So-hee, don't worry about Daddy. Just run!"
"Waaaaah!"
Her father was shouting at her to flee, but the girl named So-hee only cried harder, refusing to leave his side. She was still too young to even imagine abandoning her father and running away alone.
"Oh my god!"
"Villains!"
There were plenty of people nearby, but most of them were too terrified to do anything but put distance between themselves and the scene and run. Some had backed off just far enough to watch, curiosity winning out over fear even as they stayed ready to bolt at a moment's notice.
"Look at him, so desperate to save his little girl!"
"Thanks to you calling the hunters on us, we almost ended up as the prey instead of the hunters."
"A bunch of our guys got arrested by those so-called hero hunters. That's on you. Today's the day you die."
"I-I'm sorry! Please, punish me alone! My daughter, please..."
The man begged the villains with everything he had, but his pleas meant nothing to them. If anything, they turned their cruel gazes toward the little girl.
"Still just a little brat, huh."
"Watching her suffer because of you ought to be fun, don't you think?"
They showed not the slightest hesitation about harming a child. Even the onlookers watching from a distance held their breath, shuddering at such cruelty.
"Stop it right now!"
A girl appeared.
She looked about fifteen, with hair the color of indigo — a pale, luminous purple — and striking blue eyes. She was still only middle-school age, but her beauty was already dazzling. From the already impressive swell of her chest to the long, graceful lines of her figure, her body was nothing short of breathtaking. Even at her still-immature age, her looks promised a future of extraordinary beauty — and the villains' eyes lit up the moment they saw her.
"Now this is a prize."
"Oh, she's a knockout."
"That body already? Damn."
Her face held a beauty that would have overwhelmed even the celebrities people saw on television.
"Wait. I think I've seen that girl in a magazine."
And then recognition dawned in more than one pair of eyes.
"Seomun Ye-jin!"
"That's Seomun Ye-jin!"
She was a girl whose exceptional beauty and figure had recently earned her a name through magazine modeling. The moment a few of the villains identified her, the one who appeared to be their leader lit up with greed.
"Then we're taking her with us!"
The words had barely left his mouth before his face slammed into the ground.
"Guh?!"
The villains behind him followed in unison, their faces hitting the dirt one after another. Something struck the backs of their heads in rapid succession, and every last one of them went still. They were all unconscious.
"Hahh..."
Seomun Ye-jin let out a light breath. The villains had all gone down because of her power. As her hair and eye color made clear, she was a mana awakener. She had officially registered as a hunter, but as a minor she was exempt from dangerous duties and permitted to operate freely as an independent hunter. In truth, she was more of an apprentice than anything else.
Fighting villains like this was something an inexperienced girl like her should have avoided. But she hadn't been able to stand by and watch a child suffer, so she had stepped in.
It worked.
If it hadn't, her backup plan had been to lift the father and child with telekinesis and flee. Seomun Ye-jin was grateful it had ended without incident.
"Hold on just a little longer. I'll get you to a hospital."
Seomun Ye-jin approached the fallen man, then gently stroked So-hee's hair and spoke in a soft voice.
"It's okay now. Big sis took care of the bad men who were trying to hurt your daddy."
"Th-thank you."
"Sniff... Thank you, big sis."
"Mhm!"
Hearing their gratitude, Seomun Ye-jin felt that stepping in had been worth it. It had been a little dangerous, but watching someone die right in front of her would have left a regret she carried for the rest of her life. The death of a child who looked no older than seven or eight would have been carved into her heart forever. She believed she would never forget the courage she had shown today.
And yet, two days later—
"Mmph! Mmph!"
She was being dragged away by the villains who had come for her.