The End of the First Playthrough
"Congratulations, hero. You have defeated the Demon King."
Right before my eyes. A winged woman in a translucent golden dress that revealed her bare skin, her long snow-white hair fluttering, clapped her hands toward me.
"Out of over 100,000 humans I summoned to this world, you alone were able to vanquish the Demon King."
"......."
The Demon King was dead. The massive demon sprawled before me, a greatsword buried in its chest, spewing blood until its end. I'd half-worried it might unleash some death echo curse in its final moments, but no such thing happened. If there had been a curse like that, this so-called Goddess wouldn't have appeared before a living Demon King.
"Now, say the word. As a hero, you have the right to demand anything. You could live here hailed as a legend, or be reborn in your original world. Anything at all."
"Yes, anything at all."
Whoosh. The Goddess extended her hand toward the Demon King's heart. She yanked it out mercilessly, crushed it in her grip, and with a gasp of ecstasy, thrust the blood-red gem inside toward me.
"Behold. This is the 'Miracle.' The divine authority stolen by the Demon King. I grant you one chance to wield this divine power."
"...Right, that was the promise."
The heroes had been forcibly summoned to this other world. But unlike typical isekai tales, the Goddess had gathered us from Earth for what she claimed was a reasonable cause.
"Using this Miracle, can I come back to life? On Earth?"
The dead from Earth had been summoned here. As she summoned each hero, the Goddess proposed a deal and bound contracts with the deceased. Succeed in defeating the Demon King, and she'd grant one wish. The divine power to grant wishes resided in the Demon King, so whoever slew it could have any wish fulfilled.
All the heroes had been dead. Those harboring hope faced two choices: slay the Demon King and revive on Earth, or, once the Demon King was gone, live on as an overwhelmingly powerful hero in this medieval fantasy world.
"Reviving on Earth—is that possible?"
"...Given your feat, yes. You defeated the Demon King alone. Even if your original body is gone, you could transfer to Earth in this current form."
"Is that because the power in the Miracle is only enough for one person?"
"Yes."
"What if hundreds or thousands had taken down the Demon King?"
"......."
The Goddess fell silent. She avoided answering inconvenient questions, clutching the Miracle tightly in both hands as she approached me.
"Don't worry about those who died without claiming their chance."
The Goddess caressed my cheek with the hand holding the Miracle. Her gaze toward me mingled gratitude for a benefactor, pride for a hero, and sorrow for a knight who had sacrificed his life in her name.
"Only you have the right to this Miracle. You alone never yielded to the demons until the very end, swinging your sword at the Demon King right up to the brink of apocalypse—and ultimately triumphed."
"...And the others?"
"Don't concern yourself with them. I gave them their chance, and they chose to sheathe their swords and abandon being heroes. Reviving them in this world is gratitude enough."
Strictly speaking, she wasn't wrong. The dead had been granted a second life as heroes. Some had forsaken the fight against the Demon King to enjoy life in this other world, abandoning modern return or reincarnation—and even the wish they desperately sought after reclaiming the Miracle from the Demon King. From the moment they quit being heroes, the Goddess had no intention of caring for them.
"Final hero. This Miracle shall manifest solely for you. If you wish to become the god of this world, so be it. You are worthy. Anything—"
"If you'll grant anything, how about this?"
I pulled several items from my pocket. Crude iron scraps that looked like junk. Some bore names in Korean or English, though others were scratched or rusted beyond legibility.
"Can you revive these people?"
"......."
"Some might be questionable, but these ones fought demons to the bitter end."
"...You know better, hero."
The Goddess shook her head with a pitying expression.
"For those from the other world, one death meant the death of the soul. Once the soul is destroyed, no revival is possible anywhere."
"......."
"The souls of non-heroes might be recoverable somehow. But souls brought from Earth cannot be restored or reversed."
"I see."
Crunch. I gripped the iron scraps in my fist, and the heat from my strength and mana melted them in an instant. What had once held someone's name liquefied into molten metal, dripping from my palm onto the Demon King's heart.
"Hero. Their noble sacrifice will live on in history forever. If you wish, we can erect statues in their honor in every cathedral of the Goddess Church. Eternally."
"What's the point of statues and memorials when they're already dead and gone?"
"Hero."
"What they wanted was to go home to families waiting for them. You gave us hope. The hope of resurrection."
"I didn't lie. It's just that, back there, if they're already buried or cremated, transferring to this world's body would mean a social reincarnation..."
"Right. No lies."
I reached out to the Goddess.
"Hand over the Miracle."
"Here you are."
The Goddess reverently placed the Miracle atop my hand with both of hers.
"Simply speak it. Your desire. The one wish you crave most. The Miracle will manifest differently based on your feats and the karma you've accumulated as a hero thus far."
"Then I'll make my wish."
I seized the Miracle and thrust it toward the sky.
"New game, start."
"......Pardon?"
Her face froze as if she'd misheard.
"What did you just say...? Hero, what did I just hear...?"
"Exactly what you heard."
"Ha, haha... 'New game,' was it? I know! Life is like a game, right? You want to live anew with your memories intact! Or keep your power? Or reincarnate on Earth...!"
"Not reincarnation."
Clutching the Miracle, I slowly rotated my hand counterclockwise before her eyes.
"It's a rewind. Back to when I—no, when we were first summoned."
"N-No way...!"
"Starting over from the beginning. Yes. I declare it."
A red aura erupted from the Miracle.
"By this Miracle, I choose regression."
The Miracle absorbed my mana, the blood flowing from my hand, and everything I'd amassed as a hero up to now.
"Why would you do this!! If you do, then...!"
"The Demon King revives. All the demons I've slain so far. But..."
The molten metal that had seeped into the Demon King's heart reversed course, flowing back into my hand as if time itself were rewinding.
"N-No...! If this continues, the Demon King will...! St-Stop it!!"
"Impossible."
The Goddess lunged to snatch the Miracle from my hand, but she couldn't wrest it away.
"This is your karma. Born from countless declarations in the Goddess's name. A god doesn't speak with a forked tongue. Half the foundation that let me rewind all this time comes from you, Goddess."
"Nooo!! Please!!"
The Goddess dropped to her knees, clutching my pant leg.
"Why, why...! You defeated the Demon King! The future is yours! A brilliant future! You'll lose everything you've built, returning to that void where nothing existed!"
"Probably. According to that user-unfriendly system you saddled us heroes with, all my stats and skills vanish, resetting me to Level 1."
Resources, wealth, money, mana—all gone, my soul revived in this other world with a blank-slate body.
But.
"To get this far, I lost too much."
The Goddess was a god and couldn't comprehend humans.
"The future I want lies in the past. The person I loved—no, love—isn't here."
"F-For mere love...! Have you lost your mind! This world has any woman you could want if you desire...! Even I...!"
"Hey."
I twisted my hand gripping the Miracle and flipped her off.
"Fuck off, you bitch."
No dick anymore, though.
"This future doesn't have her."
Crack. The Miracle exploded, and the world drowned in red light.
"Kyaaack!!"
A familiar scream. In my hazy mind, I clutched my throbbing head and forced open my blurred eyes.
A white void of nothing. 108 humans, myself included, sprawled in white garments around a circular structure floating in the air.
The common thread: mostly black-haired, brown-eyed folks in their early to mid-twenties—though some differed.
"Wh-What's going on? Where the hell are we...?"
The others panicked, trying to grasp the situation, but I calmly checked my body.
No strength whatsoever. The muscles and scars from twenty years as a hero—gone. Just the average build of a guy fresh out of military service.
No skills, no mana, no gear. Pure white slate.
"...Heh."
I was back.
By my own will.
"Hoo."
I took a deep breath and shouted so the confused crowd could hear.
I've played this game before—!
Or something like that.
Regression had wiped everything, but my memories remained intact.
Sorry, but to get what I want, I'll do anything. I'm that kind of trash.
If I'd been righteous or good, I wouldn't have turned back time.
I'll exploit anything I can. Murder, fraud, rape—whatever means, ethics be damned.
That's how you survive the dark fantasy world awaiting us after this Tutorial Factory.