Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Exiled from Another World
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Luck comes to those who are prepared.
It's a common saying.
Even if fortune happens to smile upon you, it's meaningless without the power to seize it.
Just like me right now.
"Yi Kang-hyun, I'm sorry, but you'll have to return to Earth."
This was a world in another dimension from Earth—the Eldorado Continent.
The Saintess of the White Church, the continent's sole and most prestigious order, had issued me an eviction notice.
Her sudden declaration left me stunned for a moment before I snapped back to reality.
"Saintess! You can't just say that out of nowhere..."
I absolutely could not accept being sent back to Earth.
I still had to stay here.
Twenty-five years ago, Earth underwent a massive upheaval called the Great Cataclysm.
Dungeons and monsters, the stuff of novels, appeared in reality.
They rampaged across the world, threatening human survival.
Humanity teetered on the brink of extinction.
As despair spread with no hope in sight, people with the power to fight the monsters began to emerge.
These Awakened individuals hunted dungeons and monsters, aiding in the rebuilding of civilization.
They became humanity's beacon of hope, and people called them Hunters.
By some stroke of luck, I Awakened and became a Hunter too.
A half-baked one, though.
The reason I was called a half-baked Hunter was simple.
I had no Status Window.
Unlike other Hunters, even after Awakening, I alone was denied a Status Window.
This created a massive gap. For starters, I couldn't grow at all.
Forget skills or traits—I couldn't even learn basic ones.
Hunting monsters yielded no experience points.
How was I supposed to grow in that situation?
Yeah, I was just seen as a slightly stronger-than-average civilian.
Desperate for growth, I tried every method available.
One was enrolling in Hunter Academy.
Thankfully, my Awakening got me in without issue.
But just getting in didn't change anything.
While my classmates grew like monsters, I still had no Status Window.
Naturally, I flunked every subject with Fs.
I fought tooth and nail just to avoid expulsion.
Whether they pitied my pathetic state or refused to acknowledge me as a Hunter, my peers saw me as the academy's disgrace.
I was treated like a ghost until graduation, but somehow I scraped by as the bottom of the class and got my diploma.
Of course, graduating didn't magically give me a Status Window.
Nothing changed.
Unable to make a living as a Hunter, I ended up as a porter.
Then my final chance came.
Not from effort, but pure luck.
The Eldorado Continent.
This other world where I now stood.
Only a random few elite Hunters could come here.
It offered immense power to the strong and a shot at relevance to the worthless—like every Hunter's dreamland.
I was no different.
Some unknown mechanism selected a handful of Hunters at random, and I was one.
Stepping onto the continent for the first time filled me with joy.
Maybe I'd finally get a Status Window.
With one, escaping porter life would be a matter of time.
I could rub it in my classmates' faces.
I even fantasized about them looking up to me, guilds fighting to scout me...
That dream shattered moments ago.
"Please, reconsider just once more. I'm begging you, Saintess! I've done everything I could so far. I can't go back like this!"
I cast aside my pride, dropping to my knees and pleading.
Two years since arriving on the Eldorado Continent.
I'd slaved like a dog.
Knowing my limits, I'd worked twice as hard.
I handled every menial task in the Church, even backing up Holy Knights and priests.
I asked for nothing in return.
And the result?
No Status Window.
No helpful items either—just pie in the sky.
They'd send me back to Earth empty-handed?
I barely kept my face from twisting as I awaited the Saintess's response.
"Sigh... Yi Kang-hyun. No."
Her expression soured instantly.
"Hey."
Her tone shifted from benevolent smile to harsh bark—the first time in two years I'd seen this side.
"Why are you so pathetic? Huh?"
Crude words poured from her mouth.
"We've put up with a worthless punk like you this long—that should be enough, right? What more do you want? A Status Window? Not my fault you don't have one. Or mad we didn't give you items?"
"Plenty of trash gets summoned here already, pissing me off enough without you making it worse."
"......"
I was speechless.
My position allowed no rebuttal.
As I stayed silent, the surrounding Holy Knights joined in.
"Menial chores? That's what trash like you is for. Don't get cocky over it."
"Yeah! Who'd expect a retard like you to show up."
"You never fit in our Church anyway!"
"Get lost back to your hole. The Saintess is showing mercy."
Even the Holy Knights, called the Church's righteous blades, tore into me.
"......"
Yeah, I was useless.
That's why I stayed quiet.
Of course, I felt wronged.
I'd tried twice as hard to compensate.
I trained before dawn every day.
No skills or traits, so I pushed my body to endure.
I cleaned the Church, portered for dungeon raids, cooked, ran errands—everything.
'Ha...'
Thinking back, they'd always been like this.
I bowed first from weakness, but they took it for granted.
Once, they even used me as bait to disarm a dungeon trap.
At least if I'd gotten fair pay, I wouldn't feel so cheated.
I did get paid.
But they took it right back.
Despite the abuse, I said nothing.
Now that I thought about it, it pissed me off.
But I couldn't lash out or complain.
That privilege belonged to the powerful.
For weaklings like me, revenge was just an empty echo in my mouth.
Maybe it was better to just leave quietly, as someone once said.
'Hoo.'
I swallowed my rage and looked at them.
"Fine. I'll go. Thanks for everything."
No point begging further—they wouldn't listen.
I considered fleeing to another region but shook my head.
The Eldorado Continent was vast.
Skill-less and rootless, I'd be in their palm if I bolted from the Church.
One heretic label, and I'd have nowhere to stand.
The Church's influence was that immense.
She looked surprised at my compliance.
"Well, alright. We'll send you back to Earth right now."
Her tone polite again, she even returned my belongings from arrival.
'At least they gave these back.'
My stuff was sparse: clothes, wallet, smartphone, odds and ends.
The phone wouldn't turn on after two years idle.
"Well then, off to your world? Let's never meet again."
With that, she muttered an incantation.
A circular magic circle formed underfoot, blazing with light.
This must be the return spell.
Usually, locals threw farewell parties for departing Hunters...
I was just booted out empty-handed—bitter.
Well, one gain: hatred for the Church.
As I was thinking this, light enveloped my entire body, and in an instant, my perspective reversed.
"This is..."
I saw the familiar appearance of a room.
It was the house where I used to live.
The only inheritance from my late parents.
Thus, I was exiled from another world.
Back on Earth after two years.
I immediately plugged in my smartphone to charge.
After a while, I turned it on.
Thankfully, it worked.
As soon as the power came on, I checked to see if I had any messages.
"Hmm..."
However, there wasn't a single message on my phone.
Why aren't there any?
It's been two years, after all.
"No contact even from the guild?"
Let's exclude my academy peers who treated me as if I didn't exist.
But still, I prided myself on having some business relationships.
I had worked as a porter in a small guild just before being summoned to the Eldorado continent.
I at least expected one message.
But isn't it too much that there's no contact even from the guild I worked for?
I tried calling the saved number immediately, but it didn't connect.
"Unbelievable."
Well, since porters often go off the grid, it was natural.
Besides, if I had any skills, it would be different, but I was utterly useless.
As I sighed and lamented.
Ding-!
My smartphone rang.
I checked and saw that I had received a text.
"Hey, it was an ad, wasn't it?"
It was an ad urging me to install a game that I had pre-ordered.
"Did I pre-order this?"
I had been through so much that I couldn't remember.
"Whatever."
I had plenty of time anyway.
Returning after two years, I postponed cleaning the house..
Honestly, I had been through a lot during that time, so now I just wanted to relax.
I immediately followed the link in the text and installed the game.
"The game's called 'Eldorado'?"
Being banished from Eldorado made it the number one word I hated to hear.
But it was coming up again in the name of the game.
I almost deleted it, but the curiosity won and pressed play.
The title appeared prominently on the screen.
Usually, shouldn't some cool BGM come with this?
The music felt somewhat bland.
Maybe its an Indie game.
After all, considering I had spent two years in Eldorado, it was obvious that the game I pre-ordered earlier had been released.
I touched the screen, and the story began to unfold.
-In the beginning, there was a goddess. She created the Eldorado Continent and...
I immediately pressed the skip button.
This was history that I had heard until my ears wore out during my time in the pulpit.
Skipping this kind of story was fine.
The main game started right away.
I didn't see the story properly because I skipped it earlier, but it seems like the concept of this game is dungeon management.
Its a fresh concept.
What is a dungeon in Eldorado?
Constantly spewing monsters, the surrounding villages always turned into wastelands.
Is that all?
Commonly, dungeons were the most guarded places because they housed high-ranking demons and monsters.
As a result, varius nations, adventurers, and religious orders regularly subjugated dungeons.
It was perfect for me now.
Even if only in the game, I could satisfy my desire to turn Eldorado upside down.
Perhaps the creators of this game, like me, have many grievances against Eldorado.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have made such an overt game.
Suddenly, I found myself liking the game developers.
'But the name...'
The most difficult moment at the start of the game is the dilemma of choosing a name.
The dilemma didn't last long..
Hm. Perfect.
Names should be simple yet goal-oriented.
Game objective: torment Saintess and Church.
Hit 'Yes' without hesitation.
"What the?"
Suddenly, the name changed on its own.
Is it okay for the game to change the name that the user decided on?
It felt like the goodwill I had built up towards the creator suddenly plummeted.
Well, anyway, if it's not fun, I'll just quit.
I examined the name that the game had changed on its own.
Evil God Nest?
Looking again, it wasn't a name that deviated greatly from the intention.
"Anyway, my ultimate goal is the conclave."
I felt the force opposing the goddess.
I liked it.
I touched the screen once again.
"What's this?"
Not only are they changing names as they please, but they're also smoothly inducing real money purchases.
"The crossed the line."
This time, I really wanted to lash out, but I held back and clicked the screen again.
Not only did I hear insults from the saint, but I was also expelled.
Even though I didn't know reality, I didn't want to lose to the saint in the game.
Anyway, the price was only 1200 won, so it wasn't a burden.
"Fine then, I will buy it."
I couldn't afford to stress over the early stages of the game.
The item purchased with the first real money payment seemed to have been applied accurately.
"Let's think positively, even if I don't know what it does."
And then I touched the screen to see the next one.
Suddenly, the screen stopped, and an alert popped up saying that it was synchronizing something.
What's the meaning of this?
Is it receiving additional update data?
Let's wait for now.
"......"
Saintess Helisa slowly opened her eyes.
Her face was full of confusion.
"Saintess, you look unwell."
A guarding Holy Knight approached, voicing their worried.
"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."
She said that, but her mind was complicated at the moment.
"It was definitely an immense energy...."
While praying, she felt an immense energy.
The problem was that the energy didn't feel good.
With ominous thoughts, she tried to track the energy immediately, but it suddenly disappeared.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
'Maybe I used too much power.'
Helisa spent a lot of energy before praying.
It was to send Ikanghyun back to Earth.
Perhaps she would need to rest for a few days.
"If it weren't for the will of the church..."
If it hadn't been for the instructions from the top of the church, there would have been no reason to use force to send Ikanghyun back to Earth.
But it's already done.
Helisa erased Ikanghyun, who had already returned, from her mind and adjusted her posture.
The energy she had felt a little while ago.
She tried once again to find that energy, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't feel it.
"I must have been mistaken."
Thinking so, Saint Helisa erased her anxious heart.