Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The Return
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A young man opened his eyes.
The place where he opened his eyes was his one-room apartment.
The narrative spoke of the young man who had opened his eyes in his one-room apartment.
“You’re back.”
He had returned.
That word was typically used to describe going somewhere and coming back.
But the young man hadn’t gone anywhere and come back.
He had simply opened his eyes right there.
As he did, the young man searched for something.
What he found was his smartphone.
The young man who pulled out his smartphone checked the date.
‘December 31, 2029.’
The young man knew exactly what that day meant.
‘It’s about to start.’
The young man anticipated that something was about to begin.
He had no choice but to.
The meaning of his return was none other than coming back from the future to the past.
People commonly called it one word.
‘Regression.’
There was no way an ordinary person would regress.
So, was the young man not ordinary?
Since he had actually regressed, he could no longer be called ordinary.
But.
The young man had regressed, yet he was not a regressor.
Therefore, at this moment, he was still an ordinary person.
However.
Soon, he would have no choice but to cease being an ordinary person.
The reason was...
“It’s coming down.”
The young man said.
What the young man was currently looking at was the electronic billboard visible outside the window of his one-room apartment.
A billboard visible to everyone from the sky.
The young man knew exactly what that meant.
‘Trials’ Arena.’
No sooner had the young man thought of the ‘Trials’ Arena’ than the unidentified billboard that appeared in the sky began displaying text.
[Welcome, everyone from planet ‘Earth.’]
[From today onward, you will face a total of 30 trials, once every month on the 1st.]
[If you survive to the end there, the Great One will grant your wishes.]
[However, participation is limited to those with souls of the caliber determined by the Great One.]
The billboard’s content was visible to everyone, whether their eyesight was good or bad, near or far.
No one knew what the participation criteria mentioned at the end meant.
Even the regressed young man had never seen the ‘Great One’ the billboard spoke of.
In any case, having seen what the billboard wanted to say, the young man gave a bitter smile and muttered.
“Survive to the end? More like they’re desperate to kill us however they can.”
Trials’ Arena.
That was the phrase the young man had thought of before the billboard’s content appeared.
The system window before his eyes also mentioned it.
[Guide ended! The participants for the Trials’ Arena have been selected, so we will now move you.]
Having seen this far, the young man thought.
‘It’s time. Time to start the plan with ‘Joo-hyuk’...’
Soon after, as the young man thought of the name ‘Joo-hyuk,’ his vision blurred.
The interior of his one-room apartment, visible in his blurring vision, changed.
To a pure white space.
A pure white space with countless boxes and weapons floating around.
The young man who arrived there thought indifferently.
‘I’m here.’
A system window appeared before his eyes.
[Player can set the epithet they desire.]
[Epithet: ]
[Player can choose the weapon they desire.]
[Once epithet and weapon selection is complete, one rune will be randomly granted to the player.]
At the system’s explanation, the young man smirked.
It was content he already knew, having read it twice before.
He quickly ignored the billboard and muttered inwardly.
‘Epithet, huh...’
An epithet had various effects.
First, during the Trials’ Arena, there were times when one had to reveal their name, and at those times, instead of their real name—‘true name’—they could use the public-facing ‘epithet.’
If they hid both true name and epithet and lied about their name, it would be exposed, making them an object of suspicion or elimination, increasing the chance of death in the Trials’ Arena.
Since it was a name they’d have to use from now on, the epithet had to be chosen well.
Second, if they chose an epithet that matched the main weapon or ability they intended to use going forward, they could receive synergy effects.
For example, a sword user taking the epithet ‘Swordsman’ would level up sword proficiency faster or gain affinity with sword-related NPCs they’d encounter later.
But none of that mattered to Hae-jin.
The reason was simple.
The young man decided on his epithet.
[Epithet: Park Hae-jin]
The young man set ‘Park Hae-jin’ as his epithet.
That was his real name, after all.
Hae-jin, choosing to use his real name as his epithet.
The system window asked.
[Will you use ‘Park Hae-jin’ as your epithet, the same as your real name?]
[If no epithet, you may suffer disadvantages.]
Not having an epithet could lead to disadvantages.
It might refer to the points mentioned earlier.
But Hae-jin thought nothing of it.
‘Pretending to worry. Plenty of people must’ve fallen for this, huh?’
The system window warned of risks without an epithet, guiding users not to make real name and epithet the same.
It seemed like a gesture of concern, but Hae-jin knew.
He knew about the ‘perk’ gained when real name and epithet matched.
Therefore, he had no intention of changing his appearance or name.
Hae-jin told the system window.
“Fine by me. We’re going with this.”
Park Hae-jin, declaring his real name the moment the epithet setup window appeared.
Then, a message appeared before Park Hae-jin’s eyes.
[You have achieved an accomplishment.]
[To the first player ‘Park Hae-jin’ who did not hide their name, granting the title ‘The Brave’ and one additional bonus stat point.]
Having gained the bonus stat point, Hae-jin followed the system window’s next instruction.
‘Choose a weapon? Obviously this one.’
If it was his weapon, Hae-jin already had it decided.
Having regressed, he knew exactly which weapon suited him best.
Hae-jin approached the greatsword as big as his body and gripped it.
[Item! Selected ‘Rusted Greatsword’ as your desired weapon.]
Then, all the surrounding weapons vanished.
Weapons were chosen simply by grabbing one—no questions asked twice.
With Hae-jin’s weapon selection complete, the system window appeared.
[A rune will be randomly granted.]
Whish whish whish—!
The boxes lining the outer walls of the space left after the weapons vanished.
Those boxes spun wildly.
At the end of the spin, one box flew toward Hae-jin.
Whoosh!
The flying box stopped before Hae-jin, who opened it.
Inside was a red orb.
[‘Rune of Absorption’ has been acquired.]
‘Rune of Absorption again this time. But the rune I need to use this round is...’
Having regressed, Hae-jin already knew he’d receive the ‘Rune of Absorption.’
But the rune he needed to use this time was somewhere entirely different, he thought.
With even the rune chosen, the system window spoke.
[Player setup complete.]
[Moving to Trials’ Arena.]
Afterward, the scenery around Hae-jin changed again.
When he opened his eyes, it was a vast plain.
No one was in sight yet.
No, one person had been added.
While everyone else was still setting epithets or agonizing over weapons, Hae-jin had entered the Trials’ Arena faster than anyone, followed by the man who appeared right after.
Meeting his eyes, Hae-jin murmured.
“Leader...”
Leader.
That was what Hae-jin called the man whose eyes met his.
It was a face he was seeing for the first time in this life, but Hae-jin knew his identity.
Of course he did.
His identity was none other than the leader who had led the final raid party with him through the previous two lives: ‘Nam Joo-hyuk.’
What’s more.
He was the ‘regressor’ whom Hae-jin had to kill in order to survive.
Nam Joo-hyuk.
He was a regressor.
A regressor who had drawn the ‘Rune of Regression’ in the random draw, allowing a total of 216 regressions.
『216 times? What the hell is this half-assed number?』
Hae-jin had questioned it like that when he first heard, so ambiguous was his number of regressions.
216 times.
Not a neat 100, 200, or even 300—just 216.
What kind of crappy number was that to set?
But upon hearing it, Joo-hyuk had only given a bitter smile.
And for good reason—that number’s ambiguity had its purpose.
‘It wasn’t made for him to regress alone from the start.’
It was a fact realized far too late.
But the Rune of Regression held by Leader Joo-hyuk wasn’t just for his own use.
It had been a blind spot he hadn’t known when the rune’s grade was low, allowing only solo regressions, but the Rune of Regression gained the trait of bringing along one additional person besides himself with each grade increase.
At its final evolution, the Rune of Regression allowed 6 people, including himself, to regress.
Leader Joo-hyuk said he only then understood the meaning of the ambiguous number 216.
‘6’ people times ‘6,’ then multiplied by ‘6’ again, yields ‘216.’
In other words, the ‘Rune of Regression’ was a rune designed from the outset, assuming its highest-grade evolution, to form a 6-man party roster and tackle the trials.
‘Joo-hyuk tried to maximize it, putting together the best roster.’
However, he realized this only after wasting some regressions.
And for good reason.
‘To draw out the rune’s final evolved form... you have to reach the latter half of the trials.’
But with the trials’ difficulty so high, Joo-hyuk burned a lot of time raising the rune’s grade during his solo regressions.
As a result, he realized the truth hidden in the rune far too late.
But once he learned the hidden trait of the Rune of Regression, he gritted his teeth and began gathering party members to regress with.
Each regression with party members would make his chosen roster stronger from the early stages.
However, despite countless regressions, Joo-hyuk never passed the end of the trials.
In the end, of his 216 regression attempts, only 2 remained.
And those 2 were deliberately saved for a certain strategy.
Namely, for the ‘last resort.’
Hae-jin remembered the will he had left in his previous life.
『Kill me, Hae-jin. And take my place as leader.』
Hae-jin had shaken his head with a hardened face at those words.
But Joo-hyuk smiled wistfully, making refusal impossible.
『I know it’s hard. But you’re the only one.』
A will asking him to kill him and take his place.
Leader Nam Joo-hyuk believed that among the best 5 party members, only Hae-jin could replace him.
First, amid countless trials drying up everyone’s emotions, only Hae-jin had maintained a steadfast mentality.
Second, Hae-jin, who obtained the Rune of Absorption from the starting point, actually had superior potential to Joo-hyuk himself due to the rune’s nature.
And so, now.
Facing the regressor Joo-hyuk, who smiled faintly awaiting death, Hae-jin thought.
‘Don’t worry, Joo-hyuk. I’ll make your death worth it and end this damned Survival Game.’