Past Life Returner

To Joshua, I was a selfish, sadistic and anti-social guy who lived in my own thoughts. I had called him ‘novice’ and told him to knock me down when no one else in society had been that blatantly rude toward him. Everyone was always smiling at him, so whenever Joshua faced me, he had no choice but to remember that this was a lawless hellhole that was totally isolated from the outside world. He was confident that he would make me feel helpless if he managed to get out alive, so he seemed to be only thinking about his future plans.

He wanted to convert his plans into action so badly, but his thought was nipped in the bud by my cold attitude and power during the last battle. It was his first time being overwhelmed by absolute madness and he had to admit that. Anyway, that motivated the group members, who had been only expecting me to step up and protect them, to begin joining the battle after him. They weren’t gung ho because of Joshua’s financial strength and background. Instead, they were inspired by his lunacy.

‘Is it because of Berlin Telecom? The bloody relationship of the historical Karjan family[1]?’ Joshua thought.

Joshua was aware that those things were meaningless in this world. He had an intuition that he would never forget the moment when the atmosphere totally changed. Therefore, he felt renewed despite his severe chest pain. He felt like he had been born again.

His task became clearer, and the top priority was to bring the Awakened and the mercenaries back together, not to knock me down, but for the group’s overall survival. In addition, he changed his mind and decided to placate me instead of taking revenge on me. He was determined to do everything he could to bring me into his group, whether it was legitimate or unjustifiable. He thought his pride didn’t matter since I was worth that much. He wanted to teach me the strict rules of capitalism and enlighten me about the fact that there was a greater power than the System in the dungeon. According to his plan, this would be the first step toward conciliation.

Joshua was excited to use what he had learned from me, but that brief moment of joy…

***

Gulp.

Joshua swallowed his saliva, and Michael became speechless. The corridor and rooms they quickly entered were full of monster corpses with destroyed heads and pierced holes in their chest.

[You have been distributed 0.16 points.]

[You have been distributed 0.16 points.]

…

[You have been distributed 0.16 points.]

The hunting quest was already finished, and more than thirty notification messages popped up. Joshua and Michael were busy following me through the opened doors as piles of dead bodies were everywhere. After a while, the two were startled by something running from the opposite side at a great speed. It was moving too fast for them to identify it, and the winds it caused when it sped by resembled storm winds. Their hair billowed out crazily, and the gusts of air slapped their faces painfully. They tightened their eyes reflexively.

“This path is clear.”

Joshua opened his eyes after hearing a familiar voice and looked at me. The only blood on my body was dripping from my palm. When he realized I had sprinted by seconds earlier at an unbelievable speed, Joshua felt goosebumps rise. The two of them seemed to have different thoughts when looking at me.

‘That is crazy! How can a human being… Can I be like that?’ Michael thought.

‘I didn’t know he was able to do this much… His physical ability exceeds common sense. It would be difficult to restrain him even if all the mercenaries and the Awakened work together. I should bring up his parents’ business more to attract him. Mmm… He better have an attachment to his parents,’ Joshua thought.

“Listen as you follow me. There are things called ‘dungeon boxes’ in each dungeon,” I said while taking a step forward. I continued to describe the difference between dungeon and regular boxes, types of dungeon compositions, alarm monsters, combat quests, and boss monster quests.

My tone became more relaxed toward Joshua and I no longer used a deliberately rude and arrogant voice. I was like an experienced fellow sharing information and giving tips about dungeons to younger ones. Joshua, of course, had noticed the change in my attitude and felt good. When he realized he had been finally recognized by me and was willing to accept the fact, his face flushed and became burning hot.

“Joshua.”

When I called him, he bit his lower lip because he didn’t know how to answer.

‘Should I say ‘yes’ like before? Or should I retort by saying ‘what?’ Joshua thought.

He knew it was a meaningless concern, but he was unhappy with how he was feeling.

“This is a ‘tutorial’ for you. Well, you’ll have a real tutorial next time since I won’t be by your side then,” I said.

“You don’t need to teach me everything now, and you’ll have no choice but to be with us in the future,” he replied.

“I can’t wait to see what will happen when we head out. It won’t take long. Follow me,” I responded sarcastically.

Whoosh-

Joshua looked around to find me as I had vanished in an instant. He saw my shadow at the end of the corridor and watched me disappear as if I was being sucked into the room.

“Isn’t that amazing? We are… greater than I thought,” Michael said.

Michael had been politely calling Joshua a ‘CEO,’ but he no longer did it. Joshua didn’t care.

“That might be the only thing you see,” Joshua replied.

“Huh?”

“He must have gone through so many hells to be that strong. We should respect him for that,” Joshua continued.

“We should train hard and catch up, and it doesn’t seem to be impossible. We can do it.”

“Haha,” Joshua laughed.

“Laugh as much as you want. I would have laughed like you if I was in your shoes.”

“No, it’s not that,” Joshua looked at Michael.

“Then?”

“I have been watching you carefully. Let’s do this together. The position currently doesn’t exist, but I’ll appoint you as the deputy attack captain and establish new authority,” Joshua said.

“...”

“You were going to follow Odin, right?” Joshua asked.

“Odin?”

“That’s what he wants to be called,” Joshua explained.

“He hasn’t told me that.”

Because you didn’t get recognized by him.

Joshua smirked inwardly and bit his lower lip again.

“If Odin was going to bring you with him, he would have told you already. He would have also told you to call him ‘Odin,’” Joshua added.

“So why did he only tell that to…”

“Odin will remain in our group anyway. You’ll see,” Joshua said.

[You have been distributed 0.16 points.]

Notification messages began popping up again.

***

It wasn’t just speed. The Baclan warrior in the combat quest was much stronger than any other monsters I had faced. Joshua would have thought I wouldn’t have problems killing it up to that point. However, as soon as the boss monster’s room opened, we saw dozens of Baclan soldiers and warriors swarming in there. There was also a gigantic demon with blazing eyes that was slowly getting up in the center.

The Awakened had been calling the entrance room and corridor ‘hell’ as they had been fighting against pawns for survival, but the current sight made Joshua wonder whether the boss room was the actual entrance to true hell. Joshua and Micahel were completely overwhelmed.

Even Odin can’t survive in there…

Joshua became speechless, and his body trembled as if it was instinctively warning him to run away. Then, Joshua remembered what Odin had been emphasizing.

“The group’s survival depends on you. Don’t blow away the reputation you gained from society.”

“You are still a novice, so you need my help.”

“Do as much as you can to knock me down.”

Joshua realized that I had known what was waiting for us from the beginning and that I had been whipping him cruelly to mentally train him and save everyone.

“This is a ‘tutorial’ for you. Well, you’ll have a real tutorial next time since I won’t be by your side then.”

He also noticed that I had tried awakening him since he was the leader. However, Joshua had never imagined there would be such a hell out here. He felt helpless and spaced out. He couldn’t see anything and could only hear the terrible breathing of the monsters.

“Killing the boss monster determines whether we succeed in conquering this dungeon or not,” I said.

My voice sounded too calm for a man who opened the gates to hell, and Joshua came back to his senses probably because my tone had soothed him a little bit. He blinked rapidly and saw a monster being blown away by an unknown force. Then, it exploded in the air, scattering its flesh and blood all over the place. It happened once more with another pawn.

Three monsters rushed at me, and I immediately sliced off their necks with Devi’s Sword. The energy formed in the blade swept away the monsters that were at the edge and began drawing smaller orbits toward the center of the monsters.

Zing- Zing-

The pawns’ heads danced in the air, and the bodies that lost their necks collapsed on the ground heavily. Blood flowed out from them and soaked the entire ground. Joshua had no power in his body as if his head had been cut off.

That is a massacre.

Michael caught Joshua when he was about to fall back. Michael’s hands were shaking, his eyes were dilated beyond measure, and his pupils were trembling. He looked at me walking toward the boss monster while the demon was sprinting toward me. That demon shook the earth’s core and seemed to smash everything it saw.

“Odin!”

Joshua shouted, and his cry echoed.

“Odiiiiiiin-”

Even before the echo died down, the demon was under my foot. I grabbed its neck, which was five times bigger than my body, and lifted it. Then, I punched the monster’s chest multiple times. The sight of the boss suffering in pain was truly bizarre to Joshua, and he blankly stared at me as I handled the demon like a mere toy.

Odin is the real devil.

The situation was so surreal that it felt like a nightmare. Heads were rolling around the ground, and pools of blood and dead bodies were suffocating him. On top of that, a demon that looked to have crawled out of hell was getting killed by the stronger devil[2], and it couldn’t even resist.

1. Made up family, no real-world reference ☜

2. Seon-Hu. ☜