Past Life Returner

A Korean Awakened, Kwon Ki-Cheol, had mysterious abilities, and there was something about him that caused people to think he was frighteningly merciless and cold. The guy had clearly been special, but Tetsuya knew that there was only one person in this world who could say ‘my stuff’ with that kind of vibe.

"Aaah.”

Tetsuya moaned as if he had been gagged. His heart began to thump intensely against his chest wall, every movement clear. Since his mind had short-circuited, all he was aware of was the contraction of his heart. Other than that, he felt like time had stopped. To be exact, it was more accurate to say that his thinking stopped. That frozen silence felt like an eternity for Tetsuya. However, when a force pulled on his wrist, he came back to reality.

"Tet… Tetsuya

He only moved his eyeballs to the side while still facing Odin, and he saw Sayaka’s desperate face. She was dragging him off the bed as she couldn’t withstand the silence. Tetsuya didn’t know how long he had been out of his mind, and his head hit the floor immediately. The pain spread through his entire face, then he finally came fully to his senses.

He realized what had happened in that short period of time. Images of the past flashed through his mind: the time when he decided to violate the association’s rules, him hiding the Black Fragments, and the day when they conquered a D-class dungeon with a Korean Awakened leading the way. He couldn’t think of any excuse as the savior Odin clearly knew everything from the very beginning. He really believed that he was lucky that such a person was helping him, not knowing that he was Odin. Therefore, Tetsuya couldn’t help but condemn himself.

Did you really think that the savior wouldn’t catch you? You really thought so?

No matter how many times he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that he was surely an idiot. Even a child could have guessed who instructed the association to look for the Black Fragments.

Since the mud had been washed off of him, Tetsuya’s pale face was even more glaring.

While he was just shivering without a word, Sayaka begged and begged. “I’m… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

"If you have benefited under my shadow, you should give me something in return.”

Odin’s words sounded eerie and brutal, making it seem as if a blade would slice off their necks right away. Although people thought of him as the savior and candidly what he had done was unbelievable, like a story from a fairy tale, they weren’t under any illusions. In fact, they knew that the savior was neither a saint in the Bible nor a hero in a cartoon. Reality here was harsh, and no one was that naive.

In fact, there was a rumor going around about Odin’s personality, saying that he was strict. Stories that supported this idea also came from the Korean group. For instance, they stated that Odin never tolerated challenges against him, which was the reason why the Frank Guild’s executives were exterminated in the early days of Stage Two.

I’m going to… die here… I… die here… here?

Tetsuya continued to tremble with his eyes fixed on the floor. He was acting as if there was a god of hell watching his back.

Odin finally said, “But I’ll give you a chance. Since you started it, you should end it.”

He never expected Odin would leave after telling him to prepare to enter the dungeon.

Bam!

Tetsuya heard the sound of the door closing, and he could no longer see Odin’s feet. Despite that, neither of them could raise their heads. It didn’t matter to them, even though their entire body weight was concentrated on their forehead on the floor. They felt like they could endure the throbbing pain and numbness in their body forever if they managed to continue to live.

Thump.

Sayaka tilted to the right and fell down. Tetsuya’s shirt had been soaked through with cold sweat and was now stuck to his back. There was also a puddle of his sweat on the floor. In fact, there were more secretions from his body other than the tears that he just shed. Even when he raised his head, tears and cold sweat were dripping from the tip of his chin. Once again, Tetsuya put his forehead to the floor while sobbing in relief. He couldn’t believe that he was still alive.

However, that was only temporary as he soon realized he would be dragged into an A-class dungeon, the most terrifying hell. The one thing that consoled him a bit was that Sayaka hadn’t received any orders from Odin. Well, that made sense because she would be useless there and would die as soon as she entered it.

He was being forced to enter because he was the one who had opened Doom Entegasto’s hidden quest. It was the quest that he wasn’t supposed to touch and start. If he had known that the final destination was an A-class dungeon, he wouldn’t have moved an inch. A-class dungeons were in areas where no one but Odin could challenge, and that was why the association had emphasized heavily that people needed to hand in any Black Fragments to them. Looking back, he felt like he had been fated to die in the E-class dungeon.

You are a dumbass! You deserve to die, Tetsuya.

He rose weakly after that last thought.

***

The Japanese weren’t the only ones who had been under the New Triad. However, the leaders had strong anti-Japanese sentiment, so they treated the Japanese like slaves by mentioning the Nanjing Massacre[1]. As a result, the Japanese Awakened were considerably behind the others, and they didn’t have enough power to voice their opinions in the group.

In this situation, a new hero was born to lead them. The savior’s henchman, Kwon Seong-Il, had come down and showed interest in them, and Captain Tetsuya drove the momentum and successfully conquered a D-class dungeon. If the unnamed attack squad, which people thought was under Odin, was excluded, then they were the second attack team to defeat a D-class dungeon. Even the Awakened from the mainstays of the association, such as the United States and Denmark, had yet to succeed! But Tetsuya, the Japanese hero did it!

"Oh!”

The dungeon officer greeted the Japanese hero. The Japanese offensive teams that were registering their groups to enter other dungeons didn’t protest about their work being suspended. Instead, they started welcoming their hero.

"Tet-su-ya!”

"Tet-su-ya!”

The sound of people applauding and calling the hero’s name didn’t stop. Tetsuya knew better than anyone why they were so enthusiastic, so he felt miserable. Even in a situation that was overwhelming just to stay alive, he felt guilty for the Awakened from his home country. His face became more gloomy.

"Are there any leftover Maruka clan’s F-class dungeons?” he asked quietly.

The officer rummaged through the notes.

"There are some rooms, but I don’t see any others.”

The officer checked Tetsuya’s back several times and spoke because his only companion was a man wearing a hood.

"There are only two.”

According to the Sakura Corps, the D-class dungeon they had attacked was the most difficult one they had ever experienced. They said only six members of the elite squad had survived, but four of the survivors ended up with their limbs cut off. One of the people in the squad was in the diamond section, and even he hadn’t yet been able to shake off his jitters from then. Therefore, it was a wise choice to target the F-class as it would be like taking a break.

But just these two?

The officer was concerned, but he wasn’t the only one. No one wanted Japan’s hope to disappear due to one bad judgment. People tried to stop Tetsuya by saying that going into an F-class dungeon as a duo was like committing suicide.

Tetsuya looked at Odin with a perplexed expression, then broke through the crowd and entered the building.

"I’m sorry,” he said in a small voice close to whispering.

The two climbed the stairs one step at a time. In the midst of getting closer to hell, they encountered attackers who had either failed to conquer a dungeon or those who had completed one. Tetsuya didn’t know how to react to the support that they verbalized to him, and he needed to hurry up and walk faster in order to avoid more questions about where they were headed to and any attempts at dissuading them.

Tetsuya took out the key in front of the F-class dungeon. The hallway that led to the dungeon entrance was muddy. The sour smell of blood and sweat stung his nose. However, the stench wasn’t what was making him want to vomit. Instead, it was because he couldn’t believe that he was opening the door to hell with his own hands. The extreme tension made him nauseous.

Odin ordered coldly, “Open it.”

At least the nauseous sensation had given him a reality check. However, the ‘owner of the voice’ from his back and the hell in front of him was a world that felt too real. He couldn’t even imagine the end of this madness.

He stuttered, “Yes, I will

Tetsuya put the key in the lock while tasting death. It felt the same as the first time he had stabbed a human’s heart. It was creepy, but he soon remembered what had happened in the bio lab of the New Triad when he had finished turning the key. His memories of an intruder sticking their hands in him and pulling out his organs came back, and it was no different from what he felt now. There was something escaping from his body.

The pain was intense, and Odin covered Tetsuya’s mouth as the latter was about to burst out into a scream. Tetsuya trembled in that position for a long time. Odin also realized that the amount of energy flowing out from Tetsuya’s body was unusual.

Click.

When the key opened the door, Tetsuya’s eyes lost their light. His body was quivering, he was choking, and his nails fell out like a broken piece of a pencil. The creepiest thing was that there were worms wriggling out of the flesh where his nails had fallen off.

Odin trampled the bugs on the ground and dropped Tetsuya on his rear. Then, he squatted in front of Tetsuya, who had collapsed, and stared at him. The unconscious man’s pupils were moving irregularly. It was a bizarre movement where they moved quickly from side to side and then turned clockwise. At one point, they suddenly stopped and fixed on Odin, and a voice came out with the syllables cut off one by one.

"You. Are. The. One. I. Was. Waiting. For.”

Odin replied nonchalantly, “Ah, I didn’t expect that you would greet me.”

He then clutched Tetsuya’s neck as if he believed there was no point in letting the mysterious voice say more. Then, he said while looking at Tetsuya’s fixed pupils, “If you think about it, aren’t you in a lower rank than me? You are just a duke.”

Tetsuya’s lips struggled to open, but there was no sound coming out. His face was deadly pale because he was suffocating. When the light in his eyes was completely drained, Odin loosened his grip.

Tetsuya didn’t remember what had happened to him. Odin simply dragged him into the dungeon while he complained of a headache. Then, the most horrifying hell unfolded in front of them. Armaments began to appear over Odin’s body, and of course, there was the golden armor. Then, Valkyries, the seven warrior maidens who served Odin, were summoned to the dungeon.

1. An incident also known as the Rape of Nanjing, when Imperial Japanese Army forces sexually assaulted females and brutally murdered thousands of people in Nanjing. ☜