The Hero Returns

* * *

After the meeting, Su-hyeun stayed in the outside world for about 10 days.

He didn't do a lot during that period, however. Getting used to his newly acquired stats was amply doable by simply carrying on with his daily activities.

What Su-hyeun did was to observe.

"The number has decreased even more," said Su-hyeun.

Lee Ju-ho replied, "Some people are saying that in three years, all dungeons and Ether stones will completely disappear from our world."

"What about the trend of the new awakeners awakening?"

"It's the same. No, wait. It has accelerated, actually. I mean, 0.5% of the entire world's population is now awakeners, after all. South Korea has a lot higher percentage of awakeners than others, though, at about 1% of the entire population of the country."

"Five hundred thousand awakeners in South Korea alone..."

"Yup, it's a lot, alright. Of course, the number of people actively working as awakeners is far lower than that, but still."

That was unsurprising.

Not everyone could live like an actual awakener even if they had become one and given the right to access the tower.

Only those people who possessed the absolute minimum qualification—the courage to fight against monsters—would be bestowed with the awakener rank and earn the right to act like a real awakener.

Su-hyeun murmured slowly, "Awakeners are increasing in numbers, but the dungeons are decreasing..."

"What's bugging you like this, though? It's already been 10 days."

"Ten days?"

"Yeah, that's how long you haven't returned to the tower. I can't remember the last time you've stayed outside for this long."

"Really?" Su-hyeun made a sheepish expression and shook his head. "It's nothing major."

"You know, almost no one who says that really has nothing major going on."

"Please believe in me. If I'm not saying anything, there's a good reason for that."

"That's why I haven't said anything in particular until now. I have a mountain of things I wanna ask you for the past 10 days, yet I've been holding myself back, you know," Lee Ju-ho complained before groaning deeply under his breath. He then lightly waved his hand and issued the ultimatum for his guest to vacate the premises playfully. "If you're done confirming, then get going already. I mean, there are a ton of things I need to get to ever since the number of dungeons decreased so steeply lately."

"Dungeons decreased in number, yet you have more things to do?"

"That's because the lower number of dungeons has worsened the competition for them. Can you even guess how many guilds and mercenaries are pouncing on a single dungeon raid permit these days? I'm slowly dying here trying to humor them all, you know?"

"Ah...Well, do your best."

"I will. Take care of yourself, too," Lee Ju-ho said as he confirmed that Su-hyeun was leaving his office and picked up the phone to call someone. It seemed that he wanted to discuss the current state of things with the Awakener Authority people.

* * *

For the past 10 days, Su-hyeun had frequented the Association's offices and continued to gather information.

"Dungeons are continuously decreasing in numbers, while the number of awakeners is ballooning."

He initially wondered if this was a temporary phenomenon. However, that turned out to be wrong.

"How long do we have left?"

The existence of dungeons gave rise to the development of the industry related to Ether stones found in dungeons and the subsequent economic boom. But the reason why that economic boom gradually entered the decline was that the dungeons slowly ceased to exist altogether. As a result, the awakeners lost their jobs, and the industry around Ether stones lost its source of energy in an instant.

And so, the world reverted to how it was in the past, and then, two years later...

"That's right—it was two years."

No, wait. It could be even shorter this time around. It might have been two years in the previous timeline, but the future had already changed a lot from Su-hyeun's knowledge by now.

The existence of dungeons hadn't changed at all, but the timing of their appearances and locations had shifted a little here and a little there.

Maybe one year...

Or worse, the time remaining could be shorter than that.

Fuu-wuu—

Su-hyeun roughly scratched his head.

He felt impatient again. The very emotion the Bull Demon King warned him against was welling up in his heart once more.

"Let's not get too impatient here."

He still had some time left.

Also, he had been noticeably improving with every subsequent trial he cleared after the 100th floor.

"Right. I still have enough time left," Su-hyeun repeated that in his head.

And so, more time passed by.

The next day, he challenged the trial on the 104th floor.

* * *

Su-hyeun started the next trial with the help of the administrator, and the first thing to greet him after the transfer was the humongous circular ceiling above his head.

"A ceiling...?"

The ceiling had to be hundreds of meters high and wide enough to be called a sky all on its own. Not only that but the dimension of the floor below was also as big as a major city.

Su-hyeun had arrived alone in this massive space, and he stood around in a slight daze. He had no idea what he was even supposed to do here.

"The system isn't working."

Without a doubt, the system would've explained this trial's purpose by now.

However, it hadn't said anything even though he had been waiting for a few minutes already. Since he had no other alternative, Su-hyeun just stood there in this wide-open empty field, wondering what he should do next.

But then...

Swhooosh—

Whoosh—

A figure suddenly appeared somewhere a bit farther away inside this open space, but he immediately realized that it was not just one person but two.

"Humans?"

No, wait, one of them wasn't a human.

"A race similar to humans is also included?"

A race similar to humanity, that was how Su-hyeun perceived the giant that was at least three meters tall possessing an especially large head and eyes that looked quite similar to humans. His race was unknown, but he didn't seem like a monster. The term "monster" usually denoted those species that couldn't control their hostile natures.

The giant seemed quite flustered, but other than that, he didn't try to attack Su-hyeun or the other person in this open space.

"But what am I supposed to do with—?"

Swhoosh, whoosh—

Paht, pa-paht—

Countless more humans and other similar races continued to appear one after another in this open space.

One, two, ten, hundred...

Several hundred, thousands, and straight into tens of thousands...

Even Su-hyeun became flustered as he took in the sights of people continuously getting summoned here.

"What's all this?"

Were all these people being summoned from other worlds to experience this trial, just like himself?

However, the expressions of fluster and confusion on their faces were too clear for that idea to be true. Some even seemed like they had no idea why they had been brought here.

"W—where is this place?"

"Am I...dreaming?"

"Why am I even here...?"

"A—a monster?!"

Some began crying out "monster!" after spotting the races similar to humans.

Unsurprisingly, those people from similar races became antagonistic toward others treating them like monsters. No one would feel happy after being called a monster, and that remained true with them, it seemed.

Tens of thousands of people were here. It was quite a number.

Without a doubt at this stage, Su-hyeun wasn't the only one summoned here.

[Exactly 50,000 individuals...Oh, two extras as well? Well, it doesn't really matter.]

Buzz—

The ceiling seemed to vibrate.

Su-hyeun momentarily mistook that voice as one from the system, but he was wrong. It belonged to someone else.

"Who is it?"

For some reason, he wasn't getting a good vibe from that voice.

There never had been a case where a voice similar to the system's had entered his hearing like this, after all.

[You all must be curious about how you got here. Unfortunately, there's only one thing I can say to you. I'm the one who brought all of you here, and you are going to do whatever I tell you to.]

"What?"

"What kind of bullsh*t are you saying?"

"Where the hell are you?! Why don't you say it to my face first?!"

Unsurprisingly, the gathered people raised their voices of opposition.

The voice came from a faceless being. Not only that but this being also suddenly abducted them all and told them to do its bidding.

Those with very short fuses and violent temperament soon became red-faced and roared out at the top of their lungs.

However…

Crunch, cruuunch—

Shatter—

The heads of two people among all those shouting in anger were suddenly crushed without warning.

Heo-uhph…

"T—their heads…"

The interior of the open space became instantly silent.

Su-hyeun wordlessly observed this situation. He had been trying to find out where the voice was coming from, but tracking down its origin proved to be tougher than he thought.

[Stop shouting already. I'm the one talking here. Well, it's true that I enjoy noisy commotions, but...But I'm not a fan of opposition. In any case, this is better. With that, we now have perfectly even 50,000 here.]

Gulp—

All of a sudden, that flat but flippant-sounding voice came across as rather intimidating. The gathered people swallowed back their dry saliva and began nodding without even realizing it.

The owner of the voice seemed to be looking down at this scene from somewhere because it soon continued.

[Nice, nice. Alright. The task you all need to do from now on is a simple one. Okay, raise your heads and take a look before you. What can you see?]

Su-hyeun looked to his front. It wasn't simply because of the voice, though; no, it was more to do with a middle-aged man trembling in anxiety currently staring at him.

A few people here had already instinctively realized it.

They had a gut feeling that they knew what the next set of words would be like, and the middle-aged man in front of Su-hyeun just so happened to be one of those people with good instincts.

[Kill that person.]

"…!"

"K—kill, you say?"

"Without any reason…?"

Unsurprisingly, the people got deeply flustered.

It was already panic-inducing to be suddenly summoned to an unknown location but to be told to kill a person you had never met before...

Still, a few individuals among the crowd were already staring with a suspicious glint in their eyes. They seemed to be the sort who didn't really feel any repulsion at the idea of murdering someone.

"This uncle is the same story."

That middle-aged man was staring at Su-hyeun with a pair of sharply gleaming eyes.

Su-hyeun had a relatively smaller physique, so he must've thought that it would not be all that difficult to break the former's neck. He didn't seem all that averse to the idea either.

The problem he had right now was with figuring out how this situation had come about.

[You better decrease the number of people in this space by half in one hour. If the half of you aren't dead by then, expect all of you to die instead.]

[Remaining time: 01:00:00]

A timer popped up in the heads of everyone present. It was a very similar ability to the system.

Su-hyeun continued to look around to discover the location of that voice, but even now, he couldn't do it.

[Well now. Let's get started.]

Tick—

The timer began counting down.

The inside of the open space remained deathly still. It was so quiet, in fact, that it was hard to believe these many people were currently inside it.

Tock—

Some were deeply frightened, while some were glaring sharply.

It seemed like no one wanted to make the first move, but that was understandable. It would be troublesome if you decided to make a move first, only to become a target of everyone else, after all.

Also, it didn't really matter even if you didn't kill the person before your eyes. All you had to do was to survive without killing anyone. The goal was to decrease the number of people in here by half in one hour, after all.

Even then...

"Are none of you willing to do anything?!"

Realistically speaking, no one making a move forever was an impossibility when 50,000 strangers had been gathered in a sealed-off space.

"We're told to kill, right?! We're told to decrease our number by half! So, are you just gonna stand there and do nothing like some bunch of losers?!"

The voice was filled with contempt. Even the energy contained in his voice seemed rather robust as well. It came from the middle-aged man in front of Su-hyeun.

"Fine, I'll show you how it's done."

Thud—

He took a step toward Su-hyeun, and that footstep contained considerable weight behind it.

The floor split apart with a cracking noise, and Su-hyeun's gaze was directed toward the middle-aged man's foot.

The latter took that as Su-hyeun trying to avoid meeting his gaze and began smiling faintly. He must have thought that Su-hyeun was scared of him.

"Hey, you. Is your sword a fancy decoration? A grown-ass man getting scared is—"

"So, you want to look strong, is that it?"

"What was that?"

Su-hyeun opened his mouth for the first time since he got here.

Unlike the middle-aged man's voice that reverberated loudly, Su-hyeun's voice sounded softer and lower. However, weirdly enough, everyone present could hear him crystal clear.

Su-hyeun raised his head and stared deep into the middle-aged man's eyes. "You want to display how strong you are and, therefore, not be anyone's target?"

"Hey, punk. What the hell are you even...?"

"Scared, you say?"

Gulp—

The middle-aged man involuntarily swallowed back his saliva.

It was the same story for the other people in the surroundings. They were all suppressed by Su-hyeun's voice and the intense air he emitted, and they couldn't even move a muscle.

Split—

It was at that very moment that the third eye opened up in Su-hyeun's forehead.

[Third Eye—Predator]

"I have a feeling that you weren't talking about me."