One morning, having woken from one terrible reality, I ended up facing yet another terrible reality.
"What the, sh*t…."
When I was caught by the attacker—the guy I'd later hear was named Choi Haegang—I didn't die right away. No, "couldn't die" would be the more accurate way to put it.
Choi Haegang held a deep grudge against me and the boss over the killing of his friend. He'd lured me into a trap with the help of a spy who'd infiltrated our organization. Since he was after the boss, he had no intention of easily killing me—the enemy, and the right-hand man of his enemy.
After that, it was the same pattern, over and over.
Choi Haegang: Where is Han Yukyung? Spit it out, honestly.
Seo Sinwoo: I keep telling you, the moment I say that, I die—graaaagh!!
Honestly, I would've loved to spill everything before he even asked and just hang on to my life.
But thanks to the boss's ability, "Contract," I was the sort of wretch whose heart would melt the instant I divulged a secret. Of course I couldn't do anything that might harm the boss—and if the boss died, I died too.
So, unable to let anything slip, I suffered for a long time through what I couldn't tell was interrogation or just venting.
Later on he was tormenting me without even asking anything, and I found myself inwardly begging to be allowed to spill the information. Having my heart melt seemed like it would hurt less. I just wished the boss would get caught and die quickly.
I spent months locked in that basement like that. In the final moment, I felt an intense chest pain and sensed the deaths of both the boss and me.
But the place I arrived after dying was neither heaven nor hell—it was on the sofa of a room I'd used in my young days, a memory now grown hazy.
And for some reason, with both arms I'd lost attached perfectly intact.
The phone displayed, for whatever reason, a date six years in the past.
Something strange was hovering in my field of vision.
[Quest: Clear your karma.
!If a certain amount of time passes without fulfilling the quest, a penalty will be applied.]
Below it floated some figure I couldn't make sense of.
[Karma: 60000]
No matter how many times I closed and opened my eyes, it didn't change.
This translucent window would naturally fade after a while, and reappear when I thought of it.
Doubting my own sanity, I sprang up and ran to the mirror.
"…Ha."
Thankfully, the one in the mirror was none other than me, Seo Sinwoo. On the surface, I looked perfectly fine. Except that I looked somewhat younger.
But it wasn't just my face. The scars on my body, the jewels I'd collected, the incidents I'd caused over the years—all of it. Every trace formed over those six years had vanished without exception.
In the community, people were chattering about the upcoming 10th anniversary event of the Association's founding. But as far as I knew, the Association had been founded over sixteen years ago.
This… I'd never experienced it myself, but it was a situation I'd seen plenty of somewhere.
I set the phone down and muttered.
"Regression…?"
Just because the world was half-ruined didn't mean the internet had disappeared too.
If anything, with the gates opening, the number of creative works themed around abilities had grown exponentially.
For reasons I didn't know, among them the newly emerged "Hunter genre" became wildly popular.
Regression and system windows were common elements in those Hunter stories. I'd heard of them even though I had zero interest in staring at screens.
Surely… there'd been someone among the organization's members who liked them too.
"What're you watching?"
"! I was watching The Strongest Hunter Who Regresses Infinitely Through a System Window, hyung!"
"Oh…."
At the time, I'd dismissed it as childish and moved on. If I'd questioned him more, would it have helped my current situation? …Well, the internet was still open even now.
It was an era of gates opening everywhere and people Awakening to abilities. It was rather laughable to make a fuss about coming back to the past, about a system window out of delusion appearing in reality.
Sudden as it was, swift adaptation was the only way to survive. Denying what had already happened wouldn't solve anything. This was a piece of life wisdom I'd learned after the very first gate incident.
Only.
…It's too unhelpful.
What on earth was karma, and how was I supposed to clear it? On top of that, the words "karma clearing" and "penalty" looked ominous no matter how I read them.
That was how I'd spent the first day of regression, racking my brains.
The thread of a solution appeared three days later.
For several days I'd been preoccupied with combing through my room and the internet. I figured I needed to grasp the situation accurately before rashly going outside. Whether this was really the world I knew, whether it might be inside a dungeon or a virtual world, whether there was anyone who'd regressed further back. Things like that.
In the meantime, since this place had neither a bathroom nor food, I had to step out briefly now and then. It was less than five minutes each time, but feeling anxious, I restrained even that.
The incident happened at dawn on the third day, while I was returning after a wash I couldn't stand to put off any longer.
Coming out of a public restroom while toweling my hair, I let out a sigh.
The things I worked so hard to get, and now they're….
By now everything else was a trivial problem. What still tore at my chest were the lost treasures. With no certainty I could get them again, my heart ached.
This did seem to be the world I knew, but just because I'd returned to the past didn't mean I could walk the exact same path as before.
"My brooch…."
In frustration, I kicked an empty drink can on the ground.
That was when a clear sound rang in my ear.
Ding!
[You failed to fulfill the quest within the time limit.]
A red window, different from before. Out of nowhere, a hot liquid surged up my throat.
[Penalty triggered: 〈Fire of Purification〉 now active.]
"Kgh…."
I instinctively covered my mouth, but blood gushed out and splattered onto the ground. My vision swam, and I hunched over in a hurry.
I braced my hands on the ground, and it felt strangely cold. Only then did I realize my body was running a fever.
Sht…. No wonder I had a bad feeling.*
So this was what a penalty meant.
Fire of Purification.
Whoever named it did a good job. My whole body hurt as if it were burning. It was a horrible feeling.
I barely managed to get to my feet. Being out in the open and defenseless was dangerous. I had to get home first.
So I was staggering along, not even sure I was going the right way. Something bumpy got under my foot. My penalty-stricken body lost its balance easily.
"Agh!"
Sprawled out, I looked back and saw the drink can I'd kicked earlier. Falling didn't particularly hurt, but it left a foul taste. And I had no strength left to get up.
"F*ck, of all the…."
Ding!
[Congrats! Achievement, 〈Welcome. First time in Purgatory?〉 unlocked!]
A blue window appeared in my view. And then a white light—
Honk—!
My body was sent flying. That I'd been hit by a car, I realized half a beat too late. I was flung across the asphalt like a tumbleweed rolling through the wasteland.
Pain or whatever, the cursing came first.
The car seemed to stop for a moment, then sped off with a tremendous racket.
…Go fall straight into a gate and drop dead.
I didn't want to get hit by a car again, so I tried to move out of the way quickly. But this time my body really wouldn't move.
Maybe the pain was so excessive that my senses had gone numb instead—even the burning feeling had vanished at some point.
Basically, when you become an Awakened, you get a little sturdier than ordinary people and your recovery improves.
But for a non-Awakened, it was more like a wound that would take a month to heal closing up in a week. It wasn't the level of wounds vanishing in an instant like magic.
What I'm saying is, there was no way I could get up right now. It might even be a miracle I was still breathing.
As I blankly stared up at the sky, a translucent window appeared.
[A reward will be granted.]
I'm about to die, what reward. You son of a btch.*
Despite the scathing curse I hurled inwardly, before long my body grew comfortable. It was different from the moment of death. Far from drowsiness, my mind grew clearer.
Soon I felt like I'd be able to move. Slowly, I raised myself up. A pool of blood I'd spilled remained on the ground.
Likewise, my blood-soaked clothes were tattered. But when I ran my hands over my body to check, there wasn't a single bruise left.
The searing pain and the fever, too, had vanished as if washed away.
So this was….
"What the…."
I lost my words at the magical phenomenon. There was only one presumable cause.
"The system?"
A blue window appeared before my eyes.
[Quest: Clear your karma.
!If a certain amount of time passes without fulfilling the quest, a penalty will be applied.]
[Karma: 59789]
It looked no different from before, but the number had decreased. The figure that hadn't budged from 60000 until I'd left the house today.
Come to think of it, the penalty window had disappeared at some point.
I groped my recovered body with a dazed expression. What exactly had been detected as "karma clearing"? Had my body recovered thanks to the "reward"?
Bewildered, I was still trying to make sense of the situation when a cheerful voice came from behind me.
"What're you doing sitting on the side of the road, meow?"
An androgynous voice scolded as if exasperated.
"This is no time for you to be sitting around so leisurely, meow!"
Tap.
The light footsteps unique to a four-legged animal. A familiar cat revealed itself. Sharp green eyes gleamed through black fur.
Swaying its glossy tail gently, the cat opened its mouth.
"You vanished for four days, meow! The boss is looking for you, meow! He's very angry, meow!"
