[You have passed the final trial.]
I let the sword, drenched in blood, hang down at my side.
When I raised my head, a notification signaling the end was blinking before my eyes.
‘It’s over?’
[Congratulations on passing the trials.]
‘I see. It’s finally over.’
At the news that all the trials had ended, fatigue came crashing down on me.
I wanted to hurl this heavy lump of iron to the floor with all my heart, but the habit ingrained in my body over ten years refused to allow me to discard the sword.
[Player ‘Gang Minjun,’ having passed the trials, is granted the promised qualification to cross over to another world.]
[Entering settlement for ‘Destruction Dragon Gallegos.’]
[Highest Contributor Among Survivors: Gang Minjun]
I silently watched the holograms appearing and updating one after another before my eyes.
[The highest contributor, ‘Gang Minjun,’ is given the promised opportunity to make one wish.]
A wish, huh.
[What wish would you make?]
I looked up at the sky thick with dark clouds.
“This is fucked.”
That was the sentiment I muttered quietly at the tail end of ten years of trials.
***
Gang Minjun.
That’s my name.
A common, ordinary name depending on how you looked at it.
I spent each and every day as ordinarily and tediously as that ordinary name.
“Ugh, I’m bored out of my mind. When the hell is this damn school gonna end.”
From elementary school to high school, I lived trapped in school, semi-forced to be there.
『★Military Manpower Administration Notice』
After graduating, I became an ordinary college student on the verge of being dragged off to the army like everyone else.
“Hey, fuckface. Where you going?”
A life with nothing particularly special about it, where I was occasionally caught and tormented by high school classmates.
That daily life of mine vanished one day due to an unwelcome guest.
[This is an announcement.]
No, the daily life of all humanity vanished that day.
[As of now, Earth’s lifespan has expired. Unfortunately, there is no Earth regeneration plan, and exactly five hours from now, Earth will enter its extinction procedure.]
“Huh? What is this?”
“Which bastard is playing a prank!”
A bizarre hologram appeared before my eyes.
I still can’t forget that moment.
Because everyone walking through downtown Seoul froze in their tracks and stared blankly into empty space.
‘Earth is being destroyed?’
Was it because the method of notification was too bizarre?
Or because it was so out of the blue?
“That’s fucking insane.”
People denied it and refused to believe.
“Pfft, what the hell is this bullshit.”
“I think I know what this is. Isn’t it like those web novels where the story becomes reality and an apocalypse breaks out and stuff?”
“That’s some cringy talk. That’s just a creation where authors spew out their delusions. Can you please live in reality?”
“Hey, hey, instead of that, how about rock paper scissors. The loser takes the bullet and shouts the status window really fucking loud. Kekekek.”
There were even some among them who took it as a joke.
Reality was simply too peaceful to accept the fact that Earth would be destroyed in two hours.
[Migration to another world is now possible.]
But the steps toward destruction were steadily proceeding.
[However, residents who wish to migrate must undergo evaluation. Through the selection process, you must prove that you are a useful insect.]
Until then, in truth, there was no one who took it seriously.
But in an instant, a blinding light flashed across the sky.
Fwoooosh—
As a curtain of darkness covered the sky and then lifted, shaking the ground with an ominous tremor, people’s expressions began to change subtly.
Rumble…
[An asteroid has collided. Earth will be destroyed in 4 hours, 53 minutes, and 21 seconds.]
“…….”
Silence descended upon the city.
Countless people were out on the streets, but in that moment, not a single person moved, as if time had stopped.
What roused the frozen world was, once again, the notification.
Ding.
[Will you participate in the selection process?]
“W-what the hell is this saying!”
“Is it real? Is Earth really going to be destroyed?”
Everyone felt the change in the air current stinging their skin.
It was too strange to dismiss as a joke.
As time passed, that ominous premonition took concrete form, and one piece of news spread quickly through the online communities.
-They say all communications with Africa, the Middle East, and Europe are cut off
-Fucking insane
-Not a troll;;
The somewhat unsettling news that all communications with specific regions had been completely severed.
Naturally, people’s attention converged on one place.
-Has anyone entered the selection?
-I’m in right now, but there’s nothing much
-For real?
-Dumbass, you believe that? I saw someone entering it and they disappeared with a pop;; They went in wearing clothes, but I guess electronics don’t work because their smartphone just fell to the floor with a clack
People began to accept reality.
More than grandiose reasons like asteroids or communication blackouts, the sight of people disappearing one by one before their eyes proved that all of this was reality.
[Will you participate in the selection process?]
The selection process, otherwise called the trials, began thus.
A pandemonic struggle of over four billion people floundering to survive by crossing over to another world.
And I was among them.
…I glared at the cloud-covered sky, then slowly lowered my gaze to the hologram still floating in the air.
[What wish would you make?]
Blink, blink. The screen urged me as if telling me to speak quickly.
‘I cleared it all the way to the end of the trials.’
The sole survivor was me.
The only one who could cross over to another world, Elisia, was also me.
‘Then what’s the point?’
What would I do crossing over alone to an unfamiliar land with no connections?
What would I do alone in a place without a single person from my hometown?
That was why I had only one wish.
“I wish to regress. I’ll go back ten years with my memories intact and start this fucked-up game from the beginning.”
[Are you saying you will repeat that arduous journey?]
“Yeah.”
A great journey spanning ten years.
I reached this place crossing countless battlefields and hellish front lines.
And if I regressed with this knowledge and experience, I could do better than now, and I was confident I could save even one more person.
[Splendid. I have heard that noble intention well. However, such an altruistic choice is never wise. How about simply ending the trials here and starting a new life in a new home?]
“No.”
I’m not sacrificing myself to save more humans.
I just hate being alone, and hate going alone to a foreign land.
If just one person.
If even a single Earthling besides me had survived, I wouldn’t have made this decision.
“I’m going back entirely for myself.”
For my own prosperous future.
“So I will regress to the past.”
[I understand what you mean. Infinitely selfish you! I shall proceed with the regression to fulfill that ugly desire. I do hope the trials you meet again are enjoyable.]
***
I’ve read novels where a regressor runs amok.
How light is the step of one who walks again a future they have already walked once?
[Your wish has been fulfilled.]
[Error. An abnormal interference with the world has been attempted.]
[Checking error…]
[Confirmed as an approach from a higher dimension. Correcting the error to match the revised matter.]
A pure white light enveloped my vision.
The light quickly subsided, but conversely, my body grew heavy as if I had fallen into water.
Frowning at the stuffiness, I opened my eyes.
‘Where am I? My body being heavy seems to mean I’ve returned to the past, but…’
But if this is the tutorial area, the air is too warm.
Once my vision recovered, I was slightly bewildered.
‘University?’
The scenery behind the main building of the university, now faintly familiar, came into view.
Leaves and flowers blooming luxuriantly in the fullness of spring.
‘Did I really come back? To ten years ago?’
It was bewildering.
The moment I wanted to return to was the tutorial, not Earth.
I soon realized I had made a critical mistake.
‘To think they’d literally send me back to exactly ten years ago just because I said ten years ago.’
As soon as I grasped the situation, I moved my hand to check the exact date.
Was it because it had been ten years since I’d looked for a smartphone?
My hand movements were awkward.
The feel of the device I held for the first time in ten years was familiar yet strange.
『May 27』
Thinking I might have seen it wrong, I repeatedly turned the screen off and on. The numbers didn’t change.
‘Everything began on May 30th. That means I have three days left.’
My desired regression point was the tutorial, but this isn’t bad either.
No, it’s actually better.
It’s much more advantageous to go in with some preparation than to charge in barehanded.
‘I’ll prepare for three days. Make plans for what to do from now on.’
My heart pounded.
Honestly, I didn’t know if regressing with my memories intact was even possible. It was a demand made half out of petulance.
But the wish became reality, and I could start off better than I had thought. So I smiled, feeling good, when…
“Has this bastard gone crazy?”
Thwack.
“?”
Along with a stinging pain in the back of my head, I heard a woman’s voice.
But the voice was strangely familiar.
“Fuckface. Before you get your ass kicked, take out all the money you have in front of your unni.”
When I turned my head, a short-haired beauty was glaring at me.
“…Sin Seoyeon?”
“Have you really gone crazy? Now you’re calling my name so casually?”
Sin Seoyeon.
Same class in senior year of high school. A girl tied to me by such a bad fate that we went to the same schools from elementary to university.
In elementary school we got along okay, but starting from the third year of middle school she went down a bad path and became a complete delinquent school bully of a bitch.
“Fuck, what are you staring at. You wanna get your ass kicked back to normal?”
But the real reason I was surprised to see her was something else.
Feeling the tingling back of my head, I recalled a memory I had forgotten.
‘Now that I think about it, Sin Seoyeon at this point in time was a total bitch who didn’t give a damn about her image.’
When I closed my eyes, the image of Sin Seoyeon I had seen just a few days ago surfaced immediately. Along with the voices talking about her.
—Look over there, it’s Sin Seoyeon.
—Her figure is insane. How is a girl with such thin wrists and ankles Rank 19?
The Crimson Witch, Sin Seoyeon.
Rank 19.
At least among fire-wielding mages, there was no one who could rival her.
When I opened my eyes again, the beauty who would become an S-rank mage in the future was standing crookedly, her pretty eyes glaring down at me.
Both arms crossed beneath her ample breasts, pushing them out to make them stand out prominently.