The Day of Human Extinction (1)

“Argh, what the hell is this!”

Igeon muttered a curse.

And the target of his anger was none other than his own face in the mirror.

The square mirror reflected the face of a ten-year-old child.

Staring at that mirror and pulling at his own cheeks, Igeon eventually screamed.

“Damn it, why do I still look like this!”

Indeed.

He had just dealt with the last Holy God and returned to the Snake Master’s sanctuary—the inner chamber of Sagittarius.

After all, he needed to upgrade his equipment with the data he had gathered.

He’d spent the night toiling in his workshop for the first time in a while, then crawled home at dawn and closed his eyes.

He had known that, time-wise, he’d return to normal once he woke up.

Sure, he’d considered staying awake to finish his gear despite the fatigue, but you know.

‘I’m pissed, so I’ll just sleep.’

Crafting weapons wasn’t an issue even with those tiny hands, but those jerks kept taking pictures calling him cute—so infuriating he’d come to bed.

‘Well, when I wake up, I’ll be back to normal.’

The notification had said so, after all.

[You will return to your original appearance in 3 hours.]

But what was this?

A full six hours later, at 1 p.m.

Woken by the slime, Igeon hurled his pillow.

“It’s been over 3 hours! Why do I still look like this!!!”

At Igeon’s fury, the slime—having transformed into a mirror to reflect him—wriggled with glee.

The slime seemed thoroughly enjoying the situation.

[Ga is delighted by its master’s appearance.]

[Ga thinks its master is adorable when angry.]

“Not adorable at all! Do you want to die?!”

Finally, Igeon stormed out.

‘Damn it. Did something go wrong?’

Growing serious, he hurried toward the kitchen.

If anyone, his friend would have caught on and already be thinking of a solution.

Perhaps that was why.

“Taek-su!”

The moment Igeon appeared, Hugo was startled—his face saying he’d been meaning to talk anyway.

“Ah, Geon-ah. Perfect timing! About that form of yours… Since there was no sign of it changing after 3 hours, I looked into it.”

Igeon’s face brightened.

“Right. I knew you’d have already found a solution—”

“Seongjae’s childhood clothes! I found them still kept! They’d fit perfectly, wouldn’t they?”

“……???!”

Igeon’s expression was priceless.

But whether he cared or not, Hugo cheerfully pulled out various garments.

Little children’s clothes, even a rabbit hat.

All sorts of outfits Hugo had been safekeeping came out.

“Want to try them on? They’d suit you well.”

“Hey….”

“What? You can’t keep wearing clothes that keep slipping off, right? Personally, I think these penguin pajamas look best.”

Igeon radiated murderous intent at Hugo, who was holding a camera.

And upon seeing that scene, Cheon Ji-u, aghast, lightly smacked her husband on the back and scolded him.

“Good heavens! How can you not consider Mr. Igeon’s situation at all? He’s upset, isn’t he!”

“!”

At those words, Igeon shot a look that said Ji-u was his only hope. Then Cheon Ji-u, as if telling him not to worry, produced something.

“I picked out some new clothes from the children’s section! Enough that you won’t be uncomfortable for a few months.”

“…….”

Igeon pressed his palm to his forehead.

It seemed these people were thoroughly pleased with him being in this state.

Well, they knew that only his appearance had changed and that it didn’t hinder his ability use one bit.

Even more so, they knew that this shrunken state actually boosted his abilities in certain ways.

“It’s been a while since I picked out children’s clothes; brought back old memories. Nice.”

I Jaewon, who had raised both Yuha and Seongjae, smiled brightly.

Cheon Ji-u also looked at Igeon with delight, as if in full agreement.

“Picking out children’s clothes made me feel like I’ve gone back to my thirties again. Thank you, Mr. Igeon.”

As Cheon Ji-u blushed with a squeal, Igeon sighed.

This was a person who looked like she was in her twenties or thirties like Taek-su because of the Holy God’s blessing—what was she talking about?

Well, it didn’t matter.

Enemies might think this shrunken state was a handicap, but on the contrary, his speed had become even faster.

On top of that, the Bible had been filled with new abilities, and personally, he’d suddenly gained a decent Trait.

[Trait: Imagination]

- Activation of creation ability (increases chance of new grades appearing during crafting)

- Random ability occurrence in combat

‘I don’t know why I got it.’

Igeon shot a glare at the slime, which was wriggling with mysterious amusement as it looked at him.

Anyway, the ability was fine, but there was one huge issue.

‘I can’t reach anything…!!’

Exactly.

Shelves, doors—everything in the sanctuary had been designed to fit his height, so problems bloomed everywhere.

‘Even the elevator…!’

Thanks to that, Yuha had even had to lift him up.

‘This is humiliation.’

So in that sense, he needed his original body back!

[The saints are bewildered by the Snake Master’s unusual appearance.]

[Confusion duration increased by 1 minute.]

[Confusion duration increased by 1 minute.]

[Confusion duration increased by 1 minute.]

[The time until your body returns to normal has been extended to a total of 17 hours.]

In the end, Igeon’s veins bulged.

“Ah, seriously!! Hey! Is this your first time seeing a little kid?! What’s with all the confusion! I can’t transform back because of you bastards!”

[Kyaa!! Even the baby snake-nim being angry is adorable…!]

“Damn it. How can someone with such a foul mouth be cute…!”

Tormented by the fanatics, Igeon trembled.

‘Killing them would be faster.’

He was starting to understand the feelings of a defector.

But that wasn’t what riled him up even more.

“Hey!! When did you take this?!”

“!”

At the voice from the other room, Igeon’s eyebrows twitched.

And sure enough.

In the next room, the Cheon siblings and Kevin were fighting with swords drawn.

Hearing the commotion, Hugo’s group rushed over in alarm.

And then—

“I’ll allow that you moved the shed skin since Igeon said he needed it! But why were you taking these things?”

It seemed the Cheon siblings, who had gone to retrieve the shed skin on Igeon’s orders, had been caught in the act of cleaning out the vault in real-time.

And because of that?

Having chased the teleported Cheon siblings down, Kevin pointed at the bundle, veins bulging.

“How dare lofty saints stoop to thievery!”

“Ha, what are you talking about! You said we could take what was in the vault!”

“What? I said take the shed skin, who told you to take the items!”

“It doesn’t matter since we just took them along!”

“??!”

The expressions of those watching their fight were something to behold.

It couldn’t be helped.

‘No, wait. All this was in the Virgo vault?’

Hugo, I Jaewon, and even Goth were horrified.

And rightfully so—everything that came out of the bundle looked like it belonged in the Cheon siblings’ room.

Igeon figurines, Igeon’s early equipment, old notebooks he used to use, clothes, even rare recordings of raid strategies.

Hugo looked at Kevin, utterly flabbergasted.

“You… pretending not to be one, were you actually Geon’s fanboy…?”

“What nonsense! All of this is just stuff I collected because I needed DNA when investigating death!”

At that, the Cheon siblings, as if caught red-handed, raised their voices.

“See! Even with money rotting away, they don’t know how precious this stuff is! First, this! Do you know how valuable this is among fans? It’s a monster drawing Uncle Geon drew when he was 22—the latent ability stat inside is a whopping….”

Kevin’s veins bulged as if he found it absurd.

“22 years old? That’s a drawing from when he was 23! The signature style is different, you brats!”

Hugo and I Jaewon’s jaws dropped.

“…Kevin, you too, a fanboy.”

“I said no!! All of this is collected for analysis because he’s my rival!”

“The world calls that a fanboy….”

Goth shook his head from side to side.

Eventually, Igeon clicked his tongue at the scene, then grabbed his own equipment from the bundle as if to say ‘enough’.

“Still, some useful stuff here.”

There were things that could be modified and repurposed.

But then—

Brrr.

At an urgent incoming message, Igeon’s eyes widened.

The sender alone made it so.

‘The President?’

He had given them his contact, telling them to reach out anytime if problems arose.

‘What’s going on?’

They wouldn’t contact him unless it was something serious.

‘And it’s an emergency mail, at that.’

But at the photo attached to the mail, Igeon’s eyes went round.

“This is….”

The photo seemed to have been taken at an observatory.

Blurry, but a familiar sight of an enormous monster.

‘Red Eyes?’

No, it wasn’t Red Eyes.

The color was entirely different from Red Eyes’ dark red hue.

And there wasn’t just one.

Just as an ominous feeling settled in, trouble struck.

Beep-beep-beep-beep—

“!”

An emergency alert was sent to the saints.

And upon seeing its contents, they were all shocked.

“Wh-what is this!”

It seemed the observatory had urgently sent the saints a map.

A map of the monsters’ movements.

But those who looked at the map all paled, a rare sight.

“C-crazy, what’s with these numbers?”

“Geon-ah!”

Igeon, who had also looked at the map, frowned.

‘It’s an invasion.’

Pitch-black dots were swarming toward humanity’s territory from all directions—east, west, south, north—leaving no escape route.

It couldn’t even be compared to the last invasion.

It felt just like the Red Eyes’ invasion, that era when humanity had stared at annihilation.

‘No, even more ominous and dangerous than that.’

At the same time, Igeon frowned as he looked at the photo the President had sent.

‘Then could this be…’

Exactly.

What had been captured in the photo were Red Eyes’ siblings.

The Four Great Calamities had come to annihilate humanity.

Leading the scattered monsters—every monster from beyond Earth.

* * *

And it was around that time.

[Master, are you alright?]

[The invasion of humanity goes against the will of the ’s Lord. You may end up clashing with the …]

At those words, a boy laughed as if it were ludicrous.

“It’s fine. The can’t touch me anyway.”

[!]

He was the father of Red Eyes, the father who bred calamities just like Red Eyes.

.

And while and were something had created to solidify his own power, the was different.

A Great Lord equal to .

and the were brothers.

But even as brothers, their relationship wasn’t necessarily good.

‘Because I’m kin, I got dragged into a regression I never even wanted.’

“And it’s not the wrong path anyway. The will devour all saints and Holy Gods, and wipe out all of humanity, regardless.”

had lent Red Eyes—the youngest of his children—to the .

And using him at the forefront, the had devoured all saints and Holy Gods across every past timeline, gaining power.

And then killed every human on Earth.

So their goals were ultimately the same.

But—

‘Igeon. That bastard can eliminate the .’

Though he himself couldn’t strike the because of their brotherly pact, well.

With the ’s power that guy possessed, even killing the Great Lord would be possible.

Of course, it was absolutely impossible in his current state.

As if reading that expression, his subordinate furrowed his brow.

[You seem to have something else in mind.]

“That power he has. Once it reaches its highest stage, it’ll be a sight to see.”

[!!]

[When you say highest stage, do you mean the rank of an ordinary god—Stage 5…?]

“No. Every time that guy’s emotions run rough, that of his grows as strong as a Great Lord.”

had felt it while constantly observing Igeon through the .

Especially during the incident.

Although the had been created by and themselves, it was by no means an ordinary entity.

But the power the revealed when entangled with Yeon-u was of a completely different quality than usual.

In other words—

“It’s certain. If we break his mentality, he could destroy time and the world itself.”

[!]

“Well, the power might not be that great, so we’ll have to test it.”

Sending forth the calamities, Chaos laughed as he looked at a certain photo.

“The first is you.”

His gaze fell upon Sagittarius.

(To be continued…)