Episode 1: Regression
The Great Cataclysm.
A massive event that turned ordinary life into a living hell.
The once-clear air became murky in an instant, blanketing the surface and hindering people’s ability to breathe.
Dark fissures, like stars, appeared across the sky, and after a certain amount of time, monsters began pouring out, tearing through the land.
The damage was truly catastrophic. Civilization collapsed in an instant, and the death toll rose steeply.
The military tried to intervene and suppress the monsters, but regular firearms couldn’t penetrate the blackish protective shield surrounding them.
It seemed like the end was near, but then humanity found hope.
This hope came in the form of a clear substance—Mana, created as a result of the fissures.
Those who awakened through this Mana were called Players.
Kang Jin-woo was one of those Players.
Known as the Martial God, Kang Jin-woo.
Although he didn’t possess flashy abilities like magic or telekinesis, but he was a master of every weapon and had a body honed to the extreme.
However, even Martial God Kang Jin-woo was now on the verge of death.
“Cough!”
Not even his highly trained body could withstand the fatal wound that pierced his chest.
As he was slowly being pulled into the abyss of death,
The one responsible for his condition sat on a rock, casually smoking a cigarette.
Kang Jin-woo glared at him with bloodshot eyes.
“You bastard… Cough!”
“If only you had toned it down a bit.”
The Immortal Lord of, Aiden Rayfold.
One of the ten superhumans who awakened early in the cataclysm.
Superhumans gained power far beyond that of ordinary hunters.
That’s why we called them superhumans or monarchs.”
“Ugh…”
“I must say, watching our Martial God fall is quite the sight, don’t you think?” Aiden smirked.
“……”
“See? If you had just surrendered quietly, none of this would’ve happened.”
Monarchs sought to rule humanity rather than simply annihilate monsters.
They had the power to do so and were supported by people who relied on them almost like a religion.
The one who opposed them was Kang Jin-woo.
As the Martial God, he engaged in an unseen battle of wits with the monarchs.
In fact, Kang Jin-woo was a late bloomer, having awakened 15 years later than the others.
Despite that, he was still referred to as the Martial God by the people, and he had now become a threat to the monarchs.
“I never imagined it would end up like this…”
Kang Jin-woo couldn’t hide his feelings of emptiness.
To be defeated not by monsters, but by the hands of another awakened one—someone among those hailed as humanity’s heroes.
About a week ago.
Disaster has struck.
The Blue Gate.
Instead of the dark cracks that had appeared until now, a massive gate of blue energy appeared in Seoul.
[A dungeon has appeared.]
[Unable to measure rating.]
[If not cleared within the time limit, monsters will start pouring out.]
The players were stunned by the news that the dungeon’s rating could not be assessed. The Blue Gate grew larger by absorbing the surrounding gates as they appeared.
In the face of this mysterious situation, the prophets cried out that if this dungeon wasn’t cleared, humanity would face extinction, while the analysts who studied the gate remained silent.
However, there was still hope. One of the analysts who had remained silent finally spoke up.
“This gate is the last one! I’m certain!”
Though it was an outrageous claim, the analyst’s declaration held considerable weight.
The Blue Gate had absorbed the surrounding gates, and more importantly, no new gates had appeared.
The idea that “if we clear this dungeon perfectly, we’ll be free from the threat of monsters” no longer sounded like nonsense.
Many hoped the monarchs would step in, but they had disappeared without a trace.
In the end, Kang Jin-woo gathered an elite team to deal with the gate. As a result, after a week of fierce battles, they succeeded in defeating the boss monster.
They had cleared what had seemed like an impossible dungeon.
“That’s it!”
“…I never thought we’d actually clear it.”
“Ugh…..”
The battle was grueling, with 992 out of 1,000 elite members perishing.
The survivors couldn’t fully rejoice, burdened by the memory of their fallen comrades.
“…..”
Standing at the center of the group, Jin-woo was at a loss for words.
These elite personnel are people that I personally called together. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a sense of responsibility.
“It’s okay. Thanks to you, we brought glory to the last gate,” his comrades consoled him, sensing his thoughts.
“Let’s head back. We’ve collected all the items.”
Here’s the translation for the item descriptions:
[Rune of the Beginning]
– Grade: Indeterminate
– Type: Consumable Item
– Description: A rune imbued with the power of the primordial spirit, Aclis.
– Effect: Returns you to a past timeline (random).
[Compass]
– Skill Type: Passive
– Grade: Indeterminate
– Effect: Tracks objects of a specified type (location, time).
– Cannot be changed once set.
– Once absorbed, it never disappears.**
The Compass returned to Jin-woo, who had fought on the front lines.
The Rune of the Beginning did as well. However, using the Rune of the Beginning would never happen.
Now that everything is over, I don’t want to go back and do the same thing again.
You can’t stay sad forever.
They needed to quickly deliver news of their victory to the people outside.
At that moment—crack!—a chilling sound brushed past Jin-woo’s ears.
“Urgh!”
When he turned his head, one of his comrades was collapsing forward, coughing up blood.
“Tae-ho!”
A fellow colleague hurriedly checked the fallen man’s body.
He was already dead—his heart had been pierced.
But what was embedded in his chest was eerily familiar.
“The Spear of Light?”
Jin-woo muttered blankly.
It was the Spear of Light, said to be wielded only by the Monarch of Dawn, one of the ten monarchs.
“This… this is… the weapon used by the Monarch of Dawn…?”
The others, realizing it late, looked at each other in shock.
Just then, the remaining monarchs slowly revealed themselves—nine in total.
All of them, except for the Monarch of Immortality.
“Why?”
“Why…?”
His colleagues murmured in disbelief. Jin-woo’s eyes grew cold.
“Why did you kill our comrade?”
Before he knew it, a sword had appeared in his hand. The ones who had taken his comrade’s life.
“…..”
The monarchs said nothing.
They simply unleashed their abilities and launched a coordinated attack on Jin-woo and his comrades.
As a result, all his comrades were killed, and Jin-woo, fighting until the end, was eventually struck down with a fatal wound at the hands of the Monarch of Immortality, who had appeared late.
It was a strength that was on a different level from that of the other monarchs. Without even being able to properly use his own power, he was brought to the verge of death with just one attack.
“I’ll give you that. You managed to kill two of the ten monarchs.”
As the Monarch of Immortality said, Kang Jin-woo didn’t go down easily.
Beside his fallen comrades lay the bloodied bodies of two monarchs, once supreme beings in the world of the awakened.
But Aiden seemed unfazed by their deaths, not even sparing them a glance.
“To think you could do this, even after being so worn out from taking down the boss.”
Jin-woo’s consciousness gradually began to fade.
His body wouldn’t move, and even the pain was slowly subsiding.
“I’m grateful you awakened late. It seems God was on our side after all.”
Aiden said with a smile—one that seemed to wash away all the lingering burdens he had been carrying.
‘Damn it… If only I had awakened a little earlier… If only I had started on the stood on t he same starting line as those bastards!’
Watching Aiden’s smile filled Jin-woo with overwhelming regret.
He should have realized something was wrong when the monarchs refused to step in. The problem had been his complete trust in the idea of a “final gate.”
‘If I were given one more chance… would the situation have been reversed?’
Jin-woo shed bitter tears of blood inside.
He kept repeating an impossible wish over and over in his mind.
At that moment, the Rune of the Beginning flashed through his thoughts.
With trembling hands, he opened his inventory.
“You’ve done well to make it this far,” Aiden said, as a crimson dagger materialized in his right hand.
The dagger was about to pierce Jin-woo’s throat—
[Would you like to use the Rune of the Beginning?]
‘I will use it…’
There was only one choice
***
“Ugh!”
When he came to his senses, he was lying on a bed.
Jin-woo hastily sat up, staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes.
“Gasp! Gasp!”
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and felt around his neck and chest, where he had been pierced.
The wounds were gone—his body was completely unscathed.
Slowly, he looked around.
A TV, a laptop, a refrigerator, a drum washing machine, and blue wallpaper with polka dots and matching curtains.
It was a scene he knew all too well—
His old apartment from his university days.
“Did… I return?”
He clearly remembered using the Rune of the Beginning just before the monarchs attacked and he was on the brink of death.
“Did I return successfully?”
With a confused expression, Jin-woo rushed to the bathroom and looked into the mirror.
The scars from countless battles since his awakening had vanished, leaving behind the clear face of a young man.
Not only was it free from the marks of battles, but it wasn’t even the face of his early forties—it was the face of his early twenties.
“What day is it?”
He quickly checked the date.
May 20th, 2023.
Jin-woo had returned to the time when he was around 20 years old.
To be precise, it was exactly ten years after the gates first appeared.
He pinched his cheek as hard as he could. It hurt enough to bring tears to his eyes, confirming that this wasn’t a dream but reality.
“If that’s the case, then the monarchs…”
Jin-woo’s gaze darkened.
It had already been ten years since the great cataclysm.
Many things had changed during that time, and an era where awakeners were celebrated had arrived.
Among them were the ten monarchs, known as the “Noble Skies.”
They were the strongest players representing the world, each with a title that matched their abilities.
In contrast, Jin-woo had not yet awakened.
He would awaken in five years and, after a few more years, his potential would explode, earning him recognition as someone who could rival the monarchs after fifteen years.
But now, he had returned to a point five years earlier.
“If I can accelerate my awakening…”
If he had awakened even a little earlier, he wouldn’t have fallen so easily, even if faced with such dire situations.
Jin-woo sat down and began to meditate.
Mana, the substance that covers the Earth.
Everyone now breathed in mana.
Those who awakened through it were called players.
Of course, many people could not awaken. The reason for this was that to awaken, one needed to capture this mana and convert it into magical power for use.
This was why Jin-woo had awakened late. Each individual had a different method, so if one did not understand it, awakening could be delayed.
However, Jin-woo now had vivid memories of how he had awakened back then, allowing him to easily convert mana into magical power and use it.
[You have qualified as an awakener.]
[Would you like to awaken?]
The response came quickly. Jin-woo nodded and accepted the power.
[You have successfully awakened. Your player ability is ‘Weapon Mastery.’]
Weapon Mastery.
It was an ability that allowed him to handle all weapons with proficiency.
It was the ability that would later help him rise to the position of the Martial God.
As Jin-woo finished awakening and rose from his seat, he looked out the window.
He made a firm resolve as he thought of the monarchs who were somewhere, diligently increasing their power.
‘This time, I’ll be the one to kill you.’
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