Resurrection Chapter 45 - I Do Not Remember

“Who are you calling careless and sloppy?”

“Who else but you.”

“I have never done that…!”

“Is that really so? You might not be aware of it, but you have been like that since your days as an all-around job character. Why do you think you became a team breaker? It is because you were indecisive, saying you liked this guy then that guy, and saying things like ‘Can’t we all just get along?'”

“Well, they are all my comrades, so how can I like some and dislike others? The ones who are in the wrong are the ones who ask questions that are no different from asking ‘Do you like mom or dad?’ while fighting. Even if I did that, it is all in the past. Right now, I only have Heesoo hyung…!”

After spitting out the words in anger, I felt quite embarrassed. I quickly added.

“I did not mean it in a strange way…! I mean, since Heesoo hyung is my partner, I will not be swayed by other people anymore, and I will not be using my resurrection skill recklessly.”

If nothing else, I was confident about the resurrection skill. If I started using the resurrection skill on anyone out of reckless compassion, it would be the same as throwing myself into a crucible of chaos. It was the surest way to throw myself into the abyss, so I had absolutely no intention of using the resurrection skill on anyone other than Heesoo hyung.

A moment of silence passed, and then Heesoo hyung spoke.

“The cause of the destruction that Mr. Min Gongchan mentioned can be narrowed down to two possibilities. As Mr. Min Gongchan said, I either go berserk due to my feelings for Mr. Yitae. Or, Ulfheðinn takes over my body and destroys the world.”

I put more weight on the latter.

“If Ulfheðinn keeps appearing out of the blue like this, he might destroy the world against your will, Heesoo hyung, instead of saving it.”

Min Gongchan shook his head.

“No, those two things are one and the same.”

“Why?”

He answered my question immediately.

“You saw it earlier, did you not? The situation in which Ulfheðinn appears. It does not matter whether the true identity is Seo Heesoo or Ulfheðinn. The point is you, Kim Yitae.”

“What, so you are saying the world is going to be destroyed because of me, not Heesoo hyung?”

Instead of answering, Min Gongchan looked at me intently. I flinched at his desolate eyes.

Somehow, his eyes had no light. They were as black as a black hole, like a bottomless abyss.

He lowered his eyelids with a weary expression and said.

“The best thing is for Seo Heesoo to not have the ability to destroy the world in the first place. No matter how much you want destruction, it is meaningless if you do not have the skill for it. So, Kim Yitae, all you have to do is give up on Seo Heesoo. Then I will not have to kill Seo Heesoo either, and it will be a happy ending for everyone.”

My face contorted.

“Do not talk nonsense. What happy ending?”

“……”

“Saying that the world is fine as it is is something that only the awakened would say. When monsters can pop out anytime and anywhere, and superpowered criminals that cannot be punished by public authority are running rampant, what part of that is a happy ending?”

Min Gongchan did not particularly refute my words. I seized the momentum and continued.

“The real way to have a happy ending is to return the world to how it was before. Kill that damn dragon, have the gods plug the hole, and tell them to get lost with their awakened system.”

The Golden Emperor sent a message warning me to be careful with my choice of words, but I ignored it. It was he who chose me, knowing my plan.

I declared with unwavering conviction.

“I cannot give up on Heesoo hyung. I will make him reach the max level and save this world.”

👑

After the monster break passed and I left the orphanage, I wandered the streets.

There were many children like me on the streets. Some had run away from orphanages like me, and some had been abandoned without even setting foot in an orphanage.

There were not a few cases of being abandoned by their biological parents. With monsters popping out anytime and anywhere and epidemics rampant, it was difficult to take care of even one’s own children. It was a time when it was hard to even make ends meet.

Making ends meet. At that time, that was a big challenge. I could not get food by begging. It was the same even if I rummaged through the trash. I was so hungry that I shoved anything I could eat into my mouth. When things got really bad, I even grilled and ate monster meat.

Even though there was a rumor that eating monster meat would turn you into a monster, I was not in a position to be picky. Monster meat tasted foul, was slimy when it touched fire, and gave me a severe stomach ache after eating it, but it helped to appease my hunger.

Sometimes, very rarely, older boys would grill and eat meat that did not look like it came from a monster or an animal. Rumors of man-eating cannibals were rampant in every alley, and children disappeared every other day, so I was not particularly surprised when I found a half-charred finger.

They were days of lawlessness and barbarism.

‘Hey kids, do you want to work? If you help me, I will help you too. I cannot pay you generously, but I will make sure you do not go hungry.’

One day, some kind-looking hunters came. We were very surprised by what he said. No one ever gave jobs to street kids like us. If they spotted us, they were busy chasing us away like rats.

At the words that we would not go hungry, we answered that we would do anything without thinking twice. The hunters gathered the street children like the Pied Piper.

They put us in a large jeep and took us to a dungeon entrance under a sewer. At the hunter’s base camp set up there, we ate proper food for the first time in a very long time.

I can say with certainty that the instant rice I ate then was the most delicious rice I have ever had.

After eating our fill, we were full of motivation. We revered the hunter as a righteous man and a benefactor, and resolved to do anything he asked.

How foolish we were.

Hunger must have made our heads stupid too.

The next day, the hunters took us into the dungeon. And they hunted using us as bait.

Needless to say, a child’s pace could not outrun a monster. The hunters hunted the monsters while the children’s small bodies were being torn apart. When the monster was dead, the hunters had us cut up the monster’s carcass and collect the byproducts.

When we came out of the dungeon after finishing the first hunt, less than a third of the children had survived. The hunters locked us in a wire fence to prevent us from escaping.

Needless to say, they did not give us proper food. What could be called a meal came only once a week, on Sunday.

It is funny, but I was happy to be able to eat even just once on Sunday. The hunters constantly brought in children from somewhere, and the children died day after day.

I, who was fast on my feet, continued to survive while the children changed. I survived and ate on Sundays. I lived in that hellish sewer hole for a whopping three years.

Looking back, my survival there was nothing short of a miracle. After about half a year, the hunters started to take notice of me. After about a year, they praised me as a damn lucky guy and gave me snacks. When two years had passed, they no longer locked me in the wire fence.

In exchange for my freedom, I served the hunters. I went ahead on hunts and took care of laundry and cleaning at the camp.

But I did not have to prepare meals, because they did not ask me to. They were clearly worried that I would poison the food.

Then one day, I awakened.

It was truly sudden, like a bolt from the blue.

When I was desperate to awaken, there was no news, but it suddenly came to me while I was doing laundry in the sewer. I awakened in the water mixed with soapy water and sewage, and there was no joy or emotion in it.

As soon as I awakened, all sorts of minor gods flocked to me.

Not all gods create a holy land and select apostles through trials like Ulfheðinn. At that time, gods were overflowing, and gods with no particular abilities often gave revelations to anyone who awakened.

The first god to come to me was the so-called Dreamer. Hunters often suffered from nightmares, so they held that god, who was said to bring good sleep, in high regard. They had made a small shrine in a corner of the base camp, so the Dreamer found me as soon as I awakened.

I took him as my main god and received his abilities. With those abilities, that night, I made the hunters fall into a sleep so deep that they would not have known if they were carried away, and then I killed them all.

The hunters also served the Dreamer, but they had no choice but to take a combat-type god as their main god. On the other hand, since I took the Dreamer as my main god, I was able to prevent them from waking up.

After killing the hunters, I was afraid of retaliation and ran away. For a while, I mixed with porters, and for a while, I hung out with hyenas.

Through various experiences, I grew into a decent hunter. Eventually, I was able to work under the uncool nickname of an all-around job character.

But I had to see and experience too much to get there. I knew better than anyone what was happening at the bottom of the dungeons.