108. The Truth of the World

Why did it have to be in the middle of Jirisan Mountain?

Ko Byeong-gap faced the same question about sixty times while climbing the mountain. In short, he was annoyed. Who would find it pleasant climbing a mountain early in the morning? Hills would be better, and they were usually not that steep.

However, he didn’t have to worry about wandering since he had been there once. He had a pretty good sense of direction too.

“Phew. Let’s take a break.”

He sat on a stone and caught his breath out. He seemed to be 80 percent on his way. He would reach his destination in another 20 to 30 minutes.

He had a strong desire to smoke, but it didn’t feel right to smoke in the mountains, so he just drank water.

“… Hmm?”

Ko Byeong-gap responded instinctively to the presence he felt nearby. All he could see was a bunch of trees, but he could feel the dynamic movement beyond them.

‘A boar? No, it’s not a wild animal.’

He tensed up and drew the sword from his waist. It wasn’t a very menacing presence, but it was threatening for the presence of an animal.

Was it a hunter? Maybe it was Kim Hana or the kids she carried around.

As he considered he felt appeared. Ko Byeong-gap frowned.

‘… A Horned Gabri? Hey!’

The horse-shaped beast, Horned Gabri, charged with its four-pronged mouth wide open, which was red and wet. It looked like it had just finished hunting.

Why was the monster here? Such a question was put aside for the time being. He moved flexibly and drew his sword.

“Eep!”

The Horned Gabri’s neck was then cut off as easily as tofu. Slaughtering a D-class monster was nothing more difficult than blowing his nose.

Ko Byeong-gap brushed off his sword and focused his mind. He didn’t detect any other threatening presence in the area.

“Shit. They said the place of the Monster Wave was in North Korea. Why did a monster pop out way down there?”

There were two cases. A monster from the north came through the siege, or a separate Monster Wave took place in this area. Either way, it wasn’t good news, so he moved immediately.

He speeded up and soon reached his destination. Of course, Kim Hana was nowhere to be seen. Ko Byeong-gap calmly waited for her to appear.

Five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, and an hour passed like that.

“Hey! I’m here! I’m here!”

Kim Hana didn’t show up. Only birds flapped as they squeaked in the air.

“Huh… Why isn’t she showing up?”

“Say something. What am I? A guard dog?”

He then heard a voice behind his back. Kim Hana, covered with her cloak, stood from him at a reasonable distance. Ko Byeong-gap felt a little annoyed.

“Oh my God. Why are you so late?”

“It’s a mistake if you think I was sitting and playing. It seems that what you were planning has worked out. Seeing you have come here again.”

“That’s true.”

Kim Hana sniffed a few times.

“You smell like blood. Did you have a fight?”

“That’s right. Damn it. There’s a monster here.”

“In this mountain?”

“Uh-huh.”

Her expression became serious. Ko Byeong-gap added, all while staring at something invisible, “I’ve been distracted by the other world for a while. But when I came back to Earth, something ridiculous was happening.”

“You mean the Monster Wave.”

“Yeah, you know something about it, don’t you? That’s why you asked me to come to you.”

Instead of answering, Kim Hana opened the door to the other world.

“Follow me. I’ll tell you the truth of the world.”

***

The view of the ice caps made him sigh.

Ko Byeong-gap was able to know the place after he regained the power of the Lord.

The stone plate from Kim Hana’s house. According to the inscription on the stone tablet’s back, this was Cheondo Mountain.

A Spirit creature called a Dragon lived in the distant past in the far north of the continent. A land of cruelty that the weak can’t even set foot on.

Even that great Landriol stayed away from this land, so what more explanation was needed? Therefore, building a log cabin on top of Cheondo Mountain was amazing in many ways.

They sat face to face with a round table between them. Kim Hana was the first one to speak.

“I have a question before I tell you my story.”

“A question? Tell me. I’ll answer if I can.”

Ko Byeong-gap answered lightly. He thought she would ask him about his position as the Goblin Lord. However, her question proved to be quite a bit strange.

“Mr. Byeong-gap, what would you do if you could be a God who rules the world?”

“Well… That would be nice, of course.”

“You seem interested in being a God.”

“No. I’m not really interested in it, but everyone imagines it once, right? Imagine becoming omnipotent.”

Ko Byeong-gap had a lot of such imaginations. When he was struggling with money and worries, he fell into delusions several times a day.

“Yeah, so if you could sacrifice billions of humans to become truly omnipotent, would you do it?”

“No.”

Ko Byeong-gap answered without hesitation. Kim Hana still spoke in a serious tone.

“Why?”

“There’s no need to pursue such grandeur. Well, had it been me years ago, I might’ve been interested. But now, I’m not. Being almighty? All I need is enough money and stability. What’s more, sacrificing billions of human lives? It’s an idea that can’t be done unless you’re a real psycho.”

He added after a pause.

“Well… I also know a man who challenged the authority of God.”

“What do you mean?”

“No, don’t mind what I just said. The situation is related to God, right?”

“You would think it’s futile too.”

“I was just guessing.”

“Guessing?”

He couldn’t help but predict it. Ko Byeong-gap was aware of the link between the Earth and Ashvilam.

Not long ago, he was almost convinced after he heard the old story from Chitosan’s Lord, Kunta. Madmut was the reason behind Deep Impact 29 years ago.

“As you know, I’m not an ordinary person. There were a lot of things that were going on.”

“You really are.”

“Why don’t you stop dragging and tell me? What is the truth of the world?”

“I’ll do that. I’m sure it’s a hard story to believe, but I won’t say a single lie. I want you to believe me.”

“There’s nothing I can’t believe now. If you said Martians existed, I’d believe it.”

Kim Hana didn’t even pretend to laugh at his joke. Ko Byeong-gap was so embarrassed that he smacked his lips.

She sipped tea and finally spoke.

“I’m not Kim Hana. My real name is Seo Si-hee.”

“Seo… Si-hee? The Seo Si-hee I know?”

“Yes, and I am a regressor. There are 17 other regressors in the world besides me. The story goes back to before I returned.”

Kim Hana… No, Seo Si-hee talked with a determined look. It was an incredible story, as she foretold.

***

– The human race was dying. Doom ran at them like a fireball.

2029. There were no more cracks on Earth. The Deep Impact, which started out of the blue, ended abruptly.

Human beings had already relied on magic stones for much of their lives. Deep Impact’s sudden end wasn’t pleasant.

It was fine until then… There were still many unattacked cracks, so there was no need to worry about the energy source being depleted right away.

However, when the resources that were thought to be infinite suddenly became finite, mankind became desperate. Several powers fought to secure more cracks.

At first, there was conversation and negotiation. As time went by, however, force took precedence over words. Soldiers flocked to borders and land without owners.

In 2033, China and the United States waged war over ownership of the Antarctic cracks. The war escalated out of control, eventually leading to World War III. After all, the difference between World War II and World War III wasn’t just because the latter wielded better weapons.

– Hunters were brought into the war. In a flurry of air raids, hunters were crushed, and one hunter destroyed an entire division. What was clear was that an unimaginable amount of people had died.

Seo Si-hee expressed that mankind was drenched with madness.

They fought as if there were no tomorrow. The destruction carried on even after winning the war.

Three years… Time passed silently, and the war lasted for as long as five years. Small countries disappeared into history.

Suddenly, it happened.

– The first monster wave happened. However, what came out of the crack wasn’t a monster. It was an unfamiliar existence.

The end of 2038. They descended on the Chinese continent. They were different from the monsters they had been dealing with. Hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers were armed with spears and armor.

They wiped out all humans in China in just three days. They destroyed China in less than five days, which the United States couldn’t do anything about.

In particular, the leader who led the army was a being that defied common sense. It caused an earthquake with one gesture or struck a thunderbolt the size of a mountain from a cloudless sky.

It also released an unidentified force field that modern science couldn’t explain, neutralizing all ranged attacks.

It was truly ‘God’ himself.

By that time, the current war had reached a state of truce for a while.

– Humanity felt threatened by a powerful enemy that they had never encountered before. Resources and things like that were meaningless in an instant. It was truly a matter of life and death for mankind. So, each country agreed to suspend war for a while and stand up to the common enemy first.

For days, mankind, which had been fighting, formed a coalition. As a result, the most elite Hunter Corps of 37,000 people was created.

42 SS-class hunters led the Hunter Corps, and Seo Si-hee was also in it.

The Hunters who were chosen as representatives of mankind fought desperately. If they could sleep even 10 minutes a day, they were lucky, and eating was considered a luxury among luxuries.

Whether it was raining, snowing, night or day, they fought against the enemy. The all-out war on humanity’s life and death lasted for as long as nine months.

The Hunter Corps, which began at 37,000 people, was reduced to a thousand and a few hundred at the end. Also, the final battle took place around that time.

– We finally won. It was a victory for mankind… but the bloodthirsty couldn’t raise a toast. We were betrayed.

The hunters finally defeated the enemy leader. They miraculously won the battle between the lion and the ant. Of the 37,000 people, only 18 survived. 18 SS-class hunters, including Seo Si-hee. Only they could stand on the ground until the end.

However, it wasn’t a comfortable break or a memorial to the dead that greeted them. It was missiles and nuclear weapons that soon covered the entire sky.

As soon as they confirmed that the unknown force field had disappeared, the Allied Forces of Humanity launched a bombing on Wonsan.

At this point, Ko Byeong-gap couldn’t stand without asking, “Why the hell? You’re saying you’ve won, but why did they bomb you?”

“I’m sure they were afraid.”

“What do you mean afraid?”

“The Awakeners have finally won the war that they thought humanity would never be able to win. At that moment, we were no longer considered human. In the eyes of ordinary people, we were seen as monsters just like them. A monster that must be wiped out.”

Thousands of missiles hit the ground.

Nuclear weapons swept everything under the sky, creating huge mushroom clouds.

Even an SS-class hunter couldn’t withstand the ruthless bombing. The last 18 people who were severely stabbed in the back in exchange for defending humanity were devastated.

And at that very moment, the enemy who they thought was dead spoke to them.