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< The story changes from now on >
I picked up the old cell phone that was lying on the desk and checked the date.
[July 1, 2018.]
“Stop being a dog!”
Phew!
I got so angry that I threw my phone and kicked the wall. There was a dull thud from the wall and a terrible pain in my foot.
“Ugh···.”
I rolled over on the bed, clutching my feet. Tears welled up in pain. I was lucky my toes weren’t broken.
I couldn’t help but admit that I was in so much pain.
That I went back in time.
“f*ck, f*ck, f*ck···.”
You left everything you had worked like a dog for 20 years to the future, and came back penniless?
“Why on earth?! What did I do wrong!”
I recalled my last memory before I opened my eyes here.
Last night was my retirement party.
It wasn’t that great.
I was just an average superhuman who went back and forth between B and C class my whole life.
I didn’t belong to a big guild, and I had never had any great achievements.
For the past few years I’ve been playing free-to-play without a guild.
So, as for the retirement party, it was nothing more than inviting old friends to the newly completed house and having a drinking party.
All night long, he chattered about old stories and what he would do after he retired. He showed me around his mansion and showed off his collection that he had amassed over the past 10 years.
“and···.”
I remember my friends giving me all sorts of things as retirement gifts.
The status quo drank all the liquor that the gnome had brought from the demon world right there on the spot.
Where did the beggar Jubal from Murim catch a dog?
Dwarf Gwendolyn almost burned down the yard to show off her new fireworks.
···That b*tch Unju, what kind of stink is that? She made an album with our old photos and brought them – other people just looked at them and liked them – but it made people feel uneasy.
“Why are all the guys who have stayed by my side for 20 years like this?”
I remember grumbling like that when I was drunk.
And finally, the gift that that guy Jungcheol gave me.
He handed me a wristwatch made of a metal I had never seen before, saying that he had obtained it from the recently developed continent of Byron.
“Great man, this watch. It is said that it is one of the relics of a legendary wizard named Tichtal on the continent of Byron. How precious is it…?”
“What the hell. I bet he picked it up at an antique shop.”
I also remember Jungcheol giving that guy a hard time.
That’s what happened···.
“···Why is that watch here?”
I muttered, staring blankly at the watch on my left wrist.
It looks unique, like something from another dimension.
A dark blue metal not found on Earth has a delicate geometric silver pattern engraved on it.
Inside the transparent watch were hundreds of tiny gears that meshed intricately together.
Although Jungcheol spoke rudely to the guy, it was definitely a luxury watch made by a craftsman.
All five hands on the clock of the continent of Byron had stopped.
“···I was definitely going back last night.”
Now that I think about it, I think my friends all left and I was left alone in my room, fiddling with the clock.
And then I got drunk and fell asleep.
“I woke up and I was here.”
If I could see my face in a mirror, it would be quite a sight.
Because it would have been distorted terribly.
“Could this be… a regression item?”
Regression item.
An object that has various opinions even among superhumans as to whether it actually exists.
What if the watch that guy Jungchul gave me was really that item by coincidence?
I was drunk and just touched it without thinking and used the item.
It’s a vague, made-up explanation, but there’s no other way to explain it.
That’s what I mean. Jungcheol-ah···.
“This is a f*ck!”
I screamed. My hands were shaking.
For 20 years, I lived tenaciously, enduring all kinds of dirty, dangerous, and deadly things.
I barely managed to retire like that.
The end of hardship was the beginning of happiness!
The thought of having to go through all that trouble again made my eyes dizzy.
It was then that someone from the next room started pounding on the wall in anger.
Boom bang bang bang bang!
The murderous voice continues.
“Hey kid! Are you living here alone?!”
When I hear your voice, memories come flooding back vividly.
20 years ago, the man who lived in the room next to the goshiwon I lived in.
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There was a big, gangster-like man in his 40s who reigned over this cheap goshiwon like a king.
Every night, he would get drunk and cause trouble, and when he slept, he would snore so loudly that I couldn’t sleep without earplugs.
But no one could question the man.
Because he was the only son of the owner of this goshiwon.
There was no other goshiwon as cheap as this one around here, and since I was living in a situation where I couldn’t afford it, I had no choice but to live like I was dead rather than getting kicked out for complaining.
“Ha. The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
I suffered more because I lived next door to the man.
I had to endure it even though he kept taking more than 100,000 won from me little by little while asking to borrow money.
That was before I had awakened as a superhuman.
“To be exact, I didn’t know I had awakened like a retard.”
As I continued to mutter to myself, there was another round of rough knocking on the wall in the next room.
Boom, bang, bang!
“You little brat, do you want to get screwed? Shut your mouth!”
“······.”
I got out of bed and went out of the room.
The hallway of the goshiwon was so narrow that only one person could barely pass through.
There was no need to walk down the hallway since the destination was right next door.
dripping-.
“Sir, let me see.”
I knocked politely and after a moment the door opened halfway. A fierce-looking man glared at me through the crack in the door.
“What is it?”
“I’m sorry for making noise.”
As I lowered my head, the man chuckled. And then the door opened wide.
He reached out and roughly stroked my head.
“Hey kid. You still have manners.”
On his plump, pink sausage-like arm was a tattoo of either a snake or an worm. I couldn’t help but snicker when I saw the tattoo.
‘I don’t know what scared me about that when I was little.’
The man’s hand naturally moved down from my head to my shoulder. He tapped my shoulder and spoke.
“Do you have any money? My brother needs money urgently. I’ll pay you back in a few days. Okay?”
“······.”
I smiled and looked into his face.
Yeah, that’s what this kid was like.
Thanks to that, the slight guilt about what was going to happen was neatly removed.
“I have something to tell you about money anyway.”
“How much is it? It’s okay. Just give me what you have. Otherwise···.”
His gaze turned to my wristwatch. There was greed in the man’s eyes.
“Can you lend me that watch?”
I chuckled.
And then he poured out what he really wanted to say 20 years ago.
“I don’t have to do it in the last time.
The surprised man’s eyes widened and his face turned bright red.
“이, 이 개새끼가···!”
I moved before my opponent could take action.
She grabbed the chubby arm resting on her shoulder and twisted it to the side, simultaneously pushing the man’s face to the side and slamming it against the wall.
Kwajik!
“Ugh!”
A man staggering with blood dripping from his nose. I grabbed his face with both hands and pulled him down without giving him a chance to come to his senses.
And then he just hit my face with his knee.
Bam!
The plump body collapsed powerlessly.
“Whew… I feel a little less stressed now.”
I searched the fallen man’s pockets. He said he had no money, but I saw several bright blue bills in his wallet.
“One, two, three… eight. Is this all there is?”
“You, this dog.”
The fallen man glared at me with venomous eyes, so I kicked him in the face.
“Cough!!”
“You pathetic little punk.”
Anyway, this guy will die within a month.
So, even after I awakened as a superhuman 20 years ago, I couldn’t collect my debt. When I remembered and went to see him, he was already dead.
For a brief moment, that thought occurred to me.
I guess I’ve regressed. Should I go after the guys who bullied me in the past?
I thought about that for a moment and then shook my head.
It’s not just once or twice, when would that happen?
It’s also annoying.
“If something stressful comes up, I’ll go to them one by one. Like today.”
“Ugh···.”
I looked around his room, my feet firmly planted on his chest.
This kid had a room that was three times bigger than the others. It had a proper closet, a new TV, and a new refrigerator.
“Wow. There are a lot of nice clothes.”
I took out the leather jacket hanging at the very front of the closet.
A material that looked quite luxurious. I could tell at a glance that it was worth it.
“Is it made from monster hide?”
Although it cannot be compared to the equipment worn by superhumans, a certain level of defensive power could be expected.
I put on a leather jacket over the baggy t-shirt I was wearing and it looked pretty good.
“Sir, I’ll make up for the shortfall with this.”
“You, you know how much that costs···.”
Even as he fell, the man desperately tried to hold on to his leather jacket. I crouched down in front of him and said,
“Then, do you want to pay it back with your body, including the interest?”
“······.”
The man shut his mouth with a pale face. I said, zipping up my leather jacket.
“Tell the landlady that I’m leaving the room.”
And then I went back to my room and packed my bags.
Thud thud.
As I walked along the narrow hallway of the goshiwon, I felt eyes peering at me through slightly open doors.
Clap clap clap.
There were also people who clapped silently as if they were exhilarated.
There were also people who closed the door as soon as their eyes met because they didn’t want to get involved.
Some gazes were saying this.
‘How are you going to deal with the aftermath later?’
‘If I leave here, is there anywhere I can go?’
‘I should have endured it even though it was dirty…’
Gosiwon. A place where the best of the best live together.
A place where people with nowhere to lean on can barely sleep in a room as narrow as a coffin.
Me, 20 years old, the landlord lived here.
“But not anymore.”
When I came down from the third floor to the first floor, the landlady was dozing off at the counter. I wonder how she will react when she finds out what happened to her son.
I went out onto the street and checked the date again on my old cell phone.
[July 1, 2018]
“I wondered why it had to be today… It was that day.”
The day I, at the age of 20, awakened as a superhuman.
To be exact, the awakening had already occurred before that.
It was only today that I realized that fact.
20 years ago, today.
I go to work at a construction site in the afternoon and have an accident where I fall from a height of several dozen meters.
At that moment, I realized that I had awakened as a superhuman while protecting my body with magical power without realizing it.
I still get goosebumps when I think about that accident.
I suffered from a damaged knee for 20 years.
I often think that if my abilities had awakened naturally rather than by accident, my life would have been a little different.
Just like right now.
Ssssssssut.
I pulled up the dust-like mana within my body.
There was no need for a trigger for awakening like before.
Even though I lack talent, I have a body that has been handling mana for 20 years.
I checked my physical condition by spreading mana throughout my body naturally as if I was breathing.
“···Haa. This is pathetic.”
He lacks muscle mass and his nutritional status is a mess.
I realized anew how well I had survived those times with such a weak body.
After all, it’s good to be young.
“Let’s fill our stomachs first.”
I headed to the city center. I was so hungry that my stomach was sticking to my back.
As I walked along the streets where more than half of the city was destroyed and reconstruction work was in full swing everywhere, I was lost in old memories.
“At that time, the gate warning system was almost at the level of the Korea Meteorological Administration. Small gates weren’t even detected by radar, so monsters would suddenly jump out…”
They say words become seeds, and it just so happened that it happened at that time.
“It’s a monster-!!”
People were running towards us, screaming.
Woof! Woof woof woof!
The monsters chasing them are a pack of red spotted dogs.
They were slow on their feet, but they had heads twice as large as the average dog’s, and teeth that could chew through steel.
“What are you doing! Run away quickly!”
One of the men running this way shouted at me, but I just stood there and sighed, and the man quickly passed me by.
Then many people passed by me screaming.
“Eww!”
“Police! Where are the police!”
It seemed like no one had died yet.
But the death toll was high soon.
The elderly and the weak will fall further behind,
Some people might stumble and fall while running away.
“Hey, help me!”
“Please save me!”
There were already signs of this. The distance between the people who had fallen behind and the pack of wild dogs was now short.
Woof! Woof woof woof!
Looking at that sight, I sighed and put my backpack on the floor.
“I told you, we’re back to the really f*cked up times.”
As I looked around, I saw tools that the construction workers had left behind.
I picked up a sturdy-looking piece of paru among them.
“Eww! Mommyyyy!”
A little boy was sitting in the back, crying. A wild dog, drooling, rushed at him.
But I was one step ahead.
I grabbed the kid by the scruff of the neck and swung the club with all my might.
Wake up!
A wild dog that had been hit in the nose rolled on the ground.
I looked at the plump guy and smacked my lips.
“That guy looks really tasty.”
< The story changes from now on > End
ⓒ Ganjjajang
