Chapter 1
Prologue
A massive sphere of light flashed and filled the surroundings.
The next moment, a tremendous explosion erupted.
Ruuumble—
The veil of dust shattered apart, and beyond it, a dragon that looked ready to explode with fury let out a savage roar.
It raised claws sharp enough to crush steel beams as easily as tofu and swung them down.
Just before they struck—
The space itself trembled.
An unprecedented force created by a powerful slash crashed straight down from above.
KIIIAAAAAAH!
With a painful roar that sounded as if even its soul had been torn apart, the dragon’s claws stopped.
“…You damn pest.”
Even the notoriously persistent lich dies if you completely erase its head.
A living creature, unlike the undead, has no chance of surviving once its skull is destroyed.
[Notification.]
[One of the Three Calamities, the Annihilation Dragon Atranaza, has been defeated and erased.]
[As a result, Earth’s subjugation has been postponed.]
Looking at the message floating before him, Jung Hyunsoo cursed.
“Bullshit.”
If he could, he wanted to slaughter whatever this so-called system was first.
Thud!
But in his current condition, he could do nothing.
The greatsword he had been holding with his completely crushed hand slipped from his grasp and rolled across the ground.
Hyunsoo lowered his gaze.
Every blade attached to his divine weapon, which had fought beside him for countless years, had shattered away.
“…Yeah. You’ve endured as much as you could.”
He placed a hand over his stomach.
Warm, sticky blood soaked his palm.
The dragon’s savage claws had gouged open his abdomen like a deep trench. His internal organs were naturally in ruins.
Even he couldn’t believe he had managed to fight such a monster in this condition.
The Three Calamities had invaded Earth together to enslave humanity.
Among them, he had succeeded in killing the Annihilation Dragon—the one that treated humans as slaves and even sought to own their souls.
The counterattack would begin now.
Of course, he hadn’t fought this insane battle out of noble self-sacrifice for humanity.
“Holy Maiden. Hurry and use your miracle or whatever.”
“Ah, y-yes! Thank you for your hard work!”
He possessed a way to escape death.
That was the source of his confidence.
However—
“C-Cough…!”
Blood suddenly poured from the Holy Maiden’s mouth before she could cast her miracle.
A hand had burst through her back and was gripping her heart.
Blood spilled from her lips as she stared with wide, unbelieving eyes.
“P-President… W-why…?”
The owner of that hand was none other than Sun Woohyun, the Chairman of the World Hunter Association.
Even for Jung Hyunsoo, who had survived as the infamous Black Hunter with a worldwide bounty on his head, the scene before him was so shocking that he froze.
He simply couldn’t understand.
Why?
Why kill the Holy Maiden—the one who could practically grant extra lives under the right conditions—at such a critical moment?
“Sun Woohyun! What the hell are you doing?!”
Hyunsoo roared.
The only reply was laughter.
“You’ve worked hard.”
The man gripping the Holy Maiden’s heart smiled.
The only reason the Chairman of the World Hunter Association, Sun Woohyun, and the infamous criminal known as the Dark King, Jung Hyunsoo, had formed an alliance…
…was because they wanted to survive.
Ever since that cursed system had appeared, the world had received a countdown to destruction, and alien races had invaded.
No matter how much people fought over power, they first needed a world that still existed.
So everyone had cast aside their differences and united against the invaders.
“Don’t make that face. If you came back to life and defeated the last remaining Calamity, what do you think would happen afterward?”
“…What?”
“I’m sorry, but I lost confidence. In the end, it’s your fault.”
Hyunsoo couldn’t understand.
The Annihilation Dragon and the Giant King had fallen.
But one of the Three Calamities still remained.
Both Hyunsoo and the Holy Maiden were absolutely necessary to defeat it.
“If it’s a world I can’t possess, then it has no value. I’d rather challenge the last Calamity alone, defeat it, and become the supreme ruler. Sharing it with you afterward—or losing to you—has no meaning.”
“You crazy bastard…! Ugh…!”
After hearing the Chairman’s true intentions, Hyunsoo vomited another mouthful of blood.
“This world belongs to me. No one will take it from me. If I can’t have it, then it’s better for the world to disappear.”
The Chairman’s face was twisted with pure madness.
Then he spoke again.
Those words completely froze Hyunsoo.
“I never imagined you’d become this strong with only one of the Five King Martial Arts remaining. Honestly, I’m very grateful.”
Hyunsoo’s thoughts came to a halt.
Runes—the language of magic—began weaving around Sun Woohyun.
The overwhelming power of the man known as the Grand Archmage crushed Hyunsoo, who was already on the verge of death.
“BLEGH!”
A violent explosion of mana erupted inside his body.
Blood and shattered pieces of his organs poured from his mouth like a waterfall.
Even so, Hyunsoo desperately struggled.
The words Sun Woohyun had just spoken…
He could never ignore them.
His family.
The family and guild once famous for the Five King Martial Arts.
Hyunsoo had spent years searching for the truth behind their massacre.
And now…
The clue he had overlooked all this time suddenly fit perfectly into place.
“Sun Woohyun…! You…?”
“Farewell. Your Jung family has always been a future threat to me… but also the stepping stone to every one of my victories. Heh.”
Hyunsoo desperately tried to stand and grab the fallen Ghost King Sword.
But Sun Woohyun moved first.
Having already healed himself through a miracle, he was far beyond what Hyunsoo could fight in his current state.
Slash.
The sky and earth flipped upside down.
Only then did Hyunsoo realize…
His head had been severed.
No words came out.
Like this…
I can’t die like this.
He had only just discovered the true mastermind behind the destruction of his family—the prestigious Korean Awakened clan renowned for the Five King Martial Arts.
His family had been annihilated.
He alone had survived, only to be framed as a global criminal.
Forced into the underworld, he had gathered power and searched for the truth with everything he had.
Yet he had never imagined…
…that the mastermind was the Association Chairman himself.
He had only just learned the truth.
He still had to kill that despicable monster after making him confess.
He couldn’t die here.
Yet as the Annihilation Dragon died…
The sky, clear for the first time in ages, remained brilliantly blue.
Completely ignorant of his despair.
* * *
Why was life so cruel?
Why was it so painful?
So cursed?
He had never wished for wealth or glory.
All he had wanted was to clear his name and avenge the family who had embraced him while he lived like garbage.
Then the world suddenly fell apart.
Earth faced destruction.
He stepped forward to fight.
Only to end up helping his true enemy…
…and lose his head by that enemy’s hand.
“Young Master. At this rate, you’ll really get your head chopped off while you’re still in the cradle.”
“Whatever. Just let him get cut. He deserves it. Going there is a complete waste anyway.”
“Young Miss… please, watch your words…”
“Did I say anything wrong?”
Suddenly, noisy voices echoed around him.
The voices were familiar.
Nostalgic.
Painfully so.
Where have I heard… this voice before?
Yet everything was wrapped in darkness, as though hidden behind a curtain.
A ridiculous possibility crossed his mind.
Impossible.
Completely impossible.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Normally you’d be bragging nonstop.”
The darkness vanished.
His surroundings brightened.
Standing before him was a girl with a neat bob haircut glaring at him as if she wanted to kill him.
“H-Hyuna?”
Jung Hyuna.
His younger sister.
She had died alongside the rest of the guild when Hyunsoo was nineteen.
He couldn’t believe it.
No matter how much magic and monsters existed in this changed world…
The dead could not simply return.
Only the highest level of illusion magic could create something like this.
Could this be… Sun Woohyun’s trick?
For a brief moment, he suspected an illusion cast by the Grand Archmage.
But every one of his senses screamed that this was real.
“Who told you to drop my family name? Just call me by my full name. Hearing you say only my name makes me want to throw up.”
“It really is you… Hyuna!”
No illusion could perfectly recreate someone the caster didn’t truly know.
Only his real sister could show that sharp, hostile personality born from years of hating the worthless life Hyunsoo had lived.
“Jung Hyuna.”
A deep, heavy voice interrupted.
Hyunsoo instinctively turned.
“No matter what, how can you speak like that here?”
“S-Sorry…”
“And Jung Hyun—”
Before the man could finish speaking…
Hyunsoo threw himself forward and hugged his father.
The broad, powerful body he had spent years training.
Its solid warmth.
Honestly…
This was the first time Hyunsoo had ever felt this close to his father.
Crack!
“Argh!”
“What are you doing all of a sudden?!”
The hug lasted only a moment.
His father’s iron grip twisted his arm.
The world spun, and Hyunsoo was forced onto one knee.
It was the skill of a true martial master who had devoted his entire life to martial arts after the Great Cataclysm.
“Musang Jingyeol!”
It really was his father.
One of the Five King Martial Arts developed and perfected by the Jung family.
The unique technique centered around redirecting an opponent’s strength.
Feeling that familiar power, Hyunsoo looked up at his father, Jung Cheol, with complicated emotions.
His eyes overflowed with longing.
With grief.
With endless sorrow.
Jung Cheol unconsciously flinched.
This was nothing like the eldest son who constantly caused trouble and always argued with him.
“But nothing will change because of this.”
“I…”
“Jung Hyunsoo.”
Jung Cheol looked down at him coldly.
“I don’t want to see your face right now. Go to your room.”
A fragment of memory flashed through Hyunsoo’s mind.
It had happened before.
This was the very day he had been suspended from school at nineteen after recklessly causing trouble out of admiration for hunters.
“What… what is going on?”
“Just hurry upstairs! Can’t you see you’ve completely ruined the mood in this house?”
“Hyuna… wait. How old are you…?”
Bang!
The bedroom door slammed shut.
His room came into view.
His cadet uniform from the Hunter Academy hung neatly nearby.
A long, slender decorative sword that he had once carried purely because it looked cool rested on the wall.
“…I was all style and no substance.”
It was unmistakably his room.
A photograph of his mother sat on the desk.
After the destruction of the guild, everything had been lost.
While fleeing as the world’s most wanted criminal, he had never even been able to save this single photograph.
His voice trembled.
“…Mom.”
The face reflected in the mirror was young.
Gone were the wounds from battling the Annihilation Dragon.
Gone were the signs of vomiting blood and organs.
The face staring back at him was not just young—
It was the face of his teenage self.
Every one of his senses screamed the same answer.
This was reality.
I… returned to the past?
Hyunsoo quietly sat on the bed.
Beside his pillow lay a single photograph.
His expression immediately darkened.
It was a picture of the girl he had secretly loved during this embarrassing period of his life.
Just seeing it proved beyond doubt that this really was his room from back then.
“Damn it.”
He had truly returned.
Jung Cheol, leader of Garam, the swordsmanship guild that had once been one of South Korea’s Ten Great Guilds and was expected to become a world-class force.
And Jung Hyunsoo—
The Dark King.
The Black Hunter.
The world’s most wanted criminal who had led the most feared criminal organization on Earth—
Had returned to being the nineteen-year-old son of Jung Cheol.
