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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Eighth Destruction
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It was the seventh regression.
The Demon King met his third death.
Babel crumbled, and the 390,000 surviving Hunters returned to their original world.
Peace came to the world, and everyone lived happily ever after until they died.
HAPPY END.
No such ending arrived. Only an ugly reality descended.
The returned Hunters were walking bundles of problems.
'Why don't they recognize me as much as my power deserves? These punks would burst like ketchup with one hit!'
'This is all the compensation we get? We risked our lives fighting!
Instead of some public apartment and a measly lifetime pension, they should give us a proper house and enough to live comfortably forever!'
'I don't get why I have to follow these worthless incompetents.
Hell, I don't even know why I should follow the law in the first place. They just made it up for their own benefit.'
Each and every one of them was a Hunter strong enough to shatter mountains or carve canals.
They possessed heroic powers, but none of the heroic self-sacrifice or morality.
But that was fine.
There had already been a Ju Gonghyeok who'd been through it all before.
Ju Gonghyeok formed the "Hunter Countermeasures Surveillance Agency" with his loyal Hunters.
And he executed any Hunters who might cause problems.
The Hunters who had triggered destructions in the past were, of course, the top priority for execution.
The Greek mythological monster with a hundred eyes.
Ju Gonghyeok's avatar "Argos" monitored the entire world in real time.
Super long-range Hunters like the Divine Archer Jebe, Robin Hood, and the Thunder God Je-seok-cheon sniped them before any threats could act.
It was absolute domination built on strength and murder.
That said, not every returned Hunter was a problem child.
Many suffered from post-war stress disorder or various mental illnesses after the grueling survival struggle in Babel.
There had been the dream god "Morpheus," who could heal mental illnesses over long periods.
But the man who wielded Morpheus—the second Hunter to bring destruction—was executed.
With no one left to heal them, they were locked away in mental hospitals guarded by other Hunters.
Ha Yeonsi, tormented by intense guilt and dungeon hallucinations, was among them.
Gonghyeok was dispatched everywhere as the head of the surveillance agency.
He calmed the Tibetan Hunters shouting "I'll dedicate this body to independence."
He negotiated with India on behalf of the Pakistani Hunters declaring "We'll resist this unjust oppression."
He gathered the Middle Eastern and Israeli Hunters crying "We'll punish each other in the name of God" in one place.
That was when it happened.
Starting from California, the world was blanketed in flowers.
White flowers, yellow flowers, red flowers, blue flowers.
Gonghyeok knew these flowers well.
Flesh Mending Flowers, Bone Mending Flowers, Blood Mending Flowers, Soul Mending Flowers.
Flesh Mending Flowers endlessly regenerated flesh like cancer cells. Bone Mending Flowers spawned endless bones. Blood Mending Flowers made blood pour from the body like a waterfall. Souls swollen by Soul Mending Flowers burst out through the flesh.
People transformed grotesquely.
Flesh ballooned to tens of meters, bones erupted from bodies, they became fountains endlessly spewing blood, or turned into translucent, bodiless souls shrieking in agony.
An orchestra of pigs and monsters played the finale of the world.
===
"Yeonsi."
"Oppa, Gonghyeok."
Even with her gaunt, pale face, Ha Yeonsi was beautiful.
"What... what do we do about this?"
The flower field at the heart of the California mental hospital...
I'd sensed it the moment it engulfed America.
If I'd used the divine archer Sile, Hercules, and Ra-Djehuty for a 12,000 km snipe from Jerusalem and torn Yeonsi to shreds.
The crisis might have ended with just the North American continent consumed.
But I couldn't. At the last moment, after summoning all the avatars and lining up the shot, my hand trembled.
I hesitated.
In those 2 seconds, the Pacific and Asia fell to the flower field.
"It's okay. It's not your fault."
I could have stopped this.
I let you end up like this.
I vanished when you needed someone to hold you.
I failed to notice until it was too late.
It's all my fault.
I don't know how her powers went berserk in the ward designed to suppress avatar abilities.
Maybe forcibly suppressing the powers of the world's top-tier incarnation was the mistake.
One thing's certain: it's not your fault.
"Oppa, what do we do now..."
I pressed my lips to her trembling ones.
Our first kiss.
"I love you, Yeonsi."
"Gonghyeok oppa?"
"I love you."
In eight lifetimes, I'd never once said those words to her.
Too busy surviving.
No, that's a lie.
In the second regression, I went mad for wealth, glory, and a harem, abandoning her.
After shedding all material and carnal desires to save the world, I spent every moment that could've been for love trying to avert the apocalypse instead.
"Is this... a dream? It's what I always wanted to hear."
Her eyes drifted shut like she was sleepy.
I injected the poison of the demon grand duke, Arachneia.
Why had I never once repaid her feelings?
The multicolored flower field faded away.
I gently laid down Ha Yeonsi's body.
"I love you, Yeonsi."
"No matter how many more regressions I face, no matter how many times I have to kill you for causing destruction."
"I'll always tell you I love you."
Squeeeeeeeeeee!
Grrrrr, grraaaaaaaaagh!
Leaving behind beings no longer human.
I raised one hand and crushed my own skull.
* * *
The outskirts of Seoul. The roads were half in ruins from monster attacks. Amid the wreckage stood a shabby but relatively intact "Saerom Children's Home."
Crudely expanded with adjoining wooden plank shacks.
It might look ramshackle, but it was a national orphanage.
A place gathering minors left homeless after 6 million citizens died to monsters.
The Demon King had even declared humanity's doom. In a reality with no guaranteed future, there was no way economy, public safety, or administration could function properly.
The nation was barely holding together on the brink of collapse, stitched by the military's might. Proper support for an orphanage was out of the question.
As dusk fell, the sun dipped low, and the world festered black whether indoors or out. But in Gonghyeok's eyes, the scars were forgotten amid the sight of kids screaming and running around in play.
"Look, look! I'll show you how cool my avatar is!"
"What, what is it!"
"Avatar 'Icarus' summon!"
Two boys giggled, then one suddenly summoned his avatar.
"Icarus. Gravity Reversal spell! Fly up, skirts!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
Just as the girls' skirts were about to billow upward from Icarus's "Gravity Reversal."
Yeonsi charged in and flicked their foreheads hard.
"Kids! I told you no powers inside the orphanage!"
"Run! The ugly old maid's here!"
"I'm pretty and not an old maid, you brats!?"
The fresh-faced 18-year-old beauty, Ha Yeonsi, shrieked at the nickname that stuck for no reason and chased after the kids.
"Still good times."
Good times indeed. To him, who'd seen these same kids die thirteen times over.
Gonghyeok slipped inside quietly. He opened the door to the director's office, locked within the orphanage.
The unused director's office was thick with dust. For Gonghyeok, it was a quiet spot where no one intruded.
He locked the door again, brushed the dust off the floor, and sat.
"Observer, status window open."
[[Status Open]]
A familiar semi-mechanical tone rang out, followed by a flood of messages.
[New updates from 3 hours ago.]
[Major changes to your status.]
[NEW!! SS-rank Merit, 'Living Hunting Manual' added.]
[NEW!! SS-rank Merit, 'Indomitable Incarnation' added.]
[NEW!! S++-rank Merit, 'Master of All Martial Arts' added.]
[NEW!! -A-rank Flaw, 'Soul Worn to the Bottom' added.]
[Congratulations. ^^]
Gonghyeok smirked at Observer's extra message.
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