At first, it felt like I was floating through empty air.
It was dark before my eyes, but it was definitely not because my eyes were closed.
“…What is this place?”
My voice came out normally too.
I could properly feel everything down to the tips of my fingers.
My head had definitely been cut off, I had failed to resurrect, and then I had been greeted by some unknown notification window.
“What the hell is what…?”
And.
“…!”
Soon, whether it should be called the air or empty space, a huge gemstone greeted me before my floating body.
“…What is this?”
And then.
-Hummmmm….
The gemstone shone purple.
[ You have come, Curse of Immortality. ]
“…Are you talking to me?”
[ I am. ]
Now even gemstones were talking to me.
What the hell was this?
“…No, wait… a gemstone?”
The one I had held.
The one that had disappeared somewhere after I grabbed it and left me with the Curse of Immortality.
Hadn’t that been a gemstone resembling a diamond too?
But this did not resemble a diamond at all.
A purple gemstone in the shape of a pointed rhombus.
And above all, it was absurdly huge.
The gemstone began speaking on its own.
[ Did the Curse of Infinity guide you here? I am pleased to meet you in this way. ]
“You bastard… no, you… no, anyway, what are you?”
I could not find a suitable personal pronoun for a gemstone, so I stammered for a while before asking.
[ I am the Beginning. The one who presides, the one who watches, and nothing at all. ]
“The Beginning?”
What kind of bullshit was that?
“Are you saying you’re some kind of god?”
[ Similar, and entirely different. ]
What kind of bullshit was that?
“…So what do you want me to do, then?”
I asked the bastard while floating in the air.
[ In the beginning, there were four curses. ]
“Four?”
There were more curses besides Immortality?
[ Immortality, Reincarnation, Regression, Infinity. ]
Now it had suddenly turned into the opening of some old tale.
In any case, four.
[ The Curse of Reincarnation is a curse that, because one is reborn even after death, repeats the one-and-only cycle of life again and again. ]
[ The Curse of Regression is a curse that turns back time and repeats death until death no longer occurs. ]
[ The Curse of Infinity is a curse that twists space so death cannot reach oneself. ]
[ Among them, the Curse of Immortality is simply a curse that does not die no matter how many times it is killed. It is the curse most deserving of the name among the four curses. ]
“…….”
How should I put it?
Whatever else could be said, I was the owner of the Curse of Immortality.
Hearing that made me feel gloomy.
[ Even if the end of Earth comes, the Curse of Immortality alone will not die, and will survive alone forever. ]
[ Even if the end of the universe comes, the Curse of Immortality alone will not die, and will survive alone forever. ]
[ It is a curse that will survive through a lifetime, no, an eternity, floating like dust, lonely and alone. ]
“…So what the fuck did you call me for?”
Did it call me just to spit that kind of abuse?
After listening and listening, I started getting irritated and asked angrily.
[ I did not call you here, Curse of Immortality. ]
“Ah, your way of talking is really fucking annoying.”
[ …. ]
“Where is this place?”
[ This place is…. ]
The huge purple crystal paused for a moment.
[ A world where nothing remains of Earth except you and me. ]
Then it said something bizarre that did not feel real.
“Wh, what?”
[ Earth ultimately perished. ]
“…Perished?”
[ The world’s many highest-ranking Hunters, too. The four curses, too, could not defeat the natural order in the end and all turned to ash and vanished. ]
“Natural order? What kind of bullshit is that?”
[ Only you remain. ]
The purple crystal did not answer my string of questions.
[ Like this, forever, through ages without end-. You will simply remain even after Earth has perished, never disappearing. ]
“What… does that….”
A world where Earth had perished.
Was this the future that would come?
“Wait, if Earth has perished, then this place is….”
[ Correct. ]
The purple crystal paused briefly.
[ This place is space. ]
“…That’s fucking insane.”
Let’s say this was space.
Let’s say Earth really had perished.
Let’s say a world like that really existed.
If I said “let’s say” three times.
“…Even then, I can’t die?”
[ There is only one way for you to die. ]
“What?”
A way
existed?
“What is it?! How do I…!”
[ Join forces with everyone. ]
“…Everyone? Who’s everyone?”
[ Gather the power of the highest-ranking Hunters and the four curses, and prepare for the coming destruction. ]
Destruction?
Coming destruction?
“What does that mean? What destruction am I supposed to prepare for?”
[ Climb the tower. Grow stronger. ]
Climb the tower?
It was true that I had grown stronger by climbing the tower, but….
[ And break the curse, then meet a death fit for a human. ]
“What does that….”
[ I have nothing more I can tell you. ]
“Hey! What…!”
Destruction or whatever.
Grow stronger or whatever.
It had not directly told me anything about breaking the curse.
And yet….
“Where are you trying to go?! Tell me more before you leave!”
[ I am not the one leaving. You are. This is not your world. ]
“My world?”
I could not see it, but the purple crystal seemed to shake its head.
[ The place Infinity prepared was precious indeed. I hope that in your world, you can meet death. ]
“Wait! Says who…!”
[ …Your death, which could not be achieved in my world. ]
“Hey! Fuck! Hey!”
I stretched out my arms and flailed my legs.
But I did not get closer by even a little, not even one millimeter.
Just.
Simply.
My vision slowly blinked in and out….
***
-Slide…
I closed my eyes and opened them.
-Step, step.
With only my head held up,
I was being taken somewhere by the eight Hunters I had fought.
“…What is this?”
“Huh?”
At the sound I made, the head that was carrying me flinched and shook.
Soon, my field of view rose, and my eyes met someone’s.
It was the man with the torn mouth.
“…Hey, this bastard opened his eyes?”
Holding my hair high, the man with the torn mouth looked up at my head and spoke.
“Mm?”
At those words, everyone’s gaze gathered on me.
“…Is he truly not dead even though only his head remains?”
“How can this be?”
And then.
[ DING! ]
[ The true power of the ‘Curse of Immortality’ begins to unlock! ]
A notification window appeared, saying that the true power of the ‘Curse of Immortality’ had been unlocked.
-Rustle…
Until now, restoration had begun from the larger remaining part, and because of that, it seemed resurrection had been unable to begin because my head could not grow from the body whose neck had been blocked by the black dimension.
-Rustle, rustle….
“Hey, this… from his neck….”
But not anymore.
[ Resurrection power increases by one stage! ]
In an instant, my body began slowly reconstructing itself from beneath the neck of the head the bastard had lifted.
-Crack, craaackle!!
Like roots sprouting, nerves, bones, and skin formed in an instant, and resurrection was completed.
“This is insane!”
-SQUELCH—!
The bastard holding my hair drove a knife into my heart.
“…Cough.”
I spat a handful of blood onto the bastard’s face.
“Damn it, you fuck…!”
“…Blood Release.”
[ DING! ]
[ Spat blood becomes blades and whirls! ]
-SLASH—!
“Kraakh!”
The blood I had spat and smeared on him clawed across the bastard’s face,
and he grimaced as he released my hair.
-THUD.
I landed on the ground and looked around at the eight people surrounding me.
“This persistent…!”
“We know how to counter him! Seo Jin-woo! Trap the bastard with Spatial Slash!”
“Mm!”
-WHIRL—!
The blue spear that had created the black dimension that severed my neck.
That spear was swung once more.
-SLASH—!
My arms.
-SLASH—!
My waist.
-SLASH—! SLASH—! SLASH—!
It cut even my neck and shoulders, dividing me apart with dimensions as if sealing my limbs.
But my immortality was persistent.
So persistent, far too persistent.
-Clench.
I bit my tongue.
“Ptoo!”
And spat it onto the ground.
Then.
-Rustle, rustle…!
“…Impossible…!”
That half piece of tongue.
-Rustle….
A piece of tongue.
-Rustle, ruuuustle….
A jawbone and skull.
-Rustle, rustle….
A face and eyes, skin.
The bridge of a nose. Ears, hair.
A collar.
An Adam’s apple and neck.
Then my upper body, lower body, and all the way to the tips of my feet.
From only half a tongue, my body was slowly restored, regaining the form of my original body and returning through resurrection.
“A monster. He’s a monster!”
“Technically, it’s a curse.”
I muttered while dusting off my body and clothes.
“…The curse you Hunters forced onto me!”
-CRASH—!
Gritting my teeth, I struck the owner of the blue spear, the one called Seo Jin-woo, with all my strength.
-CRACK—!
The blue spear he thrust out to block me snapped in two.
-SQUELCH—!
Deep through his ribs, my fist reached his organs and smashed his abdomen.
“Kuheup!”
-CRASH-RATTLE—!
The bastard spat a handful of blood and went flying backward.
Feeling the sensation of the bastard’s bones breaking and the softness of his organs still lingering at the end of my fist, I turned to the remaining Hunters.
“Who’s next?”
“…You fucking bastard!!”
The man with the torn mouth, whose face had been clawed open and was streaming blood.
-WHIRL, THUD—!
He spun a knife in his hand and flew at me quickly.
“…….”
Too slow.
I could see the trajectory of his attack.
The stats that had risen abnormally through nearly two or three weeks of dying were already.
-GRAB.
Enough to read the attack trajectory of this Hunter, however strong he might be.
“You, you just caught my wrist…!”
The Hunter whose wrist was grabbed stared at me in utter bewilderment.
“Oh Yuk-il’s attack trajectory… was read?”
“Even among us highest-tier Hunters, he’s the fastest…!”
What was with those exposition-machine explanations?
Without any emotion,
I put strength into the hand I was holding.
“Well, I already did it once. No reason I can’t do it twice. Sorry.”
-CRUNCH—!
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
I broke the bastard’s remaining wrist too.
“You son of a bitch! Why! Why won’t you die?!”
The bastard rolled on the ground.
With no hand to hold his broken wrist, he simply let it dangle as he howled the question at me.
“Why don’t I die? Haha.”
That question
was funny.
“I’m living… no, dying because I don’t know that either.”
-WHIRL.
I spun the knife.
-SQUELCH—!
Then drove it into the bastard’s eyeball.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
I snorted as I watched him tumble around in pain.
“When you find out, let me know too.”
“You son of a bitch!!! I’ll kill you no matter what!!!!!”
“Please do kill me. I’m begging you.”
“Why are you all just standing there watching?! Attack!”
At the command of the man wearing golden armor, everyone gripped their weapons again and rushed at me.
“Now. What should I do?”
I had not understood it very well, but there was definitely a way to break my curse.
Starting with that enormous being, and even the feeling of drifting through space.
There was no way something like that was an illusion.
I had experienced death countless times, and I could even write this one off as a dream.
But the moment I thought that way, I had nothing left.
So, with the desperation of clutching at straws.
For the sake of this destruction or whatever, I had to become stronger.
And I had to join forces with the Hunters.
-SLASH—! SLASH—!
My body was torn apart, and pieces of flesh flew.
Even amid that, I thought.
“Well, anyway….”
These sons of bitches called Hunters.
I had to join forces with these sons of bitches to prepare for whatever approaching destruction there was?
“…In short, that means I can’t kill them.”
-GRAB!
I grabbed the enormous greatsword descending on me
and the massive fist as large as my face with each hand.
“My… fist?!”
“My greatsword?!”
Then I put strength into my grip.
-CRACK—!
“My greatsword!”
I shattered the greatsword to pieces.
-CRUNCH—!
“Kh, ugh!”
And broke Lee Cheol-heon’s fist.
“Then I’ll beat you just short of death.”
As my ruined body slowly restored itself, I revealed teeth covered in blood and smiled as I spoke.