Even though they say you cannot see an inch ahead in life, who could have imagined it?
A future where he would die on the very day he achieved his dream of becoming the strongest in the world, something he had anticipated and prepared for over several years.
That was truly Gyeom-shin's situation.
He felt so wronged that even though his physical body had already died, his soul could not close its eyes in peace.
It was right then, as he met such an absurd and anticlimactic end for the first time.
[Contract conditions have been met.]
Within his consciousness, which had been dyed completely black, only the Status Window rose clearly.
The message before his eyes shone.
[Contract Requirement: Death]
"......"
At the same time, a single sword within his mind, floating in his unconsciousness, shone as it spewed brilliant blue flames.
It was the Demonic Sword, Ades.
The Demonic Sword was preparing not for its master's end, but for a new beginning.
[Proceed with the contract with the Demonic Sword, Ades? Y/N]
It was not that he had feared something like death in the first place.
From the start, his was a life where he had to be prepared for death the moment he opened his eyes each day.
Gyeom-shin simply felt wronged.
'...I can't just die for them this easily.'
By the very fact that he had been betrayed by those bastards he had trusted like family, of all people.
Moreover, the bastards had betrayed Gyeom-shin on a scheme built atop the sacrifices of their own fellow guild members.
'I feel too wronged to rest in peace from a blade driven into me by you bastards.'
However, Gyeom-shin's physical body was already dead.
Even so, he had clearly engraved every single name and face of those traitors—who were worse than beasts—deep into his soul, one by one.
"I'll make the contract, Ades."
SHAAAH—!
His turbulent ten-year life as a Hunter was far too unfair to end like this.
Therefore, he cried out within his soul with a fierce will to forge a contract with the Demonic Sword.
At that, a mysterious dark-blue fiery energy enveloped Gyeom-shin.
Before long, a message rose before him.
It was hope.
[Successfully contracted with 'Ades.']
"Did it... succeed...?"
However, a second lease on life was not free.
There was a single restriction.
[Using the hidden skill of 'Ades' enables 'Great Resurrection.']
An irreversible, fatal contract risk.
[*However, anyone who uses this skill can never reincarnate again.]
In a way, it was the worst possible risk, worse than death itself.
[Furthermore, if you die without achieving your vengeance, you will not pass on to the afterlife.]
It was the risk that reincarnation would be impossible, and that his very soul would be annihilated.
[Upon your next death, your soul will be completely annihilated.]
[Use the skill anyway? Y/N]
However, he did not care a whit about something like that.
With the resentment piercing his soul to the bone, he could not have slept peacefully anyway.
To Gyeom-shin, this life was everything.
"...I don't care. Give the afterlife to the dogs."
In this life, he had built up his skills and his guild while piling up pain worse than death.
Even if there were such a thing as reincarnation, if he were told to clench his teeth and live this fiercely all over again, he did not think he could do it.
Therefore, the afterlife was not even a concern to him.
"The only thing I want is..."
Above all, even if he died like this and reincarnated, the unjust resentment engraved into his soul would likely keep him from living a proper life.
Thus, rather than the afterlife, he chose to live this life one more time.
Gyeom-shin embraced a fierce will for resurrection.
"To slaughter every last one of those bastards right in this life."
SHAAAH—!
Before long, those dark-blue flames dragged Gyeom-shin into an endless darkness.
As if he were being sucked into a black hole.
He felt as though a demon were beckoning to him.
However, Ades's hidden skill, 'Great Resurrection,' was not the kind of resurrection Gyeom-shin had imagined.
Going beyond a dead person simply coming back to life, it was a complete resurrection of an entirely different form.
SHAAAAH—!
[The hidden skill of 'Ades,' 'Great Resurrection,' has been activated.]
After that, he fell into a deep sleep, and when it suddenly felt as though he had opened his eyes—
"Ah...?"
Before he knew it, he had returned.
"Is this... for real...?"
To the past ten years ago, on a certain day when Gyeom-shin was twenty years old and had first Awakened as a Hunter.
"This is... really me...?"
A spirited, handsome twenty-year-old man with his forehead clearly revealed between strands of black hair.
His own youthful reflection, having not yet shed his boyish air, was visible in the mirror.
A tall, striking stature close to 180 cm, and fine skin as white as white jade.
However, his gaze alone still held the intact experience of a mature thirty-year-old Hunter.
The handsome face of a young nobleman, ill-suited to his rough life, was reflected rather awkwardly in the mirror.
"...What's going on?"
He spotted the watch on his wrist.
[August 15, 2087, 11:30 AM]
He could not believe it.
To think that a single sword had sent his soul ten years back into the past.
"Did I... come back to the past...?"
However, in his mind, the back of his head still throbbed from how those bastards had stabbed him in the back.
It felt as if he were having a vivid dream.
"Wait, this place is...?"
Yet even when he pinched his cheek, it was reality.
Above all, when he looked around, this was a place that had remained etched deep in the back of his memory for his entire life.
Looking around the inside of the elevator, he saw a phrase posted on the wall.
[Welcome to the Kaiser Guild.]
"Could today be the day I went for an interview at the Kaiser Guild...?"
The very famous guild he had applied to for the first time after becoming a Hunter.
Where he stood right now was inside the elevator of the Kaiser Guild building.
In just a few minutes, he was scheduled to be miserably rejected with his resume flung right into his face.
"...Of all days, it had to be that dog of a day."
Back then, Gyeom-shin's biggest dream had been to belong to the Kaiser Guild, which was in its prime, even as the lowest-ranking member.
After all, it was a guild that consistently ranked within the top ten across all of Korea.
However, not anymore.
"...No, what matters isn't a trash guild like this."
Gyeom-shin knew that a potential far greater than merely belonging to the Kaiser Guild dwelt within him.
Because he had died on the very day he became the strongest Hunter in the world, no less.
Moreover, since he knew the future, he was also well aware of the fact that the Kaiser Guild would soon go under.
"It's the fact that I've been resurrected."
The interview held no meaning whatsoever.
"Even if a guild like this begged me to come, I wouldn't go."
Therefore, Gyeom-shin pulled out the guild application form he had brought along in his coat, cherishing it like an ancestral spirit jar, and tore it to shreds.
"......"
DING.
TAP.
TAP-TAP.
Then, he repeatedly mashed the elevator button and closed the doors right away.
To Gyeom-shin, the very situation of having returned to the past with his memories intact was heaven itself.
The naive young man of his youth, who had simply looked forward to the interview thinking he had obtained the opportunity of a lifetime, was no longer there.
***
Stepping out of the Kaiser Guild feeling refreshed, his heart fluttering with anticipation, the world looked remarkably beautiful to Gyeom-shin.
Busily moving people and cars.
Pleasantly bright sunshine pouring down, and even birds flying freely above the clouds high in the sky.
He took in the beautiful scenery of the city that had normally never caught his eye.
The emotion of having returned to the world of the past was fresh, yet since his regression, not a single Status Window message had popped up.
"Is it because the Demonic Sword isn't in my hand?"
SHAAAH—!
Even so, Gyeom-shin's eyes could see the figure of the Demonic Sword Ades floating translucently in midair.
As he walked down the street just like that, the Demonic Sword floating in midair naturally followed him, yet no one looked at him strangely.
REACH.
"......"
SLIDE.
Thus, it was merely an illusion visible only to Gyeom-shin's eyes, and even when he reached out his hand, it simply passed right through like smoke.
"...It looks like it's right in front of my eyes. Does this mean it wants me to come take it, after all?"
It was conclusive proof that his contract with the Demonic Sword Ades had never been a dream.
Or else, that Gyeom-shin had lost his mind.
It was right as he thought that if it were the latter, it was no different from being possessed by a spirit, so he ought to become a shaman instead of a Hunter.
RIIING.
Before long, his cell phone started ringing off the hook.
He felt like he knew who the caller was without even needing to look at his phone.
It was because he had failed to show up for an important interview at the appointed time.
He deliberately did not answer it.
After all, it was obvious that nothing but curses would pour out if he picked up.
"Sorry, hyung, but there's no way I'd join a rundown guild like this, right?"
Despite Gyeom-shin's abilities truly lacking in many ways, the fact that he had been given even a chance at an interview was actually no coincidence.
Someone had pulled strings for him.
Therefore, the middleman who had introduced him to the Kaiser Guild was frantic, ready to kill him.
"Those crazy jerks... They hurled all kinds of insults at me and threw my resume right in my face."
However, even if he took the interview with all his heart and soul, he already knew the outcome all too well.
Because today was the day of humiliation that Gyeom-shin had never been able to forget for his entire life until the day he died.
Perhaps it was precisely because of today that he had obsessed so much over power alone, living a strong yet failed life.
"I'll make sure to ruin you. Kaiser Guild."
Even in his past life, Gyeom-shin had already ruined this goddamn guild once.
As soon as he rapidly rose as a Ranker, he had completely cut off the windpipe of the entire guild.
However, even after doing that, Gyeom-shin's anger had not been satisfyingly appeased.
Therefore, it was the same in this life.
He was going to ruin them in this life, too.
SMIRK.
"This time, 'once again.'"
Thrilled at the prospect of killing the Kaiser Guild twice, Gyeom-shin smiled cunningly and vowed.
That he would without fail ruin them even faster than in his past life.
"Sorry, hyung. We'll talk on the phone next time."
To do that, he needed power.
Thus, Gyeom-shin did not even have time to waste chatting and arguing with the middleman.
Turning off his frantically ringing cell phone altogether, he hurried toward a certain place.
To that very place of opportunity where he could get his hands on great power as quickly as possible.
***
The place Gyeom-shin arrived at after giving up on the interview was a certain Secret Dungeon located inside a Gate.
Trudge, trudge.
"......"
The top-grade dungeon with the highest clearing difficulty in the world, the Demon Realm.
"It's a dungeon I entered just yesterday, but maybe because it's the place where I died once, I'm feeling nervous."
The place where he had died for the first time after being betrayed by the ten guild executives, including Baek Min-jun.
On the other hand, it was also the dungeon of opportunity where he had obtained the Demonic Sword through the sacrifices of his guild members.
"...No, by this world's standards, it wouldn't be yesterday, but ten years from now."
However, the Demon Realm right now was not as brutal a place as it had been in his past life.
It was a dungeon that had not yet been discovered by Hunters, nor was it a place swarming with top-grade monsters yet.
Dungeons also grow if left alone.
Located in this deserted, remote area, this Hidden Dungeon would only become a top-grade dungeon eight years later due to the rapid growth of its monsters.
Therefore, he had to come even a single day sooner and claim it before the clearing difficulty skyrocketed.
"...As expected, I need Ades."
Ades, which was floating translucently in midair right before his eyes even now.
At the very moment the Demonic Sword resurrected him, Gyeom-shin had felt it with certainty.
That an overpowered strength rivaling the ability of a god dwelt within Ades.
SMIRK.
"In order to grow at a much higher speed than in my last life."
Therefore, even knowing it was an act of suicide, he had come to this place alone.
As long as he obtained the Demonic Sword, he intended to sever their necks one after another right away.
Because from the very beginning, he had no intention whatsoever of spending a long time training for his revenge.
"Wait for me, my traitor friends."
Just like that, he strode in without hesitation.
Into the darkness hidden at the edge of the world.
However, Gyeom-shin did not yet know.
SHAAAH—!
That what had drawn his footsteps to this place right away was not merely his desire to grow stronger.
SHAAAAH—!
Floating in midair, the Demonic Sword, Ades, was wavering with blue flames and emitting a bright light of its own accord.
FLARE—!
As if it had been waiting to reunite with Gyeom-shin.
BLAZE—!
As though it were itching to grant great power to the master it had chosen.