He had returned to the past!
The implications of that single sentence were tremendous.
He had gone back a full twenty years, past the era when humanity had been driven to the brink by the threat of the Three Calamities that tried to devour Earth, all the way back to when he was nineteen.
At this point in time, “that” did not yet exist.
The so-called Byproduct Industrial Revolution.
It was before Earth’s final golden age, when byproducts poured into the world as special rewards for “properly” conquering the upper floors of the Tower, and countless advancements were achieved by processing them.
It was an era when hunters merely cleared Gates and climbed the Tower in order to slow the countdown to the world’s destruction.
Even that alone allowed the so-called “hunters” to enjoy tremendous wealth and fame, but the true era had not even begun yet.
“No, more importantly…….”
For Jeong Hyeon-su, the implications were even greater.
He had gained a chance to save his family and guild, who had been wiped out after being falsely accused, through the chairman’s machinations, of colluding with the forces invading through the Gates.
He could also take revenge on Seon Woo-hyeon, who had used him until the very moment of his death in his previous life.
CRACK.
For a moment, Jeong Hyeon-su wondered how regression had even been possible, but he soon changed his mind.
A matter like returning to the past was not something he could understand with his own mind.
Rather than agonizing over that, if he truly had returned, all that mattered was setting the past right and taking revenge.
“Before that…….”
Before protecting his family, taking revenge on the chairman, and raising Garam Guild to stand tall as a frontrunner in the coming Byproduct Revolution, Jeong Hyeon-su knew there was something he had to do.
He had to correct his own mistakes.
The things he had done while he was a cadet at Cradle, when he had mingled with a delinquent clique he admired and tried to be recognized as one of them.
However, because of a scheme by the eldest son of Songgwang Guild, one of Seon Woo-hyeon’s lackeys, Garam Guild ended up suffering a severe blow.
— [Exclusive] Hunter Guild Heir Caught in Circumstances Suggesting Illegal Artifact Distribution! Was the Entire “Garam” Guild Involved?
— Trust in Guilds Collapses. Citizens Fume, “Who Are We Supposed to Trust?”
The media launched a concentrated barrage, and his father issued a public apology to the entire nation.
But it did not end there.
Socially, Garam Guild was ostracized through an organized offensive, and as such incidents accumulated, it was eventually framed, identified as the mastermind colluding with the invasion forces, and subjugated.
Even if Garam Guild had not fallen because of this one incident alone, Jeong Hyeon-su had no intention of overlooking such a stain.
‘I will deal with this properly.’
It was a situation where he ought to move at once, but even so, there was an order to everything.
It was his own body, but honestly, Jeong Hyeon-su knew almost nothing about his nineteen-year-old self.
“Status Window.”
Jeong Hyeon-su naturally summoned the Status Window.
[Name: Jeong Hyeon-su]
[Affiliation: None]
[Stats: Vitality (10), Strength (5), Technique (4), Mental Strength (3), Endurance (5)]
[Skills: Five Kings’ Martial Arts—Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art (1-Star), Illusory Heaven True Energy (1-Star)]
“…….”
Seeing it directly left him speechless.
‘Only 1-Star?’
The Five Kings’ Martial Arts were his family’s unique techniques, handed down from his grandfather ever since Awakening.
They were said to be so difficult and abstruse that Garam had become one of South Korea’s Ten Great Guilds with only a single guild master who had mastered the Five Kings’ Martial Arts……
‘Still, 1-Star is far too much, is it not?’
But what was the point of cursing? In the end, it was still himself.
After clutching the back of his neck for a moment, Jeong Hyeon-su settled down and sat.
The Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art, one of the Five Kings’ Martial Arts, was, as its name suggested, a combat technique that unleashed overwhelming power.
Originally, it had a counterpart called Tyrant Heaven True Energy, but because of its difficulty, the current Jeong Hyeon-su had separately learned a cultivation method called Illusory Heaven True Energy, which was said to be the easiest to enter and the most harmonious.
‘Illusory Heaven True Energy is easy and harmonious, but the most difficult to master completely. But mastering it completely right now is not what matters…….’
Illusory Heaven True Energy had one most important function. Since it valued harmony, it excelled at normalizing the body.
Because Illusory Heaven True Energy was the only thing he knew, he had devoted himself to nothing else until he came to be called the Dark King.
DING!
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
Developing the mana circuits that spanned the entire body was inevitable.
The foundation that allowed hunters to clash physically with monstrous creatures lay in these mana circuits.
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
He heightened his concentration.
Jeong Hyeon-su’s lower abdomen, the space known as the Mana Hole, began to swell greatly.
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
From that swollen lower abdomen, mana began to push forward, soft yet heavy. It gathered and flowed along his mana circuits.
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
His heart swelled as if it might burst, and then the sensation reached his shoulders and neck. It continued even farther, through his forearms and to his fingertips.
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
His skin turned the color of a rotten tomato. Then the tight pants he had shortened in an attempt to look stylish burst apart.
POP!
At the same time, streams of blood leaked from Jeong Hyeon-su’s closed eyes.
Not only that, the same symptoms appeared from his nose and ears.
Unlike other parts of the body, the head was exceedingly delicate, and when mana concentrated there in an instant, the fine blood vessels could not withstand it and burst.
Dizziness struck him, but Jeong Hyeon-su did not stop. He had to push himself a little further here.
[Proficiency in Illusory Heaven True Energy has increased!]
Seasoned experience.
It was no different from doing this with a new body, but in the end, it was still his own flesh. When he finally succeeded in forcing the path open, a faint blue-black light seeped from his body.
[An incomprehensible result!]
[Due to an unfathomable phenomenon, Illusory Heaven True Energy has reached the realm of 10-Star!]
[Impurities inside the body have been expelled, and the mana circuits have been cleansed.]
[Mana circulation efficiency has increased by 10%!]
“I have at least managed to put the basics in place.”
Jeong Hyeon-su examined his body again after achieving Ten-Star mastery of Illusory Heaven True Energy.
His immediate strength and total mana had not increased, but his mana circuits had opened wide, and even the microscopic circuits that had been blocked were now connected.
It meant he had roughly met the necessary conditions for a body he could use in battle.
‘Even so, I am probably only at a level where I can barely clear a single Gate…….’
Becoming a hunter capable of running a Gate overnight, when he had been practically at the level of an unawakened person, was a tremendous difference. However, there was no reason for Jeong Hyeon-su, who had once been called the Dark King, to be satisfied.
‘This is only the beginning.’
He needed rapid growth not only for the Great War that would begin in the future, but also for the battle against the chairman, whom he intended to crush before then.
If he wanted to raise his baseline and maximize his potential, he had to move busily.
Just as he was about to wash himself first, before any of that, the door suddenly burst open, and Jeong Hyeon-a came barging in.
“Happy, what do you like so much about someone like him that you insist on seeing h… KYAAAAAAAH!”
Jeong Hyeon-a, who had been holding the leash of Happy, the companion magic beast they kept at home, let out a shrill scream when she saw the grotesque figure before her.
What stood in the room was not the blood relative she detested like an enemy, but a monster whose face was plastered with blood and whose clothes had burst open in several places!
“A-a magic beast! A magic beast ate my brother! Dad!!!!!”
In the process of achieving Ten-Star mastery of Illusory Heaven True Energy in one stroke, Jeong Hyeon-su had bled from his seven orifices.
His eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. With dark red blood mixed with impurities flowing from every hole in his face, Jeong Hyeon-su looked like a magic beast one might see inside a Gate.
“A magic beast?”
“Hyeon-a. What happened?”
Jeong Cheol, the leader of one of South Korea’s Ten Great Guilds, appeared on the second floor as if he had teleported.
In his son’s room stood a strange figure with a face covered in blood.
“Young lady, are you all right? Good heavens! What are you?”
Even the old butler, who arrived a step late, cast a wary gaze at him.
“That monster ate Jeong Hyeon-su!”
“I told you, it did not!”
“What do you mean, it did not? You can feel it, can you not? That power?”
“As the young lady says, an unusual mana is flowing from it! Though it also feels somewhat familiar…….”
Just as a brief standoff began with the mansion’s old butler, Happy suddenly trotted forward.
“Huh? Happy! No! It is dangerous!”
Jeong Hyeon-a hurriedly tried to grab him, but Happy quickly spun through the air and evaded her.
The small, fluffy ball of fur, possessing unusual footwork, broke into a run and then leaped outright.
Then he landed in the strange figure’s arms and began eagerly licking his face with his tongue, gradually revealing the outline beneath.
“Jeong… Hyeon-su??”
“Why, young master!”
With a blank expression, Jeong Hyeon-a stared at Jeong Hyeon-su as he was revealed once more.
“Will you put that sword away now?”
Jeong Hyeon-su spoke while flicking the flat of Jeong Hyeon-a’s thin rapier, which had been drawn before anyone realized it, with the tip of his finger.
“What happened?”
At Jeong Cheol’s question, Jeong Hyeon-su smiled broadly.
It might have been a question with truly complicated meanings behind it.
He might have been asking about the reason Illusory Heaven True Energy had matured inside Jeong Hyeon-su’s body so suddenly.
Perhaps the Jeong Hyeon-su of his previous life, back when his relationship with his father had been poor, would have thought so.
But now, he could see it.
Worry.
His father did not believe that his son had been eaten by a magic beast. All that stood before Jeong Hyeon-su was a father worried by the sight of his bleeding son.
“I had an insight, and while circulating Illusory Heaven True Energy, a small mishap occurred.”
Jeong Hyeon-su answered as if it were nothing. Naturally, however, Jeong Cheol could not dismiss it so lightly.
“If you do not believe me, examine me yourself. There is nothing wrong with me.”
“Do you think that is a proper thing to say?”
Jeong Cheol was no fool.
No, as a top-tier hunter who had risen to prominence in South Korea through his own ability, he was looking directly at the change in Jeong Hyeon-su.
‘Illusory Heaven True Energy has matured.’
Even in this situation, Jeong Hyeon-su was hiding the fact that he had reached 10-Star.
Merely showing a degree of maturity around 7-Star was already shocking enough.
“Explain yourself properly.”
“The wall that had been blocking me all this time finally broke open, and I got a little greedy.”
It was an answer that left one dumbfounded.
“A little greedy?”
If he had bled from his seven orifices, it meant he had simply forced open every mana circuit in his head.
“Well, the result is good, is it not?”
“…….”
Had his eldest son always had this kind of personality?
To begin with, he had not shown much talent in martial arts, and his character had been poor enough to cause no small amount of concern.
From his strangely mellowed attitude to the sudden deepening of his Illusory Heaven True Energy.
“I told you to be honest.”
“About what else……?”
“What do you mean, about what? Do you think no one knows that whenever you act affectionate, it is because you have caused some massive accident?”
At Jeong Hyeon-a’s interruption, Jeong Hyeon-su recalled the past for a moment.
“When you forged your Cradle cadet transcript, you grinned as if you had eaten something strange, and you were the same when you tried to secretly sell Gate hunting rights, were you not?”
Jeong Hyeon-su could only shut his mouth.
“…I have no excuse.”
At Jeong Hyeon-su’s reply, both Jeong Hyeon-a and even the old butler’s eyes widened like lanterns.
“…What on earth have you done, young master……?”
“See? Normally, he would lose his temper and ask why I was bringing that up, but now he is lowering his head. I told you something was seriously wrong, did I not?”
Yes.
Facing memories filled with longing was one thing, but to them, this was reality.
They were people who had always lived through the accidents caused not by a mere troublemaker, but by a reckless wastrel of an heir.
“Since things have come to this, I was thinking of learning Tyrant Heaven Energy. Would you teach it to me?”
True to its name, Tyrant Heaven Energy was the mana circulation method that suited the Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art best, so while he was facing Jeong Cheol anyway, Jeong Hyeon-su casually tested the waters.