The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Damn, You Talk Too Much (1)

I stayed hidden and kept an eye on what those guys were talking about.

It was obvious what those guys from Mewzealand would say, even if I didn't watch.

Whether it was in the past or now, they always went on about "dark magic power" this and that, then attacked out of nowhere—it was always the same.

After I destroyed them, I thought they'd come to their senses a little, but the way nothing had changed was slightly chilling.

Of course, it would be unnatural for them to change that easily.

'If they admitted their own fault, they'd be admitting their ugliness.'

In fact, even when I destroyed them, they hadn't shown as much as a sliver of remorse. That said everything.

But more surprising was the person named Yoo Cheon-hwa, who had spoken with them.

He didn't just try to indoctrinate them; instead, he fought back against them.

And he said out loud exactly what I'd been thinking to myself.

'It's a shame to just let him die.'

Clutching the golden dagger, I pierced the heart of the one called Xylo.

〈Hell Impact〉

As I released a wave of magic power through the tip of my blade, a gaping hole was blown straight through the upper half of his body.

It was the skill I'd used once to subdue Sang-ah back when she first went berserk.

I'd moderated my strength then, but now I unleashed a merciless amount—enough to punch right through my opponent's body.

"H-Hiiiik!"

"Y-You... what are you?!"

When they saw their superior Xylo die, a hole in his chest, those guys were scared out of their wits.

Then, the one called Kang Hyun-seok recognized my face and gasped in shock.

"You're... that student...?!"

The student from Hand who hadn't left with the rest a moment ago.

It must've been shocking for a student like that to suddenly appear and kill Xylo.

Even if he was an S-rank hunter, he surely hadn't seen a scene like this before.

"What's going on. Weren't you supposed to have left?"

"Left? With such a fun show, why would I leave?"

At my reply, the guy clicked his tongue in disbelief.

"More importantly... Just what are you?"

I had suddenly appeared, killed Xylo, and now acted completely unfazed for a mere student.

Even I had to admit, it would seem suspicious.

"And besides, it's almost like you knew that Sura was a fake in advance."

"..."

It wasn't just Sura—all the Sura Guild hunters were fakes.

They too were merely mannequins, perfect imitations of the Sura Guild hunters.

"Yeah, that's right. That's a fake I made."

Though not alone.

Before entering the gate, I had asked Teacher Jo Yun to make some realistic-looking dummies.

Since she had worked on making security robots, I figured a moving model wouldn't be hard for her.

I then dressed them in Sura Guild hunters' uniforms and used my control skills, plus a transformation skill, to create these fakes.

"Why..." Content orıginally comes from NoveI~Fire.net

"You needed the Sura Guild to enter the gate for your plan to go smoothly, right?"

The Sura Guild's Sura.

In other words, killing Ah-rin was one of these fanatics' holy missions.

If the Sura Guild hadn't entered the gate, they might have changed their plan, citing some unforeseen setback.

"So, you tricked us?"

"Thanks to that, you guys revealed your true selves. Thanks for falling for it."

They had blended among the hunters to kill Sura, then summon people from Mewzealand.

Thinking everything was going according to plan, they revealed their true colors.

"So... what's your objective?"

At this point, he didn't care about my true identity.

So I answered simply.

"It's nothing big. I just thought I'd close that dimensional portal over there."

"What?"

"I don't know about the rest, but I'm not generous enough to let in those idiotic refugees."

I pointed my dagger at the dimensional fissure as I spoke.

"Says who?"

"Die!!"

At that, the Hunter cultists and Poison Guild hunters, who had been listening, charged at me.

Judging by how they cooperated so naturally, it seemed they were working with the Poison Guild all along.

All their weapons pointed at me.

〈Reflect〉

As soon as their weapons struck my body, they were all destroyed.

Kwa-ji-jik—a sound rang out as they crumbled to dust, leaving everyone in collective shock.

At the same time, those who had attacked me were flung backward by the shockwave emanating from my body.

"Gahh!"

"What the hell...?"

As they bounced back and floated in the air, panic filled their faces.

But they had no time to focus.

I lowered my stance and dashed.

First, the one right in front, then I changed direction for the guy on the left, and then the one floating the highest.

Approaching them one by one, I rapidly slashed with my dagger.

A web of slashes was left in the air.

And then—

Chwaaaaak-!

By the time I landed back where I started, blood was splattering in every direction.

The ones floating in the air dropped to the ground in pieces—literally cut in half.

Even the warriors of Mewzealand who had emerged from the dimensional fissure were among them.

"No!!"

Alois screamed in agony as he watched his comrades slaughtered.

Kang Hyun-seok's face turned to stone at seeing the hunters butchered by my invisible speed.

"Oh, and one more thing I wanted to ask."

I spun the dagger in one hand and asked,

"I heard your objective was to make the gate go berserk. Haven't you started that yet?"

That was another goal of theirs besides killing Sura.

Thanks to the intelligence network Ah-rin provided, I knew what these guys were up to here.

One of their aims was to trigger a rampage in the Golden Gate.

Who knew what kind of disaster might result from that rampage, but nothing good, for sure.

"Rampage? Huhuhut..."

At that moment, Kang Hyun-seok started laughing.

And he said,

"If that's what you mean, it's already begun."

"What?"

What was that supposed to mean?

For a rampaging gate, it looked perfectly normal inside.

At the very least, a gate going berserk was supposed to cause something like an earthquake, right?

"Of course, unless you've been through an out-of-control gate, you wouldn't know. Even if it goes berserk, the inside stays intact."

"... Wow..."

"And by the way, didn't you notice anything odd?"

What?

"All those monsters—where did they disappear to?"

Now that I thought about it, the monsters that had been attacking us constantly were nowhere to be seen.

I'd heard that when a gate goes berserk, the monsters trapped inside are all released outside...

"No way—"

"Exactly! They were all released long ago."

"And you set this up when?"

"As soon as those students were sent outside, I triggered the mechanism. It's destroyed now, so there's probably no going back."

Which meant the outside must now be pandemonium.

Of course, there were evacuation routes prepared in case of danger, so it wouldn't be a total disaster.

But what I really wanted to know was...

"Is the result of the rampage... that fissure over there?"

"Huhuhut."

Just as I suspected.

The reason they triggered the rampage was to open that fissure.

In other words, to create a bridge linking to Mewzealand.

"We scouted for a suitable gate and found the perfect candidate."

It wasn't big, nor particularly tough—easy for a rampage, and trivial to enter.

That was the Golden Gate.

"The fissure is still expanding. Not long from now, it'll engulf the whole gate—the gate itself will turn into a fissure."

The hole would grow, becoming an open bridge straight to Mewzealand.

That way, those guys could cross back and forth at will.

"You think I'll just stand here and watch that?"

"Huhuhut. You're better off not interfering."

Poisonous energy began to ooze out of Kang Hyun-seok's body—much thicker than what had knocked out those hunters before.

Before I knew it, the entire space became choked with a thick purple miasma.

"If you've been here the whole time, you must have inhaled my poison. No one who's breathed it in has ever come out unharmed."

The radiant golden sanctuary was rotting, decaying under the poison.

Just as the poison started to reach the unconscious hunters, I swept my arm.

〈Tornado〉

Dusting off my wind skill for the first time in a while, I protected the hunters from breathing the poison.

In response, the poisoned mist, as if alive, all swirled and converged on me instead.

It quickly abandoned the rest of the space and focused solely on me.

"I don't know who you are, but you can't be left alive. Don't take it personally."

"Poison? So that means I'm in danger too—"

Alois, watching from the side, looked worried as he saw the mist.

After all, he had inhaled a little himself.

"It's fine. I can have it only poison enemies."

"Ah..."

So that's why their side was fine even as the miasma spread.

Of course, now, they'd already been killed by that student.

"And there is no antidote for my poison. Unless I show mercy, there's no such thing as deliverance."

"These are the demonkin who killed my father. Don't show any mercy."

Demonkin who threaten citizens.

This Earth could end up overrun with them.

But here, there were allies called the Holy Church.

With them, maybe it would be possible to purify this tainted world.

"If you wait just a little longer, the fissure will keep expanding. Then more people besides you, Alois, will cross over."

"Think so? Is that really up to you?"

"What?"

Suddenly, a voice came from where the poison had gathered.

When both turned toward it, they were shocked.

"The gathered poison..."

"All in one place..."

Like a vacuum cleaner, the poison was being drawn to a single point.

The miasma shrank smaller and smaller, at the center of which, a boy could be seen inhaling it through his mouth.

"Sssip... Ha. Why is it so sweet? It's not even like someone sprayed Pex—"

"How...?!"

As I sucked in the poison and savored it, Kang Hyun-seok's face turned deathly pale.

"Compared to the purgatory in the Underworld, this is basically perfume."

"Underworld? Did you just say... Underworld?"

Alois's eyes grew wide at those words.

But Kang Hyun-seok showed no reaction.

"Do you know it?"

"Of course! It's the labyrinth deep beneath our Mewzealand. No hero or demonkin who entered ever returned alive!"

"I didn't know such a place existed..."

"For all residents of Mewzealand, it's basic knowledge... How could you not know?"

"I was born on Earth."

Kang Hyun-seok replied that he was born on Earth and had only learned about Mewzealand through instruction.

Was he similar to Go Donghyuk?

No wonder his name didn't sound foreign, despite being tied to Mewzealand.

"Enough with the chatter... Time to kill you and close the fissure."

"Gasp...!"

In a blink, I was suddenly behind them.

Sensing that, Kang Hyun-seok shoved Alois away, dodging my dagger at the last instant.

Not only did he have good reflexes, he was agile enough to consider his comrades.

No wonder he had made it as an S-rank.

"Damn it! Alois! Get out of the gate! If you go outside and show them that wing mark, the Poison Guild hunters will recognize you!"

"But I don't know where the exit is..."

"I sprayed poison in the air on our way here to mark my trail. Just follow it!"

Alois's body was paralyzed; he was not in shape to fight.

We'd gone to all this trouble to bring someone from the other world—I couldn't let him die here.

"Then what about you?"

"I'll hold him off."

Just from watching the boy eat the poison, he could tell this was no ordinary foe.

Perhaps one as strong as himself, or even stronger.

"Go quickly!"

Kang Hyun-seok pleaded.

But instead, Alois showed his frustration.

"No! I can't leave you alone! You were the first comrade I met in this world... I can't lose you again!"

He gazed at Xylo's body, killed with a hole through the heart, and at the corpses of his own comrades, diced up by the boy.

Alois's resolve was not to retreat for the sake of their injustice.

But—

"There's no time for this! Please, just listen to me!"

"I'll fight with you!"

"No, you crazy bastard! Listen to me, damn it! Who do you think you are—a hero?"

"I am a hero! And that's why I can't back down!"

Kang Hyun-seok's face twisted at his stubborn refusal to listen.

His jaw actually contorted, and he looked sick.

Is that really one of those so-called "heroes" from Mewzealand?

Aside from his training, he was actually starting to hate him.

"Alongside me, nine other comrades crossed into this world... For their sake, for revenge, here and now...!"

With a sorrowful expression, Alois aimed his spear at me.

"For fuck's sake! Jesus, just—"

Suk—

"Huh?"

While Kang Hyun-seok was cursing out loud, his head flew through the air.

The suddenness made Alois open his eyes wide.

His head rolled to Alois's feet.

"Damn, you talk too much."

And then, the boy's cold voice was heard.

At some point, horns had appeared on his head.