The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Who Stole It? (1)

The Golden Gate Rampage incident was wrapped up in just a single day.

The suspects who assisted with the rampage: McLean Kang and Eric Ruin.

The two, who had passed out in the basement of the department store, were immediately taken into custody and ended up behind bars.

Even if they tried to get out, no one would help them.

After all, they pulled such a stunt at an event full of high-ranking officials.

Besides, even inside prison, there was no way they could live like decent people.

'I wonder how they'll turn out when they can't even move their arms or speak properly.'

They'd probably end their lives bashing their heads against the wall like Michael.

And although Eric's daughter Emily was still alive, now that her father had ended up like that, there was no one left to take care of her.

Emily, with a hole in her torso, couldn't survive without life support.

Her father would've been the one paying for that...

'Father and daughter, both on a one-way trip to ruin.'

The damned parents had been taken care of, but it was said that the true villains behind this mess, the Holy Church, had not been caught.

Still, it wasn't something I was overly worried about.

'Because I killed them all myself.'

Every activity of the Holy Church had occurred inside the Golden Gate.

They had plotted Sura's assassination and attempted to open a rift to summon people from Mewzealand.

Since I killed all of them, there was no one left to catch.

Just to be sure, I burned all the corpses with 'Hell Flame'.

Even though the Gate was sealed, there was always a chance someone might enter.

Since all the other hunters had been unconscious at the time, nobody knew about it.

'But, there's one thing I discovered...'

The Poison Guild.

One of the Big Four guilds in South Korea.

Its executive and S-rank hunter, Kang Hyun-seok, and his subordinates turned out to be members of the Holy Church.

So it became clear that their people were secretly operating all over the world.

Poison Guild must be just one of their branches.

'I'll have to use Kwon Yongha soon.'

To fight against the Big Four guilds, you needed the power of another of the Big Four.

He wasn't exactly someone I liked, but when you needed someone, you had to use them.

"Anyway."

December 31st. The last night of the year.

At a time when everyone else would be asleep, I sneaked out to the training hall.

This wasn't like when Sang-ah trained late at night with official permission; I wasn't supposed to be here.

Sang-ah, who used to sweat here every night, was nowhere to be seen.

'Maybe because vacation is right around the corner.'

Most school facilities shut down during the vacation period.

The training hall is usually the first to close, since students go wild in here and repairs become necessary early on.

If I got caught in the training hall now, it wouldn't end with just penalty points.

'I'd 100% be dragged to the teacher's office and waste my time.'

On my way to the training hall, I used my current control skill to disable all the CCTVs.

Specifically, I let the cameras function as normal—but with me invisible on them.

A blank screen would definitely arouse suspicion.

The reason I went this far to come here was...

[You have successfully completed the mission! (Unique)]

[Rewards will be granted.]

[Karma increases greatly.]

[Level up.]

[You may increase any desired stat by 5.]

There had been a mission issued inside the Golden Gate.

It tasked me with closing the rift inside, and since I had succeeded, I received a reward.

After everything that happened, I hadn't found time to check.

Even if I could check the reward, I needed a place to test the results.

[Your rank's level has reached 100.]

[Your rank increases from B to A.]

With the karma earned from this mission, I became an A-rank.

Now, I could finally use powers I hadn't been able to until now.

[A new stat, 'Demon King's Power', is now available.]

[Requirements for using the 'Demon King's Soul' skill series have been unlocked.]

The Demon King's Soul skill series is a superior version of regular skills using Demon King's Power.

They're handy, but also extremely dangerous.

Used incorrectly, the whole city could become a sea of flames, or mountains could be flattened.

But if used skillfully, their utility was limitless.

─────────────────

Name : Ma Seongjin

Age : 14

Rank : A (Lv 1)

Karma : 1%

Magic Power: 160/160

Demon King's Power: 50/50

[Full Bloom Traits ▼ (10)]

[Acquired Skills ▼ (120)]

─────────────────

Sure enough, my stats had dropped compared to my Mewzealand days.

Guess it was only natural after letting myself laze about, being reborn as an infant.

I already knew where to invest my 5 stat points from the reward.

[Demon King's Power stat increases by 5.]

But with 5 more added, it only became 55.

Still a far cry from my prime. Thıs text ıs hosted at NoveI~Fire.net

Checking the skill list, there were only a handful of Demon King's Soul skills I could use now.

― Soul of Regeneration

― Soul of Illusion

― Soul of Curse

― Soul of Spirit

That was all—just these four.

I'd expected more skills usable routinely, but apparently that was still out of reach.

I'd even gone to the trouble of changing locations so I could test any new combat skills...

'No point in coming here.'

Still, the outcome wasn't bad.

These skills, while not suited for battle, had plenty of other uses.

I needed to continue gathering karma to regain my strength.

As long as those Mewzealand bastards continued infiltrating this Earth—

'I can't let you people run loose.'

By the way, today was the day the New Year's bell rang out.

Right now, downtown Seoul would be celebrating the new year in a festive atmosphere.

If vacation had started sooner, I could have gone sightseeing.

I was just jealous of the high schoolers whose vacation had started earlier than ours.

I turned and headed back to the dorm.

'The two adults and Yunhee made it home safely, right?'

After the incident was resolved, my family went home.

And I heard Ah-rin also returned safely to her residence.

Now that she was part of the upper floors of the Sura Guild, she seemed sure to remain protected from now on.

Vacation officially started January 10th.

Thinking about what to do at school until then, I arrived at the dorm, reset the CCTV to normal, and fell asleep.

And the next morning—

"Hey guys! Come get your laundry!"

Early in the morning, Choi Sangbaek barged in with a laundry basket.

He'd run the laundry and hung it up in the empty next room, making sure it dried well.

If you hung it outside in winter, everything would freeze solid anyway.

"Yeonghun, your pants!"

"Okay!"

"And Suhong, your T-shirt."

"Thank you!"

"And this one... My gym uniform."

Everyone started getting their dry laundry handed back.

Choi Sangbaek pulled out each item from the basket, reading the names on the tags before tossing them to the owner.

"Laundry's gotten so much easier lately. Back in the day, I was so paranoid about thieves."

"I know, right? Up until last year, whenever we hung laundry in the next room, we made sure to set a password."

"I still remember that password. Wasn't it 120920?"

The second-years chatted among themselves about something only they knew.

Seeing by how long and complicated their old password was, theft must have been rampant.

It reminded me of military life in my past life.

Those damn thieves.

I wonder what those guys are up to now, if they're still alive.

"It's all thanks to you, Seongjin. Ever since you got here, nobody's tried to steal anything."

"You're practically our hero!"

Ever since I joined the school, everyone could hang their laundry out without worry.

The reason was simple.

None of the thieves who tried anything in front of me ever got away unscathed.

"But, you know."

"What?"

"If someone did try to steal Seongjin's stuff... what would happen?"

"Eliminated? Hahahaha!!"

At a classmate's question, I grinned wickedly.

And replied, "I'd half kill them."

"...."

My laughing face had suddenly turned sinister.

The lively mood instantly chilled.

"Uh, don't worry. We'd never take your stuff."

"Yeah! Who'd be stupid enough to try something like that?"

Everyone's eyes darted around nervously, like people panicking at a dictator's word.

Maybe I'd killed the mood a little too much.

"Remember how Sangbaek set his password to his social security number that one time and it got cracked right away?"

"Who knows how they figured that out—not like they were mind readers."

"We all have similar ID numbers, really. With so much overlap, it's almost surprising any password holds up."

"But hang on a sec."

Laughing and joking, Choi Sangbaek suddenly looked puzzled.

Then he stared at me.

"What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

He seemed to recall something and brush it off as unimportant.

I didn't know why he looked at me.

"Anyway, that's everything, right?"

Choi Sangbaek showed us the now empty laundry basket.

Looked like all laundry had been distributed.

"Wait! What about mine?"

"Huh?"

There was exactly one person who didn't get their things.

That was me.

"My underwear should be in there."

When others did their laundry, I'd put five pairs of underwear in as well—all marked "MSJ", my initials.

But...

"They're not here."

"Eh?"

"Nothing."

The basket was completely empty.

Maybe my underwear had been tossed to someone else by mistake.

I quickly checked all the clothes distributed to the others.

But none of mine were there.

"Wow..."

"...."

A bad feeling flashed through my mind.

My chest trembled and something seemed to boil up from inside.

"Waaah...."

A wave of emptiness washed over me.

It was like bugs appearing even after I'd cleaned the building top to bottom by myself.

"Wahahahahaha...!"

Laughter bubbled out.

The dorm's atmosphere became like walking on thin ice.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Just what kind of little bug stole them?

****

As night faded and day broke in the middle of Seoul,

there stood a building that seemed to shine even without sunlight.

Looking like a gathering place for angels who had descended to earth, this was the headquarters of Angel Guild—one of Korea's Big Four guilds.

"You must've had a hard time during the incident. Thank you for your efforts."

"Thank you, guildmaster."

An elderly man in the guildmaster's seat encouraged the young man standing before him.

Hunter Baek Suhyeok, known as 'Radiant'.

As leader of Angel Guild, he received the devotion of countless members even in his old age.

A Mutamit, he had a halo above his head, and a heart as compassionate as an angel.

"We managed to secure quite a few items from the Golden Gate. With this, we should be able to keep rival guilds in check."

"Good work, Yoo Cheon-hwa. But what happened to the rampaging Golden Gate?"

Baek Suhyeok narrowed his eyes and asked.

S-rank hunter Yoo Cheon-hwa straightened up at that gaze and replied.

"The Gate has completely vanished as of today. We ran an investigation right before disappearance, but didn't turn up anything special."

The rampaging Golden Gate, due to the Holy Church's actions, had almost claimed the lives of everyone nearby.

"They said the rampaging Gate calmed down suddenly..."

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea why?"

Normally, a rampaging Gate would go wild for at least a week, endlessly pouring out monsters.

Yet this one settled down in a matter of hours.

Too much of a coincidence.

But could Cheon-hwa, who'd been unconscious inside the Gate, even know?

"You saw it with your Third Eye, didn't you?"

"...."

Someone who's unconscious can't know what happened in the meantime.

But Yoo Cheon-hwa's 10-star trait, Third Eye, continues to record everything around her even after she loses consciousness.

Thanks to that, she knew exactly what had happened.

"Yes, I saw. While our team was unconscious... who it was that calmed the Gate."

Baek Suhyeok's eyes widened at her words.

And, maintaining a respectful posture, Yoo Cheon-hwa placed a file before Baek Suhyeok and said:

"The amazing part is, it was a student."

"...."

"It's hard to believe, I know, but this student accomplished everything alone."

Baek Suhyeok flipped through the file detailing a young boy.

The file contained the boy's name—Ma Seongjin—and his photo.

"This kid?"

"Yes."

Seeing that Cheon-hwa wasn't joking, he flipped through the file page by page.

Spotting one detail, his eyes narrowed.

"Daesang Elementary School...?"

Baek Suhyeok was well aware of that school.

"That's the elementary school the girl I adopted used to attend."

Six years ago... no, now that it was January 1st, seven years ago.

On that Christmas, the girl he adopted had attended that very school.