Chapter 3: Since everyone already knew

“Do…Dohyuk!”

Jimin screamed as loud as she could, but there was no response from Dohyuk. Not because he ignored her, but because he had to turn around to grab a ‘certain object’ from his desk. Dohyuk was able to face Jimin again after he got what he wanted to take on his hands. He tried speaking up, but it was already too late. Even if they were to speak, nothing would have changed.

Spark.

A burst of light flared bright, and Dohyuk disappeared from the room.

“A…Ah…” Jimin lost the calm demeanor she had been showing Dohyuk up until now and covered her mouth with her bare hands. “I couldn’t’ protect him, prot…”

She thought she could have another chance in life. She believed she could be by Dohyuk’s side as an ally instead of a burden. She was so lost, she couldn’t keep her confusion from herself. The development of the situation that was going on now was in contradiction with the future which she knew.

After moments of wallowing in her own self-loathing, Jimin raised her head. “… he cannot die.” He was Yoo Dohyuk. He was the man who stood at the top of the world before time had reversed. “He will survive, no matter what.”

There must be something she could do other than crying ‘like an idiot’. She needed to train harder to give more strength to Dohyuk who would live through this and stood by her side again. With a determined expression, Jimin clenched her lips shut. Then, she focused her attention on the angel’s voice which rang from within her head.

…

The burning burst of light ceased, and Dohyuk felt the chilling air before he opened his eyes.”…Ah…” A small ache punctured through his head. Dohyuk was ‘relocated’ outside of his room. It wasn’t difficult to figure out where he was. It was a busy street Dohyuk visited countless times in the past. However, it had been a month since he last visited this area.

One of the black towers stood right in the middle of the road. The said tower stood 20 meters away from Dohyuk, looking down at his puny size. The six-winged angel, whom Dohyuk saw from afar within the confines of his room, hovered over the tower.

He was at least 7 to 8 meters tall. The angel watched Dohyuk’s every movement. In fact, he wasn’t the only one the winged giant that was watching.

“What?!”

“What is happening…?”

It wasn’t only Dohyuk who ‘relocated’ to the street near the black tower. Even from Dohyuk’s perspective, hundreds of people were bustling around figuring out what had happened to them. Right as he gazed through the strangers’ faces, Dohyuk used the ‘object he grabbed from his room’. It was a disposable dust mask. Most of the people he knew owned one of these for a while due to the severe fine dust. Dohyuk was no different. He would be able to hide his face with this. Everyone on the street had taken someone else’s life. If what Jimin said was true, a person was born with only one Nature, and anyone could obtain a second one after murdering someone.

The voice which echoed from within his head announced he would isolate all who owned two Natures. That meant everyone here must have killed at least one person.

“But I haven’t killed anyone.” That was the obvious fact that Dohyuk knew better than anyone else.

Then why…

A frivolous laugh resounded through the air. Dohyuk raised his head towards the sky. Numerous angels draped in lights appeared three to four meters above the air and began looking down the crowd.

“Are these the heinous creatures?”

“They all have innocent faces.”

The figures possessed the form of angels but something seemed off about them. First of all, their sizes were different from the enormous one floating from the above tower, they were a bit larger than humans, but not gigantic. They had one wing on their back instead of a pair, and the features of their faces, as well as their limbs, looked unbalanced as if they weren’t completed figures.

The creatures were spread a few meters away from each other while they talked loud among one another.

“You better listen to what the almighty angel told you carefully. Consider yourselves lucky you inbreds! Your kind received the grace of the Lord Casita and earned a chance to evolve into higher beings.”

Unlike the voice he heard from his room, their voices were not coming from his head but through their mouths. Even the way they spoke was far different from the soft one he heard earlier, theirs sounded cheap and distasteful.

“From now on, your world will collide with other realms for all eternity to train you stronger than your own kind. Death alone awaits those who can’t adapt fast enough.” After those words, the single-winged angels halted to a pause. They looked at each other in dismay.

“They’re not freaking out.”

“I can’t even see fear in their eyes.”

They were right. In a ‘normal’ situation, humans would be petrified in their own fear and wouldn’t function properly no matter what the angels said. However, this was not a normal situation. They were surprised not because of what the angels said but because of the sudden relocation. As soon as the winged ones appeared in the air, everyone calmed down and stared at them.

It was as if they knew this would stop something bad from happening to them.

“There should’ve been a few of them going crazy by now…”

“Right, it is fun to destroy them to serve as an example.”

The angels shrugged in disappointment.

“Oh well.”

“Here, get this.”

Newer words appeared before Dohyuk’s eyes.

<<Coin Purse Created>>

<<500 coins deposited>>

<<Use the Word: ‘Wallet’ for Access>>

“This is the war fund gifted to you by Casita.”

“Your weak ass bodies have already been trained to the max, so you can’t get any stronger by regular means. You can only buy abilities…”

The angels’ blabbering mouths were shut once again. No one was listening to what they were saying.

“Wallet.”

“Wallet.”

Everyone was yelling out the word to access their wallets and they were purchasing abilities already.

“What are hell is happening?” The angels hadn’t even finished explaining, but everyone decided right away which abilities to purchase and began spending the coins.

“They are understanding this too fast.”

“Are they smarter than we think?”

The only exception was Dohyuk.

“Wallet.”

He mumbled the word under his breath and began reading the words laid in front of him carefully.

<<Wallet>>

-Coins owned: 500

-Able to use the coin to increase abilities

-Need 50 coins to increase up to F rank (0~10) abilities.

<<Ability>>

-Muscle Strength: 17 (E)

-Stamina: 21 (E)

-Agility: 15 (E)

-Magic: 2 (F)

-Endurance: 17 ( E)

-Charisma: 14 (E)

Based on Dohyuk’s understanding, he would need 200 coins to allocate a point to one of his abilities, besides Magic. Dohyuk couldn’t make any changes to his abilities aside from this method.

‘Let’s think this through.’

It was an obvious choice. Even in simple video games, investing in abilities without any information was the same as pointing a gun at his own head.

“Well… whatever, let’s start this madness.” When the single-winged angels waved their hand in the air, yellow colored liquids sprayed all over the place. The foul-smelling liquid splashed all over the street and drenched everyone.

“This is the extracted pheromones of the Goblet.”

“Normally, we would separate the sections around the tower to train you, but we created a special confined area for you disgusting creatures!”

Before they were able to finish speaking…

Shuffle!

Dohyuk heard the sounds of something walking through the tall grass fields created by the vines which appeared in between the buildings.

Soon, numerous creatures began to emerge. Their heads looked like a hybrid of a dog and a rat. They were about 140 cm tall. Their backs were hunched and repulsive hair covered their bodies. They shook their rat-like tails like fish out of the water. These creatures were twice in number compared to the humans, outnumbering them.

Dohyuk could understand. The creatures were the Goblets the angels were talking about, and they were far too dangerous.

“You’ve never seen a Goblet huh? Here, try to survive from them while they are in heat! You can earn coins when you kill them, and if one of you shows an outstanding performance, you’ll get a special prize!”

“IF you survive!”

Maybe it was the effect of the pheromones sprayed by the angels because the long and slanted eyes of the Goblets were bloodshot red. The hundreds of low growls created an ominous harmony, making Dohyuk fearful of them.

“…Sh*t.” Dohyuk half consciously took a few steps backward. He ended up accidentally bumping into someone behind him.

“Watch it.” With a sharp voice, someone pushed Dohyuk away. It was a guy around Dohyuk’s age. “Don’t come next to me again, or I’ll kill you.”

“…” Dohyuk raised both his hands and walked away from the guy. It was Dohyuk who ran into him first, but… “Why the f*ck is he lowering his voice like that?”

It wasn’t only the guy he bumped into, but everyone was acting the same. The tense atmosphere was understandable, but it seemed like everyone was trying to throw their weights around more than necessary. A strong hint of self-confidence was written all over their expressions.

“All that talk about the special isolation and it was only Goblets?”

“…The first achievement will be mine.”

Each of them all jabbered similar things and began to crack their knuckles as if the Goblets didn’t scare them one bit.

Shriek!!!

With a ripping scream from the other side, the Goblets began to charge towards them. They were running on all fours with their eyes glowing in fiery red and drooling with foamy spit. Dohyuk observed the creatures and everyone braced themselves to fight their way out with their bare hands.

“These bastards can fight them only with their hands?!” It seemed possible seeing as how confident the people reacted. However…

Tap tap!

Instead of raising his fists, Dohyuk began running into a building that wasn’t overtaken by the vines yet.

‘Even so, I don’t have any information.’

Besides, his instinct was telling him something – those creatures were dangerous. They couldn’t kill them with their hands alone.

“…What a loser!” The people laughed as they watched Dohyuk ran.

Goblets were one of the weaker monsters. They appeared at the beginning of the ‘first suffering’, but if fearless men with their potential fight with appropriate weapons, it was easy enough for one of them to fight three of the creatures at the same time.

Therefore, no one on the street feared the Goblets. For those who had ‘experienced’ the future before the resurrection, fighting five of them at the same time should be easy even with their fists.

Shriek!!

Finally, when the distance was narrowed down enough, the Goblets jumped to attack. Everyone except Dohyuk got ready to fight instead of running away.

“Die!” Their fists fly towards the Goblets. However…

Shriek!!!

The result was different from what they had imagined.

“Aaaah!”

“Wha-what the!”

The Goblets were fast and fierce, a hundred times stronger than the ones in ‘their memories’.

“Hey, hey, hey, you idiots underestimated Goblets way too much.”

“Do they consider Goblets weak in this world? Well, they are weak, but…”

“But we did give them 250 percent extracted pheromones. The Goblets will fight till the end without considering their bodies getting destroyed.”

The angels giggled as they watched the devastation on the street.

“Even so, I didn’t think they’ll try to fight with their bare hands.”

“If they had found some kind of weapon to throw around, they could’ve had some chances.”

“I thought they will be smarter since they already had some blood on their hands.”

As they said, the Goblets were enhanced by the angels, but they were not stronger than normal. With that small change alone, the past battle experiences of the humans were rendered useless. Not to mention, the battle patterns of the crazed Goblets were far different from what they had been accustomed to, and more than anything, their ignorance strengthened the Goblets further.

The benefit of knowing the future made them vulnerable without realizing it.

“Ugh”

“Aaaaahhh!”

In an instant, the street was filled with their agonizing screams. On top of the movements and attack patterns, the horny Goblets were able to land impactful attacks than what was deemed normal. While the humans scrambled in disbelief, more Goblets piled up to attack.

“This, This can’t be happening!!!”

People began to fall as several goblets rip them apart. Death alone awaits their arrival. No one thought it would be this agonizing to die on their second chance. They began to run off with their confidence in between their legs.

It didn’t matter if they had two Natures. They didn’t stand a chance when their basic abilities were so weak. There were no confident returners anymore. Instead, there were only beginners caught off guard by the alteration they had faced.

…

A few minutes ago, when other Goblets ambushed the people with their fists up…

Hiss…

One Goblet headed off into a different direction alone. He could smell the stench over there. He couldn’t see it, but there was a building where the pheromone could be smelt from inside. The Goblet followed its instinct and walked towards the building. It headed into an open building, following the stench of the pheromones towards the lobby.

As it turned around the corner…

Crack!

A sudden blunt impact crushed its face. It was Dohyuk. He, who was waiting around the corner with a fire extinguisher in his hands, ambushed the Goblet. The Goblet didn’t die, but the blow which Dohyuk swung with all of his might onto the creature was too strong. Dohyuk was not stupid to miss this chance.

“Eeek!”

Crack! Smash!

Dohyuk smashed the creature’s body until the Goblet lost his balance and fell to the ground, only then did it cease to move. Dohyuk kept smashing the Goblet’s head with the fire extinguisher. He didn’t know anything about the future, but that was the reason he succeeded.

<<Goblet Killed>>

This caution and cunning idea was possible due to Dohyuk panicking like a tensed up scaredy-cat. This was the ultimate weapon which allowed humans to be on top of the food chain.

<<Gained 20 coins>>

<<First Hunting Achievement Reached within the Section>>

Before Dohyuk was able to comprehend the words which appeared, he felt a jolt of energy running through his body.

“…”

With the bloody fire extinguisher in his hand, he hid behind the corner again. It was like the magic behind animal instincts. He could hear the footsteps of the second Goblet from the building entrance. Before he could realize it, the words appeared once again:

<<Achievement: First Hunter Obtained>>

<<Abilities Renewal>>

Dohyuk was getting accustomed to the current situation very well. The future had now become the past he didn’t remember, and he had no knowledge of this new world, just like the first time.