Yu Hanul had collapsed on the ground.
I hurried over and checked his pulse at the neck. Thankfully, he wasn’t dead. There were no major visible injuries either. But something was clearly wrong. No matter how much I shook him, he showed no sign of waking up.
“Wake up, Yu Hanul!”
In my urgency, I tried slapping his cheek, but there was still no response. Grabbing him by the collar and shaking him didn’t help either.
I tilted my head. Is there a problem with the state of his mana circuit? Let's check it out.
Running my mana through another person’s body to examine their condition is, in truth, a fairly rude act. It’s essentially no different from laying your neck bare in front of a blade. But since Yu Hanul was unconscious anyway, I didn’t hesitate and poured my mana into him to inspect his condition.
The state of his mana circuits… is fine.
There were no lingering aftereffects from the smoke we had inhaled earlier. The flow of mana through his body was perfectly normal. Then why couldn’t he wake up?
There’s no obvious physical trauma either.
In many ways, it was a strange situation. To be honest, when Yu Hanul suddenly disappeared, I’d assumed he was locked in a desperate battle with the enemy somewhere else. Given that he’d clearly fallen into a trap, it was only natural to think he’d be in serious danger.
But now that I’d found him, his body was fine, yet he couldn’t regain consciousness at all.
That leaves mental-type magic.
In magic, humans are seen as being composed of three elements: the soul, the mind, and the body. Among these, there are spells that interfere directly with another person’s mind. The complexity of a single mind is, in reality, akin to an entirely new dimension. Interfering with it is effectively the same as invading a separate dimension. And because it also has a tremendous impact on the caster’s own mind, it’s not a type of magic used lightly without serious resolve.
And Yu Hanul has accumulated a great deal of good karma, giving his soul a high rank… Just what kind of method could inflict this level of shock?
No matter how I looked at it, there were questions everywhere. Someone capable of causing a Dungeon Break twice in such a short span, casting magic so subtly that even I couldn’t detect it, and even dealing a blow to the mind of Yu Hanul, whose soul rank was so high, actually existed on Earth? And that enemy had orchestrated all of this indirectly just to kill me?
At that point, wouldn’t it be easier to just come and kill me directly?
Just what kind of person would go to such lengths to pull off something this bothersome?
As I tilted my head at this incomprehensible inefficiency, a system message appeared.
A system message flashed.
The system requests assistance from “Jeong Daon”.
“Assistance?”
The system then displayed a series of messages.
User “Yu Hanul” has suffered severe mental damage.
User “Yu Hanul” requires assistance.
Please interfere with User “Yu Hanul”’s mind and awaken him.
I frowned as I read the messages.
It wasn’t impossible. In cases of severe mental trauma, directly entering and restoring the target’s mental world is, in fact, the standard method. However, that requires the caster’s rank to be far higher than that of the one being treated…
But I do qualify.
The rank of a soul isn’t determined by good or evil deeds alone, but by the hardships the soul has endured and the quantity and quality of the achievements it has accumulated. The real problem lay elsewhere.
The system was directly “asking” me to save Yu Hanul.
Of course, the system and I were cooperating for now, but it understood better than anyone that we weren’t true allies. Both the system and I knew that the moment the other showed even the slightest opening, we’d tear into each other. And yet, for the system to ask me for help like this…
It meant the system itself had judged that, for humanity as a collective, Yu Hanul’s survival was “beneficial”, even if it had to ask me for help to ensure it.
Someone like Yu Hanul would certainly be a valuable asset to humanity’s survival.
Still, there was an uneasiness that couldn’t be explained by that alone, a gut feeling that something existed beyond my knowledge.
"...Fine," I accepted the system’s request. “But you’ll have to give me compensation. Hand over stat rewards as quest compensation.”
The system agrees to “Jeong Daon”’s proposal.
"..."
The fact that it agreed to compensation so readily only made me more uneasy.
The system provides “Jeong Daon” with a basic tutorial on mental-type magic.
“I don’t need it. Who do you think I am?”
I don’t particularly like it, but most mages categorize the beautiful complexity of magic by the simple standard of circles. This “ego exploration,” which involves plunging into another person’s mental world, is a sub-spell of “soul manipulation,” a discipline on par with 6th-circle magic, and would likely be around the 4th circle.
Judging solely by my current stats, I’m a low-level mage who’s only just entered the realm of lower 2nd-circle to 3rd-circle magic. Fortunately, mental-type magic isn’t about the sheer amount of mana required, but rather the rank of the soul, control over mana, and sensitivity. Setting stats aside, it’s a kind of magic I can handle well enough.
That said, the system’s sudden kindness is suspicious in many ways. Feeling distinctly uneasy, I placed my hand on Yu Hanul’s head. I drew up my mana and slowly separated my soul from my physical body, it was something akin to astral projection.
Then, holding my soul in place with mana so it wouldn’t completely detach from my body, I threw myself into Yu Hanul’s mind. A suffocating sensation washed over me, like plunging into deep water.
A single human is, in itself, a single world. Everyone possesses their own unique mental realm.
And Yu Hanul’s mental world resembled a vast, tranquil sea. On the surface, it was calm and seemed capable of embracing anything, yet at times it felt like a merciless, violent calamity. Rather fitting for a hero’s nature, wasn’t it?
Setting the situation aside and speaking purely as a mage, exploring another person’s mental world isn’t an unpleasant experience. If given the chance, another’s mental realm is always an unknown world worth exploring. All the more so when the subject is Yu Hanul, someone who had proven his worth even in a past life.
Just as expected, it was a world so beautiful that, if I had the leisure, I might have wanted to sink into it as it was, but there was no time for that.
His ego should be somewhere around here.
To wake an unconscious Yu Hanul, I needed to shock his ego, the core of the mental world. And with a soul of this rank, the ego is usually well-defined, making it relatively easy to find.
Ah, there it is.
I quickly located Yu Hanul’s ego.
In this vast, ocean-like world, Yu Hanul stood blankly staring at a large monitor floating before him. It seemed that after experiencing something shocking, he hadn’t been able to recover from the impact and was unconsciously replaying the recent memories over and over.
Still, this didn’t look like a deep wound inflicted on his unconscious; it was simply an enormous shock. If he could recognize that this was already in the past, he should be able to break free quickly.
The problem was that, for that to happen, Yu Hanul had to realize on his own that this was, in fact, the past.
What on earth is he looking at?
Unable to resist my curiosity, I turned my gaze toward the scene Yu Hanul was watching.
The stage of the memory turned out to be the very rooftop where Yu Hanul had collapsed moments ago. Perhaps it was right after he’d been caught in the teleportation magic circle?
Yu Hanul, sword in hand, was scanning his surroundings with a sharp gaze. Even though he must have been unable to use his mana circuits, with that murderous intensity, there was no mistaking that he was an active swordsman through and through. Since it wasn’t happening to me, the tension felt somewhat muted, but even so, it was clearly a dire situation.
“Whoever you are, show yourself…!”
Yu Hanul, who had been on high alert, suddenly flinched and froze. Had he noticed something?
Just as I followed his line of sight—
Core discovered.
The system message Yu Hanul was seeing appeared before me as well. Since I was inside his mental world, it was only natural.
He found the core the moment he reached the rooftop?
The core that had so blatantly caused a dungeon rift was just sitting there?
It was suspicious, but to resolve the situation, destroying the core was the obvious first step. Yu Hanul seemed to share my judgment; he immediately raised his sword to strike it.
Clang!
But despite the forceful swing, the core repelled the blade. A protective barrier surrounded it.
“What kind of magic is this—” He cut himself off, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, and looked around.
At the same time, I scanned the surroundings as well. Bloodstains were scattered across the rooftop floor. They were unmistakably the traces of what had once been a living human being.
Yu Hanul’s face twisted in pain. “…Why would someone do something like this…?”
The protective magic on that core, the Dungeon Break created days ago by shattering my unique spell—
Seen in that light, it made sense that the ground beneath Yu Hanul’s feet was drenched in blood. Was this another spell created by offering oneself as a sacrifice?
Idiotic.
Just then, a system message appeared in Yu Hanul’s field of vision.
The system has detected a massive threat to humanity.
The system defines an “Enemy of Humanity”.
The system searches for an entity to confront the “Enemy of Humanity”…
The system has selected User “Yu Hanul”.
The moment I saw that message, a vulgar curse slipped out before I could stop myself, “Are you fucking insane?”
For the system, a collective intelligence that exists to ensure humanity’s survival, to define an Enemy of Humanity means that a being has appeared whose existence gravely obstructs humanity’s continued survival. Just like how, in my previous life, I became the “Destroyer of Worlds”.
In other words, the perpetrator who caused this Dungeon Break must be dangerously beyond the pale.
That alone wasn’t especially surprising. The problem was that the system had chosen Yu Hanul as the entity to eliminate that being.
“He doesn’t seem like he’s committed sins that serious…”
Which meant that Yu Hanul had become a hero destined to face the Demon Lord—both in his past life and in this one.
“What a twisted fate.”
Honestly, being a hero isn’t all that great, is it? It means that personal happiness and trivial pleasures are eclipsed by some grand purpose, and that you must dedicate your entire life to the peace of others.
So what, that’s supposed to be noble? If that’s how someone sees it, I have nothing to say. But if Jeong Dajeong ever tried to do something like that, I’d knock him out with one punch and lock him away until the Demon Lord died of natural causes.
Still, it seemed that the choices of a man who had been a hero since his past life were different from mine.
Without even a moment’s hesitation, Yu Hanul answered as if it were the most natural decision in the world, “I’ll accept it.”
Truly, an incomprehensible human being. Past life, present life—no, even if I lived several more lives, I’d never understand him. At the very least, if it were me, I’d try to get something in return for accepting a quest like this. But Yu Hanul remained calm.
“Still, I need information. What exactly am I supposed to fight? Is it an SSS-rank monster or something?”
It was a reasonable question. And I was curious as well. A threat bearing down on humanity, what in the world could it be? Honestly, humanity already lives with a massive threat capable of wiping itself out. Was there really something even greater than that?
The system provides User “Yu Hanul” with information about the “Enemy of Humanity.”
The instant that message appeared, my vision flickered. Since I had followed Yu Hanul’s unconsciousness, his field of view must have changed like this.
Is it going to show the enemy directly?
Just what would the system reveal as humanity’s enemy?
With the detached curiosity of an onlooker, I followed along with Yu Hanul’s memory. A desolate land unfolded before his eyes…
…and my excitement died right there, because it was a sight all too familiar to me.
A barren land where not a single blade of grass grew, poisonous miasma hanging thick in the air. In a place where you could barely see an inch ahead, a massive beast raised its neck stiffly in a threatening posture.
“This is…” Yu Hanul looked around in confusion.
Did he have no memory of this place?
But I did. This was where my soul had originally belonged.
Before long, Yu Hanul stood alone in the wasteland, clad in silver armor and holding a radiant holy sword. And in that wasteland lay a wretched body, cut down by the blade.
Looking at it, Yu Hanul—no, the hero who had slain the enemy of the world, raised his eyes to the sky and lamented.
“Was this truly the right thing to do?”
And unlike the hero gazing up at the heavens, I looked down upon the scene. The pitiful form of a demon fallen to the ground.
That…was me.
I was honestly taken aback to be confronted with my past life again in a place like this. But setting aside the sheer unpleasantness of the sight, I couldn’t understand the system’s intention in showing this to Yu Hanul. Hadn’t it said it would reveal the identity of the enemy threatening humanity? Then why show the past lives of Yu Hanul and me?
Was it implying that I, who had already formed an alliance with the system, was somehow an enemy of humanity after all?
Regret flickered across the hero’s eyes, then the scene changed.
The hero was no longer standing alone in the wasteland. In a castle adorned with splendid banners, he, wearing resplendent armor atop crimson silk, knelt before his sovereign.
“My knight, hero who protects this kingdom.”
It was a voice filled with benevolence and authority, a voice I had never forgotten for even a single moment. Not even after being reborn. The voice that had sung me lullabies in childhood, told me stories as I learned to speak, and whispered dreams to me as I took my first steps.
“The one who was once my younger sibling...”
The one who was once my family.
The king, seated upon a lofty throne, praised their knight, “...and yet, a demon who ultimately fell into corruption and sought to cast my kingdom into the abyss. You have brought me her head.”
(T/N: There’s no description of the king’s gender until now. Although there’s a bigger possibility them being a male, it doesn’t completely close the door of a female king)
And the one who, in the end, became my adversary.
The moment I fully recognized the figure seated on the throne, looking down at the hero, I had the strange illusion that our eyes met, even though that should have been impossible.
But what truly shocked me came next.
You have witnessed the “Enemy of Humanity”.
A quest has been granted to the hero “Yu Hanul”.
A quest is being generated.
Quest: SAVE THE WORLD
When I came to, as if struck on the back of the head, I had returned to reality. What remained was neither replaying memories nor a beautiful mental world, only the cold sensation of asphalt beneath me. It seemed I had collapsed at some point.
Cold sweat was already running down my back. With great effort, I pushed myself up and found the core that had caused this Dungeon Break, which had been pinned beneath Yu Hanul’s body. The red gemstone was glowing as if to mock me.
Crunch! I ground the core that had caused the Dungeon Break beneath my foot. The red gem was completely crushed, yet no matter how much I stamped on it, the powder never vanished entirely.
Just like the ties of my past life that I had thought I’d already discarded for good.
The Dungeon Break has ended.