Player who Returned 10,000 years Later

"Sob, sob, sniff."

Han TaeHyun's sorrowful cry spread throughout the house.

'Why did I have to meet a guy like that?'

If he'd been beaten up by someone who looked like one of the superheroes that appeared in novels or manhwas, he wouldn't have felt so frustrated.

But the one who had one-sidedly beaten him up, more than a hero, was someone close to a villain.

'The kimchi stew villain…'

Han TaeHyun looked at him with eyes full of resentment.

KangWoo laughed after taking a glimpse at his expression.

"Why? Do you think I look like a crazy guy obsessed with kimchi stew?"

"N-no. Not at all!"

After hearing KangWoo's sharp remark, he quickly shook his head.

With deep, sunken eyes, KangWoo kept talking.

"You… You just don't know."

There was no way he would know.

—With what sorts of feelings and thoughts he had spent the past ten thousand years.

Demons didn't have the concept of lifespan.

Even if they don't eat or drink, they can live forever.

After he’d acquired demonic energy, he’d become an existence close to the demons. And just like them, the concept of lifespan had vanished for him.

But…

He still had a human side left.

The senses of the head and the body still remembered the pleasures of eating and drinking.

But those things that he craved for didn't exist at all in the Hell of Nine Skies.

That was because most demons didn't need what he was craving.

But it was also impossible for him to give up on those desires.

A demon's body made it impossible for you to give up on desires. It also blocked your mind from going crazy.

That was why he could remain sane while living for more than ten thousand years, and it was also why demons kept fighting endlessly for all eternity.

Living the life of a demon while being a human was like being tortured for all eternity.

—Your desires couldn't be fulfilled.

—Your thirst could not be quenched.

The reason why Hell really did feel like Hell to him wasn't because of the eternally burning fire or the desolate land.

—That place was Hell to him because there was nothing that interested him in it.

"You just don't understand how happy your current lifestyle is."

It was the same as people not realizing how thankful they should be for the air.

Although humans would die in a few seconds without air, no one was thankful for it each time they breathed.

One craved the normal things only when they ceased to be normal.

"Ugh. I… I'm sorry! I was wrong!"

Han TaeHyun couldn't understand the meaning behind his words.

But rightthen, he couldn't do anything but ask for forgiveness.

"Okay, I'll forgive you."

KangWoo said that and grabbed Han TaeHyun by the collar.

"D-don't kill me!"

"Don't worry. I won't kill you."

It wasn't because of sympathy or that he hated the idea of murdering someone.

There was only one reason why he was letting Han TaeHyun live:

'Things could get bothersome.'

If it were Hell, things would've been different. But on Earth, killing another person was a crime.

Of course, sending him off could create trouble for him in the future, so he had thought of something.

"Th-thank you!"

After hearing that he wasn't going to kill him, Han TaeHyun bowed with hopeful eyes.

KangWoo smirked while looking at him.

"Dying would've been better for you."

"…?"

"Well, you're soon going to find out."

After saying that, KangWoo's demonic energy began pouring out.

Authority of Fear…

It was Oroba's Authority. It imprinted fear on the target's soul. That way, the target would become a puppet that couldn’t even fathom the idea of going against him.

It wasn't an Authority that used a lot of demonic energy, but it had quite harsh pre-requisites.

'It's hard to create an extreme state of fear.'

Printing fear in the soul of some wasn't an easy task.

It was impossible to use it unless the difference in power with the opponent was clear.

But if you could use it, the effect worked like a charm.

"Ah, aah…"

Because of the Authority of Fear, the fear Han TaeHyun was feeling had deepened.

He pissed in his pants and looked at KangWoo with a blank expression on his face.

"You'll have to live forever while feeling those emotions."

KangWoo smiled like looking at the trembling Han TaeHyun.

"N-no…" Han TaeHyun said while squeezing out what he had left of reason.

KangWoo shrugged his shoulders and, with a light tone, continued speaking.

"This isn't a world you can live in just by doing things you like."

The words that Han TaeHyun had said to Han Seol-ah…

Those words had become a sharp arrow and come back at him.

"Then go. And don't tell anyone about what happened here."

KangWoo waved his hand as if he were annoyed.

TaeHyun had become his puppet.

* * *

Even if he were tortured, he probably wouldn't be able to say anything about what had happened that day.

Han TaeHyun stood up while making a blank expression on his face and went out of the home with staggering steps.

After looking at him step outside, Han Seol-ah walked toward KangWoo.

She bowed to KangWoo.

"Thank you. If it weren't for you… I wouldn't have been able to stop Oppa."

He was the one who'd saved her life from the goblins.

And on top of that, he'd saved both her and her mother from Han TaeHyun, who had been bothering them for many years, so she wasn't sure how to repay him.

She thought that simply saying thanks wasn't enough.

"I'll try my best… So I can repay your generosity."

She said with a sincere voice tone while bowing.

KangWoo smiled while looking at her.

"First, let's clean."

The house had become a mess because of KangWoo and Han TaeHyun's fight.

"Oh, if it's cleaning, I'll…"

"It's going to be faster if we do it together."

After saying that, KangWoo began cleaning the house, and Han Seol-ah followed him.

While they were cleaning, she carefully asked:

"Now that I think about it, where do you live?"

"Ah."

A short exclamation came out of KangWoo's mouth at her sudden question.

'Now that I think about it, the room where I used to live has probably disappeared.'

He hadn't paid rent for five years, so there was probably another person living at the place where he used to.

It was then that KangWoo realized that he had no place to sleep.

'I'll have to get a place to live first.'

He wasn't that worried.

He now had a strength that couldn't be compared to his past self.

With his current strength, it shouldn't be hard to get a place to live.

"Because of things that happened, I don't have a place to stay at the moment."

"Does that mean…?"

"Well, I'm homeless for the moment," KangWoo said while shrugging.

Han Seol-ah was immersed in thoughts.

"Then…"

Han Seol-ah, blushing slightly, carefully opened her mouth.

"U-until you get a home… Do you want to stay in our house?" She asked nervously with her fists clenched.

The truth was that what she was doing was something unreasonable.

Although she was indebted to KangWoo, they'd only known for a few hours. That's why someone sane wouldn't say something like that.

'I know it.'

But she wanted to know more about the man named Oh KangWoo.

She wanted to know who he was, what kind of life he'd lived until then.

To be blunt, she was a little bit interested in him.

"Hoo."

KangWoo's eyes shone.

He didn't even need to think about it.

There probably wasn't a better place for him to stay for him to get used to living on Earth than there.

Because of her financial situation, he wouldn't be able to live comfortably, but that really didn't matter to him.

'I can earn money myself.'

If strength was the most important thing in Hell, money was the most important thing on Earth.

In a capitalist society, money was an entity similar to a god.

"Okay. Then I'll be in your care for a little bit."

"Ah."

Han Seol-ah's pale face became bright again. It was because she knew that her behavior wasn't normal.

"Then I'll be in your care Ms. Seol-ha."

"N-no. I'll be in your care!"

Han Seol-ah bowed while shaking hands with KangWoo.

"You can use the room Oppa used before."

"Okay."

After nodding, he went to the room she'd indicated.

'First, I need to take care of two things.'

He needed to increase the amount of demonic energy he had available and earn some money for spending in daily life.

Among the hundreds of Authorities he had available, many were useful even outside of battle.

To live comfortably from then on, he had to be able to use all the different Authorities he had freely. To do that, he needed to increase the amount of demonic energy he had access to.

'In the future, I could get involved with more guys like Han TaeHyun.'

In the case of Han TaeHyun, because his battle sense was so bad, he could easily win despite his stats being lower than his.

But because his Ten Thousand Demon Core had been sealed, he would probably have trouble fighting against someone with a higher level and better skills than Han TaeHyun.

Increasing his demonic energy was his number one priority at the moment.

'And then, money.'

He'd learned from the internet that players earned money by hunting monsters.

"Ms. Seol-ah, do you have a mana stone with you?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't have that many, but I have a few E-rank ones."

"Could I take a look?"

"Of course."

Han Seol-ah nodded and took out a mana stone from her bag that was emitting white light.

While looking at it, he remembered the internet article.

'They said that the closer it's to a black color, the highest rank it has.'

It was the same with the gate.

The lowest rank a gate could have was F, and those had a white color. The higher the gate's rank was, the closer its color became to black.

The higher ranked a mana stone was, the higher amount of mana it had inside, and thus, you could sell it for a higher price.

Most players earned an income by selling the mana stones they obtained by hunting.

After grabbing the E-ranked mana stone, KangWoo closed his eyes.

He focused his attention on the content inside the mana stone.

'I can't feel demonic energy inside them.'

KangWoo remembered when he’d used the Authority of Predation on the goblin's corpse.

Although it was a very little amount, goblins had some demonic energy.

KangWoo thought that they probably had the demonic energy inside the mana stone, but it seemed like he was wrong.

The energy inside the mana stone wasn't demonic energy, but the energy called mana.

'Then… where is the demonic energy stored?'

He hadn't checked that out before because he never thought that monsters would've had demonic energy inside them.

'I'll also have to check this out.'

But the most important thing wasn't figuring out where the monsters stored demonic energy.

What mattered was that they had demonic energy and mana stones, which could be sold for a profit.

Just by hunting, he could achieve his two goals.

"Ms. Seol-ha, is there a Player Management Office near here?"

"Since we're it the outskirts of Seoul, there's none around here. You'll have to go to the city center."

"I see. Could I ask you to take me there?"

"I was planning on going there already, so yes. Sure."

Han Seol-ah answered while nodding.

"Ms. Seol-ha too?"

"Yes. After today's incident, I realized how hasty I was. Although it may take some more time… I'm going to enter a gate after receiving the basic education."

In Korea, there was a system in place that supported players and helped them level up safely until they reached level 10 and unlocked the 2nd awakening.

Although they said it was in place to support new players, its cost was quite high. That's why most players from humble families didn't take it.

But she’d realized that entering a gate without the 2nd awakening was like committing suicide.

"Hmm."

KangWoo's eyes narrowed at her words.

'Should I help her?'

With his strength, it shouldn't be hard to increase Han Seol-ah's level.

Although his level was lower than hers, he had all the battle experience he had gained throughout the last 10 thousand years and all sorts of Authorities.

Hunting with someone else wasn't a burden to him.

'No.'

After thinking about it, he shook his head.

'The efficiency of the hunt will drop.'

Maybe they could hunt together later on. But right then, with her current abilities, he had more to lose than gain.

'I don't need to build a party or use a strategy that bothers me.'

It was true that he had good feelings toward Han Seol-ah.

She was the first human he met after coming back to Earth. And not only that, but she was also the woman who had prepared the food he'd been craving for a long time.

But that was no reason to carry her around.

'I need to differentiate things.'

He was a calculating person.

No, to be more precise, ten thousand years in Hell had made him become like that.

He used to be at the bottom of the food chain while in Hell. For someone as weak as he used to be to survive, he’d had no other choice but became someone calculative.

Of course, after time went on and he had devoured tons of demons with his Authority of Predation, he’d gone up in the food chain, but habits engraved in one's soul don't disappear.

'I'm going to think about it after recovering my strength.'

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