Chapter 2

As he limped forward, his body still wrecked from the battle against the Behemoth that had decimated the city, he suddenly halted. A sinister shadow loomed ahead, dark and imposing. His body trembled uncontrollably. He tried to look away, but something compelled him to lift his gaze.

The creature before him exuded a malevolence so palpable that the air around him felt thick and suffocating. He could barely breathe, his stomach churning in revulsion. Cold sweat drenched his skin as a wave of nausea hit him.

Steeling his resolve, he whispered to himself, "Pull yourself together. It's just a monster."

With shaking hands, he pulled up the status window of the creature.

[Name: Asmodeus]

[Rank: ???]

His heart skipped a beat. He knew instantly—there was no chance of survival. Despair threatened to consume him, but something else stirred within him. A sudden, uncontrollable laughter burst from his lips. Raising his dagger toward the sky, he screamed in defiance.

"All of you, sitting up there, watching us die one after another. Get ready, because it won't take long for me to cut you down!"

The moment he finished his declaration, a sound cut through the air.

Whoosh—

Sung Jihoon didn't even have time to register it before his vision blurred, his head separated cleanly from his body. As his world spun, and the ground rushed up to meet him, a cold message appeared before his fading sight.

[You Are Dead]

As darkness closed in, regret filled his mind.

If only I had understood the true value of my skill sooner...

The world might have been saved...

His thoughts drifted, his consciousness slipping away like the last grains of sand in an hourglass. For a moment, he felt a bone-chilling cold, as though he were sinking into an abyss. Then, through the black void, a light appeared.

He moved toward it, pulled by its warmth. Suddenly, his eyes flew open.

He was in a hospital.

His mind struggled to process what he was seeing. He was supposed to be dead. But here he was, lying in a bed, alive. Confused, he glanced at the mirror beside him and froze. The reflection staring back at him was young. Far younger than he should have been.

His hands trembling, he reached for the phone on the table next to him. The date flashed on the screen: September 22, 2025.

Realization hit him like a bolt of lightning. He had returned. Ten years. He had gone back in time, to the day after receiving his talent.

The memories rushed back—he had been drinking after losing his job, hit by a car on his way home. That was the last thing he remembered before waking up here.

Instinctively, he pulled up his status window. His eyes widened in shock.

There was something there that shouldn't have been.

'...'

Another trait. Normally, a person only had one trait. But he... he had two.

The first was Greed, a trait that allowed him to absorb 1% of the stats of monsters he killed. He had once dismissed it as useless, unaware that it could level up, other traits don't level up. That was why there was a familiar saying that your life depended on the rank of your trait. But what really shocked him was the second trait: Dual Window.

"...Could it be?" he muttered, eyes narrowing.

Mumbling the trait's name to himself, he activated it. Two status windows appeared before him. One was familiar—his current stats—but the other... it was something entirely different.

It was filled with new features. Inventory. Weapons. Potions. Skills. Authorities. Authorities? His heart skipped a beat. Authorities were powers granted only by gods or constellations. Yet, there it was, in his window.

A slow grin spread across his face.

"The gods have truly blessed me this time."

But something gnawed at him. The constellations—those "benevolent" beings who occasionally aided humanity—weren't what they seemed. He now understood why they helped. It was all for their amusement. The game they hosted was their entertainment. Even those who didn't participate were nothing more than spectators, enjoying the suffering.

"They're all disgusting," Jihoon spat, his eyes darkening. "I swore I'd make them pay... It didn't seem possible before, but now..."

He turned his gaze back to the second window. It seemed this trait required something called Achievement Points to purchase items. Currently, he had 100 points which he obtained from the achievement "[Regressor]". The only thing he could afford was a health potion which cost 50Ap.

He bought it and drank it immediately. The effects were instantaneous—and startling. Normally, health potions couldn't regenerate torn flesh or restore broken bones. But this one did. Completely.

A slow, wicked smile crept across his face. "This system... I'm looking forward to seeing just what it can do."

He took a deep breath, a new sense of determination filling him. "Alright, I've done everything I need to do here. It's time to get out of this damned hospital."

But first he had a place to visit.

As he spoke those words aloud, a smirk twisted his lips.

He walked to the door, talking the first step towards changing his fate.