The Hero Returns

Hwang Jun-peong was dead.

The tallest skyscraper in Guangzhou, the C&D building, collapsed from the battle between two people, no less.

One of them was none other than Hwang Jun-peong. The world was stunned to learn the truth of him being an awakener possessing abilities exceeding regular S-Ranks. They were also shocked at the fact that there was no other casualty beside him during this incident.

"It was all thanks to the steps Kim Su-hyeun had taken beforehand. We merely took action after he asked us for our help, that's all."

This was from an interview with Zhu In, the master of the Great Wall Guild.

"At the very least, he never made us suspect him as a criminal, someone belonging to the Dump Guild. No, it was Hwang Jun-peong who attacked me, instead."

"Are you saying that the actor Hwang Jun-peong was a Dump Guild member?" the reporter asked.

"No, not exactly, but if you ask me to choose between the two, then yes, I think Hwang Jun-peong was indeed more likely someone from the Dump Guild. Even Kim Su-hyeun said something similar to that effect, as well."

"Are you saying that you believe the words of Kim Su-hyeun over the actor Hwang Jun-peong?"

"Rather than believing who over who, I'm simply looking at the available information objectively to make my decision. Kim Su-hyeun had been on a warpath against the Dump Guild already, and most importantly, those directly involved in the Beijing disaster all pointed Hwang Jun-peong as the culprit, as well. The series of events so far…"

Beep—

Now back on Korean soil, Su-hyeun turned the TV off. Hak-joon, who was sitting in front of him, stopped eating and asked, "How did you take care of the aftermath?"

"I didn't. I just ran away. Thankfully, no one tried to stop me."

Su-hyeun's reply was met with another question from Hak-joon, this time sounding worried. "Won't be it a problem later down the line?"

"They have nothing to suspect me with. If they had no clue, fine, but just digging through Hwang Jun-peong's past alone would reveal his ties to the Dump Guild sooner rather than later. Also, there were eyewitnesses."

"Eyewitnesses?"

"You heard what that guy said on TV just now, right? I'm talking about the awakeners who survived the Beijing disaster. Sure, that guy might have used a skill to change his appearance, but they have testified that Hwang Jun-peong was the disaster's main culprit."

He was trying to say that he made his move because he had a plan.

Hak-joon initially thought that Su-hyeun stepped up without one, seemingly completely out of whim, but the latter had given this a lot of thought beforehand from the looks of things.

"In that case, why did you run away?"

"Staying behind and getting involved in the investigation would have been super annoying, that's why. I mean, we have other people willing to testify for me over there anyway, so do I really need to stay back and waste my time?"

If there was one thing that might prove to be a problem, it'd be the owner of the building, the XX Group, demanding compensation for their losses, but as far as that part was concerned, all sorts of stories were doing the rounds at the moment.

"As for the compensation for the damaged building, I'm sure they will seize Hwang Jun-peong's private assets and deal with that. If it's not enough, the Chinese authorities will probably pay for the rest."

"….Bro, you're surprisingly a lot smarter than you look."

"What, you thought I was a moron?"

"Haha, no way."

Hak-joon's chopsticks began moving again. As they returned to their meal, Su-hyeun suddenly pulled his phone out and confirmed the date once more.

July. In the middle of a hot, stuffy summer.

<<Definitely, around this time in the year 2022…>>

…A huge event took place. He couldn't participate in the past, but now, he had more than enough qualifications.

Riiiing—

While he was confirming the date, the phone started ringing. Since he was already holding the device anyway, Su-hyeun didn't hesitate and brought it close to his ear.

"What do you want?"

"What kind of a greeting is that?"

It was Ji-yeon.

"Stick to the business at hand. International calls can be very expensive."

"You've got a ton of money, so what's with your Scrooge attitude? And besides, I'm the one paying for the call here. The caller's responsible for the payment, don't you know that?"

"In any case, aren't you coming back soon?"

"Plenty of Dump Guild remnants are still hiding on this side."

"Those bastards. I'm sure it's not going to be easy to smoke them out after they all went underground."

"Well, this is the only thing remaining that I can do, after you went and offed Hwang Jun-peong all by yourself."

Just what had happened between her and them? Her grudge against the Dump Guild didn't seem to be over yet.

From the way she spoke, it looked as if she was planning to completely erase all traces of the Dump Guild — not just what was revealed to the surface, but the roots and even the vestiges, too.

<<It's going to end soon, anyway.>>

The "root" called Hwang Jun-peong had already been exposed.

Just by digging through his past movements alone, you'd be able to reveal which guilds were connected to the Dump in no time at all. When that time came, they should be able to completely erase any and all remaining hidden vestiges of the Dump Guild once and for all.

<<Well, it's not like she'd listen to me even if I try to stop her.>>

Whatever the case might have been, she was basically doing what Su-hyeun was supposed to be doing, anyway. So, he didn't plan on stopping her, nor was there a reason to do so.

"Okay, so. What do you want?"

"I wanted to share a really interesting piece of news, that's what."

"What is it?"

"You know who Gordon Rohan is, right?"

What an obvious question that was.

He was a man often considered America's — no, the world's — best awakener. Surely no living awakener didn't know that man's name by now.

"He proposed for an event to be held. He's calling it the Ranking Wars, and it's causing a huge stir on this side."

"Already?"

"…What do you mean, already?"

His unexpected reaction prompted Ji-yeon to ask him for a clarification.

Su-hyeun got flustered by what he said reflexively and hurriedly tried to change the topic. "N-no, well. I mean, the current state of affairs is really chaotic, so I was wondering, why an event now? I was just puzzled, is all."

"It seems like the argument is an event like this is even more necessary precisely because of what's been happening lately. Need something to change the moods or some such, apparently. I've heard that he can be a bit eccentric, so I guess the rumors were true."

For sure, there was a rumor like that in the past, too. However, Su-hyeun's current thoughts were slightly different.

<<Did he really come up with it out of the blue?>>

That didn't seem likely.

The Ranking Wars. That event also took place in the previous life Su-hyeun remembered. However, it happened much further into the future.

"He wants to gather all the rank S Awakeners of the world in one spot and let them fight to establish a pecking order. Although, participation is voluntary… I'm pretty sure the people will call the one who wins this thing the best of the best. Wouldn't you agree?"

Back then, the competition was held so that Gordon Rohan could prove himself to be the strongest in the world.

"When is it supposed to take place?"

"At the end of this year. December."

As he suspected, the timing had been brought a little closer than he remembered.

Su-hyeun replied with a satisfied smile on his face. "Okay."

This was for the better, actually. He now got a chance to take care of an annoying event as soon as possible.

"I'll remember it."

What a relief it was, knowing that he wouldn't get the dates all mixed up now. Su-hyeun then ended the phone call with Ji-yeon.

"What was that about?" Hak-joon asked. And after hearing about the new of the Ranking Wars, he began forming a really excited expression. "D-does that mean even I can participate?"

"I think you'll have to be an S-Rank first to qualify, though. Don't you think it'll be difficult?"

"There's still half a year left, right?"

Tap!

Hak-joon put down the chopsticks and spoke up. "That'll be enough for me."

Despite his meal not being finished yet, he shot up from his chair. Now that was quite an enthusiastic response; Su-hyeun stared Hak-joon's back as the latter left through the front door.

<<Was that a good stimulus for him?>>

As a matter of fact, Su-hyeun had been thinking that the events in America had affected Hak-joon in some ways. But now that he was presented with a defined time table to work with, the latter seemed to have found a goal for himself to achieve.

<<I can't take it easy myself either.>>

Things had been brought a lot closer than he was initially expecting. Su-hyeun stood up from his spot and quickly cleaned the dining table. He also felt rather impatient for some reason.

<<The 30th floor.>>

The third hurdle was waiting right before his eyes.

Act 7

Step—

Su-hyeun stepped into the world of the 30th floor.

It had been a while since he last stepped inside the Tower of Trials, and the streets here felt rather empty for some reason. Boiling heat could be felt coming from both the ground as well as from above at the same time.

"Fuu-woo—"

The city glowed red-hot everywhere.

The city that all awakeners chose as their number one spot never to stay behind was the 30th floor's world.

Not only did the buildings forming the part of the cityscape all crafted out of rocks give off this stuffy feeling, but it was also unbearably hot here as well. On top of this, the personalities of the indigenous population were also known to be quite temperamental, too.

<<I better escape from this place as soon as possible.>>

He was doing nothing but standing around, yet his back was already soaked in sweat. He was using magical energy to block out the heat, but that didn't mean he could drape his body in magic indefinitely.

Leaving this city as soon as possible was the smart thing to do.

Step, step—

Right in the center of the city.

A person wearing torn rags was sitting in front of the statue of a goddess. Su-hyeun walked towards this person.

The gatekeeper raised his head. He quietly stared at Su-hyeun before extending his hand. "Money."

They always wanted the exact same thing.

Su-hyeun grabbed the offered hand.

[100,000 Achievement points have been spent.]

The gatekeeper's expression shifted.

Signs of surprise spread all over that dirty, sooty face. It seemed that Su-hyeun was the first one to unhesitantly spend that much achievement points in one go.

"Is it tenth level?"

"Yes."

"Hmm…"

The gatekeeper would offer better hints according to the amount of achievement points received. One hundred thousand points were pretty sizeable price to pay. However, as the difficulty was so high, Su-hyeun couldn't expect to hear a detailed hint at all.

The gatekeeper pondering for a little while finally opened his mouth. "Which one do you want?"

"Excuse me?"

"The hint that will let you pass the trial, and a hint that will let you earn even bigger rewards. Which of the two do you want?"

To think that a gatekeeper would offer up different types of hints. Now this would be a first.

Su-hyeun pondered it for a bit, but his dilemma didn't last long. "The bigger rewards."

"I knew you'd say that."

The gatekeeper toothily smiled, his yellowing teeth fully on display, at Su-hyeun're reply. It seemed that he liked the answer.

He then gave Su-hyeun the hint. The latter was quite surprised by how detailed the method was.

"Now, hurry up and go. I'll be watching you with great expectation, so don't you dare disappoint me."

Tap—

The gatekeeper lightly tapped Su-hyeun's leg once and lowered his head again.

A gatekeeper that lowered his head like this would not raise it again. You could only talk to him when getting the hints by paying the points. That was it.

That was why people didn't know anything about these gatekeepers.

"Thank you very much."

Su-hyeun bowed his head at the gatekeeper and walked in front of the goddess statue.

Wuu-ooong—

[Applicable individual, Kim Su-hyeun. Will you start the trial now?]

What an obvious question to ask.

"I will."

Along with his answer, Su-hyeun's figure became blurry.

* * *

Swhoosh, tumble, roar—

As his vision returned to him bit by bit, the first thing he got to hear was the sounds of the ocean waves.

Waves crashed into the bedrock and created rather refreshing-sounding noises. It felt so good to face cool breezes from the ocean after standing in a really hot place a few moments ago.

Su-hyeun's eyes caught the sight of a vast, expansive ocean.

[30th floor's trial will now commence.]

[An island nation, Moros has been rocked by a calamity.]

[For the past few years, dark magicians began showing up before this small nation of Moros. With a population of several tens of thousands, Moros is also known as the World of Magicians.]

[Because the calamity of the oceans, Ouroboros, has been summoned by the dark magicians, Moros has no choice but to offer a sacrifice of ten people every month.]

What he needed to do, or what the goal of the trial was, was not mentioned.

This was not his assignment, but merely the backdrop of the trial itself. He was simply being informed of what kind of stage he was currently standing on.

<<This trial is going to be a pain in the neck.>>

The harder the trial was, the more common it was to see no detailed explanations being offered on the trial's objectives. And this trial was precisely that. It seemed that there were plenty of things for him to discover first.

Whoooosh—

The cooling breeze blew past him once more.

"At least it feels nice."

The wide-open sea, the clear blue sky above. It didn't seem like a bad idea to stand here for a while and enjoy the vista of the ocean like this.

Ruuumble—

It was right then that he sensed the suspicious movement of something coming from beneath the ocean waves.

Something was hiding in the distance.

Su-hyeun quickly took a step back. This was no time to leisurely enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean, unfortunately.

<<It's coming.>>

Ruuumble—

Ku-gugugugu—

The ocean bucked and writhed wildly as something enormous broke the surface and rose high up above.

Ki-aaaaaaah—!

Its screech was so massive that the entire skies were shaking.

It was a gigantic snake with a body extending for several kilometers.

<<The Ouroboros.>>

The bastard had leaped up above the ocean.