The Hero Returns

By the time Su-hyeun opened his eyes and sat up, the rays of the morning sun were already seeping through the curtains.

His hotel room was incredibly quiet.

Even after waking up, Su-hyeun didn't move for a good while. Rather than a dream, it almost felt like he had traveled to another world and came back in the blink of an eye without even realizing it.

He raised his hand and touched his eyes.

"That was definitely not a dream."

The power of Foresight was an ability only activated when one's Insight had gotten stronger.

A god on the level of Apollo could use this power whenever he wanted. Not only that, but he would be able to see the specific window of time in the future and even interfere with that future.

However, Su-hyeun couldn't do that. He might be better than Apollo in combat, but he was far inferior to the Sun God in the matter of Insight.

Never mind being able to look into a specific time in the future, he couldn't even activate Foresight whenever he wanted. But that was because Su-hyeun had only taken baby steps in the road to activating Foresight through the power of Insight.

He got up from the bed and then boiled some water to prepare his morning coffee.

His thoughts remained a jumbled mess, however.

"Just what or who was that?"

The owner of the voice knew who Su-hyeun was. He was sure about that.

Since it was an existence from the future, it was possible that he hadn't met this creature yet.

"I can only think of three possibilities."

While he was watching the hot coffee drip down to his cup, his thought reached a certain point.

"First, Shiva. Then, the One Overlord. And finally, Brahma."

Su-hyeun had already encountered two of the Three Destroyers, Uranus and Osiris.

Also, he met the Five Godly Sages, except Brahma.

Shiva and Brahma were known as the Primordial Gods. There was also the existence even greater than Shiva, the One Overlord.

Su-hyeun still hadn't found out the One Overlord's true identity out of the three.

He had his suspicions, sure, but he had no firm proof of anything.

"Foresight suddenly activating can't be a coincidence."

No other term was capable of lulling you into a false sense of comfort than "coincidence."

That bewitching term could make you lackadaisical about every single thing. That was why Su-hyeun did not subscribe to the idea of "coincidence."

"A future that was bound to happen, hmm?" Su-hyeun muttered to himself while watching the coffee slowly dripping into his cup. "Bullsh*t."

Some would call the future that had already been decided fate. However, Su-hyeun didn't believe in fate where everything was set in stone.

Besides…

"I have acquired Foresight, too."

It was nothing more than a tentative little step past the doorway of Insight, but whatever the case might be, it was still true that he managed to pry open the locked door.

In that case, the new question should be, how long he would need before opening that doorway even wider.

Now that he had unshackled the hefty lock and turned the doorknob once, the next time should be incomparably easier to pull off.

Foresight was the power to peek into the future and potentially change it, and Su-hyeun trusted this power.

"For now, I should focus on dealing with the matter at hand first."

While lifting the cup filled with fresh coffee, he confirmed the current time.

The morning sun had long brightened the world outside.

It was time to get going again.

<hr />

Sun Wukong was already standing outside his hospital ward.

Nurses were currently in panic mode because of a missing patient. However, Sun Wukong didn't care and headed to the hospital's rooftop because he wanted to get some fresh air.

That was where he chose to wait for Su-hyeun's arrival.

"Third Brother, why are you out here instead of resting in your room?"

"It got really boring, you know? Lying there doing nothing and stuff. I've also finished watching every clip you left behind," Sun Wukong replied while loosening his muscles.

Judging from his furrowed brows, various parts of his body must've still hurt whenever he tried to move a little too much. However, he didn't seem to mind it at all.

The weather was somewhat chilly, and Su-hyeun stuffed his hands inside his pockets out of habit. He then stood on the rooftop's railing as if he wanted Sun Wukong to follow him.

Split—

A portal opened up in front of him. The space beyond it was awash with gray. Sun Wukong noticed this and tilted his head in confusion, "Why are we going there?"

"We need to speak to King Yama first, you see."

"Yama? Really?"

"Yes. According to Buddha, First Brother seems to have sought out King Yama first after ascending."

"Oh, so Yama probably knows where he is?"

"Most likely, yes."

"Okay, then," Sun Wukong smirked deeply. "Been a while, so let's find him and drink ourselves to stupor!"

As soon as he finished saying that, he impatiently threw himself through the portal and stepped into the netherworld beyond it.

Out of 9,000 netherworlds in existence, Su-hyeun chose a specific hell called "Freezing Hell."

It was utterly "gray" from top to bottom because this world was filled with dirty, corrupted gray snow brought on by the freezing temperature.

The cold weather didn't really affect them, but they could still tell how freezing the winds blowing around them were. Su-hyeun reached down and scooped up some of the snow on the ground.

"Even the Hell of Scorching Heat is preferable to this place."

If he were asked to choose between the Hell of Scorching Heat that was so hot that bones might melt or the Freezing Hell that was so cold that you would freeze right down to your bones, Su-hyeun thought he would go for the colder of the two.

In this world, no scientific concept like absolute zero applied.

The temperatures in various hells exceeded what was physically possible to punish better the sinners ending up in such places. In this Freezing Hell, the punishment meted out to the sinners came in the form of absolute coldness.

"Oh, hey? Isn't that, like, a village or something?" Sun Wukong pointed to a small village located not too far from where they were.

Because this was hell, he expected it to be a ridiculously harsh place, but to think people even formed a village here…

Sun Wukong continued, "Looks like it's freezing for them, doesn't it?"

Of course, forming a village didn't stop them from being punished by the never-ending torment of the cold.

The only reason those people formed a village in the first place was to hold onto each other and somehow endure the freezing temperature.

It was all a useless endeavor in the end. Hundreds of people had gathered in one spot, but that still didn't give them a way to endure the biting cold of this Freezing Hell.

"Should we help them?" Sun Wukong asked while studying Su-hyeun's moods.

Judging from how Su-hyeun behaved until now, he would probably not forsake all those people suffering from so much torment.

Not only that, but they weren't even talking about something impossible here. For Su-hyeun, dealing with this level of coldness shouldn't even be an issue. Hell, if he really wanted to, he probably could take all those souls out of here, too.

There was no doubting that Su-hyeun had become one of the few supreme beings in the entire universe.

"Mm. Not really. I don't think I want to do that."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Well, those people somehow ended up in hell, yes? Which meant they must've committed some terrible sins when they were alive, and this is the only way for them to pay for their crimes."

"Ah, is that how it is?"

"Yes. And for some reason, in my eyes…"

Su-hyeun's eyes were taking in the sight of people shivering from the cold.

Outwardly, they looked pitiful and tragic. However, after looking at their real self underneath, Su-hyeun saw that they definitely deserved this treatment.

"Murder, rape, all types of acts of violence, fraud, and even cannibalism? Huh, that's an outstanding collection of human excrement, isn't it?" he thought.

Su-hyeun's eyes could see it all—including the crimes those souls had committed when they were living and everything they would go through in the future and how long they would be stuck in this hell.

"Two hundred years for the least notorious offender. As for the worst one of them all… After becoming a king, that guy drove tens of millions of people to their deaths, I see. I guess his duration will be over a hundred million years, then."

Not a single one among them was worthy of saving.

"I guess they have gotten used to the cold weather, so…"

"Hmm?"

"How about I sentence them with a different type of punishment?"

Shu-wuwu—

All the snow and ice began melting with Su-hyeun as the center.

Rumble—!

Intense flames instantly spread out everywhere. The world dyed in the monochrome hue of gray gradually changed its color.

The new color was crimson.

"Oh… it's… so warm…"

"F—finally, the end of this hell is upon us—! Huh?!"

"U—uwaaaahk!"

"The ground! The ground is getting too hot!"

"What is going on here?!"

"Get away from me!"

The criminals of this hell huddling together hurriedly shoved each other away, then began struggling ungainly by jumping up and down to alleviate somehow the intense heat they felt.

The whole world seemed to have become crimson, filled with scorching heat. The cold of the Freezing Hell was gone, and it transformed into a new Hell of Scorching Heat in no time at all.

The heat was gradually getting worse, too.

The criminals who had stayed here for a long time and had gotten used to the cold now had to endure the intense heat next.

"You want to punish them that badly?" Sun Wukong asked, sounding somewhat surprised.

No matter how evil these sinners were when they were alive, they were still sent to this place to repent for their crimes after death.

They were sent to a hell that matched their crimes; they were given a varying length of time to suffer through their punishment.

Even then, Su-hyeun was handing down an even stiffer punishment to these sinners.

"That's so weird."

"I didn't do this to punish them, though. Well, it's true that they fully deserve whatever punishment comes their way, but still…"

"Okay, then what?"

"This is one of the netherworlds where King Yama is in charge. Although, he's in charge of every hell out there other than the 1,000 he lost to Osiris—"

Split—

It was then that the sky suddenly split open.

In the air above the hot flames blazing away, another hell revealed itself.

And from it…

"He's here."

King Yama's massive frame appeared from the portal.

Gu-wuwuwu…

The entire hell was shaking around.

It seemed to be King Yama's fury manifesting physically. His entrance caused earthquakes to break out in this hell, and the heat spreading out with Su-hyeun in the middle temporarily stopped spreading.

"Oh, you were doing this to call Yama over here?"

"Yes. It's easier this way."

"Well, yeah, but it kinda looks like he's furious at you, doesn't he?"

They can sense it despite the distance. They felt how enraged King Yama was currently. One could figure that out from how flushed and dark his complexion was right now.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

King Yama's roar rang around the netherworld.

The sinners nearby had to bow deeply while doing their best to ignore the heat. After all, all these people had encountered King Yama before ending up in this place.

"It's been a while."

"I asked you what the meaning of your actions is!"

"There was something we needed to discuss with you, you see, and this seemed like the quickest way to call you."

In the past, Su-hyeun inadvertently laid waste to the Hell of Scorching Heat, which was one of the hells King Yama ruled.

He ended up absorbing all the heat in that place, causing the hell to stop functioning as it intended.

"Oh, is that right? To speak to me, you decided to wreck another hell of mine just like the last time?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the old Hell of Scorching Heat is still broken, isn't it? Maybe you can use this place as its replacement."

"Since you wanted to discuss something with me, you must have a favor to ask, too. However, holding such an attitude will not be conducive to our discussion."

King Yama's eyes were getting redder by the second.

His face revealed how angry he was right now. Unlike the last time where things happened unintentionally, Su-hyeun deliberately did something to a hell under King Yama's management.

To Yama, who had been ruling over all these hells through many destructions and rebirths of universes, every single hell was an invaluable and precious asset.

Since that was the case, harming a hell under his rule was akin to spitting on King Yama's pride.

"Buddha already came to see me. You fools, you are curious about the current location of the Bull Demon King, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"There are two ways of finding out where he is. One, wait until the Bull Demon King decides to contact you. Or, two, I personally start searching for him. However, you fools took the second option off the table with your foolish—"

"Aren't you being too hasty there?"

King Yama frowned deeply at what Su-hyeun said just then. He realized that there was something he had overlooked, judging from Su-hyeun's confident face.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You are not on our side, but that doesn't mean you're our enemy, either. It's true that I went a bit overboard due to my eagerness to see you. However, I do have an offer that will prove to be a good trade for both of us."

"I heard that your personality has changed, and it turns out to be true. Alright, so? What's this good offer you're talking about?"

It sounded like he wanted to hear the offer out, at least. However, his rage would probably not subside if the offer turned out to be a useless one.

King Yama crossed his arms and glared straight at Su-hyeun.

"All the hells you lost to Osiris," Su-hyeun began.

Then, those firmly crossed arms came loose relatively quickly when King Yama heard what Su-hyeun said next.

"Would you like to have them back?"

Split—

Portals to hundreds of hells suddenly opened up behind Su-hyeun..