4048.
You have died.
4047.
You have died.
4046.
You have died.
I strove to erase the history of a single person. A legend that would surely have been engraved on the Tower for all eternity—I will erase it. Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, the legend of the Flame Emperor was not made in merely a few days. Obviously, it was difficult to erase all of it.
But, it wasn't impossible.
"Fuck!" It hurt.
I pushed myself. To kill myself, I pushed past my limits, giving more than I had. I used malice to kill myself. All of the resentment and spite that filled me, I used it to slice away my life.
When I wanted to give up, I remembered all of it. The agony of being burned alive by the Flame Emperor. The injustice. The rage. He had the nerve to come back after setting fire to the town. And with that shameless face, he said, "What are you going to give me?" That condescending look as if all others were insects. As if I was an insect.
Venomous fury rushed through me.
'You fucker—I'll kill you!'
Tightly clenching my teeth and strengthening my grip on the knife, I thrust the blade into my neck.
'I'll kill you, Yoo Sooha!'
The act of stabbing was done to kill me.
But even more, it was done to kill the Flame Emperor. To demolish him and his legacy.
You have died.
You'll be returning 24 hours prior.
***
For how long had I been killing myself? How many times had my breath stuttered to a stop?
Like a never-decreasing hourglass, my work seemed endless. The Flame Emperor's achievements seemed to be as formidable as a pyramid that would always stand tall through the ages. As if it would never collapse. But look, cracks started surfacing on that pyramid. Finally, it was starting to crack.
Countless scraps of newspapers plastered on the apartment walls surrounded me: testimonials showing the history of the Flame Emperor. With each death, they faded away. One by one.
『The Flame Emperor single-handedly subjugates the 39th floor!』
『The Flame Emperor solo clears the 38th floor! Another legendary feat!』
『Subjugation of the 37th floor successful!』
『Hunter Yoo Sooha crowned as the World's Rank 1. The first Korean to achieve it!』
『Disappearance of the Sword Saint & the empty Rank 1. Who will take the throne?
Expert foreigners believe "Yoo Sooha from Korea is the best candidate."』
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
One more. Another page. Just like how an old man's teeth fall out one by one, leaving a gaping maw exposed. So, too, as the newspaper clippings disappeared one by one, they left the walls exposed and open.
『The Flame Emperor solo clears the 38th floor! Another legendary feat!』
『Subjugation of the 37th floor successful!』
『Hunter Yoo Sooha crowned as the World's Rank 1. The first Korean to achieve it!』
『Disappearance of the Sword Saint & the empty Rank 1. Who will take the throne?
Expert foreigners believe "Yoo Sooha from Korea is the best candidate."』
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
They were vanishing. He was disappearing with my every final breath.
'I can see it!'
The beginning of the end was visible. But there was still a long way to go. So, I would endure. The Flame Emperor had practically been eternally immortal. Until me. That psychopath was no longer eternal nor was he immortal. As long as I knew that truth, I would hold out as long it took.
'It's not impossible!'
I swung my knife and made sure it gouged heavy and deep.
With the bloody swing, I killed the time when the Flame Emperor subjugated the 37th floor.
『Subjugation of the 37th floor successful!』
『Hunter Yoo Sooha crowned as the World's Rank 1. The first Korean to achieve it!』
『Disappearance of the Sword Saint & the empty Rank 1. Who will take the throne?
Expert foreigners believe "Yoo Sooha from Korea is the best candidate."』
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
I swiftly swung the knife once again. With that death, I killed the time Flame Emperor rose to the top of the world.
『Hunter Yoo Sooha crowned as the World's Rank 1. The first Korean to achieve it!』
『Disappearance of the Sword Saint & the empty Rank 1. Who will take the throne?
Expert foreigners believe "Yoo Sooha from Korea is the best candidate."』
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
I killed more.
『Disappearance of the Sword Saint & the empty Rank 1. Who will take the throne?
Expert foreigners believe "Yoo Sooha from Korea is the best candidate."』
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
I killed another one of his feats.
『The impregnable 10th floor cleared! Who is the mysterious hero?』
『22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?』
Until, finally—
I looked at the one thing that had stuck with me through it all. My battered knife. It had become lustrous, as if it was new. Less wrinkles crossed my hands. As I went back in time, my rented room had become smaller and smaller, more impoverished. I'd forgotten how poor I'd been.
I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face and caught my young self staring back at me in the mirror. And then, I swiveled my head to look around the room. There was nothing.
There wasn't a myriad of newspaper articles. No magazine interviews. Not a single scrap of paper stuck on the apartment walls.
White and empty. A pure, blank space (空白).
I'd successfully erased the history of the man known as the "Flame Emperor."
"I did it." I mumbled, slack-jawed. "I came back." To 11 years ago. May 6th. A whole month before the Flame Emperor, Yoo Sooha, was due to awaken.
I'd returned. 'There's no need to hesitate. I don't need to wait.'
Cheap hoodie and sweatpants. A new knife. It was all I had in my early twenties. So, I threw my jacket on over my hoodie and went out, wearing all I owned like a suit of armor. The thrill of returning to the past…there was none.
'Yoo Sooha. Until I killed that bastard, I had no room for shit like carelessness.'
4090 times—the number of times I'd died to return to today.
40 more deaths than my initial calculations. This included the time it took to commit suicide thousands of times and for short breaks, as well.
Not only that.
I'd collected all the information concerning Yoo Sooha, every single thing. I did this by repeating today, May 6th, ten times.
'11:00 AM,' I reminded myself. Yoo Sooha almost always woke up at 11:00 AM. May 6th. He woke up at 11:00 AM on this day, as well. Last night, he had washed down four bottles of beer, so a scowl had been permanently engraved on his face all morning.
'2:00 PM.' Yoo Sooha left his monthly rented studio apartment and headed toward the hunting ground. The type of studio apartment that the F-Class Hunters often stayed in. Knowing that the weak Hunters frequently died while hunting, the landlord of the studio apartment would impose a hefty security deposit in return for putting up a cheap monthly rent. He had a good mind for business.
'3:00 PM.' Yoo Sooha killed a weak slime from the Tower's 2nd floor hunting ground. However, killing a slime wasn't good enough for a day's earnings.
At 3:11 PM, Yoo Sooha grumbled to himself. "Ah. Fucking plague. I wonder when I'll become like the Sword Saint and live a king's life."
At 3:15 PM, 4 minutes later. "Wow, slime hunting is really boring," he griped.
An average F-Class Hunter. A life of waiting to strike it rich someday. That was the 21-year-old Yoo Sooha. Not the 32-year-old Flame Emperor.
"If only I had won the lottery," he muttered.
Before long, the 21-year-old would have been able to realize his wish. Because, as soon as Yoo Sooha obtained the Return Skill, he used it to win the lottery.
MA, short for Merchant Association (商聯), issued weekly lottery tickets. The Merchant Association was the only guild inside the Tower that could print lottery tickets. And all the Hunters who won the lottery were all on record. In the winning records, there remained a young man who would later be called the Flame Emperor. A "lucky" bastard who won first place, not once, but twice in a row.
'That's three weeks and four weeks from today, respectively.' However, such a future will not come to the 21-year-old Yoo Sooha who I was looking at right now. 'You die here today.'
May 6th. 5:31 PM.
Yoo Sooha moved on from the 2nd floor hunting ground. No doubt thinking that it was pointless to spend the rest of his life killing only slimes. He headed for a more challenging area, the kind of place novice Hunters would rarely visit.
A little more secluded and dangerous. A place that nobody besides Yoo Sooha would enter for the next 36 minutes.
'…He's here.' I had been waiting. 'It's him.'
A man yawning while traipsing about—Yoo Sooha. Even though he was 11 years younger, I could recognize that bastard at once. It wasn't because my perception was particularly great. Just that the present Yoo Sooha looked similar to that damn guy from 11 years later.
'In the future, you'd probably find that fucking bastard pigging out on a some elixir for eternal youth.' Thank you for being such a goddamned greedy little pig!
'Come.' My heart was pounding out of my chest. I fought back the tension and opened my mouth. "O-over here, Hunter-nim! Please, save me…!"
"Huh?" Yoo Sooha turned his head in my direction.
"I was ambushed by wolves," I cried and sniffled. "I beg of you, please help me. Some potion…"
I'd coated my entire body with blood. I was covered in it. Drenched. Of course, it wasn't my blood but the blood of some monsters I had hunted in advance. But to other people, I must look like a novice Hunter on the verge of death.
"Ah, shit. What the fuck?" Yoo Sooha exclaimed.
Naturally, I would look like that in Yoo Sooha's eyes too. I was counting on it.
"Mister, did you provoke the monsters here already? Damn. Then today's hunt is fucked."
Fucking asshole.
"P-potion…" I begged.
"Potion, my ass. I can't even feed myself properly." Yoo Sooha sighed and came closer. "How much you got?"
"Eh?" I asked.
"How much you got for the potion? Mister, you think I'm running a charity here? Don't tell me that you thought I'd hand this expensive potion over for free now, right? To a man that I've never met before? You gotta be fucking with me." Yoo Sooha took out a plastic bottle.
Then he shook it right in front of my eyes. Splash. A blood-red liquid sloshed inside a bottle engraved with the Ministry of Alchemy's emblem. Twenty gold from the Ministry of Alchemy. It was a recovery potion that was sold for nineteen gold each when bought in a 5-pack.
"I-I'll give you…twenty gold. So, please, hurry…"
"Wow. Just look at this guy. Your greed is no joke." Yoo Sooha kneeled so he could look at me on even ground. "Mister, can't you tell what's going on? You're about to die. Die. This potion is something that could save your life. And you want to buy your life with just twenty gold? Is your life worth only twenty gold?"
"Right…" I lay there in a pool of "my own" blood.
"What if I just leave you here? You would simply die. If you don't want to die, you gotta pay the right price for your life."
Yeah. I knew. "F-forty gold," I said.
"Enough. Hand over everything you have right now."
I knew that he was this kind of guy.
"Ah, that's right. You couldn't give me anything even if you wanted to. You can't even move your hands, right? Don't worry. I'll get it for you. I could do at least that much service." Yoo Sooha reached out, rummaged and groped through everything I had: my jacket pocket; the inside of my hoodie; even my pant pockets.
The jerk finally found my leather wallet and smirked. "Let's see. One gold, two gold, three gold…Hmm. About sixty gold? You're so poor, mister. Carry some more around, man."
"That's all I have…" All I fucking had to my name.
"It's alright. I'll spend it well on your behalf." Yoo Sooha took my wallet and patted my head.
4050 days ago, no. He was just like when he burned me alive 4050 days later.
"That's just life, don't you agree?" He took out something from his chest with a heave, after putting away the potion he'd promised to give me. Instead, he pulled out a blade. A sword (劍).
It wasn't an item meant to save lives. On the contrary, it was a tool used to take lives.
'Ha.' I looked up at Yoo Sooha. Rather than looking angry, I just looked at him as if he was ridiculous.
However, Yoo Sooha interpreted my gaze differently and shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I was thinking about giving you the potion, mister… But if I let you live here, you might want to get back at me later, right? I can't let that happen. A man should live without worry, and since you've seen my face…" Yoo Sooha smiled. "You have to die for me."
The Hunter who I could only ever admire on television. The hero I'd worshipped for 10 years. The man I'd always envied, always wanted to become. That hero's face was hideous.
More hideous than I could ever have imagined.
'Alright.' I quietly looked at Yoo Sooha as he held the knife. 'I'll live without worry in your stead.'
He slowly raised the knife.
Then.
I kicked my right foot up into his crotch.
"Ggk!?" Yoo Sooha staggered while he swung the knife. But that was more than enough time for me. After barely dodging Yoo Sooha's swing, I stabbed my knife through his neck.
I was different from him. I wouldn't leave my prey that I had to kill in front of my eyes and—fucking run my mouth pointlessly. I stabbed his throat then twisted the knife and dragged it up to his chin.
Blood sprayed out. It soaked my hands. Yoo Sooha gagged. He gurgled and choked on the blood and fell to the ground. He let loose a scream, spattering the blood that had been clogging his throat.
Hard and shrill, railing out against the pain.
But only for a moment. Blood curdled out of his neck, painting his throat.
I watched it all.
Yoo Sooha inched closer to death with each passing second. Instinctively, he must have realized that he was dying. Yoo Sooha writhed on the ground, then curled up. He pressed down on the wound on his neck with both hands. But the blood didn't stop. It only trickled out between his fingers, even thicker than before.
"Right." Must not doddle. I pressed my foot down on Yoo Sooha's neck.
His eyes grew wide. Why? For what reason? His eyes were loaded with such questions and resentment. It wouldn't be long before those eyes would be extinguished. There was no need for me to give any sort of explanation.
"I'll think of this as valuable experience." I grabbed the knife. The knife that killed me 4090 times.
Then, I swung.
To kill a monster.