Chapter 133

Thomas Andre's mind was in turmoil. Taking the divinity of the outer universe into his body had restored the memories of his previous life.

Another version of himself.

Memories that should not exist mingled with his present ones, leaving his head a dizzying tangle.

He had no idea why he had been given a new life, but after everything he had already experienced, nothing could surprise him anymore. He did not dwell on that question.

What bothered him more...

'Damn it! Damn it!'

Amid all the confusion, the feeling Thomas was ultimately left with was this:

A sense of injustice.

'This is so damn unfair, it's driving me crazy!'

He now understood the true nature of the nightmare that had tormented him for so many years.

It was a memory of fighting Sung Jinwoo and getting the living daylights beaten out of him.

'Why did that damned memory have to stop right there...!'

That was the most unfair part.

In a way, though, it was only natural.

This was Thomas Andre, the man hailed as the strongest hunter in America—no, in all of humanity.

Naturally, that had been the first time in his life anyone had beaten him so one-sidedly. The psychological shock he must have suffered then was beyond words.

The things one least wanted to remember were often the ones that remained most vivid.

Hadn't Min Byunggu been the same?

'But we more or less made up afterward and got along, didn't we? We even fought side by side!'

Whatever the reason, however, it still felt unfair. If he had retained just a little more of what happened afterward, surely he would not have suffered those nightmares.

But who could he complain to now?

It was something Thomas Andre alone had to bear. At least he would no longer have nightmares.

What's more, he finally understood why he had always felt weak. In a single day, the questions that had plagued him all his life had vanished.

'So this is why the old lady sent me here. Listen to Norma Selner, and good things come to you even in your sleep.'

Hadn't it also been Norma Selner's advice that prompted him to study Korean so diligently that he could now use Korean proverbs?

'Now I see why she told me to learn Korean, too. To think Sung Suho was Sung Jinwoo's son.'

Looking at Suho with that knowledge, he could see that the boy was the spitting image of Sung Jinwoo. He was even about the same age Jinwoo had been when he beat Thomas senseless.

... Remembering the nightmare was starting to sour his mood again.

"More importantly, we're in serious trouble."

After hearing the full account of the situation facing Earth from Suho and Beru, Thomas Andre's expression hardened.

"The enemy is stronger than last time, and Sung Jinwoo isn't even on Earth? Isn't the world really going to end this time?"

Having already been caught up in the war between the Rulers and the Monarchs once, he could say this with certainty.

"Their war isn't a fight mere humans can interfere in."

[You know your place quite well.]

Standing on Suho's shoulder, Beru nodded haughtily at Thomas Andre's words.

[By human standards, one would need to be at least National Level to stand against an apostle of Itarim.]

"That's what I learned this time. Or at the very least..."

As he agreed with Beru, Thomas Andre's gaze drifted toward Cha Haein, who was standing with the ice elves.

"... Or at the very least, an S-rank hunter equipped with powerful items."

Ever since witnessing Cha Haein's combat prowess with the Demon King's Longsword firsthand, Thomas Andre had been building a mountain of tasks in his head to tackle as soon as he returned to the guild.

"... First, we'll have to start developing weapons as soon as we get back."

It had only been two years since the Cataclysm.

Things were very different from the old timeline, when the age of hunters had already lasted over a decade. Humanity's science and knowledge were more advanced now, but hunter technology lagged far behind what it had been then.

There were several reasons, but the biggest was the lack of research into materials.

Two years after the Cataclysm, research in general was still young, and studies of dungeon ores and magic beast corpses in particular were barely in their infancy.

Reaching a level comparable to that of the erased timeline would take at least another five years.

'But I have knowledge of the future—no, the past. With those memories, we can advance several times faster.'

And that was not all.

Beyond technological development, he could help hunters progress in all sorts of ways, from varied raid strategies to efficient training methods.

With his memories of the erased timeline restored, Thomas Andre felt as though he were getting a second run at life.

"Just teaching them how to increase mana cohesion should speed up development considerably—hmm?"

As Thomas Andre considered all this, he caught sight of Rio Singh passing by.

More precisely, the sword in Rio Singh's hand was of unusually fine quality.

Thomas called him to a halt.

"You there, what's that sword? Did you get an item from Sung Jinwoo—no, Suho—too?"

"... Pardon? This sword?"

Rio Singh raised his sword with a puzzled look and replied in fluent English.

"I just bought it at a hunter mall."

"What? You just bought it?"

At the unexpected answer, Thomas Andre promptly snatched Rio Singh's sword and examined it closely.

And sure enough...

"W-what? Why is the quality so good? This is almost on par with what we had back..."

A chill ran through him.

Something was wrong.

An ominous feeling came over Thomas Andre, and he asked Rio Singh,

"Where exactly did you buy this sword? Even America can't work dungeon ore this precisely yet."

"India does well compared to other countries, but we're not at this level yet, either."

"Then where in the world..."

"Korea."

"...!"

Thomas Andre's eyes widened.

Rio Singh, on the other hand, was delighted. It felt as though Thomas Andre had acknowledged his discerning eye.

Congratulating his own impulse-buying instincts—no, his ability to act quickly—for purchasing the sword the moment he saw it, he answered proudly.

"I bought it when Suho took me to Blacksmith in Korea."

With even S-rank hunter Thomas Andre giving his approval, Rio Singh immediately began formulating his next plan.

'If they're this good, I should buy weapons in bulk from Korea and send them to our guild. If I bring in quality weapons, the guildmaster will think better of me again...'

But Rio Singh's plans for promotion were beside the point.

Thomas Andre turned to Suho with a grave expression.

"Something's wrong. There's no way technology could have advanced this far in just two years. I think there's someone in Korea who's recovered memories of their previous life, just like me!"

"In Korea?"

Suho's expression hardened as well.

Recovering memories of a previous life without a Shadow Key meant a connection to an apostle of Itarim.

"Yes. And they wouldn't have remembered only recently. They must have had those memories for a long time."

This was serious.

Even with the necessary knowledge, making technology this advanced commercially available would take at least two years.

That meant an apostle of Itarim had been operating in secret in Korea since the Cataclysm began.

Just then...

"Suho?"

Having overheard their conversation, Cha Haein left the ice elves and approached them.

"I think... I might know who that person is."

"What? Someone you know, Mom?"

"You know who it is?! How?"

Startled by her words, Suho and Thomas Andre both turned to look at her.

It made no sense.

Cha Haein had been trapped in the Glacier Dungeon since before the Cataclysm. How could she know what was happening in Korea?

But she gave Suho a curious smile, apparently amused by their matching expressions.

"Hmm. You probably met him a few times when you were little, too."

"I did? Who?"

"Do you remember that man who was your dad's boss? The one he was close to?"

"... Dad's boss?"

Suho looked bewildered.

As far as he remembered, his father was a police officer. So his father's boss would have been a police officer, too...

"Oh, perhaps you were too young to remember."

Cha Haein nodded at his reaction, as though that was understandable.

Like most sons, Suho did not go through life remembering every one of his father's superiors. But to her husband, Sung Jinwoo, that particular boss had meant something special.

"I wonder how he's doing now..."

Recalling his face, Cha Haein slipped into thought.

* * *

North Korea.

Since the Cataclysm, Korea had effectively been reunified.

The problem was how it had happened.

As the Cataclysm struck, dungeon breaks had begun springing up all across North Korea, pouring out magic beasts.

Unable to properly contain the immense catastrophe that followed, the North Korean government had ultimately brought about its own collapse.

Had there been no hunters?

That was not the case. Many North Koreans had awakened supernatural abilities.

Had North Korea been a normal country, it would likely have rallied around those awakened people to contain the dungeon breaks and eradicate the magic beasts, just as other countries had.

But the moment North Korea's awakened people gained their transcendent powers, they rebelled.

With those who had suddenly acquired superpowers at the center, long-suppressed ideological grievances began erupting everywhere.

In the end, every awakened person in North Korea became a villain, eliminating all the government's key officials first.

Thus, with the onset of the Cataclysm, every system and structure in North Korea collapsed. In effect, the country ceased to function at that point.

Even the awakened rebels fell to infighting and scattered. Eventually, most were picked off and killed by the magic beasts appearing across the country.

It was an inevitable outcome. They had split up when even joining forces would scarcely have been enough.

With things in that state, the dungeon breaks in North Korea spread uncontrollably in every direction. Their effects spilled directly into China to the north and South Korea to the south.

That was why the Korean Hunters Association was providing aid in the North.

The farther North Korea's field dungeons expanded, the more damage South Korea itself would ultimately suffer.

"... Whew. There really is no end to them."

The Korean Hunters Association chairman was leading the Association's hunters in an operation to eradicate North Korea's magic beasts.

This seemingly endless fighting had already continued for months.

"Chairman."

A middle-aged hunter approached him.

Choi Jongin.

A mage-type hunter who primarily used fire, he was the first S-rank hunter the chairman had recruited immediately after founding the Association.

"Everyone is exhausted. Why don't we rest a little here before moving on?"

"... Let's do that."

At Choi Jongin's suggestion, the chairman smiled wryly and removed the sunglasses he had worn throughout the battle, revealing large, piercing eyes reminiscent of a bird of prey.

His fierce gaze fixed on the North Korean land that had become a monster field, the chairman wiped the magic beast blood from his sunglasses with a handkerchief.

Then someone's face suddenly came to mind, and a quiet sigh escaped him.

"Hah. Where have you gone at a time like this...?"

Woo Jinchul, the chairman who had founded the Korean Hunters Association, murmured as he thought of Sung Jinwoo.

"Wherever you are... please just come back safely."

Until then, I will have everything ready.

Hunter Sung Jinwoo.