Chapter 77: Chapter 77

[Translator - Night][Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 77: The Past That Only I Remember (1)

The moment I thought I saw Loki from the helicopter, the scene shifted.

I was in a small studio apartment in Noryangjin.

The very apartment I had moved into after leaving home when my father disappeared.

And now, here I stood.

“What... is this?”

I was bewildered.

I had definitely been inside the helicopter.

How could I suddenly end up in a studio apartment I’d sold years ago?

I looked around.

Yeah.

This was the apartment I used to live in.

On the desk, a phone was charging—the same model I used back then.

I quickly grabbed it and powered it on.

June 24, 2020.

The year and month were a memorable date.

June 1, 2020, was the day monsters first appeared.

I awakened in June 2021, so this was almost two years earlier.

The God of Time and the God of the Past—they said something about turning back time.

Could it be that I’ve really returned to the past?

“Communication: Hermes.”

[The recipient cannot be reached.]

“Communication: Loki.”

[The recipient cannot be reached.]

Great.

Even though I saw Loki when time was rewound, I can’t contact him.

Hmm… What is going on?

I hope my status window hasn’t been reset.

“Status window.”

When I brought up the status window, my level was still 144.

I checked all my skills, and everything was intact.

The only difference was that the gods listed as my guardians—Hermes, the God of Messengers, and Loki, the God of Mischief—now had “(Unavailable)” in parentheses beside their names.

I still had 4 million SP.

Even after upgrading Heimdall’s Return to level 4 and Soul Mediation to level 6, I had an enormous amount of SP left.

However, in the Soul Mediation list, the neutral gods and the Olympian gods were still present, but the Chaos faction gods had vanished.

Now, I had six available slots for mediation.

“Upgrading Soul Mediation requires 12.5 million SP. Upgrading Heimdall’s Return will cost 1.2 million…”

If I upgrade Heimdall’s Return one more level, I’ll be able to teleport between planets.

That reminded me of Elprian, the god of the Kevrian planet.

[This is the essence of my memories. If you have this, Awakened Kim Jiho, you can come to this space no matter where you are.]

Did she foresee this situation?

If I upgrade Heimdall’s Return, I can visit her.

But first, I need to get a better grasp of the situation.

I opened the internet browser on my smartphone.

The internet was in chaos.

[Is this all just a dream? But awakened abilities are still intact.]

[Complaints flood in… The government urges calm until an official statement is made.]

[Even the dead have returned? People tormented by memories of their deaths.]

[Stock market circuit breaker activated. Government considers suspending trading for a week.]

Was I not the only one who returned to the past?

Every headline was like this.

It’s incredible that articles are even being published.

If people came back to the same time as me, they’d be confused as well.

Or… did they return earlier than I did?

Since I can’t communicate with the gods, all I have are questions.

The articles had tens of thousands of comments.

[I came from the future. The world is doomed.]

[┕ 222222]

[┕ 333333]

[No, the world didn’t completely fall apart. Korea was relatively safe. Why was that?]

[I’m sure I died… What is going on? I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.]

[Am I the only one who returned from the future?]

[My abilities are intact!]

[Yes! I came back before I invested in cryptocurrency! Saved my money!]

[┕ Oh no, I’m screwed. Crypto is crashing… Why is the crypto market still trading!! Damn it!!]

[Thank you, Odin, for saving me…]

Odin?

Why is Odin being mentioned all of a sudden?

A chill ran down my spine.

I had a hunch and searched for information about faiths and factions.

Zeus, who held the position of the Absolute God, had been replaced.

Now, that position belonged to Odin.

Moreover, the Olympian gods who held positions of power had become mere myths, while the Asgardian gods had taken center stage.

“Ha. So now churches worship Odin instead? Then what about factions…?”

I continued searching.

The internet was overloaded with traffic, and the speed was slow, but I persisted.

Eventually, I found the information.

Earth’s faction was now aligned with the Neutral Faction.

Digging deeper, I saw that the helpers had also changed.

[Orc the Reliable Muscle]

[A Valkyrie threatens to burn journalists who take pictures without permission.]

[A Valkyrie tries a daring new look.]

These were articles from just a few days ago.

Then I remembered the strategy guide.

The strategy guide described how to navigate Kevrian from the perspective of the Neutral Faction.

I had wondered why “that” Kim Jiho was in the Neutral Faction…

And now, here I was, in that same world.

Did returning to the past also alter the gods?

As I browsed the internet, I noticed that people were mostly just happy to be alive.

News articles mentioned riots breaking out here and there and a string of small and large accidents, but…

The overwhelming emotion shared by most people was joy.

“Haah…”

Suddenly, I felt all my energy drain away.

The past six months had taken too much out of me.

No matter how much I struggled on my own, the fact that the world was heading toward destruction was just too despairing.

It had been only six months since humanity had fallen.

Carrying that burden on my own had been physically impossible.

So seeing the internet up and running and the world still peaceful like this… it was such a relief.

Even though I knew this peace would last only two more years…

For now, I lay in bed, scrolling through articles without thinking about anything.

But the more I looked, the more something felt missing.

“My article’s not here?”

Back when A-rank dungeons started appearing and the world was in chaos, my movements were the top news story for every media outlet.

Front and center on every portal site, there was always a banner showing the location and status of “Hunter Kim Jiho.”

Clicking on it would even let people send messages of support.

I used to endure my flights by reading those messages.

But now, nothing.

Still, you’d think there’d be at least one article.

As I rolled around in my cramped single bed, browsing the news, my phone suddenly rang.

[Lee Jinseong]

“Yo!”

“Yeah, Jinseong.”

[Why didn’t you come to the Hunter Association yesterday?]

“Huh? Yesterday?”

[Yeah. They told all C-rank hunters to gather, remember?]

“C-rank hunters?”

[Don’t tell me… you forgot you were a C-rank hunter?]

What was this guy talking about?

C-rank?

Me?

“What are you talking about, C-rank hunter?”

[This has never happened before! Hurry up and open your status window!]

“Status window.”

His urgent shouting caught me off guard, so I called for the status window while still holding the phone.

The display appeared, showing Neutral-Order alignment.

My level was 144.

[Does it show up?]

“Yeah. Level 144.”

[...You gotta be kidding me, you liar! You told me you were level 61, and now you're pulling some unbelievable number out of nowhere?!]

Jinseong cursed me out, calling me a liar and ranting about how this wasn’t the time for jokes.

I couldn’t believe I was being cursed out for telling the truth.

I thought about cursing him back but suddenly recalled what I’d seen on the portal site.

There wasn’t a single article about me.

“Hey, weren’t there any B-rank hunters?”

[B-rank? Quit joking around. That’s not funny anymore.]

“Ugh, fine. What happened at the association?”

[Just re-registered, that’s all. The association building wasn’t even built yet; we had to use the first floor of a nearby building. Apparently, the official association building wasn’t completed until November 2020.]

Jinseong rambled on about how he saw Valkyrie again and how gorgeous she was.

What the hell was going on?

I hung up the call after saying I got it and started gathering more information.

The facts people knew had subtly changed.

According to what I read, humanity had never cleared a single broken world.

With A- and B-rank dungeons appearing, they were completely overwhelmed and faced annihilation, but the Absolute God Odin had taken pity on humanity and turned back time while allowing everyone to retain their powers.

But I wasn’t mentioned anywhere?

Did all that suffering I went through just vanish?

Six months of non-stop flights and battles with monsters, without even a moment to rest, all erased?

The hopes and desperate pleas of people begging me to save their country.

The resentment of those saying I’d arrived too late.

The fear of me as a person.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

I remembered the complex emotions in people’s eyes.

And now all of that had been wiped away?

I looked around my place.

A tiny, cramped one-room apartment.

A shabby bed.

An old computer that struggled to run even basic games.

This place was a hundred times worse than the mansion I used to live in.

But I felt at ease.

I felt free.

It was like the heavy burden pressing on my shoulders had been lifted.

When people called me the greatest hunter of humanity and praised me to the skies…

At first, I liked it, but over time, the weight became unbearable.

The whole world couldn’t even clear a B-rank dungeon… and then came the A-rank dungeons.

Thankfully, this time…

If everyone retained their powers while going back in time, someone on Earth should manage to become B-rank, right?

There should be much more hope this time.

I should take a break.

In the early days of dungeon portals opening, most of them were F-rank.

F-rank dungeons could be handled by soldiers or even ordinary people.

It was okay to rest for now.

I couldn’t even communicate with the gods…

For now, all I could do was wait for…..Elprian.

I closed my eyes.

It had been a long time since I’d tried to sleep.

Images of countless corpses haunted me.

I remembered the zombified Australians.

They’d stood in my way, so I’d slashed them all down and burned them.

If zombies retained their memories, they’d remember me killing them, wouldn’t they?

In that case, wasn’t it better for me to have disappeared?

I keep having stray thoughts.

I’m tired, but I can’t fall asleep.

Let’s turn off Infinite Stamina.

The moment I turned it off, my body slumped like a rag doll.

The wave of fatigue hit me so hard that I thought I could finally get some sleep.

But just as I was about to drift off, I remembered the people who had been torn apart and devoured by monsters.

The news articles talked about how there was a sharp increase in people unable to fight due to PTSD, now reliant on psychiatric medications.

And back on D-8,

When two A-class dungeons appeared simultaneously in Busan and New York, I remembered choosing Busan.

The citizens of New York must have resented me.

Damn it.

I’m so sleepy, but I can’t sleep.

I kept tossing and turning, but that final moment of sleep just wouldn’t come.

“Haaah… I just want to rest…”

After working nonstop for six months, have I forgotten how to rest?

Fine.

Let’s visit Elprian first.

Maybe I can’t sleep because there’s still work to do.

I’ll sleep once I finish this task.

I pulled myself up from the bed.

“Let’s upgrade my skill first.”

I invested 1.2 million points into the Heimdall’s Return skill.

Reaching Level 5 enabled interplanetary jumps and returns.

All previous return points were reset, so I set this location as the new one.

“Inventory.”

I took out the jewel Elprian had given me from the Dragon Heart in my inventory.

The moment I touched it, a message window popped up.

[Do you wish to use Elprian’s Essence?]

When I pressed Yes, the jewel glowed and enveloped my body.

My vision dimmed momentarily, and when it cleared, I found myself in a confined space surrounded by earthen walls.

It was almost as small as my studio apartment, with nothing inside.

[Who… are you? Why do I feel my essence coming from you…?]

“Elprian. You gave me your essence.”

[I’ve never seen you before.]

“Hmm… I heard it’s an essence with memories attached. Can’t you reabsorb it?”

When I showed Elprian’s Essence, tree roots sprouted from the ground.

I placed the essence on the roots, and it disappeared into them.

After a brief silence, a clay figure with severed limbs emerged from the ground.

It was Elprian.

[You’ve truly returned to the past… Unfortunately, this seems to be the point after my defeat…]

“Did you anticipate this outcome?”

[When I saw the fragments of gods who control time buried here, I thought it was odd. It seems the future version of me gave you the essence as a precaution.]

“Hm…”

[Has anything changed in your world?]

When I told her how gods had shifted, and people had forgotten me, the clay version of Elprian nodded.

[So, Olympus and Asgard have joined forces. They must be alternating as the objects of faith on Earth, gaining SP from it. I don’t know why you’ve been forgotten, though…]

“Do they gain a lot of SP from being objects of faith?”

[Yes. Especially with a large population like Earth’s.]

“And they’ve likely returned to the past more than once, right?”

[They’ve probably been alternating to secure SP.]

I remembered Hermes casually mentioning it.

I guess they acted so indifferent because they could simply turn back time.

If Earth was on the brink of destruction, they’d just go back.

Okay, Asgard, it’s your turn this time.

Alright, we’ll be gods this time.

That’s the vibe.

No wonder they weren’t worried.

They were way too relaxed.

Those damn…!

“Why are they doing this?”

[It’s for SP. They must believe they can’t defeat Chaos and keep turning back time to gather enough SP until they can.]

So they can keep reloading saves, huh?

And since they get to keep the SP they’ve accumulated, this is why they’re doing it.

Which means this madness will keep repeating…?

A surge of frustration washed over me.

But at the same time, I had questions.

If that’s the case, why bother rewinding time for all of humanity?

“Then why rewind time for everyone on Earth? They’re not exactly known for their compassion.”

[In my opinion, the only variable is you. Did the gods say anything while resetting time?]

Ah.

Come to think of it, Hermes did mention how soul mediators are efficient and said they’d give Earth another chance.

When I mentioned this, Elprian nodded.

[It seems they want more soul mediators.]

“Soul mediators?”

[Yes. Rewinding time for over billions of people is an enormous waste, no matter how insignificant humans are. The fact that they went through with it means soul mediators are incredibly efficient.]

“Hm…”

[They might be trying to cultivate humans further to extract more soul mediators, though their exact intent is unclear. Regardless, this is an opportunity for you. Focus on growth for now. If you had been at an A-rank, you could have summoned Diana and resolved the situation.]

Her words helped calm the storm of thoughts in my head.

Right.

If I had been at an A-rank, I could have summoned Diana, and having two of us would have made closing dungeon portals much easier.

First, I need to hit Level 200.

The fact that I can’t communicate with Hermes and Loki is suspicious, and it’s strange that people have forgotten me.

But for now, I need to focus on what I can do.

[And one more thing—I have a proposal for you.]

“A proposal?” Searᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

[Yes. Is it possible for you to act as a soul mediator for me?]

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]