The Year of Earth's Apocalypse Translator: Xzy ***
The Waiting Area, dark and empty on all sides.
Han Yu-jin felt a little nervous as he looked at the familiar rusty fire door with the words 'Earth After the Apocalypse' floating on it.
Back then, it was the first time he had awakened his ability, so he had just opened it and gone in as if possessed, but looking at it again now, he felt an ominousness that was hard to put into words.
'Well… what's the worst that can happen, besides dying?'
Fortunately, the death he had experienced here hadn't been that gruesome.
Of course, that was thanks to him being so weak at the time that he died without a moment to feel the pain, but anyway, that's how it was.
He would have to explore more unknown worlds more actively and more often in the future. He couldn't hesitate every time, just thinking of various worries.
'I'll show you how much I've changed.'
Steeling his mind anew, he opened the door and stepped inside.
Feeling the cool, dry air that rushed over him, he glanced at the phenomenon of the door he had passed through disappearing and then surveyed the surrounding scenery.
Everywhere he looked, there was only the sight of a city that seemed to have been abandoned for at least several decades.
Abandoned cars were scattered on the roadside, and the buildings were cracked or collapsed in places.
Every single windowpane was broken, and all the metal was rusted.
In a landscape where it seemed as if all living things had been annihilated, without even the common sight of weeds, Han Yu-jin shuddered at the feeling of the strangely altered Spiritual Energy.
It was eerie.
That was the only way to describe it. With every breath, his spine tingled as if cold ice were filling it, goosebumps rose on their own, and his body trembled.
"Ugh…"
This was a much harsher feeling than he had expected.
It seemed he had underestimated the difficulty of this apocalyptic world too much. There must have been a good reason for a world to have been driven to an apocalypse.
'First, I need to find out the year.'
He just needed to find something like a calendar. And a calendar should be easily found in many apartment homes.
'But before that…'
He wanted to confirm the identity of the thing that had attacked and killed him in that jewelry store.
Since it was close to here, he retraced his memories and moved quickly while casting the Shadow Hiding Art and the Spirit Eye Spell.
It took only about a minute to arrive at the familiar jewelry store, and he looked inside without rashly entering. Indeed, it was exactly as it had been back then, with no trace of his visit.
It seemed he had to go in.
Carefully squeezing his body through the gap in the glass door, which was more than half broken off, he smiled a little bitterly as he looked at the gold items placed neatly inside the glass display case.
It was because he remembered that time when he had been blinded by greed for money despite the situation he was in.
But thinking back on it now, it was natural to act that way back then. It was only a delay of a few minutes, and he had no way of knowing that such a deadly danger was lurking.
As he looked around with his thoughts, he still couldn't find any risk factors even with the Spirit Eye Spell cast.
'Does some kind of trigger only activate when I take the items…?'
Han Yu-jin, who looked at the outside sky that was beginning to darken just like back then, cast the Jade Skin Spell and even drew the Five Elements Sword before opening the glass display case.
And he grabbed the gold items inside and took them out haphazardly.
At that very moment.
"Shit…!"
Startled, he threw the gold items he had been holding and stepped back.
Like a ghost, a dark figure, who he didn't know when or how had appeared, was standing stock-still in a corner of the jewelry store, staring at him with bloodshot eyes that looked like they were about to burst.
Han Yu-jin, who was carefully observing the opponent while fully stimulating the Dharma script restrictions of his pointed Five Elements Sword, felt goosebumps rise and the hair on his head stand on end once again.
'It's a real ghost!'
If you looked closely, the figure was faintly shimmering, and the blood that had begun to flow from the bloodshot eyes was not real either.
Inside the mouth that had slowly begun to open, there was only a chilling darkness.
The overall form was one that stimulated a person's fear, and the atmosphere was the same.
In a short moment, all sorts of thoughts raced through his mind. And in the end, Han Yu-jin chose to attack.
The Five Elements Sword, which had been glowing and growling, flashed for a moment and shot out a golden energy.
In response, the opponent ghost opened its mouth abnormally wide and rushed forward at high speed.
SQUELCH—!
Horrifyingly, the creature's body was severed and blood scattered as if he had cut a real, physical being.
But, even with its head split down to its chest, the creature did not die and continued to reach its hand towards Han Yu-jin.
It was clearly the same hand that had crushed his head back then.
BA-KABOOM—!!
The Dharma script restrictions of the Five Elements Sword, which he had reflexively manipulated again, flashed with a pale blue-white light, and lightning was shot out.
The ghost, struck directly by it, crumbled into ash all over its body and disappeared without even a small scream.
Among the five elements, lightning originally showed strength in Dharma-breaking.
It was logical that it should be effective enough against a ghost, which could only be a spiritual phenomenon.
'…Is it dead? Or did it run away?'
Still not letting his guard down, he looked around in all directions. Blood had definitely been scattered by the Five Elements Sword's attack, but it had completely disappeared as if it had been a hallucination.
And with his tense, slow exhales, his breath had started to turn white at some point.
Although he was only in the Entry Stage, it was cold enough to be hard for Han Yu-jin, a cultivator, to endure.
The outside sky, which he looked at again, was darkening at a visibly fast rate.
It felt like he didn't have much time.
'Let's just say I've gotten my revenge, more or less.'
He didn't know if the thing was dead or alive, but technically, he hadn't completely died either, so they were even now.
With that thought, he stepped outside and had to stop, taking a sharp breath.
'Son of a bitch…'
The moment he came out, the black figures that had been looking down at this spot from the windows of all the surrounding buildings swiftly hid themselves. It was so fast that he wondered if it was a mistake, but thinking back, that couldn't be.
This world seemed to have been destroyed by a ghost apocalypse.
Not a pandemic, not a nuclear war, not the rift rampage that some scholars had worried about, but to be destroyed by a ghost apocalypse that didn't even feel like a joke.
'A meteor impact would be more realistic.'
As he was thinking that, the contents of a certain book he had seen in the Five Elements Sect ruins suddenly came to mind.
It was a miscellaneous book that mentioned various disasters that had actually appeared, or were thought to be able to appear, in the cultivation world.
The disaster of the End of Dharma, which was cited as the worst there, had really destroyed the world of the Five Elements Sect, so Han Yu-jin had read it with great interest.
Anyway, according to the contents of that book, besides the disaster of the End of Dharma, there were many others like the disaster of the Primordial Chaos Backflow and the disaster of the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon's Advent. Among them, the one mentioned around the top ten was the disaster of the Heaven-Defying Ghost Path.
It was a disaster where, for one reason or another, if the heavenly laws of life and death were twisted, the whole world would be covered in ghosts and be destroyed.
'Did a disaster like that really unfold here?'
He was lost in thought for a moment, but the cold soon woke him up.
Worried about how much more terrible it would get when it became completely dark, he cast the Wind Cloud Spell and moved quickly.
This exploration would not be in vain if he could at least check the year on a calendar somewhere before he died.
When he had been moving for about a minute or two like that.
— Aaaaaaaah…!!!
Suddenly, from behind him, a wailing sound like an echo that could not be ignored was heard.
It felt as if something was in extreme pain, and it also sounded like a plea for salvation from someone very pitiful and desperate.
It was faint and yet huge, giving the feeling that it was swallowing up all other noises.
He reflexively turned around and saw a man in a suit chasing him with bizarre movements.
With every step he took, staggering his upper body like a zombie, the surrounding scenery distorted at will, and the distance closed in rapidly.
He could faintly hear the sounds of the ghosts located in the nearby buildings screaming in unison and fleeing from the creature.
BA-KABOOM—!!
The Dharma script restrictions of the Five Elements Sword flashed, and a bolt of lightning was shot out.
But, the man, despite being hit by the lightning and screaming, continued to close the distance.
"Get lost!"
CRACKLE—! KABOOM—!!
Naturally, Han Yu-jin fled with all his might while continuously firing lightning bolts.
But, the man, while continuing to scream in pain, showed no signs of stopping.
It felt as if the lightning itself wasn't very painful, but he was suffering more from some kind of memory of his own that was triggered by it.
'I can't win.'
Every time the distance with the creature narrowed, his instincts rang the alarm like crazy, and his spine tingled as if electricity were flowing through it.
He felt his limbs, which had begun to tremble despite having mobilized the Mind Calming Spell, feel unfamiliar.
'Where…! Where should I go?!'
He had originally planned to find an apartment complex and search the homes, but if he entered a building now, it seemed he would be caught and killed by that thing right away.
And he also had to consider the fact that he didn't know what other ghosts might be lurking inside the building.
As he was running frantically like that, what suddenly caught his eye was an unnamed school building.
It seemed he could buy a lot of time since it was wider and the structure was less complicated than an apartment, and he also thought that if he was lucky, he might be able to find a calendar in a place like the teachers' office, so he immediately changed direction.
— Aaaaaah…! Aaaaaaaah…!!
By then, the presence of the man in the suit, who was screaming as if crying in pain, as if pleading, was in a state of being very close.
Even though he would just wake up in reality if he died anyway, Han Yu-jin ran more desperately than ever before, feeling an incomprehensible level of fear that he could not control at all.
The moment he jumped over the school fence and entered the building.
Puzzlingly, all the sounds cut off abruptly.
And because the terrifying pressure had vanished in a flash, Han Yu-jin's legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor.
"Hah… Hah… Hah…"
As he gasped for breath, he tried to get up but fell over a few more times. Cold sweat, which he didn't know when had flowed out so much, dripped down and made clear marks on the dusty floor.
'Am I alive, for now?'
He continued to watch the situation outside, but there was only a heavy silence and no other threatening feeling. He didn't know why it had suddenly stopped its pursuit after chasing him so desperately.
'No… wait.'
Why did it suddenly stop its pursuit?
Was this place some kind of sanctuary?
'No way.'
A chilling hypothesis comes to mind. That it had no choice but to give up because a more terrifying ghost lived here.
Han Yu-jin, who looked around nervously, cast the Shadow Hiding Art, Spirit Eye Spell, and Jade Skin Spell as meticulously as possible, and then, gripping the hilt of the Five Elements Sword like a lifeline, he began to move slowly.
In any case, he had entered this place and couldn't go out. As he had vaguely planned while being chased, he had to find the teachers' office and check the calendar.
'Please, just let me know what year the world ended. I don't ask for anything else…!'
He would decline even if offered to live longer in a place like this. He made up his mind to 'escape' as soon as he confirmed the year.
When he had walked about halfway through the first floor.
Thud—
At the faint sound from behind, Han Yu-jin was so startled that he almost jumped.
In the spot he turned to look at, a single paper card had fallen.
It looked a bit like a letter, but the writing on it began to bleed, making it impossible to ignore.
- See you soon, nice sunbae.
'…I don't really want to see you, though? And what's this about being nice?'
As he was thinking that inadvertently.
Suddenly, at the bustling sound from above, Han Yu-jin looked up and was horrified.
It was the sight of countless 'student ghosts' sticking to the ceiling like cockroaches and then scattering like crazy in all directions.
— Aaaaaah…!
— Won-hee… Won-hee is…!
— Won-hee is coming…!
Only after seeing that could he hear the echo-like voices they were making. And Han Yu-jin was also immediately terrified by the enormous fear contained in those voices.
Just from their reaction, it was obvious what would happen soon.
He immediately gave up on stealth and moved with all his might. A few seconds later, as soon as he turned the corner of the hallway, he found a rusty door with a teachers' office sign on it, and opened it with enough force to almost break it, and went inside.
'Calendar!'
The moment he scanned the room, a tattered calendar, almost completely torn off on one side of the wall, came into his sight. He hurriedly approached it, turned the pages, and checked the year.
'2032…?!'
It probably meant that the world was fine only until 2032, when this calendar was hung on the wall, but the Earth of reality was now 2022.
If this place was really the future of the real Earth, then there were only ten years left.
'What on earth has to happen in that time for something like this…?'
As he was thinking that reflexively, he sensed something and turned around.
A female student was standing there, blocking the teachers' office door he had come in through.
Despite being dyed in pitch-black darkness, the color of the blood that drenched her entire body and flowed down was distinct.
His nose was not just paralyzed by the scent of blood, which he didn't know when had spread, but it felt as if he were directly inhaling the blood, and the rapidly rising chill made him wonder if this was what it would be like to be doused in liquid nitrogen.
He felt a much more overwhelming feeling than when he had faced that ghost in the suit.
A transcendently overwhelming feeling that it could almost be mistaken for awe, beyond simple fear.
It was as if.
It was vaguely similar to the gaze he had felt while receiving the 'baptism' in the Ikapa Pangea of the demon followers.
The female student just stood there stock-still and looked at Han Yu-jin with her bleeding, pitch-black eyes.
It was an attitude as if she were wishing for something, or as if she were anticipating a small act of resistance from her prey.
"…What are you?"
The voice that came out with difficulty trembled pitifully, contrary to his intention.
And of course, there was no answer.
He was only barely able to regain control of his body after circulating the Mind Calming Spell with all his might.
He still had no sensation because of the terrifying chill, but he somehow moved his body and reached for one of the glass windows of the teachers' office.
The moment he was about to cast the Fire Bullet Spell to break through the glass window wall and escape this place.
He thought he heard the sound of something being fiercely torn from all sides, and then, a wave of countless 'hairs', which he didn't know when or from where had rushed in, madly hacked him to pieces, splitting him into dozens of fragments.
'If you were going to do this, why did you drag it out so scarily, you bastard.'
In that moment of death, Han Yu-jin thought of a curse as if sighing.
[You have died.]
In his blacked-out vision, the silver characters appeared mysteriously, greatly reassuring him.
All the fearful sensations disappeared, and the surrounding darkness couldn't be more comforting.
[Please select your reward.]
<> <> <>
In any case, he had confirmed the year in that terrifying apocalyptic world.
He couldn't know if it was really the future of the real Earth, and it seemed it would be difficult to confirm for the time being.
But even if it really was, he would be able to come up with some plan in ten years.
'After I grow stronger quickly and re-explore to find out the exact reason… no, I don't know if it's possible or not, but if I can open a door to the same world's timeline just before the apocalypse…'
Han Yu-jin, who was thinking, was suddenly startled.
There was one reward option that he had thought wouldn't be there.
It was a paper card with the sentence, 'See you soon, nice sunbae.' written in vivid blood.
"…"
The blood that endlessly seeped out from those letters was fortunately disappearing cleanly, as if suppressed by the special nature of this space, but the fact that it had appeared as a reward option was creepy in itself.
It felt strange that it didn't even require any Karma to select it.
"Ugh…"
He turned his head and considered it in various ways, but no matter how positively he tried to think about it, choosing that thing now seemed like a crazy thing to do.
He continuously shook his head and left the Waiting Area.
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