Chapter 3: Those Who Tried to Eradicate My Identity

I think I only vaguely knew it.  

At the peak where I had to swallow countless crises, I believed that reaching it would bring some kind of change.  

Like the world’s end, the final boss of a game?  

Or the disappearance of my immortality, the power that had stopped aging?  

In any case, I expected some great transformation.  

But this… was beyond anything I had imagined.  

“Bwaaang!”  

An 8-ton truck barreled into me.  

If it were my past self, or just an ordinary person, I wouldn’t have survived the impact.  

But—  

Pat!  

As the collision happened, I pulled my body backward.  

A sequence of movements to disperse the shock.  

The moment my will was activated, my body responded naturally.  

However—  

‘…Too slow.’  

This wasn’t the reaction speed I had anticipated.  

Because of that—  

“Kwang!”  

I couldn’t completely dodge it and ended up getting hit by the truck.  

Of course, it wasn’t like the truck was crashing at 100 km/h; it was just a minor impact.  

“Kudang-tang.”  

I was pushed far away by the shock-dispersing movement.  

Under normal circumstances, I would have immediately checked the person’s condition.  

But—  

Buuuung!  

The truck didn’t stop.  

It was, how should I put it—  

As if it was stepping harder on the accelerator pedal to ensure the kill.  

‘They say if there’s an accident, it’s better to die outright.’  

I vaguely remembered hearing that.  

It’s supposedly more financially sensible to kill someone in an accident than to pay hospital bills.  

I couldn’t tell if the truck driver was really thinking like that as he kept pushing forward.  

But one thing was clear.  

‘He won’t stop until I’m dead.’  

He had no intention of stopping until my life was surely ended.  

I jumped to my feet.  

Though I had dispersed the shock, a dull ache lingered all over my body.  

‘Definitely different.’  

I wasn’t in the state I’d spent hundreds of years perfecting as a Knight at the pinnacle.  

There must have been some adjustments and changes after returning to the modern era.  

Maybe that was natural.  

After all, no time had passed; I had simply returned to the moment of dimensional travel.  

But it was enough.  

I shook off the questions swirling in my mind.  

What mattered now wasn’t my physical state.  

Buuuuung!  

The truck was still racing toward me at full speed.  

Pa-at!  

I pushed off the ground and leapt toward the passenger seat.  

“Kwachachang!”  

I shattered the solid glass door in front of me and landed in the soft seat.  

“Hu-up!”  

Glancing at the truck driver, who was stunned, I said,  

“Stop.”  

With my voice low and commanding,  “Kkiiik! ” 

The truck finally braked and came to a halt.  

I looked at him.  

He looked to be in his forties.  

His unkempt beard was rough and scruffy, and every inch of him bore the signs of a hard life.  

And—  

Tremble tremble tremble.  

He was shaking.  

Being hit by a truck and then jumping into the passenger seat like that—  

He must have realized I wasn’t an ordinary person.  

He must have understood by now that resistance and rebellion were pointless.  

And—  

‘Something’s there.’  

I had lived for hundreds of years.  

Thanks to that long life, I had awakened the Soul-Reading Mind’s Eye, allowing me to read people’s hearts.  

Extreme tension, anxiety, and fear.  

This man carried emotions beyond merely causing an accident.  

Most likely—  

“…Someone hired you, didn’t they?”  

There was clear evidence that he was contracted by someone to kill me.  

“W-what are you saying… guh!”  

I immediately grabbed his throat.  

“Keh, kehek!”  

He struggled to breathe, making harsh sounds.  

I had no intention of having a long conversation with the one who tried to kill me.  

“Don’t try to outsmart me. Just answer my questions.”  

After the first warning, I asked again, “Who hired you?”

But—  

“N-nothing…”  

He feigned ignorance.  

So—  

“Crunch.”  

I snapped his right index finger the opposite way.  

“Ahhhk!” He screamed in pain.  

But his scream didn’t elicit any reaction from me.  

“Who hired you?”  

I repeated the same question, loosening my grip on his throat for a moment.  

“W-why are you doing this? I didn’t…”  

“Crack!” 

This time, it was the ring finger.  

Not bent like the index but pulled out entirely with immense force.  

“Ughhh-aaah!”  

His scream was like a beast’s howl.  

The pain of having a finger ripped out wasn’t something ordinary humans easily experienced.  

Ah, correction.  

Though it was common enough on the Gritia Continent where I had wandered for centuries, here it was rare.  

“Who hired you?”  

I said nothing else.  

I wanted him to understand that this was the only question I cared about.  

If he didn’t answer, he would continue to suffer.  

“I-I don’t know who!”  

Finally, a different answer.  

But it wasn’t the one I wanted.  

When he tried to reach for his fingers, “Please, I really don’t know. All contracts were strictly exchanged on parchment documents…”  

||  

I stopped his movement.  

Not a lie.  

No matter how much the world changed, even if death was common, no fool would leave traces in contract killings.  

But from this, one fact was certain.  

‘Someone wants me dead.’  

They even went as far as hiring a hitman.  

The name that immediately came to mind was—  

‘Ha Yeon Lee.’  

Once my wife, once the closest person to me, now worse than a stranger.  

If anyone could mastermind a contract killing against me, it would be her without a doubt.  

Because to her, I was nothing more than an obstacle.  

‘How strange.’  

Somehow, it was a curious feeling.  

Until just a moment ago, I hadn’t even been aware of her existence.  

To be precise, I had forgotten.  

There was no time to dwell on petty grudges on the Gritia Continent.  

Hundreds of years had passed.  

I thought I had long forgotten those old resentments.  

‘Because I’ve returned to the modern era?’  

Both my body’s condition and the resurfacing grudges felt unfamiliar.  

But at the same time, a strange sensation as if I had found my place again.  

“Ugh_”  

The groan near my ear pulled me out of my thoughts.  

I stared at the driver clutching one hand.  

“Affiliation?”  

“N-none. I just heard there was big money to be made…”  

Broken by the pain, he was telling the truth.  

What I could glean from this was—  

‘Digging any deeper won’t get me anything.’  

The client’s identity was thoroughly hidden.  

Even if I questioned the man who had thrown himself into this for the money, there was nothing I could find out.  

“P-please spare me. I was blinded by the money. I have a wife and children to feed…”  

But he couldn’t finish his sentence.  

Sleek, thunk!  

His neatly severed head rolled onto the truck floor.  

No weapon.  

Just the edge of my hand created the scene.  

Is that possible?  

It is.  

A body that has reached a certain level becomes a weapon itself.  

“Puhwahak!”  

A fountain of blood gushed from the severed end.  

Taking a life.  

Some might feel guilt or disgust about it, but not me.  

“If you’re going to try to kill someone, you should know you can die, too.”  

Family to protect?  

That’s none of my concern.  

What mattered was that he tried to take my life, failed, and paid the price.  

Nothing more.  

“Return, huh…”  

I had come back.  

To a world that welcomed no one.  

Returned after hundreds of years.  

Normally, it shouldn’t feel real so easily.  

‘Interesting.’  

There was nothing unfamiliar or awkward.  

It was as if I had lived here until moments ago.  

Perhaps a kind of ‘adaptation’ from crossing dimensions.  

Of course.  

‘But that’s not important.’  

After hundreds of years of wandering, I had returned with one clear purpose.  

Revenge.  

To give back to Ha Yeon Lee and everyone involved the misfortune and pain I had endured.  

***

What is the most important thing for revenge?  

Power.  

In the past, I had no power, so I was at the mercy of Ha Yeon Lee and her associates.  

Back then, I was nothing more than a toy they could play with.  

Like a mosquito or dragonfly from childhood—something to dissect and kill whenever they pleased.  

But now?  

The centuries I spent on the Gritia Continent were not wasted watching clouds drift by.  

I reached the pinnacle of the continent, becoming the No.1 Knight.  

If I could use that power fully, I could have overwhelmed everyone without worrying about their reactions.  

But the world was not that simple.  

‘…My physical training level isn’t what it used to be.’  

There had been changes while crossing dimensions.  

Compared to when I defeated the empire’s No.1 Knight, I was now at one-hundredth of that strength.  

Of course, even that was strong enough, but the problem was Ha Yeon Lee and the Shinhwa Guild had become giants.  

I couldn’t overpower them.  

So I needed a plan for my revenge.  

Usually, it would be a thorough and complicated plan, but surprisingly, the answer was simple.  

[The Tower. Your answer lies there.]

A note I hadn’t realized was in my pocket.  

If it were just a note, I might have dismissed it as nonsense.  

But it was—  

‘…parchment from the Gritia Continent.’  

Not ordinary paper used in the modern world.  

A piece of parchment inscribed with the common tongue of the continent.  

I realized this note was some kind of marker.  

Therefore, my first objective had to be climbing the Tower—not to kill anyone, but to ascend it.  

But—  

“Heyyy.”  

Before I started climbing the Tower in earnest, I stopped by a boarding house.  

I had nothing to pack.  

I just wanted to check the place out once.  

But I never expected a guest waiting for me there.  

“I was worried you might’ve died somewhere.”  

A group with bitter smiles.  

‘Sung-ho Choi.’  

An employee of Sandeul Money.  

I had no choice but to borrow from private lenders to fund Ha Yeon Lee’s awakening.  

Loans on the shop and house weren’t enough to cover the amount.  

I thought she had paid the remaining balance with the contract money received after awakening.  

‘Naïve.’  

Would it have been different if I knew she had other intentions?  

No.  

I’m certain it wouldn’t have changed a thing.  

Power.  

Once she gained power and influence, if she wished, I was doomed to be swept away anytime.  

“Seeing you alive is a relief. So… shall we start the work we put off?”  

“Kikiking!”  

He scraped the floor with an aluminum bat in his hand.  

The battered bat was the source of my terror until recently.  

Whenever I failed to repay interest on time, that bat would fly at me, branding pain all over my body.  

I tried everything to avoid that pain.  

Crawled like a dog.  

Licked the spit I had spat on the floor.  

They even urinated on me.  

They thoroughly erased my identity.  

Was there a reason for that?  

I hadn’t thought about it back then.  

But now, I knew to some extent.  

‘They were ordered to do so.’  

The cruel torment was meant to induce suicide.  

Who would benefit from my death?  

Ha Yeon Lee?  

Don’t be so simple-minded.  

Maybe it was someone high up in the Shinhwa Guild, currently in a close relationship with her.  

Whoever ordered it didn’t matter.  

The fact was clear: they harbored hostility and murderous intent toward me.  

“Come here. Since you’ve been dodging me, it’s time to settle the debt, right?”  

And he unzipped his pants.  

Not only Sung-ho Choi but the surrounding thugs were the same.  

They intended to begin the process of erasing my identity.  

But unlike before, the same scene didn’t unfold.  

Instead—  

Pat!  

I moved like a single streak of light.  

A moment was all I needed.  

“Ugh!”  

The time it took to grab Sung-ho Choi’s most precious part as he lowered his zipper.  

“Uh, uh…?!”  

Startled by the crushing grip, he tried to say something, but—  

Peurak!  

My action was faster than his words, bursting what I held in my hand.  

“Ughhhh-aaah!”  

His beast-like scream echoed throughout the room.