Chapter 2 – Underworld, Invitation (2)

Within the castle, Chang-Sun saw a wise-looking man sitting on a grand throne.

“Ever since I received the report, the thought of what an absurd being you might be came to my mind. However, I suppose I underestimated your absurdity,” said the man.

He was Thanatos, the King of the Underworld.

As Chang-Sun revealed his desire to fight, Thanatos looked at him unhappily. Thanatos’ divine class was so high that he could compel most deities to kneel, and yet the man whose deity status had been revoked was still standing upright.

At the same time, however, Thanatos was also satisfied with his decision to choose the man before him for the job he had in mind.

“Have you ever thought of where you might have ended up after you died, if you had kept living on Earth instead of ending up in Arcadia?” he asked, seemingly at random.

Chang-Sun had wanted to ask about Thanatos’ purpose for bringing him here first, but he just shrugged, thinking there had to be a reason. He simply replied, “Not really. I haven’t thought of it.”

“You would have gone to hell,” Thanatos said simply.

“Why?” Chang-Sun asked.

Thanatos adjusted his glasses, picking up the report about Chang-Sun on his desk. He began, “You were an active professional gamer in 2024.”

“And?” Chang-Sun replied.

“On June 21, you cursed very badly. While playing the game with a five-member party, you used all the curse words in the world and raged against your colleague for trolling. Those words hurt your colleague’s heart very deeply,” Thanatos explained.

“...” Chang-Sun remained silent.

“Yool, what kind of punishment would he have received then?” Thanatos asked.

Yool stood upright beside them as he answered in a disciplined tone, “Sir, he would receive the punishment of having his tongue plucked out for fifteen days, and having his soul scorched in the Condemning Hell.”

“Exactly so,” Thanatos said.

Chang-Sun was so dumbfounded that he was speechless, but Thanatos continued, paying no heed to him, “On April 9th, 2020, your friend was heartbroken from his breakup, so he asked you for a drink. However, you ignored him while playing a game, didn’t you? That alone was enough to send you to the Scorning Hell.”

“...”

“On November 10th, 2018, you skipped your lesson and went to a PC bang[1]. Then you lied to your parents. In September of 2017, you stepped on several ants while you were going to school. Oh no! Those were poor creatures who were bringing food to their fellows. How sad. That’s murder, so unfortunately, you would have had to spend four days in the Serpent Hell.”

“...”

“In April of 2009, you were nine years old. You accidentally peed while you slept, but then you played innocent by framing your dog. There’s nothing worse than framing, tsk! That would have added ten more days in the Condemning Hell.”

Each time Thanatos listed his sins one by one, Chang-Sun’s expression contorted in a strange way.

In contrast, the corners of Thanatos’ lips lifted upward as if he were having an excessive amount of fun. He continued, “On top of that, you even failed to date any women in your twenty-six years on Earth…That would have meant six days in the Pitch-Black Hell. Tsk tsk, whatever shall we do?”

“...What on earth are you trying to pull?” Chang-Sun finally snapped in annoyance. If not for the Divine Steel shackles on his hands and feet, he would have punched Thanatos for saying such ridiculous things with a straight face.

Thanatos crossed his legs, laying down the report in his hands. He said, “I was just joking. You may have had too much of a desire to win, but you lived a pretty ordinary life on Earth. However, you became a totally different person after you ended up in Arcadia.”

After reading Chang-Sun’s report for the first time, Thanatos’ evaluation had been very simple.

‘He fought like a rabid dog.’

In his seven years as a professional gamer, there had been several instances of Chang-Sun being severely criticized for the way his obsessive desire to win affected matches. However, the real problem was that his obsession with winning had taken a turn for the worse in Arcadia.

When Chang-Sun first ended up in Arcadia, he had arrived on a battlefield in the midst of a battle fought by many soldiers. Until then, he had been an ordinary young man who was just a fanatical gamer; he had never even had a single Taekwondo lesson in his neighborhood. However, he had wished to survive, and thus picked up a spear from the ground.

He had fought and won, and in doing so, realized his talent.

The more he fought, the stronger he had become. The more tribulations he went through, the more powerful he had grown. The electrifying thrill and joy he got in the process had driven him to the battlefield again and again.

That was probably when Chang-Sun had begun to treat everything in the world like a ‘game’. He had only focused on ‘leveling up’, and considered all the abilities he received to be just like skills in a game. That process had continued until it eventually culminated in a war against several deities.

At present, he seemed very cool-headed, but there was nothing cool or composed inside him…

No, he was a fiend. A monster, battle-crazed and warlike.

“So, what do you want to talk about? And what’s your reason for reviving me?” Chang-Sun growled. He was not going to let it slide if Thanatos continued with his needless blathering.

“I want you to do a job for me,” Thanatos said.

“...A job?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Yes. There are some deities who are trying to manipulate humans, breaking the Oath in the process. I would like you to go to the Saha World[2] and seal them on my behalf,” Thanatos explained.

At that moment, Chang-Sun’s eyes sparkled. He asked, “Are you going to reincarnate me?”

“To be accurate, I’ll be returning you to the place where you originally belonged,” Thanatos said as he lightly snapped his fingers.

Flick!

The scenery around them changed, revealing the image of a universe filled with multiple clusters of stars. Beneath his feet, Chang-Sun could see Earth, the blue planet he had long since left. He stared at it, mesmerized.

Watching Chang-Sun’s reaction, Thanatos burst into laughter. He said, “Your eyes are gonna pop out if you continue. I thought your emotions had all dried up by now, but I guess that wasn’t really the case, huh?”

Chang-Sun had growled like a wolf after enduring Thanatos’ energy, but at that moment, he was like a docile lamb as he replied, “No matter what happens… It’s my hometown.”

In truth, even Chang-Sun was surprised with himself. He had truly believed he had forgotten everything about Earth. However, when he saw it with his own eyes, old memories reappeared one by one from the deepest depths of his mind. Then, an unfamiliar emotion spread throughout the corners of his heart—it was nostalgia.

“You’re going to freak out when you watch what’s about to happen,” Thanatos said.

“What?” Chang-Sun exclaimed.

Earth suddenly began growing larger. The continent of Eurasia came into view, before the display zoomed in on the Korean Peninsula. It zoomed in further on South Korea, and then to Seoul, then to Songpa-gu and Jamsil. Afterward, it kept going, focusing on the Jamsil station intersection that held the Lotte World Tower.

And there… was Chang-Sun, walking along the crosswalk between Exit Six and Seven in the middle of the night.

“...!” Chang-Sun exclaimed wordlessly. For a moment, he felt as if he were suffocating.

After his retirement as a professional gamer, he had suffered from lethargy because he couldn’t feel the excitement and energy from the matches anymore. Due to that, he was utterly dejected and always drunk, seldom leaving the house.

That day had been just like any other. The alcohol in his house had happened to run out, so he had dropped by the convenience store.

However, while returning to his home, he had gotten caught up in a Dungeon Break[3]. He had never been sure whether he had just missed the street sign because he was completely wasted, or if he had just been so unlucky as to have gotten caught up in a Random Break. The only clear memory in his mind was of finding himself standing in the midst of a battlefield in Arcadia by the time he came back to his senses.

However…

The frozen scene being shown on Earth was from right before all those things had happened. Right before the Dungeon Break had occurred.

“I’ll be sending you here,” Thanatos said.

Naturally, Chang-Sun’s gaze was fixed on Thanatos.

“Like I told you, focus on sealing some deities on my behalf. That’s the punishment I’ll be sentencing you to,” Thanatos said.

“...Why are you giving me this chance?” Chang-Sun asked.

If there was one thing Chang-Sun had learned after ending up in Arcadia, it was the fact that every act of goodwill had a price. Anyone who granted a favor no doubt planned to receive ten times its cost in return.

One corner of Thanatos’ mouth turned up. He replied, “Because you’re the perfect man to hunt those things.”

“Those things?” Chang-Sun asked.

“I’m talking about deities from the Otherworld. Starting from the deities in Arcadia, such as Ahura Mazda, Dava, Chen… There are a lot of them,” Thanatos said.

Chang-Sun narrowed his eyes and asked, “Did they do something?”

“The Dungeon Break you experienced, why do you think that occurred out of nowhere?” Thanatos asked.

Chang-Sun’s eyes shone. He replied, “Breaking the Oath… So that’s what you meant. Does that mean they covet Earth?”

“Yes. They haven’t revealed their intentions, but they’re approaching Earth in secret,” Thanatos answered.

Every deity craved faith, as it was the source of their power. The best way to gain faith happened to entail conquering planets that had civilizations on them.

“Why isn't the Underworld doing anything about it?” Chang-Sun asked.

“They’re using the loopholes of the Oath too well. We don’t have sufficient justification to intervene. But…” Thanatos paused, his lips curling into a cold smile as he continued, “It would be a whole different story if a ‘human’ dealt with those kinds of beings. The Oath doesn’t say anything about that… Besides, you know them pretty well.”

As Thanatos said those final words, the same sort of cold smile spread across Chang-Sun’s face. He replied, “So are you telling me I’m your hound? Are you going to throw me away after you finish hunting?[4]”

“No, this is just a labor sentence. After the work is done, I’ll free you from your chains and give you a new life,” Thanatos said.

“...Hm,” Chang-Sun mused.

“If you don’t like the term ‘sentence’, we can call it a deal. How does that sound? Isn’t it a good deal for you, too?” Thanatos asked.

Chang-Sun quietly nodded. As Thanatos said, it was definitely not a bad deal for him. In truth, he still had unresolved grudges against the deities of the Otherworld. Besides that, he was not the sort of pushover who would leave those deities alone after finding out they were the entire reason he had been dragged into the Otherworld.

After being stripped of his deity status, he had lost his power, but he had still earned it once. He was confident he could regain it. Above all, however, it seemed that some part of him wished to get his ordinary life back.

However, Chang-Sun did not hastily answer in the affirmative. There was no trust between him and Thanatos, so he would not be so gullible as to believe everything that had been said.

“Of course, I’m not asking you to seal all of them alone without any backup. Without that, you’ll just fade away from running out of power like the last time. So, I’ll give you a gift,” Thanatos said.

“What would that be?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Authority,” Thanatos said, the smile remaining on his face.

“…?” Chang-Sun briefly fell silent in shock. Shortly after, his expression conveyed how ludicrous he thought the idea was as he asked, “Is it okay for you to give away things like that? It sounds as if it goes against the laws of the Underworld.”

“Laws of the Underworld… Well, all the borders of life and death are under my supervision. I could say it’s an imperial gift to an agent of mine. Anyway, are you willing to do this?” Thanatos asked.

“If you’re even giving me that… I have no reason to decline,” Chang-Sun said with a nod, grinning widely. He knew that if Thanatos truly kept the promise, he could grow much stronger than before. He had run into limitations as a former mortal, but Thanatos was offering to lift those limitations.

“Okay. Then the deal is sealed,” Thanatos said with a satisfied smile before turning around. Behind him were various reapers and agents standing in a row, including Yool. He continued, “Now, we’ll begin the reincarnation, no, regression. Everyone, get ready to open the Door of Reincarnation!”

1. These are a specific kind of internet cafe popular in Korea, where people can play games on high-spec computers.

2. A Buddhist term that refers to the mundane world we live in.

3. A term used in Korean webnovels as part of the popular ‘dungeon’ genre. It refers to a phenomenon where monsters or other magical phenomena ‘break out’ from a Dungeon (here referring to an otherworldly realm) into the real world through the formation of a ‘Gate’. So in this case, Chang-Sun was transported through the Gate that formed. The term ‘Random Break’ will be explained in the next chapter.

4. There is a saying in Korea about how hunting hounds are discarded by their owners when they become useless.