Everyone Else is a Returnee
chapter-5

You Can’t See Me? (2)

Yu IlHan became silent. He was in a state of being greatly surprised.

From the moment Rita mentioned the word ‘status’, he was able to predict that human power would be measured using levels. And so, a game stat window that anyone would recognize had appeared and that wasn’t a problem.

The monstrous status also wasn’t a problem. The results of his training was visualized so he could only be happy.

The distributed status bonuses weren’t a problem either. It wasn’t a game where you could raise the stats you want and he also expected that he wouldn’t be able to raise magic that way.

Yes. Those weren’t the problems.

The problem was the title and the skill. Hiding which he does not remember learning and that title which was full of intentions to make fun of Yu IlHan!

What is this, concealment becomes passive? You mean I’m concealed!? Is my life concealed!? I’m a loner even if I go into space!?

A violent rage he never experienced in his life surged. This was the moment where he got another objective other than becoming a higher existence to meet Rita. An objective to beat that Akashic Records up!

If there was one thing that he had questions about, that was the passive skills. Thinking about the definition of Akashic Records on Earth, it was unbelievable that it couldn’t record one person’s ability perfectly.

It wasn’t some human who could make mistakes and it was a universal record! To make it error, one had to be outside of the realm of recognition and record – like a God.

How could this be unidentifiable? Yu IlHan, who thought about this until he reached his house, successfully thought up of one hypothesis.

‘Currently, my physical ability and concealment techniques are revealed so it can record it. However, it might be that it doesn’t have any records of the abilities I learnt in the past. All my training happened on Earth when time was stopped. Moreover, that was before the Akashic records came into contact with Earth.’

Under the assumption that Yu IlHan’s hypothesis was right, It was very possible that all of Yu IlHan’s doings on Earth, when time was stopped by the power of God, aren’t recorded in the Akashic records. Yu IlHan wasn’t sure but in reality, it was like that.

‘Well, I’ll know if I move.’

Yu IlHan trusted more in the days he had lived and trained than the sudden few lines appearing in his eyes. It wasn’t like he couldn’t swing his spear just because the skills status is unidentifiable so it had none to do with him.

He opened the front door to his house and went inside. He was planning to have a simple shower before moving around to check what passive skills pop up.

But in the next moment, one person came in his field of vision.

“Ah.”

Really, only that stupid sound came out of his mouth. The moment to realize how foolish he was came next.

How could he have forgotten the most important thing? How couldn’t he remember his most beloved family?

“IlHan.”

His mother was in front of his eyes.

Although they were far apart for such a long period of time to the point that he felt unfamiliar even when he looked at the picture, he realized just after seeing her like this. The fact that the middle aged woman crying in front of him was his mother.

That wasn’t remembered by his brain, but his heart.

“Mom.”

While saying out loud the word he hadn’t spoken for a long time, Yu IlHam embraced his mother.

He cried like a little child that made the past countless years seem like nothing. His mother cried along with him. They cried just like that until his father arrived.

After crying their hearts out, they became hungry. His mother, Kim YeSeul, also seemed to be the same as she started cooking.

Yu IlHan had received his meals from Rita for as long as 1000 years (Though, he himself didn’t know), but he hadn’t seen the scene of her cooking, so he was touched when he saw his mother standing in the kitchen.

The savory smell as rice became done, the rhythmical kitchen knife sounds and the sound from the heated up frying pan were all delightful to him.

“Thank you for the meal!”

The dinner using all the ingredients in the house, was very peaceful. There were some that looked like she had learnt from the another world.

However, Yu IlHan couldn’t enjoy the meal peacefully. It was because his parents started talking about the other worlds.

“Where were you sent to, my son? Mother went to a world called Ya-umin along with the people in our neighborhood.”

“A nameless one.”

He couldn’t make them worry by saying that he was left on Earth all alone. Fortunately, his muscles decreased in volume while mutating so on the outside, there was not much difference before being left out. There was no worry that he would be found out just based on his outer appearance.

“Heishia was a truly perfect world if you ignore the fact that there’s no rice. And also, that handling mana or whatever was truly hard. Even if I do get used to it, there’s no way your father would be able to confront monsters.”

Yu IlHan’s father, Yu YongHan (T/N: can mean useful) complained while having the first big spoon of rice he had in 10 years. Kim YeSeul also agreed.

“That’s what I mean. They brought the newborn babies, elderly, and even pregnant women and made them suffer. It was too pitiful to see them suffering for those 10 years. It would’ve been better if they just took the young and sturdy ones.”

“They said it’s because it would go against the balance. Meaning that even though they knew the most efficient way, they couldn’t take it.”

“Sorry?”

Towards Yu IlHan, who blurted the truth he heard from Rita by accident, the gazes of his parents were directed. Yu IlHan realized then.

There weren’t many occasions to lie in his life until now, but to him who had lived a different life from others, there would be a lot he had to hide from now on. The moment he had to fix the habit of saying what he thought in his mind had come.

“N, no. I’m just thinking if that is the case.”

“Balance? Efficency? To hell with that. When I think about how they brought people away from home for 10 years and put them through suffering, I grind my teeth, my teeth.”

“So you ground your teeth to your heart’s content so you won’t anymore, right? Every time I hear you grinding your teeth, I grind my teeth because I’m annoyed.”

While wishing that the day he had to present them with implants in their gums won’t come, Yu IlHan finished eating his meal. But when he realized, his parents’ gazes focused on him.

“How about you, son? You can kill monsters if you handle mana well, right? When I talked with the ladies around, they said that the people who can kill monsters well will earn money!”

“They sure will. There weren’t many that had talent in that, were there? Monsters or whatever bullshit they are, they are dangerous, so if one says they want to kill it, won’t the country take care of them?”

“What are you saying, what money would the country give us!? It’s not that. Their corpses are worth so much money!”

Looking at his parents talk about fantasy stuff that only happened in novels so naturally, it was quite strange for Yu IlHan. His feeling of being left out was really serious and he thought about the dropout life.

Even though humanity returned, I’m still a loner…… He was angry at the fact that it was no different from his life until now and he didn’t feel that sad.

But I should be more aware of deep-sea fish than my parents! – when he thought that, he became even more empty so he stopped there.

“I can’t use mana.”

And he confessed the truth.

“Yes. Let’s study well, son.”

“I knew it. You can’t win against genes, eh?”

His parents accepted it too easily so he instead became dejected. However, that was not unreasonable. To his parents, he was a son who was stuck at home playing games or reading or studying all day, and hated exercise.

For them, it would be hard to imagine that their son would suddenly wield mana around his body and rush out while saying that he would hunt monsters. They probably asked with ‘what if’ only to get their answer of ‘as expected’.

“Just listen to the government’s announcement. Apparently, it will come out on the 9 o’clock news.”

“They are so untrustworthy. What if a monster appears in out neighborhood? Should we move to a place where a strong ability user is?”

“It’ll be alright. But you shouldn’t go to work for a while.”

“How could I? The company already called me more than ten times. I have to go even if I have to die on the way.”

“Hey! Don’t say unlucky things like that!”

His parents were happily chatting together. As it had been a long time, their longing for each other seemed to have piled up and they seemed closer. Honestly, he was prepared for a reverse effect, so Yu IlHan could only be thankful.

He gave up watching TV in the living room, and he returned to his own room while thinking that he might have a little sibling this time next year. He planned to search materials on the internet about the current situation.

However, he stiffened his body with the same amount of shock as when he first met his mother.

“……Why is this here?”

Was this God’s prank? Or was this because Rita’s wish flooded in a strange direction?

Wrapped in dry cloth, his masterpiece steel spear was in the middle of his room.

The moment he noticed that, Yu IlHan locked the door to his room. His mother would be surprised if she knew that there was a weapon inside her son’s room, wouldn’t she?

“Why did this remain?”

Every change that occurred due to his influence should have been reverted back when the world was returning to the point when he was first left out. Even his spear made with the efforts of his body and soul shouldn’t have been an exception.

But why? There was no way of finding out. Did God give him a bonus because he felt sorry for just a status bonus? Rita all over the place wanting the sword to remain, was there some over-effect from that?

In any case, it was a thankful thing. He was thinking of making a spear he would use in the near future, so he was thankful to God who relieved him of that effort.

Yu IlHan first picked it up intending to hide it in his closet. But at that moment, like the time he saw the status, green texts started appearing in his eyes.

[Yu IlHan’s steel spear]

[Rank – Unique]

[Attack Power – 800]

[Durability – 500/500]

[A miracle made by human hands using pure technique to mold the spear without mana. It has hardness and strength comparable to that of a mid-class monster’s bones.]

“How should I know if attack power of 800 is high or not?”

But looking at the description from the Akashic Records, he thought that it would help until he acquired new materials so he put it in his closet. He wished for there to be inventories since there was status and mana and all, so he was disappointed.

“Then shall I start?”

The return of humanity, and the Great Cataclysm that happened at the same time as it was waiting for it. People were spread out to countless other worlds, but now that they had returned, they had to cooperate to adapt to the changed reality. Countless people should be pouring out information on what they know through countless routes.

Among those, the route that Yu IlHan selected was the internet. it was because it was the most approachable, the widest, and the one he was most familiar with.

‘There’s new text.’

Yu IlHan sat down in front of his laptop with shining eyes. The internet pages which weren’t renewed for such a long time was now changed to something completely new. Yu IlHan smiled when he saw that. He now felt delight when there was the slightest of a new stimulation. Did Columbus feel like this when he found the new continent?

He became the captain of the boat which sailed the new seas and sailed to the seas known as information.

When 4 hours passed, Yu IlHan closed the laptop. It was because he was assured that he had enough information now.

As everyone talked differently, he had a hard time picking out the truth, but Yu IlHan’s analytical ability and concentration was at the peak due to the several centuries of reading.

When he used the official announcement from the government as basis, and organized the information inside the articles that other people wrote, it was over easily. In other words, there was not much information that he could fish out.

‘There are too many liars.’

I hunted a dragon in another world, I subdued a princess knight made her as a sex slave, I solved the bonus question engraved on the back of throne of a huge empire so I acquired permanent item – b*llsh*t like these were everywhere.

The description about levels and monsters were also all over the place, so listening to them, he might as well believe that a kobold killed a demon race.

‘Then shall I pick out the most objective milestones?’

He first organized the information on levels.

Until level 5 was an ordinary civilian. The majority of the standards to pick soldiers in other worlds were 7, and when one became level 10, one could have swordsman, archer, and other classes as their jobs and could think of becoming a captain of 10 men.

When one became level 50, then the class advances. It was a sort of 2nd advancement. As it seemed like powerful people and non-powerful people were separated using that line, advancement wasn’t done by anyone and passing a strict condition to understand the Akashic Records better.

If one didn’t advance to the 2nd job, then one could not go over level 50, and if someone did their 2nd advancement, then even nobles wouldn’t look down on them.

3rd advancement was possible at level 100. From that moment, one would be treated as a high class fighting power of the country. Levelling up by one became hellish and there were not many who would grow anymore.

It was known that there was a 4th advancement, but at least on the internet, there weren’t any that had seen a person with the 4th job. There were only predictions about high class monsters, such as dragons, on their 4th, 5th or even higher jobs. This was the information about the levels.

Among the rest, there weren’t many that were important.

First, tomorrow, he had to go to college as normal. It was because the government, joint with the army, said that they would come up with countermeasures against monsters and emphasized everyday life.

There were also announcements about making a special corps made up of mana users after creating anti-monster headquarters, but who knows. It wasn’t such a credible announcement.

‘I should protect my own body.’

The training and suffering was for that. He had no thoughts of going to college normally and be dragged around passively with the situation.

So let’s train in mana.

“Phew.”

As he thought that there weren’t many differences even after humanity had returned, he sighed. At the same time, he remembered about the kind and beautiful Rita who was always next to him when he was training and he longed to see her.

“I want to see Rita.”

[If she knew that, she would be very delighted.]

At the voice he heard from somewhere, he stiffened before abruptly turning back.

On the wide open window sill, a small, winged something was standing there. If one ignored the fact that it was very small, its outer appearance was similar to Rita.

[I am sent here to help you adjust to mana, and I’m……]

“An intruder of private property?”

[Angel Erta.]

The second intruder of private property…… It was that moment of meeting with an angel.

Author’s notes.

There was an important edit. Please read.

There were many people who were questioning about the level, so even I became chaotic while explaining every one of them. I set the settings too hard.

And so, I did a big edit. ‘MC’s current level is 1’. In the initial settings, status bonuses were reflected on the levels, but I’ve ‘excluded’ it. This will probably be easier for you to accept.

Also, the status distributed from the level up is automatically reflected on the physical body. To use a game word, it’s ‘auto distribution’. The details will be revealed in the story later!

There’s no other change than that. Please enjoy!