I Came Back And Conquered It All
chapter-83

Suggestion

I spoke while pressing my temples, “Adam, you… No,” Thinking about it, this wasn’t his real name, “What was your real name?”

“Even if I pronounced it, it was a name that humans wouldn’t be able to hear and follow. Just call me in the current identity, like Adam.”

“Alright, Adam. So, you are….” I couldn’t think straight.

“To speak in a human concept, it means that you’re a student preparing for masters, right? It means that you’re a graduate student.”

“You insult me with such a comparison….!” Adam showed that he was appalled with his expression and tone.

“But you just said your profession was a student.”

“This was why the mechanical translation of the words that ignore the cultural background led to a misunderstanding! The profession of a student in our world was completely different from that of Earth. And the hurdle that I’m preparing for wasn’t as simple a process as you ….”

Before he went on and on with his explanation, I was all ears for a while, but it didn’t feel very sensible. I reached out my hand and stopped him, “Okay, okay. And the purpose of your stay on Earth was to gather samples of monsters?”

When I was tracing his steps, I saw the scene of him carefully gutting various monsters and storing them. I was wondering for what reason he was taking them. Was it for research purposes?

“Yes. I need a dungeon monster connected to a dimension in an early tutorial stage.”

He said that he came to North Korea after leaving the official activity scene to collect various samples from a region that Breaks continually happened.

‘For sure, for that condition, this would be the ideal place.’

A location where he didn’t have to be appeared.

‘…but he’s just a student?’

A being whose profession was in studying and research received an SSS-Rank when he came over to Earth, and he was equipped with superior battle power incomparable to humans. He also had a strange skill that didn’t require Mana usage. Were all of the species in the tutorial beasts like him?

“Well, have you asked everything that you were curious about me? Now, it’s my turn to ask.”

Expectations glowed from his eyes. He asked as if he couldn’t hold it back anymore, “That item, where was the dungeon that you found the [Door of Hope]?”

I explained the path that led me to acquire the ring, and I informed him that the gate connected to that dungeon had already been closed. And as I did so, Adam’s face soon distorted with disappointment.

“What, it’s not an acquisition, but it’s an additional reward?”

The acquisition meant the things that lay around dungeons like the devil’s sword, and additional rewards meant that it was acquired from the choices that the system gives after the Clear.

Adam sighed, “You picked this among the random rewards? You’re one lucky guy.”

I asked, “Does it matter if this was a dungeon acquisition?”

“Of course, it does! It means that part of the Sebrarian empire was used as a material to compose the middle dimension where the dungeon was!”

Sebrarian Empire? Those words were mentioned again. I spoke about the fact that I inferred from the item descriptions, “That thing, I don’t know which dimension did the country exist in, but didn’t it fall apart ages ago?”

“You know about it well, don’t you? But since the middle dimension itself was of dimensions that transcends time and space… so the period didn’t matter.”

What I didn’t know about here was that it was a combination that even transcended time, “It combines the space of different points in time, you said?”

“Yeah, the reason why the monsters that have a certain level of civilization, and differ in clothing and weapons, depending on the dungeons, was that the dimension or the point in time it was taken from might be different.” He returned to the original topic and asked about the internal environment of Siheung 8 Dungeon. It was the information discussed in detail among the media, but seeing that he seemed to be unaware, he must have been here for a long time.

He clicked his tongue after listening to my answer, “Apart from the portal, wasn’t it an environment without a trace of civilization?”

Indeed, it was. The fact that there were many floating wastelands in the air and covered with thick fog was interesting, but it was more like a natural environment that wasn’t affected by the touch of civilization.

“It would be meaningless to go there myself now.”

As I was listening, I got curious, “Are you looking for a trace of the Sebrarian empire?”

“Of course!”

He was excited after seeing my ring because he expected it to be an acquisition. He was excited at the hope that the field in the dungeon was an old downtown of the Sebrarian empire and that he could find more items relating to the empire.

“Those artifacts are separately categorized with the name of ‘Empirical Heritage.’ Most species that finished the tutorial are frantically looking for it!”

What was such a meaningful thing? He explained with much more enthusiasm. Every item that mentioned the empire was more valuable than those of the same value. Those items caused an interdimensional war!

‘Wait, I have five of those on me.’

Adam identified the [Door of Hope], which was the ring I had equipped, but I didn’t think he had noticed the [Stardust Wing] absorbed in my body—seeing that he hadn’t mentioned it yet. Apart from the two I had equipped, I have three more, including [The 3rd Class Imperial Guard Program] that I gave to Nate. These items contained the keywords of the empire.

‘It was the right choice to put those conditions in the deal with the Spirit.’

I asked him, thinking that I should attempt something similar next time I have another chance to deal with the spirit, “Then do you plan to stay here and continue hunting monsters?”

For the pure purposes of collection and research, He’d never done anything significant in my previous life, apart from disappearing. It bothered me that he threatened to slaughter the refugees a while ago, but I had caused the situation by stalking him.

He replied in a relaxed tone, “Hmm, well, I was thinking about getting back to my original world within this year since I’m almost done with analyzing patterns over here.”

It was not much different from the time when his traces completely disappeared in my previous life.

‘Rather than the possibility of something happening after he met Angelica in the future, did he depart because it was about time?’

It may only have been that their timings overlapped. But then, “······Yeah, I was going to.” There was a strange light hovering around his eyes that bothered me, “By the way, I’m sure I’ve never seen your face before when I was going along with the human race. If you had your whole body plastered with SS-Class, and you had got the [Door of Hope] as a reward, you’d definitely be on the top of the list in this dimension, but how do I not know? It hasn’t even been a few months since I buried myself in this land.”

Clearly, the pace at which I grew was extremely rapid, and it hadn’t been long since the global media began to deal with me. Most of the cases that made me known would have happened while Adam was wandering in old North Korean soil.

“Hmm,” The eyes looking at me were full of interest, “Let’s check you out.”

Swwash!

The air broke apart, and a Hunter-exclusive terminal popped out. Since this was near Fortress City, it wouldn’t be too hard to catch the signal. Quickly after manipulating the device, he seemed to have found something.

“Oh, here it is! There have been so many articles in the past few days it’s not hard to find about you,” he laughed with his teeth revealed, “That’s exactly the same face behind the mask,”

When he floated the hologram in the air, my face came up in a big frame with the newspaper article. He quickly read the article with his hand on his chin. Then he tilted his head, “It’s weird. This is too weird. You have achieved this much in less than half a year?” He stared at me as if he were observing me, “I’d understand if you were of a species of another world pretending to be human like me. But it’s not that either,” His eyes grew bigger, “Literally, it means that you’re a genius!”

It was hard to keep up with the suddenly changed topic of the conversation. He, who even figured out my name through the Internet, grinned and said, “Hey, you. Seo Jin-Wook!” He must have reached some kind of conclusion by running some calculations in his head, but I couldn’t guess what it was, “You said it yourself, didn’t you? If we need something from each other, we’ll be able to make a deal.”

His comment made me frown my eyebrows. What more was he planning to talk about?

“Listen, it’s not a losing proposition for either of us,” he raised his finger and pointed at me, “Looking at the fact that you’ve been dealing with the system to buy my location information, you’re in a place to actively jump into and intervene in the tutorial quest, aren’t you? I don’t know if the motive was the heroism to save the Earth by weeding off spies or a personal reason that I’m not aware of. Anyway, an enthusiastic attitude is important. If you stand out this much, you’ll soon be ‘chosen’ by the system. You still don’t understand the meaning, do you?”

Actually, I knew it very well…. and even the selection had already been completed. There was only one person on the planet who’d been selected, which was me.

“Looking at your equipment, the gap is too far with other people on Earth. It will be hard to narrow down in the future, too. Also, since you received an SS-Rank, you must have over 30,000 Active Mana, right? That’s enough for you to be in the lead in the starting line.”

He said with shining eyes, “Well, here’s my offer. I have a lot of useful information for you! You just asked me about the Sebrarian Empire, didn’t you? Don’t you want to hear more details about it?”

He was quick-witted, that’s for sure.

“Other than that, my head was full of useful information for beings in the tutorial dimension! Doesn’t it interest you?”

It indeed was tempting. Instead of expressing my interest with a reaction or accepting it right away, I waited for an explanation that would follow.

Adam pulled his lips to smile, “You may think highly of yourself since you’re ahead of everyone else in the world called Earth, right? You may even wonder if you need help from an alien like me. However, it is better not to let your guard down too quickly. Your kind has no idea. The tutorial quest was literally just a tutorial!”

In my previous life, I died before we got to finish the tutorial quest. After completing the tutorial in this life, I only have a general idea of what would happen afterward and what the situation of the Earth was going to be like.

“At the end of the tutorial, all the handicaps imposed by the system that protects the Earth are gone. More gates will be opened, and dungeon boundaries will often collide. To make things even worse, in a situation with more contacts with other beings from other worlds, the entrance fee disappears!”

This meant that even those who were working on the main quest were free to come and go.

“This dimension belongs to the beginning of the tutorial. Even contact with other dimensions in the tutorial doesn’t happen properly. But then, what if there was an advisor who can help you the best in this situation.”

I knew what he’s trying to say…

“Yes, I’m going to be your information consultant!”

If it was about a dimension in the same level of standard, being in the tutorial stage, I knew a lot about them due to my previous life. However, the information on the main quest was entirely different. Only that, listening to his story, two things were bothering me. The more suggestions he made, the more thorough I needed to look behind them.

“Isn’t it against the Union’s treaty? An act of interfering in this dimension and spilling information at will.”

“They don’t particularly forbid it. In fact, only a few voluntarily come here to this kind of novice dimension like me. There’s only so much you can get. The resources and labor that can be mined in this world are meaningless to us.”

Even in the former European powers, where the difference in technology was apparent, underground resources, mined from other continents and slaves, were attractive resources. However, if the difference was too broad, it was natural that the desire to touch disappeared.

“Then why do you volunteer to offer me such?”

“That’s because, of course, you’re special!”

“Because I’m growing fast?”

“It’s not just fast; it’s overwhelming compared to other beings!”

There seemed to be no doubt in his mind that I would not be an alien like him. It was a firm conviction from the way he was speaking.

“Once again, you will definitely be chosen by the system in a few years.”

He began explaining the screening quests. I knew everything about them, but I listened quietly. Special trials were given only to a few Awakened individuals selected by the system. If you overcame them, you would be given an intangible credit of ‘experience points’.’ You could exchange them for items that could directly affect the tutorial quest or change them to other tangible or intangible rewards.

“The only way to get experience points at the tutorial stage is through screening quests!”

He followed by saying that both the tutorial’s experience points and the main quest’s experience points had the same value. Also, after entering the main quest, you needed a lot of experience points for reasons.

“I’ll be an information consultant for you, so you can hand me some of the experience points you’ll get in return!”

“No, wait, that doesn’t make sense,” I pointed out a hidden flaw in his words, “Do you think I’m going to hand them over to you when you’ve stressed the importance of experience points?”

“Listen. I think you’ll monopolize most of the points you can get at the tutorial stage!”

It was an almost accurate prediction, ‘I’m not going to take most of them, but I’m going to take them all. That’s the plan for now.’

He continued, “And there must be a limit to the experience point that one can use in the tutorial stage. There will be a remainder even if you use the points to proceed with the tutorial and things you need personally. This is why the system created the concept of ‘point transfer.’ If you hand over the remaining points to me and get equally valuable information, it’s a win-win deal for both of us.”

While he spoke so enthusiastically, raising his voice, I was quickly searching my memory, comparing the total experience points earned by all hunters in my previous life with the points needed to be consumed to actually proceed with the tutorial. Also, I added up all of the point consumption options that were irrelevant to the tutorial process.

‘Certainly, that makes sense. Some screening quests couldn’t be cleared in the past life, so considering all the rewards.’

Points will remain. When I was seriously considering his proposal, Adam’s expression distorted at the same time.

Swwash.

Our gaze pointed to one place in unison, and our eyes were fixated. Someone was approaching over the horizon.

‘What was that? We’re in the middle of an important conversation!’

The man broke through the dust of the wilderness and led dozens of men behind him.

‘Seo Do-Hyung!’

It was an A-Rank hunter who was wanted in South Korea. The Awakened, who must have proudly been among the runaways who were mostly composed of D and E-Rank.

“Are you the guys? I don’t know where you guys are from, but you messed with the wrong people today!”

After gathering the Awakened in the trusteeship region and turning it into a criminal organization and starting with human trafficking by selling the refugees abroad, they later even distributed drugs into the Fortress City and got caught. And they were pieces of trash that would immediately be executed on the scene after being arrested by the U.N. military that cooperated with the International Hunter Union.

The man, who would die within a year even if left alone, giggled and said, “I’ll kill you both here!”

The moment I heard it, my irritation exploded. Adam also clenched his teeth so tightly that his molars threatened to crumble, “Of course, he doesn’t know any of us.”

I was wearing a slime mask, and Adam disguised his face as he could transform other parts of his body and couldn’t be identified by him. He must have thought we weren’t much of a hunter because he didn’t know our faces.

“Hearing from my men, you two seem to be about B-Rank. Did you think that you can do as you wish if you came all the way here? It’s a mistake. Do you know who I am? I am a man who is supposed to receive S-Rank….”

At that moment, Adam and I yelled in unison.

“Shut up!”

“Fuck off!”

When my sword energy exploded, Adam’s right hand turned into a long whip and rushed towards him.

Shhhhhh!

Boo-boo-boom!

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

“What, what, what!”

After a while, when the dust had settled, at the place where Seo Do-hyung stood, the remains of the man who had turned into a lump of blood and flesh remained.

“Ehh…. Eh…. Aaaaaaaargh!” Only then did the remaining men start to run away in confusion.

“Now, then,” Adam, who recovered his arm that had turned into a red whip, spoke to me with a peaceful expression and a tone that seemed like nothing ever happened.

“That’s all I have to offer. What do you think?”