—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Clatter, clatter-clang!
With my body being roughly shaken without any cushioning, I suddenly came to my senses.
‘Hmm… was I on my way to work? But why is it shaking so much today? What…’
This feeling.
I had experienced it before.
‘This drowsiness-inducing shaking… it’s just like a two-and-a-half-ton truck.’
Startled by the thought that popped up without my knowing, I opened my eyes in surprise.
A military truck.
Just thinking about it made my blood boil with those creepy memories, and my sleepiness fled.
But the next moment.
My pupils shook greatly.
‘Wh-what is this…’
The first thing that caught my eye was the hazy fog spread out in all directions.
And the giant trees visible between the fog.
The place where I had opened my eyes was on top of a strange wagon passing through a forest path.
On the wagon, including myself, four people were sitting.
Everyone had dark expressions on their faces and sat quietly without saying a word.
This was worse than dreaming about re-enlisting.
‘This is driving me crazy. Did I get kidnapped while sleeping?’
Whatever the case, it was a place very far from my studio apartment.
I tried to recall my last memories before opening my eyes.
I had definitely gotten off work and sat in front of my computer…
[Wow. Power of God? This was really fun.]
Lost in old memories, I had taken out and installed a game that had been legendary for quite some time.
That game that had once taken over entire PC rooms.
It was quite an old game, but surprisingly, it installed properly and I had gotten through to the character selection screen.
‘Right. That’s where things started getting weird.’
When the game started and I entered the character selection window, there was definitely a strange new character that hadn’t existed before.
Out of curiosity, I clicked on it, and I remembered it was definitely a character with a passive I’d never seen before.
‘It looked interesting, so I selected it. Right, that’s what I did.’
I remembered being quite excited at the thought of sweeping through the field with a new character in this nostalgic game.
But I hadn’t been able to play after that.
The computer had frozen right there.
I frowned and continued searching through my memories.
‘And then…’
Right.
Something creepy had happened.
Suddenly, the mouse and keyboard stopped responding at all.
I pressed the power button on the main unit to forcibly shut down the computer.
But surprisingly, the new character was still moving on the monitor.
And it seemed like that character jumped out of the monitor and swallowed me…
“……”
My memory went up to that point.
Had I fainted from shock?
I couldn’t remember anything after that.
Even so, to have continued fainting until it got to this point.
Still, I felt a little relieved that I wasn’t completely alone.
‘Right. For now, let me at least ask the person next to me.’
I turned my face toward the man sitting next to me.
The man next to me looked extremely difficult to approach.
Even with tattoos and scars covering his face.
He looked like someone with a nasty temper at first glance.
But there was no other option.
It didn’t seem right to just be dragged along without knowing anything.
“Hey.”
Was I nervous?
Informal speech popped out without my knowing.
Before I could even be flustered, the other person reacted.
“What? Hey? A guy who looks like he hasn’t even been out of the military for long, saying ‘hey’? Are you talking to me right now with that attitude?”
My suspicion was confirmed.
He was definitely a difficult person.
But he seemed to be saying something strange.
Military?
I felt something was odd and managed to respond.
“Yeah.”
“This bastard, right from our first meeting… Ha. No, forget it. What’s the point of fighting between bottom-feeders who are going to die anyway? Consider yourself lucky, kid. I’m already irritated, so let’s just go quietly, okay?”
Regardless, I asked again.
“Where is this place?”
An unfamiliar way of speaking kept sticking to my tongue.
But strangely, it was unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.
As if I had become a different person.
Of course, I couldn’t afford to worry about such trivial things right now.
The difficult person glaring at me up close and my current situation of being kidnapped were more urgent.
“What? You don’t even know where you’ll be stationed? What kind of trash… Ah, no. Just shut up and let’s go. Huh? You’re going to die anyway, so what are you so curious about?”
The fierce-looking man next to me said only that much and then turned his back to sit.
But what did he mean by dying anyway?
It seemed like I had really been kidnapped to a dangerous place.
But even if I asked more, he didn’t seem like he would answer…
Then, the old man sitting across from me spoke up.
“You’re a strange young man. You’re riding on this wagon but don’t know where you’re being assigned?”
My gaze turned to the old man in front.
Unlike the man next to me, the old man had a neat appearance with his hair properly arranged.
Looking at him now, even though it wasn’t fancy, his clothes gave off the feeling of a high-ranking administrator.
“……”
“Hehe. You really don’t know? This wagon’s destination is Juan Fortress. Surely you don’t not know Juan Fortress either.”
My eyes lit up.
That seemed to serve as an answer for the old man.
“So you do know Juan Fortress.”
Of course I knew.
I knew it all too well.
But knowing and being able to accept it were separate matters.
Juan Fortress was none other than…
‘A location that appears in Power of God…’
It was a place that didn’t exist in the world I knew.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Juan Fortress.
Also known as Skull Castle.
The reason Juan Fortress got such a nickname was simple.
It was because all the soldiers assigned there died before long.
I also remembered that one of the developers had pointlessly added the damned setting that the average lifespan of new low-ranking knights assigned to Juan Fortress on the battlefield was just 16 minutes.
‘Juan Fortress… then what? This is the Power of God world right now? Hah…’
And I was actually re-enlisting on top of that.
‘Such a nightmare situation is actually happening.’
They say dreams come true.
No matter how often I dreamed about re-enlisting…
A hollow laugh came out.
It wasn’t just kidnapping but a story on a whole different dimension.
Still, I couldn’t easily deny it because there were too many valid reasons.
Somehow, a slightly different eye level from my sitting height.
Looking carefully, even the shape of my hands was different.
‘With the name Juan Fortress and my changed build… could it be that the new character jumping out wasn’t a dream?… If so… now everything fits together.’
It felt like puzzle pieces were fitting together one by one.
And now, I had become that new character.
‘Right. I remember all the tutorials… but there was no situation like this. The only tutorial I don’t know… is for the new character.’
But there was one strange thing.
The short average lifespan of soldiers assigned to Juan Fortress and such were all stories about the past.
The actual appearance of Juan Fortress that players faced was completely different.
‘Come to think of it, that place was a hunting ground, wasn’t it? Wait… what’s going on here?’
Juan Fortress wasn’t a place where people lived, but a place crawling with undead.
But listening to what others were saying, they seemed to have no idea about such facts.
‘Where did things go wrong? Is this before Juan Fortress was conquered by the undead? Hmm…’
But I didn’t have time to think about it for long.
Once I entered Juan Fortress and was assigned to a unit, there would be no way to escape.
Only fighting until death.
‘Right. I can think about this after I escape.’
I had completed my military service without a single incident and even finished my reserve duty, but this time was different.
This wasn’t even my country.
I started by checking my physical condition.
I tried clenching and opening my fists.
I also tried moving my legs.
There was no immediate pain or discomfort anywhere.
Rather, I felt incredibly energetic.
I wondered if there had ever been a moment in my life when I felt this healthy.
Well, playable characters were fundamentally destined to become heroes.
Naturally, I would be much stronger than my previous self.
Based on how I felt, I probably had about the stamina of the no-equipment version of Batman from movies.
The problem was that I didn’t have that level of martial arts skills.
The hardware had been upgraded, but the software to control my body remained the same as the original me.
However, the biggest obstacle was… there were too many eyes watching.
Unless some commotion happened somewhere to draw attention…
Escaping on my own right now seemed impossible.
Then.
The back of the hand of the old man sitting across from me caught my eye in a strangely striking way.
‘That tattoo… definitely…’
Perhaps sensing my gaze, the old man was also looking at me at some point.
With completely different, extraordinary eyes than before.
“Young man, you seem to know what this is?”
“……”
I kept my mouth shut.
And quietly met the old man’s eyes.
He was right.
I knew what that pattern was.
To me, who maintained silence, the old man spoke again.
Frowning.
“Don’t you intend to answer? Then there’s no choice… I’ll have to hear it by force.”
That was the moment.
A scream was heard from ahead in the fog.
“Aaaaah!”
Everyone’s gaze turned forward at once.
However, nothing could be seen due to the fog.
Only a faint smell of blood seemed to drift on the wind.
The soldier at the driver’s seat, sensing something ominous, drew his sword.
Shing!
He held his sword upright and slowly moved forward.
And not long after.
A head flew over the wagon.
Thud! Roll, roll…
I could recognize it.
It was the soldier who had been sitting at the driver’s seat just moments ago.
The old man clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. It seems we’re a bit busy to talk right now. I’ll have to postpone it for a moment.”
The next moment.
Kuaaaaa!
A strong wind carrying an eerie energy swallowed the wagon.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I had been awake for barely an hour.
In that time, truly unrealistic events had happened one after another.
Inside a game… re-enlisting…
This moment was the same.
In the tremendous strong wind, the entire wagon had floated up into the air and was flying while flipped upside down.
I quickly curled up my body.
If I crashed to the ground flipped upside down like this, I felt like I would die before even entering the unit.
I grabbed onto the wagon with all my might so I wouldn’t be thrown out.
Fortunately, my grip strength was enough to keep me from flying away.
Soon the wagon crashed.
Crash-bang! Clatter-clatter-clatter!
It scraped along the ground.
Sand grains and small stones kept flying toward my face.
“Heup!”
It was difficult even to breathe.
I endured with all my might.
And after a while.
Finally, the wagon came to a stop.
Only then could I properly open my eyes.
The wagon, completely wrecked and overturned, came into view.
Because the wagon was flipped over, I couldn’t see ahead properly.
I was groping around with my hands when I was startled.
I saw the figure of the ill-tempered man with his neck broken and hanging limply.
He seemed to already be dead.
From his embrace.
Thud.
A shabby little dagger fell out.
It was completely worn out and only about a span in size.
Nevertheless, that dagger looked incredibly precious to my eyes.
The dagger was at a precarious distance.
I stretched my hand with all my might, almost dislocating my shoulder.
The dagger reached my hand.
‘If the place ahead really is Juan Fortress…’
All the information I had gathered in that short time was being organized neatly in my head.
Even with a corpse right in front of me, I didn’t lose my composure.
If I lost my grip on reality right now… I would be the one to die.
‘And if the passive of One Who Hates Demons has really become mine…!’
Just before fainting, I recalled this body’s unique skill that had been written under the passive.
‘Space Slash! That power should also be mine!’
Without delay, I gripped the dagger in reverse.
Even though no one had taught me, I already knew how to use Space Slash.
Swish!
I slashed the broken plank of the wagon that was pressing down on my body.
Even though I had cut wood with this worthless dagger, it was cut so lightly that I couldn’t even feel the sensation of cutting.
But there was no time to admire it.
The footsteps of the one who had blown away the wagon and killed the coachman were approaching nearby.
As expected, he broke through the bottom of the wagon and entered.
Crash!
A demon with the appearance of a horned skull thrust that terrible face at me.
“Kahahaha. I knew it would be like this. The disgusting smell of life force is vibrating! You can’t fool my nose. What a revolting smell!”
I looked at him with surprisingly cold eyes that even surprised myself.
I didn’t know why I had such eyes either.
It was just that seeing that filthy demon, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him kindly.
My teeth ground with rage I had never felt in my life.
“The disgusting one is you.”
Along with those coldly spoken short words.
My hand swept horizontally.
Swish…!
“Huh? Ugh…!”
Once again, space was slashed.
Thud.
The creature’s head rolled on the ground.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
