To Hell With Being a Hero!

Chi-Woo’s eyes burst open. “Urgh!” Unable to hold it in any longer, he vomited. An acrid smell swept by. Besides smoke, the smell of rotten flesh and fishy blood assaulted his nose.

“Bleurgh! Bleeeck!” Chi-Woo threw up for a while and barely managed to open his eyes.

[Transportation to the Future (2/3) Completed.]

[Roll the die if you want to return to the present.]

‘Future?’ Chi-Woo blinked hard and slowly raised his head. His face became pale when his eyes soon beheld a scene he couldn’t believe at all. It was a giant pile of ashes—there was no other way to describe it. The world was dark, the sky was crowded with stormy clouds, and the ground was charred. As if all the colors of the world had mixed together and become black, everything was in one color. Chi-Woo couldn’t understand where he was at first. There was basically nothing remaining that could hint at his location. If he hadn’t intently studied a part of the gate wall that had been crushed into pieces, he wouldn’t have realized that he was standing in the middle of Shalyh.

“What…” His face twitched, and his voice shook. “What…what happened…” Chi-Woo couldn’t finish his thoughts as he shook his head. It was such a shocking sight. Shalyh was destroyed beyond recognition, and the corpses sprawling on piles of ashes all over the place showcased what had happened here—especially since most of the corpses were ones of humans and members of the Cassiubia League. Thus, Chi-Woo realized he had traveled through time, and that in the near future, there would be a mass massacre in the holy city Shalyh; the city would be completely destroyed.

‘Why?’ His cast of the die succeeded. He even got the number 7; something positive should’ve happened since that was always the case. But the World’s Milestone didn’t do that this time. It simply transported Chi-Woo to the future and showed him this scene. What was he supposed to do now? Chi-Woo couldn’t figure out the die’s intention at all. As he pondered about this matter, Chi-Woo heard a weak groan carried by the wind again. His synesthesia caught a very faint presence, and Chi-Woo looked back and walked toward the noise, looking slightly dazed. When he found the presence, he couldn’t help but look stunned again.

“Ru—!” There was a figure whose face barely peeked out from the pile of ashes, and she looked extremely pained.

“Ms. Ru Hiana!” Chi-Woo quickly approached her and dropped to one knee. “Ms. Ru Hiana! Are you all right? Open your eyes! Please!” Did his desperate cries reach her? After letting out only soft groans, Ru Hiana’s eyes pressed harder. Then she opened her eyes and gasped when she saw Chi-Woo.

“Senior…?” Her inquisitive call was soon followed by a soft, disbelieving chuckle. “I must be imagining things…did you come to get me…?”

“No, it’s not your imagination. It’s me,” Chi-Woo said, but it appeared that Ru Hiana couldn’t hear him. Chi-Woo lifted the pile of ashes first to save Ru Hiana, but weakly let go again.

“…”

Ru Hiana’s body was in a horrifyingly gruesome state. Both her arms were missing, half her body and her two legs were ripped away or split, and organs were spilling out of her insides. It was incredible how she was still breathing. Chi-Woo had wondered why the ground felt so sticky and wet, but now he saw that all the red marks were blood.

“Ms. Ru Hiana…”

“I’m…sorry…” Ru Hiana murmured. “I’m…really sorry…” As if she was making her last confession before dying, she said to Chi-Woo. Chi-Woo shook his head while indescribable emotions warred in him.

“What are you sorry about… Ms. Ru Hiana, what in the world happened to you…?”

“As Ru Amuh said…if we had thought hard at that time…we would’ve been able to predict…” Even in this sad and chaotic time, Ru Hiana’s whispery voice continued.

“We could’ve…known what?”

“The eighth recruits…during the Vepar expedition…” Ru Hiana said between deep breaths. “At the least…if we had listened to…your words…”

“Ms. Ru Hiana?”

“If only…I…had been with Ru Amuh and…you…”

“Ms. Ru Hiana. Ms. Ru Hiana!”

“Then…Ru Amuh...wouldn’t have become…like that…because of me…you too…” As she talked, foam mixed with blood flowed out of her mouth. Ru Hiana’s pupils shook maddeningly.

“If you…you were there…” Her voice became quieter. “I’m…really…so…rry…” Then her voice cut off even as her eyes remained open. Her lifeless eyes gazed futilely at the sky, and Ru Hiana stopped breathing. She was dead.

“Ru…” Chi-Woo stopped talking and hung his head. His shoulders also slouched heavily. He needed to think logically, but this was too big and shocking for him to accept at once. Chi-Woo tried hard to gather his senses when he suddenly felt an ominous feeling. The bleak and desolate atmosphere became more frightening, and a foreboding feeling crawled up his spine and sent goosebumps down his skin.

Wooooooo—

A ringing that sounded as if it had crawled out of a very deep cave flowed out, and that was soon followed by whisperings, too fast for him to understand what they were saying. Chi-Woo concentrated more on his eyes. Though he couldn’t understand, he had heard something like this before; it was the voices of the dead. His synesthesia didn’t catch anything, and Chi-Woo looked around him. He didn’t see anything even though he could hear them clearly. The voices were getting closer to where he was and seemed like they would soon reach him.

“!”

All his extrasensory senses gave him frantic alarms, and Chi-Woo didn’t hesitate any longer to throw his die. Shining light enveloped him, and simultaneously, something sharp fiercely scratched across where he had been.

***

Chi-Woo saw the ceiling when he opened his eyes and felt his back pressed against a cold surface. Then he heard his brother calling out his name.

“Choi Chi-Woo!”

Chi-Woo glanced at his brother’s palms and felt a stinging pain rise from his cheeks. Chi-Woo gasped out, “Shalyh…holy city, Shalyh…” Chi-Woo tried to speak, but his breathing was too harsh and needed time to settle.

“What are you saying? Shalyh? Why did you suddenly collapse—?”

Chi-Woo stretched out his hand and shared the notification he’d received. Messages popped into the air, and Chi-Hyun quickly read and spoke in a low voice.

“So, you came back from the future.”

Chi-Woo nodded without answering.

“You must have seen Shalyh from the future.”

“Yes, Chi-Hyun—”

“Calm down first. Collect your breaths.” Chi-Hyun supported Chi-Woo from behind and helped him get up before handing him a cup of water. Chi-Woo drank and calmed down a bit, looking around weakly. He checked many times that he was in his brother’s office. He relaxed enough to open his mouth.

“Holy city, Shalyh fell.”

“…”

“Everyone died. Everyone. The city was devastated to the point that I couldn’t see a single building.”

Chi-Hyun frowned. He glanced at the messages in the air and fell into deep thought. “Transportation to the future… Three chances… Why?” Chi-Hyun muttered to himself.

“It’s strange…” Chi-Woo said in a slightly hoarse voice and scowled. “I got the number 7. Why is the result like that when I got 7…” Chi-Woo murmured like he couldn’t wrap his mind around what happened.

“No,” Chi-Hyun responded. “The World’s Milestone is giving you opportunities to change a definite future.”

“Opportunities?”

“Yes. It’s giving you three opportunities to change what is bound to happen.” Chi-Hyun continued as his brother looked confused. “We have to make countless choices while living, and our future changes in infinite ways according to the choices we make. New paths form every moment, and the number of possible paths created is immeasurable.”

Chi-Hyun continued, “But not every choice and result is like that.” There were futures that one couldn’t change no matter what decision one made. For example, humans needed to breathe to live, and if they chose to withhold from breathing, they would certainly die. Such futures were called ‘definite futures’.

“In this current point, I think we can assume that the ruin of the holy city, Shalyh is a definite future.” Changing a definite future was an extremely difficult task. It was almost as impossible as telling a human to live a long life without breathing. However, there were always exceptions; in this case, a change happened before the future came—the World’s Milestone.

“It’s as you said. Because you got not 5 or even 6, but 7, the impossible became a possibility. And you are given three opportunities.” Chi-Woo basically gained power on par with allowing a human to live without breathing. Yes. There wasn’t an error with the World’s Milestone. Against incredibly low odds, the World’s Milestone had opened up a new path for Chi-Woo. Chi-Woo now understood this, but then asked in wonder.

“But why three times?”

“It probably means that this future isn’t something you can change with just one opportunity. Instead, three times might not even be enough.”

“I still have two opportunities left…” Chi-Woo trailed off because of how serious his brother looked. Chi-Hyun sat back down at his desk again after thinking for a while. He stretched out a piece of paper and took a quill.

“This is the point we threw the die,” Chi-Hun then said and drew the number 7 at the farthest left corner. “And this Is the point where Shalyh falls.” He drew an X on the farthest right.

“And this is the point when you returned to the present.” He drew a small circle between 7 and X, closer to the left side.

7━o━━━━━━━━X

He smacked his lips and said, “The conditions don’t seem that great….”

“Conditions? What conditions?’

Chi-Hyun explained, “The moment you threw the die, you collapsed to the ground. Though you were breathing, it appeared you’d lost consciousness, and you were in the future then.” Chi-Hyun tapped the ‘X’ mark with his quill when talking about the future and lifted his quill again. “And when you returned, you didn’t return to the point you threw the die, but at this point.” Chi-Hyun moved the pen past the number ‘7’ and placed it on the small circle. “In other words, time passed while you were in the future.”

If Chi-Woo had stayed one day in the future, he would’ve woken up one day later in the present; Two days later if he had stayed two days in the future.

“In other words, the World’s Milestone doesn’t prevent the passage of time when you come back from the future.”

Chi-Woo finally realized what his brother was saying then. He needed to change the future before the ‘o’ reached ‘X’. But the important part was that this wasn’t a game, but reality. Once he made a mistake or made the wrong decision, he wouldn’t be able to turn things around.

“Chi-Woo.” Chi-Hyun’s voice became lower. “Your role from now on is very important.”

“…”

“Before the small circle reaches the X, we need to change the definite future. We need to find out what happened that this great holy city became devastated. And after finding out the causes of its fall, we need to erase them.”

Chi-Woo clenched his fist tightly. He could still clearly picture the city in complete ruins and Ru Hiana dying in a horrifying state while continuing to apologize for unknown reasons.

“I need information,” Chi-Hyun said firmly. “Tell me everything you saw in the future. It’s fine even if it’s the most menial thing. Don’t leave anything out.”

Chi-Woo gulped and began, “Okay.” He slowly recounted what had happened after he opened his eyes. “…But then, Ms. Ru Hiana suddenly said that they would’ve known if they had thought hard about what Ru Amuh said during—I think she said during the Vepar expedition with the eighth recruits, but I had no idea what she was talking about.”

Chi-Hyun rested his chin on top of his hands and nodded. He was telling Chi-Woo he understood and wanted him to continue. Chi-Woo explained in great detail everything he had felt and seen, and Chi-Hyun focused intently. He raised his quill and began to jot down something.

“Ah, that’s right. There was—”

Chi-Hyun’s eyebrows wiggled suddenly then. “Wait.” Having been listening quietly until now, he raised his hand and spoke while his slightly narrowed eyes glinted, “Repeat what you just said to me again.”