Chapter 22: Tutorial (22)

The moment the arrow struck, I was plunged into darkness.

I was led by a pair of blue lights, unfamiliar yet strangely familiar.

Who are you? I asked the guiding lights.

I am your past and your averted future.

The lights showed me a vision.

The day she was paid a single coin for a successful hunt. After that, Yoo Ha-na became little more than a servant within the party.

A miserable existence. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t appreciated, only ridiculed. Then, one day, she learned the truth.

The reason for the constant belittling and lack of recognition.

It was a deliberate effort by the women in the party, jealous of her, and the men, who saw her as a plaything.

She was angry and frustrated. She wanted to leave. But where could she go? What could she do?

In the end, she compromised, succumbing to the harsh reality and the malice directed at her.

She entered into unwanted relationships. The two men in the party treated her as a toy.

There was no respect. She wept alone after each encounter.

She changed after that. Her confidence vanished.

She became a subservient object, a canary forced to sing for the amusement of others, just to survive.

Then, disaster struck. Three men—the narrow-eyed one, the blond one, and the fat one—ambushed her party.

Her party, despite their preparations, was completely outmatched. The two men were killed, and the women were taken captive.

Yoo Ha-na experienced hell. The three men were demons in human form.

Their twisted desires, fueled by lust and sadism, tore her apart, body and soul.

A stroke of luck allowed her to escape.

Slightly looser restraints than usual, an emaciated body from days of starvation, and her captors passed out drunk.

Remain a s*ave or starve in the streets? Remembering her past suffering, she chose the latter.

Free from hell, she embraced vengeance. She scrounged for survival in the back alleys, fighting for every scrap of food.

She became stronger, fueled by the inferno she carried within her, constantly reliving the horrors, sharpening her blade of revenge.

One day, she would have her revenge. That single thought drove her relentless pursuit of power.

But then, she received devastating news. Margaret, the ruler of Curse Hill, had launched a war against the criminal underworld, executing the three leaders of Cerberus.

The world celebrated the downfall of these villains, but she couldn’t. Her target was gone.

She had lived for revenge, and now, there was nothing left to avenge. She felt empty.

She wandered the streets, seeking something to fill the void in her heart. And then, she met a man.

He wasn’t special. But his eyes gleamed with a familiar purpose.

The same predatory gleam she’d seen in the eyes of the men who’d shattered her confidence, the same gleam she’d seen in the eyes of the demons who’d tormented her.

Seeing his desire, she realized.

Because of people like you, I became unhappy. Because of people like you, I abandoned myself and paid the price.

The embers of hell rekindled in her heart.

She found herself standing over a mangled corpse. Yoo Ha-na was no more.

The Revenant.

That was the name she was known by until she reached the 99th floor of the Tower of Proof.

Her heart consumed by an eternal thirst for vengeance.

“Men are all trash,” the blue light said to me. Hearing these words from a figure that looked exactly like me was unsettling.

“They only want your body, your money, your submission. They mock your dignity and spit on your pride.”

She introduced herself as my past and my averted future.

So, in a way, she was another version of me.

“The world is full of malice. And I experienced it firsthand. From the first two men I met, to the demons who tormented me, to the last man I encountered, they were all the same.”

The life she showed me was tragic and terrifying.

An averted future. That meant it could still happen to me.

Would I suffer the same fate? The thought filled me with dread.

“I am your past and your averted future. An averted future can always return. But I’ve experienced enough tragedy. I will protect you from it.”

The blue flame offered me its hand. The Revenant in my memories was powerful.

She abandoned the name Yoo Ha-na and became known as the Revenant, a figure no one dared to trifle with.

If I take this hand… will I become like her?

My hand reached out.

But I stopped. A desperate voice echoed from the depths of my consciousness.

– Yoo Ha-na, I want you to be happy! Because that’s how you’ll find confidence!

– I want you to be confident! Because that’s how you’ll strive to become a better person!

– I want you to become a better person! Because that’s what will give me strength!

The voice of the man I’d come to care for. He was calling out to me, pleading with me. He wanted me to be happy, confident, and strong.

“Don’t tell me you actually believe those lies? They’re just empty words! Trust me. I will protect you, even if it means killing everyone!”

The blue flame protested my hesitation. She insisted it was all a lie, meaningless sweet talk.

But who would get their hand impaled for a lie? Pain was the most honest thing, the antithesis of deception.

“Please… please trust me. Take my hand! You don’t have to suffer anymore!”

She was pleading now, her voice choked with tears. But instead of taking her hand, I embraced her.

It felt strange, hugging myself, but it felt right.

Thank you for offering to protect me. But if you truly care about me, please let me handle this.

“Why…? Why are you choosing the hard path…? You’ll get hurt. You’ll suffer so much you’ll want to die!”

I know. It will be difficult. But I can’t move forward if I’m always afraid.

I will find happiness, more than you ever could.

I will become confident and live a life free from loneliness.

I will meet good people.

I will find someone I truly love, and who loves me in return.

“Ah… Ah…”

So, let’s not be afraid anymore. Let’s face our demons head-on.

It’s time to move forward. For me, and for you.

I embraced my own revenge. But there was no hatred, no malice.

The vengeful spirit within me found peace, the blue flame settling into a gentle slumber.

[You have successfully achieved revenge.]

[You did not lose yourself in vengeance.]

[Your revenge is now guided by calm reason and unwavering justice.]

“It’s almost over.”

Darkness had fallen.

The fight had been going on for a while. The silence in the distance suggested that Go Hyun-joon and Yoo Ha-na’s battle had ended.

“Ugh… Ah…”

And my own fight was nearing its conclusion. Shin Yu-geon, the Cult Fanatic, had two swords embedded in his body.

One was his ritual dagger, the other was Crota, the Flesh-Eating Sword.

In my past life, Yang Yong-hyun, the Dark Priest, had been the most dangerous of the Cerberus trio.

He could manipulate minds, skilled in hypnosis, control, and the spread of despair and fear.

He’d driven countless people to madness, including high-ranking climbers.

But Shin Yu-geon had killed the most.

His grotesque regenerative abilities, fueled by his twisted deity, had made him a terrifying force in Margaret’s war against crime. Countless people had died, consumed by his ever-growing mass of flesh.

“Ugh… Aaaah…”

Crota was Shin Yu-geon’s hard counter.

In my past life, the sword had belonged to a member of Cerberus, leaving the opposing alliance helpless. But not this time.

Shin Yu-geon’s ritual dagger, embedded in his abdomen, caused his flesh to proliferate uncontrollably. But Crota greedily devoured the flesh as fast as it grew.

In fact, Crota consumed it faster than it could regenerate. Shin Yu-geon, once morbidly obese, withered away.

“Ah… Ugh… Help… Help me…”

He was reduced to skin and bones. I approached him, grabbed his head, and twisted.

Crack. His neck snapped, and the future crime lord crumpled to the ground.

It felt anticlimactic. The nightmare of my past life, defeated so easily.

“It’s over.”

I retrieved Crota and the ritual dagger from his desiccated corpse.

Snap. Crota, its teeth bared, radiated a menacing aura. The ritual dagger, however, was cracked and crumbling, its power spent. It shattered into countless fragments.

“No spoils of war…”

I’d hoped to turn the dagger into a makeshift bomb, but it was gone.

“But I still have the Revenant.”

I wasn’t dwelling on it. My goal was to awaken the Revenant.

A vengeful spirit, fueled by infinite rage, would be a valuable asset in my climb.

Whether I could control her was another matter. But I had a contingency plan.

The Golden Circlet, another hidden piece from the second floor.

A mythical item from the Journey to the West, created by the Buddha to control the unruly Monkey King.

I didn’t know if it was the genuine article or a replica. But I knew it would serve as the Revenant’s leash.

It would control her rage. Unable to bear the pain, she would submit.

And then, I would have my sharpest blade.

I turned towards where she should have been. I felt a flicker of unease, but I dismissed it.

Go Hyun-joon and Yang Yong-hyun were as good as dead the moment Yoo Ha-na became the Revenant. Her vengeance, now directed at all men, was unavoidable.

They would fight, and they would destroy each other.

The plan was perfect. There were no variables.

Or so I thought…

“Oh, Han-seong, you’re here?”

“You’re late. You’re doing the dishes tonight.”

There was no dead Go Hyun-joon, no awakened Revenant.

Go Hyun-joon was alive, his hands bandaged. And Yoo Ha-na was… normal.

Something had gone horribly wrong. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut before the fight even started. I felt dizzy and nauseous.

Why? Why do you always do this? Why do you always get ahead of me?

She was supposed to be mine. To look only at me, to obey me, to exist solely for me.

But why… with those bloodstained hands… are you casually… fixing his hair, something I’ve never even touched?

I felt suffocated. The feeling intensified as Go Hyun-joon gently brushed her hair, and Yoo Ha-na looked at him with affection.

This was happening again.

That gnawing frustration. I had monopolized the hidden pieces for her, I’d killed future crime lords to ensure her safety.

Yoo Ha-na, I’d done so much for her. Why wasn’t she rewarding me?

Why was she looking at another man? That man couldn’t do anything for her!

“Oppa, now that Han-seong’s here, let’s go back.”

“Let’s. Han-seong, are you ready? Let’s go eat dinner.”

They walked ahead of me. They weren’t holding hands or anything, but their close proximity felt like a noose tightening around my neck.

I craved release, some kind of catharsis.

But I was denied even a drop of water.