Chapter 0 : Prologue

I had a sweet dream.

It was a dream of the days when I lived on Earth as a complete human.

A dream of the days when I chatted with my younger sister in middle school and ate the kimchi stew my mother made.

A dream of the happy days when I went to school, played pranks with my friends, and got scolded by my teacher.

It had been a long time since he, no longer human, had such a dream.

And it was proof that the day the dream would become reality was approaching.

His lips, curled into a crescent moon with joy, moved on their own.

“…Lihi. Herirru.”

A faint will mixed in the incomplete pronunciation.

It was a habit he had developed when he wasn’t human.

It was a distorted, suppressed, and utterly inadequate pronunciation compared to when he wasn’t human, but he nodded in satisfaction.

The ‘lack of will’ in his speech was also proof that he had returned to being human.

He then began to examine his newly assigned body.

Two kinds of tentacles attached to his torso. Yes, they were called arms and legs.

The organ for thinking and reasoning, the core of a human. It was called a head.

Finally, he placed his hand on his chest.

A thump-thump, the beating of his racing heart spread throughout his body through his hand.

Then, an indescribable warmth surged from his chest, beginning to moisten his eyes.

‘This is a strange feeling.’ Thinking so, he ignored the dripping tears and began to move his body.

It was awkward to move his body, as it had been years since he had a human one.

The adaptation of his body, akin to rehabilitation training, continued for several minutes.

A short while later, he began to look around, awkwardly rolling his eyes.

The gaze of a human was quite different from that of a non-human, so it felt like it took the longest to adjust to his vision.

Having succeeded in focusing, he looked at the altar in front of him.

In this world, it was an altar made from what was worshipped as a foreign god.

To him, it had been nothing but a blasphemous, wicked monster, but now it meant nothing.

Because it had now been processed by his main body and become a material for piercing a dimensional hole.

Focusing all his nerves on his flesh, he snapped his fingers.

It was one of the ‘human-like habits’ he had always done with his tentacles, so he succeeded after a couple of tries.

*Snap!*

As the clear sound rang out, a rainbow-colored crystal sprouted from the floor beside the altar, beginning to reflect its surroundings like a mirror.

Standing in front of the mirror, he repeated a single word.

Seo-hyun, Seo-hyun, Seo-hyun, his name when he was human.

The word given to him by his family, his mother and deceased father.

The totality of his self, called by his friends, his younger sister.

It was the word that had been his sole support when everything human about him was wearing away, allowing him to hold onto the last of his humanity.

After repeating this action for a long time, Seo-hyun finally lowered his head.

‘I thought I would remember my original body when I put on a human one.’

Seo-hyun sighed deeply and shook his head.

His current body was not what he used to look like.

Having lost his human body as he ascended to become a foreign god to find a way back, he could no longer remember his original form.

His current body was merely a copy of the one who shone the brightest in this world.

Deep sapphire blue eyes that never lost their will to live, even while being sacrificed by fanatics.

Young silver hair that blasphemous, wicked monsters would go crazy for.

Even from a higher dimensional perspective, she seemed like a jewel of a human.

If Seo-hyun hadn’t taken pity on her and saved her, she would have been crushed and torn apart countless times somewhere in the universe, between some monstrous tentacles with some outlandish taste.

‘If I can’t recall my original body, it can’t be helped.’

‘In the end, the fact that I’m going back is more important.’

Thinking so, Seo-hyun rubbed his cheek.

The only reason Seo-hyun had become a member of the blasphemous beings he so abhorred was to gain the knowledge to return.

Their knowledge was incredibly vile, but Seo-hyun was eventually able to find a suitable means of dimensional travel.

The foundation for opening the door was an altar made of blasphemous materials.

The material for opening the door was the ‘impurity’ as a foreign god.

The price for crossing the door was the fixing of the body and the weathering of the body by dimensional particles.

All preparations were complete.

Now all that remained was to go back and enjoy his mother’s kimchi stew and Coke.

Coke, Coke. Coca, Cola.

Saliva filled Seo-hyun’s mouth as he rolled the word around.

That name, strangely, remained in his mind even as he forgot countless things, constantly tormenting him.

Feeling a burning thirst, Seo-hyun stepped onto the altar.

[Hargh!!! D**n it!!]

The large eyeball embedded in the center of the altar opened and began to glow.

Despite having become part of the altar, it was still incredibly noisy.

Looking at it with human emotions, it was so grotesque that Seo-hyun laughed.

It didn’t seem necessary to embed that in the design, but his ‘main body’ seemed to have had quite a unique sensibility.

Standing on the altar, Seo-hyun took out his main body.

Following his will, his arm up to his shoulder was covered, and a huge tentacle filled the space.

He placed the lovingly wriggling tentacle on the altar and began to pay the price.

[Gwarghhhk.]

A dying sound was heard, and the glowing eye of the foreign god was now nothing but white.

He continued to hand over what was his, regardless of what happened to it.

The unholy aura of the foreign god.

Knowledge that shouldn’t exist on Earth.

Things that strain the world by their mere existence.

Things that were considered to corrupt ‘humanity’.

Having paid the full price, Seo-hyun felt a kind of euphoria.

What an unfair trade this was. It was all gain for him.

As the transaction was completed, the feeling of returning to being human grew stronger, leading him to reflect on himself.

At last, the space above the altar cracked open.

After many years, the door finally opened again.

Seo-hyun wriggled his tentacle and put his main body inside.

His main body existed on a higher plane anyway, so it would continue to exist even if it crossed over.

He gazed at the door with slightly moist eyes.

Shining dimensional particles twinkled beautifully beyond the gap, and beyond that, a scene resembling Earth shimmered.

He took a deep breath.

Because once he crossed, his body would be fixed.

He checked his body’s humanity once more.

The body of a girl who looked about twelve years old.

Silky silver hair, loved by all.

Blue eyes sparkling with humanity, and a cute face.

Wouldn’t anyone see this as ‘human’?

Thinking so, he finally crossed the dimension.

Finally, he had returned home.

It had been a long hell, like a dream.