Chapter 1: Retired Man

Life is really hard.

It’s already a chaotic world with all sorts of weird things popping up, like dimensional fusion and dimensional cracks.

In that world, I get drafted into the military, almost end up in jail, get caught up in a dimensional crack and end up working as a mercenary to make money…

‘My life is a mess.’

Damn it.

It’s all because of that damn dimensional fusion.

Since that happened, Earth has suddenly changed from a normal modern everyday life to a modern fantasy…!!

With dimensional fusion, a part of another dimension merges with Earth.

Naturally, everything on top of that falls to Earth.

Dimensional cracks can be seen as an aftereffect of that, where a crack forms in a dimension that has become unstable due to fusion, and something comes over to Earth through that crack.

Whether it’s an object or a living creature…

In other words, Earth has become a waste disposal bin for all dimensions!

Problems that other dimensions can’t solve on their own, people who can’t live in their own dimension, etc.

Those people used all their resources to cut the dimension and throw it here on Earth… and we got hit directly by it.

In short, we were ruined.

Strange regions were created, and monsters that couldn’t communicate with each other invaded without reason and made the world a mess.

There were cases where they could communicate with other races and unite and fight, but there were also many who started a war, saying they wanted to take their land without any questions.

And when that happened…the ones who got screwed were people like me who were living normal lives.

I got drafted into the military and fought like crazy…

Ugh, damn it…

Anyway, the world was that chaotic.

Dimensional fusions kept happening, and there were countless cracks.

There were endless issues about new lands and new species, and plants and animals that I had never heard of suddenly appeared and ruined the ecosystem, and monsters that seemed to deviate far from the standards of plants and animals ran wild and only increased the damage.

A world where no one can guarantee when or what will happen… that’s the world right now!

What am I doing in such a world?

I’m doing nothing.

Let’s say I’m retired.

Well, it’s too early to use the word retirement…

But I’m tired of being a mercenary in the military.

My body is also very damaged.

Well, I’ve earned some money, so I bought some land in a quiet place and built a house.

If I add the pension I’ll receive to the money I have now, I’ll be able to live well without working until I die.

It’ll cost a lot of money to treat my aching body, but that’s something I can receive support for.

But the world isn’t that inhumane, is it?

Fortunately.

“Oh, you’re a slacker.”

I may have earned a lot of money, but what did I earn from it if I earned a lot of money in a short period of time?

Of course, I worked hard because I earned a lot of money.

Damn, thanks to that, I’m able to retire at a young age…

But I can’t help feeling uncomfortable.

I don’t have any mental problems, so I guess I’m lucky.

Actually, if it’s just my body that’s sick, I’m one of the lucky ones among gentlemen like me.

There are many gentlemen whose minds are ruined…

No, I’m not really mentally sound either.

I used to pride myself on being mentally strong, but these days, after I retired, I’ve been having strange dreams…

And they were really long dreams.

Dreams about me becoming someone and living a certain life.

Well, even so, like most dreams, when I wake up, I just naturally forget them.

In the first place, when I wake up, I don’t remember them well, that’s what dreams are.

If this were just a dream of living an ordinary life, it might not have been a problem, but…

That’s not the case.

If you look at the lives in dreams, there’s not a single one who grew old and died normally.

They all just died painfully.

Well, if it’s just a dream, you’d think about it, but even if it’s a dream that I can’t remember well, it’s all painfully forgotten, so I don’t care??

Of course, I haven’t had any problems because of those dreams yet.

It doesn’t feel like I’m going crazy, and I don’t feel any special powers coming out of me…

I live a very long life in my dreams, but that’s just a story in a dream, and when I wake up, it’s just a dream.

And I don’t really remember the content of the dream.

It’s not like anything particularly positive or negative happens.

It’s just… really annoying…

It’s just excessively annoying.

As if something was going to happen…

“Sigh, life really…”

Sigh, what a life where there’s no easy day even after retirement…

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to live a peaceful life like in the old days…

I laid down comfortably, enjoying the softness of the custom-made armchair that I bought with a lot of money because they said it was good for my health, and turned on the TV, squeaking meaninglessly.

Since there wasn’t anything interesting to watch when I switched to movies or animations, I turned on the news to kill time.

Then, unexpectedly, there was something interesting.

“Huh? That…??”

[A small dimensional crack occurred at around 10pm yesterday… but we don’t know what came out of the crack…]

[An expert said that although it was a small crack, it was large enough for a person to pass through, and expressed concern that a dangerous person could have appeared…]

[An expert expressed his opinion that this crack seemed different from the cracks that frequently occurred in the past…]

Well, if we do it right, dozens of these events can occur every day, so it’s not like it’s become an everyday occurrence, but it’s not that special.

Well, how special is it?

All sorts of things come out of dimensional cracks, but they’re not as dangerous as fusion, and since they’ve become almost like everyday life, I’ve become a little less concerned.

And it was a small crack after all.

A real crack that causes an accident isn’t always that small.

That’s why the breaking news that caught my attention was… different.

[… At around 3 AM today, an entire elven tribe that had been illegally occupying the northern border area suddenly met with suspicious death.]

“… An elven tribe was annihilated??”

The North refers to the now-ruined land of North Korea.

It was destroyed, but since it was destroyed by an incredibly powerful, special S-class danger monster that emerged from a dimensional rift, they can’t claim it as territory or have sovereignty over it, so they just refer to it as the Northern Reconstruction Zone.

They say it’s land they’ll reclaim someday…

Since the monster has settled in one city, its influence doesn’t extend to the entire Reconstruction Zone, but there are many different races that take advantage of the gap to form forces.

They could be survivors.

Anyway, one of the famous forces in the Northern Reconstruction Zone is the giant elf tribe that settled in the border area.

They are very vicious guys who are obsessed with superiority and have racial discrimination as their basic principle, but no one could touch them, and the reason is simply because they are so damn strong.

They are a tribe that has a dangerous level of AA, out of the entire tribe’s strength.

They are so strong that it’s hard to touch them.

But if you subdue them, there’s no good reward waiting for you.

Well, if they had been subdued in an organized manner, it might have been possible, but if it had been an incident like that, they wouldn’t have reported the news like that, right?

…..The elves of the tribe were horribly murdered, without exception, by being impaled on cross-shaped skewers that rose from the ground, and since they all died in the same way, it’s highly likely that it was the work of one individual…..]

The news was mosaic-covered, so it wasn’t shown in detail, but it was a bizarre murder method.

…They were impaled on crosses?

First of all, they weren’t ordinary rascals, but it was clear that they had great strength.

The question is whether it is a monster or a creature that can communicate.

Of course, since it happened in the reconstruction zone, not in the realm of humans, it is nearly impossible to figure out the details…

[Based on the traces, it is presumed that the culprit entered the northern reconstruction zone…]

Look, it will be hard to find them if they go in like that.

If they are not careful, they could face a monster with a special S-class danger level.

That kind of risk is not something to be taken lightly.

[…The World Dimensional Phenomena Management Organization has given the creature a special AAA-class danger level, and experts have warned that it could be a creature with a S-class danger level…]

However, that… wouldn’t be the monster that destroyed North Korea?

If it were, the aftereffects could reach here…

“Hmm… It’s fortunate that the house was built far from the reconstruction zone.”

Well, it would be okay if the sparks didn’t spread here.

While a retired man was listening to the news, a human was walking dangerously across the land where the destroyed North Korea was located.

“I must wash away my sins…”

The luxurious nun’s habit she was wearing was stained with blood, her skin was dry, her complexion was pale, and her lips were parched, so even though she was wearing the habit, it was like seeing a ghost.

Even her wide-open, unfocused eyes were constantly streaming bloody tears, making her look completely terrifying.

“Ah, yo, forgive me…”

The incoherent muttering was incredibly creepy.

“Oh my, if only silence remained in the world, would you, would you come back…?”

No sound could be heard from the side of the woman who was walking precariously, staggering.

It had been a long time since every living thing in the area had been skewered and died in agony.

The madwoman, muttering madly, slowly, slowly walked south.