Chapter: 01
The Moment Her Breath Ran Out
At the very moment her breath ran out, Jeyeon had a dream like a flashback of her life.
At seventeen, she had become one of the first Awakeners in this world.
Then the Tower appeared, announcing the extinction of humanity within ten years.
Instead of going to school, Jeyeon headed for the Tower, where she met Gitaewon, who was in the same situation as her, on the first floor.
They cleared one floor, then waited for the next floor to open.
And so, they climbed together for ten years.
In the end, they had saved humanity from the brink of extinction.
‘Though I ended up dying.’
Jeyeon forcibly shook off the bitter feeling.
It wasn’t a meaningless death, nor had she died in vain. Wasn’t this a sufficiently meaningful final moment?
If anything, she was more worried about the people who remained behind.
She hoped they wouldn’t grieve too much.
‘Time will take care of it.’
Any sorrow eventually fades, and the empty space left behind is filled by someone else.
That was how Jeyeon’s own life had gone after losing her parents.
She had passed on the Summoning Book, so there was no chance that the summoner’s lineage would end either.
She had finished everything she needed to do.
‘Yeah. It was a pretty good life.’
Having even put her remaining regrets to rest, Jeyeon peacefully accepted the death that was approaching.
Come. I am ready.
But this was strange.
It hurt far too much.
‘Wasn’t rest supposed to be peaceful?’
A pain that felt as though her spine were being shattered surged through her body.
From far away, the sound of a familiar bell rang out.
Then came the sound of whistles and the distant shouts of several people.
‘……What?’
Her mind was a complete mess, yet the dizzying pain continued.
A metallic, fishy taste lingered in her mouth.
When she ran her tongue over her teeth, she found blood and sand clinging together.
‘Fuck, this really hurts. This isn’t a dream.’
Irritated, she forced her eyelids open.
‘Huh?’
Wasn’t she not supposed to be able to open them?
……She had just died.
Before her blood-covered eyes, a deep-blue window flashed.
Awakened individual confirmed.
‘Wish of the Dead’ has been activated.
‘One Who Returned from Death’ inhabits the body of the ‘Dead.’
‘Seong Jeyeon’ has reawakened.
Emergency recovery ability is activated following awakening.
It was the familiar System window.
‘Returned from death?’
Unable to believe what was happening, Jeyeon quickly looked around.
It appeared to be a space behind a building. A sandy floor, and vivid red stains of blood…….
She was lying in the middle of that pool of blood.
“……Looks like I really did die and come back to life. Huh?”
Without realizing it, Jeyeon brought a hand to her neck.
The voice that came from her own throat sounded unfamiliar.
It was younger than she remembered, with a more delicate tone.
“What is this?”
Jeyeon tilted her head and slowly stood up. The energy of recovery that had swept through her entire body flowed out through the tips of her toes.
“I definitely recovered.”
Her body felt slightly stiff, but there was no problem moving.
Judging by the fact that the world was still intact, it seemed she had also prevented the extinction of humanity.
For some reason, she seemed to have been resurrected.
‘Ah, screw it. I don’t know anymore.’
With her head in complete confusion, Jeyeon blurted out,
“Status Window!”
Name: Lee Sihyeon (Seong Jeyeon)
Age: 19
Level: 1
Class: Summoner
Rank: EX-rank
Stats: Vitality 1 / Strength 1 / Agility 1 / Mana 1 / Resonance 10
You can obtain stat points by increasing your level and distribute them as desired.
“This…… makes no sense.”
Jeyeon blinked repeatedly, completely unable to believe it.
It wasn’t merely the fact that she had died and come back to life, nor was it because she had become a nineteen-year-old girl named Lee Sihyeon.
‘I’m level 1?’
Level referred to the number of floors of the Tower that had been conquered.
Before her death, Jeyeon’s level had been 99.
No, since they had cleared the final floor, technically it should have been 100.
And now it was 1.
“Ah, my head.”
Jeyeon felt so wronged that she wanted to scream and run somewhere.
‘But wait a second.’
Looking again, there were a few strange things listed under her rank and stats.
‘EX-rank? And what the hell is that Resonance?’
Her class, Summoner, was exactly the same as in her previous life, but she had never seen those other two categories before.
Originally, ranks ranged from F to S, and an Awakener’s stats consisted of only four categories: ‘Vitality / Strength / Agility / Mana.’
Jeyeon blew a breath of air across her forehead.
“Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”
There was no way she would find an answer by simply standing there.
For now, Jeyeon decided to leave this deserted place.
Just as she was about to take a step, the tip of her foot kicked something.
“Is this a cellphone?”
When Jeyeon picked up the device and touched it, the screen lit up, perhaps by coincidence.
“Oh?”
What appeared on the screen was a picture of a boy. He looked about the same age as Lee Sihyeon.
‘Is he her boyfriend?’
It gave her goosebumps, but it was an ordinary lock screen, nothing particularly special for someone of that age.
Except for one thing.
August 27, 20XX / 13:18
The date displayed on the screen was a full ten years after the day she had died.
“……No way.”
Even after rubbing her eyes and checking several times, it remained the same.
“No, how does this make any sense?”
Jeyeon grabbed her confused head and looked up at the sky.
Being resurrected in someone else’s body was already impossible enough, but waking up not immediately after her death, but ten years later—what kind of situation was this?
Jeyeon tightly closed her eyes once, then opened them.
‘Ha. What can I do about it now?’
Wasn’t Seong Jeyeon always the quickest of anyone when it came to resignation and adaptation?
“Nothing in life is ever easy.”
Jeyeon quickened her pace.
First, she needed to gather information.
And she needed help.
From someone who would believe this absurd situation that had happened to her.
‘If there’s someone like that…….’
Jeyeon didn’t even need to think before choosing one person.
‘Gitaewon.’
Her twenties had practically been spent alongside Gitaewon.
So if not him, who else could she choose?
<No, no, Jeyeon……!>
The face of Gitaewon, who had desperately cried out, came to mind.
‘He’ll be really shocked too.’
His dead friend had come back to life.
And not only that—she had returned in the body of a high school student.
Jeyeon swallowed down the laugh that was about to escape her without realizing it.
‘I should go find Gitaewon.’
The guild Gitaewon had established alongside her: Giwon.
Knowing his stubborn personality, even if he had become the strongest, he would obviously still be dutifully showing up at the office every day.
Jeyeon searched through the unfamiliar screen until she found the map app.
Fortunately, it wasn’t much different from the one she had used before.
“Are they still in Yeouido?”
But when she typed in ‘Giwon,’ a strangely familiar address appeared.
It was the building in Gangnam where the Seongyeon Guild had been located.
“Why is Giwon in our building?”
Did they move into the same building so they could help each other?
This time, she searched for ‘Seongyeon.’
Conversely, an unfamiliar location appeared.
“Huh? Why did they move here?”
Sillim, of all places?
What on earth had happened during the past ten years?
‘It probably isn’t anything good.’
Jeyeon hurried along while looking at the map.
“Hey, look at her!”
“Is that really blood? You’re not kidding, right?”
Students wearing school uniforms began whispering as they looked at her.
Only then did Jeyeon look around and realize that the place she had walked out from was behind a gymnasium.
‘Oh, this is a school?’
If Lee Sihyeon was nineteen, then she would be a senior in high school.
It was perfectly natural for a student to be at school.
What was strange was the fact that she had died and awakened here.
‘I’ll worry about that later.’
Jeyeon quickened her pace, avoiding the gathering crowd.
Once she left the school, she was quickly surrounded by a bustling downtown area.
To Giwon.
To Gitaewon.
That was all she needed to think about right now.
But then—
“Wow.”
Her steps slowed on their own.
She definitely knew this neighborhood.
From her perspective, it felt like she had walked these streets only a few weeks ago.
And yet, it had become completely different.
A well-maintained plaza, high-rise buildings stretching endlessly on both sides.
There were even electronic billboards on their exteriors, so vividly bright that they hurt her eyes.
‘Korea really became prosperous…….’
No, this wasn’t the time to stand around gawking.
Just as Jeyeon shook her head and forcibly pulled her gaze away—
“Huh?”
For the first time amid all that unfamiliar splendor, she saw a familiar face.
On one of the electronic billboards was Gitaewon.
—Congratulations on Hunter Gitaewon’s safe return.
It was a voice coming from the billboard.
The screen looked as though it was playing an old broadcast recording.
‘Is that from the day we completed the final raid?’
Covered in blood and dust, Gitaewon on the screen looked exactly as Jeyeon remembered him at the very end.
A reporter held out a microphone and asked him a question.
—Hunter Gitaewon, what happened to the Tower? And is Hunter Seong Jeyeon really dead?
Gitaewon slowly drew a breath.
His lips opened heavily.
—The final floor was conquered within the time limit, and humanity has now escaped the threat of extinction. And, yes. Seong Jeyeon did not return.
A brief silence followed.
Sighs of grief and choked breaths spread through the crowd, as if everyone were lamenting, ‘Our hero…….’
Someone asked,
—In the end, did Hunter Seong Jeyeon make the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity?
Jeyeon swallowed a cough.
No one was watching her, but the question sounded so dramatically phrased that she felt embarrassed on the reporter’s behalf.
On the screen, Gitaewon couldn’t answer immediately.
His tightly clenched jaw trembled once.
The sound of him inhaling softly reached the microphone.
‘……Hey, don’t tell me you’re crying there.’
Jeyeon was just about to snicker.
Gitaewon sobbing in front of the entire nation?
Wouldn’t that be something she could tease him about for the rest of his life?
—Hunter Gitaewon?
The reporter cautiously urged him again.
Gitaewon closed his eyes and then opened them.
Eventually, when he raised his head, there wasn’t even the slightest trace of trembling on his face.
—Seong Jeyeon did not make a sacrifice.
Jeyeon blinked.
‘……What?’
