* * *

I was an F-rank Awakener.

F-rank abilities were barely stronger than a regular person’s. Most F-ranks simply registered their names on the Awakener list and gave up their Hunter licenses, choosing to live as normal people. I was no exception.

At least, until the world fell apart.

When dungeons and monsters began to appear incessantly, handling them became nearly impossible. Countless Hunters either lost their powers or went berserk, disappearing from society.

Scenes of monsters devouring humans became a common sight, and there weren’t enough people left to fight them. Even the smallest amount of help was desperately needed. Naturally, I ended up becoming a Hunter.

I could have run away, but instead, I stood in front of people. Not out of some grand sense of duty—I simply believed it was natural to do what I could.

That’s when I realized I had more talent as a Hunter than I’d expected. Though, of course, I eventually hit the unyielding wall of my rank.

As I lay dying, I thought: if only I were an S-rank Hunter, things wouldn’t have ended so easily.

And then I returned to the past.

I had been 26 when I died, but when I opened my eyes, I was 23 again. On top of that, my rank had inexplicably risen to S. It was as if someone had granted my final wish.

✧✧✧

Name: Baek Gunho
Rank: S
Traits: Regression (EX), Master of Weapons (S), Destroyer of Fate (A), Stillness (A), Avatar of Tenacity (B), Unshakable Will (B)
Skills: Final Strike (S), High-Speed Movement (A), Intervention (A), Physical Enhancement (A)

[Regression (EX): Even upon death, you will regress. Starting from the second regression, you will return to a time one year before the last point of death. This trait vanishes upon fulfilling your purpose.]

This so-called “purpose” the system spoke of?

It was obvious: prevent the world’s destruction.

It was as if the system itself had assigned me this mission.

I willingly accepted it, thinking the system must have given me these traits because I was capable.

Just like before, I resolved to do my best.

As a Hunter, I rose to prominence.

At the same time, I prepared for the future I knew was coming.

In doing so, I uncovered something sinister: someone was distributing drugs into the market.

Hunters addicted to these drugs either lost their powers or went berserk.

While the situation was better than the future I knew, it was still far from ideal.

Monsters flooded the world again, and despite being an S-rank, I met a futile end.

Then, I regressed for a second time.

✧✧✧

The third cycle began.

This time, I started a year earlier, at the age of 22.

Fortunately, I reawakened as an S-rank without having to wait until 23.

This time, I began investigating the organization distributing the drugs.

The perpetrators weren’t just a handful.

Cultists from the Baekmyeon Sect, corrupt officials from the Hunter Bureau—every kind of scum imaginable was involved in the trade.

I traced the chain of transactions, one by one, until I finally discovered the mastermind behind it all: Seo Heewon, the guild master of the Black Sea Guild.

I failed to kill him in the third cycle.

Until the world’s end, I became obsessed with chasing his trail.

In the fourth cycle, Seo Heewon isolated himself aboard a massive ship, far from land.

I tracked him down and barely managed to kill him.

But then—

[Trait “Villainous Potential (EX)” has been inherited. ]

[Villainous Potential (EX): Destined to become the villain who will destroy this world. Attracted to all things evil. All stats double when committing acts of evil.
However, resisting this fate will result in misfortune designed to drag you back into the original flow. ]

The moment I killed Seo Heewon, his trait transferred to me.

If it had been just that, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But—

[Error detected! ]

[Error detected! ]

[Error detected! ]

Hundreds of crimson warnings flooded my vision. And then—
[This trait does not have a compatible owner.]

[The trait is going berserk.]

[The trait has partially transferred Seo Heewon’s skills to you.]

[This trait does not have a compatible owner.]

[The trait is going berserk.]

The notifications poured in as I lost consciousness.

When I came to, people were dying by my hands.

Humanity was on the verge of extinction, and only then did I die as well.

In the fifth cycle, I formed plans.

But in the end, I failed, defeated once again by Seo Heewon.

In the sixth cycle, I had another chance to kill him.

I gathered trustworthy allies, explained the situation to them, and ensured they were the ones to finish off Seo Heewon.

The result… was catastrophic.

The first to lose control was Lee Jooyun, who killed Seo Heewon.

When Jung Eunji was forced to kill Lee Jooyun, she spiraled into madness.

Then it was Lee Shinhae’s turn…

It was only after everyone who stood with me had died that I realized: there could never be a true candidate.

This was something unique to Seo Heewon alone—a trait suited perfectly for a monster that wasn’t human, endlessly killing its own kind.

After the disaster of the sixth regression, I started anew in the seventh.

This time, I resolved to abandon it from the start.

At eighteen, when I awakened as an S-rank, I joined the Black Sea Guild, doing everything I could to catch Seo Heewon’s attention.

My efforts weren’t in vain.

Thankfully, I managed to get close to Seo Heewon.

The monster was more ordinary than I’d imagined.

When not wreaking havoc, it would bury itself in the sofa, basking in sunlight, and play with cats, birds, or snakes—creatures that, despite appearances, it treated with surprising affection.

But I wasn’t fooled. In a past regression, I had seen Seo Heewon kill them without hesitation.

I observed Seo Heewon while also digging into his past.

His biological mother had died long ago.

His father, who sold him to the Black Sea Guild, had been killed by monsters.

What stood out was that Seo Heewon had once been adopted by Seo Hoon.

It seemed Seo Hoon had taken a liking to him during a rescue mission.

Although Seo Hoon was a hunter from a previous generation, I knew of him well—he was a figure impossible to exclude from any discussion of Korea’s hunter history.

Seo Hoon probably had no idea that his adopted son was a monster.

Then again, if anyone could have reformed Seo Heewon, it might have been someone like Seo Hoon… but that was wishful thinking.

At least, it felt like it at the time.

I lost to Seo Heewon at times, but there were moments when I triumphed.

Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him, not after experiencing what would happen if I did.

If no one else can kill him… what if he took his own life?

I needed a way to stop Seo Heewon.

I captured him and inflicted pain—both physical and mental—until it was unbearable, pushing him to the brink of wanting death.

But even under such torment, Seo Heewon remained unyielding.

“Do you plan to endure this for the rest of your life?”

“I’m not sure…”

Seo Heewon muttered bleakly, utterly drained.

“It must be agonizing.”

“I’m used to agony.”

“You said you spent a long time as a test subject.”

“…”

“Is that why you’ve done these terrible things? Because of the pain you endured?”

Seo Heewon didn’t answer.

Instead, he smiled—a smile so beautiful that, for a moment, I wavered despite knowing he was a monster.

Then again, truly wicked beings often possessed dangerously alluring appearances.

I thought I had completely subdued Seo Heewon, but one night, he suddenly died when his heart stopped.

And the instant he died, countless monsters hiding in his shadow emerged all at once.

We managed to prevent the spread of their influence, unlike in the first regression, and hunters were able to respond.

But calling it a perfect success would have been a stretch.

The casualties were fewer this time.

Still, I inevitably regressed again.

It seemed this wasn’t enough to qualify as a success.

No method seemed capable of fully stopping Seo Heewon.

When I stopped him first, the Black Sea Guild ran amok.

If I stopped the Black Sea Guild, Seo Heewon caused chaos elsewhere.

Once, I managed to extract Seo Heewon before he turned into a monster.

The young Seo Heewon, who had not yet become the person I knew, looked at me with a pale, frightened face.

“You did something pointless.”

“What’s so pointless about it?”

“I’ll die anyway.”

“You could live.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Why do you only think that way?”

“Because my life is hell.”

Despite such words, Seo Heewon was surprisingly obedient, so different from the person I knew.

I thought, maybe, just maybe, things could turn out differently this time.

But not long after, Seo Heewon died when his head exploded.

The Black Sea Guild had planted a bomb inside him, and though it should’ve been a dud, it detonated.

Seo Heewon’s trait transferred to the researcher who had killed him.

And, as expected, the researcher lost control, plunging everything into chaos once again.

When I revealed the truth, a companion once asked if I ever felt like giving up after repeating the same failures.

I’d never thought about giving up.

Of course, claiming it wasn’t hard would’ve been a lie.

But this was something I could do, something I had to do.

I wasn’t driven by despair but by an unwavering desire to succeed someday.

Yet, I began to realize the limits of my approach.

It seemed impossible to stop Seo Heewon using conventional methods.

Seeing the unexpectedly mild Seo Heewon from his days as a test subject, I decided to focus on his past.

If I continued regressing, I would eventually encounter a moment when Seo Heewon briefly escaped the Black Sea Guild’s grasp during his childhood.

If I could aim for the moment before Seo Hoon placed the bomb in his head and Seo Hoon was still alive…

Ending things sooner would have been ideal. So I kept trying.

I maxed out most of my skills to S-rank and became unmatched in combat.

And then, finally, in the 13th regression, I met Seo Heewon at the age of twelve.

* * *