Record of a Thousand Lives

Kang Yoon-Soo frowned at theassailant’s words.He was certain that hehadnot mentioned his regression to anyone in this life.‘It doesn’t feel like another hallucination…’Hedropped the wild tusk boar’scarcass and walked toward where the voicehad come from.

Whiing!

A couple more arrows flew past him, but he did not stopmoving andeasily avoided every one ofthem.He askedcoldly, “Who are you?”

He knew that the assailant was hidden behind a boulder, and he nimbly dashed toward the back of the boulder as he drew hislongsword. However,his swordstopped in midair the moment he came face to face with the assailant.

“Why…” hemurmured, his voice trembling.He found it hard to hide his surprise as he asked, “Why are you here?”

The assailant responded,“Why? Am I not allowed to be here?”

Sirian smirked atKang Yoon-Soo.

***

It wasSirian Lanchecaster, the Corrupted King of All Things, and the strongest humanon the continent. However,Kang Yoon-Soowas supposed to meet Sirian at the later stages of the legendary quest;why was he here in the mountain ranges now?

Kang Yoon-Soo bit his lips as he tightly gripped his longsword. He said, “You…It’s not possible for you to be here right now. You should be guarding the doors of Pandemonium right now… justasyou alwaysdid.”

Sirian slung his longbow ontohis shoulder and smirked.“Look here, my emotionless friend. Have you forgotten how you killed me in the ‘previous world’?” he asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo could not help but frown atthosewords. In the previous world, his 999th life, he was the one who had killed Sirian. However, thathad not stopped the war with Pandemonium from breaking out.

Histhoughts were conflictedas he tried to suppress something welling up from his chest when he suddenly noticed something peculiar.“Where is Riberion’s Magic Spear? Why are you using something like a bow?” he asked.

“Who knows? Maybe you’llget to know once you get hit by it,” Sirian answered as hedrewhis bowstring.

Kang Yoon-Soo immediately ducked and avoided the arrow,buthe figured out the identity of the assailant at the same time.Hesighed and said, “I knew it. You aren’tSirian.”

He charged toward Sirian and swung his longsword. Sirian jumped to the left to avoid the longsword, but Kang Yoon-Soo was a step faster.Thelongsword swung down in a crescent arc, slicing throughSirian’s body.

“Kuh!”Sirian’s body was cut in half and turned black.His corpsewas no longer recognizable;it looked closer to a pile of charcoal than a human corpse.

A doppelganger was a monster that read another’s mind and transformed into something from theirthoughts. The Sirian that had appeared in front ofKang Yoon-Soowas just a doppelgangerwho hadread his mind.

If the doppelganger truly wanted to shake Kang Yoon-Soo up, it should have transformed into the Demon Lord. However,the Demon Lord was not a being that a lowly creature like itself could dare imitate,which waswhy it settled forSirianinstead.

‘Something is strange…’Kang Yoon-Soo thought.Based on his experience from his hundreds of lives,doppelgangers never lefttheirhabitats, and they didn’t livein the Hatar Mountains.‘Ishouldbe meeting a doppelganger in a few days, but that was a variant and an exception. Why did a doppelganger that shouldn’t be here suddenly appear?’

At the very momenthe was lost in thought,a whisper teased his ears.

‘The calamity is almost here. You have to prepareforit.’

Who was the onewhokept whispering to him? What was the approaching calamity?

It had been a very long time since Kang Yoon-Soohad beenfull of questions he did not know the answer to.

***

Pitter-patter… Pitter-patter…

The vast mountain range was covered by rain.

“He’s late…” Shanethmuttered, sticking her hand outsidethe cave. A trail of rainwaterfell from between her fingers.

“Maybe he’splanning to catch a tiger or something,” Henrick said as he fiddled with his sculpting knife.

“Hmm… I’m still getting worried,”Shaneth replied.

“Do you really think he’ssomeonewho wouldget lost?”Henrickgrumbled.

“It’s raining… What if he catches a cold?”Shaneth askedas she looked outofthe cave.

“Who knows? He seems to be the kind of guywho would be fine even after getting hit by a hailstorm,”Henricksaid as he tosseda piece of wood he had beensculpting behind him.

“What are you so carefully making?”Shanethasked, tiltingher head.

“This and that,”Henrickanswered as he took another piece of wood and started to sculpt it.Hecontinued, “But do you know?”

“Know what?”Shaneth asked.

“What do youmean‘what’?That guy, Kang Yoon-Soo’s identity,”Henrickrepliedas he skillfully and accurately sculpted the piece of wood with only his right hand. Hecontinued,“A youngster like him has knowledge that even an adventurer with decades of experiencewould neverhave, and he’s eerily emotionless. I’ve met different kinds of people, but it’s my first timemeetingsomeone as emotionless as that guy. Are all Travelers like that? What the hell is he anyway?”

“I’m not so sure either…”Shanethreplied. She took a momentto think deeply, before slowly answering,“...butI believehe’ll tell us when the right time comes. He doesn’t answer anything he doesn’t want to answer, but…”Shehesitated for a minute before sayingadamantly, “He’s a good person. He’s someone I can trust and depend on.”

“Oh really? Hmm… I’ve been wondering for a while now,”Henricksaid.

“About what?” Shaneth asked.

“Why do you trust someoneasdense and emotionlessashim?” Henrick asked.

Shaneth burst out into laughter, but after it subsided, sheshowed her burn markand replied,“I don’t know, maybe because he made me pretty?”

“Huh? Did he putmakeuponyouor something?” Henrick asked.

“Tsk…I don’t want to talk to you, mister.” Shanethpouted while sulking.Henrick just let out a small laugh as he went back to his sculpting.Silence filled the cave for a while.

Suddenly,Shaneth stood up and shouted,“Mister Kang Yoon-Soo!”

Kang Yoon-Soo was walking toward the cave from afar. He was under the rain without an umbrella, and Shaneth hurriedly ran toward him with a cloth to shelter him from the rain.

Then, Kang Yoon-Soounslung thelongbow from his back…

Whoosh!

Henrick ran toward Shanethand pushedher down. Anarrow narrowly missed her, barely grazing herhead. She would have died on the spot if hehad beenlate by a fraction of a second.

“Huh…? What’s going on…?” Shaneth asked in confusion.However, Kang Yoon-Soodrewhis bowstring once again with his usual cold expression, and another arrow flew toward her.

Henrick pulled out his summoning box, but Kang Yoon-Soo suddenlybegan to speak. “Henrick, you are destined to turn yourself into a puppet by your own hands.”

Henrick stiffened for a second.Kang Yoon-Sooquickly drewhis bowstring and shot an arrow towardHenrick. However, the rain from the heavens was on Henrick’s side;the droplets of water altered the trajectoryof the arrow, and itnarrowly flew past his eyes.

“What are you doing?!” Shaneth screamed at him.

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around to face her and said, “Shaneth, I will be killing myself.”

Shaneth’sexpressionfilled with fear, andshe started to tremble. Kang Yoon-Soodrewhis bowstring once againandlet loose another arrow toward her.

Whiiing!

Pshhk!

A sword swung down from above, blocking the arrow and splitting Kang Yoon-Soo’s head open. His corpse lay dead on the groundandturned into dust. The man who had swung the sword appeared in front of the two.

It was Kang Yoon-Soo.

“What the hell is going on?” Henrick exclaimedas he came backto his senses.

“A doppelganger imitates one’s worst nightmare,”Kang Yoon-Sooansweredquietly.Hewas about to enter the cave when Shaneth suddenly grabbed onto the hem of his shirt.

“Please…Don’t die…”Shanethpleadedshakily, trembling beneath the rain.Her breathing was rough, and it was unclear whetherthe streak of water flowing down her facecame fromtears or rainwater.She repeated, “Please don’t die…Please don’t die in front of me…”

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and faced her before hugging her tightly.He saidsoftly,“I won’t die. No matter what happens.”

***

“So that was a doppelganger that transformed into you?” Henrick asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo silently noddedbefore adding,“Although I’m not sure whysuch a monsterappeared in the mountain.”

“Hoo, there’s something even you don’t know?” Henrick asked in surprise.

].

“So,everything was just an illusion from that monster?” Shaneth asked in relief. However,she hugged her chest with trembling hands, seemingly suppressing a fear that would not subside.

“I hope to never meetsuch amonster ever again…” Henrick saidwith a grimace.Henrick tapped his temple beforeasking, “But why are you so calm? Itdoesn’t sound as if you met that doppelganger.”

Kang Yoon-Soo was busybutchering the wild tusk boarhehadcarried back. He sprinkled just the right amount of salt on the meat he got from the carcass. The cave was humid thanks to the rain, so it would bedifficult to smoke the meat into jerky, but thatwould help them preserve the meat for a bit longer.As he silently preparedtheir rations,Henrick chose to give up on hearing a response from him.

“Ah,never mind.There’s no waysomeone like youwouldeven get played by a monster like that. You conned the Death General, after all…” Henrickmuttered.

However, contrary to Henrick’s assumptions, Kang Yoon-Soo was actually deep in thought.‘Something is weird… Why does it feelas ifsomething is off…?’

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled the heart of the wild tusk boar from its carcass withbloodyhands.

***

The trio took turnsstandingwatch as they rested. The sky was still gloomy even after morningcame, and they had to trek across themountain rangewhilegetting rained on.

Henrick looked up at the sky that was covered with rain clouds and grumbled, “When will this damned rain ever end?”

“In four days,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“I think you wouldmake a killing if you opened afortune-tellingshop…” Shaneth commented.

Their dry rationshad all runout after theytrekked acrossthe mountains for a few days. However, they did not starve to death thanks to the wild tusk boar Kang Yoon-Soo had hunted.

Ona nightthey spent campingout in the thicklyovergrown forest after four days of exhaustingtravel, the rain miraculously stopped just as Kang Yoon-Soo had said four daysbefore.Everything in the vicinity was wet, but Kang Yoon-Soo managed to find some dry wood from somewhere.

Shaneth was stirring the pot with a ladle, as it was her routine to prepare the food whenever they camped. However, her hands stopped moving andshe suddenlyasked,“Don’t you hear something?”