"Finally, this bitch is dead! Why did the author drag so many chapters just to kill this motherfucker?"
"Now the MC is the strongest in the Tier 2 realm!"
"Know your place, you piece of shit!"
"Even though he was holding one of the very rare skills with the space element, this guy chose to go against the MC and got bodied… lol."
"Bro, even the government of Aryava didn't bother to investigate his death. That's how much everyone hates this guy! Lol."
"Another second-rate villain is dead!"
In the middle of endless pitch-black darkness, I continuously hear these voices, so often that I've almost gotten used to their curses.
Yes, the guy they're speaking ill of… none other than me.
I am the one who died at the hands of their so-called MC.
I tried to move my body, at least what I can call a body now, but it is nothing more than a mass of faint light.
I couldn't make a sound.
I couldn't move.
I was just floating in this endless space, enduring all of their taunts.
I am Arjun, one of the very few S-class explorers from the country of Aryava.
When I look back on my life, I realize that I spent most of it inside dungeons and the World Tower, constantly risking my life to become stronger.
I hated being with people and actively chose to stay inside dungeons and towers.
The reason? I've long forgotten.
Before I realized it, I had always been like that.
All my life, I endured countless hardships, far from anything resembling smooth sailing.
I escaped my abusive parents only because I fortunately awakened.
After that, I ended up on the dark side of awakened society, used by the illegal underworld.
After a long struggle, I finally came out clean and began exploring dungeons with a proper license.
Eventually, I became one of the very few S-class explorers in the world.
Famous. Rich. Strong.
Yet I still chose to remain inside dungeons, spending my time leveling up and increasing my strength without pause.
Then, I discovered the secret of body reconstruction, adapting to mana and increasing elemental affinity, inside an AAA-grade dungeon that I cleared on my own.
An opportunity to increase my strength even further fell into my hands, and I didn't hesitate even for a moment before choosing to destroy and restart my entire mana structure.
That was how I fell from the peak of Tier 4 to the very bottom of Tier 2.
Most of my active skills were sealed, leaving me with only two active skills at Tier 2.
That weakness was the very reason I died at the hands of the brat named Han Seo-Jun, from the country of Baekjin, a guy three years younger than me.
When I first met him, I had just killed several staff members of the National Awakeners Association who were illegally trying to swindle my mana cores and transfer the credit to rich kids.
At that time, I had concealed my identity. I didn't want my face or the fact that I was reconstructing my body to be revealed to the outside world.
I had far too many enemies who would do anything to erase me.
That brat spouted nonsense about "justice" or whatever and fought me to the very end.
Even though I was severely weakened, I still had more than a decade of combat experience.
I managed to fight him evenly and was almost able to crush him.
But I never expected him to possess so many insane abilities.
A clone skill that created duplicates not inferior to himself.
A magic nullification domain that erased all traces of mana within a hundred-meter radius.
A sword domain that shredded everything around him countless times in the blink of an eye.
A damage nullification skill that prevented him from dying even after receiving a fatal blow.
Foresight, allowing him to predict my movements in advance.
And secret divine beast protections.
Every single one of those abilities was absolute insanity.
Even one of those skills was enough to make someone an S-rank explorer.
Yet even so, I almost won.
With only my two remaining active skills, after a long and brutal struggle, I was just about to kill him.
When a breath of white dragon fire suddenly engulfed me.
Before dying, I saw it clearly: the golden, reptilian gaze of a small dragon perched on Han Seo-Jun's shoulder.
A legendary pet!
I died just like that.
But I had no regrets.
I died to someone stronger than me.
Even though he was only Tier 2 at the time, I knew he would eventually stand at the very top.
I believed that.
I accepted it.
I had always known this truth: only the strong survive, and the weak perish without leaving a trace.
I was no exception.
It had always been that way since the dawn of humanity.
When humans lived in tribes, stronger tribes slaughtered the men of weaker ones and took their women as trophies.
As time passed, the definition of strength changed, votes, wealth, and money replaced brute force.
Later, people submitted to governments, hoping they would provide protection, surrendering their security to institutions like the police.
But ultimately the rules remain the same.
If a government lacks power, who would obey it?
If a country cannot protect itself, would others refrain from invading and plundering it? I
f there is no enforcement, would people not kill and steal freely?
The answer is always no.
One absolute truth governs this world: the strong define the rules, and the weak obey them.
Humans are animals too, just more intelligent ones.
Lust, greed, and violence exist in every human, regardless of gender.
But people forgot their instincts, rejected their nature, and began glorifying false morality.
Modern life became needlessly complicated just to hide the simple truth that strength rules all.
I lived by that rule my entire life.
If I was weak, I would endure until I grew strong enough to strike.
It didn't matter if I was beaten or trampled when I was powerless.
I knew how to hide my intentions.
I knew how to grow stronger in the shadows.
That was how I killed so many who once crushed me, without mercy.
There was no reason to be angry when I was weak, and no reason to celebrate when I was strong.
Yes, I killed many people. And every one of them deserved it.
Yet now, in this empty space, the voices called me a murderer.
I had lost track of how long I had been suspended here.
When my consciousness first awakened in this void, I was terrified, unable to believe anything was real.
But as time passed, I realized the truth.
I was dead.
***