The taste of death was salty. Like iron and old pennies.
I coughed, and a wet, heavy clump of blood splattered against the obsidian floor.
"Ah… damn it."
My voice was a ragged whisper. I tried to move my legs, but the nerves had been severed. I looked down. Where my stomach used to be, there was only a gaping, ruinous hole.
I was Lee Jin-Woo. A-Rank Hunter. The "Shield of Seoul."
And now, I was dog meat.
BOOM.
The ground shook. Across the cavernous hall of the Abyssal Gate, the creature moved. It was a mass of shifting shadows and eyes, a nightmare that defied physics. The Primordial Guardian.
Around me lay the corpses of my raid team. The "Elites" of the Celestial Dragon Guild. The ones who had promised to watch my back. The ones who had fled the moment the barrier broke, leaving me as the sacrificial pawn to buy them time.
'Traitors,' I thought, my vision blurring.
I didn't feel sadness. I didn't feel fear. Those emotions had burned out hours ago.
I only felt a cold, burning rage.
I had played by the rules. I worked harder than anyone. I clawed my way up from F-Rank trash to a respected A-Rank tank. I did everything right.
And this was my reward? Dying alone in the dark while the guild master probably drank champagne, toasting to my "heroic sacrifice"?
Crunch.
The Guardian stepped closer. Its pressure was immense, like gravity had increased tenfold.
My hand trembled as I reached for my broken sword hilt. Even now, I wanted to stab it. I wanted to bite its throat out.
"If I had… just one more chance," I wheezed, blood bubbling past my lips.
I wouldn't be a shield next time. I wouldn't trust anyone. I wouldn't play by their rules.
The shadow loomed over me. A thousand eyes opened in the darkness, staring down with indifferent malice.
A massive claw descended.
Everything went black.
"HUAAH!"
I shot up, gasping for air.
My hands flew to my stomach, clawing at my shirt, expecting to feel torn flesh and intestines.
Cotton.
I felt cheap, sweat-drenched cotton.
"What…?"
I scrambled backward, falling off the narrow bed and hitting the floor with a hard thud.
The pain was sharp and real. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the dim light.
This wasn't the Abyssal Gate. There was no smell of ozone and rotting blood. Instead, the air smelled like… instant ramen and stale socks?
I looked around.
A cramped room. A desk piled high with textbooks. A poster of a K-pop group I hadn't thought about in years peeling off the wall. A calendar hanging by the door.
[ September 12, 2025 ]
My breath hitched.
2025?
I scrambled to the desk, grabbing the smartphone lying there. It was an old model—a brick compared to what I used in 2035. I unlocked it with a trembling thumb.
The date was real.
"Ten years," I whispered, my voice sounding younger, less gravelly. "I went back ten years."
I rushed to the small mirror attached to the wardrobe.
The face staring back wasn't the scarred, weather-beaten veteran of 28. It was me at 18. Fresh-faced. No scar across the left eye. Shoulders not yet broadened by a decade of swinging a greatsword.
I was a freshman at Korea National Hunter University.
I slumped against the wall, a manic laugh bubbling up in my throat.
"I'm alive."
I clenched my fist. The strength was gone. My mana core, which had been at the peak of A-Rank, was now a tiny, pathetic speck in my heart. I was weak.
But I smiled. A cold, sharp smile that didn't reach my eyes.
I remembered everything.
I knew where the hidden dungeons were. I knew which stocks would skyrocket. I knew which "heroes" were secretly villains, and I knew exactly when the major calamities would strike.
The Celestial Dragon Guild? The team that betrayed me?
They didn't know it yet, but they were already dead.
Ding!
A sharp, mechanical chime rang out in the silent room.
I flinched, instinctively reaching for a weapon that wasn't there.
A blue holographic panel materialized in front of my eyes.
'A System Awakening?'
I narrowed my eyes. This wasn't standard. Usually, hunters awakened their status windows through a ceremony or extreme trauma. And standard windows were green, not this deep, royal blue.
[System Synchronization Complete.]
[User: Lee Jin-Woo identified.]
[Welcome to the Divine Streaming Service (DSS).]
"Streaming service?" I muttered.
Text began to scroll rapidly across the blue screen.
[The 'Fourth Wall' has been shattered.]
[Your life is now being broadcast to the Higher Dimensions.]
[Current Channel Status: LIVE]
I frowned. "Is this a joke? Who's watching?"
As if answering my question, a chat window popped up on the side of my vision. It looked disturbingly like a Twitch chat from the old internet days.
[Alert: A Viewer has entered the channel.]
[Alert: A Viewer has entered the channel.]
[Alert: A Viewer has entered the channel.]
Three viewers.
Then, the first message appeared.
[God of Mischief]: Oh? What's this? A new channel? The resolution is terrible. Is this Earth?
[Goddess of Love]: He's cute! Look at those eyes. He looks like a wounded puppy. <3
[God of War]: Boring. He has no muscle. His mana is trash. Why did the algorithm recommend this? I'm leaving.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
God of Mischief. Goddess of Love. God of War.
In my past life, there were rumors. Crazy cultists who claimed that the Dungeons and the Gates were sent by gods. We called them lunatics.
But reading these messages… I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. The "presence" radiating from those text bubbles was heavy. It felt like the pressure of the Abyssal Guardian, compressed into words.
These weren't usernames.
They were real.
[God of Mischief]: Wait, hold on. Look at his pulse. Look at his eyes. He's not confused. He's... calculating?
[God of Mischief]: Hey, kid. Can you read this?
I stared at the floating text.
If this was real… if actual gods were watching me…
In my past life, I learned one thing about power: You don't fight it until you can kill it. You use it.
I looked directly into the empty air, imagining a camera lens.
"I can read it," I said, my voice steady.
The chat froze for a second.
[God of Mischief]: HOHO! He broke the fourth wall immediately! Interesting!
[Goddess of Love]: He has a nice voice too.
[God of War]: He speaks? Fine. I'll stay for five minutes. Entertain me, mortal. If you bore me, I'll curse your bloodline.
[System Quest Generated!]
[Quest: The Pilot Episode]
Difficulty: F
Objective: Prove your worth to the initial viewers.
Time Limit: 1 Hour.
Reward: Access to the System Shop.
Failure: Channel Deletion (Death).
I read the penalty. Channel Deletion (Death).
Simple. Brutal.
I looked at the time limit. One hour.
I looked at my weak, 18-year-old body.
Then I looked at the calendar. September 12th.
If my memory was perfect—and it was—tonight was the night.
In exactly forty minutes, a hidden F-Rank dungeon fissure would open in the alleyway behind the convenience store three blocks away. In the original timeline, a drunk salaryman stumbled into it and was eaten by a Goblin Scout.
"Entertain you?" I muttered, grabbing a box cutter from my desk drawer. I snapped the blade out. It was flimsy, rusty.
I looked up at the invisible camera and grinned. It was the smile of a predator who had just found a new hunting ground.
"Don't blink," I said. "Or you'll miss the first kill."
I grabbed my jacket and walked out the door.
[God of Mischief]: 🍿🍿🍿
[God of War]: He brought a box cutter to a dungeon fight? HA! This I have to see.
[Current Viewers: 3]
[Divine Points: 0]