I Don’t Want This Reincarnation

The N42 Area, where we arrived after more than an hour’s drive, was crowded with reporters, spectators, and guild members waiting in advance to take photos.

“Cheon Sa-yeon! He’s arrived!”

“Master Cheon Sa-yeon!”

As soon as the car entered the gate entrance, reporters flooded in. While the bodyguards, who rushed in as well, stopped the reporters, Cheon Sa-yeon and I got out of the car and moved to the place where the guild members were.

“Master.”

Among the guild members, the tallest and most muscular man greeted Cheon Sa-yeon politely. Like the bodyguards, the man in a black suit stood out with his neatly raised pomade hair and a hard expression.

“How many people?”

“Everyone in the list is here.” The man, after answering the question as if he was waiting for it, then looked at me.

“Ah. Come to think of it, this must be the first time you two are entering a gate together.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who was looking back at me and the man alternately, patted my shoulder lightly.

“This is Han Yi-gyeol. He’s an independent, but he’s a great mercenary who came to help clear the gate.”

It was nice that you introduced me and all, but what’s with this ambiguous posture?

“Nice to meet you. I’m Woo Seo-hyuk (우서혁). I work as the Master’s secretary.”

“Right… It’s nice to meet you.”

Woo Seo-hyuk calmly shook hands with me without any change in expression, whether this situation was awkward or not.

“Woo Seo-hyuk stayed in Japan for two months on my order and arrived the day before yesterday. Since the gate is S-grade, he will be of great help.”

“I’ll do my best.”

This was Woo Seo-hyuk. I kept an awkward smile and thought of the contents of the novel in my head.

‘I think he was mentioned. I don’t think he’s a very important person, given that I don’t remember much about him.’

He seemed to be a character who had no contact with the main character, Ha Tae-heon. Due to the nature of the novel, I remembered the encounters with the women, while the men’s left me confused because they didn’t have enough appearances.

“Come on, then.” Cheon Sa-yeon, who put his arm on my shoulder, said to me in a voice full of laughter, “Once you’re ready, you should have an interview before you go in.”

“……?”

Why were you looking at me… hold on.

“Let me go.”

With an ominous feeling, I tried to shake off Cheon Sa-yeon’s arm, but to no avail.

“Now that your face has been revealed, you won’t even do an interview.”

“I don’t want to.”

Because of Woo Seo-hyuk standing in front of me, I was forced to speak respectfully, so it was like death. I refused while holding back curses stored in my throat, but Cheon Sa-yeon did not even pretend to listen and grabbed me in front of the camera.

“Master Cheon Sa-yeon!”

“Please look this way, Requiem Master!”

When Cheon Sa-yeon appeared in the interview zone that had been prepared in advance, the waiting cameras flashed randomly.

I was overwhelmed when I saw the white light that filled my eyes and the reporters who were so excited and pointed their microphones to us.

“Thank you for coming. The clearing gate of the N42 Area, which starts today, will be held for four days, and a total of 12 people including myself will depart.”

Contrary to me, Cheon Sa-yeon skillfully started the interview with his unique smile. He didn’t even blink an eye even with the flash that went off right in front of his face.

“Who is taking part?”

“A 5 person close-range team, 4 person long-distance team, 2 healers, 1 identifier.”

“Is there any reason to take an identifier to a gate that has already been measured?”

“In order to judge the gate more accurately.”

“Is there a benefit to taking more measurements?”

“In terms of stability, I think at least three measurements are necessary.”

I glanced at Cheon Sa-yeon’s eyes.

He probably took the identifier to check if there had been any changes inside the gate. Not a bad idea.

‘The gate I went into with Ha Tae-heon was also a B-grade, but an S+-grade monster appeared.’

There was no guarantee that this would not happen again. It was fortunate that the people who entered the gate were me and Ha Tae-heon, but if an S+-grade monster appeared in front of a clear team made up of general guild members, a catastrophe would occur.

“Master Cheon Sa-yeon. Who’s the man standing with you?”

Thinking seriously about the monster, I startled at the next question. Cheon Sa-yeon, who was close to me, noticed that I was surprised, so he smiled gently and said softly, “This person is an A-rank independent ability user and he’s on this clearing gate schedule. He has a very special relationship with me.”

“Ha. Ha… ha…” I laughed, forcefully raising the corners of my lips. Cheon Sa-yeon, you son of bitch.

“I thought you looked familiar, but you’re that A-rank person who worked with Master Cheon Sa-yeon in the C13 Area!”

“Can you tell me your name, please?”

“Look over here, please! I’ll just take one picture!”

“Oh, uh… I mean, I’m Han Yi-gyeol, and I—”

A cold sweat formed on my forehead. I’ve never dreamed of having an experience like this in my life. I thought it would have been much better to have a fight with a weapon.

“Oh, hell*.” As I stuttered foolishly in embarrassment, Cheon Sa-yeon stepped in between me and the camera.

“It seems that our Yi-gyeol is not used to this, so he was very surprised. Let the interview end here.”

Are you crazy?

“What did you just say… Master Cheon Sa-yeon!”

“Master! Wait!”

Click! Click! Click!

The camera shutter became even noisier. Attendants, who were waiting to stop reporters calling for Cheon Sa-yeon, rushed to the scene.

What a terrible experience. After leaving the reporters behind, I left the interview zone and grabbed my trembling chest while muttering softly.

“You stupid bastard…”

“You only found out now?” Cheon Sa-yeon answered with an amused voice and took out a jacket and a sword from his inventory.

“We’re leaving soon.”

Cheon Saa-yeon took the lead, followed by Woo Seo-hyuk. Looking at the gate shimmering with the light of chaos, Cheon Sa-yeon tapped the ground with his sword a couple of times and walked into it without hesitation.

I also pushed myself into the gate entrance after Cheon Sa-yeon. For a moment, the cold air wrapped around my body, I felt the moist, unpleasant air at the tip of my nose.

“An underground dungeon?”

“Precisely an underground dungeon.”

There was the sound of chains being pulled from somewhere, a gloomy and heavy atmosphere weighed on my shoulders. A small torch on the wall was the only light and I could see insects and centipedes crawling here and there.

“If you fall behind, you’re dead,” Cheon Sa-yeon said, grabbing my wrist as I looked around. “Be careful not to fall.”

“Ah, seriously. That’s en…”

When I was about to say something because I was annoyed by the constant pulling, my eyes met with Woo Seo-hyuk’s, who was standing next to me. Damn it.

“…eeexactly what I’ll do, Master. I’ll stick right by you~”

“Pft.”

When I spoke while forcing my face to look friendly, Cheon Sa-yeon turned his head and burst into laughter. Are you having fun, you bastard?

When all the guild members arrived inside the gate, Cheon Sa-yeon began to move slowly. As stated in the material given by Cheon Sa-yeon, it usually took three days to clear. It was said that the schedule itself was set up for three days in order to look around slowly.

“This is the first room.”

Chwareureureuk!

When Cheon Sa-yeon pressed on a particular spot on the wall, the rusty iron bars that blocked the front went up with the sound of chains. The iron bar automatically descended after a certain period of time, so once you entered, you couldn’t go back.

Dozens of coffins were placed in a large room with soft candles flickering. The scenery inside the room filled with dusty coffins was horrifying.

“Kim Ji-hoon (김지훈), Park Yoo-jun (박유준).”

A guild member standing behind came running to Cheon Sa-yeon’s call. Among them, Kim Ji-hoon was somehow familiar and he was part of the close-range team that cleared the SS-grade gate.

“Count the number of mimics (미믹). Check if it’s more or less than 47.”

“Yes!”

Kim Ji-hoon and Park Yoo-jun, each with their weapons out, began to examine the coffins. The two of them carefully counted the number of coffins and came back.

“47 confirmed.”

“No change in numbers.”

“Take care of it.”

As soon as the report was over, Cheon Sa-yeon put his sword in the centre of the coffin next to him. Puhak, bright red blood spurted out.

Kkyeeek!

The mimic struggled and opened its mouth. Through the black aura, large teeth resembling human teeth were visible.

Kyeeek! Kkyeeek!

The mimics’ screams, as they were attacked by the guild members, could be heard everywhere. The mimic was a B-grade, doppelganger-type monster that disguised itself as an object and devoured opponents who approached it.

Since there were so many mimics, it took time to process them one by one. Unable to pierce through a solid coffin without any special weapon, I stood quietly. So did Woo Seo-hyuk.

‘What is your ability?’

Except in special cases, most ability users had weapons. That was why it was rather rare that he had no weapons.

Woo Seo-hyuk, who was empty-handed like me, looked only forward with no expression. As my curiosity about his abilities grew, the mimics were all slaughtered.

Across the room to the end, another rusty iron bar was blocking the way to the next room. Unlike before, Cheon Sa-yeon stepped on a part of the floor pattern this time.

Kugugung, chwareureuk!

The door opened as if it had been waiting. Was there a sign somewhere? The location of the hidden device wasn’t even listed in the data.

“Did you memorize all the locations?”

“There are a total of 15 devices per room. The correct one is random.”

“Random?”

In other words, to open a room, you had to find the right device with a 15 to 1 chance.

“You just succeeded once. The same as before.”

“I was lucky.”

I frowned at the firm answer. Aside from the insincere answer, what was this kind of attitude?

‘It seems like he’s like that every time he walks into a gate?’

Perhaps this was one of the ‘hidden things’ that Cheon Sa-yeon was talking about.

The second room, as shown in the data, was a human-type A-grade monster, a ghoul (구울). As we entered the room, the monsters lying like corpses opened their eyes at once and stood up.

Geueueuk, geuoook.

Although they looked like zombies, ghouls had a much stronger body and better reflexes. Being hungry all the time, they were quite violent and distinguished enemies by their excellent sense of smell.

Geuaaak!

A spear struck the ghoul’s heart as it ran to a nearby healer with its mouth gaping open. In order to deal with the ghouls coming from all directions, the guild members, who stood by the healers and the identifier, immediately started fighting.

Cheon Sa-yeon, who dug through the gaps of the gathered ghouls, skillfully swung his sword without even using his ability. After confirming Cheon Sa-yeon’s safety, I sent a wind blade at a ghoul who was aiming for the back of the guild member.

“Ugh!”

Belatedly, I noticed the sharp claws of the ghoul aiming at my side as I paid attention to others. As I hurriedly pulled myself back and went up into the air, the ghoul cried loudly. Fortunately, only my clothes were torn, so there were no injuries.

“Woo Seo-hyuk-ssi!”

Oh jeez. As I flew up, the ghouls flocked to Woo Seo-hyuk, who was next to me. I was in a hurry to use my powers to save him.

“What the—”

Woo Seo-hyuk suddenly started taking off his clothes! For a moment, I was so flustered that my flow of energy was almost cut off. I managed to lift my falling body again and looked at Woo Seo-hyuk with trembling eyes.

‘W-wait. Why the hell…’

He didn’t even care about the upcoming ghouls and Woo Seo-hyuk calmly took it off, layer by layer. He took off his black suit jacket, untied his tie, and unbuttoned his shirt. Surprisingly, the other guild members in battle did not even care about Woo Seo-hyuk.

Woo Seo-hyuk, who finally took off his shirt and held it in his hand, looked at the ghoul in front of him. The ghouls, who were over 2 meters tall, smelled Woo Seo-hyuk and ran excitedly.

Woo Seo-hyuk raised his other hand that did not hold his clothes. The entire arm, which was full of strong muscles, gradually began to turn black. I was mesmerized by the shocking sight.

Udeudeuk, udeuk.

The sound of bones snapping in Woo Seo-hyuk’s arm could be heard and his black arm began to grow bigger. His palms were filled with flesh and thickened, and his long stretched nails looked hard and sharp even at a glance.

Woo Seo-hyuk swung his arms around the ghoul without hesitation, with an arm in a shape that could hardly be considered human.

Kwajijik!

The two ghouls couldn’t even scream and their upper bodies were torn apart. Not just the ghouls, but the wall behind them was dented in the shape of a fingernail.

After watching all of that, I put on a tired expression on my face.

Just what the fuck is that.