Chapter 6

"Sure!"

I glanced at Yudayeon, who had just entered the house, her cheeks flushed from the warmth, and handed her a cup of cocoa mixed with the milk I had warmed in the microwave.

"It's okay to call Jaeshin out, too."

As I watched her gently shake her head while blowing on the cocoa, it wasn't hard to figure out what was going on.

"No, no!"

"It's fine. We need to come to a conclusion anyway, whether we prepare for the end or not."

"...Okay."

Yudayeon's head dropped again as she cautiously glanced at me and replied. Her eyes, when they met mine again, looked cold and eerie.

"Tha...t..."

"I'm sorry."

Before I could even start to argue, an apology blurted out. Then, an awkward silence fell.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry."

I was about to lose it. Seriously. I never thought I would receive an apology. Or rather, I never imagined it. I had mentioned it a few times, but the will of the Earth, an entity incomparable to humans, was apologizing to a mere human.

"About the excuse... I hate making excuses, but can I explain the reason for a moment?"

"Sure. I was curious too. Anyway."

The threat I made earlier came out of nowhere. If it were a novel, it would lack plausibility.

"The first day we met, I told you, right? That I found out about the fraudulent contract. And I learned what happened to Earth in the past, which could have been the future, until this morning. But it wasn't just that. It was different, different. Maybe because it was like a side benefit of the insurance I had, it felt more like being forcibly injected."

"Memories?"

"Memories and emotions. You experienced regression, but I felt like I was being overwritten unilaterally. Moreover, as I wasn't human, there was no limit to the amount of information. And it didn't end there."

"What else?"

"I didn't just receive the memories and emotions I felt. Over a few days, I was continuously injected with the emotions and information felt by all the wills of the Earth. The regret, the remorse, the self-blame, the despair. Can you imagine how I felt?"

"Like having tens of thousands of sweet potatoes forcibly stuffed down my throat over a few days?"

"Exactly! That's it! Damn! Stupid things! I told you several times that the contract was strange! But I couldn't just get angry, and I kept thinking, 'What if I had remembered a minute earlier?' While gathering the will of the Earth to explain, find this child, meet you, and explain to you, you kept saying you were going to die..."

As I listened, Jaeshin didn't seem like a god but more like a single personality with various emotions.

"You're right. We're not much different. Just like humans. We make mistakes, get angry, and blame ourselves. That's why. And you're right. This is our mistake. We didn't want to admit it. I'm sorry."

"Okay. I accept your apology. I was also very emotional."

"No, I was too harsh. It was a threat. And thank you. I mean it."

Jaeshin, using Yudayeon's body, nodded with a sincere smile that looked somewhat relieved.

"Can we finish the conversation we were having earlier?"

"Oh, before that. Let's eat something. Daeun must be hungry too."

"...Okay."

Jaeshin's face, smiling brightly, showed emotions that seemed more pure and perhaps more Yudayeon's than Jaeshin's.

I ordered several types of pasta for Yudayeon, who had never tried it before, and we gobbled it down without waiting for each other. I took a cold coffee, and Jaeshin took the usual extremely sweet black sugar latte, which would probably make the tongue hurt, and we continued our conversation.

"After the end, worrying about how to live is a future concern. But if we prepare well from now on, you and we can definitely win. That's why I, or at least I, bet everything on you. It's an all-in."

"On me?"

Somehow, I had started using informal language naturally, and Jaeshin didn't point it out.

"Yes."

"What?"

"Everything to repel the invaders and ensure Earth remains Earth."

"How?"

The question of what he saw in me to place such unwavering hope, and the burden of what else I needed to prepare besides claiming the lottery prize, competed to rise within me.

"For starters."

Snap!

Jaeshin, using Yudayeon's body, snapped his fingers. And something changed.

"I healed your body. No, I awakened it."

"...What?!"

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I'm Shimhaeng.

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Status window?!

The environment of the Earth did not change the moment it decided to exterminate the human race, which it deemed 'harmful.' In other words, the weather didn't suddenly get colder, and the oxygen levels didn't decrease.

However, the moment that decision was made, almost all humans could feel that the Earth was rejecting them.

The end, extinction, monsters, and creatures.

These beings, known by various names, appeared on Earth and targeted only humans. They didn't drool at the sight of a cow passing by calmly but only lusted after human flesh, blood, and corpses.

Some humans felt it was unjust. After all, not everyone had lived so wickedly as to deserve such treatment. At that moment, a will of the Earth that seemed to be on the side of humans appeared.

As proof and a gift that they were on the side of humans, 'awakening' was bestowed. Upon experiencing awakening, one would change as if becoming a different being, gaining the ability to manipulate magic.

The special thing about awakening is that it overcame the limitations of the human species. The body was perfectly transformed to handle the strange power called magic.

In other words, it meant that all diseases and illnesses, whether congenital or acquired, were cured.

— From Gaia Bulletin, "The Beginning of the End, Part 1"

*

"...What?!"

"You already know, right?"

"Awakening...? The awakening I know? Hold on."

────────────────

〈Awakened Information〉

1. Name (Name): Lee Yo-han

2. Nation (Nation): Republic of Korea

3. Affiliation (Clan): None

4. Occupation (Class): None

5. Karma (Karma)

6. Stats (Status)

Body [Rank: Red]

[Strength 1] [Agility 1] [Stamina 1] [Endurance 1] [Magic 1]

〈Unique Abilities〉

〈General Abilities〉

────────────────

Wow. It's really a status window. Wow. I feel like I'm going to throw up. I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. Seriously. The PTSD is hitting me hard.

"Is that all?"

"Is that all?! A will of the Earth who knows my past life is saying that?"

My past life was utterly miserable. My mind was fine, but my spine was broken, and my vocal cords were damaged, so I could hear but not speak. I received all the stimuli, but my mind was clear.

I spent years lying in that state. The reason I didn't go insane was because I was an awakened, and the reason I didn't die for ten years with a broken spine was the same.

So, wouldn't I develop PTSD when I see the status window?

"That's not the important thing right now."

"Then what...!"

"If you do something like that, I'll be really disappointed."

"Hmm."

I made a fake cough, trying to think of a different joke to overload my brain, but she, seemingly uninterested, waved her hand and said,

"I awakened you early to remove your cancer. You should have noticed that, right? And the reason your body stats are Red Rank instead of White Rank is because you are the 'first' awakened of the dimensional Earth. So, now, the only thing left is the class, right?"

Snap!

A few questions I wanted to ask just passed by like a snake climbing over a fence, and just like before, when she snapped her fingers, a power I could now clearly sense through awakening manifested. The magic that swirled around me fully seeped into me.

『Awakened Class Blossom (開花).』

『Class "Lord (領主)" obtained.』

『Special Status [Dignity] unlocked.』

『Unique Ability [Domain (領地)] acquired.』

『General Ability [Domain Management] acquired.』

Wait, what? There seems to be some mistake here.

This isn't mine, right?

"You're really... still the same?"

"Me? What do you mean?"

No matter how I looked at it, her expression and tone didn't seem to have improved at all. Whether I looked closely, glanced, or saw her while running, she looked utterly pitiful!

"How are you going to survive in a world that's about to end with a personality like that? You should be wiping your mouth if you look better than before. Sigh. Are you some kind of woodcutter from the story of the golden and silver axes?"

But why give me a completely different class? That would eliminate the advantage of regression, wouldn't it?

The class I obtained in the past, as I mentioned before, was [Landlord (地主)]. Literally, 'land owner.'

The effect, depending on the rank of the unique ability, created a hemispherical shelter centered on a designated place, similar to a safe zone in a game where PVE is limited.

Inside the transparent hemispherical shelter, everything harmful to 'registered humans' was blocked. Simply put, it purified everything from external attacks to water and air. In other words, even if they were human, those not registered in the shelter were considered 'enemies.'

Enemies who invaded the shelter were debuffed according to the rank. Even at the Red Rank, physical stats were reduced by 50%.

The biggest reason I could become the owner of the largest shelter in Seoul was that the land owner was immune to harm within their land.

So, why did I become a cripple?

That's because...

"You were attacked outside, right? In the past? Well, their logic wasn't wrong, was it? You needed karma points, and you needed to raise your stats to expand the shelter. The second batch of those trash gave you quite a bit of positive karma."

You were attacked outside. Outside the shelter. The more people came to the shelter, the more necessary it was to raise the rank of the [Landlord] class.

To be honest, the scenario was good. It was convincing. I couldn't help but fall for it.

"Damn. Sigh."

Avoiding the disdainful gaze of someone who looked at me with cold eyes,

"So, what's this? Lord? The one from the medieval era? The one with those characters?"

I asked.

"Changing the subject. Right. So, here's a question. Lord (領主) and Landlord (地主). Both have the character 主, meaning 'owner,' right? So, what's the difference between a Lord and a Landlord? More clearly, what's the difference between a 'domain' and just 'land' (地)?"

It seems easy, but it's a question I can't answer easily. No, I can roughly understand it intuitively, but I don't know the exact difference, right?

"An important difference between humans and animals is the use of writing. When that's the case, look at the writing. The common character in 'domain' and 'lord' is 領, meaning 'to govern.'"

"Huh?"

Professor, you're going too fast. I don't understand at all.

"Tsk. The character 領 is a combination of 頁, which indicates meaning, and 令, which indicates sound. The character 頁 means 'head' or 'neck.' The sound part, 令, in ancient oracle bone script, is depicted as a roof over a person kneeling, representing someone giving orders. Do you understand now?"

What are you saying? How can I understand that?

"Ah, what a thick head!"

"Right! Now you get it?! I'm not a pushover who will kneel to anyone, you thick head?!"

"Great! Why don't you put up a banner?!"

"To that extent..."

"Sigh. A Lord and a domain are different from a simple Landlord who just owns land. A Lord has the right and power to 'command.' It's a small country with not just property rights but also judicial and administrative powers. The absolute ruler of that country. That's a Lord."

"Oh, yeah~."

So what? In the past, I had something similar to command rights. Of course. I created the shelter myself. If I told someone to leave my land, they would die.

"Hey!! How did you even get a job and work at a company with that head?!"