Chapter 1

**The Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully - Chapter 1 (1/390)**

**The Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully - Chapter 1**

**Return**

“Ugh, ugh… Why did this happen…?”

The man, armed with armor and a sword, trembled all over.

Even as he desperately tried to suppress his fear and hold onto his sanity, the terror that welled up from deep within his instincts refused to subside.

It was only natural. The massive lion standing before him, exuding a menacing aura, was a high-risk monster.

For a novice like him, it was a formidable enemy.

“Why is there a monster like this in an 8th-level Abyss…!”

The lion in front of him growled lowly, as if contemplating how to kill him, clearly outmatching him.

This lion had already killed several novices. And the last one standing was this man.

“Uaaaaaaaah-!!”

Determined to die with honor, the man raised his sword and charged at the lion.

In response, the lion casually lifted its paw to tear him apart.

And in the next moment, the lion's head fell to the ground with a thud, and its massive body toppled over.

The man, who had been about to swing his sword, fell over and saw a strange sight.

A naked man, drenched in bright red blood, held a sword that glowed with the same blood-red hue.

That was the man's last memory.

* * *

“Is this Earth?”

Something felt off.

He had been in another world for several decades.

Though he hadn't counted precisely, it had been at least forty years.

The god of the other world had said that to return to Earth, he needed to defeat the Demon God. After fighting for days and nights, he finally defeated the Demon God.

Using the dimensional gate created from the Demon God's heart, he returned, flipping off the god of the other world as he did so.

Everything was fine until he crossed the dimensional gate.

He instinctively felt that he had arrived on Earth.

But why were there monsters in front of him, the kind that only existed in the other world?

Without much thought, Yuseong raised his hand, and a bright red light gathered, forming a sword.

“The blade seems a bit shorter, though…”

Only then did he check his own condition.

He was naked.

All the equipment he had been wearing was gone.

Without much thought, he killed everything he could see.

Even though the blade was a bit shorter, he was still the Swordmaster from the other world.

The flash of his sword, capable of cutting through illusions, and his swordsmanship, which overcame the limits of distance, were more than enough to slice through the monsters in one go.

Some of the monsters charged at him bravely, but they too were soon split in half and died.

Walking through the blood of the monsters, he discovered other people. Sadly, they had been torn to pieces and were already dead.

Seeing them die with their eyes wide open, Yuseong closed their eyes for them.

‘…What happened here?’

Judging by their faces, they looked Korean.

But why was this not the Korea he remembered?

There were no such monsters in Korea, and he felt no such ominous aura.

He moved toward the sounds of people nearby and saw a person being attacked by a monster. He immediately leaped in and beheaded the monster.

The monster's head fell, and its body collapsed. Seeing that the man in front of the monster was unharmed, Yuseong tried to speak to him.

“Huh.”

The man fainted and fell to the ground.

Yuseong tried to wake him and ask a few questions, but he soon noticed many people approaching. He quickly left the area.

He was naked and covered in blood.

Showing himself in this state would not earn him a good reputation.

‘And…’

He needed information.

During his journey, Yuseong encountered a strange hole.

It resembled the dimensional gate he had crossed but was a different kind of hole.

It was pitch black, and the aura emanating from it was unlike anything he had ever felt.

He could only vaguely guess that it connected to another dimension.

Yuseong wrapped himself in a robe taken from a dead person. He had avenged them, so taking this much was acceptable.

If not, he would return it later.

Leaving the area, he headed toward the city, which he could see in the distance.

He had arrived in what looked like a park, so he tried to avoid people and moved through the shadows toward the city.

He leaped a few times and climbed a high-rise building to get a better view of the surroundings and determine where he was.

“…Where am I?”

Where is this?

Damn it…

Yuseong cursed inwardly. It was a city he had never seen before.

The buildings were all new and shiny, and the layout was different from his old memories.

For a moment, he thought it might not be Korea, but the Korean signs everywhere suggested otherwise.

“Then, where am I?”

It didn't seem like the world he knew.

Had he somehow ended up on Earth 2344?

After a moment's thought, Yuseong decided he needed to clean himself up.

If he wandered around in this state, he would likely be mistaken for a criminal.

Moreover, there was a high chance that people would realize he had defeated the monsters on Earth.

His goal was to live quietly and without drawing attention now that he was back on Earth.

He leaped down from the high-rise building and entered a dark alley near a school.

It was a place where the scent of violence was thick. No matter how much time had passed, such places still harbored brutal violence.

In the alley, students in school uniforms were giggling and smoking.

A few students were huddled together, seemingly being bullied or extorted.

The sight of them standing there and giggling was pitiful.

Even if the world had changed, it was fortunate that the kids hadn't.

He approached them and said, “Put out your cigarettes.”

The students turned their attention to Yuseong, a man in a robe and barefoot, who exuded a strange aura. They tensed slightly and responded.

“Damn, what do you want? You old geezer.”

“Looks like a homeless guy. What, you want a cigarette?”

“Put out your cigarettes.”

Yuseong looked at the students, his eyes flashing.

His eyes, slightly tinged with red, flashed from under the robe, causing the students to flinch and take a few steps back before quietly putting out their cigarettes.

“Done?”

“And lend me your phone. Give me your slippers and money too.”

“….”

The student at the back pulled out a smartphone and pretended to hand it to Yuseong but threw it with all his might.

At the same time, he lunged at Yuseong with a punch.

“Damn, I'm the class monitor! Do you know what that means?!”

“I'm the class monitor too.”

The student, overwhelmed with anger, failed to control it.

Yuseong caught the smartphone, dodged the punch by tilting his head slightly, and countered with a punch of his own.

His extended fist grazed the bully's ear and slammed into the wall.

The brick wall crumbled as if it were tofu under his punch.

The student who had lunged at him fainted, eyes rolled back.

The other students, seeing their comrade subdued so quickly, froze in place.

Yuseong was already looking at them with his eerie red eyes.

“I'm the class monitor too.”

“…Y-Yes, sir.”

“Give me your money too.”

The remaining students complied.

Yuseong searched the fallen student's wallet for cash and took his slippers.

From naked and robed to naked, robed, and slippered.

He unlocked the student's smartphone using facial recognition and searched for the information he needed. First, he looked for a nearby bathhouse.

Finding a well-equipped bathhouse, he memorized its location and placed the smartphone on the student's back.

“Kids, be good. Be good. Don't bully others. Kids….”

“We will be good.”

“I'll come back to check if you're being good. You too, get out of here.”

The students, who had been hesitant, quickly disappeared.

The remaining bullies carried their unconscious friend out of the alley.

“Kids these days don't carry much cash.”

He had extorted three students and only got fifty thousand won.

They should carry more…

Flicking the five ten-thousand won bills, Yuseong entered the building with the bathhouse. It also had a 24-hour sauna.

“One adult.”

At the entrance, Yuseong handed over two ten-thousand won bills.

The receptionist, an auntie, glanced at the tall Yuseong and asked, “Just the bath? Or the sauna too?”

“The sauna too.”

“Make sure to shower before entering the bath.”

The auntie, not particularly interested in Yuseong's shabby appearance, handed him a cabinet key, a towel, and the largest sauna suit.

Yuseong took them and quietly headed to the bathhouse.

He was finally able to soak in warm water.

He washed off the monster's blood and bodily fluids with the hot water from the shower and then relaxed in the empty bath.

“Ah….”

How long had it been since he enjoyed such luxury?

After paying and getting a thorough cleaning, Yuseong dried off and changed into the sauna suit.

It was a bit tight, even though it was the largest size.

Still, it was the first proper clothing he had worn since returning to Earth.

He rubbed his chest and arms, which felt like they might burst, and looked around the sauna.

‘There it is.’

Inside the sauna was a small PC room.

He entered and sat at a suitable spot, turning on the computer.

It had been a long time since he had used an electronic device, but he quickly got used to it, having not wasted his school years.

He immediately opened a web browser and checked the date first.

October 6, 2022.

The autumn of 2022.

Seeing the date, Yuseong felt dizzy.

While he had spent several decades in the other world, only ten years had passed on Earth.

It was an unbelievable fact.

He had expected a time discrepancy, but the difference was enormous.

While he had aged to nearly eighty, only ten years had passed on Earth.

This realization was a significant shock to him.

He checked the date on the PC several times to ensure it was correct.

He had fallen into the other world decades ago and returned to Earth ten years later.

“Hmm….”

Putting aside the time discrepancy, he began searching for the information he needed.

Where was he? Why were there such monsters on Earth? What was that black hole?

He found a ten-minute video on YouTube that summarized the situation, and he quietly watched it.

“The world is in its final days.”

Yuseong muttered after finishing the video.

It truly was the end of the world.