Everyone Else is a Returnee

I Live Alone (3)

Yu IlHan, who returned to his home in Seoul, Korea, revised the fantasy novels. What would change when monsters start appearing in society, what else is needed other than strength and knowledge to do well in the changed society – he wanted to learn these.

The things Yu IlHan did right now was no different from Korean youths getting specs and studying early in order to ‘go to a good university’ or to ‘get employed in a good company’. That was obvious as the only thing he learned before he was left out was that. So perhaps it was an acceptable thing to pile up specs for hundreds of years.

[No, I definitely can’t accept it……!]

Rita, who came back, sneaked back to Yu IlHan’s side while he was researching various things from all kinds of fantasy novels, looked at him and shook her head. No matter how study-stricken Korean students were, was it possible to study for several hundreds of years!?

Of course, Yu IlHan’s current actions were mostly due to escapism to forget his own loneliness, but not submitting under such a situation and finding new things to do was proof of his strong mentality. No, perhaps the long period of training may have changed him.

“Rita, since you’re here, tell me. I want to try corpse disassembly or smithing. What should I try first?”

Yu IlHan looked at Rita with a serious gaze. Rita thought it was absurd but she had no choice but to reply.

[To confront monsters, defensive equipment and weapons made with monsters as materials are the most efficient so I can say ‘both’, but I think it’s easier for you to learn the basics of disassembly rather than smithing. It’s also more prioritized on the scene.]

“Then disassembly it is.”

[Hey, rest for a bit!]

Animals were abundant in this world, and Yu IlHan had the confidence to hunt any animal if he had a good spear so he didn’t hesitate. He looked for a suitable weapons factory and acquired a few spears and went into action.

Disassembly wasn’t easy. Not only was it difficult to hunt the animal without injuring it much, peeling the leather without damaging it and cutting the meat by parts and processing all of it was considerably profound; and the process was different for cows, pigs, bears, tigers, lions, elephants, etc.

However, time solved everything. Yu IlHan hunted and disassembled most of the animals he could hunt in several decades and learnt the techniques. It was to the point that he could estimate and see through how he would disassemble an animal he had never seen before.

“Rita, if I hunted all the animals now, wouldn’t monsters not appear then?”

[God has sent humans to other worlds in order for humans and monsters to compete in the same conditions.]

“Excluding me.”

Rita naturally ignored Yu IlHan’s words and continued speaking.

[But if you kill all the animals now, then it goes against the ‘balance’. The reason I’m also helping you now is to match the balance, so do you think I will let you hunt all the animals? Just obediently hunt the amount I allow you to.]

“Tch.”

The last task of disassembly was the sperm whale.

[Stop it, you idiot!]

“Call me Ishmael……”

[Don’t tell jokes that nobody can understand!]

“Don’t say stupid things. It’s not that there’s nobody to understand but there are no people at all!”

While training martial arts for hundreds of years, and conquering all the libraries in the world, Yu IlHan became strangely stubborn. He acted first after deciding something was necessary to complete a task. Hunting sperm whales was an example.

Of course, as sperm whales were designated as endangered species and was prohibited to hunt, but honestly, Yu IlHan couldn’t care less.

“Won’t the animal population have increased rapidly after humanity comes back?”

[Unlike you, they can’t eat and they don’t grow either, but like you don’t age, they don’t age and can’t reproduce. And that’s all……]

“And you’ll say ‘because time stopped’!”

[Because time sto……Whoa!?]

He spent one month before encountering a sperm whale, but that amount of time wasn’t even considered ‘waiting’. Yu IlHan who was calmly training his martial arts on the deck, finished hunting the sperm whale as soon as he encountered it and he disassembled it.

According to what Rita said, there were some monsters which carried parts that had a special effect or some other reason to be exchanged for a large sum, so disassembling a sperm whale which had ambergris was an extremely advisable practice.

[People usually think of escaping first when monsters appear in the world.]

“Who was it that made them prepare to fight and now you’re speaking nonsense? Anyway, now I’ve gotten used to disassembly, I will learn smithing.”

[Yeah, you do everything, eeeeverything.]

This was exactly on the 300th year after being left behind.

It was a hammer that he picked up without thinking, but he unexpectedly spent a lot of time on it. As he had to learn from existing records since there was no one to teach him, it was too difficult.

Still, as he had a body that was developed to an extreme due to hundreds of years of training, he was saved on the point that he didn’t feel tired even with all the perilous work.

“When! I! Read! Fantasy! Novels! They! All! Learn! Skills! Easily! But! Why! Can! I! Not! Do! Anything! Easily!?”

Yu IlHan spat out each word each time he hammered the piece of metal on the anvil and ground his teeth. ‘Then don’t do it’ – these words came up to Rita’s throat but as she knew that Yu IlHan wouldn’t stop even if she said so, she just called wind and cooled the sweat on his head.

“Just! Teach! Me! The! Skill! To! Call! Wind!”

[I said you need to handle mana?]

“ARRGH!”

It took no less than 5 years for him to become used to using the furnace, extracting various metals such as iron, blowing the bellows, and produce a sword that could be considered ‘having an edge’.

Rita, who received Yu IlHan’s first work, which was neither a longsword nor a shortsword but somewhere in the middle, gently closed her eyes and looked at the sword before voicing her honest opinions.

[I wonder if you can slice a radish with this.]

“I won’t tell you to slash a radish so give it back.”

[I want it was commemoration. I’ll ask Lord God to preserve this even after the world resets.]

“Why do you want to bully me so much……!?”

And when about 30 more years passed, Yu IlHan had the confidence that he made a sword that was better than factory-made ones.

And after 50 more years passed, he had confidence that the weapon he created surpassed all the existing weapons on Earth, but Yu IlHan, who knew well that his ability wasn’t good enough yet couldn’t stop there.

Like a student who received 97 points on a mock test, Yu IlHan clung to smithing which had no clear answer. He created weapons that contained metals such as swords, spears, and axes, and even polearms. He conquered defensive equipments such as battle gloves as well. And 50 more years passed like that.

“No, you can’t even cut a cucumber with this!”

[Are the cucumber you know made of diamonds?]

It was truly unfortunate but all humans had something called ‘talent’. According to the presence or absence of this talent, there were people who wouldn’t be able to achieve something no matter how much effort they put into it; and there were people who would achieve a world record by just trying once; and there were people who achieved as much as they put into it.

Yu IlHan was in no way a genius that mastered a technique by just trying once. However, as he steadily put more effort, his ability was increasing. Slowly, but never stopping.

It was truly a coincidence, but to him who was forgotten by God and was left alone in the world, it was a blessing. The centuries became his asset without being wasted.

When 200 and a few more years passed since he first picked up the hammer, Yu IlHan succeeded in creating a weapon to his liking. He pursued weapons that he could create in his personal space so it wasn’t made from anything like titanium alloy or carbon nanocubes (!!) and such new materials, and was made from steel, but that spear was overly hard and sharp to be created by a human.

“How is it?”

[I thought there was a limit to the technology on Earth… but human tenacity brings miracles…….]

“Ahahaha. I’ve finally created a steel sword that can make Mo Palmo cry!……!”(T/N: Mo Palmo is a master swordsmith in the Jumong Myth, the closest English alternative would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_the_Smith according to google)

[This is a spear though.]

There were points that even Rita, an angel, would marvel at. The sharpness which seemed like one would get cut from just looking at it, and hardness. The spearpoint and the spear shaft was separated by a socket but the spear shaft was also made entirely from steel, and it was heavy.

Wielding this spear freely was only possible by Rita or Yu IlHan. Of course, there were only the two of them on Earth right now other than animals.

[But I kept telling you, though? When mana is released, new materials would be birthed endlessly, so why are you so obsessed with steel?]

“Now that I’ve gotten used to handling metals, I’ll be handle whatever material that comes at me.”

Yu IlHan indifferently replied and swung the spear after Rita handed it to him. As it was created to fit his body figure, the feeling he got when he swung it was addictively great. A handicraft that can be used for several decades or more if maintained it well, had been created.

This was on the 507th year after he was left behind.

“Then.”

Yu IlHan sighed while putting down the spear.

“What now?”

Rita’s heart sank after she heard those words. She wished for the time humanity would come back when she saw him holding the hammer for more than several decades, but she didn’t know that even now, when more than 50 times the estimated 10 years had passed, humanity didn’t return.

Just how much deviation is there on the time axis to become like this? Rita wanted to nitpick with God, but in truth, she hadn’t even met God in person. An existence that forever had to wait without requesting answers. She learned that from a senior angel.

[The Great Cataclysm must be coming soon, right? You don’t know when you have to fight with monsters so I think it’s better to train your martial arts and heighten your senses.]

“Well, I think we’re past the 100 year boundary so it’s about time for them to come back, right?”

Yu IlHan, who lived by immersing himself in the task in front of him, didn’t know the flow of time well. All time observation devices in the world had stopped so Rita, who was a higher existence, was the only one who could tell him the time. To Rita, it was instead fortunate.

And so, Yu IlHan started training his martial arts again. It was still Vale Tudo and spearmanship, but too many things had changed when compared to the beginning.

The degree of body tempering and techniques were different, and especially, his concentration was different. The concentration which increased due to reading and smithing was an incomparable achievement.

“Whoa, I feel like I’ve swung the spear for 3 hours. Rita, give me food. I’m so hungry that I’m about to die.”

Perhaps due to conentrating while swinging his weapon, he got more hungry. Yu IlHan thought that but Rita inwardly sweated cold sweat even though she was smiling outwardly. The time he concentrated on his spearmanship wasn’t 3 hours but 3 days.

From then, Rita prepared one meal per day – meaning one every 24 hours. Of course the amount was huge, but Yu IlHan instantly cleared it and concentrated on training again.

And when 200 years passed like that, Yu IlHan felt it was insufficient with just the spear so he started picking up other weapons. Daggers, greatswords, axes, and even guns couldn’t avoid his hand.

Martial arts was the same. He researched into and learnt Taekwondo, Aikido, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and even some martial arts which only existed in records.

With that moment as the turning point, his physical body overcame the limit and started transforming. Above all, the power and durability of his muscles became stronger but the volume was decreasing little by little.

It wasn’t just something like ‘compressed muscles’ that people talked about. His body cells which were exposed to a miraculous state where it didn’t age but kept being active, was mutating due to the long period of training. Stronger, but more efficiently in order to not become a hindrance to movement.

Of course, the bones, the skin, and even the inner organs were the same. As if it knew that it would have to confront many enemies in the future, it was strongly evolving to optimize itself to battle. Roughly speaking, it was comparable to a mutation that wouldn’t happen for several generations was happening in one human’s body.

Rita observed that and she couldn’t hide her disappointment. Thanks to God’s mistake, she was able to see a human exceeding humans even without mana, and when the Great Cataclysm happens and Yu IlHan learns mana, then he might grow up into a truly amazing existence!

‘Did you perhaps intend IlHan’s growth? Are you bullying him since IlHan’s growth isn’t to your liking yet? Just when…… Just when is it? He would approach his limit some time. Please send humanity back to earth before that happens. Before he decides to give up life, please……!’

As if mocking Rita’s prayer, which contained her earnest feelings, time kept flowing. Fortunately, Yu ILHan was immersed in martial arts so he wasn’t well aware of the flow of time , but unless he was God, he would eventually hit a limit.

When the limit approaches, what could Rita do for Yu IlHan? Just what?

‘If there is something that IlHan didn’t experience yet……’

Rita’s imagination which extended endlessly arrived at one point. A scene where a man and a woman were passionately entwining themselves on top of bed was playing in a strangely vivid manner inside her head. Among them, the woman’s face belonged to Rita. Then the man’s was……

After looking at Yu IlHan kicking and punching lumps of steel as fighting partner, her cheeks reddened like a tomato.

‘I’m so superficial even though I’m an angel who proceeds God’s orders. Even though it was a long time ago when I was freed from trivial emotions and desires…’

However, the more she thought about Yu IlHan’s figure immersing himself in reading, martial arts and smithing, her thoughts became more realistic.

The most novel and shocking stimulation. No matter how fed up Yu IlHan was with everything, wouldn’t he have no choice but to be fascinated by such a stimulation? Like the time he immersed himself in reading or smithing. To the point that he would immerse himself for 200 years without doing anything else……

Rita’s face became even more red when she imagined that. To think her face would change due to emotions! If she told this to herself before coming to Earth, she would never believe it.

‘Yes, this is, in the end, to proceed with God’s orders and not to fulfill my desires. If there is a person who can’t wait for the Great Cataclysm and die mid way, that’s ruining God’s reputation. From the beginning, this was my reason for coming to IlHan so I’m absolutely in the right.’

With a speed that would make Usain Bolt cry, the thoughts inside her mind was justified. From the next moment, she was pondering on the timing to pounce at Yu IlHan.

She wanted to provide a new stimulation straight away according to her heart… No, for Yu IlHan, but while he’s immersing himself in martial arts, she can’t bother him. To tie his will here, she had to wait persistently.

At this point, Rita was having a huge misunderstanding. Yu IlHan was, of course, moving to escape from the dull life, but his principles in acting was was based in surviving after the Great Cataclysm occurs.

If he just wanted new stimulation, there were many things he could do. Whether it was games or sports, or whatever.

As she hadn’t considered this point, Rita was basically confessing that she loved Yu IlHan. Perhaps Rita also might have become strange while observing Yu Ilhan for so many years.

However, sadly, or fortunately, the time for Rita to erupt her feelings and desires to Yu IlHan didn’t come.

When exactly 1 thousand years had passed after Yu IlHan was left by humanity.

The world reset and humanity came back.

Author’s notes

I will even return humanity if it’s to block MC’s graduation from virginity!!!!

Jokes. It was planned as 1000 years from the start.

Then I’ll come back tomorrow. Please enjoy your reading

PS – I added explanations as to why Yu IlHan can’t kill all the animals. Everything’s for the sake of balance! All Heil Balance!