By Zephyria 
Kim Si-baek pressed his forehead, stunned. The fingertips covering his face, which had lost its color in an instant, were deathly pale.
‘What I just saw… was that really the future?’
He even wondered if he had been hit by a mental attack from someone with malicious intent, but it had been far too realistic to dismiss it as such. Because the first-person perspective had been so high and he had been so bewildered, the scenery of the ground had only slowly etched itself into his mind afterward.
Countless corpses strewn across the earth, stained with fear, despair, and horror. Among them, there was unmistakably Lee Han-gyeol. Not as a child from old memories, but as a grown adult, just as he had witnessed a moment ago.
Seeing that his appearance hadn’t changed drastically, it didn’t seem as though a vast amount of time had passed from the present. What season was it? How much time was left?
Was Lee Han-gyeol the only sibling who had become a corpse?
‘Damn it.’
Kim Si-baek desperately tried to recall the faces of his siblings. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even imagine how they would have grown up.
[Death and Beauty looks at you with worry.]
It was only after a considerable amount of time had passed that he was able to explain the vision to Biyendwe.
[Death and Beauty wails that they cannot die in a world with almost no divine energy.]
[Death and Beauty calls out to Death and Rest with all their might.]
[There is no answer from Death and Rest.]
[Death and Beauty is so terrified that they cannot see anything before them.]
Divine utterances appeared one after another before his eyes. As the baby crow fluttered its short wings, frantically flying in all directions, Kim Si-baek was actually able to regain his composure.
‘The destruction of Earth…’
Kim Si-baek clenched his interlaced fingers tightly. Although the vision had left no physical impact, it was so vivid that his head throbbed.
The concept of destruction was not unfamiliar to him. In Mak Slecht, Chaos Grand Warriors who served chaos, like Edokus, would occasionally manifest, and magical beasts would run rampant during those periods. If the Chaos Grand Warriors had not been subjugated, Mak Slecht would have met its ruin.
However, even when a Chaos Grand Warrior manifested, it was impossible for the gods to intervene directly. At most, they would give a very indirect oracle or appoint an apostle or grand warrior to a vacant position. They had never once granted a quest to prevent destruction, like this ‘system.’
‘Wasn’t it because the consequences of causality were greater if a god intervened, so they could only exert indirect influence? Is the situation different on Earth…’
He didn’t know. For starters, Earth was not a world where divinity was closely intertwined with humans, unlike Mak Slecht.
There was only one person on Earth he could share these doubts with.
“Biyendwe, I think I’d like to discuss this with Un-i.”
When he reached out and scooped up the fluttering baby crow into his arms, Biyendwe clung tightly to his forearm with its wings. He was the only one who could protect this terrified young god. Steadying his heart, Kim Si-baek walked toward the elevator.
Unlike the morning, many people were moving in and out of the building. When he gave his name in front of the CEO’s office, the secretary guided him in immediately, as if she had been notified in advance.
There was already a guest in the CEO’s office. It was a woman wearing a guild uniform with her hands behind her back.
“The Guild Master and I only have a few years left until we hit forty. Five or six years go by in a flash. You need to manage your health starting now before you suddenly collapse from old age.”
“I get it, so just leave.”
Tae-un waved her off dismissively. The woman, who wore a guild ID badge around her neck and spoke like a health supplement salesperson, gave a polite bow to Kim Si-baek and left the office.
Kim Si-baek’s dynamic visual acuity allowed him to read the name on her ID badge as she passed.
[7777 Guild Strategy Department, 2nd Attack Squad Leader, Seo Gae-un]
〈Oppa, chicken is great, but I want pizza next time! I can eat a whole pie by myself.〉
Kim Si-baek’s gaze sank as he watched Seo Gae-un’s receding figure. She had such a hearty appetite since she was little, and now she had become a tall, sturdy adult.
…Was Gae-un also among those corpses the vision had shown?
Swallowing a heavy sigh, he pressed his palms firmly against his eyelids before releasing them. After composing his expression, Kim Si-baek succeeded in feigning normalcy.
“Why does Gae-un talk like that?”
“I brought her in because she spent a long time in the military.”
“She studied hard saying she wanted to be a soldier, and it looks like her wish came true.”
“Since the world almost ended, the military values those from hunter backgrounds more than graduates of the Military Academy.”
Though unintentional, the conversation had drifted toward the topic of destruction. He could feel Biyendwe, held in his arms, trembling violently.
“You’re busy, right? I’ll wait until you’re finished.”
“It doesn’t matter. Is there anything more important than you, Hyung?”
Before Kim Si-baek could stop him, Tae-un took off his glasses and stood up. He then guided him to sit side by side on the sofa. Biyendwe, after drinking the warm herbal tea the secretary brought, calmed down a bit.
“A quest just appeared from the system.”
“Huh?”
Tae-un’s expression went blank.
“The system? What is that?”
“Eh? You don’t know? It’s similar to a status window.”
“A status window? You mean the thing from games?”
Kim Si-baek was also bewildered. Since magical beasts and Awakened had appeared on Earth just as they had in Mak Slecht, he naturally assumed there would be status windows. He had thought the ‘system’ that activated upon his arrival on Earth was a means of conveying the will of ‘Earth,’ much like the divine utterances that conveyed the will of the gods. Since there was a system replacing the divine utterances, he assumed a status window would naturally exist.
“If there’s no status window, how do you check your abilities?”
“We figure it out by bumping into things one by one. Now that a lot of information has been gathered, it’s been categorized to some extent, but in the beginning, it was a complete mess.”
It was a headache that this was an unfamiliar concept. How was he supposed to explain it when there was no common ground of knowledge?
“What exactly is this system?”
“Hmm, well…”
As he pondered the explanation in his head, a new window popped up before his eyes as if it had been waiting.
[Are you having trouble explaining the system? (╥﹏╥) We’ve prepared something for a Returner like you.]
[Tutorial Quest 02]
[Induce a living being capable of language to say the words ‘Status Window.’ Something amazing might happen!]
[Time Remaining: 10 minutes 00 seconds]
Kim Si-baek clutched his forehead.
“…Um, Un-ah. This might sound strange, but another quest just appeared.”
“Really?”
He was prepared to be looked at like a madman, but Tae-un’s expression remained unchanged. He simply followed Kim Si-baek’s gaze into the empty air.
“Do you believe what I say?”
“I do.”
It wasn’t an exaggerated or passionate tone. The calm response revealed Tae-un’s sincerity all the more. Beyond that, the image of the young boy who used to take his jokes literally overlapped.
He was momentarily speechless. Twenty-one years is more than enough time for a person to change. Yet, how could this child be so consistent?
[Death and Beauty says that this person would probably cherish a pebble from the street if my apostle gave it to them as a gem.]
…He couldn’t deny it. Pretending not to see the divine utterance, Kim Si-baek briefly explained the status window and the quest. Tae-un’s face looked slightly skeptical.
“I’ll do it if you tell me to, Hyung… but honestly, it’s a bit, uh, mmm…”
He understood. Reality isn’t a game, and Kim Si-baek himself had once found it truly embarrassing to actually say the words ‘Status Window.’ However, in the beginning, it was essential to verbalize one’s will to convey it to the divinity that filled Mak Slecht, so there was no other way.
“So you’re saying the world will end if I don’t say it?”
“Uh, well…”
He felt like he was becoming quite stupid while explaining it, but Tae-un nodded seriously. Then, in a clear voice, he uttered a single term.
“Status window.”
Nothing happened.
“….”
[Too bad The lesson that you shouldn’t blindly trust others is the reward for this quest. Please convince them on your own. I believe in you, Returner (~˘▾˘)~♫•¨•.¸¸♪]
[Ah, but it’s true that the world will end. If you can’t believe it, you can fail the quest and acquire the achievement of having destroyed Earth! Goodbye!]
“….”
Ah, seriously…
Even Kim Si-baek, who didn’t usually use foul language, had to swallow the curses surging up in his throat.
“Si-baek Hyung?”
Only Kim Si-baek, who wasn’t the one who had actually spoken the words ‘status window’ at age 35, covered his face, his earlobes turning bright red.
After many twists and turns, he explained the quest in detail, and Tae-un, once again, understood obediently without any sign of doubt.
“Hmm, so you mean in Mak Slecht, you can see things like status windows and divine utterances? Unlike Earth, where magical beasts appear similarly?”
“The gods were the ones who created the systems of status windows and divine utterances. So I thought the god of Earth would have done something similar, but I guess not.”
“I don’t even know if there’s such a thing as a representative god on Earth. Even if it’s the god of the most powerful religion, nothing special happened after the Great Cataclysm.”
“Didn’t the priests manifest divine power?”
“I don’t know what divine power is, but there are awakened priests, like the nun at our orphanage, but they use magical power just like ordinary people.”
Tae-un tapped his chin, lost in thought.
“In the first place, is the system that interfered with you really the god of Earth? It lacks dignity.”
Kim Si-baek agreed. In particular, he wished they would stop using those dizzying expressions that used parentheses and symbols to mimic facial expressions.
“Judging by the way it talks, it feels like the system has an ego; it’s actually a relief that we can’t communicate.”
“Why?”
“Because if we had a conversation, I feel like you’d die of frustration, Hyung.”
“Uh-huh…”
Tae-un continued the conversation playfully, as if trying to lighten the serious atmosphere. Thanks to that, Kim Si-baek, whose chest had felt tight and stifled since witnessing the vision, was able to breathe a little easier.
“Though I like seeing you frustrated for a change. You always took everything on yourself without showing it, Si-baek Hyung. Even when I said I’d help, you always just said you were fine.”
“It would be a failure as an adult if I had to rely on you, who is fourteen years younger.”
“What about now? I’m all grown up too.”
The sofa seemed to shake slightly, and Tae-un, who had been sitting at a distance, moved closer. The presence of a robust adult male suddenly closed in.