REAPER SCANS
Legendary Returner’s Survival Guide
[Translator – TinTin ]
[Proofreader – Harley ]
Chapter 2
Nothing about the situation at hand made sense to Bin.
‘If the man standing in front of me is truly Jin Shi-hu, then who is the Jin Shi-hu on my watch?’
And that wasn't the only thing bothering him.
Bin tapped on the hologram projected from his watch and a voice started to play.
“It was definitely challenging. I wouldn't have gotten far without my sister's support.
“Ultimately, isn't the main goal of a novel to entertain readers? If the author doesn't find their own work interesting, how can they expect anyone else to?
“I was the same way at first. I wrote nothing but boring novels and thought, ‘Maybe I’m not cut out for this. I wish I was an awakener.’ But what can you do? Awakening is a gift bestowed upon the chosen few, and I simply wasn't one of them.
“An inferiority complex towards my sis? Ah, you're asking the tough questions. Of course I felt inferior. She isn’t just a little amazing, she’s far above and beyond the level of amazing. Still, she's the reason I was able to stick with writing. She helped me so much. I will never deny that. It's just… I want to do something for the world too, just like her. That’s why my dream is to write a story that truly entertains readers. Have I not already achieved that? No, I need to do more. It's not enough yet. Haha.”
It was a livestream, one that had a staggering 500,000 real-time viewers.
“If you're Jin Shi-hu,” Bin asked, “then who is this guy? How can there be two of you?”
It was exactly like Bin said. How could two identical people exist in different places at the same time?
Bin let out a sigh, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
As the world descended into chaos, the number of crazy people seemed to multiply. These kinds of pranks, if that's what it was, weren't funny in the slightest to Bin.
Shi-hu, who had been silently watching Bin, suddenly spoke.
“Do you know Jeong Hyoju and Jeong Seongju?”
“The names sound familiar…”
“Look them up. Quickly.”
Bin clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he still started a search.
The names popped up immediately, and there was a good reason for their familiarity.
In South Korea, there are people called Chaebol, rich families who were mega-wealthy from owning large companies or conglomerates.
Among those Chaebols, the top 30 were in a league of their own. The Jeongcheon Group was ranked fourth, with Jeong Jaeseok as its current Chairman.
He had two children: Jeong Hyoju and Jeong Seongju.
“Jeong Hyoju inherited Jeongcheon Hotel and runs it now, and Jeong Seongju is the President of Jeongcheon Automobile. Wow, a President at his age? I'm jealous,” Bin remarked.
“……”
The self-proclaimed Shi-hu was silent.
“Why did you want to know this anyway?”
Bin asked.
“It seems that something absurd has happened.”
Shi-hu replied, making Bin tilt his head in confusion.
“Hear me out here,” he continued.
“I was dragged to some strange place, fought tooth and nail to survive, and finally just made it back.”
He paused, but Bin remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
“And I wasn't sent there alone. There were exactly two hundred of us. But out of everyone who went, I was the only one who managed to come back alive. However, there's another me out there, perfectly fine, livestreaming. And you're telling me the others who went through hell with me are alive, too? How am I supposed to explain all this?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“…You’re not wrong there.”
He conceded the point. Then, he started laughing out loud.
Bin was certain of it. The man was missing a few screws in the head.
“Put your hand here.”
Bin told him as he pulled up another hologram window next to the livestream.
The man who called himself Jin Shi-hu silently placed his hand on the window.
The government-issued Gate Safety Management Officer Watch quickly analyzed his fingerprints.
Soon, his information was pulled up on the holo-window.
[Name: Jin Shi-hu
Age: 28
Non-Awakener
Notes: Jin Song-yi’s younger brother «Read More»]
It was a standard feature of the Gate Safety Management Officer Watch. Since officers primarily worked in the field, they could attach footnotes to people’s profiles, mostly of awakeners.
Those notes often included things to be wary of or personality quirks that couldn't be officially documented. It was an unofficial way to share information.
However, because the notes were anonymous, they had to be taken with a grain of salt.
Bin clicked on ‘Read More.’
[1: A bastard living a good life thanks to his sister.
2: I saw him get arrested for drug possession at a Gangnam Club. I’ve never seen someone as crazy as him. He was yelling at us in anger even with a shattered shoulder blade. It was terrifying to see.
3: Honestly, I envy this guy’s life. I’m sure others feel the same.
4: If it wasn’t for his sister, this guy would be rotting in jail for another thirty years. When he was a student, he used to beat up his classmates. He was hopeless from a young age. How could a guy like him write anything good? But thanks to Song-yi, he gets to drive a nice car and own a house in Gangnam. He must have been a war hero in his past life or something.
5: Jin Song-yi isn’t perfect either. If anything, she seems more human because of this idiot brother of hers.
6: If I were Song-yi, I would have stripped this trash naked and thrown him into a Gate.]
Even skimming through them, the comments were brutal.
Still, Bin couldn't deny there might be some truth to them.
The only positive takeaway was that he seemed to have cleaned up his act, at least compared to the past.
As mentioned before, footnotes were usually reserved for Awakeners, but Jin Shi-hu was a special case because his sister was Jin Song-yi.
There probably wasn’t a single ordinary person who had as many footnotes as him. He probably even had more than the President.
‘Don’t get sidetracked.’
Bin thought to himself as he decided to put the contents of the footnote aside for now…
“…What the heck?”
Bin muttered, his eyes darting back and forth across the watch's display. It had identified the man as Jin Shi-hu.
The one and only Jin Shi-hu.
The same Jin Shi-hu currently livestreaming.
His mind struggled to grasp the situation. It was as if someone had hit his head with a hammer.
‘What kind of person would orchestrate such a bizarre, unfunny prank?’
“See? It’s my name.”
Shi-hu’s voice drew Bin’s attention back to him.
“…Yes, it is. It’s your name, Jin Shi-hu.”
Bin’s voice sounded hollow even to his own ears.
‘I’m gonna go insane.’
That was when it happened.
Rumble rumble.
A tremor ran through the ground.
Bin turned his head towards the source of the disturbance just in time to see space itself twisting and distorting.
‘Heavens above.’
It was a Gate Creation Phenomenon.
The alarms were like the boy who cried wolf. Blinded by the recent string of false alarms, Bin had let his guard down.
The first rule of gates: if you are at the epicenter of a Gate Creation, you will be dragged in. There was no stopping it.
That was why they monitored and restricted the areas. But like fools, Shi-hu and Bin were standing directly at the epicenter.
The distorted space solidified into a massive, ominous doorway, and the two were pulled inside.
* * *
Reaper Scans
[Translator – TinTin ]
[Proofreader – Harley ]
Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
* * *
‘Stupid. Stupid. I was so careless. I should have been more cautious, more prepared.’
Bin blamed himself.
Even though the shepherd boy had lied, the wolf eventually appeared.
‘There was a gate abnormality observed. Even with multiple false alarms, I should have stayed vigilant. Instead, I got swept into a Gate because I let my guard down.’
If it had been a lowly F rank gate, Bin wouldn't be grumbling like he was.
However, Bin had used his watch to determine the grade of the gate he had entered. The watch doubled as a ‘Mobile Special Gate Detector,’ certified by the World Hunter Association itself, and it assessed the gate he entered as ‘A rank.’
To clear an A rank gate alone required an Awakener stronger than A rank. So, an S rank Awakener at the very least.
Of course, South Korea had its fair share of S rank Awakeners. A couple of dozen, at the very least. Maybe even over a hundred.
However, Bin wasn't one of them.
“Um, are you alright?”
The man’s voice startled Bin.
As if things weren't bad enough, Bin had the fake Shi-hu present as well. Admittedly, his voice was rather short when he replied.
“Do I look alright?”
To Bin’s surprise, Shi-hu had a strange smile on his face.
“Weird things must have happened here as well while I was gone.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Shi-hu glanced around. Only moments ago, police officers had been controlling the crosswalk and the surrounding area. Now, they were gone, vanished without a trace.
Instead, Bin and Shi-hu were standing alone in a forest.
That was the nature of gates. They transported you to an unknown location, and you had to clear them from within.
Failure to clear a gate within a certain timeframe would result in a ‘Gate Break’, which would devastate the surrounding area.
A B rank Gate, for example, could obliterate everything within a 5km radius. At the same time, every single monster inside the gate would come pouring out.
It would be pure chaos. That was why Awakeners dedicated their lives to clearing gates.
“Interesting. Is it teleportation? Even Dragons wouldn't be able to create a new space so easily,” Shi-hu said in fascination.
Bin couldn't understand his reaction at all.
“…You think this is interesting? Do you even realize what kind of situation we're in?”
“What kind of situation are we in?”
“You’re driving me mad! Have you been living under a rock? This is a gate! A gate!”
“What’s a Gate?” Shi-hu asked sincerely.
Bin stared at him, completely speechless.
“It’s been ten years since I disappeared from Earth. Ten years, I tell you. And since we now have nothing better to do, why don't you fill me in? What happened on Earth?”
Bin was floored. Was getting stuck in a gate not enough? Why was the man trying to drive him completely insane?
“…Did you really go missing?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you disappear to?”
“Have you heard of Titan?”
“I vaguely remember hearing something like that in Greek and Roman mythology.”
Shi-hu chuckled. He squatted down in front of Bin before he asked another question.
“You know Isekais, right?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that a trope where someone ends up in another world and becomes super powerful?”
“Think of it as it being more or less that. August 16, 2024. On that day, two hundred people, including myself, fell into Titan. And I'm the only one who made it back.”
A question burned in Bin’s mind.
“Do you know when the Gate Creation Phenomenons started?”
“When did it start?”
“August 16, 2024.”
Shi-hu had a melancholic smile on his face.
“What a strange coincidence. For multiple misfortunes to coincide on my birthday…”
Bin could relate. Today was his birthday, and it likely was about to be his final day.
“Let’s stop with the jokes now.”
Bin spoke with a stern voice.
“Jokes?”
“Look, Mr. Shi-hu. Are you writing a new novel or something? I heard about a novelist who borrowed money from a loan shark just to find out what happens for real when you don’t repay the debt. Is that what this is?”
Shi-hu tilted his head in confusion.
Bin continued, “The livestream was just a recording, right? You’re just pretending not to understand, aren’t you? Is Ms. Song-yi or the Awakeners from the ‘Salvation Guild’ nearby?”
Shi-hu double blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“What?”
“I know you’re confused, but why can’t you take the situation at face value and instead are making things up in your head?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not acting. I am Jin Shi-hu. I spent ten years in a place called Titan and suffered more than you can imagine. And now that I finally managed to return, I find that Earth is a mess and some bastard is pretending to be me. Not only that, but there are others imitating the people who got trapped in Titan with me. That's the situation. Now, take a deep breath.”
Seeing Bin standing around dumbfounded, Shi-hu patted him on the back.
Suddenly, his pounding heart slowed down to a normal heart rate.
“Smile. You need to be more laid back,” Shi-hu advised Bin.
“……”
Bin let out a deep sigh.
Then, just as Bin was about to explain everything that had happened on Earth, something happened.
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