REAPER SCANS
Legendary Returner’s Survival Guide
[Translator – TinTin ]
[Proofreader – Harley ]
Chapter 3
Rumble—!!
It was a loud sound, like a bomb explosion.
No, not quite like a bomb. More like something massive landing on the ground.
Bin and Shi-hu turned their heads in unison.
A colossal boulder, easily thirty meters tall, stood before them.
However, it wasn’t just any boulder. It had a head, arms, and legs.
“Is that… a Golem…?”
“It’s a Golem.”
They spoke simultaneously, Bin stumbling over his words, then turned to look at each other.
“…Didn’t you say you went missing? How do you know about Golems?”
“That’s because I saw plenty back on Titan.”
“……”
Bin was speechless.
Silence stretched between them.
“Don’t believe me?” Shi-hu asked.
“Look, whether I believe you or not, we need to run. Now. Grab my hand.”
As a B rank Awakener, Bin possessed several ‘Skills.’
One of them, «Swiftness», was perfect for the situation.
It drastically increased his running speed by lightening his steps, and anyone in physical contact with him would receive the same benefit.
However, Shi-hu didn’t take Bin’s hand.
‘Why bother running?’
As he thought as much, Shi-hu stood up and flicked a finger at the Golem.
《White Lotus Sect - Seven Seals of the Holy Flame.
1st Technique - Heaven-Shattering Flick》
What happened next was astonishing.
A single beam of light flashed.
That was all Bin could see.
And then…
BOOOOOM—!
With a deafening roar, the A rank Golem shattered into a million pieces.
Bin stared blankly, utterly dumbfounded.
‘What was that? What did I just see?’
Where the Golem once stood, a single, tiny orb floated in the air. Shi-hu flicked his finger again, aiming at the fingernail-sized orb.
Another beam of light shot out.
Boom!
With that sound, the orb also exploded.
Golems were artificial constructs, and constructs needed a power source to move. That power source was usually a core.
Destroy the core, and the Golem was finished.
Shi-hu sat back down, and then he repeated his question.
“Now, tell me. What happened to Earth in the last ten years?”
* * *
Reaper Scans
[Translator – TinTin ]
[Proofreader – Harley ]
Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
* * *
August 16, 2024.
The day Shi-hu disappeared was also the day the world changed.
Strange, door-like structures began appearing out of thin air all over the globe.
People called them ‘gates.’
After a certain amount of time, those gates would explode in an event known as a ‘gate break’, unleashing a horde of monsters upon the world.
But that wasn’t all.
The emergence of gates coincided with the appearance of a ‘System’. It integrated itself with random people, regardless of age or gender.
Those individuals could access a holographic interface displaying their information and gained access to a ‘dimensional pocket’—also known as an inventory—a feat impossible with modern technology.
The inventory could store various items, its capacity increasing as the user grew stronger.
People were understandably shocked to find themselves turned into video game characters out of the blue, but it was no dream. It was their new reality. Those who gained access to the System were called ‘Awakeners.’
All of that was recorded history. 2024, the year human life changed forever, was known as the ‘Year of the Cataclysm’.
The transformed world was simple to explain.
Awakeners could enter and clear gates by defeating all of the monsters within a gate, gaining experience, and leveling up in the process.
Leveling up granted ‘Stat Points’, which could be allocated to five stats: Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, and Mana.
Among Awakeners, some awakened with special abilities right from the start. They were known as ‘Unique Awakeners’ and possessed ‘Unique Skills’, which were unattainable by ordinary means.
Currently, there were seven individuals considered the strongest Awakeners, and all of them were Unique Awakeners.
Those seven were like stars, making them known as ‘The Seven Stars’ across the world.
Jin Song-yi was the only South Korean among the Seven Stars.
The Great Calamity brought countless incidents and upheavals, leading to a surge of new literature and, naturally, new occupations.
That was the world now.
In the early days, people who cleared gates were initially called ‘hunters’, but the official term was now ‘C-Runner’. It was even in the dictionary.
For a while, they used to be called ‘clear runners’, but that ended up being shortened to C-Runner.
After listening to the explanation, Shi-hu crossed his arms.
“What a mess,” Shi-hu muttered, and Bin agreed.
“It is a mess. And our situation is pretty messed up, too.”
“Why is that?”
“We’re inside a gate. We can’t get out unless we clear it.”
“You said there are new jobs. Are there no rescue teams?”
“…There are, but my watch says this is an A rank gate. It’s not something a rescue team can handle. It requires a party of Awakeners to officially clear it. And when a gate appears, there’s a whole process of gathering Awakeners to clear it. That takes time. So it’ll take at least…”
“At least…?”
“A week. It’ll be at least a week for a rescue team to arrive.”
“That’s a long time.”
“It could be even longer.”
“Why?”
“I forgot to mention it earlier, but when an Awakener enters a gate, the ‘gate break’ timer pauses until they die.”
“How do you know if someone’s inside a gate?”
“I don’t know if you saw, but gates look like doors, and the space around them distorts. If someone’s inside, the distortion stops.”
“That’s fascinating.”
“…I guess it is fascinating. Anyway, we just have to hold out. One week. Two weeks. Whatever it takes.”
Shi-hu didn’t understand.
“Can’t we just clear it?”
“I’m a B rank Awakener. How am I supposed to clear an A rank gate alone?” Bin exclaimed.
Shi-hu chuckled.
“That’s pretty low.”
“It’s not low at all! Haah…”
Bin tried to protest but gave up.
“Anyway, I explained the jist of things. Now it’s your turn. What was that you did back there? That laser beam thing?”
Shi-hu flicked his finger again, this time at the sky.
BOOM!
A thunderous boom echoed as the beam of light collided with the sky.
“This?”
“…Yes, that. Did you learn it on that Titan-majigy place? Or, could it be…”
“Could be what?”
“Are you a Unique Awakener? Like, did you just Awaken with an incredible power?”
Shi-hu replied casually while glancing around, “Learned it on Titan. That’s all you need to know. So, you mentioned a ‘Salvation Guild’ earlier?”
“Yes.”
“What’s that?”
“Jin Song-yi awakened in the early days of the Great Calamity. She worked for the government’s ‘Gate Rescue Team’ for two years before quitting and founding the Salvation Guild. It’s the top Guild in South Korea, and a major corporation, too.”
When the world changed so drastically, wealth redistribution was inevitable. Some strike it rich, others lose everything.
Jin Song-yi was the former, and she had the skills to back it up, so there was no need to elaborate further.
Shi-hu nodded, seemingly satisfied with the explanation.
It seemed to him that the world hadn’t just changed; it had undergone a complete transformation.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Did you not hear what I just said? You’re talking like this is a cafe we can just walk out of.”
Bin was incredulous.
“It might as well be the same for me.”
Shi-hu’s tone was nonchalant.
“……”
Bin was stunned.
“One more question. To clear this gate, do we just need to kill the Summoner of that Golem either?”
“For A rank Golem gates, there are two ways to clear them,” Bin explained. “Find the ‘treasure’ inside, or kill all the ‘summoners’.”
“In that case… Is it okay if we just go with the simpler option?”
“What are you planning?”
Bin’s voice was wary.
Shi-hu didn’t answer with words.
Instead, he clenched both his hands into fists.
His gaze, along with his fists, focused on a massive mountain in the distance.
With that, Shi-hu flicked all ten of his fingers.
《White Lotus Sect - Seven Seals of the Holy Flame.
1st Technique Variant - Ten Heaven-Shattering Flicks.》
Ten beams of light shone out.
Each beam seemed to twist and turn in the air as if alive before raining down on the mountain in unison.
KA-BOOOOOOOOM—!!!
An earth-shattering explosion ripped through the air. Bin instinctively covered his ears. It was like a nuclear bomb detonating.
Even amidst the chaos, he could see it.
The mountain, about ten kilometers away, now had holes riddled across its surface.
It was a bizarre and terrifying sight, but that wasn’t the end. Something even more terrifying started happening.
Ding!
[Gate: Golem Mountain-44
District 4 Northeast Outer Outpost
Rank: A
Gate Cleared]
The gate was cleared.
And…
[You have cleared an A rank gate ‘alone’ in record time.]
[Special Stat ‘Achievement’ has been added.]
[Special Stat ‘Achievement’ increased by 1.]
[Special Reward granted. Please choose one of the following:
《1. 30 Stat Points》
《2. Unique Skill (random rank) x1》
《3. Unique Equipment (random rank) x1》
Special Reward can be deferred.]
[Special Reward granted.]
[There is a deferred Special Reward.]
[Special Reward has been upgraded:
《1. 70 Stat Points》
《2. Unique Skill (Minimum A rank) x1》
《3. Unique Equipment (Minimum A rank) x1》
Special Reward can be deferred.]
Bin had never seen anything like it since becoming an Awakener.
There was a stat called ‘Achievement’? Also, special rewards? Since when did that exist?
What confused Bin even more was that the System recognized him as having cleared the A rank gate alone.
Bin turned his head to see a man smiling wide, the man who called himself Jin Shi-hu.
‘Why didn’t the System detect him?’
Bin wondered about it, but he knew one thing for sure: the man had become his savior.
Also, he definitely wasn’t just some ordinary guy.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“No reason… You’re just… radiant.”
“Well, that’s only natural,” Shi-hu chuckled. “Anyway, it’s cleared, right? Can we leave through there?”
He pointed to a gate.
It was an ‘escape gate’ that appeared after clearing a gate from within.
“Y-Yes… Yes, yes. We can leave now,” Bin stammered.
“Your tone changed.”
“It’s nothing. I’ve always spoken like this,” Bin was quick to reassure him. “This way, sir. Allow me to escort you to your residence.”
Smiling, Bin led Shi-hu out of the gate.
***
There were no restrictions on entering a gate. Awakener or not, anyone could enter.
However, no one in their right mind would ever send an ordinary person into a gate.
Of course, in the very early days, there were talks of deploying the military to destroy the gates.
It only ever happened twice.
The US military attempted it both times, and after that, no country ever sent in its troops again.
All types of firearms and even missiles went in, and all of it was turned into scrap metal the moment they crossed into a gate.
That meant that they were impossible to use.
The exact reason was unknown, but there was a theory everyone seemed to agree on.
The System would not allow it.
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