CHAPTER 41
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

041- The Garden

The helicopter’s blades whirred loudly. Tilting its body toward western New York, the helicopter flew in the direction of the Island.
“Do you see it? That is the Island.”
The helicopter pilot spoke in simple English that Jinwoo could understand. Jinwoo replied with a “Yes,” to indicate he could see it clearly.
‘Seeing it from this far away, it looks like a mountain is moving.’
The distance between the helicopter and the Island was more than ample, yet the sheer size of the creature was still apparent.
With every step it took, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck, and the buildings in its path collapsed helplessly.
Around the creature, attacks reminiscent of natural disasters continued unabated—lightning, fire, and whirlwinds—all the work of S-class Hunters.
After observing them from a distance for a moment, the helicopter arrived near the command vehicle.
“Good luck.”
The pilot said with a desperate yet solemn tone, then lifted the helicopter back into the air and departed.
Left alone, Jinwoo approached the command vehicle. As if they had been notified, four figures were waiting in front of it.
No, was it five?
“Jinwoo!”
The first to rush out was Chartia, her face on the verge of tears.
She looked exhausted; her hair was greasy and tangled, and her face was gaunt without any makeup. Despite this, the innate grace emanating from her elven soul could not be hidden.
“Chartia! Whoa?”
She ran straight into Jinwoo’s arms and trembled.
Startled, Jinwoo was about to push her away, but he stopped when he saw her shoulders shaking.
Truly, only now did she recall the moment she first heard the news about him.
When Cheon Juhyeok told her that Jinwoo might be dead, she felt as if the sky was falling.
It wasn't the first time she had lost a comrade. For someone who had entered the Gates enough times to reach the 5th Floor, losing someone was nothing new.
But Jinwoo’s death evoked a different kind of emotion, something rising from an instinct she herself couldn't understand.
Meanwhile.
“No way! What in the world did Johann…!”
David, for a different reason, was on the verge of losing his mind. Like Chartia, his accumulated fatigue and frayed nerves had left him in a state far from rational.
And in the midst of that, Jinwoo had appeared.
He had continuously denied Cheon Juhyeok’s claims, insisting that the Bureau knew nothing of what Johann did inside the Gate.
But a reaction like this was a statement that would only plant seeds of suspicion.
It was a mistake he would never have made under normal circumstances. However, the other S-class Hunters didn't try to stop David. They merely watched in silence.
“Are you David?”
After Chartia finally pulled away, bowing her head to wipe her tears, Jinwoo stood face to face with David.
They couldn't communicate with words, but the atmosphere alone was enough to guess the relationship between them.
David’s face contorted, still finding it hard to believe, while Jinwoo observed everything about him. From head to toe.
‘I heard David is a Hunter who uses a sword.’
According to Chartia, David was a swordsman. Someone who, like himself, used a sword as his main weapon.
Regardless of the expression on David's face, Jinwoo’s interest was not in his face, but in his body.
‘He’s certainly well-trained.’
The intensity of his training surpassed anyone Jinwoo had seen before. Not only that, but his muscles were perfectly optimized for sword use.
Rona was also an S-class level swordsman, but elven muscles were completely different from human ones, so she was an exception.
“Johann, Johann is… Hk!”
David, who was about to ask if Johann had been defeated, finally noticed his surroundings and clamped his mouth shut.
‘Johann was taken down instead? That’s impossible!’
Johann was an S-class. The same rank as those here, the ones pouring disaster-like attacks on the Island!
And he was defeated by an E-class who was merely good at detection? It was impossible. Such a thing should not happen in this world.
While he was still reeling in confusion, Jinwoo had already exchanged greetings with the other S-class Hunters.
“I am Kang Jinwoo from Seoul. I don’t speak English well, so I ask for your understanding.”
Chartia, who had returned after wiping her tears, translated for him.
“It’s been a while, Jinwoo. Have you been well?”
“Kurenai. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I’m a more diligent man than you think, my boy. Hahaha.”
The S-class assassin from Tokyo, Kurenai Masato.
“Reinhardt, from the UK. A pleasure to meet you, Seoul’s rookie.”
“I’m Mahiri, from New Delhi. And this little one is Kalesian.”
The boisterous Thunder Emperor, Reinhardt, and the Dragon Tamer, Mahiri, who held a small red dragon in her arms.
They were all names he had heard of. Not only heard of, but they were idols to many hunters.
Jinwoo shook their hands with a curious glint in his eyes. However, given the situation, they couldn't exchange pleasantries and got straight to the point.
“I observed the Island briefly from the helicopter. I believe I can safely detect its core.”
“Ooh!?”
“Really?”
Reinhardt and Mahiri reacted with great excitement. They thought this could be the breakthrough they needed in the current stalemate.
“However, the distance from the helicopter was too great. I need to get a closer look for a more accurate assessment.”
In short, he needed to do some reconnaissance. The S-class Hunters nodded at the obvious statement, and Chartia quickly raised her hand.
“Jinwoo, then I’ll take you next to the Island…”
“Pardon me.”
Before Chartia could finish her sentence, Jinwoo’s body was lifted into the air by itself. Kurenai Masato had unceremoniously scooped him up.
In that state, he kicked off the ground and sprinted. The two of them instantly moved away from the command vehicle and scaled the wall of a half-collapsed building.
Jinwoo let out a gasp at the rare experience of soaring up a building, defying gravity.
“Kurenai Masato?”
“I’ll help with the reconnaissance. I was bored with nothing to do anyway, so I might as well do something like this.”
His hearty laugh spread on the wind as the two of them climbed to the top of the ruined building.

Carrying Jinwoo, Kurenai Masato leaped from building to building. His mobility was unbelievable for someone carrying another person.
However, the position was extremely uncomfortable for Jinwoo. Most importantly, it was difficult to observe the Island.
“You can put me down now.”
“Planning to run and keep up on your own? Think you can follow?”
“As long as you’re not faster than this.”
With a ‘well, look at this one’ expression, Kurenai Masato set Jinwoo down. Then he started running again, and Jinwoo followed right behind him.
Jinwoo’s movements were by no means inferior to his. While he was slightly slower overall, in certain sections, he was actually faster.
‘Oh, not bad?’
Genuinely surprised, Kurenai Masato observed Jinwoo’s movements.
When running between buildings, there was nothing particularly outstanding. When he stepped on the concrete ground, his leg strength was merely that of a fairly strong A-class Hunter.
‘Of course, that in itself is surprising, but…’
But the truly astonishing moment was when he leaped off a tree.
The moment he stepped on the tree, the contact area of his foot on the branch, the flow of his body weight, and the way he converted the rebound into power to leap—
Everything was perfect. In that moment, it was a leap that not just an A-class, but even an S-class would be hard-pressed to match. Even Kurenai Masato himself couldn't jump that cleanly.
It was similar to the leaps of the elves he had seen countless times in the Gate.
‘I see. So there’s a reason he’s particularly close with Chartia.’
Was Jinwoo’s past life also related to elves? With such a commonality, it was certainly understandable why Chartia was so attached to him.
“I knew you wouldn’t be dead.”
Jinwoo gave him a questioning look at his words.
“How? If you heard an E-class Hunter fought Johann, a hundred out of a hundred people would think he was dead.”
“Because even Johann can’t see me.”
“…”
If David couldn't see him and Johann couldn't see him, then who in the world could?
‘His standard for judging people is certainly consistent.’
He was an eccentric, but at least he was consistent.
Having reached a suitable distance, the two of them maintained it while observing the Island.
KWAAAAANG!
K-KWAGAGAGANG!
Even at this moment, missile-like magic spells were repeatedly raining down on the Island. Sometimes lightning struck, sometimes a vortex erupted, and sometimes a massive, boiling chunk of lava fell.
The might of the S-class Hunters was like a natural disaster. In fact, the area destroyed by their attacks was larger than what the Island itself was destroying.
But even after taking such attacks, the Island was perfectly fine.
‘Its regeneration is insane.’
It wasn't that its body couldn't be destroyed. It was just that its regeneration was ridiculously fast.
A black energy would envelop a large, destroyed area like tentacles and restore it in an instant.
Consequently, the S-class Hunters’ attacks were as meaningless as shooting magic into a field of Erosion. The Erosion swallowed everything and, in turn, made what it swallowed its own.
‘But thanks to them, its advance is slowing down!’
However, when it was regenerating, the Island’s speed decreased. As the Erosion’s energy was diverted to regeneration, the energy available to move its body was reduced.
It was thanks to them that the creature was more or less stationary. If it had only been New York’s hunters without support, the creature might already be crossing the heart of the city.
“How is it? Think you can do it?”
“I’ve found the core.”
“Oh! Really?”
“However…”
Jinwoo’s words trailed off. Not just him, but everything stopped.
The flickering flame of Kurenai Masato next to him, the storm of attacks pouring down on the Island, and even the relentless steps of the Island itself.
There was no more fitting expression than to say that time had stopped.
[A Fragment of a Past Life emerges.]
In the frozen time, the only thing that flowed was the message that appeared when an ability awakened.
‘An ability, in this situation?’
What kind of ability had he suddenly awakened? Jinwoo wondered, but no ability appeared.
What appeared was a memory.
Literally, a memory from a past life.

It was a small garden.
No, it wasn't actually small, but to him, it felt incredibly so.
In the garden, there was a vegetable patch where he farmed, and there were fruit trees. There was also a pond.
There was no fence, because every place his feet touched was his garden.
All the land to the horizon was his, so a fence was unnecessary.
In the pond, there was a tiny creature.
A being with a precious life in this small garden.
Even fully grown, the creature was smaller than his palm. It was a turtle that cried with a cute ‘kyuu’ sound.
‘This is…’
With trembling eyes, Jinwoo watched the short fragment of memory.

A moment later.
Time began to flow again, and Jinwoo came to his senses, emerging from the memory.
The memory of his past life was incredibly short. Befitting the word "fragment."
There was a turtle growing in his garden, and he had adored it.
It was a creature that would nibble playfully when he offered his finger, a child that loved it when he swirled it around in the pond like that.
Like any turtle, it lived for a very long time, but it was buried in the earth before him, and he had been terribly sad.
He looked at the Island with sunken eyes.
—WUUUOOOOOOOOH!
A cry that Jinwoo couldn't hear before now reached his ears. It was a sorrowful wail, the sound of a being suffering from being alive.
“Kurenai Masato. Can you hear that sound right now?”
“Hm? Sound? You mean the sound of the hunters’ bombardment?”
“…It’s nothing.”
It seemed that sound was only audible to him.
It wasn't Korean, or even a human language, but the cry of a humble creature. Yet, its meaning was conveyed to Jinwoo.
Please, anyone, kill me.
But.
‘If you just die, your soul will be collected and returned to the Lord of Erosion.’
It was the same as with monsters. When a monster is killed by an ordinary hunter, its soul cannot escape the Erosion.
It was the same for the elves in Tokyo. They too were beings who suffered, wanting to die but unable to, living for eons as slaves to the Erosion.
The only one who could liberate them was…
‘My past self, I suppose.’
He couldn't bring himself to say "me." He was just a worthless human. The great one was not him, but his past life.
“Hey! Where are you going!?”
Kurenai Masato chased after Jinwoo, who had suddenly started running towards the Island.
“There’s something I need to check out for a moment.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Alone is… I see. Just in case, please follow me.”
He had only seen a fragment of a memory. That alone wouldn't solve anything.
The Eroded Island could attack him, or he could be hit by stray fire from the other S-class Hunters’ attacks.
Together, they landed on the Island’s shell. It was the shell directly above where its heart was located.
“What are you planning to do?”
“I’m going to break through and go down.”
“Here? You’d better not. This thing’s regeneration is not normal. You could get buried the moment you go in. Can you even cut through the shell in the first place?”
Instead of answering, Jinwoo raised his sword and swung.
K-KWAGAGAGANG!
A slash infused with all the mana he had obtained from the Dragon Sword.
The ability to unleash a slash, gained from defeating the Black Knight, was a great help, widening the wound on the Island even further.
Leaving behind a marveling Kurenai Masato at the unexpected power, Jinwoo dropped down.
Strangely, the Island’s regeneration had stopped in this specific area. No, not just this area, but only the part that Jinwoo had cut.
“How can this be…”
While Kurenai was stunned by the inexplicable phenomenon, Jinwoo continued to cut through the flesh, heading towards the Island’s heart.
The heart he eventually found was as massive as a building.
A powerfully beating red building, ensnared by all sorts of black tentacles, tangled up like a spiderweb.
Cutting this would end it.
‘Island. No, turtle without a name.’
The name ‘Island’ was given by the humans of Earth. He still didn't know the turtle’s real name.
Before giving it peace, Jinwoo asked one last question.
‘Who was it that corrupted you and sent you here?’
Who is your enemy? Which of the 13 Lords is targeting this Earth?
—WUUUOOOOOOOOH!
The turtle’s cry, audible only to Jinwoo, echoed.