Everyone Else is a Returnee

The thought-soul that newly registered on Yu IlHan’s collection was a very noisy one.

[How could you kill me without differentiating whether I was an ally or enemy! Huh!?]

“And you had any thoughts on becoming friendly with anyone?”

[I was going to kill them all.]

Well, of course. There was no way the naturally occurring higher existence born on Earth, where everything was born with resentment towards Yu IlHan was going to be friendly. Yu IlHan confronted the pitiful thought-soul that couldn’t lie, and spoke with a sigh.

“Done differentiation, you’re an enemy.”

[How can you only check after you kill!]

“You always start off by killing before anything in war. And my life has always been a war.”

[IlHan is so cool.....}

[Cool!? That’s COOL!?]

The thought-soul sounded very enraged. Well, it was nothing surprising since it died before it could do anything even though it was born as a higher existence.

However, Yu IlHan did not regret his actions at all. To be exact, he was sure that his will wouldn’t have wavered no matter how the situation developed out.

She was an enemy. The reason he could have a luxury talk with her right now was only because he had killed her and made her into a thought-soul, and if she was at all alive, then there would be no room for any conversation.

[Coward, how are you so well off after killing me with a surprise attack!]

“Hahaha, a loser dog is barking.”

Yu IlHan also had the trait of a non-social person that became arrogant once be was sure of his complete superiority.

[Eeek, what do you mean a loser dog. There was no chance to fight at all!]

“I said life is a war. Why didn’t you prepare the moment you were born? Well, you still wouldn’t have seen through my concealment.”

[Eeeeeeeek!]

[IlHan, you’re being scary.....]

While Yu IlHan was thinking of ways to extort information from this noisy girl, the thought-souls rants continued on.

[But cowardly is still cowardly! Just as I was about to take a breath after being born, a weird beam screws up my body, and after I barely endured that, a giant castle falls on me! There’s a reason why this world is trying to kill you!]

“Mastering Death Collector is quite annoying. I collect weird thought-souls like these without my permission.”

Yu IlHan quietly levitated the flying fortress and muttered. Of course, he said that but it wasn’t like she was a useless thought-soul. Not only was it a big plus that he had gained a thought-soul of a 5th class that had intelligence, if he used her well, when she was born from the records of the Earth, it was possible for him to gain information on what he couldn’t even come in contact with until now.

[Khhhhh, it’s so frustrating dammit!] (Orochi)

“It’s alright, Orochi. You’re doing your best.”

If it was any other ordinary thought-soul, he would have borrowed Orochi’s power to interrogate, but she was of the 5th class – not someone Orochi could currently do something about. What was left was a peaceful negotiation, but the problem was whether this soul fragment that was just smashed by him would be cooperative or not.

From her words, she sounded like a little child that had no experience despite having a lot of knowledge, perhaps due to being just born.

[Anyway, free me! I still have my body, and my soul is here too!]

“I’m sorry but your soul has already passed onto somewhere I do not know. You are only a fragment of the original.”

[What.......!?]

Oh? Would she go into self-retrospective now? The matters of life and death and the soul was always a difficult matter for any being. For her to accept that when she was just a newborn, the weight would be too much on her.

[IlHan, what are you doing to a newborn?]

“Well, she’s an enemy.”

[Oh, yeah. I forgot since you acted so freely with her.]

Yu IlHan had completely levitated the flying fortress and checked the barrier while waiting for her reply, and the thought-soul that was silent after realization of her own identity finally spoke after a little time.

[Th, then......]

“Then?”

[Then it’s the same as me being born again thanks to you, isn’t it?]

Never did he think she would accept that so optimistically!

[You are quite amazing! Well, yeah. At the time I was born, I was only thinking about killing all the humans on Earth, but now my thought-process is quite free! So that’s it, it’s because I was born anew!]

“Well, yeah. I’m quite amazing.”

“Yes. I didn’t die. I was born!”

The shift in the thought-soul’s thought process was surprisingly fast. Even Yu IlHan wouldn’t be so optimistic as her.

However, it was not a bad thing to accept reality and think positively about it. Whether it was for her, or for Yu IlHan, it would make her advance forward.

And as expected, once she left the negative thoughts, she went on to expand her thoughts.

[But this is still too stuffy for me. I don’t like this feeling of being trapped in unknown darkness. Give me a body like that snake.]

[Groaaaaar, I’m not a snake. I’m Yamata no Orochi.]

“Hmm.”

[The body my soul was in is still intact right? If it’s you you can transfer me back over!]

“I’m sorry but it’s not that simple.”

Yu IlHan spoke in a really unfortunate tone and took out her corpse. Perforated with a Blaze-imbued laser beam, and being smashed by the flying fortress, that ‘body’ made one wonder if it can even be considered a body anymore.

[......]

While the thought-soul was at a loss in front of the unfortunate reality, Liera spoke after looking at the state of the corpse.

[Perhaps it would look like this if an ogre ate a human and vomited it back out.]

[Uwaaaaaaaaaaaan!]

The thought-soul burst out crying. This was a real cry and not one to make Yu IlHan hesitate like before!

[It turned into paste, my pretty body! Although it’s not my body but still! Uwaaaaaaan!]

Yu IlHan glared at Liera as if he was innocent, despite him being the one that made the body like this, and calmly spoke to the thought-soul that was crying noisily in his head.

“However, I can give you a different body.”

[......A different body?]

The moment she heard that voice, her voice floated up as if the crying never happened. Success – Yu IlHan smiled after he was sure of that.

“You should know that everything in the world is a give-and-take process, right?”

[But you killed me! No, well, a soul that shared consciousness with me!]

“Then stay like that if you don’t want to. I’ll come back for a 2nd round after making Orochi grow. I’ll say this now, but the conditions then wouldn’t be as good as it is now.”

[Ugh......!]

There was no need for Yu IlHan to provoke any further. Her intelligence was very clear, enough for her to judge that the situation was too disadvantageous for her to drag things out.

Adding on top of that, the fact that she was considering the higher existence that just died and herself as different beings, finally, she obediently replied to Yu IlHan.

[I, can’t help it....... and so? What is this condition?]

“It’s very simple. You only need to become a subordinate under my rule. It’s the best method for the two of us to be able to trust each other.”

[Aha, like that snake......?]

[I’m not a snake!]

Shouted Orochi. Yu IlHan giggled with the two fighting as BGM. Although it was a pity that he couldn’t acquire a 5th class magic stone from her body, it looked like this was a jackpot in its own way.

[???????? has become your subordinate.]

[Uugh, this feels unpleasant. I can feel a connection with another being.]

“Hold it. It’s not only you that feels unpleasant.”

Although she was only a thought-soul, she was still a part of a higher existence. It was an enormous matter to make her submit under his rule.

It would have been difficult even if he had mastered the Rule skill, but as the abilities of a Deathgod supported him, and she was being cooperative as well, he safely succeeded. And naturally, his skill level rose by quite a lot!

[The skill, Rule, has become level 97. It becomes easier to accept a higher-levelled opponent under your rule, the growth speed of all beings under you accelerates, and you receive natural loyalty from all of them. You can apply a little bit of forcefulness in the activation, but only against beings overwhelmingly lower-leagued than you.]

“Hhm. This skill is becoming frightening too. That forceful part really nags on my mind.....”

If he could forcefully submit someone, it meant that someone overwhelmingly stronger than him could do the same to him. Yu IlHan was worried about that, but Liera replied as if that was nothing to worry about.

[It’s normal stuff to make others forcefully submit even without the Rule skill, when there’s a large gap in levels, no? There’s no need to worry about that. What’s more important is the speed you’re levelling the Rule skill at.]

“Hmmmmm, that’s true, but thinking about how it could affect the opponent’s mind, it feels a little.....”

[Sheesh minor details. There are not many people who raised the Rule skill as much as you in the first place!]

The Rule skill. It was a skill with a tremendous difficulty of acquisition made for rulers, and it was even harder to raise them. However, not only did Yu IlHan acquire this skill from Heaven’s Quest, he had also made quite a lot of footholds for its growth by subordinating elves and even dragons.....

Moreover, this growth accelerated as the subordinates, who were in places unknown to him, were developing rapidly. Adding a higher existence into the mix, it had reached an absurd level of 97.

[Ugh, this is uncomfortable. I can’t hate master even if I wanted to! Eh? I called him master and not master but why do I keep calling him master?]

“Please speak something I can understand.”

[I am!]

It looked like the speech patterns of the subordinates were also affected. Yu IlHan became afraid of his own skill for a moment, but then thought that everything was fine since he was fine.

“Well, it would be fine if I became stronger faster.”

[You’re quite progressive when you’ve just killed a higher existence in a surprise attack.]

[Master, body! Where’s my body?]

The thought-soul that just finished the contract, shouted in a bright voice. Yu IlHan stopped thinking about the Rule skill completely and confronted her.

“Before that let’s give you a name. There’s also something I want to ask you.”

[Although I want a body, but I guess that’s fine...... name me anything.]

“Well, then. How about Mistic.”

[.......Mystic, I like it! Master is quite good after all!]

“Huh.”

In fact, he meant for the name to be a part of ‘optimistic’, with her being naïve and all, but she heard that as ‘mystic’, i.e. being mysterious. But since she liked it, Yu IlHan decided to not talk about the source of the name.

Well, everyone grew up that way. Even Yu IlHan wouldn’t be standing here if the pain of the ‘Bl****d Lancer’ didn’t exit!

Like the name, Mystic 1 asked with the endlessly positive attitude.

[So, what is it that you want to ask?]

“The current state of the Earth. You talked about this right? That you thought that you had to kill me the moment you were born. It would be fine if that was your instinct as a monster, but after talking with you, it doesn’t sound like that.”

[I’m not a monster!]

“That’s why I’m asking, Mystic.”

Yu IlHan’s voice lowered. Perhaps this was the most important moment after the 3rd Great Cataclysm.

“I have a lot to ask, but let me ask this first. How...... were you born as a higher existence?”

[That’s.....]

Mystic hesitated for a moment but replied soon.

[Probably, I was part of a large pool of shared records before I was born.]

“......Huh?”

Yu IlHan momentarily couldn’t understand and asked back, but Liera instantly understood her words.

[So you aren’t a naturally ocurring higher existence?]

[Yeah.]

Acknowledged Mystic.

[I was born with the help of another higher existence sharing his own record. With the orders to kill you.]

“.......”

At that point, Yu IlHan could understand her words.

It looked like there was a higher existences other than her on Earth right now.

Author’s notes

Let me announce the results of the popularity poll, this will be very long!

There were a total of 1485 votes. And let me announce you the most obvious 1st place. It’s none other than Yu IlHan with 437 votes!

“Because He’s MC” such simple reasons numbered the most, and the next popular ones are “He’s similar to me” “He puts in endless effort” and the like. Haha, that’s strange. I’m not even wearing glasses but my vision is getting hazy.... IlHan, do your best, we’re all loners!

Let me omit the ones with 1 or 2 votes. The one that left the most impression was the ‘Mantis Scythe Armguard’ that briefly appeared at the very beginning of the story. Even this author forgot until I saw that vote. To think that would get a vote!

Thanks to Spiera doing something bad just before the poll, she only got 3 votes. The Bittersweet persona, which has now become the flying fortress received 5. Meanwhile, the unrevealed master of the hell dungeon where Mir is currently in, received 7 votes and gave Spiera a big hit!

The author of this novel, I, have received 8 votes. One reason said “Because he looks handsome”. Although I’m very thankful, you won’t get anywhere with flattery! There’s one with the same number of votes as me, which is MiRae’s brother, Kang HaJin. 6 of them said ‘because no one will pick them’. Let’s do our best together!

The Eternal Flame received 12 votes. Without a single in the novel, it surpassed HaJin just with its actions alone. Look forward to its tongue-flickering actions later on too. Meanwhile, Kim YeSeul, Yu Ilhan’s mother, as well as the hell dungeon’s mascot, the Perverted Vibration Demon have received 17 votes each..... How? How can this be?

With the grand villainous entrance, but now Yu IlHan’s ally, Orochi, and Yu IlHan’s father Yu YongHan, who has such a faint presence in the novel have come in joint 7th place with 24 votes. A lot of you said that Yu YongHan may do something later because he hasn’t done anything until now. Well, the truth? Would he stay faint! Or will he do something after all!

6th places is Kang MiRae with 28 votes. A lot of the comments said that her arduous efforts to advance forward suited Yu ILHan a lot. Perhaps she would get more votes in the future according to how she acts! However for now.... yep, she’s the last among the heroines! T_T

5th is Erta with 76 votes. Like how she was a stiff and direct character at her appearance, many of you said that you liked her changing attitude while she stayed with the main character was clear. There are also a lot of votes saying ‘Erta must be the one to retort!’. I also wish Erta came back soon!

4th place is Yu IlHan’s son, Yumir! With 224 votes, he overwhelms Erta at 5th place. He looks cute, he acts cute, the way he imitates his dad is cute and such were the comments. Hahahaha, everybody, you are dangerous people (clink clink)

I’ve already announced the 1st place so there’s only the 3rd and 2nd place. In fact, this could be the battle for the main heroine. You should know if you’ve read the votes, but there was an unpredictable miracle that actually occurred.

Yes, 3rd is Na YuNa with 238 votes! She was a character that received all the hate when she first appeared, but there were a lot of you who looked at her honest approach to Yu IlHan in a positive light.

Other than that, there are opinions like “Her ‘Wao!’ is characteristic”, “She’s pretty”, “She has big boobs”, “She’s proactive”, “She has big boobs”, “She has big boobgs”, and “She’s the first one to break through Yu IlHan’s iron guard.”. Just how much do you like boobs! Although I like them too!!

Then the grand 2nd place? There’s only one! It’s our pitiful angel Liera that crushed everyone other than Yu llHan himself with 336 votes!

She’s cute, she’s so pitiful, she’s pretty and even has big boobs, She’s like a kind next-door noona, etc. There were a lot of reasons why you liked her, but the most numerous reason was ‘Hundreds of Years only looking at him’. Perhaps many of the readers felt both charm and pity, seeing her unfortunate figure running after Yu IlHan.

In fact, I never planned to make Liera the main heroine at first. Instead, it was going to be Kang MiRae, but as you see here... haha... in fact, something same happened in my previous-previous work, so I can only laugh... Her charm was that attractive I guess. I’m only happy to have come up with a character like her.

The one comment I’ve heard the most in my previous work is that the ‘characters’ don’t have any ‘character’. Those became a trigger to make me think again about how I think about characters. Is it thanks to that? The main characters of this vote (the ones in 1st to 5th place) had a lot of comments talking about their characters so I was very satisfied and happy. Please stay with this work and these characters in the future. I’ll try to make them more lively and attractive characters!

Translator’s notes

The one in author’s notes is the result from the KOREAN POLL not ours.

I’m not gonna make any grand interpretations.

Here’s the results

Ranking Character votes notes

1 Yu IlHan 575 Main character

2 Lita/Liera 315 She wins the best waifu poll!

3 Yumir 193 Yu IlHan’s son

4 Eternal Flame 120

5 Erta 87

6 Orochi 83

7 Na YuNa 63

8 Kang MiRae 49

9 Yu YongHan 32 Yu IlHan’s father

10 Kim YeSeul 28 Yu IlHan’s mother

11 Lecidna 20 Yumir’s mother

12 Dakié Von Illastra 5 4th class mage that got pile-bunkered to death

12 Ericia 5

12 Paté 5 Elf, male archer

12 Spiera 5

16 Chamber 3 I’m pretty sure Chamber doesn’t appear in the novel

17 Earth 2

17 God of Smithing 2 Unnamed

17 Han YeoRang 2 Suppression, got more votes than her superior

17 Keshna Golem 2 From the magic ruins in Lanpas

17 Perverted Vibration Demon 2 this guy got one more vote than me...

22 Akashic Records 1

22 Author (note) 1

22 Bingryong 1 Translator who did half of prologue, the name is here cuz someone voted ‘Translators’

22 Carina Malatesta 1 Magia, Italy

22 Dmirel 1 5th class fallen angel

22 Elbani Da Qurad 1

22 Giant Bucket 1

22 John Cena 1 Who the hell was this? Can I IP-ban you?

22 Leytna 1 Goddess of Beauty

22 Michael Smithson 1 Metal Knights, England

22 Reta Kar’iha 1 Deceased elf that tried to take over Yu IlHan’s body

22 The guy who named him Sungdaein Bolt 1 Congratulations, O, nameless one

22 Yoon DaeHan 1 Suppression

Here’s the full results!

A total of 1,609 answers! Thanks for your participation!

And seriously, can I kill the guy who said John Cena? Like, really?

A certain someone (speshul person) added 1 vote for Chamber after the votes ended. Let’s not add any more...

1. I’ll just keep it Mystic