One day, an ordinary young man in his twenties, Seo Kang-joon, opened his eyes and realized that he had transformed into a transcendent being. That is, he was no longer a human.
Unlike the web novels he often read, there was no moment where he looked into a mirror to check his changed appearance, no shock at seeing multiple moons in the sky, nor did he suddenly encounter characters from the original story to realize that he was in the world of a game, manga, or novel.
Just as humans instinctively know how to breathe without being taught, he naturally realized that he had become a devil. He also understood that the vast wasteland spreading out before him was part of the hell where devils lived.
For some, suddenly reincarnating into another world might have been a joyful event, but for Kang-joon, who had been living a comfortable life on his own, it wasn’t something to be happy about. Even more so when the genre of this new world was “apocalyptic survival”.
Although his body was no longer human, devils still needed to eat to avoid death. And the only things to eat in hell were the terrifying creatures of hell, or other devils.
At first, it was quite difficult. He had to abandon the conveniences of modern civilization and live solely for survival. The harsh environment of hell, where he had to chew and swallow rotting flesh just to stay alive, was almost impossible for the fragile human mind to endure.
But perhaps the devil instincts clinging to his body were stronger? Kang-joon slowly began to adapt to life in hell, which meant he was also growing used to killing and devouring living creatures.
A day, a week, a month, a year… as the time Kang-joon survived in hell grew longer, his strength increased even more. He no longer had to risk his life to hunt monsters and just captured them with ease. Moreover, the devils he once had to flee from were now prey he could hunt alone.
Devils grow stronger by devouring stronger devils. Before long, Kang-joon became the most powerful devil in the wasteland. Other devils from different regions targeted him to devour him, but they too became his prey in the end.
As Kang-joon grew stronger, even more powerful devils began seeking him out, only to be devoured by him as well. This cycle of battles repeated endlessly, and after an immeasurable amount of time, Kang-joon had become the strongest devil in all of hell.
… I’m sick of it.
By that point, everything felt tedious to him.
He grew weary of the devils who tried to eat him, as well as those who worshiped him. He was sick of the blood that never seemed to dry on his hands, of filling his stomach with devil flesh, and of quenching his thirst with their vile blood.
I want some chicken.
By now, he could barely remember the taste, smell, or even the appearance of food. All that remained was the memory that he had liked it very much as a human, and that he had occasionally longed for it in the early days of becoming a devil. Eventually, he realized that longing for something that no longer existed only brought him misery, so he stopped.
Now that he felt sick of everything, Kang-joon decided he might as well sleep.
First, he settled down in the hottest hell of all hells, the 13th layer at the very bottom which was known as the Hell of Blazing Torment. Then, he severed the connections between the layers so that no one could reach him.
It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, but it wasn’t particularly difficult for Kang-joon either. Over the eons, Kang-joon had devoured countless devils and stolen their power. And so he had gained abilities far beyond what he had when he first became a devil.
Kang-joon submerged himself at the very bottom of the seething lava. The temperature of the lava was the kind of hellfire that would melt even the bones of most devils and leave no trace behind, but to Kang-joon, it felt no hotter than a warm bath.
Here, no one would disturb him, and he could finally rest. With that thought in mind, Kang-joon closed his eyes at the very bottom of hell and enjoyed a sweet peaceful rest.
Roughly for about a thousand years.
***
Kang-joon slowly opened his eyes in the midst of silence.
It felt as if he had just awakened from a long dream. He had a vague sense that he had dreamt of something dear to him, but he couldn’t quite remember what it was. He tried to grasp the fragments of his fading memories but gave up. He knew that dreams were always like this anyway.
When he rose from the lava and started to feel what it was like to wake up after a thousand years, he felt something unusual.
It’s too quiet.
It was natural for the Hell of Blazing Torment to be quiet. Before Kang-joon had fallen asleep, he had driven all the devils up to the higher layers. Apart from the bubbling lava and melting rocks, there wasn’t a single sound—not even the scurrying of a rat.
But as he focused, Kang-joon’s sharp hearing which could pick up the sounds of creatures crawling in the first layer’s Gallows Hell told him that this silence extended far beyond just the Hell of Blazing Torment.
Given the usual temperament of devils, it didn’t matter if a hundred or a thousand years passed; they would be causing a racket every day and constantly fighting. Yet, from the first to the thirteenth layer, every part of hell was silent. It was as if all the devils had disappeared from hell.
“…….”
Devils didn’t die, even when they got killed. Kang-joon knew this well; he had devoured countless devils by now after all. No matter how many times a devil was killed, after some time, the same devil would resurrect somewhere in hell.
He suspected it had something to do with their souls, or something like that since they were bound to hell, though he wasn’t certain of the exact reason. What was clear, however, was that while the resurrected devils might lose their power and memories, their essence remained the same.
So, unless a huge war between devils had broken out in hell, or some lunatic had appeared and started devouring every devil in sight, there was no way the number of devils would have dwindled this drastically without him knowing.
Kang-joon’s senses had long since reached a transcendent level. He didn’t need to rely on his eyes or ears to know exactly what was happening in every corner of this hell if he wanted to.
His heightened senses swept across all of hell. And then he realized what had happened during his sleep.
“Huh.”
Portals leading to other dimensions had opened all over hell.
He had no idea how such holes had appeared, but every layer, from the first to the thirteenth, was riddled with them. Thanks to these portals, it seemed most of the devils had crossed over into other worlds.
Judging by his sense of it, about half the usual number of devils remained in hell. No wonder it felt so quiet the moment he woke up.
And one of those portals had opened right inside his sanctuary in the Hell of Blazing Torment. As if it was mocking him.
“……”
He had fallen into hell without knowing why, and what felt like thousands of years had passed. The desire to return to his original world had always been there. Every time he grew stronger by gaining new power, the first thing he would attempt was finding a way back.
But even after becoming the strongest devil, escaping hell had proven impossible. The walls of the dimension were strong, but not impenetrable. The bigger problem though was that the world outside hell was vast. Too vast even.
In this immense, infinite universe, where hundreds of multiverses and parallel worlds were combined, finding his original world was a task a million times harder than finding a needle in a desert. Kang-joon didn’t want to become a drifter in the void of space for thousands, perhaps even millions of years.
So, the odds of this portal being connected to Earth were extremely slim.
It was slim, but Kang-joon leaned his head through the passage as if was hypnotized.
“……!!”
He saw it. A road paved with asphalt. Skyscrapers stretching toward the sky. Cars moving along the streets. Planes flying in the air. And people bustling about beneath the gray city skyline, living their lives.
Kang-joon’s heart pounded wildly with excitement. His lips felt dry and his fingertips trembled slightly. It had been so long since he had felt like this. He couldn’t even remember the last time he fought for his life, yet the tension now filling his body far exceeded even that.
Slowly, Kang-joon reached his hand through the passage.
But his hand was pushed back with a strong recoil.
“….…?”
He tried again, but the result was the same.
He realized the reason almost immediately. The world was rejecting Kang-joon, as if it were saying, “Anyone else can go, but definitely not this guy!”
That desperate resistance brought a twisted smile to his lips.
“How dare you.”
With a flicker of irritation, a crimson aura formed around his fist. It was sharp like a blade.
Kang-joon threw his fist toward the portal with all his might. In that instant, an earth-shattering noise, like thousands of glass windows shattering at once, echoed throughout the Hell of Blazing Torment.
It was the sound of the dimensional wall breaking and the wail of Earth, unable to stop the one who should never have entered. But to Kang-joon, it was nothing more than the death cry of a defeated enemy.
He reached into the now much wider portal. There was no longer any resistance. Kang-joon pushed his entire body through with a triumphant grin on his face.
His body plummeted toward the lower world. A sense of exhilaration accompanied the rapid change in scenery. Everything stretched and elongated, slowed, and then sped up. Darkness momentarily covered his vision before it quickly brightened—
And when he opened his eyes, Kang-joon found himself standing on a familiar asphalt road.
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