SFRW-Chapter 3

Ch.3 Sword God From The Ruined World

“Yes, yes, understood. Don’t worry. Go ahead, sir. Assistant Manager Lee just now…!”  

Park Cheol-woon, the section chief, hung up the phone and stopped dead in his tracks as he opened the office door and stepped inside.  

The office was in complete disarray.  

Three guards lay unconscious on the floor, and in one corner, Assistant Manager Lee Sang-cheol is a pitiful sight—his face streaked with tears and snot, his pants soaked with what appeared to be urine.  

“…Wh-what happened here? Hey! Assistant Manager Lee! Lee! Snap out of it!”  

He shook the unconscious Lee Sang-cheol awake.  

“…S-Section Chief Park…”  

“What the hell happened to you? And what’s with the office? What the hell went down here?”  

“Chief! Sob! Some crazy bastard… A crazy bastard came in and… Gahk!”  

Lee Sang-cheol barely managed to speak through his sobs.  

“So you’re saying a Hero came in and did all this? And he was strong enough to take down C-rank guards like that?”  

“Yes! That bastard was completely insane! He just decided to take only a 1% commission… Sob!”  

“And then? What about the magic stones? The money?”  

“Well…”  

The guy had taken the cash after deducting only a 1% commission.  

The only silver lining was that he’d left the magic stones behind.  

But even the official Gate Centers took a 5% commission on magic stone transactions.  

Leaving just a 1% commission… It wasn’t outright robbery, but it was still downright outrageous.  

“What kind of lunatic dares—! Did you get his description? His name? Do you know his age or where he lives? No, wait—it’s all on the cameras, right?”  

Furious, Section Chief Park Cheol-woon gritted his teeth as he confirmed that the three CCTV cameras in the office were functioning properly.  

Then, Assistant Manager Lee spoke up.  

“That bastard… He said he’d be back.”  

“…He said he’d be back?”  

“He said he’d keep doing cool business with us from now on…”  

The sheer absurdity of the statement was like pouring cold water on Park Cheol-woon’s rage, leaving him blinking in stunned silence.  

***

A single trip into a C-rank Gate had earned him 9 million won.  

“Even if I keep earning like this, when will I ever make 110 billion?”  

No matter how much he hunted in C-rank Gates every day, the math just didn’t add up.  

“I need to aim for higher ranks…”  

But hunting in higher-rank Gates wasn’t easy.  

Beyond the difficulty of the monsters, Gate management was strict.  

Without an official Hero license, entering higher-rank Gates unauthorized wasn’t just difficult—it meant fighting control center agents before even getting to hunt monsters.  

In short, he’d have to cause chaos first, and then hunt monsters and collect magic stones in the midst of it?  

No matter how he looked at it, it was a waste of time and nothing but trouble.  

“Should I get a Hero license?”  

But the idea didn’t sit well with him.  

He disliked the thought of his personal information being registered with an official institution.  

Obtaining a Hero license would classify him as a person of national interest, and the obligations that came with being a Hero were unappealing.  

Not to mention the exorbitant taxes.  

Even intermediate-grade magic stones cost 2 million won each.  

Higher grades like upper-intermediate and advanced-intermediate sold for 5 million and 10 million won, respectively.  

Just hunting in B-rank Gates would yield these three types of magic stones.  

In other words, a single day of hunting could easily earn hundreds of millions.  

Did the government just sit back and watch?  

Not a chance.  

They imposed heavy taxes under the guise of Gate management.  

The commission on magic stones alone was 5%, and after adding other taxes, selling a 10-million-won advanced-intermediate magic stone would barely net 5 million in pure profit.  

“Those in power are all the same, no matter where you go.”  

Part of him wanted to tear it all down, but what would that change?  

In the end, new opportunists would just fill the void.  

From that perspective, the illegal magic stone trade in places like the Gasan Hero District was at least tax-free.  

“This’ll be a good place to do business from now on.”  

He stuffed the business card into his pocket and glanced at the dilapidated house on the verge of collapse.  

“Of all places…”  

Tsk. Clicking his tongue, he pushed open the creaky gate of the shabby house.  

Squeak.  

The unpleasant sound of rusted metal accompanied the gate’s opening.  

“Do-jun, is that you?”  

“Brother!”  

A weak, hoarse voice and a youthful voice called out simultaneously.  

The barely functional window, only good for keeping out the wind and rain, creaked open, revealing a frail old woman and a scrawny girl poking her head out.  

“I beg of you! Please… Please! Just take care of Grandma and Eun-young!”  

The man—no, the original owner of the body named Seo Do-jun—had lived with them, and now, he was the one who had to live with them.  

The world I lived in was destroyed.  

One day, without warning, a massive hole tore open in the sky, and countless monsters poured out.  

This phenomenon occurred across the entire continent.  

People had to fight the monsters to survive, and I, too, spent my life fighting.  

The dream of becoming a great knight to uphold my family’s honor and serve the empire had to be abandoned. I wielded my sword solely to survive and protect what remained of my family.  

Days, months, years, even decades passed in a blur.  

Lost in the flow of time, I fought endlessly, over and over, until people began calling me the Sword Demon, then the Sword King, and finally, the Sword God.  

With a single blade, I could cut down any monster without fear.  

But even as the Sword God, my strength alone had limits.  

Kingdoms crumbled, empires staggered and fell repeatedly, and one by one, the comrades who fought beside me died, leaving my side.  

What hurt the most was that some of those comrades had turned to the monsters’ side.  

They abandoned their humanity, becoming monsters themselves, aiding in the world’s destruction.  

With monsters and traitorous humans on their side, the world’s ruin accelerated.  

At first, I was furious at the betrayal, venting my rage by killing everything in sight. Even if it was a comrade who once trusted me, I didn’t hesitate.  

Their grotesque forms, uglier than the monsters, drove me to lose all reason.  

But over time, the hatred and anger faded, leaving only a crushing emptiness—what had I even wielded my sword for?  

Watching the world crumble day by day, my emotions withered. I cut down everything in my path, be it monster or human, like a machine.  

Killing, killing, and killing without rest—until, before I knew it, I was the only one left.  

“Give up. The world you knew is already dead.”  

The mastermind behind it all appeared before me—a being who hadn’t drunk even a sip of water in weeks, who had done nothing but swing a sword for days on end.  

Resembling a human but unmistakably not one, it spoke fluently and acted with calculated reason, not instinct.  

“Your skills are wasted. Become my sword.”  

I dismissed its nonsense and slashed at it with the last of my strength.  

My final strike severed only a single finger from its hand, and in its fury, it tore me apart.  

My shoulders shattered, my arms ripped off, my legs severed.  

“No matter how much you struggle, you’re nothing but an insect to me.”  

Seeing me on the brink of death, it relaxed, no longer deeming me a threat.  

In that moment, I used my last ounce of strength to push off the ground with my elbow and lunged at it for one final attack.  

Honestly, it was barely an attack—just the flailing of a dying man.  

Like a fly bumping into a body, it was utterly useless.  

It knew that, so it didn’t even bother to block.  

It just looked at me with pity.  

Until I bit down on its gem.  

“Y-you—!”  

Its face twisted in shock, its voice sharp with panic.  

The blue gem it wore—I didn’t know what it was, but since it was the only ornament on its otherwise bare body, I decided to take something from it before my death.  

Crack!  

The gem shattered.  

“Nooooo—!”  

As its near-screaming voice echoed, I felt myself being pulled into something and lost consciousness.  

Death.  

I thought that was the end.  

But.  

My fading mind returned, and I saw a hazy, smoke-like presence floating before me.  

“Wh-who are you?”  

It wasn’t a voice but words resonating in my mind.  

Who are you?  

“Seo Do-jun. My name is Seo Do-jun. I’m… Dying.”  

Ironically, I had ended up in the body of a dying man.  

Not in my own ruined world, but in the body of a man from an entirely different world.  

Seo Do-jun and I shared each other’s memories.  

But two souls couldn’t occupy one body—one of us had to disappear.  

“If you grant my request… I’ll fade away quietly.”  

Why should I?  

I had no attachment left to life.  

I’d finally escaped my harsh existence—why should I live on in your body?  

And you’re already dying anyway.  

Even if I do nothing, your soul will vanish on its own.  

“Th-that’s…”  

Struck by the truth, he fell silent.  

Judging by the flickering, unstable haze of what I assumed was his soul, it wouldn’t take long for him to disappear completely.  

“Please. I beg you… Please… just take responsibility for Eun-young and Grandma.”  

There’s no crueler request than asking someone to take responsibility for others.  

I flatly refused, but he kept pleading, clinging to me desperately.  

After a long struggle, he finally screamed in despair.  

“It’s not hard for you! Just help Eun-young stand on her own feet! Just let Grandma live her remaining years in peace! If you won’t help… If you refuse to the end…!”  

Then what?  

I laughed mockingly, but he had no answer.  

Just as he seemed to know my past, I knew his.  

A man who was endlessly kind and weak.  

“Please. I beg you. Please. Please.”  

His soul flickered faster as he repeated the same words, choking back tears.  

A sign that his time was almost up.  

Fine.  

I’ll grant you one thing.  

Name your wish.  

But don’t make it vague or broad.  

Be clear. Just one thing I can do.  

Even as he neared oblivion, he hesitated, and only at the very last moment did he speak.  

“What I want is…….”