A Cradle to Avert Apocalypse C2

Chapter 2

“Kh—!”

A death-rattle burst from his throat. Vomiting up a clotted mass of pitch-black blood, Nam Shinhoo bit down hard on his lip. With blurred eyes, he glared resentfully at the monster. Blood vessels burst within his eyes.

The sworn enemy that had destroyed everything.
The calamity that had toppled civilization and summoned despair.

Grinding his teeth, Nam Shinhoo aimed the tip of his spear at Nukelabi. But it was nothing more than a final, futile struggle. Bloody tears streamed from his dimming vision. He wanted nothing more than to tear that body to shreds, yet he had no strength left.

A body that had lost its heart collapsed in vain. His knees hit the ground, and before he could even register the pain, his vision narrowed into darkness.

A hollow laugh escaped at such an empty end. Nam Shinhoo released his final breath, filled with frustration and resentment—and that resentment was not directed at Nukelabi, but at himself.

You foolish bastard. You trampled on the sacrifices of others and still couldn’t succeed.

Light gathered in his flickering vision.

[Quest. To save a world heading toward destruction.
What a shame. There is no remaining combat power capable of responding.
Do you desire another opportunity? If so, this time, find the “true” savior.
Reward upon success: ???
Penalty upon failure: Total extinction of humanity.]

As his vision sank into complete darkness, Nam Shinhoo let the spear slip from his grasp.

Like a stage after the curtain falls, a blood-red veil covered his sight.

Regaining consciousness felt like a single drop of water falling onto a calm surface.

Blood began to circulate from the tips of his fingers, his awareness crackling back to life like a malfunctioning radio. His chest hurt as though it were being torn apart. Reflexively, Nam Shinhoo clutched at his pierced heart and forced himself upright.

“Hah… hah.”

He gasped desperately for air. Trembling, he groped around his surroundings. The pain-relief cigarette he always kept at his side was nowhere to be found. It was something he had never been without since the moment Nukelabi appeared….

As his blurred vision cleared, he saw a brightly lit window filled with sunlight—and white bedding.

“I’m… alive?”

He had clearly died. Unable to respond to the monster’s second phase, he had fallen helplessly. With Nam Shinhoo—the last human—dead, the world should have ended there. So how had he awakened in a place like this?

He threw off the blanket and stood up. As he moved, feeling that something was off, his gaze fell upon his fingertips. Fingers with neatly trimmed nails.

“……”

They felt unfamiliar. Even for a Hunter whose aging progressed slowly, his hands in his forties had never been this smooth. Staring at those unwrinkled fingers, Nam Shinhoo came to his senses and looked around again.

It was a familiar space. A room he had seen countless times in the past—and yet one he had not seen for a very long time.

“This place is….”

It was where he had lived in his twenties. A room from the period when he was actively building up his guild—a space that, in the future, would be buried inside a building destroyed by Nukelabi.

What had happened?

Staggering toward the mirror, he froze. Reflected back at him was a young man—young enough to be described as youthful.

A man who looked to be in his late twenties stared wide-eyed into the mirror. Nam Shinhoo himself.

“What’s going on?”

He thought he had died, yet when he opened his eyes, he had returned to his younger self. He turned his gaze out the window. The city that had once been reduced to rubble was now shining brilliantly.

The faint sounds of passing vehicles drifted through the air, along with the sound of a fountain flowing in the park outside the building.

As if nothing had ever happened.

While he stood there, dazed, a knock sounded from outside the room.

“Shinhoo. Are you up?”

“…Choi Kanghyun?”

Nam Shinhoo’s head turned toward the door. His body moved before his thoughts did.

When he opened it in a rush, Choi Kanghyun stood there. With his large, solid build befitting a defense-specialized Hunter, he looked exactly as Nam Shinhoo remembered him in their twenties.

Stubborn to a fault—so much so that jokes never worked on him—he was nevertheless a childhood friend who had always been someone Nam Shinhoo could rely on. And also…

I’ll guard you until the very end. I am the strongest shield of the Saint Guild—and its final shield.

The companion who had blocked Nukelabi’s attacks until the very last moment. The image of him standing still, breath stopped, with a shattered shield still in his hands remained vividly etched in Nam Shinhoo’s mind.

At the same time, the memory of his own selfishness resurfaced.

Just hold out a little longer. Once this attack stops, I’ll charge in right away.
It’s enough, Kanghyun. Drop the shield now. Get out before Nukelabi falls.
Kanghyun? Choi… Kanghyun?

A friend who had died without even closing his eyes, still holding up his shield. In the end, the last order Nam Shinhoo had given him was simply to endure—to keep standing in front of him until death.

“You don’t look well.”

Choi Kanghyun supported Nam Shinhoo, who must have looked unfamiliar to him. A man who always upheld his pride and never showed weakness now appeared as though he might collapse at any moment.

After gripping Choi Kanghyun’s arm and catching his breath, Nam Shinhoo lifted his head. Looking at Choi Kanghyun’s face—just as young as his own—he bit his lip.

“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

“No. No, I’m fine.”

Shaking his head, Nam Shinhoo denied it and wiped away tears that were threatening to spill. He had no right to cry now.

At the edge of his vision, the quest window he had seen at the very end was still hovering. It glimmered vividly, as if insisting that this was no dream.

[Quest. To save a world heading toward destruction.
What a shame. There is no remaining combat power capable of responding.
Do you desire another opportunity? If so, this time, find the “true” savior.
Reward upon success: ???
Penalty upon failure: Total extinction of humanity.]

“Kanghyun.”

“Yeah.”

The reply came back—steady and unchanged.

At the response of a living man, no longer cold or pale, Nam Shinhoo tightened his grip on Choi Kanghyun’s arm. The uncharacteristic behavior made Choi Kanghyun’s expression stiffen.

“Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

“I just had a bad dream. Yeah. A really terrible dream.”

Seeing Choi Kanghyun look at him strangely, the corners of Nam Shinhoo’s eyes trembled. He composed his expression into something that looked half like a smile, half like tears.

He didn’t know what this reality meant, or why it had happened. But one thing was certain.

This situation was a miracle granted to Nam Shinhoo—and his final chance.

[Name: Nam Shinhoo
Class: Transmigrator
Age: 28 (■■#■)
Skills: Energy Drain (SS), Elemental Converter (S), Arcana (S), Trait Distortion (A), Assimilation (A), Potion Crafting (B), Herb Gathering (D)… [Expanded]
Unique Traits: Young Commander of the Battlefield, One Who Seeks Hidden Hope, Twisted Corrector, Guiding Guardian, False Savior, ■■ of ■■.
#Some information is restricted due to causality.]

Entering his office, Nam Shinhoo sat at his desk and stared intently at his status window.

The window he had seen his entire life had changed. Though it was unmistakably his, it was now filled with censored entries. Leaning back against the chair, Nam Shinhoo exhaled slowly.

The censorship next to his age was likely due to regression. But the traits were not something he could overlook.

Originally, the last trait Nam Shinhoo possessed had been Guiding Guardian.

Because of that trait, he had grown arrogant. Blinded by the notion of being a “guardian,” he believed himself to be the protagonist destined to protect the world. Yet he had protected nothing.

And after that came the trait False Savior. Along with an incomprehensible title.

“Really… how pathetic.”

A hollow laugh slipped out. Every time he looked at his altered traits and quest window, an indescribable weight pressed helplessly down on his shoulders.

The false savior, and the true savior.

The phrasing was merciless. The quest cruelly pointed out that Nam Shinhoo could never be the savior—telling him to stop pretending and go find the real one.

When he closed his eyes, the horrific sight of Seoul in ruins resurfaced with brutal clarity. He remembered the final moments of those who had died senselessly for the crime of trusting him. Corpses so mangled that it was hard to find one with all its limbs intact appeared as vividly as reality.

Krrrk—.
The armrest of the chair, made from dungeon byproducts, bent under the pressure of his tightly clenched fingers.

“Shinhoo.”

Choi Kanghyun called out.

“You seem strange today. You’ve been like this since morning.”

“I guess I just have a lot on my mind.”

“……”

“It’s really nothing. Well… my shoulder does feel a bit off.”

Nam Shinhoo redirected the conversation, trying to reassure Choi Kanghyun. In truth, the shoulder pain was no lie.

He hadn’t noticed when he first woke up, but as time passed, an odd ache settled into his shoulder. Judging by the traces of treatment, it seemed he had injured it recently.

No matter how much he tried to recall any incident around this time that could have caused such an injury, nothing came to mind. Back when he was actively building the guild, injuries had been frequent—this was likely just one of many minor wounds.

“If it keeps hurting, should you use another potion?”

“Save it. I won’t be entering any dungeons for a while. It’ll heal on its own.”

The visible wounds had already healed. That meant the muscles were simply recovering—using a potion now would only be wasteful.