WeTried Translations

Translator: Joy

Editor & TLC: ZEROSUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Damned Transmigration

Chapter 2

──────

Yuri (1)

Yuri dodged the axe, ducking inside his opponent’s reach.

He slammed his right fist into the man’s jaw, followed immediately by another from his left. Then, with both hands, he seized the man’s head and twisted.

Oh Bong-chun died with a broken neck, just like that.

The sheer ease of it all was what left Yuri stunned, because while he had, of course, rehearsed the sequence in his mind, he never imagined it would be so simple and so brutally effective.

To begin with, his opponent's movements had seemed to unfold in slow motion. He felt like he knew exactly where the axe was going to strike and how it would travel long before the swing even started.

“So, it really does work…” Yuri muttered, his thoughts drifting back to the time before his transmigration.

The priestesses of the Sect of Order had the job of meeting, guiding, and educating the transmigrators before the time to be sent here was up.

Su-hyeok had also received that education.

“...”

But that’s not the right word for it, is it? What Su-hyeok had received wasn't education. It was a beating.

Over and over, in a mental world they called the waiting room, he was beaten senseless, slammed to the floor and forced to get up and charge the priestess until she was satisfied.

‘Fucking Lorelia.’

A shiver still traced its way down his spine every time he recalled the contrast of the bright, refreshing smile she wore while doing such things.

“Hyungnim? Hyungnim!!”

While Oh Bong-seok was busy having a breakdown over his brother’s corpse, Yuri was also having his own little moment.

He’d actually killed a man. Felt a neck snap in his own two hands.

A hollow, churning feeling twisted in his stomach; this wasn’t exactly on his bucket list, he had always thought he’d go his entire life without ever killing another person.

“...”

But then again, this wasn’t the type of world that cared about his personal principles. It was a world where a streak of bad luck was a death sentence.

Wallowing in some deep, existential dread felt like a luxury he simply couldn't afford.

It was either him or the other guy.

End of story.

Strangely, that simple, brutal truth was the most grounding thought he’d had all day.

And then the pain hit.

Yuri glanced down at his hand, the knuckles on his left fist already scraped raw and bleeding from their meeting with Oh Bong-chun's jaw.

‘Right, I’m not in the waiting room anymore.’

In that mental space, pain was just a concept. Here, it was a throbbing reality, echoed by the ache blooming in his wrist.

‘Did I sprain it?’

This Yuri kid's body clearly wasn’t built for this.

Then, he shook off the sting and focused on the remaining brother.

“Hey.”

Oh Bong-seok, who had been lost in a world of grief, jolted as if struck.

“Why did you attack this place?” Yuri asked.

He had a rough idea, but he wanted to hear it directly.

The Oh Brothers were hardly martial arts legends. They were nobodies, but their particular brand of violent stupidity worked wonders in a town with no organised crime. Simply put, they were big fish in a very, very small pond.

They'd already proven it today by effortlessly wiping out the Black Snake Gang.

And the older brother, the corpse now cooling on the floor, had been the stronger of the two.

All these facts were swirling in Oh Bong-seok's head, churning into one terrifying conclusion.

‘A m-master.’

His sluggish brain latched onto the only explanation.

His hyungnim, the better fighter, was dead without a scream. Killed by a man with his bare hands.

‘Dekan… that son of a bitch wasn’t just pretending. He had actually had real connections’

This stranger had to be an Underworld master, but his caution felt wrong.

A fighter with that much skill wouldn't need to launch a surprise attack or play dead to find an opening. That was the work of an assassin. And if that was true, the situation became hopeless. Even other criminals knew you never, ever got involved with assassins.

“Are you not going to answer?”

Yuri’s voice grew harsh.

Only then did Oh Bong-seok startle and start speaking.

“Y-yes? I apologise, could you please say that one more time...”

“I asked why you attacked this place.”

“Th-that, it wasn’t my idea. It was my hyungnim, the one you killed. That bastard said we should do it.”

“Who asked you that? I asked why you attacked.”

It seemed just talking wasn't going to work.

Yuri picked up the axe Oh Bong-chun had dropped.

“Hic, he said if we got rid of the Black Snake Gang, we could take over this neighborhood... th-that’s why we did it! That’s all! If we knew a master like you was behind the Black Snake Gang, we would’ve never come to this neighborhood...”

It was just as he had guessed.

From his memories, the Oh Brothers had been sniffing around the Black Snake Gang’s territory for a while. A fight could have broken out at any moment, and the Oh Brothers had simply struck first.

“Who ordered you to do it?”

He pressed the issue, worried that there might be someone else behind the Oh Brothers, because if they had been hired to attack this place, Yuri’s position as the sole survivor could become very awkward.

“O-ordered us?”

Oh Bong-seok blinked and asked back.

Yuri wiped away the blood that was still trickling from his nose and lifted the axe.

“Tell me the truth and I’ll let you live. In exchange, the one who’s behind you will die by my hands. What will it be?”

It seemed breaking someone’s neck really left an impression. Oh Bong-seok had already promoted him to ‘master’, and from the look on his face, avenging his dear brother was the last thing on his mind. The guy was practically vibrating with the need to survive.

Yuri saw his opening and realised a well-placed threat could get him the answers he needed.

It was a bluff, of course.

Yuri had zero confidence in his ability to fight some hidden boss. If the Oh Brothers actually had powerful backing, his only real plan was to run.

“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who on earth would order us to do something like this?”

“I said I’d let you live if you told the truth.”

“Oh, master-nim...! I am not lying. I, Oh Bong-seok, can swear on the gods of heaven and earth, and my parents in heaven too, that what I am saying is not a lie.”

“Are you an orphan?”

“Yes, I am!”

“I’m an orphan too.”

It wasn't a lie. Lee Su-hyeok was an orphan, and so was Yuri.

Maybe he could create an inner sense of closeness from their shared circumstances and get him to open up.

He tried saying it, but Oh Bong-seok just blinked, unable to form a response.

“Ah... my, master-nim, that is truly an unfortunate thing.”

He hadn't revealed the truth just to get some pity.

“Is there really no one?”

"Master-nim, I swear, just think about it! The Black Snake Gang are just playing at being gangsters. They don't even have a Black Scroll! Why in the world would we need to get backing just to take out a crew like them?"

Black Scroll.

The phrase clicked instantly for Yuri, a memory pulled from both the game Seronis and his new reality.

It was the seal of approval from the Black Dragon Society, the massive Underworld Alliance that ran things. Member organisations paid their dues, and in return, they got to use the Society's name.

The Black Snake Gang wasn't on that roster. That meant they were on their own and no one was coming to avenge them.

‘In the game, the Black Dragon Society was run by an old man named Monstrous Tyrant,’ Yuri recalled.

But this world’s history had diverged from the game's lore. According to Yuri’s new memories, the current leader had killed Monstrous Tyrant ten years ago and taken his place.

It wasn't a clean succession, either. The new master had skipped the whole 'respect for your elders' part and gone straight to decorating the capital city of Amyang with Monstrous Tyrant’s head and limbs.

Despite that bloody debut, the guy's identity was a total mystery. The only thing circulating was a juicy, unverified rumour, which claimed the new leader was a transmigrator.

“I just followed what my dead hyungnim told me to do...! It’s the truth, please believe me!”

“Alright.”

Oh Bong-seok pleaded with Yuri, who had been lost in thought with a frown.

It probably wasn't a lie, so Yuri nodded slowly and continued.

“You were honest, so I’ll let you live.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. In exchange, crawl out the door.”

Oh Bong-seok hesitated, his eyes darting from Yuri's unreadable face to his own ruined leg.

The cut on his right ankle was deep, the numbness already spreading to his toes. His other leg could barely hold his weight.

‘Fuck...’

Without someone to support him, crawling was his only option.

With no one to help him, crawling was the only way. He pressed his palms to the floor and began to drag himself forwards, his body smearing a thick, wet line through the blood.

Watching him, Yuri steadied his emotions.

‘I have to do this.’

He made up his mind and took a step towards Oh Bong-seok.

The crawling man flinched, his body going rigid. He stopped, his head hung low for a moment before he spat a curse into the blood.

“You son of a bitch...”

The words were a low growl.

“You bastard... did you really think I wouldn't know? ‘Let you live’? ‘Crawl out’? You. Son. Of. A. Bitch.”

Oh Bong-seok connected the dots.

There was no reason for him to be spared. He was crippled, and his opponent was a calculating monster who had already faked incompetence once to kill his stronger brother.

The order to crawl was just a way to make the kill easier.

“Ah… fuck.” he rasped, his voice cracking.

“Just... the head. Do it to the head, huh? I did what you said, so please... just make it one clean shot...”

There was no need to answer.

A wet crack echoed in the room as the older brother's axe met the younger brother's skull. Oh Bong-seok's body gave a violent shudder, and then went limp.

“Hoo...”

This felt different from the first time. A wave of vertigo hit him, and his stomach lurched. He clamped a hand over his mouth, swallowing the bile that rose in his throat.

‘Okay… so what now?’

The Black Snake Gang was wiped out, and so were their attackers. The Oh Brothers had no backing, no one to come looking for revenge.

Yuri was the sole survivor.

He could run, becoming another body in the official count. This Yuri kid had no real ties, so it would be easy.

But he couldn't. Not yet.

Lorelia's face flashed in his mind. He still had business with her.

His hand went to his pocket, finding the key with '203' stamped on it.

“...”

That settled it.

For now, he would remain Yuri. He'd watch, and he'd wait.

Even in a world this chaotic, a real identity was an asset, and getting a new one from a black market broker was a luxury he couldn't afford.

Besides, the transition was easy enough. Yuri was an orphan with few connections, and that was a life Lee Su-hyeok already knew how to live.

'You're incredibly lucky, Lee Su-hyeok-nim! An orphan landing in an orphan's body is the ideal scenario.'

‘Transmigrators with happy pasts just end up killing themselves.'

‘Landing in a body with a loving family is also a nightmare to manage. One slip-up, they realise you’re an imposter, and they kill you.’

Yuri's jaw tightened at the memory of those instructions, all delivered with a brilliant smile. He forced himself to shove the image of the shimmering silver hair and the red eyes away.

First things first, he dragged Oh Bong-chun’s corpse into position.

The official story was going to be a simple gang war, and he just had to make the evidence fit.

Dekan’s signature weapon was a battle hammer.

Oh Bong-chun’s neck was snapped.

A heavy hammer to the skull would explain that perfectly. Besides, who would check? These were gangsters, the kind of people whose deaths were closed with a shrug.

In this world, it was no big deal if a few people with nothing to their names died.

With a grunt, he wrestled Oh Bong-chun’s body into a chair and propped the lolling head up. He took the hammer in both hands and swung.

Crack!

The already-broken neck gave way completely as the head caved in. He laid the body back on the floor, then wrapped Dekan’s dead fingers around the weapon’s handle.

Next, Oh Bong-seok.

Yuri found a hefty machete nearby and hacked at the man's wounded ankle a few more times to make it look messier. And to complete the picture, he grabbed a few daggers and shoved them into Oh Bong-seok’s back.

“Fucking hell... what am I doing?”

A hollow laugh escaped him as he surveyed his work.

What was this feeling? Sickening. Shitty.

A faint, grim smile touched his lips as he slumped to the floor.

This was all for survival. He was stuck in a shitty game that had become his shitty life, but he still wasn't ready to die. Maybe someday life would get hard enough that death would look like an upgrade, but that day wasn't today.

Today, he would survive.

After all, there was a way out. Kill the God of Chaos, and the transmigrators could go home. The Goddess of Order even threw in a wish for the person who dealt the final blow.

‘UrMumSpammer Lee Su-hyeok-nim, you can do it!’

What was so great about a guy who was just good at a game?

Lorelia’s groundlessly cheerful voice echoed in his ears, her fists clenched with that infuriating smile.

He let out another dry laugh and gripped a dagger, then ripped a strip from his shirt and shoved it in his mouth, like he'd seen in films.

He wasn't sure what good it did, but he figured there had to be a reason for it.

The Black Snake Gang and the Oh Brothers’ crew fought and killed each other, and Yuri, the twenty-year-old rookie, was lucky to have survived the chaos.

But surviving without a single scratch was too convenient of a story, so Yuri bit down hard on the cloth in his mouth and looked down at his body.

Cutting seemed better than stabbing.

“Kk...”

Unlike her ‘education’, this pain was absolutely real. And he finally, finally understood what the gag was for.

* * *

Gordon, the man who ran the general store, was one of the few genuinely kind people Yuri had ever known.

He was the sort of man who regularly donated his old, dusty merchandise to the Oldor Orphanage and would even send over a bit of cash when sales were good.

Yuri had known him since his own time at the orphanage, where he’d been a constant, nagging presence in the young troublemaker’s life.

The lectures continued after Yuri left and started picking pockets, with Gordon telling him to stop living like he was and just come work at the store.

When Yuri finally joined the Black Snake Gang, the nagging seemed to deflate into weary sighs.

Yet even then, whenever Yuri came by as the gang's youngest member to collect protection money, he never used their history to make things difficult. He'd just look at him and ask if he was eating properly.

“Yuri...?”

Gordon, who had been yawning while sitting in his quiet, empty general store, shot up from his seat when he saw a blood-soaked Yuri staggering in.

“Yuri. Yuri?! You brat! What on earth happened?”

“Ah-Ahjussi.”

Yuri stammered Gordon’s name.

The old man rushed over, his face contorting as he supported Yuri.

“So much blood...! Hey, don’t talk. Just stay still.”

His top, soaked in blood from cuts all over, was closer to a rag than a piece of clothing.

Gordon peeled it and examined Yuri’s body.

“You...”

Old scars, burn marks, and new wounds on top of them.

He couldn’t continue, his lips trembling.

“Elena... if she saw you now... what would she think.”

At that name, Yuri’s cheek twitched.

Elena.

A childhood friend of the same age from the Oldor Orphanage he hadn't seen in ten years.

“What in the world happened? Where did you get these wounds?”

“The Black Snake Gang is finished.”

He recited the answer he had prepared beforehand.

“The Oh Brothers. Th-those bastards. They brought their gang and stormed the base. Ev-everyone died. The hyungnims, and the Oh Brothers bastards too.”

“Everyone? Everyone’s dead? What does that mean?”

“I-I don’t really know. I was hiding and then...”

There was no need to finish the sentence, so he stopped and bit his lip.

Gordon stared blankly at Yuri for a moment, then squeezed his eyes shut.

“Thank god.”

After a brief silence, Gordon let out a long sigh.

“It’s a relief those bastards are all dead... and it’s a relief that you’re alive.”

Hearing those words, Yuri couldn't help but feel a complex mix of emotions.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried