WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Abandoned Tank is a Disaster-class Awakener ◈

Chapter 2

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“...Seong-un.”

A faint voice rang in my ears.

“Kang Seong-un!”

This time, it was clear.

As I slowly opened my eyes, my blurred vision gradually came into focus.

A stark white ceiling, neatly arranged fluorescent lights, and a long conference table stretched out before me.

It was a place I could never mistake.

The office of the Chairman of the Korean Awakeners Association.

“What’s wrong all of a sudden? Are you feeling unwell?”

I raised my head.

The man seated across from me was looking at me with concern.

Park Gang-sik, much younger than the last time I had seen him.

The Chairman of the Korean Awakeners Association, a man who had wielded the greatest power since the age of Awakeners began.

“I’m fine.”

Remembering that I had used the Book of Regression, I composed my expression.

“More importantly, please continue what you were saying.”

I still did not know exactly when I had returned to.

I had said it to gather information, and fortunately, Park Gang-sik nodded without suspicion.

“Right. About becoming an instructor.”

‘Ah!’

The moment I heard that word, my memories clicked into place.

“The medical staff agrees that it would be best for you to step back from the front lines a little now. How about joining the Association as an instructor and teaching the younger generation?”

Right. This was the moment.

Only then did I clearly realize which point in the past the Book of Regression had sent me to.

In truth, the Book of Regression was not an item that simply sent its user to whatever time they wanted.

It sent them back to the moment they most desperately wanted to undo.

To the point before the choice they regretted most in their life.

I had worried that it might send me back to before our failure on the seventieth floor, but no.

The moment I truly wanted to return to was ten years ago, right now.

I slowly looked down at my hands.

The fingers that had been melted by poison and could no longer fully straighten were perfectly fine.

When I clenched my fist, I felt strength so weak it seemed unfamiliar to my current memories.

Novice.

An early-stage Awakener with nothing special beyond slightly enhanced physical abilities.

Back when Awakeners themselves were rare, being Korea’s first Awakener was enough to put me on the front lines.

But as time passed, Awakeners with powerful Traits appeared, and I, an utterly ordinary Novice, naturally began to be pushed out of the Vanguard.

This was right in the middle of that generational shift.

In the past, I had desperately resisted here.

I said I was not finished yet.

That I only needed a little more time.

And in the end, I said that I still had a special power.

It was not empty bravado.

Not long afterward, my Novice Trait would evolve, and I would obtain the power that would later be called Super Novice.

An evolved Awakening with both a tank’s endurance and a dealer’s firepower.

After proving that power, I returned to the Vanguard and raised Korea’s Tower higher and for longer than anyone else.

“I know you may feel disappointed.”

Park Gang-sik continued.

“Still, there is no Awakener with as much experience as you. You are also a symbol as Korea’s first Awakener. If you personally train the younger generation, that would be a great help to Korea as well.”

I silently looked at him.

In the past, those words had sounded like a sentence.

As if he were telling me that I was finished.

That was why I tried so hard to return to the vanguard.

But now was different.

There was no reason to argue.

“...Yes.”

Park Gang-sik’s expression immediately brightened at my answer.

“Good. You made the right decision.”

As if relieved, he leaned back in his chair.

“Stepping down from active duty does not mean your role is over. You were the first Awakener I discovered, and Korea’s first Awakener as well. Helping create a new generation from behind the scenes is also admirable work. And I would like you to pay particular attention to my son, Jun-hyeok...”

I did not need to hear any more.

Scrape.

I rose from my seat.

Then I said,

“I will decline the offer to become an instructor.”

For a moment,

“...”

Park Gang-sik’s smile froze.

“...What?”

I took my Awakener license from my wallet.

I quietly placed the license I had been holding for a while on the table.

“I will retire from active duty.”

Relief crossed Park Gang-sik’s face again after his momentary surprise.

“Right, that is what we were talking about. That is why I said I would arrange an instructor position for you...”

“No.”

I cut him off.

“I am saying that I will retire as a Korean Awakener.”

A heavy silence fell.

Park Gang-sik looked back and forth between the ID card I had placed down and my face.

“W-Wait. What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“No, I think you have misunderstood something. If you do not like the instructor position, we can look for another role. There is an Association adviser position, or you could go to the Training Headquarters. If compensation is the issue, that can also be more than...”

“I don’t need it.”

This time, Park Gang-sik’s expression hardened completely.

“Kang Seong-un.”

His voice had lowered.

In the past, just those words would have shaken me.

It was not because I feared him.

I feared letting down the expectations of the person who had found me and raised me.

But I had lived another ten years with those feelings.

“I think you are making this decision too emotionally.”

“I’m not.”

That was why my heart felt strangely at ease.

“This is a decision I made after thinking about it for a long time.”

Park Gang-sik wore an expression of complete incomprehension.

Naturally.

For me, it was a ten-year deliberation, but for him, it was a future that had not even begun.

I turned toward the door.

“Seong-un.”

I heard a chair slide behind me.

“Wait. Think about it again. You are Korea’s first Awakener. If you suddenly leave like this, the Association will be in trouble, and above all...”

I paused with my hand on the doorknob.

Korea’s first Awakener.

In the past, I had been bound by those words my entire life.

I thought that I had to take responsibility because I was the first.

I believed that I had to remain until the end because I had started it.

Whenever someone left a vacant position, I thought I had to fill it.

I thought I had to use my own body to make up even for the Association’s mistakes.

But.

“...”

I stopped walking.

I turned to look at Park Gang-sik.

Then I said,

“Haven’t I done enough already?”

He could not say anything.

I opened the door.

Bright sunlight poured through the window at the end of the hallway.

The world from ten years ago.

Korea had become the only country in the world to successfully clear the thirtieth floor, leading the age of Awakeners while dreaming of a bright future.

But they did not know.

They did not know what would happen ten years later.

They did not know how my Trait would evolve soon.

What kind of power Super Novice possessed.

Or what would be returned to me in the end after I poured that power out for Korea.

This time, I had no intention of telling them.

“Seong-un!”

Leaving Park Gang-sik’s call behind me, I walked away.

In my previous life, I had held on until the country abandoned me.

This time was different.

This time, I would let go first.

* * *

After the Tower appeared, countless countries fell into chaos, but Korea was different.

It was the fastest to establish a system for managing Awakeners, organize Raid Parties, and create a national system for climbing the Tower.

At the center of it all were the Korean Awakeners Association and Park Gang-sik.

And just ahead of them was me, Korea’s first Awakener.

The ability I possessed when I first awakened was nothing special.

Novice.

Even among physical-enhancement Awakeners, it was one of the simplest types.

I became stronger.

My body became tougher.

I could fight a little longer than others.

That was all.

But in the early days after the Tower appeared, that alone was enough.

Awakeners had been scarce.

I was the first to enter the Tower, the first to fight monsters, and the first to climb floor after floor that no one knew anything about.

Time passed like that.

Korea reached the thirtieth floor, and the world called Korea an Awakener powerhouse.

The problem was that the world kept changing too.

New Awakeners appeared.

Those who controlled elements.

Those who could move through space.

Those who controlled summoned creatures.

Specialized Awakeners, once rare, began appearing one after another. As they grew stronger, the methods for clearing the Tower changed rapidly as well.

It was a generational shift.

I could not remain on the front lines forever just because I had been the first.

And now, I was among those being replaced.

Of course, I would become Super Novice soon enough, but I would no longer use that power for Korea or for Park Gang-sik.

“Let’s go home.”

The moment I said the words aloud, I felt strange.

Home.

When had home become nothing more than a place to sleep in my previous life?

The Tower.

The training grounds.

The Association.

The hospital.

Then the Tower again.

I repeated that cycle so often that it became normal for me not to go home for days at a time.

I walked down an old street that felt too distant even to call familiar.

It had been exactly ten years, but to the me of this era, it was a road I would have walked along that morning.

The signs along the street.

The old bus stop.

Even the shops that had already disappeared.

They were all still there.

After looking at them for a while, I stopped in front of a familiar apartment building.

“...It was here.”

I got into the elevator.

For a moment, I could not remember which floor it was, so I hesitated in front of the buttons.

It had been that long.

I barely managed to pull the memory out, pressed the button, stood before the door, and entered the password.

Beep-beep.

The door opened.

It smelled familiar, yet strange.

I took off my shoes and stepped inside.

Then,

“...What are you doing here?”

The moment I entered through the front door, I heard a woman’s voice.

I stopped taking off my shoes and raised my head.

A woman appeared from the living room.

Her long hair had obviously been carefully styled, and she wore quite elaborate makeup around her eyes and lips.

A thin jacket was draped over the fitted dress she wore. Anyone could tell she had been about to go out.

She held a small handbag, and the scent of her perfume had spread all the way to the entrance.

“Why are you...?”

At first, I was confused.

But only for a moment.

She quickly composed her expression and tucked her hair behind her ear as though nothing was wrong.

“Didn’t you say you would be late today?”

“...”

I could not answer.

I only looked at her face.

Before I regressed, I lived alone.

Even after returning from the Tower, I entered a dark home by myself.

That time had lasted so long that I had forgotten one obvious fact.

Ten years ago, I had been married to a woman named Han Seo-jin.

“What’s wrong?”

Seo-jin furrowed her brow slightly.

“Stop looking at me so strangely. Did something happen?”

Instead of answering, I slowly looked her over.

Then, the memories I had buried for so long began to surface one by one.

A woman I had met through a friend’s introduction.

When we first met, Han Seo-jin had been far from glamorous.

She smiled easily at small things and felt uncomfortable receiving expensive gifts.

I believed that she was interested in Kang Seong-un the person, not the fact that I was Korea’s first Awakener.

When I returned exhausted after a Tower raid, she served meals she had prepared herself and nagged me to take care of myself first.

So I believed her.

I believed that this woman would stay by my side no matter what kind of person I became.

Looking back, it was ridiculous.

That I had believed all of that innocence was real.

The first few years were fine.

Her spending gradually increasing.

Her appearing at gatherings for Awakener families using my name.

Her building connections with Association officials.

I did not think much of any of it.

I thought she must be lonely because I spent too long in the Tower.

I thought it was because I had failed to be a proper husband.

I always thought that way.

Whenever there was a problem, I looked for the cause in myself.

Then, in our tenth year of marriage, on our exact tenth anniversary, Han Seo-jin demanded a divorce.

The reason was even more absurd.

My affair.

The other person was a healer from the same Vanguard.

There were no photos of us entering a hotel together.

We had not even held hands.

There were only a few photos of us meeting at a cafe the day before a Tower raid.

We had only held a separate strategy meeting to coordinate possible injuries, recovery order, and combat routes during the raid.

That was all.

But Han Seo-jin had been prepared.

The photos were leaked to the media.

The media, hungry for something sensational, worked with her to pour out all kinds of ridiculous articles.

The more I explained that it was not true, the more articles appeared.

Han Seo-jin even gave interviews.

She said she had endured it for a long time.

She said she had kept quiet for her husband’s reputation.

I became a man with no intention of protecting his family, while she became the pitiful wife who had endured everything in the shadow of a national hero.

I could have fought.

If I gathered evidence, I could have refuted it.

But I was exhausted at the time.

At the Tower.

At the Association.

At home.

So I just gave in.

I met her demand for the compensation known as the promised ten years.

I thought that was the end.

Then, not long after the divorce, I heard something.

Han Seo-jin had remarried.

Even then, I did not care much.

I thought, what did it matter to me whom someone who was already out of my life married?

But.

“What are you staring at?”

She asked irritably.

“I have plans. I need to go.”

Why had I never suspected anything?

A woman who had demanded a divorce as though she had prepared for it the moment our tenth anniversary arrived.

A woman who remarried not long after separating from me.

And the man she married was someone I knew very well.

“...Kim Yeong-jin.”

The moment I said that name, Han Seo-jin’s eyes shook violently.

“What?”

Her face froze for just a moment before quickly turning fierce.

“Why are you suddenly talking about Yeong-jin oppa? You’re really acting strange today.”

“You’re going to meet him, aren’t you?”

“W-What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Give me your phone.”

“...What?”

“We can check it.”

Han Seo-jin’s expression changed completely.

The way she instinctively hid her handbag behind her back only made me more certain.

“Are you crazy? Even married couples have privacy.”

“Your phone.”

“No!”

“Han Seo-jin.”

“I said no!”

She shouted and tried to pass by me.

Then, at that moment.

Smack!

I caught her wrist.

“Ah!”

When I pulled her closer, Han Seo-jin’s body was helplessly dragged toward me.

Then I took her handbag with my other hand.

“Let go! Give it back!”

Han Seo-jin screamed as she clung to the bag.

But I did not budge.

I was an Awakener.

I was someone who had fought monsters barehanded since an era when no one even properly understood what the Tower was.

No matter how hard Han Seo-jin pulled on the bag with her whole body, my arm did not move an inch.

“Let go!”

I released her hand.

Han Seo-jin staggered backward, and in that opening, the handbag completely came into my possession.

“You crazy bastard!”

She lunged at me.

Her palm flew toward my cheek.

But it was slow.

I caught her wrist.

Then I stopped her just like that.

Han Seo-jin’s eyes widened.

“You...”

My voice lowered without me realizing it.

“I guess you really forgot because I’ve put up with you all this time.”

“W-What...?”

I stepped forward.

Han Seo-jin flinched and stepped back.

Her back hit the wall.

After releasing her wrist, I grabbed the back of her neck.

“Ugh!”

I shoved her against the wall.

Thud!

A picture frame shook.

Han Seo-jin grabbed my arm with both hands.

“L-Let go...”

I could break her if I used force.

Taking her life would be even easier.

That was why I had to control my strength.

Still, I made sure she understood one thing.

She could not escape.

Han Seo-jin pushed at my arm.

It did not move.

She even dug in her nails and scratched the back of my hand, but it was the same.

“Have you forgotten who I am?”

“...”

I brought my face close to hers.

“Korea’s first Awakener.”

The color slowly drained from Han Seo-jin’s face.

“A hero fighting Tower monsters in the Vanguard.”

“...I-I know.”

“No.”

I put just a little more pressure into the hand gripping her neck.

“You didn’t know.”

“Ugh...!”

“At home, when you raised your voice, I shut my mouth. When you got angry, I apologized. When you acted irritated, I first wondered whether I had done something wrong.”

For the first time, clear fear appeared in Han Seo-jin’s eyes.

Only after confirming that fear did I let her go.

“Cough! Cough!”

She bent over, clutching her throat.

The hand she braced against the wall trembled.

There was no trace left of the woman who had been shouting at me moments ago.

I opened her handbag.

Then I took out her phone.

“The password.”

“...”

Han Seo-jin did not answer.

She raised her head as though to glare at me, but when our eyes met, she lowered her gaze again.

“Don’t make me ask twice.”

“...0427.”

I unlocked the phone.

I opened the messenger app first.

I did not even need to enter a name into the search bar.

Kim Yeong-jin.

His name was at the top of the recent conversations list.

When I opened the chat, the corner of my mouth twisted on its own.

[Are you definitely going to be late today?]

[Yeah. He went to the Association.]

[I heard that guy has been treated like a washed-up has-been lately lol.]

[Exactly. Even when he comes home, he just looks depressed. It’s really exhausting.]

My finger slowly scrolled down the screen.

[Still, you benefited a lot from Seong-un.]

[That is true. His name still has some use.]

The messages that followed were even more ridiculous.

[Want to meet near that hotel today?]

[No. We could run into someone we know.]

[Then, the place we usually go.]

[Okay♥]

Above them were scattered traces of deleted messages.

It seemed they had deleted the important conversations.

“...”

I looked at the screen for a moment.

I thought anger would boil up inside me.

But I felt nothing.

Instead, my mind cooled completely.

I put the phone in my pocket.

Then I said,

“Let’s go.”

“...What?”

“Your plans.”

“What...?”

“Weren’t you going to meet Kim Yeong-jin?”

Her face stiffened.

“I’m not going.”

“Why?”

“I just... don’t have to go.”

“But I want to go.”

“Honey...”

For the first time, her voice became pleading.

“Let’s talk at home. I’ll explain everything.”

“I don’t need an explanation.”

I threw her handbag against her chest.

Han Seo-jin caught it without thinking.

“You’re already dressed.”

I took a step closer, and her shoulders shrank.

“You’ve put on makeup.”

Another step.

Han Seo-jin pressed her back more tightly against the wall.

“You have even decided on the meeting place.”

Then I opened the front door.

“What are you hesitating for?”

“...”

“Let’s go.”

Han Seo-jin did not move.

I turned to look at her.

“You just confirmed it yourself.”

My gaze naturally dropped to her throat.

Han Seo-jin instinctively covered it and stepped back.

“You just saw it yourself. You’re in no position to refuse me.”

“...”

Her lips trembled.

But she could no longer argue.

A little later, she slowly put on her shoes with her head lowered.

She looked entirely different from when she had been about to leave through the front door earlier.

Her shoulders were hunched, and the hand holding her handbag trembled slightly.

I left the apartment first.

“Follow me.”

A moment later, quiet footsteps followed behind me.

This time, Han Seo-jin understood as well.

That I would not back down just because she raised her voice like before.

And that the man standing before her was not merely an obedient husband.

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