I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: KYSOIWDI
================
[ Chapter 5: Narrow Escape (1) ]

Hunters under the age of 19 with a D-rank or lower were eligible to enter the academy.

The Hunter Academy was an educational institution for hunters that the director put a lot of effort into establishing. Although it was harshly criticized for its name, its purpose was good, and except for some hiccups in the beginning, it had been running quite well until recently.

The purpose of establishing the Hunter Academy was simple.

To prevent young, untrained hunters from dying en masse in dungeons.

After it was revealed that some guilds were trapping newly awakened young hunters in slave contracts and using them as meat shields, the director gathered a few like-minded hunters to create the academy. The idea was to gather and educate the newly awakened kids.

“Is that guy really okay?”

The kids, wearing the uniforms of that very educational institution, started whispering about me.

They probably thought I couldn’t hear them, but I heard everything.

Where did they even find those old uniforms?

“Did he hurt his head or something?”

“My ability can heal external wounds, but if there’s internal damage… what if it’s a concussion?”

“No, think about our teacher. Hunters are always a bit off in the head.”

“Don’t forget, we’re hunters too.”

I looked at the kids with a bewildered face and slowly stood up.

My dulled senses were gradually returning. I wiggled my tingling hand and realized belatedly that I was still holding the director’s ID tag.

…My mind also started to function again.

“Whether that guy’s head is alright or not, we can’t just stay like this.”

“Then what do we do? We can’t call anyone or anything.”

Yoo Ji-eun’s sword was still in my hand. It was proof that the scene I saw just before losing consciousness was not my imagination.

I looked around again. There was nothing distinctive except for the old computers that made me wonder if they still worked. It was an office that you could find anywhere.

An office.

An office…

The calendar on the wall caught my eye.

2021.

“2021?!”

“What is it?”

“Hey, mister! Are you coming to your senses now?”

I looked at the calendar again.

April 2021.

I rubbed my eyes.

The calendar still showed April 2021.

Why… why that date?

What were the chances that the owner of this office was eccentric enough to hang a calendar from twenty years ago on the wall?

“Excuse me! Mister!”

“Hyun-wook!”

“Hey, let him go.”

One of the boys approached, breathing heavily. He had a name tag on his chest.

Oh Hyun-wook.

Weird. Why did that name sound familiar?

“Mister, we don’t have time to wait for you to come to your senses.”

“Rooaaarrr!!”

The sound of monsters could be heard from outside. The boy frowned.

“…You hear that?”

I looked at the calendar.

“If we stay like this… Mister?”

This wasn’t good. A foreboding feeling crept over me.

I cautiously approached the window. Even though the blinds were down, I lowered my body just in case.

Through the blinds, I could see the shattered street.

It wasn’t a ruin. Although it was a mess, it could be recovered.

Cars on the road lay crumpled like trash. The glass windows of the shops on the first floor were all shattered, and a black buffalo was sniffing around, wandering aimlessly. The horns on its head seemed oversized compared to its body.

I checked the signboard of the restaurant that the buffalo had messed up. I hadn’t heard of the name before, but I had no problem recognizing the writing on the corner of the sign.

Myeong-dong Branch.

April 2021. Myeong-dong. Black buffalo.

Civilians huddled in the corner of the office.

Children wearing the old uniforms of the Hunter Academy.

…What if those uniforms aren’t old uniforms? What if they are the current uniforms?

“Excuse me!”

“Quiet.”

So…

“You there, boy.”

I called the boy standing there with a dissatisfied look on his face.

Oh Hyun-wook. Damn. Not only did I know his name, but now that I looked, I also recognized his face. He looked about twenty years younger than the face I remembered, which was why I hadn’t recognized him right away.

“…What?”

“What’s today’s date?”

Oh Hyun-wook’s face blurred.

“Mister, are you feeling nauseous or dizzy?”

“It’s not a concussion. What’s today’s date?”

“…April 5th.”

April 5, 2021.

“Damn.”

I ended up cursing.

I retraced my memories.

What happened before I lost consciousness. The monsters overflowing on the highway and the dead people. Yoo Ji-eun. The Director.

The suspicious item that appeared after the centipedes vanished.

The numbers on the item that looked like a date.

As unbelievable as it was, everything pointed to one thing.

Time travel.

Does that even make sense?

I’d never heard of an item that allows time travel. It would make more sense to say I was seeing visions before death.

If this really was time travel, wouldn’t there be better dates to travel to?

…Unless it was the lab, why this day, why Myeong-dong?

I would have preferred if it were just before my vacation. Then I wouldn’t have ignored Yoo Ji-eun’s warning, and I would have tackled the damn Bangi-dong Dungeon.

Of all days, why this day!

April 5, 2021.

If I really had gone back twenty years.

Everyone in this building today would die except for five people.

*         *         *

Twenty years ago, a dungeon in Myeong-dong erupted.

At that time, the magic measurement device had not yet been developed, so dungeons were managed manually.

Of course, since the Myeong-dong Dungeon was in the heart of Seoul, it was thoroughly managed by the standards of that era. However, as is the nature of dungeons, they could appear calm one day and explode the next.

That was the case with the Myeong-dong Dungeon.

It was later revealed that the responsible public official had not done their job properly. Although the blame wasn’t solely on that official, their negligence delayed the alarm. The news of the dungeon break was only announced after the first casualties occurred.

The guild in charge of the Myeong-dong Dungeon deployed immediately upon hearing the news, but they were insufficient to stop the monsters pouring out of the dungeon on their own. While waiting for reinforcements, the monsters began rampaging through the streets of Myeong-dong.

In the process, five students from the Hunter Development High School, who were on-site for field practice, were trapped in the guild office. They were stuck with the civilians and the non-combat guild staff in the same building.

The number of civilians was forty-one, including those who had entered the building to escape the monsters.

Adding the students, the total was forty-six.

In a situation where they couldn’t call for external help, the monsters sensed the presence of people inside the building and started attacking it. The students tried to protect the civilians, but as newly awakened hunters, they didn’t know how to handle a dungeon break.

There were five survivors: two students from the Hunter Development High School and three civilians.

This incident held back the newly established hunter training school. I remember seeing the headmaster struggle with it for years afterward.

The school eventually changed its name from Hunter Training High School to Hunter Academy because of this incident. Honestly, I think the new name is worse, but it was said that the memories of the deceased students kept resurfacing.

In any case, the Myeong-dong Dungeon Break is a staple topic in mandatory safety education for the awakened. It’s often brought up to illustrate how poor dungeon management and the importance of initial suppression during a dungeon break can lead to disastrous consequences.

Of course, I know it well. As an instructor, I had to know it even better.

I even wrote a thesis on this in university. It discussed what the inexperienced minor hunters should have done to escape safely.

For the record, the conclusion of that thesis was that, considering the technology and equipment available to the students at the time, it was impossible for everyone to survive.

…In other words, if one had useful knowledge of the future and decent equipment, there might be a way for all forty-six people to survive.

What? Aren’t I worried about time paradoxes with time travel?

I don’t even know how I ended up here, so why worry about that? I don’t know how to go back, whether I can, or even if I want to when I think about the unidentified monsters, the corpses of hunters, and the burning Seoul I left behind.

If that’s the case… we need to think of a way to survive here.

I have Yoo Ji-eun’s sword. If I’m alone, I can confidently get out of this quagmire.

But…

“How long has it been since the dungeon went berserk?”

I couldn’t pretend not to know that everyone was going to die. Seeing it in text and witnessing it in reality are different.

I’m not that cold-hearted.

Forty-six… no, forty-one lives.

“Hey… excuse me?”

“Aren’t you students from Hunter Academy, the Development High School? Haven’t you learned about dungeon breaks?”

“Uh… yeah.”

I know the 2041 Hunter Academy curriculum by heart, but I’m not sure about this period.

Still, survivors Oh Hyun-wook and Park Seo-hyun are hunters renowned as geniuses of the century. A promising tree is recognized from the sprout, so they should be able to handle at least one person’s worth of work.

“…We were supposed to learn that today.”

“……”

“We originally came here for field training with the guild. To learn about dungeon management and strategy procedures….”

It’s alright.

It can happen. They’re still just kids. The Oh Hyun-wook I know is a bear-like man with a beer belly, and Park Seo-hyun is a gloomy woman with a creepy grin.

Right now, they’re just kids. Are they around D-rank? Generally, D-rank hunters are those who just became hunters and think they’re something special. They were so annoying during compulsory education…. Compared to those hunters, at least these kids are paying attention to what I’m saying.

“Then learn now. Do you know when the dungeon went berserk?”

“Uh, how long has it been, guys?”

“About four hours… I think.”

“You don’t need to think. Specific numbers are the top priority in dungeon strategy.”

The bewildered kids shifted uncomfortably. Still, one answered clearly.

“It’s been three hours and fifty minutes.”

Yoo Hye-eun. The girl who eagerly slapped my cheek earlier.

“What about external communication?”

“It doesn’t work. Sometimes there’s a signal, but no connection.”

“When was the last information you received? Include the time.”

“Uh, two hours ago, they said hunters were gathering to attack the dungeon boss.”

I knew what kind of life the head of the headquarters had lived. He was in the boss raid team. He had blamed himself for calmly fighting the boss, unaware his students were dying.

At least that won’t happen this time.

“Wait a minute, mister.”

Oh Hyun-wook, who had been silent, spoke up with a frowning face.

“Who are you, mister?”

“Hyun-wook!”

“Hey, hold on. How can we trust someone we don’t even know? Mister, do you have a hunter license? If you do, show it to us.”

Ha.

There was a time when piggy Oh Hyun-wook was this sharp. Time indeed….

But it was a sharp question. A thankful question, too.

I nodded.

“I don’t have it.”

How could I show a license dated 2029 when it’s neatly tucked away in my wallet?

“What did you say?”

“I lost it.”

“…You lost it?”

“It’s in my wallet, but the wallet is gone. I must have dropped it when I passed out earlier.”

What can you do if it’s lost?