I put a leash on Catastrophe

Would you believe it if someone said that a single drop of oil could power dozens of factories?

In reality, such a thing is impossible, but ethereal stones made this possible.

Even in Korea, there was no longer a need to fear electricity bills. A life where you could keep the air conditioner on all day, and the electricity bill wouldn’t exceed 100 won.

Oil, which causes pollution with every use, lost its value. Naturally, it fell out of use as a safer and more environmentally friendly energy source appeared.

Ethereal stones were used not only in the energy industry but in many other fields, advancing humanity one step, no, ten steps forward.

Monsters, once called living disasters, had long since turned into walking money bags.

One day, when all countries were busy enriching their treasuries by managing ethereal stone farms through the Gates, disaster struck again.

“Business hasn’t been great lately.”

“Probably because too many people have gathered. They say there are few people at the new farm that just opened. Maybe we should move there?”

“But isn’t it dangerous where a strategy hasn’t been developed yet… Huh?”

“What is it? Ah… What’s that?”

A group of hunters, while talking, suddenly noticed something and were surprised.

What they saw was a huge column protruding from the Gate.

No, it was a gigantic leg resembling a column. Everyone was shocked, looking at the leg as thick as a century-old tree in a national park.

Although monsters were big… everyone thought, looking at the leg that was incomparably larger than an elephant:

‘If the leg is like this, what about the body?’

And this question was immediately resolved. The monster, whose one leg had barely come out of the Gate at first, seemed to be trying to push its entire body through, and the Gate began to tear.

Crack, crack!

When the hunters started to panic, hearing a sound that shouldn’t have been there and seeing the Gate gradually expanding…

Finally, the Gate, unable to withstand, tore apart, and the owner of that leg burst out.

This was the appearance of a being that would later be called a Minor Calamity.

The huge monster, as tall as a 4-5 story building, was only caught after it destroyed 4 cities near the Gate from which it emerged.

There were enormous human casualties, as well as significant material damage. And such incidents were not happening in just one place.

“It seems that if you keep the Gates open for a long time, such monsters appear.”

“Then we need to close the Gates immediately!”

“But then the supply of ethereal stones…”

“Is that important now? Material damage is one thing! Can ethereal stones or anything else be more important than the loss of lives!”

At the moment when public opinion was leaning towards closing the Gates, the situation was changed by an item found in the body of the huge monster.

“This is…”

“Beautiful. Amazing.”

It was an ethereal stone possessing incomparably greater power than ordinary ethereal stones. Considering the monster’s enormous body, this was an expected result.

Shining with various colors even without a light source, it soon received the name “rainbow ethereal stone.”

Enchanted by its magnificence, people forgot about the tragedy caused by the huge monster, succumbing to greed.

‘If you can get something like this, aren’t small sacrifices justified?’

Victims appeared because they didn’t know such a thing could appear and weren’t prepared. If prepared, it could be easily caught. Although the damage was great, in the end, the monster was killed, wasn’t it?

People couldn’t give up their desires and began to justify themselves.

In the end, despite the damage, each country, with the tacit consent of the government, continued to keep the Gates open.

Since voices about the need to close the Gates were still strong, they established double, triple, even five- and six-fold protection measures.

And when a huge monster appeared again, everyone was able to stop it perfectly.

“If this can be controlled, then…”

“Other countries are getting everything, we can’t just close the Gates.”

It seemed that it would end there, but unfortunately, it wasn’t so.

The word “minor” was used only because it was relatively small. The appearance of the Great Calamity was a natural next step.

* * *

The beginning, as always, came without warning.

People expecting the appearance of a Minor Calamity – a huge monster – were shocked.

“Huh?”

“What is this… Why is the ground like this?”

The surroundings of the Gate began to gradually change. Usually, it ended with monsters tumbling out of the Gate, but now the landscape from beyond the Gate began to gradually come out. And when everything inside came out, the Gate disappeared.

And the one who called himself the “Apostle of Wrath” appeared. This was the first Great Calamity.

He appeared in China, and half of China’s vast territory became his domain. The number of dead was uncountable.

Not only in China but also in other countries with large territories and many Gates, such as India, Canada, Russia, except for the USA, Great Calamities awakened.

In Korea, fortunately, due to the small territory of the country, they couldn’t open many Gates, so a Great Calamity didn’t occur, but this didn’t mean that the country wasn’t affected. Because Great Calamities were in neighboring China and Russia, it was inevitable.

They weren’t satisfied with the captured territories and began to expand their domains. Under their onslaught, refugees poured in, and their positions became closer.

And then one day, the last Great Calamity awakened from a long sleep. In the USA, the only country where a Great Calamity hadn’t appeared until now.

Perhaps because this calamity called itself “His Majesty,” it was stronger and harsher than any monster. In other countries, they resisted with difficulty, but the USA was destroyed just a month after the Great Calamity’s awakening. The pharaoh, who made all of North and South America his territory, apparently wasn’t satisfied with this and moved to the continents where other Great Calamities were located.

All Great Calamities, who ruled as kings in different territories, came under the pharaoh’s rule, and the pharaoh became the emperor.

With each new capture of lands by calamities born from human greed, humanity’s territory shrank.

Moreover, the number of hunters capable of opposing them sharply decreased.

Those remaining were those who refused to fight out of fear of death, or those who couldn’t participate in battles due to lack of abilities.

When humanity was so eager for destruction…

In Korea, one capable person gathered the remaining people and created an attack squad called “Last Hope.”

* * *

“Can I go?”

Zhi-wu asked the attack squad commander with a puzzled face. And it’s not surprising, as he was D-class in rank.

Not the lowest, but still a low rank, and he was weak in combat. Because he had to run and hide to survive, his abilities developed towards invisibility and infiltration.

Although people had greatly decreased and there was no one else to take, he doubted if he would be of any use.

He wasn’t afraid of death, because in any case, at the end of destruction, only death awaited. Zhi-wu was afraid that due to his weak abilities, he might become a burden for the attack squad.

However, contrary to these fears, the squad commander nodded.

“Yes. You are needed.”

Although he received an answer, Zhi-wu’s expression remained unsatisfied, so the squad commander added:

“Shaman Son said to do so.”

“Ah…”

Shaman Son was a hunter with the ability to foresee the future, coming from a family of shamans. Like Zhi-wu, he had no combat power at all.

However, this ability alone was enough to get an A rank, so one could understand how outstanding his foresight was.

“If he said so…”

Although he was called Shaman Son, his abilities were not mediocre at all. It’s just that his surname was Son, and he jokingly called himself “shaman Son,” which stuck as a nickname, Zhi-wu didn’t doubt him at all.

(note: This is a wordplay related to the shaman’s name: “선무당” (Seon-mudang) is a phrase that can be translated as “inept shaman” or “inexperienced shaman.” Here “선” (seon) means “inexperienced” or “inept,” and “무당” (mudang) means “shaman.” However, in this case, “선” (Seon) is the character’s surname.)

Zhi-wu asked the squad commander what he would need to do in the attack squad, but he slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know either.”

“What?”

“Just… Shaman Son said you need to be brought to a certain place.”

“…”

“These were his last words, so I don’t know the reason either.”

Shaman Son’s ability was foresight, and using this ability shortened his life.

Although his remaining life was probably not very long due to the many predictions he had made so far, he risked his life one last time to predict a way for humanity to survive.

This meant that Zhi-wu was a necessary element of this plan.

Although there was some resistance to including Zhi-wu with his insufficient abilities, everyone fell silent when Shaman Son’s name was mentioned.

And when they came to the place Shaman Son had spoken of, they saw an unusual place.

“Was this… here?”

Something like unusual ruins was built there.

The attack squad members moved forward, very tense because of this alien space. However, nothing terrible happened, and they saw what was that “way for humanity to survive” that Shaman Son had seen in his foresight.

“Return in time…”

Although there were no written explanations, information naturally entered their heads, and everyone’s eyes shone.

Return. Go back.

Everyone became greedy at the thought of being able to return not a couple of hours back, but to the past, to a peaceful and happy time, escaping this hell.

They would be able to meet deceased relatives and friends. Return to a world full of conveniences, not this world with destroyed civilization.

‘And if you go to the past with memories…’

You can become stronger. Stronger than everyone. Then, perhaps, you could stop not only Minor Calamities but also Great ones.

In an instant, turning from comrades into rivals, they looked at each other, and then turned to the squad commander.

He was the strongest in this place and had the most authoritative voice. Ignoring the people who were looking at him as if asking to choose them, he spoke:

“The one who will return is Yu Zhi-wu.”

“What?”

“No way! How can this idiot…”

“This is what Shaman Son wanted.”

At these words, the voices of the noisy people subsided.

Only then did they remember that Shaman Son had specifically indicated to bring Zhi-wu.

Everyone looked at Zhi-wu with puzzled expressions, and then sighed. Since they had survived until now thanks to Shaman Son’s predictions, not sending Zhi-wu would mean ignoring Shaman Son’s abilities.

‘…So he will be able to achieve the best result that the shaman saw.’

While everyone was trying to come to terms with this in conflict, only Zhi-wu couldn’t do it.

“Will I really be able to help? I don’t have abilities now… even if I return to the past, nothing will change.”

He had neither a high position close to the government to convince influential people, nor great wealth.

No matter how you think about it, it seemed that it would be much better if the squad commander or other members went instead of him, and when he made a sad face, the commander said:

“You will be useful.”

“But…”

“If you don’t believe in your abilities, believe in Shaman Son’s abilities.”

Shaman Son wanted him, so Zhi-wu had to go. The squad commander wouldn’t tolerate anyone interfering with this, even if it was Zhi-wu himself.

In the end, Zhi-wu had no choice but to go to the past.