Record of a Thousand Lives Chapter 1

“My heart races whenever I see you… It always has… Just like the first time we met…” a young man said weakly as he stood at the edge of the world.

The Demon Lord looked down on the man, seven long and narrow eyes fixing him with their gaze. His lips, razor-sharp like grinding metal gears, opened and he spoke in a screeching voice.

「Foolish human who was defeated.」

“Yeah.”

「Why didn’t you run away from me?」

“I didn’t and won’t because I know I can’t run away.”

「Come back stronger. Strong enough to defeat me next time.」

“Sure,” the young man firmly declared. “I’ll kill you in the next life.”

「I look forward to it.」

The heart of the young man was torn apart along with the world.

***

The smithy was a very old and shabby place that had gone unused for some time. In it, a man sat atop an oak barrel.

Badum… Badum…

The sound of his heartbeat had always been the thing that made him realize he had gone back to the past.

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly opened his eyes. He was holding a shining sword in his right hand. He looked at the device equipped on his wrist. It showed the present date and the details of the equipment.

DATE: 468-P-3 (REORKAN)

[Longsword of Brilliance]

Rating: Normal

Cutting Power: 8

When swung, there is a small chance that the longsword will emit a bright light.

Reorkan Empire Calendar Year 468, the 3rd day of the month of the Phoenix. That was the day when people from Earth had been transported to an unfamiliar world.

Once again… Kang Yoon-Soo had returned to twenty years in the past.

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at the dull edges of the longsword. He swung it with ease, audibly splitting the air apart.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, he remembered his first life.

He was a Blacksmith. He lived a pitiful life, always near death’s door. A poor production class was bound to be treated poorly and looked down upon.

He had always regretted choosing his class. When the war with Pandemonium raged, he was running around as a military mechanic. He eventually met the Demon Lord, the absolute being who wanted to destroy the world.

He was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

He then remembered his second life.

When he opened his eyes, he was in the shabby smithy once again. He realized that he had regressed. Afterward, his life turned around completely from its previous pitiful state.

He outfitted himself with good equipment and recruited comrades, and established a mercenary group. A Mercenary’s life was filled with danger, but it was still much better than a Blacksmith’s life. Twenty years later, when the war with Pandemonium raged, he and his mercenary group fought violently on the front lines.

And then he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

Immediately after, he remembered his third life.

Kang Yoon-Soo started to reflect on his mistakes after he returned. He later eliminated any threats to him from the start and used his knowledge to greatly increase his skills and levels. He also carefully thought about his class this time, and eventually chose the Enchanter class. No one could stand against him after he maximized the enchantments on his sword and armor.

All. But. One. The Demon Lord.

In the fourth life, he lived only by the sword.

He was filled with grit, as he had died three times to the Demon Lord.

With only a sword in hand, he started on a lonesome cultivation journey. Kang Yoon-Soo went around to dangerous hunting spots and ruins all by himself. His sword skills were at the highest level by the time he finished his arduous cultivation, and more than thirty titanic monsters had died by his sword.

Finally, he advanced, becoming an Undying Swordsman—-a class that rarely appeared even among tens of thousands of people. The Emperor appointed him as the Captain of the 1st Knights. As the captain, he skillfully led the war effort against Pandemonium. However, all tactics and military strength were useless before the Demon Lord. He was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

His fifth life was filled with hardships.

He had already gotten used to regressing, and thus decided to change his way of thinking. He decided to mind his own business and disregarded whether the world would be destroyed or not. He lived a quiet life—as quiet as possible. He tried not to stick out to others, and earned only just enough to live by.

The class he chose was Runner. It was a normal class. When the war with Pandemonium raged, he avoided conscription and deserted, fleeing to an uninhabited island.

However, the Demon Lord came to find him. He was again killed by the Demon Lord.

Starting from his sixth life, he felt fear.

He started training his mana as soon as he regressed. He memorized magic spells and also learned to feel the flow of mana. He managed to become a Sorcerer after giving it his all. Then, he decided to invest all of his remaining time into learning cloaking and concealment magic.

When the war with Pandemonium started, he used every spell in his arsenal to hide at the ends of the world.

However… The Demon Lord eventually found him yet again. He was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

In his seventh life, he decided that combat wasn’t the only answer.

He tenaciously trained his speaking skills. He trained hard to speak more effectively than anyone else, and to never lose a debate. He trained for more than ten years under an eloquent orator, and eventually managed to change into the Negotiator class.

He convinced the Emperor to surrender to Pandemonium. The continent was filled with the blood of innocent civilians who had become sacrificial lambs. Only the emperor’s palace was safe, in return for the lives of the innocent.

However, the Demon Lord did not accept Kang Yoon-Soo’s surrender. Again, he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

Afterward, his memories were hazy, due to the despair he had felt in his eighth and ninth life.

The tenth life.

By now, he had gone half-mad. He started killing anyone he saw as soon as he regressed.

He released the resentment pent up in his mind through murder. It was not difficult for him to become a mass murderer by using the knowledge of oratorship, swordsmanship, magic, strategy, and enchantment he had gained from his past lives.

He became the continent’s top murderer. After murdering his 3,000th victim, he obtained the hidden class Life Predator. There was no one in the continent who could match his assassination and dagger skills.

The war started, and the Demon Lord appeared. He shook uncontrollably while prostrating in front of the Demon Lord. He pitifully begged the Demon Lord not to destroy the world and make his life repeat. However, the Demon Lord did not listen.

Just as always, he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

Afterward, he asked the Demon Lord whenever they met: Why did the Demon Lord keep sending him back in time after killing him?

The Demon Lord, who would otherwise not listen or answer him, finally replied in his 98th life.

「Regress repeatedly. Entertain me by becoming a worthy opponent.」

The Demon Lord had been looking for an opponent to match him. However, he could not find anyone to match him even in the Demon Realm because of his immense power. That was why he had chosen a human, and made that human endlessly repeat his life.

That human was Kang Yoon-Soo.

「The more one repeats their life, the sturdier they will become.」

That was when Kang Yoon-Soo realized: In the Demon Lord’s eyes, he was only a plaything to kill time with. The only way to escape from this endless cycle would be to kill the Demon Lord. Achieving that would be more difficult than destroying the heavens themselves.

The Demon Lord had killed him after the explanation.

The 214th life.

After numerous hardships, he managed to become a Grandmaster Puppeteer. He did the most taboo thing a puppeteer could do: He customized his body to become the best battle puppet.

An undying soul flowed in his cold heart, and he customized even his most vulnerable part—his eyes—to be filled with dangerous weapons. His body would repair itself even when fatal damage was inflicted.

However, he was turned to dust when he was caught by the Demon Lord.

The 273rd life.

In order to change his class, he snuck into the hidden halls of the Rogue Master while skillfully evading the traps installed in them. He mastered lockpicking, poisoning, assassination, cloaking, and all the other basic skills in a thief’s arsenal.

Then, he stole the Infinite Chalice, the Magic Sword of Hemoptysis, and even the Seal of Destruction from the lair of the Dragon of Destruction. The only things he could not steal were the sun, moon, and stars up in the sky.

However, he could not steal the Demon Lord’s life.

The 347th life.

He made friends with monsters. They were violent beings who could not understand human language. However, he mastered the language, strategy, and tactics of all the other races and successfully became their leader. He became the lord of all monsters, the Monster Lord, and established himself on the continent.

However… He was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

The 454th life.

He started as a Necromancer, and ended up becoming the Immortal Lich.

His flesh had rotten and fallen off, and only white bones remained. Despising all forms of life, and undying even when wishing for death—he was an immortal being. He could control the strongest undead, such as the Deathless Dragon and Death General, with ease.

He faced Pandemonium head on with his Undying Army. The Demon Lord showed up as expected, and as if he had been waiting for this very moment, he drained the life force of the transcendent being.

However, even though he was a lich, the life force of the Demon Lord was too great. He could not withstand the weight of the Demon Lord’s life force, and his whole body exploded.

The 522nd life.

He memorized the recipes for all the essences and elixirs in the world. He managed to climb up to the highest position in the Alchemist Guild, and changed his class to Grand Alchemist.

He enhanced his body to the absolute limit by using whatever drugs he could produce, and turned the tides of war by combining a Lava Golem with a Bomb.

The tides of war turned back when the Demon Lord appeared, however. Kang Yoon-Soo drank a Potion of Petrification to become a sculpture that no one could break, but he was smashed to pieces at the hands of the Demon Lord.

The 592nd life.

He admitted that he could never win against the Demon Lord. There was no way to defeat Pandemonium; it did not matter how many ancient texts he read, how many ruins he explored, or how many skills and classes he mastered.

Therefore, he decided to focus on returning to Earth instead of finding a way to defeat the Demon Lord. When he obtained the Scholar class, the amount of knowledge he could obtain greatly multiplied.

During that time, the war broke out, and he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

The 689th life.

He finally found a way to go back to Earth after 1,000 years of research. He even managed to advance into the final class of the Scholar line, the one who could read the world—a Sage.

Kang Yoon-Soo managed to break down dimensions and return to Seoul. Then he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord at Gwanghwamun Plaza[1].

The 719th life.

He constructed a gigantic sailboat as the Admiral of the Empire’s Navy and went beyond the Sea of Igyris. After a long voyage, he managed to find a new continent in the East. They cooked rice and practiced martial arts, and the continent had an Oriental atmosphere. His exploration of the New Continent was acknowledged, and he advanced to the final class of the adventurer line—the Explorer of the Unknown.

He wanted to remain in that place, but there were only four days until the war with Pandemonium.

A martial artist he became friends with hid him, but the Demon Lord flew all the way to the New Continent and killed him.

The 742nd life.

He learned that giving the middle finger to the Demon Lord would not provoke him.

The Demon Lord casually ripped him and the world apart without showing any hint of emotion.

The 872nd life.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s emotions dried up. He became a man of few words, and his personality became cold and lifeless. He felt nothing even when he saw children laughing, and he even felt no reluctance to commit murder.

He felt nothing even when he was caught and killed by the Demon Lord.

The 915th life.

He had lived for over 18,000 years. He was sick of hidden classes and hidden equipment. He was sick and tired of everything—even being killed by the Demon Lord.

The 990th life.

He gave up on everything and stopped longing for something new. Kang Yoon-Soo just emptily waited for death. Everyone aside from him had died, and the world was on the brink of destruction.

His body had been sliced up by the endless strength of the Demon Lord. As if grasping at straws, Kang Yoon-Soo launched a final attack. Of course, it failed, and he had expected little from it to begin with.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo definitely saw it. He saw the Demon Lord’s expression crumple severely.

The Demon Lord’s expression returned to normal in a flash as if nothing had happened, and he received no damage at all.

However, just before he died, Kang Yoon-Soo coldly said, “I found it.”

Kwachik!

Kang Yoon-Soo struck the tip of a spear with his longsword, and it broke. He stood up with empty eyes and slowly carved the wall beside the cold furnace.

Ssakak… Ssakak… Ssakak…

There were 199 small tally marks[2] carved into the wall, and the last tally mark ended on the fourth stroke.

That day, Kang Yoon-Soo returned for the 999th time.

His thousandth life had started.

1. Gwanghwamun Plaza is a major square in Seoul, in front of the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Joseon (Ancient Korea). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwanghwamun_Plaza ☜

2. Tally marks are symbols used to count in fives. They are often written as four vertical lines struck through by one diagonal line, but the original text uses the word 正, which is how it is written in East Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_marks ☜