---

“One.”

With a rolling sound, the wooden dice carved from wood tumble across the floor.

The rough dice had edges that were all blunted, making them take on a shape closer to a circle than a square.

However, there was a strict distinction between the edges and the faces, as each was engraved with a pattern.

“One.”

One pattern on one face.

An eye, a nose, a mouth.

Arms, legs, a body.

It was a dice that looked so ‘primitive’ that the word sprang to mind effortlessly, yet it gave off a strangely eerie feeling because of it.

“One.”

Park Jinseong rolls it again in the room.

He laid down the hide of an unknown beast and drew sharp sections in blood, as if the engravings on the dice represented some kind of number.

Roll, roll.

Every time Park Jinseong shouted “one” and rolled the dice, it made a consistent sound, as if he had thrown a stone half-heartedly, then paused sharply as if it had hit something.

The face on top of the dice now showed the eye pattern.

“Hmm.”

It was the third consecutive appearance of that symbol since he started rolling the dice.

The eyeball on top vibrated strangely as if the ground were shaking. And with that vibration, an afterimage formed, and if he concentrated on the peculiar sensation, it would sway this way and that before rolling again.

The auditory hallucination of the dice rolling made it feel like the gaze of the eyeball shifted towards him…

The eyeball of the dice and Park Jinseong’s ocular gaze met, clashing and exchanging.

That blood-soaked gaze was anything but welcoming, and so it felt like a faint smell of blood brushed against his nose, fading away like a swarm of ants scattering in all directions…

“One.”

Roll, roll.

The eyeball rolls while staring intently at Park Jinseong.

Although its gaze wavers and scatters, occasionally aligning with the speed of the rolling dice, giving an illusion of being fixed, it never stops looking at Park Jinseong. Even if it lost its focus, it would still roll its eye around to survey, never wavering in its desire to watch him.

There he is—Park Jinseong.

A being longingly gazed upon.

Thus, the eyeball watches.

Continuously, it gazes upon Park Jinseong from above.

And in a whisper akin to an auditory hallucination, it whispers into his ear—

—-

It was a sound that could not be made into a language.

Not a ‘language’ agreed upon by a community, but before that stage.

A signal agreed upon for some special purpose.

The cheering from afar that pricked his ears, the sound of wood being struck in a certain rhythm, a chilling high-pitched sound, and a low, distant rumble of sound—such signals whisper into his ear like an auditory hallucination.

Is this what it feels like when the heartbeat brushes past the ear?

“The omen isn’t looking too good.”

Hearing that sound, Park Jinseong stopped rolling the dice.

Then he opened a pouch filled with the blood used to create the dice and game board, pouring it over them.

As if to say, “You are no longer needed.”

Splash!

With the sound of water splattering, the smell of blood wafts in.

The blood seems to flood over the engravings on the dice and the patterned drawings on the board, as if to completely cover them. Like a wave washing over the sandy beach, erasing all the pictures etched therein without mercy.

Thus, the magical ritual comes to an end.

A primitive form of divination.

It was a form of divination based on a game that existed long before civilization had sufficiently developed…

And the results of that reading were far from good.

Eyes.

Eyes.

Eyes.

Only the repetition of eyes.

The eye marks keep popping up, informing him that someone is watching him.

What the omen signifies is akin to camping alone at night while countless flames arise in the shadowy distance. A pair of flames rising like a ghost in the darkness, and waiting as if countless glowing eyeballs peer down upon the camper.

Only they neither advance nor retreat, sending their clear gaze directly at him.

It could mean he is being targeted as prey, or perhaps watched to determine if he is prey or an opponent that needs to retreat. Or it could be that they are just observing quietly, unsure if they should assist or oppose him.

But one thing is sure: as long as they exist hidden in the darkness, cloaked in shadow and concealing their forms, they cannot escape being regarded as unknown threats, and the camper must remain vigilant and not let sleep take him.

What the omen describes is a warning.

Just as previously mentioned, it warns that an unknown threat is watching him.

“Watch…”

They recognized each other.

The sorcerer.

The polluter.

Park Jinseong.

“But there’s something more.”

Yet the omen speaks.

It says that what is watching him isn’t just one thing.

Among this chaotic flow is more than just the beings Park Jinseong is aware of. And they are quietly, quietly watching him from within the darkness.

Standing tall upon the tree, camouflaged like a star amidst the blossoms in the starlit sky, they bury their shining eyes in the darkness, closing off their sights and concentrating their ears to discern every move Park Jinseong makes, or perhaps merely surveying, having yet to connect eyes with Park Jinseong…

Here now, countless gazes are focused.

Only those existences capable of influencing the flow of the world.

“And that flow is war.”

Park Jinseong knows that ‘flow.’

Hadn’t he experienced it himself before time twisted?

The fire that flared, the blood that flowed in war.

Not merely missiles and bullets exchanging, but places filled with weapons birthed from all manner of unethical experiments. Ethics and morals plummeting to the very bottom, and the so-called ‘minimum threshold of ethics and morals’ failing to perform their duties, rendering it an era when people banded together, striving for survival.

“And China was one of the places where that fire blazed.”

Repeated expansion.

China, wanting to become the elder sibling among the new nations once referred to as the third world since peaceful times, finally revealed its ambitions, and as every nation did during the era of imperialism, it began to extend the strength it hoarded in order to create colonies.

Even while practicing “tao guang yang hui” (韬光养晦), the justification it forged by distorting history became the hilt of its sword, allowing it to wield power indiscriminately. No methods or means barred, the wealth and technology amassed were honed into sharp blades.

“Yeah… they consumed people like bullets…”

China unabashedly used its most abundant resource—humans.

Common people were deployed to wield guns, utilized as both bullet dispensers and cannon fodder, and sometimes consumed as materials for more precious resources.

Not metaphorically, but literally used as materials.

Demon power.

They began to use people as materials to forge what are classified as evil martial arts.

Of course, the official position of the Chinese government is that “a group of hoodlums has lured people into using them as materials for the development of demon power,” and “criminals who are heinous to the world are committing evil acts to fulfill their desires during this chaotic time,” merely dismissing it as individual deviations or the emergence of cults and groups of criminals… and not many believed such statements.

Both abroad and even within China itself.

If the celestial horse cult from the novel were real—would it look something like this?

The bloody warriors, nourished on the blood of humans, would rampage across the battlefield, slaughtering people while vanishing like petals that bloom briefly before fading.

“Might as well call it firewood.”

Burning themselves to ignite flames and then disappearing, how could they not be regarded as firewood?

Those gifted individuals who could have progressed to a certain level, even through the practices of normal martial arts, were thus wasted away. Those who engage in demon power—

No.

Engaged in martial arts combined with human sacrifice rituals.

“…A research institute for creating clones.”

Park Jinseong recalled the research institute where he faced the sorcerer.

An institute aimed at cloning and creating humans.

China’s unethical research to maximize its strengths.

Yes.

It was certainly effective.

Though it may have seemed an unethical and horrifying method, it had produced certain results until the Third World War truly erupted and the world fully ignited.

Without using “real people,” they discarded guilt and proceeded ruthlessly with their dark deeds, certainly performing human sacrifice rituals as well. Perhaps the clones had discovered conditions or formulas to be recognized as ‘humans’ in those rituals.

Park Jinseong did not wish to know, nor did he need to know—but China would have deemed it very useful information… they must have known well.

And they categorized races, classified talents, and analyzed genes to create designer babies, filling the nation with “better humans”—

“Ah, right.”

As he recalled the past, Park Jinseong’s thoughts abruptly halted.

“Come to think of it, before the regression, the leadership in China constantly seemed to have replacements springing up as soon as they were killed.”

This was tied to the ‘fixed mindset’ established through experience.

“Even when they were attacked, they rarely died, so targeting the leadership wasn’t as efficient….”

It had never once failed before, a strategy that hit the head did not seem to work well in China. Pouring large sums of money and effort into striking the head only resulted in a replacement emerging or, in cases where the head was critically damaged, they still survived… definitely an inefficient endeavor.

Though the truth had not been revealed, many speculated that the strategy of constantly regenerating heads came from ‘clones’ or ‘designer babies’…

But now.

Time had twisted, and he had returned to the past.

“Looking at the research institute, it hadn’t progressed that much, had it?”

To prevent the fruit from bearing, one merely had to cut the flower before it bloomed.

“Now.”

Park Jinseong was convinced.

“If you cut the neck, the head won’t easily regenerate like back then.”

If war is the fire, then all byproducts are merely smoke.

 

---