Chapter 1 : Reincarnation (1)

Chapter 1: Reincarnation (1)

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

- Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno

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The Grim Reaper Belteruk was bored. It was not because there was no work. There was an overabundance of it. Even now, work was piled up like a mountain, but he was merely indulging in a brief moment of leisure.

The primary duty of grim reapers was to collect the souls of people whose lifespans had come to an end. The dead, those about to die, or those who had to die—finding such beings and severing the thread of their souls. That was the job.

It was not that he had any particular dissatisfaction with the work. It was simply that the repetition of the same tasks every day was tedious. Gods were not especially different from humans. Gods, too, felt most of the emotions humans felt. It was just that, depending on their respective duties, there were certain emotions they could not feel, or emotions they felt more intensely than others.

The sole creator god or a perfect god that humans imagined? Such a thing did not exist. Or perhaps it did, but at least within the scope of what Belteruk knew, it did not.

The difference between humans and gods—as far as Belteruk knew—was at most the difference in lifespan and duties? If he had to add more, perhaps the difference in strength could be mentioned.

But even that was not an absolute difference. At times, there were humans who, through cultivation, coveted even the realm of the gods. Their lifespans were immense, and their strength rivaled that of gods. The souls of such beings were difficult for grim reapers to retrieve with ease.

Generally, when such incidents occurred, grim reapers would rack their brains over them. In severe cases, the entire underworld would be placed on emergency alert. However, Belteruk was an exception. If it could rid him of this boredom like eternal snow, he rather wished such an incident would occur. Just like now.

But such events happened only once in tens of thousands of years, if at all.

‘Nothing like that will happen today either.’

As usual, Belteruk took out the Grim Reaper Register. The moment he looked at it, a yawn escaped him. It truly seemed unbearably tedious. Even so, he could not put off his duties as a grim reaper. If he were to be annihilated for neglecting his work, there would be nothing more absurd than that.

Letting out a huge yawn, he opened the Grim Reaper Register.

3789028376.

The grim reaper number written at the very top of the register. Today’s first customer.

He had previously retrieved a soul from the 110th dimensional plane, so this time it would definitely be the 111th dimensional plane. Setting aside the dimensional plane number, he checked the number once more.

Belteruk placed the Grim Reaper Register into divine space and took out a grim reaper–exclusive terminal.

Beep-bee-beep-.

With a light movement of his hand, the surrounding scenery changed in an instant. He had teleported from the Underworld to the 111th dimensional plane. Belteruk once again operated the terminal and searched for the location of soul number 3789028376.

Republic of Korea, Seoul Special City, Gangnam District, XX-dong, XX Villa.

He flew toward the place indicated by the terminal. Passing through the interior of Gangnam District, where all kinds of greedy emotions were densely packed, he arrived at his destination. The building where today’s first customer lived was a villa with a neat exterior.

“Yuaaahm-.”

Belteruk jabbed his eyes once with his grim reaper scythe to stave off the drowsiness creeping in from boredom, then stepped inside the villa. The interior of the building was just as clean as the outside. Despite it being quite a large villa, there was no trace of movement from any other souls, as if the owner of soul number 3789028376 lived there alone.

He headed for the fifth floor, the top floor of the villa, where the soul’s vibrations were felt. Passing through the wall and entering inside, he saw a person presumed to be the owner of soul number 3789028376 sitting in a strangely shaped chair.

That thing again?

Belteruk knew exactly what that pitch-black chair sealed on all sides was. It was something called a virtual reality game capsule.

He did not know how humans had acquired such capabilities, but they had created a new dimensional plane called virtual reality. Of course, it was a subordinate dimensional plane, distinct from true dimensional planes, but impressive was still impressive.

Virtual reality was not a place where souls could belong directly. However, souls belonging to true dimensional planes could come and go through that capsule as a medium. Although humans themselves were not aware of it, grim reapers knew well that their souls were entering and exiting.

Belteruk pierced through the wall of the capsule and went inside. A thoroughly ordinary man—with an ordinary face and ordinary physique—was lying there wearing a virtual reality server connection helmet.

After giving the man a brief glance, Belteruk raised his scythe high without the slightest hesitation and cut the neck of the owner of soul number 3789028376. There was no blood, nor was the physical neck actually severed. A grim reaper’s scythe did not cut matter, only the thread of the soul. Outwardly, it looked as though nothing had happened, but the body of soul number 3789028376 was already dead.