C0. The Story Within the Novel

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[Kim Suho]

17 – 27 years old in the story

A righteous, honest man and a hard-worker. Though he comes from a common background, he is of extraordinary character and talent. As a genius who made his name known in the military academy, he possesses a sense of justice and other upright characteristics befitting a hero. He carries a special secret that he hasn’t revealed to anyone.

[Shin Jonghak]

17 – 27 years old in the story

The fourth generation descendant of the Jinsung Corp, one of the greatest chaebol in Korea, which contends for the number one spot. As a child of a chaebol family, he is a narcissist and an elitist. Because of his personality and the sense of inferiority he feels against Kim Suho, he later becomes a villain.

'I have to be the best. I cannot tolerate anyone being above me.' With such obstinacy, he confronts Kim Suho.

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The above two were the two main characters of my novel.

Though the novel had many more characters, write them all down was impossible. Within my novel were billions of characters. Unless the characters have ‘important roles’ like the heroine or the helper, giving a character a name wasn’t necessary.

… Why was I saying all this?

—Hero Association’s Agent Military Academy Seoul Branch Graduation, Class of 2024, Rank 1 Cadet, Kim Suho.

It was because the story in my novel was happening in front of my eyes.

Called up to the stage, Kim Suho walked up with a stiffened face as though he was nervous.

We were in a huge auditorium suggestive of a temple. In it were 3000 cadets and thousands of spectators. Their gazes all turned to one person, Kim Suho.

“He’s Kim Suho? Wow.”

“He’s so handsome~”

Several women watched with admiration and adoration.

“…This is why people say Gift is all that matters. Who cares if you try hard? People like him end up taking first place anyways.”

“That guy completely lucked out with his Gift.”

And naturally, he received the jealousy and envy of young teenagers.

“His grades are said to be the greatest in the past 10 years.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of him. His Gift was announced too, right? What was it again… Sword Saint?”

Guild associates, who came to watch the best cadet in recent history, flashed their eyes.

They were looking down from the highest seats of the auditorium. However, I could hear their voices. They had to be at least a kilometer away, but as long as I looked their way, I could hear their words clearly.

Not only their words, but I could also see their faces, almost as though I was right in front of them.

Perhaps, this was my ‘Gift.’

“Yes, in regards to swords, he is said to receive the world’s protection.”

“Hm… That’s a pretty vague description, but I guess the information from the academy is all like that.”

“We called dibs on that kid so don’t touch him.”

I recognized one of the whispering faces.

Yun Seung-Ah. An important assistant of the main character and one of the heroines who almost became the main character’s lover. Just when the two of them were hitting it off – in reality, when the main character was hitting off with many of the heroines – I suspended my novel. Thus, the two never became lovers.

“Dibs? What dibs. When it comes to cadets, there is no such thing.”

At another guild associate’s callous words, Yun Seung-Ah smiled sweetly and rebutted.

“Is that why 'Essence of the Strait' can’t escape second place?”

I knew Yun Seung-Ah’s face. Surprisingly, she looked like my first love from college. That was probably because I thought of her when I was describing Yun Seung-Ah’s character. Though, she was my crush to be exact.

“…Can I take that as a challenge?”

“I’m kidding, of course. Plus, we still have three years to go before we can scout any of them.”

“It’s two years.”

“…You know contacting them before they graduate is illegal, right?”

“That’s only if you’re found out.”

Yun Seung-Ah and the man glared at each other. With their staring contest as the starting point, the VIP seats’ atmosphere began to heat up.

And thus, the fight for Kim Suho had already begun.

—Class of 2024, Rank 2 Cadet, Shin Jonghak.

Meanwhile, the other main character stood up.

He was the descendant of the Jinsung clan. His appearance rivaled Kim Suho as well.

The audience stirred just like when Kim Suho walked up. But unlike with Kim Suho, envy and jealousy didn’t exist. There was only admiration and adoration. With Kim Suho, they thought, ‘Why is he better than me?’ but with Shin Jonghak, it was, ‘He was better than me from birth.’

As if to show off his noble blood, Shin Jonghak walked up to the stage completely composed.

Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak.

Standing side by side, the two glared at each other.

Electricity seemed to crackle from their eyes.

Without a shadow of the doubt, these two were characters from my novel.

Then where was I?

I wasn’t on the stage but in the farthest back seat of the auditorium. I wasn’t ‘one out of three thousand’, but a member of the ‘three thousand.’ No guild associate looked my way.

“Chundong, what rank are you? I’m rank 2900.”

Next, to me, a boy resembling a piglet asked. On his nametag were the characters ‘Kim Ho Sup’. This meant that he had an eventual role. Though he couldn’t be a Hero because of his nonexistent physical abilities, his Gift was outstanding for information gathering.

“Chundong-chan★?”

“… I don’t know.”

I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t even know why my name was Chundong.

If something like this had to happen, shouldn’t I be one of the two on stage?

“Hey, c'mon, if you don’t know that…”

“I don’t know.”

Once again, I didn’t know. This world was the novel I wrote, but I was in the body of a character I had never written before. Other than being a cadet in the Agent Military Academy, I was the most ordinary and the most connectionless character, the type whose name wouldn’t exist anywhere in the novel. In other words… I was an extra.[1]

…No, I was a speck of dust.

One day, I received an email. The sender asked if he could remake my novel. I was dumbfounded at the time. I might’ve been on a short hiatus, but to ask to remake a novel in paid serialization… of course I refused. In fact, I didn’t reply at all. Partly because that would go against copyright laws and also because I felt ashamed.

My webnovel was called, The Returnee Hero. It wasn’t sensational, but fairly popular and my best hit in 5 years. I had been on hiatus for 3 months when I received the email.

The reason was simple. The words wouldn’t come.

At first, I poured my passion into writing. My description of the world was almost 50,000 Korean characters, and I poured my heart into each chapter. However, I fell into an awful slump after a year even though the novel continued for 6 more months until the story reached its mid-late stage. It was full of plot holes because I forcefully wrote and the characters’ personalities all collapsed. Unsurprisingly, the number of readers significantly dropped. I was too afraid to even read the comments by then and ultimately went on hiatus. However, I couldn’t continue a single sentence no matter how long I rested. Then I received another email to remake my novel as I wallowed in misery from my lack of writing skills.

[from: homosapiens@neighbor.com]

[Please. This is only for my personal satisfaction. I won’t reveal the remake to anyone. It’ll only be between me and you. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find some inspiration to continue the story…]

It was a fairly long, but simple email. He wanted to remake my novel for his own gratification. How much did he like my novel to send an email like this? I agreed since I wasn’t particularly proud of my work, feeling somewhat thankful and ashamed.

Was that the cause of this situation? The chance of winning the lottery was 1 in 8,145,060. What was happening to me had to be 1 in 7 billion.

I found myself in an ordinary home, but it wasn’t my world and I wasn’t me. That might’ve sounded philosophical, but it wasn’t. That was literally the case. I had become an extra in my novel. An extra I didn’t remember creating.

Kim Chundong. Chundong lived in an ordinary apartment, but he didn’t have any parents or relatives. Of course, I didn’t know why. At 9 years old, Chundong was admitted to the Military Agent Academy, a place that trained elites to fight against monsters and djinns, but what abilities did Chundong even possess to pass the entrance exam? I had no clue. I didn’t know anything else about him. I didn’t even know how he looked. Not even joking. I didn’t.

When I looked in the mirror…

(?)

That’s all I saw. An oval with a question mark.

I found this crazy body possession transmigration completely unreasonable! I went to bed like usual, but found myself on the last day of the semester at Military Agent Academy when I woke up.

I had 2 suspicions. First was that I was being pranked, but then I quickly ruled that out. I couldn’t even bother to explain why. Second was that I was still dreaming, but I naturally dismissed that because the thought of being in a dream would never occur to the dreamer. More importantly, no dream would continue for 2 weeks with such clarity.

I spent the past 2 weeks pondering whether the world inside the novel should be treated as my new reality.

Ding Ding—

I laid in bed and blankly stared at the ceiling until my smartphone rang. I glanced over and saw that it was time to go to school.

“Why the hell do I need to go to school?”

The Military Agent Academy held its graduation 13 days ago, but that graduating class only consisted of non-combatant cadets. Non-combatant cadets couldn’t be called heroes. Combat class cadets had to attend school for 3 more years. These 3 years would be spent at Cube, the Hero Academy. Unfortunately, this damned Chundong guy was a combat cadet. Again, I had no clue who he was.

“Ah… how frustrating.”

I barely did anything the past 2 weeks. I spent most of my time on the internet, ate food when I got hungry, went online to search for a solution, laughed at the surprisingly funny variety shows on TV, ate some more food… Anyways, the only noteworthy event was going to Seoul 2 days ago for the 3 hour long Cube Entrance Ceremony. I didn’t want to go, but I had no choice since I would be expelled if I didn’t attend.

“I do think I need to go, but…”

I couldn’t figure out who put me here, for what reason, and with what power. I reluctantly accepted my fate after living idly for 2 weeks. It seemed I would live like this for a while, so I might as well make a living. In my novel, being a hero was everyone’s dream job. Things would become dangerous midway because of villains, but the hiatus would be close. I just needed to survive until then. I was sure I’d figure something out when the time came.

7:33 A.M.

School would begin in 57 minutes. I got up and trudged to the bathroom. The question mark greeted me in the mirror.

“Screw this question mark. Is it ever going to go away?”

My face was literally a question mark and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t because I didn’t describe this face. If that were the case, billions of other people in this world wouldn’t have faces. So why was only Chundong’s face a question mark?

“I don’t get it.”

I washed my face after murmuring begrudgingly. I could feel my skin and hair, which made everything even creepier.

After washing up, I changed into the Cube uniform I received at the entrance ceremony. Other than that, I had no other luggage. Anyone who saw this uniform would undoubtedly envy me, but I had no idea what I was doing. My face was a freaking question mark. How was I supposed to figure anything out?

As I opened the door, I glanced back at my home for the past 2 weeks — the apartment I barely found thanks to the address on my cadet card. It seemed I got attached in this short period and I felt like I would miss it.

Cube floated on an island in the middle of the East Sea. Once I left, I probably wouldn’t come back.

“Haaah.”

I left the comfortable apartment and stepped into a dark and unfamiliar world.

Cube was the name of a huge island located in the East Sea. This artificial island was twice the size of Yeouido.[1]

In this huge area, there were only about 5000 Hero cadets, of which 1300 were first-years. While 2000 non-combatants graduated two weeks ago, elite cadets from all over the world gathered here, making it more competitive than before. In a way, the place was too harsh and dreary to be home for 17 to 19 year olds.

And starting from the second year, magicians who chose to become Heroes would come from the ‘National Magic University,’ so that was another 200~300 cadets.

Furthermore, there were training instructors, cafeteria ladies, cleaners, recruiters visiting occasionally, government associates, engineers who did maintenance and operations, soldiers dispatched as securities, doctors and researchers for taking care of cadets, convenience store workers who worked under Cube, and more… With all these people, about 50,000 people resided in Cube.

Naturally, this place was a highly important hubbub where the attention of investors gathered. Given that my novel’s setting was faithfully followed, Korea was a world power rivaling the United States. I seemed to remember listing several reasons for it, but the more obvious reason was that I was Korean.

In any case, Chundong was a member of Cube so he could be said to be an elite. But I didn’t allocate any story for Chundong.

So Chundong’s destiny should’ve been to live in areas detached from the main storyline. While he would not have lived the important and burdening life of the main character, he probably would have lived a comfortable worry-free life.

… And that was the life I wanted too.

Staring at the door to the classroom, I sighed.

[Novice – Veritas]

Novice referred to first year cadets, while Veritas was the name of the class. Simply put, I was in year 1 class 1.

I knew what this class was.

Shin Jonghak and Kim Suho were in this class, and as cliques formed around them, many schemes, mostly started by Shin Jonghak and his followers, would make the class rowdy. As a member of the class, I would most likely be swept in regardless of my will.

“Huu.”

After collecting my breath, I slowly and carefully opened the door.

The interior was sleek; white with no sign of dust and three long desks cascading up.

Where should I sit? I looked around the classroom and found Shin Jonghak sitting on the farthest seat back. With his eyes closed and his hands in his pocket, he seemed imposing. Next to him was his childhood friend, Yoo Yeonha, chattering.

The two of them didn’t pay any attention to me.

Thank. God.

I sat down on the edge seat of the middle row.

Like a proper extra, I looked straight ahead in a daze. There was no chalkboard, but a projection screen for holograms to be shown.

Looking at it, I couldn’t help but sigh. After going through high school and even mandatory military service, I couldn’t believe I had to go back to school. There couldn’t be a worse calamity.

“… Huuaam.”

Cube’s semester began on February. The outside was cold and the inside being warm naturally made me sleepy.

Currently, it was 8 A.M. Class began at 8:30.

In truth, I didn’t expect to arrive this early. Going from Seoul to Cube was quick using the ‘Portal,’ but I expected to get lost once I got here. However, there was something called the Cube Bus, a bus that ran every 10 minutes around Cube that didn’t exist in my original setting.

Thinking about it now, it was a mistake on my part to have the main character walk around the huge campus all the time. Since the novel became a real world, it seemed it was fixing plot holes on its own.

… Anyways, let’s sleep a little. I don’t want to think anymore.

Closing my eyes, I dropped my head on the desk.

—Now!

A thunderous shout woke me up.

When I opened my eyes, the instructor was behind the podium.

“Today’s the first day, so there won’t be any special training, but I hope you all did your morning training. Training is never wrong, especially in the morning when mana density is high.”

Morning training?

…Oh, right. There was something like that. A training ground that opened up from 5 A.M. to 8 A.M. I had hurriedly stuffed it into the story to give the leading characters an opportunity to meet.

“Now, let’s start with self-introductions. I’m Kim Soohyuk, the instructor in charge of you all for the year.”

That name, I could vaguely recall it.

“My ranking point is 3850. World rank 9737. By the Association’s classification, I would be

high-intermediate rank grade 5.”

The students’ eyes lit up. It was understandable. There were around two million Heroes in the world. Rank 9737 meant he was very skilled.

“I think that’s enough for my introduction.”

Kim Soohyuk seemed to have liked the students’ reactions as the corners of his mouth curled up to a grin.

“The first day will feel special. You might not have slept due to excitement and worry, or maybe you’re feeling great about being able to improve yourselves. Heh, maybe you’re happy to see your crushes again.”

The cadets broke out into a small laughter. But the instructor froze his expression sternly.

“But Cube isn’t the same as it was before. I promise you, there will be no time for relationships. In Cube, you will experience several real combat situations. Look forward to experiencing how fearful the real world is.”

His roguish smile sent a chill down my back.

Combat training, I had to take part in that too.

“Next, Cube is objective. The only indicator of your success will be your grade. Guilds will only look at your grade. Thus, we will grade you accurately and strictly. If you underperform, you will be held back. Statistically, less than half of Cube’s cadets graduate without repeating a semester. Even then, you can only be held back up to two years. Any more than that, you will be expelled. If you can’t become a Hero, you will become an agent or a mercenary. I take it that that’s not what you want.”

After giving the students a scare, the instructor paused and scanned the students’ faces.

“I can already see a few faces I’m familiar with.”

It was the same for me.

Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, Yoo Yeonha, Chae Nayun, Rachel, Yi Yeonghan.

These six were the important characters I could see at a first glance. Shin Jonghak sat with Yoo Yeonha. Since Kim Suho and Chae Nayun saw each other as rivals, they were distanced. Princess Rachel sat alone, and Yi Yeonghan sat behind Kim Suho.

“I repeat. At Cube, you will need to confirm the things you’ve learned until now and hone your skills to be used in battle. There will be no kind training here. Remember that.”

With that, Kim Soohyuk announced.

“Now get ready. What’s scheduled for today won’t take long. The first task is ‘main weapon selection.’”

“Any weapon you can think of should be here.”

A main weapon was exactly what it sounded like. High ranking Heroes called their weapons ‘treasured weapons,’ while weapons above [Unique] grade were given the title ‘armament.’

But I didn’t know what my main weapon was. I knew nothing about Chundong’s past.

“Stand in front of the weapon you want. We’ll supply you with the training weapons. But don’t look down on them just because they’re training weapon. Their market price is 5 million won.”

There were all sorts of weapons, more so than I could have ever imagined.

Sword, spear, saber, dagger, rapier, halberd, greatsword, zweihander, bow, gun, whip, gauntlet, etc… The 100 students of Veritas class stood in front of the weapon they wanted.

“Choose carefully. Once you pick your main weapon, you won’t be able to change it for at least 6 months.”

Sword and spear were obviously the most popular choice. Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak stood in front of a sword and a spear respectively. 70 out of 100 chose the sword, spear, or saber, the so-called Holy Trinity of weapons. On the other hand, Yoo Yeonha chose the whip, Chae Nayun chose the bow, and Rachel chose the rapier.

However, I simply stood in a daze.

“Kim Chundong, why are you standing still?” Kim Soohyuk asked.

I stared blankly at the one weapon no one gave a glance.

The weapon of choice in the modern world, one that didn’t require an instruction manual and one that anyone could use with a click. But in this world, this weapon was the weakest lump of metal, a weapon avoided by every Hero. Most likely, it was only here for the sake of having all kinds of weapons be here.

But this was the only choice I had.

I couldn’t use any close ranged weapons. Even if Chundong was talented in one, I didn’t want to participate in close ranged combat where blood splattered everywhere.

“Kim Chundong.”

The instructor’s voice fell low, and other students’ gazes fell on me. Shin Jonghak and Kim Suho were among them.

I didn’t like being at the center of attention.

I quickly walked up and grabbed the weapon.

I could feel the weight of the metal in my hand as the smell of rust tickled my nose.

More eyes fell on me.

The weapon in my hand was a handgun.

Yeouido is a large island in Seoul, 8.4 square kilometers in size and home to 31,000 people.