World’s Greatest Athlete.
In Korean, it means the world’s greatest athlete.
Historically, this epithet was reserved for gold medalists in the decathlon.
Why?
Because the decathlon is not an individual event, but a combined competition of ten events, and winning gold there is truly the ultimate proof of superhuman ability.
100-meter sprint, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter sprint, 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, 1,500-meter run.
The monsters capable of performing all of these at medal level are precisely they.
Therefore, it came as no surprise when Roman Šebrle, a decathlon gold medalist, topped the Wall Street Journal’s 2008 ranking of athletic ability among the world’s athletes.
For reference, LeBron James was second at the time, and Floyd Mayweather was third.
In response to protests from fans of other sports, the Wall Street Journal dismissed them with the following retort:
“This athlete runs 100 meters in 10 seconds, can high jump over Shaquille O’Neal, long jump across a two-lane road, and hurl a 16-pound iron ball over 16 meters. He is an athlete who simultaneously possesses the speed of an NFL running back and the leaping ability of an NBA forward.”
It was truly a title that could be called “superhuman” without a hint of awkwardness, but······.
“How empty.”
When Seo Minjun won the decathlon gold medal, the stands were desolate.
2092.
There was no longer any former glory in the Olympics.
It was an era where classical sports had fallen.
***
“Hyung, don’t you play Stunning Life?”
After the award ceremony had completely ended, Kim Yunsoo asked.
He wore the bronze medal around his neck, while Seo Minjun wore the gold.
“I’m planning to move over there now.”
“Really?”
Stunning Life was a virtual reality game that appeared in 2042.
Known as the greatest mystery of the 21st century.
A super AI more creative than humans, a 70,000-qubit quantum computer, a 130,000-square-meter data center built on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, a physical computation engine that SpaceX had used for Mars development, and cutting-edge brain science capable of realizing a “brain in a vat.”
The final tech trees of every field in science had gathered in one place to create that marvel.
Stunning Life.
Fifty years had passed since its release.
“People don’t really get excited about classical sports anymore.”
The empty stands of this arena proved Kim Yunsoo’s words.
“Ranker matches in the Stunning Life Arena or dungeon speedruns are much more entertaining.”
‘Of course they are.’
There, magic ran rampant, athletes flew through the air, summoned monsters, dropped meteors, and unleashed hurricanes.
People who had experienced that could hardly feel anything watching the decathlon on TV.
Relatively speaking, classical sports were inevitably losing their power.
“Thanks to that, the number of athletes has decreased, and even someone like me managed to win bronze. I just got lucky. But hyung, you’re different. You hold world records in a whopping eight events!”
It was true. He had been born with a physique that could only be described as divinely crafted.
“Your focus is insane, so you’d probably dominate in Stunning Life too.”
“Who knows.”
“You’re the ‘World’s Greatest Athlete,’ hyung. Try it at least once. Esports are sports too.”
“······.”
Honestly, Seo Minjun did not particularly hate games.
He simply loved his real-world body more than any virtual reality avatar.
That was why he had insisted on classical sports and had come this far.
“······Hyung.”
“What?”
“Actually, our team is being disbanded.”
Kim Yunsoo said with a deeply sorrowful expression.
“What!”
To Seo Minjun, it was a bolt from the blue.
“I only found out recently too. Ask the coach for details······.”
“W-wait. I’ll go ask and come back.”
He ran straight to the coach to confirm the facts, and the coach hung his head as if ashamed.
“It’s true.”
“How could this······.”
“I was going to tell you after the match anyway. Minjun. Our team will be disbanded early next year.”
K-One Runners, the track and field team that had miraculously endured until now, was finally being disbanded.
Seo Minjun’s vision went dark.
The nation’s elite sports programs had died out long ago. After professional teams lost their power, the only reason he had been able to continue track and field until now was thanks to K-One Runners.
But this too was ultimately a private enterprise.
Until now, the parent company, Samcheong Group, had supported K-One Runners, but that was over now.
“They say they’ll invest more in Esports from now on.”
***
Due to the habit of never missing a single day of training for the past 14 years, Seo Minjun went out to the field even the day after the Olympics.
When he was as distraught as he was now, he mainly did throwing training.
Just as scholars of old steadied their minds by shooting bows.
Where had all those scholars gone?
Probably, half of them died honorably from the bullets of matchlock guns brought by advanced imperialist soldiers.
And to the other half, those soldiers likely said:
From now on, practice clay shooting instead of archaic sports like archery, you savages.
‘Sorry, but I’m even more primitive, so I have to go further back in time than archery.’
Thud!
After the impulse stride, he shifted his center of gravity in the power position and threw his arm forward diagonally above his head.
At the same time, he released the javelin.
Swhooooosh-!
The spear launched from the hand of a superhuman tore through the air with a heavy sonic boom and flew over 90 meters.
Thwack!
It struck the target.
Athletes from the golden age of classical sports only had to throw the javelin far, but in the age of Stunning Life, they had to hit targets too.
It was a kind of sub-discipline. Just as swimming has freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and so on.
Under javelin throw, sub-disciplines like distance throw, target hitting, and spin throw had emerged.
They were the desperate struggles of unpopular classical sports trying to survive in an era of cutting-edge science.
In the end, they lost just like those scholars who once shot bows.
“Ten points.”
Seo Minjun could now hit a ten with his eyes closed at this distance.
That ability would have been treated as that of a great warrior in ancient society, as a sports star in modern times, but now it was regarded as no more than a weirdo’s curious show.
Like the bubblegum-blowing uncles who appeared on global talent shows.
The kind of skill that made people go “Whoa, that’s fucking amazing,” clap, take pictures, and post them on Instagram—exactly that level of talent.
Pfft.
A self-mocking laugh escaped him.
Seo Minjun organized his equipment and left the field he cherished.
A moving company vehicle was pulling in.
It was time to vacate the room in the athletes’ village dormitory where he had spent his entire life.
Afraid he would choke up if he looked back, Seo Minjun quickened his steps.
An era where classical sports had fallen.
The departure of a gold medalist was a lonely one.
***
There was no time to grieve over unemployment.
Thirty was the age when one had to serve as a pillar supporting the household.
The moment he got home, Seo Minjun held a family meeting.
“We need to prepare a plan for Seo Jeongin’s hospital expenses going forward.”
“······.”
Having heard the news of his unemployment, Seo Jeongin wilted like a scolded child, watching their parents and older brother’s expressions.
Seo Jeongin was his younger sister, eight years his junior.
A third-year university student majoring in multimedia, she suffered from an incurable lung disease.
That was the problem.
It was a disease where the lungs gradually hardened, and previously, the five-year mortality rate had been 99%.
Nowadays, medicine had advanced significantly.
If she took her medicine consistently and managed her condition, she could live normally. The problem was that the medicine was outrageously expensive.
“4.2 million won a month.”
Facing that amount, his parents, Seo Minjun, and Seo Jeongin all fell silent.
His family was an ordinary middle-class household.
Comfortable enough that the eldest son could afford to pursue classical sports, which did not pay well.
But they did not have enough leeway to spend 4.2 million won per month solely on medicine.
“Honestly······ I’ve just been lucky until now, I guess······.”
Seo Jeongin spoke with difficulty.
Until now, K-One Runners had provided medical benefits for athletes’ families as part of their welfare.
That was why Seo Jeongin’s out-of-pocket hospital expenses had been around 200,000 won per month. For that to become 4.2 million was truly a disaster.
“Mom and Dad will take care of the hospital bills,”
Father said.
“Minjun, what are you going to do from now on?”
“I’m thinking of trying Stunning Life.”
The words least suited to Seo Minjun’s personality popped out.
But it was something he had said after considerable thought. There were two reasons.
First, there was a spare capsule at home. Seo Jeongin had bought it back when she fussed about becoming a game streamer.
“Let me use that capsule.”
Second, these days, getting a job inside Stunning Life was easier than getting one outside. Especially for someone like Seo Minjun, who had not learned any other skills because he had been training all the time.
“Don’t you need experience? I heard anyone can get hired as a miner or something?”
***
“Oppa, have you thought about trying streaming?”
Seo Jeongin asked while moving the capsule to his room and setting it up.
“Does that make good money?”
“An insane amount.”
“Well, I wouldn’t hate it, but not just anyone can stream. Don’t you need a concept or something?”
“A barbarian game stream? How about something like that?”
“Are you crazy?”
It was said based on his body.
Height 198 cm, weight 100 kg. Body fat percentage 3.7%.
His coach had tearfully praised him, calling him the reincarnation of Usain Bolt, the legendary track athlete of the 2000s, but in his younger sister’s eyes, he apparently just looked like a barbarian warrior.
“Stunning Life is a game without character customization; your real body goes in as it is. With your looks, you’d probably draw a lot of attention.”
“Forget it, punk.”
Seo Minjun gave her a sharp flick to the forehead and turned on the capsule.
“I don’t have any skills, so being a miner in Stunning Life is perfect for me.”
“······.”
While plugging in the brain connector cord, Seo Jeongin, who had been fidgeting beside him, suddenly blurted out an apology.
“Oppa, I’m sorry······.”
“For what?”
“I feel like I’m causing Mom, Dad, and you to suffer because I’m sick.”
“Nonsense.”
Seo Minjun got into the capsule and lay down.
“How do I make an account?”
“Just put your finger on the fingerprint scanner here and follow the hologram window that pops up.”
“Okay.”
“Put on the brain connector.”
He put on the helmet-like device.
“When you enter, a background will be presented randomly.”
“What’s a background?”
“For example, ‘You were a blacksmith’ or ‘You are a freshman at a magic academy.’”
It was a concept similar to a character’s origin. Naturally, a magic academy freshman was more advantageous for learning magic than a blacksmith, and a blacksmith was more proficient at crafting than a magic academy student.
“Each background doesn’t have a fixed grade. But among users, some are considered higher-tier than others.”
There were approximately 10,000 backgrounds.
“If you get an unwanted background, you can refresh as much as you want, so try to roll for a mage-type background if you can. Mages are insane. Warrior types aren’t great. These days, they always get beaten up by mages.”
***
“······Or so Jeongin said.”
But every time he flipped a background card after entering the game, warrior-type backgrounds kept popping up.
-New recruit of the Black Horse Mercenary Corps
-Northern barbarian warrior
-Asla Swordsmanship Guild intern
-Wolf tribe axeman
-Cledor Knight Order squire
-Wandering warrior
-Martial artist out to crush dojos
-Asla demon-slaying infantry
-Third-rate thug
-Rural village guardsman
At best, “thug” was somewhat different since it was a rogue-type class. But personally, he did not like those kinds of occupations. Even if it was a game.
Seo Minjun had already been flipping backgrounds for ten minutes.
-Third-rate gunslinger
-Merchant caravan escort
-Siege specialist hammer soldier
-Sheriff’s assistant
-Worthless son of a prestigious swordsman family
······.
“Does a mage background even exist in this thing?”
Seo Minjun felt slightly bored.
Truthfully, he was only looking for a mage background because of his sister. He had no real greed for backgrounds.
‘I’m just going to grind anyway.’
Wouldn’t it actually be better for a weakling like me to play a strong guy rather than a mage?
Just as he was thinking that.
“Huh.”
The newly appeared card suddenly seized Seo Minjun’s gaze.
He did not particularly like this word, but he was truly drawn to it as if by “fate.”
The card image depicted a robust warrior resembling an ancient Greek hoplite, clad in heavy armor and a helmet, holding a round shield and a spear, and the card’s name was as follows:
[Disgraced Heavy Infantryman]
▶The Disgraced Heavy Infantryman’s skills in spear techniques, shield techniques, and physical techniques grow three times as fast.
▶This background possesses the skill 『Javelin Throw』.