1. How to Create a Character (1)
I am a reincarnator.
When I opened my eyes, I had reincarnated into a modern fantasy novel I'd read to pass the time.
Fortunately, I roughly remembered the novel's contents.
*The Academy's F-Class Commander*.
It was a common male-targeted modern fantasy about a protagonist who possessed a villain in the novel, defeated villains at the academy, and built a harem.
How do I remember a common male-targeted modern fantasy? Because a friend recommended it to me.
Harem stories were a landmine for me, but he recommended it so insistently that I picked it up, forced my way through it, and eventually dropped it halfway.
Fortunately, my uselessly good memory left me with quite a lot of information. Thank you, friend from my previous life.
But there was no point in recalling the novel's contents while I grew up and turned sixteen. Because despite reincarnating, I had become an orphan at a young age.
An orphan without any special abilities could do nothing just by knowing the future. In the end, I was too busy just trying to survive to pay any attention to information from my previous life.
And when I turned sixteen.
I received a notice from the national aptitude test stating that I had the aptitude of an 'Awakened.'
I had won the so-called 'awakening lottery'!
Anticipation welled up inside me—could my life, which had been nothing but hardship, finally be in full bloom?
That day, the orphanage I belonged to was literally in a festival atmosphere.
'Oh my, our Nahyeon is an Awakened!'
'Unni, does that mean you'll make a lot of money now?'
Anyway, I underwent my awakening expecting a reversal of fortune, but…….
Even after awakening, why did I have to awaken into a position that desperately needed connections and money!
A sniper is a job that only a golden spoon can properly pull off, requiring loads of money to get proper weapons and connections to pass down proper experience.
I glared at the system window floating in the air.
If someone reincarnates inside a book, shouldn't they have it easier than in their previous life? Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Huh?
"The awakening-related documents are over there. All Awakened are obligated to submit basic personal information."
A civil servant glanced at me trembling and indifferently recited the basics.
"You'll be contacted in a few days regarding Awakener Academy admissions. Academy enrollment is mandatory for all Awakened, so please submit your admission documents within the deadline."
"...Yes."
At least, it was fortunate that the Awakener Academy's tuition was covered by a full scholarship.
Having finished all my tasks, I trudged down the road.
Well…… I guess.
I suppose being a reincarnator doesn't necessarily mean you get protagonist correction.
Still, human psychology being what it is—a reincarnator is a somewhat special existence, so when you realize you're special, you can't help but expect……
that something in this world has been prepared for special me, right?
It wasn't even that I wanted something so grand.
I just wanted to find a way, any way, to help our orphanage, whose finances were precarious.
This world is one crumbling due to Gates.
A world with far less morality and ethics than my previous life.
In such a world, a place like an orphanage is hell within hell.
It's not uncommon for orphanages to sell children to earn money. It often happens that childcare workers hit children to vent their anger.
The orphanage I was in used to be that kind of place, too.
Until the orphanage was overhauled and the current teacher became the director.
I quietly looked up at the sky.
The teacher who never gave up and raised me even in extreme situations. My younger siblings who always supported me.
And the orphanage's finances, which had recently fallen deeper into crisis.
I wasn't shameless enough to ask the teacher to bring in more money. I couldn't act spoiled anymore.
If I awakened with a decent ability, I planned to work as an ability user, save up seed money, and invest in companies that would hit it big in the future…….
But the amount of money a vague ability user like me could earn was less than I thought. If it wasn't much different from part-time wages, then being an Awakened was practically pointless.
On top of that, I had to earn the money to invest in myself.
It takes money to make money, but I have no money. Damn reality.
Then, a sudden clamor rang in my ears, and I lifted my head.
A large electronic billboard was showing a program about Awakened.
[It's already January! That means it's admission season for Guardian Academy again! So of course we have to check it out here, right? The ranking of promising new students! Who will be the new budding heroes protecting our citizens!]
The loud MC listed familiar names.
The names of promising Hunter prospects flowed out, and the names of major characters from the original novel were called.
["Of course, we can't leave this person out! The most prestigious of prestigious families—the prodigy of the Na Clan! Nayuri!"]
At that moment, a flash streaked through my mind.
Wait, come to think of it, I'm in the same academy year as the protagonist of this novel, aren't I?
Guardian Academy.
Korea's only Awakener Academy, and the most famous Awakener Academy in the world.
That's the main setting of *The Academy's F-Class Commander*. A place where many incidents and accidents happen.
And I'm scheduled to enroll there soon as an Awakened.
This means I can finally make use of my knowledge of the original work!
I wracked my brain.
The first law of modern fantasy novels: when an incident occurs, the protagonist resolves it and receives compensation.
The second law of modern fantasy novels: the protagonist invests in his comrades, raises them, and uses them.
In other words, looking at the big picture, the protagonist and his comrades walk a path of flowers!
If I lack any special abilities and don't receive protagonist correction, making the world still feel like shit.
I can just hop onto the protagonist's path of flowers!
I can just receive the protagonist's investment!
Pride? That vanished before I turned ten. I can become a loyal dog anytime.
Danger? I don't care. I need money so badly that I'm overflowing with the will to handle danger!
Thinking of my rabbit-like younger siblings I had to support and my puppy-like teacher, I finally made up my mind.
Yeah, let's ride the protagonist bus!
* * *
The moment I returned to my room, I opened a notebook.
To ride the protagonist bus, I needed to properly understand the protagonist and the environment around him.
Usually, protagonists in modern fantasy are largely divided into two types.
First, the stoic type who silently works hard at his own tasks.
Second, the conman type who slyly works hard to reap only his own benefits.
There are fusion types of these two and exceptions, but if you divide the major types broadly, that's how it is.
The novel *The Academy's F-Class Commander* that I reincarnated into is the story of a 'conman' type protagonist who possessed a game that had a 'stoic' type protagonist—except he possessed a villain extra.
The rough plot of this work, which can be called a so-called 'villain academy possession' story, is as follows.
The game's protagonist…… let's call him Stoic.
The protagonist who possessed an early-game villain extra who gets defeated by Stoic…… let's call him Conman.
Conman was a game geek before possessing, so he knows all the information about this game.
On top of that, he even obtains a cheat skill called the 'Eye of Insight,' which lets him see everyone's stats.
So Conman uses various information and the Eye of Insight skill to gobble up the hidden treasures in the game world—that is, the 'Hidden Pieces'—while raising comrades and expanding his forces.
While doing so, he helps Stoic with his work, sometimes takes his place, defeats villains, and builds a harem.
Since I dropped it halfway, I don't know how it ended.
For now, I wrote 'Conman,' 'Insight,' and 'Comrades' in my notebook.
The point to note is this.
This Conman invests generously without hesitation, at least with his comrades.
To the extent that in the original game, there was a time when he invested in an extra character who was about to be expelled soon and raised that character into a Named.
Afterwards, this character becomes one of the heroines, but she was only treated as a sub-heroine before disappearing from the story.
So my goal is to take the position of an extra comrade receiving that investment—well, not the extra heroine, that's a bit much, but an extra comrade.
I remember Conman's initial specs were all F, even lower than mine. In the novel, they said he was the academy's weakest.
My specs are quite low too, so I'll probably be in the lowest grade class…… F-Class, same as Conman.
So I'll become friends with Conman in the same class, then receive the resource investment he gives to his comrades.
Afterwards, I'll quietly switch to the golden connections around Conman, then naturally fade out from the center of the narrative!
Anyway, someone with specs like mine is fodder only useful in the early stages, so it should be easy to naturally drift apart.
Good. Perfect.
However, if there is a problem, it's that I don't know how to approach hot-blooded male students like Conman in a friendly way.
Because in my life, the only men were our cute orphanage brothers.
What kind of character should I present to be favorable for appealing my charm……?
Tsundere? This is already in the novel.
Cooldere? This is already there too.
Yandere? Of course there is one. And it would be hard on me.
Sunshine character?
Hmm, umm……
I don't think this one was there……?
But if I'm going to push a sunny…… that is, an extremely kind heroine character……
I have to launch an enormous affection offensive at the protagonist first.
Could I do something like that?
I recalled his appearance from the novel and calmly tried to put an X through the words 'Sunshine Character.'
But then, I heard someone knocking on the door.
"Noona, what are you doing? Can I come in?"
It was the voice of Ganghun, one of my cute younger brothers.
"Ah, yeah! Come in!"
At my words, he abruptly came into the room.
"What were you doing?"
"I'm making plans for our orphanage's future."
My brother fell silent for a moment at those words, then spoke.
"……Noona."
"What?"
"Don't try to sacrifice yourself too much for us."
Hearing that, I lifted my head toward my brother.
"……You're an Awakened now, so you could live comfortably enough on your own."
Ganghun seemed to be worried that I would overdo it.
"Don't worry about us anymore and—"
I grinned.
"Ganghun, all the kids at the orphanage are my family."
"……"
I recalled his face from when he was very, very young, always covered in wounds.
If our orphanage collapses due to financial difficulties and everyone scatters to different orphanages, the children's faces will be wounded again.
My beloved siblings will be hurt again. I simply cannot endure that.
"When your beloved family is in danger, who could not worry?"
So I'll protect our orphanage by any means necessary.
"And it was nothing much! I was just worried about the orphanage's finances since I can't work part-time for a while."
"……That's true. What are we going to do next month……? If the finances really go into the negatives……"
Smiling cheerfully at my brother, who was tearing at his hair, I made that vow.
"Oh, by the way, how do you get a guy to like you?"
"……A guy?"
"Yeah."
At my words, my brother paused for a moment, then asked again.
"A guy?"
"Yeah."
What's with him?
The moment I thought that, my brother ran outside the room and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Teacher! I think Nahyeon-noona has a crush on a guy!"
"Hey! I do not! Hey!"
And just like that, my romantic(?) situation was exposed.
"Unni's romance!"
"Unni's in love!"
"Spring has come for our Nahyeon?"
For a while, I became the hot potato of the orphanage.
The lukewarm gazes I felt whenever I borrowed romance books to study were painful.
That's not it, I said it's not!
* * *
Time passed quickly,
"……This is all there is? Really? Ah, dammit……"
After much anguish, I arduously reached a conclusion on which character to play.
Before I knew it, the entrance ceremony was fast approaching.