Pride made her swallow the rest of her words.
“But?”
“······Because I feel bad for her. If she fights me, she’s guaranteed to end up half-dead.”
“What’s there to feel bad about?”
“······Huh?”
“Forget it.”
Shin Jonghak cut the conversation short.
Yoo Yeonha was displeased with him for it. But she didn’t show it. She quickly folded away the unpleasant feeling that pricked up from a corner of her heart. Shin Jonghak had Chae Nayun in his heart. She wasn’t so stupid as to not know that and get jealous over it. I just find this situation amusing······.
Yoo Yeonha soothed herself that way.
“Then I’ll be going now. It’s almost ten.”
At Cube, interaction between men and women was only permitted until 22:00. Not wanting to show that her feelings had been hurt, Yoo Yeonha flashed a bright smile once and rose to her feet.
“Uh, y-yeah, bye.”
“Bye, Yeonha!”
“See you later!”
The boys, excluding Shin Jonghak, saw her all the way to the door.
* * *
If one walked for a little over five minutes from the First Dormitory building, there was a training facility called the “Beginner Physical Training Room.” In this place, roughly 300 pyeong in size, high-end exercise equipment and magi-engineering facilities for training stood lined up in rows. Though the budget invested to create such an environment alone amounted to tens of billions of won, there was no trace of people to be found, making all that effort seem for naught.
However, just because the training room’s situation was miserable, no one lamented the future of heroes.
They were beings who would one day become heroes envied and respected by all, but they were still adolescents. To give a simple example, high school students who start preparing for exams on the very first day of school are not all that common.
“I knew you’d be here.”
But wherever one went, there were always beings outside the norm. Even here, there was a freak who poured his effort into training from the very first day of school. Kim Suho, who had been sweating buckets as he wrestled with exercise equipment, widened his eyes at the sudden voice.
“Oh, Chae Nayun? Did you come to work out too?”
“But I’m not going to do it as stupidly as you.”
Chae Nayun smiled wryly and pointed at the gravity room. A terrifying-looking cylindrical space. Kim Suho’s face twisted as he looked at it.
“You’re doing the hard stuff. I can’t handle that.”
Kim Suho first wiped the sweat from his hair with the towel he had brought beforehand.
“It’s not that you can’t handle it. You just don’t need it. I’m an archer, so that’s essential for me. And it’s not that hard. I’ve been doing that since I was eight.”
“Since you were eight?”
“Yeah. I have one of those at home.”
“······Aha.”
The installation cost for a gravity room was, even at the lowest estimate, several billion won. If one had such a facility at home, it wasn’t difficult to imagine just how overflowing with wealth that person must be.
Like Shin Jonghak, Chae Nayun was a fourth-generation chaebol heir. However, instead of a twisted desire to win, she possessed an upright sense of competition. Through endless training, self-cultivation, and advancement—through sincere effort toward self-improvement—she believed she could defeat her rival. Though even that conviction, now that she stood before a monster, was gradually growing dull.
“······Oh, right. We got one more marksman in our class.”
Kim Suho asked about something that had just come to mind. Chae Nayun tilted her head.
“······Marksman? Ah, that Chudong or whatever?”
“Yeah, him······ What’s with your face? Are you upset?”
As Kim Suho continued speaking, Chae Nayun’s face was stiffening frighteningly.
“He’s not a marksman. Guns max out at 1 km at best. I still don’t understand why that Dongchu or whatever chose a gun.”
At some point, the name had changed from Chudong to Dongchu, but Kim Suho didn’t bother to nitpick.
“Maybe he’s given up. Maybe there’s trouble at home or something. But if he withdraws early, it won’t even leave a dropout record, so he’s probably just trying to endure a little.”
“Hey. Given up? Don’t say stuff like that so carelessly.”
“······Who are you to say that?”
For a moment, a faint anger appeared in Chae Nayun’s eyes. Kim Suho’s tone, as though he were lecturing her, wasn’t particularly pleasant to her, who saw him as her rival.
“······Ahem. Sorry.”
“Anyway, if you don’t want to lose, train hard. I’m going.”
“Yeah, have a good trip.”
“It’s right next door. What do you mean, have a good trip······.”
Chae Nayun gave a brief sarcastic remark and headed toward the gravity room.
The gravity room.
Operating magic power in an extreme situation where gravity several times stronger than usual pressed down on the blood vessels throughout one’s body. Among the countless training and cultivation methods, the self-mortification said to be the most difficult and painful awaited within that broad cylinder.
Kim Suho shook his head as he looked at the cylinder that was painful just to imagine.
* * *
Inside the room of Kim Chundong, whose rank I couldn’t remember—934th or 943rd—I held my breath and stared at the laptop screen.
I still couldn’t understand the contents within it. My eyes accepted them, but my brain seemed to reject them, as if saying they were far too absurd.
“······What is this?”
After a long silence, a trembling voice slipped out of my mouth.
===[Synchronizing······ 70% Complete]===
1. Kim Chundong
[SP Possessed: 54]
▶Stats
*Variable Stats
[Strength 4]
[Stamina 4.3]
[Agility 4]
[Perception 5]
[Magic Power 3.5]
[Vitality 4]
*Invariable Stats
[Intelligence ─ 4/10]
[Perseverance ─ 4/10]
[Luck ─ 4/10]
[Charm ─ 4/10]
▶Talent···???
▶Arts···???
···???
···???
···
···
···Appendix··· Settings Chronology······
===[Synchronizing······ 70% Complete]===
“...What is this?”
The screen within the monitor. This format. I knew it. It was the format of my setting book. But I could say with certainty that I had never written, nor even thought of, such settings.
At the incomprehensible phenomenon, beads of sweat formed on my forehead. My hands and feet trembled, and my heartbeat shot up rapidly.
Just who had sent this bizarre thing to me, why, and with what intention?
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, the laptop screen turned off.
My face was reflected on the darkened screen. Not Kim Chundong’s question mark, but my face—“Kim Hajin’s.”
Before I even had time to be surprised, unfamiliar sentences rose in blue light at the center of the monitor.
[Kim Chundong, synchronization with Kim Hajin complete]
[All statuses initialized]
[Unique Authority “Setting Intervention” acquired]
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
Synchronization (2)
There is an awakening phenomenon called “Opening the Eyes (開眼).” Regarded as the minimum qualification to become a hero, it is a kind of enlightenment, and it is commonly known to manifest when one surpasses one’s limits for the first time.
Most active heroes have completed Opening the Eyes, but because countless training and experiences are required to reach it, most cadets remain in an unopened state. Of course, exceptions like Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak exist. They opened their eyes at the ages of fifteen and seventeen, respectively.
A human who has opened their eyes can objectively view their own talents, skills, abilities, and the like, can polish themselves in a far more efficient manner than before, and becomes able to enjoy the “clear rewards” of towers and dungeons.
The Hero Association expresses this ability in the simple term “status window.” And it is generally accepted that this status window uses the retina as a medium and is visible only to oneself.
However, since I like exceptions, I added an exception to this setting as well.
Seeing one’s entirety through a sensory organ other than the retina, or through an entirely independent medium—for example, skin, a book, or a weapon. Each of these special forms of Opening the Eyes contains a special power. It’s a spoiler, but the protagonist later opening his eyes twice is also deeply related to this setting.
“······Is this that?”
If it was according to my setting, this laptop could be called the medium for Opening the Eyes.
I could feel myself growing slightly excited. After all, no one dislikes being special.
But right now, before joy, I had to analyze this.
When I pressed the laptop’s Enter key, several windows appeared.
===[Synchronization Complete]===
===[Kim Chundong’s stats initialized. Kim Hajin’s stats transplanted]===
===[All statuses initialized. 10 points acquired]===
[Kim Hajin] [SP Possessed: 64]
▶Stats
*Variable Stats
[Strength 1.2]
[Stamina 1.3]
[Agility 1.5]
[Perception 2]
[Vitality 1.3]
[Magic Power 1]
*Invariable Stats
[Intelligence ─ 4.105/10]
[Perseverance ─ 5.010/10]
[Luck ─ 6.330/10]
[Charm ─ 4.135/10]
Points: 10 (If not used within 10 days, they will disappear.)
▶Talent
「Observation and Reading」 [Null Attribute]
─Observation
You can observe characters within your field of vision.
─Reading
At any time, without a medium, you can read the laptop’s detailed settings chronology.
▶Arts (0/3)
X
▶Constitution (0/3)
X
▶Setting Intervention [Authority]
─By consuming SP, you can modify or write nonliving targets.
─By consuming SP, and only for the target “Kim Hajin,” you can modify or write stats, talents, arts, and constitution.
*Beginner’s Consideration: One time only. You can write a talent equivalent to 10,000 SP without consuming any cost.
*SP (Story Point): Story Points. You gain SP as “Kim Hajin’s” importance in the world increases. Alternatively, you can exchange points for SP.
▶???
─Unlocked the moment the main story ends.
===
First, the words that stood out most were synchronization and initialization.
I didn’t know what had happened, but because of it, the name had changed from Kim Chundong to my real name, Kim Hajin. The face that had been a question mark had returned to my own, and the stats seemed to have been adjusted accordingly.
Compared to Chundong, I had become endlessly weaker, but instead, I had gained spare points. With these points, I could probably select and raise whichever stats I wanted.
“...Points are insanely good.”
It was my setting, so I knew it better than anyone. The average variable stat for an adult male was 1.5. Also, there was no such thing as leveling up in this world. Because of that, “points,” which allowed one to raise stats to one’s liking, were usually treated as extremely rare and expensive treasures obtainable only in towers or dungeons.
And right now, Kim Suho’s magic power stat should be around 9. In other words, if I invested the remaining 10 points only into magic power, then my magic power stat alone could become similar to Kim Suho’s······
“No.”
That would be the worst move. If only my magic power was stupidly high, the only path open to me would be becoming a mage, and mages had it hard. It went without saying that they required a lot of money, and to learn and memorize magic, they had to repeat grueling training and maddening memorization. Therefore, I would also need to raise intelligence and perseverance alongside it, but apparently invariable stats couldn’t be raised even with points.
In other words, becoming a mage was impossible.
“·····What are those three question marks now?”
The next thing that caught my eye was, of course, the suspicious question marks.
===
▶???
─Unlocked the moment the main story ends.
===
It was the line that caught my eye after synchronization and initialization.
Unlocked the moment the main story ends.
Could that perhaps be the key element related to my return? Even if it wasn’t, I had no other method right now, so I had no choice but to believe so.
The problem was that I didn’t know when the main story would end. Even if it only went up to the point where the serialization had been suspended, that meant I would need at least another ten years or so······
Thoughts linked together, one after another.
First, I had to find a way to return to Earth. To find that method smoothly, I needed strength or authority. To possess strength or authority, I needed something called “SP.” To acquire that, I had to become more important in the story. To become important, I had to become stronger, or stand out.
“······A gun might have been a good choice after all.”
And a gun satisfied those two conditions.
First, strength.
A gun required fewer stats, so I could choose and concentrate. Close-range weapons like spears and swords required almost every stat evenly, and bows also required most of them, though stamina was slightly less important. In contrast, a gun only needed agility, perception, and a bit of magic power. In other words, I could satisfy the “minimum strength” faster than with other weapons.
Second, uniqueness.
There were no heroes in this world who used guns. That alone was reason enough.
Therefore, I think it would be best to keep holding on to a gun. At least until my stats rise—and until my mind is ready, in other words, until I’m prepared to get up close to a monster and trade blows with it.
Once I’ve chosen a gun as my main weapon, the next step follows.
Talent.
"······I can write a talent."
For a hero, the meaning of talent is far more special. It carries its dictionary definition as is.
‘The aptitude and ability needed to do something.’
However, the standard for that ability is enormous. At the very least, one must possess an endowment worthy of being called a supernatural ability before it can be judged as ‘a talent worthy of becoming a hero.’
There are several classifications of talent here, but most commonly they fall into five categories: ‘Body,’ ‘Weapon,’ ‘Element,’ ‘Magic,’ and ‘Nature.’
For reference, the protagonist has two talents, as befits a protagonist. His currently awakened talent is the weapon-attribute ‘Sword Saint,’ a ridiculously overpowered uniqueness that receives the world’s protection when it comes to swords. What it means to receive the world’s protection is, simply put, that he can cut water with a blade. With that talent alone, the protagonist could have become the greatest hero.
That was how important talent was. There was no need for it to be complicated; the best thing was for it to be as efficient and strong as possible.
I hammered at the keyboard.
===
▶Talent [Null Attribute]
─Grow Stronger Every Day
Every 24 hours, all stats increase by 0.1.
===
"······Will this work?"
Even after writing it myself, it was a shameless talent. Right before the serialization was suspended, Kim Suho’s Strength was something like 16, and at this rate, I would gain 36.5 in all stats in 365 days.
Still, I could undo it until I saved, so I decided to try it for now.
[Beginner’s Consideration activated. Creating a talent equivalent to 10,000 SP.]
[The talent cannot be fully created with 10,000 SP, so its quality will be downgraded.]
===
▶「Grow Stronger Every Day」
[Upper-Intermediate] [Spirit(?) Attribute] [Static Type]
─Self-Cultivation
Every 24 hours, stats increase by 0.0015.
===
[Would you like to save the modifications?]
Cancel immediately.
That was 1.5 to all stats in 1,000 days. In 10,000 days, in other words 25 years, it would raise all my stats by a whopping 15, but I’d grow old and die waiting for that.
This time, I wrote down the talent I had thought of before.
===
▶Talent
「Sharpshooter」
[Upper-Intermediate] [Martial Attribute]
Handles ranged weapons well.
===
I just wrote it roughly. From the attempt just now, I had a general idea of how this laptop’s operating mechanism worked. No matter how I wrote it, the laptop would probably change it into something plausible on its own.
[Beginner’s Consideration. Creating a talent equivalent to 10,000 SP.]
[It is insufficient to be called a talent worth 10,000 SP, so its quality will be upgraded.]
===
▶「Sharpshooter」 [Upper-Intermediate] [Composite Attribute] [Static Type]
─Sharpshooter’s Training Method
*Gain an unconditional advantage in mastering all types of ranged weapons.
─Clairvoyance
*See farther and in greater detail, and accurately predict a target’s movement path.
*Perception increases by 3, Reflexes increase by 3.
─Bullet Time
*Every 24 hours, a total of 3 minutes can be allocated to ‘Bullet Time.’
===
"Oh-ho."
It was quite good. In particular, I liked the ‘all types’ of ranged weapons. With this, I could eventually branch out not only into guns, but even bows. As for Clairvoyance, I could tell what it was at a glance, and Bullet Time was hard to understand, but it was probably something similar to the ‘bullet time’ I’d seen in games.
I was satisfied, but there was still one thing I had to change.
[Static Type] was it.
Rather than a static type, whose limits were clear, a growth type was still better.
[The sentence will be changed.]
===
▶「Sharpshooter」
[Lower-Intermediate] [Spirit Attribute] [Growth Type ─ Proficiency Level 10] [Proficiency Experience 0%]
─Sharpshooter’s Proficiency
*Become accustomed to all types of ranged weapons.
─Clairvoyance
*See far and clumsily predict a target’s movement path.
─Bullet Time
*Limited to actual combat, every 24 hours, a total of 3 seconds is allocated to ‘Bullet Time.’
===
"Hm."
Its rank fell from upper-intermediate to lower-intermediate, and the contents of the described sentences became worse, but if I had to look at the long term anyway, a growth type was much better. Above all, for the main story to end, it would take at least 7 years······
Ah, now I’m getting depressed again.
"Fuck."
I shook it off with a single curse.
[Points 10]
Next, after going in circles, I was back to stats.
How should I use these 10 points, which could not be traded even for a fortune?
If I thought about it simply, immutable stats were ‘immutable,’ so they could not be raised; thus, I had no choice but to choose mutable stats.
But.
Right now, I might have the ability to modify these immutable stats.
"...Should I turn them into SP?"