Reincarnation
People who openly flaunt their envy of others.
People who, just when the mood is perfect, kill the vibe without a shred of tact.
People who think it's fine for them to trash-talk others, yet absolutely cannot stand being trash-talked themselves.
Live long enough and you are bound to run into types like these at least once.
Unfortunately, Park Hanjun was no exception. Even more unfortunately, the person who checked every single one of those boxes was his childhood friend—his "balls buddy" from way back.
That worthless bastard, at the celebration for Hanjun finally passing the civil service exam after two grueling years of study, predictably let his envy show and ruined the whole gathering.
Hanjun had expected it. The other childhood friends present had taken his side and cursed the guy out, so Hanjun forced himself to swallow his anger.
It helped that he felt a little sorry for the guy.
After causing a massive incident in college and dropping out, the bastard had been prepping for the civil service exam for over five years. Still failing, yet forced to congratulate someone else's success—of course he was seething inside.
Never mind that he spent more time in PC bangs and comic book shops than actually studying.
Anyway, thanks to his trolling, the celebration ended earlier than planned. Hanjun, the bastard, and the rest of their childhood friends stood at the traffic light, waiting to head home.
Hanjun would have loved to send the guy packing and reconvene somewhere else, but the bastard had an uncanny knack for sensing when he was being left out. That made it impossible.
If he ever caught wind that Hanjun and the others had ditched him for a private after-party, he would turn into a wild animal and trash the place completely.
If they hadn't been childhood friends, Hanjun would have cut ties clean and never looked back. The guy's parents, who still believed in their son to the bitter end, were wingless angels.
"Fuck."
Seeing the red light, Hanjun's insides burned crimson. He let out just a tiny fraction of the rage he had been holding in.
His other friends patted his shoulder in understanding, trying to comfort him.
But that inhuman bastard...
"Did you just curse me? Huh?! Did you just fucking curse me?!"
Oblivious to his own faults, he flew into a rage and lunged at Hanjun.
"Let go, you son of a bitch!"
"Hey! Lee Jinseong! Get the hell off him!"
Had the limiters on his brain come off from pure fury?
The scrawny bastard who normally couldn't even throw a proper punch clung to Hanjun's collar with vicious strength, refusing to let go no matter how hard Hanjun and the others tried to pry him off.
"What the hell makes you so special?! You're not better than me at a single damn thing!"
Jinseong started shaking Hanjun by the collar.
But Hanjun had decent height and build, so the one who ended up swaying was Jinseong himself.
"Ah."
His strength finally gave out. Jinseong's grip slipped free.
The momentum of all that shaking sent his body tipping backward.
For some reason, from that moment on, time for both Hanjun and Jinseong began to crawl.
Unfortunately, the two of them were standing right at the edge of the road. The light was still red, and cars were whipping past at full speed across all four lanes.
No—it was yellow now, so they were accelerating even harder.
HONK! HONK!
A truck that had swung into the second lane to beat the light, flooring the accelerator, blared its horn.
The driver's panicked face filled Hanjun's vision.
Only then did it hit him that Jinseong was falling backward. Hanjun whipped his head around toward him.
No matter how much of a non-human the guy was, Hanjun couldn't just stand there with open eyes and let him die.
The instant that thought crossed his mind—
Huh?
His own body lurched forward.
In his wide, startled eyes, he saw it.
Grinning.
Bloodshot eyes and a vile smile plastered across Jinseong's face.
"You animal bastard—!"
Screeeeech—THUD!!!
"Kyaaaa!"
"Hanjun!"
"Lee Jinseong, you crazy son of a bitch!"
"Ha. Seriously. This is so ridiculous I don't even know what to say."
"Have you accepted it now? That you're dead."
Hanjun nodded weakly.
Truthfully, he didn't want to accept it. But if he denied it, the man in front of him—inhuman in a completely different way from that bastard—might replay the memory of his death inside his head again. He couldn't risk it.
Recalling the moment of his own death was... devastatingly empty and hollow.
He shook his head, trying to shake off some of the emptiness and hollowness swirling in his chest, then slowly looked around to get a proper grasp of the situation.
An endless white void stretched out in every direction. Nothing else.
The only things with any color in this space were himself, the animal, the man sitting across from them, and the chairs and table they occupied.
"Alright then, you..."
Nod-nod-nod-nod.
"No need to even ask, I guess."
Watching Jinseong bob his head like a madman, the man—who called himself God Bright—let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
Then he snapped his fingers, vanishing the pure white bandages that had been sealing the bastard's mouth.
"If you start cheering and making a racket again, I'll gag you right back. So stay quiet. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!"
"You too. I know you're furious, resentful, and pissed off, but just sit still for now. Something good might come of it."
At those meaningful words and the accompanying smile, Hanjun simply nodded.
Honestly, his mind was so numb he didn't even have the energy to get angry.
He just wanted to keep staring blankly at the man's otherworldly appearance.
So white hair can actually shine like that. Once you're a god, even your eyes aren't ordinary. Looks like pure gold set into them.
Hanjun studied the man's features carefully, gradually settling the emptiness and hollowness inside him.
He had no interest in that direction, but the man's beauty was the kind that made even people without that inclination unable to look away.
Not that he wanted to awaken any such interest, of course.
"In accordance with the contract with the Earth God, I will reincarnate the two of you—who met deaths not recorded in the Book of Life and Death—into the world I rule."
"Keh-heh-heh."
"There's no particular role assigned to you. Just live however you want, according to your own abilities."
"Ooooh!"
"..."
"S-sorry."
God Bright simply looked at Jinseong.
Just being looked at was enough to radiate pressure. The bastard who had been over the moon a second ago instantly shriveled up.
"Don't get too excited. Unfortunately, my world is currently being invaded by three other worlds. Without the deal with the Earth God, it would have been four."
"Anyway, things are in a lull right now, but in about twenty or thirty years the full-scale invasion will begin. A lot of people are going to die. There's no guarantee the two of you won't be among them."
Hanjun's face twisted.
Jinseong's, on the other hand, lit up even brighter.
Has he finally lost it for real?
Hanjun glanced at him and sincerely thought so.
"But don't worry too much. I won't reincarnate you completely unprepared, and I've already appointed a Hero."
"Y-you appointed a Hero? You're not picking me as the Hero?"
The second the god finished speaking, Jinseong blurted it out in a panic.
His pupils shook violently, as if something had gone terribly wrong.
This bastard... no way...
"Of course not. How could I trust you with the Hero job?"
"What kind of logic is that?! Reincarnators taking the Hero role is a fundamental truth and a cliché!"
Ah. Of course.
The guy still couldn't tell reality from fiction.
To think he had kept someone like this as a childhood friend!
He should have cut ties ages ago. What the hell was that damn attachment even for?
Overwhelmed by despair and regret, Hanjun covered his face with both hands.
Everything went dark in front of his eyes.
Why did it feel like that darkness was the future waiting for him?
Hanjun suddenly felt like crying for no reason.
While he quietly sniffled, the conversation between the god and the animal continued.
"I don't know anything about those 'truths' and 'clichés.' And by your logic, my world would already have over a hundred Heroes."
"A h-hundred? There are that many reincarnators?"
"Yes. So don't go thinking you're special. You're extremely ordinary. You just had the bad luck of not dying the way it was written in the Book. Or maybe, in your case, it was good luck."
The god shook his head coldly, as if warning him never to think such things.
Jinseong bristled and tried to argue back, but under the god's frigid gaze he clamped his mouth shut.
That didn't mean he had changed his mind.
Hmph! Like a few words like that would make me give up. Just you wait. I'll perform so brilliantly you won't be able to say a damn thing.
Jinseong was confident.
Having consumed countless anime, manga, and novels, he was certain he could outshine any Hero.
Even if the god hadn't recognized him, he was a Hero ready and waiting.
He truly believed it.
That belief was written so plainly on his face that Hanjun looked at him and shook his head in pure pity.
Then he turned to the god, who was watching the bastard with a completely unfazed expression, and asked,
"You're awfully calm. Doesn't that look bother you at all?"
"I'm used to it. There are quite a lot of them, you know. Guys like him."
With a bitter smile, the god answered, then pulled something rectangular from his robes and set one in front of each of them.
It was a very familiar object.
"Even the gods use tablets, I see."
"I use them when I want to enjoy some entertainment from Earth's side. Though my world is medieval, so it's impossible there."
That's a real shame, he added lightly with a laugh, then snapped his fingers cheerfully.
Light bloomed across the tablet screens that had looked completely dead, as if the batteries were drained.
Take a look.
The god jerked his chin, telling them to examine it.
Hanjun immediately picked up the tablet and skimmed the text on the screen.
Summarized briefly, it went something like this:
Abilities, Talents, Appearance, Family Background, Miscellaneous, and so on.
Lowest grade: 10 points. Low grade: 25 points. Mid grade: 50 points. High grade: 75 points. Highest grade: 100 points.
The god offered no explanation, but Hanjun understood at once.
These were the categories and options for reincarnation.
Abilities, huh.
Having spent so much time around that animal, Hanjun had also consumed plenty of manga, anime, and novels.
So he quickly grasped what "abilities" meant and what kinds there were.
Helpful reference materials were even included, giving detailed explanations and letting them know what kind of world they would be reincarnating into.
The world ruled by God Bright was the classic fantasy world everyone dreams of at least once.
If I had lived out my natural lifespan and then ended up in this situation, I probably would have been as happy as that animal over there.
Hanjun let out a deep sigh.
Lingering attachment to his previous life made the emotions he had barely calmed start to stir again.
Part of him wanted to beg right then and there to continue his old life, but he forced the urge down.
If that had been possible, the god would have asked already.
He sighed once more, then studied the god's face while settling his feelings.
The god nodded as if proud of him, then clapped his hands to draw both their attention.
"I said earlier I wouldn't reincarnate you completely unprepared. The options on those tablets are that preparation. Use your points to pick the options you want. When you reincarnate, the ones you chose will be applied. Oh, and you can select a maximum of three from the Abilities category. Keep that in mind."
"I can tell that just by looking, but the points are way too few."
Hanjun and Jinseong had each been given 200 points.
One hundred were a refund for the previous lives they never got to fully enjoy, and another hundred had been handed over by the Earth God with a "try to live well in the new world" message.
"Highest-grade options cost 100 points each, and we only get a measly 200? What is this, seriously? Aren't you being a little too stingy for a god?"
Jinseong complained without the slightest regard for the atmosphere, true to his nature.
Watching the bastard remain exactly the same even after death, Hanjun thought,
That guy is definitely insane.
Has he already forgotten who is sitting right in front of him?
The being before them was a god who ruled an entire world.
Just because the other side was treating them casually didn't mean they should treat him the same way.
Besides...
What's he even complaining about being short on? Miscellaneous isn't essential, so set that aside. If you just pick one mid-grade option from each of the other four categories, you get a pretty decent life.
Setting everything else aside, the fact that you could definitively choose the abilities you wanted was already an enormous benefit.
The reference materials even said that for a commoner, just one lowest-grade ability was enough to walk around with your shoulders squared.
In that sense, 200 points might look small at first glance, but considering you could freely choose abilities, it was by no means a small amount.
"Jinseong, do not cross the line any further."
Apparently even the god couldn't overlook the bastard's nonsense this time. He straightened his expression and scolded him.
The guy, who had been pouting in dissatisfaction, hurriedly fixed his attitude and started reading the god's mood.
"Haaah~. Jinseong, contrary to what you think, 200 points is absolutely not a small amount."
"..."
"You don't seem to believe me. Well, can't be helped—human greed is endless. Hanjun, you're no exception either."
Hanjun didn't bother denying it.
He knew 200 points wasn't little, but he still wished there were more.
It couldn't be helped.
If the world they were reincarnating into were peaceful, it might be different. But it was being invaded by three other worlds.
He could guarantee that ordinary wouldn't be enough to survive.
"I have one proposal for the two of you. If you accept it, I'll give you an extra 100 points and also inscribe a Stigma that contains the Holy Healing art."
"I'll do it!"
The instant the god finished speaking, Jinseong shot his hand straight up.
Watching him try to accept the proposal without even hearing what he would have to do, Hanjun clutched his head.
Is that really a twenty-seven-year-old human?
Ah, right. He's an animal.
In Hanjun's mind, Jinseong was now firmly classified as a beast rather than a human being.