Author Seo Joo-cheon
Today was the day they would finally decide on a new series, and Seo Joo-cheon was nervous. It had been nearly two years since he'd last serialized anything, so of course he was.
He had dressed in the cleanest, most expensive-looking clothes he owned. Before stepping into the conference room he ducked into the restroom, wiped the sweat from his face, and straightened his collar.
The face in the mirror — the kind people still called handsome, if he went anywhere that cared — forced a smile. At thirty he still got told he had a baby face, though Seo Joo-cheon had never paid much attention to his looks.
Wiiiiirrr—
He dried his hands under the air dryer and left the restroom.
A typical serialization meeting ran about a month of back-and-forth. Still, they'll greenlight one of the two. They have to.
He walked into the conference room on that optimistic thought. Two years without a serial didn't mean two years of sitting idle. One of the manuscripts was already finished; the other he'd written more than five volumes of. He hadn't been publishing — but he'd been doing nothing but eating and writing.
His editor and the editor-in-chief were already seated when he came in. A heat wave had been grinding on for days, fierce enough that even the air-conditioning felt lukewarm, but Seo Joo-cheon was so wound up he felt a faint chill.
"Welcome, sir. Thank you for coming out in this heat."
The two people who greeted him with smiles had worked with him for a long time. Hong Seok-hun, originally the wuxia editor, had since been promoted to editor-in-chief — mid-thirties, glasses, wearing a dated silvery-gray suit that had gone out of season. Lee Min-ji had recently taken over as the fantasy editor.
They exchanged the usual pleasantries, then opened their laptops. Seo Joo-cheon opened his as well, launched the word processor, and pulled up the novels.
"Both of the pieces you sent were genuinely compelling. I enjoyed them."
Hong Seok-hun always led with a novel's strengths. The evisceration came later.
"The completed wuxia, The Invincible Lay Disciple, captures the real pleasure of traditional martial-arts fiction. I liked it a great deal."
The Invincible Lay Disciple was a finished seven-volume novel: the story of Jang Hyeon-nam, a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect, overcoming every calamity in the martial world and rising to its absolute peak.
"It's the protagonist pattern you see in orthodox wuxia all the time, so the character himself isn't particularly magnetic. But your plotting and your style are fun enough that I read it straight through. Traditional wuxia isn't popular right now, but the story itself has a real shot. The premise is simple — the hero protects his clan, wins the great wars of the Jianghu, and keeps the peace — and it should have felt stale. I was hooked all the way to the end anyway."
Seo Joo-cheon knew that the longer Hong Seok-hun's praise ran, the longer the takedown that followed — several times longer. The compliments did not make him happy.
"That said, spreading the First Jianghu War — the Black-Snake War — the Second Jianghu War — the Unorthodox-Demonic War — and the Third Jianghu War — the Orthodox-Unorthodox War — across several of those seven volumes, just war after war, was a bit much. Having him win all three is fine. I'd rather see them dispersed through the book instead of stacked so densely. That's all from me. Min-ji, if you have anything on Antagonist, go ahead."
At Hong Seok-hun's cue, Lee Min-ji took a sip of water and spoke.
"Personally, I found Antagonist the more interesting of the two."
Antagonist was a modern fantasy Seo Joo-cheon had written on a surge of momentum after grinding through wuxia. Gates open in the real world, monsters pour out, hunters appear. People awaken all kinds of abilities — on the surface, no different from any other modern-fantasy novel. But Seo Joo-cheon had poured himself into the fine grain of the setting, wringing his brain dry to keep the lore consistent. He'd nearly gone bald over it.
"The premise and the plot are similar to other modern fantasies, but I was fascinated by the way the supporting cast drives the story more than the leads. Having the antagonistic figures carry the narrative never felt strained. And the Karma Generation sub-scenario missions keep dropping in throughout, so there's never a dull stretch. I also liked the idea of a modern person synchronizing with a protagonist inside a modern-fantasy novel. But how does the hero get back to reality? I didn't see that in the manuscript you gave me."
The pages he'd sent Lee Min-ji didn't include that part. He was in the middle of volume six; it was in volume six.
"It may change in revision, but as currently written, the protagonist Jo Yong-nam learns that he returns to reality when the principal characters of Antagonist die. If the main cast dies, that world itself ceases to exist."
"Oh, that's a fun premise. So that's why it's called Antagonist."
"More or less. In a sense the novel begins with the protagonist killing the principal characters. Jo Yong-nam's role is to kill the heroes of the modern-fantasy world and extinguish the power that holds that world together. The twist is that even when he kills them, the world doesn't vanish."
Lee Min-ji wasn't the only one listening closely. Hong Seok-hun had leaned in too.
"And why is that?"
It had been a while since his editors showed real curiosity about a story. A little spark of excitement caught in Seo Joo-cheon; he dropped his voice to tighten the tension.
"Because Jo Yong-nam belongs to the Dark Hunter Association. The world only collapses if he kills a protagonist on the Dark Hunter Association's side."
Just as the wuxia world had its demonic path, Antagonist had hunters who wielded dark power.
"That sounds great. Min-ji, pass me that manuscript. I want to read it."
Hong Seok-hun had clearly caught the hook.
"Yes, Chief."
Lee Min-ji nodded.
"The material's good. The setting's good. All of it."
Seo Joo-cheon almost sneered. A month ago this same man had read that novel and torn it apart. Seo Joo-cheon could still list the dozens of points Hong Seok-hun had enumerated while carving it up; the memory rose in his throat like bile. Watching him now treat it like a brand-new book, all bright interest, felt like a betrayal.
He did not let his guard down. So far he's only talked about what works. Now comes the part where he rips it up.
After a small pause, Hong Seok-hun tapped the glass tabletop with a fingertip. He had the full presence of a proper, established editor-in-chief now. They had done several books together; a kind of affection had grown. Most of those books had been well received — at least moderate hits — and Seo Joo-cheon generally liked working with him. When it came to talking about the work itself, though, Hong Seok-hun had a habit of tormenting the author a little more than was strictly necessary.
"Both books are fine. The timing isn't. If you'd serialized The Invincible Lay Disciple three years ago, or five, the material would have performed. Right now traditional wuxia has lost its legs. I can't recommend putting it up. The current trend, after all, is the overpowered protagonist."
Overpowered protagonists had never not been the trend. Coming in here to announce that OP leads are in fashion just means my characters are too minor-league.
Lee Min-ji picked up the thread.
"And Antagonist is strong overall, but the figures opposing the protagonists feel like they carry a heavier share of the book than their relative obscurity can support."
Seo Joo-cheon read both of them perfectly.
"So you want me to write it centered on the protagonist. Not the supporting cast."
"That's right."
Hong Seok-hun answered without a flicker of hesitation, and Seo Joo-cheon felt a small, sharp disappointment.
"I was trying something different this time. Building the story around the supporting characters."
"There will be a moment when that kind of writing gets attention. When it does, you can serialize what you've already written. This is not that moment. You know as well as I do — ignore the trend and the numbers don't come."
It wasn't wrong. He had nothing to push back with. Seo Joo-cheon had no intention of ignoring what readers wanted lately anyway. He was a genre novelist; writing wuxia and fantasy while pretending trends didn't exist was just stupidity, and he knew it.
"I thought readers' tastes had broadened enough that this kind of material, this kind of setup, could work."
"I didn't say it couldn't. I said it might finish with numbers far worse than you'd expect. You might even have to end it early, without getting to tell the story you actually wanted."
He knew. He'd had books like that — ambitious novels that met a dead market and were cut short. Some writers, once a series was already losing money in print, simply left it unfinished at volume three or four. It was the occupational disease of a business that lived and died on popularity.
"Understood. I'll try developing it more around the protagonist."
"Then the serial numbers will be good. I guarantee it. Once you've revised, we'll put it up on a major platform."
Hong Seok-hun's guarantee closed the meeting.
"Ah — Min-ji, you can go ahead. I'd like a word with the author."
Lee Min-ji glanced at Seo Joo-cheon, offered a polite goodbye, gathered her laptop, and left. The moment she was gone, Hong Seok-hun's face hardened.
"Author."
"Yes."
"This novel is titled The Invincible Lay Disciple. The protagonist is a magnificent rising talent of the Wudang Sect. So why does the book spend more pages on the supporting cast?"
"It's a device. To make the protagonist shine. Later he performs brilliantly and cuts the villains down."
"And that is exactly what I don't understand. Why does that have to come later?"
"Well, that's—"
"Author."
"Yes."
Seo Joo-cheon's voice shrank. With Lee Min-ji in the room the meeting had been relatively gentle. This, he knew, was what the editor-in-chief had actually wanted to say.
"I've told you this how many times now. The protagonist has to be special. What reader is going to empathize with an ordinary lead? In your novels the protagonist is always ordinary and everyone around him is extraordinary. That's poison. Poison."
"I know that. I just… can't seem to do it."
"Why can't you? Because you don't try. You always end up more attached to the people around the hero than to the hero, so readers can't immerse in him. Are you telling me you don't know that?"
Hong Seok-hun hadn't wanted to push this hard. But seeing the author project himself so nakedly onto a supporting character in The Invincible Lay Disciple had quietly infuriated him. The side character had been given the author's face, the author's build, even the author's age — padding, as far as Hong Seok-hun was concerned, and nothing more.
And he lavishes all these backstories on extras who die in a blink for the protagonist — genuine walk-ons — and I'm supposed to not get angry?
He looked at Seo Joo-cheon with something like pity.
"I really do want to write protagonist-first. It's just that the other characters all have their own stories too."
"That doesn't matter. Who cares about a supporting character's life besides the protagonist?"
Hong Seok-hun pressed on without a breath.
"I cannot take this book to any serialization platform. If I did, they'd reject it nine times out of ten."
Seo Joo-cheon had no argument. He always poured more affection into the extras than into the lead, and the writing always drifted somewhere he hadn't intended. He would start every book swearing, This time I'm writing a proper overpowered power fantasy — and somewhere after volume one the protagonist would be left chewing on nothing but frustration while the supporting cast ran the story into a riot.
That was when it had hit him. It's not that I don't write overpowered novels. It's that I can't.
Realizing that writing a satisfying power fantasy was itself a talent, he had sunk into a slump for a while. Looking back now, his habit of caring more about side characters than heroes seemed like something he had been born with. The friends of his childhood had been the ones who drew his sympathy, his pity. He couldn't leave those kids alone, so he helped them, and they became his friends. He had never once been friends with the strong kids, the ones who had it easy.
Live that way long enough and even your fiction starts to look like your life.
"Understood. The next book I bring you will be a real, full-throttle overpowered novel."
He knew perfectly well he wasn't good at writing that kind of book. What else was he supposed to do? Try to write to the market.
He gathered up his laptop.
"I'll be waiting. You have a distinctive sense for prose. Change the way you think and you could have a massive hit — I guarantee that too. So just close your eyes and write it. The Invincible Lay Disciple — the title itself says invincible. To be invincible under heaven, you have to be overpowered. I think it only needs a light touch."
Seo Joo-cheon answered with a bitter smile.
"I'll do that."
Reframing The Invincible Lay Disciple around the protagonist wouldn't make serialization difficult. What stung was that his plan to write something a little off the protagonist-centered path had just been killed.
Maybe that disappointment was why he stood at the crosswalk through several changes of the light without stepping off the curb. The strength had gone out of him.
It's the heat. That's all.
He blamed the weather for no good reason and set his foot on the crossing.
BAAAAAMP—
That was when he saw the car, coming fast, aimed straight at him.
"Gah—!"
The pedestrian signal was red.
Screeeech—
The shriek of hard brakes, and Seo Joo-cheon found himself rising into the air. He hung there for what felt like a long time before he smashed into the asphalt, and only then did the pain arrive, enormous and total.
His cheek met pavement heated like iron plate; it felt as if the skin were cooking. His whole body hurt and he could not scream. Screams rose around him and he could not even lift his head.
Damn it. Is this how I die?
The thought that he might actually be dying hit him all at once, and fear punched through his chest.
His laptop lay in front of his eyes. He had been carrying it so carefully, tucked against him, and now the impact had thrown it open; the screen had lit. The novel files he'd been working on surfaced one after another on the display.
The Invincible Lay Disciple. Antagonist.
Never even got to serialize them.
A laugh slipped out of him, thin and incredulous. Dying, and the thing he thought of wasn't anything else — it was the work.
His gaze snagged on a scene from Antagonist: the moment the protagonist synchronized and possessed a body.
If a synchronization ability like the one in the novel were real, how good would that be. I wouldn't have to die this stupidly…
The blare of horns, the murmur of the crowd, someone shouting for an ambulance — all of it receded, slowly, as if the volume of the world were being turned down. In that receding noise, a faint sound circled inside his ear.
Synchronization will now begin.
The novel pages on the laptop screen whirled past — and stopped dead.
Then the voice came again.
A compatible subject has been found.
Commencing synchronization.
He thought, So this is what dying is — I'm even getting auditory hallucinations, and laughed under his breath, a thin little heh heh — and then Seo Joo-cheon's pupils stopped.