Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Rotten Possession
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27-year-old Lee Soo-hyuk ended up possessed into another world just because he was good at one game.
'This fucking sucks.'
No use crying or regretting it now. Lee Soo-hyuk let out a deep sigh and pushed himself up.
"Are you heading out now?"
"Yes, that's right!"
It was a sudden possession, but fortunately, he didn't wake up straight away in someone else's body. There was a bare minimum of welfare for players who ended up in this situation purely for the crime of diligently playing a game with a pure heart.
"Lee Soo-hyuk. You must not forget Lorellia's Teachings."
Silver hair and red eyes. A woman with an appearance so surreal it looked like she'd stepped out of a video.
Lorellia, the priestess serving the Goddess of Order. She beamed at Lee Soo-hyuk and waved.
"Finally, let me do a quick check. Lee Soo-hyuk. The name of the body you're possessing is?"
"Yuri."
"Family?"
"Orphan, so none."
"Other possessors?"
"Don't trust them."
"The fact that you're a possessor?"
"Must not be discovered."
"A possessor's archenemy?"
"The God of Chaos."
"Good!"
Clap clap clap. Lorellia clapped her hands noisily.
"Most knowledge will link to the memories of the body you're possessing, so you shouldn't have much trouble adapting to daily life."
Was that really true? It had been emphasized multiple times during possessor training, but Lee Soo-hyuk was still skeptical about this whole 'adapting' thing.
A 27-year-old modern man getting possessed into an entirely different world. Even with foundational knowledge, could he truly adapt perfectly to another world when he had memories of enjoying his original one?
"You have to, even if it's hard."
As if reading his worries, Lorellia whispered.
"Because if you don't adapt, you won't survive."
"Sigh, instead of cheering me on, why scare me right before possession?"
Lee Soo-hyuk grumbled with a deep sigh. Lorellia put her hands on her hips and flashed her eyes.
"Scare you? I, Lorellia, was just emphasizing once more out of concern for you, Lee Soo-hyuk."
"Yes, yes."
Rumble...
He looked up at the sky amid the massive shaking. The ceiling of the waiting lounge where he'd spent so long was collapsing. A sign that possession was imminent.
"You don't need to worry too much."
Lorellia's red eyes curved in a pout.
"Like me, you're special too. That's why I, Lorellia, am certain. You will definitely survive, Lee Soo-hyuk."
"I hope so."
"Lee Soo-hyuk! Why do you lack confidence? I, Lorellia, did my absolute best to guide you so you could survive."
The hand on her hip moved. Her pale white hand slowly clenched into a fist. Lorellia held it out forward and smiled.
"What is this?"
"A fist."
"Yes! A fist! Lee Soo-hyuk, if you use your fists as I, Lorellia, taught you, you will definitely survive any hardship."
The extended fist didn't withdraw. How many times had he been hit by that fist? Lee Soo-hyuk thought of that as he clenched his own fist and thrust it toward Lorellia.
Thud. Their fists touched.
"The sound of me waking is too noisy. Lee Soo-hyuk, I, Lorellia, will take my leave first."
"Yes. See you next time."
"Perhaps we'll meet again someday if the chance arises."
Lorellia kept her smile, withdrew her fist, grabbed the hems of her skirt with both hands, and curtsied slightly.
"Then, Lee Soo-hyuk. Have a pleasant possession life."
Was she teasing him? Lee Soo-hyuk let out a hollow laugh. Whoosh! Right before his eyes, Lorellia turned to light and vanished.
Lee Soo-hyuk was left alone in the crumbling world. He withdrew the fist that had just touched hers and scratched his head vigorously.
"She's really gone..."
Why did this happen to me?
He'd heard the circumstances plenty of times. He'd even tried to accept them. But facing 'possession' head-on, his heart couldn't help but waver.
The root of all this lay in the game Lee Soo-hyuk had delved into.
Seronis.
The name of that dogshit game with its hellish difficulty where you had to start over from the beginning upon death—and which had given him the unwanted 'gift' of possession.
He'd sought out that game which didn't even advertise, and for years obsessively grinded away at it—a game others would have long called a trashfest and deleted.
He'd created and killed countless characters while consuming all the content.
Even after barely defeating the final boss, he didn't see the ending. Instead, GAME OVER popped up, returning him to the title screen, and his precious character got deleted.
'I should have quit then.'
The regret from hundreds or thousands of deaths here still lingered. Lee Soo-hyuk let out another deep sigh and hung his head.
"Fuck."
But it was a game, so there had to be an ending. Thinking he could reach it by meeting certain conditions, he started the game again.
Trash dogshit games have this weird addictiveness and charm that makes you keep shoveling the shit once you've tasted it.
Then, a hidden boss was discovered.
The hidden boss named the 'God of Chaos' could only be encountered in a special route requiring unique conditions, and it had specs far beyond the final boss.
If that was all, he would have grinded hard, beaten it once, and been done. But thrillingly, this hidden boss had a differentiator from the others.
The one and only competitive element between players in this goddamn game.
[Hall of Fame]
He wanted to engrave his game ID at the top of that hall, ranked by clear time.
「Hall of Fame
1st: Padrip Immunity」
An ID embarrassing to mention to anyone, but he was desperate to claim first place, if only because of the time he'd sunk into this rotten game.
But the game Seronis itself was a trap created by that real 'God of Chaos' bastard.
The guy had crudely mimicked his own world to make the game, leaked it into Lee Soo-hyuk's world, and kidnapped innocent gamers who lapped up the dogshit game, possessing them into another world.
The kidnapping condition: Achieve 1st in the Hall of Fame.
A vicious trap preying on good gamers who loved, obsessed over, and played this dogshit game with all their heart.
And possession didn't even happen into the cherished characters they'd raised—it targeted ordinary people not even implemented in the game.
He'd actually thought it was suspicious a few times.
It wasn't a game you could call great or convenient even as empty words, so the player base wasn't large. But it wasn't zero. Scouring overseas sites, you could find diehard addicts savoring the thick shit flavor.
Yet the top ranks in the Hall barely changed, and even after snagging 1st, there wasn't a single screenshot proving it.
'Wouldn't they get greedy and push higher after grinding to 1st?'
Even if overtaken from below, how could you hold back?
If it were Lee Soo-hyuk, he'd have pulled an all-nighter to reclaim 1st. He figured anyone ranking that high would do the same.
But with no changes, many players claimed the top records were dummy data from the devs.
Not bothering to fix the shitty gameplay or add new content, just stuffing dummies in the top spots to make players shadowbox.
Lee Soo-hyuk had thought that possible too, but it only fueled his drive more.
What if he overtook a top dummy not meant to be beaten?
What if he proudly engraved his character's name at 1st in the Hall?
Beating 1st would let him achieve enlightenment from this trash game.
In the end, he got his wished-for 1st, but no enlightenment.
Instead, he got kidnapped to another world.
"Ah... fuck..."
The more he thought about it, the more wronged and pathetic he felt. Lee Soo-hyuk shook his head with a sigh laced in curses.
He'd received the necessary education before possession, but he was still anxious and scared. Live in an entirely different world as an entirely different person from now on?
'You will definitely survive, Lee Soo-hyuk.'
Recalling the last encouragement, he clenched his fist again. The moment he tried swinging it to check one more time before possession.
Rumble! The floor of the waiting lounge collapsed.
'Is this how possession happens?'
Plummeting into endless darkness, Lee Soo-hyuk swallowed his scream.
"Ah."
He remembered something crucial too late.
The 20-year-old Yuri that 27-year-old Lee Soo-hyuk was possessing was already dead.
He hadn't heard why Yuri died.
*
Consciousness returned.
'My mind is... clear.'
No memory loss either.
Lee Soo-hyuk.
—Yuri thought amid the thick stench of blood.
He wanted to check his surroundings, but his eyes wouldn't open, and his body wouldn't move. It felt heavy, like waking from a shallow sleep.
The acrid blood stench... Sensing it first, his senses slowly sharpened.
'It's okay.'
This wasn't an unannounced possession. Before possessing, he'd received basic training from a priestess serving the Goddess of Order, who stood opposed to the God of Chaos.
The body 27-year-old Lee Soo-hyuk was possessing was that of 20-year-old Yuri.
Yuri. Orphan, no family name. Parents who wouldn't be exaggeration to call utter bastards had stuffed the baby past infancy into a basket, enclosed a note with at least the name 'Yuri', and abandoned him at Oldor's orphanage. In that regard, they were the same—both orphans without family—but Lee Soo-hyuk at least had a family name, so his situation was slightly better.
—One cheek burned hot. Not a fever. Something hot and sticky was touching his cheek.
"Huuu..."
His body still wouldn't move, but Yuri slowly breathed for now.
Something seeped into his slightly parted lips.
'Blood?'
Seeping through his breath. The taste touching his tongue tip. This was blood.
'What the hell?'
Most possessors extinguish the existing soul and possess a living body.
But Yuri was different. Possession was inevitable, but Yuri had died before 'Lee Soo-hyuk' could possess him. This was a rare case.
Life's like that sometimes. Unlucky bastards get struck by lightning from a clear sky or trip over their own feet and crack their skulls. 27-year-old orphan Lee Soo-hyuk, dragged to another world and possessed just for being good at a dogshit game, was extremely unlucky, and 20-year-old orphan Yuri, who happened to die from a gut stab on the exact day of possession, was extremely unlucky too.
And the priestess assigned to him being originally in charge of 'violence' rather than 'possession', leading to frequent mistakes in the process—that was extremely unlucky too.
In short, a synergy of three misfortunes. Possessed for being good at a dogshit game, the target body already dead, and no clue why it died...!
'Fuck.'
The more he thought, the more his hazy mind and dull senses sharpened. Yuri kept breathing, tasting the vivid blood filling his mouth.
Thump, thump, thump... The sound of his once-dead heart beating again rang incredibly clear.
Finally, his eyes opened.
"Fuck."
The thought slipped out aloud. Yuri shot up from his spot.
Corpses, blood. Furniture like the sofa and table bore clear knife marks and bloodstains. As if they'd been eating, the blood-soaked table had shattered plates and scattered food.
A scene that could plunge anyone into panic, but Yuri desperately clung to his sanity. This wasn't a dream—it was reality. He forcibly clenched his trembling hands.
He looked at the nearest corpse's face. Sallow skin, pug nose.
—Zing. His head throbbed. Yuri let out a low groan and clutched his head.
Fragmented memories pieced together in his mind.
'Jang San.'
An unfamiliar name surfaced. The senior who'd pulled orphan Yuri from street thug to gang member.
Nauseous. Yuri gnashed his teeth and glared at Jang San's face briefly. Once one memory surfaced, they kept coming.
Where this was, why, and how he'd died. Yuri panted as he turned his head.
He saw a framed painting of a snake scrawled with a brush. That was the symbol of the 'Black Snake Gang' he belonged to, and this was their office.
Below the frame lay a hulking man with one arm cleanly severed. The boss, Decan. The man Yuri groveled to daily, brewing coffee and massaging shoulders for, lay dead with eyes bulging wide.
"..."
Yuri continued deep breathing as he caressed his abdomen.
The Black Snake Gang claimed a small street in the rural city of Oldor.
Like such organizations, their main gig was extorting merchants under the guise of protection fees. With that money, they did loan sharking and brawled with similar gangs on other streets.
This dime-a-dozen crime outfit had been raided today and massacred.
"Ah, come on, bro! We killed 'em all, I tell ya? Why check again after killing 'em together?"
"Idiot, you never know with life. Think they're dead, but some lucky bastard clings on. That fucker comes back at night with a knife for revenge, see?"
Voices came from outside the office. Startled, Yuri quickly scanned around. No windows. To escape, he'd have to pass the one door—and the perpetrators who'd massacred the Black Snake Gang were about to enter it.
He grabbed a nearby rolling dagger and flattened himself where he'd been lying.
Click.
The door opened. Yuri lay on the floor, squinting to observe.
"Ah fuck, I'm dying of exhaustion here..."
"Quit whining, little bro."
Two voices, as heard from outside. Two pairs of feet visible. One dragged his leg, injured.
That was good news. At the point when Yuri had been stabbed and dying, that bastard had been unscathed.
"So what, check? How?"
"Stab the corpses again with the knife. No screams means they're all dead. Hard?"
"Ah fuck, seriously... They're dead, I said! Why the extra check?"
The leg-dragger was the younger brother. He grumbled but followed orders. Stab! A knife plunged into a corpse near the door.
'Fuck.'
Why not just go? Why the confirmation kill? Flattened, Yuri sweated bullets.
"Bro, stab our guys' corpses too?"
"Of course. Bro, we weren't good brothers, right? Don't wanna taste revenge blades later—stab 'em good."
"True."
Stab, stab. As corpses by the entrance got equal stabs, Yuri had a brief moment of deliberation. Stay still like this, and he'd get stabbed dead. Die in this body—return to the original world?
No.
He knew the answer. Dying in this body wouldn't send him back.
'You just die if you die!'
That damn Lorellia had said it with a bright smile.
Of course Yuri didn't want to die.
Stab! The approaching confirmation stabs hit a nearby corpse. Glancing, it was Jang San.
"Ah, fucker, why so tough?"
The younger brother who'd dragged his foot was right there. No more hesitation. The knife was in Jang San's back now, but next could be Yuri's.
With a bit more luck, maybe after that—but staying put meant screaming from a stab, then more stabs to death.
He just needed resolve now.
Slash!
He grabbed the nearby foot and slashed the back of the ankle with the knife.
"Argh?!"
The guy hadn't imagined a bloody corpse slashing his ankle.
"Aaah! Fuck! What the?!"
Already injured in the other leg from the earlier fight, now his good ankle was slashed—bad spot, deep cut. He lost balance and crashed down.
Yuri sprang up, dagger forward, backing away slowly.
Now he could see the faces of the brothers who'd entered the office.
The Oh brothers.
Eastern foreigners who'd recently entered the back alleys, sweeping up some nasty thugs to form their own crew. Lately, they'd started encroaching on Black Snake Gang turf, sparking a few clashes.
Ruthless, dangerous bastards. Yuri had seen the Oh brothers on the streets occasionally but never locked eyes properly.
"Aaah! My foot!"
Younger brother Oh Bong-seok clutched his gushing ankle and screamed, but older brother Oh Bong-chun just stood glaring at Yuri.
He didn't rush despite the injury because Oh Bong-chun was cautious by nature—and their brotherhood wasn't that tight anyway.
"Kid, what are you?"
Oh Bong-chun was bloodied like his brother but had no serious wounds. He drew a hand axe from his belt and grinned, showing yellowed teeth.
"Strange... These guys. All dead or, if lucky alive, not pristine like you."
"Bro, fuck! My, my ankle!"
Oh Bong-seok screamed, but Oh Bong-chun ignored him. He narrowed his slit eyes further, scrutinizing Yuri.
"What are you, I asked? Not one of mine, so Black Snake punk. But no wounds? Huh? Where were you hiding?"
What to say? Or did he need to? Yuri just shut his mouth.
Oh Bong-seok couldn't stand yet. Only Oh Bong-chun to deal with now.
"Kid, scared?"
Oh Bong-chun smirked at the silent Yuri. Obvious provocation, but Yuri didn't bite. Too tense for cheap taunts—with possession barely 10 minutes in, he couldn't die here.
Thump, thump, thump... Heart pounding like it'd burst. The dagger in his right hand kept drawing attention.
Lee Soo-hyuk had never swung a knife at a person.
But Yuri had. Threatened with knives plenty, even stabbed people. But those memories didn't help much now.
"Hoo..."
The dagger felt too awkward. Yuri sighed shortly and dropped it to the floor.
"What?"
Oh Bong-chun's eyes widened.
"Not surrendering by dropping the knife, right? Kid, even if I'm that idiot's bro. Think I'll let the guy who crippled my brother for life slide?"
Yuri still didn't answer.
Instead, he raised both hands up.
"This crazy fuck?"
Oh Bong-chun burst laughing. Dropping a perfectly good knife was baffling enough—then begging for life?
"What with those hands? You some fist master gonna smash this axe?"
He ignored the mockery.
Truth was, he wanted the dagger. Bare hands vs. axe seemed impossible.
But no choice.
Old Yuri knew some knife work.
Current Yuri was far more familiar bare-handed.
He'd learned to use fists while getting punched.
"Fucking bastard thinks I'm a joke?!"
With a bellowed roar, Oh Bong-chun charged, swinging the axe—and died.
"Hy... bro?"
Oh Bong-seok, clutching his unstaunched ankle, muttered in disbelief.
His neck-snapped brother, tongue lolling, couldn't reply.
"It actually worked..."
Yuri muttered, staring at the hand that had just broken the neck.