Entering the Academy – A Genius Prodigy Awakens
The world felt as though it was slowly sinking into the deepest part of the ocean.
The water lapped against the skin from below, gentle yet insistent.
Yet breathing was calm.
[Player information has been read.]
[The player’s body has been reconstructed.]
[The game has begun.]
“Kyaaah…!”
The smooth rhythm of breathing suddenly hitched. Kang Seojun thrashed like a fish on the bed.
“Kuok…! Kulk…! Kuek…!”
A nonstop cough tore through him, as if someone had driven a boulder down his throat.
“…What…?”
Breathing steadied with great effort. Kang Seojun’s heavy eyelids fluttered open.
Only darkness met his gaze.
Breathing felt as though someone was strangling his throat, and his entire body trembled like a naked man in the middle of winter.
“Shit… ba….”
Kang Seojun groped at his throat.
“Hm…?”
The neck he remembered—thin as a twig from years of starvation and inactivity—was none of those. It was swollen, heavy, and thick.
“Huff… huff…”
Like an asthma sufferer, Kang Seojun gasped in ragged, wheezing breaths.
He ran his hands over his neck, chest, arms, and face. Every inch was swollen, heavy, and dense.
This was not the body he had known.
“Ugh…!”
Kang Seojun twisted, pushing himself upright.
His stiff eyes blinked. He looked down at his hands.
[Vision is severely impaired, so Eye of Providence assists in sight.]
A mysterious voice suddenly rang inside his head.
—Uwoong!
Alongside the strange vibration, his vision brightened.
In the darkness, Kang Seojun saw his own twisted, bloated hands. The clenching and opening proved these were his.
“Shit… shiibaal…”
He slid off the bed, searching blindly for a mirror. No light was needed; everything appeared crystal-clear.
After a few clumsy trips and tumbles, Kang Seojun reached the bathroom mirror.
“Hah…”
Kang Seojun stared at the reflection, mouth slightly open.
Dull, greasy hair. Skin bubbling and inflamed. Lifeless eyes. Pale lips. A curved back, twisted arms, and legs.
If it hadn’t been him, he would have recognized the goldfish-shaped human.
[Correct judgment grants a small amount of Intelligence EXP.]
The voice echoed again.
At first he had been too startled to notice. Now it was unmistakable.
This was the voice of the System from Grand Hunter Academy, the game he had mastered for three years.
[Correct judgment grants a small amount of Intelligence EXP.]
“Huff… huff…”
The character in the mirror, the System voice, the horrifying condition.
Only one thought came to mind.
Is this a molka? A dream? No…
He had entered the game.
The moment the theory formed, every piece clicked into place.
The difficulty breathing. The sharp stab of pain in his back even while standing. The relentless itch that demanded he scratch his entire body raw. The headache as if someone were drilling into his skull…
These were all self-added debuff traits.
And the ability to stand straight without flinching despite the agony…
───────《Status Window》───────
▶ Name Kang Seojun
◆ Stats [Strength: 1], [Agility: 1] [Endurance: 1], [Mana Resistance: 1] [Health: 1], [Mana: 1] [Senses: 1], [Intelligence: 8] [Willpower: 30], [Luck: 50]
◆ Traits [Eye of Providence Lv. Transcendent], [Dimensional Shop Lv. Transcendent], [Favored One Lv. Transcendent], [Morbid Obesity Lv. Lowest], [Necrotic Dermatitis Lv. Lowest], [Hunchback Lv. Lowest], [Varus Legs Lv. Lowest], [Twisted Limbs Lv. Lowest], [Invalid Constitution Lv. Lowest], [Mana Deafness Lv. Lowest], [Cannibal Parasite Lv. Lowest]
◆ Skills No skills equipped.
───────────────────
It had to be the 30 points invested in Willpower.
“First… let’s sit…”
Kang Seojun sat on the bathroom threshold, only to wince from the pain of his rear hitting the wood. He dragged himself back to the bed.
—Flop!
He dropped onto the mattress and began to process the situation.
First: How had this even happened?
Kang Seojun knew it didn’t make sense, but one explanation was already forming in his mind.
“Hidden DLC.”
He remembered the warning screens that had appeared right before the game started.
[Warning! DLC mode is saved and loaded in hard-core difficulty.]
[Warning! Players are given only one life; death is permanent.]
[Warning! Once the game begins, you cannot return to the original world until the final quest is cleared.]
That hadn’t been the concept.
Kang Seojun wiped his face once.
No save or load. One life. Death ends everything. No way back until the final quest.
To survive, he had to fight with everything he had.
“Hah… huff…”
A sigh escaped, accompanied by the sound of air being let out of a balloon.
He had fallen into a world of dangerous games wearing a body that could die any day.
Yet not a single tremor of doubt crossed Kang Seojun’s mind.
If anything, the more his thoughts cleared, the stranger a sense of anticipation grew inside his chest.
He had known this body better than anyone. He had started by being shocked at the change, but now he realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of fortune.
He rose from the bed and drew aside the long curtain.
Beyond the balcony, the familiar night view unfolded.
An artificial island city in the East Sea where the Grand Hunter Academy stood.
The nightscape of Stellaport.
The certainty that he had entered the game grew even stronger.
Kang Seojun looked at the lights and thought:
“I have to go to the Academy.”
It wasn’t just for following the game’s flow.
In this world, with this body, survival required the Academy’s graduation reward.
Superpowers in this world manifested through the Stigma engraved on the right hand.
If the Stigma was not awakened by eating the Fruit of the Astral Plane distributed after the Academy entrance exam, it would gradually fade and disappear.
Without obtaining that fruit, Kang Seojun would lose all his transcendent traits and be forced to endure every debuff until the end.
Even with 30 points in Willpower, despair would set in.
But if he awakened the Stigma properly with the Fruit of the Astral Plane…
He could finally enjoy the life he had always dreamed of in another world.
The corner of Kang Seojun’s mouth lifted slightly.
[Ding! Quest has arrived.]
Perfect timing. A status message appeared before his eyes along with the System voice.
How do I open the quest window? The thought formed and the window opened immediately.
───────《Quest》───────
▶ Pass the Academy Entrance Exam!
◆ Description - Participate in tomorrow’s afternoon 12 PM Academy Entrance Exam and achieve a passing score!
◆ Success Reward - Random Stat +1
◆ Failure Penalty - Loss of Stigma
──────────────────
“Tomorrow afternoon 12…”
The Academy Entrance Exam was the tutorial scenario of the game.
Even holders of Stigmas, whose average stats exceeded 6, sometimes failed it. Yet for Kang Seojun, who had played the game for more than ten hours, it was a test he had cleared hundreds of times.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The next day.
The scheduled Academy Entrance Exam began.
Kang Seojun’s name appeared on the test-taker list as if it had been expected. He entered the venue without any obstruction.
The entrance exam had begun.
The location was a vast sports field the size of a World Cup stadium.
The test was stat measurement.
“Kang Seojun, Cadet. Strength stat 1… F- rank.”
The examiner stamped the form with an F- grade for strength, his expression complicated.
“Wow. F- rank? 1?”
The cadets waiting behind him clicked their tongues.
“Strength 1 means you’re on the level of a normal civilian without a Stigma, right?”
“No, even normal civilians are 2-3. And that hand can’t even grip anything properly. It looks like a broken fist.”
“Insane. So it’s not just the skin. The whole body is broken. F+ rank at least. He’s definitely failing.”
Despite the average being E- and even F+ looking impossible, why had he come?
Was it the influence of 30 Willpower?
Even if his face had flushed red with interest in his previous life, there was no emotional change.
But right now, Kang Seojun’s interest lay somewhere else entirely.
“Whoa. Agility 22. B- rank. That’s top-tier even among active heroes.”
The examiner hid his admiration while stamping the female candidate’s form with a B- grade for agility.
“Wow. B- rank. So we’re in a different class.”
“Of course. She’s been taking all the expensive elixirs and training with top tutors since she was little.”
“It’s not just the environment. Her genes are already in a completely different realm.”
“A face with that much Insta filter edit is nicer than Jin Serin’s face just slapped on.”
The girl receiving everyone’s admiration and attention was a familiar face.
Jin Serin.
The heiress of Seongjin Group—one of Korea’s top three conglomerates—and a third-generation chaebol.
And the heroine of Grand Hunter Academy.
‘So the game and reality are different.’
Seeing the heroine he had only known from illustrations and dot graphics was strangely refreshing.
Another examiner’s enthusiastic voice rang out from elsewhere.
“Amazing! After strength, endurance is also B- rank! The average could be the highest ever!”
Kang Seojun turned toward the voice.
There stood another familiar face.
The successor of Taesan Group, Korea’s other top three conglomerate, just like Seongjin.
Yet his personality was fierce, cruel, and monstrous.
Park Sinhu.
“Strength is B- rank and endurance is B- rank?”
“This cohort is really full of monsters.”
“Do they even match in age?”
The waiting cadets muttered about Park Sinhu.
“Jin Serin and Park Sinhu are definitely the top two candidates.”
“Maybe. From my view, Park Sinhu seems slightly ahead. Two B- ranks already.”
Jin Serin and Park Sinhu’s eyes met, sparks seeming to fly between them.
‘Top rank…’
There was a special reason they were fighting so fiercely over being called the top candidate.
Cadets who passed the Academy’s selection process could awaken their Stigma by eating the Fruit of the Astral Plane.
But corporations and major guilds demanded even higher performance.
That was the Fruit of the Sun.
The special Astral Plane fruit awarded only to the valedictorian.
The mysterious fruit that bloomed once a year on the Astral Tree dramatically raised the growth limit of the consumer’s abilities.
Given that all top-tier hunters in the current highest tier had awakened their Stigmas with the Fruit of the Sun, the Academy valedictorian race would determine the ranking of corporations and guilds in the future.
Yet none of them would obtain the Fruit of the Sun.
‘The Fruit of the Sun is, of course, mine.’
“Kang Seojun, Cadet… Agility 1… F- rank…”
Receiving the F- rank stamp for agility, Kang Seojun thought the same thing.
The test had only just begun, and he had already decided.
He would pass it.