An Editor Wanted

"Whoa. There are achievements too?"

I'd been sitting there furiously piecing together theories about the status window like a complete lunatic, and a pretty satisfying notification had bloomed right in front of my eyes. An achievement for figuring it out solo, no tutorial required. Wait. There was a tutorial?

I mulled that over for a second, and a faint memory ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flickered through — I was pretty sure I'd glimpsed something like that when those first Awakening letters had shown up.

"Oho..."

Normally there wasn't even such a thing as a tutorial. The usual story was that someone suddenly gained power one day and had to figure everything out by slamming into it themselves. I'd assumed it would be the same for me. Turns out this system was a lot nicer than I'd given it credit for.

"Just these, please."

"Ah — yes, of course. Need a bag?"

"Yeah, go ahead and bag it."

"That'll be 7,800 won. Have a good one!"

The customer who'd just paid kept staring at me like I was some kind of weirdo right up until they walked out, but whatever. I'd gained a lot thanks to all this, so I decided to let it slide. Not that there was anything I could actually do about it if I didn't. Anyway.

"Run tutorial."

I figured I might learn about the other features too, so I decided to fire it up. Sitting motionless at the counter while I did it, though, was a good way to get the manager reviewing the CCTV and concluding I was a lunatic — so I grabbed a mop and started slowly working the floor as I went through it.

"Yes."

"Huh?"

I'd already figured out the status window and pocketed a stat point for it, and now it was popping a message saying I could earn additional achievements? So if I thought through the other things I was curious about and figured those out on my own too, I could farm extra stat points.

"That's just nasty."

A system that had prepared a tutorial and then told you to go figure it out yourself. If anything, having the answer key ready and then suggesting you try solving it on your own made the whole thing even more sadistic.

"Eh, whatever. I'm not doing it."

Early-game stat points were clearly going to be a rare commodity, so I decided I wouldn't bother with the tutorial. That was the whole appeal of fantasy, right? Learning by getting your hands dirty! That kind of thing!

"Alright. Let's check the skill window too."

The skill window answered the instant I said the words, materializing in front of my eyes. Aggro Correction and Algorithm Correction.

"Don't tell me..."

So whenever a video I edited went up, it would correct the aggro and the algorithm for me? Holy shit. That was broken as hell.

That was just how YouTube videos worked. You could upload until your fingers bled, but if you couldn't pull aggro and you didn't catch the algorithm, the views simply would not come. That was the thing that always gave streamers and YouTubers headaches — the clickbait and the algorithm. And this thing would correct both of them for me. This wasn't just a skill. This was a straight-up cheat code.

Sure, someone might say that only helped streamers and YouTubers, and what good was it to an editor like me... but if you considered that editors usually got bonus incentives when their videos pulled good numbers, this was an absolutely cracked skill for me too.

"Damn. These are literally tailor-made for a guy who wants to edit."

I'd pump my stats, raise my editing skill, and someday I'd actually become Dayeon noona's editor and run Algorithm Correction on her videos too...! Hell yes. This was the stuff...!

The door sensor chimed.

"Pfft — dude, stop talking shit!"

"I'm not talking shit! I swear, that one time I actually—!"

"Welcome."

Of course, my reality was still...

"Uh, can I get a pack of Marlboro Golds?"

"I'll need to see your ID."

"I left it at home."

"Then I can't sell to you. Come back with it."

...just a convenience store part-timer, checking the IDs of high schoolers who'd been wandering in since daytime trying to buy cigarettes.

I'd spent the entire shift turning the status window, the skills, and things like Talents — which didn't appear for me — over in my head, and I'd come to a few conclusions.

First: I didn't have a Talent. I had Skills instead. I'd opened a lot of other people's status windows, and every single ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one of them had a Talent sitting there. Not a single person had Skills.

"Guess you could call it a unique ability."

It seemed like a special exclusive ability that only applied to me, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Awakened one. I'd also learned that Talents varied wildly from person to person. Just like that first customer who'd had something as ridiculous as Drinking for a Talent, I'd seen a whole lot of bizarre, completely nonsensical Talents over the course of the day.

And I'd realized that the stat points I held could raise not just my own stats, but other people's as well.

"Do I even need to be raising other people's stats?"

I could just pump my own and live my best life. That would be enough. I couldn't really see why a function for raising someone else's stats even existed.

"Well... if it was Dayeon noona's stats, I might want to raise those."

Was the system built for moments like that — times when you might actually want to boost someone else's numbers? Anyway. The one mildly disappointing part was that I could only check the status windows of people I'd met in person. I'd wondered if it might work through a monitor and tried to pull up Dayeon noona's that way, but no luck.

"It's a shame, but whatever..."

Honestly, there wasn't even much to be disappointed about. Being able to do that would've been even more broken.

With everything I'd pieced together so far, I'd been awarded three more points, bringing me to four.

On top of that, after I got home from work, ate dinner, and even took a shower, it told me I'd completed a daily quest for living my daily life. Adding that extra reward, I'd earned a total of five points in a single day.

"Yeah. Dumping everything into Editing for now is the right call."

I still didn't know how much of a stat increase I got per point. That was a reason to be careful, maybe — but the truth was, I wanted to be an editor. When I'd looked at other people's status windows earlier, a fair number of them had values over twenty. Crossing twenty felt like the threshold where I could say I'd actually stepped onto the path of a proper editor.

"Five points into Editing."

Four of the points I'd earned today were basically freebies anyway, right? I'd just dump them in and see what kind of efficiency I got.

My Editing, which had been sitting at an awkward fifteen, had climbed to twenty. Seeing a stat of mine actually break twenty put me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a good mood, whether I liked it or not. Granted... compared to my Editing Stat, the rest of them were pretty pathetic. But I could raise those gradually too. It was fine.

"Alright then — time to do some editing!"

Making fan videos of Dayeon noona was just what I did after work, every single day. Today, with my heart pounding over just how much better it might turn out, I logged onto YouTube to download her latest livestream first.

"Huh? What the hell is this."

And that was where I saw it. A single community post that was about to change my entire life.

Sitting there on Dayeon noona's community page, timestamped a piping-hot five minutes ago, was a post. A post recruiting an editor.

"Wait. No way. Holy shit — just like that?"

Waking up with this power and immediately seeing a job posting for an editor. If this wasn't fate, I didn't know what else to—

"Ah, but why did it have to be now."

—was a little ridiculous to say, actually.

If it were really fate, wouldn't I have seen the post after I'd raised my abilities a little more? Honestly, I'd only just dumped five more points in and barely cracked a stat of twenty. I hadn't even confirmed how efficient that actually was yet.

"Ah... if it had just gone up a little later."

If it had gone up after I'd grown a little more. If I'd had more confidence in my own skill by then. Then I could have applied without a second of hesitation.

As it stood, I couldn't help but hesitate a little. Me? The guy who'd been working convenience store shifts and making low-quality fan videos on the side — could I actually do this?