Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: This Shouldn't Be Happening
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1. This shouldn't be happening?
"Just one more round..."
Bloodshot red eyes.
Energy drinks rolling around beside the desk.
The dark room and tightly drawn curtains made him look like a total shut-in, cut off from the world and himself.
But that wasn't the reality.
"Ugh...! I was just gonna clear one more run over the weekend!"
It was the weekend today.
All he'd been doing was savoring the sweet holiday, indulging in the game he hadn't had time for lately.
"And now the service is ending, so I gotta squeeze in as much as I can while I still can."
The monitor screen came into view.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You have died. The screen gradually faded to black along with the message, and the game's title, Solo Biography, slowly emerged.
At first, people had reactions like, "What kind of title is that? Some Chinese knockoff?"
But once they tried it, it wasn't bad at all.
No.
It went beyond "not bad." It became the game of his life, one he'd devoted his early to mid-twenties to.
Vast world-building, overwhelming freedom no matter what you chose.
Combined with top-tier character models.
How could anyone not get hooked on a game like that?
'Well, that's all coming to an end today.'
He flipped past the screen to the developer notes.
Summarizing the long, rambling text:
Thanks for the good times. Our game's service is ending.
Have fun until Sunday.
Something like that.
"They're really shutting it down."
The service end announcement had gone up last month.
Time crawled when he was working his part-time gigs, but why did it fly by so fast now?
He blinked, and tomorrow was already the last day.
Flipping the screen again, a message appeared amid the black: "Reincarnate?"
"Ha, whoever came up with that."
In web novels, this kind of thing usually meant possessing the protagonist or some villain and suffering endlessly.
Not this game.
This was just part of the system.
"Let's see... It's midnight now. Sunday already, so if I pull an all-nighter, maybe I can squeeze in one clear attempt?"
Normally, impossible.
But using that "Reincarnation" system he'd just seen? Totally doable.
Reincarnation let you pass advantages to the next character when your current one hit an ending or died.
Skip it, and the points turned to Karma, stacking up for later use.
The more Karma you burned, the bigger the advantages.
"Not that I saved it up just for this... but I've got a decent amount of Karma."
Solo Biography was a solo play game, but players still shared info.
In the now-veteran-only cyber haunts like the Solo Biography gallery, his Karma would rank among the top.
Last day—might as well go all in.
"Let's do it."
He hit Reincarnate and dumped all his accumulated Karma.
A moment later.
Pababam—!
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You've poured in overwhelming Karma! 'Limit' has been broken! "What!?"
He couldn't believe it.
"Limit" referred to the grade caps on skills, traits, and minor settings.
Lifting it meant going beyond those caps...
"I've only seen this once in the gallery, and that guy got lucky as hell."
For the record, he'd never triggered it himself.
It relied on insane luck.
"What is it!? What Limit got broken!?"
Of all days, the final server shutdown.
Getting this now hurt like hell.
Still, curiosity won out—his drooping eyelids snapped open.
That instant,
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Limit Break: Race Setting starting race...... 'Half-Demon' has been decided. Seeing the message, his stomachache vanished.
"Half-Demon? Something like that exists?"
He realized instantly.
This was trash tier.
'Not even a full Yokai, but only half? What the hell?'
Clearing Solo Biography as a Yokai was brutal.
No, not just hard—100 out of 100 failed.
The game randomized your starting race.
Even veterans deleted and rerolled if they got Yokai.
'No one's ever cleared as a Yokai.'
He'd been three steps from clear—okay, honestly three solid steps.
But even that failed.
The difficulty felt malicious, like it was daring you to break.
"Still wanna try?"
What happened with a Limit Break?
He was curious.
Even the gallery post hadn't explained.
"Create."
With those words, a blinding light flashed from the monitor.
Wait, hold on. No way, for real?
＊＊＊
A week had passed since waking up in the game world.
Plenty of time to calm down and grasp his situation...
"...Yeah, right. Still can't get used to this place."
The first three days, he'd denied it all.
Sure, he'd talked about possession, but who actually enters a game?
So he'd stepped outside, wandered the streets.
People wore modernized hanbok and dopot.
Skyscrapers optimized narrow Korea with eerie efficiency.
Overall, Eastern aesthetic.
A fresh take on Korean beauty.
He'd returned home on the fourth morning.
(Getting lost and camping out was a secret.)
The next three days? Straight denial.
Today, reality hit.
"Ah... I only realized it was spring after the blossoms fell..."
Hell Joseon. Number one country to escape.
Even with the jokes, few truly meant it.
Compared to a world of rampaging yokai hunted by superhuman Exorcists, Hell Joseon was paradise.
'Here, yokai can pop up in your own home.'
Protections existed, but they cost a fortune.
The better they were, the pricier.
No education.
No specs.
Dropped naked into this world, those were impossibly distant.
"I wanna go home..."
That's when it happened.
Ding-dong—!
The doorbell to his empty home rang. Something dropped at the door.
'What the?'
Peeking through the peephole, no one. He cracked the door.
Click.
A box wedged there.
'Who sent this? Why?'
Ear to the box: silent. Shake it—rattle. Something small inside.
"No sender. Recipient... Sin Bihyeong?"
Sin Bihyeong.
His name.
The surname from the mother who left him at the orphanage.
"Bihyeong," named by the director for her ghostly vanishing.
Who in this world knew that name?
Bihyeong tore open the box.
A smartphone inside.
"What the."
Screen lit up on its own. Only basic apps.
But one—
Ding!
Half-Race Selection Right. Limit Break Right. With the message, a downloadable file.
'These are the bonuses from character creation.'
Seeing Limit Break sparked memories.
Unable to resist, Bihyeong tapped the keyboard.
—Who are you?
—Why are you doing this to me?
—Can I go home?
One minute. Ten.
Throat parched as time dragged.
Around thirty minutes left,
Ding!
You'll know when you reach the ending. No more replies.
"...Reach the ending, huh."
Then he'd know.
Not the answer he wanted, but a goal now.
Bihyeong downloaded both files.
Fwaah!
The phone blazed, projecting a screen.
⚙ RACE SELECTION ⚙ You are a half-baked Yokai. Endless possibilities for what fills that half. But only one race selectable, irreversible once chosen. A human silhouette appeared, Yokai names floating beside.
'Drag and drop, huh.'
Tempting to test, but the bold warning held him back.
Bihyeong scrolled Yokai, recalling gallery intel.
'Beastkin good early. Tiger Clan's body is insanely strong.'
'Dragon's solid too. Starts as Imugi but evolves into a damn powerhouse.'
But even those hadn't reached the ending.
'Above all, I need to adapt and survive here.'
Then one caught his eye.
[Goblin (D)] Korea's Yokai.
Low rank.
Obviously.
Yokai from myths of "fear" were different, but Goblins were friendly in lore.
'Less fear, less power.'
Even the fear-inducing Duoksini? Probably not Goblin.
'But with Limit Break?'
Goblin tier: mere D.
Break the cap...?
'Their trait was "Wager," right?'
Bet with foes, stake what you want, steal theirs.
Limit Break would supercharge it.
'Goblin it is.'
Better than known high-tiers; instinct said bet on the unknown.
'Human and Yokai traits. Ratio fifty-fifty.'
Entered exactly "50:50."
Minimum for Yokai half was 50, so perfect.
'No margin for even 0.1% error.'
He didn't want to lose his human side.
And so?
✨ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ✨ 'Perfect Neutrality' achievement acquired! An achievement unlocked.
"Achievements? Just cosmetic in-game anyway."
Skip.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 'Limit' broken. Bihyeong broke the Goblin grade limit.
⚔ UPGRADE COMPLETE ⚔ Goblin (D) potential expanded to Goblin (EX)! First to achieve 'EX' grade! Reward: One Bloodline Ability grade matches race grade. . . 'Wager' selected. Amid the barrage, he chose and confirmed.
'Good. Minimal prep done.'
📜 STORY AWAKENED 📜 'Story' has taken root in you. Seeing it confirmed: he was locked into the game's storyline.
"Reach the ending? Fine, bring it."
Stories varied by character.
Even same human Exorcist path: one demands exterminating all yokai, another becoming the strongest Exorcist.
Based on stats, alignment, perks, reincarnation—tailored per character.
"I can handle most things."
Yokai stories stayed similar: build a Yokai world.
Three steps short before.
With Limit Break? Maybe now.
'First, avoid Exorcists.'
Yokai hunters.
To them, yokai = kill on sight.
Some tamed yokai became lab rats or slaves.
Bihyeong, with his sense of self, wanted none of that.
'Yokai got "yokai" in the name.'
Whatever they thought of Half-Demons, he wanted no meetings.
That instant.
📜 STORY ASSIGNED 📜 【First Steps】
Enroll in Ridge Crossing Academy, the Exorcist Academy.
The floating story screamed "deal with Exorcists."
"...Huh?"
This shouldn't be happening?