Prologue
Prologue
#
"What the hell is wrong with this bastard of an author?"
The moment the clock struck midnight, I logged in to Yapia. What I'd been waiting for wasn't there.
"Still no sex scene today."
The sheer absurdity of it made me mutter aloud. My fingers immediately flew into a furious typing frenzy.
「sesjoa : Author, so... when do you think we’ll finally get the scene? haha」
Even so, I couldn't bring myself to swear. Jomagul authors were notorious for disappearing. The platform barely paid as it was, and a thin-skinned writer who received a nasty comment might simply abandon the story and vanish.
Judging by what he'd seen, this novel's author was not particularly resilient. Delays were common, they were constantly ill, and whenever the mood struck, they came down with My-Writing-Sucks Syndrome and whined about it in the author's notes. Yoo-jin still had a shred of hope for a sex scene, so he couldn't risk upsetting them.
Before long, other readers started posting comments one by one.
「RightNow : Install the app and get 6,000 won lmao https://url.kr/gvQw2S」
「CoolJJin : SexSceneParrot back on the board again today lmaooo」
「SexFlag : is still alive」
「BreadIsGod : Itisnottoolatekilltheheroinekillthewomenviolatethemen」
From macro bots to a psycho screaming to kill the heroines. The usual crowd.
I kept refreshing for a while, but there was no sign of a response from the author.
Sigh... nothing for it. Yoo-jin started reading the novel again. He'd been skimming just to check for the sex scene, so he barely remembered what he'd actually read.
# # #
The title of the novel Yoo-jin was reading was Legend of the Hero of Another World.
It was a mass-produced isekai fantasy typical of Jomagul. A bunch of Earthlings, including the protagonist, got summoned as isekai heroes, squabbled with demons, cleared dungeons, and handled the kingdom's messy cleanup—in a word, a cliché stew that looked like something you'd seen a hundred times.
Still, it was fairly good. Despite the lazy title, the setting had a surprising amount of realism, and the story was readable enough.
Most of all, the heroines who showed up in the latter half were seriously distinctive and charming.
It had taken quite a while for the heroines to appear, and the comments had once turned sour with people wondering whether the story was going down the BL route. Once the heroines began displaying their distinct personalities, however, those suspicions quickly disappeared.
There was still a problem, though. Namely, the author refused to actually commit to a sex scene. And this was despite the blatant 19-plus label and harem tag plastered right on it!
The heroines not appearing until halfway through was bad enough, but delaying the sex scenes even after introducing them so late was a serious problem. Was this author a fraud after all?
「sesjoa : Author, so when is the sex happening? It's tagged harem, and there's not even one scene, let alone a harem...」
As Yoo-jin typed his comment in frustration, he also found the situation absurd. Jomagul was crawling with smut fantasy, so why had this one hooked him badly enough to make him leave comments? He already had his hands full reading other novels packed wall-to-wall with sex.
But Yoo-jin had come this far. The sunk cost meant he absolutely could not drop it.
'I'd followed it this far. Even if I cut my losses, I was going to see the sex first.'
A tragic case of the sunk-cost fallacy.
Soon after, the author's reply popped up.
「osanj(Author) : Shouldn’t the protagonist and heroine build an emotional connection first? Please wait just a little longer haha」
Hm... so that was it...
If emotional connection was the issue, then there was no helping it... If it was for buildup, he couldn't exactly argue...
Fair point.
Fucking someone without any buildup only belonged in hypnosis or humiliation-rape stories. Some people liked that stuff, but Yoo-jin hated rape, and hypnosis made him sick. Without even the bare minimum of free will, what difference was there from a masturbation sleeve?
'Right. The author was right. This person thinks exactly like I do. Sex only feels right after enough mutual connection. Good thing I stuck with the story.'
Yoo-jin rationalized it to himself like that. Deep in a corner of his mind, he knew that kind of buildup wasn't strictly necessary, but he ignored it.
'Let's wait a little longer. Just a little... Yeah. If there's no sex within exactly ten chapters, I'm dropping it...'
...
...
…
It wasn't "just a little."
10 chapters became 15, 15 became 30, and 30 became 50—and still, no sex scene.
The protagonist acted like the typical dense idiot from a harem story—the sort readers called a limp-dicked eunuch. He was a wishy-washy, Japanese-style protagonist who couldn't recognize a heroine's advances even when frustration drove her to press her body against him.
As the outcry over the lack of sex grew louder, the author, having apparently seen a thing or two, introduced devices like an erotic dungeon or heat traps, but he kept delaying and delaying the actual sex with the protagonist.
That made it even more infuriating, because the plot itself moved at a satisfying pace. The maddening part was his relationships with the heroines. If the plot had been a mess too, Yoo-jin would have dropped it immediately.
The bastard also ended every episode as though a sex scene were about to begin. His skill at writing hooks was incredible—top-tier, enough to put popular Munpia serials to shame.
That kind of bait only worked for so long. After dozens of episodes dragging on with the same nonsense, the readers were finally on the verge of exploding.
「RightNow : Install the app and get 6,000 won, today only lmao https://url.kr/gvQw2S」
「sesjoa : So when is the sex happening?」
「SexFlag : Is it seriously true they still haven’t fucked, you son of a bitch!!!!!!!!」
「dkanslr : lolllll first time seeing this bastard drop his persona lmaooo」
「BreadIsGod : AstrulytheprophetGodBreadisrightkillthewomenviolatethemen」
Well, there was still the one maniac screaming to kill the heroines.
But no matter how frustrating the story became, there was a limit to how long the author could keep delaying.
All the teased heroines had met the protagonist by now. Every single trauma tied to their pasts had been resolved. Every so-called salvation cliché had been dealt with, and things had reached the point where the heroines were literally throwing their bodies at him. There was no way to avoid writing the sex anymore.
Yoo-jin felt anticipation, but he was also uneasy. Could this guy actually write a sex scene? A guy who'd stubbornly refused to for hundreds of chapters? He wasn't about to run, was he?
His worries soon faded, however, because a passage finally appeared that clearly hinted at the scene.
『...Goosebumps rose on her skin at a man's touch, something she was experiencing for the first time in her life. It felt nothing like when she pleasured herself. A little more, just a little more. At the thought that she was about to taste a pleasure she had never known, his fingers—
=====Author's Note=====
The thing you've all been waiting for! I'll show you something at last!』
...What? Why did it stop there? What was she about to do with his fingers?
「sesjoa : Author, it looks like the upload cut off in the middle. Could you check it?」
After refreshing a few times, a reply came as if the author had been waiting right there.
「osanj(Author) : The upload went through fine! Look forward to tomorrow ^^」
"What the fu— He cut it off right there."
That bastard. As always, his hook game alone was on the level of a trashy soap opera.
「sesjoa : I'll be looking forward to it haha」
Yoo-jin cursed aloud, but his fingers typed something else. With the most important scene just ahead, he could endure one more day.
One more day. Just wait one more day.
And the following day.
"Come on, upload already..."
Yoo-jin sat with his leg bouncing like crazy, waiting for the stroke of midnight.
Today was the day the heroine's long, ambiguous flirtation with the protagonist would end and a new relationship would begin—the first step toward becoming an affectionate couple.
That was what the sex scene was for.
That was pure bullshit, but Yoo-jin was completely invested by then.
At this point, getting turned on was a secondary issue for him. What mattered was the sex scene itself.
But midnight passed, then one in the morning, and still no upload.
「sesjoa : No upload today?」
The next day,
「sesjoa : Author, you aren't sick or anything, right?」
The day after that, too. Yoo-jin felt like he was losing his mind.
「sesjoa : Author, I'm waiting.」
「sesjoa : Author, please say something...」
「sesjoa : Author, please—anything but suspending the series.」
「sesjoa : Come back」
「sesjoa : COME BACK!!!!!!!!」
「sesjoa : Where do you live?」
「sesjoa : Author, I'll track you down somehow」
「sesjoa : You think I can't find you?」
「sesjoa : I was wrong, I'm sorry for rushing you so much」
「sesjoa : YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!」
「sesjoa : Sorry for cussing...」
「sesjoa : Diediediediediediedropdead!!!!!!!!!!!!」
「sesjoa : IdidntmeanitpleasereturncomebackImissyou」
「Jjeonneunghanakkaratwuya : give up」
The author remained silent, and Yoo-jin's comments went unanswered.
'Yeah. I should stop caring. Maybe I've gotten a little too invested. Why am I this worked up over some so-called smut fantasy that never even delivers any sex?'
Time to let go.
Feeling hollow, Yoo-jin moved to delete the novel from his favorites at last. Just then, his phone chimed.
[Fusion Fantasy] Legend of the Hero of Another World [Episode 305] NEW
"It's up!!!!!"
His heart had never pounded like that over the three letters N-E-W. His hands trembling, Yoo-jin opened the new chapter.
.
.
『Serialization Suspension Notice』
"...YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!!!!!!!"