A Hopeless Bookworm

Seo Hwarang had loved reading anything and everything since he was little. It didn't matter what it was. Novels, nonfiction, poetry, plays, fairy tales — all of literature, and beyond that, history, science, philosophy, religion...

"Oh, my Hwarang! Reading again today? How did I end up with such a clever boy!"

At first, his mother adored the habit. Honestly, he wasn't even ten years old — her little son — and there he was, reading and actually understanding literary books far beyond his years. What parent wouldn't be delighted? She probably bragged about it to everyone in the neighborhood, gushing about how her boy just might be a genius.

But as time went on, even she started to grow anxious.

"Seo Hwarang, reading again? What is it this time. A cookbook? Why on earth are you reading a cookbook? Planning to become a chef?"

"Nope."

Fifteen-year-old Seo Hwarang shook his head. "You don't have to be reading a book to become something, you know."

"...I mean, fair. But then what's your dream? What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"Reading."

"Reading is your dream? Just... reading? Then who's going to earn the money?"

His mother was frustrated. He was in middle school now, an age when a boy ought to be thinking about his future, and instead of solving problems, he spent all his time poring over strange books.

"Why don't you try reading your textbooks instead? Or at least these workbooks."

Textbooks? Already read them. Fully understood them, too. His grades weren't national-top-tier, but they were good enough that people called him gifted. The truth was, his mother was simply a bit ambitious. Everyone around her believed her son was a genius, and she only wanted him to live up to that expectation.

But Seo Hwarang really was nothing more than a bookworm addicted to the simple pleasure of reading — and honestly, he had no talent beyond that.

At eighteen, when Seo Hwarang became a second-year high school student, the world — laughably enough — ended.

Cursed gates erupted everywhere, and when the dungeons inside them went uncleared, horrific monsters set the world ablaze and tore it apart.

Hunter fiction.

Yes. The world had turned into something straight out of the fantasy genre he used to read.

Just 0.1% of humanity awakened, and society began to revolve around those awakened few. Inside the dungeons lay countless other worlds, and the mana stones and natural resources harvested from them were worth staggering sums. Doctors, judges, prosecutors? No. From then on, the awakened were simply the best profession there was.

The day the world changed was, perhaps, the saddest day of Seo Hwarang's life. Countless public libraries were destroyed in the appearance of the monsters, and books of immense value vanished forever. Even the largest library in the country, the National Library of Korea with its ten million-plus volumes, came crashing down. While thousands of people were dying around him, what saddened Seo Hwarang most was that.

Another ten years slipped by. The world carried on much the same, and twenty-eight-year-old Seo Hwarang... still loved to read.

His job? A librarian at the neighborhood private library that had barely survived it all.

"Hey, Seo Hwarang! Still reading instead of shelving! Argh, you hopeless shelf-ghost!"

And he was a deadbeat librarian at that — one who preferred reading to organizing.

Reading is a deep and endlessly varied blend of emotions. That thrill of turning the first page, with the musty scent of an old book rising around you!

Ahhh, yes.

It felt like setting off on a journey into a brand-new world. As each word seeped in through his eyes and settled into his heart, landscapes he'd never imagined painted themselves across his mind, and unknown characters came alive and started to breathe.

"Hey! Seo Hwarang!"

Ugh.

Seo Hwarang's brows knitted together. "What! What is it!"

The woman stalking toward him, radiating irritation, was Yoo Seon-ah. Twenty-nine years old. She'd joined as an assistant librarian not long ago, but she wasn't someone he could push around — she was an awakened hunter, after all. An E-rank one, granted.

"You haven't shelved a single book back there! You said you'd have it done by today!"

"...I was processing the new arrivals first."

Of course, that was an excuse. Ever since the world went to hell, the rate of publishing had dwindled, and to Seo Hwarang, a new book was worth more than any pile of gold or jewels.

"I'm not clocking out tonight anyway, so just leave it. I'll finish it even if it takes all night."

He had already read the vast majority of the massive collection here. He didn't want his reading pleasure interrupted. He'd even gotten permission from the library's owner in advance — whenever new books came in, he could read them first. It was less a perk than a fair trade, really: the owner deeply valued Seo Hwarang's uncanny ability to read every single volume and then organize the collection with almost supernatural precision.

"You should take a break and read a little too, noona. Aren't you here hoping to stumble into some kind of windfall or whatever?"

"...Haah, you little punk. Right, you said you'd handle all of it yourself? You'd better not try talking your way out of it later."

Yoo Seon-ah clawed at her head in exasperation, then shuffled off somewhere, slouching as she went.

She'd meant it, though. She had taken the assistant librarian job specifically to chase an awakening windfall. Awakenings were notoriously arbitrary and could be triggered by all sorts of things, and lately there'd been quite a few ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reported cases of people awakening while reading.

Windfall, my ass.

Snort. Seo Hwarang chuckled. He felt like he'd brushed past pretty much every book in existence in South Korea by now, and not a single awakening had come of it. Other places might be different, but there was definitely nothing here.

And besides — what would being an awakened even get me?

Even if he somehow gained tremendous power, Seo Hwarang had no intention of charging into dungeons or anything like that. The fun was right here. Why on earth would he walk into some terrifying, cutthroat world like that? His life was precious. The longer he lived, the more books he could die having read.

Swish, swish!

The sound of pages turning came pleasantly to his ears. Seo Hwarang's reading speed was remarkably fast — practically inhuman, really. Twenty-plus years spent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠doing nothing but reading would do that.

That said, even Seo Hwarang had his standards for what to read.

First, I don't read books of the same type twice.

In other words — the Bible, encyclopedias, and the like. Once he'd read one, he excluded all similar titles in that category, because reading content he already knew made the joy drop off a cliff.

And then there was politics, economics, society, religion... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Reading the same subject through many different lenses was fun for a while, but once you reached a certain depth of understanding, all the content started looking identical. He could tell what an author thought and intended from the very first line. So he'd gradually weeded those out too.

Which left him with nothing to read.

Absolutely fresh and novel, or nothing!

He hunted only for novels that abandoned conventional structures in favor of unique narratives, and anything that just rehashed a viewpoint he'd already seen on some social issue, he'd speed-read through without bothering to immerse himself.

"And today's haul is... nothing special."

Which was how, in just one hour, he'd burned through all ten of the newly arrived books. Every last one was mass-produced — nothing more than his own existing knowledge melted down and recast in a different style of prose.

No fun! No fun at all!

"Haaaaah."

He was closing the last book with a sigh when —

"Ugh-wha?!"

Crash! Seo Hwarang toppled backward at the hologram-sized status window that had popped up out of nowhere.

"What the — Seo Hwarang, are you okay?!"

Yoo Seon-ah came sprinting from across the room, but Seo Hwarang was in no state to respond. That status window was still unspooling, line after line after line!

Hold on. Just a moment. What did it say?

Skill Book Collector? And an S-rank at that?

His jaw dropped. S-rank from the very start meant he was born with an S-class constitution — the kind of thing even the most celebrated awakened hunters in South Korea, the ones who could fly through the sky, had only dreamed of. Most of them started at A.

"What's wrong with you?! What is that thing you keep staring at — wait."

Yoo Seon-ah froze mid-step. "...Don't tell me."

In this day and age, a person collapsing in shock and staring blankly into empty space meant exactly one thing. An awakening. Or else the rare fortune of rising to a higher rank.

"An awakening? You awakened?!"

"..."

But no answer followed. Seo Hwarang had already rolled backward, foaming at the mouth.

Ugh, what the hell is this?

Nothing for ten years, and then suddenly an awakening out of nowhere? And apparently he'd read a hundred thousand books along the way? Well, he'd certainly read like a maniac, hadn't he!

"Hey hey hey! Okay, so what's your class?! What rank?! Did you really awaken? Tell your noona! Hey! I'm an E-rank awakened hunter, you know!"

Yoo Seon-ah was fussing all over the place, but Seo Hwarang just stared into space, dazed.

What do I do about this? Do I tell her?

No. No, I don't.

Tell her — and say what, exactly? Having devoured countless novels, Seo Hwarang could predict how this scenario would unfold better than anyone. Suppose he announced he'd acquired an S-rank Unique class. The National Intelligence Service and every guild in the country would come knocking. They'd talk him over however they had to, then drag him straight into those nightmarish dungeons — all under the banner of "developing his potential with generous support."

They might even run human experiments on me.

The world was crawling with people who defied all explanation. He absolutely had to be careful!

Hoo.

The messages were still floating in his field of vision. The one that interested him most was...

That one, apparently.

Honestly? He was just a little tempted. There are books inside dungeons? Books called skill books, no less. Right when the well of things to read was drying up — truly brilliant, truly original books?

"Haaah, I don't know!"

"What do you mean, you don't know?! You DID awaken, didn't you?! Huh? Awakening alone is a jackpot, I'm telling you! Your life just got easier! Right now, shout 'Status Window!' out loud. If you passed out before you saw it... your class and rank are all written in there."

"...Noona, that's not what this is about."

"Then what is it?"

Hmm. What should he say? He didn't want to go into details, but could he at least admit that he'd awakened? She'd apparently been awakened for a couple of years herself — maybe she could actually be helpful...

No.

He'd put it on hold. Even if he ended up accepting her help, that decision could only come after he'd resolved to actually work as an awakened hunter. Right now, Seo Hwarang was in no condition to decide anything — body and mind both running on fumes.

"Noona."

"Yeah?"

"I'm heading home ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠early today... Can you handle the shelving? I feel dizzy and foggy — probably from passing out earlier."

"...What?"

Yoo Seon-ah blinked. Wait, what is this punk saying right now? Is he kidding me?

"Sorry! I'll contact the boss separately!"

"Hey! Hey hey hey! Hey! Hey, you brat! What am I supposed to do if you just walk out like that!"

Yoo Seon-ah stared after him as he darted out the door, incredulous. What?I'm going to shelve everything overnight, so don't touch it and leave it be?Go find your windfall or whatever?

"Heh... hehehe!"

That little rat. It was an act. One hundred percent, no question about it. He'd schemed his way out of work so he could clock out early!

"Aaarghhh!"

Seo Hwarang, you son of a —! You dared to toy with an E-rank awakened hunter — a Fire Magician, no less?! Next time I see you, you are DEAD!