Praise Spamming in a Romance Fantasy (1)
“Ugh…”
For a working man, Saturday morning was more precious than life itself.
I woke up late, chased dopamine through webnovels, and scrolled endlessly.
New releases, fresh bestsellers, recommended titles…
I breezed past my usual fantasy and modern fantasy novels before drifting into the romance fantasy section.
My name was Kim Siwu, an ordinary employee at a pathetic little company.
My hobbies were subculture games, refreshing webnovels, watching esports, and smashing fried chicken with cold beer.
I couldn’t be further from the kind of person who enjoyed female-oriented content.
Yet here I was on a Saturday, deliberately browsing romance fantasy. The reason was simple: the company I’d joined was a toxic, female-dominated hellhole.
They made the only guy do all the heavy lifting?
Fine. I could live with that.
The complete lack of gratitude afterward grated on me, but I could still let it slide.
What I couldn’t understand was the other thing.
“Mr. Kim, are you trying to get close to Team Leader Ha?”
“Sorry?”
Office politics. The special brand of faction-forming, backstabbing politics that only women seemed to practice.
I could at least understand the male version my friends had described. Fighting over limited benefits—who gets the bigger slice—was inevitable in any society.
But women fought over moods.
“Mr. Kim, why did you help Deputy Choi earlier?”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you see Deputy Choi and Team Leader Oh talking during the meeting?”
“…Wasn’t that just work allocation?”
“Ah… You really don’t get it, do you?”
The pitying look on her face said everything.
“I’m sorry, so… should I have refused?”
“It’s fine, Mr. Kim. Oh, by the way, I’ll be doing Pilates during lunch from now on, so we won’t be able to eat together anymore.”
“Ah. Okay.”
“Sigh…”
As I nodded, she shook her head in open exasperation and walked away.
Life in that female-dominated company was always like this. They fought among themselves over feelings, yet the sparks somehow always reached me too.
No matter how hard I tried to track their mysterious “mood” currency, I couldn’t figure out the exchange rate.
A nice bag appeared—mood fluctuation.
Someone mentioned moving—another fluctuation.
A boyfriend remembered an anniversary—yet another shift.
Why?
Why the hell do women act like this?
The stress of never understanding piled on top of an already exhausting job until I felt completely drained.
That was why I’d decided to read a romance fantasy on my hard-earned Saturday off.
They say if you want to understand someone, look at what they love. So I would study the creative content women enjoyed.
I scrolled down.
The crown prince’s obsession…
The terminally ill duke’s daughter…
Secret romance with the emperor…
Granddaughter of the Sichuan Tang clan…
They even have wuxia romance fantasy now.
Though calling it romance fantasy when it was wuxia felt like a stretch. Rom-wuxia?
It almost caught my interest, but the title beside it hooked me harder.
Becoming the Student Council President of the Academy in the Game
A romance fantasy with game possession?
An academy inside a game, no less. It perfectly hit the sweet spot for someone who loved both webnovels and subculture games.
I collapsed onto the sofa and began binging.
The romance fantasy’s setting really was an open-world subculture game.
The in-story title Astra Radius.
Magic, weapons, skills, items.
Scenario quests and side quests.
Gathering, exploration, cooking, fishing—everything.
The academy served as the starting point for countless regions and dungeons.
Colorful, distinctive characters and NPCs.
Interactive environments.
The heroine possessed a student at the academy within this fantasy game world.
If this existed in real life, it would be a masterpiece worth saving the world for.
My heart actually raced.
If I were the one possessing someone in that game, what would I do?
I’d learn every skill, master weapons and magic, travel, adventure, clear dungeons for rewards.
I’d make friends with the guys and get close to the girls, aiming for those delightful “ehehe” moments.
Instead, the romance fantasy heroine immediately launched into romance and manipulation.
“Hmm…?”
I kept reading.
It never changed.
The possessed heroine, dropped into a god-tier open-world subculture game…
Adventures? Never.
Travel? Nope.
Building friendships at the academy? She didn’t even bother.
Instead: forming factions.
Political scheming.
Acting innocent.
Using men as shields.
Making men handle anything hard, difficult, or dangerous.
Sowing discord between groups of girls she disliked.
Managing a harem of multiple men.
Turning disliked girls into villains until they dropped out themselves.
All while preserving her flawless good-girl image.
“…”
It left a bad taste in my mouth.
Still, I forced myself to finish. By then I was morbidly curious how it would end.
The ending left me disappointed.
The heroine became student council president, crushed everyone who had ever slighted her, maintained her saintly act until the final page, and married the crown prince.
That was it.
She showed almost zero interest in the adventures or skills of Astra Radius.
There had been mentions of evil threatening the world and hostile forces, yet those threads were simply dropped without explanation—pure MacGuffins.
“Ha…”
All strength drained from my body.
I never should have read it. What a waste of a precious day off.
The sheer futility made my limbs feel heavy.
In the end, I still don’t understand why women like this stuff.
Did it really have to be so convoluted?
Why not just say things directly instead of all these twisted schemes?
If you don’t like someone, fight and settle it.
If you like them, just give them honest praise.
If they’re irredeemable trash, charge straight in.
Even in fiction they had to play political games?
That was when my phone suddenly flashed on its own.
‘?’
The webnovel I had finished suddenly loaded a new chapter.
If you’re so great, why don’t you come in and try it yourself?
Suddenly the world spun.
“Ugh…?”
Strength fled my body.
I collapsed.
Ah, wait—this is that thing.
The trope where you complain about a webnovel and get sucked into it—
Welcome to the World of Astra Radius
**
“Gilliam.”
A woman’s voice—soft and kind.
The savory aroma of roasted chestnuts.
Warm sunlight.
The scent of books, wood, and ink. A wooden desk and chair that weren’t overly uncomfortable.
“Gilliam, class is about to begin. Are you going to keep sleeping…?”
I opened my eyes.
A blackboard covering the entire wall.
Long tables arranged in a circle.
Sunlight poured into a large lecture hall that could easily seat thirty people.
I turned my head.
The person speaking to me was the girl sitting beside me—plain brown hair paired with eyes whose shifting colors were anything but plain.
“Gilliam…?”
Her eyes changed from yellow to orange.
A phenomenon impossible back in modern Korea.
She was a character from the romance fantasy I had just been reading.
Marong Clearias.
Seeing her finally made it real.
Ah. I really have been transmigrated into that world.
Wait. Transmigrated into a romance fantasy?
It wasn’t as the heroine… No, the familiar weight between my legs confirmed that much.
Phew… Then whose body am I in?
I hadn’t become the female lead, nor had I brought my original body.
So I was someone else from the story?
Marong had definitely called me Gilliam. Gilliam… The character matching that name—
Goosebumps exploded across my skin.
I shot to my feet.
“Uh, where are you going? Class is starting soon.”
“Bathroom.”
I needed a mirror.
And just as I feared, the reflection showed exactly who I had become.
Silver-gray hair swept back neatly.
Honey-colored yellow eyes the novel had described in that overly romantic way.
Gilliam Everchess.
One of the story’s villains.
The academy’s notorious lecher who hit on and groped every woman in sight.
He had tried the same thing with the heroine, only to be brutally dealt with by the male leads moved by her tears.
Of all the people I could have become, it had to be this guy?
At least the face was handsome. Classic young noble style. In the story he was the son of a duke.
Ha… This is incredibly awkward.
Even for a transmigration, why this of all bodies?
“…”
Wait a second.
The golden rule of possession stories.
Status window.
Name: Gilliam Everchess
Level: 1
Soul Trait:Praise of Power (Mythic)
Skills: None
Praise Points: 0
I never thought I’d see a status window in real life.
But what the hell was this?
Soul trait? Praise of Power?
I focused on that line and a description appeared.
Restriction: Cannot gain normal experience points.
Instead, praising others grants Praise Points.
Use Praise Points to raise stats, purchase skills, or buy items.
⟨ Praise of Power (Mythic) ⟩
Praising people gives points?
Simple enough.
But how do I buy skills and items?
The moment I wondered, another window appeared.
Various skills and items from Astra Radius are available for purchase.
Costs vary widely.
So basically, praise people to accumulate points and buy whatever I want?
Time for an immediate test.
When I returned to my seat, class had already started.
“Sorry I’m late.”
I bowed to the stern-looking female professor, then turned to Marong beside me.
“Hey, Marong.”
“Yes?”
Her eyes had shifted to purple.
What’s something worth praising?
Just saying a girl is pretty feels too generic.
Praise should be specific… Okay, concrete it is.
Decision made.
“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but Marong, your eyes are really beautiful.”
There. I praised her. Come on, Praise Points. Give me enough to buy skills and items.
“Eh…?”
Marong’s face turned deathly pale.
“I-I’m sorry! Did I do something wrong!?”
The target has fallen into extreme fear.
Praise Points: -100 (0 → 0)