Admission Prep - 1
“Ughya!!! Urya!! Aaaah!! This is so good!!!”
In a boxing gym somewhere in Seoul.
A man was letting out bizarre screams as he hoisted a barbell overhead.
“Haa… today’s pump is actually insane.”
He was a human being completely obsessed with working out.
His name was Lee Dojin.
From kindergarten, his parents had shoved him into a taekwondo dojo. In middle school he started hitting the boxing gym. During high school he dreamed of fighting in the UFC and trained at an MMA gym. Now that he was an adult, he had become an ordinary salaryman who commuted to work and then stopped by the gym on the way home.
“Hey, Dojin. Do you think this place is a regular fitness center? Why do you keep buying more equipment?”
A middle-aged man with stubble grumbled as he put away some dumbbells.
“What’s the big deal, Coach? A gym’s a gym. It’s all about working out.”
“You crazy bastard, the place is already cramped as hell!”
“Ah…! That felt great!”
Dojin set the dumbbells down and immediately started packing his bag.
“Go shower, man. That sweat smell is seriously bothering everyone.”
“I’m running home anyway. I’ll just wash when I get there.”
“Are you training for some kind of competition?”
At the coach’s question, Dojin stood there with a blank look on his face.
“Office life is already exhausting. What competition?”
“Exactly. Office life is already exhausting, so why the hell are you training like an actual athlete?”
“Oh… that’s what you meant?”
With a goofy grin, he left the gym.
“Tsk-tsk. That sound isn’t coming from my mouth, by the way.”
Cutting through the cold night air, Dojin began his run.
Rock music from his iron-pumping playlist blasted through his earphones as he threw shadow boxing combos like he was possessed.
His heart pounded hard. The heat coating his body proved he was alive.
To him, working out was life.
“Huu…”
He finally stopped when he hit a red light at a crosswalk.
While he casually scrolled for the next song, it happened.
Screeeeech——!!
The horrifying sound of brakes tearing across pavement.
The moment he turned his head, blinding headlights filled his vision.
Thud.
The sensation of his body floating through the air.
An impact so strong it made him dizzy.
And then—
‘Ah.’
In his fading consciousness, he caught fragments of the bystanders’ voices.
‘Looks like a drunk driver… I smell alcohol…’
‘Those kids…’
The heart of a diligent young man who loved exercise stopped beating.
And just like that, I died.
Everything turned pure white before my eyes. The sensation of my body floating is still vivid.
I thought I was heading to heaven.
But when I opened my eyes, I was inside some strange building.
A shabby, run-down medieval-style wooden house.
An unfamiliar pattern was carved into the ceiling, and candles flickered on the walls.
And floating right in front of me were glowing letters.
Main Quest — Safely graduate from the Imperial Academy.
“Oh.”
I understood instantly.
This was that whole reincarnation, regression, isekai thing.
Unfortunately, there was no event where I turned into a beautiful girl or awakened some ultra-rare skill.
It was just me—Lee Dojin—waking up in an unfamiliar world.
I stared blankly into empty space.
The screech of brakes. The headlights. The feeling of my body floating. It was all still so vivid.
I had definitely thought I was dead.
Yet here I was, waking up inside a weird wooden building.
“…Ha.”
It didn’t feel real.
It wasn’t scary so much as… it just didn’t register.
I slowly ran a hand down my face.
The sensation at my fingertips was strangely sharp.
My heart was beating. My breathing was normal.
I was alive.
At least for now.
Should I be happy about this? Or not?
I should’ve just gone straight home after leg day.
If I had, I wouldn’t have died.
Well, I’m alive. The problem is that it’s a different world.
And then there’s this Main Quest.
If it’s a quest, there should be a reward, right?
Something like reviving me in my original world or turning back time.
In that case, I guess I need to enroll at this academy first.
“Okay! Let’s fucking do this! Fighter spirit, let’s go!”
I kicked open the door of the wooden house and set off to find this so-called academy.
The process wasn’t difficult.
The Imperial Academy was an incredibly famous place.
Like how every Korean knows Seoul National University.
It wasn’t even in another city, so I didn’t have to go on some grand adventure.
I just asked people for directions and arrived after a short walk.
Luckily, the timing was perfect.
It was exactly the Imperial Academy freshman recruitment period.
By the time I finished submitting my application for the entrance exam, I could only laugh in disbelief.
“Is it really supposed to be this easy?”
There was still a week left until the entrance exam.
From the conversations I overheard while walking around, I learned a few things.
The two most important ones were these:
The Imperial Academy was a school that trained knights.
In modern terms, it was basically a military academy.
The entrance exam changed every year.
But it usually evaluated combat ability.
Anyway, I had one week left.
I felt like I should prepare something.
…
But what exactly could I even do?
I decided to go for a run while sightseeing around the city.
It would count as training and maybe I’d pick up some useful information.
The city was ridiculously vast, and its infrastructure was as abundant as a modern metropolis.
There were no skyscrapers, but if I needed something, I could find it.
While running and sightseeing, I somehow ended up at the outskirts.
That was when I heard it.
Thwack—
The sound of wood striking wood.
About a dozen people were sweating hard, each holding their own weapons.
This place was called the Training Ground.
It was basically a fantasy gym.
The surprisingly high quality made my heart race.
There were oddly shaped dumbbells with iron balls attached to the handles, and contraptions that looked like cable machines where you could pull on ropes to train.
Seeing someone who had just been shooting a bow now using it, it seemed designed to train with adjustable tension.
“Ooh… oh.”
On the fine white sand, two men were shoulder-to-shoulder in a contest of strength, while others sparred with wooden swords.
‘Should I start light?’
I picked up the lightest-looking dumbbell.
It wasn’t a modern dumbbell but a crude lump of iron, so the balance was a bit off.
Still, it was better than nothing.
Shadow boxing based on boxing combinations.
There was nothing better for increasing punch speed.
After repeating a few sets, I was soon drenched in sweat.
Going from air-conditioned indoor training to working out under the blazing sun was bound to tire me out quickly.
“Am I the only one who’s hot? Why does everyone else look fine?”
When I looked around, the most noticeable thing was their clothing.
Now that I paid attention, everyone was wearing light linen-like outfits.
I, on the other hand, was still wearing the windbreaker and training pants I had on at the moment of the accident.
“So that’s why I’m overheating.”
I had been working out in full sweats.
I wanted to take off my top, but since I didn’t know the etiquette of this world yet, I decided to hold back.
“Is it okay to drink this…?”
There was a well in the corner of the Training Ground.
The problem was that no one was using it; everyone carried their own water pouches.
Did you have to pay?
More importantly, was the water even clean?
I’d seen YouTube videos saying the Middle Ages were filthy.
Yet the city itself had been surprisingly clean and splendid.
Maybe fantasy worlds were different?
While I was pondering, a soft, gentle voice tickled my ear.
“Excuse me…”
When I turned around, a small girl was standing there.
She held a water pouch carefully in one hand.
From the top of her head to the tips of her toes, she was pure white.
That girl suddenly held the water pouch out to me.
“You… you looked hot.”
“Oh! Thank you!”
Her pure, sparkling blue eyes left no room for suspicion, so I accepted it without hesitation.
“Krr— What the? Why is this so cold?”
How could water in an ordinary leather pouch be ice-cold under the blazing sun?
Did she cast some kind of magic?
“Ah! I made it cool with a simple cold magic spell… Was it too cold? I’m sorry!”
“No, no, that’s not it. It’s just so delicious.”
So it really was magic.
“You can keep the water pouch!”
“Really? Then thank you so much.”
…
“…”
“…?”
An awkward silence fell.
Hadn’t the conversation ended?
Yet she stayed by my side for a long time, staring at me blankly.
“Ah! Do I need to pay for the water?”
Ah, shit. I got scammed.
I’d heard that in foreign countries they did business like this. Guess fantasy worlds were the same.
I had no money, but I pretended to pat my pockets vigorously as if searching for some.
If the timing was right, I could just run.
“No, no!! That’s not it!!”
The girl frantically waved her arms and shouted.
“But why do you keep staring? Did you fall for me?”
“W-what are you saying! I was just curious and wanted to ask you something!”
Lmao.
“Curious?”
“You’ve been doing these strange movements for a while now. It doesn’t look like swordsmanship or magic, so…”
“Ah, you mean shadow boxing?”
“Sha… dow?”
The girl tilted her head slightly.
“What kind of magic is that?”
“It’s not magic. It’s training.”
“Training…?”
“You imagine an opponent and throw punches. Like this.”
I lightly got into stance and threw a one-two.
Swish— Swish.
Every time I punched, the windbreaker made a refreshing sound.
“Wow…”
The girl’s eyes widened into circles.
“Cool, right?”
“Yes. It’s weird.”
“Huh?”
“It’s cool in a weird way.”
She said it with such pure eyes that I completely missed my chance to retort.
“If you’re going to imagine an opponent, wouldn’t it be more efficient to hold a weapon?”
“Ah… I see.”
Now that I thought about it, everyone at the Training Ground was holding weapons.
Even this delicate-looking girl had a sword hanging at her waist.
But was bare-handed training really that strange?
I was sure bare-handed martial arts existed even in medieval times.
“Still, you know…”
I was about to explain the romance of boxing when a voice interrupted our pleasant chat.
“The hell? Can just anyone use the Training Ground now?”
It wasn’t shouted directly at us, but the tone was clearly meant for us to hear.
Did you need some kind of membership?
When I had asked the residents on the way here, they definitely said anyone could use it.
“Thick-faced bastard. Must be because he lived up north.”
“They’re the kind of savages who eat wild beast raw. What wouldn’t they do?”
Before I knew it, the insults were coming in a barrage.
But it didn’t seem like I was the target.
“I-I’m sorry. It’s because of me…”
“Why are those people acting like that?”
“I’m sorry…!”
The girl couldn’t endure the criticism and fled the Training Ground as if running away.
The people who saw her leave laughed with satisfied expressions, as if they had succeeded.
What the hell was this childish bullying?
“Hey you, over there. You look like an outsider. Where are you from?”
“Me?”
“Who else would the outsider be? Are you stupid? Heh heh.”
Wow. The guy laughed exactly like a third-rate villain.
Guess it was my turn now.
“Resident of Seoul, Republic of Korea. Twenty-eight years old. Owns a used compact car with 50,000 kilometers.”
“Wh-what… what?”
The man who had been cackling just moments ago now wore a dumbfounded expression.
“Look, I don’t know what you are, but don’t hang around with that northern girl.”
“Northern… what?”
“That bitch earlier. She’s from the North.”
I got the feeling.
Probably some regional conflict?
Maybe even a national one.
Hmm…
“What’s wrong with being from the North?”
“What? Northerners are barbarians. They’re like beasts.”
“Ah…”
I casually stuffed the water pouch the girl gave me into the pocket of my windbreaker.
Then I remembered I had forgotten something.
Wasn’t it too cold of me to accept her kindness without saying anything?
The water had been really good.
“But she seemed nice, though?”
“…What?”
“That girl just now. She seemed like a good person.”
“…”
At that moment, the atmosphere turned ice-cold.
We were standing on a sandy field under the scorching sun, yet it felt like I was standing on thin ice.
Everyone stopped their training and glared at me.
My words must have really struck a nerve.
Great. Looks like I poked a hornet’s nest.
His words didn’t only reach the people at the Training Ground.
Leaning against the outer wall of the training ground, a girl was trying to relax.
His voice reached her ears clearly too.
“…”
The girl’s heart beat strangely.
There must have been fear from being attacked.
But strangely, what lingered even stronger was—
‘But she seemed nice, though?’
That single sentence from Dojin.