A Day of Extremely Good Luck
“....?”
Providence Tuition Payment
📍 Objective: Earn 10 million mihwan within 2 weeks
💰 Current Amount:0 mihwan
⚠️ Penalty:Expulsion from Providence
No matter how many times I checked, the contents displayed in the quest window didn't change.
The previous owner of this body didn't even have the money for tuition, yet he came to Providence without a second thought? What kind of brainless idiot does that? Did he think money would just magically appear out of thin air once he got here? This guy's insane.
I clutched my heating forehead and tried to calmly sort through the situation. So, to recap my current predicament? Somehow, I passed the entrance exam for Providence? But I don't have a single mihwan to pay the tuition? And I have to earn 10 million mihwan within two weeks? Starting from a penniless beggar state?
“This is driving me crazy.”
Impossible. Even if I'm a user who sucked every last drop out of InsiKkeut, gathering that much cash before even enrolling is absolutely out of the question with normal methods. On top of that, I'm basically a homeless drifter right now. The little money I had got taken by those thugs...
Ah. Could it be those guys I passed earlier?
Now I finally understood why my shirt and wallet were covered in dirt and grime. I'd scraped together every last mihwan I could find to make it to Providence, but before I could even secure a place to stay, I got jumped by those delinquents and robbed.
“What a headache. I don't even know where those bastards went.”
Even if I did, I'm not sure I could get it back. Sure, I have experience as an A-rank hunter, but there were a bunch of them, and their physical abilities looked way superior to this body's right now. With this hunk of junk, I can't do a damn thing I want.
Sigh. No wonder the gacha rates are trash with a body like this. I seriously need to fix this thing up somehow.
No. This isn't the time to worry about the body.
I snapped out of it. Time to focus on the immediate problem at hand. 10 million mihwan can't be earned through normal means. Which leaves only abnormal methods as options.
Artifact hunting or mana stone mining would rake in real cash... but with this body, it'd be suicide.
Artifact hunting and mana stone mining usually involve delving into the Backworld. The Backworld refers to other worlds that have been completely eroded by the Erosion Phenomenon—worlds that have utterly perished, in a nutshell. In the Backworld, you can acquire magitech artifacts created by those worlds' civilizations, and mana stones—which rarely appear in reality—can be found in abundance.
“Can't do shit because of the erosion waves.”
The problem is the high-density erosion waves lurking everywhere in the Backworld. Erosion waves emitted from eroded beings slowly gnaw away at the mana of everything around them.
...With mana that's barely D-rank hunter level, I wouldn't last long before getting eroded.
Once all your mana is devoured, you get eroded, lose your reason, and turn into an erosion entity—a mindless monster.
No thanks to becoming an erosion entity just to attend one school.
So abnormal methods are out too. For a split second, I considered tracking down game characters and begging, but I'd just get treated like a lunatic and chased off, so I scrapped that.
The protagonist's even poorer than me right now, anyway.
Asking anyone for help right now is impossible. Which leaves me with only one option.
“.....”
I have to solve this somehow with this skill. I entered the gacha menu and swallowed hard. All I have right now is a 2-star Consciousness Random Ticket and a 10-roll ticket.
Using the 10-roll now doesn't feel right.
On the other hand, the 2-star Consciousness Random Ticket is fine to use immediately. Whether I use it now or later, it's still just a 2-star. Better to cash it in now while 2-stars still have decent value. It's way more efficient.
“Hoo....”
I took a deep breath, clasped my hands together in prayer with a reverent mindset.
Please. Give me a high-performance character that can break me out of this beggar hell.
“Here goes.”
I used the 2-star Consciousness Random Ticket.
And then—
My vision flipped. From a dimly lit alley reeking of cigarette smoke to a vast, beautiful expanse filled with the Milky Way galaxy.
For a moment, I felt like a mere speck. Well, compared to that infinite cosmos, I am just a speck.
As I mulled over that sentiment, the countless stars forming the galaxy began winking out one by one. Soon, so many lost their light that counting became pointless.
Finally, the last remaining star drew closer to me.
“....!”
And it began emitting a brilliant red glow.
Followed by a man's voice.
—One scene, one cut at a time. The quicker it ends, the better, right? Let's wrap this up fast.
The owner of that voice appeared before my eyes. A handsome man in a crisp white dress shirt and perfectly tailored pants that drew the eye.
His name was none other than—
—The Charismatic Actor, Park Jeonghyeon.
Park Jeong... “Huh?”
Park Jeonghyeon? That's me.
Why the hell am I coming out of the gacha?
Before I could fully voice my confusion, my vision flipped again, returning me to the familiar alley.
Damn, I couldn't hide my bewilderment.
“...I figured even if it was me, it'd at least be an InsiKkeut character?”
I never imagined I'd be the gacha reward. Me pulling myself? That feels off.
Doubts kept swirling, but I realized time wasn't on my side and pushed them aside. No time to be picky about hot or cold rice.
Guess I should at least try it out.
With lingering hesitation, I synchronized with the actor consciousness I'd just acquired.
Consciousness Synchronization: Charismatic Actor, Park Jeonghyeon
And then—
“.....!”
My outfit changed in an instant. It was exactly like the actor Park Jeonghyeon's attire from the gacha screen moments ago.
Along with it, a flood of information poured into my mind.
“This is……”
It felt like another person's vast experiences and skills were overlaying onto me. My body shifted in real-time, readjusting itself. Transforming into Actor Park Jeonghyeon's body.
“So this is……”
Only then did I grasp the true nature of my ability.
“Parallel worlds of me, huh?”
I can borrow the power of me from other worlds.
There are countless worlds in existence—too vast to even fathom. That's why Backworlds keep popping up endlessly.
So, it means I can borrow and use the power of me—Park Jeonghyeon—from all those myriad worlds.
The powers of parallel-world Park Jeonghyeons I can borrow must be nearly infinite in variety.
Not all of them will have power on the level of my past self, though.
There must be Park Jeonghyeons who reached heights equal to or beyond my former self. If I could borrow their power, I could roam without fear of anything.
“Of course... that only becomes possible after I sort out this mess.”
Even after uncovering my ability's true potential, the horrific task of earning 10 million mihwan in two weeks remained unsolved.
I scratched the back of my head and wandered the city streets. The fusion of fantasy races I'd only seen in the game and the modern urban landscape still felt exotic.
For now, the only consciousness I could use was Charismatic Actor, Park Jeonghyeon. Let's just call it the Actor for short.
From the knowledge now in my head, the Actor consciousness awakens and wields mana, making him superhuman. But even as a superhuman, his job is a non-combat profession—acting—so martial feats are probably out. Basically, an consciousness all-in on performance stats.
Still, compared to my original body, it's leagues stronger.
To make that much money with this, holographic musicals are the only way.
Holographic Musical is an art form born from combining mana stone-powered hologram tech with musical theater. Actors perform in musicals enhanced with various hologram effects, giving audiences not just a show, but a hyper-realistic experience like they're right there in the scene. The overwhelming immersion—impossible even in movies—drove people wild for holomusicals, expanding the market massively.
Thus, holomusical actors are guaranteed high earnings. Not just performance fees, but they gain celebrity-level fame online too.
If I could act in holomusicals, 10 million mihwan wouldn't be a pipe dream...
But realistically, pursuing a career as a holomusical actor is tough. First off—
“What's the point of being good at acting with no experience?”
I don't know what the previous owner did for a living, but it sure wasn't acting. If it had been, I wouldn't be broke and desperate right now.
No director would cast some no-name nobody in a holomusical.
And the second reason—
Sigh. Of all things, possessing a human body.
InsiKkeut. The End of the Human Era had arrived.
As the name implies, it marked the literal end of humanity's dominance in this world. Decades ago, the first Erosion Phenomenon struck.
That Erosion Phenomenon turned 90% of the human nation—Legacyum—into a lifeless hellscape.
Dubbed the First Great Erosion, the disaster stripped humans of their power to compete with other nations. Sure, now in this era of peace where all races band together against the common enemy of erosion phenomena, Legacyum hasn't been swallowed by others.
But that doesn't mean we escape the prejudice.
Most races view the relatively weak humans with biased eyes. Humans are incompetent. Humans are lazy. Humans are parasites who can't survive without our help.
A lot of people think that way. Meaning humans get far fewer opportunities to achieve anything compared to other races.
With this body, I doubt I could even snag an extra role, let alone a lead.
Hopes were dwindling fast. I stopped wandering aimlessly through the city—it wasn't helping.
Leaning against a streetlamp, I decided to take a short break. Ahead was a sleekly designed café. And with it, my growing hunger making itself known.
“...Maybe I should just bus tables there or something as a stopgap?”
But I immediately chuckled at the thought. The odds of that café hiring a human like me? Basically zero.
Damn, what a terribly unlucky day.
That's when—
-Creak!
Someone pushed open the café door and stepped out. My eyes widened huge upon seeing them.
That person...
“Take that back.”
Today was a day of extremely good luck.