Chapter 1
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 1
Humans are creatures of forgetting.
No matter how bizarre or outlandish something is, given enough time it fades until you can accept it with a shrug.
But even acceptance has its limits.
"I'm so X—...."
Only five days.
No. More precisely, I had exactly 4 days, 23 hours, and 56 minutes left to live.
There was no pause button for time, so every passing moment brought me closer to death.
"This is driving me insane."
If it was going to toy with me like this, it might as well kill me now.
I wanted to scream that at the top of my lungs, but I couldn't bring myself to.
What if it actually killed me?
Tch.
So what could I do?
"If they say jump, I jump."
Complaining any further wouldn't change anything, and it would only waste precious time.
I checked the quest again first.
The objective was to deal with one of this world's calamities.
At least it was simple, which I liked.
No need to agonize over it — I just had to find it and beat it down.
Hahaha.
But with what?
.......
Damn it all, the novel I entered, [Epic of Salvation], is a fantasy novel.
Swords flashing, magic blazing, people called awakeners flying through the sky.......
"Ah, maybe not quite that much?"
Anyway, it was an absurdly abnormal, violent world.
So there's no way a calamity would be ordinary either.
Demons, Demonkin, Monsters.......
The place is crawling with creatures that could crush a neighborhood gym rat like me with a single finger.
"Are you just telling me to die?"
It was just as I was hanging my head in dejection.
Suddenly, the reflection in the mirror looked unfamiliar.
And then I realized.
"......Right."
Why hadn't I thought of that?
Just as this wasn't an ordinary world, the current me wasn't the webtoon artist Lee Do-hyeon but Park Ha-yul, a direct blood descendant of a sorcerer family.
So.......
The affairs of this other world should be resolved in this other world's way.
The moment my thoughts reached that point, something flashed in my head.
Before long, my head was filled with information about Park Ha-yul, and a glimmer of hope finally appeared.
"It's a bit iffy, but......."
If I could use that talent right now.......
Then it wouldn't be impossible for an ordinary guy like me to take down a calamity.
First, the timing!
Once I had a lead, I hurried back to the living room.
I checked the clock: today was February 20th, 12:30 a.m.
About four days before the novel's prologue.
That solved one thing.
I now had the exact location and time where the calamity would appear.
"That's one down."
It wasn't in the original story, so I wasn't sure, but I called it out anyway.
"Character Window?"
At that, my vision wavered and a square window appeared.
「Park Ha-yul」──────
▶Grade: Lead Role
▶Family: Geunwon Sulga
▶Primary Attribute: Fire (火)
I already knew the basic settings, so I skipped past them quickly.
▶Stats
The stats were the same story.
He might be called the hidden protagonist, but honestly, only his looks were exceptional — his stats were obviously a mess, worse than a dullard's.
▶ Traits and Personality
: A handsome shut-in.
: A quiet, prickly social misfit.
: A psychiatric patient with hallucinations.
: Mana-Deficient Constitution
.
This part was worth a closer look.
Fortunately, it was there.
'A mental patient with hallucinations.'
Then naturally, there had to be a trait connected to it.
▶ Traits
: Manifestation
: Heightened Senses
: Enhanced Recovery
: Appraisal
: Limited Lifespan
My gaze locked onto the very first line of the personal traits.
「Manifestation」
Description: A talent originating from Park Ha-yul's hallucinations. By infusing mana into the products of visions, delusions, and imagination, he can materialize them.
A kind of creative power—and the single greatest reason Park Ha-yul deserved to be called a hidden protagonist.
An overwhelming talent that could instantly cancel out all those negative settings.
Park Ha-yul wasn't supposed to awaken Manifestation until much later, so I'd been worried it might not be there — but thankfully, it was.
"All that's left is deciding how to wield this fine weapon."
But that wasn't as easy as it sounded.
For example, suppose two people imagine a car: an ordinary person and a professional engineer.
What would happen if they manifested it?
Unlike the engineer's car, the ordinary person's car would probably be nothing more than a good-looking tin can.
The chassis, the engine, power transmission, the gearbox, and so on.
You have to know something for it to actually run.
The presence or absence of knowledge determines the performance of Manifestation.
In that sense, the intellectual gap between Park Ha-yul and me is considerable.
Right now, my head is just 'Lee Do-hyeon,' so I can't use Manifestation the way 'Park Ha-yul' could.
......But.
"Appraisal?"
What's this now?
The trait that happened to catch my eye was especially unfamiliar.
Even if Limited Lifespan could be explained as something created by the time restriction, Park Ha-yul's original traits were Manifestation, Heightened Senses, and Enhanced Recovery.
Those three were all he had.
Was there some talent I didn't know about?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I checked it first.
The reason soon became clear.
「Appraisal」
Description: A benefit granted to Lee Do-hyeon, the Outsider and this world's Second Creator. As long as he can touch something, he can rapidly acquire it, whatever it is.
The familiar name following the words "Second Creator" was a welcome sight—and a strange coincidence.
Acquire, huh.......
It was as if someone had predicted I'd run into this exact obstacle and prepared it in advance.
I'd learned not to accept unexplained generosity, but right now I wasn't in a position to be picky.
"Let's see what we've got."
Just how impressive a gift had they prepared?
I headed toward the bookshelf that filled another wall of the living room.
Still, as the son of a prestigious family, they'd kept up appearances — the collection was substantial.
I skimmed through it roughly and picked out one book.
[Prestigious Family Etiquette in One Volume]
As a member of a prestigious family, reign with dignity and grace.
It was a kind of self-help book.
I chose it because, to verify the effect, a field I had zero knowledge of seemed ideal.
After taking a deep breath, I murmured quietly.
"Appraisal."
[Using trait 'Appraisal'.]
[Appraising information from the medium.]
Then, after a brief pause, a mysterious change occurred.
Whiiiiish──────!
First, without any warning, the strength drained from my entire body.
Right after that, a sharp headache rang through my skull. Then came the sensation of something being hammered into my head in rapid succession, followed by a jumble of unfamiliar information.
[Appraisal halted due to insufficient mana]
[Comprehension: 80%]
It said 80%, but the effect was visible and immediate.
Crrrick—
Before I could even register it, my hunched back straightened gracefully. Standing with my weight on one leg suddenly felt irreverent, so I planted both feet neatly together.
......What the hell is this.
The change went beyond my posture and spread inward as well.
As if I'd become a different person, I found the current state of my body — utterly devoid of any dignity — distasteful.
In particular, the fibers against my skin, the shabbiness of my sweatpants, were so repulsive I could barely endure them.
"...I see I still have not shed my repulsive ways."
In the end, I even spat out a line so affected it was hard to believe I'd said it.
......This is insane.
Even amid the confusion, goosebumps rose.
It didn't stop at mere knowledge—it affected me as a person, as though I'd internalized it over many years.
This was the power of acquisition?
"Truly broken....... No, absolutely broken."
At this level, it was more than enough to make up for my lack of knowledge.
No, it overflowed — it was far better than the original Park Ha-yul.
"Then......."
There was no need to copy him. Since there was a better alternative.......
I decided to take it a step further while I was at it.
Not 'like' Park Ha-yul, but the ultimate application of Manifestation that even Park Ha-yul had failed to achieve.
To find the book that had inspired it, I retraced the original story.
"I'm sure it said he saw it in some old text."
An old text?
As something surfaced with a flash of insight, I quickly ran to the hallway.
Among the ornaments lined up on both sides, I stopped in front of a thick, old book that looked especially ready to crumble.
After carefully taking it out, I checked the cover with even greater care.
A low exclamation escaped naturally.
"...Found it."
The forms, materials, balance, principles, history of armaments, and so on.
One volume of an ill-fated forbidden work that had been shunned precisely because it compiled everything.......
「Korean Hero-Grade Armament Compendium, Vol. 1」
"With this, the story changes."
With my final trump card in hand, a famous figure suddenly came to mind.
A man who was an ordinary country fellow but became king after obtaining a legendary sword.
King Arthur, of course.
* * *
Einstein once said:
Time is not absolute, but a relative quantity that changes depending on the reference frame of measurement.
What a smart fellow.
I'd wondered what that meant, but now that I'd experienced it firsthand, I understood its true meaning.
[Remaining Time: 3 hours 25 minutes]
Time flowed faster than ever before.
As the hour of the decisive battle approached, I left the house with the heart of a high school senior heading to the college entrance exam.
The destination was the place where the calamity's appearance was all but certain: the busy streets near Seoul Station.
It wasn't far, so I trudged along and arrived without being late.
It was nearly midnight, but the streets were still bustling.
First, I sat naturally on a bench and observed the passersby.
"Come on, Manager Lee, don't be like that—just a little longer."
"Ah, Director. I told you, I really can't today."
"Chicken and beer?"
"Go in first. I'll have a smoke and come in."
I heard the ordinary sounds of life, no different from the world I knew.
By my standards, it was as if printed words had gained life, but there was no sense of dissonance.
Because this, too, was a world where people lived, and to someone, it was reality.
But dig a little deeper and you could find the other side of the coin—a completely different world.
"Found them."
I followed the couple as they moved farther away.
"Shall we take a walk? I know a quiet place."
"...Ugh...."
A drunk woman and the man supporting her.
It stood out a little, but there didn't seem to be anything strange about it — except it looked different to my eyes.
I rose from the bench and slowly followed behind them.
The suspicious couple left the busy streets and headed toward the nearby neighborhood scarred by haphazard development.
A hillside slum packed with crumbling shanties along narrow, winding alleys.
Since it was an area slated for redevelopment, few houses were occupied, making it all the more secluded.
"Excuse me."
Going any further would be trouble, so I hurriedly called out to stop the couple.
At that, the man, who at least had his wits about him, turned around.
He flinched, apparently not expecting anyone to be there, then glared at me.
"...The hell? It's just a brat. How long have you been following us?"
The man growled, revealing the dragon tattoo etched on his forearm.
It's freezing out, too.......
Well, childish as it was, it was a reasonably effective threat.
But so what?
"Let's stop the games, yeah? If you want to die nice and clean."
"You little shit, who do you think you're—...."
"Are you really going to keep pretending not to know me? That hurts."
"Good grief."
The bewildered man set the staggering woman down from his arms and sneered.
"Kids these days seriously have no fear. They only learn after getting hurt."
That was the moment.
Creeeak—
The thing revealed its presence.......
Screeech—
Suddenly, along with an unpleasant grinding sound, a sour stench filled the air.
"What the hell are you doing now? After I deal with this X-sized bastard first....... Gasp!"
The man's eyes flew open until the whites showed, and he couldn't finish his sentence.
Well, it was a natural reaction.
I was the same way.
I'd drawn this scene myself, but seeing it in person was different.
What is this, some kind of modern dance?
If a woman who'd been dead drunk suddenly started twisting her limbs while ignoring the range of motion of her joints, anyone would react like that.
"...Cr-crazy bitch."
The man who'd been going on about fear soon turned pale and bolted.
With the nuisance gone, I was the only one left in the dim alley.
Screeeeech—
The thing seemed to notice too, turning its stiff neck to look this way.
From its mouth, torn open up to the earlobes, bright red blood dripped, and a centipede-like tongue that had crawled out from inside licked at eyes flickering with black demonic energy.
A Monster — one of this world's calamities.
Specifically, this was what happened when a human body was taken over by a 'man-eating parasite' that infested people and sucked out bone and flesh.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared."
I'd lived my life priding myself on having a strong stomach and a stout heart.......
X—.
I didn't let it show, but my back was soon damp with sweat.
[Remaining Time: 2 hours 43 minutes]
But whether I died to that monster or died two hours later —
Thinking that death was death either way, I suddenly felt detached.
As my emotions settled, even the biting wind that had stung my skin felt calm.
It was time.
"Bring it, you bastard."
I activated the trait without hesitation.
[Activating the trait Manifestation.]
People often call King Arthur the poster child of overpowered gear.
Excalibur, Avalon.......
But so what?
Inside my head slumbers a collection of 'Korean Hero-Grade Armaments' no less impressive than his.
Ready to answer their master's call at any moment.