Discharged Loser
"Loyalty! Sergeant Do Jae-hyun has been honorably discharged as of March 19, 2026! Reporting in!"
As I stepped out of the guard post, the sleeves of my battle uniform were creased sharp as a blade, but inside, my heart was crumpled like a rag.
One year and six months. To some, it was an honorable fulfillment of national duty. To me, it was a prison sentence where I watched my life crumble powerlessly from behind bars.
Even when I got the news of my parents' deaths, I couldn't step outside the barracks. All a lowly private like me could do was hide in the bathroom and sob quietly.
And around the time I made corporal, I received notice that our family's entire fortune had been auctioned off. It was the result of that worn-out book my father had poured every last penny into buying being exposed as a fake relic. The family shattered to pieces.
The only thing left in my footlocker was that ancient tome—a blank book with nothing written on it. The "fake" that my parents cherished more than their lives and ultimately choked our family. It was the sole inheritance left to me.
"Hoo..."
I leaned my head against the window of the bus to Seoul. The scenery flashing by beyond the cold glass felt alien.
In the rattling bus, I recalled the past from six years ago, when I was seventeen. The day of my first mana aptitude test—the day every person in the country faced their fate before high school.
My childhood friend Baek Seol-ha scored an astonishing 85% mana aptitude, earning her the title of "genius" as she headed to the academy.
But the number on my scanner was 0.1%. Mana aptitude 0.1%—lower than the average civilian, practically mana-incapable.
From that day on, my life was defined by one word: reject.
Even in the military, rumors spread that I was "F-rank," making me the seniors' favorite punching bag.
But around the time I became sergeant, the strange dreams began. In them, I walked the skies of an unfamiliar world. With a gesture, horizons folded; with a clenched fist, distances between planets shrank. The overwhelming sensation that the entire universe was a ball in my palm.
But when I opened my eyes, all I saw was the moldy barracks ceiling. Compared to my pathetic reality—where I'd have to do manual labor right after discharge just to earn my keep—it was just a pitiful escape my brain cooked up.
"...It's really gone."
The familiar neighborhood, the alley's end. But where our house should have been stood a rusty fence replaced by an unfamiliar construction barrier. The house had vanished without a trace.
Shwaaa—!
Rain began to drizzle down. A discharged soldier with nowhere to go on his first day out—cliché enough to get flak even in a third-rate novel.
My battle uniform sleeves started soaking through. Worried the book in my discharge bag would get wet, I pulled it out and tucked it deep into my jacket.
It's the book that killed my parents, like an enemy. So why can't I throw it away?
Probably because it's the only thing my parents left me in this world.
Then, a voice both unfamiliar and familiar rang in my ear.
"Do Jae-hyun?"
A transparent umbrella blocked my view. I looked up to see a woman standing there, transformed beyond recognition—mature and striking. Long straight black hair, a neat coat, and a gleaming gold badge on her chest: Seongun Academy.
Baek Seol-ha.
"...Seol-ha?"
"You idiot! How could you come without a word? Do you know how long I've been waiting for your discharge day?"
Seol-ha grabbed my wet sleeve. She wasn't the little kid who'd held my hand and cried for me six years ago when I got my 0.1%. Now she carried the air of a proper high-tier awakener—a scent from a world apart from mine.
"Come on, let's go to my place. Dad specifically told me to bring you if you showed up."
"Hey, how can I just crash at your house..."
"No buts. Follow me. You got even a single ten-thousand-won bill in your wallet? You said all your military pay went to debts. I'm doing this for Uncle and Aunt's sake too."
Her words hit home. I shut my mouth and followed her to her house. In the end, a cramped one-pyeong room used as a storage shed in their living room became my new home.
I had no unpacking to do. Just a military bag and the old book.
I flopped onto the damp mattress and opened the Ancient Tome. Still blank, not a single character.
'Dad, Mom. Is it right for the family to fall over a book like this? I don't get it. Why did my life end up like this...'
Frustrated, I roughly flipped through the worn pages. In that instant, the sharp edge of the paper sliced the tip of my right index finger.
"Ow!"
A stinging pain, and a red drop of blood welled up. I shook my finger instinctively, and a few drops splattered onto the blank page with a plink.
'Ah, damn. Blood on Mom and Dad's keepsake...'
As I panicked to wipe it with my sleeve, a bizarre sight unfolded.
The blood drops on the paper didn't soak in—they writhed like living creatures. Crawling across the page, they traced eerie geometric patterns before sinking completely into the paper and vanishing.
User: Do Jae-hyun
Successor's bloodline confirmed.
Inheriting unique magic: Space.
"...Huh?"
I rubbed my eyes. A translucent blue window floated before me. Thinking it was a hallucination, I reached for the water bottle beside me.
But before my hand touched it, the bottle slipped into thin air and vanished. Then, as if reading my thoughts, it popped back out of nowhere into my hand.
'No way... Did I awaken? That scammy book was a real grimoire?'
My heart pounded wildly. But checking the system window again, my aptitude rating was still unmeasurably F-rank.
Whether six years ago or now, the world's valuation of me hadn't changed.
The next morning, I prepared to head out early. I couldn't just mooch off Seol-ha's family.
To handle the millions in funeral costs and debts, I needed money now.
She must have heard me, because a bleary-eyed Seol-ha shuffled out of her room.
"Huh... Did I wake you?"
"Yaaawn— Nah, just got up... Where you going?"
"Oh... Got a new part-time gig. Be back soon, so rest up."
"I can take care of you, no need to push yourself..."
"Nah, I'd feel bad. I'll be careful."
"You get hurt, and this big sis will kill you!"
I stifled a laugh at her sleepy arm-waving and headed not to a day labor office, but an awakener staffing center.
*
Figuring my military service gave me enough grit to handle luggage easily, I accepted a commission from the board.
Arriving at the rendezvous—the dungeon entrance—I couldn't help frowning.
"Hey, newbie. You're Do Jae-hyun, right?"
A familiar, obnoxious voice. Park Seok-du, my military senior who'd tormented me endlessly.
He'd awakened as a D-rank hunter, gotten early discharge, and now played team leader here.
"Sergeant Park... I mean, Team Leader?"
"Ha! Look at this guy. Cowered through the army, now a porter in civvy street? Hey, that 0.1% ain't going anywhere. Everyone, check this out—our unit's legendary 0.1%!"
Park Seok-du mocked me openly in front of his crew. I said nothing, just shouldered the massive bags meant for three hunters.
Oddly, despite their weight matching my body mass, they felt light as cotton candy.
'Is this a skill? My body's lighter than usual.'
I didn't know. The space around my shoulders was subtly folding, shunting most of the physical weight into another dimension.
About an hour into the dungeon...
"Argh!"
A scream echoed from deep inside. A C-rank beast, the Shadow Wolf, ambushed us.
Claws bursting from the shadows tore into the team's gear. Park Seok-du flailed his sword in panic, but the beast was far faster.
"D-Do Jae-hyun! Block it! Use those bags you're carrying! As a porter, at least your body should be good for something!"
The cowardly Park Seok-du shoved my back hard, hurling me toward the beast.
I stumbled off-balance right into its maw. Its rotten breath hit my face—and then time seemed to slow.
'I'm dead.'
That terror triggered it. My mind rang with shattering glass, and the dream scenes exploded forth.
[Space is not empty—it's territory you dominate.]
Instinctively, I swung at the air.
—
No sound of a blade. The space where the beast's head had been vanished cleanly, as if cut from paper with scissors.
Its body thudded limply at my feet; the severed head was gone without trace.
"...Huh?"
I stared at my hand. No impact, no resistance of flesh or bone. Just the alien feel of erasing chalk from a board.
"Whoa, insane! Team Leader! That porter got lucky as hell! The wolf charged and sliced its own throat? Must've tripped a dungeon trap on the way down."
At his teammate's shout, Park Seok-du snapped back.
"R-Really? Shit, scared me! Hey, Do Jae-hyun! Stand straight! Think you're alive 'cause of luck? Next time, just handle the bags right! Grab the mana stone from that corpse too!"
Park Seok-du huffed and took the lead again. I silently gazed at the beast's corpse—or rather, the space where its head had vanished.
It was pristine, as if nothing had ever been there.
'Was that... really just luck?'
No. I'd seen it clearly. The instant my hand touched, space itself severed completely.
Back home that evening after the job, Seol-ha waited out front. Brushing dirt from my uniform, she said,
"Do Jae-hyun! Good work today. Let's go to the academy tomorrow together. Dad put in for your re-test. Lots of applicants, so if we miss this, it'll be a long wait."
"Hey, you think 0.1% changes after six years? Embarrassing myself among kids as an adult..."
"Still! Just in case, let's go. Maybe your condition changed post-discharge? For this pretty face, just once!"
At her earnest plea, I reluctantly nodded.
That night, a faint purple mana leaked from the Ancient Tome in my corner. On the page that had drunk my blood, clear system text now etched—not hallucination, but real.
Unique magic: Space comprehension increased.
Skill: Space Cut activated.
"...It wasn't a dream after all."
I murmured, staring at my throbbing right hand. The world that abandoned me six years ago was finally speaking to me.