15 Days

The moment I returned from the Recreation World, I checked my points first.

8,517 points.

Might as well pump Virility first.

I clicked my tongue at the notification. Four hundred points. That was four hundred random draws. Of course, burning four hundred draws didn't guarantee I'd pull anything worth that much — but still.

Whatever. I can always earn more points. Raising my stats is an investment in myself.

Past a hundred, it jumps to six hundred points, huh.

I eyed the remaining forty-five hundred, considered it, and decided to leave them alone. You never knew when you'd suddenly need points in a hurry.

I stood up and walked over to the window, pulling the curtains aside. The sun had already set. A long line of cars crawled along the road below — nothing surprising. It was the same scene every evening rush hour.

I stared blankly out the window for a while. Every so often, the ridiculous thought would hit me that even this reality of mine might just be another world inside some creative work. Right now was one of those times.

If reality is a fictional world… who's the protagonist? Me, with the Recreation Life ability, right?

No matter how I looked at it, I was the only one who fit the bill. In this world, the guy who'd awakened the Recreation Life app was the most special person around.

Whether my reality is a fictional world or not, who cares. All I have to do is enjoy my life.

I pulled out my smartphone and checked the date. No special schedule. Things were wide open for a while. Business as usual — hunt monsters in C-Rank dungeons, stack cash and achievements, and spend quality time with my friends with benefits.

And if I start craving something different, I just hop into a Recreation World.

My phone buzzed. A message from my friend Oh Junhyeok.

He wanted to hit the club and tear up Friday night for the first time in a while. I thought about it, then hit okay. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much in the way of women. Real knockouts like Han Harin or Ha Seung-hee didn't exactly hang around clubs. Meeting that caliber of beauty was pure luck.

Even so, I was going — because of Junhyeok.

Love him or hate him, he's my friend. Freshman year, I even rode his coattails a few times.

Hanging out with him every now and then wasn't bad. He was an entertaining bastard, too.

I went into my room and changed. Fashion wasn't exactly my strong suit, but casual was fine.

Everything designer… and I should put on the watch I bought for occasions like this.

In a world where everyone had a smartphone, a wristwatch wasn't for telling time. It was for showing off.

I strapped on the billion-won watch I'd bought for a day like this.

Ten days passed.

I lounged on the sofa, completely at ease.

About time I headed into a Recreation World. Last time was Academy's Savior… this time, maybe Radiant Ascension…

Right before diving into the Radiant Ascension world, I realized I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠refresh the Recreation Life quests. I hit refresh and checked what came up.

I was skimming the list without much interest when one of the updated quests made my eyes go wide.

15 Days.

I remembered it. A Japanese manga I'd read two years ago. The plot followed a group of protagonists trapped in a mountain village, surviving for fifteen days. It even got an anime adaptation — which bombed hard. The manga itself had been pretty entertaining, though.

Honestly, it wasn't good enough to deserve an anime. Word was they only picked it because nothing else worth adapting was available.

Not a creative world I particularly wanted to enter.

But the reward hanging off this quest — the Right of Life and Death — looked extremely tempting.

So I can just execute any bastard I don't like, no questions asked?

And the reverse — I could bring the dead back to life.

It was a tier above the Resurrection of the Dead I already owned. I wanted it badly.

I could one-shot even bastards like Laplace or Mekin with this, right?

Not that I planned to use it on them. Those two were top-tier powerhouses in the Academy's Savior world. Even if I killed them once with the Right of Life and Death, there was a chance they'd come back. Besides — I was going to kill those two with my own hands.

Having this is basically like owning two Resurrections of the Dead. Even if I don't need it right now, I should have it.

I selected the quest and checked the penalties.

My eyes went round at the advantage.

Good fortune once a day? Skills like this exist?

It was a skill, sure — but not one I could fire off whenever I wanted. Without experiencing it firsthand, it was hard to judge whether it was actually good or garbage.

I'll figure it out once I'm inside. More importantly, the usable Traits and Skills… practically speaking, Complete Recovery is the only one that actually helps.

Complete Recovery alone would be enough. The original 15 Days had some dangerous types, but I didn't feel for a second like I'd lose.

Even if my physical stats drop and I can't use most Traits and Skills, the experiences ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I've lived through don't just disappear.

Before entering the Recreation World, I hesitated for a moment — then decided to mitigate a penalty.

The original has a decent number of beauties, right? And it's an 18+ manga, so it gets pretty explicit… Ordinary-human virility? Yeah, I can't deal with that. Virility is non-negotiable.

A quest with a reward as massive as the Right of Life and Death. I knew I couldn't afford to fail.

Not that I have any intention of failing.

And if there was fun to be had, I was going to have it.

Rattle-rattle.

The van bounced along an unpaved road. The old vehicle shook so violently the chassis had to be half-broken. Something was clearly wrong with the car.

Sitting all the way in the back, I frowned and looked around.

15 Days… I came into this quest Recreation World for the Right of Life and Death. The success conditions are… what, again?

I couldn't remember.

I knew this world was the manga 15 Days. But I had no idea what the quest objective was. The original plot wouldn't come back either. What I did remember — as a substitute, maybe — was myself.

More accurately, my character settings, I guess.

I was Korean. But I was attending Japan's Naio University as an exchange student. First-year.

The reason I was currently riding this accident-waiting-to-happen of a van was because of my circle.

Japanese universities required you to join either a circle or a club. Clubs were intense; circles were loose.

The Japan Festival Study Circle I belonged to was a free-spirited one. Most people just signed up and barely participated — I could count my actual circle activities on one hand. A paper company, basically. Completely hollow.

That's why I joined. Free rein to do whatever I wanted.

But a problem had come up.

Too little activity. The university had issued a notice: keep the circle running, or start actually doing something. So now I was stuck traveling to a mountain village in Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu, with eleven circle members I barely knew.

The village name was… Ookaruma Village, right? Weird name.

The official purpose was to research Ookaruma Village's summer festival. "Research" meaning take a few photos, enjoy the festival, and go home. Tedious and annoying — but investing a little time now meant a peaceful, free next semester.

My real situation, though… is tied to the quest. Damn it. I can't remember the quest conditions. Wasn't it only original-work info that was supposed to be blocked? This is bullshit.

I grumbled internally.

It was midsummer. The temperature alone was thirty-eight degrees Celsius, and the humidity was no joke. To make things worse, the van's air conditioning had completely died, so I was sweating just sitting still. The windows were open, of course — but the hot wind pouring through them was just unpleasant.

Rattle-rattle.

The van shuddered as it pushed deeper into the mountains. Our destination, Ookaruma Village, had a population of about a hundred and fifty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— fairly large for a rural settlement. Most of them elderly, no doubt.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with a handkerchief and surveyed the van's interior.

Twelve of us total, including me. Originally there'd been over thirty, but everyone else had jumped ship to different circles.

Seven guys, five girls. Gender ratio's decent enough.

Two of the women were beauties you didn't see every day. The other three were average or below.

Those two, I'm definitely taking.

One sat up front — long black hair, a pure and refined face. A classic nadeshiko. In Korean terms, a demure young lady. Her name was Hagawa Ryoko.

The other was Nakagami Risa.

She was sitting right next to me. A third-year senior, currently staring at her smartphone. Long fake nails on slender fingers. Her hair was a bright, orange-tinged brown, styled in waves, and her face had a strong, catlike quality.

Word was she worked as a model on the side. She definitely had that gyaru vibe — and she was a looker.

How should I work an opening here…

The guy sitting next to Hagawa Ryoko suddenly whipped his head around and stared at me. I didn't look away — just met his eyes with a blank expression. He gave an awkward smile and turned back around.

Wada Kyoshiro.

Hagawa Ryoko's childhood friend. As far as I knew, they weren't dating yet.

Ryoko seems to have feelings for him… waiting for him to confess, maybe?

The realization hit me clean.

Wada Kyoshiro. That guy was probably this world's protagonist.

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

The plain-looking girl with glasses and a bob cut sitting up front — Nebata Noriko — suddenly screamed and ducked her head. Every pair of eyes in the van snapped toward her.

The cause of the scream was an insect. A single hornet had flown into the van and was circling lazily above Noriko's head.