Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: 3. I Was a 4th Grade Extra (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘Mi, mi-mad….’
Having pierced the giant’s body in an instant, Youngwoo stepped back a couple of paces with a dazed expression.
‘So this is Gumi Swordsmanship.’
To be precise, it was real-time swordsmanship instruction.
The hologram only demonstrated where to attack and how to defend—it was entirely up to Youngwoo to execute it.
And besides.
‘The hologram vanished without a trace again. Does it only appear during combat?’
Youngwoo looked at the two challengers standing rigidly frozen just five or six steps away.
Their eyes darted back and forth between the corpse sprawled on the ground and Youngwoo, as if they’d already grasped what was coming.
“Hey… sorry. Looks like we messed up.”
“We’ll back off quietly, so could you ease up on this a bit?”
Only then did Youngwoo realize what they meant by “ease up.”
They were still under the influence of his ‘prestige.’
‘What the?’
Youngwoo glanced at Yechan, who had been giving off a normal presence for some time now.
“You okay?”
“Huh? Yeah. I was so scared earlier my legs locked up, but it passed quick.”
“Yeah?”
That meant one of two things.
First, Yechan’s energy was incredibly strong, allowing him to shake off the Greatest Swordsman’s prestige swiftly.
Or second.
‘I didn’t see this guy as an enemy….’
It was something he could test easily by harboring killing intent toward the other person, but that wasn’t so simple.
‘Just glaring isn’t enough. I have to really want to kill them, huh.’
Of course, anyone who could harbor killing intent toward just anybody wouldn’t be a normal human.
‘Then over there.’
Swish.
As Youngwoo strode toward the two challengers, a change occurred immediately.
“……!”
Kill marks appeared all over their bodies.
The hologram hadn’t appeared yet, though.
‘Either way, it means I’m truly intent on killing them.’
For some reason, it left a bitter taste.
But there was no more time or reason to hesitate.
‘Letting scum like this go free makes even less sense.’
As Youngwoo menacingly twisted the angle of Early Bird, the two men sensed their moment had come and wailed like mad.
“N-no! Please!”
“Stop! We’re really sorry!”
But Youngwoo mercilessly stabbed their throats one after the other.
Spurt, spurt!
Before the blood could even pool on the ground, he rifled through their pockets and found the coins.
One thousand, three thousand.
The giant with the axe didn’t even have a single one.
Despite his massive build, he hadn’t even taken his basic funds from the exchange.
‘That explains why he was so obsessed with my backpack.’
Maybe the guy had been robbed at the exchange himself.
Youngwoo pondered for a moment before turning his eyes to the regional status in the corner of his vision.
Something felt off.
|You are currently in the ‘Gumi’ region.
|This region’s Greatest Swordsman is ‘Jeong Youngwoo07’. 1st reign, 3 defenses.
‘3 defenses…?’
It was counting the battle just now as his third consecutive title defense.
People continued to pass by on the main street even amid all this.
Most just detoured wide upon seeing the corpses at Youngwoo’s feet.
“Uh… should I grab all this?”
“……?”
Turning at Yechan’s voice, Youngwoo saw the kid cradling an armful of weapons.
Hammer, spear, shield, sword.
They were the spoils he’d gathered so far.
“You won’t get far lugging that much.”
“Y-yeah, you’re right.”
Youngwoo eyed Yechan’s scrawny arms.
“Take just the spear and shield. Ditch the rest. We can’t use them all anyway.”
“D-dump all of it?”
Yechan stared at the weapons with deep regret, but Youngwoo had already decided.
“New challengers will keep bringing fresh ones. Don’t get attached. We move now.”
* * *
Westward again.
With clocks and phones all reset, he had no idea how much time had passed, but one thing was certain.
―A new element, 『Dungeon』, has been added to this world.
―A new element, 『Request』, has been added to this world.
The world was changing every second even now.
―A new monster type, 『Knight』, has been added to this world.
―[Chaebol Heir-Shin Yeon-hwa] is now a Black Knight threatening you all.
Another new monster type and named enemy added.
He hadn’t encountered any monsters yet, but the mere fact that things like that now existed somewhere was horrifying enough.
‘They called it a reset… but isn’t this more like punishment?’
To anyone’s eyes, the reset world resembled hell far more than a new one.
All that had happened among people since the reset was murder and pillaging.
‘Not a single good thing? Is this how we live from now on?’
As Youngwoo’s face darkened with despair, Yechan cautiously spoke up, clearly worried about the future himself.
“What’re your plans after this?”
“After what?”
“After our deal’s done. Once we find a safe spot, settle up, that’s the end of it, right?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
Yechan gave him a puzzled look.
“What about family? Most people go looking for theirs.”
“I’m alone. If I had family to find, I wouldn’t be doing this with you.”
“Oh.”
Yechan’s face grew complicated at Youngwoo’s response.
“What about you? Shouldn’t you hurry off to find your parents?”
“I’m at the orphanage right now too.”
“What a mess.”
“Yeah.”
Watching Yechan give a wry smile, Youngwoo asked again.
“What grade are you in?”
“Third year.”
“Older than I thought. You’ll be aging out soon.”
He meant leaving the orphanage.
By rule, you had to leave at eighteen.
Hearing that, Yechan realized Youngwoo was an orphanage kid too.
“Yeah. Probably doesn’t matter now, though.”
“Guess not.”
Youngwoo nodded and glanced at the arrow at his feet.
It had been tilting rapidly for a while.
“We’re almost there.”
No sooner had Youngwoo said it than an enormous crowd appeared ahead—bigger than any he’d seen so far.
“Huh……?”
Yechan stopped first at the sight of what must have been hundreds of people, while Youngwoo pressed forward to check their armament.
‘Everyone who made it through Sword Mountain is gathered here.’
Youngwoo noted that most of the crowd was armed.
Even Early Bird wielders weren’t uncommon.
This was where Gumi’s frontrunners had all converged.
And yet.
‘What the hell are they so fixated on…?’
No one was watching their backs—they were all staring straight ahead.
Thanks to that, Youngwoo and Yechan slipped into the rear of the crowd without any interference.
A few noticed Youngwoo’s title late and flinched, but they quickly turned back forward.
“……?”
It was bizarre, but soon enough both Youngwoo and Yechan understood.
Swish.
They followed the crowd’s gaze and saw it.
‘Park Do-hwan…?’
President Park Do-hwan, who he’d thought was ‘dismantled’ and dead, stood blankly in the middle of the street.
* * *
‘How is that guy here? Didn’t he add the quest and then die?’
Youngwoo stared at the president in disbelief, then noticed something odd.
It was that same face he’d seen so often on TV, dressed in a spotless suit.
Height and build matched the president he knew, but one thing was off.
The president’s body flickered intermittently.
‘What is it, another hologram?’
Flicker.
Park Do-hwan’s form vanished for a split second, then reappeared.
The uncanny dissonance was unsettling.
A red circle about ten meters in radius centered on him kept everyone from approaching rashly.
‘No way it’s the real Park Do-hwan. Out of all those cities, him showing up here doesn’t make sense.’
So what was it?
Some unknown entity borrowing Park Do-hwan’s form?
Maybe one like this had appeared in every city nationwide.
“…….”
Youngwoo confirmed again that the arrow at his feet pointed straight at Park Do-hwan.
And at that moment.
Swish.
Park Do-hwan made a gesture like checking his wristwatch.
Then he scanned the crowd and spoke.
―Time’s up. From now on, I’ll reveal your original fates.
“…Fates?”
“Original fates? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There was that quest about replacing your fate, right? Probably that.”
As the crowd buzzed, a yellow rectangular panel appeared before everyone.
Flash, pop, pop!
Park Do-hwan continued.
―What you see now is your fate log from before the world reset. Had the reset not happened, you would have lived and died exactly as written there.
“What?”
“That can’t be real.”
Eyes widened all around as people stared at their own fate logs.
Youngwoo was no exception.
The very first line grabbed his attention.
『Jeong Youngwoo-49523-IIIII_II-4th Grade-Extra』
‘4th Grade… Extra.’
Even amid the unknown numbers and barcode, his name and “4th Grade Extra” stood out clearly.
The lines below explained what it meant.
「This character is a random combination of 4th Grade settings.」
「Influenced by parental settings, acquires the following immutable elements at birth. #4th Grade #Orphan」
「As a congenital 4th Grade combination, receives negative adjustments to acquiring 2nd Grade or higher settings throughout lifespan.」
In simple terms, someone born 4th Grade would struggle their whole life to reach even 2nd Grade.
Parental rank had a huge influence on your starting rank.
‘…Is this for real? It was all predetermined internally from the start?’
The fate log continued downward.
[Father] : 6th Grade Extra
[Mother] : 1st Grade Supporting Character
‘So Dad was a 6th Grade Extra. But Mom…’
Not an extra—a supporting character. Five whole ranks above Dad, at 1st Grade.
Probably the highest tier.
So what kind of person was a 1st Grade Supporting Character?
‘Wait, before that—how did a 6th Grade Extra guy even meet a 1st Grade Supporting Character?’
All Youngwoo knew about his parents was that they’d abandoned him as a newborn at the orphanage.
He hadn’t known their identities, let alone if they were alive.
Only after the world reset did he glimpse their status indirectly.
Through peeking at the old world’s internal settings, no less.
“…….”
As Youngwoo wore a strange expression, the fate log scrolled up to reveal the next part.
|Name: Jeong Youngwoo
|Role: 4th Grade Extra
|Function: Background, Filler Material
|Creation: April 8, 1992, 11:41 PM, Conception via semi-intentional negligence.
|Dissolution: November 7, 2028, 8:36 PM, Death by assault from drunkard on way home.
‘Fuck, what the hell is this.’
Nausea welled up.
Youngwoo couldn’t take it anymore and looked away from the fate log.
Right beside him was Yechan, pale as a ghost.
And his fate log floating in front.
|Name: Kang Yechan
|Role: 6th Grade Extra
|Function: Background, Eraser
|Creation: July 16, 2006, 2:30 AM, Conception via forced intercourse.
|Dissolution: February 1, 2039, 8:36 PM, Suicide after murdering customer while working at bar.