I Am Bagan
Drip. Drip.
The regular, repeating sound brushed past his ears.
What is that?
When Seunghwan opened his eyes, he saw walls glistening faintly in the dim light. The repeating noise was the sound of water droplets falling into a puddle. The moment he registered it, he realized exactly what kind of place he was in.
A cave.
A cave, out of nowhere. It felt absurd. He couldn’t believe that the same person who had been sitting in his one-room apartment about to play a computer game had just woken up inside a cave. On top of that, his body felt strangely foreign. The chronic stiffness in the back of his neck, the scoliosis from years of bad posture, and the belly fat he’d earned from a life without exercise had all vanished.
None of it made sense to Seunghwan. As confusion crashed over him, his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and traced the source of the light illuminating the cave walls. He started walking toward it.
What he saw next was astonishing.
A mansion?
A mansion inside a cave. The two words should never have existed in the same sentence. Yet there it was, solid and real. A spark of curiosity flared inside him.
Guess I’ll go take a look.
Any living thing would be drawn to light. Awkwardly piloting his unfamiliar body, he headed for the mansion ahead.
As he drew closer to the glow spilling from the building, he finally got a good look at his own skin. It was pure white, the kind that would get him called Caucasian, and his arm muscles sat perfectly defined beneath it. Seunghwan—who had been nowhere near fit in his previous life—felt the strangeness hit him again. Fighting through the dizziness, he reached the mansion’s stairs.
Now that he was close, the sheer scale of the place became obvious. It was, without exaggeration, enormous. Almost in a trance, Seunghwan knocked on the door.
Knock. Knock.
“Please come in, Lord Bagan. I have been waiting.”
It was a woman’s voice. The fact that she used a name he didn’t recognize suggested she had been expecting someone. He hesitated, knowing he was an uninvited guest, but the situation was so incomprehensible that he opened the door anyway, hoping to gather at least some information.
Click. Creeeeak.
The mansion’s massive door scraped across the floor with a majestic groan. The sudden burst of light from inside made him shield his eyes with one hand as he stepped in.
He kept his head down until his eyes adjusted, then lowered his hand and looked up.
“You’ll catch a cold walking around like that.”
A woman was suddenly draping a large cloth over him. He had been feeling a slight chill, so gratitude washed through him.
“Ah, thank you.”
“Polite speech? Your condition really does seem off. We should go see Lord Palamus immediately.”
He still hadn’t gotten a clear look at her face because of the cloth, yet she had already diagnosed him and reached a conclusion.
“By the way… who are you?”
Seunghwan decided to start by asking her name.
“I am Barret, servant of Lord Palamus.”
Only then could he see her clearly. Long black hair cascaded down to her waist. Flawless, snow-white skin. Delicate features that suited her small face perfectly, and soft rabbit ears atop her head. She was a rabbit beastman.
Wait. A beastman?
Wondering if they might be fake, he asked urgently.
“Are those ears real?”
His hand moved on its own, drawn to the rabbit ears nestled in her black hair.
“You want to touch them again today?”
She lowered her head naturally, as if this were routine, granting permission.
“They’re real. There’s even a pulse.”
The thought slipped out before he could stop it. The fluffy ears were warm, soft, and pleasantly springy. The realization startled him so much that he yanked his hand back.
His face flushed bright red.
Barret looked at him with a slightly pouty expression, as if refusing to let him deny her existence.
“Barret’s ears are real.”
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How long are you going to keep speaking so politely? Is this a new kind of prank?”
She stared at him with suspicious eyes.
Seunghwan had no idea what was happening, but he sensed he needed to play along with whatever she expected. To avoid raising more suspicion, he would have to act like the person she thought he was—this “Bagan.” From the way she spoke, it sounded like he held the higher position, so he dropped the formal speech.
“Of course it was a prank. Anyway, if it’s Palamus we’re talking about, I know that dragon pretty well.”
It was a character Seunghwan couldn’t possibly forget.
“He’s the Gold Dragon, right?”
The Gold Dragon Palamus from Fantasy of Pangea. The father of all dragonkind, the being said to have spread mana across the world.
“So it really was a prank. Since you were playing outside, I’ll prepare your bath. Still… you said you know Lord Palamus well. Weren’t you always afraid of him?”
Her reaction seemed slightly off. Or perhaps it was perfectly normal.
Because.
Is this the world of the game?
It was following the exact setting of the game he used to play.
Palamus and Bagan. Their story was a short episode you could catch in character dialogue while progressing the main quest of Fantasy of Pangea.
To put it simply, the Gold Dragon Palamus—obsessed with longevity—had created Bagan as a vessel to house his soul before his lifespan ran out. It was the tale of how he later transferred everything he possessed through magic.
Knowing that backstory made the mansion inside a cave and the beastman maid feel far less alien. And now Seunghwan had become Bagan. Bagan was nothing more than an empty shell meant to become Palamus’s new body.
Being reborn as that shell felt utterly unfair.
Yet somewhere deep in his heart, something was burning.
I have to live as Bagan from now on.
He was no longer Seunghwan. He had to be Bagan.
He stared into the mirror and repeated it to himself.
I am Bagan.
The feeling wasn’t bad at all.
Who hadn’t had those thoughts before? Wanting to be whisked away to another world, or to live inside a favorite novel, comic, or game. Bagan had been that kind of person—someone desperate to escape reality by any means necessary.
So stepping into the game world he loved like this? If it felt good, it felt good. It wasn’t bad in the slightest.
Bagan firmed his resolve with those thoughts.
Of course, there was one problem.
The reason Palamus had created Bagan in the first place: to use him as a replacement body.
Entering the beloved game world was wonderful, but the situation was far from ideal.
If I can’t get past that hurdle, I won’t be able to survive here.
Whatever happened, he needed a plan. A meticulous plan for survival in this place.
Once his thoughts were clear, his actions were decisive.
He sprang to his feet and began stretching, checking the condition of his new body. Since it had been built as Palamus’s future vessel, he expected it to be flawless.
And it was. The physical specs were ideal. Strength was a given, and his stamina was outstanding. He knocked out two hundred push-ups without pausing, without fatigue, without any strain on his muscles. His flexibility was perfect too. He tried splits and acrobatic moves he had never attempted in his life, yet there was no resistance at all.
The fact that he could perform actions he had only imagined meant his body had almost completely adapted. Bagan cheered inwardly at the better-than-expected state.
But Palamus was a dragon. Superior physical ability alone wouldn’t be enough to win.
Should I learn swordsmanship? Or maybe magic?
He had never held a sword, and magic required sensing mana first. It would be nice to have a teacher, but there was no such person in Palamus’s mansion. Even if there were, mastering a blade capable of cutting dragon scales would take years, and no matter how skilled he became at magic, his opponent was a dragon—the very master of magic.
It felt hopeless, yet he refused to give up.
There has to be a way.
He thought hard. It felt like he was forgetting something important. He had played Fantasy of Pangea countless times. There was no way he wouldn’t remember.
Yes. There was still hope.
I need to find the traits.
Normally he would have opened his status window, but expecting the game system to work in this reality seemed unlikely. He had already tried every trick he knew, but no window appeared.
It was too early to despair. Bagan sat down again and focused. He would have to locate the traits himself. He knew it probably wouldn’t work, but he had to do something.
That was when—
“Lord Bagan, the bath is ready.”
Barret’s voice came from outside. Perfect timing. Nothing cleared the mind like a bath.
“Please call me when you’ve finished bathing.”
She guided him to the bathhouse, delivered the message, and left, closing the door behind her.
Inside was an enormous tub filled with freshly heated water that circulated gently. It was so large an ordinary public bathhouse would feel cramped by comparison. Gold ornaments typical of the mansion decorated the space, making it feel like an imperial palace. Was this what it felt like to be a noble?
Bagan stripped off the clothes he had dirtied in the cave and dipped his foot into the steaming water. A tingling sensation ran from his toes all the way to the top of his head, clearing his mind. He submerged his whole body and stayed still for a long time.
Floating in the warm water, he suddenly didn’t feel like thinking about anything. His mind grew peacefully empty.
Bagan hadn’t realized how hollow it could feel to use such a vast bath all by himself.
Damn it.
Splash.
He had been given the chance to live in a world he loved, yet the thought that he was fated to die soon filled him with rage. The emotion spilled out as he violently churned the empty bath—the only form of petty resistance he could manage.
Like kids splashing each other at a summer valley, he slammed his palm into the hot water, imagining Palamus standing in front of him.
Swooooosh—!
Release
The water surged far more violently than expected. Nearly half the tub’s contents surged across to the opposite side like a tidal wave.
Was I always this strong?
He was strong enough to do two hundred push-ups without rest, but even someone with equal strength probably couldn’t turn bathwater into waves. Which meant only one explanation made sense.
A trait?
The realization struck like lightning.
There weren’t many traits capable of producing this kind of power. Only one came to mind.
Release.
The S-grade trait he had chosen. Then the other one should work too.
Bagan spread both palms as if to scoop up every drop in the tub and focused.
Absorption. Absorption.
Absorption
Swoooooosh!
The tub’s water rapidly funneled into his palms despite the tiny surface area.
This is it!
This time Bagan cheered out loud. With these traits, he might actually stand a chance against Palamus. After all, traits were unique abilities Palamus did not possess. He could create variables.
Splash!
He released the absorbed water back into the tub to finish his bath.
Sitting down once more, he organized his thoughts.
“I need to get stronger. Fast.”
The day of the decisive battle could come at any time. With that in mind, Bagan set his goal: become strong as quickly as possible.