Tutorial
There was only one criterion that divided the world now.
Awakeners and the unawakened.
The sole means of resisting the monsters invading from other dimensions. Bullets and nuclear weapons left those creatures unscathed; only the Dimension Warriors—numbering at most a few hundred thousand—could inflict any real damage. People had come to regard those Dimension Warriors as “heroes,” yet…
“That was nothing more than a hope. A dream.”
Park Taewoo muttered the words under his breath as he sat in his office.
Strange beings who wielded irresistible, overwhelming force. Monsters and their adversaries that belonged only in legends and myths. In ages long past, people had called the incomprehensible unknown “gods,” praying all the while that those beings would become beautiful guardians who embraced ordinary folk.
“Alliance Leader, what exactly do you mean by hope and dream?”
An Alliance member distributing documents nearby asked the question. Park Taewoo shook his head slowly.
“How did you first come across Pangenia?”
“Well… I liked games. I tried a bunch of them, and this one stuck. The promise that clearing it would grant you a ‘dream’ hooked me…”
“Same here.”
There were exceptions, of course, but most players—those very beings the public now worshipped as heroes and treated like gods—had once been hardcore gaming shut-ins. Park Taewoo was no different.
A corner-dwelling recluse. A social misfit. He had cycled through countless games, starting and quitting them, until life itself felt hollow. Then he encountered a new title whose entire pitch consisted of a single line:
—Clear the game, and we will grant you one dream.
Absurdly short for a game introduction. That was all there was to Pangenia. It promised to fulfill a dream—whatever that dream might be. Park Taewoo had no particular dream of his own, yet the defiant slogan appealed to him, so he played.
As expected, the difficulty was insane. By the time he came to his senses, he had been summoned into Pangenia itself.
“Do game addicts who suddenly gain power really live for justice?”
“They grew up under social norms, so they should still have some sense of boundaries, right?”
“At first, they did.”
Park Taewoo closed his eyes.
The earliest players had all been passive. They kept low profiles and lived quietly. But after the day the monsters appeared—after they realized they occupied an irreplaceable position—the players went completely wild. Lawlessness reigned. It was inevitable. Plenty of them carried deep distrust and hostility toward society. And instead of being restrained, players instantly rose above the law. Society now tolerated a certain amount of crime from them. That was the reality of present-day Earth.
“Isn’t Korea all right because of you, Alliance Leader?”
Park Taewoo shook his head at once.
“My influence barely covers Seoul. There simply aren’t enough awakeners who still think normally…”
Scarcity only made the rest run wilder. Conditions in the regional cities were far worse. The government did its best to suppress the numbers, but statistics showed that over 80 percent of regional players committed serious crimes—petty offenses not even counted. If a player wanted to leave no evidence, the methods were endless. Even when evidence remained, no one was left to deal with them. That was especially true in areas beyond the Hero Alliance’s reach. Reports claimed that mere gangs were beginning to organize, yet he could not pull personnel out of Seoul. The moment the Alliance weakened, those thugs would storm the capital.
Heavy.
Park Taewoo. He, too, had been nothing more than an ordinary gaming shut-in. A man who had never taken responsibility for anything—and never could—had ironically become the idol of tens of millions. A position could shape a person, yet the burden was growing real.
I’m no hero.
The weight of so many expectant gazes crushed him. He had ended up here somehow, but he constantly wondered whether this was truly his place. Were heroes born, made, or simply the product of chance? One thing was certain: he was not one.
On the first day the monsters appeared—the day Wilhelm died during the Great Expedition, the day every “gamer” of Pangenia finally became a “player”—he had merely stopped by a convenience store for cigarettes and, by pure chance, slain a Giant Mantis. He had been swept up for a moment in the surrounding cheers and praise. Fame drew people, and by the time he regained his senses the Alliance had already formed.
I just drifted… drifted all the way here.
If a true hero existed in this world, it would not be someone like him. In Park Taewoo’s mind there was only one real hero.
Phantom.
The one who had filled the homepage with countless strategy guides. No one else had ever immersed themselves so completely in Pangenia. Even now, Park Taewoo would stake his life that no one understood the world better. Monster strategies, hidden item options and bizarre combination recipes, every quest progression and talent tech tree—Phantom had been the first to discover and share the Hidden Traits as well.
The fact that he’s clearing the main quest with absurd scores is only natural when you think about it.
Even if Park Taewoo started over from scratch, surpassing those scores would be nearly impossible. Yet if he could start again… he would want to try. More completely. More perfectly. Then perhaps he could rise from an accidental hero into a genuine one.
At this rate the world would soon lose its balance and plunge into catastrophe.
“Uh, Alliance Leader… what’s that?”
At that moment the world erupted into noise. Following the direction of the Alliance member’s pointing finger, Park Taewoo turned his head.
An island?
A colossal island floating high in the sky filled his vision.
The Tutorial has begun.
If you wish to participate, gaze upon God’s Island and clasp your hands together.
Completed Ones (Players) may not enter.
The same sentences appeared simultaneously before every person’s eyes. The boundary between awakeners and the unawakened had finally begun to crumble.
Welcome to God’s Island.
The Tutorial has begun.
Before Main Quest 1, Survival, begins, please select a weapon.
Then follow the instructions of the Fairy.
Survival will commence in 30 minutes.
People appeared amid countless warps. They looked around, unable to hide their bewilderment.
“Wh-what?”
“Where are we?”
“God’s Island? Tutorial?”
On the island’s beach, hundreds of people had gathered.
—Hello? I’m Iris! Welcome to God’s Island!
With a cute little chime, a fairy drifted through the air.
“What are we supposed to do here?”
“S-send us back!”
Several people cried out in alarm at the fairy’s appearance. Their pleas meant nothing to her.
—Come on, time’s short! I have a duty to guide you into becoming proper awakeners. So grab a weapon already—unless you want to become food for the Hybrid Goblins!
The fairy pointed to the weapons scattered all across the beach: swords, blades, chains, axes, bows, spears—every kind of armament imaginable.
“Hybrid Goblins?”
“We actually have to fight?”
“Uh… uh…”
People remained frozen in confusion. Then—
Thud.
One man moved first. Seeing him take up a sword, the fairy clapped her hands.
—Well done! You’ve got a good eye. Finding the best sword right away? Nice start~
The man showed not the slightest trace of panic. Of course he didn’t.
This is ridiculous.
It was simply absurd. Who would have imagined that I would be treated as an unawakened and forced to run the tutorial?
Once the Angel of Blessing took residence, God’s Island changed like this.
Perhaps because Randolph and I had been completely separated. At any rate, I roughly understood what had happened. God’s Island had already transformed into a place for the unawakened to awaken. The still-infant Fairy Dragons had been turned into guides.
The growth method of Fairy Dragons.
This was probably how they were meant to grow. A method chosen by the Angel of Blessing to rapidly raise Fairy Dragons that normally required eons to mature.
And that was not all.
“What’s that thing in the center of the island?”
I asked while gazing at the island’s heart. Fairy Iris answered.
—The Holy Star! The great footprint left by the master of this island, our god. Isn’t it beautiful?
I left that?
A brilliant light rose tall and shining at the island’s center.
—The Angel sleeps inside it. Only a tiny handful of the chosen who achieve the highest scores in the tutorial will receive the honor of meeting the Angel! Who knows? You might even obtain a Hidden Class!
Ah. So God’s Island and the Holy Star were now recognized as a single set. The Angel of Blessing that had settled on the island had also taken residence in the Holy Star within it. After all, God’s Island alone could never have produced a miracle of this scale.
—Come on, time’s ticking. Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Time raced by. Most people had taken up weapons, though some still refused.
“I-I can’t! I won’t!”
“Stop it. If you keep talking like that, she’ll blow your head off!”
“That’s right! Fairies are ruthless monsters…!”
Many tried to calm those who thrashed in terror. People who knew something about fairies. Knowledge of Pangenia had already spread widely. Fairies in particular were truly cruel monsters—creatures that exploded the heads of any human who invaded their territory and turned the remains into fertilizer for trees. Merciless, extreme monsters without a shred of compassion!
—…What are you talking about? Why would I blow your heads off?
Fairy Iris sounded utterly exasperated.
—Don’t lump me in with those mindless lower fairies. You’re standing before a great Fairy Dragon, and instead of feeling honored… tsk tsk.
She clicked her tongue, shook her head, and continued the explanation.
—All right, once you’ve got a weapon, try saying “Status Window.” Thinking it works too, but saying the command out loud the first time helps fix the image!
Only then did people, regaining a measure of composure, call up their status windows—and freeze in shock.
“Wh-what?”
“Did we just… awaken?”
“Crazy… wasn’t this something only Dimension Warriors could do?”
The status windows floating before them were abilities exclusive to awakeners—the Dimension Warriors.
“Did I become an awakener too?”
“H-hurray!”
“I’m an awakener…!!!”
Many cheered. Merely being an awakener earned one the treatment of nobility. Wealth. Safety. After watching that reality for over a year, how could they not rejoice at becoming awakeners themselves?
“If we clear the tutorial, we can leave, right?”
—Of course! You can even obtain a class here. Raise your level, spend the SP you earn from hunting to unlock talents, and grow into an even stronger awakener!
One man trembled from head to toe at the fairy’s answer.
“Ahh, my brother was right after all!”
“What do you mean?”
“That the other dimension Pangenia started out as a game! I’ve heard everything—talent tech trees for special classes, Hidden Traits, all of it!!”
The man was ecstatic. Several others who overheard him shared the same excitement. People who already understood Pangenia to some degree. They were all thinking the same thing.
Information is power.
The one who knows more obtains more.
This place was a land of opportunity. A golden chance for those who had never possessed anything to claim everything. They could not afford to miss it. They had to finish the tutorial with the best possible results.
Fear vanished from every eye. A passion that had never existed before surged up in that instant.
And the moment thirty minutes passed—
—Then good luck… huh?
Fairy Iris could not help but look startled.