Back to Square One
"…Hey, Seol Dam."
How long had it been?
I was swimming through an endless stretch of unconsciousness.
"Next up, Seol Dam. Can't you hear me?"
Seol Dam? Someone was calling my name?
"Seol Dam!"
At the sound of someone shouting for me, my eyes snapped open.
"Student Seol Dam, what exactly do you think you're doing here?"
"If you're ready, get out there already."
Get out there?
"…M-me??"
A few seconds after I answered, my five senses slowly came flooding back. Along with them, information about my surroundings began to settle into place on its own.
"Ugh, that deadweight can't even string a sentence together anymore."
"Tell me about it. If it were me, I'd have expelled him ages ago."
As my hearing returned, the irritating chatter poured straight into my head.
Anyway… where was I?
I dragged up my last memory.
"Exactly as I said. I shall return you to a past where you can change everything."
……
So I'd come back to the past.
"Well? Are you just going to stand there staring into space?"
"If you keep wasting time like this, I'll have no choice but to process the result as is."
Before I could even finish making sense of the situation, people around me started pushing me along. For now, I needed to play along and figure out where I was.
"…Yes. I'm going."
This is insane.
Of all things, why did I have to come back as a twenty-one-year-old instead of a five-year-old?
I'd returned to the very moment that kicked off the entire story — second year at Frontier.
Still, there was one difference from last time.
??? has sent you a modest gift.
User: Seol Dam
Synchronizing…
Current Progress… 26%
A semi-transparent blue window. The design looked almost exactly like a status screen.
Why had something like this suddenly appeared…?
And who was this ????
……Hmm.
I had a pretty good guess, but even if I was right, there was no way to confirm it — and knowing wouldn't change anything anyway.
I wandered without a destination until I arrived where I needed to be.
I'd ended up dead center in Frontier's Grand Auditorium, and every single person there was staring at me.
The reason I was here was…
At that moment, a teacher's voice boomed from the Grand Auditorium speakers.
We will now begin the second-year evaluation exam.
Seol Dam — Magic Department.
……
So that was why I'd been sent out here.
A dozen or so mannequin-like virtual targets materialized in front of me. At the same time, the voices of the spectators drifted over from the far side of the hall.
"Hey, how do you think Seol Dam's gonna do this time?"
"Obviously he's gonna flail around and flop."
"Heh heh! But hey, maybe second year changed him a little?"
"We'll see soon enough."
A few mocking voices rolled through the Grand Auditorium, all aimed at me.
I'll make you take that thought right back.
Even if I had zero talent for mana, in my last life I'd clawed my way up just enough to scrape by. It was finally time to reclaim the humiliation I'd suffered in second year.
Then the virtual targets charged straight at me.
Here they come!
I wrenched every drop of mana in my body upward with everything I had.
Or rather — I tried to.
Insufficient time has passed since regression. Internal mana is unstable!
Mana usage is prohibited for the next 8 hours!
Huh?
While the targets barreled into me and chaos filled my vision, a red semi-transparent window blocked my sight. One line of text stood out above the rest.
Mana usage prohibited…??
Uh…
And so I got the absolute shit kicked out of me.
"Aaaagh!!"
"Gyaaaaah!! Hrrk! That's a sensitive spot!!"
"Hah… hah… I… I surrender!!"
"Hey hey hey!!! I said I surrender, you bastards!!"
The white mannequins trampled me without mercy, and just like that, the evaluation exam was over.
……Magic Department evaluation for Seol Dam — concluded.
……
When the evaluation ended, the Grand Auditorium held its silence for about three full seconds.
But that silence didn't last long.
"Pfft."
"Pwahahahaha!!!"
"That was even more legendary than I expected??"
"Hey, did you get that on video?"
"Damn, I forgot to record it. Send it to me later, yeah?"
"He's the shame of the Magic Department."
The reviews were all over the place. A clown. The shame of the Magic Department. No — at this level, the shame of Frontier itself. And so on…
Among them, one person stood out more than the rest.
"Keh heh!! Hey!! Lee Sihyun, isn't that guy your childhood friend? You even switched departments because of him, right?"
"Ah!! No!! We're not even friends anymore!!"
"Oh? Oh? Look at that face turning red. It is true! It is!"
"God… so annoying!"
"Hey hey!! Where are you going?"
And before I knew it, a semi-transparent blue window had appeared beside me.
User: Seol Dam
Synchronization complete!
Status Window has been activated.
Shop has been activated.
Achievement System has been activated.
Quest System has been activated.
Favorability System has been activated.
Unique Trait Insight acquired.
Public Humiliation
+5,000 Points acquired!
Lee Sihyun's favorability has decreased. (LV.−5 → LV.−7)
Lee Sihyun feels contempt toward you.
Worst Friend
+3,500 Points acquired!
…Yeah. I was pretty sure I'd screwed this up.
Once the evaluation ended, I headed back to the spectator seats.
"That's the guy?"
"Yeah, yeah, looks like it."
"Damn, the nerve on him — getting humiliated like that and just sitting back down in the stands?"
"That's not nerve. That's just a complete lack of thought. If it were me, I'd already be writing my withdrawal form."
"Pfft! Fair point."
I can hear all of you, you know.
I ignored the stream of insults from every direction and checked the status window that had just activated.
Status Window.
Name: Seol Dam
Health: F(482/500)
Strength: E(345/750)
Agility: F(458/500)
Mana: F(67/500)
Mental Power: F(465/500)
Accuracy: F(288/500)
Ohh! It works.
And right on its heels came the questions.
Hmm…
Wasn't this a little too weak?
Even accounting for the fact that my body had returned to my student days, this was pathetic.
I was still upper-tier in the Sword Department with this body, though…
Playing letter…
All of a sudden, the surrounding noise vanished.
Wh… what?
I looked around. Everyone except me had frozen in place.
"…Ugh."
My feet wouldn't move. Stuck in that fixed posture, I shifted my gaze back to the system window.
So this was the cause after all…
I lifted my hand and tapped the system window.
Hello, Seol Dam! By now, I assume you've more or less gotten used to the system.
First, let me tell you what you need to do.
Protect Lee Sihyun. No matter what happens.
From this point on, this world will diverge significantly from the original story.
Ah! Of course, the broad strokes of the plot will still follow the same course.
How you change that flow — well, that's entirely up to you, Seol Dam.
Also, I've significantly nerfed your stats.
It was an unavoidable choice for the sake of narrative consistency. I'm trusting you'll understand.
Of course, cutting your stats and then dumping you in empty-handed would be pretty shameless of me, wouldn't it?
So I've specially gifted you Insight!
Eyes that pierce through the essence of the world. It's quite the broken ability, so feel free to look forward to it.
That's all from me! Don't forget what I told you.
What is this, poison and antidote in one package?
I'd lost my stats, and in exchange I'd gained something called Insight. Of course, I still had no idea how to use it.
……
Hmm… but why was everything still frozen?
Continuing with the tutorial.
Argh! If you're going to do this, do it all at once!
I raised my hand again and tapped the system window.
Stats will rank up once you accumulate sufficient experience.
Proficiency in each stat scales in proportion to the amount of experience earned.
Additionally, when you raise a stat's rank, you will be given the opportunity to select a corresponding reward.
Stat Strength has reached E-rank!
Select your reward.
Increases the power of your next melee attack by 50%.
Cooldown: 8 hours
– Strength training efficiency increased by 15%.
– Strength experience gain increased by 10%.
{Equip Effect}
– Mitigates impact received by the hands.
– Reduces hand fatigue during prolonged combat.
Ohh?
This was a tough call.
Hmm……
If I were still in the Sword Department, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second — I'd have taken Sturdy Body. Long-term growth potential, after all.
But right now, I was in the Magic Department.
Strength? Important, sure, but not right this second. What I needed to focus on now was boosting my mana.
What I need is the option that gets me through this dangerous early stage in one piece…
Power Strike (E) acquired.
Tutorial ended.
Hoo…
As time resumed, noise from the surroundings started filtering back in.
Tch… suddenly I'm exhausted.
— Nod, nod.
I'd been thrown straight into an evaluation match the moment I regressed. I flicked on my Smart Watch and checked the time.
Still a little time to spare. Maybe I could catch a quick nap until then…
— KRAKOOM!!!!
Dammit!! Who was that!!
Magic Department evaluation for Kang Harin — concluded.
The moment her evaluation ended, gasps and cheers erupted from every corner of the hall.
"Damn… that's the Magic Department. So refreshing."
"Right? Kind of a night-and-day difference from a certain someone earlier, huh?"
"Unnie!! That was so cool!!!"
"As expected of second year, second place? She's on another level."
……
Yeah, night and day from earlier. Thanks for the reminder.
Kang Harin. In the original story, a prodigy who rose all the way to S-class hunter status… and the main heroine who got entangled with the protagonist.
She competed with him for first place, and somewhere along the way love blossomed between them…
Well. That kind of role, anyway.
She really was strong, though. Which was why, in the original, Lee Sihyun had…
……
Better stop that thought right there.
After that, time flew by in a blur.
— KRAAANG!!
— CRACK-CRACK!!
— CLANG!!
Needless to say, I never managed to fall asleep.
Victory Over the Eyelids
+1,000 Points acquired.
A thousand points. Nice…
I'd check the shop later once I got back to the dorm.
Anyway, it was about time for things to get started…
Second-year evaluation for Kim Jinhyuk — Sword Department. Beginning now.
Here he comes!
Let's see what he can do.
The original protagonist.