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# The Villain in the Novel 2
## Chapter 1: My Friend's Novel (2)
Hwang Seongjae: That's true (laughs). So even after learning the Seonin Qi technique, it was difficult to catch up to the children who had learned other Qi techniques beforehand.
Reporter: That sounds like you're bragging about eventually catching up.
Hwang Seongjae: That's right (laughs).
Reporter: Talent?
Hwang Seongjae: I can't say it wasn't. Without talent, such growth would have been impossible. However, the fact that I was able to use mana even before entering Basic School definitely helped as well.
Reporter: How were you able to use mana before taking the aptitude test?
Hwang Seongjae: I believe environmental factors played a major role. I grew up in an area rich in mana when I was young. I could sense something in the air, but there was no one to explain to me that it was mana. Whenever I asked, they simply dismissed it as a delusion or hallucination. That made me stubborn, and as I tried to prove that it wasn't a hallucination, I eventually became capable of using mana.
Reporter: Does that mean you were naturally sensitive to mana?
Hwang Seongjae: After entering Basic School, I underwent detailed examinations several times, and I wasn't particularly sensitive by nature.
Reporter: Then how did it happen?
Hwang Seongjae: Perhaps it was the result of my environment and stubbornness coming together? (laughs)
Reporter: There may be a child somewhere who has fallen into a similar situation. If you could give such a child even a little advice that might help them, what would it be?
Hwang Seongjae: Get rid of your doubts. What you should believe in isn't someone else's baseless words, but your own senses. I've heard that everyone experiences mana differently, so if you feel something, don't doubt it. Trust yourself and keep working at it. That could be one answer. Who knows? You might be using mana even before taking the aptitude test, just like me.
Reporter: Isn't that a somewhat irresponsible way to end the interview?
Hwang Seongjae: It can't be helped. We don't currently know exactly what mana is. Magic is being studied like an academic discipline, but even countless magicians haven't properly defined what mana is yet. They can only propose hypotheses. Under those circumstances, what could I, someone who hasn't even been a hero for three years, be certain about?
Reporter: At a point when you hadn't even been a hero for three years, you had already reached the intermediate level...
After reading that far, Park Sangwoo stared seriously into empty space for a moment.
There was nothing visible.
He swung his arm.
Even though he was wearing underwear, a long-sleeved turtleneck, and a coat, he felt as though something faint had touched him. He had assumed that feeling was an illusion. If it wasn't an illusion, he thought it might be the sensation of fine body hair brushing against the air or his clothes.
But what if it wasn't an illusion?
What if it was mana, just as Hwang Seongjae had mentioned in the interview he had just read?
"......Could this really be mana?"
The moment his own muttered words reached his ears, his entire body trembled with a shiver.
His heart pounded as though it would burst.
Perhaps he really did have a talent for mana. If this sensation wasn't false. He didn't want to regard this sensation as a lie or an illusion.
Park Sangwoo tossed the newspaper aside and sat down on the toilet.
Then he closed his eyes and concentrated.
'Come in. Come in.'
He muttered inwardly as he tried to direct his will toward the tiny particles he felt floating in the air. He could sense the particles flowing gently and colliding with his skin.
Naturally, the particles didn't enter his body.
'This is definitely mana.'
Park Sangwoo believed that.
In truth, he didn't have absolute faith, but just as the hero Hwang Seongjae had said, he tried to abandon his doubts.
No, he was so desperate that he repeated it to himself almost as though brainwashing himself.
'This is mana.'
Perhaps because of that desperation, he endured in the bathroom, where countless people came and went, until it became completely dark.
He hadn't achieved anything in particular, but he wasn't disappointed.
He hadn't expected to gain something after only half a day. The world wasn't that easy. Hadn't he been experiencing that every day ever since being reincarnated into this world and losing his family?
Just having hope was enough.
All he could do was pray that this hope wouldn't lead to despair.
"Please......"
Since something as surreal as reincarnation had happened, he believed that gods must exist as well. He earnestly prayed to every god he knew before leaving the bathroom.
It was time to go back.
Back to that damn orphanage.
Before returning, Park Sangwoo hid some of the money he had earned begging around the subway station. The money he hid would come in handy someday when he failed to meet his quota.
There was no point in bringing back more money than his quota because it would only cause his quota to increase.
As he took a route where he wouldn't encounter the other children, Park Sangwoo recalled a conversation he had once had with his friend in his previous life. Before long, he remembered something important.
"You know how it is in martial arts novels. They practice circulating their energy at dawn, earlier than at other times. The setting is that the Qi in nature sinks toward the ground during the cool night and rises again during the day, so its concentration changes. That means the efficiency of accumulating Qi differs depending on the time of day."
"So what are you trying to say?"
"I'm going to do the same thing. Mana moves around, right? When there's a lot of movement, it collides with people or objects and rises into the air, but when there's less movement, it sinks back down."
"That's the mana you've created in your setting?"
"More or less. Of course, it could be different in each world, but that's how I'm planning to write most of it."
"What about cases that deviate from that setting?"
"There must be a reasonable explanation for why they deviate from the setting. I don't particularly want to give an example that fits into it."
"Didn't you just not bother creating that setting?"
"The story I'm writing this time doesn't need that setting, so it's fine."
In the world created by his friend, mana from fantasy and Qi from martial arts novels were the same concept.
Depending on how this mana was refined and accumulated, it could become magical power used to construct magic, or it could become internal Qi or internal energy that strengthened the body like martial arts.
Thanks to a Korean regressor, this world generally referred to it as internal energy, except in India and parts of Europe.
In any case, if that setting really was reality...
'That means early dawn is the most efficient time for using mana.'
Could he do it at the orphanage?
'No. It's not a matter of whether I can do it. I have to do it.'
It didn't take him long to make his decision.
The problem was life at the orphanage.
Simply deciding to accomplish something didn't solve every problem.
Based on his experience from his previous life, life at Blue Orphanage was most similar to the military.
And not just any military, but a miserable military where officers used violence to amuse themselves or vent their anger. A military where bullying and violence between soldiers openly existed.
Even the fact that he had to live in a confined space with people who committed violence was the same.
'Is reducing my sleep really the simplest method?'
Park Sangwoo furrowed his brow.
It wasn't easy.
His weak young body was vulnerable to its needs. If he missed even one meal, his stomach hurt as though he had gone two days without food, and even if he slept soundly at night, he would frequently become drowsy during the day.
At least being free from sexual urges was probably his only advantage.
'Getting up is a problem too.'
He had to wake up on his own before everyone else to practice using mana, but he didn't have an alarm. Even if he had one, he couldn't use it.
If the alarm woke up the other children sleeping in the same room, he would be beaten.
It really wasn't easy.
As expected, his body, which was weak to the desire for sleep, couldn't wake up early. Still, he continued trying and eventually succeeded in getting up. After several days of trying, he kicked a trash can while still half-asleep and made a noise. He was beaten because he had woken someone up in the early morning.
He was beaten like crazy, and one of his ribs cracked.
If his bones hadn't healed quickly because he was a child, he would have suffered for quite a long time. He endured the pain. In truth, he had no choice but to endure it.
He woke up before dawn and practiced manipulating mana, then went to the subway station to beg for money while practicing whenever he had free time.
And so time passed.
Summer arrived almost as soon as spring came. Because he concentrated on training, there were times when he failed to meet his quota and was beaten, and there were also times when he missed the designated time and failed to receive the meals that were practically his lifeline.
His body gradually became thinner.
It was the reaction caused by a lack of sleep and nutrients. Sleep deprivation placed a burden on even an adult body receiving sufficient nutrition, so it was inevitable that a child suffering from both sleep deprivation and malnutrition would become thin.
If this situation continued, he might not die, but there would definitely be problems.
'Should I take a break?'
Park Sangwoo considered it, but soon gave up on resting.
He simply kept trying and trying.
Because he didn't want to let go of the hope he hadn't yet confirmed.
And finally, he confirmed it.
'It's entering.'
One of the particles floating in the air touched his body and immediately seeped inside.
At first, he thought it was an illusion. The tiny particles felt smaller than dust. It was difficult to clearly sense the movement of something so small.
But one, then another.
As he continued sensing the same phenomenon, he had no choice but to realize it.
The tiny particles, the mana, were seeping into his body.
'Could this be an illusion?'
Even after sensing the change, he doubted it.
The past few months.
He had wanted it so desperately that perhaps his body was deceiving his mind, like a false pregnancy.
Honestly, he was afraid.
If his only hope turned out to be false, he wasn't confident that he could remain sane. That was why he doubted it. He doubted his senses and the brain that told him he was absorbing mana.
Yet at the same time, he focused on another strand of mana to continue that sensation.
It too seeped into his body.
Again. And again.
Park Sangwoo desperately suppressed the laughter that threatened to burst out and concentrated.
The particles drifting through the air gathered around him and slowly seeped into his body. The amount wasn't particularly large. If the mana around him were a swimming pool, the amount that had seeped into his body was barely a single cup of water.
It was little.
But he didn't care.
What mattered now wasn't the quantity, but the fact that he had finally begun to manipulate the power called mana.
He wanted to boast about it.
That he had obtained mana. That he had grasped an opportunity to escape this hellhole. Even if he had to wake everyone sleeping in the orphanage to tell them.
'That's a stupid thing to do.'
Park Sangwoo suppressed the impulse.
If he immediately went outside and told the police or another government official that he could use mana, he might be transferred to a Basic School. He could escape this hellhole just like a child who tested positive for mana aptitude.
If someone believed the words of a mere seven-year-old, that was.
In fact, even if they believed him, there would still be a problem.
A seven-year-old orphan with an aptitude for mana.
What a delicious target.
Starting with the orphanage director and extending to people who committed crimes without hesitation, they would come rushing in, drooling at the thought of using him for their own purposes in the future.
The government's mana aptitude test naturally protected orphaned children by immediately transferring them to Basic School. But it would be difficult to apply such measures to a seven-year-old who suddenly appeared claiming to possess mana.
Naturally, there would be loopholes, and those who didn't want to miss such a good opportunity would never hesitate.
In other words, there was a high possibility that his entire life would become thoroughly tangled.
'Absolutely not.'
He knew perfectly well how much of a hellhole this place was, just as his previous life had been. He couldn't make such a mistake.
Even so, Park Sangwoo smiled.
The mana that had seeped into his body wandered around according to his will.
The amount was so tiny that he could barely feel it, but simply knowing that mana existed inside his body gave him confidence.
'I'll endure here.'
Patting his hollow stomach, Park Sangwoo organized his thoughts.
Once he had obtained mana, his desire to escape this hellhole immediately disappeared.
In fact, this was the correct choice.
First, he would remain here, steadily accumulate mana, and become stronger. Even if he didn't have a Qi technique right away, mana itself could be used to strengthen the body.
Its efficiency was simply terrible compared to Qi techniques.
And then...
'You bastards. I'll chew every last one of you to pieces.'
The moment he accumulated enough strength, he would punish the director and the other children.
The resentment he had been forced to suppress because he lacked strength erupted magnificently.
No matter how terribly he had been treated, if he had been in the same environment as his previous life, he might not have thought about revenge.
The law was frightening, and once he became a criminal, his family would also suffer.
But he had no family now, and by reading his friend's novel, he knew all too well how this world operated.
Hadn't he even experienced it with his own body?
Since coming to Blue Orphanage in Sangam-dong, Park Sangwoo had never once been protected by the authorities.
His status as an orphan was one factor, but Sangam-dong was also an unstable slum on the outskirts of Seoul.
Small monsters would occasionally appear there, kill people, and disappear.
In a place like this, even if one or two people disappeared without a trace, the police wouldn't consider it serious enough to investigate thoroughly.
They would simply assume that the victims had been attacked by some monster hiding somewhere.
Even if the police determined that this revenge was murder, the possibility of him being identified as a suspect was extremely low.
Because he was a child.
Because no one would believe that a child could have killed a grown adult man, he would be excluded from the list of suspects. Instead, an orphanage resident who had reached the age to leave would likely become a suspect.
If it were a murder motivated by resentment, they would have sufficient motive as well.
'If necessary, I can pick one of the people who already left and make them the culprit. Or choose one of the current residents.'
With the testimony of an innocent child to support him, it didn't seem impossible.
Of course, the person he framed would disappear along with the director.
Park Sangwoo shook off the thoughts that weren't important for the moment. Then, while steadily absorbing mana, he recalled the parts of his conversations with his friend over drinks that concerned the world's "settings."
'The first thing I need to do is steadily accumulate mana, and after that, use pure mana to...'
The method that allowed a Japanese villain who appeared later to become a powerful individual.
Body modification.
Forcibly stuffing unrefined, pure mana into the "body" and modifying it down to the cellular level.
If he had to find the closest concept in genre novels, it would be a limited form of Bone Transformation.
Knowing this much meant that it was something he absolutely had to do, but...
If it were simply beneficial, it would have spread widely.
There were also side effects that came with modifying the body.
First, all the mana used for body modification disappeared.
Basically, special techniques for developing supernatural abilities, whether they were Qi techniques or Life Energy, were similar to building a power plant for supernatural abilities inside the body.
Mana was absorbed into the body and refined according to a predetermined principle, creating a special foundation that allowed the newly created supernatural power to be used until death.
But body modification required him to gather mana from the beginning again. From the perspective of supernatural abilities, it meant completely throwing away his accumulated power.
The second problem was that after mana was forced into the body, the person had to endure the pain of their living flesh being torn apart until the modification was complete and the body fully stabilized.
Furthermore, until the modification was finished and the body stabilized, the modified body was extremely fragile and could be seriously injured by even a minor impact.
This meant that while the body was completely evolving, one had to stake both their life and endure hellish pain.
Because of these two fatal side effects, the simple method of body modification never became widely known.
Those who attempted similar methods gave up before seeing any results because of the pain and the disappearance of the mana they had accumulated.
The exception was the Japanese villain who would later appear in Japan.
'How painful will it be?'
What did the pain of having one's living flesh torn apart actually feel like?
Park Sangwoo had experienced quite a variety of pain at Blue Orphanage, but he had never had his living flesh torn apart, so he couldn't know.
As he accumulated mana, Park Sangwoo steeled himself once again.
It was frightening even to think about, but the pain was definitely worth enduring.
Body modification had three effects.
The first effect was an improvement in the physical abilities of the body that had been forcibly modified.
It became faster and stronger.
The implications of this simple statement were enormous.
Even without strengthening the body through supernatural abilities such as internal energy or external force, modified nerves could catch arrows flying toward them, while modified muscles could throw cars.
Naturally, the efficiency of strengthening the body through supernatural abilities would also increase.
This meant gaining a physical advantage over other heroes even with the same amount of effort.
And...
'With that powerful body, killing ordinary civilians who don't possess supernatural abilities would be easy.'
Thinking of the orphanage director and the children who had tormented him as those civilians, Park Sangwoo soon shook his head and erased them from his mind.
They weren't important right now.
The second effect was an increase in the limit of supernatural power that the modified individual could possess.
If a person were compared to a vessel, the size of that vessel would inevitably differ from person to person.
If the vessel was large, there was no particular problem, but if it was small, it was essentially impossible to become strong.
Because supernatural power was the foundation of a superhuman.
The final, third effect was increased sensitivity to mana and an increased amount of mana that could be handled.
Put simply, it meant that even when training for the same amount of time under the same conditions, he could gather more mana than before.
Therefore, if he completely consumed the mana he had accumulated and continuously modified his entire body, eventually he would obtain more mana than he had consumed.
'In economic terms, it's compound interest.'
Of course, reaching that point would take a very long time.
Even so, given Park Sangwoo's situation, where he didn't know a single Qi technique, it was the wisest choice.
Giving up a method of becoming stronger simply because of the pain would also have been foolish.
That was what he had thought.
At least until he used the mana he had diligently accumulated for two months to modify part of his right thigh.
"Aaaaaagh-!"