'How did it come to this?'

Woojin—or rather, Kim Minwoo now—sighed.

〈(Tip) Stage 6 is ‘reality.’ Remember, you only have one life.〉

That opening message had been oddly chilling.

[Your mind is beginning to inhabit Kim Minwoo's body!]

[Your mental characteristics are changing significantly!]

Those messages had appeared, and now it was already his third day possessing a body in this goddamn world.

He could see the entries in his phone's notes app.

[Day 1]

—All twenty-three years of Kim Minwoo's memories have been injected into me. This technology is ridiculous! Could the rumors about the game company torturing aliens actually be true?

—Everything feels as vivid as reality. Surely it's illegal to set sensory reproduction above fifty percent?

—Something's wrong. I can't log out. The stream stopped working ages ago, too.

—I'm starting to wonder whether this is really a game or reality.

—Don't tell me I've been kidnapped into the game or something?

—My last stream had 300,000 viewers! And they kidnapped me anyway? Has the game company lost its mind?

—I can't leave the room. The bodyguards block my way.

—Apparently, I have two days left of the confinement the chairman imposed. Thankfully, they do bring me meals, but...

[Day 2]

—No hydration or nutrition warnings. No warnings about needing to pee or poop. No forced logout for extended play.

—It's almost like... my body isn't in the capsule. That sends a chill down my spine.

—One day left until Kim Minwoo's confinement ends.

[Day 3]

—If my body were in the capsule, a rescue team should have arrived long ago. I've been playing for seventy-two hours straight!

—Things seem to be playing out according to the worst-case scenario I imagined.

—Hunt down an Outer God within seven years. If I don't complete that objective, I might never get out of here...

'No one's coming to rescue me.'

He had waited long enough. His confinement had ended, too. It was time to move.

This was Stage 6 difficulty, not even Stage 5. One wrong step would mean death.

"... Thankfully, it isn't the worst-case scenario."

He had devoted half his life to Gate Hunter. No one knew this world as well as he did. He had an overwhelming information advantage.

'And it said my mind had changed significantly, too.'

He thought back over the past three days. He hadn't been particularly lazy, whiny, arrogant, or easily intimidated.

He did dream of coasting a little, but that was only natural for a gamer. His mind definitely seemed to have improved.

'No talent. This body's horrendous lack of talent seems to be intact, though...'

Still, at least his mind was better. And that wasn't his only advantage.

'Status window.'

[Name: Kim Minwoo (23)]

[Class: Unawakened.]

None other than Kim Minwoo was still Unawakened!

'Just not being stuck as that goddamn frustrating swordsman is a blessing.'

Kim Minwoo's physical abilities were about as bad as they came, even setting aside the fact that he had never trained in the first place.

'He just has no talent.'

A horrifying lack of it. Even after consuming countless elixirs and undergoing intensive training, his growth had stopped at a mere intermediate awakener's level.

He had turned to artifacts, but the limitations had been clear. Even with the world's best virtual-reality player at the controls against the Dragon Lord...

'I only took off half its health.'

And now his target was an Outer God. At the very least, it would be far stronger than the Dragon Lord.

The conclusion: a melee class was hopeless.

Did that make a ranged class the answer?

'Not really.'

Kim Minwoo's lack of talent wouldn't discriminate by range. But even he had a strength.

'He was born with a titanium spoon in his mouth.'

Ilseong Group. First in the domestic business rankings. Twentieth worldwide.

At least in Gate Hunter's Korea, no conglomerate family could rival Ilseong. If he could restore his standing in the family—which hadn't merely hit rock bottom but drilled all the way to the planet's core...

Show me the money.

He would be able to draw on funds as though he had entered a cheat code. In other words, he could acquire a vast amount of equipment.

Which class could put that to the best use?

'A class that uses summons.'

Tamers, soul masters, summoners, elementalists, and so on. A summoning class was Kim Minwoo's true calling. Summons could use equipment, too.

"And necromancer is the best of them all."

Skeletons, dullahans, liches, death knights—most of their summons were humanoid. With a market serving close to a billion awakeners, finding equipment for those summons would be easiest.

'Perfect for blowing money.'

That wasn't the only advantage. The undead were immune to fear. In other words, he could give them that much more offensive equipment.

"And I won't have to worry about getting stabbed in the back."

Managing summons was remarkably easy for a necromancer. They didn't eat, didn't shit, and didn't expect praise. Their blind loyalty meant they would charge straight into flames without hesitation if ordered!

Add overwhelming numbers to that, and those were the advantages of a necromancer.

"Let me have a turn on easy street."

1,832 days.

He had spent nearly six years swinging a sword through his tears. Surely he deserved this much of a reward?

He opened the bedroom door to find the fierce-looking bodyguards.

"I'm going out. That's all right, isn't it?"

"Yes, young master. We'll need to accompany you, so if you could just tell us where you're going..."

"The Sword Sea Pavilion. Please contact them for me."

"... The Sword Sea Pavilion?"

The bodyguards tilted their heads. Their puzzlement was understandable.

The Sword Sea Pavilion was the residence of the Sword Immortal, an S-rank awakener and the highest-ranked awakener in the country. They would have no idea why Kim Minwoo wanted to go there.

He grinned as he answered.

"Yes. There's something I need to do there."

First came awakening.

* * *

Five vehicles carrying bodyguards glided smoothly down the road. Sitting in the back seat, Minwoo thought,

'In Gate Hunter, anyone can become an awakener.'

Provided they discovered their awakening condition, of course. The condition differed for each individual.

Some people awakened through simple actions such as drinking water, eating a meal, or breathing out.

Others awakened through sustained effort, such as swinging a sword more than ten thousand times a day for an entire year, or imagining magic more than ten thousand times over the course of a year.

There were also difficult conditions, such as meditating in the rain for more than thirty hours or surviving a lightning strike.

Everyone had an equal opportunity to awaken. Whether a conglomerate heir or a homeless person, anyone could become an awakener if they figured out their condition.

But the results weren't equal.

'This is where the difference begins.'

Upon completion of an awakening, an Awakening Achievement grade from F to S was awarded based on the process.

What could you do with that achievement?

Simple. Create a class skill book.

Rather than being just an F-rank awakener, you could be an F-rank swordsman, mage, priest, and so on.

You could create the skill that would form the initial foundation of your lifelong class. Plenty of people fulfilled easy conditions, which was why there were so many low-ranking awakeners.

'The problem comes afterward.'

Easy conditions usually yielded low achievement grades. Naturally, the resulting class skill books were low quality.

'And that's how it snowballs.'

As time passed, the gap became insurmountable.

Take Park Siwoo, the swordsmanship genius he had played first.

[You have overcome extreme difficulty and attained Awakening Achievement Grade S!]

[Creating your first Swordsman class skill book!]

[Seeker of the Sword (S)]

[Effect 1. All swordsmanship damage increased by 30%.]

[Effect 2. Striking the same spot with three or more thrusts turns it into the opponent's weak point.]

[Effect 3. Every ten sword strikes guarantees one critical hit.]

The moment he attained an S-grade Awakening Achievement, a monstrous first skill like that had appeared.

Meanwhile, what about the F-rank swordsmen who made up over fifty percent and served as the awakener world's doormats?

[Slash (F)]

[Effect 1. Damage increased by 10% when using Slash.]

[Thrust (F)]

[Effect 1. Damage increased by 10% when using Thrust.]

That's right. The gap was overwhelming from the very first skill—so much so that, under ordinary circumstances, they could never catch up.

That was why it mattered: what the awakening condition was, and how to attain an S-grade achievement with it.

"Kim Minwoo's awakening condition was... getting beaten up by an awakener."

Ilseong Group's eldest son. Kim Minwoo had been born with not merely a diamond but practically a titanium spoon in his mouth.

Even an S-rank awakener couldn't easily beat him up. They would incur Ilseong's wrath. The one who had beaten Kim Minwoo was his father, Chairman Kim Gangcheol himself.

["I can turn a blind eye to everything else. But you dare touch drugs? Director Im, bring it here!"]

The wrath of Kim Gangcheol, a C-rank awakener and the group's chairman!

That day, Kim Minwoo had been beaten within an inch of his life with a golf club. Having failed to put up even a feeble resistance, his result had been disastrous.

Achievement Grade E.

In other words, completely fucking hopeless.

Worse, he had thought the swordsman in a drama that aired that year looked cool, and chosen a swordsman class-change skill book...

[Spinning Slash (E)]

[Effect 1. Delivers a sword strike dealing 120% damage to up to two enemies.]

'... Ha. The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get.'

Thanks to that, he still vividly remembered spamming Spinning Slash like mad for the past 1,832 days.

But things were different now. Kim Minwoo hadn't awakened yet.

This was his one chance to undo everything that had gone wrong!

'Fortunately, the awakening condition isn't bad.'

It wasn't something like simply breathing, where even introducing a variation was difficult. His Awakening Achievement would vary depending on who beat him, where, and how.

'First, I need someone strong to beat me up.'

But he couldn't just stand there getting the shit kicked out of him. He would need to put up a fight to raise the achievement grade.

In that respect, the Sword Immortal was perfect. No awakener in Korea was stronger. And Minwoo had spent the past six years swinging a sword like mad. That feel was still vivid, making a swordsman easier to face than someone of another class.

'S-rank is worth a shot.'

"Young master. We've arrived at the Sword Sea Pavilion."

The bodyguards stepped out first, checked the surroundings, and opened the rear door for him.

Before him stood a grand wooden building that looked like something straight out of a martial arts novel. A middle-aged man standing at the main entrance approached Kim Minwoo.

"... I'm Kim Woon, an instructor here at the Sword Sea Pavilion. You wished to take a look around inside?"

His manner was polite, but his gaze was cold. Perhaps that was only natural.

A conglomerate family's dissolute son and a lecher. After all the trouble he had caused, Kim Minwoo's public reputation was about as bad as it could get.

The only reason they hadn't refused his visit was likely Ilseong Group's backing. It had been the largest corporate donor toward the construction of the Sword Sea Pavilion.

"I'd appreciate it."

"... Very well. I'll show you around. However, the students are training, so please observe quietly."

In other words, don't cause trouble.

"Of course."

He nodded and entered with his bodyguards.

"This is the training hall for third-tier disciples. Recently, swordsmen from overseas have been joining the Sword Sea Pavilion as well."

Perhaps the sea of suits had caught their attention. The students, sweating profusely as they trained, glanced at the bodyguards.

"Isn't that... Kim Minwoo?"

"Judging by the bodyguards, I think so. Why's that spoiled bastard here...?"

The students began murmuring. Kim Woon's brow furrowed slightly at the sight.

"Even your full concentration on the sword wouldn't be enough! Where do you think you're looking?"

Startled by his roar, the students turned their eyes away.

Minwoo clapped his hands and said,

"Just what I'd expect from the Sword Sea Pavilion. Haha, even the third-tier disciples have an impressive presence!"

"... Ahem. They still have a long way to go."

No one disliked praise. Despite his curt reply, Kim Woon's eyes brimmed with unmistakable pride.

They passed through the second-tier disciples' training hall, then even the first-tier disciples' hall, which was rarely shown to outsiders. By the time Minwoo had showered them with praise and reached the heart of the Sword Sea Pavilion, Kim Woon stopped as though signaling the end of the tour.

"Did you enjoy your visit?"

"Can't I see any more?"

"No. I'm sorry, but outsiders aren't permitted beyond this point."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to meet the Sword Immortal."

"He is currently in secluded training. And even if he weren't..."

Kim Woon gave Minwoo a decidedly chilly look. It wasn't hard to guess what he had left unsaid.

He isn't someone the likes of you can order around.

'Something along those lines, anyway.'

Minwoo nodded. He had already known the Sword Immortal was in secluded training. That was precisely why he had gotten as close as he possibly could.

He drew in a deep breath. Now, all he had to do was...

"Sword Immortal! I, Kim Minwoo, challenge you to a spar!"

His voice carried not a trace of mana, but a grown man shouting at the top of his lungs was hardly quiet.

As his voice rang through the building, Kim Woon's eyes flew wide open.

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

Ignoring the flustered instructor, Minwoo continued.

"I'll put up a hundred billion won for this match! Win or lose, I'll donate every last won to the Sword Sea Pavilion!"

Kim Woon wasn't the only one stunned. The bodyguards, too, were staring at Kim Minwoo in utter bewilderment.

"I'm pretty good with a sword! I guarantee it'll be an entertaining match! You still won't come out? What, scared?"

"S-stop this! Have you lost your mind?!"

Kim Woon hurriedly grabbed Minwoo's shoulder. What in the world was this lunatic doing?!

Just then...

"Hoho."

As laughter echoed through the Sword Sea Pavilion, a terrifying pressure descended. A moment later, a tall, powerfully built old man appeared before Kim Minwoo.

His pitch-black eyes looked as though they could swallow everything.

"So, you were looking for me?"

"Yes, I was. Let's have a match. Man to man."