Capítulo 100: Spin-Off 1: [1st Playthrough]
Chapter 100: [1st Playthrough] Where in the world is this? (Spin-Off 1)
My name is Kang Han Soo.
I was an ordinary boy, 17 years old this year.
To pass the hellish university entrance exam, I was spending my time well while going to high school and cram school simultaneously everyday.
But I wasn't a recognized study genius in my school and neither was I exceptionally good at sports.
Just an ordinary high-schooler you could find anywhere in Korea.
But I was satisfied with my current life.
One thing I felt lacking in was my face… but let's stop here.
I trudged back home as soon as the class finished.
Today I walked separately with my friends whom I used to always walk home from school with except for days when it was my shift to do class cleaning.
Well, the reason was…
"Tsk! What's wrong with flush toilet development in the fantasy world?"
Do they think noble Saintesses and Great Wizards don't need sphincter muscles?
It's good to have great dreams and hopes like saving a fantasy world in crisis, or to make a harem of beautiful women.
But it wouldn't be late to slowly think about those things after we're equipped with basic food, clothing and shelter.
I, who every holiday never went for overseas trips and instead went to the countryside regularly, knew all too well.
The importance of flush toilets.
This was only a simple example.
Mosquitos and flies —that kept coming out of nowhere endlessly no matter how many times you caught them, disturbed your sleep all day. The kitchen was teeming with cockroaches. Your nose and taste buds became paralyzed at the smell of humans' and livestock's filth.
It amazed me that people of old times lived in this kind of poor environment, and I respect them.
"I can't believe they want to live in that fantasy world…"
I recalled what happened in school today.
At lunch time, I wasted my time with my friends on a subject with no nutritional value, "What if I dimensional-shift to the fantasy world?"
My friends were bold.
Hero, conqueror, inventor, harem, archmage, manumission… (PR: manumission is freeing people from slavery)
They talked about their dreams and hope like a waterfall quite in detail. If only they invested at least 10% of that enthusiasm in college entrance exams or employment information, they wouldn't have had to worry about being uncertain about what they wanted to be in the future.
To be honest, it was nice up to this point but…
My friends sneered at my 'flush toilet development'.
"I hope my friends get kidnapped to the fantasy world and go through some hardship!"
I hoped they regretted it painfully while experiencing it themselves.
Even though such an unscientific plot like dimensional shift —which is just as hard to understand as time travel is, wouldn't happen, we're free to imagine, right?
I grinned and sighed.
It was because I had a lot to do as soon as I arrived home. My desk was full of workbooks I had to do in preparation for approaching final exams.
Among them especially,
"Why the hell do we learn science?"
What was the point of knowing the name and the use of hormones in my body? It wasn't like I could control it the way I wanted if I knew it all anyway.
Complicated chemical formulas were also not that interesting except that time when my teacher talked about the production method of hand-made bombs. Even that would get you taken into the police station if you practice it in the present day.
Physics and geoscience were… let's stop here.
I cut through diagonally the old playground that nobody came to in order to quickly go home where my troubling cram school homework was waiting for me.
Even residents didn't really use this route. It was because there was some confusing rumor that from time to time bullies wandered around this playground which was out of the CCTV'S reach.
Seeing how there were a lot of cigarette butts on the ground, it seemed like it wasn't just a false rum…uh?
"… what is this light?"
White light was covering my body.
I hurriedly looked around, but there was nobody I could ask for advice and help about this strange phenomenon happening to me. I felt chills similar to survival instinct and hurriedly ran to get out of that playground with nobody around, throwing my bag away. But there was no sign of this light getting off of my body.
In the end-
Flash!
It ended up swallowing my sight too.
*
My mind was blank as if I just woke up from sleep. But it didn't last long. Because just in time my sight —which turned white engulfed by the mysterious light, came back slowly, my thoughts also gradually became clearer.
"… where in the world is this?"
I was in an old, run-down playground a moment ago. But now it felt like I had come to a middle-age European style museum.
Then what the hell were these people around me?
I could tell they were 'Knights' at first sight. High class military occupational specialty that moved around the battlefield riding horses. Wearing silver cans that looked suffocating, they were surrounding me in a big circle as if they were besieging me.
I couldn't understand this strange confrontation.
"Welcome, Mr Hero!"
Then, a cheerful voice of a young woman was heard behind my back.
I lost my breath after unconsciously turning around.
Beautiful.
Cute.
I couldn't find another way to express my first impression of her. The girl smiled brightly at me. What I felt was similar to the first time I saw the aspiring idol in my school.
But there was a clear difference between them.
The aspiring idol was really dressed up and looked sophisticated from her hairstyle, light make-up, hair-dye, perfume, up to even the small accessories.
On the other hand, the girl in front of me was wearing an old-fashioned dress, her face bare with no make-up, but her natural beauty and body covered it all.
Her dress, just like the knights', wasn't a common outfit that modern people would wear. It reminded me of middle-age adventures and travellers.
Was that hair that looked as if honey had been spread on it natural?
She looked at me with her blue eyes.
"Um, Mr Hero?"
"… hero?"
"Yes! You're a hero!"
Was this girl calling me a hero now?
"I don't quite understand the situation…"
I looked around one more time. Because there would've been some cameras installed somewhere if this was a movie filming set.
After examining the ceiling decorated with an antique chandelier, I froze as I finally looked at the floor I was standing on.
A huge circle with strange patterns drawn on it densely. It really looked similar to the 'magic circle' that I saw every now and then in the computer game I enjoyed.
The cute girl came even closer and said,
"Mr Hero, it's time to come back to your senses. It's confusing to be summoned without notice, right? This place is Fantasia. It's a different dimension with the world you were born and raised in. It must be too much to wish you to understand. I'll explain in detail from now on."
"Wait! Summoned?"
"Yes! You've been summoned through the dimensional shift magic circle drawn on the floor."
"..."
I decided to not react at all.
If this was a prank some TV station or movie company or somebody did, my flustered look must've been recorded by hidden cameras. But they would've stopped if I did nothing at all because it was no fun.
The girl started explaining just as she had notified. The sealed Demon King had revived and was threatening the existence of the human race. So they summoned a hero from another world following the divine message, and the hero summoned was 'me'.
"… what an obvious set-up. I understand. Is there anything left, Miss?"
I wish they ended this skit that wasn't even funny soon. Because I need to finish my homework and go to cram school. I had no time to have a chat in places like this.
"Oh my God! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Lanuvel. I'm an archeologist who summoned you after receiving a divine message on my journey researching ancient legends. Lanuvel means 'truth' in the ancient language."
Until then I thought it was somebody's bad prank.
But soon I realized that it wasn't when the knights around me carried me away half-forcefully because it started to take too long.
Old but cleanly managed hallway.
We have passed beautiful women that would make us turn to look at them one more time if we see them in some train, bus, or on the street more than 20 times already.
What's even more amazing was?
"I can't believe those beautiful women are holding wet mops and not handbags…"
Their maid-like black-and-white outfits, that were ready to get dirty while cleaning or doing the laundry, were even more tacky. But seeing how the design was quite emphasizing their breasts and asses, it was obvious that the intention was to seduce high-position male workers.
It was said that in the past court ladies who were working in the palace wanted to be the king's concubine, right?
I couldn't help but acknowledge it after I looked out the window in the hallway.
A vast garden that was beautifully decorated. It was taken care of by numerous gardeners who were holding scissors or squatting down, working manually without the help of machines like brush cutters.
The ultimate inefficiency!
Too many people were gathered to fool me, who was no more than an ordinary highschool student living in Korea.
This was undeniable reality.
Shake. Shake.
Lanuvel who was walking ahead while cutely shaking her butt must be real too.
"..."
"What's wrong, Mr Hero?"
"… nothing. I was just looking."
"..."
"You are free to ask me anytime if there's anything you're curious about. Lanuvel knows a lot because Lanuvel has traveled around Fantasia!"
I met the king of this country around the time I completely accepted this fantasy world as reality. It was a man that looked like a dumpling, no king's dignity could be found, but still I couldn't take him lightly. Because this place wasn't a democratic country, but a hierarchical society.
My fate depended on this king's order. Death penalty, torture, toil, life sentence… He had the right and power to forcefully make me do anything.
I was really annoyed that he made me wait for more than an hour at the audience room entrance, but I couldn't express my complaints. Since I only had one life.
"You came well to my land! Hero!"
"Great to see you, Your Great, Wise Highness.
Everybody in the audience room burst laughing at my greeting. But I couldn't help it. This was the limit with the etiquette I crammed up for an hour. But I still tried my best in my own way to not offend the king.
My hands and legs were still shaking now.
The horror that I might die.
I was desperately realizing how good democracy was as a system.
"Hero. Can you see the stats?"
"Yes, I can."
I couldn't deny the fact that I had been summoned to the fantasy world because of this crucial proof.
▷ Species : Arch Human
▷ Level : 1
▷ Job : Hero (500% increased EXP gained)
▷ Skill : Interpretation A
▷ Status : Anxious
In front of my eyes I could see a half-transparent 'status' like a hologram. It was in a language I didn't understand but somehow I understood the meaning. And I could also see others' stats.
▷ Species : Human
▷ Level : 285
▷ Job : King (National Power → Recruit ↑)
▷ Skill : Office work A Politics B Economy B Martial arts C Social C…
▷ Status : Exhausted, satisfied
It was the stats of that king who looked like a dumpling.
I just got summoned to the fantasy world and just got to know the existence of the level, skill, etc on the stats, it was all still unfamiliar so I couldn't understand even by looking at it. But at least I could tell that the king was satisfied with my appearance as a hero.
The king got up from his throne and declared.
"The chosen hero! Crisis has arrived in this country which is close to the devils' territory! Knock down the Demon King Fedonar after you level up your stats while defeating the devils!"
"Your Highness!"
"Hm? Do you have anything to say to me, Hero?"
"I…"
I couldn't bring myself to say that I didn't know how to fight. I was a student until a moment ago. What I knew how to kill was only mosquitoes and cockroaches.
I had the bad name 'killer with dirty personality' which was what my friends called me in the computer game, that was only possible because it was a game. In reality I wasn't a cold-blooded warrior. I couldn't hurt or kill others, much more if the opponent was the Demon King who was said to have the power to destroy the world!
I heard it as an order to suicide.
But,
"… nothing. I'll knock down the Demon King."
I couldn't honestly say I couldn't.
Suddenly, I remembered an old saying. Was it "to be able to say that we're scared is also a form of courage"?
That was true.
It felt as if the king would get enraged at my refusal and torture me, or order the knights and nobles around to brainwash me. So I couldn't say it.
How did my ordinary highschool student life...
*
"Mr Hero! Lanuvel will help you!"
Lanuvel promised me with a cute tone of voice as soon as I got out of the audience room after receiving the order to leave the room from the tired king. That she would be my colleague. The deadline was until I knocked down the Demon King Fedonar.
"Colleague..."
"Yes, your colleague!"
I was relieved with Lanuvel who was a level 200 wizard joining me. Because I was at a loss about how to survive in this dangerous fantasy world in the future.
My current level was 1.
It was lower even than the maids who cleaned the royal palace. Are the king and the fantasy God in the right minds to leave the future of the human race in the hands of this poor hero?
There was no way the Demon King would kindly wait until I became better. He might have sent an assassin already.
Anyways,
"Lanuvel, I'm looking forward to working with you in the future."
"Leave it on me!
She was my only hope as for now.
"… so I have something to ask."
"Go on, Mr Hero."
"Where's the bathroom?"
"Bathroom?"
I didn't know then.
That it wasn't the time to worry about flush toilets.
I underestimated the fantasy world too much.
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