『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Side Story – Park Sihu(1) ༻
※ This side story might, or might not be about a parallel universe.
“…Fuck.”
I couldn’t help but swear out loud.
“Haa…”
It wasn’t difficult to come to the conclusion that I had entered a game.
A system window – the unique trait of a player – was right before my eyes and I confirmed that it was indeed working. There was the inventory box, crafting window, skills tab, quest guides, and a map, as well as the name of the player.
It was very clear that this was a world within the game, ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ which I had been heavily obsessed with.
Back in the day, I went around remembering everything about the game and used to be a famous veteran gamer in the forums, but that was a long time ago. Why was it, that I was now in the body of Park Sihu?
My thoughts were running rampant to the point where I didn’t even question the logic behind it. However, what I did know was that this world was going to be destroyed by Tates Valtazar and that only a select few would be able to survive by then.
Whether I wanted to or not, I had to save the world.
“Fuck.”
Again, I couldn’t help but swear at this stupid turn of events.
I hated heroes.
Whether it be novels or games, I hated seeing inefficient and annoying plot development of nosy people putting their lives on the line to save others. Fortunately, the genre of villainesses was on the rise so that was perfect, but it was really beyond me how people were able to read old-style fantasy novels.
Thankfully, the main character, Park Sihu, of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ was far from being a cliche hero. To clarify, this game… had an exceptional level of freedom. The ending differed based on the good and evil actions of the player, personally, I was fond of the anti-hero ending.
It was a lot easier than the hero ending, and there were plenty of items you could gain during the game by going down that route.
There was the issue that your relationship with some good-natured NPCs could be ruined to the point they wouldn’t enter your party, but the return was so big that it was still worth it.
‘Alright. We’re going the super efficient route.’
First off, I decided to get used to the system and acquire every hidden piece I could gain from the very beginning.
………
……
…
Chairman Eriu gave a few short sentences at the entrance ceremony of Merkarva Academy. Erin Danua – an NPC that teaches secret spells and hidden skills in the game.
The strongest set of moves you could learn from her was the Six Ways of the Spear including Shura, but I had no plans of learning spearmanship.
Not only was I not used to fighting with my own body, but it was just straight-up better to shoot spells from far away.
‘It would be better for her to die early to access the treasures though. Is there a way to somehow make her die a bit earlier?’
Thinking that, I opened the door of the bathroom when—
“Kyaaak! What are you doing here?!”
“Pervert!”
“Ah fuck…”
Damn it. I quickly walked out and headed to the other entrance. It felt like shit.
Everything was fucked up. This stupid game, this Park Sihu body, and the system that forced me to save the world. Everything was disgusting.
I’m going to do everything the way I want to. Fuck the story. All I have to do is save the world at the end, right?
“Slow development – I hate it. Fast plots are always the best, and I’ll live for myself and myself only.”
“Wait, you too?”
And that was when I met Korin Lork, a person from the same homeland who had been put under the same situation.
***
Korin Lork.
A useless trash and a side character of the game.
Seeing him made me think, ‘Wow. What an unlucky piece of shit to go into a side character.’ Well, I liked his face but there was a clear limit to his potential.
“DO YOU KNOW KIMCHI?!”
“I’m Korean.”
“DO YOU KNOW PSY?!”
“As I said, yes I do.”
“DO YOU KNOW…!”
“Are you a boomer?”
“…I’m not that old just yet.”
Korin said with a sulk. That did look a little cute but from the way he spoke, he seemed quite a bit older than me.
“Aiya~. I wasn’t expecting to see someone from the same homeland. How old were you?”
“I turned 26.”
Although I was actually a 22-year-old college student… I lied about my age because Koreans had the tendency to look down on people younger than them.
“Oh yeah? I’m a year older than you. Call me Big Bro.”
Damn it, I should have said 27.
‘Big Bro’ my ass. Was he going to act bossy just because he was older? It was as clear as day what his personality was like just from that short conversation.
“By the way, Sihu. Have you played this game before?”
“You mean Heroic Legends of Arhan? No, I was about to play when I was suddenly forced into it…”
Of course, I have. You will probably even know my name if I told you.
However, there was no need to reveal my cards first, since I wasn’t sure what kind of person he might be. If worse came to worst, he might become my enemy so I opted to give him as little information as possible.
“Okay. I am amazing at this game, so trust me.”
Ehew, alright alright.
“Oh right. Do you have the system window and stuff then?”
“Yeah, well…”
“Wow… damn. I’m so jealous.”
From the looks of things, it seemed that he had entered the game without even a system window. That was obvious, I suppose because the system was a tool that supported the player, not a side character like Korin Lork.
I didn’t like how he was acting all cocky just because he was older, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea to carry around a minion with me.
***
Korin Lork.
A 27-year-old on Earth. He liked games just like an average man, but unexpectedly, he was more of an elite than I thought. From what he said, it seemed that he was from a famous athletic college in the capital, and had been working as a part-time personal trainer in a gym.
“Why were you working as a part-time trainer after graduating from a good uni?”
“That stupid coach was getting lobbied and match-fixing. I told him off; he hated me for that and later chased me out of the team.”
What an idiot. He talked back to the coach even though it wasn’t even himself that was disadvantaged by the match – it was his junior. He was the biggest idiot I had ever seen.
“You said you were on the course to be a part of the national team. You went all the way down to a personal trainer, so do you not regret it?”
“Huh? Of course not.”
His reply came out in the blink of an eye. I wasn’t very knowledgeable in the field, but I still knew that being a representative of the country was nothing light and that it was much better than being a personal trainer at a local gym.
“If I didn’t tell the coach back then, I probably would have earned more money and had gone to Brazil, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“…And why doesn’t that mean anything?”
He would have benefited a lot more had he ignored that one event, and wouldn’t have been forced to look at the belly fat of old women in the local gym or be sexually harassed all the time, so… why was it that he could say that with such certainty in his voice?
“I stuck true to my conviction. And I think that’s way more valuable…”
“…So what if I didn’t make it till the end? I’m sure I would have regretted it to this date if I hadn’t talked back to the coach back then…”
“…My life isn’t over yet, and I can start it all over again. Who says being a part of the national team would have been more valuable? It’s up to me to decide the value.”
Conviction, justice, being right.
Fucking idiot. None of those were anything but superficial.
Despite my short time with him, I could tell that he was a man who was full of himself and whose brain was also infested with muscles.
People who pretended to be good like him didn’t tend to last long. All the pathetic guys that tried to get my number in college were all like that – acting and pretending to be a nice person.
They were bound to reveal their true selves in moments of danger.
However, my impression of him slowly started to change over time. This guy… he was the real deal. A bonafide idiot.
Even on the mission board, instead of being efficient, he always prioritized the time-inefficient jobs about saving and helping the lower class, and all of his plans for the future were difficult, round-about ways of saving people.
Apparently, we were the only ones who could help out because we knew everything.
A good-natured idiot. A foolishly nice person.
Yes, I could admit that he had a good personality. But what about that? He was just an idiot that couldn’t even look after himself.
Well, it was still fine. He was a muscle-brain who spent all of his time training in the training rooms to raise a tiny bit of his pathetic stats, even though you could cover for all that with an elixir. Not to mention, he was a fool who thought of me as an ally just because we were from the same homeland, so he was easy to manipulate.
I could use him as a meat shield in the earlier stages of the game and then deal with him when the time comes.
***
“Uhk…!”
Damn it. I let my guard down.
I thought I was well-prepared against Vampire Marie Dunareff, the boss of the 1st Arc but…
By killing Alicia Arden, I made Lunia Arden join our group earlier than scheduled, and rapidly nurtured Dorron Warsky and Kranel Luden.
I acquired all the hidden pieces that could be acquired at the Academy in the early stages of the game including the Yellow Gold Mandrake. My current stats were on par with Marie Dunareff’s before she turned into a vampire.
Of course, it was still nowhere near the awakened Marie Dunareff, but she was still in panic mode and was just a bitch that ran away from the sorrow of turning into a vampire.
It was possible to solo Marie in the game with a quarter of my current stats because all you had to do was suppress her for a little bit while she fought with her inner self.
However, due to this being the first real fight, I made a mistake with my control and accidentally shot a spell at Kranel’s golem, destroying it in the process. It was because I was flustered after being wounded by one of the spells of the Blood Hound. To make things worse, another shard of ice destroyed my barrier and crushed the building behind me.
A small mistake in the battle caused a gigantic mess.
“Ugh… It hurts.”
Damn it. I was late in reacting with a defensive spell. I was pretty sure the last thing I saw was a massive chunk of ceramic falling on my head…
“Fuck… Fuck. Fuck…”
With a sharp pain in my stomach, I was slowly coming to myself and trying to see through the layer of dust with my hazy eyes when something started to drip onto my face.
“Uhht?”
It was a liquid smelling like rust. When I used light magic and saw what was ahead, I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Hey, are you alright?”
Korin Lork. That man was covering for me, protecting me from the remains of the building.
“B, big Bro Korin-?”
“Looks like you’re fine. Ahk damn it… this hurts like hell.”
Korin was in a terrible state. He was bleeding profusely from his head, and a Blood Spear that had been heading towards me was piercing through his stomach.
Had he been slightly more unlucky, he would have died at once… and was bleeding so much that he might die soon.
“Why…?”
“Hmm?”
Exhaustedly blinking his eyes, he returned a question in response to my question. For some reason, I was incredibly annoyed by that clueless look on his face.
“You… have nothing to do with me. Why would you…”
“They say… ‘Even a slight touch of sleeves creates a destiny,’ so that’s not true…”
“Fuck. You know that’s not what I mean!”
“Ahh, Buddy. My head hurts. Please don’t yell…”
He frowned as if it was extremely painful, so I forced my volume back down.
“Well…”
I could hear the sound of people creating a fuss outside but all of my attention was on Korin and Korin alone.
“Why… do I need a reason to help you?”
“What?”
“Reasons… You don’t need any of that. I just like happy endings.”
Pebbles and dust fell as the broken debris of the building started to be lifted from outside. He, who was drenched in blood and dust, slowly continued his statement.
“It’s good… if everyone is happy, right? People dying… is not nice. You, uhkk…!”
“Big Bro? Wake up! You can’t fall asleep! You might die!”
He woke up and looked back at me only after a few slaps. He looked straight into me with his eyes that were dreamy and hazy… yet within them was the strongest willpower in the world.
“You have to be happy… You can’t… die in a place like this…”
Korin said while gazing straight into my eyes.
“Y, you retard. Idiot. Stupid fool…!”
I couldn’t believe how much of a fool he was. How could there be such a stupid person in this world?
How could he put his life on the line for such a stupid reason? How could he do that? How was he able to do that like it was nothing?
That was probably when the player, Park Sihu… or Park Sirin from Earth fell in love with this stupid idiot.
***
For a very long time, Korin Oppa stayed in the hospital.
It was partially because of the severity of the injury, but it was also because of his physical limitations as a feeble side character.
Dumbass… all that practice with his spear wasn’t getting him anywhere.
Marie Dunareff, the perpetrator of this incident, was unable to be found despite the professors and security team being dispatched out on a search. It was clear that she had run away somewhere, but they had trouble finding her traces.
However, I had a rough idea of where she would be, and finding her would be easy with the help of Yuel the Druid.
For the next month, I focused on making myself stronger and was already much stronger than the likes of Grade 1 mages. On the other hand, that bitch hadn’t been able to suck human blood so she must have gotten even weaker.
“This way.”
I arrived at a corner of the Hunting Grounds with the help of Yuel, who was loved by spirits. There, I found Marie Dunareff who was surviving off of the blood of demonic beasts.
“Fucking bitch. Look at you enjoying your life after almost killing two people.”
“U, uhh…”
The vampire shed tears of blood with her fangs deep inside the neck of a demonic beast, but I knew those were crocodile tears. She was the one who hurt my Korin Oppa.
“How… is… Korin?”
“…”
Hearing her say that, I remembered the days of the past. She was a 2nd-year senior who was equally generous to everyone, but I could vividly recall her throwing more glances at Korin Oppa.
“…You too, huh?”
It was only for a short moment, but I was able to notice her glances as another woman just like her. This bitch had feelings for Korin Oppa.
“Know your place, you damn NPC.”
He is mine – the one and only real one in this fake world.
He’s not someone NPCs like you can even dare think about approaching.
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