Thirty Years Since the Prologue “Ah…
what a strange ceiling…” Kim Seonwoo muttered quietly.
No, “quietly” wasn’t quite right.
His hands were trembling with excitement.
How long had he waited for this moment?
A strange ceiling.
A strange world.
Yes.
Possession.
Possession.
Another world.
Whatever this was—it had finally happened.
In truth, he had spent an absurdly long time preparing for exactly this day.
The important part was the word preparing.
Every citizen of South Korea already knew the basic conditions for being reincarnated into another world.
Read a series all the way to the end.
And submit a 5,700-character review filled with gratitude.
Once he realized that, Kim Seonwoo took things one step further.
Every novel, every webtoon, every game he liked— Every story he wanted to be transported into— He wrote a 5,700-character review for it.
Every single day.
Always expressing his appreciation.
Never repeating himself.
Meticulously.
Thoroughly.
Because if he were going to end up inside one of those stories, then naturally he memorized everything.
The plot.
The setting.
Hidden quests.
Legendary artifacts.
Relationships between the major characters.
Everything.
And then…
He wrote 5,700 words carefully crafted to utterly crush the author’s spirit— Until they wanted to say, “Then why don’t YOU try writing it?” Of course, in most cases the result was simply the author quitting the series, or him getting publicly ridiculed and banned by online communities.
But in the end…
He won.
He had finally been transported into another world.
Now only one question remained.
What story was this?
“Status Window!” No colorful blue augmented-reality interface appeared before him.
But that was fine.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Many of the works he’d left nasty reviews on didn’t have status windows anyway.
If anything, he’d just crossed several possibilities off the list.
Besides…
His body looked no older than four or five years old.
Time—and potential—were both on his side.
The worn-out clothes.
The shabby ceiling.
Those were even better.
“A genius living in a place like this?!” “A true hero indeed!” “I’ll give you the throne!
I’ll give you all my wealth!
Just save us!” Every piece of media on Earth had already proven one thing: The more miserable your childhood, the greater your eventual success looked.
Smiling to himself, Kim Seonwoo climbed out of bed.
“Well then…” “I guess I’ll start with something simple.” “Making soap.” *** Age 4 — Week One After Possession Kim Seonwoo discovered that this body’s name was Ivan Petrovich.
His parents were tenant farmers.
They didn’t even know the name of their own country.
Neither of them could read.
The realization left him speechless.
After his soap-making experiment failed…
He got a severe scolding for playing around with lye.
Only afterward did he learn…
Soap already existed in this world.
Age 4 — Six Weeks After Possession At last, Ivan was allowed to run errands delivering eggs around the village.
The moment he noticed an old newspaper lying on the ground…
He felt something was off.
“If they can print newspapers…” “And distribute them all the way out to a rural village like this…” “Then this isn’t even medieval.” Most of the titles on his “Possible Worlds” list were immediately crossed out.
Age 4 — Fifteen Weeks After Possession He finally learned the name of the country he lived in.
He also heard the king’s name.
The moment he got home…
He threw his treasured notebook—the one containing every possible story he’d prepared for—straight into the fireplace.
The country’s name…
The king’s name…
The neighboring kingdoms…
He had never heard of any of them.
At this point, the important question was no longer: “Which story have I entered?” It became: “What genre is this world?” Please…
Anything but dark fantasy.
For an ordinary modern Korean reincarnated as a tenant farmer—with no status window and no cheat abilities— The survival rate in a dark fantasy world approached less than five percent.
Age 8 — Four Years After Possession Completely out of nowhere…
The Demon King appeared.
The war was still taking place far away.
But every special newspaper edition carried nothing but grim news.
Winter, Age 8 Ivan’s father was conscripted by military recruiters.
To support her son…
His mother began taking whatever odd jobs she could find.
From this point onward…
Kim Seonwoo’s identity slowly began to blur.
Age 10 — Six Years After Possession Ivan had become surprisingly good at helping his mother with labor work.
Age 12 — Eight Years After Possession He finally learned how to read.
The price?
For six years he’d secretly diverted eggs to the village chief as payment for lessons.
Age 14 — Ten Years After Possession News of his father’s death reached the village.
The ridiculous part?
The official notice had been issued two years earlier.
Accepting a handful of coins as compensation for his father’s life…
He watched his mother cry herself to exhaustion.
Two thoughts crossed his mind.
The first: This world was probably a grand strategy game.
No wonder everything felt so detailed.
If it had been an RPG, there wouldn’t normally be this many fully realized kingdoms.
Developers rarely bother implementing regions players never visit.
Nor could this be a novel or webtoon.
The setting was simply too elaborate.
Primitive firearms.
Steam engines.
Knights.
Mages.
The Demon King.
Multiple races.
Everything coexisting naturally.
If someone serialized a novel with this kind of setting…
Readers would probably complain, “What the hell are you talking about?” “Stop writing lore only you understand.” The series would almost certainly get dropped before finishing.
So…
Naturally…
He had to head for the front lines.
If he stayed a tenant farmer in this forgotten countryside…
He’d die without ever stepping onto the main stage.
Strategy games usually ended with world conquest.
And he certainly didn’t want his ending to be: “Conquered by the Demon King’s army before learning anything.” His second thought was…
“Don’t worry, Mother.” He gently stroked the hair of his mother, who had cried herself to sleep.
Then he handed his enlistment papers to the recruiting officer.
Annual salary: 15 copper leaves.
Every last coin would be sent home.
It wasn’t exactly filial piety.
Rather…
He pitied this incredible woman who sacrificed everything for someone who wasn’t even truly her son.
And…
He couldn’t shake the guilt.
By taking over the body of the boy named Ivan…
It felt as though he had killed her only child himself.
Age 18 — Fourteen Years After Possession Fourth Year of Military Service Thanks to several small achievements—and a fair amount of luck— Ivan was promoted from conscript to regular soldier.
He also discovered…
This body possessed remarkable talent for combat.
Age 22 — Eighteen Years After Possession Eighth Year of Military Service The front lines were collapsing.
Half of the allied nations had already burned.
Then…
The Hero appeared.
Only then did Ivan finally realize this world’s genre.
It was…
A classic Hero RPG.
Unfortunately…
The Hero was fighting in another country.
Ivan’s battlefield remained a slaughterhouse.
Age 28 — Twenty-Four Years After Possession Fourteenth Year of Military Service The Hero’s party began eliminating the Demon King’s generals one after another.
The tide of war finally turned.
Ivan was reassigned to the Recovered Territory Security and Enemy Remnant Elimination Unit.
A very long title.
In simpler terms…
The Extermination Unit.
Whenever the Hero killed another enemy commander…
And the enemy army collapsed into chaos…
They were sent in afterward.
For about a year…
Ivan traveled alongside the Hero’s party, sharing the same military camps.
Age 30 — Twenty-Six Years After Possession Sixteenth Year of Military Service The Hero killed the Demon King.
Ivan decided to wait for the ending.
He wanted nothing more than to escape this wretched world.
Age 32 — Twenty-Eight Years After Possession Two years had passed since the Demon King’s death.
Still…
No ending.
Meanwhile…
The Extermination Unit had dwindled to one-fifth of its original size.
When no replacements arrived…
Ivan realized headquarters intended to quietly dissolve the unit.
After completing what was essentially a suicide mission…
He requested discharge from the army.
His mother had already died ten years earlier.
He was now completely alone.
Near the capital…
He founded an orphanage.
He took in children orphaned by the war.
It was…
A small act of hypocrisy.
Age 34 — Thirty Years After Possession Even now.
Still.
To this very day.
The ending credits never appear.
*** Perhaps…
Perhaps this had never been an RPG at all.
That suspicion became certainty…
The day a visitor arrived at the orphanage.
“…Fuck.” “…Pardon?” “Fuck.” “So this was an Academy story all along?” “…Senior?” The visitor awkwardly smiled at the orphanage director, who had suddenly burst into profanity.
The royal court official wiped cold sweat from his brow as he recalled the orphanage director’s countless nicknames.
The King’s Executioner.
The Lumberjack.
The Man Who Butchered the Seven Dragon Generals.
The Undying One.
The Vanguard.
A living legend among conscripts.
And that terrifying man now looked as though he’d split someone’s skull with an axe over a single wrong word.
So the royal envoy simply forced an uncomfortable smile…
And quietly held his breath…
Waiting for the orphanage director’s fury to subside.