One winter in 2025.
The wind, cold enough to chill him to the bone, rocked him precariously as he sat on the railing of a bridge over the Han River.
Gray and black mercilessly concealed the starlight in the winter night sky.
Only the headlights of the cars passing behind him briefly swept over him.
Words glowed faintly on the phone in his hand.
[Rejected.]
“Fuck...”
He lowered his head and looked at the black river.
Not even his shadow could exist in its waters.
It was exactly like his life.
Ever since he was little, he had lived as a “well-behaved child.”
His voice had been buried and erased beneath the things he was supposed to do.
He had only shaped his life around those things.
He had studied as a student, but his grades had always been average.
Because he had swallowed the fists, kicks, spit, and filth of the classmates he called friends.
The life he had to put on his résumé contained nothing but blank spaces.
The department he had entered because people said he had to go to college, choosing one that roughly matched his grades, was clothing that did not fit him.
He had only hurried after the people around him, but he had failed even at that.
After graduating with a university GPA in the twos, he had lost his way.
The freedom that had suddenly been given to him after becoming an adult had instead made it impossible to breathe.
What was he supposed to do now?
How was he supposed to do it now?
There was no light in the freedom where no one gave him orders and no role had been given to him.
Just as darkness swallows a shadow.
He was swallowed by meaninglessness.
His résumé, filled with nothing but blanks, brought rejection, and he was nearing his fifth year of living unemployed.
Even when he earned certificates, even when he worked temporary contracts.
What remained with him was not himself.
Eventually, even his parents called his name less often.
When his name was not called, his existence became transparent.
Insignificant, shameful, inadequate, meaningless, transparent... useless.
His only comfort was the news saying that the whole world was in a recession.
“Heh heh heh.”
With tears reddening his eyes, he raised his head and prepared for the end.
He briefly wrote his last words in the memo app.
[I'm sorry.]
Under the moonlight, he prepared to fall.
It was not visible, but perhaps it was far away.
The light.
＇I hope they can't even find my body..＇
His body slowly, gently tipped forward.
THUD—
Was it his final survival instinct kicking in?
Instinctively, he reached for the railing and found himself hanging from it.
“Urgh...”
Tears obscured his vision.
Whether he was cold, whether he was afraid,
or simply because he was so miserable, he could not tell.
He gritted his teeth at the unidentifiable terror.
＂I'm... such a fool that I don't even have the courage to die...＂
The veins in his hands sank down.
The nails that had turned white to show how tightly he was gripping turned pink again.
SLIP—
The hand clutching the railing came free.
“Ah...”
SPLASH—!
‘S...save me...!!‘
His legs thrashed in the water, kicking at empty air.
The man who had tried to give up on life struggled and cried out that he wanted to live.
Water poured into his nostrils and mouth, and his groans turned into bubbles and burst.
His consciousness faded.
There was no light underwater, either.
.
.
.
“Gahk!!”
He snapped his eyes open.
Coughing and dry-heaving on the ground, he resolved never to use that method again.
“Where am I...”
Looking around, he saw a field, sheep, and a girl running toward him from far away.
＂What?＂
The girl, whose freckles were scattered across her face like pale-pink flowers, panted for breath before suddenly shouting at him.
“Hey! You're finally awake? You said you'd help, and all you did was sleep!!”
“...Do you know—?”
He stopped mid-sentence, taken aback by how unfamiliar he sounded even to himself.
Even the sensation of his body felt somehow strange.
“What are you talking about?! I have to stay here longer, so either go back first or whatever!”
The girl went away, grumbling.
Watching the freckled girl from behind, he furrowed his brow.
He had never met her before, yet she was yelling at him at the top of her lungs, so there was no way he could ask her anything.
‘What... is she crazy... or am I crazy?’
After getting up, he examined his surroundings.
His eye level was unfamiliar, and his body felt light.
He had definitely fallen into the Han River and felt death beneath the water.
Yet now he was standing in a sunny field.
Nature that resembled the Alps seemed to welcome him.
There was a flock of sheep, and there was a girl.
Light was pouring down in abundance.
“What is all this... Did I... have a dream?”
Standing around was not going to solve anything, so he decided to head down the mountain first.
A warm wind brushed against his face.
The blades of grass sang in the wind, and from time to time, a massive shadow passed over, blocking the sky.
‘...Massive?’
Startled, he looked up at the sky.
A bird the size of a bus was flying overhead.
“Whaaat??!”
The giant bird calmly flew through the clear sky.
It was a bird more aptly compared to a pterosaur than an eagle.
“Aaaah!”
At the sight of such immense size, unlike anything he had ever seen in his life, he ran like mad.
After running for several minutes, a small village came into view.
But his steps gradually slowed.
The houses in the village were built in a style one might see in Western fantasy.
The people's clothing was strange as well.
He saw some people in leather clothes with swords at their waists.
Some even had pointed ears like elves.
“What the hell is this... Is this some kind of cosplay place?”
POP!
He heard the sound of a small explosion behind him.
When he turned around, a sphere of white light was floating in the air.
[Hello, Soul!]
‘...Soul? Did this ball of light just speak?’
“Um... who... no, what are you? Is this a dream?”
The sphere of light bobbed in the air as if giggling.
[This isn't a dream. It's reality! In your world.. they call this an Otherworld!]
‘...An Otherworld?’
[All right! I'll explain everything in order!]
The light cleared its throat with an ahem, as though getting its voice in order.
[Soul, you have come to the Otherworld! This is a world of fantasy, with elves, orcs, dragons, beastfolk, and more!]
He spoke as if it were absurd.
It was hard to believe.
Having clearly felt death, it was even harder to believe.
“A fantasy world...? In comics, people usually get hit by a truck.”
[That's right! Trucks were the main method. To put it another way, they're like salt!]
“Salt?”
[Just as food becomes salty when you add salt and sweet when you add sugar~ the means of Otherworld transmigration differs depending on the situation!]
“A means for what?”
The sphere of light answered playfully.
[The means changes depending on what you're making. And I'm a being like, um... an angel, who came to help you adapt well~!]
He waved the sphere of light off and began to stammer.
He had lived a miserable life.
He had never had even the slightest courage either to do good or to do evil, so he found it strange that he had come to the Otherworld.
“Wait. Why me, of all people?”
When he asked, the light fell silent for a moment.
[You are the kind of human I hate most. Neither this nor that, an ambiguous human.]
His face stiffened at those words.
[When someone insults you, you are not driven to overcome it with spite; you resign yourself first. A human who accepts things while always living with dissatisfaction.]
“...Is that the reason?”
[I needed an obedient human. You just happened to be one.]
“........”
He bit his lip and endured.
[Ah, I just call you ‘Soul’ as a form of address. Don't worry about the name!]
‘Endure it. I have to endure it.’
“Then am I some kind of hero in this Otherworld?”
But the light giggled again.
[You'll find that out later~ First, I'll explain the body you're using now!]
The light continued its explanation.
[Your current body belongs to a young man named Desi. He is eighteen years old and 178 cm tall! He was a kind young man who worked the fields.]
“...Why did I come to the Otherworld?”
He was still full of questions.
Why him, of all people?
Why would it not even reveal whether he was a hero or not?
But the sphere of light merely moved this way and that, as though his questions were unimportant.
[You can find that out bit by bit from now on~ First, I'll put fragments of Desi's memories into you!]
A tiny fragment of light entered his head.
Scenes unfurled before his eyes like a panorama of film.
Desi's memories were stored in his mind as naturally as breathing.
Eighteen years old, 178 cm, 79 kg.
He helps his father with the farming.
Friends: Makani and Kan......
Countless pieces of information poured in at once.
It was as though the knowledge Desi had learned and mastered throughout his life had been automatically uploaded, rummaging through and arranging itself inside his mind.
“Huff... huff...”
Clutching his head as though it would split apart from the headache, he broke out in a sweat.
Yet the light that called itself an angel merely circled around with an unruffled demeanor.
[Your head is throbbing for a moment due to information overload. The next lesson is tomorrow! Go home and rest today~]
And with that, the light disappeared.
When he gave up on life, a new life began for him in the Otherworld.
The reason was simple.
Because it needed an obedient human.
“What... is all this...”