People were creatures of forgetfulness.
No matter how bizarre or absurd something was, time eventually dulled its edges until they could accept it without much thought.
But even acceptance had its limits.
“I am fucking...”
Five days.
No. To be precise, I would now die in four days, twenty-three hours, and fifty-six minutes.
Time had no pause button, which meant I was drawing closer to death with every passing moment.
“This is driving me insane.”
If they were going to toy with me like this, they might as well have killed me right now.
I wanted to shout that at the top of my lungs, but I could not quite bring myself to do it.
What if they actually killed me?
Tsk.
So what choice did I have?
“If they tell me to do it, I have to do it.”
Complaining any further would change nothing. It would only waste the precious time I had left.
I checked the quest again first.
The objective was to eliminate one of this world’s scourges.
At least it was simple.
There was no need to rack my brain over it. I just had to find one and kill it, did I not?
Ha ha ha.
But how the hell was I supposed to do that?
...
Unfortunately, [Epic of Salvation], the novel I had entered, was a fantasy novel.
Swords flashed, magic blazed, and people known as Awakened flew through the skies...
“Ah, maybe they do not go that far?”
In any case, it was an outrageously abnormal and violent world.
Naturally, its scourges were anything but ordinary.
Demons, demonic beings, magical beasts...
The world was crawling with monsters capable of crushing someone like me, whose only qualification was working out at the neighborhood gym, with a single finger.
“Are they just telling me to die?”
I was lowering my head in despair when my reflection in the mirror suddenly struck me as unfamiliar.
And then I realized something.
“...Right.”
How had I failed to think of that?
Just as this world was anything but ordinary, I was no longer Lee Dohyeon, the webtoon artist.
I was Park Hayul, a direct descendant of the Origin Sorcerer Family.
Which meant...
Problems from another world ought to be solved by that world’s methods.
The moment my thoughts reached that conclusion, something clicked in my head.
Before long, my mind filled with information about Park Hayul, and a glimmer of hope flickered to life.
“It is a little uncertain, but...”
If I could use that talent right now...
It might not be impossible for an ordinary person like me to kill one of those scourges.
First, I needed to establish the timeline!
Now that I had found a lead, I hurried back to the living room.
According to the clock, it was February 20, 12:30 a.m.
That put me roughly four days before the prologue of the novel.
That solved one problem.
I knew the exact place and time where one of the scourges would appear.
“That is one thing taken care of.”
I was not entirely sure this would work since it had never appeared in the original novel, but I called out anyway.
“Character Window?”
My vision rippled, and a rectangular window appeared before me.
「Park Hayul」──────
▶Grade: Main Character
▶Family: Origin Sorcerer Family
▶Primary Attribute: Fire
I already knew the basic settings, so I quickly skipped over them.
▶Stats
The same went for his stats.
He might have been a hidden protagonist, but frankly, the only exceptional thing about him was his appearance. His actual abilities were worse than mediocre, so there was no doubt his stats would be a complete disaster.
▶Characteristics and Personality
: A handsome recluse.
: A quiet, prickly social misfit.
: A mentally ill man who suffers from hallucinations.
: Mana-Deficient Constitution.
.
This part was worth examining.
Fortunately, it was there.
‘A mentally ill man who suffers from hallucinations.’
In that case, the corresponding trait had to exist as well.
▶Traits
: Manifestation
: Acute Senses
: Robust Recovery
: Reading
: Terminal Condition
My gaze locked onto the very first trait on the list.
「Manifestation」
Description: A talent originating from Park Hayul’s hallucinations. By infusing mana into visions, delusions, or products of the imagination, they can be given physical form.
It was a form of creative power, and the single greatest reason Park Hayul qualified as a hidden protagonist.
An overwhelming talent capable of negating all of his numerous negative traits at once.
Park Hayul was not supposed to awaken Manifestation until much later, so I had been worried that it might not be available yet.
Fortunately, it was.
“Now I only have to decide how to wield such a powerful weapon.”
But that was not nearly as easy as it sounded.
For example, suppose an ordinary person and a professional engineer each imagined a car.
What would happen if those cars were manifested?
Unlike the engineer’s car, the ordinary person’s would probably be nothing more than an impressive-looking shell.
The chassis, the engine, power transmission, the gearbox, and everything else.
A car could not run if you knew nothing about how one worked.
The effectiveness of Manifestation depended on the user’s knowledge.
And in that respect, the intellectual gap between Park Hayul and me was considerable.
The mind I possessed right now was simply that of ‘Lee Dohyeon,’ so I could not use Manifestation the way ‘Park Hayul’ could.
...However.
“Reading?”
What was this?
One of the traits that happened to catch my eye felt distinctly unfamiliar.
I could understand Terminal Condition being added because of the time limit, but Park Hayul had originally possessed only three traits: Manifestation, Acute Senses, and Robust Recovery.
That was all.
Had there been some talent I did not know about?
There was nothing to lose by checking.
The reason soon became clear.
「Reading」
Description: A benefit bestowed upon Lee Dohyeon, an outsider and the second creator of this world. As long as his hand can touch something, he can rapidly acquire whatever knowledge it contains.
Seeing my familiar name after the phrase ‘second creator’ was strangely reassuring.
And the timing was suspiciously convenient.
Acquire knowledge...
It almost seemed as though this had been prepared in advance, as if someone had anticipated that I would encounter precisely this problem.
I had been taught never to accept unexplained generosity, but I was hardly in a position to be picky.
“Let us find out.”
I wanted to see just how impressive a gift they had prepared for me.
I headed toward the bookshelves covering another wall of the living room.
Park Hayul was still the son of a prestigious family, after all, and the collection was substantial enough to reflect that.
After scanning the shelves, I selected a book.
[The Prestigious Family Etiquette Series: Everything You Need in One Volume]
Members of the great families, reign with dignity and elegance.
It was essentially a self-improvement book.
I had deliberately chosen a subject I knew absolutely nothing about so I could properly test the effect.
I took a deep breath, then murmured softly.
“Reading.”
[Activating the trait ‘Reading.’]
[Reading information from the medium.]
After a brief pause, a strange change swept over me.
WHOOOOOSH──────!
Without warning, all the strength drained from my body.
A sharp headache rang through my skull, accompanied by the sensation of something rapidly being driven into my mind. Then unfamiliar information began surfacing in a chaotic flood.
[Reading terminated due to insufficient mana.]
[Comprehension: 80%]
It might have been only eighty percent, but the effect was visible and immediate.
CRACK—
Before I even realized what I was doing, my hunched back straightened elegantly. The leg I had been leaning on suddenly felt offensively improper, so I brought my feet neatly together.
...What the hell was this?
The bizarre phenomenon extended beyond my outward behavior and infected my mind as well.
As though I had become another person, I found the graceless condition of my current body revolting.
The coarse fabric against my skin, especially the shabby tracksuit I was wearing, was so distasteful that I could barely tolerate it.
“...I have yet to cast off this repulsive vulgarity.”
In the end, I even uttered a line so pretentious that I could scarcely believe it had come out of my own mouth.
...This was insane.
Despite my confusion, a chill ran over my skin.
It had not merely given me knowledge.
It had affected me as though I had spent years internalizing everything I had learned.
Was this the power of acquisition?
“This truly is an outrageous ability... No, this is absurdly powerful.”
I shook my head violently and deliberately suppressed the bizarre manner of speech.
In any case, this was more than enough to compensate for my lack of knowledge.
No, it went far beyond that.
With this, I could potentially surpass even the original Park Hayul.
“Then...”
There was no need to imitate him.
Not when I had a better alternative...
I decided to take things one step further.
Not merely to use Manifestation ‘like’ Park Hayul, but to achieve the ultimate application of Manifestation that ‘even’ Park Hayul had failed to accomplish.
I searched my memories of the original novel for the book that had inspired the idea.
“He said he saw it in some ancient book...”
An ancient book?
Something flashed through my mind.
I immediately ran back into the corridor.
Among the ornaments displayed along both walls, I stopped before an exceptionally old and thick volume that looked ready to crumble apart.
I carefully removed it, then examined its cover with even greater care.
A quiet exclamation escaped me.
“...Found it.”
Forms of armaments, materials, balance, principles, history, and more.
A portion of an ill-fated forbidden text that had compiled everything so comprehensively that it had instead been shunned...
「Compendium of Republic of Korea Hero-Grade Armaments (Vol. I)」
“Now this changes things.”
With my final trump card in hand, a famous figure suddenly came to mind.
A man who had once been an ordinary country youth, only to obtain a legendary sword and become a king.
King Arthur.
***
Einstein once said that time was not absolute, but a relative quantity that varied depending on the frame of reference from which it was measured.
He really was a clever man.
I had never understood what that was supposed to mean, but experiencing it firsthand finally revealed the truth to me.
[Time remaining: 3 hours, 25 minutes.]
Time passed faster than it ever had before.
As the hour of the decisive battle approached, I left the house feeling like a high school senior heading to the college entrance examination.
My destination was a bustling district near Seoul Station, the place where I knew for certain that a scourge would appear.
It was not far away, and after walking at an unhurried pace, I arrived with time to spare.
It was nearly midnight, but the streets were still crowded.
I casually took a seat on a bench and watched the people passing by.
“Manager Lee, do not be like that. Stay a little longer.”
“Come on, sir. I really cannot tonight.”
“How about chicken and beer?”
“Go in ahead of me. I will smoke one before I join you.”
They were the sounds of ordinary lives, no different from the reality I knew.
From my perspective, it was as though words on a page had been given life, yet I felt no sense of incongruity.
This was a world where people lived, too.
And to someone, this was reality.
But if one dug a little deeper, another world entirely lay beneath the surface, like the opposite face of a coin.
“Found them.”
I followed a couple as they passed by and began moving away.
“Do you want to go for a walk? I know somewhere quiet.”
“...Mmgh...”
A drunken woman and a man supporting her.
They looked somewhat conspicuous, but there was nothing obviously strange about them.
To my eyes, however, they were something else entirely.
I rose from the bench and slowly followed them.
The suspicious couple left the bustling district and headed into an area beside it that had become a breeding ground for haphazard development.
It was a hillside slum packed with collapsing shacks between narrow, winding alleyways.
The neighborhood was awaiting redevelopment, so few of the houses were still inhabited, making the area all the more secluded.
“Excuse me.”
I could not let them go any farther, so I hurriedly called out to the couple.
The man, who was still relatively sober, turned around.
Apparently he had not expected anyone to be there. He flinched in surprise before glaring at me.
“...What the hell? You are just a brat. How long have you been following us?”
The man bared the dragon tattoo on his forearm and growled.
It was cold out, too...
Well, childish as it was, the gesture made for a reasonably effective threat.
But so what?
“Enough with the act. If you want to die cleanly.”
“You little bastard, who the hell do you think you are talking to...”
“Are you really going to keep pretending you do not know what I mean? You are hurting my feelings.”
“Well, would you look at that.”
The baffled man lowered the staggering woman from his arms and sneered.
“Kids these days really have no fear. They always need to see something ugly before they learn their lesson.”
That was when it happened.
CREAK—
The thing made its presence known...
SQUEAK—
A sickening frictional sound suddenly filled the alley, accompanied by a sour stench.
“What the hell is wrong with you now? Let me deal with that little bastard first, and then... Huh!”
The man’s eyes widened until the whites showed clearly, and he could no longer finish his sentence.
It was only natural.
My reaction was no different.
I had drawn this very scene myself, but seeing it in reality was another matter entirely.
It was like some grotesque form of modern dance.
Anyone would have reacted the same way if a woman who had been barely conscious suddenly began twisting her limbs far beyond the natural range of her joints.
“...Y-You crazy bitch.”
The man who had been boasting about fear only moments earlier turned deathly pale and fled.
With the nuisance gone, I was the only person left in the dim alley.
CREEEAK—
The creature seemed to realize that as well. It turned its stiff neck and looked toward me.
Blood poured from a mouth split nearly to the earlobes, while a centipede-like tongue crawled from within and licked at eyes swirling with black demonic energy.
It was a magical beast, one of the scourges of this world.
More specifically, this was what happened when a human body was completely consumed by a ‘Man-Eating Parasite,’ a creature that infested humans and devoured their bones and flesh from within.
“I admit, this is frightening.”
I had always prided myself on having a strong stomach and nerves to match...
Fuck.
I did not show it, but my back was already damp with sweat.
[Time remaining: 2 hours, 43 minutes.]
But whether that monster killed me now or I died two hours later...
Once I realized that death was death either way, an unexpected calm settled over me.
As my emotions subsided, even the wind that had been biting painfully into my skin seemed to fall silent.
This was the moment.
“Come on, you bastard.”
Without hesitation, I activated my trait.
[Activating the trait ‘Manifestation.’]
People often said that King Arthur was the quintessential example of a man who owed his strength to legendary equipment.
Excalibur, Avalon...
But what did that matter?
Sleeping within my mind was the complete body of knowledge concerning the ‘Republic of Korea Hero-Grade Armaments,’ weapons every bit their equal.
And they were ready to answer their master’s call at any moment.