—Hero Association’s Agent Military Academy Seoul Branch Graduation, Class of 2024, Rank 1 Cadet, Kim Suho. - 

Called up to the stage, Kim Suho walked up with a stiffened face as though he was nervous. Inside a temple-like-auditorium with 3000 cadets and thousands of spectators, their gazes all turned to one person, Kim Suho.

“He’s Kim Suho? Wow.”

“He’s so handsome~”

Several women watched on with heart shaped eyes.

“…This is why people say Gift is all that matters. Who cares if you try hard? People like him end up taking first place anyways.”

“That guy completely lucked out with his Gift.”

And naturally, he received the jealousy and envy of the seated young teenagers.

“His grades are said to be the greatest in the past 10 years.”

“Yeah, I've heard of him. His Gift was announced too, right? What was it again… Sword Saint?”

Guild associates, who came to watch the best cadet in recent history, zoomed in their eyes, focusing down from the highest seats of the auditorium. 

However, he could hear their voices. 

They had to be at least a kilometer away, but as long as he looked their way, he could hear their words clearly. Not only their words, but he could also see the wrinkles that lined their faces, the way their eyebrows twitched in their ongoing conversation, the movement of hair strands as their bodies vibrated in anger.

Perhaps, this was his ‘Gift.’

“We called dibs on that kid so don’t touch him.”

“Dibs? What dibs. When it comes to cadets, there is no such thing.”

He recognized one of the whispering faces. Yun Seung-Ah. An important assistant of the main character and one of the heroines who almost became the main character’s lover. Just when the two of them were hitting it off.

As an avid reader, he knew it was just one of the many moments when the main character was hitting off with many of the heroines. He stopped reading the novel, he never knew if the two ever became lovers.

At another guild associate’s callous words, Yun Seung-Ah smiled sweetly and rebutted. 

“Is that why ‘Essence of the Strait’ can’t escape second place?”

He knew Yun Seung-Ah’s face. Though it was night and day comparing the illustrations vs the real-life figure before him.

“…Can I take that as a challenge?”

“I am kidding, of course. Plus, we still have three years to go before we can scout any of them.”

“It’s two years.”

“…You know contacting them before they graduate is illegal, right?”

“That’s only if you’re found out.”

Yun Seung-Ah and the man glared at each other. With their staring contest as the starting point, the VIP seats’ atmosphere began to heat up.  And so, the long war for Kim Suho begun.

— Class of 2024, Rank 2 Cadet, Shin Jonghak.

Meanwhile, the other main character stood up. He was the last descendant of the Jinsung clan. His appearance rivaled Kim Suho as well. The audience stirred just like when Kim Suho walked up. But unlike with Kim Suho, envy and jealousy didn’t exist. There was only admiration and adoration. 

Shin Jonghak walked up to the stage completely composed. With Kim Suho, they thought, ‘Why is he better than me?’ but with Shin Jonghak, it was ‘He was better than me from birth.’

Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak, stood side by side, they two glared at each other. Electricity seemed to crackle from their eyes.

Without a shadow of a doubt, these two were characters from the novel 'The Returnee Hero’.

Then where was ‘He?’

He wasn’t on the stage but in the farthest back seat of the auditorium. He wasn’t ‘one out of three thousand’, but a member of the ‘three thousand.’

“Hajin, what ranking did you get? I was ranked 2900.”

Next to him, a fox faced boy asked. On his nametag were the characters ‘Kim Ho Sup’. This meant that he had an eventual role. Though he couldn’t be a Hero because of his nonexistent physical abilities, his Gift was outstanding for information gathering.

“Hajin?”

“I don’t remember”

If something like this had to happen, shouldn’t he be one of the two on stage?

“Hey, c’mon, if you don’t know that…”

“I really just don’t remember”

This world was the novel he read, but he was in the body of a character he never read about. Other than being a cadet in the Agent Military Academy, his name wasn't anywhere in the novel. In other words… he became an extra. 

************************************************

‘ What was that the cause of this situation? The chance of winning the lottery was said to be 1 in 8,145,060. Then what was happening to him at this moment had to be a 1 in 7 billion chance.’

He was standing in an ordinary family home in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere being the type of location that housed the post office, community hall and even potentially the village clinic in one building.



But he knew one thing for certain, more certain than his real name not being Kim Hajin and that was he wasn’t from this world, his skin felt different, more coarse than peach-like smooth as he remembered.  The way he blinked felt quicker, the sun looking more brighter, the corners of worn-down door ways looking more crisp. His mind and way of thinking felt off. Though one might think he was being philosophical, he was just the best way to describe the situation he was in.

At 9 years old, Hajin was admitted to ‘Agent Military Academy,’ a place to nurture elites to fight monsters and Djinns. What ability did Hajin possess to pass its entrance exam? He didn’t know, nothing in the house hinted at his academy life, he had no parents to seek answers from nor any neighbors to speak off. 

He was an extra.

When he looked in the mirror… an average face with an average build and of average height greeted him. 

He had gone to bed just like any other day, but when he woke up, he found himself on the last day of the semester at Agent Military Academy.

At first, he had two suspicions, the first was that he was being pranked but that idea was shot down in just five seconds, he couldn’t even be bothered to explain why. The second was that he was dreaming but he naturally came to dismiss the idea. As everyone knew, no dream continued for two weeks with such a clear sense of reality.

************************************************

Ding Dong—Tatatatatata~

He was hunched over an old computer looking at the history of the world. His eyes had grown heavy. Glancing over to his phone, he saw that it was ‘time to go back to school.’ Having already had a bout with school once, he preferred to forfeit the sound round but he required answer’s that only the Cube could provide.

13 days ago, it was Agent Military Academy’s graduation. But the ones graduating were only non-combatant cadets, and non-combatant cadets couldn’t be called Heroes. Combat class cadets had to attend the academy for three more years. These three years would be spent at Cube, a Hero Academy. 

Unfortunately, this damned Hajin guy was a combat-type cadet. 

Through his scouring of the web, he was able to gleam Hajin’s fondness for swords. Due to images taken by the Academy. But the old him, a modern day 9 to 5 pencil pusher, his hand’s never touched a sword or participated in a fight in his old world. 

“Ah…What a drag.”

He spent most of his time on the internet, ate food when he got hungry, went back online to search for information about the world and to see if others had been dragged in with him, and walked around his neighborhood to see if there was anything he could learn, but his rural village was seemingly devoid of life. 

The only noteworthy event was in the past two week’s was being present in Seoul, two days ago for the three-hour-long ‘Cube Entrance Ceremony’.

He couldn’t figure out who dropped him here, for what reason, and with what power. But after finding nothing conclusive, he reluctantly came to accept his fate. Who ever brought him here wanted him to live here for long time. The safest place with his partial knowledge he concluded was definitely next to the main characters. 

Looking at the wall of post-it notes and scrap paper lined with plot points and tid-bits, he could not help but sigh. In the novel being a ‘Hero’ was anyone’s dream job. Though things become serious midway through because of Villains, he stopped reading shortly after.

“I just wanted to marry a regular girl who wasnt too ugly and not too pretty. Have a couple of childen, first a girl, then maybe another girl. Retire after my daughters were married, become a house husband and spend the rest of my life playing TWE or FM. Then die of old age before my wife….Now I must surive and not die within the first month”

[5:33 AM]

After cleaning himself up a bit, he changed into Cube’s uniform, which he got at the entrance ceremony. Other than that, he had no other baggage. The original Hajin definitely lived like a spartan, they were similar in some ways. 

Turning the doorknob, he glanced back, his home for the past two weeks. The home he was barely able to find thanks to the address written on his cadet card. The Cube floated in the middle of the East Sea, once he left, he probably would never come back.

With a heavy shrug, he stepped into the dark and unfamiliar world.

************************************************

CADET UPSKILLING BATTLE ENVIRONMENTS (Cube) The world’s greatest training institute boasting state-of-the-art magic, science, and engineering. 

Cube was the name of a huge island located in the East Sea. This artificial island was twice the size of Yeouido, there were only 5000 Hero cadets, of which 1300 were first-years. 

While 2000 non-combatants graduated two weeks ago, elite cadets from all over the world gathered here, making it more competitive than before. This place was built to refine Heroes from a young age. And starting from the second year, magicians who chose to become Heroes would come from the ‘National Magic University,’ so that was another 200~300 cadets.

Furthermore, there were training instructors, cafeteria ladies, cleaners, recruiters visiting occasionally, government associates, engineers who did maintenance and operations, soldiers dispatched as security, doctors, and researchers for taking care of cadets, convenience store workers who worked under Cube, and more… With all these people, about 50,000 people resided in Cube.

Naturally, this place was a highly important hub where the attention of investors gathered. Given that the novel’s setting was faithfully followed, Korea was a world power rivaling the United States. Reasons were listed in the novel for its power but Hajin couldn’t remember and could only chalk it down due to the author being Korean.

If the Cube was meant for the elites, Hajin could be said to be an elite. Hajin never read about a character named Hajin, he was probably destined to live in the shadows, detached from the storyline, living an unimportant life, unburdened by the duties of a main character, living a comfortable worry-free life.

Staring at the door to the classroom, Hajin sighed.

[Novice – Veritas]

Novice referred to first-year cadets, while Veritas was the name of the class. Simply put, He was in year 1 class 1. He knew what this class was, Shin Jonghak and Kim Suho were in this class, and as cliques formed around them, many schemes, mostly started by Shin Jonghak and his followers, would make the class rowdy. 

“Huu..let’s get this show started”

After collecting his breath, he gingerly opened the door, peeking inside with one eye. 

The interior was sleek and white with no sign of dust and three long desks cascading up. He looked around the classroom and found Shin Jonghak sitting on the farthest seat back. With his eyes closed and his hands in his pocket, he seemed imposing. Next to him was his childhood friend, Yoo Yeonha, chattering.

Like a ghost he floated in and sat down on the edge seat of the middle row, he looked around taking in his surroundings. There was no chalkboard, but a projection screen for holograms to be shown. Looking at it, he couldn’t help but groan. After going through high school and even mandatory military service, he couldn’t believe he really gone back to school. 

“… Huuaam.”

Cube’s semester began in February. The outside was cold and the inside being warm naturally made me sleepy. Currently, it was 8 A.M. Class began at 8:30. Going from Seoul to Cube was quick using the ‘Portal,’ but he had been traveling since 6 AM. 

However, there was something called the Cube Bus, a bus that ran every 10 minutes around Cube that didn’t exist in its original setting.

Thinking about it now, he never read about the main characters traveling around. Since the novel became a real world, it seemed it was fixing plot holes on its own.

‘Let’s sleep a little, got time for a power nap’

He dropped his head on the desk.

************************************************

—“Now!”

A thunderous shout woke him up, when he opened his eyes the instructor was behind the podium.

“Today’s the first day, so there won’t be any special training, but I hope you all did your morning training. Training is never wrong, especially in the morning when mana density is high.”

‘ Morning training?…Oh, right. There was something like that. A training ground that opened up from 5 A.M. to 8 A.M.’

“Now, let’s start with self-introductions. I'm Kim Soohyuk, the instructor in charge of you all for the year.”

That name, He could vaguely recall it.

“My ranking point is 3850. World rank 9737. By the Association’s classification, my would-be high-intermediate rank grade 5.”

The students’ eyes lit up, It’s was understandable there were around four million Heroes in the world, if he remembered correctly. Rank 9737 meant he was very skilled.

“I think that’s enough for this introduction.”

Kim Soohyuk seemed to have liked the students’ reactions as the corners of his mouth curled up to a grin.

“The first day will feel special. You might not have slept due to excitement and worry, or maybe you’re feeling great about being able to improve yourselves. Heh, maybe you’re happy to see your crushes again.”

The cadets broke out into small laughter. But the instructor froze his expression sternly.

“But Cube isn’t the same as it was before. I promise you, there will be no time for relationships. You will experience several real combat situations. Look forward to experiencing how fearful the real world is.”

His roguish smile sent a chill down his back. Combat training, He had to take part in that too.

“Next, Cube is objective. The only indicator of your success will be your grade. Guilds will only look at your grade. Your draft number will depend on your grade. Thus, we will grade you accurately and strictly. If you underperform, you will be held back. Statistically, less than half of Cube’s cadets graduate without repeating a semester. Even then, you can only be held back up to two years. Any more than that, you will be expelled. If you can’t become a Hero, you will become an agent or a mercenary. I take it that that’s not what you want.”

After giving the students a scare, the instructor paused and scanned the students’ faces.

“I can already see a few faces I’m familiar with.”

It was the same for Hajin.

Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, Yoo Yeonha, Chae Nayun, Rachel, Yi Yeonghan.These six were the important characters. Shin Jonghak sat with Yoo Yeonha, since Kim Suho and Chae Nayun saw each other as rivals, they were distanced. Princess Rachel sat alone, and Yi Yeonghan sat behind Kim Suho.

“I repeat. At Cube, you will need to confirm the things you’ve learned until now and hone your skills to be used in battle. There will be no basic training here. Remember that.”

With that, Kim Soohyuk announced.

“Now get ready. What’s scheduled for today won’t take long. The first task is ‘main weapon selection.’”

************************************************

“Any weapon you can think of should be here.”

A main weapon was exactly what it sounded like. High ranking Heroes called their weapons ‘treasured weapons,’ while weapons above [Unique] grade were given the title ‘armament.’

But even though he played around with sticks and brooms during his two weeks. The art and footwork of swordsmanship felt unnatural to Hajin. 

“Stand in front of the weapon you want. We’ll supply you with the training weapons. But don’t look down on them just because they’re training weapons. Their market price is 5 million won.”

There were all sorts of weapons, more so than he could have ever imagined. Sword, spear, saber, dagger, rapier, halberd, greatsword, zweihander, bow, gun, whip, gauntlet, etc… The 100 students of Veritas class stood in front of the weapon they wanted.

“Choose carefully. Once you pick your main weapon, you won’t be able to change it for at least 6 months.”

Sword and spear were obviously the most popular choice. Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak stood in front of a sword and a spear respectively. 70 out of 100 chose the sword, spear, or saber, the so-called Holy Trinity of weapons. On the other hand, Yoo Yeonha chose the whip, Chae Nayun chose the bow, and Rachel chose the rapier. However, He simply stood in a daze.

“Hajin, why are you standing still?” Kim Soohyuk asked.

He stared blankly at the room of weapons. Stuck in a world full of goblins, wizards, demons, dragons and whatever else hell and eldritch horrors could he dream of. To be caught unprepared once and live to tell the tale would be lucky, to be caught unprepared twice would mean his doom. He was unsure if the being who placed him here would isekai him to another book he was reading, at least with that one he was generated peace for 1 year before the apocalypse.

He rubbed his chin, survive was his only criteria for picking a weapon. 

He couldn’t use any close-range weapons. Even if Hajin was talented with one, He didn’t want to participate in close-ranged combat, he was likely to trip over his feet and die to a goblin trying to swing a sword in a tight cave. He needed a modern weapon, any other weapon would mostly like to come with a sharp learning curve.

A weapon of choice in the modern world, one that didn’t require an instruction manual and one that anyone could use, at any age. But in this world, the weapons weakest were lumps of metal, a weapon avoided by every Hero. Most likely, they were only here for the sake of having all kinds of weapons be here.

With a choice in mind, he walked to the corner to pick a large-sized duffle-bag he bag gliding into the aisles.

“Hajin!”

The instructor’s voice fell low, and other students’ gazes fell on him as floated through the aisles. Shin Jonghak and Kim Suho were among them. 

Hajin paused as he grabbed the last item, taking another second to reconfirm his choice before returning to the group. He could feel the weight of the metal in the bag as the smell of rust tickled his nose. More eyes fell on me.

The weapons in his bag were worthy of making a doomsday prepper smile. His military service was not much use in his old world, maybe it could help him survive in this one.