About three years and six months ago, the world changed.
Monsters and dungeons, commonly found in books and games, began to appear in the whole world.
The Earth I new became an abyss, but as if to balance the world, some people began to gain power to go against these monsters.
People called them, ‘Players.’
Players were able to move to a different world, called La Elta, through the randomly generated portals.
Everyone who has been there talks with a common language.
It was like a game world.
Players said that you can level up after you receive the quest through the quest board and complete it.
If you level up, you can improve your skills, and if you’re lucky, you can learn skills.
With that ability, the players could now go against monsters on Earth and began to attack dungeons.
Player. Hunter. Awakened person.
Words that people would usually read in fantasy novels.
Many Koreans knows this fact very well.
There were many debate that the ‘Player’ should be called in a much formal way, such as ‘the awakened’ or ‘hunter’, but the government decided to just use ‘Player’ because of the world La Elta, which was no different from playing games.
In fact, the main goal was to encourage many people to complete the quest like a game.
The more stronger players there are, the safer the world would be.
However, in the case of Korea, many people took the situation too lightly and jumped into the game as if it was a really a game and died.
Those who are familiar with fantasy novel jumped into the quest because they were the most excited.
With ‘La Elta Quest’, players were able to choose the level of difficulty, but everyone chose the most difficult level, saying they would find hidden pieces like the main characters of fantasy novels and become the main characters of the world.
Most of them died without breaking a single quest.
Well, since there are a lot of players who survived, Korea now possess some of the strongest players around the world.
I’ve been scrolling around the Internet for the past few years, so I memorized this basic information.
My current job is to surf the Internet and watch TV.
What’s the job that let me watch TV and browse the Internet?
It’s called being an Unemployed.
* * *
I am the second son of a very ordinary family in Korea.
It was not a family full of unfortunate stories or suffering from poverty.
I am very ordinary person in a very ordinary family and not a child of a wealthy one.
As soon as I became twenty years old, I found it hard to continue studying, so instead of going to college, I immediately face society to earn money.
I chose to do a part-time job because I didn’t attend college and there were no companies that welcomed people who didn’t have a single line of education in their resumes, also I wanted to save money before joining the army anyway.
If I have a part-time job, I can add something to my resume after I’m discharged.
That’s what I thought.
Rather than Cafe, PC room, restaurant, etc.
The reason why I chose to work at a convenience store at night, among various part-time jobs, was simple.
The first reason is that the hourly wage was good.
However, the real reason was that they rejected me even thought they were searching for part-timers.
Sigh, it’s not really a big salary, but got no choice. This is the only place that accepted me.
Where am I supposed to start my career if I’m rejected everywhere?
Shortly after the evening shift, many office workers came even though it was late night.
An office worker with dark circles, went down with his chin while paying.
An office worker, who was in a call, bought a pack of cigarettes saying he’s going to leave work soon because he took an overtime again today.
Another office worker bought a hangover drink after a company dinner.
Since this was a convenience store on the street where all kinds of small and medium-sized companies are nearby, I could see office workers suffering from overtime work and get-togethers every day.
Still, I envy them.
It’s good to work overtime, so working as an office worker would be better than working at a convenience store at night.
I sighed thinking about how I came to my current situation.
I just finished eating my dinner.
I thought I was going throw the cup noodles right inside the trash, but I spilled it all the soup in front of the trash can.
I can’t even afford to give myself a proper meal that cost 5,000 won($5). I would only eat something that cost around 1,000 won ($1).
This was the real difference between an ordinary office worker and a part-timer.
Office workers, who were being overpowered in their company, overpowers the ordinary people.
When I came back after eating, the customers were angry, saying, they wasted time waiting for me to comeback.
What a crappy life.
At first, when I just started my part-time job, I was happy that I finally had some income.
If I save up my money now, I would be able to invest in the future.
I should go to bed right after this part-time job or should I spend some of my time studying right after work?
Shall I learn English or Chinese?
If I work 10 hours a day and sleep for 6 hours, I can spend 5 or 6 hours for future employment, except for washing and eating.
But… Even if I started planning right now, I know that I wouldn’t be able to do it as I really hate studying.
Right after returning home I lay down on my bed and slept.
I fell asleep, saying that it was okay to rest.
When I wake up, I would just play computer games, saying, “I worked hard, so I will reward myself.”
Then it was time to go to work again.
Even though I know that every time I spend the day like this, it was just a continuos cycle with no visible progress.
I was stressed out because of this fact, but I just lie down and played phone games to relieve my stress.
Oh, what a crappy life.
While lamenting and cursing, it was clear that I would eventually grab a cell phone laptop mouse instead of washing up myself and study.
Am I the cause of this lethargic life, or was it this world?
Thinking about this and that, the part-time job ended, and the day ended again like that.
That’s how my day used to end at the beginning of others’ day.
Looking at the phone screen, I walk across the road after checking that the traffic light for people turned green.
And, just like that.
I was hit by a car.
The moment I realized that something hit me, my body was already floating in the air.
The sense of being hit by a car came first rather than suffering through pain.
At that moment, an idea in my head popped and questioned if it was a car that hit him or was it a bus or a truck.
Usually in a novel when someone was hit by a bus or truck, something surprising happens.
But I just found out later, the car that hit me was a very ordinary car.
* * *
Regardless of the type of car that hit me, the result was successful when it comes to transmigrating or fantasy elements.
When I woke up, I was in an unknown world.
Even the clothes I was wearing were jeans and leather, not white the t-shirts I was wearing before I was hit by a car.
Sloppy leather clothes that I usually see in fantasy movies or games.
At that moment, I thought, “Did I come inside the game?”
Also…
“It’s a relief that my clothes are not made of straws or glue.”
At first I was extremely confused and wanted to go back.
But gradually I got used to it.
For the first 20 years, I trained my swordsmanship.
I quickly strengthened myself to see if I possess a talent.
When I reached a certain level, my body stopped aging and I continued to look like I was in my late 30s.
For the next 10 years, I fought in the war and got the title of war hero.
The next 10 years, I bought a large mansion in the village where I first opened his eyes, and remained inside.
Most of the time, I either just train or find a way back to Earth.
For the last 10 years, I traveled all over the country in order to beat monsters.
Just like that, I became stronger than anyone else there, same as the usual transmigrator in a common fantasy novel.
I still didn’t know how to get back to Earth.
Then one day, I lay down on the accomodations in an inn alone.
I was feeling lonely.
Somehow, all of a sudden, everything that I have done were in vain.
I once dreamed of this kind of life while reading fantasy novels.
But after few decades, this dream of mine disappeared from my mind.
I don’t know why I didn’t know the importance of a normal life.
I missed my family so much.
I fell asleep while thinking about that.
When I open my eyes.
Ater 50 years of being in this world.
I woke up back on Earth as if everything that happened in this past 50 years was just a dream.