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Chapter 2: The Protagonist’s Rival (2)
The protagonist always has someone who exists to make them shine.
From weak villains who only exist to create opportunities for the hero…
to powerful bosses no one else can defeat, but who are easily beaten by the protagonist.
Countless characters are used and sacrificed to make the protagonist look great.
The same thing happens in real life.
“Learn from Shinwoo. He’s smart, and he never stops working hard.”
Lee Jinwoo had always been used to make his twin brother, Lee Shinwoo, look better.
And Lee Shin had always been compared to the protagonist, Eugene.
“Wow, that’s the future contractor of the Fire Spirit King? He looks even more impressive than Eugene.”
The difference was that, unlike Lee Jinwoo, Lee Shin had always been the winner.
At least until now.
Splash!
He threw cold water over himself to clear his mind, but the confusion remained.
He had been born with incredible talent and had lived his whole life being praised as a genius.
Yet now he had learned that he would eventually lose everything to the protagonist and walk the path of a loser.
Worse, he would become the final boss and die at the protagonist’s hands.
Anyone would be confused.
Me?
That’s impossible.
He wanted to believe the memories that had suddenly appeared were fake.
But they were too vivid to dismiss.
Especially the game… or webtoon… whatever it had been before he died.
It matched his current life so perfectly that he couldn’t dismiss it as a fantasy.
Did I really reincarnate into that webtoon… or game?
Drip.
Drip.
Water fell from his wet hair.
His reflection appeared on the surface.
Black hair that nearly covered his eyes.
Bright red eyes, the trademark of the character Lee Shin.
It was exactly the same Lee Shin he had seen in the webtoon and the game.
“…Ha.”
A bitter laugh escaped.
He had believed everything belonged to him.
His appearance.
His personality.
His talent.
His traits.
Even his emotions, thoughts, actions, and efforts.
But now he learned they had all been nothing more than the author’s settings.
It felt as if his entire life had been denied.
Do you know what that feels like?
“Hey, Lee Shin. What are you doing he—”
Whoosh!
An intense wave of heat burst outward.
The moisture instantly evaporated.
Even the surrounding temperature changed.
It felt as though winter had suddenly become summer.
W-What’s wrong with him now?
Ban Jung-hoon had come looking for Lee Shin.
The moment he felt the heat, he quickly stepped back.
He had also trained his fire affinity to improve his compatibility with Fire Spirits.
But he wasn’t strong enough to endure heat like this from such a close distance.
Damn.
What happened?
The heat was so intense it felt as though everything would burn to ashes.
There was a reason everyone said Lee Shin had the talent to become the Fire Spirit King’s contractor.
His soul power was enough to form a contract with one of the highest beings from another world.
His martial talent had built overwhelming fire affinity and dominance, enough for even the Immortal Realm to covet him.
Lee Shin was closer to fire than anyone else.
He could probably make a contract with the Fire Spirit King immediately.
Is he acting like this because of what happened earlier?
I thought everything had worked out…
Ban Jung-hoon carefully observed him, trying to understand the situation.
Lee Shin ignored him and remained lost in thought.
Right.
The webtoon doesn’t contain my entire life.
There are still many strange things.
But the important thing now is…
The red glow in Lee Shin’s eyes gradually became cold.
Like a dying flame giving way to darkness.
“Ban Jung-hoon.”
“Huh?”
“Give it to me.”
“W-What?”
My neck…?
Ban Jung-hoon hurriedly covered his neck.
A greater fire could never oppose an even greater fire.
That was a saying every Spirit Contractor knew.
Of course, neither of them had made spirit contracts yet.
But one came from the family of the Fire Spirit King’s contractor.
The other came from the family of a highest-ranked Fire Spirit contractor.
Both belonged to fire.
Just being direct descendants of those families created a natural hierarchy.
If Lee Shin ordered him to offer his neck…
it would be difficult to refuse.
“Who said I wanted your neck?”
Lee Shin looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Embarrassed, Ban Jung-hoon lowered his hands.
“Stop being stupid.”
“Just give me the standard weapon.”
“Oh… that?”
“I thought you meant something else.”
Still embarrassed by his misunderstanding, Ban Jung-hoon hurriedly took out the graduation gift the academy had given them.
“Here.”
“The Smart Glove.”
“It contains all the standard weapons.”
The Smart Glove.
A device similar to a smartphone, equipped with spatial storage magic and many other functions.
It could even be used inside other worlds and dungeons.
An ordinary school might simply hand out a certificate.
But this was the world’s greatest Superhuman Academy.
Giving graduates equipment they could actually use as superhumans was tradition.
“But you’re actually going to use it?”
“I thought you’d throw it away the moment you got it.”
Lee Shin hadn’t been there when they distributed the gifts, so Ban Jung-hoon had picked his up.
He had never imagined Lee Shin would actually use such a cheap mass-produced Smart Glove.
After all…
Lee Shin’s family owned the company that made these devices.
As one of the direct descendants, he naturally had access to custom-made models that couldn’t even be purchased.
So why does he suddenly want this?
Ban Jung-hoon watched with a puzzled expression as Lee Shin put on the Smart Glove.
Ignoring him, Lee Shin infused soul power into the glove’s core.
His soul power flowed through the magical circuits, activating the entire glove.
Right.
In the webtoon, Lee Shin threw this away the moment he received it.
Hum…
Watching the glowing activation process, Lee Shin recalled the memories that might have belonged to his previous life.
At the academy, Lee Shin had been an unbeatable boss whom the protagonist could never defeat.
He existed as the genius rival who helped the protagonist grow stronger.
But everything changed after graduation.
His first defeat.
On graduation day…
the Lee Shin of the webtoon experienced defeat for the first time in his life.
Unlike Eugene, who was used to losing…
Lee Shin had never once been defeated.
He couldn’t recover from the shock.
That defeat filled him with impatience.
His impatience led to mistakes.
And while he stumbled…
the protagonist’s plot armor allowed Eugene to pull ahead.
If this world follows the webtoon…
Then I can’t change that defeat.
Even Normal Mode couldn’t.
The webtoon had only one story.
The protagonist, Eugene, succeeded.
The game allowed different outcomes depending on the player’s choices.
But even there…
the tutorial couldn’t be changed.
And today’s events were that tutorial.
“I’ll test it.”
“Test what?”
The Smart Glove finished syncing.
Lee Shin placed its matching communication device in his ear and quietly muttered,
“…How much I can change.”
“What?”
“Change what?”
Ignoring the question, Lee Shin headed toward the place where the real game would begin.
The place where, originally…
he would accomplish almost nothing.
***
The webtoon began at a Superhuman Academy.
The protagonist lost to his rival, Lee Shin, every single day.
It was the story of the protagonist’s growth.
The academy arc followed the style of a classic shonen manga.
The relationship between the protagonist and his rival completely reversed during the Graduation Dungeon.
In the game, the academy story was heavily shortened.
The Graduation Dungeon became the tutorial before the real game started.
The Graduation Dungeon episode.
On graduation day, everyone received their basic weapon.
Then, suddenly, a dungeon appeared and absorbed every nearby living creature.
Both Eugene and Lee Shin entered that dungeon.
The real question is…
Will the exact same thing happen in reality?
Right now, Lee Shin had left the school grounds to organize the confusing memories from his previous life.
Since he was in a different location than in the webtoon or game…
perhaps he wouldn’t be caught in the dungeon.
If that happened…
the test he wanted to perform would fail before it even began.
It should appear soon.
He didn’t know the dungeon’s exact range.
But staying as close to Eugene as possible seemed safest.
“Today’s finally the day I can legally make a spirit contract…”
“I want a Spirit Covenant too, not just a contract…”
While searching for Eugene, Lee Shin quickly scanned the area.
He checked the main building…
the gym…
and the auditorium.
But Eugene was nowhere to be found.
Cheap equipment really is annoying.
The communication device covering his ear shook every time he moved.
It irritated him.
An old-fashioned earpiece.
Who even used something like this anymore?
If they were going to give them equipment, they could at least provide the newer patch-type models.
Just stick one to your temple and it automatically connected your vision and hearing.
As Lee Shin silently criticized the academy’s stinginess…
what he had been waiting for finally appeared.
He still hadn’t found Eugene.
But this was enough.
Ding!
[Warning]
[Warning]
[Dungeon will appear in 10 seconds.]
It has begun.
A hologram appeared before him.
It was exactly like the one from Lee Jinwoo’s memories.
“W-What is this?”
“What’s happening?”
[9]
[8]
“Look at your Smart Glove!”
“It says a dungeon is about to appear!”
“Where?”
Students who had been checking out their new Smart Gloves screamed.
Unlike the panicking crowd…
Lee Shin calmly stopped walking and prepared for battle.
After all…
[6]
“It’s appearing right here?!”
He only needed to wait.
The dungeon would pull him inside on its own.
[5]
[4]
Whoosh…
A black hole opened in midair.
It greedily swallowed every living thing nearby.
“Damn it!”
“The Dungeon Management Bureau messed up again!”
“How can the error be this huge?!”
“We’re not ready!”
While everyone else panicked…
Lee Shin calmly accepted the approaching dungeon.
Whoosh…
A powerful pulling sensation surrounded him.
Moments later…
his vision flipped.
At the same time, he felt cold water and crushing pressure from every direction.
Fortunately…
he had prepared in advance.
Ding!
[Dungeon detected. Analyzing dungeon. Please wait.]
Because of the water pressure, the notification sound echoed strangely.
The hologram was also too dark to see clearly.
Lee Shin adjusted both the brightness and notification volume using the device in his ear.
Cheap equipment can’t even adjust itself.
Deciding to replace it as soon as he returned…
he drew his weapon from the glove.
Shing!
A sword emerged from the left Smart Glove.
Lee Shin poured soul power into it to test its condition.
Hum…
As expected from a standard weapon…
its soul power conductivity was terrible.
Still…
it was better than nothing.
At least now he had a weapon.
This dungeon had been created to give the protagonist a spectacular debut.
It was designed to favor Eugene…
and disadvantage Lee Shin.
Just look around.
Everything was underwater.
He had to fight Spirit-type monsters underwater…
where his greatest strength, fire, barely worked.
The penalty couldn’t have been worse.
If he had already become the Fire Spirit King’s contractor…
he could have burned everything despite the water.
But right now…
he hadn’t even contracted a low-ranked spirit.
He was simply a rookie superhuman taking his first steps into society.
Originally…
I would leave this dungeon without accomplishing anything.
Lee Shin searched through the webtoon knowledge in his memories.
No…
the memories that belonged to Lee Jinwoo.
He had reread the webtoon countless times.
He remembered this dungeon’s layout…
and every monster’s weakness.
[Dungeon analysis complete.]
[Dungeon Rank: High.]
[Spirit Realm Underwater Dungeon F-92.]
[Would you like to view the available monster information?]
He didn’t even need such basic information.
Slash!
His flame-covered sword cut through the water and struck a monster.
The creature had been quietly approaching its prey.
It let out a painful scream.
The monster’s scream rippled through the water, attacking Lee Shin.
But nothing reached him.
Because the wave of fire from his next swing swept everything away.
