……I would look like a lunatic.
But there was nothing I could do.
After thinking it over, I opened my mouth.
I spoke to the me reflected in the mirror.
“……Who am I. What is my name?”
Right, my name was Lee Ho-yeol.
'Ho' for greatness, 'Yeol' for joy.
I was named by my grandfather who was delighted at having a youngest son in a family with only daughters.
But despite what my head knew, a completely different name slipped out of my mouth.
“……Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo.”
And it was a grotesquely long name that didn’t even sound like the nobility of any country…!
Was I suddenly waking up to a past life or something?
“I wish that were the case……”
No — I knew it wasn’t some fantasy plot.
The face in the mirror had told me that.
My eyes had become strangely sharper.
My build had noticeably become more robust.
And finally, the words that had floated before my eyes.
This was an awakening.
It meant I had become a Player.
Yeah, I could understand up to that point.
The problem was the way I looked as a Player and that weird name.
“No matter how I looked at it, this was from about ten years ago……”
[Name: Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
To be exact, twelve years ago.
So I was fifteen.
Right in the middle-school second-year, suffering from middle school second year-syndrome.
It was definitely a character I had raised.
I muttered without realizing it.
“……Seems like I was royally screwed.”
As if I had become some kind of noble, I felt oddly dignified.
***
Clatter—
I was ruined.
Despite that feeling, my actions had been overflowing with composure.
I took out a teacup from the cupboard that I never used.
I brewed green tea, which I never touched in normal times.
Then I sat at the table and savored the green tea.
“The aroma isn’t bad.”
…This wasn’t a historical drama.
Even I was talking in an awkward tone.
Anyway, I could sense it.
My actions and my speech had changed under the influence of the awakening.
Player awakening.
I had thought it was a term that had nothing to do with me.
After all, I had completely forgotten about it.
“……Well, it was over ten years ago.”
Chronicles of Arcana.
Thirteen years ago.
A virtual reality game that had never left the top spot since its release.
No — it was a life, another real life, beyond a mere game.
[Unidentified structures appearing worldwide… Is this related to Arcana’s service shutdown?]
Arcana had become reality.
[Strange creatures appearing worldwide… Netizens: “It must be Arcana monsters.” Controversy erupted.]
Monsters from Arcana appeared in reality.
[New humans appearing? Strange creatures defeated with bare hands…]
Players who had awakened the abilities of Arcana characters and could hunt those real monsters also appeared.
Several years had passed since that cataclysm.
When I first heard that Arcana Continent Chronicles had become reality, I had been startled.
—Damn. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have quit.
At one time I had stood watch and entertained those thoughts.
Why?
Because Players were literally heroes.
[Player defeats the named “General, Sekir,” the “Golden Flash” named monster!]
[Reward for clearing the rift was about 5 billion won….]
[Exclusive interview: The Player who prevented the catastrophe — “Nam Tae-min”]
But that was all there was to it.
—To be honest, even if one awakened, it didn’t amount to much.
I hadn’t even played Arcana Continent Chronicles for a full year before quitting.
There were practical reasons.
Just the cost of the access rig was an outrageous ten million won.
Monthly fees approached hundreds of thousands.
“……Guys, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Father. You don’t have to apologize to us.”
“Waaah. I have no face to show you either, Mom.”
“Ah, why is Mom crying too?”
“We’re all grown now, Ho-yeol. Don’t worry about it.”
Around the time I was about to enter high school.
The day foreclosure stickers were slapped on our house.
From then on I had shut off all interest in Arcana Continent Chronicles — in games altogether.
The same held true when I entered high school.
Whether I liked it or not, I had no choice but to study, and the result was my current life.
A pretty decent job, a decent one-room apartment.
A leisurely life, going home to my family on weekends.
Not wealthy, but not greedy either — it was a life that was passable.
“……So what on earth was this?”
My head throbbed.
I tried tilting the teacup with effort.
Putting aside the damn historical-drama manner of speech, the important thing was I had awakened as a Player.
Ten-odd years — to be exact, twelve years ago.
The character I had raised in Arcana Continent Chronicles, [Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo], had been superimposed onto me, Lee Ho-yeol.
I had seen that sort of interview often.
—The biggest change after awakening… I felt like I had fused with the character. Honestly, it felt like possession. Well, even if it was possession, it was the same person who played the character, so not much should change.
—Still, thanks to it, facing monsters in reality might not be so terrifying, I suppose.
The difference in my case was that the playtime was more than ten years ago.
And that back then I had been ‘severely’ immersed in the character Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
“Tastes good.”
Even my palate had changed.
…This was driving me insane.
Was this because Arcana’s character information had been overlaid onto me?
Memories of the forgotten [Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo] began to resurface.
Naturally, it was the huge amount of middle-schooler-level lore I had created.
‘Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
His exact age was unknown.
He was the heir of a great family, but the family had fallen to a demon.
The sole survivor of the family, Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo, hereafter Granfel, walked the path of a demon hunter to avenge that demon.
He had long silver hair and a handsome appearance, and his usual speech carried the nobility of his status.’
Why had I written such uselessly detailed stuff…?
My past self was truly insane!
Just remembering it made my hands and feet cringe.
Of course, the fact that I wrote it didn’t mean it had been reflected in the game.
Those were just scribbles in a notebook or a memo.
Wasn’t it obvious in the setting?
A fallen noble.
Starting from level one, with nothing to his name.
I had just attached that noble backstory to make it sound plausible.
So the only truth in that long backstory was one thing.
That he walked the path of a demon hunter.
[Name: Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
[Class: Demon Hunter]
But in the past I had been so absorbed in the setting that I had role-played Granfel in Arcana.
In other words, I had acted out Granfel’s life while playing.
Looking back, it was madness, but at the time I was a second-year middle-schooler.
It could have been laughed off as a memory.
“……Nostalgia, huh. How fond.”
But that forgettable memory had become reality.
Damn it, my migraine worsened.
I was afraid someone would see my embarrassed face.
…Wait a minute.
I had to go to work tomorrow!
Calmly thinking it through, could I go to work and function normally?
Social life required bowing my head and swallowing pride dozens of times a day.
It wouldn’t be easy.
And with the influence of Granfel’s setting changing even my palate.
Could I last a single day in this harsh society?
‘Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo was noble. No matter who his opponent was, he never bowed his head. His pride was unbearably heavy and unshakable, even if it dragged him down and drowned him.’
…It would be a mercy if I didn’t throw coffee at the boss’s face.
I might end up paying more in settlements than I earned in salary.
After my lofty tea-time, I reached a conclusion.
“Can’t keep bowing my head forever.”
My speech came out odd again, but anyway.
In other words, I decided I would quit the job.
I resolved to live as a Player from now on.
Someone might think it a sudden decision.
But I had made a rational judgment.
Think about it.
In this state, any job I took would just cause trouble.
While that happened, my bank balance would noticeably shrink.
Damn noble palate.
Even the cost for tea time I didn’t enjoy would be added to my expenses.
I would need money for living more than ever.
In the end, to make a living, I would have to live as a Player.
Of course, I didn’t want anything extravagant.
As I grew older I had come to understand my place.
The middle-school chūnibyō who had been obsessed with Granfel, who believed himself to be special, was gone.
I just wanted enough to live on.
Then living as a Player shouldn’t put my life at risk, right?
First, I would look it up.
I knew almost nothing about the world of Players.
I hadn’t lived admiring them.
Busy with making ends meet, I hadn’t paid them much attention.
Still, I had envied the money they made.
“……Hmm.”
Hundreds of millions, billions, trillions.
Articles ceaselessly reported about Players’ fortunes.
But I read the articles nonchalantly.
‘To Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo, wealth was ephemeral. Having been born heir to a great family and tasted the peak of abundance, he had no reason to cling to riches.’
That, too, must have been the influence of that damned setting.
At least that was fortunate.
It meant I probably wouldn’t risk my life out of greed.
But there was a serious problem before that.
“……I was weak.”
Would I even be able to take down a single monster?
Would I even manage to tag along with a party?
I worried.
Monsters appearing in reality were no joke.
—Whoa that was close lol
—The typical party cleared it with average level in the 200s?
—Difficulty keeps scaling up, look at that
—Rankers must be happy, more EXP
Those were comments under a video.
Average party level was in the 200s.
I checked my status.
[Name: Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
[Class: Demon Hunter]
[Level: 55]
Only level 55.
My level was exactly as it had been ten years ago.
Back then I’d been fairly high-level even if not a top-ranker… but time was cruel.
Well, a decade could change everything.
“Why did I waste so much time……”
I muttered pretentiously for a moment.
Then I typed “demon hunter” into the search engine.
“Wait, I forgot about this.”
How to raise a Demon Hunter…!
It had been so long that I had completely forgotten.
Back then, Demon Hunters could only be developed in a limited way.
Unlike other classes that leveled through grinding, Demon Hunters had to level through quests.
《Skill》
Natural enemy relation
Evasion mastery
Shooting mastery
Simultaneous shooting
Exorcism ritual
Most quests involved slaying demons.
That was where the Demon Hunter class’s limitations lay.
───────
[Natural enemy relation: When fighting demon-kind, combat ability rose dramatically.]
───────
They were overwhelming against demons, but otherwise their stats were useless. So in normal leveling fields they couldn’t hold a candle.
That was the reality of Demon Hunters.
So, shouldn’t I just hunt demons?
Someone might ask.
Back then, Arcana hadn’t had demon-kind monsters.
Demon Hunters could encounter demons only when performing quests.
Because of that, the class had been unpopular.
“But that was the past.”
Yes, it had been twelve years.
There had been plenty of time for new Demon Hunter development methods to appear.
Although it would be difficult to apply Arcana’s game-leveling methods directly to reality, they could at least serve as a reference.
Good.
After the awakening, the pounding in my head started to settle and my thoughts cleared.
…Maybe it was the tea? Maybe not.
At any rate, I was glad to live in an information age.
I could find anything with a flick of a finger.
I typed “demon hunter” into the search box.
But the results were nothing like I expected.
“……What on earth?”
“Arkshan base destroyed? All dead?”
What had happened to Arcana in the past ten years?
***
Arkshan Base.
It had been the Demon Hunters’ headquarters.
It was where you performed the job-change quest and trained to become a Demon Hunter.
But that Arkshan Base had been destroyed for some reason and even the NPCs had died.
Because of that, job-changing into Demon Hunter had become impossible.
“That was long ago?”
…Wait, then what about me?
Where was the new method for Demon Hunter development?
Digging through all manner of communities, I realized.
“No way.”
—Those were the comments: “I miss the old days when Demon Hunter existed…”
—“Huh? I’ve never heard of it.”
—“lol back then Demon Hunter was trash”
—“I rolled the char then deleted it lol”
The more I searched, the more that ‘no way’ turned into certainty.
It seemed there were no longer any Demon Hunter class Players.
No one — except me, since I had awakened as a Player.
“Unbelievable.”
I cursed my past self and my tastes.
Even if I had been all about style and drama in chūnibyō, I could have at least considered performance.
“My head hurts.”
Too much information had flooded me at once.
I decided I needed a break.
Just as I was about to put my phone down, a post caught my eye.
—If only I’d known, I would’ve kept leveling Demon Hunter
“?”
What was the story behind such a post?
Curious, I opened it.
I flinched.
“Demons were officially added in a new update, and since then the rift’s difficulty skyrocketed. If it weren’t for demons, players in reality wouldn’t be dying…?”
Demons had been added?
And those demons had been rampaging in reality too?
‘This could be….’
A possibility flashed in my mind.
But I kept it to myself.
Big expectations lead to big disappointments.
Besides, even players far above me in level were struggling because of the demons.
Despite that sensible appraisal, I muttered to myself.
‘Granfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo’s pride paradoxically soared highest before demons.’
“Consider it an honor.”
‘No demon’s temptation, deceit, or trial could blemish Granfel’s noble pride.’
“I would drag you all down to hell.”
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