009. The Era of Great Awakening (2)
“Royal Road….”
“Huh? So, what is this ‘Royal Road’ thing, anyway?”
“…Just as I thought.”
“As you thought? What do you mean? Hey! Woo Jeongwoo?”
No matter how many times Jaehee called his name, Jeongwoo stayed lost in thought, not responding. Watching him mutter to himself, Jaehee felt a strange unease creeping in.
“Hey! Are you just going to stand there and ignore me? What do you mean ‘as I thought’? And what’s all this about being a king? What’s a ‘Minor Sovereign’?”
“Ah… sorry. I was just thinking about something. Let’s set up camp first, then I’ll explain. It gets dark fast in the mountains—we should get the tent up before then.”
Jaehee nodded, though reluctantly. It wasn’t like Jeongwoo was refusing to explain, so he couldn’t really get mad.
Jeongwoo started pulling items out of thin air. The sky, which had only just begun to dim, was darkening rapidly. Jaehee had fought plenty of monsters during the tutorial, but bears and wild boars terrified him far more.
Wait—hadn’t Jeongwoo said that once the tutorial was over, he’d be able to use his inventory too? The thought made his heart race. Jaehee glanced at Jeongwoo, who was setting up the tent, and whispered under his breath:
“Inventory.”
In that instant, a translucent window appeared before his eyes.
“Oh!”
Jaehee looked around, wondering what he could put inside. He picked up a pinecone and a branch from the ground, and as he thought about storing them, they vanished into the translucent space.
“Whoa!”
It had been amazing when Jeongwoo did it, but experiencing it himself was even more thrilling.
What the hell is happening to the world?!
Jaehee briefly worried about the state of the world, but his excitement quickly pushed those concerns aside. He repeatedly picked up rocks and branches, stuffing them into his inventory and pulling them back out, unable to contain his glee.
Jeongwoo watched from behind, chuckling. Everyone acted the same way after awakening.
“So cute.”
The moment the tutorial ended, an Awakened One’s body and abilities were completely reconstructed. Even the lowest-ranked Awakened Ones were physically superior to ordinary humans in every way.
Jaehee didn’t seem to realize it yet, but the fact that he could move around so effortlessly in the mountains in winter was because he was an Awakened One. If he hadn’t been, he would have been shivering uncontrollably the moment he stepped out of the tutorial. Jaehee, who had always been sensitive to the cold, didn’t even seem to notice the chill now.
Jeongwoo took out a pot and began preparing a meal. The ingredients he had stored in his inventory during the tutorial didn’t spoil, so he could keep fresh meat and produce on hand. He wanted to make something delicious for Jaehee—after all, it was their first day after completing the tutorial.
Even Awakened Ones couldn’t escape hunger. They burned through calories quickly, so they got hungry often and craved food. Of course, their physical endurance was far greater, so they could go without eating for long periods, but most Awakened Ones had hearty appetites.
Royal Road.
Jeongwoo had suspected for a long time that Jaehee might be a Royal Road. But now that it was confirmed, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He had thought he knew everything about Jaehee, yet the one thing he had never known was Jaehee’s classification.
“Hey, Shin Jaehee. Stop messing around and come sit over here.”
“Huh?”
“Dinner’s ready.”
“Oh? Already? Wow, you’ve already set up the tent. You should’ve told me you needed help…. I’ve been thinking this since last time, but you’re really good at this stuff. Jeongwoo, did you secretly join the military or something?”
“Why don’t you try this first? Then you can ask if I’m a chef.”
“You’re that confident? Didn’t you just barely manage to boil ramen? When did you learn all this?”
Jaehee joked, but he wasn’t entirely kidding. He watched as Jeongwoo effortlessly set up the tent and prepared the meal in no time. He had thought he knew Jeongwoo pretty well after spending three years together in high school, but now he wasn’t so sure. What the hell had happened to Woo Jeongwoo over the past two months? He wasn’t just crazy—that was a relief—but was he reasonably crazy, or was there something deeper going on?
On the neatly arranged table Jeongwoo had set up, there was steaming mukguk (radish soup), fluffy white rice, and kimchi so fragrant it made his mouth water. The sight alone made his stomach growl.
“Let’s eat first. You must be hungry. I’ll slice the suyuk (boiled pork) now. Just wait.”
“Suyuk?!”
Jaehee’s eyes widened as Jeongwoo lifted the lid of the large pot beside him. A burst of steam rose, carrying the rich, savory scent of meat.
“Whoa… What… How is there suyuk here?”
Was he really this obsessed with food? Or was he just that hungry?
Even as he spoke, Jaehee couldn’t take his eyes off the meat Jeongwoo was lifting out.
Jeongwoo skillfully sliced the steaming pork and placed it in front of Jaehee. The aroma made his mouth water, and his head spun.
Come to think of it, those foxes in the tutorial had tried to tempt him with food…
Wait—was Jeongwoo doing the same? When he looked at Jeongwoo, Jeongwoo burst out laughing.
“Hey, you’re not using some kind of mihok (bewitchment) skill on me, are you?”
“Hahaha! You really don’t change, Shin Jaehee. If I were using bewitchment on you, do you think I’d tell you if you asked?”
“Well… I guess if it’s you, Woo Jeongwoo, you might.”
“I never used bewitchment on you during the tutorial. You might be the one using it on me, though.”
“What?!”
“Don’t worry about it.”
In an instant, the dinner Jeongwoo had prepared was far beyond simple camping food. Jaehee dug in without hesitation. Had Jeongwoo secretly taken cooking classes behind his back? After eating for a while, he belatedly realized Jeongwoo had barely touched his food and felt a little embarrassed.
“D-Did I eat too much?”
“No, it’s fine. You just awakened, so you burn more calories. Want more? Should I make some ramen?”
“Ah, no. I’ve almost finished everything—if I eat ramen too, I’ll be a pig, not a human. I’ll clean up. But how do we wash the dishes? There’s no running water.”
“Don’t worry about it. This is one of the most rewarding moments since I became an Awakened One… Watch this.”
Jeongwoo snapped his fingers. Instantly, the used dishes returned to their original, pristine state.
“Whoa! What was that?!”
“Magic.”
Normally, Jaehee would have dismissed the word “magic” as a terrible joke, but in this situation, it didn’t sound like one.
“S-Seriously?! So… does this mean dishwasher companies are going out of business? What is this?! Can you do it with clothes too? Wow… that would be huge!”
“Dishwasher? That’s harsh. It’s actually a pretty difficult spell.”
Jeongwoo laughed at Jaehee’s childlike wonder.
“You’ll learn all this in time. Now that you’re full, want to hear about what Royal Road is?”
“Oh, right… I read it earlier, but what’s all this about being a king?”
Jeongwoo poured them both a cup of warm tea while they talked.
“The system will explain it to you. But as you’ve probably realized by now, the system doesn’t tell you everything, and it subtly distorts information. So you can’t just blindly trust what the system windows say. The Earth is going to be destroyed.”
Jaehee’s eyes widened. Jeongwoo continued calmly, watching him.
“The tutorials appearing, the Awakened Ones emerging—it’s all because the Earth doesn’t have much time left. It’s like a last-ditch effort to prevent destruction. And the ‘king’… is the most crucial key to saving the Earth. Among them, the Royal Road… is someone the system itself has chosen as the most suitable candidate for king.”
Hearing that the Earth was doomed didn’t feel real.
“At least it’s fair. If I were the only one dying, I’d feel wronged, but if everything is ending, that’s fine.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Jeongwoo shook his head at Jaehee’s words. If it were a straightforward “end of the world” scenario, he might have agreed with Jaehee. But destruction wasn’t that simple.
“Then…? You said it’s the end? How exactly is it ending?”
“Even in a dying world, there’s still immense energy and resources. And there are those who covet them. ‘Destruction’ means being consumed entirely by them. Think about it—when a nation collapses, countless tragedies unfold within it. Now imagine that on a scale of worlds colliding. What do you think will happen?”
Jaehee’s mind went blank. He had never considered destruction in that way. Jeongwoo’s expression was too dark, too serious for this to be some absurd joke.
“During the tutorial, the guides kept trying to scam us for points.”
“So… what do we do? There has to be a way… I mean, that’s why the tutorial and all this exists, right?”
“You’re right. For our world to survive, we need to select a king. The tutorial, all of this—it’s to choose a king. The king is someone who can protect and preserve the world.”
Jeongwoo gulped down the tea in front of him, his throat parched. The once-steaming tea had cooled.
“The system judges the qualifications of the Awakened Ones. The Royal Road is the classification for those with the potential to be king. Shin Jaehee… you’re a candidate for king. The king of Earth.”
Jaehee nearly spat out his tea. He had thought it was like a game, just some kind of class or profession—like a mage or a knight. But king?
