Chapter 2
“Chanhee!”
Yu Hyunjae, who’d already shed his coat despite the cold and was down to just his school uniform, was sprinting toward me. As expected of the protagonist—his physical abilities were practically superhuman. I stepped back slightly to avoid a collision.
“I almost crashed into you.”
Despite my grumbling, Hyunjae just laughed and thrust the paper he was holding at me. He’d been gripping it so carelessly that it was pretty wrinkled. Right in the center, it read: “Grade 1.”
“As expected of Yu Hyunjae.”
“I did well, right?”
“‘Well’ is an understatement.”
Hyunjae looked at me like a puppy waiting for a treat. After mastering martial arts, he’d grown so much bigger, and now he was pulling these cutesy moves so naturally. I sighed and patted his head. A side effect of getting too close.
Seventeen. The novel’s major turning point was about to begin. I looked at Hyunjae’s gentle face in front of me. I was more familiar with this version of him—like a big dog who thought he was still a small one—than the cynical, somewhat cruel Hyunjae from the original story.
“You didn’t forget, did you?”
“What?”
“That if you got Grade 1 in the second selection, I’d grant you a wish.”
“Ah.”
When I answered so flatly, Hyunjae’s face fell. I figured his wish would be something simple, like treating him at the school store.
“Is there anything you need?”
“No.”
“Then what’s your wish?”
“Hmm.”
Hyunjae suddenly stepped in front of me, blocking my path. Judging by his playful expression, he was plotting something again.
“Let’s go on a trip together.”
The second side effect of getting too close—it became overwhelming. I nodded, trying hard to avoid his direct, piercing gaze.
“Well, it’s not difficult.”
“Wah!” Hyunjae hugged me like he was overjoyed. Right. Maybe a relationship that was a bit too close was better than one that wasn’t good at all. Isn’t this a fairly successful transmigrator life? With thoughts like that, I let myself be dragged along, half-embraced by Hyunjae.
In this world, everyone basically had mana. Of course, most of that mana remained unrefined and dormant—having it didn’t mean you could use it freely. If I had to explain it, it was like internal energy in martial arts novels. To be trained as a Ranker who could actually use mana, you had to go through specialized training courses.
I easily secured Grade 1 in the first selection. Natural, considering I was Yu Dohyun’s younger brother. Hyunjae, as expected, tested as powerless, and for several days he locked himself in his room and wouldn’t come out. Timid kid. He didn’t even know what was coming—that he’d become an overwhelmingly overpowered character in ten years. I coaxed and soothed him until he finally emerged.
The training process was optional. Of course, I… didn’t do it. Mana capacity varied from person to person, and people with little mana usually lived ordinary lives without special training, so it wasn’t unusual. Of course, I was dying of curiosity. How sad is it to have fantasy abilities in a fantasy world but not be able to use them properly? But I didn’t want to create even a 1% chance that things would follow the novel’s original path.
In contrast, Hyunjae diligently studied martial arts, just like in the original. Ironically, he mainly used the martial arts he’d learned so obsessively for my “protection.” As time passed, we—who’d been receiving forced attention because of his brother Yu Dohyun—naturally acquired a nickname.
‘The Half-Crippled Genius and the Powerless Hunting Dog.’
It sounds terrible, but I wasn’t passionate enough to get worked up about it. Seeing that Hyunjae didn’t say much either, he probably felt the same.
I glanced at Hyunjae walking beside me. Achieving Grade 1 with martial arts alone was an incredible feat. Having lived with him all this time (or rather, already knowing from the novel about his monstrous physicality), I just accepted it. But the world had probably already started finding his extraordinary abilities suspicious.
“I want to go to the sea.”
“It’s still cold as hell, and you want to go to the sea?”
At my cold response, Hyunjae’s shoulders drooped. Anyway, you’re about to get media attention soon and won’t have time to play. I muttered internally. The next part of the story was… what was it? The leader of the Hanseong Guild, Crush’s parent organization, making an offer to Yu Chanhee, who was spiraling with inferiority complex?
Whether he knew my heart was constantly working toward world peace or not, Hyunjae’s shoulders looked like they were about to touch the ground. It kept irritating me, like he was advertising to the whole neighborhood how discouraged he was.
“Ah, fine. We can go.”
“No. If you don’t want to, Chanhee, we don’t have to.”
Ah. That pathetic expression.
“You hate the cold, Chanhee. So I don’t want to go either.”
I pointedly avoided Hyunjae’s gaze and mumbled my answer.
“…As if I’d believe you when you’re making that incredibly disappointed face.”
“Was it that obvious?”
Maybe I’d gotten too comfortable around the protagonist. Even though I raised him to my liking, he was stronger than me now. I didn’t know how carelessly I should treat him anymore. Let’s stop thinking about world peace for today before my head explodes. As I stopped dwelling on it, the furrow in my brow slowly relaxed.
“Your expression softened.”
Hyunjae pressed his finger firmly against my forehead.
“Huh?”
“Chanhee’s thinking-time-is-over signal.”
What are you even saying? But Hyunjae, looking relieved, lowered his hand and grabbed my arm again. Hyunjae had changed from the book, but I’d been with him for ten years—I was too familiar with this version of him. So it was fortunate. The chances of this predictable transmigration story having a happy ending kept increasing.
Hyunjae headed to his usual dojo, and I returned home alone. I was about to head upstairs after calling out the perfunctory “I’m home,” when I sensed someone in the first-floor living room. Had the housekeeper not left yet? But the person who appeared was someone I hadn’t expected.
“Father.”
Before I could even greet him properly, I was slapped hard across the face. The force sent me sprawling across the entrance hallway in an ugly heap. I felt my cheek swelling in real-time as I got back up.
“Worthless kid.”
It must be because of today’s second selection results. It wasn’t common for someone in such a high position as Director of Security for the Combat Division to come home on an ordinary weekday like this. He probably came specifically to discipline his pathetic son.
“Grade 5? You think that’s acceptable?”
“Your news travels really fast…”
“Shut up!”
When he hit the same spot again, I started hearing a buzzing sound in my ear. Had something happened to my cochlea? My eardrum? And hitting the same spot twice. Father was still such a childish person.
“I’m not asking you to be like your brother. But worse than that Yu Hyunjae…!”
“I can’t.”
I answered firmly, my words coming out mushed because of my swollen cheek. Father, properly worked up now, started kicking me. Three months—was that the last time? While being mercilessly beaten, I saw my mother standing quietly at the end of the hallway. She had a slightly worried expression but didn’t do anything.
No matter how useless someone might be, constantly being told you’re useless tends to sting. I wiped away the nosebleed that had started flowing at some point and gave my father some sincere advice.
“How about making Hyunjae your son instead? It’s not too late.”
Father’s rough breathing caught.
“You want a Number 1 Ranker, don’t you? Hyunjae will do that.”
“That damn Yu Hyunjae!”
Father shouted and finally stormed into the master bedroom. Still, it ended a bit quicker than three months ago. I headed upstairs, deliberately ignoring my mother’s gaze. My legs were fine, but my shoulder was throbbing—probably from hitting the wall. The thought that I wouldn’t be able to go to school for a few days already depressed me. Being cooped up at home wasn’t really my thing. The moment I collapsed onto my bed, I closed my eyes.
I was jolted awake from a light sleep by the sound of the door opening. A familiar pair of legs in pants entered my vision first. Hyunjae was back. He tossed his bag aside and stumbled toward me. I was in a state where my entire body had lost its strength—adding a bit of exaggeration. I was contributing this much for world peace, after all.
Hyunjae placed his hand on my head without saying anything. I realized he was trembling violently. A wet drop fell onto my swollen cheek. Are you crying? Had I unintentionally traumatized him? Come to think of it, I’d only thought about making sure Hyunjae wasn’t abused, but I hadn’t really considered the indirect psychological damage he’d suffer.
That’s when it happened.
Suddenly, the world turned gray, and then—as if someone had typed it in—clear red text rapidly appeared before my eyes.
<The world is being distorted. Do you want to continue? Y/N>
My body was instinctively seized by fear and couldn’t move. From the moment I’d transmigrated into this book world, the existence of the world had somehow felt close to fiction, but this was the first time something like this had happened. Hyunjae was still crying in front of me. What was being distorted? What was I supposed to continue? Not knowing, I just moved my eyes around helplessly.
<Do you want to continue?>
The letters began to flicker. Since I had no intention of stopping whatever this was anyway, I slowly nodded. The text vanished, and color quickly flooded back into the world. I slowly raised my head to look at Hyunjae.
Hyunjae was still looking at me with a tear-streaked face, but now his expression was filled with something else—resentment. It was a look I’d never seen in the nine years I’d spent with him.
