I Woke Up as the Villain

After finishing up a busy day as usual, Yu-Seong returned home late at night. He finally picked up his phone, which he hadn't seen all day long.

‘Outstagram messages would explode again today.’

Yu-Seong had turned off the notifications sound because of the messages flooding in, but whenever he opened the app to upload photos, he would inadvertently notice the number of unopened messages with his own eyes.

He used to read and reply to those messages one by one. Only when he realized that doing that would take up a good one to two hours of his time that he began skimming through them and only paying attention to the important ones.

While doing so, Yu-Seong suddenly scoffed at a long direct message that had caught his eye.

‘Do they want me to be a shampoo model? Me, a guy?’

Even though Yu-Seong was the wealthy son of a conglomerate family who didn't need to do advertisements, him being a social media star brought about such proposals quite often.

Of course, Yu-Seong, who believed that having more money was always a good thing, thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to do the advertisement shoot even if he didn't have to. As his TV exposure increased, his Star Factor skill would steadily grow as well.

‘But I shouldn’t overdo it now.’

Yu-Seong’s day was already completely packed. And no matter how much stamina he had, there was definitely a limit to his time.

‘It’s true that time is more valuable than gold.’ 

As he became busier and wealthier, Yu-Seong came to deeply feel this fact. Most things, and even people, could be bought with money, but time was something that could not be acquired. Therefore, he reluctantly declined the advertising model offer.

Then, he turned his attention to his own NewTube channel, which had been named after him. The channel had surpassed 7 million subscribers and had an average of 5 million video views in no time, making it one of Yu-Seong's biggest revenue sources.

‘Let’s see, the top NewTube channel has 50 million subscribers... It's almost equivalent to the entire population of Korea? That's incredible.’

Although still meager compared to the top channels, no other channel had grown as much as his had in just one year. Above all, the dinosaur channel with 50 million subscribers was not a fair comparison since it had been created for a company’s promotional purposes. In addition, since the average views per subscriber on Yu-Seong's channel were quite high, the revenue rate was good. He had no reason to be dissatisfied.

Moreover, the two journalists in charge of his channel predicted that if it was revealed that Yu-Seong had achieved an S-rank, the number of subscribers and views would skyrocket due to the significant gap in public perception between S-rank and non-S-rank hunters.

‘There's no rush to get there, though.’

After closing his NewTube channel tab, Yu-Seong checked his Coconut Talk messages. Since he did not reveal his numbers to the public, unlike his Outstagram account, Yu-Seong did not receive many messages.

However, he still maintained regular conversations with those who contacted him every day. For example, there was Kim Do-Jin.

- I watched your video last night. It wasn't bad, but personally, I think you should hide your skills more than you do now. I don't know what you're thinking when you shoot your videos, but in a real fight, this information can be a disadvantage...

Was it because of the camaraderie between them during the Pyongyang incident? Compared to before, Kim Do-Jin had become more talkative. The two were exchanging messages more smoothly and consistently now.

‘The downside is that most of the messages are nagging.’

Or the majority were TMI (Too Much Information), which Yu-Seong wasn't particularly interested in.

- Don't worry, I'll do it on my own. After all, it's TMT.

- I'm not conveying excessive unnecessary information. From my experience…

- I’ll ignore you.

Perhaps he was looking at his phone at that time, because Do-Jin immediately replied to Yu-Seong's first reply. And after Yu-Seong replied with 'I'll ignore you,' Do-Jin sent across more than ten other messages.

"Ugh, this guy is really giving me a headache."

Still, this was much better than six months ago when Do-Jin had been trying to heal his injury and had been prying into Yu-Seong's secrets, including how Yu-Seong had known about the skill 'Heart Strike: Beyond the Space Slash' that Do-Jin himself had kept hidden.

At the time, Yu-Seong had promised to tell Do-Jin everything when they returned to Seoul, so he had to make up some plausible lies. To be precise, he had initially told the truth as he had made that promise.

‘I have been possessed by the novel I was reading, and so I know many secrets. You are the protagonist in the novel.’

However, Kim Do-Jin had ignored that explanation, snorted, and told Yu-Seong not to talk nonsense.

Due to Do-Jin’s demand for a reasonable story, Yu-Seong had no choice but to make up a life with an awkward laugh.

‘He did believe me when I said I have Future Foresight and skill analysis abilities using the Third Eye…’

Maybe it was because Kim Do-Jin himself had so many fraudulent skills… He easily believed Yu-Seong's lie that Yu-Seong could pry out his opponent's skills with the Third Eye skill.

‘Actually, I thought my lie, claiming that I had to act like a rascal when I was young because I would have died if I didn’t, wouldn't work. But it did… Or did he just pretend to believe it?’

Yu-Seong suddenly remembered Kim Do-Jin’s somewhat confused expression at the time. But he ultimately shrugged that thought off. By all means, it was already in the past. In fact, Yu-Seong didn't even want to bother thinking about it, considering how tired he was at the time.

‘For now, let's ignore that guy until tomorrow…’

Next was Bernard Yoo, who Yu-Seong contacted almost every day.

- Hey, are you asleep?

- Sleeping?

- Asleep?

- I'm bored.

- Hey, Choi Yu-Seong.

- (Photo)

Since he was living in the United States, Bernard Yoo had sent five messages during the time difference alone. Most of the messages were useless complaints.

‘What the heck is (Photo)?’

Bernard had written ‘(Photo)’ in words without even sending an actual picture file.

‘This dude and that dude… I wonder why the novel’s main characters are all so weird?’

Feeling pathetic, Yu-Seong shook his head and gave Bernard Yoo a brief reply.

- Oh, I slept. I'll probably sleep soon too.

And perhaps Bernard Yoo would reply to that message when Yu-Seong was asleep.

The next message that Yu-Seong received was from Yoo Jin-Hyuk.

- (Photo)

Unlike Bernard Yoo's trick, Yoo Jin-Hyuk had sent a real picture. In the picture, a small-bodied Jin-Hyuk was standing next to a beast that looked over ten times larger than himself. The monster resembled a rhinoceros with a menacing gaze.

- Hyung, hyung, I succeeded in taming the Corridon today. With this guy, I can do everything from front-lining to tanking, so I think I’ll hunt much easier than Chae Ye-Ryeong. It's all thanks to the Book of Faust you gave me!

Moreover, there was not just one photo.

‘The next photo is from after he installed the barrier technique.’

The content was not much different from the previous message.

- Hyung, I made the barrier in six hours today. It's a remarkable improvement, considering that it took me more than a week when I first started. I did my best, putting in more effort than Chae Ye-Ryeong! It's all thanks to you, hyung.

Reading the message, Yu-Seong couldn't help but laugh wryly.

‘He’s like a little puppy.’

It would be a lie if Yu-Seong didn't think Jin-Hyuk was cute in how he tried to get his praise somehow. Above all, he thought Yoo Jin-Hyuk's growth was remarkably fast compared to the time that had passed.

‘I suppose it's because he trained diligently, just as I had asked him to do.’

Although it was reasonable to expect him to climb the ranks slowly, Yoo Jin-Hyuk poured his effort into the training without any doubt and, despite being only a C-rank, he now possessed enough ability to outperform even an A-rank.

‘Now, there shouldn't be any major problems being trapped in the barrier like in the past. I did a good job of persuading him, even though it was difficult.’

Yu-Seong also found it amusing to witness the argument between Yoo Jin-Hyuk and Chae Ye-Ryeong, so he sent a sincere message to the boy. He sounded so different from the messages he had sent Kim Do-Jin and Bernard Yoo.

- You're doing well. I'm proud of you and how you are working hard. So glad.

- Hyung. Have you finished work for today? You must be exhausted. Would you like me to come over and give you a massage or something?"

The reply came back promptly. Yoo Jin-Hyuk, who had come up to Seoul, was living near Yu-Seong's house. Jin-Hyuk had said that it was because he wanted to respond to Yu-Seong’s call at any time.

- It's okay. I have a strong body, so don't worry. Thanks for caring.

- You're welcome. But hyung, am I doing better than that vicious woman, Chae Ye-Ryeong?

- ^^. Sleep well.

- You have good dreams too, hyung!

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

This marked the end of Yu-Seong’s daily message checks with the people he regularly kept in touch with. The only thing left was checking the reporting emails from Jin Yu-Ri and Jenny.

‘After checking these, I'll read the original novel once again and go to bed right away.’

There were always two ends to a busy day. And just as Yu-Seong was about to open an internet window to check his work email, someone he didn't usually contact sent him a message.

- Boss. Yoo Jin-Hyuk bragged childishly that you praised him and said he was better than me. Is this true?

After seeing the message from Chae Ye-Ryeong, Yu-Seong suppressed the thought that they were both childish and cute, and captured part of the conversation with Yoo Jin-Hyuk to send back to Ye-Ryeong.

- I knew he was lying. If I see him at the office tomorrow, he's a dead man.

- You two, that's enough. Or else you guys would get attached eventually.

- What?! Boss, you're joking too much now! How can you put me and that brat on the same level...!

- You never know.

- Boss-! (Angry rabbit emoticon)

Yu-Seong laughed before closing Chae Ye-Ryeong’s message. After checking his email for the report he had originally planned to read, he closed his eyes and read the novel slowly.

‘After all the dangerous things are over…’

He would be able to live his current happy life without worrying about the future. Until then, even if it was difficult, Yu-Seong was determined to persevere.

***

After the deep dawn fell, Yu-Seong had a dream. In the dream, an intensely brilliant light that made it difficult to open his eyes slowly fell from the sky to the ground. At first glance, it seemed like the world was approaching its end, but luckily the flaming light settled down on the ground quietly like dandelion fluff blowing in the wind.

Then, Yu-Seong woke up to the entire house shaking. He quickly grabbed the glass he had left beside the bed. A massive earthquake was striking South Korea.

‘No way, this is...obvious...’

After the dream that all players had—a dream about a light settling on the ground—a massive earthquake shook the entire world. There was only one scene in the original novel that described such an event.

‘Finally... The Tower is appearing. It's faster than the original, as expected!’

Yu-Seong hurriedly ran towards the window and clenched his fist tightly while looking at the towering column of light that could be seen even from a distance.