Transcendence Due To A System Error

CHAPTER 1: APPARITION

Translator: Rhyme_Bean
Editor: Emme

“Seoyul, what do you think are the merits of my novel?”

“That only the two of us will be present during a fan meeting?” I retorted playfully and emptied a glass of soju.

“No. Not that.”

“If not, what else? That you don’t get any hate comments? But there are no readers to begin with.”

“… Should I put a stop to it?”

A trembling man sat in front of me.

I laughed inwardly seeing Kim Shin in such a state.

“Seoyul, hyung is being sincere.”

His eyes turned sober, making a sad and mournful expression.

Well, our author-nim had just completed two books, yet he looked dejected. Was there any reason for him to be so despondent? He could easily buy a house just by selling off some of his luxury items.

That wasn’t the case. Even if the novels didn’t bring any money, the fact that his own novels hadn’t gotten any recognition must have made him miserable.

Glug, glug.

I answered as I filled my glass with liquor, “The merits of hyung’s novels? Your writing style is appreciable. Plus, you are diligent and the chapters are updated frequently. Also, the story appealed to me…”

Time had flown by and before I knew it, seven months had passed since I first met this hyung.

I had come to know that an author with not less than hundred works to his name was holding a fan meeting. Out of curiosity, I decided to attend, but in the end, it turned out to be a fateful encounter.

“Ah, the world building is quite fresh. It was innovative, incorporating the fantasy world into the modern world.”

“And?”

“Mmm…”

At first, our relationship was only like that of an ordinary fan and a writer. Knowingly or unknowingly, after a few rounds of drinks together our relationship had progressed to such an extent that we started treating each other like brothers.

“Hyung, do you want to listen to my honest opinions or just sugar-coated words?”

“…Your honest opinion.”

“I see.”

I leaned forward to pour another glass of soju.

Hiccup. 

“About brother’s novels…”

I will tell this in advance. I was the type of person who looked sober in spite of being dead drunk.

“First, the characters haven’t got any emotions, making the story dull to the reader. Above all, the novels have got zero popularity. Who would spend their money to read such a novel? It’s not like this novel can be rented from shops like those old days. I am only reading for hyung’s sake.”

By this time, I had gotten very drunk. I had already exceeded my drinking  capacity with the previous cup.

“There are only fifty views…”

“Fifty views? 50 v-i-e-w-s? Hyung, how many people have purchased the complete works?”

One did not need much time to think the answer.

“…Three.”

“And one among them is Hyung, right?”

“.…”

“One of them is me and there’s only one person remaining. How on earth did your works get fifty views?”

I poured another glass of soju and quickly finished the shot.

In my state of drunkenness, I ordered more alcohol. The more you drink the more you get drunk, and I usually drink till I lose my head.

“I am asking this for the sake of my next project,” Hyung said. Apparently, he craved soju too, because he finished his glass in one go.

I couldn’t lose to him, so I called for another shot. It wasn’t enough for me, so I kept calling for more.

It felt good.

Hiccup.

“Hyung, I will say this directly.”

The two hyungs nodded their heads. Since when were two hyungs present, though?

Was he some kind of god? Ah, he would definitely be one.

Kim Shin*.

(*Shin means God in Korean)

I tensed up all of a sudden.

“About Hyung’s novel, the status window is the problem. Hell with the status window! Your novel would have been a hit if there hadn’t been any status windows.”

“…What?”

I lost full control and the words I had wanted to say came out like a torrent of water.

“The commonly used, cliche, status window isn’t fit to be in your story, hyung. If there hadn’t been any status windows, you could have earned thousand times more than you do right now.”

“But only because of the status window can I incorporate modern times with fantasy. So it’s not a choice but a must….”

Glug, glug.

Another cup.

“Must? M-u-s-t? Bullshit. As I said, you can’t get anywhere with it.”

Hyung’s figure seemed blurry.

“If there had been no status windows in the first place this work would have been a success for sure,” I repeated myself.

“Hey. Whatever you say, how can I just exclude the status window from S-Class Status Window*…”

(*That’s the name of Hyung’s novel.)

“The name itself is a problem. What the hell is with this status window?”

Hyung was too bland to understand the ways of the world.

“… Are you being serious?”

“Of course.”

In truth, there was a little bit of self-interest in it – I was quite interested to see the main lead without a status window.

“No. No matter what you say, the status window can’t be left out. The setting of the world itself would break down.”

I drank another glass of soju.

“Then change the settings… Yes, that’s right! How about getting rid of the protagonist’s status window? Don’t you think it would be more interesting?”

“.…Just the protagonist?”

Hyung’s expression turned somewhat serious.

I giggled incoherently and stretched out to pat Hyung’s pouting chubby cheeks.

“Anyway, hyung really needs to let go of the trend. Okay?”

“…Yes. I get what you mean.”

“Okay!”

I smiled brightly and gulped down the remaining glass of soju.

Thud-

Just after those words I lost my consciousness with a snap.

“Ah! Yes! Then how about this? Isn’t there an item restriction in the setting? Utilize… it? How about it?”

I could only hear hyung’s indistinct and vague voice.

*     *     *

“…My head hurts.”

And my mouth felt dry.

My head ached so much, as if it was being pricked by a needle and in addition to that, the stomach pain.

“Ugh.”

Undoubtedly, this was the hangover.

Yet, how did I get back home yesterday?

Surely, I had met with Shin hyung-nim and went for a drink with him. I had dashed to the place since hyung seemed very upset and…

That was all I could remember. The film of memories went completely blank. Hyung seemed to say something with a serious expression.

“Uh. Such a splitting headache.”

My head was hurting so much that I couldn’t think anymore. I had to do something about the hangover.

“I feel like throwing up…”

I really had drunk quite a lot, more than ever before. It seemed like I had stubbornly kept drinking even after losing my memories.

I carefully put on my coat and went out of the house.

“Uh….”

The moment the sun rays hit me, I felt my head going all the more dizzy.

Trying to get my act together, I slowly moved towards the convenience store in the neighborhood.

I had started breathing heavily by the time I reached the store. I bought a hangover drink from the store and splayed on the table outside my house.

Only then did I feel like living. The cool breeze refreshed me. More than anything, I liked the quiet atmosphere.

If I stayed as such for a bit more, I’d overcome my hangover…

“This woman! Are you done with your words?!”

“Yes! So what?!”

“Ugh!”

Because of the sudden outburst of such high-pitched voices, I felt something ringing in my head. I couldn’t help but think that the world was under some sort of zombie apocalypse. I pressed on to my head and searched for the origin of the noise.

“In the first place, you are the one in the wrong. Why are you pushing your mistake onto me?”

“Mistake? Ha! It’s not even funny! It’s you that didn’t move forward properly!”

“Oh my? Funny? Is it because of this that one shouldn’t strike up a conversation with the people of an uneducated family?”

“What? Uneducated family? You bitch!”

I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. Just like that my peaceful healing process came to an end.

“Oh, come on.”

Nothing could be done other than leaving the place.

Just as I was getting up…

“I can tell it from just a glance! Your son must have taken after you and have a low intelligence capacity.”

“What a joke. Shouldn’t you be worrying about your son? I heard his intellect is only three.”

I flinched. My steps halted because of my confusion.

Intellect? Three?

“My baby son is a genius. His intellect is already five. It seems that you don’t even have much genetic value, unlike mothers of well educated families.”

“This bitch! Really!”

This time the intellect was five.

It doesn’t seem that I had a problem with my hearing. In all my life, it was my first time seeing someone quarreling in such a novel way. It looked like both the women were still stuck in their school days.

“What is so good about only having intellect? I heard that your son falls short in strength value. Will such a premature child grow up properly?”

“What? Premature child?”

This time it was strength value. I couldn’t understand anything they were talking about. I stood there, dazedly looking at the two women.

“You there, what are you looking at?!”

“Are you watching a show?”

The middle aged women looked towards me with eyes filled with hostility. I shook my hands in a hurry and said, “N-No. It’s nothing. I only stood in a daze because of my hangover.”

The pressure emanating from them was no joke.

“Th-then I will get going. You guys continue with what you were doing.”

I escaped from there as quickly as I could. It took some time to stop hearing the brawls of the middle aged women from behind. They had started ripping each other, apparently not content with just cursing others’ children.

What on earth made them heat up to such an extent? Apart from that what did the ‘intellect three’ and ‘strength value’ mean? It didn’t seem like a conversation between game addicts.

“Ah, it’s really getting on my nerves.”

I walked briskly, lost in thoughts, and reached the public park at one point.

“Ugh. I really can’t understand.”

I stopped thinking. I decided to hang out in the park to relieve my hangover. I took my seat on a small bench.

I lazily leaned my back on the bench and looked up at the sky.

“……Ah?”

A bewildered exclamation leaked from my mouth.

“What is that?”

I spotted a tree. Of course, it was natural to have trees in the park. Yet, no matter how I looked, that tree didn’t seem ordinary.

It was huge. Surprisingly huge. Too huge to be called one.

“.…… How did something like that appear in Seoul?”

The tree was big enough to pass through the clouds.

That tree stood right in the middle of Seoul, however I couldn’t help but get shocked.

“Am I dreaming?”

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the tree again.I repeated it again and again, but the landscape reflecting in my eyes never changed.

“Oh, shit.”

The headache due to the hangover had already disappeared. The bewilderment swallowed my pain.

‘What is this situation right now?’

I turned around my head desperately. The surroundings were as tranquil as always. Kids were running around in the park and the mothers were looking after them. Someone rode a bicycle while another exercised.

To say that the world changed dramatically in a single day wasn’t right. There were so many things familiar to me.

I accelerated my thoughts further.

If the world around me hadn’t changed, if the gigantic tree was something normal, the others were not the ones who had changed.

“…. Me?”

It was either one or the other.

Did I suddenly turn crazy? Or did the whole world change except for me?

Anyway, it was certain that this was something beyond my understanding. Was I missing something crucial?

“…Ah?”

Suddenly a hypothesis flashed through my head.

An enormous and unrealistic tree that was out of the ordinary. Earlier when those ladies quarreled, they belittled each other saying on the basis of ‘intellect value’ and ‘strength value’.

Was there any relation between these two abnormal incidents?

“Brother Shin’s novel, S- Class Status Window!”

My current situation looked shockingly similar to that of the novel content. If I was right, the huge tree must be the World Tree.

The sacred tree worshiped by tree elves.

The quarrel between the two ladies earlier also started to make sense.

In the world of S-Class Status Window, everyone carried a status window. Of course, it was also possible to keep the tabs on intellect value and strength value of even newborn babies.

“So that’s why they fought like that.”

By this time, I had already sobered up. This could be one of my strong points. When something beyond my imagination occurred, I would sober up.

“Anyway, I need to confirm it first.”

I inspected my pockets. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my smartphone. It looked as if I hadn’t even taken my phone since I came out half-asleep.

Then there was no other option.

I carefully stood up from my seat, and approached a mother happily watching her child playing.

“Um, excuse me.”

“Yes?”

The other party became alert as soon as I called out. However, it was natural to be on guard to hear a strange man calling yourself.

“Ah.”

However, the alertness disappeared quickly. It was soon replaced by goodwill. The swift change was something I couldn’t comprehend.

“What is it?”

“Ah, yes. It’s not something big. I just wanted to ask you a question.”

To confirm my guess, I struck up a conversation.

“I need to prepare a tour of the World Tree for my friend from abroad. Are there any good spots in the vicinity?”

Saying this, I smiled politely. If the tree was really the World Tree, I would hear a perfectly normal reply. If not, I would seem like a crazy man.

“Ah, touring the Sacred Tree? There really is some good place. If you go to Gangnam, that way….”

The woman started to talk to me about the tourist spots in an excited manner. With this, I could confirm that I was really in the world inside the novel, S-Class Window.

“Ha.”

I touched my forehead. Though it was a hypothesis with high a  probability, inwardly I wished I was wrong.

“By the way, is the friend coming from abroad a woman?”

“Yes? No. It’s a man.”

I just made up at that moment.

“Oh my? Is that so? Since you are a handsome student I thought it must be a woman for sure~ Haha.”

“.…Handsome student?”

“Oh my. Is my description not enough?How about ‘extremely good-looking student? Is that enough?”

In my 28 years of life I had never heard anyone describing me as handsome. I was never good-looking.

“No, it’s not that. A student? Me?”

“.…. Are you not a student? You look so young face~”

People normally described me as ‘old fashioned.’ Something struck me then – what the term ‘handsome student’ could possibly mean.

“Haha. Anyway Thank you so much. You must have been startled but you were kind to me, nevertheless.”

“It’s nothing. It’s good that it was of help to you.”

I slightly nodded in salutation and got out from there.

My destination was the park’s washroom. I went into the washroom in a hurry and stood before the mirror. As I looked at the mirror, I spontaneously burst out laughing.

“Haha.”

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It was my first time seeing such a handsome man. A man around twenty years of age. A person who was this beautiful in the novel, to my understanding, there was only one.

Kang Seoyul.

Ironically, he was the protagonist with the same name as mine.

“I have become the protagonist.”

That’s how I became the protagonist of the novel, S-Class Status Window