The Novel’s Extra’s Extra’s Extra

The floor under Kim Hajin was covered with snot and tears, coming from a face that shouldn’t be able to expel anything. He had long stopped crying, but he still sat in the same fetal position, stewing in his despair. From the watch he had dropped onto the floor, a loud ringing noise came.

*Ring~Ring*

Hajin raised his head for the first time in 20 minutes, and slowly turned his head towards the noise. He tentatively moved his arm above it, and lightly pushed it with his finger. The words, “Report for the graduation ceremony of Agent Military Academy’s Seoul Branch in two hours,” echoed out of its small speaker. 

Hajin slowly got up, cautiously stretching his muscles that had gone sore from sitting in that position for too long. Without saying a word, he stumbled over to the bathroom, and took off the shirt that had been drenched with his mucus. He went over to the shower, and twisted the shower handle, causing ice cold water to emerge from the shower head. Despite the lack of heat, he walked into the icy water and closed the shower curtain, letting the cold water cascade upon him. He shivered as it hit his head, but still did not turn the temperature up, letting his body soak in the freezing liquid. Eventually, all of the snot had been washed from him, and he opened the curtain, stepping out onto the tiled floor. He grabbed a towel, and slowly dried himself off while shivering. He muttered to himself, “That was stupid,” referring to the cold water.

While it may have not been very comfortable, the chill had at least shocked him out of his stupor, although there were probably ways to do it that wouldn’t give him hypothermia. 

Hajin of course knew what that alert was about. Given this body’s identity as a cadet in Cube, the graduation ceremony for non-combatants would be coming soon.

Promising children in Korea would likely go to Agent Military Academy in Seoul for 8 years, and if they were combatants they would continue for 3 years in the prestigious Cube Military Academy.

Given that the smartwatch he had was labeled with Cube, the original body should have been a combatant, and thus would go to Cube a week after graduation for non-combatants.

For a second, Hajin was about to fall into despair for a second time. Why couldn’t the cadet he possessed be a non-combatant, so he wouldn’t have to deal with all of this shit!

Hajin slapped himself in the face, bringing himself out from his stupor. He knew that these thoughts wouldn’t be helpful to him, so even though he wanted to wallow in his  self-pity, he couldn’t let himself.

After he had finished drying himself off, he went back into the main room, and looked through the cabinet drawers for his uniform. When he found it, he took it out, and put the tight, black long sleeved shirt and the stiff black pants on. Along with that, he strapped the smartwatch onto his wrist, while turning it on to find a map to the school. With that all prepared, he walked out of the door to his house.

As he stepped onto the streets, it was still fairly dark out, with the sun only just beginning to rise. Hajin checked his map, confirming where the academy was located. It was about a 10 minute walk from here, since this house was one given out by the academy for children who came from poor backgrounds.

As he walked along the streets of Seoul, the fact that he was in another world was hammered home again. Although the difference between his Seoul and this Seoul was small, it was there. Shops advertising magic items, while not being very common, lined the streets. The amount of weapon stores selling guns, swords, spears and more was massive compared to his South Korea, and it gave him a severe sense of disorientation. Feeling bile in his mouth, Hajin sped into a run, trying to reach the academy as soon as possible so he could escape from these uncanny streets. Eventually, he reached the large building of the Seoul Branch of the Agent Military Academy. Out of breath, he stopped next to the gate to the building, and realized that it wasn’t open for students yet.

Hajin finally used his watch as an actual watch, and realized that it was only 4:30, while school started at 7. He blushed with embarrassment, realizing his mistake. “I’m such an idiot,” he muttered to himself, realizing that he had also forgotten to bring anything that would be needed for school. 

Having caught his breath a bit, as he planned to head back to his house for anything he might need. He started to trot back, but he noticed something peculiar.

A few blocks away, were two men talking to each other. This normally wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but for some reason Hajin could tell exactly what the two were talking about.

His breath once again grew labored, as he realized what this meant. Before that though, he would need to do a bit of testing.

He started trying to expand his hearing, and he could faintly hear all sorts of noises coming from around him. He tried to hone in on a single conversation, and unconsciously rotated his head towards its location. As he kept trying to hone in on that conversation with his ears, he realized that he could see a pair of people talking behind a building. Once he saw them, he was able to pinpoint the conversation they were having with 100% accuracy.

After that, it was as if a whole new world had opened up to him. He could hear all the people in a large range around him, and see through anything he wanted. Aside from that, his hearing was much clearer than normal, and his vision seemed to be perfect.

After that testing, Hajin confirmed that this was his Gift. In ‘Returner Hero’, some people are born with abilities known as ‘Gifts’ that awaken when a person receives enlightenment. For example, the protagonist of the novel had the gift ‘Sword Saint’, which gave him the ability to cut through anything as long as he fulfilled a minimum power requirement. 

Hajin instinctively knew that this was his own Gift, and not the original body’s Gift. The question remained, how did he awaken his gift without enlightenment? Receiving enlightenment could be done in two ways: randomly getting a status screen that shows the state of your body and your gift, or with a medium, which is similar but with an object that holds significance to the enlightened showing the status.

Hajin had received none of these, but he was still able to obtain a Gift. He could only chock it up to whatever put him here, giving it to him through abnormal means.

Hajin spent the next few hours trying to practice with his gift, along with doubling back to his house to grab the things he might need, and was able to become fairly precise with his hearing. Another thing the Gift did was give him the ability to process more information at once, so he could listen to multiple conversations and not be confused.

While he was standing there, a few cadets had also arrived early for the graduation ceremony. Eventually, the gates started to allow visitors, and all of the people standing there, Hajin included, went to sign in and enter the building. He pressed his smartwatch against one of the doors, and it droned to him in a robotic voice, “Cadet Kim Chundung confirmed,”.

Hajin realized that this must have been the original body’s name. “Sorry,” Hajin whispered to the person who’s body he had stolen, knowing that they could not hear him.

As he walked through the gates, he followed the cadets that seemed to be around the same age as him, as he guessed they would be heading to the graduation ceremony as well.

He walked with them into a massive gymnasium, with thousands of chairs on the floor, along with a large platform where people would speak from. He went to sit down on a chair, putting his bag next to him. As he sat down, he started to doze off, tired from the events of the day. With only the tiniest bit of resistance, he fell into a deep slumber.

When Hajin woke up, the gym was packed to the brim with people. With his groggy eyes, he checked the time on his watch. It read 8:13, which he assumed was close to the start of the ceremony. After waiting for two more minutes, a large, old man walked onto the platform. He then proceeded to talk into a microphone to the crowded gym before him.

“Students of Seoul’s Agent Military Academy, I cannot express the joy I feel for your graduation in words,” he droned in a monotone voice, “Although some will graduate directly from this academy today, while others will proceed onto Cube, you all are extremely important people,”.

He continued speaking sweet nothings in that dry, obviously bored voice of his, until he finally got to an interesting part.

“Although all of you are great, talented people, some of you have gone up and beyond anyone else in this school. There are three extremely hard working and passionate students in particular that truly are amazing. Although the third place isn’t here for graduation, the first and second places are. I present to you, our second place, Shin Jonghak, and our first place, Kim Suho”.

Two young men then stepped onto the stage, one with a pleasant smile and the other with a large scowl, glaring at the other. 

Hajin could hear the mutters of people across the crowd, “Kim Suho was only able to make it this far because of his gift,”, “I guess luck is all you need in life, Sword Saint, what a great gift for such an undeserving guy,”.

Kim Suho, the person they were talking about, was born to an average family. Unlike Shin Jonghak, he didn’t receive the support of a powerful group growing up, instead relying on his Gift and effort to make it this far. Shin Jonghak was the opposite, most of his power came from his family nurturing him, giving him an elitist and narcissistic personality. In ‘Returner Hero’, Kim Suho was the protagonist, while Shin Jonghak was a rival turned villain. 

“Why am I even here,” Hajin muttered to himself. He had no special traits, no exemplary qualities that should allow him to share the same space as the protagonist. Even his Gift had very little combat ability, and even if it did Hajin didn’t know if he could use it for that.

After that showing, the ceremony came to a close, and people were allowed to leave early for the day. As Kim Hajin walked through the door to a changed South Korea, he wondered why he, out of everyone else in the world, was chosen for this. There were countless people more qualified than him, but whatever put him here chose him for some reason.

This train of thoughts continued on while he was walking back to the house, with him getting continuously more enraged at whatever put him here, the thing that separated him from all the people he cared about, his friends, his family. The thing that took away his face, his body and his life.

These thoughts continued to spiral in Hajin’s head, until he reached his house. As he opened the door, he looked at the room that he had to call home from now on, and sighed.he undressed rapidly, and got into the bed, wanting to escape from all of his problems with the sweet comfort of sleep.