Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin *revised*
2. Tutorial of unnamed supporting character (1) [1]
I don’t dream.
At one point, I couldn’t even understand the concept of the word ‘dream’.
My parents-nim said that when I was very young I talked about my dreams.
Did I became unable to dream around the time when my ego developed?
I have no memory of seeing a dream.
However, I couldn’t be certain if this situation is a dream or reality.
‘The school uniform…!’
I was wearing a school uniform right now.
A nametag, with a bright yellow background and sewed to my chest on the left .
A jacket with an uncomfortable width and a red necktie.
That school uniform with a tacky design was the uniform of the middle school I graduated from.
‘A moment ago I was in my gosiwon[2] room, wearing training clothes and vomiting blood….. Why am I wearing school uniform?’
After graduation, I donated that uniform on the sharing event.
There is no way that school uniform would be in my gosiwon room.
‘My arms and legs seem to be shorter.’
After examining the school uniform, I stretch out my arms and legs to look at them.
I lost my balance and almost fell.
It felt somehow awkward as if it wasn’t my body.
However, the biggest feeling of incongruity was somewhere else.
‘I’m not coughing.’
I wasn’t coughing and the pain heavily pressing on my chest disappeared.
It felt as if I returned to a healthy body, where lung cancer or whatnot, couldn’t be perceived.
“Jo Uisin?”
“Ack.”
I was startled.
Beside me, there were three more here.
“Yu Sang-hun.”
“I-I’m Son Mingi. I’ll be in your care.”
The punks, who spoke to me, each pointed at their nametags.
Each of them was wearing a school uniform of a different design, so it was unknown if those three kids were middle schoolers or highschoolers.
It was strange that those kids were speaking to me with casual tone.
Did they mistake me as their peer, because I was wearing a school uniform?
No way…..
“Are you perhaps sleepy? Wake up, the practical exam is going to start now.”
“Practical?”
“Cooperation abilities are included in the review, so let’s work hard. I’m Jang Namuk.”
The next to speak among the three bastards, was the tallest punk, the only one wearing glasses.
The three finished their introductions, and it was my turn.
Following Yu Sang-hun, I only said my name without anything else.
“Jo Uisin.”
All self-introductions were finished.
An awkward atmosphere and silence, which often occurs when strangers gather, descended.
The one to break it was Jang Namuk.
“Let’s warm up. We can’t get cramps during the exam.”
At Jang Namuk’s suggestion, the three, including him, began to stretch.
The three, who easily moved their bodies, seemed to have very good motor senses.
The flexibility was like that of a gymnastic athlete, during stretching exercises.
The hanging time, while jumping in place.
The sound of cutting… no, splitting wind heard when throwing fist into air.
I couldn’t contain amazement at the sight of those simple warm-up exercises.
‘Are those three professional athletes?’
I don’t know what it was, but I was ruined.
After getting terminally ill[3] diagnosis, I didn’t exercise even once.
I didn’t even go out.
Because I solved meals with the rice, ramen and water from purifier provided at the gosiwon.
‘There is no way I can suddenly move my body.’
However, it seemed that I had to take the practical exam with these punks.
Even if it was a dream, there is no way I would like to see bastards screw their exams because of me.
First of all, I followed the three and started stretching.
‘Strange…!’
I had the feeling of incongruity again.
My body was much too light.
I felt as if the weight hanging on my whole body was taken off.
The body decreased in size, but its performance seemed to be a few times better than when I was very healthy.
‘Is it really a dream?’
The three left me, who fell into thoughts, alone and started chatting.
“The practical seemed hard… will it be okay?”
“Just don’t make noticeable mistakes when the simulator is running. I heard that the practicals here and at the Military Academy are similar, and it wasn’t particularly hard there.”
Son Mingi, who seemed anxious.
Jang Namuk, who seemed nervous, but worked hard to speak calmly.
Yu Sang-hun, who seemed calm in comparison.
The three left me out and continued the conversation I couldn’t understand.
“Right. Eungwang School[4] also uses a simulator.”
Hearing Yu Sang-hun’s words, I almost tripped.
“Eungwang School?”
“… Do you feel unwell?”
“No.”
I was a terminally ill lung cancer patient, but I didn’t feel even a bit unwell.
My mind also gradually cleared.
Eungwang School.
There is no way I didn’t know it.
Because it was the name of a school I heard for over ten years.
Eungwang Highschool was the school that was the stage for ‘Player Maister Highschool’.
⟨Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification ‘Jo Uisin’ recognized the dimension of his present location. Using ‘Jo Uisin’s’ skill Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Exclusive Menu.⟩
Ping.
I heard a guide voice from somewhere.
At the same time as I thought that it was a familiar notification sound, a window of a familiar design floated up.
This gradient, this design.
There is no way I wouldn’t recognize it as I was looking at it for 10 years.
‘This is PMH’s system guide window!’
Instinctively I looked at the top item in the menu.
⟨Reading ‘Jo Uisin’ character data[5].⟩
Ping.
A shining blue[6] window unfolded in front of my eyes.
Even though it was quite eye-grabbing, because of the gym was dark, it seemed it wasn’t visible to the punks, excluding me.
I looked at the ‘ Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Exclusive Menu’ skill that was probably I alone was seeing the window and using it.
[Name] Jo Uisin
[Titles] Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification, 3rd year middle school examine
[Blessing] (Some loading failed.)
[Gwangrim[7]] (sealed)
[Status] Normal
[Overall stats] Lv. 10
It was very similar to the game.
The window design and organization were exactly the same.
When choosing the overall stats, the detailed numbers for HP and MP gauges, power, magic power, defense, agility, etc, which floated up, were exactly the same.
Even the ‘Some loading failed’, or ‘SML[8]’ bug for shot was exactly the same.
It was common for some part of words or just that sentence to appear and the screen itself showed nothing.
As expected, worthy of the game wreck, even in the situation one didn’t know if it was a dream or reality, the bug remained.
‘What about skills?’
I descended to the menu and then to the skill column to look at it.
[Skills]
Use of Everything[9] Lv. 1
Suitable Other Dimension Modification Exclusive Menu Lv. 1
Communication with Transcendent Universe Lv. 1
Power of Fate Lv. 3
(Some loading failed.)
Words and skills which didn’t exist in the game.
A few of them were things I had memories of hearing on the brink when I was engulfed in light.
‘No way, is it related to the last chapter’s clear compensation?’
Didn’t I have auditory hallucinations after I opened the last chapter clear compensation gift box?
I traced back my memories.
‘Connecting with Transcendent Universe completed.’
‘Examining the connected Player’s suitability.’
‘Jo Uisin is selected as Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification.’
‘Information modification, dimension synchronization and transfer is in progress.’
If I were to guess, the origin of those auditory hallucinations was something called Transcendent Universe.
Perhaps I became Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification and came to the world of PMH.
‘It doesn’t seem to be perfectly correct.’
It seemed that I missed something, but I had no idea what.
I decided to put considerations off and read everything starting with the skill’s detailed descriptions.
Because if we excluded ‘Use of Everything’, all my skills were unknown to me.
⟨Reading skill data.⟩
[Skill name] Use of Everything
[Rarity] SSR
[Skill level] 1
[Effect] Skillful usage of all weapons and defense equipment.
[Description]
Skill, which is closer to a kind of talent rather than a technique.
[Skill name] Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Exclusive Menu
[Rarity] EX (measurement impossible)
[Skill level] 1
[Effect] Enables transcendent interference and data reading on the objects existing in the identical dimension.
[Description]
Exclusive skill of Suitable One[10], who passed the Transcendent Universe’s suitability examination.
The usage scope increases based on the Suitable One’s dimension understanding and dimension adaptability.
[Skill name] Communication with the Transcendent Universe
[Rarity] UR
[Skill level] 1
[Effect] Communication with the Transcendent Universe.
[Description]
Communication with the existence of all dimensions, all space-time, and all universe causes an enormous load on the body and soul of skill user.
In case the result of communication exceeds the skill user’s possible information acceptance capacity, the skill is canceled.
[Skill name] Power of Fate
[Rarity] EX (measurement impossible)
[Skill level] 3
[Effect] Causes transcendental interference.
[Description]
Guides skill user’s fate based on experiences, expectations, thoughts, goals, convictions, etc.
Power of Fate drops or raises based on the life skill user walked and will walk.
Occurs randomly.
2 out of standard, impossible to measure, unknown rank EX.
1 UR rank and 1 SSR rank.
If calculated only based on the rarity of skills, it would be the highest grade among all Playable Characters I raised up untill now.
‘If you look just at skills, it’s an EX rank character.’
But besides Menu I didn’t see any skill that I could use right now.
‘How am I going to pass the exam?’
When I was worrying, I felt a faint sense of incongruity about the current situation.
If I was right that I entered through the game, it was strange.
I entered PMH world, but why I’m wearing a middle school uniform and not Eungwang School uniform?
‘Thinking about it, they said it’s a practical exam, but if we’re talking about Eungwang School practical exam…’
I looked back to my ten years worthy of gaming.
Middle school uniform.
Four children including me.
Eungwang School’s practical entrance exam.
Dark gym.
When my thoughts reached this point, I abruptly recalled something.
“Which group[11] are we?”
I ignored the suddenly chilling atmosphere and cut into the conversation.
Even if I’ll hear the sound ‘it’s tactless to cut off the conversation’, I had to confirm it right now.
I was late to recall an extremely old event.
Don’t be group 13.
If wasn’t group 13, I could easily solve the situation.
Jang Namuk pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses and said:
“Group 13.”
Ruined.
I tried to run out.
However, the moment I grabbed the gym’s door, a spark bounce off, and I heard a warning sound with a ‘ping’.
⟨Warning, You made contact with N+ rank barrier ‘Off exam ground barrier’. More than 2 times of contact will result in status effect duplicating. Current number of times of contact is 1.⟩
I felt my blood ran cold at the sight of the system window.
‘It already started…!’
N+ rank barrier meant that it was only possible to lift by the weapon, skill, or someone having overall stats level at the same or higher than the rank N+.
Moreover, because this barrier was a bit special, it couldn’t be breached even by the weapon of higher rarity.
The four of us were trapped here.
“What? The barrier is already active.”
“’Even if you touch it, it won’t damage you, but because it gives you a penalty, it’s the best to avoid it’. I heard that from a private teacher-nim.”
The three didn’t feel any sense of incongruity and chatted.
Anyhow, it became impossible to escape.
I opened the item window.
⟨Reading possessed item list.⟩
[Possessed items]
Student ID 1
Exam ID 1
Copy of examinee written oath 1
…
…
…
Luckily, in the last row of the item window list was the item I wanted.
When I found the item I wanted.
I heard the system warning message.
⟨Warning, Enemy[12] approaching.⟩
“You guys, take out what you received before coming here.”
My abrupt words were naturally ignored.
“We can’t just open them without supervisor permission, right…?”
“Even in school uniform, a dowdy dog bastard won’t be cool after trying to cheat[13].”
The system notification sound gradually grew louder.
That punk will soon come.
“Enemy is coming. There is no time. Take out item boxes!”
Players were beings who fought back against ‘Enemies’, who appeared around 100 years ago, with the Clash of Different Worlds.
And in the otherworlds that divided into dungeons, towers, castles, gardens, mazes, etc, items with special effects appeared.
Items obtained in those otherworlds.
Or items produced with superpowers.
Players had an ability to cardify those items and to materialize them from cards.
To confirm if the students possessed that ability, Eungwang School provided boxes holding item cards to the examinees during the practical exam.
‘There is nothing else I can try here.’
It was the ‘Exam Random Item Box’, provided before entering the practical exam grounds.
I examined the black box lying in my palm.
Among the random boxes, the black ones were the lowest rarity.
It was the box that if it was a freak Player like me, who because they rot worse than stagnant water, turned into oil, they wouldn’t even put it in the item window and either throw it away or disassemble.
‘This is the only method to fight against the Enemy right now.’
Even if a no-answer trash item comes out, I couldn’t use the technique of reinstalling the game after deletion and playing from the beginning.
Or in other words, the reset marathon, commonly called resetmare was impossible.
I had to pick up a good item in a single shot.
⟨Using Exam Random Item Box.⟩
The box opened, and an item card started to spin in front of my eyes.
*~*~*
[1] Tutorial of unnamed supporting character — starting with ‘supporting character’ which is also part of this novel title, it refers to the role in the story which helps protagonists and advances the plot, or the actor playing such role, so it could be also translated as ‘supporting actor’. The homonyms of ‘supporting character’ are: ‘smoke/fog rising to the sky in the morning’, ‘banquet held in the court’, ‘a disease where phlegm blocks the throat when breathing’, it’s also a root for the verb ‘to be loud and noisy’. Now ‘unnamed’ is a bit hard to explain, and I’m not even sure if it would be in any way grammatically correct, but ‘name’ can also be the noun of ‘early’ (earliness?), so you could also understand this chapter title as ‘Tutorial of supporting character, who is not early’.
[2] gosiwon — a student accommodation, with cheap rent and very small rooms.
[3] terminally ill — literally ‘time limited’.
[4] Eungwang School — ‘Eungwang’ means ‘Silver Light’, ‘Eun 은’ for silver, ‘gwang 관’ for light. Also, a more proper translation would be Eungwang High, but please spare this translator for choosing School over it.
[5] character data — or ‘personal data’, it doesn’t use the word ‘character’.
[6] blue — the word used here could also mean green.
[7] Gwangrim — Leaving it untranslated, but the word Gwangrim (광림) itself is an honorific word meaning ‘Someone coming to visit’ ‘collecting something, which was taken, borrowed’, or ‘arriving’. The word is made out of two hanja, ‘Gwang 광 光’ meaning light and ‘rim 림 臨’ to face/to look down/to illuminate/ to rule/ to guard/ to be temporary/ a chariot (there is a lot of different meanings)’ Also, it should be romanized as ‘Gwang-nim’ according to the Revised Romanization.
[8] SLF — I personally don’t see anything, but in case it has some secrets like anagram or something I’ll note it down, it’s ‘일로실’ in Korean.
[9] Use of Everything — ‘Versatility’ may be the best translation, but without author-nim’s confirmation, I don’t dare to not translate it very literally.
[10] Suitable One — I should mention it in the previous chapter, but I tried to limit notes as not to scare new readers (hahaha). Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification is a bit hard to figure out and translate, so please bear in mind it’s not a certain translation. ‘Suitable/Suitable One’ means that a body or a substance of ‘of such state or shape (to quote dictionary)’ is suitable. It doesn’t exactly refer to the person.
[11] group — it’s a bit funny because ‘group’ is ‘조 (jo)’ the same as Jo Uisin’s surname.
[12] Enemy — The word is borrowed from English, so if you see me capitalizing ‘Enemy’ it refers specifically to the creatures from otherworlds.
[13] Even in school uniform, a dowdy dog bastard won’t be cool after trying to cheat — This translator is guessing here because frankly speaking I have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s either a proverb or a language joke, and I’m very lost. To literally translate ‘trying to cheat (which I’m very much guessing the meaning of)’, it’s ‘try out eating a meal’ but ‘meal’ is an honorific word, and ‘진지 (jinja, an honorific word for a meal)’ also means sincerity. So eat up sincerity?
Translator’s note: Oh boy, here we go again.
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