Chapter 2
“…sir!”
His head throbbed. It felt as though a massive hammer were tearing through his mind, pounding every single wrinkle of his brain flat. Dizzy from the headache, Yeohwan instinctively touched his forehead.
“…del… sir!”
Who’s being so loud…?
Furrowing his brow, he slowly caught his breath, feeling his hazy mind gradually clear.
“Captain Cadel!”
…Cadel?
The voice, now finally clear, was calling a somewhat familiar name. And it was coming from right next to him.
He sluggishly opened his eyes, and the face of an unfamiliar man filled his vision.
“Captain, are you awake?”
He was incredibly handsome, enough to instantly chase away any lingering drowsiness.
He had dazzling silver hair that could never be achieved with dye, and golden eyes that shone as intensely as the sun. The lines of his features were rough and sharp, giving off a fleetingly cold aura, but the gaze looking down at him held nothing but warmth.
“You must have been exhausted. I’d love to let you sleep more, but… something came up.”
“Who…”
“Pardon?”
Staring blankly up at the man, Yeohwan hesitantly shifted his gaze. He saw shabby wooden walls, an old ceiling, a window covered in dust and stains, a hard bed, and stiff blankets. And beneath those blankets lay his own body, wearing a dark green tunic he had absolutely no memory of buying.
A dark green tunic? While Yeohwan remained frozen, trying to grasp the situation, the man smiled gently.
“Are you still half-asleep? It’s me, Van, Captain.”
“…What?”
“Van Herdos.”
Van Herdos!
The moment he heard that name, his heart gave a painful jolt, pounding as if it had been slapped. Yeohwan sat up almost reflexively, staring at Van with wide, startled eyes.
Crazy. It’s real. It’s really Van Herdos? No way. What exactly is going on?
This unrealistically striking beauty was remarkably similar to the illustration on the ‘Van Herdos’ card. No, not just similar but exactly the same! Realizing this belatedly, Yeohwan swallowed back the loud scream threatening to burst from his throat and spoke cautiously.
“By any chance, is my name… Cadel Lytos?”
“Captain? What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”
“Is it?”
“Well… yes. But why are you suddenly speaking so formally…?”
It was a shock. Yeohwan was so horrified that he almost unconsciously began smacking his own head. A startled Van grabbed his wrists to prevent him from hurting himself, but that didn’t make the initial shock fade.
Cadel Lytos.
That was the protagonist of ‘Hero of Knights’, the player’s default nickname.
Could this be the game transmigration trope I’ve only ever heard about? No, realistically speaking, I’ve probably just lost my mind. But… but even so…
Every sensation was far too vivid. The pain in his head from hitting it, the musty air in the room, the body heat from Van’s hands gripping his wrists.
Wait. Come to think of it, didn’t it say it was doing a soul transfer or something? It said it would guide me once that was done. Where’s the explanation? The explanation!
He hurriedly darted his eyes around, but he couldn’t see a system window. Suddenly struck by anxiety, Yeohwan clamped his mouth shut. Van, who had been studying his reaction, gently released his wrists. Crouching by the bedside, Van gave him a gaze so affectionate it was downright sweet.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
If anything was a nightmare, it was this exact situation. Yeohwan looked at Van dismally. That pretty-boy face, the main culprit behind his waning sense of reality, bloomed into a soft smile.
“Did you lose sleep over naming the mercenary group? I’d be happy with any name you give us, Captain.”
“Mercenary group name…?”
“You said you’d tell me this morning. But obviously I didn’t wake you up just for that.”
As the laughter-filled voice rang in his ears, the system window he had been waiting for finally appeared before Yeohwan’s dumbfounded face.
[Please name your mercenary group.]
[Upon completion, the game will begin in earnest.]
Players of ‘Hero of Knights’ began the game by forming their own mercenary group. As the group grew and its reputation increased, it would naturally be promoted to a knightly order. Therefore, a truly immersed player would take the utmost care when choosing the mercenary group’s first name.
“Red Scale Mercenaries… Red scales, huh? It’s symbolic and cool, Captain.”
However, hearing the name spoken aloud by someone else made it sound like the lamest name ever. To hide his reddening face, Yeohwan rubbed his cheek and laughed awkwardly. He had swallowed his pride to give it a name, so now it was the system’s turn.
[Congratulations on becoming the master of the Red Scale Mercenaries!]
[Soul transfer complete! Shin Yeohwan’s soul has been transferred into the body of ‘Cadel Lytos’.]
[The ‘View Stats’ system has been unlocked.]
[The ‘View Story’ system has been unlocked.]
[The ‘Inventory’ system has been unlocked.]
System windows popped up consecutively alongside loud notification chimes. Among them, Yeohwan focused on the alert stating his soul had been transferred to ‘Cadel Lytos’.
My soul being transferred… does that mean transmigration? I really possessed a game character?
As if answering his question, a new system window appeared.
[Become ‘Cadel Lytos’ and lead the story. Upon completing the story conquest, you may choose one of two rewards.]
[Reward: The life of ‘Cadel Lytos’]
[Reward: The life of ‘Shin Yeohwan’]
The rewards were two different lives. He didn’t need to think deeply to understand. Upon completing the ‘story conquest’ demanded by the system, he would earn the opportunity to either live on in his currently possessed body or return to his original one.
His heart pounded fiercely.
Then, does this mean… I’m not dead yet?
It didn’t matter whether this was real or not.
A small hope.
That there was a chance to return to his own body, which had been torn to shreds by a truck. To return to the life of Shin Yeohwan.
He wouldn’t mind waking up to a stark white hospital ceiling. He wouldn’t even mind the cliché of waking up to find years had passed. As long as he could escape this absurd situation. As long as his parents’ final memory of him wasn’t a neurotic phone call from their work-exhausted son. As long as he could wash away the pathetic reality that his life’s greatest achievement was ranking first in a mobile game!
In this bizarre situation, there was no hope more important than that.
“Captain?”
Perhaps starting to worry about the condition of Yeohwan, now Cadel Lytos, who was staring intently at the system windows, Van called out to him with a serious face. When Cadel gave a vague, absentminded response, Van’s expression darkened even further.
“Captain, are you alright? Are you feeling unwell…?”
“Huh? No. I’m… fine.”
True to his roots in a Confucian country, Cadel had instinctively tried to be polite but caught himself, trailing off. If he really was possessing a character in ‘Hero of Knights’, then Van Herdos was his subordinate. There was no need to be formal and polite to a subordinate. Cadel gave him a reassuring eye smile, then stared intently at Van as a sudden question came to mind.
How do I use View Stats?
He wanted to check the system that had supposedly unlocked. As Cadel stared fixedly at Van’s radiant face while pondering how to activate it, Van blinked awkwardly under the intense gaze.
A new window popped up.
[Van Herdos]
[Current Rank: B-Class]
[Max Awakening Rank: A-Class]
[Position: Tank, Damage Dealer]
[Equipped Gear: Old Greatsword (D), Old Armor (D)]
[Affinity: 70/100]
Wow, it’s exactly like ‘Hero of Knights’. How can even the starting gear be the same?
Genuinely surprised, Cadel rubbed the corner of his mouth. At this point, he couldn’t deny it even if he wanted to. He had definitely possessed the protagonist of the game.
Getting hit by a truck, losing consciousness, and possessing a game character… Isn’t this way too cliché?
It was such a common trope it made him scoff, which ironically seemed to help him accept reality.
As he blankly scanned the system window, Van, who was just beyond it, tilted his head and smiled awkwardly. His Captain, who had been acting bizarrely all morning, was now staring at him as persistently as if observing a rare mineral. Van clearly looked like he was agonizing over how to handle the situation if his Captain had suddenly lost his mind overnight.
Catching that troubled look, Cadel finally snapped out of it. Even if this was a game, staring at someone’s face without saying a word was rude. There were no exceptions, even if that person was breathtakingly handsome.
Cadel cleared his throat. Van cautiously opened his mouth to address his Captain, intending to reveal the reason he had come.
“By the way, Captain. I think we need to leave right now.”
“Leave? Why so suddenly?”
“We’re completely out of money for lodging. I tried asking them to let us stay just one more night, but the innkeeper yelled at us to get out if we couldn’t pay…”
Van scratched his head sheepishly. Hearing about their pathetic financial state from the mouth of a pretty boy felt quite surreal.
Wait, we’re getting kicked out for having no money right from the start? This room looks shabby at a glance, and we don’t even have the money to rent it?
Cadel, who had opened his mouth slightly in disbelief, suddenly paused.
…Now that I think about it, I think the early story went something like this.
Does that mean he would be progressing through the story of ‘Hero of Knights’ exactly as it was? He wasn’t the type to read the lore meticulously, but it was far better than knowing nothing at all. It was an unexpected advantage.
“We can just earn the money. Let’s head out for now.”
Replying calmly, Cadel climbed out of bed. Before making any future plans, he needed to see for himself how this world worked.