Chapter 1 · 13 min
Chapter 1
Sunfish
“Amnesia is kind of pushing it...”
I didn't like the web novel I read today.
It was about a hero from Earth who saved another world and returned to Earth. Except, of all things, he returned after losing his memories.
“Hmm... Guess I'll read a little more.”
Still, it got better starting from the very next chapter.
The people from the other world the hero had saved came to Earth to find him.
After that, the story unfolded around defeating an evil god that had appeared on Earth as well and preventing its destruction...
“I'm only letting this slide because the elves and beastfolk came back.”
When it came to another world, it had to have elves and beastfolk.
“It's about time I headed out.”
Before I knew it, it was time to meet my friend.
And that day, I got into an accident.
_____________
A whole year.
That was how long I had been in a coma.
Apparently, a tower had suddenly risen from the spot where I was, causing a major accident and putting me into a coma.
Yes, that tower. The one with status windows, system windows, and hunters.
After the towers rose, the world had changed beyond recognition.
After all, hunter had now become the most envied and popular profession.
In particular, even elves and beastfolk, things I'd only ever seen in web novels, could be brought over through summoning.
【The proportion of otherworlders in Korea is overwhelmingly higher than in other countries, leading to social conflict...】
【Nevertheless, the authorities have decided to actively accept residents from other worlds...】
The news was talking about elves and beastfolk, the residents of other worlds.
“...Why do residents of other worlds know how to speak Korean?”
Since they could communicate, there were also many otherworlders who became naturalized Korean citizens.
Towers, hunters, elves, and beastfolk. They were all things I liked in web novels. Even after becoming reality, I still liked them.
But how could a tower just happen to rise exactly where I was?! And that accident hadn't only put me into a coma. I was now stuck in a wheelchair, barely able to use my lower body.
What was I supposed to do from now on?
Well, there was one thing I was hoping for.
A year-long coma. During that time, I had a strange dream.
In the dream, I fell into another world, where I was tremendously powerful. And after a difficult struggle, I defeated an evil god and saved that world.
Coincidentally, it was the same story as the web novel I'd been reading on the day of the accident.
‘I did imagine things like that a lot when I was going through my edgy middle-school phase...’
At that age, I figured I probably wasn't the only one.
Things like a loyal elf or beastfolk following me around and saying, ‘Shall I eliminate them, Master?’
Or things like, ‘Right, I really did save them in the end. Even if nobody knows, that's enough for me...’ Things that, for some reason, had seemed cool at that age.
The dream I'd had during my coma was similar to that.
‘When I first woke up from the coma, I thought, What kind of ridiculous dream is this...’
But after seeing towers rise all over the world and elves and beastfolk crossing over from another world, I changed my mind.
‘Maybe what happened in my dream wasn't just a dream...?’
There was also something that made me more certain.
Wishes, the power used by residents of other worlds, meaning elves and beastfolk.
That matched what had happened in my dream.
Something I'd first learned about in a dream turned out to be something only residents of other worlds could use...
‘Could what happened in my dream actually have been real?’
The day I became able to get into my wheelchair by myself using the rope hanging from the ceiling.
I was discharged from the hospital after completing a certain amount of rehabilitation.
I went around outside in my wheelchair, searching.
‘Kind elf, kind elf, kind beastfolk, kind beastfolk.’
I even prayed as I searched, putting the word ‘kind’ in front of each one.
I prayed to meet a good-natured resident of another world.
Before long, I found a gentle-looking elf in front of a flower shop, holding a flower and smelling its fragrance.
The middle-aged woman who owned the flower shop stood in front of him with both hands politely clasped together.
The moment I actually saw a resident of another world, my heart grew excited.
‘I'm the hero who saved their world! I don't have any power right now, so I can't prove it, but...!’
I'd used Wishes so freely in my dream, yet after returning to reality, I couldn't use them at all.
‘But what if I talk about something only the hero could know?’
Holding back my overwhelming excitement, I wheeled myself over toward the elf in front of the flower shop.
“Excuse me... Could I ask you something...”
The elf seemed to like the flower, because he kept smelling it without paying me any attention.
Instead, the shop owner looked at me with startled eyes.
‘It's okay, ma'am. They say otherworlders are arrogant, but once he hears what I have to say, his attitude will completely change.’
I cleared my throat and spoke again in a slightly louder voice.
“Ahem! Excuse me, Mr. Elf? Could I ask you—”
“Are you crippled not only in the legs, but in the eyes as well? Can't you see I'm busy?”
“What?”
Was smelling flowers really something that kept you that busy?
Unlike his handsome face, the elf had a foul mouth.
“Ah, I'm sorry. But if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you listen to me for just a moment—”
“It is too much trouble!”
The elf tossed a gray fragment the size of a fingernail to the woman, then abruptly turned around and left with the flower.
Just like I'd heard, otherworlders really had no manners!
Still, I couldn't just let him leave like this.
In that case, a topic that might catch an otherworlder's attention...
Right, this was it!
“Do you know the hero!?”
At my loud words, the elf turned his head and said,
“The hero? What nonsense are you talking about? Stop bothering me, human.”
...What?
He reacted as if I'd just asked him, “Do you know the Way?”
This couldn't be. There was no way.
I stared blankly at the elf's retreating back for a while before finally coming to my senses.
Right, there could be at least one person who didn't know the hero.
I only remembered fragments of what happened in the dream, and I couldn't remember any of the truly important things, like who I'd met in the other world.
Still, the scene where I'd saved the world and everyone blessed and revered me remained vividly in my memory...!
It was still too early to give up.
This time, I approached a dog beastman who looked friendly.
Aside from having animal ears and a tail, he looked exactly like a human, so I found him cute.
“I wondered what you were so desperate to talk about! The hero?! Don't spout such absurd nonsense!”
“I-I'm sorry.”
It was the same.
“Be more careful from now on!”
When I sincerely apologized with my head bowed from my wheelchair, the dog beastman let it go without saying anything more.
After that, I found one more person and asked, but it was no use.
“...Was it really just a ridiculous dream that happened to be a coincidence?”
But for it to be a coincidence, the matter of Wishes kept bothering me.
There wasn't a single hunter class that could acquire something called Wishes.
Wishes were something only residents of other worlds could use.
And yet, they'd appeared in my dream. Not only that, I had used those Wishes myself.
‘Could this really be just a coincidence?’
______________
“Status window.”
I opened my status window after returning home.
What was that folded part in the upper-right corner?
This was strange too.
No matter what I tried, it wouldn't budge, and only my status window couldn't be captured in a screenshot.
Even when I asked on the forum, people mocked me and said it was nonsense from an unawakened person.
{WheelchairHunter: What's the folded part in the upper-right corner of the status window?
Looks like it should flip over, but it won't;;
Feels like something special might come out}
Anon: This bastard's here again. Is your nickname Wheelchair because you've got some mental illness? What folded part is there on a status window, you lunatic? lollol
└Anon: Don't feed the troll. This guy hasn't even awakened for months lol
└Anon: Ugh, the System Window Gallery should've been open only to awakened people. All kinds of weirdos use it
└Anon: Says the guy who came to the unawakened tab himself lol
└Anon: Well, can't be helped. We've got to make fun of guys like this lol
(Status window image)
└Anon: True lol
(Status window image)
└Anon: Hey, OP, your class aptitude was actually completely fucked, wasn't it?
“Sigh.”
Both people who had commented showed off their awakened status windows while making fun of me.
“It's not that I didn't do it. I couldn't because I was doing rehabilitation this whole time.”
Only items that came from the tower could be brought into the tower. That meant I had to go without even my wheelchair.
So for a while, I practiced crawling on my stomach and punching a pillow.
To kill the monster on Floor 0, I had to crawl about five meters, and as someone paralyzed from the waist down who could barely wiggle his toes, I needed practice if I wanted to clear it within the time limit.
Rehabilitation, practice. After several months of that, today was finally the day I planned to enter the tower for the first time.
I had also bought clothes from the tower in advance and put them on.
{NewbieLover: Floor 0 Sunfish Guide Even an Iron Can Do
Welcome
First, I'll tell you the basics before entering the tower
First, say “System window” and a window will appear
From there, say you're entering the tower and select Floor 0, and you'll immediately be transported to the tower no matter where you are
You can't bring items from Earth into the tower, so get clothes that came from the tower beforehand
If you clear Floor 0, you'll awaken and obtain a class
Floor 0 is just a tutorial, there's no chance of dying
A party can have up to five people
The Floor 0 monster is a single sunfish lying motionless on its side
If you're a party of five women, take turns jumping up and down on top of it
If you're a man, you should be able to clear it alone by punching it repeatedly
If you can't kill it because it's a living creature, give up and just live an ordinary life
Personally, I recommend this option more
Anyway, keep that in mind, newbies}
I checked the guide post on the forum one more time.
Floor 0 was nothing special. Now it was time to really go in.
“System window.”
[Conquer the Tower]
As soon as I called out the system window, a blue hologram appeared right in front of my eyes.
“Enter the tower.”
[Choose the floor you wish to enter]
[Floor 0]
[Cancel]
The moment I touched Floor 0, I was instantly transported from my bed into the tower.
The first place I arrived was a space called the preparation room.
It was a room about the size of a classroom, with one side blocked by a transparent wall that couldn't yet be passed through.
Beyond that transparent wall was the field where the monster was waiting.
The preparation room and the field were directly adjacent, separated by the transparent wall.
A faint light leaked from the ceiling, allowing me to see the monster on Floor 0.
“That's the monster on Floor 0, the sunfish...”
Beyond the wall, about five meters away, a sunfish lay there staring at me.
Our eyes met while I lay on my stomach.
[Would you like to kill it]
[Yes][No]
[05:00]
Looking at the emotionless system window, I touched ‘Yes.’
I crawled past the transparent wall, which I could now pass through.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
Wow, this dirt tastes amazing.
The field had a dirt floor, and as I crawled, dirt kept getting into my mouth.
[04:45]
“Huff... Huff...”
Since I couldn't use my legs, even crawling just a few meters left me quite out of breath.
[04:31]
[04:19]
.
.
.
It took me more than forty seconds just to get there.
Now the sunfish was right in front of my eyes.
But it was difficult to simply call this thing a sunfish.
Its bloodshot eyes glared at me while its mouth opened and closed. There was no way it was just an ordinary fish...
Thwack!
Well, it didn't matter. Ordinary or not.
Why was I going out of my way to become a hunter with this inconvenient body?
The tower's rewards drove people mad.
The tower's rewards could cure the paralysis in my lower body, something even modern medicine couldn't completely heal.
Thwack!
Quite a few people gave up because they were reluctant to kill a living creature, or because they were frightened by the sunfish glaring at them.
‘But why do I want to kill this thing I only met today so badly?’
And so the beating continued for some time.
.
.
.
[00:30]
Ding~!
[You have cleared Floor 0]
[Clear time: 4 minutes 30 seconds]
[This is Floor 0. You have obtained an Un-grade reward]
[Lowest-grade Magic Stone Fragment]
[You have leveled up]
[Level 0 → Level 1]
[You have become Un-grade]
[You can obtain a class by awakening]
[You must obtain a class for the corresponding stats to increase]
[Would you like to awaken]
[Yes][No]
With a cheerful sound, a system window appeared announcing that I'd cleared Floor 0. Thanks to practicing at home, I'd managed to clear it within the time limit.
‘I should choose right away.’
When I touched ‘Yes’ on the system window, the names of various classes appeared before my eyes.
“Ugh!”
There was one class name shining brightly enough to blind me, but it soon turned gray. Gray meant Iron.
All the other class names were bronze-colored, meaning Bronze.
There were five aptitude grades: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
The severity of the aftereffects suffered while climbing the tower varied depending on aptitude.
The one I would choose was...
Summoner.
Fortunately, my aptitude for it was Bronze, but the truth was that Summoner had a great many problems.
How did residents of other worlds come over to Earth? They crossed over through a Summoner's summons.
‘If what happened in my dream were real, I could've chosen it without worrying...’
Still, there was nothing else I could choose.
With my lower body paralyzed, no party would take me no matter what class I chose.
In the end, I'd have to lie on the back of my summoned creature and have it carry me.
“I'll give you anything you want. Just help me climb until I can cure my lower-body paralysis.”
At this point, all I could do was pray.
That whoever came out would be just a little less arrogant.
[Awakening successful]
[You have selected Summoner. Gained 10 Magic Power]
[Magic Power 0 → Magic Power 10]
[Stats increase according to your class]
[Your class is Summoner. Magic Power increases]
[Magic Power 10 → Magic Power 11]
[You have acquired a skill]
[Skill fixed as Summon due to the Summoner class]
[Acquired Summon (Un)]
[Would you like to summon]
[Yes][No]
I immediately touched ‘Yes’ when it asked, ‘Would you like to summon’
Then, with a fanfare—Ta-da-da-dah~!—names appeared.
[Please select][Cancel]
[Sched: Level 8
Wishes to devote his life to serving you loyally. Having your head cut off once for Sched would be nothing to you either]
[Serin: Level 7
Likes you. You seem willing to destroy an entire country for Serin]
[Maneric: Level 5
Reveres you. You would at least say a word for Maneric]
...?
Suddenly, incomprehensible descriptions appeared, telling me things like having my head cut off once would be no big deal.