Chapter 1 : The Ill-Fated Supporting Character

Click, click-click.

A series of mouse clicks.

The hour hand had already ticked past the number 3.

In other words, it had already been four hours since I got home, threw together a quick dinner, and started working.

The work order had dropped right before quitting time on a Friday.

It happened so often that I didn't even get angry anymore.

“Since the meeting is at 2 p.m. on Monday, let’s add two more event proposals by the morning and go over them together.”

“Understood.”

“We don’t know when the design team will send the images, so Assistant Manager Kang, you put together the layout too.”

My team leader, who treated us like one big happy family, casually tossed out a workload big enough to kill a man.

If I even talked back, the nagging would last at least an hour.

If I had to choose between listening to a long-winded lecture before working and just working?

Obviously, the latter was the wiser choice.

“Am I a game planner, a marketer, or a designer…?”

How many times had I sighed now?

An unavoidable sense of futility washed over me.

“Whew. Time for a mana potion.”

I drained my sixth can of coffee.

At times like this, I had to light a fire under whatever motivation I had left.

Click.

I clicked on a folder.

A single-player fantasy role-playing game, Weapon of Infinity.

It was a story game about defeating the disasters descending upon the world and becoming a hero.

In this game, disasters referred to powerful monsters—in other words, boss monsters.

They were difficult to deal with using controls alone.

The story became much easier to progress through only after obtaining abilities that could strike at their weaknesses or artifacts that could counter their powers.

Once all eight disasters were eliminated, the game was finally cleared.

Though there still isn’t an ending.

Weapon of Infinity, or WoIn for short, was a game I had been developing alone since before I got a job.

After I started working at the company, even while regularly exceeding the standard working hours, I had kept filling in the blank spaces of this world whenever I had the time.

Because whenever I looked at the unfinished game, even my motivation, burned white into ash, would flare back to life.

Beginnings are important. Of course they are.

I hummed the music that played at the start of the game under my breath.

Once I moved the character with practiced ease, my complicated thoughts slowly sank away.

“If I get through Monday’s meeting somehow, should I work on the latter-half script again for the first time in ages?”

A story that still had not reached its final period.

It had begun as a worldbuilding game I secretly played with a friend during class.

Every time we giggled, that world grew wider, sprouting forests, seas, and plains.

But a world that’s only peaceful is boring, after all.

So I created beings from another dimension who coveted that abundant world.

The invaders exhausted their strength crossing worlds and fell asleep in the form of ore.

They became seeds of disaster, scattering the energy of another world.

Soil piled over them, plants sprouted, civilization arose, and the animals and plants contaminated by the disaster energy buried underground turned into monsters that preyed on humans.

It was a development my friend, who had been playing along with me, did not like.

“Does this person really have to die? I want to save them…”

In the end, I created my friend’s character and placed him inside the world.

Then he coolly defeated the monsters and saved people.

We got so absorbed that we did not even notice the bell ringing and ended up being punished.

“Hey, Kang Jinhyo! Can’t you make this into a computer game someday?”

“Was it fun?”

“Don’t ask the obvious! You have to make it and let me play it, got it?”

After that, I entered the game department and studied, eventually bringing the world of WoIn to life.

And among the people who played the prototype I submitted for my graduation exhibition, a few handed me their business cards.

One of those cards had the name of a major company stamped on it, the kind anyone would think of when you said “game company.”

Even if I get

Jingle!

As I played the game without thinking, I had already entered the healing shop, an early-story progression point.

[Welcome. It’s been a while.]

Was it because I had opened WoIn for the first time in ages?

The line the NPC gave me felt as if it was directed at me.

…This guy really has it rough too.

In the early planning stages, the healing shop NPC was a character I had even considered making a second protagonist.

Unlike other NPCs, I had put quite a lot of effort into his modeling, and there had even been a system centered around this character.

It had been possible to combine gathered herbs and craft potions that weakened enemies or helped allies.

But that plan was largely cut during the development process.

Because my supervising professor had given me feedback that it might harm the game’s immersion.

[You want me to appraise a jewel? I’m not an appraiser, you know!]

In the end, this guy became an extra with less presence than a background mob.

His role was to be asked to appraise a seed of disaster that looked like a gemstone, then be murdered by a group of bandits who came after that object.

It was almost a waste that he had been set as the protagonist’s friend.

[Fine, since it’s my childhood friend asking. Leave it here.]

The playable character had no assigned script.

But the NPC faithfully displayed his lines even without any answer from the protagonist.

He probably had no idea that he was about to die soon.

“…Maybe I’ll stop here for today.”

I quietly closed the unfinished world.

Now it was really time to work.

Click-click-click.

I worked the mouse hard.

Compared to before I had opened WoIn, at least I had picked up some speed. Should I call that fortunate?

When I finished the work and stretched, the world outside the window was faintly brightening.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. What time is it?”

6:25 a.m.

Seeing the time made the back of my head throb even more.

Trying to do event banner design on top of being a planner really was no ordinary nightmare.

“I’ll have to send the files after I sleep and wake up.”

I stood from my seat with a yawn.

At that moment—

Beeeeeeep!

A tinnitus like a beep tone rang in my ears.

At the same time, the world before my eyes spun round and round.

Did I go too long without sleeping…?

Had I slept around ten hours total this week?

I was used to the sensation of my head being pricked over and over with an awl, but this time, something was different.

“Urgh…”

It felt as if my brain had been shoved into a press and wrung out.

The floor swayed so violently I could not tell which way was up and which way was down.

In the end, I lost my balance.

Thud!

What I saw through my half-open eyes was the ceiling.

Thoughts drifted by in fragments.

Did I fall? …But why does the back of my head hurt this much?

When I touched my head, my fingertips grew damp.

A hot, sticky liquid trickled down between my fingers.

“Blood…?”

It seemed I had split it open properly.

No matter how much I tried to press down on my head, the strength kept draining from my fingertips.

…I need to call 119.

My phone was on the desk, and there was no one who would come running to a home where I lived alone.

Would the situation have been better if I had worked overtime at the office?

Wouldn’t this fail to count as an industrial accident?

Maybe that was not the important thing.

My hands and feet had gone cold as ice, and now my vision was completely hazy.

Don’t tell me I’m dying like this…

My vision, which had been spreading white, went pitch-black in an instant.

As if someone had turned off the power.

……♪

From far away, I faintly heard the sound of a violin.

An awkward melody, as if played by an amateur.

It was the background music from the start of WoIn.

Then an emotionless voice struck my ears.

“Planner privilege! You can use skills.”

It was a voice I had never heard before.

Even at the moment of death, I was hearing game system notifications.

I’ve worked too much…

“Searching for a suitable person…”

I was tired.

I wanted to sleep deeply, without dreams.

“Confirmation complete! Based on the person’s traits, the skills you have acquired are Appraisal Lv.1 and Medicine Crafting Lv.1.”

The voice buzzed around me.

I wanted to lower the volume, but I could not even twitch a finger.

“Synchronization with the world will now begin.”

Piiiing!

A sound like something tearing through the air.

At the same time, my mind was sucked away somewhere.

Bang!

The sound of someone slamming a wooden plank down stabbed into my ears.

I jolted my upper body upright from where I had been lying face down.

“Wh-what is it?”

“What do you think? A customer! That’s enough sleep talking, so how about you wake up?”

The self-proclaimed customer clicked his tongue from the other side of a long bar counter.

He was a huge man wearing light armor, with a beard like a bandit.

Are they filming a movie or something?

I quickly looked around.

The walls and floor were lined with wooden planks.

A display cabinet that filled one side of the wall was packed with flasks.

A shop lined with mysterious potions of every color. It looked exactly like a healing shop.

This feels strangely familiar.

Clink!

At the heavy sound, I snapped my head around.

Two cloth pouches had been placed on the table.

“Check it.”

The customer jerked his chin at me with a fierce expression.

As if bewitched, I untied the pouch and found dark, grimy coins inside.

What kind of money is this?

It was not won, cents, or euros.

Were there coins with insects embossed on them?

My memory was awfully vague.

Bang! Bang!

The loud noise seized my wandering mind.

My shoulders jumped before I even realized it.

“Hey! Why are you just rolling your eyes around? Hurry up and take my order.”

Thick veins were bulging on the customer’s fist.

I decided not to dawdle for no reason.

“…An order, you said?”

“Ten health recovery potions. I’ll pay 50 coppers each.”

My resolve was useless. I was dumbfounded.

Health recovery potions?

Did I hear that right?

The customer in front of me certainly looked like someone from the fantasy genre.

Putting aside his dark red beard and blue eyes, he was even wearing armor.

Unless he was a cosplayer, it was not an outfit I would normally see.

“Health recovery potions, right…”

I barely held back the urge to ask why he was looking for those from me.

Between acting frustrating and getting cursed at before working, and just working, the latter was better.

Rustle.

I opened the small pouch beside the coin pouch.

Inside were red fruits that showed off a vivid color.

It was definitely a fruit I did not know, yet its appearance looked like something I had seen somewhere before.

“My name is Jekus. I’ll come pick up the goods at this time tomorrow.”

Jekus unilaterally finished placing his order and turned away.

He strode out so quickly that I did not even have time to stop him.

“Well, damn.”

I rubbed the back of my head out of habit, then flinched to a stop.

Because it felt as if my blood had run cold.

Wait. What happened?

I quickly looked at my palm, but it was clean, without a single stain.

I hurriedly searched my memory.

I’m sure I was bleeding like crazy just a moment ago.

I had collapsed after working all night for days and slammed my head hard.

It was a situation where dying would not have been strange.

Belatedly, I clenched and unclenched my hand several times.

“I’m fine.”

I had fallen into a strange place, but either way, I was alive.

Only now did my clogged thoughts begin to flow, and the emotionless voice I had heard right before losing consciousness came back to life inside my head.

“It said I could use skills, right?”

If my memory was correct, the skills I had acquired were Appraisal and Medicine Crafting.

It was the kind of thing that should only happen in a game, but…

“I should test it.”

I picked up one of the red fruits from inside the pouch.

Then, half in doubt, I opened my mouth.

“…Appraisal.”

Ding!

“Vitality Fruit. Eating it restores a very small amount of health. It can be used as an item crafting material.”

Along with a cheerful notification sound, a gentle voice spoke.

It was so clear that I could hardly doubt my ears.

“Medicine Crafting.”

As if it had been waiting, the cheerful notification sound rang out again, followed by the gentle voice.

“Activating Medicine Crafting skill. Please select ingredients.”

My heart began pounding violently.

Until a moment ago, I had been too flustered to notice, but after confirming the skill as well, the situation slowly began to take shape.

The inside of a healing shop that gave me a sense of déjà vu, and even a fruit with a somewhat familiar shape.

If that’s the case…

I hurriedly looked around.

In the corner of the shop, just as I remembered, there was a small well.

My hand trembled as I opened the wooden lid.

“Appraisal.”

“Delicious Water. It is cool and refreshing. It can be used as an item crafting material.”

As expected, it was familiar content.

I picked up an empty flask from the display cabinet.

My hands were no longer trembling.

Because the crafting formula for a health recovery potion was already in my head.

“…One Vitality Fruit, 250 milliliters of Delicious Water, and one empty bottle.”

Bright light burst from the pouch and the well, then two streams of light flew into the flask in my hand and mixed together.

“Ugh!”

I slowly opened the eyes I had squeezed shut.

Inside the bottle, a faint blood-red liquid was sloshing clearly.

The appraisal result was…

“Health Recovery Potion Lv.1. Restores 10 health when consumed.”

“…Haha.”

After roughly putting the recovery potion into the pouch, I lowered my head and looked into the well.

The surface of the water reflected not an ordinary thirty-three-year-old office worker, but a slender young man.

Yeah. At this point, it was obvious even without looking.

Snow-white hair flowed down over his shoulders.

Dull purple eyes, pale skin, and a shabby gown.

It was someone I knew.

“Ritark Methyl…”

A resident of Weapon of Infinity.

The owner of the healing shop, and a frail, timid, sickly mad scientist.

“This is really driving me insane.”

Apparently, I had become an extra in the world I created.

And not just any extra, but an ill-fated supporting character who died the moment the game’s main story began.

(End of Chapter)