Chapter 1

Chapter 1. Awakening (1)

You undergo a bizarre experience.

You overcome it.

Those are the conditions for Awakening.

<78-year-old Kim Hong-sik, who escaped the Room of 1000 Years of Training and Awakened as the 'Sword Emperor,' has been appointed as the Republic of Korea's first S-rank Awakened!!!>

This so-called bizarre experience visited every Awakened in a different way.

Like that old man Kim Hong-sik, the Sword Emperor, who had to be trapped in a white room for a thousand years, training until he achieved mastery.

Or having to overcome ten thousand poisons.

Or having to befriend a strange spirit that only you could see.

The world called these the Trials of Awakening.

<17-year-old Im Ji-a, who won a Death Tarot Game and Awakened as the 'Saintess of Fate,' has been confirmed as the youngest S-rank Awakened!!!>

But these bizarre experiences could also manifest in the form of games.

Im Ji-a, who reportedly played the Death Tarot Game in 2025, had apparently experienced her Trial of Awakening through a smartphone, of all things.

That was the spark that set the hearts of Korea's youth ablaze.

<33-year-old Kim Jun-seo, who saw the end of the Real Hunter Game, has Awakened as the 'All Master' and become the Republic of Korea's 10th S-rank Awakened!!!>

Shin Si-woo, seventeen years old.

I, too, was swept up in that fervor.

Because I'd been making quite a name for myself in a certain game.

[Raise a Sword]

A game with the unique concept of, well, raising a sword.

It was that age of adolescence when I considered hipster games a virtue and felt retro pixel graphics were aesthetic rather than outdated.

I was the number one ranked player there, and the only user who had properly raised a sword to completion.

The time was 2025—two years since the first Awakened had appeared.

"I, um, think I'm about to Awaken."

At seventeen, I marched confidently to the Awakened Management Bureau to register as an Awakened.

"You think you're about to? Not that you already have?"

"Yes."

The receptionist glanced at my age, tilted his head, and soon asked in a slightly irritated tone.

The middle-aged man's face scrunching up made young me feel intimidated.

"A game?"

"Yes."

I proudly explained that I was the number one ranked player in the ultra-niche game called [Raise a Sword].

Naturally, seventeen-year-old me expected to be welcomed as someone who would become a 'super-rare sword-raising Awakened,' but......

Not a chance.

"Haah."

The receptionist let out a deep sigh and glared at young me.

"Raise a Sword—it's a game on Steam. And one with just over a thousand users at that."

"That's right."

The receptionist seemed eager to educate young me.

"That's not a special or bizarre experience. You just played a lot of games really hard."

"Huh?"

"Think about it. Even Park Sang-hyeon, who reached the pinnacle of an AOS game with 100 million users, didn't Awaken—."

He went on about a famous top-ranked European FPS player who had recently undergone Awakened evaluation.

"When even the people considered the best in the world are dismissed by the System as just having played games well and played them a lot, for a seventeen-year-old to already be—."

The lecture continued.

These days, Korean youth had no sense—thinking that playing games a lot and being good at them counted as a special and bizarre experience. What a lamentable world this was.

That was the gist.

Seventeen-year-old me was considerably hurt.

"Tsk tsk, the kid just doesn't want to study......"

"Can't blame him, though. With AI wiping everything out, kids like him have no future—might as well dream of Awakening, right?"

"True, with lawyers and accountants all disappearing—what's the point of college? Might as well try for the Awakening lottery."

Murmurs from those around me drifted over.

Perhaps having heard them, the receptionist dealing with me clapped his hands—smack!—and cleared the air.

"Alright, alright! Let's not hurt the kid too much! You're all here because you 'think' you've Awakened too, aren't you!!!"

An awkward clearing of throats rippled through the room, and the surroundings fell quiet.

"Student Shin Si-woo, come with me."

The very man who'd hurt me the most coaxed and soothed young me, even buying me a drink from the vending machine, muttering, 'Everything I said was for your own good!'

Naturally, as a seventeen-year-old in the throes of puberty, I didn't take him at his word.

Especially not a seventeen-year-old who'd been orphaned by the Gates.

'I wanted to become an Awakened and get my revenge......'

How crushed must I have felt, treated as a gaming addict instead of a potential Awakened?

Flash!

<Raise a Sword>

Young me booted up [Raise a Sword], the game that had always been my companion.

'No matter how I look at it, this game's world is so similar to the real one.'

Shelving my disappointment, I focused on the monitor.

The goal of this game was to raise a [Sword], but the one wielding that sword wasn't me.

'You guide the sword so a good person picks it up.'

It felt closer to a simulation, really.

The idea was to steer the actions of the NPC or whoever picked up my sword, guiding them toward the ending.

It was frustrating, sure, but once you got skilled enough, all sorts of approaches opened up.

Click.

I pressed the character creation screen.

Unlike other games, instead of a human figure, a gleaming blade flashed into view.

It was time to shape the sword's appearance, set its base stats, and assign its initial [Skills].

This was, in essence, the start of the build.

'Holy-type swords are boring, so—. Besides, I'm in a bad mood.'

Maybe that's why?

I prepared a unique build I'd only ever theorized about but never dared attempt because it was too horrifying.

[Vampiric Demon Sword]

A sword that grows stronger by absorbing the power of those it kills.

If I could see this sword through to the end, the next sword tier might unlock.

'Let's put this sword in that pretty little killer lady's hands.'

Seventeen-year-old Shin Si-woo capped off the tail end of puberty with a brutal [Vampiric Demon Sword].

"Eat up and grow big and strong!!!"

Flash!

[Bad Ending — The continent has been destroyed.]

* * *

"Si-woo, what are you thinking about?"

"Ah...... I was just remembering that I did the same thing when I was younger."

"Heh heh, you?"

2035—I was twenty-seven now, working at the Awakened Management Agency on Yeouido.

Just moments ago, I'd finished a consultation with a middle schooler who claimed he was the number one ranked player in some famous game and thought he was about to Awaken.

"Back then, I got a little too cocky just because I was decent at some niche game and came waltzing in."

I kept it a secret that I was still playing that game.

"Online games only have three documented cases. It's statistically meaningless. The more observers there are, the lower the probability—that's an established truth."

Section Chief Kang Seol-a, seated beside me, tilted her head.

With her long, straight hair swaying and her eyes crinkling into a smile, she was someone who'd joined at the same time as me and with whom I'd built a fair amount of rapport.

"That's right. But when I was seventeen, that kind of common knowledge didn't exist yet."

Even now, ten years later, the laws of Awakening remained the same.

A special and bizarre experience.

Overcoming it.

And the fact that games could be part of that was also true.

'Of course, most of them are very peculiar—the kind only the person involved can see.'

The me of today knew full well what an idiot my younger self had been.

But I didn't laugh at it.

I thought it was actually admirable that a young Shin Si-woo, orphaned by the Gate Catastrophe, had even tried something like that.

'Thanks to that receptionist, I got my head on straight pretty quickly.'

Because of the receptionist who'd counseled me back then, I resolved to pursue a career 'dealing with Awakened.'

To avenge my parents, I'd need to enter the Gates, but that was impossible for an unawakened person like me.

'Instead, I found a way to contribute from the support side—an indirect path to revenge.'

I'm the type who absolutely has to pay back what's been done to me.

That's why I fast-tracked my way into the Awakened Management Bureau.

'I'm proud of myself, honestly.'

And back then, I'd been completely alone.

Just look at the middle schooler from the consultation earlier.

"Mom!!! That man said I'm just a gaming addict!!!"

That kid had come with his mother, no less. No—it was worse than that. Judging by his manner of speech and where his eyes kept darting, it was the mother who'd pushed him to play games nonstop, hoping it would trigger an Awakening.

Naturally, the boy's mother came storming toward me.

Snorting furiously through her nose.

Section Chief Kang Seol-a shot me a panicked look.

The meaning behind that glance was......

'Want me to handle it?'

That's definitely what it meant.

But I couldn't let that sharp-tongued Kang Seol-a open her mouth.

I gave a subtle shake of my head and approached the boy's mother.

Before I could even say anything, an angry voice assaulted me.

"How dare you say things like that to crush a child's spirit?!"

I looked the boy's mother in the eye with a firm gaze.

After taking a moment to collect myself—.

"These days, overzealous parents are forcing their children into wilderness expeditions and the like to manufacture Awakened—that's all classified as child abuse. You're aware the law's been enacted, yes? Games are no different."

Unlike the early Gate era, over a decade of extensive research into Awakening had been conducted.

Artificially inducing Awakening by force-feeding specific experiences was entirely possible, and methods for governments to forcibly trigger Awakening at a national level also existed.

That's precisely why parents like her had started appearing.

"M-my child wanted to do it!!!"

"You're exploiting the perception that gaming is harmless to skirt the law while grooming children into gaming addicts. Please stop the child abuse."

A middle school boy could certainly enjoy games.

A parent could certainly respect that hobby.

But engineering a situation where the child did nothing but game in order to induce Awakening—that was crossing a line.

"B-but it's possible, isn't it?!"

"In theory. And there are only three documented cases worldwide."

Parents did this for one reason.

'The War God, Zhang Chen.'

The monster who received the world's first SSS-rank evaluation.

He'd been a player of a martial arts-based battle royale online game in China.

And a complete sociopath.

The other two cases were no different.

"Why don't you pursue a healthier path instead?"

When the Gates appeared, Awakened emerged.

Monsters poured forth and civilization was partially destroyed.

Then the Mysteries manifested, and rebuilding began.

'AI got wiped out too, so there are plenty of jobs now—.'

That was the state of the world, twelve years after the Gate Catastrophe.

"Why not raise him to be a Management Bureau civil servant like me? The salary's decent, the pension's rock-solid, the benefits are great. And if you apply for Awakened Support, you even get government subsidies."

"You want him to become an Induced Awakened?"

"Yes."

I offered the parent a viable alternative.

Over the past decade, governments around the world had discovered methods to artificially induce Awakening.

The process was considerably safe, though the resulting 'rank of the Awakened' tended to be somewhat lower.

In exchange—.

"You know that natural Awakened have a high rate of mental instability, right?"

The probability of developing a mental disorder dropped dramatically.

As I'd said, Awakened had to overcome 'special and bizarre' experiences.

And those kinds of trials were difficult for ordinary people to endure.

That's why so many natural Awakened were unhinged.

'Because you have to be insane to survive the trial.'

Nobody knew that at first, but with time, it had become common knowledge.

"I don't know what exactly it is you want, but you shouldn't be driving your own child into a deathtrap."

With that, I wrapped up and left my seat.

It was getting close to 6 PM.

"For the record, Awakened Management Bureau employees clock out on time."

_________________________

—Ep. 01. Awakening

Click!

[Raise a Sword]

"Hmm… still not yet?"

Section Chief Kang Seol-a had asked if I'd like to grab a drink after work, but I'd dodged her, saying I had something urgent to do.

That urgent something was the [Raise a Sword] I'd been digging into for over a decade.

'A game where you turn a small and pathetic sword into something large and mighty.'

That was the essence of this game, as I'd understood it in my childhood.

But now I see it differently.

'You turn a small and precious sword into something large and mighty.'

A small sword is possibility.

A starting point that can become anything, that can accomplish anything.

That is why it is precious.

Granting the small sword all manner of experiences and making it bloom into something mighty — that was precisely the player's role.

'You could even call it a parent.'

Young me, not knowing any of that, had done all kinds of brutish things to my swords.

1st Playthrough: Sad Ending.

2nd Playthrough: Bad Ending.

3rd Playthrough: Bad Ending.

4th Playthrough: Sad Ending.

5th Playthrough: Normal Ending.

There were all sorts of endings.

My sword destroys the world.

Or the world wages war after war to obtain my sword, and perishes in the process.

Or the story ends with the world simply continuing on in a lukewarm, neither-here-nor-there state.

And so on…

'Will a happy ending come up?'

But the sword I'd been raising this last time was different.

[The Striving Knight]

<O sword… you truly have brought this old body all the way here. Thank you. Thank you.>

There was one reason I'd turned down a drink today and rushed home.

To see a new ending in [Raise a Sword].

'I've grown quite attached.'

It was a game I'd been with for 12 years.

Simply my memories, my years.

Or perhaps the fruit born of my obstinate obsession.

It was something I'd realized at some point — I'm the type who can pour myself into one thing with tremendous focus and loves digging deep.

Only into things I like, of course.

'When I was young, I used to think this world was similar to the one we live in…'

Earth has [Gates].

This world has something called the [Abyss].

The two are similar, yet fundamentally different.

'Earth's are Red, and this world's are Black.'

Twenty-seven-year-old Shin Si-woo knew very well that [Raise a Sword] was, well, just a game.

Thinking such thoughts, I focused on the monitor.

The old man, gripping my sword, slowly closed his eyes.

And then—

Paat!

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has glimpsed the end of Sword Will.]

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has glimpsed the end of the Heart Sword.]

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has reached the stage of Body-Sword Unity.]

'Oh……'

My chest tightened.

With trembling eyes, I gazed at a mere NPC holding 'my sword.'

The only NPC to have, for the first time, slain every demon in the world and obtained peace in its complete and perfect form.

His name: the Striving Knight.

<I have glimpsed the Pinnacle of the Sword. O sword… O nameless sword — I wish to meet you.>

It felt somewhat disagreeable that this old man, eyes glinting like a lunatic's, was holding my large and mighty sword.

—Ep. 01. Awakening

Click!

[Raise a Sword]

"Hmm… still not yet?"

Section Chief Kang Seol-a had asked if I'd like to grab a drink after work, but I'd dodged her, saying I had something urgent to do.

That urgent something was the [Raise a Sword] I'd been digging into for over a decade.

'A game where you turn a small and pathetic sword into something large and mighty.'

That was the essence of this game, as I'd understood it in my childhood.

But now I see it differently.

'You turn a small and precious sword into something large and mighty.'

A small sword is possibility.

A starting point that can become anything, that can accomplish anything.

That is why it is precious.

Granting the small sword all manner of experiences and making it bloom into something mighty — that was precisely the player's role.

'You could even call it a parent.'

Young me, not knowing any of that, had done all kinds of brutish things to my swords.

1st Playthrough: Sad Ending.

2nd Playthrough: Bad Ending.

3rd Playthrough: Bad Ending.

4th Playthrough: Sad Ending.

5th Playthrough: Normal Ending.

There were all sorts of endings.

My sword destroys the world.

Or the world wages war after war to obtain my sword, and perishes in the process.

Or the story ends with the world simply continuing on in a lukewarm, neither-here-nor-there state.

And so on…

'Will a happy ending come up?'

But the sword I'd been raising this last time was different.

[The Striving Knight]

<O sword… you truly have brought this old body all the way here. Thank you. Thank you.>

There was one reason I'd turned down a drink today and rushed home.

To see a new ending in [Raise a Sword].

'I've grown quite attached.'

It was a game I'd been with for 12 years.

Simply my memories, my years.

Or perhaps the fruit born of my obstinate obsession.

It was something I'd realized at some point — I'm the type who can pour myself into one thing with tremendous focus and loves digging deep.

Only into things I like, of course.

'When I was young, I used to think this world was similar to the one we live in…'

Earth has [Gates].

This world has something called the [Abyss].

The two are similar, yet fundamentally different.

'Earth's are Red, and this world's are Black.'

Twenty-seven-year-old Shin Si-woo knew very well that [Raise a Sword] was, well, just a game.

Thinking such thoughts, I focused on the monitor.

The old man, gripping my sword, slowly closed his eyes.

And then—

Paat!

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has glimpsed the end of Sword Will.]

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has glimpsed the end of the Heart Sword.]

[The Striving Knight — 'Reinhardt Euclid' has reached the stage of Body-Sword Unity.]

'Oh……'

My chest tightened.

With trembling eyes, I gazed at a mere NPC holding 'my sword.'

The only NPC to have, for the first time, slain every demon in the world and obtained peace in its complete and perfect form.

His name: the Striving Knight.

<I have glimpsed the Pinnacle of the Sword. O sword… O nameless sword — I wish to meet you.>

It felt somewhat disagreeable that this old man, eyes glinting like a lunatic's, was holding my large and mighty sword.