This is a common setup, right? (1)

An unidentifiable room, bathed in white everywhere.

In it, Sung-hoon sat with blank eyes. His body was stained with blood everywhere, and it didn't look too good. If left to his own devices, Sung-hoon would remain dead for a long time. But it wasn't long before something happened.

A corner of the room began to turn black, as if ink had fallen on the white space. When the darkness dissipated, a dignified-looking man in a black suit appeared.

The peculiar thing was that, despite being quite an impressive figure, he had no particularly memorable features.

Looking around for a moment, the man soon spotted Sung-hoon in the center of the room and smiled shallowly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Sung-hoon. I'm Jerry, the supporter who will be helping you."

"...."

"Hello, Sung-hoon, can you hear me?"

"...."

"Hmm."

Jerry tilted his head at the half-stunned look on Sung-hoon's face.

"Is he in shock or something? Come to think of it, the tutorial went by so fast, I wonder what happened.

He was only there to assist the player.

He could explain, understand, and help with the world of The Mission in the future, but he couldn't know what happened in the tutorial quest. From the looks of it, Sung-hoon must have gotten off pretty badly.

Somehow it ended too soon.

The most plausible theory was that there had been some infighting in the party, which had resulted in a brawl and only Sung-hoon had survived. With that thought, Jerry let out a small sigh. Could such a weak person really survive to the end in the world of The Mission?

'I guess I've been dealt a bad hand.

But there's no changing it now. It's not like you can give up the game because of a bad hand. If you're dealt a bad hand, you have to deal with it.

By this time, Sung-hoon had come to his senses and was glaring at him.

"Good to see you. Sung-hoon. I'm Jerry, your supporter, and I'm here to help you."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, too. I don't know what it is, but is this place safe?"

"What do you mean?"

Jerry asked, calming down a bit.

"I don't know, but I saw something about coming to the Room of Beginnings after the tutorial quest is complete. Considering it's called the Room of Beginnings, isn't it a place of guaranteed safety?"

"You're surprisingly adaptable."

"What do you mean, adaptable?"

"No, no. Usually people in this situation react in all sorts of strange ways, but you seem to be, how shall I say, very relaxed."

"I see."

"Well. That's not a bad thing, so let's sit down and have a quick chat."

Jerry waved his hand lightly, and out of nowhere, there was a chair and a glass of white steam. Sung-hoon could have screamed at this out-of-this-world phenomenon, but he drank his tea without the slightest hesitation.

He was a bit hungry, but the warm tea seemed to calm him down a bit, and his foggy mind began to work a little better.

In a word, I don't know what it was.

But one thing was certain.

I could still feel that I had killed three people with my own hands. I realized that this wasn't a dream. As he looked at his hand, he could feel the thorns and the dull ache.

"Excuse me, sir, but can you take care of this?"

"No problem."

Jerry snapped his fingers and the thorns began to fall out, and soon, as if fast-forwarding through time, the wound began to heal.

"Now that your wound is healed, I think we should get down to business, Mr. Seonghoon. I'm a little embarrassed that we're just getting started. Would you like to get to the point, or would you rather hear the details?"

"To the point."

"Well, that's fast. Congratulations, Sung-hoon. You have been chosen to play in the great game that will choose the next God. You've been chosen to play in The Mission, congratulations! Actually, to tell you the odds, it's one in a few hundred, so it's a long shot, but still."

"The mission?"

I've definitely seen that word before.

"Yes. That sounds like a pretty epic explanation. Can I get you some refreshments?"

"No, thank you. This tea will suffice."

"I see. Do you believe in the existence of God, Mr. Sung-Hoon?"

"I'd like to say I don't, but the fact that you asked the question suggests that I do."

"Omniscience. It's not the same as God in the sense of all-knowing, all-powerful, but there are definitely beings with transcendent abilities that normal humans can't imagine. Some of them have been around since the beginning of time, and some of them have only been around for a few thousand years or a few hundred years."

Sung-hoon was still nibbling at his tea, staring at Jerry with calm eyes.

"Like I said, they're never perfect beings, and they're never immortal; some of them are dying, and some of them are going crazy."

"Gods dying and going crazy at the end of their lives is a bit of a novelty."

"It's not really a novelty, because even the most transcendent of beings would have problems if they were alive for hundreds of millions, billions, tens of billions of years. Anyway, the percentage of people like that has gotten quite a bit higher in recent years. As a percentage, over 8%?"

I don't know how many gods there are, but more than 8% is definitely a lot.

"So recently, the gods have made a huge decision: it's time for a huge generation change."

"Generation change."

"Well, to put it bluntly, some of the gods want to die, and some of the gods want to enter the cycle of reincarnation. But if you allow them to do that willy-nilly, of course there's going to be chaos, so the gods put their heads together and created this giant stage called The Mission."

The world of The Mission is a big stage.

Not just one, not just two, but millions and millions of people. Of course, a stage doesn't mean that these participants have to put on a play. There's only one thing they need to do.

"Prove it. In the world of The Mission, you're going to have a lot of experiences, and you're going to have to prove that you're worthy of them. You can run away, you can betray. The point is to complete the mission without dying."

"So the gods will decide my successor based on my performance on that mission?"

"I'm glad you're so quick to understand!"

After clapping a few times in an exaggerated fashion, Jerry coughed a little.

"In the world of The Mission, the longer you last, the more karma you accumulate, and the more likely you are to be chosen as a successor by the High Gods. On the flip side, you could come in dead last in your first few runs, or you could accept the demigods' offer and fall out of The Mission."

High risk, high reward.

In short, it was all about the track record. Players were employees who worked hard to build up a track record, and the gods were executives who evaluated that track record.

It's a weird analogy, but once I thought about it that way, it made a lot more sense.

After thinking about it, Sung-hoon couldn't help but blurt out.

"It's a very common setup, isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"No, no. I just said it because I thought it was a common setting in fantasy novels."

"You're right. I'm glad you understood it so quickly, and I'm sure it's easier for teenagers and young adults from Korea and Japan to adapt to this world."

Jerry said as he refilled Sung-hoon's empty teacup.

"Actually, I thought that might be the biggest problem with the players in The Mission, that they wouldn't be able to accept this fact and that it would create a lot of dissonance, but I'm glad to see that you're so quick to understand."

"I don't think I'm the only one."

I realized that even people with severe illnesses or people who read a lot of novels in their lives would definitely adapt quickly. Of course, it was unlikely that he would be able to act as calmly as he did.

Thinking that far, Sung-hoon closed his eyes and thought about it.

He made a sober assessment of himself.

'Age twenty-five. One hundred years old. Slightly flavored sashimi. A life of misery....'

The more I thought about it, the more demoralized I felt. After all, it wasn't like I had no income.

"Anyway, there's no way to get out of this The Mission thing, is there?"

"No. There are only two ways to escape the world of The Mission. You either survive and become a god, or you die and escape."

"If you're going to do it, you might as well do it positively, hahaha!"

"That's a great attitude, and it's a great way to survive in this world of The Mission. Now that you've gotten all the basic concepts from the tutorial, let's talk about tutorial rewards and the store."

"Wait, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what the basic concepts are? All I've ever seen is a quest window."

As Sung-hoon continued, Jerry glanced down at his watch.

They had six hours in the starting room. Normally, that's barely enough time to calm, persuade, and instill basic common sense in the players, but Sung-hoon had finished the tutorial quest incredibly quickly, giving him 24 hours on top of the standard six.

In other words, time is generous.

"There must have been an error, so let's start from the beginning, shall we say, the status window?"

"Status window."

Name: Yoo Sung-hoon

Class/Job/Profession : -

Title : - (2)

Disposition/Alignment : Evil - Fame +5, Infamy +100

Abilities: Strength: 8 Agility: 11 Stamina: 9 Wisdom: 16 Magic: 0 Luck: 9

Status: Normal.

"You should have a status window in front of you, do you enjoy the game?"

"He's dead."

"You're exactly what The Mission is looking for, Yoo Sung-hoon. I don't have to explain it to you, it's what you see. I don't know what your abilities are, but on a scale of one to ten for an adult male."

Sung-hoon furrowed his brow at that.

Everything but his agility and wisdom were below the standard. It wasn't that he didn't understand. He wasn't particularly athletic, and objectively speaking, he wasn't all that healthy.

His horsepower was naturally 0, and the only notable thing was that his wisdom was 16.

"Wait, what's the number next to the title?"

"That's the number of your current title. Of course, the effects of the title itself can be unlocked just by holding it, but the unique effects of the title can only be unlocked by equipping it."

"Is that so? 'Cowardly Survivor', 'Traitor'...."

Jerry couldn't help but be a little surprised by Sung-hoon's mumbling. It wasn't so much that he'd been given a title. The problem was the title itself.

"Cowardly Survivor."

-You're the only one left standing while your comrades die. No matter what anyone says, survival is the most important thing. You may be called cowardly, but you've survived, and you deserve this title.

+1 Dexterity

"Traitor

-You are the first to betray in a world of deceit and deception. You are unquestionably evil.

+1 Dexterity, +2 Constitution

-Laughing Blade: You hide your blade in laughter. You are not easily agitated. You gain a small increase to your Ailment Resistance.