BXBX NOVEL Chapter 2
[Congratulations. You have cleared stage 1]
[As a clear reward, you have completed temporary awakening]
[You will officially awaken when the tutorial ends]
[Level up!]
[You can use the help function]
After running around frantically for a while, Kang Hyeon finally collapsed from exhaustion.
“Huff, huff…”
As he caught his breath for a moment, he finally noticed the message occupying part of his field of vision.
“Hmm, help… How am I supposed to use it?”
After pondering for a moment, Kang Hyeon clenched his fist tightly.
“Help!”
As he shouted with full force, new messages appeared before his eyes.
[This is a help menu that explains and provides instructions on basic interface usage]
[Status window, inventory, skills…]
Seeing quite a few words appear, Kang Hyeon, who had been contemplating, decided to look through them in order.
“Status window!”
Along with Kang Hyeon’s energetic shout, new messages appeared.
▫Name: Kang Hyeon
▫Title: –
▫Level: 0 → 1 new!
▫Detailed stats:
Strength 8
Agility 9
Stamina 7
Magic Power 14
Additional stat points: 0 → 1 new!
▫Unique ability: Resurrection
▫Abilities: –
▫Skills: –
Kang Hyeon frowned as he looked at the status window.
“This seems completely useless, or am I mistaken…”
Usually in games or novels, the most basic stat is 10.
There’s no law that says it has to be that way, but if 10 is truly the average, then he was definitely below average.
While his magic power seemed a bit higher, unlike the other more intuitive stats, it was useless for now since he didn’t even know how to use it.
“This is not good at all.”
As Kang Hyeon stared seriously at the unimpressive status window for a long time, another message appeared before him.
[The waiting time has expired. You will now exit the tutorial]
“Huh? What? I haven’t even seen my skills yet…”
In the middle of speaking, Kang Hyeon felt his vision blur and his consciousness faded away.
***
Ippotranslation
***
-Pa pa pa pa pa~ Pa pa ppo pa! Good morning!
An old alarm sound noisily filled the room. Kang Hyeon rubbed his eyes and got up.
“Uh… Was that just a weird dream?”
His head felt fuzzy.
The moment of crossing the bridge and the exhilaration after crossing were still vivid, but strangely lacked a sense of reality.
[05:58]
Still an early start.
In a little while, his sister would also wake up and prepare for work.
“It’s been a while, maybe I’ll make breakfast.”
Normally he would have tried to sleep a bit more, but strangely his body felt refreshed.
Kang Hyeon headed to the kitchen to prepare a simple breakfast.
-Clatter, clatter
-Bubble, bubble
As the savory smell of doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) spread through the kitchen, Kang Hyeon, feeling good, hummed a tune while wiping the dining table.
“Hey!”
Just then, the door opened and Kang A-hyun rushed out urgently.
“Why are you making such a fuss in the morning?”
“What’s with you suddenly making breakfast… No, that’s not important. Did you have a dream?”
“Dream? I did dream about doing a circus show in hell fire. How did you know?”
Kang A-Hyun’s expression became deeply furrowed at Kang Hyeon’s nonchalant answer.
“Ugh. You idiot. Didn’t you see the message that appeared after you went into your room last night?”
“Message..? Ah!”
Suddenly Kang Hyeon remembered.
Last night when he was very drunk.
Just before falling asleep, he seemed to have heard a voice along with a faint message.
Now that he thought about it, it was the same as what he heard in the tutorial.
“You saw it too? And had a dream?”
“Yes! Instead of this, let’s check the internet first.”
The siblings had the same strange dream simultaneously.
Then, most likely, other people would have had such dreams as well.
Kang Hyeon took out his smartphone and checked the portal site.
[Real-time search]
1 – Tutorial
2 – Dream
3 – End of the world
4 – Awakening
5 – Lucid dream
6 – Aliens
⦙
“What is this?”
Kang Hyeon clicked on each search term to look at the articles.
-This phenomenon of falling into a dream called tutorial worldwide is…
-Some claim it’s divine intervention, signaling the beginning of the end…
As Kang Hyeon was engrossed in browsing articles, a comment caught his attention.
[Best comment]
Me too.., passed the tutorial and awakened… Strength 15, Agility 11, Stamina 14, Magic Power 7, Total 48… As a current fitness trainer, this much is expected… Lol
‘My total is 38…’
Kang Hyeon’s forehead tensed as he saw the comment that was subtly boasting.
-Did your fingers lagged?
-I heard magic power is related to IQ. 7 must be at dolphin level
-My 4th grade elementary school cousin had 8…
-Is it true that it’s lower than a 4th grader? LOL
-Above comment no trolling, they said minors couldn’t enter the tutorial
-Seeing as you can’t even add up the total, it’s a fact that your brain is made of muscle.
-You even misspelled LOL
However, Kang Hyeon smiled with satisfaction as he checked the replies to the comment.
“Ah~ Kwaviscon.”
“What are you suddenly saying?”
Kang A-hyun rolled her eyes at Kang Hyeon’s abrupt words.
“It’s nothing. By the way, what are your stats?”
“Mine are Strength 7, Agility 12, Stamina 8, Magic Power 13. What about you?”
Total 40. Higher than his own.
“I, I have 10, 10, 11, 14.”
“Bullshit.”
Kang Hyeon, feeling stung, averted his eyes.
“Anyway, let’s just eat. You have to go to work soon, right?”
“Sigh, right. I have to… Go to work?”
Kang A-hyun sighed with a serious expression.
“Of course. Why suddenly?”
“You didn’t check the help properly, did you?”
“Ah, I didn’t have time…”
“Tsk. You can’t check the status window here, so just check the time.”
“Time?”
“Yes. Time.”
Kang Hyeon carefully took out his smartphone.
“It’s six forty…”
“No, not that! Check the time like you would open the status window.”
“Ah…”
Kang Hyeon nodded and clenched his fist tightly.
“Time! Check!”
“Ugh, this idiot..”
As Kang Hyeon shouted to check the time with full force, a simple message appeared before his eyes.
[Time remaining until complete connection with Haken dimension: 4 years 364 days 17 hours 3 minutes 13 seconds]
He could see the seconds decreasing in real-time even as he looked at the message.
“This couldn’t be…”
For Kang Hyeon, who liked games, this kind of situation was quite familiar.
“A countdown to the apocalypse?”
Kang Hyeon muttered blankly.
“We’re not sure if that connection definitely means destruction, but for now, yes. The internet is in chaos right now. People are saying it might be the end of the world.”
It certainly wasn’t going to end as a simple happening.
“Damn… It’s really chaos. Total chaos.”
Come to think of it, it was particularly noisy outside the house today.
Kang Hyeon approached the window and opened it. Then, along with loud noise, a chaotic scene entered his eyes.
“Give me that!”
“It’s the end times! Into the Lord’s embrace! Repent!”
“You bastard! That’s mine!”
This must be what they mean by a crucible of chaos, he thought.
“…”
“You want me to go to work?”
“No. Take the day off work today.”
“I guess so. Shouldn’t we go out to buy some things too?”
Kang A-hyun asked worriedly.
“No. It’s dangerous to go out now, and what we have at home is enough for now.”
It says there is almost 5 years left.
South Korea, with one of the best public safety records in the world, wouldn’t easily collapse in a situation where no one knew what would happen 5 years from now.
“The situation will probably calm down in a few days. We’ll see then about buying what we need. Besides, what food can be preserved for 5 years? Either way, there’s no point in going out now, so let’s just stay in.”
Kang A-hyun nodded silently at Kang Hyeon’s unexpectedly calm and logical words.
***
Ippotranslation
***
The siblings, not going outside, spent all day browsing the internet.
The information they gathered could be summarized as follows:
1) All people aged 18 and above enter the tutorial when they fall asleep.
2) Dying in the tutorial does not affect one’s life in reality.
3) The content of Stage 1 is different for everyone and is related to individual trauma and fears.
4) Even after clearing the tutorial, abilities cannot be used in reality.
Most of this was roughly known from the previous messages, but #4 was puzzling to Kang Hyeon as well.
“Status window!”
[You cannot use this as the tutorial has not yet ended]
Indeed, shouting with all his might as he did in the tutorial only resulted in the same message being repeated.
“It definitely said something about awakening…”
And contrary to expectations, it was strange that nothing had happened in reality.
“I thought some kind of monster would pop out, but it’s quiet.”
“Yeah.”
Thanks to this, Korea stabilized quite well in just one day.
Although the sight of police and soldiers patrolling the streets created some anxiety, most citizens quietly returned to their daily lives when nothing happened.
And so the first day came to an end.
***
Ippotranslation
***
A space all white.
Entering for the second time, it felt a bit familiar.
[Welcome to Kang Hyeon’s tutorial]
“Oh, yeah.”
[Would you like to hear the explanation about the tutorial again?]
“Yeah.”
Kang Hyeon listened to the explanation just in case, but it was the same content as yesterday.
[That’s all. Would you like to enter Stage 2?]
“Let’s go.”
[May your courage save the Earth]
***
Ippotranslation
***
Opening his eyes, what he saw was a space similar to the cave in Stage 1.
However, it was much wider, and the lit candles around gave it quite an atmosphere.
[Second stage (Stage 2)]
[Defeat enemies to prove your skills]
[Clear condition: Defeat 5 goblins]
[Fail condition: Death]
Kang Hyeon frowned as he checked the message.
“A real fight, huh.”
Looking around, he saw various weapons placed on a table.
Most were cold weapons made of iron.
“What era do they think this is, telling us to use these pieces of iron?”
There were all kinds of weapons – swords, axes, spears, polearms, blunt weapons, bows, and even shields.
Kang Hyeon stroked his chin as he pondered.
“Is there a time limit for clearing?”
[There is none]
Although he had muttered to himself, an unexpected answer was heard.
“Then I should check the help first.”
If there was no time limit, there was no need to rush. Kang Hyeon decided to first check the rest of the help content he couldn’t verify yesterday.
“Hmm… Nothing much besides stuff similar to games.”
He checked various things like inventory and skills, but there was nothing special.
Perhaps because it was still the tutorial, all he saw were clean screens.
“But this is still left.”
After looking through all the help, Kang Hyeon finally checked ‘Unique Ability’.
▫Unique Ability: Resurrection
“Resurrection, resurrection… Doesn’t this smell like some overpowered cheat ability?”
Grinning, Kang Hyeon immediately checked the detailed explanation.
Resurrection (Z)
Ability: Resurrect 24 hours after death.
Description: Return from death until the moment Earth escapes crisis.
* If resurrection location is not specified, resurrect at the last sleep location.
Penalty: 1 level decrease. All stats -50% for 24 hours
* Penalty not applied if current level is 20 or below.
“Awesome! Awesome!”
Kang Hyeon shouted, jumping up and down.
“Isn’t this a cheat skill? Guaranteed resurrection. This is sweet!”
Although there was a penalty, it was practically nothing compared to the merit of resurrection.
“Yeah! There’s no way a life as insignificant as mine could be my real life, right? Haha!”
Unaware of the future to come, Kang Hyeon laughed heartily as he closed the message and looked at the weapons.
“Alright. Let’s choose quickly and go.”
In a good mood, Kang Hyeon quickly examined the weapons. He wanted to see himself becoming strong and living large as soon as possible.
“Hmm… I choose you.”
Finally, what Kang Hyeon picked up was a mace of moderate size.
Originally, Kang Hyeon’s fantasy was a sword, but he judged it wouldn’t be easy to handle.
Name: Scrapy Mace
Grade: F
Durability: 17/20
Description: A shabby mace made by roughly crushing iron.
Dismissing the halfhearted description, Kang Hyeon swung the mace around.
“The weight is good too.”
Gripping it with both hands and swinging, he felt an appropriate weight.
“Good. Let’s go!”
In fact, Kang Hyeon gained confidence holding the mace, a one-handed weapon, and then he approached the huge door visible ahead.
-Creeeeak
Opening the door revealed a place that felt like a medieval castle with an antique atmosphere.
‘Didn’t it say goblins?’
He knew a fair bit about goblins.
Originally fairies appearing in European mythology. However, in fantasy worlds, they are often depicted with green skin, small stature, and cunning personalities.
‘And they’re the low-level monsters that die the most to beginners.’
He continued positive thoughts to relieve tension.
Even if resurrection didn’t apply in the tutorial, it had nothing to do with death in reality.
However, it seemed there would be some reward for clearing the tutorial, so he had to be as careful as possible.
“Kihuk, kehuk!”
As he started walking a bit, a bizarre sound like phlegm boiling came from somewhere. Kang Hyeon carefully moved towards the source of the sound.
“Kehuk, kehuk!”
Finally, the sound was heard right in front of him, and Kang Hyeon, hiding his body behind a wall, gently poked his head out.
‘Shit… Didn’t they say goblins?’