Chapter 1
The Heavenly Demon (天魔).
The master of the Heavenly Demon Cult, an inevitable fixture in wuxia novels.
A regular among regulars, invariably cast as either the protagonist or the final boss.
Did you know? “Heavenly Demon” is actually short for “genius mage.”
It's an indisputable fact, even depicted in the Goguryeo Subakdo.
Didn't know? It's okay. I didn't either.
***
Towers, monsters, awakenings, Awakened.
It's been 11 years since things I'd only seen in fantasy novels as a kid became reality and seeped into everyday life.
Awakened are now the number-one career choice among elementary school students, and supernatural abilities have taken deep root in our lives.
In the school districts, they teach you how to sense mana and swordsmanship instead of preparing for the college entrance exam.
It's an era when guilds formed by Awakened gathering in small groups have rapidly become more desirable workplaces than leading conglomerates.
Every year, when the end of the year rolls around, it has become normal for everyone to count down to the apocalypse, clasp their hands and pray—or go on a looting spree. This is an age when Purge Day, when people turn a blind eye to petty crimes, has become reality.
An era when everyone yearns for a fantasy-like life.
I wasn't much of an exception to the times.
And I'm an Awakened. An A-rank one, no less.
Just showing my rank makes even the biggest guilds tremble, while smaller guilds fret anxiously.
That's me, Lee Jian.
“The great me has arrived.”
I woke to the morning sunlight streaming through the window.
A refreshing morning. The clock said exactly 8:00.
Woke up right on time.
I washed up quickly and made breakfast.
“Ah.”
There was something I had to do before eating.
Click!
I took a picture of the meal I'd just made. I made it myself, but it looks pretty appetizing.
Then, with practiced fingers, I opened the site I always logged into.
[Magic Awakeners Gallery]
Shortened to Wizard Gallery.
Since Awakened first appeared in the world 11 years ago, their specialties have branched out into all kinds of categories.
Broadly, they split into melee and ranged. More specifically, they split into warriors, archers, and the like.
Like the joke that people would form factions even if you dropped them on a deserted island.
Awakened, too, started instinctively banding together with others in their field and forming factions as soon as the world settled down a little.
Wizard Gallery is one of the communities where those very mages gather to exchange information—and it's the biggest one.
Which means there's plenty of quality information, too.
As a result, to enter, you have to go through a simple verification process to prove you're a magic Awakened.
'The verification only requires casting a simple spell like Fireball.'
Verify yourself by casting any first-tier spell.
Of course, it wasn't easy, but I handled it without breaking a sweat. Who was I, after all? Lee Jian, an exceptional A-rank Awakened with the A-rank trait [Genius Mage], acclaimed by all as a genius.
'Oh, right. The food's getting cold.'
Food tastes best before it gets cold.
I quickly uploaded the photo and started typing.
[Cheon.Ma]
[Title: Fucking Early]
It means good morning, lol.
(Roughly a photo of breakfast)
How's today's breakfast look?
Anon: This guy posts the same crap every day.
MageTime: Why the fuck does he broadcast himself eating every damn day?
Roombound Archmage: How does he wake up and immediately go post shit on the gallery?
ㄴ Warrior Main: Seriously, what a legendary gallery-addict life, lol.
ㄴ Roombound Archmage: Still, I suppose my life beats yours, Warrior Main...
ㄴ Warrior Main: ? Why are you picking a fight?
I ate while basking in the comments' enthusiastic welcome.
A meal just tastes better with reactions like these.
After eating, I quickly changed into the suit I'd ironed beforehand.
“Phew.”
I adjusted my tie and looked at myself in the mirror.
My face looked a little tense. Not bad, all things considered.
“Today, for sure.”
Brrring!
At the sound of the alarm, I left the house.
***
And now, I found myself in a situation I had no idea how many times I'd faced before.
“Mr. Lee Jian.”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry, but we won't be able to have you join our guild.”
“Isn't there any way around that? I have an A-rank trait, so I could at least work in research...”
“I'm sorry, but that's difficult.”
A firm rejection.
“We're looking for combat mages, after all...”
The recruiter said that, then stared at me.
Damn it. I knew what he was getting at. I stopped pleading before I could make myself look any more pathetic.
The recruiter bowed his head, then soon began chatting warmly with another Awakened.
Was that another interviewee? The recruiter's whole demeanor was different from when he spoke to me.
The sight made me feel even more miserable, so I hurriedly left.
A little while later, I sat on a park bench, gazing blankly up at the sky.
It was clear. My insides were burning, while the sky was ridiculously clear and sunny, as if there could never be another day like it.
“Damn it.”
How many times had I been rejected now?
My impressive résumé got me through document screening and interviews like clockwork, but it couldn't guarantee I'd pass the practical test.
The practical test was a pure test of ability, almost impossible to fake.
And why couldn't I pass it? The reason was simple.
“Status window.”
[Lee Jian]
[Level] 1
[Class] Mage
[Traits] Genius Mage (A), Mana Depletion (A)
Wow, two A-rank traits at level 1!
That's not much to cheer about when the latter trait completely cancels out the former.
[Title: If You Got the Mana Depletion Trait, Just Kill Yourself]
[Roombound Archmage]
Yep. It'd be faster to kill yourself and be born again.
[Comments]
Loves Magic: This guy's being harsh. But he's not wrong.
Anon: Is it really that bad?
ㄴArmchair Archmage: That bad.
Warrior Main: A mage who gets mana depletion syndrome? Seriously, they'd be better off being born again.
Mana depletion syndrome.
As the name suggests, it's an illness that depletes the mana in your body.
No one knows the cause. All we have are rampant guesses that the body can't keep up with the abilities it gains upon awakening.
Since it's an illness that exists as a trait, there's no proper treatment. In effect, it's incurable.
'Though it won't kill you.'
To keep from dying, you have to regularly down mana potions.
And.
'I can't use magic.'
Since mana doesn't gather in my body, there's none to draw on beyond the bare minimum needed to survive.
In other words, I have no mana with which to form spells.
“What's the point of having an A-rank trait?”
An A-rank trait, Genius Mage.
[Genius Mage (A)]
[You can understand and use all magic.]
Even though it's an absurdly powerful trait that lets me understand and use a spell just by seeing it once, without mana, it's all for nothing.
In short, a completely unplayable build!
Just like all the advice on the gallery said, it'd be faster to start over.
You might think I could be hired as a researcher since I knew the theory inside out.
“The numbers don't work.”
With the money it would take to hire me, they could hire dozens of other researchers. No guild or company would be crazy enough to hire me.
Why not just take a lower salary? I couldn't.
“Damn the Association.”
Under Association regulations, A-rank Awakened have a minimum salary.
It's an amount that easily exceeds the salaries of other C- and B-rank Awakened by two or three times.
They say it's the Association's effort to protect the Awakened ecosystem. To me, it's just a goddamn ridiculous regulation.
Thanks to that, I've added another day to my streak as an unemployed A-rank Awakened: day n.
In a world where simply awakening lets you swim in money, could there really be anyone else living unemployed with an A-rank trait?
No. There can't be another idiot like me.
“Sigh.”
When I got home, I should browse Wizard Gallery and look through job sites. I thought that as I started walking.
***
I had a dream.
In the dream, I was stronger than anyone else.
One swing of my sword split a mountain, and a single word made countless people tremble.
I was an incredible being, looked up to by everyone.
“The Heavenly Demon has returned (天魔再臨), and all demons bow before me (萬魔仰伏)!”
“Long live! Long live! Long, long live!”
It felt pretty good.
It was as if the dream made up for reality, at least while I was in it.
Reality made me feel so insignificant. I envied the version of myself in the dream, whom everyone looked up to.
I even wished, for a moment, that the dream could be real.
As I soaked in that sweet feeling, I woke up.
***
“...”
When I opened my eyes, as always, morning sunlight streamed into my familiar room.
At my feet, the people who had bowed their heads were nowhere to be seen. The only thing lying there was the suit pants I'd carelessly tossed off yesterday.
“Ugh.”
I sat up.
For some reason, my body felt weak.
Fwoop!
'Huh?'
As soon as I sat up, my shorts slid down without a fight.
“What the...”
Did the elastic snap? I only bought them recently.
The moment I lowered my head to pull my shorts back up, a strange curve showed through the sagging short-sleeved shirt, as if it had been waiting for me. A pair of rounded...
“Aaaah!”
What was that scream?
Startled by my own scream, I hurriedly felt my throat.
It's gone. I couldn't feel the Adam's apple every man was supposed to have.
“M-Mirror!”
I hurried to the bathroom, stumbling and clattering along the way.
In the mirror was a petite girl with ebony-black hair falling to her waist and ruby-red eyes. She looked somewhere around 130 to 140 centimeters tall.
She was a very beautiful girl, with an air of majesty about her.
“Uh...”
I couldn't speak.
They say shock can leave you speechless. This had to be exactly that kind of situation.
The girl in the mirror stared back at me with the same look of shock.
“Ah.”
I must still be dreaming.
If it's a dream, I should wake up.
Smack!
I slapped myself across the cheek. It hurt. So this wasn't a dream.
“Then this venerable one has become a woman... what the hell is with the way I talk?”
My way of speaking was strange, too. Something was definitely seriously wrong with me.
“Status window.”
There was nothing better for figuring out what was going on. In that moment, for the second time in my life, I was deeply grateful to be an Awakened.
The first time was, of course, when I first awakened.
[Lee Jian]
[Level] 1
[Class] Heavenly Demon (天魔)
[Traits] Heavenly Demon (天魔), Nine Yin Severed Meridians (九陰絕脈)
“What is this now?”
The status window had completely lost its mind, too.