My father was the direct successor of a clan known for its spearmanship. There were other ancient martial art clans scattered throughout Korea, but my father was considered strong even amongst the other successors. During my childhood, I never once saw my father lose. Despite that, my father would still bemoan about his bad luck every day and would grouse about things I couldn’t understand. 

“Tsk, what’s the point of being only strong on the outside? With no qi, it’s all looks and no substance.”

“Key? Shin has a key!”

“Haha, not key, but qi. It’s the energy you build up inside the body.”

Since I was only eight years old at that time, I didn’t understand what my father meant by ‘building energy inside the body’.

I was more interested in other things. Whenever I saw my father smash boulders with his bare fists or drill a hole in a concrete wall with a wooden spear in less than 10 seconds, it made me want to become powerful just like him.

“You can do it too.”

“Really? I can be as strong as you, Dad?”

“Of course! You just have to train hard.”

“Okay!”

I was at the age where I admired superheroes from comic books. This was also why I fell for my father’s sweet talk so easily.

He had purposely left out the detail that it would take dozens of years of training for me to become as strong as him. Despite the fact I hadn’t even reached the age of ten yet, he forced me to scale mountains and even abandoned me in the middle of a giant forest. He said it was a necessary process to become a hero.

Did I quietly behave and follow along with his plans at the tender age of eight? Of course not! At first, I bawled my eyes out. But it was useless. I was stuck in the middle of the Amazon rainforest with my father, whereas the only person who could have possibly helped in this situation, my mother, was back in Korea. Without any way of communicating with the outside world, my cries for help went unheard.

“Uwaaaaaaah!”

“Shut up! There won’t be dinner until you kill that snake!”

“I hate you Dad! Uwaaaaah!”

And so, I passed my first ever summer break at the age of eight in a hellish training that seemed never-ending. I was forced to do the same for that year’s winter break, the following summer break, and the following winter break…

For two years, I learned the basics of martial arts. At the age of ten, I was able to at least do some cool moves. Unlike other kids my age, my body had become surprisingly bulky, and my previously stick thin arms had turned a little muscular.

Although the boys my age said that I looked cool and followed me around, the girls distanced themselves from me. They complained that the once cute Shin had turned into a monster.

Hmph, girls. Once they grew up, they would no doubt go crazy at the sight of muscles… Of course, back then, I was young too and also hated the constant changes in my body. I whined to my father to bring my old arms back, but he just beat me up. It had been a long time since he last viewed me as a small child

And so, on my tenth birthday, my father finally brought up the reason why he was teaching me like this.

He told me a story about a 'dungeon' that would stay with me for the rest of my life.

“In the dungeon, there are lots of precious things. Mana stones, magical weapons… heck, even orc skin would be treated as a novel, never-before-seen material on Earth!”

“Wow! So how do you go to the dungeon?”

My father laughed as he stroked my head. “Through my cellphone.”

“Can I go too?”

“Not yet, kiddo. You’re not strong enough.”

“Dad, what’s a mana stone? Can I see it?”

“T-That’s…” With that question, my father’s smooth talk came to a crashing halt. I should have noticed then that something was wrong.

“I-I’ll show you that later. No, there’s no reason to. You can enter the dungeon and bring one back yourself!”

“Okay! I’ll go to the dungeon! I want to see it myself!”

My ten year old self was woefully detached from modern technology. Despite the fact that even kids in elementary school had smartphones now, I had never touched one. Instead, the only thing I got to celebrate moving up a grade was a child-sized wooden spear.  There was no way I could have known what dungeons really were.

In fact, some kids my age were already playing dungeon exploring fantasy games on their smartphones!

Without knowing that dungeons were imaginary, I bragged to my friends that I would enter a dungeon when I grew up. When my friends understood the severity of my delusion, they showed me all kinds of novels and games to convince me that dungeons did not exist in the real world. Unfortunately, my two years of training had turned even my brain into muscle.

Basically, I was all brawn and no brain.

At school, I talked and talked about becoming a dungeon explorer, clueless that the other kids thought I was crazy. This culminated in what was dubbed ‘the Kang Shin Dungeon Explorer Incident’. After that, I lost two of my best friends, Min Soo and Soo Chan.

Oh, did I not mention it earlier? Kang Shin is my name. Kang is my family name and Shin is my given name. My father chose my name, saying that single syllable names seemed strong. My mother had also agreed that it was a good name.

Regardless of how others reacted to my dream, my grand ambition of becoming a dungeon explorer never disappeared. I trained harder and harder. My father had already half-transcended the limits of what it meant to be human. With him as my coach, it wasn’t surprising that by the time I turned fifteen, he was the only person I feared on Earth. To be honest, I still found guns to be scary, but I was able to dodge a bullet shot at me fifty percent of the time. It was then that I realized that I had surpassed the realm of a normal human being. By that time, I had no one to call friends, and even my own beautiful younger sister was avoiding me.

On my fifteenth birthday, I took my clothes off and stood in front of a mirror. I had to stand further back compared to an ordinary person in order to see my whole body. 

Reflected back was a teenage Hulk.

“Nooooo, this can’t be…!”

Well, maybe I was exaggerating a little. In any case, my body was far from normal. I was 6’6’’ and was only in my third year of middle school. My body resembled a gorilla’s: all muscle and barely any fat. It looked like I could crush someone with my arms alone. This was not something the human body could have normally.

Something was definitely wrong. Not even my father looked like this.

“Your body is almost like an orc’s. Your handsome face takes after me, but your body…”

“Dear husband, you must mean his face takes after me. His body is just like yours.”

My mother treated only my face as her son and the rest as unfortunate. Even though she was my biological mother, I sometimes suspected her of being a protractor. Why else could she be so sharp and ruthless in her measurements of me?

“Father, why did I become so big?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because you started training at a young age.”

“When did you start your training?”

“Sixteen, I think.”

“You crook!”

“Hey, I only wanted to make you a dungeon explorer!”

On my fifteenth birthday, I beat my father in an official match, a perfect example of youth overcoming experience But even after defeating him with my shoulder throw, my father bitterly sighed, “So you didn’t manage to obtain qi…”

“There is no such thing as qi! The thing about dungeons is a lie too!”

“A lie… You’ll find out soon, son, so spare my back.”

On the same night that I carried out my sweet revenge, I received a message on the smartphone my mother got me for winning against my father. When I saw it, my eyes opened wide.

- Unlock by entering your password.

“Argh… I can’t open it…”

Because my head was full of muscle, it was impossible for me to remember the basic password my mother had put in.

The next day, I asked my mother to unlock the phone. Speechless, she got rid of the lock entirely. It was kind of silly that she didn’t do so in the first place. I nodded as I accepted the phone. When I looked down, this was the message I received.

[You have been acknowledged by the self-proclaimed Strongest on Earth ‘Kang YungOong’, and have acquired the Dungeon Explorer’s License. As of this moment, you have become one of the five dungeon explorers on Earth. Would you like to enter the dungeon now?]

It said ‘dungeon explorer’! My eyes widened in surprise as I realized the dream I had since I was ten years old was coming true. My mother walked toward me, looked at the phone screen, and crossed her arms as she inspected my surprised face.

“That old man dares to mess with his son with KaTalk? He’s in for it today.”

“What’s KaTalk, Mom?”

“It’s the messenger you’re looking at now.”

“What’s a messenger?”

“…”

I became embarrassed when she didn’t reply, so I decided to ask my younger sister instead. She had just graduated from elementary school and was in her first year of middle school. When I knocked on her door, she ran towards it happily and opened it. When she saw me there, she let out a shriek and shrunk back in fear. After I explained my situation, she kindly explained how a smartphone worked to me with a shy smile. Although I looked scary on the outside, she still cared for me deeply.

After about five hours of explanation, I became a bit more used to modern technology.

“Yua, how do I reply to this?”

“Ah, mm, oppa, like this…”

Ah, what a cute angel! Seeing my sister trying to help even as she stuttered made me want to hug her. But because I didn’t want to scare her again, I held that urge down.

After learning how to reply to the KaTalk message I received, I told her I would pay her back with a mana stone from the dungeon. Then, I typed ‘Yes’ into my phone.

The next moment, I was inside the dungeon. An endless grey hallway was before me, and its walls were made out of stones and there were torches hanging on them. It was exactly like what my father had described. Perhaps he wasn’t lying after all.

There was more. The moment I realized where I was, I heard someone’s whisper in my ears.

[Kang Shin, Bronze Rank 9 Dungeon Explorer, has entered the dungeon.]

[This is your first time. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you 5 lowest-grade potions.]

[Analyzing your abilities… complete. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you a Sharp Wooden Spear.]

[Confirming rank... complete. You are ranked 5th of the 5 Dungeon Explorers from Earth. You are ranked 146,298th of the 146,298 total dungeon explorers. Rankings will be renewed at 6 A.M. tomorrow morning.]

[You have obtained a Status. Would you like to confirm? Yes/No]

Sorry for dragging it out so long. Everything earlier was leading up to this moment.

The moment where I became a true dungeon explorer.

…The dungeon explorer, titled ‘Crown Prince of 5F’.