One day, I received an email. The sender asked if he could remake my novel. I was dumbfounded at the time. I might’ve been on a short hiatus, but to ask to remake a novel in paid serialization… of course I refused. In fact, I didn’t reply at all. Partly because that would go against copyright laws and also because I felt ashamed.

My webnovel was called, The Returnee Hero. It wasn’t sensational, but fairly popular and my best hit in 5 years. I had been on hiatus for 3 months when I received the email.

The reason was simple. The words wouldn’t come.

At first, I poured my passion into writing. My description of the world was almost 50,000 Korean characters, and I poured my heart into each chapter. However, I fell into an awful slump after a year even though the novel continued for 6 more months until the story reached its mid-late stage. It was full of plot holes because I forcefully wrote and the characters’ personalities all collapsed. Unsurprisingly, the number of readers significantly dropped. I was too afraid to even read the comments by then and ultimately went on hiatus. However, I couldn’t continue a single sentence no matter how long I rested. Then I received another email to remake my novel as I wallowed in misery from my lack of writing skills.

[from: homosapiens@neighbor.com]

[Please. This is only for my personal satisfaction. I won’t reveal the remake to anyone. It’ll only be between me and you. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find some inspiration to continue the story…]

It was a fairly long, but simple email. He wanted to remake my novel for his own gratification. How much did he like my novel to send an email like this? I agreed since I wasn’t particularly proud of my work, feeling somewhat thankful and ashamed.

Was that the cause of this situation? The chance of winning the lottery was 1 in 8,145,060. What was happening to me had to be 1 in 7 billion.

I found myself in an ordinary home, but it wasn’t my world and I wasn’t me. That might’ve sounded philosophical, but it wasn’t. That was literally the case. I had become an extra in my novel. An extra I didn’t remember creating.

Kim Chundong. Chundong lived in an ordinary apartment, but he didn’t have any parents or relatives. Of course, I didn’t know why. At 9 years old, Chundong was admitted to the Military Agent Academy, a place that trained elites to fight against monsters and djinns, but what abilities did Chundong even possess to pass the entrance exam? I had no clue. I didn’t know anything else about him. I didn’t even know how he looked. Not even joking. I didn’t.

When I looked in the mirror…

(?)

That’s all I saw. An oval with a question mark.

I found this crazy body possession transmigration completely unreasonable! I went to bed like usual, but found myself on the last day of the semester at Military Agent Academy when I woke up.

I had 2 suspicions. First was that I was being pranked, but then I quickly ruled that out. I couldn’t even bother to explain why. Second was that I was still dreaming, but I naturally dismissed that because the thought of being in a dream would never occur to the dreamer. More importantly, no dream would continue for 2 weeks with such clarity.

I spent the past 2 weeks pondering whether the world inside the novel should be treated as my new reality.

Ding Ding—

I laid in bed and blankly stared at the ceiling until my smartphone rang. I glanced over and saw that it was time to go to school.

“Why the hell do I need to go to school?”

The Military Agent Academy held its graduation 13 days ago, but that graduating class only consisted of non-combatant cadets. Non-combatant cadets couldn’t be called heroes. Combat class cadets had to attend school for 3 more years. These 3 years would be spent at Cube, the Hero Academy. Unfortunately, this damned Chundong guy was a combat cadet. Again, I had no clue who he was.

“Ah… how frustrating.”

I barely did anything the past 2 weeks. I spent most of my time on the internet, ate food when I got hungry, went online to search for a solution, laughed at the surprisingly funny variety shows on TV, ate some more food… Anyways, the only noteworthy event was going to Seoul 2 days ago for the 3 hour long Cube Entrance Ceremony. I didn’t want to go, but I had no choice since I would be expelled if I didn’t attend.

“I do think I need to go, but…”

I couldn’t figure out who put me here, for what reason, and with what power. I reluctantly accepted my fate after living idly for 2 weeks. It seemed I would live like this for a while, so I might as well make a living. In my novel, being a hero was everyone’s dream job. Things would become dangerous midway because of villains, but the hiatus would be close. I just needed to survive until then. I was sure I’d figure something out when the time came.

7:33 A.M.

School would begin in 57 minutes. I got up and trudged to the bathroom. The question mark greeted me in the mirror.

“Screw this question mark. Is it ever going to go away?”

My face was literally a question mark and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t because I didn’t describe this face. If that were the case, billions of other people in this world wouldn’t have faces. So why was only Chundong’s face a question mark?

“I don’t get it.”

I washed my face after murmuring begrudgingly. I could feel my skin and hair, which made everything even creepier.

After washing up, I changed into the Cube uniform I received at the entrance ceremony. Other than that, I had no other luggage. Anyone who saw this uniform would undoubtedly envy me, but I had no idea what I was doing. My face was a freaking question mark. How was I supposed to figure anything out?

As I opened the door, I glanced back at my home for the past 2 weeks — the apartment I barely found thanks to the address on my cadet card. It seemed I got attached in this short period and I felt like I would miss it.

Cube floated on an island in the middle of the East Sea. Once I left, I probably wouldn’t come back.

“Haaah.”

I left the comfortable apartment and stepped into a dark and unfamiliar world.