Chapter 1
—
Hotel suite room.
A man is lying down.
“This world is a game.”
A dashing suit and a luxury watch worth the price of a decent house.
Dressed in luxury from head to toe, this man, spouting nonsense with an innocent expression, is Lee Shin.
None other than the scoundrel of the Lee Do Group.
“A game, huh…”
The doctor adjusted his glasses and continued the consultation.
“Is it the same game this time as well?”
“Yes, ‘GM’… It’s my only sanctuary…”
“Very well. So it’s the game called GM.”
“The genre is a nurturing simulation, a game where you manage a guild…”
“Yes, I see. It’s exactly the same. That’s a good sign, consistency in answers is positive.”
“Don’t you find it strange, doctor?”
“What do you mean?”
“This world where magic is real. Humans flying through the sky, shooting flames with bare hands, people faster than cars, and catching bullets with their hands. Oh… What a shocking world it is. Do you really think it makes sense?”
“Why do you think it doesn’t make sense?”
“Why does the sun rise in the east?”
“Because it’s natural, isn’t it?”
“Great! That’s exactly it.”
“Indeed.”
Even at Lee Shin’s absurd remarks, the doctor maintained a benevolent expression and thought to himself:
‘And yet, does it make sense that you lost your memory while overdosing?’
It was a month ago when Lee Shin was carried here by attendants in black suits.
They said he collapsed due to overwork. However, anyone could see his crazed eyes and ramblings like ‘Wow, bunny, hop hop!’ were signs of drug abuse.
Naturally, reporting him to the police should have been the first step according to protocol, but…
The doctor is a private practitioner.
The stack of cash in front of him was too thick to adhere to protocols. After three arduous days, Lee Shin finally regained consciousness.
―Amnesia.
He remembered nothing.
Nothing at all.
Lee Shin clasped his hands neatly and continued the consultation.
“When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling, and my limbs were bound. If you hadn’t shown up, I might have thought I was abducted by aliens. Do you remember the first thing I said back then?”
“Of course.”
Of course, he remembered vividly.
Crying with bloodshot eyes, Lee Shin had screamed, ‘My character!! My videos!!’ making the doctor wonder if the drugs hadn’t fully left his system.
“Everything was so confusing back then. No memory, restrained. Even on TV, my face was on every channel. Junkie, scoundrel, horny bastard, ultimate bastard. My name! No, the words attached to my name were all so filthy. Honestly, I felt wronged. I swear I don’t remember doing anything so disgusting!”
“I’m sure you do.”
“If I had done it, at least I wouldn’t feel wronged.”
The wild parties… I might be a little curious about those…
At Lee Shin’s muttered words, the doctor, still wearing his kind expression, wrote in his chart.
―Escapism.
“My memory is hazy, and some old man I don’t know cursed and slapped me. My parents didn’t take my side, and my relatives pretended to console me while clearly mocking me inside. I thought I was in a marketplace of madness.”
“Hahaha…”
“The character was wrongly created. A game ruined by bad luck.”
“And back to the game we go.”
“Indeed, because that’s the only truth. In fact, I’ve transmigrated. Into a game. And oh, the reason is hilarious. Running with a laptop during a record-breaking rainstorm, struck by lightning, and when I opened my eyes, I was in the game!”
“Sounds like a web novel. A scoundrel in a game.”
“Ooh! Even the title…! Doctor, you know about web novels?”
“My son taught me. They’re great for clearing your head.”
“Ah… the new generation.”
Watching Lee Shin clasp his hands neatly and give a thumbs-up, the doctor picked up his pen again.
―Delusions of grandeur.
“Well, what can I do? I might as well think positively.”
“Positivity is always a good solution.”
“Exactly. If I’m a scoundrel, a bastard, or an idiot, so what? I’m the eldest grandson of a chaebol family, after all. While others are stuck in depressing hospital rooms, I’m here receiving treatment in a hotel suite. It’s a pretty decent life.”
“More than decent. It’s sheer luxury.”
“So, doctor, lump sum payment?”
“A lump sum with a plus alpha.”
“Nice deal.”
At Lee Shin’s response, the doctor nodded positively.
―Good sense of reality.
After hearing enough of his story, the doctor, for the first time, initiated a question.
“Very well, your progress looks great. Can I ask you one last question?”
“Two, no, three questions, I don’t mind.”
“In that case…”
The vice chairman, the patient’s father, had ordered, ‘Get him out of there as soon as possible!’ and the doctor focused more on management than perfect treatment.
So he asked.
“A dream, or shall I say, a goal. What is your goal, Mr. Lee Shin?”
People with a clear destination may wander, but they still move forward. At this, Lee Shin smiled as if he had been waiting for his turn.
“I should do what I’m best at.”
“And that is?”
“What else could it be? GM, building a guild.”
Once he recruited renowned hunters to raise the guild’s reputation, he’d attract promising talents with that fame.
When Lee Shin’s perfect squad was complete, they’d break records, build prestige, and leverage that reputation to expand beyond Korea into the global market—
“To create the world’s greatest guild.”
A man like me, truly amazing.
Lee Shin, smiling with his eyes closed.
As always, the doctor maintained his benevolent smile and pondered.
Is it really okay to discharge this guy…?
* * *
The name is Lee Shin, written with the “Lee” of Gyeongju Lee and the “Shin” meaning faith.
Gender: Male, said to die early out of curiosity.
Age: 32, who believes he’s tasted all the sweetness, bitterness, and crap of life but in truth knows nothing.
Profession: IT developer. Sounds impressive, but in reality, a coding slave. Also known as the firefly of Guro Digital Complex.
Home: Owns an 18-pyeong apartment. It’s a secret that 80% of it is mortgaged, and he’s nervously sweating over the skyrocketing interest rates.
Likes: Spending the weekend wearing nothing but underwear and lazing around gaming all day.
Dislikes: His damn manager dying in hell.
Motto: Live fun by doing what you want.
This was the profile of Lee Shin, an all-too-common young man of this era.
Why the past tense, you ask? Well, let me tell you about that story.
The day in question was a cloudy weekend.
“Ahhh, I slept well.”
A peaceful weekend morning without the alarm blaring every ten minutes from 6:40 AM.
Lee Shin, enjoying his lazy time, woke up around 10 AM.
Weekend Lee Shin is different. He’s relatively diligent at work but spends his weekends as his own time. No one can stop him.
“Auntie, one special gukbap, please.”
He devoured a bowl of special gukbap, packed three Americanos as always, and sat in front of his computer.
Then he logged into his only sanctuary.
Guild Manager.
Abbreviated as GM.
Become the head of a guild, recruit supernatural hunters who wield magic! Raise the characters you like with the traits you want, in your own style!
Complete your dream guild with your squad, and conquer the world!
—A nurturing simulation game.
He played this game while sharing a tiny room with his older brother 20 years ago. It was his first and last love, which he never strayed from since he started playing at age 12.
With this expertise, he became a renowned veteran in the GM community, even serving as a mentor to 300,000 players.
Some even seriously suggested he start streaming, but he always firmly refused.
Why would he share his only sanctuary with others for a bit of cash? Not a chance.
“So, how should I enjoy today~”
A squad cuter than any girl group he was into recently?
Or maybe it’s time to play with some gimmicks again? Pretending the guild master is secretly a sword master.
A squad made entirely of summoners also tempted him. Sweeping the gate with an army of summons sounded thrilling. Or, a classic super team composed of world-class talent (200/200 potential) could offer its own kind of satisfaction.
GM, as a game that’s been around for over 20 years, boasted an enormous character pool and countless nurturing strategies, providing endless entertainment.
The problem, however, was that Lee Shin was a fossil.
He had already exhausted all the “normal” fun and was now addicted to slightly more twisted, unconventional routes for stimulation.
“A new sensation… let’s raise the difficulty… hmm… okay, let’s do it this way.”
「Manager Creation」
Mental (0/0)
Technology (0/0)
Physical (0/0)
Combat (0/0)
…
Mental, Technology, Physical, Combat.
Perfectly adjusted so he could never step into the field.
“Instead…”
Society (100/100)
Politics, negotiation, charm, wealth, lobbying, charisma… dumping all stats into “Society,” which influences others.
This alone was sufficient, but stopping here wouldn’t be like Fossil Lee Shin.
“Let’s tweak it further.”
He meticulously adjusted the detailed stats under “Society.”
Hundreds of stats.
Due to GM’s mechanics, if any preset stats were underfilled or exceeded, the character couldn’t be created. Most users struggled with customizations, sweating through the process or downloading presets from the community.
But for veteran Lee Shin, it was easy.
“It was too easy last time, so let’s destroy the reputation and create more enemies. Dump all negative stats into ‘wealth’…”
By drastically increasing stats related to charm and wealth within Society…
“A character with no abilities but overflowing charm and money, complete.”
The more money, the more enemies. The worse the reputation, the more conflicts he’d face.
He could already see it—various events rushing at him from the start.
“Ssss…”
Just imagining it made his mouth water.
“Ahh, at least a month of fun.”
Now, let’s chew through this.
Just as he was about to dive into the game.
The incident began.
Bzzzz~ Bzzzz~
“Ugh… what now.”
The name on the phone screen.
[That Damn Manager]
“Ah, what does he want now?”
There are many types of bosses.
Competent and diligent. Competent and lazy. Incompetent and lazy. Incompetent but unnecessarily diligent.
The worst of them is an incompetent but unnecessarily diligent boss. And if they’re clueless on top of that?
…That’s exactly this manager.
“Hello…”
― “Lee Shin, come to the office now.”
“…Sir, it’s the weekend.”
― “Kid, I’ve got a big catch. Remember the accounting program development discussed in the meeting? I snagged it for our team.”
“What, what do you mean, a project? Sir! That was supposed to go to Team 3!”
― “I know, I know. Team 3 was supposed to handle it. But the more I thought about it, the more tempting it became. So I sweet-talked the president. Am I not amazing? How’s that, cool, right?”
He snatched up a project that every team subtly pushed away because no one wanted it, and now he’s bragging about it.
No need for blood pressure medication—this bastard is human blood pressure medication.
Spending a relaxing weekend gaming in nothing but underwear is the only joy in life… Sigh, there was no choice.
Lee Shin looked wistfully at the monitor and packed his laptop, deciding he would play at the office. While he could give up on underwear, he could never give up on gaming.
But to cut to the chase, he never even got to open his laptop.
This damn manager surpassed any nightmare Lee Shin could imagine. To swallow a project without grounds, plans, or even a clear direction…
He didn’t even get to see a single pixel of his game and spent the entire day grinding himself to the bone. By the time he collapsed onto the bus, completely drained, it was already 10 PM.
‘I feel miserable.’
Even the heavens seemed to sympathize, pouring rain endlessly.
Using the sound of rain as a lullaby, Lee Shin closed his eyes.
Twenty minutes later.
Even the trusted heavens dealt him a harsh blow.
‘Excuse me, heavens? Isn’t this too much sympathy?’
Before his tired eyes was a road flooded by unprecedented rainfall.
Watching cars float helplessly along the submerged road, Lee Shin burst into laughter like a madman.
“Haha… hahaha…”
But laughter wouldn’t change reality.
In desperation, he used his backpack to shield himself from the rain, only to gasp and clutch it tightly to his chest.
‘The laptop!’
Indeed.
Inside his backpack was his laptop, holding his curated collection of videos and the lifetime memories of his character—a companion of half his life.
“Haha, nothing’s going right today.”
Though Lee Shin was always positive, this was just too much.
Wasn’t this pure bad luck?!
Clutching his backpack like a mother bird protecting her eggs, he braved the rain.
And then lightning struck.
KA-BOOM—!
With a probability harder to hit than winning the lottery, Lee Shin was struck by lightning.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the world of the game that occupied most of his memories and life: GM.
[ Lee Shin. At it again. ‘A Party of Madness!’ ]
[ A party attended by top celebrities. Is this okay? ]
[ Assault, adultery, violence, gambling… At least being a scam victim is lucky? ]
In the body of the custom character he’d painstakingly created that morning.
—
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