Chapter Text
Maybe normal wasnt the word to describe you, but average definitely was.
You lived an average life, with an average corporate job, with an average love for the arts.
Anime and comics were your favorite.
Specifically, Solo Leveling was.
Gods, Jinwoo. You loved the guy, he was just so cool!! You wished you could meet him, hug and spoil him. He deserved something good after how the system constantly fucked him over.
Yet another Jinwoo Sung fanfiction read, you let yourself flop backwards onto your pillows. You'd just finished chapter 137 earlier that day and you were SO hooked. You almost debated working some more overtime this week, before realizing you needed to because you wouldn't reach rent otherwise. Sighhh.
Snuggling up to your pillows, you plugged your phone in and set it down. You were halfway through turning around to lay on your side when a ding, one unlike you'd ever heard from your phone, rang out.
“huh?”
You turned to face it, picking it up to find a notification blocking the screen.
—
! NOTIFICATION
SPECIAL QUEST AVAILABLE - Assist the Shadow Monarch.
REWARD : Escape.
yes/no
—
??? The fuck ???
“what kind of shitty hack is this? Gods, did i get a solo-leveling inspired malware?”
You mumbled, already thinking over every sketchy link you'd clicked in the past few days.
Another pop up appeared.
—
! NOTIFICATION
SPECIAL QUEST AVAILABLE - Assist the Shadow Monarch.
REWARD: Escape.
If you do not accept, your heart will stop in 3.57 seconds.
yes/no
—
....
“damn, shit fr? Yeah sure, ill accept.”
You joked, deadpan. To your surprise, the pop-up disappeared and yet another one appeared.
—
! NOTIFICATION
SPECIAL QUEST AVAILABLE - Assist the Shadow Monarch.
YES / no
You have accepted.
—
Was it listening to you? How creę̸̛̭̯̳̺͚̹̤̬̗̰͍̻̠̹̤͈̞̈̆͐͑̅̊̐̃́̀̚͜ͅp̴̡̨̗̟̟͔͙̬̖̺̗̯̫̥͇̜͕͈̬̱̹̙̠͎̤̣̮̬̟͕͙͓͉̻̲̔́̂̈́̾͆̉̕͜͜ͅy̵̢̢̨̬̳̠̬͈̝̬̤̺͔̥̥̰͉̮͍͖͋͒̂̂́́̑̎͆̀͝͝-
Waking up was weird.
Mostly because you didnt remember falling asleep.
Nevertheless, you awoke.
Sitting up in bed, you rubbed at your eyes, looking around the space you were in. Plain walls, plain furniture, plain curtains even.
It was starkly not your apartment.
Before you could panic, pop up appeared. In mid-air.
—
! NOTIFICATION
SPECIAL QUEST - Assist the Shadow Monarch has been accepted.
¡TRANSPORTATION COMPLETE!
Welcome to ‘Solo-Leveling'.
You have been provided an apartment, paid for [2 MONTHS], and materials.
Please check your inventory.
—
....Ooooooh shit.
Well. You were fucked, so very fucked. Oh gods.
After having a very warranted breakdown, you finally pulled yourself together enough to check your inventory as told to.
Inside were pliers, a singular gemstone and silver wire....for some odd reason.
Tho admittedly kind of cool, it was also terrifying how you managed to summon the three items just by thinking about it. You swallowed nervously, another ding catching your attention and making you look up at the newest notification.
—
! NOTIFICATION
DAILY QUEST
GOALS
- Craft one accessory [0/1]
REWARD
- ₩ 2,000,000
- Two medium-grade amethysts.
- Home-bag.
! NOTICE
Failure to complete [DAILY QUEST] will result in a penalty.
—
...eh??
Accessory? You had to craft and accessory? And the hell was a 'home-bag'? That...was odd, but like the rest of this situation, you decided best not question it too much lest you loose your sanity.
So, you grabbed the pliers and the gemstone, which another pop-up informed you was a low-grade topaz which made you wonder if you could identify all gemstones, and got to work channeling all your inner art-kid.
What ended up was...a ring...of sorts.....
Wire wrapped crudely around the topaz, the idea of something prettier lingering and leaving you disappointed. It fit you, atleast? Not a high bar, in all honesty.
—
! NOTIFICATION
DAILY QUEST
GOALS
- Craft one accessory [1/1]
REWARD
- ₩ 2,000,000
- Two medium-grade amethysts.
- Home-bag.
Accept Reward?
yes/no
—
“wh- yes?? Obviously, im not embarrassing myself with this...thing... for nothing!”
—
! NOTIFICATION
DAILY QUEST
REWARD
- ₩ 2,000,000
- Two medium-grade amethysts.
- Home-bag.
Accept Reward?
YES/no
Reward Accepted.
—
Technological sparks, that is to say square light-blue glitter, appeared before you, one of your small cat bag, because yes you had multiple, appeared before you, barely giving you enough time to react and catch it.
Inside were two amethysts, which what was definitely an identifying skill told you were the medium-grade amethysts, a pair of keys, and a black wallet with a single card inside, which you were left to assume contained the 2 million won.
Right. Uh. How much was rent? Or groceries?....or clothes?.... Aaaah shit sticks.
Groaning, you got up, slinging the kitty bag across your torso and absentmindedly slipping the ring on your hand. Another notification popped up, one that made your eyes go slightly wide.
—
! NOTIFICATION
You have equipped [BEGINNER'S TOPAZ RING].
BUFFS APPLIED
- +1.5% Strength.
—
Well shit, you could make artifacts? Okay maybe you weren't as pissed off at the shitty ring you'd been forced to make anymore. That was kind of cool.
In any case, you should probably start trying to figure out how things worked here, since you were pretty sure the system would be little to no help. You needed to survive, to get home, and if the whole 'escape' reward for assisting the protagonist was any clue, that was the only way. So, first things first, a phone.
...wh- hey! No side-eyeing, you needed it to do research, have access to maps and billing and other things!
... okay maybe also to watch YouTube, but you cant judge, okay??
You walked around the apartment first, the small space still bigger than the studio apartment you had before. It was a one bedroom, with a cozy kitchen and small living room. Hell, it even had a baththub instead of just a shower! This was kind of awesome... Anyways!
Um. You had nothing.
Like, no kitchenware or utensils, no hygiene stuff, no clothes or furniture or food... Actually you did some furniture, keyword; some. Exactly one futon and a small dresser. Damn.
After inspecting what you were wearing, a simple turtleneck with pants, you headed to the door. There were a pair of boots, which you put on before opening the door.
The building was pretty plain, but it wasn't dead like your studio apartment's building felt. It felt more...alive. Like something was breathing within the walls.
You shook your head and exited the building.
Taking a mental note of where your building was, you began walking the streets, and, much to your shock, you understood everything.
As in, you understood Korean. For some reason.
Actually, probably because of the system.
You hummed and continued walking, keeping a relatively straight path until you found a tech store. Inside, the monotone but helpful teen helped you buy and program the cheapest model, which was a little under 400k won. That left you... 1,600,000? Yeah. That should be enough... hopefully.
You quickly marked your building inside the maps app before using it to guide yourself to a convenience store.
After buying some ramen, rice and eggs, along with water and two cans of juice. What left you the most surprised was how damn expensive the fruits and vegetables were.
Then you went to another to buy some kitchenware, along with basic hygiene things. You also bought two shirts and two shorts to lounge around in, because these pants were cute as hell but definitely not for sleeping.
Returning to your apartment, you placed everything down before beginning to organize.
You grinned as you finished, standing in the middle of the living room feeling like a bird who just finished making its nest.
Another pop up appeared.
—
! NOTIFICATION
HIDDEN QUEST
GOALS
- Prepare for life [1/1]
REWARD
- 10 meters of silver chain.
- Basic jewelry making pack.
Accept Reward?
yes/no
—
“oh! Yes. Please.”
The sparkles reappeared as you held out your hands, a spool of chain and a small clear plastic organizer box with small selections of several jewelry making things, earring hooks, clasps, small jump rings, etc.
You 'ouhhh'ed and went to put the items on the dresser, before deciding it'd be better they remained in your inventory. After storing them, you sat down on the futon, and began scrolling through the news app on your phone, searching for anything mentioning a double dungeon or a tenth S-rank, or even about Jeju Island.
You scrolled till nightfall, finding batshit about all topics. Just as you were about to give up, you came across one single, heavily redacted, article about a double dungeon incident. Unfortunately, it was dated years back.
Atleast that meant you had time? At the most, the incident had just occurred or was about to, so he probably wasnt already suffering through the effects of the system's demands.
If you had his address, you could make items for him to help him get better faster and safer when he did gain the system...
—
! NOTIFICATION
HIDDEN QUEST
GOALS
- Craft two accessories of a pair [0/1]
REWARD
- Player's Address.
- One medium-high grade aquamarine.
—
...seems like that was the system wanted you to do too.
Two of a pair? So, earrings would work best
Standing and flicking the lights on, you changed clothes quickly before grabbing the tools from your inventor, and spreading them out in front of you on the floor, getting to work making a slight less wonky pair of amethyst earrings.
—
LEVEL UP!
—
You finished when it was dark outside, smiling slightly at the level up and also at your creation this time around. They looked okay, which was... A very low bar, BUT, still an improvement!
—
! NOTIFICATION
HIDDEN QUEST
GOALS
- Craft two accessories of a pair [1/1]
REWARD
- Player's Address.
- One medium-high grade aquamarine.
Accept Reward?
yes/no
—
You nodded, an aquamarine stone dropping into your hand just as a small paper with a scribbled on address appeared. You pocketed it both before opening the stat menu. You quickly honed in on the small description accompanying your intelligence stat when you did so, 'ouhh'ing appreciatively.
—
*This stat allows for better ideas, faster work and better state of flow.
—
You had 5 points and five stats, so you deposited one in each before deciding rest was appropriate at this hour.
Laying down, you couldn't help but feel that today had been somewhat terrifying.
It was so new, so cool and yet so scary.
You were thankful for one thing, and that was that you had atleast had time to process.