Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue: The Maladjusted
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I often thought about it.
If I had been born in the Three Kingdoms era.
I would have become a figure like Guan Yu.
I would have become someone like Zhang Fei, He Jin, Zhao Zilong, or Lu Bu, shaking the world with my fame.
But unfortunately.
I was born into peaceful modern society.
"That bastard! That bastard hit our son! Look at his face, all ruined! We need to throw a punk like that in jail and make him eat beans for the rest of his life!"
In elementary school, I beat up middle schoolers. In middle school, I took on high schoolers, and by high school, I dominated an entire region, earning the infamous title of [Delinquent Hunter].
Shoulder-shrugging thugs, even organized gangsters backed by major corporations, couldn't act up in front of me.
Especially after I single-handedly wiped out forty gangsters who had set a trap for me in my second year of high school, even the usual condescending elders didn't dare open their mouths around me.
In the end, as I walked out of the police station cleared of all charges, Samin hyung, a riot policeman I knew, called me over.
"Hey! General!"
"Ah, don't call me that."
"Then what should I call a general if not General? Misfit?"
Tsk tsk.
My fist trembled at the tongue-clicking, but I held back. Even I wasn't dumb enough to pick a fight with a riot cop. Riot police, who needed certification by raising their combat abilities to expert level, were walking war machines capable of summoning gigas. No matter how well I fought, I couldn't take one bare-handed.
"Why do you live such a tiring life? This could have just blown over... You're getting out now because you're a minor, but that won't last forever."
"So I should just bow down and grovel?"
"That's not what I mean, man! Sigh... Kid. There's nothing to gain from acting like this."
"Why not? I gain plenty."
I knew he was worried about me, but I grumbled anyway. Because right outside the police station...
"Hyung! We were worried!"
"See? I told you it was no charges! Self-defense!"
"Jaeyeon oppa~! Congrats on getting out!"
"You ditz, this isn't getting out."
My friends waiting in the police station parking lot cheered and welcomed me.
I grinned.
"I've got friends, don't I?"
"...We'll see."
Samin hyung gave a bitter smile, but I didn't grasp its meaning.
While in high school.
"Ah, sorry! I've got to go to cram school."
After graduation.
"Too bad. We won't see each other much now."
"Well, Jaeyeon wasn't the studying type anyway."
"But Jaeyeon will do great at anything he tries!"
In college.
"Ah, what the hell. That guy's a thug? Just call the cops instead of fighting there, you idiot?"
"Unfortunately, with these scores, police academy's out."
And then.
"Transfer to the military academy? Sorry, but we don't take rebels like you."
"It was all cleared. No charges."
Tsk tsk. You think no charges means no record at all?
And then.
"Your qi sense is too low. At this level, you won't pass beginner in any ability. Didn't you know since you were young? No studying, no training?"
"Ah, sorry. It's just, with these scores."
"Who the hell are you frowning at? You little punk?"
Only after becoming an adult and entering society.
"I'm sorry."
"It'll be tough."
-Thank you for applying to our company. We've seriously considered working with Han Jaeyeon, but regrettably, we won't be able to proceed this time.
And then.
Only then.
Did I understand what Samin hyung had said.
I wasn't a hero admired and loved by all. Far from a powerhouse that made gangsters bow their heads. I wasn't even a great son or a proud friend.
Just a misfit.
With excessive self-esteem, I couldn't become a cog in society's machine. I couldn't bow my head anywhere, and whenever I met someone crossing the line, I swung my fist without hesitation—a total punk.
In middle school, in high school, I was the legendary [Delinquent Hunter].
But now.
Fresh out of college, I was nothing but a worthless bum who couldn't even hold down a part-time job.
"Ah, that psycho's finally getting discharged."
"That's the guy, right? The one who went after the captain? Lucky our captain's a nice guy or he'd be dead."
"That bastard instructor."
"Glad he's gone. Imagine the chaos if he had any real abilities."
"What era is this? Always resorting to fists? You some kinda martial artist?"
Now, I get it.
The me in middle and high school was just a fist-swinging punk.
The me in college was a moron barely scraping into a third-rate school.
The me in the military was a rebellious problem soldier.
"...Samin hyung was right."
Misfit.
Some say I'm extraordinary, and they're partly right... but my talents and temperament just didn't fit modern society.
In the end, all that's left is regret.
"If I'd been born in the Three Kingdoms era..."
I would have become a figure like Guan Yu.
I would have become someone like Zhang Fei, He Jin, Zhao Zilong, or Lu Bu, shaking the world with my fame.
"Time for bed!"
I lay down in the sleep capsule.
Tomorrow was discharge day, but I felt no joy. I knew that stepping into society with my discharge papers would just confirm I was a useless excess human.
And as I fell asleep like that.
I stood in another world.
"Commoner hunt!"
"Wahahahaha!"
"Kid heads are 1 point! Girl heads 2 points! Man heads 3 points!"
For a moment.
Don't laugh at me for thinking I'd entered Romance of the Three Kingdoms. With discharge looming, I'd been thinking about it daily, so it just happened unconsciously.
Of course, it didn't take long to realize otherwise. Everyone I saw was white.
"P-please, sir! I-I'll do anything you ask, just spare...!"
Slash!
A man in ornate armor slices off the pleading woman's head.
"Ah..."
I stared blankly. The head rolls on the ground. Blood sprays with tremendous force. The whole scene etches into my retina like slow motion.
'Commoner hunt... that's what they said.'
It wasn't just commoners and nobles.
Commoner hunt.
Those four words alone told me what this world was like. How barbaric and brutal it was right now.
"Haha! Die!"
"You lot! Don't just stand there like idiots—run!"
Young men and women in splendid armor chase and slaughter the screaming villagers.
Severed limbs flying, heads rolling on the ground, spilling guts and blood...
If it were anyone else, they'd panic. Waste time denying reality.
But instead of panicking.
I picked up a stone from under a nearby pillar.
"...Good."
Heavy for its size. A foundation stone, as they call it.
I wrapped it in the ragged clothes I was somehow now wearing.
"Haha! A sturdy man! 3 points! Oh! Black hair?"
Then a blond Westerner on a massive horse charges at me.
Thump! Thump!
Thump thump!
Boom boom!
My heart races wildly. I feel the blood surging through my veins like arrows.
Holding the cloth-wrapped stone, I face the [enemy] charging to kill me.
High vantage since he's on horseback.
Center of gravity on his right foot in the stirrup.
Sword weighs 1-2 kilos, horse speed about 40 kph. Body trained, but no qi in the blade.
"Good."
I take in the whole situation at a glance. As he approaches and swings, I duck low.
"Wha—die!"
The armored man leans further to slash me. The instant his center of gravity fully shifts!
I raise the cloth-wrapped stone.
Crunch!
"Huh?"
The heavy impact lodges his swung sword deep in the stone. The ornate-armored man startles and tries to pull back, but when I drop the stone, the weight makes him wobble.
I reach out and yank his arm.
"Wha-what?"
His balance tips, posture collapses completely. If he'd dropped the sword, maybe, but he doesn't, and he tumbles off helplessly.
Thud!
He tries a roll, and it's pretty skilled, but it fails.
Because I shook his arm to disrupt it.
"Ah, no..."
His gaping mouth hits the ground, his occiput slamming into his own back.
Crack!
Instant death, no need to check.
"Neigh!"
The startled horse halts in place, but I just stare blankly at the fallen armored man.
"...He's dead."
I killed someone on purpose.
A literal catastrophe. Unforgivable in modern society. A major crime warranting years, maybe life, in prison.
But.
Thump! Thump! Thump. Thump...
Feeling my raging heart calm, I pull the sword from the stone. Luckily, just a bit nicked, still fine.
"Ugh! P-please, spare... Gah!"
"Ah! I cut that arm off, you stealing my kill?"
"Killing him gets you the points, jerk! 3 points!"
The serene mountain village has become a hell on earth.
Over a hundred villagers, just eight armored men and women, rampaging like lions among sheep.
"Haha."
I'd wished to be born in the Three Kingdoms era.
If so, I would have become a figure like Guan Yu. Like Lu Bu.
A legendary warrior shaking the world with fame.
"...Good."
Sword in hand, I head to the village outskirts.
Time to prove the delusion I'd harbored my whole life.