A certain memory surged into Baek Yu-Seol’s mind like a tidal wave.
‘Mom, I will definitely become a great mage when I grow up!’
Baek Yu-Seol could tell right away.
This wasn’t his memory. It belonged to another Baek Yu-Seol.
In other words, the character in Aether World, Baek Yu-Seol, shared the same name as his real self.
‘That’s right. You can do it.’
In a world where magic determined everything, those who couldn’t use it were condemned to live as the lowest class.
Character Baek Yu-Seol’s family belonged to that unfortunate category.
Born to a mother and father who couldn’t wield magic, Baek Yu-Seol grew up in crushing poverty, but that didn’t stop him from dreaming of one day becoming a mage.
His parents, despite their circumstances, scraped together enough money to buy him an expensive second-hand magic book. From then on, Baek Yu-Seol dedicated himself to studying, often until his eyes bled.
But fate had other plans.
‘D-Doctor… Did you say my son has Mana Leakage Disorder?’
He was cursed with a rare and fatal flaw: Mana Leakage Disorder. It made him incapable of accumulating mana in his body, a condition that was a death sentence for any aspiring mage.
To have such an exceedingly rare affliction, one that only appeared once every hundred years, felt like a cruel joke. But Baek Yu-Seol didn’t let it crush his dream of becoming a mage.
Even with his cursed body, he discovered he could use one magic skill: Flash.
From that moment on, he began honing that skill.
“Haah!”
As Baek Yu-Seol gulped down cold air and forced himself to stand, his mind cleared slightly.
“Ugh. Ah…!”
A searing pain surged through his senses, forcing him to clutch his head. The influx of memories was as alien as it was oddly familiar.
‘This is insane…’
In the real world, his name was also Baek Yu-Seol.
The name of the character he used in the game Aether World was also called Baek Yu-Seol.
However, they were not the same.
The real him and the Baek Yu-Seol in the game were different.
‘That’s not it… Are they both me?’
‘What the hell is happening…?’
When Baek Yu-Seol opened his eyes and looked around, he realized that the ground beneath him was falling apart.
Crack!
A wooden board, weathered by the harsh winter wind, swayed violently before breaking apart and crashing to the ground. The sound was both disturbing and final.
Shivering in the freezing cold, Baek Yu-Seol spotted a broken mirror lying neglected in a corner. Almost instinctively, he picked it up to check his reflection.
What he saw left him questioning everything.
‘Have I… gotten younger?’
He was 29 years old.
Though he was often told he looked young for his age, the face staring back at him was that of a teenager. It looked like he had reverted to his middle or high school years.
It was difficult to understand the situation properly.
Just as he was grappling with his confusion, a message suddenly appeared in the air, blocking his view.
[Episode 1]
[Escape from the Pursuers!]
“…?”
Rather than being shocked at the message hovering in mid-air, he was more surprised to see such a familiar phrase.
‘Wasn’t that the Prologue Quest of the character Baek Yu-Seol?’
In Aether World, players could immerse themselves in the stories of countless characters, most of whom began their journey with an entrance ceremony at Stella Academy.
But Baek Yu-Seol’s story was different. His prologue began with him fleeing from assailants.
‘No way.’
He already knew why. That knowledge spurred him to his feet.
He looked down at his clothes: a worn-out commoner’s outfit with a distinctly fantasy-like appearance. On his belt hung a dagger for self-defense and a water bottle. His waist pocket contained biscuits, a few coins, and a Certificate of Admission to Stella Academy.
“Is this for real?”
It was precisely Baek Yu-Seol’s starting item list.
He pinched and patted himself repeatedly, but the freezing cold and the unyielding reality around him confirmed this was no dream.
In the first place, the chilling cold he felt assured him that this was a reality.
‘Why… why now, of all times?’
Most of the other characters in Aether World came from aristocratic families and were equipped with generous starting items.
However, the character Baek Yu-Seol came from a poor commoner family, so he started with nothing.
For a veteran gamer, such a handicap could be considered a fun challenge, but in reality, it was nothing short of a burden.
‘I need to stay calm.’
Baek Yu-Seol forced himself to think through the moments leading up to his arrival here.
‘True Ending.’
He was sure it said something like that.
But this game was supposed to have no True Ending, only ‘Multi Endings’, right?
‘Could it be that for over ten years, no other players have seen the end of the game?’
It made sense to think that there’s no True Ending if no one has reached it yet.
‘Damn it.’
He shelved the matter of the True Ending for now and focused on the immediate problem.
‘Snowy mountains in a blizzard, a crumbling hut, a dagger, and a certificate of admission. As far as I can remember, as soon as I woke up, the pursuers came into the hut…’
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the sound of distant footsteps reached his ears.
“You bastard, how far will you run?!”
“There’s a hut over there!”
“Go and search!”
‘I’m screwed.’
Baek Yu-Seol crouched down and hid under a broken board, hoping to avoid detection. But it was only a matter of time before they found him.
Peering through a gap in the board, he assessed the pursuers’ weapons and armor.
They wore gear made of steel or some unknown material, and their weapons were etched with glowing magic runes.
In this world, such equipment was used by street mercenaries, since they were relatively weak in combat power.
However, Baek Yu-Seol’s only combat experience came from childhood street fights as a wild elementary school kid. Whether their weapons were magical or not, his chances of survival were grim.
‘What should I do? How should I…?’
[You can use the skill, Flash.]
‘Oh?’
Flash.
The moment he recalled those familiar words, a message hovered before his eyes.
[Flash]
[Class: 0]
[Maximum Range: 9m]
[Maximum Charge: 1]
[Cooldown: 3 seconds]
Flash. The one and only magic granted to him. It was the skill Baek Yu-Seol had spent years perfecting.
‘But in the game, I used my mouse and keyboard to use this skill…!’
There wasn’t time to dwell on his doubts. The footsteps were getting louder and closer.
Baek Yu-Seol clenched his teeth, emerged from his hiding spot, flung open the door of the hut, and bolted outside.
“There he is!”
“Catch him and kill him!”
The worst downside of Flash was that if he failed to control the range, it could backfire and kill him.
However, it was different when Baek Yu-Seol used it.
‘Calm down.’
He already used it countless times before.
His instincts understand the timing better than his mind ever could.
[Flash]
In an instant, Baek Yu-Seol’s body teleported forward. A tree that had seemed far away just moments ago now loomed right in front of him.
“Wait. What?!”
“Flash? Is he a mage?!”
Some of the pursuers hesitated in shock, but the more experienced ones quickly regained their composure, raising their weapons.
They were ready to strike during the two-second window of stiffness that typically followed the use of Flash.
However, such penalties didn’t apply to him.
Because he was Baek Yu-Seol, the Flash Mage.
Thud!
Rolling forward to avoid incoming attacks, he narrowly evaded a flurry of magic spells and weapon strikes that rained down where he had just been.
Had they all hit their intended target, nothing would have been left of him.
Without pausing, he glanced behind him and broke into another sprint, his pursuers scrambling in confusion.
“What the hell is with this guy? How is he moving like that?”
“I don’t know! Get him right now!”
Their confusion didn’t last long; they quickly resumed their chase, closing the distance again.
The terrain was rough, littered with rocks, trees, and even floating stones. They knew that a single misstep with Flash could spell instant death for him.
‘The pursuers are faster than me because of their magic boots. If I want to escape, I have to use Flash perfectly.’
The reason he is in this area right now is that it serves as the tutorial stage for the character Baek Yu-Seol.
Players who hadn’t properly mastered the control of Flash would never be able to move on to the next episode and would continue to get killed.
A staggering 99% of players who chose Baek Yu-Seol failed at this stage. Even the 1% who somehow cleared it eventually gave up due to the overwhelming difficulty of Flash’s range control and activation limits.
‘Carefully. I have to be more careful.’
[Flash]
Swish!
As if Baek Yu-Seol’s body was attracted by a magnet, it naturally traversed the rough terrain and made its way through the endless mountain road.
Though his speed was not as fast as he expected it to be.
The difference between controlling a character with a mouse and physically moving himself was like night and day.
Worse, during Flash’s cooldown periods, he had to run manually. Sprinting through the slippery, snow-covered mountain trails for over 30 minutes had left him gasping for air.
“Haah, haa! Why is that guy so fast?!”
“Using Flash in this terrain? He’s crazy.”
“Damn it! What are the mages doing?!”
“They’re already too exhausted!”
“At least shoot some arrows!”
Second Checkpoint: Dodge flying arrows and magic attacks using flash.
‘But in the game, I was able to avoid objects coming from behind because I could see them all on the monitor…?’
An arrow enchanted with wind magic curved unnaturally, homing in on Baek Yu-Seol’s path. To evade it, he needed to activate Flash with impeccable timing. A single misstep would mean certain death.
Suddenly, another message hovered in the air.
[The skill Mana Leakage Delay is being applied.]
[The derived skills of Mana Leakage Delay—Sixth Sense and Cognitive Acceleration—are applied.]
The world around him became much clearer.
The familiar feeling came again.
He vaguely felt every object flying from behind.
As if there were antennae on his back.
In this world, everything was imbued with magic.
Every object moved by magic left behind traces of mana that his cursed condition—Mana Leakage Disorder—allowed him to perceive. His body leaked mana constantly, but in return, he could detect even the smallest magical movements.
In practical terms, while Baek Yu-Seol couldn’t store or use mana like other mages, he could feel every magic-driven action around him.
He sensed an arrow aiming for his waist, a spear hurtling toward his back in a calculated trajectory, and a wide-area flame spell set to erupt within a three-meter radius.
Baek Yu-Seol felt like he could dodge everything, and in less than 0.3 seconds, he used Flash with impeccable timing to avoid the pincer attacks.
Thud! Crash!
A rain of arrows fell on the spot he passed.
Baek Yu-Seol’s heart was pounding. If he had delayed even for a moment, he would have died.
‘Seven pursuers, two of whom have already fallen behind.’
It wasn’t surprising; the pursuers wore heavy armor and had to run on treacherous mountain roads, while Baek Yu-Seol used Flash to navigate.
Although he is unscathed, he is unfortunately exhausted.
If he at least had crampons, the journey might have been easier. But running through freezing cold in thin clothing and scaling icy cliffs was brutal. The hardest part, however, was repeatedly using Flash.
One mistake meant instant death. That constant pressure kept him hyper-focused, but dizziness from fatigue was creeping in.
“He’s right in front of us!”
“He’s worn out!”
Baek Yu-Seol’s distance from the pursuers was about a hundred meters.
‘But there’s still the next checkpoint…’
Cliff.
A sharp, snow-capped cliff awaited at the end of the mountain road where he was running.
Between the cliffs, there were floating stones dancing around at intervals of about five to six meters, and he could only cross to the other side if he perfectly executed the range control of Flash.
If Baek Yu-Seol could cross this cliff, he would encounter other traveling mages and might be rescued, and the tutorial would also come to an end.
However, to cross the cliff, it was necessary to cancel Flash in 0.1 seconds.
If he failed even once, he would die instantly.
Most players who cleared this segment only succeeded after hundreds – sometimes thousands – of attempts, and even then, it was often due to sheer luck. This difficulty wasn’t designed for humans.
The number of floating stones exceeded 20, and if one failed in the process, they would die.
But… To be honest…
‘It won’t be too difficult.’
Even while climbing the mountain, he had already gotten the hang of distance control. Some terrains were easily passed by activating Flash for a short duration.
The problem, however, was the pursuers. They were much closer than he had anticipated.
The cliff ahead was narrow yet long. In such a precarious situation, how could he use Flash – with its three-second cooldown – to cross safely to the other side?
‘It’s impossible. I’m sure I’ll die helplessly on a floating stone under a rain of arrows and magic attacks.’
The gap between him and the pursuers was rapidly shrinking.
There was not much time to think.
The most efficient way to survive…
Probably.
Seemed to be only one.
‘… I have to kill the pursuers.’
Surprisingly, even the thought of killing people did not feel uncomfortable at all. Maybe because they were enemies of his parents in the plot? No, that wasn’t it.
Baek Yu-Seol just thought he could do it.
He thought it would be safer.
If this world were still a game, attacking the pursuers would have been impossible due to the system’s constraints. But here, in reality, no criminal mindlessly obeyed the game’s rules.
‘Hooh…’
‘I think it’s crazy. Why did I think this way when I’ve never really fought in my life, let alone kill?’
‘Am I this cold-hearted or just brave in the face of death?’
‘… I don’t know.’
However, instead of worrying, Baek Yu-Seol gently touched the dagger that was tied to his belt.
“Huff! Huff! A cliff!”
“Damn! Where did he go?”
The pursuers had chased him to the brink of the cliff.
The question of whether he could do it was thrown at the back of his mind. He hadn’t quite figured out his situation yet, but one thing was clear.
‘If I don’t do it now, I will die.’
The only experience he had wielding a knife was cutting scallions while cooking ramen…
But the method was simple.
Approach so fast that the enemy can not resist, and stab it at the vital point.
Hiding behind the rock, Baek Yu-Seol quickly rolled over and revealed himself ever so slightly, figuring out their location.
“The bastard is there! Quickly catch and kill…!”
Target distance, 8.70 meters.
Baek Yu-Seol marked the archer who was shouting while pointing the bow towards him.
[Flash]
“… Huh?”
Puuk!
Baek Yu-Seol plunged the dagger in
