Surviving a Shounen Manga

Serialization Starts (1)

Lee Hee-ro (이희로 / 李熙路).

熙 for shining prosperity, 路 for the path.

A name given by my grandfather, hoping for me to pave a shining path for my country and my family.

My grandfather always wanted me to walk the path of an engineer, but contrary to his expectations, from an early age, I fell in love with the world of mangas.

It started when I was in elementary school and accidentally entered a small manga rental shop in the neighbourhood.

After reading all the manga in the rental store for two months, I ran an expedition to the neighbourhood next door, and devoted a small amount of pocket money to reading manga.

I couldn't stop even though I was annoyed just by looking at the manga strips. Because the world of heroes and mysteries I dreamed of existed right there.

A child who spent the day sitting in a corner of a dusty room full of manga instead of a playground or a PC room.

That was me.

And for me, ‘Adventure King' was like a new world.

The turbulent biography of a boy who adventures with his colleagues in search of the end of the world. A panorama of growth, hope, courage, and joy emanated from it. The ever-expanding worldview, the charming characters, the rushing development, and the catharsis that fills every episode.

Every time I turned the page, that uncontrollable tumult in my heart…

I even had the same dream every night –

When I woke up dazzled by the bright sunlight, a boy was sitting by the window of the room.

A boy with unusually twinkling eyes, with brown tufted hair and a red scarf around his neck.

This is what he said to me when I just woke up.

“You sleepy bastard! Are you awake now? Are you ready to leave?”

Every time I said I was ready, I woke up from the dream, so it was unimaginably sad. Even though I was young, I really thought I could leave right away.

As an adult, I hadn't changed much. I didn't dream any more, but I still occasionally found his traces in my room's window.

Throughout the past 10 years, there has always been an adventure with him on one side of my mind.

Yes, that's how it was.

·········.

But that wasn't this.

It really wasn't like this…

‘Does this make sense?'

Neither a dream nor a hallucination.

I looked again at the hologram floating above my head.

It was clearly pointing to my present.

[Villain 3]

I knew intuitively.

Something that I had longed for when I was a kid, happened.

I suddenly entered the world of ‘Adventure King'.

However, ‘Villain 3' is an extra, not the main character's colleague.

In order to grasp the current situation more clearly, I decided to look back from the moment I first opened my eyes.

When I woke up, I was standing alone in an old wooden building that looked like a hut. Judging by the toilet and mirror, it seemed to be an outhouse.

The last memory that came to mind was the message of the ‘Adventure King' author.

– Would you like to try it?

‘I hope that's the reason….'

It was absurd, but that was the only reason I could guess.

The author put me into his own manga.

“…”

I decided to skip this question for now. It was a matter that could not be judged or confirmed at the moment anyway.

I then looked at my body.

A gigantic size that fills a not-so-small space.

I didn't think of this place as a manga world simply because of the memory of the last message.

“What the hell is this…”

It wasn't my original body. The reflection in the mirror was the most gigantic person I had ever seen.

It was surprising that I didn't scream immediately, to be honest. Maybe it was the lack of realism?

This new body was absurdly deformed.

An upper body as thick as an elephant and a lower body as thin as an ant. Even if that's a little bit of an exaggeration, the ratio of the upper body to the lower body was almost 7:3.

My body was so bizarre and ‘manga-like' that I couldn't believe it was real.

Besides,

‘Why the hell is my face like this?'

Eyes bulging like a catfish, jaws protruding as if they were touching your chest, and even a skull angled like a rectangle.

Do you call this the uncanny valley? Seeing this, it was like seeing a demonstration why the animated movie, which was close to live-action, had failed rather disastrously at the box office.

<img src="https://ashenclouds.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/shounen-manga-survival-old-cover.png">

<figcaption>‘Villain 3'</figcaption></figure>

I quickly looked away from the mirror. Just looking at that face made me dizzy. It seemed like it would take quite some time to get used to it.

The next thing that came to mind was the hologram.

I stared at ‘Villain 3' floating above my head.

Soon after, the hologram window lengthened and details came to mind.

I checked the sentence at the top first.

[Mission: Occupy the space, secure your part, and survive until the end.]

That was probably the goal given to me here.

‘Securing your part and surviving until the end.'

It was a bit of an odd turn of phrase.

I then looked down.

[State]

• Name: Villain 3
• Characteristics: A little strong
• Awareness: 0
• Writer's favourability: 0
• Reappearance probability: 0%

This seemed to be my current state.

No proper name, zero recognition, an extra with little to no distinguishing features.

However, the thing that bothered me the most was the one at the bottom.

• Reappearance probability: 0%

Didn't the writer say that the characters' attributes are basically predetermined? I was able to intuitively realize that this point was related to the existence value of the character, in other words, ‘my life'.

What if he doesn't reappear in future chapters? A character's life ends there.

Named characters are also easy to forget if they don't appear often.

In other words, this character currently called ‘Villain 3'… No, it meant that my life was at stake.

"Hmm…"

Fortunately, I was in the bathroom right now.

If I had been with someone else, I wouldn't have been able to diagnose the situation so leisurely.

I didn't know how much time was given to me, but I had to figure it out fast.

“But if that’s the case, what should I do…….”

That was then –

Boom –

Suddenly, I felt as if the world went quiet.

It felt like the flow of time had stopped, except for me.

In an instant, a voice leaked out of the hologram above my head.

[Adventure King serialization has begun]

[Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the Adventure]

[Belongs to the realm of the ongoing chapter]

[Villain 3 is the subject of character evaluation in this chapter]

‘Starting serialization?'

But I didn't even have time to panic, let alone find out what was going on. Suddenly, loud voices began to be heard through the bathroom door.

“No, how long is he going to spend there!”

“Come out quickly!”

“You must hurry!”

Unfortunately, It was a language I didn't know, but I could somehow understand it.

"Hurry!"

“We might miss that kid!”

However, there was no time to be surprised by this. Because their urging was directed towards me.

The personnel beyond the door didn't stop at screaming, they even knocked on the door.

Bang!

If I didn't come out right away, it looked like it was going to come crashing down.

I couldn't even think of taking my time.

“I’m getting out!”

No matter how much you grumble here, you won't get an answer. Whatever it is, you just have to face it.

And as soon as I went out,

“Hooo!”

For a moment, I panicked and inhaled a breath.

There were seven or eight other humans who looked like me. All of them were bizarre-looking idiots.

One of them, with a huge iron rod, tapped me and said:

“What, are you constipated?”

Everyone giggled and laughed at his words. It was like looking at typical stupid characters.

Something didn't feel right.

“Let’s go! Or we will be late.”

But that's something that can't be undone.

I carefully followed them as they moved forward excitedly.

The one who seemed to be the leader of the group stopped at the entrance of the village.

There were two signposts, one pointing to our village and the other to the trail leading to the mountain.

I looked closely at the signposts.

As with words, it was strangely readable even if written in unknown characters.

What was written on the signpost on the mountain side was [Pinecone Village].

And the name of this town we were in was…

“Initialis!”

I cried out in amazement.

“What, why all of a sudden?”

“Are you sure you know the name of our village now? He's my little brother, but he's really stupid, isn't he?"

I focused on the thoughts that came to my mind, ignoring those who giggled at me.

Initialis, a name I knew all too well.

Starter town. The starting point of the story, where the protagonist of ‘Adventure King' was born and raised.

In an instant, a scene was naturally drawn in my mind.

‘Is it… Leo?'

Looking back, the scene unfolding right in front of me was also somehow familiar.

A small and quiet town where the twilight has fallen. Smoke rises from every chimney, and the setting sun slowly sets among the colourful buildings.

It was then that everything fell into place. The identity of this group, including myself, and what will happen in the future.

Just then, someone opened his mouth.

“Is he going to come soon?”

"What's the matter? Are you nervous?”

"I am nervous… But it's true that that little guy isn't that formidable."

Then the boss with the iron rod tapped my shoulder and said:

“Hey, why are you worrying? With this guy here, there's nothing to worry about.”

“Huh, that’s right.”

“He is a man known for being vicious!”

“It’s my little brother, but sometimes he scares even me, haha.”

Taking in the loud laughter from the idiots around me, my impressions grew more and more crumpled. Through their conversation, my ‘identity' and ‘role' became clearer.

‘Villain 3', the boss's younger brother.

In the first episode of Adventure King, I was the idiot who believed only in his size and was the first to fall under the hero's excited punches.

The beginning of Adventure King is no different from that of other shounen manga. The story begins with the protagonist boy leaving the village. This group, including me, are the rogues of this town who have suffered a lot from him.

The current situation was that the rogues were trying to block the main character's way from leaving and trying to get rid of him.

“That cheeky little boy! This time, let's settle things!"

“Where are you leaving? Let's break your legs first!”

These are the familiar phrases.

As their confident dialogue continued, I became more and more anxious. This was just a retracement to the exciting action that will follow.

But nevertheless, I didn't want these fools to shut up. It was because I knew very well when their words would be cut off.

But just in time,

“Heh, by the way, it’s time for him to come ……”

"Huh?"

“Who do you think is coming up there?”

Their conversation was interrupted.

Just then, a cool breeze from somewhere brushed my skin.

As if foretelling the end, the falling sunset shone.

And where the shadow of that light was cast. The guy who had been my best friend for the past 10 years was standing there.

A boy with brown tufted hair that had never been groomed and a dark red scarf around his neck.

The protagonist of this manga, who will blow me over the valley with a single punch a little later, and thereby announce the start of an exciting adventure.

It was the appearance of ‘Leo'.

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.