Free Web NovelChoi Jeonggil slipped down to the floor, trembling, and looked up at the bound Seo Jehyun. His voice shook as he stammered,
“W-how do you know my name...?”
For a moment, something like contempt flickered in Seo Jehyun’s eyes, but it vanished quickly.
‘Wh-what was that? Just my imagination?’
With the corners of his lips softening into a faint smile, Seo Jehyun spoke.
“I already know you.”
“M-me?”
“Yeah. Name, Choi Jeonggil. Age, twenty-four. Rank, F. Skill set... stealth type, right?”
The rapid-fire details about his life made Jeonggil’s pupils widen. Sure, the name could’ve been overheard somewhere, but the rest—rank, age, skill—those weren’t things Seo Jehyun could know unless he’d been told directly. That meant someone must have given him the information? The chill running down his spine only made him tense up harder.
Seo Jehyun didn’t even give him time to doubt. He kept spilling words.
“You’ve been having a rough time lately, haven’t you?”
“M-me?”
“Don’t you have worries? Especially about Infinite Guild.”
“Worries...?”
“Complaints. You’ve got some, right? Think about it carefully.”
Jeonggil fumbled with the thought, trying to decide if he really had complaints about Infinite Guild. Of course... he did. What worker doesn’t have complaints about their workplace? And if that workplace was a den of thugs where he was the youngest errand boy, then the complaints only piled up.
“Y-yeah! I do!”
“Right?”
“The hyungs ignore me every damn day... they dump all the work on me just because I’m the youngest. Just now, they told me to wait and keep watch on you, Jehyun-nim, but then they all just slipped out! If Seokgyung-hyung finds out, I’m the one who gets beaten! And every time it’s the dangerous jobs or the crap jobs, they make me do them! And even then, they don’t even let me choose what to eat! Today I didn’t want gukbap, damn it!”
“......”
Seo Jehyun closed his eyes tight, but Jeonggil, too caught up in venting, didn’t notice.
“...Anyway, yeah.”
“But how... how did you know all that?”
The moment he asked, Jeonggil was once again swallowed by that strange sensation. This man hadn’t been told anything, and yet he kept hitting the mark.
‘Don’t tell me... a shaman?’
His thoughts wandered in strange directions, but Seo Jehyun’s voice came again, gentle.
“Jeonggil. Don’t you think it’s strange too?”
“Wh-what is?”
“You don’t belong in some illegal guild like this.”
“......!”
‘H-how does he know that?’
That was exactly the thought Jeonggil had buried deep inside. He’d only joined Infinite Guild by following someone he knew. As an F-rank Awakened, his options were limited. Legal guilds paid too little for too much work, so he hadn’t wanted that.
Life’s about one big shot, right? Even if the work was a little shady, he’d thought it was worth it if it meant easy money. But after actually joining, the work was still grueling, and he was constantly belittled by the older members. His self-esteem had dropped to the floor. In his heart, he never believed he was the kind of person meant to live like this.
Seo Jehyun’s words... were right.
“You’re right... I don’t belong here.”
“......”
“Why aren’t you saying anything...?”
“No, I just... agree too much. Yeah. Sounds like everything I said fits, doesn’t it?”
“Y-yes.”
Seo Jehyun tilted his head back uncomfortably, blinked once, then smiled again.
“Alright, so now, doesn’t it sound a little more believable when I say I’m going to tell you the truth?”
“...Yes.”
What kind of truth would it be? Like those fortune readings the older guys had dragged him to once? Swallowing nervously, Jeonggil waited. Seo Jehyun paused for effect, then spoke.
“Jeonggil.”
“Yes.”
“I... received a revelation from God, and I saw this world once already.”
“...What?”
Jeonggil stared blankly at him.
‘A... revelation from God?’
Do people with spiritual gifts see revelations too? Or... could he be some kind of cult leader? He didn’t seem like one...
But the way Seo Jehyun rattled off his personal info, the way he pierced his innermost thoughts—if it were anyone else, Jeonggil wouldn’t have believed it. Yet somehow, he felt a strange trust welling up. As if something was whispering that Seo Jehyun’s words were true, that he had to believe them.
‘Huh...?’
As Jeonggil tilted his head at the bizarre sensation, Seo Jehyun chuckled softly and continued.
“Yeah. It’s hard to believe right away, I get that. But what matters is this.”
“What is it...?”
What could possibly matter in this nonsense about divine revelations? Even confused, Jeonggil leaned closer, eager for the next words.
Seo Jehyun smiled faintly, like he really was about to reveal the “truth.”
“You are the protagonist of this world, Jeonggil.”
‘What?’
As he said it, Seo Jehyun lifted his gaze toward the air as though receiving holy inspiration.
And though Jeonggil couldn’t ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) see it, bright letters shimmered in that space.
<Agitation (A) has been activated.>
***
‘Thank god this dumbass is a total idiot!’
I smiled wide, genuinely delighted. Of course, all the personal details I “knew” about Jeonggil came straight from the Status Window.
Name: Choi Jeonggil
Age: 24
Rank: F
Titles: –
Main Skills: Trickery (F), Conceal Presence (F)
Growth Limit: F
Once again, the Status Window proved itself nearly broken. And luckily, the one left alone with me was an F-rank. Me, F-rank. This dumbass, F-rank.
Of course, the reason he believed me wasn’t just because he was pure, 100% stupid. Aside from my censored EX skill, Mental Strength, and Mimic, I had another ability.
I stared at the glowing words in the window.
<Agitation (A) has been activated.>
<Penalty incurred due to rank difference with caster.>
‘Agitation (A).’
My first time using it, I worried it might not work, but it turned out to be even easier than Mimic. All I had to do was imagine stirring someone up while pouring mana into it.
Of course there was a penalty. My other skill, Mental Strength, was technically S-rank, but compared to Im Haekyung’s mental skill, it was laughable. Im Haekyung was an S-rank hunter. I was an F-rank. Naturally, there was a gap.
Which meant using an A-rank skill with an F-rank body wasn’t going to bring out its full potential. But against Infinite Guild members—mostly unawakened, F, or maybe E-rank—it was more than enough.
The Agitation skill. The high rank was unusual, but the skill itself was fairly common.
It shook people’s minds, nudging them into action. But what most overlooked was its secondary effect—it made the target believe the caster’s words.
If you wanted people to search for an ocean in the middle of a desert, you had to first make them believe the ocean was there.
A subtle difference, but trust and agitation were only a hair apart when you looked from a distance.
In fact, someone in the original story had used this exact approach in reverse. freewёbnoνel.com
‘Joo Seowon.’
One of Joo Seowon’s skills, Blind Spot of Trust (A), wasn’t only for nullifying contracts—it also built trust. Though his skill required more precision, since it exploited a “blind spot.”
Either way, Joo Seowon used trust to agitate people. I just flipped it around and used agitation to build trust. I hadn’t expected it to work this well, though.
<Warning.
Do not damage ca■sality.>
The moment the word “protagonist” left my mouth, the Status Window popped its usual warning, worried I’d slip into mentioning the “original story.” Even without doing that, mixing in words like “truth” and “protagonist” triggered the penalty, a sharp pain stabbing through my skull.
‘Ignore it.’
Grinding down the pain, I looked warmly at Jeonggil and kept talking.
“There has to be a reason the world changed, right? Yeah... I received God’s revelation, and I know the truth.”
“What are you even... huh?”
“One day, suddenly, hunters, Gates, ranks. Isn’t it all too strange? But what if all of this was actually God’s will... and God appointed a protagonist to overcome the ordeal?”
“Uh...?”
He must think I’m insane. My vision was already filling with the error messages—warnings not to damage causality.
<Warning.
Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
<Do not damage ca■sality.>
“Urgh...”
It felt like my skull and guts were being ripped apart at the same time. Compared to this, the pain in my wrist from earlier was nothing.
‘This strong of a penalty... just for spouting this kind of bullshit?’
