Chapter 8
What It Means to Be a Grade 4 Extra (1)
“…W-what the hell….”
The instant the massive man’s body was pierced, Youngwoo staggered back two or three steps with a dazed expression.
So this was the “Gumi First Sword technique.”
More precisely, it should be called a real-time swordsmanship training system.
The program only demonstrated how to attack and defend—but executing it was entirely up to Youngwoo.
And—
“It vanished again without a trace. Does it only appear during combat?”
Youngwoo looked at the two challengers standing about five or six steps away.
Their gazes were fixed on the corpse on the ground and Youngwoo himself, and it seemed they had already grasped the situation.
“L-look… I’m sorry. I think we made a mistake.”
“We’ll withdraw immediately, so please let us go.”
At their words, Youngwoo finally realized something.
They were still under the influence of “威勢 (aura/pressure).”
“What… is this?”
Then Youngwoo turned to Yechan, who had been acting relatively normal from the beginning.
“You okay?”
“Huh? Y-yeah. I was so scared I froze for a moment, but I got over it quickly.”
“…Really?”
That meant one of two things.
First, Yechan’s spirit was unusually strong, allowing him to shake off the First Sword’s pressure quickly.
Or second—
“I never considered him an enemy…”
It was a simple issue of intent. If you truly harbored killing intent toward someone, it could be detected.
But it wasn’t easy to activate that feeling.
“So just glaring isn’t enough. You need real intent to kill.”
Well, if one could feel killing intent toward anyone at will, they wouldn’t be human.
“Then those two…”
Step.
As Youngwoo walked toward them, a change immediately occurred.
“…!”
Kill markings appeared all over their bodies.
However, holograms still did not appear.
“So I genuinely want to kill them.”
For some reason, that realization felt bitter.
But there was no time—or reason—to hesitate anymore.
“Letting people like this go would be even more absurd.”
Youngwoo angled his falchion threateningly.
Realizing what was coming, the two men screamed desperately.
“No, wait! Please!”
“We’re sorry! Stop!”
But Youngwoo showed no mercy and struck their necks one after another.
Thwack, splurt.
Before their blood even pooled on the ground, he searched their pockets and found coins.
1,000… 3,000.
The massive man who had wielded an axe didn’t even have a single coin.
Even with such a strong build, he hadn’t even managed to secure starting capital from the exchange point.
“So that’s why he was so obsessed with my backpack…”
Maybe he had been robbed at the exchange point.
Youngwoo thought for a moment, then glanced at the regional status display in the corner of his vision.
Something felt off.
Current region: “Gumi”
The First Sword of this region is “Jeong Youngwoo07.” 1 win, 3 defenses.
“Three defenses…?”
It meant the system had counted the last three fights as defensive victories.
People were still passing through the area, though most quickly turned away upon seeing the corpses at Youngwoo’s feet.
“Um… should we take all this?”
“…?”
When Yechan spoke, Youngwoo turned his head.
He was holding a pile of weapons—hammers, spears, shields, swords—all loot they had gathered.
“We can’t carry all this.”
“Y-yeah…”
Youngwoo glanced at Yechan’s thin arms.
“Take only the spear and shield. Throw away the rest. We can’t use them all anyway.”
“W-we’re just going to discard these?”
Yechan looked regretful, but Youngwoo had already made up his mind.
“New challengers will keep bringing weapons anyway. Don’t get attached. We move.”
Westward again.
With no clocks or phones functioning, they had no idea how much time had passed.
But one thing was certain.
—New system component added: “Dungeon.”
—New system component added: “Requests (Quests).”
The world was changing every second.
—New monster type added: “Knight.”
—[Chaebol 3rd generation – Shin Yeonhwa] has become a Black Knight and now threatens you.
New monster types and even named entities were being added.
They hadn’t even encountered monsters yet, but just knowing they existed was already horrifying.
“So this is a ‘reset’…? It’s closer to punishment than a new world.”
No matter how you looked at it, this “reset world” resembled hell more than a fresh start.
The only thing happening after the reset was murder and looting.
“Is there really nothing good? Are we supposed to live like this?”
As Youngwoo looked grim, Yechan cautiously spoke.
“What are you planning to do in the future?”
“After our deal is over… I’ll find a safe place, settle things, and then the deal ends, right?”
“Technically, yes… but I haven’t thought beyond that yet.”
Yechan tilted his head.
“What about your family? Normally people go looking for their family first.”
“I’m alone. If I had family to find, I wouldn’t be doing this with you.”
“Ah…”
Yechan looked conflicted.
“And you? Shouldn’t you be looking for your parents too?”
“I’m in an orphanage.”
“...This place is a mess.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah.”
Youngwoo asked again as Yechan gave a bitter smile.
“What grade are you?”
“Third year.”
“Older than I expected. Then you’re about to graduate.”
He meant leaving the orphanage.
Legally, you had to leave when you turned 18.
And Yechan realized from this that Youngwoo was also from an orphanage.
“Yeah… I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Probably not.”
Youngwoo nodded and looked at the arrow at his feet.
It had been rising quickly since earlier.
They were almost there.
The moment he said that—
A massive crowd appeared ahead.
“…?”
At a glance, there were hundreds of people.
Yechan stopped walking first, while Youngwoo stepped forward to observe their equipment.
“So all the people who passed through the Sword Mountain gathered here.”
Most of them were armed.
Even “Early Bird” holders were scattered among them.
These were the leading survivors of Gumi gathered in one place.
And yet—
“What are they all looking at…?”
None of them were looking behind.
They were all staring forward.
Thanks to that, Youngwoo and Yechan slipped into the crowd unnoticed.
Some people flinched upon recognizing Youngwoo’s title, but quickly turned back around.
“…?”
It was strange—but they eventually understood why.
Following everyone’s gaze—
“Park Do-hwan…?”
The president, Park Do-hwan, who was supposed to have been “disassembled” and killed, was standing in the middle of the street.
What… how is he here? Didn’t he die after the quest update?
Youngwoo stared at him in disbelief, then noticed something odd.
Same face they saw on TV, same suit, same build—
But something was different.
His body was flickering.
“…It’s a hologram.”
Flicker.
Park Do-hwan’s figure disappeared and reappeared again.
An unsettling distortion of reality.
A red circle with a 10-meter radius surrounded him, preventing anyone from approaching.
Then—
He checked his watch and spoke.
“Time is up. From this moment, I will reveal your original destinies.”
“…Destinies?”
“What does that even mean?”
“Didn’t the quest mention replacing destiny?”
As confusion spread, yellow rectangular panels appeared in front of everyone.
Paat, paat, paat.
And from Park Do-hwan’s voice:
“What you are seeing now is the record of your fate before the world reset. If the reset had not occurred, you would have lived and died exactly as written there.”
“…What?”
“That’s impossible.”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they focused on their fate records.
Youngwoo was no exception.
Because the first line immediately caught his attention.
“Jeong Youngwoo – 49523 – IIIII_II – Grade 4 – Extra”
“Grade 4… Extra.”
Even among unknown numbers and codes, those words were unmistakable.
And the meaning became clear as he read further.
“This individual is a random combination of Grade 4 settings.”
“Influenced by parental settings, this being has unstable variables at birth. #Grade4 #Orphan”
“Due to being a Grade 4 combination, this individual suffers penalties when trying to acquire attributes above Grade 2.”
In simple terms, someone born as Grade 4 could hardly ever become stronger than Grade 2 no matter how hard they tried.
The grade at birth was heavily influenced by one’s parents.
“…Is this real? Was everything predetermined internally?”
The record continued.
[Father]: Grade 6 Extra
[Mother]: Grade 1 Supporting Role
“So my father was a Grade 6 extra… and my mother…”
The mother was not an extra, but a “supporting role”—a top-tier rank, five levels higher than the father.
Then what kind of person was a Grade 1 supporting role?
And more importantly—how did a Grade 6 extra man even meet a Grade 1 supporting role?
All Youngwoo knew was that he had been left at an orphanage as a baby.
He had never known anything about his parents.
Only now, after the world reset, was he learning even indirect traces of them.
As he stared in shock, the fate record continued to slide upward.
Name: Jeong Youngwoo
Role: Grade 4 Extra
Function: Background / Consumable Asset
Creation: April 8, 1992, 11:41 PM, “conditional unintended conception”
Termination: November 7, 2028, 8:36 PM, death from assault by drunk passerby while returning home
“…What the hell is this.”
A wave of nausea rose in his chest.
Youngwoo turned away from the fate record.
And right beside him—
Yechan stood pale, staring at his own.
Name: Kang Yechan
Role: Grade 6 Extra
Function: Background / Erasure
Creation: July 16, 2006, 2:30 AM, forced modification
Termination: February 1, 2039, 8:36 PM, murder-suicide during work at a bar