In the novel, after learning martial arts from the Sword Master, “Baek Woo Jin” was walking back to the academy when he encountered the search party looking for him, and together they returned to the academy.
And Baek Woo Jin’s image within the academy after he returned plummeted to the ground. He was labeled a loser, a failure who ran away from the lowest-rank mission.
“Ah, I can’t stand this.”
In reality, he wasn’t the type to be swayed by others’ opinions, but he didn’t enjoy it either.
“Hmm.”
Although much time had passed, he thought he might as well catch the bandits who were still lurking in the mountains like parasites, so he wandered through the forest. However, he found the bandit camp already destroyed.
“Ah, missed my chance.”
At this point, he hesitated again. Should he just go back as he was, or should he come up with another plan?
“I guess I’ll take the long way around.”
He chose the longer route. Instead of going down the mountain and walking on the plains, he decided to walk through the mountains.
“Then I’ll probably run into a bandit or two.”
His prediction was accurate. As soon as he entered the mountain next to him, he encountered bandits halfway up.
“Hand over everything you’ve got!”
How typical their demands were.
“Hey, do I look like I have anything on me?”
What were they expecting him to hand over, looking at his ragged appearance?
“You…! Then die!”
“Bring it on.”
It took only the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to knock down all fifteen bandits.
“Ah, this is frustratingly slow.”
Even though he had been steadily accumulating internal energy through rigorous training, the amount he originally had was so small that it wasn’t easy to advance his skills.
“Am I finally at the first-rank level? Ugh.”
It was embarrassing to reach the level that others had already surpassed.
After stopping by the bandit camp and taking all the little money they had, he tightly bound the bandits’ torsos together.
It was then that he began tying the bandits together like sausages and dragging them behind him.
“The commander is disappointed in you all.”
He always played the role of the disappointed commander who was reforming the bandits.
“Alright, let’s head to the next mountain!”
“Y-yes, let’s go!”
“Louder!”
“Let’s gooo!”
The bandits’ enthusiastic responses became quite motivating for him.
“Haah, it seems like the world is really tough.”
Every time he crossed a mountain, the bandits appeared as if they had been waiting for him.
He knocked them all down, tied them up with rope, and linked them at the back. Then he appointed the senior bandit to teach them the chant.
By the time he crossed the last mountain and started heading towards the Jeongmu Academy, the number of tied-up bandits had reached sixty. Among them were a few who had small bounties on their heads from the authorities.
“Ah, this is great.”
While singing all kinds of songs, he climbed the mountain and headed to the Jeongmu Academy.
The last song he sang was the traditional song often sung when performers appeared.
Having just barely survived and returned, the lyrics of this song felt truly fitting.
He saw numerous students and instructors inside the academy. So he grew even more excited and even started dancing as he headed towards the entrance.
He saw faces filled with confusion. Every single one of those emotions was clearly visible on their faces as they watched him approach.
In his first life, in that fantasy world, he was a hero. He rolled around here and there, got hit on the back of his head, then grew stronger, and finally beheaded the demon king.
It was a picture-perfect example of a hero’s journey.
On his way here, Baek Woo Jin made a decision.
He would smash as many of the tags stuck to his novel by the idiot or whatever who called himself “NovelGod2” as he could.
Ah, except for the harem tag, of course.
Baek Woo Jin reached the entrance and shouted with a big grin.
He didn’t forget to line up the bandits before that.
“Stand in place!”
“One, two!”
So damn charismatic.
Now it was really time to shout.
“First-year student Baek Woo Jin, reporting back after completing the mission to subdue the bandits!”
Since he exceeded the mission’s success rate, he hoped they would overlook the fact that he missed the deadline.
The shocking appearance of the missing Baek Woo Jin was enough to stir up the quiet academy.
“Those guys back there… are they all bandits?”
“Judging by their outfits, it seems like it…”
As the surroundings began to buzz with murmurs, the Vice Headmaster felt the need to quickly wrap up the situation.
He shouted while infusing internal energy in his voice.
“What are the instructors doing? Why aren’t you guiding the students?”
“Ah, yes!”
“Understood.”
Following his command, the instructors snapped to attention and began to lead the students away one by one.
As the commotion gradually subsided, the Vice Headmaster crossed the entrance and approached Baek Woo Jin.
“Student Baek Woo Jin.”
“I’m here to see the Vice Headmaster.”
Seeing him awkwardly salute while holding onto his sword and wine gourd made the Vice Headmaster smile wryly.
“What is all this commotion about?”
Baek Woo Jin sheathed his sword at his waist and scratched the back of his head with his free hand as he answered.
“Haha! As you know, I failed the lowest-rank mission and barely survived. But I couldn’t return empty-handed, so I brought back a few local bandits.”
A sweet smell of alcohol wafted over every time he spoke.
“Have you been drinking?”
“Yes, just a little rice wine.”
“Don’t you know drinking is prohibited during missions?”
“Well, there’s a bit of some circumstances behind that…”
If he said he needed to drink to build his internal energy, would anyone believe me?
Baek Woo Jin shook his head.
“…First of all, congratulations on surviving. Go inside and get yourself cleaned up.”
“Yes.”
After responding in a light-hearted tone, Baek Woo Jin walked away gracefully but then backtracked and asked the Vice Headmaster.
“Um, excuse me.”
“What is it?”
“Will capturing those bandits count towards my mission score?”
“…That will be decided through an internal meeting.”
“Oh, then I’ll wait for the decision.”
After bowing his head respectfully, Baek Woo Jin disappeared from sight. The Vice Headmaster watched him go and sighed unconsciously while shaking his head.
“Aaah, gulp.”
Baek Woo Jin frowned as he headed toward the dormitory while gulping down the wine from the gourd over and over again.
“If they don’t count those bandits towards my mission score, I’m in big trouble….”
Recalling his situation, he remembered that he still needed 10 out of the 25 points required for this semester.
“Lowest rank gives 1 point, low rank gives 2 points, intermediate rank gives 3 to 4 points, high rank and supreme rank give 5 points and 10 points respectively.”
Of the five levels of missions, from the lowest to the supreme rank, the only things Baek Woo Jin who had just reached first-rank could touch were the lowest and low ranks and, with some difficulty, the intermediate rank.
“Ah, this is going to be tough.”
He concluded that he would need to complete at least three intermediate-rank missions.
“Even if it’s not 10, I hope they’ll give me at least 3 points …”
Seeing the Vice Headmaster’s stern face made him increasingly anxious that even that might not happen.
“Ah, I’ll think about it later.”
It was the day he finally ended his month and ten days of living in the forest. As soon as he returned to the dormitory, he poured cold water from a large basin over himself repeatedly.
“Wow, a fantasy world would be better.”
He briefly missed the fantasy world where he could use hot water through magical engineering items.
“Phew.”
The alcohol buzz vanished completely.
After changing into a clean black uniform from his wardrobe, he looked at himself in a small mirror on the wall.
“I’m pretty handsome.”
Alabaster skin, thick eyebrows, eyes sparkling like stars in the night sky, a prominent nose, and red lips.
“No wonder women flock to me.”
Just his face alone made him seem quite charming. They probably approached him only to realize he was empty inside and gradually drifted away.
“Haaah, poor guy.”
Because he was the protagonist of the wrong author, he had been treated poorly despite his handsome face. Even worse, a dragon that had never been used before was still asleep in his pants.
“Mhmm, I’ll let you out when the time comes.”
After giving his pants a light pat, he lay down on the bed.
“Ahhh!”
Compared to his bed in the real world, it was utterly lacking, but compared to the forest where he had lived for the past month, it was heaven.
He was gradually falling asleep in this small happiness when suddenly,
Bang bang!
Someone knocked loudly on the door.
“Woo Jin-ah!”
A familiar voice called out.
Although he had fully absorbed his memories, applying them to his life was another matter.
“Who could it be?”
He recognized the familiar voice but couldn’t pinpoint who it was.
With no other choice, he got up and opened the closed door.
“Baek Woo Jin!”
The moment the door opened, he saw a handsome man who looked similar to him.
“Hyung (big brother)?”
The words came out first before he could even recognize him.
And as if he had been waiting, Baek Moo Hyeok roughly pulled him in and messed up his hair.
“Welcome back, really welcome back!”
Baek Woo Jin felt uneasy at the voice that seemed on the verge of tears.
In Baek Woo Jin’s memory, his brother had always been gruff, only ever telling him to try harder like a parrot. So he had assumed they didn’t have a good relationship and had complained to the Drunken Immortal about it.
I got that completely wrong.
He felt a proper pang of guilt but quickly brushed it off.
I’ll do better from now on.
After all, in life, the present is more important than the past or the future.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, don’t worry.”
“You…”
Baek Moo Hyeok examined his face.
His eyes were still clear, but what they held was very different from before.
“You’ve changed.”
“Uh, a little.”
It was perfectly normal. People only truly reflect on their lives just before they die. People often call it “having your life flashing before your eyes”.
He thought his brother had also changed because of that.
“Um…”
While the two brothers were catching up together, a small voice came from behind Baek Moo Hyeok.
“Ah!”
As if remembering something, Baek Moo Hyeok stepped aside to reveal someone who had been hidden behind his back.
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