The Baek family had once been a famed line of swordsmen, their patriarch the Margrave of the Seorin Kingdom’s northern frontier. But that was all in the past. Now, they were merely an old, storied clan.
Still, they were the Baek family.
Even after the father and son fell from grace and their house declined over three short years, they clung to their position on the lowest rung of the twelve northern families.
In the mansion of this very Count Baek…
A young man was struggling in the room of the second son, the one they called “Count Baek’s anguish.”
He was a boy in his late teens, clutching his head and letting out pained groans.
His dark blue hair, fair, slender face, and mysterious green eyes should have combined into a handsome portrait. Right now, however, that face was contorted in deep contemplation.
The boy, Baek Yu-sung, second son of the Count, stared blankly at his reflection in the wall-mounted mirror.
‘Is this really me?’
Was everything he saw in the mirror real?
The fact that Baek Yu-sung was now… Baek Yu-sung.
It sounded like a pointless riddle, but for Baek, it was a deadly serious question. It had to be. He was Baek Yu-sung and Park Hyun-woo at the same time.
‘No matter how I look at it, this is the world of Chronicles of Valor 2.’
Two days had passed since Baek “awakened” his memories as Park Hyun-woo.
And two days had been more than enough time.
The name ‘Baek Yu-sung.’
The situation of Count Baek’s family.
The Seorin Kingdom and the state of its neighbors.
Everything matched the world of Chronicles of Valor 2.
This was Chilseong-gye, the setting for the entire Chronicles of Valor series.
‘I just have to accept it. This world is Chilseong-gye, and I am Baek Yu-sung.’
This felt different from the stories he’d read in novels and comics, where a protagonist was simply dropped into a game world.
Instead, it was as if he had been born as Baek Yu-sung and had only now remembered his past life as Park Hyun-woo.
That was why, despite the impossible situation, it felt disturbingly natural.
From the very beginning, he had been both Baek Yu-sung and Park Hyun-woo.
Baek lifted his head and looked in the mirror again.
A strikingly handsome boy with refined features stared back at him.
He wasn’t just good-looking… he was beautiful.
Baek pushed himself up from his seat and surveyed the room.
It was spacious, clean, and well-appointed.
The room alone was larger than the entire villa he’d lived in as Park Hyun-woo. Though the furniture showed its age, every piece was undeniably a luxury item.
Baek considered his situation with as much objectivity as he could muster.
He was young again, a dozen times more handsome, and born into nobility with a silver spoon in his mouth.
It was absolutely perfect.
It was such an upgrade he almost wanted to applaud.
But then a cold thought washed over him.
‘This is completely fucked, isn't it?’
The problem wasn’t Baek Yu-sung himself.
While the character of Baek Yu-sung had his flaws in Chronicles of Valor 2, the far greater issue was the world of Chronicles of Valor 2 itself.
The setting was no peaceful fantasy land.
It was a world on the brink of a great tribulation—a devastating war where demons and angels descended to wage battle, a conflict that would sweep up every nation and race on the continent and leave them slaughtered in its wake.
In short, it was a world destined for the apocalypse.
‘I’m just lucky it wasn’t the third game.’
Chronicles of Valor 3 took place in the aftermath of that war, a time when all human nations had already collapsed.
If he had woken up in that world, he wouldn’t be sitting here calmly looking at a mirror. He’d be getting torn apart by monsters.
‘There’s only one way forward.’
He had to get strong.
Strong enough to survive the coming cataclysm.
And, if possible, strong enough to protect himself and those he cared about.
In the real world where Park Hyun-woo had lived, there were limits to human potential. But this was Chilseong-gye, the world of Chronicles of Valor.
Here, an individual could grow powerful enough to shatter mountains and shake the very heavens.
‘Well… whether that’s actually true is debatable, but still…’
He glanced at his own slender forearm for a moment, then clenched his fist with renewed determination.
He was Baek. But he was also CrimsonFang.
He was the hardcore veteran who had held the top server rank for an astounding twenty-three months.
With that in mind, Baek began to analyze the character of Baek Yu-sung.
Second son of Count Baek.
He was from a family that had produced exceptional swordsmen for generations, yet he himself had not mastered even the most basic of stances.
Of course, being a playable character, he wasn’t completely useless.
Baek Yu-sung had a talent.
It wasn't just any ordinary talent, but a gift beyond compare.
Cheonmujiche—the Heavenly Martial Body.
As the name implied, it was a body created by the heavens for martial arts.
‘But there’s a catch.’
Baek had also been born with a crippling congenital defect in the Yin meridians of his body, a condition known as Gueumjulmaek, the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
A fictitious disease from the martial arts novels of his old world, its effects were devastatingly real here. It meant his meridians were blocked by an overwhelming amount of Yin energy, preventing the proper circulation of mana.
‘A short life, a frail body, and an inability to use mana, yet possessed of a tremendous amount of Yin energy.’
Those were the effects of Gueumjulmaek.
He was a tragic genius, born with both the divine Cheonmujiche and the cursed Gueumjulmaek.
That was the boy named Baek Yu-sung.
‘Couldn’t I have just been Kang-min? Or Park Chan-sol?’
Chronicles of Valor 2 had numerous playable characters, but the official main character was Park Chan-sol.
He was a classic cheat character, born with immense talent in both sword and sorcery.
Park Chan-sol was the character the developers had designed to let even beginners see the game’s ending.
‘Which means… Park Chan-sol must exist in this world too, right?’
And not just him.
There was a high probability that every character from Chronicles of Valor 2 existed here, living and breathing.
‘Why am I getting excited?’
Just moments ago, he had been lamenting his fate, but this was Chronicles of Valor 2 made real.
His heart began to pound at the thought of meeting the game’s characters in the flesh.
‘Okay, that settles it. First, I have to cure my Gueumjulmaek.’
Once that was done, the power of his Heavenly Martial Body would finally bloom.
Of course, curing Gueumjulmaek was no simple task.
The proof was that Count Baek, with all his resources, had been unable to do anything for Baek’s condition to this day.
‘But there is a way.’
As a hardcore veteran of Chronicles of Valor 2, he knew of several cures for Gueumjulmaek. However, knowing the cure and obtaining it were two very different things.
Could he secure a remedy in his current, weakened body?
No matter how he considered it, it was impossible.
He couldn't do it alone.
But it might be possible if he could entrust the task to someone else.
All the methods he could think of were incredibly complex. He doubted anyone in the Baek family would even listen to him, let alone believe him.
He needed someone who would trust his words and act on them.
Someone who would be on his side, no matter what.
“Young master, may I come in?”
The voice from beyond the door belonged to Yoo, Baek’s personal maid.
Despite the prophesied apocalypse and his cursed body, Baek had to admit his life here was already a vast improvement over his days as Park Hyun-woo.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Baek sat up straight.
“Yes, come in.”
At his permission, the door opened silently, and Yoo entered.
She was a woman in her early twenties with blue hair tied back neatly, an attractive woman whose sharp features were set in a perpetually cold expression.
Yoo bowed as soon as she entered the room and made her announcement.
“Lady Jin-hwan Chae-won, your fiancée, has come to visit you.”
A visit.
It made sense, he supposed. His awakening as Park Hyun-woo had been a disorienting experience, and he'd probably been acting strangely. Besides, everyone here already considered Baek a sickly invalid.
His memories as Park Hyun-woo hadn't erased his life as Baek.
In other words, he knew his fiancée, Jin-hwan, so meeting her wouldn't be a problem.
She was an incomparably beautiful girl with hair the color of pink roses.
Was the ratio of attractive people just naturally higher in this world? Then again, game characters were always designed to be easy on the eyes.
In any case, Park Hyun-woo knew plenty about Jin-hwan Chae-won.
‘The Jin-hwan family, a famous line of wizards.’
If the Baek family was known for its swordsmen, the Jin-hwan family was known for its mages.
Of course, like the Pyeong Gamun, their influence had waned over the years.
Regardless, Jin-hwan Chae-won was a wizard character, born with a considerable talent for magic.
She didn't possess a divine gift like Baek’s Cheonmujiche, but she also wasn’t saddled with a crippling weakness like Gueumjulmaek, which made her a much easier character to play in the game.
He hadn't expected his fiancée to be another playable character from Chronicles of Valor 2.
“Ah, yes. Of course. I’ll see her right away.”
When Baek answered so readily, Yoo seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second, but she quickly nodded and stepped back.
“She is waiting in the drawing room.”
With that, she turned and began to lead the way.
‘So I’m a real nobleman.’
It was still a new feeling. As he stepped out into the hallway, Baek was struck once more by the sheer scale of the residence, a home that had once housed a family of great power.
The hall was built for practicality over splendor, but it was so vast and grand that it felt more like walking through a castle than a private mansion.
“Presenting Lord Baek Yu-sung.”
Yoo announced his arrival before the drawing room doors, then opened them with practiced, silent efficiency.
In contrast to the stark hall, the drawing room was richly decorated. Inside, a girl with pinkish-red hair stood beside a female knight who served as her escort.
Baek Yu-sung’s fiancée.
Baek swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. He stepped into the room and put on a natural smile as he met Jin-hwan’s eyes.
The moment their gazes locked…
Baek’s eyes flew wide. So did Jin-hwan’s.
They shouted at almost the exact same time.
““Why are you here?!””