I Became The Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 1.
There was a game called <Heroes Road>.
It was a virtual reality action RPG released four years ago, a single-player-only game with no multiplayer elements.
The setting was a modern world where gates connected to another dimension had appeared.
The game revolved around the monsters pouring out of these gates and the hunters who fought them.
[The world is currently swept up in the Heroes Road craze!]
[How long will this popularity last?]
With its charming variety of playable characters, outstanding gameplay, and countless hidden elements, Heroes Road gained immense popularity for a while after its exceptional quality became widely known.
But,
[Raishin: Did they make this game to be beaten?]
[Hanabi: LOL, the game’s fun, but the difficulty is so BS I can’t keep playing.]
[alswo079: Has anyone here cleared any character’s route? Please share some strategies.]
The difficulty was absurdly high.
Globally, less than 0.1% of players had cleared it—if that. And even those were only the easier playable characters. For the harder ones, no one had ever cleared them.
[A game you can’t beat even with a walkthrough!]
[Is there a woman in real life who looks like Jin Seo-yeon? I fell in love at first sight. I love her.]
[Is this even a game?]
[Please let me skip the tutorial!]
It wasn’t just hard—it was too hard!
Casual players gave up out of exhaustion. Even the most hardcore players began dropping out one by one, as if filtered through a sieve.
“I’ve beaten it all…”
And then there was me.
I had succeeded in fully clearing this game that everyone else had abandoned.
A moving message slowly appeared on the screen of my VR headset.
[Congratulations! You are the first to clear all playable characters.]
First!
For someone who played games hardcore, those words were enough to make my heart tremble.
A game released four years ago, with only five playable characters—and I was the first to clear them all.
“I should brag… Yeah, I have to brag.”
I tossed aside my VR headset and immediately logged into a chat room on my computer.
A chatroom named <Heroes Road – Beginners Only>. Despite the name, there was an entry requirement:
―Only those who have cleared any route in Heroes Road may enter.
With a clear rate of less than 0.1%, not many could join.
Still, it usually had a few dozen regulars.
But when I logged in today…
“…No one’s here?”
The chatroom was completely empty.
The user count showed 1/201.
Obviously, that 1 was me.
No one else was there.
Now that I thought about it, the last time I visited this chat room was months ago.
“Did it die while I was gone?”
Or did they make a new chat room without me? That would hurt too much.
Just then, a ding sounded.
―‘XxSupremeOverlordxX’ has entered the chat.
A message appeared, signaling someone’s arrival.
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Huh? There’s still someone left? Thought I cleared everyone out.
– IDHardcoreVeteran: Hey. Why’s everyone gone? Did they move on to some new game?
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Ah, this is unexpected.
That oddly named user was the one who had originally created this chat room.
Excited, I quickly typed out a response, but they just kept talking.
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Well, a promise is a promise. Doubt it’ll happen, but… Have you ever cleared this game?
– IDHardcoreVeteran: Cleared it?
I almost said I had, but stopped myself.
‘If I tell him, word will spread, right?’
I cleared the Yoo Baek-jun route!
I wanted to announce it when more people were around.
Bragging is best done in front of a crowd.
“Guess I’ve turned into an attention-seeker…”
I typed my reply.
– IDHardcoreVeteran: All except Yoo Baek-jun’s route.
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Really? Let me check… Nah, never mind. None of the others cleared it either. Doubt anyone’s done it all.
– IDHardcoreVeteran: ?? What’re you talking about?
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Wanna make a bet?
– IDHardcoreVeteran: A bet?
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Yeah, a bet. Try clearing the route I suggest. If you somehow manage it, I’ll grant any wish of yours.
– IDHardcoreVeteran: Any wish? Like what?
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Literally anything. Want to be rich? Done. Want to be handsome? That too.
Was he offering plastic surgery or something?
The proposal was baffling—and deeply suspicious.
– IDHardcoreVeteran: What if I fail?
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Hmm, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. So? Wanna try?
I hesitated.
Should I really accept such a shady offer? Wouldn’t it be better to refuse?
Then again…
It’s not like I lose anything if I fail.
Whether he’d actually grant a wish was questionable, but there was no real downside.
After a long pause…
– IDHardcoreVeteran: Alright. Let’s do it.
I accepted.
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: Good. You’re the last one. Out of everyone so far, you’re the best.
At that moment, my monitor screen glitched.
No—actually, it wasn’t the monitor. It was my vision itself…
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: This is no longer a game. For you, it will become reality. Whatever it takes.
Amid a terrifying wave of dizziness…
– XxSupremeOverlordxX: You chose this.
I blacked out.
* * *
I had a dream
A blizzard raged around me.
Deep in the night, a man ran through a snowy forest, the ground blanketed in white.
“Hah… Hahk…!”
His clothes were ill-suited for the cold—thin, plain white robes.
Well, not exactly white.
The robes were stained crimson with blood.
“Why… Why are you trying to kill me?!”
The man muttered to himself as he desperately ran.
Beneath his tattered robes, his skin was pale and covered in wounds.
“Just a little… Just a bit farther! Over there!”
He kept glancing back, as if pursued.
He ran without stopping—until—
Thunk!
“Aaaagh!”
The sound of an arrow piercing flesh.
The man collapsed as an arrow struck his leg.
“Agh… Ugh!”
“There he is! After him!”
Voices shouted from behind.
The man crawled forward, clawing at the ground. But it was futile.
“Found you, young master.”
“Ghk—!”
Amid the raging blizzard, a man revealed himself. He was a man of sturdy build with a noticeably vicious face.
“S-Shin Woo-hyun…?”
“Yes, I am Shin Woo-hyun, your martial arts instructor.”
“Found him! Over here! Everyone, assemble!”
Behind the man, more figures emerged.
All were warriors gripping swords. In an instant, they blocked the man’s path.
“Had you died right at the beginning, it would have been quick and painless. But now…”
“Shin Woo-hyun, why would you….? Aaagh!”
“All that struggling to escape, and this is as far as you got.”
Thud!
Shin Woo-hyun kicked the man in the stomach. The wound on his abdomen tore open, and blood gushed out.
“Pathetic movements for someone who holds the succession rights of the Sword Saint family, Yoo Baek-jun.”
“S-succession rights… Who sent you? Don’t tell me—!”
“That’s right.”
Shin Woo-hyun grinned eerily.
“Your elder brother wishes for your death. A quiet one, at that. Frankly, it was a hassle to drag you all the way here to stage your death by monsters.”
He raised his sword.
Blood dripped from the blade onto the snowy field. Yoo Baek-jun’s blood.
“P-please, spare me.”
“For old times’ sake, I’ll make it quick. Don’t worry. I’ll send your attendants—including Choi Seung-min—after you soon enough…”
Yoo Baek-jun trembled. Shin Woo-hyun, still smiling, lifted his blade high.
“You won’t be lonely!”
At that moment, ‘I’…..
“Huh?”
—became Yoo Baek-jun and woke from the dream.
* * *
Yoo Baek-jun stared blankly at the sword.
The descending blade had frozen midair, as if time itself had stopped.
‘What… is this?’
He couldn’t comprehend the situation.
He had accepted a bet proposed by XxSupremeOverlordxX.
But then his vision blurred suddenly, and—
‘A snowfield?’
He found himself in an unfamiliar snowy expanse.
White trees stretched endlessly, and thick snow blanketed the ground.
‘Wait, this feels… familiar?’
Somehow, the scenery seemed recognizable.
This landscape, this situation. Yoo Baek-jun stared at the frozen blade and then at its wielder.
A man with a vicious face.
That face… Hadn’t he seen it somewhere before?
‘Ah, right. Shin Woo-hyun from Heroes Road.’
The early-game villain in Yoo Baek-jun’s route.
A former instructor who relentlessly pursued and tried to kill Yoo Baek-jun throughout the beginning…
If that man was right in front of him, did that mean he had logged into Heroes Road?
“Ugh!”
The moment he realized this, an excruciating pain surged through his entire body.
Nausea churned in his gut, and his vision swam.
‘Why?’
The pain was far from normal.
If this were simply Heroes Road, a VR game, this kind of pain shouldn’t be possible.
Virtual reality games were legally required to disable pain perception.
—This is no longer a game. For you, it will become reality. Whatever it takes.
“No way.”
XxSupremeOverlordXx words resurfaced in his mind.
Suddenly, without reason.
And the moment Yoo Baek-jun recalled those words.
“Die!”
Time, which had been frozen, began to move again. The blade suspended in the air swung downward, straight toward Yoo Baek-jun’s head.
“Ghk—!”
Thwack!
He twisted his body at the last second.
Perhaps Shin Woo-hyun hadn’t expected him to dodge, as the blade only grazed his cheek before embedding itself into the ground.
“A quiet death would have been less painful. Pointless resistance.”
Shin Woo-hyun clicked his tongue.
Yoo Baek-jun grimaced deeply.
A deep cut ran across his cheek, blood streaming down.
‘It hurts.’
He touched his face with his fingers.
The sensation of hot blood flowing was unmistakable.
Yoo Baek-jun—no, ‘I’ who had become Yoo Baek-jun—felt my mind racing faster than ever before.
‘Did I log into the game? No, this is…’
Shin Woo-hyun swung his sword again.
Tracking the blade’s trajectory, Yoo Baek-jun instinctively read its path.
‘Reality!’
Whoosh!
He rolled sideways just as the blade sliced through the air where he had been.
“You dodged it?”
Shin Woo-hyun’s voice was laced with shock.
Yoo Baek-jun panted heavily.
The vividness of this world, the sensations, the pain, none of this aligned with virtual reality.
It all confirmed that this was no mere game.
“Tch! I tried to make it painless for you!”
Shin Woo-hyun roared in frustration.
A crimson aura enveloped his blade, its sharp killing intent pricking Yoo Baek-jun’s skin.
He was about to use a skill.
‘Should I dodge?’
If he didn’t, he would die. But….
“This time for sure!”
He didn’t dodge.
Countless playthroughs had taught him what would happen next.
There was no need to dodge.
Whoooosh!
“Damn it! A blizzard—?!”
A violent gust of wind and a blinding blizzard erupted suddenly.
Everything turned white, and even Shin Woo-hyun, a man of formidable strength, staggered.
“Damn it all!”
His strike missed completely.
Yoo Baek-jun immediately pushed himself up and began running, dragging his aching body forward.
Shin Woo-hyun sensed his escape but was helpless against the storm.
“Where are you?! Where did you go?!”
“Sir Shin Woo-hyun! Behind you!”
“Monsters are swarming in!”
To make matters worse, monsters emerged from the blizzard.
Shin Woo-hyun scowled and turned. Snowfield monsters, drawn by the blizzard, were closing in.
“Tch! Use the artifact he gave us! We’ll track him later. Deal with these things first!”
Shin Woo-hyun and his subordinates hurriedly engaged the monsters.
But by the time the battle ended
“He couldn’t have gone far…!”
Yoo Baek-jun had already vanished into the blizzard.
