NovelForge

# System Morning sunlight streamed through the office window. Lee Jun-hyuk was staring at numbers on an Excel spreadsheet. March 15, 2024. Friday. An ordinary Friday. "Jun-hyuk, did you organize the meeting materials?" Han Ji-eun lifted her head from the desk next to his. Her monitor displayed a complex financial statement. Her black glasses reflected the fluorescent light. "Finished it yesterday." Jun-hyuk moved his mouse. Click. Click. Mindless motions. Five years in the accounting department. His salary had gone up, but something important seemed to be missing. That kind of silence. Then it happened. The world stopped. Not exactly stopped. Time darkened. A gray filter covered reality. He could hear Han Ji-eun's voice, but her lips didn't move. People's movements stuttered like a movie skipping every second. And— **[System Implementation Complete]** **[Initial Scan in Progress...]** Letters. Transparent blue letters floated in the air. Only Jun-hyuk could see them. When he reached out, his fingers passed right through. **[Ability Detected...]** **[Ability Analysis...]** **[Result: Classified as F-Rank 'Recorder']** Thump. The world moved again. Han Ji-eun's voice became clear. "...Huh? Jun-hyuk, what are you doing? Your face..." She stopped mid-sentence. She'd seen his expression. Jun-hyuk looked down at his hands. Black smoke-like wisps rose from his fingertips. Something inside his body was awakening. Like a nerve that had slept for a long time being stimulated. "What... what is this?" Han Ji-eun stood up from her desk. The monitor area went blank. The entire office fell silent. A hundred employees stared at their screens. On those screens: **[Global Simultaneous Awakening Event Occurring]** **[A New Era for Humanity Begins]** **[Confirm Your Ability]** --- Three days later. Choi Min-jae had already been classified as A-Rank 'Guildmaster'. The seat he occupied was no longer a company conference room. It was the chairman's office of the guild headquarters. The entire wall was monitors. Real-time dungeon information, ability user data, cash flows. The paper placed in front of Jun-hyuk was just one sheet. **[F-Rank Recorder - Lee Jun-hyuk]** **[Ability: Convert and store information from surrounding environment as text]** **[Evaluation: No combat ability, support position recommended]** "F-Rank is enough. Just join the guild." Choi Min-jae's voice was low. The tone was polite. But Jun-hyuk heard the distance in it. His friend from a previous life had already disappeared. The A-Rank classification had transported him to a different world. "What's the salary?" "F-Rank gets 2 million won a month. Dungeon support fees separate." "That's it?" Choi Min-jae smiled. "Jun-hyuk, look at reality. An F-Rank making 2 million won is lucky. Most can't even find jobs. Isn't being affiliated with a guild enough?" Jun-hyuk didn't answer. But something felt wrong. Choi Min-jae's words were logically sound. Realistic. Yet in Jun-hyuk's mind, a different voice was ringing. *This is strange.* *The salary difference between A-Rank and F-Rank can't be this small.* *And there should be E-Rank too...* --- Han Ji-eun was E-Rank. An ability called "Analyst". She could convert a target's weaknesses and strengths into numerical values. It was a very useful ability in the market. Three guilds were already trying to recruit her. Yet she came looking for Jun-hyuk. The office was already empty. Most employees were either awakened or unemployed. Jun-hyuk was still sitting at his desk. The monitor was off. "Did you get offers too? Proposals?" Han Ji-eun asked. "Three." "Me too. I rejected all of them." Jun-hyuk lifted his head. "Why?" "Because you're F-Rank." The words were simple. Emotionless. But there was something in them. Han Ji-eun was a logical person. Someone who didn't make decisions based on emotion. Yet she'd made this decision, which meant... "I think there might be synergy between E-Rank and F-Rank." "That doesn't make sense." "Right. Logically it doesn't. But..." Han Ji-eun opened her hand. A pale green light flowed from her fingertips. As if data were draining away. "There's something strange about you. Even with my Analyst ability, the calculations don't add up. You're F-Rank, but there's an A-Rank aura mixed in. Did the system miss something?" Jun-hyuk's body went rigid. At that moment, a splitting headache crashed over him. Images flashed. A dark dungeon. Red blood. And— *Choi Min-jae's sword piercing through him.* Jun-hyuk gripped the desk. His fingers turned white. "Jun-hyuk?" Han Ji-eun stepped closer. "Are you okay?" Jun-hyuk slowly lifted his head. His eyes had changed. A color he'd never shown before. Coldness. Calculation. And deep distrust. "Han Ji-eun." "Yeah?" "I'll only trust you." The words were low. But certain. As if someone else were speaking. Han Ji-eun activated her analysis ability. Information about Jun-hyuk appeared before her eyes. **[Lee Jun-hyuk]** **[Surface Rank: F-Rank]** **[Actual Ability: ???]** **[Danger Level: ???]** **[Trust Level: Green]** Green. That meant "safe". But that green was wavering. Something larger was moving beneath it. "What do I need to do?" Han Ji-eun asked. Jun-hyuk turned on the monitor. His fingers stopped over the keyboard. Then he began typing. Fast. Precise. As if recording something he already knew. **[Tracking Choi Min-jae's Asset Movement]** **[Suspicious Transaction 1: B-Rank Dungeon Reward Double Embezzlement]** **[Suspicious Transaction 2: Exclusive Contract for E-Rank and Above Ability Users...]** "What are you doing?" "Finding the system's contradictions." Jun-hyuk's voice was cold. Han Ji-eun had never seen this expression before. It felt like someone else was borrowing Jun-hyuk's body. "Can an F-Rank do something like this?" "An F-Rank Recorder can record what they've seen. And I..." Jun-hyuk didn't take his eyes off the screen. "Already know what I've seen." Han Ji-eun's spine went cold. Her Analyst's intuition screamed. This person isn't experiencing this for the first time. This is someone who has already lived through this. # Dungeon Entrance The dungeon gate wavered in irregular black against the gray concrete. Junhyuk stared at it. Without any emotion. As if reading a single piece of data. "Is this your first time?" Han Jieun asked from beside him. Her voice analysis equipment was already measuring the mana concentration of the dungeon. Numbers appeared on the screen in real time. "Yeah." Junhyuk wasn't lying. He knew this wasn't his first time, but that memory was hazy like fog. Only the sensation of a blade piercing through ribs remained clear. "Mana concentration 3.2. That's low for a B-rank dungeon." Han Jieun was already recording the data. Her Analyst ability read numbers, found patterns, and discovered contradictions. A different way than Junhyuk's. "What about Choi Minjae?" "He said he'd come from behind. We go in first and assess the monster situation." Junhyuk stepped one foot into the dungeon entrance. The moment he entered, the world split in half. One side was reality. Gray concrete, Han Jieun's breathing, city noise heard from afar. The other side— **[Dungeon Interior Recognition Initiated]** **[Mana Concentration: 3.2%]** **[Estimated Monster Rank: C ~ D Grade]** **[Dungeon Depth: Approximately 200m]** **[Recommended Party Composition: 4 or more]** Letters overlaid Junhyuk's vision. But it wasn't a system notification. It was information generated from his brain. As if recording something he already knew. "Junhyuk? Are you okay?" Han Jieun grabbed his arm. Her hand was warm. The only thread connecting him to reality. "Yeah. I'm fine." He walked in. The dungeon interior was narrower than expected. The ceiling was made of natural rock, and the walls were covered in green moss. The air was humid and stuffy. And— **[Life Sign Detected: Approximately 50m to the east]** **[Estimated Monster Type: Stone Wall Lizard (C Grade)]** Junhyuk stopped. "What?" "There's a monster. To the east." "How do you know?" He couldn't answer. The Recorder ability recorded what he saw, but he hadn't seen anything. Yet he knew. As if he were reading a record left behind by himself who had already cleared this dungeon. Junhyuk closed his eyes. And he concentrated. He thought again about what the Recorder ability was. 'It records what you see.' That was the superficial definition. But the true meaning was— (It reads information.) (It reads data hidden by the system.) A dungeon is a system. Everything in the dungeon—the location of monsters, the size of rewards, the location of traps, even the flow of mana—all of it is coded in numbers. And Junhyuk's Recorder ability could read that code. "Junhyuk." Han Jieun's voice grew distant. He opened his eyes. She had already drawn her arm. Her weapon was a simple sword. An Analyst had to fight in the end too. "Yeah. Let's move." When they turned the corner, the monster appeared. Stone Wall Lizard. Body length 2.5 meters, gray-tinted skin, yellow eyes. For a C-rank monster, it was slow. Its reaction speed was 0.3 seconds slower than expected. Junhyuk recorded it. **[Monster Reaction Speed: 0.3 Seconds Slower Than Expected]** **[Estimated Cause: Nervous System Dulling Due to Mana Concentration Decrease]** **[Weak Point: Joint Between Scales on Lateral Body]** He pushed Han Jieun back. "Get back!" A blade flashed out. Junhyuk didn't rely on memory. He relied on records. As if he had already practiced thousands of times. The blade pierced between the scales on the monster's lateral body. Black liquid spilled. The monster shrieked. But it was already an anticipated trajectory. **[Combat Data Recorded]** **[Monster Weak Point Confirmed: 97% Accuracy]** **[Average Reaction Time: 0.14 Seconds]** **[Estimated Win Rate: 99.7%]** Han Jieun closed her mouth. This wasn't F-rank. This wasn't the movement of an F-rank. The trajectory of the blade was precise, the footwork was economical, and it seemed as if he knew all the monster's reactions in advance. "What are you, really..." When Han Jieun muttered, the Stone Wall Lizard was already lying on the ground. Junhyuk was catching his breath. It wasn't heavy breathing. More like the breath after a light walk. "I was testing my Recorder ability." "What?" "The data of this dungeon. I said I remember things I've already seen, right?" Junhyuk looked at the monster's corpse. Light bloomed there. A core. A C-rank monster's core was the size of a fist. He picked it up. The moment his fingertips touched it— **[Core Information Interpreted]** **[Mana Content: 347 units]** **[Official Reward Assessment: 850,000 won]** **[Actual Market Value: 1,200,000 won]** **[Discrepancy: 350,000 won (29% Undervalued)]** Junhyuk moved. "This discrepancy." He looked at Han Jieun. Her face had gone pale. "What?" "It's a contradiction in the system. Every core coming out of the dungeon is being undervalued. And that difference is..." "Going to Choi Minjae." Han Jieun finished his sentence. Junhyuk nodded. "Exactly. The Recorder ability isn't just about recording what you see. It's about being able to read all the numbers recorded by the system. And the contradictions in those numbers—" He looked back into the dungeon. The green moss was swaying. Beneath it, something was moving in the deeper places. **[Dungeon Deep Layer Detected]** **[Estimated Boss-Rank Monster: A Grade]** **[Boss Reward Estimate: 50,000,000 won]** **[Actual Market Value: 80,000,000 won]** **[Discrepancy: 30,000,000 won]** Junhyuk's hand trembled. This wasn't simple embezzlement. This was manipulating the system itself. And when he realized that the key to that manipulation was in his own hands— For the first time, Junhyuk felt true fear. The fear of not knowing what he was.

Chapter 1