1. Awakening (1)

A bustling square filled with people of all kinds.

There's a big event happening here today.

"Finally, I'm awakening too. Haha. Please, let me get a super special skill."

"Fuck it. You're not good enough, you should have gotten an intelligence modifier or something. Hehehe."

"Fuck off. Dude."

A group of people exchanging dry banter.

Behind them stood a young man of about twenty, chubby and wearing a pair of sweatpants.

He was lost in thought.

"Man, I'm tired. I need to go home and make sure my children are taken care of.

Sangwoo was thinking about the game rather than the event.

He was a for profit gamer who made money by selling in-game items.

He only played games that made him money.

He started playing a new online RPG game during his university vacation, and although he started slow to earn some pocket money, he quickly got hooked.

He still had several games open on his computer and the auto-hunt program turned on.

All Sangwoo could think about was the game characters, who were home alone.

'I wish I had two bodies.'

'If I could, I would send my other body to this boring event and just play games.'

Sangwoo's mind was racing as he fantasized.

[Ah, ah, everyone, please pay attention].

The host's voice quieted the room a bit.

[I'm Hunter Wontae Park, the host of this 10th Portal Awakening Program].

"Woooooh-!"

Clap-clap-clap-!

Thunderous cheers and applause rang out.

Hunter Wontae Park.

He's a celebrity often seen on TV.

He was in his early 30s, but he was already an A-class hunter, skilled enough to be the head of a top 10 ranked guild.

[I sincerely hope that the citizens will complete their awakening safely, so we will begin now. Group one, please come forward].

With that, the boring announcement was over, and the Awakening Program began.

The Awakening Program is a government-run program to help people awaken.

People who were exposed to mana could be awakened, and if they crossed into a portal, they could be forcibly awakened.

'I'm finally going in. '

After a long wait in line, it was finally Sangwoo's turn. 

As he walked behind the chattering women in front of him, he saw a small portal in front of him.

Suddenly, even Sangwoo, who had previously been so numb and indifferent, began to feel nervous.

"Okay, section 38, number 7, Mr. Sangwoo. Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Okay, let me help you identify yourself."

The guide holding a LCD screen scanned the ID bracelet on Sangwoo's arm.

[20031213-320XXXX, Sangwoo].

"Yes, it's verified, please let someone who entered before come back out and you'll be allowed through. Now, next person."

She soon gestured to another receptionist who stood in front of the portal.

"Can I just walk through?"

"Yes. It may look like this, but there's no harm in it, so you can just walk through."

Sangwoo felt a little scared but remembered the saying that it's better to be beaten sooner rather than later.

He pushed his feet forward and stepped through the portal.

Pow!

* * *]

[Recognizing user].

[Code OX983ALKQ---AJDM76.]

[User: Earthling Jeong Sangwoo].

[Authentication complete.]

[Authorizing system use.]

[Registration complete.]

Sangwoo was stunned the moment he crossed the portal.

He woke up with a start at the message in front of him.

"Ugh…"

His head throbbed with a pounding headache.

Opening his eyes, his vision was filled with huge concrete walls on all sides.

The place looked like a giant dome of some sort of containment unit.

'This is the bunker.'

The dome wasn't meant to contain the people in the Awakening Program.

It was a bunker to protect them from the otherworld.

"Ugh."

The gagging sound made him look to the side, and he saw an old man holding his side and vomiting. 

It looks pretty serious.

Sangwoo felt dizzy as well.

"Kaaaak! I've got an awesome ability!"

On the other side, he saw a woman screaming in joy.

She had created a bird of flame, and it was so colorful that it was like watching a CG-filled fantasy movie.

'It's extremely colorful.'

She was quickly surrounded by suits pulling out business cards.

They seemed to be hunter officials who were competing for recruits.

Sangwoo was staring at them with a bit of envy.

"Congratulations on your awakening. Are you feeling better?"

A cheerful and friendly man spoke to Sangwoo.

He appeared to be a guide for the awakening program.

"Uh, no. I'm not feeling well."

"You'll feel better soon. Have you checked your abilities?"

"No. I'm going to check it out soon."

"Okay. Just pretend you want to check your status in your mind. If it doesn't work, just say 'status window' and it will pop up."

"Okay."

Sangwoo knew this information already because he had some knowledge of the awakening program.

'Status window.'

The moment Sangwoo formed the word in his mind, a message appeared before his eyes.

───────────────

[Sangwoo]

[Stats]

-Strength: 0.7

-Reflex: 0.51

-Stamina: 0.643

-Endurance: 0.539

-Magic: 0.130

[Skills].

-[Cloning (Lv.1)/Casting]

-[Clone Strengthening(Lv.1)/Passive]

───────────────

'Is this the Awakener's status window I've been hearing so much about,' Sangwoo thought expectantly.

'… It's really nothing special.'

He was mildly disappointed to see that his stats looked pretty shabby, with all stat lower than one.

But judging by his bulging belly, the status wasn't wrong.

Undeterred, Sangwoo kept looking.

'But I guess my skills are what matters.'

He focused on the skills section of the status bar, and the details popped up.

───────────────

[Cloning (Lv.1)/Casting]: Consumes energy to summon a clone that looks exactly like you. The number you can summon increases with level. Your summoned clone is connected (linked) to the user.

-Currently summonable: 1

-Cooldown: 24 hours

[Clone Strengthening(Lv.1)/Passive]: Increases the percentage of your clone's stats mirroring your main body.

-Current mirroring ratio: 50%

───────────────

Cloning!

It was a skill to create a doppelganger identical to oneself to fight.

'What the hell.'

Having played many games, Sangwoo knew what a cheat this ability was.

Summoning a clone would make a single character stronger than two, then three, then four.

But then a fact piqued his interest.

"--- No, wait a minute---. There's no requirement that you have to be in a fight, so that means you can use your clone in real life.

If so, the possibilities of this ability are endless.

Sangwoo's eyes lit up as he felt like he had just won the Awakening Lotto.

Sangwoo's habit of digging deep when it came to games had kicked in.

"Have you checked your status?"

The guide, who was also checking on the other Awakened, asked Sangwoo.

He was curious because, unlike the other Awakened, he wasn't using any skills.

"Yeah. Nothing much."

"I see, but don't be disappointed, your initial stats are pretty much the same anyway, unless you're a rookie. Skills are important, so what did you get?"

The receptionist asks, his eyes gleaming in a way that belies his size.

Sangwoo felt a little nervous to tell him, but there was no point in hiding it.

"I've got a cloning skill."

"Oh…"

But the receptionist's reaction was strange. He looked a little sad.

Sangwoo had always thought that cloning was a good skill, so he expected the receptionist to be a little surprised, but he wasn't.

"Is it a bad skill?"

"Well, there was a guy once who got the illusionary cloning skill, and I heard that the clone he created was an illusion with no abilities, so it was useless except for aggro."

'Hmm? Mine is not an illusion.'

When Sangwoo was silent for a moment after hearing that, the receptionist thought he was heartbroken, so he comforted him.

"Still, it's a good start compared to awakening without a single skill, so don't feel too bad. If you're thinking of becoming a Hunter, see over there? If you demonstrate your skills in front of the guild officials, they'll be able to see them and make an accurate judgment."

The dome square beyond the portal where the Awakening Program was taking place was bustling with people.

A skill demonstration in front of such a crowd?

Sangwoo didn't like being in front of people, so he didn't want to draw attention to himself by demonstrating his skills in front of them.

'Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am, and my cloning skill is really embarrassing.'

So he decided to head back home.

"That's fine, where's the exit?"

"Do you see the scanner over there? You can go over there, get checked out, and then go home."

"Okay, thanks."

Sangwoo looked in the direction he pointed and saw what looked like a cylindrical capsule.

Presumably, you go in there and get a full body 'scan'.

Sangwoo joined the queue of people already waiting to leave.

After a while, it was Sangwoo's turn.

"Welcome, Mr. Awakened. Are your skills awakened?"

"Yes."

"Please tell me the name of your skill."

"It's cloning."

The receptionist seemed unimpressed when she heard Sangwoo's skill.

She continued to speak mechanically in a bland tone.

"Yes, your skill is cloning---could you please enter the scanner for confirmation?"

"Yes."

At the front of the line, Sangwoo took a deep breath and entered the scanner capsule.

As soon as he entered, he felt an energy surge through his body.

Contrary to his fears, the search was over in less than a second.

"Awakened. Your skill search is complete. You have a 73% chance of possessing at least one skill, confirmed. Your skill has been registered as a cloning skill, thank you."

"Eh? Am I done already?"

"Yes, you're done. Your Awakening registration has been placed on your identification bracelet. Now, next person."

For some reason, the skill registration process felt very sloppy.

It seemed like it was impossible to get a complete picture of skills with the current technology.

It ended a little too quickly, and Sangwoo was dumbfounded, but he went through the portal.

"Cloning--what kind of skill is that?

Rather than checking his Awakened Registration Card, his mind was filled with the pleasant anticipation of going home and trying out his clone.