My Disciples Think I’m Strong – Chapter 1

Congratulations! You have defeated the Demon King!

I gazed at the long-awaited phrase. How much time had I poured into seeing this message?

My fists clenched in excitement, and tears of joy flowed freely.

I had finally cleared “The Three Heroes of Pretéum”.

As I watched the ending credits roll, a profound sense of achievement washed over me.

“Wow, I finally did it! Finally! For real!”

I had lost track of how many hundreds of hours I had dedicated just to see the game’s ending.

Considering that the average playtime for game reviews was under a hundred hours, I couldn’t help but feel both amazed at my lack of gaming skills and satisfied with my accomplishment.

I had maxed out all the characters and collected every piece of the artifacts, but there were still some segments that required precise control, which devoured my time.

Nevertheless, I had cleared it, and tonight, I thought I could enjoy a blissful sleep.

“Haa~ I’m definitely feeling a bit tired after such a long gaming session. Maybe I should get some rest and tackle my assignments afterward.”

Just as I was about to log off after stretching my stiff muscles, all the credits finished scrolling, and a single line appeared.

[…Updating…]

“Updating?”

This was something I had never seen before.

As curiosity filled me at the unfamiliar phrase, the fatigue I felt just moments ago disappeared without a trace.

[The ‘Hard Mode’ update has been completed. Please restart the game.]

“Hard Mode?”

The game automatically shut down, and the usual wallpaper featuring a nature photo appeared on my screen.

“I don’t think there was any mention of Hard Mode in the reviews. What gives?”

Perplexed, I restarted the game.

In that instant, a blinding light erupted from the monitor, engulfing the room.

“W-What the?!”

I closed my eyes against the intense brightness, and just like that, I lost consciousness.

*

“…Where am I?”

I opened my eyes. A massive tree shielded me from the sun. After sitting up, I glanced around.

“I was just at home!”

A vast blue sky loomed overhead, revealing a landscape I’d never seen before.

“Wait? This looks like the grove I used to frequent. What’s going on?”

A grove I always visited…?

No, I’d never been here before…

“Ugh!”

I clutched my head in sudden pain.

My mind was a jumbled mess. Everything I knew seemed to be entangled together haphazardly.

After a minute had passed or so, the pain started to subside, and I began to piece things together.

My name is Lee Han-gyeol, a university student playing the game “The Three Heroes of Pretéum”.

And in another set of memories, my name was Praus.

A commoner living in the southern village of Secul in the Empire.

The memories of these two individuals entangled my consciousness.

Sudden confusion arose from the influx of information, but it gradually started to settle.

“This is the famous grove where the children of Secul often gather.”

Secul. A village name that felt strangely familiar. Where had I heard it before?

Digging through my mind, I recalled—

The southern village below the capital of Pretéum.

Pretéum? Is it that Pretéum from the game?

No way, right?

It was hard to believe. I couldn’t accept it.

The very idea of being trapped inside a game felt like something out of a novel. There was no way that could happen in reality.

Yet, the bizarre landscape separating me from modernity seemingly insisted that this was reality.

Moreover, as the chaotic memories sorted themselves out, it continually urged me to accept this as reality.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on?”

I remembered that after the Hard Mode update, a blinding light erupted when I restarted the game—everything until then was crystal clear.

But everything after that moment was a blank.

“Is this supposed to be Hard Mode, where I actually experience it firsthand? Am I meant to meet the heroes and help them slay the Demon King?”

What a ridiculous assumption.

Games should stay as games; there shouldn’t be any actual experiences involved.

“Just send me back already! What is this nonsense?!”

“Oh, Praus!”

As I yelled into the void, someone called out to me.

“You’re here again today.”

“…Mary?”

I unknowingly uttered her name.

Mary was a girl living in Secul alongside Praus. Although she hadn’t completed her coming-of-age ceremony yet, there was an air of grace and maturity about her. She had mentioned she would undergo the ceremony next year.

“What brings you here?”

[Skill “Killing Intent” activated.]
[Skill “Expression Management” is always active.]

Skills…?

I could have been flustered by the sudden holographic text, but for some reason, it felt eerily familiar.

Mary approached and knelt down, trembling as she pressed her head to the ground.

“Ugh! P-Praus! Y-Your gaze! Your gaze!”

“My gaze?”

“Huuck! Huh!”

As I turned my head, the holographic text disappeared, and only then did Mary let out a sigh of relief.

“You really make life difficult, don’t you? Just my proximity causes you to be on guard. But at least you’ve improved compared to before! You used to faint every time you emitted killing intent…”

She wiped the cold sweat off her brow and smiled cheerfully.

“That means you’ve really opened up to me, right?”

“…I’ll ask again. What brings you here?”

My tone was rather stiff and emotionless.

I sensed the oddity in my expression and the reason for it was clearly my expression management skill.

Expression management was a special skill that prevented me from showing any emotions in any situation. It seemed worthless, only useful for keeping a poker face during gambling, but I couldn’t turn it on or off at will.

It was triggered permanently.

As for the killing intent skill, it seemed to radiate a killing intent that affected all living beings in my line of sight. It appeared to activate just by looking. It must have something to do with the mana within my body.

I couldn’t figure out what kind of character Praus was supposed to be. Why did he only have these pathetic skills?

“That’s why you never connect with the villagers, right?”

‘Now’s not the time to be thinking about that.’

“Shut it. I have no interest in making friends with the villagers.”

…? What was this cold, distant tone?

I was shocked that such words had escaped my lips.

“Aw, come on! It’s been 19 years since you moved to this village, hasn’t it?”

Mary leaned back against a tree. I glared at her, then turned my gaze to the sky.

Thinking back, she was right. In my memory, Praus was a long-time resident of Secul.

But characters named Mary or Praus didn’t exist in the game version of Secul.

Secul was an important location used for episodes involving the demon tribe’s commander and large-scale battles.

If they were significant figures in such a place, they wouldn’t simply be labeled Villager A or Villager B.

In short, both Praus and Mary were characters completely unrelated to the main protagonists, not even background characters.

Then again, considering they were such characters, I guess it made sense they had skills like killing intent or expression management.

“So why did you come here?”

“I just… wanted to see what you were up to.”

“…Is that so?”

“You seem to be slacking off all day. Surely money can’t be an issue?”

“Money? I have plenty.”

“Ohh~ That’s right. I heard your father got appointed as the head of the Marquis House’s household. They say they pay well, so you must be really well off—”

‘Excuse me, but I have something I need to think about. Could you please leave?’

“I’m sorry, but I need to be alone right now.”

I interrupted her. Why was I phrasing things like this? Just depressing.

This expression management skill was looking more and more like garbage.

It wasn’t really expression management; it seemed more like an excuse for being rude.

“Ah… Is that so? I must have imposed myself.”

I could hear her awkward tone. I felt bad for her, but there was no way to turn off this skill.

“Then I’ll take my leave. Take care, Praus.”

“…Thanks for your concern.”

“Ah, hehe… It’s nothing.”

I quietly spoke to her as she turned to leave. Mary smiled gently as she walked away.

Hmm. It might be a stretch, but it can’t be that Mary has a crush on Praus, right? That would be problematic.

I’m no longer the Praus you remember.

“…”

Anyway, now wasn’t the time to dwell on those trivial matters.

If this world really is “The Three Heroes of Pretéum,” timing was extremely important.

In the game, the three heroes were scattered due to their individual circumstances, and without the player’s help, they wouldn’t just be reunited; they couldn’t even survive.

One would starve to death as a beggar, another would be beaten to death, and the last would be sold at a slave auction and ultimately die from torment.

I still recall how I used to reload and save the game repeatedly to gather them.

But if this is reality, there’s no save and load function like in a game. It’s impossible to go back to the past in reality.

There would be only one chance.

Thinking about it, hard mode usually tests how far one can go with a single life.

I was beginning to grasp the meaning of Hard Mode.

In any case, those three needed to come together to start this story.

Only by gathering those three can we defeat all the demon tribe pouring into the Empire.

“When did the Empire’s strength start?”

It was definitely around the time the three heroes turned into adults, the demon tribe invaded just as expected.

After rummaging through my memory, I found the answer.

“It was October 1st, 990. It’s still 990 this year, and October is just a few days away.”

Combining my memories with Praus’ seemed to help piece together vital information.

“Alright, the location isn’t great, but at least the timing is not much different from the game start point.”

That relieved some of my anxiety.

But I would have to head straight to the Empire’s capital.

Two of the three heroes were already in the Empire’s capital, while the other one was on the way.

“I need to return home quickly, formulate a plan, and ensure that the information I know doesn’t slip away.”

So that they could successfully defeat the Demon King.

I didn’t know why I was trapped inside the body of a character that didn’t even qualify as an extra, but now wasn’t the time to ponder that.