Chapter 1: The Stolen World

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Please view the work under the guidance of a guardian.

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#1

On March 6, 20XX,

two novels began serialization almost simultaneously on the nation’s largest free web novel portal.

The former was ‘The Shackles of a Supporting Role,’ a modern fantasy, and the latter was ‘The World of a Supporting Role,’ a romance fantasy.

Yet, the two novels were excessively similar, to the point of making one scratch their head over their character development, themes, worldbuilding, and even their unique plot progression.

The difference lay in their reception: the former, with its enigmatic protagonist and convoluted worldbuilding, was criticized for being abstruse and was pushed aside without much acclaim.

The latter, however, with its distinctive protagonist and supporting characters, coupled with its well-explained world, immediately captured the public’s attention.

Why am I telling you this now?

“If not now, it’ll be too late. This Gate will soon sink beneath the sea…!”

“But, but how can we clear it without any A-rank Hunters….”

“Don’t you all trust me? Have you forgotten that with my ability, we can escape immediately if we’re in danger? This Gate may be high-ranked, but its difficulty is such that we can clear it ourselves.”

This was a turbulent seascape. Beneath my feet, a makeshift dock, reinforced with buoyancy tanks, splashed and swayed with the current, while a small-statured man incited the crowd from its precarious surface.

I watched him, mingling among the people, observing his every move.

The man, with his handsome face and brownish hair, repeatedly glanced back at the Gate with an anxious expression, even as he rallied the people.

Someone else spoke up, their voice filled with unease.

“All of us are just C-rank Hunters….”

“You all can do it. No, I’m here, aren’t I? Have you forgotten I’m A-rank? I will never let any of you die.”

An involuntary scoff escaped me. ‘What? You won’t let us die? We can do it?’

Inciting C-rank Hunters to clear a ‘Red Gate’—something even S-rank Hunters hesitated to approach—was absurd.

At least, under normal circumstances, it would be.

“Just trust my words this once. If this Gate disappears beneath the sea now, we’ll never be able to clear it again. Don’t you want to know what incredible treasures lie within? Don’t you want to possess them?

All of you came this far hoping to gain something, didn’t you? So, trust me. It’s a Red Gate, after all.”

The bastard, who was so confidently manipulating the crowd, knew exactly what was inside that Red Gate.

Or perhaps, there was something he *had* to obtain. Of course, that would be the case. How could he not know?

After all, this was an episode from the novel I’d read so diligently, memorizing it by heart to keep tabs on him.

The man, with his solemn demeanor, swayed in the fierce sea wind as he incited the people. Despite his small stature, his presence was remarkably formidable.

That bastard.

He was the brazen thief who had stolen the themes and worldbuilding from ‘The Shackles of a Supporting Role,’ a novel widely known as a flop.

This was not mere borrowing, but outright plagiarism.

This was precisely why the unwritten rule circulated among authors, stating that no matter how close a writer might be, they should never disclose their conceived themes and worldbuilding to others.

Especially not to those faceless individuals.

The two novels, which began serialization on the same day, shared a commonality: their themes and worldbuilding both originated from a single person’s mind.

However, as someone secretly began to pilfer these ideas through ‘communication,’ the worldbuilding was torn apart as if by a knife.

I had entered such a place—a world teeming with the same worldbuilding, similar characters, and identical themes.

It was the original world, stolen and plagiarized, a world purely created from one person’s mind.

This was the world within such a ‘novel.’

And I was currently transmigrated into ‘The Shackles of a Supporting Role,’ the original work of this world, inhabiting the body of a supporting character as insignificant as dust, or even air itself.

“Now, let’s go! As long as you trust me, there’ll be no problems!”

A strange smile formed on my lips as I watched the small-statured man turn towards the Gate. ‘Yes, you have to go. That’s how the story progresses. This is, after all, the starting point of everything.’

Numerous footsteps followed him. It was the beginning of the story.

The sea wind slapped my cheeks, guiding my steps to join the long line.

To sum up this entire process, yes. This is the story of me delivering a satisfying blow to that bastard.

As the original creator of this world. And, as an E-rank supporting character, as insignificant as air.

‘Han Dokyeom,’ a weak and incompetent E-rank Hunter. That was me.

****

Bang! Bang!

Sure enough, at precisely 7 AM, a pounding sound echoed from outside the door. Dokyeom’s eyes snapped open, and he stared blankly at the rattling door with a haggard face.

[Dokyeom! Are you in there?! Ugh, how many days has it been?! Ah, stop this and pay the rent! Overlooking it for a month or two is one thing, but it’s already the third month! Dokyeom, can you hear me?!]

It had been ten days now since he first heard that voice. Ten days. It was unbelievable, but that’s how long it had been since he’d experienced this mysterious phenomenon and lost sleep.

[Hmph, fine. So this is how you want to play it, huh? If I don’t get an answer by today, I won’t just stand by. I’m warning you clearly! If there’s no answer by today, I’ll tear this door down and kick you out!]

The huffing words, accompanied by angry footsteps, soon faded down the corridor. Only then did Dokyeom, his face drawn, stare blankly at the ceiling.

A tiny ray of sunlight pierced through the grimy curtains. It was a one-room apartment with just a single bathroom.

Even worse, being a semi-basement, it was a place where dampness and the smell of a cellar intertwined. Everything felt unfamiliar, yet everything felt accustomed.

The terrifying dissonance of these conflicting feelings overwhelmed his vision.

Roughly ten days.

That’s how long it had been since he woke up in a stranger’s body and accepted this reality. Compared to a few days ago, when he was in a panic, unable to eat or sleep, his current calmness could be considered a state of nirvana.

That was because—

Beep-beep!

A shrill alarm blared from the phone stuck to the cold floor. It was an emergency disaster alert message.

Being an old building, disaster alarms simultaneously erupted from all sides: next door, upstairs, everywhere.

The only calls ‘Han Dokyeom’ received were these disaster alerts, arriving almost daily. Picking up his phone weakly, he saw news of a disaster in the upper district.

[Emergency Disaster Text]

Some fatalities occurred. Injuries are rampant. Hunters are currently deployed to suppress the situation. For more details, please refer to the Ministry of Interior and Safety website.>

Gate Break. Hunter.

These were the words he had encountered most frequently over the past few days. His phone’s wallpaper featured ‘Han Dokyeom’s face, smiling brightly while holding an E-rank Hunter license.

The face reflected on the screen was indeed ‘Han Dokyeom.’

“Why Han Dokyeom of all people….”

Even the floating dust was grimy. This was a world of text. And not just any text, but his own novel.

After spending nights awake with a haggard face, Dokyeom began searching for information about this world a few days ago, absorbing countless details through his phone.

In that process, he discovered an unbelievable truth: this was the world within a novel, specifically ‘The Shackles of a Supporting Role,’ a novel he had personally written.

‘How could this be possible?’

However, there was something that bothered him. It was difficult to determine if this was the world of ‘one’ novel or a novel ‘mixed’ with something else.

He thought this because there was ‘another’ novel sharing the same worldbuilding as Dokyeom’s novel.

The reason was equally absurd.

His themes and worldbuilding had been stolen without his knowledge.

Dokyeom had started serializing his novel around March 6, 20XX. Almost simultaneously, with barely any time difference, a romance fantasy novel featuring the same worldbuilding and themes as Dokyeom’s novel began serialization in a different category.

Even the characters in both novels were strikingly similar. This included the protagonist, who could be considered the core of any novel.

Perhaps due to his twisted feelings, even the titles struck Dokyeom as identical: ‘The Shackles of a Supporting Role’ and ‘The World of a Supporting Role.’

The former was Dokyeom’s novel, and the latter was the other author’s. By Dokyeom’s standards, the worldbuilding, characters, settings—everything seemed the same.

Dokyeom only learned of the other novel’s existence about a month after his own had begun serialization.

The tip-off came thanks to a loyal reader.

When he hastily searched for and read the novel, confirming the world he had created and built within its pages, Dokyeom, while hoping it wasn’t true, arrived at a disheartening conclusion.

He realized it instantly upon seeing that author’s pen name.

It was the author who had approached Dokyeom in a friendly manner in a writer’s cafe, seeking to build a connection and communicating with him several times.

This individual had suddenly approached him, claiming to be an old hand in the industry, subtly asking if he had any themes or worldbuilding ideas in mind.

Dokyeom, a novice at the time, unaware that this was a tactic for ‘theme theft,’ had revealed the novel he had nurtured for months as if it were his own child.

Looking back, it was a crazy thing to do. The outcome, predictably, was a clean theft, and the astonishing coincidence of both novels starting serialization on the same day occurred.

However, it turned out Dokyeom wasn’t the only one who had fallen victim. After searching the cafe, he discovered this person was as famous as a celebrity in the industry.

They were known as a brazen individual who cunningly approached new writers, stole their themes and worldbuilding, and used them as their own, earning them the nickname ‘Rat.’

Though they changed their pen names and usernames, they always left a trace, like a tail.

They always unified the pen name and the protagonist’s name in the novels they wrote.

Dokyeom wondered if this was what it meant for absurdity to transcend anger, leaving one speechless.