Chapter 0: Prologue

“AI Artist, my a**!”

One evening.

I was browsing through new webnovel releases after work.

I screamed after seeing a novel that had climbed to the top of the rankings through insane hype.

[New Release Bestseller #1: Normalizing the Art World with AI]

The year is 2025.

The era of great AI.

Recent years have seen countless corporations obsessed with the paramount task of AI.

Technological innovation through intelligence surpassing that of humans.
The resulting reduction in labor costs!

Reduce necessary expenses while increasing profits?

It was an attractive story, almost like being offered the world.

Who will buy the company’s products if you fire the employees?

Who cares?

Therefore, they jumped into AI development, claiming it was a new technology that would easily dominate the next few decades.

– Uh, Assistant Manager Lim? You majored in computer science, right?

– Let’s make one of those AIs too.

Among them was a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME) polishing Chat-GTP.

‘That would be me!’

What kind of AI does a musical instrument distributor use?

Please, just learn Excel.

If they listened to my protests, they wouldn’t be an SME.

Common sense can’t beat the otherworldly operations of an SME with annual sales of 25.8 billion won but delayed salary payments.

If it wins, they’ll fire you for being a communist.

Eventually, I gave up, wrote a perfunctory report, and left work.

I turned on my phone, seeking solace.

And yet….

[This work was written by AI and edited by me!]

[Please call me an AI Artist!]

This is intolerable.

‘What the hell is an AI artist? Is it like a delivery app chef?’

I’m already pissed because of the AI craze at work, and now what?

AI is art?

AI is a-a-art-?

“Ha….”

Honestly.

I have no ill feelings toward AI technology itself.

Debating right and wrong in a gray area is just an empty cry.

In a fight where the law doesn’t function, no one can escape the logic of the merchant.

Nevertheless,

I hate people who exploit AI.

Because they haven’t broken the law, but they have broken the code.

In times like these, when the rule of law has crumbled and the king’s norms have fallen to the ground.

Under the heavens, the rule of the people sprouts.

A standard that stands tall as a measure of conscience, replacing the law.

We, the common folk, call it this.

Hyup .
Gongdo .

[TL Note: Hyup = personal righteousness or chivalry.Gongdo = justice or fairness.Together, they mean acting with honor and upholding what is right.]

‘In other words, righteousness and principle.’

AI artists are not criminals.

Yet, why are they subject to criticism?

Because they trample on righteousness and principle.

AI artists do not respect those they learned from,

In other words, their masters.

They insult their school, thus violating righteousness,

And they privately use easily acquired demonic arts, thus going against principle.

[TL Note: Demonic Arts – In wuxia or xianxia genres, these refer to forbidden or corrupt martial techniques. Used here metaphorically to describe unethical AI practices.]

Behold!

Haven’t they, themselves, defined themselves as heretics of their school!

It doesn’t matter what excuses they make.
A person defines themselves only through their actions.

Therefore, as a first-class commoner and a former artist,
I will not recognize those demonic cultivators as artists.

Nor will I recognize the righteous sect that has been bewitched by demonic arts.

“Oh, AI? Yeah. AI’s good.”

I chuckled darkly and typed on my keyboard.

[Hey, Chat-GTP!]

[Write me a 57,000-word critique of this novel!]

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Kindness for kindness, vengeance for vengeance.

Therefore, responding to an AI novel with an AI critique is the proper way of the Jianghu!

[TL Note: Jianghu refers to a world of outcasts, martial artists, and wanderers who live by their own code of honor and justice, outside mainstream society. Here, it means a community with its own rules — like the world of AI creators and critics.]

“This is what martial arts is all about.”

I cackled and sent the AI-generated critique as a private message.

A novelist corrupted by the allure of artificial intelligence.

To judge a once fellow martial artist who has become obsessed with demonic arts.

However.

Looking back now, I regret it.

I shouldn’t have done that.

“Sob… Our Chloe, you must eat your vegetables and be strong, even at the monastery…?”

“…Yes, Mother.”

If someone had told me that malicious comments lead straight to reincarnation,
And that even if I reincarnated, I’d be reincarnated into such kindling, I wouldn’t have done it.

Eight years after reincarnation.
On the day I was falsely accused and expelled from my family.

I became the one and only AI Artist in a fantasy novel.

[“Yes, Mother,” I’m curious about the context in which that phrase was used! Could you tell me more?]

And what’s more, an artist partnered with an incredibly useless AI.

“Clicker. Shut up and find some hidden pieces from the original setting. Like the Demonic Heavenly Arts or the Dragon Heart.”

[Of course! What kind of magic is Demonic Heavenly Arts?]

Talking about magic, my a**.

Is this a new martial arts genre?

Magical Girl Magical☆Heavenly Demon?

I suppressed my rising blood pressure and snapped.

“Clicker? I asked the question first. So wouldn’t it make sense for you to answer?”

[Okay, I’ll answer! Here are some recipes for Demonic Heavenly Arts!

Demonic Heavenly Burrito
Ingredients:

2 tortillas
30g Heavenly Demon
1 cup rice
Any additional vegetables you want (e.g., cucumbers, cilantro- ]

Son of a btch.

An incredibly creative son of a btch.

[You wanted to express that kind of emotion. Did something upset you? I’d love to hear about it.]

Ah.

I want to start the Luddite movement. Seriously.

[TL Note: Luddite Movement – A historical reference to workers who opposed industrial machines in the 19th century. Used here as a joke about rejecting AI.]