How to Become a Star Writer - Chapter 18

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Become a Star Writer ◈

Episode 3: Create an Incident (8)

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The office of the creative group Reclusive Masters was at the top of a shabby six-story building.

But damn it, of all things, the building had no elevator.

I hadn't exercised in so long that this was exhausting.

“The office is more remote than I expected.”

“That might be because the writers in Reclusive Masters write martial arts fiction. Writer Pa Cheon-u and Writer Baek-gwi too...”

For a moment, I had no idea what that meant.

“What does them writing martial arts fiction have to do with the office location?”

“It’s been ten years since new-style martial arts fiction was popular.”

Only then did I understand what Ji Eun-yu meant.

I had heard something like that before. As the market grew, martial arts novels got noticeably fewer views.

Probably because new readers found the setting intimidating.

The generation of readers was changing.

“Writer Gu Dae-seong, whom we’re meeting today, used to do well too. Management had several projects planned for him, but then something unfortunate happened recently...”

“Something unfortunate?”

“He suddenly went incommunicado in the middle of a project. More precisely, he went missing.”

Missing?

Ji Eun-yu, who had been continuing the story, suddenly looked up.

“I’m sorry, Writer. There’s something I forgot to tell you...”

It was an uncharacteristic hesitation from Ji Eun-yu.

“You know Yoo Chan-young’s manuscript that you took on?”

“Yes.”

“Someone else was assigned to it besides you. Not now, of course. You’re the only one now, but there was some confusion within Management at the time...”

...What?

Dozens of possibilities flashed through my mind.

“Editor, was that writer perhaps...”

That was when shouting came from inside the office on the fifth floor.

The sound of something breaking.

The sound of people fighting.

Ji Eun-yu and I looked at each other for a moment, then ran up to the fifth floor.

And then.

...What a mess.

There was no better way to put it. The office was in complete chaos.

Broken liquor bottles and ashtrays littered the floor.

Had the place been bombed?

The small inner door beyond the blinds slammed shut with a bang.

A burly man with an unkempt beard and a skinny middle-aged man stared at the door in bewilderment.

The burly man shouted.

“Gu Dae-seong, you bastard!”

Ji Eun-yu spoke.

“...Excuse me, Writer Baek-gwi?”

So the bearded giant was Baek-gwi. He looked less like a writer and more like the leader of a bandit stronghold from a martial arts novel.

Then the skinny one had to be Pa Cheon-u.

“Who...?”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ji Eun-yu from Dragon Management.”

“Ah! Editor! Of all times for you to come. Hahaha.”

Baek-gwi clicked his tongue regretfully as he looked at us.

* * *

After helping clean up the broken bottles, we got a rough explanation from Baek-gwi.

About three days ago, Gu Dae-seong had suddenly vanished from his writing room.

Gu did not answer calls or come to the office.

Gu had been short on money at the time too, so the group’s writers had anxiously searched for Gu.

“...There weren’t any signs?”

“None at all.”

Then, on the third day, Gu Dae-seong was suddenly found in his writing room.

“That was this morning. Gu was just collapsed in the writing room, dressed like some beggar.”

“Was Gu hurt anywhere?”

“Gu looked physically fine, but...”

Baek-gwi smacked his lips as though he could not understand it.

“It’s like Gu’s memory isn’t intact. Gu doesn’t remember where Gu was for the past three days at all.”

Gu could not remember?

What kind of fantasy situation was this?

“Anyway, Gu’s been like that ever since. Gu makes a scene demanding alcohol, then pounds on the keyboard and yells about why it won’t work now.”

The more I listened, the stronger my sense of déjà vu became.

This felt wrong.

“When we ask what Gu means, Gu just says Gu does not know either with a hollow-eyed, exhausted look, and sobs his eyes out. A guy pushing forty, too...”

Baek-gwi stopped there, then waved his hands with a laugh, as though the situation was becoming too serious.

“But don’t worry too much. Gu’ll get better soon enough. You came too, Editor... But what about Team Leader Kim? Why is Assistant Manager Ji here...?”

“There are circumstances.”

“Circumstances, huh. Hahaha.”

His tone suggested he understood.

Ji Eun-yu spoke.

“If it’s not too much trouble, may I go in and talk to Gu? There are several things I need to discuss regarding the contract.”

“Will that be all right...?”

Ji Eun-yu seemed determined, and Baek-gwi apparently realized he could not stop her. He raised both hands slightly.

As Ji Eun-yu started toward the room, I lightly caught her collar and whispered.

“If it gets dangerous, call for me immediately.”

Ji Eun-yu smiled faintly.

She tapped on Gu Dae-seong’s writing-room door.

Then she disappeared inside.

She was a strong-willed woman, but I was still worried.

As I stared at the room Ji Eun-yu had entered, Baek-gwi asked me.

“By the way, who are you? A Management employee?”

“...I’m not an employee.”

“Then what? Ah, I get it. You’re one of those, aren’t you?”

One of those?

“You’re an aspiring writer, right? Looks like you follow Assistant Manager Ji around, so that must be it.”

His tone irritated me.

“Let’s say I am.”

“I knew it! But why are you here? Looking around the office? Here for our autographs?”

“Ah, that...”

At that, I glanced toward Pa Cheon-u.

Come to think of it, I had a reason for coming here too.

I needed to talk to Pa Cheon-u somehow, but Pa was sitting far away, completely absorbed in something and paying no attention to us.

In the end, I spoke to Baek-gwi first.

“I was curious about how other writers write.”

What I really meant was whether they went into novels like I did.

“Hahaha. What was your name again?”

What was this about?

For some reason, Baek-gwi’s shoulders seemed to broaden like one hundred thousand mountains at my words.

“I’m Lee Hak-hyeon.”

“Lee Hak-hyeon! So our Hak-hyeon has come to learn writing from his elder brothers!”

I was already his junior brother?

“No, that’s not...”

“Right! I should awaken my junior brother’s enlightenment! Come on, sit here and pour us a drink first.”

I had a bad feeling from the start. Before I could even pour the soju, Baek-gwi quickly tossed back a shot and began boasting about himself out of nowhere.

How Baek-gwi used to sell five thousand copies per volume, how the market had always treated Baek-gwi as A-list. The usual stories.

“Anyway, web novels these days have no depth! No depth! Back in my day...”

The more I listened, the more numb my ears felt.

Damn it. I had not come here to hear this kind of thing.

...And why was Ji Eun-yu so quiet?

While I searched for a way out, I noticed a laptop on one side of the table. A word processor and Textpia were open on it.

Oh, that was it.

“Is this the new work you’re writing?”

“H-Huh...?”

Baek-gwi seemed to sober up instantly. Baek-gwi hurriedly closed the laptop.

“Haha. Th-This is just practice!”

Baek-gwi was quick.

But it was too late.

[You have acquired viewing information on this work.]

I had already seen it.

[Work Information]

Title: Reincarnation of the Max-Level Supreme Sword God

Author: Baek-gwi

Story Level: Easy, Level 1

Story Progress: 2%

Commercial Success Index: ☆

For someone who went on about depth, Baek-gwi had chosen a very clickbait-friendly title.

And the story level was Easy, Level 1.

It was obvious even without reading. A protagonist who gained power without much struggle and steamrolled everything.

“Ahem. Ahem. Young readers like this sort of thing these days. Their taste is terrible, and... sometimes you have to write for the market...”

For something like that, it had about as many views as my Orc Philosopher.

A bitter feeling suddenly came over me.

I had probably been like that once.

Blaming the readers. Blaming the market.

Without knowing what I myself was trapped in.

I rose from my seat, using the bathroom as an excuse. I planned to pretend to go, then take a quick look past the blinds.

That was when I noticed Pa Cheon-u, who had not said a word since we arrived and was staring at the monitor.

Pa’s fingers moved swiftly over the keyboard.

They looked like precise martial forms.

Pa was writing.

...Pa was writing?

Before I knew it, I had walked up behind Pa Cheon-u and was watching.

No matter how I looked, there was no trace of drunkenness. It did not seem as though Pa’s body or soul had been sucked off somewhere either.

Pa was simply sitting there, writing.

Right. Of course.

I had overreacted.

It was not as though cases like mine could be common.

“Excuse me, young hero.”

“Yes?”

“Were you taught that you may freely spy on another person’s training?”

“Pardon? No, I...”

...I had meant to look for just a moment, but I must have watched for too long.

But what had this man just said?

As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, Baek-gwi’s laughter came from behind me.

“Bwahaha! Little brother, that’s just how Pa talks when writing. Says it helps with immersion or something.”

This was not method acting. It was method writing.

Still, it seemed that even that level of concentration did not make someone get sucked into a novel.

“Did you say you came to learn martial forms... no, writing?”

Pa Cheon-u finally looked up at me after completing an installment.

Sure enough, now that Pa was done writing, Pa’s way of speaking was normal again.

Before I could answer, Pa continued.

“I’m sorry, but we have nothing to teach you. This place is just a gathering of retired old monsters. You would be better off going to Textpia and reading the top new works.”

“You punk! What kind of thing is that to say?”

Baek-gwi, who was drinking soju at the table, shouted.

Pa Cheon-u acted as though Pa had not heard and logged into Textpia, then clicked on the Today’s Best page.

“Look. It would be more useful to read something like... Hmm?”

Pa murmured softly, clicked on a work, and began to read.

Pa seemed to have forgotten I was even there. Pa’s face was soon completely absorbed in the writing.

So this was the expression of someone who truly loved novels when they became engrossed in one.

A little later, Pa finished reading and drew a breath as though Pa had come back to life.

“...This novel is good. Hey, Brother Baek-gwi, have you read this?”

“Huh? What is it?”

Even Baek-gwi was a writer, so Baek-gwi got his heavy butt moving and came over.

I was awkwardly wedged between the two men, sweating buckets.

Ah, Ji Eun-yu, please come out already.

“Wow...!”

The drunkenness vanished cleanly from Baek-gwi’s eyes as Baek-gwi read.

Was this what a martial artist looked like after discovering a peerless martial arts manual?

“This is it. A remarkable master has finally appeared after so long!”

“...Who could it be?”

Pa Cheon-u rested his chin on the desk as he asked.

“Obviously an established writer. Look at this. It got to sixteenth place on Today’s Best after only six Serialization installments. Does that make any sense with a rookie’s writing?”

“They must have received a lot of contact messages.”

“They must have gotten a fucking lot. Lucky bastard.”

There was no need to explain it.

Of course, it was my work.

“Look at that title too. 99 Ways to Kill a Regressor! It’s taking shots at every writer out there. Is it insulting me?”

“They must be that confident. Should we add it to our favorites?”

...This was embarrassing enough to kill me.

So this was what it felt like to hear people praise your work right in front of you.

I wondered what expressions Baek-gwi and Pa Cheon-u would make if they knew I had written it.

Baek-gwi soon looked away from the novel and gave me a sly smile.

“Our junior brother should work hard and write something like this too, right? You need to make 100 million won a year at least.”

“...”

Embarrassed for no reason, I looked away to avoid Baek-gwi’s eyes.

That was why I noticed the suspicious movement between the blinds of the writing room.

“Ah! Want to join our group while you’re here? I’ll waive the membership fee. We’ll give you a desk in the office too. You only need to pay 200,000 won every month... Hey, wait! Where are you going?”

Shaking off Baek-gwi’s hand, which felt like an MLM pitch, I ran straight to Gu Dae-seong’s writing room and kicked the door open.

A man stood inside with an aluminum baseball bat raised.

Ji Eun-yu stood frozen, apparently startled by the man’s sudden action.

Ji Eun-yu!

Maybe I shouted that. Maybe I did not.

My eyes met the man’s.

But before I could run at him and land a blow, he began acting strangely.

“Uh, uh... Aaaaaagh!”

He looked terrified, as though he had seen a demon.

The bat fell with a clatter, and the man dropped to his knees on the floor, screaming.

“D-Don’t come closer! Don’t come closer! Ugh, uh, uaaaargh!”

A man who had lost his mind.