Different Races.
These are the kinds of races you often see in fantasy.
Starting from elves and dwarves to harpies, dragons, fairies, spirits, and so on…
Creatures you could never see in real life, the kind you only find in fiction.
Why am I suddenly talking about that kind of thing?
Well… it’s because I became part of that fantasy.
“Yoon Seo-hyun.”
“Yes.”
At the professor’s call, everyone’s eyes turn to me, whispering among themselves.
Well, of course they’re whispering.
Right now, on top of my head, I have two huge jet-black horns curled like a ram’s.
Yeah.
When I came to my senses, I had become a dragon.
And my gender had changed, too.
There’s way too much homework.
Seriously, why do Korean literature professors love group projects so much?
I was grumbling out loud while messing around with the PowerPoint, trying to put it together somehow.
Unfortunately, more than half of our group were international students, so I was stuck with all the scraps.
They barely did any research—and not only that, they didn’t even know how to make a PPT.
I wanted to ask, What can you even do then?
But I kept my mouth shut.
Fine, I’ll just suffer a little more.
Actually, what annoyed me even more than the international students were the underclassmen from my own major.
Calling them underclassmen was generous—these people had zero interaction with someone like me, a total outcast.
Still… even if we had no connection, wasn’t it a bit much to flat-out say to a senior that they don’t know how to make a PPT?
As if I’m doing this because I want to.
I wanted to snap at them, but thanks to some trouble I caused in the past, I already had a bad rep in the department.
If I exploded now, it’d just lead to more drama.
Ugh, I’ll just deal with it. Damn punks.
In this messed-up department, it was pretty much an unspoken rule that returning students always got stuck as group leaders.
I had no choice.
Still, I somehow cobbled together a paper using the random bits of research others had done.
Fixed weird footnotes, made sure the sources were properly cited.
Once that was done, I moved on to the PPT.
As expected, it wasn’t going well.
I had no clue where to even start.
Damn it, I don’t know how to do this either.
But everyone kept pushing it off, so I had no choice but to do it myself.
I fought through it and finally got the PPT done.
I copy-pasted a pretty decent template I’d used before, made it look at least somewhat presentable and readable.
As soon as I uploaded the file on KakaoTalk, the usual polite comments started showing up.
[Thanks for your hard work.]
[You really worked so hard! (Picture of a weird crying bunny)]
[I’ll buy you a meal someday! Leader-nim! (An explosion of overly cheerful emojis)]
I mean, there’s a limit to how fake you can be.
I was just speechless.
At least one underclassman who actually did some research didn’t grovel—they just coolly said “Thanks for your work,” and that was it.
But the ones who did absolutely nothing were out here decorating their words with all kinds of flowery nonsense.
Yeah, I get it—guess I’m doing the presentation too.
The topic of the group project was related to classical poetry.
We had to analyze classical Korean poems and find modern adaptations in movies, dramas, poems, novels, and so on—then analyze those as well.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult, so I wrapped it up pretty quickly.
But even after this project, I wasn’t done.
There were still six more group projects lined up.
Is this even humanly possible?
I genuinely felt the urge to just drop out, but I forced myself to push that thought down.
Mainly because of the tuition I’d already paid.
And because my university’s name still held some weight.
Yeah, being in the humanities meant tuition was cheaper, but that was about the only upside.
Still, this wasn’t it.
Even if it’s easier than engineering or science, six group projects?
And I was group leader in all of them.
It’s not like I had zero friends in the department, but of course, all group assignments were randomized.
Sure, it was meant to be fair to loners like me, but honestly?
Wouldn’t it just be better to make these individual assignments instead?
“Stupid freaking assignments…”
I wanted to complain to the professors, but with the courage the size of a peanut, I knew I couldn’t.
So in the end, even as I cursed under my breath, I tried to get the group work done as fast as possible.
There was still a month left before the presentation, but since I was already the group leader, I figured I might as well go all out.
I bugged the members to at least send me their research papers quickly.
Of course, since I was pushing them like that, I had already taken precautions.
I told them to only do the research—I’d take care of the paper, the PowerPoint, and the presentation.
For all six group projects.
It was a losing deal, but there was no other way.
If I tried to actually “collaborate” with others, we’d just end up wasting time and producing some half-baked mess.
Fine, since y’all say you’ve got your own stuff going on, I’ll just sacrifice myself.
Honestly, judging from how useless you all are, it’s better if I do it alone anyway.
And it’s not like I wanted to get involved with people like that on a personal level.
The research for the other group projects was slowly rolling in, so I just had to edit the papers and put together the slides.
If I sacrificed this weekend, I could finish it all.
Other people’s opinions?
Don’t care.
I’ll just throw the finished product at them.
And if the presenter gets chosen randomly?
I’ll just say one thing and be done with it.
Just read the paper and the PPT carefully and do the presentation.
Don’t be nervous.
That’s all it takes for it to not be my responsibility anymore.
What more do I need to do?
I put the group project stuff aside for a bit and stepped outside.
The time?
4 a.m.
Damn it.
When did it get so late?
I figured I should get some air.
Usually, this is the kind of moment people walk out with a cigarette between their lips……but that didn’t apply to me.
I never even started smoking in the first place, and I’d already quit drinking.
The hangovers were so bad that I’d lose the entire next day, and it just felt like a waste of time.
Even when my classmates asked what I even did for fun.
I’d just shrug and say, “I actually enjoy this kind of stuff.”
I didn’t really have a dream job or anything.
Like… seriously, what am I going to do for a living?
Still, the breeze helped a little.
It felt kind of healing.
While I was at it, I looked up at the sky.
It felt like it had been ages since I’d done that.
There were no stars.
That part was a bit disappointing.
I really wanted to see stars.
But yeah, of course I couldn’t see any.
It’s not like I live in the countryside.
Even at 4 a.m., my studio apartment was smack in the middle of a brightly lit city.
Group projects…
I don’t know.
If I just work through the weekend, I should be able to finish most of the slides.
I’ll figure it out somehow.
I’m tired.
As the wind brushed past, I kept thinking.
How should I wrap up the group work?
And once that’s over, what do I prepare next for job hunting?
But of course, no clear answers came to mind.
As I stood there, staring up at the sky for a long time.
I started thinking that I really shouldn’t waste my time like this.
Yeah.
Let’s just get these cursed group projects done.
Then I can relax with a game or some streams.
Right now, I don’t need to worry about the future.
I just need rest.
Gotta finish everything quickly.
That’s what I thought as I was about to head back inside.
When suddenly, the space in front of me lit up brightly.
Something far away shimmered like radiant starlight.
…What is that?
A meteor?
No…
It’s not a meteor.
That was the last thing I remembered from that day.