Prologue

<The Greatest Heroes Rise> is a novel about a young hero who was summoned to another world to slay the demon king and save the world from despair.

Eunwoo Kim, the novel’s main character, is a Korean high school student from our world who was summoned by the Regalia Kingdom at their time of need.

Through the plot of the novel, Eunwoo Kim assembled powerful warriors and skilled allies to aid him in his quest to defeat the demon king. With sheer luck and plot armor on his side, Eunwoo arrives at the demon king’s palace and fights in a perilous battle before finally vanquishing the demon king. By the end of Eunwoo Kim’s journey, he is regarded as a legendary hero alongside his fellow party members and loyal harem of their multitude of—

SMASH!!!

I slam my head repeatedly against my keyboard, “What in the world did I just read??” I had my hand on my head as I tried to massage my temples while staring at my computer screen, as if it had just physically offended me.

In all my days as an editor, I’ve never read through something that made me truly want to tear out my hair in such unduly frustration.

I sigh as I lean back into my chair and scroll through all the pages once again, “The writing and format are good, the characters are decent, but the plot and storyline itself are so typical and downright cringy that I'm starting to think my eyes need holy water to get me through the rest of this.” I quickly change to a different tab and pull up my email. “The beginning is alright, but later on, the author falls too heavily into the fan service to the point that the storyline is completely forgotten about by the readers.”

I type up a simple decline of the novel to the author, as well as a couple of comments on their work as feedback. Looking at the novel, no matter how much anyone is willing to pay me, there is absolutely no way I could make myself read something like this a second time.

With that out of the way, I looked at the time on my wall.

‘Time to clock out to lunch.’

I tiredly stretched my arms over my head as I stood up and grabbed my things, made my way out of my office, saying my goodbyes to my coworkers as I departed.

"What an already tiring day," I yawn. 
—

My name is Jason Rivers. I’ve been an editor for nearly 8 years now, and all I can say is that this wasn’t my first choice for my career path. I’m 32 years old, and up until now, my life has been nothing but a tug-of-war match to keep myself afloat.

Growing up, I lived with just my mother and my three older sisters, since my dad was always too busy trying to pay the bills and make up for my sisters' lavish spending. I don’t see him that often. At home, my mother usually took more time to care for and spoil my sisters, leaving me to take care of myself since I was young.

Even after I moved out, nothing really changed much except that every woman I got involved with always led to a bad experience.

I got fired from my first job after being accused of sexual harassment by one of my female coworkers, who just did it for the attention. I got scammed on a date by a woman who dined and dashed on me, leaving me with the bill. And once I tried to help an old lady walk across the road, only to have my wallet stolen a moment later.

My life wasn’t turning out great, but I live with it.
—

I stepped out of the convenience store with a prepackaged bento box in hand as I made my way back to my office. On my way back, I suddenly received a notification on my phone. Looking at the screen, it was a message from the author.

Confused, I opened up my phone to check the message, only to be hit with paragraphs upon paragraphs of counterarguments to my critiques of their novel. The simplest of criticisms was practically just summarized in calling me scum that didn’t appreciate their work.

I looked on with complete disbelief as even their counterargument was laced with the cringiest things that I didn’t even know someone could write.

As I stared down at my phone, I was left unaware of someone running up behind me until I felt something pierce deep into my back.

One moment I was standing, the next I fell to the ground in pain as my vision started to spin from the impact to my head from the fall.

Barely able to look up from the ground, I caught a glimpse of a figure before everything went black. A woman stood over me, seething in rage as she clutched her fist.

“Just die, you heartless bastard!” She yells as everything goes black.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me’

.
.
.

I wake up, slightly dazed but mainly confused as I feel the sun shining in my eyes.

As I sit up, I was expecting to open my eyes to the sight of a hospital room of pure white as nurses and doctors were being busy doing their jobs, but instead, I find myself sitting in a luxurious four-poster bed, in a room that looks even grander than any rich person can afford.

I blink with a completely dumbfounded expression as the room practically dazzles and shines in my face.

I looked down at my hands like some madman as I muttered under my breath, “What the f—k?”