**February 1, 2026**
(The previous chapter was December 4, 2025. February 1, 2026 is the starting date of the webtoon in the world Leo migrated into. In this chapter, I will write about the main character of that world.)
South Korea, Gangwon-do Province, Pyeongchang region, Seonjaryeong Village; with the arrival of early spring, the snow had already melted across the entire country, but Seonjaryeong Village was one of the highest-altitude villages in South Korea. Because of the winds that blew throughout the year, the snow that fell in winter melted last in this region.
It was cold and windy like a mountain peak, yet it was actually an area made up of many wide plains. There were hundreds of wind power generators scattered around the surroundings.
People sometimes came to this region for hiking, albeit rarely. Of course, only during the summer season. However, even they never noticed a small wooden Korean house hidden in this area.
More precisely, two houses; one of them was an old-style wooden house called a hanok, while the other was a small wooden shack consisting of only a toilet and a single room.
At exactly 7:34, the upper edge of the sun began to appear over this region. And within just a few seconds, the air temperature rose from minus 37 degrees to minus 25 degrees. At the same moment, a young man in his twenties sleeping inside the small shack opened his eyes.
Unlike a normal person, this young man got out of bed just a few seconds after waking up and put on the folded underwear and pants that were beside him.
Because he slept in a small shack, the shack directly transmitted the outside temperature indoors. The only thing heating the shack was an old-style stove.
To keep the stove heating the shack, Kang Min-ho had to light the stove six times during his twelve-hour night sleep.
Considering that Kang Min-ho had been raised under military standards by only his father since childhood, waking up six times a night to light the stove was not something that could be called impossible for him.
At this moment, after feeling the cold air for a while, Kang Min-ho felt that he did not need to put on anything extra. He thought that with the body he had trained for years by exercising in cold weather, he could endure this cold.
Then he got up and stood in front of the mirror, which could be considered the only non-essential piece of furniture in the room.
(Kang Min-ho, Ms. Saem, Hana, Snowy, Leo's parents, and AI illustrations of Council Members 03 and 06 have been shared on Patreon. They will also be shared here in Chapter 0.)
The person reflected in the mirror was a young man in his twenties, yet he possessed the hardened body of an old soldier. His short, messy hair prioritized functionality over appearance, but no matter what hairstyle you put on a tall, tanned, muscular man, he would look handsome anyway. On top of that, with pronounced cheekbones and a visible Adam's apple, his appearance rose to the level of a male god.
Despite this, there was no arrogance on the face of the young man staring back at himself in the mirror. With robotic eyes, he inspected his entire body.
After giving his entire body a brief once-over, he saw that many of the scars on his body had faded over time. The most striking scar was the one on his left eyebrow.
That scar was not the result of a wild animal or a workplace accident. It was left over from the bladed combat training his father had given him when he was only seven years old.
Up until that time, he had grown up in an orphanage, and his father appeared when he was seven. Back then, Kang Min-ho's father had just left the military, and the sole reason for his discharge was that he wanted to train his son.
He took Kang Min-ho from the orphanage and moved to an even more isolated corner of one of the villages with the harshest weather conditions in South Korea.
Even in the first years of the training that lasted for years, Kang Min-ho never cried or complained. As if he were a robot son created solely to satisfy his father. Did he lack emotions? No, he had them, but they were no more developed than those of a monkey. A logical approach always took priority over an emotional one for him.
Because his father recognized this trait, he deemed him worth raising and trained him in the first place.
Kang Min-ho closed his eyes and thought about today's date. The last time, two years ago during training, his father had told him the current date and taught him how to calculate the calendar. When Kang Min-ho opened his eyes, he knew today's exact date. When he opened the door and looked at the sun, he estimated that only three minutes had passed since sunrise. After calculating the sunrise time for their region, he even knew the current time.
This was how the mind of a boy trained mercilessly by a general worked. Perhaps that was precisely why he was the main character of this world.
For Kang Min-ho, today was a special day, because one of his father's training methods, Hwangtae, was coming to an end today.
Hwangtae was not actually the name of a training method, but the name of a dish. A food passed down from South Korea's history. However, there was one problem: only kings could taste this kind of food, because its preparation literally took the entire winter and required immense patience.
Alaska pollock was caught with the first snowfall and left to freeze in the open air at the very peak of the mountain. When the sun rose again, the sunlight thawed the fish's ice, and when the sun set, the fish froze again. This cycle continued throughout the winter, and by the end of the season, it produced a golden-colored fish that melted in the mouth.
But in a high mountain like this one, where the wind blew all day long, the air temperature never rose above zero degrees. Sunlight alone was not enough to melt the ice.
Because of this, every morning, the moment Kang Min-ho woke up, he climbed to the highest peak, took the fish totaling fifty kilograms, and carried them ten kilometers to the front of a cave, the only place where they could receive sunlight without being affected by the wind. After that, he stayed there and exercised until nightfall, then carried the fish back to the highest peak and returned home.
Of course, today was the final day. Which meant that all he had to do was take the fish and hand them to his father to receive his acknowledgment.
There was an excitement on Kang Min-ho's face that could not be seen. Today, he would eat a dish that felt as if it had fallen from heaven compared to bland game meat, and for the first time since the beginning of winter, he would be able to speak with his father.
In short, today was a day even more important to Kang Min-ho than his birthday.