The Gamer - Restart
(or what some people have addressed as TGR) is a The Gamer fanfic written by The Black Duelist. It is an AU story that is a retelling of the original webcomic that adds in different perspectives and bonus scenes that were not present in the original. According to the author, the series will eventually branch off of the main story into its own thing that will be completely different from the original manhwa.
The most recognizable thing about this fanfic is that the protagonist, Han Jee-Han will not be in possession of his "Gamer's Mind" passive that forcefully calms him down. As such, Jee-Han will have to take it upon himself to become stronger as he faces the hellish battlefield that is too come.
In what was assumed to be a hiatus, the story went on a long break for about almost a year before the author resumed it on February 24th, posting the 12th chapter along with the start of the newest arc.
The fanfic is currently divided into separate arcs at the moments:
- Introduction/Zombie Arc (Volume 1; Chapters 1-11)
- Paradise Pursuit Arc (Volume 2; Chapter 12 - ???)
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The author plans on compressing the first 24 or so chapters of the web comic (which is considered the "Zombie" arc) into 10 chapters.
- An Arm and a Leg: In chapter 10, one of Sung-Gong's arms get infected by the troll zombie's skin dissolving acid and he's forced to chop it off. According to Sung-Gong, it's only a minor inconvenience and he claims it can be restored.
- Attack Its Weak Point:
- Jee-Han's tactic for defeating the monsters in Illusion Barriers relies on being able to see their weak points and attack accordingly. The battle against the Legion Zombie was a perfect example of this, where Jee-Han and Sun-II take advantage of the zombie's pitiful speed.
- This was averted in chapter 11 when the Troll Zombie had no apparent weak points (being both powerful and fast) and Jee-Han almost suffered a mental breakdown before Sun-II snapped him out of it.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Both the Spiral Javelin and Blazing Spiral Javelin. After Jee-Han increases his INT to 50, they're both ridiculously powerful moves that can easily one shot most boss monsters but they take time to charge and fire, requiring Jee-Han to utilize his party members to distract them. Jee-Han is able to realize that he's going to need spammable attacks to survive in the future.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Jee-Han's "Observe" skill is basically the perfect version of this. As it levels up, it reveal more information including age, personality traits, and how much EXP they need to level up.
- Badass Boast: The ending of Chapter 10 when Jee-Han arrives to help Sung-Gon.Jee-Han: Let's raise some hell!
- Badass in Distress: The entire climax of the first arc can be considered this trope as Sung-Gong, potentially one of the strongest characters mentioned in the story, is restricted from using his full strength against the Troll Zombie which causes him some severe problems.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jee-Han, Sun-II, Sae-Young, and Shi-Yun all pull this off when they come to rescue Sung-Gon when he's facing the four troll zombies in Chapter 10.
- Black Market: The Abyss Auction qualifies. It's taken even worse when there are actual auctions that involve selling human slaves for the highest bidder.
- Calling Your Attacks: Due to the nature of his power, Jee-Han will usually have to call out the name of his skill to activate them.
- Character Level: How Jee-Han plans on becoming stronger. Since he lacks the experience that his friends have, he plans on finding shortcuts granted by his Gamer power to discover ways to level up faster so that he can spend his stat points.
- Cliffhanger: The author has become infamous for these, adding in cliffhangers almost every chapter. The most noticeable one is during Arc 1 Chapter 9 where the Troll Zombie almost breaks out of Sung-Gon's Illusion Barrier, something that was thought to be impossible.
- Compressed Adaptation: Since this fan fic is basically a retelling of the original web comic, the author has condensed the pacing of the comic by half, having one chapter of about 5000 - 6000 words equate to 2-3 chapters of the manga, not including the bonus scenes. It tries to include the most important aspects of the manga, only leaving out details that aren't that important to the readers. Eventually, this will stop being the case once the story branches off of the canon and does its own thing.
- Darker and Edgier: The main premise of the fan fic. The author has mentioned that the story will become much more darker and edgier once he has finished adapting the canon up until he will branch off.
- Didn't See That Coming: Sung-Gong (and no one else for that matter) expected a monster created inside of an Illusion Barrier to attempt to break out of its prison.
- The Dreaded:
- Sung-Gong is known as the Black Summoner for his multiple contracts with a variety of demons and hell creatures and even at only 30 % of his full power, he was able to corner a beast that took a combined effort of all of Jee-Han's companion's to defeat.
- The Existence Eater that controls most of Seoul, who has enough power to be recognized as an entire clan.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Even though Jee-Han is a Natural Ability user (of the highest class at that), he still mostly gets treated like an amateur by practically everyone. Its justified however since in the Abyss, abilities don't mean shit if the user is incompetent and what really matters is status and strength (the latter which Jee-Han is rapidly gaining).
- Empowered Badass Normal: What defines "Acquired Ability Users" that weren't blessed by Gaia with supernatural powers. Both the Chunbumoon and Yunhonmoon clans are perfect examples of this, with all of their members having gained their superhuman abilities by training their assess off.
- Foreshadowing: The bad feeling Jee-Han had before joining Sun-Il to fight against the Troll Zombie turns out to be regarding the fact that after having defeated the Troll Zombie and showing off his relatively new but potentially dangerous powers, a man from the Abyss who was observing the entire spectacle has marked Jee-Han as a target to be captured to be sold off. As expected, having his existence become known is what kicks off the next major arc where a group of cleaners called Paradise are dispatched to capture not only him but any potential ability users in Seoul.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Seems to be an Inverted trope as the girls (Sae-Young and Shi-Yun) both specialize in smashing their enemies with their fists while Jee-Han uses his magic from a distance. Of course, as Jee-Han continues to practice and hone his martial arts, this will inevitably stop being the case.
- Healing Hands: The "Yunhon Soul Recovery" technique that Jee-Han picked up by accident and has now become his main weapon of healing others. Its huge benefits turn out to be staggering when Shi-Yun reveals that the technique was never meant to be as efficient and effective as Jee-Han's, who can restore critically injured patients back to full health with only a few uses.
- Hereditary Curse: Sung-Ah, Sung-Gong's ill daughter was cursed since birth by a powerful curse that has been draining her life force since the moment she was born.
- Hope Spot: Chapter 10.
- How Do I Shot Web?: A large part of the story revolves around Jee-Han trying to grasp how his insanely broken powers work and spends alot of time experimenting with the different features. Unfortunately for him, the plot doesn't sit still enough for him to do much of that.
- I Can Still Fight!: Sun-Il's entire role in Chapter 11 can be summarized as this during the battle against the Troll Zombie where he was temporarily taken out of the fight before coming back and playing a pivotal role in its defeat.
- Instant Expert: Arguably the greatest advantage Jee-Han possesses thanks to his gamer skill as he's able to instantly learn the contents of books that contain skills and use them instantly, skipping the entire process of learning them that others would have to subject themselves too. The only flaw is that Jee-Han has to grind these skills to make them effective but with his various skills, even that isn't much of an issue anymore.
- Jack of All Trades: Jee-Han seems to be heading in this direction, as advised by Sun-Il who suggested that he build up his close combat skills along with his long distance ones. For a normal person, working on both would be near impossible due to the limitations they have on their bodies but for Jee-Han's who's power has almost limitless potential, becoming a Jack of All Trades is quite doable; he just needs to grind a ton.
- Knowledge Broker: Jackal, a mysterious entity within the Abyss, always seems to be plotting or up to something based on Krash's comments in Chapter 12.
- Loophole Abuse: Characters are more than eager to take advantage of situations that are usually against them to turn the tide of any negative situation, especially Jee-Han.
- A perfect example of this is in Chapter 20 when Jee-Han faces off against Haku, an Illusion Monster that guards one of the secret volumes of the Senbumoon Clan. He gets his ass kicked at first and almost loses hope but soon finds out that he's allowed to fight Haku as much as he wants as long as he doesn't die or leave the Illusion Barier. To anyone else, it would be useless to continue fighting but to Jee-Han? Who has one of the most broken abilities in the Abyss? He takes full advantage of it and uses it to raise several of his skills enough to eventually beat Haku, whose utterly speechless towards Jee-Han's rapid growth each time after being beaten.
- Mundane Utility: Jee-Han puts his new increased intelligence and wisdom to use outside of battle by essentially breezing through a tough chemistry test that he didn't even study for in Chapter 13.
- Necessary Drawback: Jee-Han's Team Battle Mode that debuts in Chapter 11 is capable of granting both Jee-Han and his party members buffs depending on the roles selected for them, but the mode is then revealed to be supplied by Jee-Han's own mana which explains why the buffs are removed when Jee-Han runs out of the necessary mana to fuel it.
- Oh, Crap!: Sung-Gong's reaction towards the Troll Zombie trying to break the Illusion Barrier that is in to escape into the real world.
- Phantom Zone: All ability users have the ability to create 'Illusion Barriers' where they can fight without affecting the real world. The other alternative is purchasing pre-set Illusion Barriers that are sold within the Abyss that are capable of spawning certain monsters on a regular basis (Sung-Gong's Zombie Barrier for example).
- Something Only They Would Say: Just like in the original manhwa, Jee-Han convinces Sun-Il that he's not an impostor by saying "Hadoken". Naturally, since only Jee-Han would make that kind of joke in the middle of getting strangled, its enough to convince Sun-Il.
- Summon Magic: Sung-Gong got his legendary nickname as the Black Summoner mainly because he's an infamous user of summoning magic to bring forth familiars.
