I Became an Ancient All-Host Lifeform - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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001 Fantasy Sweet Life

Mm~ Smell~
The aroma of americano curling at the tip of my nose is wonderfully sweet.
Opening my eyes first thing in the morning and brewing a cup of coffee in the living room is a long-standing habit of mine.

Coffee in hand, I drifted leisurely into my room and settled at my desk.
Before properly starting the day, I might as well skim through last night’s news first.
Among countless domestic and international stories, one keyword had lately caught my eye repeatedly.
Universal Basic Income.

– ‘Has the age of labor ended?’ Radical Basic Income experiments unfold across Europe
– ‘Don’t work and get 3 million won a month?’ Visiting an AI dividend UBI pilot town…

Brilliant! The whole world’s been buzzing about AI and robots, so it seems the day when humanity finally breaks free from labor isn’t far off.
Truly, human progress is magnificent.

Ahem. I am one of Korea’s 3 million proud ‘idle youth’—a self-appointed member of that distinguished cohort.
Unable to find answers in the job market, I made the prescient decision to hold the line decisively, and this is my moment to shine.

Now that an age is arriving when people can live without working, my year of ‘taking time off’ is clearly an economically sound choice.
With this thought, I nodded to myself and smiled knowingly.

“Good. Everything’s unfolding as planned. If I just tough it out for another five years, a world where I can eat without working will…”

At that moment, a hand came down hard on the back of my head.

Whack!
“Ow!”

That familiar snap and crisp sound.
Right on cue, her voice erupts from behind me.

“Good heavens, you lazy thing!”
“Oh, Mom…!”

Right. That’s the sound of our mother’s exasperation.

“Always playing around, and now you’re dreaming up some windfall? Good grief, you rotten child… Grow up!”

Thwack-thwack-thwack.

The loving touch that had been caressing the back of my head now shifted to my back, delivering a relentless barrage of swats.

“Ow… Mom, that hurts!”

Hmph. It seems our mother hasn’t quite grasped how rapidly the world is changing with AI.
Even Elon Musk of Tesla said so on the record.
There’s no need to save for retirement! Because the age of Universal High Income is coming!

A world where everyone receives a high income without working! Isn’t that thrilling just to imagine? I’m so excited I could shout—U-HI!
I opened my mouth with firm resolve, determined to help my mother understand this inflection point in human history.

“Mom! The world has changed now. Soon humanity will break free from the chains of labor within five years…”
Smack!

Another powerful blow landed on my back.
My entire back is burning—it looks like I might be bleeding.

“Ugh….”
“Goodness! You, you lazy thing! The Lord said, ‘He who does not work shall not eat.’ I never raised a son who’d loaf about his whole life doing nothing. Get out. Out!”
“Lazy? No, Mother…!”

Unable to bear it any longer, my mother finally issued an ultimatum.
Find a job within a week, or she’d throw me out of the house—a grim prospect indeed.
UBI or not, if I couldn’t land “real work,” I’d end up on the streets before I knew it.

Sigh. Just five more years of holding on, and a world where you could eat without working would unfold. But a human life still shackled to labor is such drudgery.
Thinking such thoughts, I grimly scrolled through the part-time job site with all the enthusiasm of someone forced to eat mustard.

– [Same-day / Instant Pay] Package Loading/Unloading Staff Urgently Needed (Beginners Welcome / Meals Provided)
– [Remote / High Income] AI Data Labeling Part-Time Positions Open
– [Urgent Hiring] Late-Night Unmanned Store Manager & Cleaning Staff (Experience Irrelevant)
– Convenience Store Night Staff Urgently Needed in Apartment Complex

Hmm… loading and unloading sounds too exhausting….
Data labeling pays way too little….
Late-night unmanned stores… ugh, I sleep too much. I’d never wake up for that.
The convenience store night shift seems like the safest option, doesn’t it? Familiar work, and less physically demanding.
Just as I was about to click the apply button, I could hardly believe my eyes.

Forty-eight applicants.

What? A forty-eight-to-one competition ratio for a convenience store night shift? This isn’t a new graduate recruitment drive—it’s completely absurd!
But I was being naive.
Every other listing in the area was the same. Cafés, PC rooms, serving positions—just about every part-time job nearby had dried up completely.

…Now reality was sinking in.
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

God, I’m really going to end up on the street at this rate.
Judging by the intensity in my mother’s voice earlier, this wasn’t an empty threat. If the week passed like this, my belongings would be tossed out the front door.

Well, I suppose there’s no choice. Time to pull out the secret technique I’d honed during my job-hunting days.

Behold—the infinite résumé barrage!
From that moment on, I shifted into unlimited application mode. I submitted applications to just about every listing within an hour’s commute from home.

Job type? I’m in no position to be picky.
Salary? Minimum wage is more than enough.
I fired off applications indiscriminately to anything that didn’t reek of voice-phishing scams or fraud.
It felt like I’d stepped back into my job-hunting days.
Actually, this time was far more desperate. Back then, at least I didn’t have to worry about being kicked out of my house.

“Please, just one. Please, just one callback…”

One day passed, then two, then four….
Not a single place called back.

What’s going on? Have I gotten that old already? Is it a problem that I only have part-time experience? Or because I don’t have a long-term career?
The more applications I sent with no responses, the more doubts crept in.

While I was drowning in sighs, a featured listing at the top of the job site caught my eye.

[“Fantasy Sweet Life” Experience Seekers Wanted!]
Job Summary: Your daily life becomes income! Earn daily wages just by breathing! [Beginners Welcome / Short-Term High Income / Sweet Gig / Public Institution Work]
Qualifications Required: None
Education/Experience: Irrelevant
Work Location: By Arrangement
Working hours: To be negotiated
Salary: To be negotiated
Positions: 1 (1,023 applicants)

Wait, isn’t this that Universal Basic Income experiment they’re running in Europe?
Oh wow, so Korea’s finally entered the ranks of developed nations and we’re already running trials like this!
But since the working conditions are all listed as “to be negotiated,” I can’t figure out the details.
Still, the fact that it’s some kind of research institute doing the hiring suggests it’s definitely a state-sponsored project….
But what kind of field is Interspatial Matter Applied Ecology anyway?
The name itself smells a bit fishy…. But if money rolls in just from breathing, there’s no reason to turn it down.

Desperate for work as I was, I hit the apply button without a second thought.

Well, whether it works out or not, let’s give it a shot!
Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the one.
Then I’d be that one in a thousand guy!
Sure, the odds are low, but even if I did get picked, there’s no way it’d be actually dangerous.
With over a thousand people already having applied, it’s practically vetted already.
I mean, a thousand other people applied too — they’re not idiots, so they must’ve checked it out somehow.

And besides, if it did turn out to be risky, I’ve got something to fall back on.
Say all thousand of us somehow got duped and kidnapped by some Cambodian voice-phishing ring.
Then we’d all be trapped together, right?
A thousand Korean citizens bundled up in unlawful confinement? The government wouldn’t just sit around — they’d negotiate, send a rescue team, do something.
I’ve got a thousand fellow applicants with me! That’s why the old saying goes, “Love your comrades, love your country.”
The wisdom of our elders truly is remarkable.

And then the next morning.
My phone buzzed and a text arrived.

– Congratulations! You have been selected as a finalist for the “Fantasy Sweet Life Experience Program”! Please verify your identity through the link below and sign the electronic contract. [Verify Identity]

Wait? What? I actually got in?
To be honest, I’d applied half as a joke, never expecting to actually make it through.
Wasn’t the competition ratio over a thousand to one? And I broke through that?

I tilted my head and examined the message more carefully.
Could there be a suspicious attachment? Or was this a phishing scam trying to steal my personal information?
Fortunately, aside from the [Verify Identity] link, there was nothing else that seemed unusual.

But still, doubt crept in.
I mean, me breaking through thousand-to-one odds?
That doesn’t add up. My pathetic life isn’t the kind to catch a lucky break like this.
Or maybe clicking the link would install malware or steal my personal data?
I cautiously opened my antivirus app and ran a security check.
The loading bar spun endlessly, and after a moment the result appeared.

– Safe URL: This link contains no “known threats.”

“No known threats”? What kind of answer is that?
Ugh, those bastards…. Worded it so vaguely to cover their asses if something goes wrong later.
But as an ordinary person, I had no other way to verify it. Well, if the antivirus says it’s fine, what more could happen?
And besides, if I don’t land a job soon, I’ll be sleeping rough at Seoul Station in a few days — I’m in no position to be choosy anymore.

I boldly tapped the identity verification link. A thumbprint icon appeared at the bottom of my screen.

– Please place your finger on the biometric sensor to complete identity verification.

I gently pressed my thumb to the sensor. Now would the electronic contract or whatever come up?
But then.

Peeeee—!

A blinding white light flooded my vision, and a sharp ringing pierced both ears so violently I thought my eardrums would split.

‘Aaaagh! What—what is this?’

I screamed in shock, but no sound escaped outward.
I no longer had vocal cords, after all.

* * *

Deep beneath the Third Magic Tower, in the lowest reaches of the underground: the First Bio Research Laboratory.
This place was the crystallized essence of Bio-Alchemy, forbidden across the entire world.

Along the laboratory’s walls stretched endless rows of tanks, each churning with creatures of every conceivable kind, suspended in luminescent green cultivation fluid.

This was a repository for endangered magical beasts that belonged only to ancient texts,
for Chimeras—grotesque stitchworks of organs from different species—
and for singular specimens found nowhere else on the entire continent,
a living museum that indiscriminately collected every organism of research value, regardless of era or origin.
Here, in this collection that embodied the obsessive madness of the Third Magic Tower’s master, consumed entirely by Bio-Alchemy—
two researchers stepped through the choking stench of chemicals and the oppressive pulse of Magical Power.

Striding across the central corridor, they halted before one tank.
Inside it coiled a white serpent, its scales gleaming with a pearlescent sheen.

“Is this the Spirit Beast they captured from the Southern Great Forest this time?”

The younger researcher peered into the tank with keen interest, posing the question.
The senior researcher, a middle-aged man, shrugged his shoulders in response.

“That’s right. But ultimately, it’s just an animal. The Magical Power output is decent enough, but it’s missing the most critical feature—the horn.”
“The horn?”

The junior researcher echoed the question, and the senior answered with a grave expression.

“Exactly. Without a horn, it’s worthless. A white serpent without a horn is nothing but an ordinary snake.”
“?”

The senior researcher left the bewildered junior behind and walked on indifferently.
They ventured deeper into the laboratory, toward a restricted zone layered with security enchantments.
As the ironclad barriers deactivated, a heavy door swung open, revealing an enormous device resembling a giant pressure cooker.
Inside its transparent reinforced glass chamber sat an enormous egg.
The interior of the device maintained the heat and pressure at which an ordinary egg would roast golden brown, yet for a dragon’s egg, these conditions were precisely optimal.
Upon witnessing this, the junior researcher’s eyes widened in awe.

“Oh! So this is the Dragon Egg Incubator I’ve only heard about. And what’s inside it is….”

The senior researcher nodded.

“That’s right. This is the Ancient Dragon Egg.”
“Ohhh….”

Wonder was not confined to the junior researcher alone.
A victim of employment fraud who had flown in from distant Korea also rejoiced from within the egg.

‘Wait? So in this life, I’m an Ancient Dragon? Oh my, jackpot!’

For him, who had been trapped in the sweltering, suffocating darkness of the egg without understanding why, this was undoubtedly good news.
From the moment he hatched from the egg, he imagined the “Fantasy Sweet Life” that would unfold before him, and a contented smile crossed his face.

…But where was that faint, acrid smell coming from? Was it merely his imagination?
Universal Host: Ancient Life Form Awakened

Author: Woo Ung Baeksuk
Publisher: Seo Gyeong-seok

E-book Publication Date: 2026-09-11

Publishing House: Cheongeoran Books

Registration Number: 387-1999-000006

Address: Room 404, Hanshin IT Tower, 272 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Zip) 08389
Phone: 02-6956-0531

This e-book is published by Cheongeoran Books under contract with the copyright holder, and unauthorized reproduction, distribution, and sharing are prohibited.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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