Lookism: Mad Dog

Kang Jae-won lived twenty-nine years in a world that never wanted him. Abandoned at birth, he grew up in an orphanage, survived the streets, ran with gangs, and learned to fight with whatever his hands could find. He went to prison, became an arms dealer, and earned the name "Mad Dog" for a fighting style that was fierce, unpredictable, and utterly without mercy. He died alone in a rainy alley, betrayed by a rival, a bullet in his side and a lifetime of loneliness in his heart. His last thought, as the light faded, was that he'd made it to the very end without ever giving up. Then he opened his eyes. Somehow, impossibly, Jae-won wakes up in a body that isn't his—seventeen years old, handsome in a way his scarred face never was, enrolled at J High School in the Mechanical Engineering department. The original owner of this body died quietly in his sleep, leaving behind a small apartment and a fresh start that he'll never get to use. Now the Mad Dog walks the halls of J High, a twenty-nine-year-old survivor trapped in a teenager's perfect body. For the first time in his existence, his body can keep up with his mind—his photographic memory, his razor-sharp reflexes, his encyclopedic knowledge of weapons and combat. For the first time, he's not fighting just to survive. But this world is different. Strange. Students whose appearances seem to shift overnight. Rumors of bodies that change. A society built on looks where the beautiful are worshipped and the ugly are ignored. Jae-won doesn't understand any of it yet. He only knows that his skills, his instincts, his very existence as Mad Dog—none of it is going to stay buried forever. In a world where appearance is power, a man who's already died once has nothing left to fear. The stray dog has new teeth. And he's curious what comes next.