Prequel. There was no novel prior to the manhwa. The novel was made to explain how stuff happen in the manhwa. Then the manhwa went that way, and that was why translators soured to the idea of translating the novel. That was what Ai-chan understood from a fellow model who read stuff from munpia while in between shoots. But then again, she never liked The Gamer in the first place due to the story about how it's a plagiarism of another story.
The manhwa was based on The Gamer Fantasia. The Gamer Fantasia was based on something else. Don't remember what. There was once a heated debate over the plagiarism case in Mangacow. Ai-chan didn't really follow it. The Gamer Fantasia is not the prequel of The Gamer.
It is about web novel of the famous manhwa "The Gamer". The web novel is PURE text, not manhwa or pictures or anything, it is like a book without pictures and an official one to that, not fanfic or something. That' it.