There was a mobile game called Hwan-su Dae-jeon.
Like countless others, it was a collection-based RPG. You summoned creatures, built a team, strengthened it, and then fought other players, climbed towers, and ran raids.
It was not, however, popular.
The game had enjoyed a brief spike of interest thanks to its advanced AI, but the flame had quickly died out. The in-game purchases were aggressive, and the difficulty was punishingly high. Nothing came easy. Growing your summoned creatures was an exercise in extreme patience and grinding.
To make matters worse, the sheer number of different summons was staggering, to the point that players joked the AI was just making them up on the fly.
With a design so hostile to new players, it was no wonder the game failed. The casuals all fled, leaving only the true die-hards behind.
The veterans.
Park Si-hyeon was one of them.
He was twenty-four years old and had been playing since his first year of middle school. That made him a ten-year veteran.
In that time, his accomplishments were legendary.
- 1st in Player vs. Player (PvP)!
- Mu-pae-wang!
- Conqueror of the 99th floor of the Si-ryeon ui Tap!
- Free-to-play Ranking Master!
- World Time Attack Record Holder for all Daily Dungeons!
- Holder of the fastest time to complete the Tae-go Heuk-ryong (47 seconds)!
To an outsider, the list was meaningless jargon. But to anyone who had ever played the game, these were breathtaking feats.
He was a god among gods. The idol of the veteran players.
He was Park Si-hyeon, known by the handle Shin Si-hyeon.
Of course, when you pour a decade of your youth into a game that demanding, what becomes of your actual life?
A complete disaster.
His grades, from classroom exams to national tests, had plummeted. He’d failed to get into college and now scraped by with part-time jobs and manual labor.
It wasn't that he was stupid. If he were, he never could have reached the number one rank as a free-to-play user.
Park Si-hyeon was simply obsessed.
When he looked at words in a textbook, his brain transposed them into summoner statistics. When he tried to focus on anything else, his mind would drift to the auto-farming he had running in the background.
There was no escape. His mind and soul had been consumed by Hwan-su Dae-jeon.
His reality was a shambles, a pathetic contrast to the glamorous world of the game. If his parents had been well-off, he might not have worried so much, but they worked tirelessly at low-paying jobs.
He couldn't complain, though. He knew why his mother and father juggled three different jobs, running themselves ragged. It was all for him and his little sister, Park Seo-yeon.
They were responsible, kind people. So kind it was almost foolish. They had every right to scold their useless son, but instead, they offered nothing but encouragement.
What a pathetic piece of garbage, Si-hyeon thought, swallowing the lump in his throat. I know. I’m an ungrateful, damned bastard.
To have grown up in such a warm, caring family and still end up drowning in a virtual world… it was a disgrace.
Si-hyeon cursed the middle school friend who had first shown him the game. Even as the curses formed in his mind, he was sitting in a small neighborhood park, his thumbs tapping furiously on his phone. Dazzling summoned creatures, equipped with shimmering ‘runes’, unleashed their skills as he ascended the tower.
Please.
If I can just reach the 100th floor… I’ll stop. I’ll quit and come back to reality, Mom. I promise.
It’s just so unfair. I was the first veteran to even reach the 99th floor. I can’t stop now.
It might be a meaningless game to the rest of the world, but to Si-hyeon, it was his life. It had been his constant companion through his entire adolescence. It was everything.
The creatures were only AI, but he felt a deep connection to them, treating their digital lives with a respect usually reserved for flesh and blood. And it wasn't just about playing; he had studied. You couldn't even clear the lower floors, let alone develop your summons properly, without intense research.
Si-hyeon’s knowledge of Hwan-su Dae-jeon was encyclopedic, far surpassing that of any academic scholar in their chosen field.
Just a little more.
Tap, tap, tap!
His fingers flew across the glass screen. He had been stuck on the 99th floor for a solid year, but he could feel it. Victory was within his grasp.
[Kwak Dong-min: Damn it! I can't stand this stupid game anymore]
[Oh Ha-rin: What now?]
[Kwak Dong-min: How did you even get to the 80th floor?]
[Oh Ha-rin: Hahaha, still stuck there? Weren't you on that floor a month ago?]
Within Hwan-su Dae-jeon, a global chat function allowed players to communicate. For those who wanted more privacy, the system also supported private chat rooms.
[Kwak Dong-min: I swear I did exactly what Yoon Ji-seok told me!]
Playing alone could get lonely, so a few of the top veterans had created their own private chat to share invaluable information.
There were six of them in total. Each one stood at the absolute pinnacle of Hwan-su Dae-jeon.
Together they were known as the Cheon-sang-o-gun: One Heaven, O-gun. It was a title that symbolized one supreme being ruling over five masters.
The chat room had been active for five years, ever since Oh Ha-rin, the second-ranked PvP player, had sent out the initial invitations.
[Yoon Ji-seok: You know, every player has their own strategy. Copying someone else is meaningless.]
[Kwak Dong-min: No, seriously, I'm at the point where I really want to quit.]
Kwak Dong-min was a Taiwanese player, ranked 6th in the world. He was the youngest of the five emperors, and, notably, he was filthy rich.
[Kwak Dong-min: You know how much money I put into this game, right?]
[Yoon Ji-seok: 300 million.]
[Kwak Dong-min: Right. And yet I still can't get past the 80th floor! Damn it!!]
[Yoon Ji-seok: Calm down, man. It's not like 300 million is a big deal to you.]
[Kwak Dong-min: What are you talking about? Money is money!]
Yoon Ji-seok was Japanese. As one would expect from a game infused with advanced AI, all their messages were translated instantly.
[Choi Kang-chul: By the way, have you asked Cheon-jon about this?]
[Kwak Dong-min: That guy? Uh... isn't he busy these days?]
The moment Kwak Dong-min hesitated, the chat exploded.
[Oh Ha-rin: You idiot.]
[Yoon Ji-seok: Are you serious?]
[Seo Do-yun: Idiot.]
[Choi Kang-chul: Pathetic.]
[Oh Ha-rin: You have a god in our chat and you didn't ask him?]
[Yoon Ji-seok: I thought you were only asking us because the Shin Si-hyeon method didn't work.]
[Seo Do-yun: Go die.]
[Choi Kang-chul: Hopeless.]
Kwak Dong-min and the other veterans in this chat room had a deity they worshipped.
The #1 ranked PvP player, Shin Si-hyeon.
He was the one who had always found ingenious ways to conquer the game’s absurdly difficult content. Every so often, he would drop a solution or a cryptic hint into the chat for the O-gun. Each time, his advice shattered whatever obstacle they faced, earning him their devout reverence. They were all careful not to get on his bad side, terrified of being kicked from the group.
[Kwak Dong-min: Uh... Si-hyeon-hyung. Are you there? Are you still stuck on the 99th floor?]
Incidentally, Kwak Dong-min was over sixty years old. But in his mind, anyone better than him was automatically his Hyung or Noona.
[Kwak Dong-min: Si-hyeon-hyung?]
He called out again, but there was no answer.
[Oh Ha-rin: He doesn't usually check the chat in real time. Give it a rest.]
[Yoon Ji-seok: Yeah, if you leave a question, he'll probably answer tomorrow.]
None of the O-gun had ever made it past the 90th floor. To them, Shin Si-hyeon, challenging the final floor, was a true god.
[Oh Ha-rin: By the way... it's been almost ten years and no one has reached the 100th floor, right?]
[Choi Kang-chul: It's insane. Beyond insane.]
[Yoon Ji-seok: I've been playing this game just to see the end of the 100th floor. Damn, Shin Si-hyeon is a legend.]
[Seo Do-yun: Look at the way he's arranged his runes. What a lunatic.]
[Oh Ha-rin: Seriously, how come we all put in the same amount of time and he's so much better?]
The veterans were buzzing with excitement. The Si-ryeon ui Tap had always been considered unbeatable, a relentless challenge on every floor. But thanks to Shin Si-hyeon, the end was finally in sight.
[Kwak Dong-min: But what happens after the 100th floor?]
There had been an announcement from the developers a long time ago.
“Conquer the 100th floor of the Si-ryeon ui Tap! The moment it’s conquered, a new world will open up!”
[Kwak Dong-min: A new world. Does that mean the game will change?]
[Oh Ha-rin: Hahaha, it was probably just some flavor text the devs threw out. Honestly, they probably didn't think anyone would ever clear it.]
[Kwak Dong-min: Or...]
Kwak Dong-min chuckled as he typed.
[Kwak Dong-min: Maybe, just like the announcement said, the real world will turn into the Summoners' world!]
It was a common trope, a concept that appeared frequently in novels—the real world becoming a game, and the game becoming reality.
[Seo Do-yun: Idiot.]
[Choi Kang-chul: Don't be pathetic.]
[Yoon Ji-seok: You read too many novels, haha.]
As usual, the veterans teased their youngest member.
They had no idea. They couldn't possibly have known.
That Kwak Dong-min’s words were about to become reality.
Two weeks later, on his way to his part-time job, Park Si-hyeon stopped dead in the street.
“I… I did it!”
A man, tapping furiously on his phone, suddenly shouted at the sky.
“Hahahahahahahaha! Finally! Finally!”
His voice was pure, unadulterated joy. He jumped up and down, right there on the pavement.
His name was Park Si-hyeon. His nickname, Shin Si-hyeon.
“What the…”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Must be crazy.”
Passersby stared and frowned, but Si-hyeon didn’t see them. He didn’t care.
Finally. Finally! He had conquered the 100th floor. He had defeated the monstrous final boss and seen the end of the tower. He had sacrificed his entire life for this single moment.
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
He was so happy he could cry.
[You have cleared the 100th floor of the Si-ryeon ui Tap.]
The golden status window flashed, its light seeming to shimmer against his senses. He quickly moved to take a screenshot, ready to show off to the other veterans.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“What’s that?”
The murmurs of the crowd around him grew louder. Si-hyeon felt it too—a strange, unsettling shift in the air.
[You have cleared the 100th floor of the Si-ryeon ui Tap.]
That sentence, which should have been confined to his phone’s screen, was now floating in the air in front of him. A hologram of golden light.
Standing on the crosswalk, Si-hyeon furrowed his brow.
Ah. Have I finally gone from being obsessed with the game to actually being insane?
But he wasn't the only one. Everyone else on the street was staring up at the same impossible sight.
[The beta test has ended.]
[A new world is opening up.]
What? Beta test?
At that exact moment, the sky began to fill with fluttering shapes.
Crimson slips of paper drifted down like strange, rectangular snow. It was a shape Si-hyeon knew all too well.
“This is…”
He would recognize it anywhere. He had seen it thousands of times.
“A low level summoning scroll?”
It was an item that could summon a monster anywhere from F-rank to D-rank. As he watched, one scroll descended toward every single person on the street.
“What is this…?”
And then—
-Hooooonk!
A deafening truck horn blasted through his ears. He looked up, his eyes locking with the panicked face of a truck driver through the massive windscreen.
“Huh, huh?”
He tried to jump back, but his body was frozen in place.
Slam!
As the truck hit him with crushing force, a single, final thought blazed through Park Si-hyeon’s mind.
This damned game.
One thing was certain.
His life had been utterly ruined by Hwan-su Dae-jeon.