NOVEL WEB Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Games are meant to be conquered.
Any gamer with pride would understand what I mean. Even if you start a game for fun, if the desire to beat it isn’t fulfilled, the fun inevitably diminishes.
From that perspective, I was one of the people who enjoyed games the most.
“Boring. Lacks content, lol.”
It usually took no more than a few weeks to beat most games.
Whether it was blowing up an undead boss with excessive healing or completing the game using only throwing weapons, it took me just under a month to master even the weirdest strategies.
As I was listlessly searching for the next game, “Rolling Hunters,” or “RollHun” as it was usually called, caught my eye.
In a world where hunters exterminated monsters, this mass-produced MMORPG was set in an academy.
It was a genre I wouldn’t normally glance at, but there was something particularly eye-catching about it.
“Wow, was this really meant to be cleared?”
“Did the developers even play this?”
“It’s been years since the release and no one’s beaten it. They should’ve set the difficulty right.”
“For real, lol”
The reviews were filled with negative feedback. Despite decent graphics, the game’s overall rating was “overwhelmingly negative,” with most criticisms focused on its difficulty.
Accordingly, there wasn’t a single user who had cleared the final chapter.
“A game no one’s ever seen the ending of, huh?”
What if I beat this game that no one else managed to, and left a single comment in the ratings saying, ‘Easy, lol’?
That exhilarating thought alone was enough to ignite a burning desire to challenge it.
So, I stepped into RollHun. Like any other game, I was confident I’d clear RollHun in no time.
[You failed to protect the city.]
After challenging and dying a thousand times,
“Damn it, shitty game.”
The early stages of the game were quite easy.
[Han Yu-seong]
cA playable character. A new student at Babel Hunter Academy, who appeared like a shooting star. Although he doesn’t come from a prestigious family or lineage, he is destined to walk a great path.
– Build rapport with major NPCs over three years, and collect rare artifacts to exterminate the swarming monsters!
Players assume the role of the main character, Han Yu-seong, and over the course of three in-game years, they learn various skills and develop their abilities.
Additionally, players can build rapport with NPCs to recruit them as allies or collect artifacts known as “Relics” to enhance their stats.
After developing their character, what awaits players in the final chapter is…
– I couldn’t protect it…
As the screen showed a devastated Seoul, it gradually faded to black.
In the center, the words ‘YOU DIED’ appeared mockingly. At this point, I couldn’t even blame the monsters anymore.
“Han Yu-seong, you bastard.”
I had tried every possible strategy. I unlocked all the artifacts and did my best to maintain friendly relationships with all the possible NPCs.
I experimented with various skill trees and prepared different strategies for different scenarios, but it was all in vain. As a result, I didn’t even get to see the final boss’s face.
After all this hard work, the reason I couldn’t clear the game was just one thing.
– They should have set the difficulty properly.
A review sentence flashed through my mind.
Each episode’s main quest had tight difficulty, and the swarming monster hordes showed no compromise in numbers.
If I focused on an AOE skill in my skill tree, monsters with large health bars became a problem, and if I went for a critical strike build, I couldn’t handle the swarming monsters.
“Let’s quit, quit. This shitty game.”
It was exactly my 1,000th attempt.
Before picking up the controller, I had decided to quit the game, no matter the outcome. Secretly, I hoped I could clear it, but this was the result I got.
As I lay on my bed with my face buried in pillows, the light seeping through the slits in my eyes chased away sleep.
I was sure I had turned the monitor off… having my sleep disturbed like this is quite unpleasant.
Glancing at the monitor, I saw it was filled with strange, indecipherable noise.
[S■●T◆ARWT▽§N◆AM▽§]
What the hell is this hieroglyphic stuff? Is my monitor broken now?
As I trudged to my desk to turn off the power,
Flash-!
The noise cleared and the screen flickered.
[NEW GAME]
My memory is cut off there.
* * *
When I regained consciousness, I was in a dark cave.
All I could see were the torches hanging on either side of the wall. I had only blinked once in my room, and suddenly the location had changed to a place I had never seen before.
“Is this a dream?”
I pinched my cheeks and felt the walls, but everything was too vivid to consider it a dream.
As I moved around, I felt an unfamiliar weight in my pocket.
‘A talisman and a mirror?’
A talisman with something scribbled in red dye. It had the musty smell typical of old paper.
Along with it was a hand-sized bronze mirror. As I looked at the well-polished surface, it reflected my face.
‘Who is this?’
A boy with messy, disheveled hair and a tired expression.
My face should have been there, but instead, I saw the face of someone I had never seen before.
I changed expressions a few times, confirming that the face shown was indeed mine now.
‘Wait a minute, but where have I seen this face-.’
Pop
Before I could figure out the source of the discomfort, a window abruptly appeared in front of me.
[Synchronization is starting.]
With the message, memories of the face’s owner flowed into my mind.
‘Ugh, my head…’
The influx of information caused a bout of dizziness. But it was fine. With this, I could identify the source of my unease.
At first, I was too startled to recognize it, but now I finally remembered who this boy was.
‘Seol Ha-baek.’
An unimportant extra in RollHun. He had a timid and gloomy demeanor but occasionally brought useful information to Han Yu-seong.
For some reason, he disappeared at some point, and no matter how much I searched the game, I couldn’t find out why.
He was an extra who vanished without a trace…
[Synchronization in progress…]
Immediately after, Seol Ha-baek’s recent memories surged into my mind.
‘Foolish boy! Abandoning your family’s duty to guard the seal, and wanting to go to that Babel or Dumbbell place?’
‘Father, I’m of the age where I can choose my own path.’
‘Very well. Then this time, go reinforce the seal by yourself. Since you can choose your own path, I don’t need to accompany you, right?’
The memory that just played was a conversation between Seol Ha-baek and his father before coming to this cave. It seemed to be the backstory of how Seol Ha-baek ended up at the Babel Hunter Academy, which wasn’t revealed in the game.
Something was sealed in the underground cave connected to Seol Ha-baek’s home, and his father promised to allow him to enroll at Babel if he could successfully reinforce the seal alone.
I had a rough understanding now.
“Possessing Seol Ha-baek… Is this for real?”
A scenario right out of a comic or novel had actually happened.
Of all the characters, I ended up possessing an insignificant extra, not even the main protagonist, Han Yu-seong.
No, this isn’t the time to be flustered. I need to objectively assess the current situation first.
Judging by the memories, the current time should be before Babel’s entrance ceremony, where RollHun begins. The problem is figuring out what to do next as Seol Ha-baek…
Tutorial Quest
Q: Calm the sealed fox yokai.
Tutorial?
The tutorial in the game was supposed to happen right after the entrance ceremony. Is this a tutorial exclusive to Seol Ha-baek?
Ding!
A beat later, a message window popped up.
※Warning: If you fail, you will die!
What the hell is this!
—
AOE – stands for Area of Effect. It refers to abilities, spells, or attacks in games that affect multiple targets within a specific area, rather than just a single target