Prologue
Kim Seonwoo was born into a wealthy family.
His father was a successful businessman, and his mother was a former model turned celebrity.
But Kim Seonwoo had never been happy in that house.
If anything, he had been deeply miserable.
He had been born with a body that was congenitally, catastrophically weak.
His whole body had failed to function properly. He couldn't even breathe on his own, and so he had to remain in an incubator for a very long time.
Even when he was finally able to come out, not much changed.
It wasn't an illness. His body was simply, purely, unbearably frail.
Just getting up from where he sat was enough to leave him gasping for breath.
Since it wasn't a disease, it couldn't be treated. It simply had to be accepted.
A body too weak to be strengthened even through exercise.
A life where even stepping out of his room was a major ordeal.
That was Seonwoo's normal.
And that part was all right.
From the moment he became aware of the world, that had simply been how things were.
So the source of his unhappiness wasn't the frail body he had been born with.
It was his family.
"Mom."
He called out to her carefully.
"What?"
The reply that came back was short and sharp, bristling like thorns.
It was not a voice any mother should have used with a small child.
Children were far more sensitive to emotions than adults liked to think.
Seonwoo instinctively realized that his mother felt no affection for him.
"...Never mind."
He gave up on seeking love.
"Good. I'm busy, so handle it yourself."
"Yes, ma'am."
His father was the same.
Seonwoo couldn't even bring himself to speak to him. His father always reeked of something Seonwoo only later came to know as alcohol.
And mixed with that, an even heavier stench of perfume and cosmetics always made him want to vomit.
"What the hell, you little punk."
The way his father looked down at him in disgust felt monstrous.
A terrifying monster too frightening even to approach.
That was what his father was to Seonwoo.
"Divorce? I don't really care, but you're taking the kid, right?"
"What are you talking about? We said from the start he'd inherit your family line if we had a son."
"Are you kidding me? That thing is supposed to carry on the line?"
Later, when he was a little older, he secretly listened to his parents fighting late at night and came to understand for certain.
Ah.
So I don't have parents.
...
After that, he couldn't even hope for the word family, much less affection.
"We'll sign the papers when the time's right."
"Fine."
Even the shell of a family, maintained at least in form, seemed like it would soon disappear.
"Then let's put it off for about five more years."
"Fine. Let's both behave ourselves until then."
But only a few days later, a reprieve was decided.
Because his parents, who knew each other too well to be anything better than strangers, would continue living together a little longer as a show-window couple.
For his father, it was for reasons Seonwoo couldn't understand—policy, public affairs, things like that.
For his mother, it was because of her image as a celebrity and the program she was currently appearing on.
Of course, that didn't mean Seonwoo gained anything from it.
They still weren't his father and mother.
"Use this for your classes."
"Yes, ma'am."
Since it was difficult for him even to leave his room, he took remote classes on the tablet his mother casually tossed to him.
They couldn't send him to school, but compulsory education was still compulsory, so he ended up being homeschooled.
And since he couldn't meet kids his own age, he couldn't make any friends either.
All Seonwoo had was a tablet, a bed, and a chair he occasionally struggled to sit in.
Inside that large, spacious house, those things alone were his.
They were his entire world.
So when he first encountered it, the shock was profound.
He became interested in something called a game, and out of curiosity downloaded whatever caught his eye.
Without even properly understanding what a "game" was.
The title Goddess Saga didn't matter.
He didn't understand its genre either—that it was a modern setting infused with fantasy.
It was simply the first free game he saw that he could download without restriction.
That was the whole reason.
And then he fell into it.
He entered the protagonist's name without much thought.
His own name.
And then he saw a grandmother calling for him with desperate affection, pulling him into her arms.
He saw a younger sister crying as she hugged him.
They were nothing more than standing illustrations beyond the tablet screen.
Nothing more than voices spilling from a crude speaker.
And yet the existence of a precious family seeped softly into Seonwoo's soul, even as it struck him with immense force.
That was why it hurt even more when the story was steeped in misery.
When an unreasonable gang stole away the house and land they had lived in.
When he had to kill someone precious—someone who had once been his friend—with his own hands because that person had become a threat to the world.
For an ordinary player, it would have been the kind of game they'd delete on the spot.
But Seonwoo couldn't let it go.
Because despite everything, the family and friends who never gave up came together in the end and reached the ending.
Family.
Friends.
Things he himself did not have.
Things he didn't truly understand, and yet instinctively longed for.
So he became immersed in that game—no, in that story.
"That kid's gonna die soon?"
"Yeah. His organs are getting weaker and weaker, so they say he won't last more than a few months. Since it's not an illness, they can't even treat it."
"Then let's set up a scenario and decide on the divorce date."
"Fine. Until then, tone down the act of doting on that little brat."
"I'll handle it."
In the meantime, as he grew older, his body—which only weakened more with age—finally began to collapse.
For an ordinary person, a body that aged and grew would become sturdier.
But Seonwoo was the opposite.
Like a flame burning through the last scraps of firewood, he only grew weaker and weaker, until death was pronounced over him.
Though he was still far too young, life for Seonwoo had become not something he lived, but a process of dying.
And yet, even after hearing it from the doctor, he did not grieve.
"Okay, Eunseo."
"Yes, Grandmother."
Not in the reality where he shared a space with people who weren't family,
but by living over and over again with the family inside the game, he was able to smile.
And so, at seventeen—before he had even become an adult, with death right in front of him—
Seonwoo's entire world consisted of only one room, one bed, a chair he used to sit in sometimes but had been unable to use even that for years now,
and the world beyond the tablet screen where his family existed.
His breathing grew shallow.
It should have hurt.
But the very body that ought to have felt pain was dying, and so, strangely enough, there was almost none.
"Then we'll discontinue life support."
Because he had been born not with an illness, but with a body that was simply too weak, treatment had been impossible, and life-prolonging care had not been pursued either.
And so, before he even turned seventeen,
as Seonwoo slowly died—
his breathing stopped.
If I die like this...
I hope I wake up in the world where my family is.
In the final moment, even while believing himself that such a wish could never come true, Seonwoo still wished for it.
And at that moment—
I can grant your wish.
Huh?
A strange voice sank into his mind.
However, the probability of reaching the ending you desire is infinitely close to zero.
Even so, do you still wish to go to the world where your family exists?
[Y/N]
Though his eyes had already ceased to function, the message demanding a choice was perfectly clear.
As if it were being projected not onto his eyes or brain, but directly onto his soul.
And Seonwoo, without the slightest hesitation—
Yes.
He answered.
And then—
He was pulled into someone's arms.
"...Huh?"
The wish that should never have come true had come true.