EP1. I Got Isekai'd

"Goddammit, how the hell am I supposed to clear this?"

A curse slipped out of my mouth all on its own.

I looked out the window to find the sun already rising.

A whole month. A full month spent grinding on the same chapter — the last one — without breaking through.

Thinking maybe I just don't have any talent for games?

No. This game is different.

"That Lord of the Iron Fortress, you son of a bitch!"

Death Knight — infamous for its brutal, borderline-impossible difficulty. AKA Knight of Death.

It was the kind of game that had made grown gamers weep.

The game itself was absurdly unfriendly, and there wasn't even so much as a tip message to help you along. Worse, die once and you started over from the very ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beginning — a punishing design so merciless it had driven countless players to quit outright.

The number floating in the upper right corner of the screen. The number of times I had died on this chapter alone.

If I added up every chapter, the total death count would easily run past eight digits.

"This game was never made to be beaten."

I was furious. So furious I could hardly stand it. More than once or twice, I'd wanted to smash the monitor to pieces.

Gaming was supposed to relieve stress — instead it just kept piling it on.

Which left exactly one option.

I alt-tabbed out and typed a single phrase into Google.

I'd poured four years of my life into this game, so this was legal. I guarantee it.

Even Gandhi couldn't hold out any longer than this.

.

.

.

About thirty seconds, was it?

I found the cheat way, way too easily.

"Life, man…."

But I wasn't purely happy about it.

Seeing this, all those hours I'd sunk into the game felt like wasted effort.

I ran the program, and a list of configurable values appeared.

"Well, invincibility first, obviously."

The crown jewel of any cheat is, above all else, invincibility.

The joy of turning the tables on a boss that used to kill me on sight!

Just imagining it made the corners of my mouth curl up into a grin.

"Now, next up… should I just apply everything at once?"

Scrolling through and setting them one by one was a hassle, so why not knock it all out in a single go?

But then I shook my head.

No matter what, using every single cheat would suck all the fun out of the game.

"Oh, oh!"

The moment I applied the cheat, my stats changed.

"Huh? I only turned on invincibility. Mentality came along for the ride, apparently."

Maybe I'd pressed the wrong keys, because an unexpected extra cheat had kicked in along with it.

Eh, no real reason to turn it off, I suppose.

"Alright then — let's get started."

I rubbed my palms together furiously.

The massacre begins now.

A trash mob in black armor came trundling toward me. One hit from it used to mean a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

"Pfft."

Even under its wide-area attack, my character didn't so much as budge. Didn't die. Didn't flinch.

"Yeah, keep hitting me~ I'm gonna beat the hell out of you too."

Now THIS is what a real berserker looks like, isn't it?

Taking hits, refusing to die, and hitting back the whole time.

Why did I wait until now to use something this glorious?

It felt like I'd shortchanged myself a decade of life.

I was deep in the game when blue text popped up at the top of my screen.

[An abnormal value has been detected within the game. Please terminate the unauthorized program immediately.]

"Funny how this is the only thing they make fast."

Tsk. I clicked my tongue.

Then, as if I'd been waiting for this exact moment, I started hammering out a chat message.

Whether it ever reached the GM, who knew — but it was my way of blowing off steam.

"Oh? It talks. Gotcha good, didn't I."

Ta-da-da-dak!

I pounded the keyboard like I was trying to break it.

It was true — I'd checked the community forums, and you could buy an account for about fifty cents.

There had to be more than a few people who'd started Death Knight and promptly rage-quit.

[We may impose sanctions more severe than a permanent ban. Terminate the unauthorized program immediately. This is a warning.]

"Oh-ho, look at these bastards?"

Talking to a player who'd suffered through four years of this hell like he was some criminal — the sheer nerve of it was enough to ruin my appetite.

[You have ten seconds.]

At the same moment, a ten-second countdown appeared on screen.

I ignored it and sent my character marching forward.

Then, just to rub it in, I started beating the living daylights out of the trash mobs.

And when the counter hit zero.

"…!"

My vision plunged into pitch-black darkness.

Clip-clop. Clip-clop.

The rhythm of hooves shook my body back and forth.

Something about it felt off. Wrong, somehow.

I lifted my head through a haze of half-sleep and opened my eyes.

What the hell is this?

The first thing I saw was a bald man — and a crowd of other men. Some of them were bound in iron chains; two others were conspicuously well armed.

"Where… am I, exactly?"

The instant the words left my mouth, I flinched in shock.

A deep, gravelly voice I'd never heard in my life. This was not my voice.

And the language — it was neither Korean nor English, but something I'd never heard before. And yet there I was, speaking it with perfect, natural fluency.

"Where, you ask? The entrance to hell. Seems your nap isn't over yet."

The armed man looked at me and let out a booming laugh.

"Hell?"

"That's right! This here's the carriage bound for Vellok Island — and that's hell, all right!"

At the man's words, one corner of my eyebrow crept upward.

Vellok Island?

That was a name I'd definitely heard somewhere. Many times.

"You mean the island located in the center of the Ranok Ocean?"

I asked again, half hoping I was wrong.

"Did you crack your head in the transport cart? What kind of question is that, asking something so bloody obvious?"

"Looks like we've got ourselves a professor here."

"Ones like him drop dead first, guaranteed."

The men snickered and carried on among themselves.

Then this place is….

My faint, desperate hope came back to me as cold, hard fact.

Vellok Island — the inescapable prison, famous within Death Knight as the one place from which no one, ever, escaped.

How on earth….

At that instant, images flickered through my head like a man's life flashing before his eyes.

…Don't tell me it was that GM?

A jolt of pain shot through my skull.

I reached up to press my temple — and found my hands bound in chains.

I bit down gently on the inside of my cheek, half-convinced this must be a dream, and pain flooded in.

Slowly, the situation began to crystallize in my mind.

This was no dream.

This carriage was bound for Vellok Island, and I — chained up like this — was a criminal.

There was exactly one thing I could do right now.

"GM, I'm sorry. I will never, EVER use hacks again."

Yes — grovel before the GM who was surely watching me from somewhere.

I closed my eyes, squeezing my chained hands tight under the unusually scorching sunlight.

"Kekekeke—! What's this bastard mumbling about?"

"Scared out of his wits, looks like. Lost his mind completely."

"Hey, dimwit. Praying to the heavens won't get you a damn thing. Snap out of it."

The prisoners beside me jeered at me.

I couldn't have cared less.

They were nothing more than game NPCs.

"GM, you fucking GM bastard! I'm sorry! I've never used hacks before in my life, I swear!"

When no response came, my voice only grew louder.

"Hey! Shut your mouth, or I'll stitch it shut for you — along with your nose."

One of the guards beside me brandished the sword at his hip and growled.

"Damn it. Of course it's not getting through. Shit."

Whether anyone heard me or not, I heaved a deep sigh and let my head drop.

Truthfully, if they'd been going to let me out of this, they never would have thrown me into the game in the first place.

"What the hell did you just say?"

The guard beside me spoke in a voice like ice.

"Oh — no, that wasn't directed at you…."

"You've got some nerve, don't you?"

The man smacked the back of my head with a full-force swing.

But.

"?"

It didn't hurt at all — so painless I genuinely wondered whether he'd actually hit me.

I stared up at the guard with blank, bewildered eyes.

"…The hell are you playing tough for?"

He looked fairly flustered himself, and an awkward expression crept over his face.

"Kahahaha—! Been drinking too much, Bin? Gone rusty, have we? What do you think the prisoner takes you for, looking like that?"

Another guard watched the scene with a smirk plastered across his face.

At that, the man called Bin went red to the ears and shot up from his seat.

"Think I won't hear you if you whisper? Insulting me AGAIN? I'll teach you a lesson myself, prisoner!"

It was utter nonsense, of course.

I hadn't insulted him once.

He was just using me to save face in front of his fellow guard.

"Clamp your teeth shut!"

A fist came hurtling at my face, blindingly fast.

There was no room to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dodge.

And the moment his fist met my cheek—

—a sound rang out that absolutely should not have.

—CRACK!

"GAAAAAAGH——!"

Simultaneously, the guard screamed, clutching his hand.

"…What do you think you're doing?"

By this point I was wondering if I'd wandered onto the set of some Truman Show.

Attacking me and then crying out in pain himself — wasn't that supposed to be a comedy bit?

The other guards burst into hysterical laughter.

The face of the guard who'd hit me flushed scarlet.

"You little bastard."

—Shhhing.

He drew his sword.

This was genuinely dangerous.

Judging by his expression, he really did intend to kill me.

"P-put that down and let's talk this through. Like civilized men."

I scrambled to my feet and backed away sideways, step by stumbling step.

"You will pay in full for the insult you have dealt me."

He stalked toward me with a face of stone.

"Insult? When exactly did I insult you?!"

"Silence. Today you shall lose your arm in a most unfortunate accident. Am I understood?"

I shot a quick glance at the other guards.

Part of me hoped they'd talk him down — instead, they were grinning like this was great entertainment.

You rotten sons of bitches…!

They didn't guarantee basic human rights to criminals around here, huh?

"Halt. That's the end of the carri—"

"…!"

That was the moment.

Without warning, the ground vanished from beneath my feet, and my body plunged straight down through the floor of the wagon.

"?!"

As I fell, I caught a glimpse of the guards' panicked faces — and the gaping, wide-open rear of the carriage.

Oh. So that's it. The back of this thing was open the whole time.

It felt as though time itself had slowed. As if my body would hang in the air forever. But nothing in this world lasts forever.

—CRASH-BAM-BOOM!

I slammed into the ground at tremendous speed.

It took several more full rolls before I finally came to a stop.