Who Are You?
The virtual reality game Frolazia.
A vast open world, limitless freedom, and monsters and NPCs shrouded in mystery!
Virtual reality games had come and gone over the past several years, but this one alone managed to gather every gamer's hopes in a single place.
"The Frolazia we're about to unveil is different from every game that came before it. No — 'different' doesn't even cover it. Calling those other games trash wouldn't be an overstatement."
Director Lee Chang-soo, already world-famous for the string of hits he'd produced, spoke with such absolute conviction that people couldn't help but pay attention.
What the hell did he build to be that cocky?
What if it flops?
His confidence bordered on arrogance, and that alone had the public waiting for Frolazia with bated breath long before launch. If the game failed, they'd make him pay for running his mouth. If it succeeded, they'd simply enjoy it. Either way, they won.
Frolazia game packs sold out through the first, second, and all the way to the eighth production run. Crowds thronged outside Lee Chang-soo's company, NewDream, begging for even one more copy.
And so, under the weight of everyone's expectations and doubts, the game went live…
"Whoa. Holy shit."
It was an absolute smash hit.
The sense of presence was nearly indistinguishable from reality. Where previous VR titles had managed, at best, to engage sight and hearing, Frolazia reached every sense — smell, touch, the works.
"This is… actually a game?"
The starting village of Ribent.
Countless people milled about a landscape that looked as if it had been lifted straight from every fantasy medieval village anyone had ever imagined. A simple-looking farmer. A bright-eyed child laughing as they ran. A merchant shouting to draw customers. A silver-armored guard. And players in the same brown adventurer's clothes as herself.
Amid the throng of people, a brand-new player with the nickname Haring stared around with sparkling eyes.
"Insane… it's exactly like what I saw on the gallery."
Haring was a thirteenth-wave purchaser of Frolazia — a player who'd only managed to get in three months after launch. After the game's success, demand had exploded so hard that even with every effort, three months was the soonest anyone could snag a copy.
Without that bastard, I'd have been completely screwed…
Thanks to her older brother — a streamer who specialized in Frolazia content — she'd somehow gotten her hands on one. Without him, it would have taken another three months at least. He tormented her constantly, but in this moment she was genuinely grateful, and she opened the gallery linked to the system window.
The gallery for Frolazia news and banter — better known as ProlGal.
─ FUUUUUCK!!! Did a hidden class drop??? (32)
─ Pathfinding difficulty is hell;; (16)
─ First to enter the capital? (130)
─ Isn't this a quest item? (7)
─ Are there no dragons in this game (40)
─ Hey Celestial Guild, tone it the hell down;; (176)
─ Got locked in jail, fuck… (55)
─ Anyone wanna trade silver for junk weapons, I'll take the silver (12)
"Peaceful as ever today."
Plenty of trolls, sure — but it was the gallery she'd been reading faithfully right up until the day before she started playing. Most of the posts were about Frolazia itself, and she'd always read them carefully in preparation for the day she'd finally get to play. Even without that excuse, the posts were just fun.
(Photo of a scarecrow beaten to powder)
Yeah, no such thing.
What kind of game doesn't even have a hidden class?
Hitting a scarecrow a thousand times and getting a hidden class is literally the national rule, right?
─ You absolute idiot lmaoooooo
└ (OP) No but in novels it definitely worked that way
└ This is reality, kid…
└ Hitting a scarecrow a thousand times and getting nothing is kinda bullshit though.
└ fr lol
─ There are hidden classes though. I heard someone got something like a Holy Sword
└ (OP) That's exactly why I want one too fuck fuck fuck
└ Okay that's actually kinda enviable
─ (TaxFreeSex) I wanna smash
(Photo of a city packed with golden buildings)
Cleared the subjugation quest and finally made it to the capital I saw in the showcase — am I the first?
No verification posts that I can find, so hard to say. Plus the gallery isn't every player.
Anyway, I can meet that knight-commander unnie here, right?
Please tell me I'm right.
─ (DragonStan) Wait you killed the Orc Lord????
└ (OP) Took like thirty tries? Clearing it gave me a quest to head straight to the capital
└ Holy shit you actually beat that. The difficulty was brutal;;;
└ Please write a guide. I'm begging you.
└ (GiveMeHiddenClass) Me too me too me too
└ (OP) Hold up, gotta find the hidden stuff first
─ Knight-commander unnie? She's a girl?
└ (GiveMeHiddenClass) She was in the showcase trailer. Absolute goddess. Lore says she works there
└ OOOOOOH holy shit
└ (OP) This is why I speedran so hard lmao. Haven't taken a single day off since launch, three months straight
└ This man is unhinged lmaooo
"The capital, huh…"
Haring closed the translucent gallery window floating in midair.
The game had been live for about three months, but player progress was still sluggish overall. According to Director Lee Chang-soo, more than eighty percent of players still hadn't left the starting village, and the main quest hadn't even begun.
But.
This game was not fair.
Someone out there had claimed a precious hidden piece that only one person could obtain. Someone else had paid their way into a position of power no one else could match.
The latter is more that bastard's style, though.
Either way — find a hidden piece, and becoming a ranker was entirely possible!
She'd started three months late, and she could still climb higher than anyone. Which meant there was only one thing Haring could do.
"Time to go hiking."
To find a hidden piece no one else had discovered yet.
(Photo of an endless mountain range)
Climbed hard again today.
All I can see are grass, trees, flowers, bugs, and beasts.
What a beautiful view.
I haven't found a single thing, but being able to witness nature like this is satisfaction enough — my ass, give me the fucking hidden piece you bastards
This should be enough already
─ lmaoooooooooo
─ (GiveMeHiddenClass) What, you think hidden pieces just dig themselves out of the ground~
└ (OP) fuck…
└ Fun fact: there actually is a hidden piece that came out of the ground
└ This dude just likes hiking lmao
└ lmaooo
└ Give it a rest
└ You bought that expensive game pack and gear and all you've done for a month is hike?
└ If that's the plan, give it to me. Let me play
─ Change your nick to HikingEnthusiast lmao then something might drop
└ (OP) Shut up
Crack!
"Hoo…"
Day thirty.
A full month had already passed since she'd started Frolazia. Factoring in the time to clear the tutorial and gear up with basic equipment, call it thirty-two days.
Regardless — for more than thirty days straight, all she had done was climb mountains. While everyone else was off on dreamlike adventures, she climbed, and climbed, and climbed some more.
Anyone might ask why she was doing this, but she had a conviction she couldn't quite explain.
Hidden pieces being up on high plateaus is just common sense, right?
A tall mountain no one ever set foot on. Something precious — or someone extraordinary — waiting in its deepest reaches. It was a cliché worn smooth from overuse. Searching the Red Mountain near the starting village was simply the obvious move.
"It should show up any time now…"
For something so close to the starting village, the elevation was high and the scenery was gorgeous — but strong monsters were nowhere to be found. Goblins and wild animals, at best.
That was exactly why most people ignored the Red Mountain. Haring was different.
It's coming.
The more empty a place looked, the more spectacular the discovery waiting inside it.
Rustle.
"Oh?"
How much longer had she been combing the mountain that day? Pushing through the deep forest, Haring found something.
A red ore larger than a hill. Even at a glance, it radiated an unusual energy — she didn't know the details, but it was clearly going to sell for a fortune.
"Ah shit, I don't have a pickaxe."
She'd received one after the tutorial, but it only took up inventory weight, so she'd thrown it away.
Of course something like this shows up now.
She ran her fingers over the surface.
"Weird. Feels almost like scales."
Annoying, but she'd have to head back down, grab a pickaxe, and come back…
Thud.
Rrrrumble!!
"Wh-whoa?!"
The ore was moving.
No — looking closer, it wasn't ore at all…
"A dragon?"
It was a dragon.
An impossibly massive dragon covered in red scales.
"Whoa…"
The dragon was coiled in its nest, fast asleep. It had shifted just now, but mercifully it hadn't woken. A single kick from a dragon that size would delete Haring on the spot.
You are the first to enter the Nest of the Flame Dragon.
★ First Achievement Unlocked! ★
─ All stats +3
─ Fire resistance +10%
─ Physical resistance +3%
─ Dragonkin affinity +20%
"OOOOOH!!!"
A title! A hidden piece!
Her shock lasted only a second before pure joy took over, and Haring bounced around the nest, hopping from foot to foot. Finally — finally — a month of pure hell was paying off. The gallery had mocked her for her daily posts, called it a waste of time — well, look at her now!
"I DID IT!!!"
Forgetting every reason she should have been careful, Haring cackled and clapped her way right up to the dragon's face.
Kuuuu…
Still sleeping.
"Can't not do this."
She stepped right up to the dragon's snout and snapped a few photos with the system's built-in camera.
Click. Click.
Then she uploaded straight to the gallery.
(Photo of a beaming Haring throwing up a peace sign, with a sleeping dragon behind her)
Found it.
I told you hiking was the answer lmaoooooooo
What? Hiking enthusiast? Stop posting your daily hiking logs?
I'm going straight for Dragon Knight, seeya lmaoooooo
─ ????
─ (GiveMeHiddenClass) What the fuck is this
└ (OP) What do you think, it's a hidden piece lmaooo
└ Is this AI?
└ Bro what the fuck is a dragon
└ This is photoshopped
└ (OP) nah not AI, real as hell, took it with the system camera h
└ holy shit it's real;;
└ There's a verification mark whoa
└ Is that the snout?
─ (Evan) Where is that. Tell me and I'll compensate you handsomely.
└ (OP) hold up, let me finish looting first lmao
└ (GiveMeHiddenClass) PLEASE me too me too me too me too me too
└ Are you sharing or what?
└ (OP) heheheheh
└ (DragonStan) Haring-sama please. Seeing a dragon with my own eyes has been my lifelong dream.
└ That nickname is extremely concerning lmaooo
└ (DragonStan) What do you need? I'll give you literally anything, please teacher.
└ (OP) ah lmao just wait a bit k
─ Uh, are that thing's eyes open.
└ Wait, are they?
"Heh heh. This is fun."
Now this was a game.
She'd climbed, and climbed, and climbed again for this exact day. At last, the reward for all that labor was hers. Time to carefully slip out without waking the dragon. She was still a newbie and didn't know the details, but according to gallery intel, the higher an NPC's level, the more likely they were to be hostile.
"Its eyes are open? What are you talking about. It's sleeping…"
"Who are you?"
A voice.
Coming from behind her. A strangely girlish voice — and yet one she couldn't simply dismiss.
Haring creaked her head around.
"A human?"
The dragon. Had. Opened. Its eyes.