I Became an NPC
I rushed straight into the dungeon the second the game went live, and there was an NPC sitting right at the entrance.
Not 100% sure it was actually an NPC, but anyway.
One player decided the thing had to be a hidden boss and charged it. Looking back now, I'm like, who the hell calls something a hidden boss thirty seconds in — but at the time, all I could think was "hidden boss = good loot," so I dove in too before I knew what I was doing.
Then I came to my senses and my character was lying on the ground dead. Yeah. ;;
Do NOT touch that NPC for no reason, people.
+ Character died and now I'm stuck waiting a full DAY to respawn, ffs;;
Corpses of players sprawled across the ground.
That was never the plan, honestly.
After I first opened my eyes in this place, I'd waited around for a while, and when real people actually started coming in, I fully intended to greet them nicely.
But these lunatics kept screaming "hidden boss!" or whatever and charging me with their swords out.
Sure, you people respawn when you die, because this is a game to you. Me? I have no idea whether I come back.
So I had no choice but to cut down anyone who came swinging at me.
They'd only just started playing, apparently, because they sliced apart like warm butter.
Then other players saw me cutting down players, and they came at me too, and I cut them down as well — and as that cycle repeated itself over and over, players naturally started treating me like a genuine boss and rushing me on sight.
I did try to talk my way out of it. I really did.
But three years without a single conversation with another human being, and apparently my mouth had forgotten how to open.
Which only piled up the misunderstandings, which meant I had to cut down more players to survive.
At this point, I was honestly starting to wonder if I was some kind of boss monster.
And after fending off wave after relentless wave of them, I'd begun — without even realizing it — killing every player who drifted within reach of my blade.
The survival instincts I'd honed against monsters swarming me from all sides had, it seems, unilaterally classified players as enemies too.
...I'm screwed.
"...Huh?"
That was when a woman's voice sounded beside me.
At the same instant, I barely wrestled the sword I'd been about to swing at her back down with my other hand.
I really, really cannot cut anyone else...
If I slipped up now, I'd be branded a monster for good. It was already late, but I had to salvage my image somehow.
Just as I was finally coaxing my body back under control—
"Um... excuse me?"
I saw the woman carefully, cautiously picking her way toward me.
Does she have more than one life or something? She watched me butcher a crowd of players and she's still walking over? ...Oh, right. They respawn, don't they.
...Actually, that works in my favor.
Now that I'd settled down a little, if I could get this woman's help, I might just find a way out of this cave.
"Are you, by any chance, the crazy NPC?"
Speak. Please, speak.
If my voice didn't come out now, I was truly finished.
"...That—"
"Oh! Or are you a combat guide NPC? Or maybe a dungeon guide NPC?"
The words finally spilling out of my mouth were swallowed whole by hers.
Let me talk, dammit.
As I frowned at having my hard-won voice drowned out yet again, a notification window popped up before my eyes.
- Due to unknown causes, a problem has occurred with Adventurer's voice chat!
- A filter will be temporarily applied to Adventurer's voice chat!
Oh, you son of a bitch.
The one time I finally get a word out, and now it's an "error."
- As an apology for the error, a reward will be granted to Adventurer!
What is this, poison me then sell me the cure?
So it fills my life with every error imaginable and then offers me a "reward" as an apology.
...Well, at least it has a conscience.
- Rewards will be granted to Adventurer based on dungeon clear progress!
- Additional rewards will be granted based on contribution toward the dungeon clear!
Cancel.
Yeah, no conscience at all.
It calls itself giving me a "reward" and then just plops a quest into my lap.
Which meant, effectively, that I'd be getting nothing right now.
...Anyway.
"───So what was the reason you just sliced up all those people?!"
First things first: deal with the woman chattering away at my elbow.
"...You talk a lot."
"Ah...! I finally got to hear your voice!"
"You seem to have a lot of questions."
"I'm just a naturally curious person... hehe..."
The woman grinned sheepishly. Something told me that if I played my cards right, I could pry all sorts of information out of her.
Granted, there was the gallery too, but... I couldn't actually post there myself.
"Then let's have a little question game."
"A question game?"
"We each ask one thing we're curious about, and answer honestly. Back and forth."
"I'm in!"
Behind the woman as she nodded along, I could see more players just now entering the dungeon.
Apparently this was not a great spot for a conversation.
"Shall we move somewhere else?"
"Works for me! We should follow the guide NPC's lead, after all!"
"I'm not really a guide, though."
The woman tilted her head at that, and I led her toward the corner of this floor I'd been using as a makeshift home. She trailed along behind me without a shred of suspicion.
Maybe because she thought this was all a game, but she had zero survival sense.
Not that I wasn't benefiting from it right now.
The question game got me the broad strokes.
First, the woman's name was Seo Arin. Most players lead with their handles, but apparently hers was Seo Arin.
Whether that was her real name or just her actual nickname, I didn't need to care. Moving on.
The important thing I learned was this:
This cave had no entrance or exit to begin with. More precisely, the entrance was a teleport straight from outside the dungeon into the cave, and for leaving, there was supposedly a portal that looked like an exit.
Incidentally, she said there had been an exit portal right where she'd first met me, too.
...I could blink until my eyes bled and I never saw one.
Which told me I was, for all practical purposes, trapped in this cave.
And one more thing: to Seo Arin — to players in general — I appeared to be an NPC.
When players looked at other players, they saw brief info — nickname, level, that sort of thing. She said she saw none of that when she looked at me.
Maybe my system errors were related to that, too.
Because I was flagged as an NPC despite being a player, I couldn't use the system properly.
NPC designation meant no UI, and no visible portals.
"...Well, this is just thoroughly fucked."
"Sorry?"
"Didn't say anything."
Seo Arin, who'd been busy sightseeing around my makeshift dwelling like it was an attraction, turned to look at me with her head tilted.
I waved it off as nothing, and she blinked once.
Then, snapping back to her usual beaming smile, she abruptly closed the distance between us.
"Oh, by the way, you know what?"
"What."
"You feel really different from other NPCs, Siwoo-ssi."
"Well, that's because I'm not an NPC, I'm—"
Voice chat is being filtered!
"Sorry?"
"...Nothing."
Seriously, fuck my life.
Having been escorted out of the dungeon under Han Siwoo's watch, Seo Arin found her path blocked by two women.
"Seo Arin."
"Ulp."
"You said we'd party up together, and you sneaked off to run the dungeon alone?"
"Well... but you guys took forever with your character customization!"
Arin stuck her lips out in a pout. At the sight, the woman who'd been chewing her out a moment ago let out a long sigh.
"I'm not brave enough to walk around with my real face showing, like you, Arin."
"Yeah. Arin has zero caution."
"But I wanted to play the game sooner...?"
At the sight of Arin welling up her big eyes as if begging for forgiveness, Yoon Se-ah — the one who'd been sighing — slowly furrowed her brow.
"There she goes, playing the poor innocent victim again."
"Yeah. Arin is crafty."
At Se-ah's words, Jung Ha-yoon beside her nodded along too.
"By the way, Arin. Is this you?"
Meanwhile, Ha-yoon pulled up a gallery window and shared it with Arin and Se-ah.
Wanted to avoid running into that NPC everyone was talking about in the top post, so I took my time on other quests before entering the dungeon late...
( Photo of a female player with a ponytail dutifully trailing after the NPC )
How is this user alive??
A photo of Seo Arin and Han Siwoo together, attached to a post that had barely been up for any time at all.
"Mhihing... the photo came out so well~."
"Good grief. That's the only thing you noticed?"
"Obviously~! Though Siwoo-ssi is a little unlucky on camera, I guess."
"Siwoo-ssi?"
"Yeah. That NPC's name is Han Siwoo."
"Then shouldn't you just call him Siwoo or Han Siwoo? Why bother with honorifics for an NPC?"
At Se-ah's question, Arin went thoughtful, tapping her lips with a finger.
Then she tilted her head and flashed a guileless smile.
"Dunno? But the vibe just felt right! You'll get it when you meet him too!"
With that, she promised to introduce them and bring them along later.
Faced with Arin's radiant grin, Se-ah sighed that there was no dealing with her.
Ha-yoon, on the other hand, took the photo and the name Arin had mentioned, and stared in silence at the picture from the gallery.