Threat Assessment (3)
"Uuuuuuugh..."
Your package has arrived.
"It's heeere..."
The day after meeting Uncle Haseong. Around lunchtime, a text came in, and I dragged myself up out of my seat. Finally. There was no thrill about starting a new game, exactly — but still. Something. There's always that little rush when you open a delivery package. Yeah.
I'd ordered the smallest size, so the box itself was pretty tiny. A headgear that looked like it would fit snugly over my little head.
"...And this is supposed to do virtual reality?"
Just how much had the world advanced while I was rotting in my room? Had I somehow jumped ten years into the future or something?
I turned the headgear over in my hands, and a section fitted with a mana stone caught my eye. So they really did use mana stones.
"Alright then... plug in the power cord... put the headgear on... lie down somewhere comfortable..."
Sprawled out on the bed, I stared blankly at the last line of the manual. Was this for real?
"Who the hell developed this thing."
What kind of login code for a virtual reality game was this? How much of an anime nerd did you have to be?
...Once you have assumed a comfortable position, speak the activation phrase: "Link Start."
...This is genuinely unsettling.
I had the distinct feeling that the second I logged in, I'd get forcibly drafted into a death game with no logout option. If I had to put it into words... yeah. It felt a lot like the moment a Gate first appeared right in front of me.
"Haaah..."
Still. I had to do it. This was all for Eunseo's safety. And for gathering information on the side, while I was at it.
"Link Start—"
The moment I spoke the activation phrase, a sensation washed over my entire body — something close to what I felt when I used my ability. And then, a moment later:
Welcome to the Trial of the Tower.
Please enter the name you wish to use.
"...Whoa."
Some voice was going on about something or other, but none of that held my attention right now. I could see my hands. I could see my feet. There was even a mirror, so I could see my face. It was just like when I used my ability to step into the internet world.
It's so familiar it's giving me chills...
I hadn't been worried about adapting at all. It felt like coming home. Wait — had I actually just found a game that suited me perfectly?
Please enter the name you wish to use.
"RichHikineet."
Are you sure you want to set this as your name?
"Yeah. Set it to RichHikineet."
Welcome, RichHikineet.
Ascend the Trial of the Tower and prove your power.
Along with that lifeless mechanical voice, the scenery shifted in an instant — from a dark, room-like space to somewhere wide open.
Welcome to Floor 1 of the Trial of the Tower.
"Ooooh..."
The fragrant scent of grass. A gentle breeze. Warm sunlight pouring down. This might actually be more impressive than I thought...
Even for virtual reality, how could it be this vivid? I slowly crouched down and scooped up a handful of dirt from the ground, and fine grains of soil slipped smoothly through my fingers.
"Okay. I'll give them this one."
I'd figured virtual reality would be, at best, a slight step up from wearing a regular VR headset. But this? This genuinely felt like stepping into another world. People always said technology advanced in the blink of an eye — and it seemed like after the Gates opened, this was the direction things had gone.
"Ah, right. I should message him."
I thought of the guy who'd been grinning ear to ear about newbie dual-boxing and whatever else. The fact that you could link your phone to the terminal device and make calls or send texts without taking the headgear off was honestly pretty nice.
He replied in under twenty seconds. Had he been waiting for this?
Just the other day he'd been whining about how much work he had, and now he was burning through PTO like this. Just to game with me, no less.
The chat cut off, so I decided to look around while I waited for him. People in armor and swords that screamed medieval fantasy. People carrying staffs like something straight out of a wizard novel. And even a guy with slicked-back hair in a flashy golden suit of armor.
...He looks like the type who'd summon a hundred swords and start blasting.
If his hair had been gold too, it would've been perfect. From the way he was scanning the area, he was clearly looking for someone. He had that hardcore veteran energy — like he was wandering around hunting for his newbie friend.
I tilted my head. So you could find people just by knowing their nickname?
"...Huh?"
I looked up at the tops of people's heads, but there wasn't so much as a hint of the nicknames he'd described. Where exactly were these nicknames supposed to be? Were they really above people's heads? Did you have to enable something in the settings when you first logged in?
"Settings."
...
"Settings."
...
What the. Why was nothing happening?
I tilted my head and looked around for anything resembling a button, but nothing stood out. A bug, maybe.
Figures.
What game didn't have bugs? I let out a sigh and messaged MoneyIsPower.
I sent a question mark in reply to MoneyIsPower's last message, and he sent one right back. There wasn't any special reason for it. The slicked-back-haired man in the golden armor — that man was looking down at me, tilting his head.
"Uh..."
"Uh..."
Our voices overlapped. This time, the slicked-back man and I both tilted our heads the other way.
...Was this for real?
"Hey. First time seeing each other like this, huh?"
"...Hyung?"
Not hyung — noona. Though if we were going by identity, I was closer to hyung than noona anyway, so maybe it didn't matter. Looking at MoneyIsPower's dumbfounded expression, I managed an awkward smile. I never expected our first meeting to go like this.
"No way, is that actually you? RichHikineet-hyung? For real?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"But... you told me you were thirty-three."
"I am thirty-three. You think I'd lie about my age?"
"Huuuh..."
MoneyIsPower's eyes were full of pure confusion — the look of someone who genuinely couldn't believe the person standing in front of him was RichHikineet.
"Keep this up and I'm not carrying you through any more hell runs."
So I said something only RichHikineet would know. In the online game Dungeon in Gunjeon that we played together, I'd regularly carried MoneyIsPower's undergeared character through the hard dungeons.
"F-for real? It's really you?"
"I already said it's me. What, you need more proof?"
"Okay. I believe you. I believe you."
MoneyIsPower scrubbed a hand roughly down his face. Past startled — he looked completely drained.
"Should I start calling you Noonim now...?"
"Just keep calling me what you always have. Don't make it weird."
"Alright. Hyung it is, then."
Now he finally sounded like the guy I knew. I'd been surprised by how tall and good-looking he was, but then again, every Dungeon in Gunjeon player was either a handsome guy or a beautiful woman, so.
"So what do we do now?"
"Ah, right. I came to dual-box with a newb— ahem, ahem."
"Why'd you suddenly start coughing?"
"No, it's just... I feel kind of guilty, I guess..."
"I only look like this. I've lived enough years to earn my age."
Being treated like a kid was the absolute worst, but right behind that was people discriminating based on appearance. This was the same guy who'd talked about anything and everything when he didn't know my face. Tch.
I looked at MoneyIsPower with pure disdain, and he let out a long breath.
"Let's just go, hyung."
He finally pulled himself together and started walking, and I trotted along behind him. The combination of a golden-armored veteran and a newbie in thin leather clothes drew way more stares than I'd expected.
"Aww, she's gaming with her oppa..."
"So cute..."
"I wanna pinch her cheek just once."
"Look, she's embarrassed — her face is all red."
I ducked my head at the voices floating in from every direction. I was starting to understand what it meant to drown in humiliation.
"Why am I the little sister here..."
"Just going by looks, that's what it is."
"We don't even look alike."
"Yeah, well, I'm not thrilled either."
We bickered our way along. MoneyIsPower had, out of nowhere, become the older brother of someone older than him — someone he'd been calling hyung until literally a minute ago. Even I had to admit that was a pretty rough deal.
"Ugh."
Right. What was the point of fighting with a kid younger than me? I looked at MoneyIsPower with that thought in mind, and he scrunched his face up hard.
The nerve of this guy, being that cheeky to his elder.