Entering

[Dark Zone Gallery Main Illustration]

Hey, newbies.

If you clicked on this, I'm assuming you're either curious about trying this game or you've just started and are looking for information. That's exactly who I wrote this for.

I've been playing Dark Zone for a while now, so I can't claim this is written from a newbie's perspective. There's probably a lot of stuff I've missed.

If you read through this and still have questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer. But please do your best to search for information elsewhere first before asking. Don't come here just to get roasted for having bad ping.

[...]

[Login Screen / Question Screen]

Here's how it works for people who've never connected to VR before.

When you first enter, you'll see an avatar setup screen. This is the character you'll use in virtual reality going forward — though it's not what you'll use in Dark Zone specifically. You can use it if you want to, of course.

Make your avatar however you please — change your gender, add breasts, slap cat ears or a tail on, whatever. Once you've created and saved it, you can move around with it.

Customization change periods and usage limits aren't really important right now, so skip past them and go straight into Dark Zone.

After you've checked all the various miscellaneous stuff, you'll see a login screen like this. Just enter the ID and password you set when you signed up for the platform.

Here's the thing about this game — it occasionally throws random questions at you before you connect. If you answer them correctly, you get various buffs and benefits. Things like increased blueprint drop rates, boosted experience gain, slight damage increases, and sometimes even useful guns or items.

The buffs apply to the whole party, so when questions pop up, make sure to post them in the gallery and get everyone to answer them all. If you ask veterans to carry you in with buffs active, they'll flip their eyes and come running. lol

+ Additional Note:

There are five questions total, but sometimes instead of 5/5, it'll display 6/6. That's a kind of Easter egg.

The final question that appears is called the "ICARUS Question" — you have to fill in the meaning of the acronym ICARUS. Nobody has gotten the correct answer yet.

It doesn't matter if you get that one wrong, so just make sure you nail the other five.

[...]

[Customization and Assist Level Settings Screen]

There's not much to say about customization, but one thing to note: ears and tails are subject to hit detection and identification, so be careful with them.

Now, the most important setting is the difficulty system, officially called the Assist Level — shortened to "Assist."

How you adjust this slider determines how much blood and shit you'll be spewing while playing, so listen up and pay attention.

There are five types of correction, in order:

Aim Correction / Recoil Correction / Damage Correction / Health Correction / Action Correction.

Each slider can be freely adjusted from 0% to 100%. Please remember that the closer to 0%, the less correction you get. Don't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠go making stupid hardcore characters.

Let me explain each one:

Aim Correction — simply put, it's a system that makes you at least look human even if you're terrible at shooting. The higher it is, the fewer bullets you'll miss, and you'll get aim assist. Of course, it's not like every bullet you fire into the sky will hit something — it only helps a little bit. If you try to milk this, you'll get absolutely destroyed by mobs.

Recoil Correction works similarly to Aim Correction. Higher means less felt recoil; lower means recoil matches reality. It's partially linked with Aim Correction, so you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can't set one extremely high and the other extremely low.

Damage Correction — despite the name, this adjusts how much pain you feel when you get hit. Even at 0%, pain from critical hits is still simulated, but hits to limbs hurt more than you'd expect, so don't mess with this one too much.

Health Correction — do not touch this under any circumstances. The higher it is, the more it's just a numerical display. The lower it is, the more your actual physical health and strength are reflected in the game. Considering the average physical condition of people who play this game or hang out in the Dark Zone gallery, I'd estimate you'd last maybe two minutes of a mission before collapsing and dry-heaving. If you mess with this wrong, the game becomes unplayable, so just ignore it.

Action Correction relates to tactical actions. The higher it is, the more things like footstep suppression, reloading, high-ready/low-ready, and everything else are handled semi-automatically. But if you set it low, you'll be a useless noob who takes five seconds to reload and doesn't even know where the bolt catch on their own gun is.

So don't go pulling everything to 0% like an idiot right from the start. Practice slowly at a shooting range or something. Nobody's going to stop you.

This correction is linked with Health Correction, so naturally you can't set one high and the other low.

[...]

[Hardcore Mode Warning]

Many people know about Hardcore Mode, but almost nobody actually plays it.

Think of it as having 90% or more of the corrections removed. The system activates when four of the five corrections are completely off and the fifth is set to 50% or below. Don't do it.

I'm warning you.

There are a few people who actually play it, but I'd say there aren't even twenty worldwide who main it. There were some former UDT members in Korea who uploaded training vlogs on Yourspace, but even they hit 100% completion and immediately quit.

If you're a discharged special forces operator who wants to get an invitation from ICARUS headquarters and leave your name in the game company's records, go ahead and try it.

Every now and then, someone turns off all corrections by accident. In that case, you'll have to survive on your own with only the minimal UI the device provides. lol

By the way, you'll also have to do your own zeroing.

The only "benefits" are a portable EMP generator, increased blueprint drop rate, 100% progression acceleration, and 100% nanomachine activation rate — but they're basically meaningless. Hardcore Mode itself means you die after a few hits, and even with nanomachine activation doubled, it just adds two more seconds to your death timer.

And from the moment you start this way, you can no longer adjust the sliders in-game. Just think of it as being screwed.

Next time, I'll cover the tutorial and things to watch out for when moving to HQ.

Until then, have fun gaming, you noobs.

"It's not quite what I expected."

That was my first impression of the VR connector — the device commonly called a "connector."

The exterior felt like one of those holiday gift boxes from the old days, the kind you got during Chuseok or Seollal. The size, the thickness — it all had that same feel.

According to the nostalgia adjustments my brain had begun to develop, I'd had a vague expectation that a connector might be some kind of capsule large enough for one person to step inside.

But as always, the world chose compactness and practicality over flashy exteriors — maximum efficiency from minimum components.

The box containing the connector looked like a compressed computer case, and it opened with a simple manipulation.

Inside were a pair of thin glove- and sock-like items, pads to attach to various parts of the body, and a choker-shaped blocking device for the neck.

According to the instructions, the glove- and sock-shaped sensors were designed for smooth reproduction of the hands and feet — body parts that require fine motor control.

The choker-shaped device around the neck collected biological signals and routed them to move your avatar on the network. Or so they said.

But that wasn't all. Beneath all that was one more thin, cloth-like item.

What was it?

—[Tail Sensor]

It looked a bit like a windsock, or maybe a neatly folded party hat. This was the sensor for my tail. Did I really have to wear this seriously?

I hadn't tried it on yet, but it didn't look particularly appealing. Still, thinking about the efforts of those two people a few days ago… right. Better to clear my mind.

I followed the instructions and went through the wearing procedure.

"Not as uncomfortable as I thought."

But it definitely made me look strange. At least, it wasn't ugly — that was something, I suppose.

Anyway, I was all set. The battery showed 98%, and since it supported wireless charging, I could maintain a connection without draining as long as I was mindful of positioning.

"To connect… I just press the power button on the choker, right?"

Of course, a very helpful pop-up appeared: "Cannot connect unless in a lying-down position." It must have a gyroscope built in.

Everything was ready. I'd eaten lunch — a bit light, but enough — and drunk plenty of water in case I got dehydrated.

According to the pre-explanation, a three-times time acceleration was applied, so even at its longest, I shouldn't need to stay connected long enough for bodily functions to become urgent.

I took a small breath and carefully lay down on the bed.

The ceiling — no longer unfamiliar — greeted me, and I pressed the button with a sense of relief.

My vision went dark.

"Ugh."

A sensation I'd never felt before.

If I had to describe it in difficult terms, it was a paradoxical feeling — consciousness remained, but it was like the film had cut.

The account registration had already been completed when I visited headquarters, so that part was skipped. Next up was avatar setup…

"…Why is there so much of this?"

From the broad strokes of gender and body shape down to the finest details of eyes, nose, mouth — there were more options than I could even list.

I thought of myself as someone familiar with modern technology, but the virtual reality — gaming — culture of this world I'd returned to was far more unnecessarily detailed than I'd imagined.

I scrolled my eyes around. There was a random setting to simplify things, and a section that sorted avatars by popularity. Every single one was dazzlingly elaborate.

For a moment, I considered messing around with it, but I shook my head and pressed the body scan button instead.

It didn't take long for a character matching my exact appearance to pop up in front of me, and selecting it and proceeding to full connection took even less time.

…I used to think virtual reality would be something more vibrant and free. Reality was definitely different from what I'd imagined.

The interface was far too practical.

Various VR games were spread out before me, but among them, one main screen stood out with its unmistakable tactical aesthetic.

Dark Zone.

"…Should I be grateful that something this suspicious is out in the open, or…"

The irony of it all — the events from the world I'd been in, everything I'd experienced, all turned into a game, and this game was the most popular in the world. Should I feel irony about that?

Honestly, I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to do once I got in here. I wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. I wasn't sure if this was the correct approach.

In the most extreme sense, all of this might be the wrong choice.

But…

"…That said, nothing changes if I just sit still."

That much, at least, I could be certain of. It was a lesson learned in Brooklyn — from memories too terrible to share with anyone.

With that thought, I linked my platform account and avatar with the in-game system, and a connection screen popped up before me. The brilliantly spread wing pattern was exactly the same here as it was there, but there was no time to feel nostalgia over every little detail — the road ahead was long.

And so I waited for the in-game connection to begin.

What the hell is this?

But before I could even think about it, questions — or something like that — began appearing.

I briefly thought I might be able to answer some of them, but unfortunately, that thought was nothing but my own delusion.

This one…

The blank space was unusually long compared to the other questions.

As I brought that word — one I might never forget even in death — to mind, the blank automatically filled in with several English words.

Information Control And Regional-Uniting Support.

I entered it and waited a moment.

A flash.

Along with a bright light, several lines of text appeared.