1. Prologue
1. Prologue
My job was modpack developer for a game.
Basically, I took one famous game, modded the hell out of it, and built a world where I could realize every kind of character people fantasized about.
Some people might wonder how that could even count as a job.
But I was doing it because it paid, wasn't I?
It didn't look like much, but there were a ton of people willing to fork over cash to make it happen.
With patrons paying commission fees, my monthly income topped nine million won.
Almost triple what your average twenty-something office worker pulled in.
So I'd pushed my leave of absence from college as far as it would go and went all-in, staking my entire life on this one thing.
Of course, it wasn't exactly something you bragged about. Whenever people asked, I told them I was a freelance graphic designer.
The users had their own name for me, though: Cyber Pimp. Because I was churning out an endless supply of professional cyber-whores.
Not that I only made slutty characters.
But no matter what kind of character I created, they inevitably ended up as one.
Because the people who commissioned custom characters wanted exactly that from the start.
If there was an exception, maybe it was the male characters. Only maybe.
'Alright, time to grind. Who knows how long I can milk this thing.'
What kind of character request was waiting for me today?
Half anticipation, half annoyance, I opened my email.
[ Custom Character Request Lee Yo! ]
[ Tier-2 Sponsored Character Sheet ]
[ Requesting confirmation for Rue-ri character ]
I scrolled down through the list and spotted an email that wasn't a character creation request.
[ Thank you so much, Creator-nim! ]
This person was the original author of the web novel that served as the backdrop for my modpack.
She had started out as a total nobody, the kind of author who'd be lucky to get ten views, until one day she suddenly showed up with her novel and practically begged me to use it as the setting for my modpack's world.
No payment needed, she'd said. Just please, please make it real.
The novel was a bit of a mess — like she'd snatched settings from here and there and mashed them together — but honestly, my mod had no pedigree either, so it looked fine to me. I plugged it into the modpack's main story.
Every time I rolled out a world update built around her novel, the reviews were insane. The work was brutal, but it felt worth making.
Word of mouth spread, the user base kept growing, and more and more people wanted their own custom characters dropped into the world. That was how I ended up running a character business.
Ever since then, without ever taking a single won, she'd kept sending me expansions — more worldbuilding, more story. In a lot of ways, I owed her.
And now, out of nowhere, she'd sent me a thank-you email.
What was it about?
[ Thanks to you, Creator-nim, I was able to successfully build my world!
Thank you so much! May your work prosper and may you live happily! ]
'What's she talking about?'
Successfully build her world?
I had no idea what that meant.
I was grateful to her, sure, but she'd always struck me as a little odd.
I sent a reply.
[ Does this mean you won't be sending any more story? ]
An answer came back instantly.
[ Nope!! ]
Cheerful answer, that.
Still, I ought to at least say thanks for everything up to now.
[ Thank you for sending me your story all this time. I really should treat you to a meal at least. Contact me anytime and I'll be there. ]
After that, there was no response.
We'd exchanged messages for what felt like a pretty long time, but I guess this was it.
'What am I supposed to do about future story, then? I've got zero talent for stuff like settings. Do I need to hire a writer? What a pain in the ass.'
The headache could wait. First I needed to deal with the backlog.
A few days later.
I opened my email to start work like always, only to find my inbox exploding with furious complaints from modpack users.
[ I can't connect, what's going on? ]
[ The game suddenly has a shitload of bugs ]
[ My character changed weirdly; wtf?? ]
[ Graphics are broken, solo twist dance party ]
'...The fuck? Did something get corrupted?'
If the emails looked like this, the dedicated forum was probably in full-scale riot.
A sense of urgency kicked in.
I'd checked that everything was running fine before I went to sleep last night, hadn't I?
I launched the game right away to see what the hell was going on.
But nothing came up except a white screen.
What the hell was this?
Was this a bug, too?
Just as I was trying to figure out where things went wrong, the white screen suddenly changed.
[ 100% data match confirmed ]
[ Search target found ]
[ Would you like to enter the world? ]
"What the..."
Did I get fucking infected with a virus?
No, that couldn't be it.
What kind of virus even did this shit!
What the hell was going on?
[ Accept ]
[ Cancel ]
"Accept, my ass... what the fuck is this, seriously."
[ Voice recognition complete. ]
[ Accepted. ]
'Huh?'
No, wait.
What gave it the right to do voice recognition?! I didn't even have a mic!
Pop!
The screen shifted, and a familiar chunk of stone rose into view.
That was definitely from the mod...
[ Loading character sheet. ]
The moment I thought that, my eyes slid shut.
It was a kind of drowsiness I couldn't possibly fight off.