Episode 1: War of the Gods
War of the Gods.
Shin Yujun, a young man in his early twenties, logged into a game that bore that grandiose name.
A familiar theme spilled from the speakers in a bright, cascading rush, and a moment later the login screen welcomed him — a vast grassland unrolling behind the menu. The music had a strange addictive pull. More than once he had caught himself sinking into it without ever meaning to.
Set beside the others, one character seized the eye at once. Clad in dazzling golden gear, the figure looked, to anyone, like someone who had spent real money. He had, in fact, spent money. The exact sum was a little awkward to say out loud. He could say this much: it was large enough that the word billions escaped a person all on its own, over and over.
Even with money to spare, almost no one poured that much into a game that amounted to scraps of data. The few friends he had looked at Yujun as if he were some rare breed of fool, and one of them had spat curses outright — with that kind of money, what the fuck, buy a car or a house instead of pulling something this stupid. It was a natural reaction, and he understood it. But what was he supposed to do? He was sunk that deep into War of the Gods, and he believed it was worth every bit of what he had spent.
If he had one regret, it was that War of the Gods had almost no players. The user base had never been large, even when the servers first opened, and as time went on it only shrank. Now, nearly four years later, concurrent users did not even reach ten.
Billions sunk into a game, and the people online at once could be counted on his fingers. Even Yujun, who did not regret a single purchase, sometimes let out a hollow laugh at that.
The moment he logged in, the character armed in gold appeared in the plaza. Yujun opened the friends list, confirmed the familiar nicknames already online, and set his fingers to the keyboard.
His message went up in the chat window. Not long after, another followed.
Hongdae Fashion People Joseph. A user who was online every time Yujun logged in. Among the people he ran with — no, among every user in the game — if you counted hours connected, this one was first by a wide margin. The others were not so different, of course. The ones still left were, for the most part, people who stayed logged in a long time.
Does nobody here have a job?
Yujun did not really know what any of them did for a living. He had known them for quite a while, but they had all kept a comfortable line while they grew close.
The user called Joseon's Best Sword was a roleplayer taken to the extreme. Not once had he ever stepped outside that manner of speaking in chat.
Worst case I've ever seen, I think.
Yujun had heard the man was a bit older, and watching him hold the bit without a single slip struck him as genuinely impressive. Did he actually talk like that in real life?
This time Only I Don't Have a Cat appeared in the plaza. Of everyone Yujun knew, that user sat highest in quiet, inward familiarity. Whenever he raided or hunted, the two of them always went together. Their temperaments matched, yes, but more than that, party hunting with him clicked in a way it did with no one else. Thanks to Only I Don't Have a Cat's outstanding control, the new dungeons they had cleared in a single run were too many to list one by one.
They were talking the way they always did when it happened. A red message appeared dead center on the screen and settled there.
Everyone. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have something brief to say.
The noisy plaza went quiet all at once. For no reason he could name, a bad feeling settled over him, and the smile lingering at Yujun's mouth vanished clean.
War of the Gods has been selected in a contest. It is all thanks to you.
On any ordinary day, an operator showing up would have sent the chat window racing upward. The chat was silent. Everyone seemed too busy trying to grasp the situation to type. This was the first time the admin had stepped in personally.
I am.
Pink Pinkku Rabbit. I am truly sorry, but the server is scheduled to close soon.
At the admin's words, the plaza sank into a brief silence. Then the chat began to spill upward in a rush.
At the news that the server was closing, everyone looked thrown. Even the chat alone made that feeling plain.
You need not worry on that point. Those who purchased paid content will receive a reward befitting what they spent. And to every user who has enjoyed War of the Gods until now, I will also give a fitting reward.
Leaving those words behind, the administrator's character vanished like a ghost. The plaza, which had always felt warm and familiar, seemed strangely hollow today. Yujun stared blankly at the screen.
An unpopular game, a game that did not make money, reaching the end of service. It was the natural course a dead game walked. A common enough thing. For Yujun, though, it was a bolt from the blue. Other games, maybe. He had never thought War of the Gods would shut its servers down — and so suddenly, with no time to prepare.
His expression could not be pinned to a single word. Surprise, irritation, anger, regret. All of it seemed stirred together on his face.
Then the chat log updated.
The server will close soon.
The server will close in 5 minutes.
The server will close in 4 minutes 55 seconds.
A countdown began with razor precision, as if Joseon's Best Sword's question had never been asked.
The server will close in 3 minutes 40 seconds.
Time, merciless, refused to stop. The lower it fell, the more Yujun's chest burned.
Think positively. It was a game bound for the end of service anyway. The ending had always been decided. This had only moved it forward. There was no need to despair quite so completely.
Of every game he had played in his life, this was the one he had poured the most affection into. War of the Gods. That he would not be able to play it from today on was, without question, a sad fact. But an RPG was not the whole of a life. Reasoning with himself that way did nothing to settle his heart.
The server will close in 30 seconds.
Thirty seconds. Before he knew it, Yujun squeezed his eyes shut.
A good while passed. Once he had put his feelings in order, he slowly opened them again.
Huh?
He stared at the screen, dumbfounded. No-Pay Casual Gamer was still standing in the plaza. Where had the others gone? Had they logged out ahead of the shutdown? One thought after another crowded his head into a tangle. He was still gazing blankly at the screen when another character appeared beside the plaza's fountain.
A woman, pale-skinned, with silver hair.
"Who's that?"
In all the time he had played War of the Gods, he had never once seen this user. More precisely, she was not a user. Two characters sat plain across the nameplate: Ner.
The admin?
What had newly revealed itself was the administrator's character. Yujun hammered at the keyboard.
Not long after he asked, a new line appeared in the chat log.
Yujun paused. What was she saying right now? Sponsorship... did she mean the cash he had spent?
Sponsorship — no, spending. He had spent a great deal. With the money he had put into War of the Gods, he could have bought a decent commercial building. It was an excessive sum to use on a game that barely had any users.
A contest? Yujun's hands moved in a rush.
The admin read the chat and went silent. The stillness stretched long enough that Yujun was about to type again when the next line arrived.
Administrator Ner did not answer. She sent only a smiling emoticon. It left him oddly irritated.
The game's shutting down. What does a reward or a privilege even matter?
Don't tell him War of the Gods 2 was coming out. The guess had only just occurred to him, but it had a certain logic.
The admin did not leave.
With the admin's last message, he was forcibly logged out of War of the Gods. The grassland that served as its backdrop remained, and the background music he had always listened to felt strangely wistful today.
"......It's over? Why so cold?"
They could at least have told him what the next game in development was. They had not even explained how the reward would be given. And then that loaded line at the end.
"This feels unpleasant."
He was grumbling, just rising from his chair, when it happened.
A change is beginning. Please prepare for the shock to come.
A translucent hologram window materialized directly in front of him.
"What is this?"
He was reading the words floating before his eyes when dizziness struck without warning. Vertigo might have been the better word. His vision blurred. A mosaic. Tiny points swelled in an instant, as if they meant to cover the whole world. Then a tremendous impact slammed into Yujun's head. The pain came all at once, and he could not even scream.
You have been gifted a Privilege by '????'.
You acquire the inventory of the character 'No-Pay Casual Gamer'.
The inventory is soul-bound and synchronized.
Time remaining until synchronization: 5 years, 8 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes.
"Nnngh..."
Hologram windows had appeared before his eyes, but his vision was too blurred for him to make out what they said. The pain went on, and before long he lost consciousness.