chapter 1
There is a mobile game.
The name of the game is Battle of Summoners.
Like any other game, it is your run-of-the-mill collection RPG. You summon Summoner Beasts, build a team, power them up, fight other players, climb towers, do raids, and so on……
Its popularity?
Not great.
At first, it shot up considerably because of the AI buzz, but it tanked not long after.
The pay-to-win elements were quite severe, and on top of that, the difficulty was brutally unforgiving.
There wasn't a single material you could get your hands on easily, and leveling up your Summoner Beasts was a pain in the neck.
To top it all off, there were far too many types of Summoner Beasts.
When people started joking that the AI must be generating them on the spot every time you summoned, that said it all.
With a game this unfriendly to its players, its downfall was only natural!
The casual players all left, and only the die-hard fanatics remained.
The so-called Veteran Players nicknamed Stagnant Waters.
***
Baek Jin-woo was one of them.
Age: 24.
He had been playing this game since the 7th grade.
A 10-year veteran, to be exact.
The achievements he had racked up in this game were numerous.
Anyone unfamiliar would tilt their head, but for players who had put serious time into the game, these were records that would leave them absolutely floored.
God among gods!
The idol of Veteran Players!
That was the man behind the nickname God of Jinu—Baek Jin-woo.
Of course.
If you had spent 10 years grinding through a game this brutal, what would your real life look like?
Obviously a disaster.
His grades for internal assessments, college entrance exams, and personal statement tests had plummeted below rock bottom.
Unable to get into university, he scraped by on part-time and day labor gigs.
It wasn't that he was dumb.
If he were truly dumb, he could never have achieved the rank of #1 without spending a single penny.
Baek Jin-woo was simply obsessed with this game.
Whenever he looked at text in a book, the stats of Summoner Beasts would float before his eyes, and no matter what he tried to do, his mind always drifted back to whatever farming was running on auto.
What could he do?
His heart and mind were already living inside Battle of Summoners.
Yes.
Behind the dazzling glory of the game, his real life was truly in the gutter.
It would at least put his mind at ease if his parents were well-off, but neither of them had particularly great income.
Still, he had no complaints.
Why would his mom and dad drag themselves from one place to another, working 3 jobs?
All for the sake of feeding Baek Jin-woo and his little sister, Baek A-jin.
They were people of immense responsibility.
And on top of that, they were kind.
Kind to the point of being foolish.
Any other parent would have given their useless son a piece of their mind, but they only ever cheered him on……
Aah, what a pathetic piece of trash.
Baek Jin-woo swallowed his tears.
I know. I know I'm an unfilial son. That I'm scum.
To think that someone who grew up in such a warm household still couldn't get his act together and was floundering in a virtual world!
Baek Jin-woo cursed the friend from 7th grade who had recommended this game to him.
And while he was cursing him, he stepped out to a nearby park and went tap-tap-tap! on his phone screen.
He communicated with his Summoner Beasts decked out in their glittering Runes from within that world, using skills to climb the tower.
Please.
Just Floor 100 of the Tower of Trials……
I'll come back to reality after just that, Mom.
It would be too unfair otherwise.
He had been the first Veteran Player to climb all the way to Floor 99—he couldn't quit here!
Even if it was just a meaningless game in real life, to Baek Jin-woo, this was his life.
The thing that had been with him throughout his school years, his everything.
Though they were AI, he had bonded with his Summoner Beasts and genuinely respected their lives.
And that wasn't all.
He had studied extensively.
Without study, you couldn't properly grow your Summoner Beasts, let alone climb the tower.
The vast knowledge of Battle of Summoners stored in Baek Jin-woo's head likely surpassed the level of any seasoned academic.
Just a little more, please.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The speed of his fingers hammering the phone grew faster and faster.
He had been challenging Floor 99 for a whole year now—conquering the tower was within reach.
***
[White Sky: Shiiiit! Goddamn this game, I can't do this anymore.]
[Rachel: What happened again.]
[White Sky: No, but seriously, how did you guys even clear Floor 80?]
[Rachel: lmao you're still stuck there? You were there a month ago too.]
Inside Battle of Summoners, there is a chat window.
A space where players can communicate with each other, with support for private group chats among people who want to stay in touch.
[White Sky: No, I swear I did exactly what Sugoi told me to oooo!]
Playing solo gets lonely.
Certain Veteran Players had opened a chat specifically to share their precious inside knowledge with each other.
Total members: 6.
Each one of them stood at the very top of Battle of Summoners.
The so-called One Heaven Five Emperors!
A title meaning one heaven above five kings—
5 years ago.
It was a chat room that had been kept alive since Rachel, Player vs. Player Ranking #2, sent out the invitations.
[Sugoi: You know how it is. Everyone's strategy is different. Honestly, there's no point.]
[White Sky: No, bro……. I'm seriously getting thoughts of quitting lately.]
White Sky is a Taiwanese player ranked #6.
The youngest of the Five Emperors.
His defining trait: he has a lot of money.
[White Sky: You know how much money I've poured into this game.]
[Sugoi: 300 million won.]
[White Sky: Exactly. And I still can't break through Floor 80! What the heeeell!]
[Sugoi: Calm down, you lunatic. It's not even real money to you anyway.]
[White Sky: Bro. Why would you say that? What money in this world isn't real money?]
Sugoi is Japanese.
True to a game backed by AI, everything is translated in real time.
[Xenos: By the way, did you ask One Heaven?]
[White Sky: That bro? Uh……. He's been busy lately.]
White Sky's reply trailed off awkwardly.
[Rachel: Oh, come on.]
[Sugoi: What are you doing?]
[Moscow Man: Moron]
[Xenos: Pathetic.]
A stream of reproach poured in.
[Rachel: There's a god right here in our chat room and you haven't even asked him yet?]
[Sugoi: I was starting to think you were trying to find another way through since God of Jinu's method requires more raw skill than you have……]
[Moscow Man: Go die.]
[Xenos: Hopeless.]
The one these Veteran Players call ‘god’—the one White Sky and the rest of them have yet to ask.
Player vs. Player Ranking #1, God of Jinu!
He had always cleared the seemingly impossible tower floors in the most unthinkable ways.
And from time to time, he would toss a good solution or hint to the Five Emperors in this chat room.
Every time he appeared, he blasted through whatever had them stuck, which was why they treated God of Jinu with the utmost reverence.
If they accidentally rubbed him the wrong way and he left the chat, that would be a disaster.
[White Sky: Um……. God of Jinu, sir. Are you perhaps reading this? Are you by any chance still busy clearing Floor 99?]
For reference, White Sky's current age is past 60.
It was simply his belief that anyone better than him was his elder brother or sister.
[White Sky: God of Jinu, sir?]
He kept sending messages, but there was no reply.
[Rachel: Give it a bit. He doesn't usually check the chat much.]
[Sugoi: Yeah, if you leave your questions here, he'll probably reply sometime tomorrow?]
None of them had made it past Floor 90.
Which meant that God of Jinu—challenging Floor 100 beyond Floor 99—truly felt like a god to them.
[Rachel: Come to think of it……. If he reaches Floor 100 this time, it'll have been exactly 10 years, right?]
[Xenos: That's genuinely insane. Unhinged.]
[Sugoi: I've been holding off quitting this game just to see the Floor 100 ending. Man, as expected of God of Jinu.]
[Moscow Man: Look at the Rune enhancement setup. The guy's a maniac.]
[Rachel: Seriously lol how can the same amount of time invested lead to such a difference?]
The Veteran Players were excited.
Impregnable!
Each floor unforgivingly brutal—and yet the end of that tower was finally coming into sight, through God of Jinu.
[White Sky: But what happens when Floor 100 gets cleared?]
There had been an announcement from the developers once.
Conquer Floor 100 of the Tower of Trials!
The moment you do, a new world will open!
[White Sky: A new world. Does the game just… change entirely or something?]
[Rachel: lmao probably just something they threw out there. Honestly I bet even the devs never thought Floor 100 would actually get cleared?]
[White Sky: Probably lol]
White Sky snickered as he typed.
[White Sky: Or maybe lol]
[White Sky: The world literally changes like the announcement says. This real life becomes the world of Summoners!]
You know how it is.
A theme that shows up often in fiction.
Where reality becomes a game, and the game becomes reality.
[Moscow Man: Moron]
[Xenos: How long are you going to be this embarrassing?]
[Sugoi: You read too many novels lmaooo]
The Veteran Players, mocking their youngest as always.
They did not know.
They never could have predicted it.
That White Sky's words would actually become reality.
***
2 weeks later.
On the way to work.
"I—I finally did it!"
A man who had been hammering his phone screen while walking down the street let out a cry.
"Wahahahaha! Finally! Finallyyyyyyy!"
The name of the man jumping around and celebrating with a voice bursting with joy was Baek Jin-woo.
Nickname: God of Jinu.
"What's with him?"
"Why is he like that?"
"Must be crazy."
Passersby furrowed their brows and murmured, but Baek Jin-woo couldn't care less.
Finally!
At last!
He had cleared Floor 100.
He had defeated that vicious boss and seen the top of the tower.
How hard had it been all this time?
He had given up his real life to live for this day.
"Wahahahahahaha!"
He was overjoyed.
So happy he could cry.
[Tower of Trials, Floor 100 cleared.]
That golden, gleaming status window tickled his whole body.
While he went click, click! taking screenshots to show off to the other Veteran Players—
"Hm?"
"……Wait?"
"What the—"
The murmuring around him began to grow louder.
Baek Jin-woo too felt that something was off.
[Tower of Trials, Floor 100 cleared.]
The phrase that should have been on his phone screen—why was it also appearing outside the screen?
Why was it floating in midair like a hologram?
Baek Jin-woo standing on the crosswalk furrowed his brow.
Aah.
Was he not just obsessed with the game, but now truly losing his mind?
But for it to just be his own delusion seemed unlikely—the people around him also appeared to be seeing something.
[Beta Test ending.]
[A new world opens.]
What?
Beta Test?
It was at that moment.
Flutter!
Red paper began to fall from the sky.
Paper of a very familiar shape.
"That's……"
There was no way he wouldn't recognize it.
He had seen it more times than he could count.
"……A Low-grade Summoning Scroll?"
Items that could randomly summon monsters from F-rank to D-rank were falling from the sky, 1 for each person.
"What is this……"
That was the moment.
B-b-b-b-b-b-baaaaang!
An enormous truck horn blaring into his ears.
A panicked truck driver's face visible through the glass!
"Wh—wha—?!"
He tried to dodge, but his body wouldn't listen.
And inevitably—
BOOM!
Baek Jin-woo, struck by the truck, felt a dull, crushing impact and thought:
This goddamn game ruined my life.
There was no doubt about it.
His life had been destroyed by Battle of Summoners.