A New Possibility
The thousand-mile fragrance tree, which had been withering as if its lifespan had ended, began drawing moisture into its dried branches the moment it received the buff. As the branches absorbed the water and came back to life, fresh green leaves sprouted once more, and the flowers that carried their scent for a thousand miles began to bloom again. When the rich fragrance from those blossoms drifted into his nose, Jinwoo’s dazed mind finally cleared.
“W-why is this working? Why are game abilities functioning here?”
The thousand-mile fragrance tree stood before him in full bloom, yet he couldn’t easily believe it had truly been revived by the buff. He cast healing and vitality buffs on other nearby plants that were also dying. Light particles formed and seeped into the withering grass, and the plants quickly began to recover.
“It… it actually works.”
Seeing the grass revive as if by magic made him accept that he could use his in-game abilities. A new idea struck him.
“S-status window!?”
He tried calling out the phrase he had always wanted to say. Nothing appeared.
“Then what about the inventory? That probably won’t work either—huh?”
Though the status window had failed, the inventory opened without issue. To test whether he could store and retrieve items, he spotted a pair of slippers in the garden. When he placed them into the inventory, they slotted neatly into an empty space just like in the game. Pulling them back out worked just as smoothly.
“I-it really works. What about money?”
He tried withdrawing gold and silver coins. They materialized in his hand with their full, satisfying weight. If this was real, he could convert the three thousand gold he had earned in the other world and spend it here.
“W-wait. If buffs work, does that mean magic works too?”
Curious whether mana actually existed and could be manipulated, he arranged the mana according to the simplest light magic formula. Mana flowed along the pattern, and a sphere of white light popped into existence above his palm.
“It… it works. Magic actually works.”
In that instant, he felt something that had never existed in his body suddenly fill it to the brim.
Mana. Mana has filled my body just like it did in the game.
While trying to understand why this was happening, a fundamental question surfaced.
Is Cliché World actually a game?
If it were the virtual space game developed by the Changing Group, game techniques shouldn’t manifest in reality. Yet mana undeniably filled his body, and the light sphere continued to glow, proving its existence. Jinwoo felt a wave of confusion. If Cliché World wasn’t a game, then what was it? The long-held assumption that it was simply a game shattered in an instant, replaced by an entirely new concept.
A parallel world rather than a game? If it was a parallel world, how could one travel there so easily? Questions and curiosity piled up one after another. Still, one thing now seemed certain: the hypothesis he had formed after hearing about the sudden deaths—that dying in the game meant dying in reality—had gained more weight. To confirm it, verification was needed. But he had no intention of dying in Cliché World just to test the theory. First, he wanted to verify his deductions and inform others that abilities from the game could manifest in the real world. He immediately called James Lee, the FBI agent.
“I think I’ve discovered something important.”
“Ah, it might be risky to discuss over the phone. I’ll come to you. I’m currently in Japan on Asia-Pacific business. If I catch a flight right now, I should arrive past ten at night.”
“That’s fine. I’ll wait.”
***
After dinner with his family, Jinwoo sat on the living room sofa, deep in thought. He regretted contacting James Lee without thinking it through. At first, he had planned to demonstrate light magic and prove that abilities from Cliché World could appear in reality. But the more he considered it, the more he realized this power needed to stay hidden.
For one thing, he couldn’t trust James Lee one hundred percent. The man was FBI, but whether he was on Jinwoo’s side was another matter. He might be withholding information from others, and if he learned Jinwoo could use magic here, he might even have him abducted for investigation. Especially the abduction concern— even if James Lee was completely on his side, it wouldn’t matter. If the U.S. government decided to verify magic by taking him away, he would become a test subject overnight.
Would they really go that far? The thought crossed his mind, but safety came first. Extraordinary abilities had to be concealed.
[I’ve arrived in front of your house.]
James Lee arrived past eleven at night. The two of them walked through the bustling streets to talk. Jinwoo wanted to check whether James was hiding anything, but even if he was skilled at conversation, an FBI agent would have received training for such situations. Extracting information through interrogation would be difficult. He decided to mix truth with lies.
“I checked the in-game pain option that I’d been ignoring until now. But that option itself turned out to be fake.”
“You mean adjusting the value doesn’t reduce the pain at all?”
“Correct. It’s impossible to control pain intensity through the option. Given that, the claim that dying in the game lets you respawn on another continent might also be false. It seems dying in the game means dying in reality as well.”
“Dying in the game means dying in reality… Hmm. That hypothesis could explain the sudden deaths. Let’s investigate the connection between the pain value and in-game death leading to real-world fatalities.”
“Thank you. By the way, when you interviewed the families, did any of them mention that the testers who died suddenly had been acting differently or showing psychological changes?”
“What kind of psychological changes?”
“Well, for example, suddenly becoming violent as if they’d grown stronger, or boasting that they could use superpowers or magic.”
If other testers had also discovered they could use game abilities in reality, the warrior types would likely have broken or thrown things to test their strength, while the mage types would have told their families they had superpowers.
“You’re wondering if there were changes resembling mental deterioration. The family interviews didn’t mention anything like that.”
James interpreted ability manifestation as mental deterioration, but Jinwoo felt it was something else entirely.
“Would it be possible for me to see those family interviews?”
“Hmm. I can’t give them to you directly. I’ve already compiled all the materials and submitted them to my superiors. However, if you contact Susan—the person whose business card I gave you—she should be able to provide access to the interviews.”
“Ah, I understand. I’ll try reaching out to her then.”
“In that case, I’ll look into the relationship between in-game pain, death, and the real-world sudden deaths. I’ll contact you if anything comes up. Take care.”
As Jinwoo saw James off, he realized the agent didn’t actually know much. He lacked the kind of firsthand information only someone who had logged into the game and played it would possess. Now it was time to verify his deductions with Secretary Kim and the Changing Group.
***
“This is the Green Dungeon.”
They set out early the next morning and reached the Green Dungeon by early afternoon.
“The Green Dungeon is only about three kilometers from the border claimed by the Letegup Kingdom, so those Letegup bastards cross over frequently. We need to be especially careful.”
From the entrance onward, the dungeon was covered in green moss and grass so thick that the stone and soil beneath were completely hidden. Seeing this, Jinwoo understood why it was called the Green Dungeon.
“Given this environment, I’d expect mostly plant-type monsters,” Sezanne said, and everyone agreed.
The dungeon wasn’t dark. Purple, blue, and green lights shone continuously from the ceiling like LED fixtures, allowing the trees and grass inside to grow.
“Let’s head in. Meni takes point, followed by Tom and Danny. Pyutel and Pyurie will guard Sezanne and Yanne on the flanks. I’ll bring up the rear. We won’t eat dinner inside.”
“Master, a tree is slowly approaching us. What should we do?”
Meni, leading from the front, spoke in her characteristically blunt tone and glanced back. Just as she said, a tree roughly three meters tall was approaching, its crown nearly brushing the dungeon ceiling. Instead of walking on legs like a person, it moved by having its roots slither across the ground like snakes. Because of this, its movement was quite slow.
“Since this is our first time encountering plant-type monsters, let’s test them. Rangers and Pyurie, try attacking with arrows. Then Meni and Pyutel can follow up with their spears.”
Unlike ordinary monsters, plant-type monsters only appeared in specific environments, so there was no information on how they attacked or how to counter them. Even the experienced Sezanne admitted she had never seen plant-type monsters before.
[Thud! Thunk! Thwack! Thwip!]
Bolts and arrows struck the tree, but it showed no reaction. When Meni and Pyutel stepped forward and stabbed and severed its roots with their spears, it finally responded. Vine-like tendrils whipped toward them like lashes.
“Meni, dodge! You can’t block that!”
Both of them rolled across the ground with their shields to avoid the vine whips and retreated. In that opening, Yanne’s magic attack followed immediately.
“Fire Bolt!”
[Boom!]
[Kiiiii—!]
The creature that had remained silent even when struck by arrows and spears let out a bizarre shriek when the Fire Bolt hit and set it ablaze. It flailed its vine whips wildly to extinguish the flames.
“As expected, fire works.”
Based on the principle of elemental opposition, he had somewhat expected this, but plant-type monsters were indeed weak to fire. Jinwoo charged forward and unleashed a stream of pure mana flames. The lush leaves caught fire instantly, and the Ent, thrashing to put out the blaze, soon stopped moving altogether. It had burned to death.
“If all the monsters in the Green Dungeon are plant-types, they’ll be weak to fire, so exploration and clearing should be easy. Ah, first we need to put out the fire.”
The three-meter-plus tree with its abundant branches burned so fiercely it threatened to set the entire dungeon ablaze. Setting fire to defeat a monster only to die in the flames oneself would be an unfortunate end.
“We’ll have to be careful even when using fire.”
After barely extinguishing the flames with water magic, only a charred trunk nearly two meters tall remained. Recovering mana stones or other items would be difficult.
“Mage, this won’t be worth anything, right? If the dungeon is full of monsters like this, there’s nothing profitable here, is there?”
Charcoal could be sold like firewood, but the problem was that it was charcoal created inside a dungeon. He considered whether he could store it in his inventory and sell it in Korea, but since it wasn’t the kind of charcoal made in a short time like the special or white charcoal used for fires, it probably wouldn’t sell even if he took it.
After that, more moving Ents and bush traps that bit at people’s ankles appeared, but they were monsters that offered no financial benefit. Tom and Danny, the rangers, had heard about this beforehand, so they couldn’t help feeling disappointed even as they mapped the area. Jinwoo, however, saw potential in the Green Dungeon.
“It doesn’t seem to get dark here—it stays bright all the time. Let’s have an early dinner.”
“Master, shall I start a fire?”
“No. Today I’ll treat you to something special. There’s a particular food people eat when they go on picnics in places like this grassy field.”
Jinwoo took out bundles of long, silver-glowing items from his inventory.