A Requiem for One Alone
A night in early spring, the chill not yet lifted from the air.
Flowers bloomed sporadically, flaunting their beauty amid the wreckage—crumbling buildings and bloodstains scattered across the ground like grotesque decorations. No matter how you sliced it, the scene made no sense, and in that bizarre tableau, the boy smiled.
Was it the cold making the atmosphere so eerie? Or maybe not. The endless screams piercing the night, the roars of people charging to slaughter one another—any of it, or perhaps all of it together.
A street emptied of the living, bathed in moonlight that soft moonlight that clashed with the mood—the boy bowed his head to the corpse at his feet, eyes shut forever, then simply pressed on.
Where was he going? He couldn't say, not even to himself.
All he knew for certain was that this place might as well be hell, and failing to escape it meant the worst kind of ending.
So he wandered without direction. Countless souls staked their lives in brutal combat all around him, but he ignored them completely, and none dared approach. Utterly unnatural. Blood streamed from the corners of his eyes, his cheeks torn open and spurting crimson, his clothes drenched in gore—yet no one came near.
The villains and criminals spared him not a glance as they bellowed defiance at the heroes.
The heroes lunged to seize him time and again, only to be repelled, left grinding their teeth in fury.
He slipped away from the chaos, forging ahead. No destination in mind. Maybe there wasn't one at all. But forward he had to go.
He kept walking, on the verge of breaking free from that hellish zone—until
“—Lee Hyunwoo.”
A woman called his name and succeeded in blocking his path.
“Choi Jihyun.”
He met her gaze and offered a bitter smile.
“...Why are you here?”
“You're not seriously asking because you don't know, are you?”
They knew each other well. Childhood friends, to be precise. Now, boy and girl confronted one another in the worst possible place, in the worst possible way.
“—For real?”
She stood as a hero, capturing villains.
“Congratulations, hero. The leader of the group you've been hunting is right in front of you.”
He stood as a villain, slaying heroes.
The boy and girl who had once walked the same paths, laughing side by side—they were gone.
The streets where they'd strolled and shared jokes had twisted into a screaming inferno.
The friends who'd chattered and circled their neighborhood now battled desperately, dancing on the edge of life and death.
The heroes everyone dreamed of becoming now allied with the girl, straining to capture the boy.
And the villains they'd fought now backed the boy, hell-bent on bringing her down.
Heroes and villains. Blockers and killers.
The girl and the boy now stood opposed, each compelled to fell the other.
She advanced on him, fist clenched tight. Frigid energy seeped from her grip, blanketing the world in ice—exquisite crystals that wrapped around him, caging him in.
A bid to bind him on the spot. So he judged, quietly drawing his sword as he watched her—but
“—Why?”
His childhood friend stared at him with trembling eyes. He couldn't help but scoff.
“...Why, you ask?”
That single word brimmed with questions.
Why drop out of school? Why vanish without a word to her, to any of their friends? Why abandon the hero's dream—and become a villain?
“Who knows.”
He had no answer to give. Spill the truth, and it wouldn't be hero versus villain anymore.
“I really... I just can't fathom it. How did we end up like this?”
Not just that, either. He wouldn't even know where to start explaining.
“That's your answer—?”
“Did it happen because I lacked talent?”
All he truly knew was this: in the world of this game, effort alone fixed nothing.
“Because a talentless piece of trash like me kept pushing forward endlessly, too stupid to know my place?”
Extras like him had no gifts. No amount of grueling toil brought progress.
“Because I dared dream of happiness without knowing my station? Because I desperately wished to transmigrate into this game? Because once I did, I amounted to nothing?”
“...What the hell are you talking about?”
No gentle world awaited lowly extras.
“Or maybe my existence itself is the crime.”
In a place like that, salvation eluded a mere extra like him.
“Can't pin down a single solid reason, no matter how I rack my brain.”
In the end, it was all just excuses. He was a villain, the scourge of society. No words would pardon him; forgiveness was beyond reach.
“Surrender now, and—”
“You think that flies?”
The rambling led to the same dead end.
The woman before him was a hero, through and through—and heroes were destined to clash with villains.
“...That all you got to say?”
“Hyunwoo. Even now—”
“Yeah, makes sense. No room for small talk between a villain and a hero. Wouldn't be right if there was.”
He drew his blade, triggered his ability, and grinned.
“Come on, hero. Try catching this villain.”
Sneering like some game boss, he swung.
Did she know? That it was all unfolding exactly as he'd orchestrated.
The boss meant to kill her had already fallen to his scheme, erased from the script. He'd stepped in as the replacement, to face her himself.
Heroes captured villains—and the hero destined to claim him, this villain, stood right here. Heroes slew villains, claimed glory and power, built their empires.
But most crucially, the hero now launching tear-streaked attacks at him—
No.
His childhood friend, the only one who'd ever fought to save him, didn't have to die here.
“—Don't die on me, hero.”
Wishing her the happy ending he could never have.
At the terminus of this bond, born from that one simple prayer, he made his final plea—and charged.
This was just the story of an extra thrashing to survive.
“Play along right to the end.”
The saga of a boy who gave everything for one person alone.