Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Entered the Gacha Game Abandoned for 10 Years
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I entered a game I had abandoned for 10 years.
But.
"I-I'm sorry. Please don't leave me now... You won't leave, right? Please... don't abandon me."
"If you tell me what I did wrong, I'll fix everything. Sniff—I'll be good, I promise—"
"L-Look at this? I've reflected on it, haven't I? See? I cut it off as an act of remorse... I won't do it again. Never again—"
"I don't need gold coins, famous swords, or any artifacts. What I truly need... what I need is just you. So please—don't throw me away."
"..."
The 5-star heroes I had raised... they had all gone mad.
Staring at the cascade of smartphone messages, Kim Hyunwoo let out a hollow, breathless laugh without realizing it.
'These lines were so scary I even took night shifts to pour money into this game.'
Kim Hyunwoo pressed the home button to close the game.
He then went into the app drawer, found Arteil, long-pressed it, and hit delete.
The confirmation popup appeared as if demanding his final decision.
Without hesitation, Kim Hyunwoo tapped the button. In moments, Arteil—the game he'd spent nearly four years with—vanished from his smartphone.
And so, 10 years passed.
"Huh?"
Out of nowhere, Kim Hyunwoo found himself inside the game.
The game he had quit 10 years ago: Arteil.
At least, as far as Kim Hyunwoo—a fan of subculture—knew, typical webnovel protagonists who got isekai'd into games accepted their situation within minutes or hours and adapted quickly.
Rebuild the territory 'Lartania' and eliminate the labyrinth.
🎁 Reward: Survival
💀 Failure: Death
But Kim Hyunwoo wasn't one of those extraordinary protagonists. Even with the alert floating before his eyes, it took him a full three days just to admit he was inside the game. Once he did, though, a certain thought crossed his mind.
'Surviving should be a breeze.'
Of course, it had been nearly 10 years since he'd played Arteil.
Naturally, most of the info in his head had faded with time, and the core labyrinth exploration strategies he could once devise blindfolded were surely outdated by now.
Yet the reason he could make such a calm judgment was simple: he had become the lord of the territory he'd built up to that point.
In other words, the player character from his account.
The moment he boarded the subway after overtime, dozed off, and ended up here—never stepping outside since—Kim Hyunwoo knew he'd entered Arteil because of one word in the alert: 'Lartania'.
Lartania was the territory name he'd used from the start of Arteil right up until he quit.
So, Kim Hyunwoo wasn't worried.
No matter that he'd quit for 10 years—his territory was still there.
It was top 0.1% ranker level, more like a massive kingdom than a mere territory. It would drastically lower the difficulty, or so he figured.
That's what he expected, at least.
"What the fuck is this?"
Kim Hyunwoo scanned his surroundings with a blank expression.
All he saw was ruins.
No, not even ruins—more like absolutely nothing.
Ruins were just a small part; the rest was truly barren land.
"Where the hell's my territory, fuck?"
Cursing involuntarily—words he rarely used—he looked around more carefully, but nothing changed.
"Ah..."
What he realized next was that the lord's castle he stood in looked ready to crumble any second.
And as Kim Hyunwoo stared in disbelief at what used to be his territory...
A voice echoed in Kim Hyunwoo's ears.
Startled by the voice at first, Kim Hyunwoo quickly realized who the NPC addressing him was.
'Arteil's help NPC, Loria.'
She appeared at the start with the empty territory screen, guiding players through building it up, and later managed the territory for them.
Kim Hyunwoo immediately bombarded her with questions—from why he'd entered the game to what happened to his territory.
Predictably, he got no answer on the first.
But the second brought a shocking revelation.
"...10 years have passed?"
"This is bullshit. Wait, was there even anything worth plundering on this empty patch of dirt?"
"What? Where?"
Kim Hyunwoo turned north.
There it was—the "ruins" he'd noticed earlier.
A ramshackle slum where houses barely held their shape, hardly qualifying as ruins.
"..."
As Kim Hyunwoo wore a dumbfounded look, a very familiar window popped up before him.
A window he'd stared at thousands of times before.
Kim Hyunwoo read the entire window in under five seconds and let out another hollow laugh.
"This... this is really the state of the territory?"
Hearing Loria's words, Kim Hyunwoo clutched his forehead without thinking.
Too many issues to pick apart.
The territory screen that used to span over 50 pages—just glancing at it was a chore—was now this pathetic.
Territory Development, which never went negative even at the start, proudly sat in the red.
And worst of all...
"Fuck, my money..."
The tens of millions in cash he'd poured into building this territory 10 years ago had evaporated.
He desperately wanted to rage, but Kim Hyunwoo knew it was pointless.
Nothing to gain from flipping out now.
With a sigh, he stared at the territory window and spoke up on a whim.
Though he'd spent a ton on the territory, what really drained his wallet was elsewhere.
"Just to check... none of the heroes I raised are left, right?"
Clinging to faint hope, he recalled the heroes he'd maxed out on spending—like a madman working night shifts despite being a student.
Her response shattered that hope. Kim Hyunwoo covered his eyes with his hands.
'Figured they wouldn't be, but still.'
Truth be told, he knew the heroes wouldn't stick around.
In Arteil, pulling heroes via gacha wasn't enough—you had to constantly manage them to keep affection high, or they'd break contract and desert.
Back then, terrified of that, he'd dumped insane amounts of cash to prevent it.
Until the predatory monetization finally drove them away anyway.
'Should've just kept playing.'
Regret hit late, but he sighed it off and steeled himself.
He was in the game now. To survive, he had to rebuild the territory.
The voice returned as he began pondering.
"What is it?"
"What else?"
A bit curt reply from Kim Hyunwoo.
"What?"
Kim Hyunwoo's responses grew more questioning as the conversation continued.
"Labyrinth... Break?"
He ended on a question, but he knew what a Labyrinth Break was.
A biennial event in Arteil where monsters poured from nearby labyrinths. Defend and earn rewards.
For players with cash currency (Red Stones) and in-game currency (Blue Stones) up for grabs, it was a boon.
But only if you had the heroes and troops to handle it. Otherwise, your territory became a wasteland.
For Kim Hyunwoo, powerless against it, this was dire.
"How many left?"
"Fuck."
Realizing his survival limit was just 5 days, Kim Hyunwoo muttered under his breath.
"...Message?"
That's what Loria told him.