How to Survive as a Player Chapter 1

#One

Click- Click- Click- Click-

The sound of pressing something. Urgent fingertips.

A clicking sound kept echoing inside the narrow, shabby house. Inside the small, shabby house, a man with a blanket pulled over his head was sitting in front of the TV doing something of her own.

It was a small enough space that the sound of water flowing from the faucet and the sound of the wind coming through the weatherstripping window frame overlapped.

An empty lunch box that had just been eaten was left shabby in front of the man. Even that was enough for one meal. The only thing that illuminated the dark room without any lights on was the light coming from the TV.

The man was playing a game while holding the controller of a console game console in front of him. Her shoulders could be seen trembling even from above the blanket, but even as she crouched and trembled, she did not let go of the controller.

Click-

It felt like the sound of pressing the button was particularly loud. The man’s eager gaze was fixed on the small TV showing the game video, never letting go.

[Trustworth has increased. Would you like to check the Archduke’s reliability? Yes No]

at las.

The man clicked ‘Yes’ without any hesitation. On the screen was a man with a sharp expression. Her two differently colored eyes caught my eye. But at that moment, her man’s expression became distorted as if there was noise.

The noise disappeared quickly. She felt like she had seen such a cruel expression and eyes full of hate that she wondered if it had been an illusion. It was the first emotion expressed by a character who had never revealed anything.

It was when a line of text appeared on the screen that I realized that that thought was not an illusion.

It was a very short statement. But it said everything. Anger, disgust, and even hatred. The man could only look at the noise-filled text with trembling eyes.

[I hate you.]

That was the answer. It was his answer to everything he had ever done.

A shabby lamp was revealed in the darkness. Her man’s eyes, which were wide open, soon closed miserably. Her hand holding the controller fell limply.

For some reason, my eyes felt cold.

As if conveying his will, the words stayed on the screen for a long time. The man had to do his best to ignore the text as it disappeared behind the noise.

***

Game ‘Elix’.

It was a downloadable empire-building game created in the form of a console game.

The mysterious Ellix, whose distributor, distribution company, and production company were not revealed, came into the world on January 1, when the world’s history was rewritten, when the New Year’s Eve bell rang.

The game, which appeared without much fanfare, appeared in popular search terms on several portal sites as soon as it was released to the world.

Regardless of race or country, people started downloading games as if they were possessed, and began using game drivers to play games that were not transparent to publishers or manufacturers.

The game was perfect, ignoring concerns about the lack of information, and boasted a surprising degree of freedom and an extensive simulation system.

People around the world gradually became fascinated with the game called Elix. It was a sudden appearance that seemed to have fallen from the sky, but perhaps that is why it became more revolutionary.

Ellix was a nation-building game in which players founded an empire and ran it with their vassals. Ellix was a game that aimed to literally build a rich nation and strong military by conquering the dungeon called ‘Tower of Tests’ while founding an empire, training ‘vassals’, and increasing national power.

It’s a game that doesn’t seem all that different, but it was by no means easy. No, on the contrary, it boasted of extreme difficulty. Even the indomitable Korean, who had easily beaten the game in which he died every three seconds, held out his tongue.

Ellix took an aptitude test before playing the game. There are still countless inferences about this floating around on portal sites, but the most likely theory is that it was to distribute the most suitable characters to players.

During the aptitude test, if false circumstances or cognitive abilities that did not match the previously filled out survey form were determined, the program arbitrarily made the players take the aptitude test again.

It was the same no matter how many times I tried it. The aptitude test had to be written solely based on facts to move on to the next step.

After conducting an aptitude test that lasted approximately one hour, Elix randomly provided a road character to the player based on the aptitude test.

In other words, the player does not have arbitrary character selection in this game.

Appearance, gender, and age are all based on aptitude tests, and the race and occupation of the Lord character are also determined based on the player’s aptitude, inclination, environment, intelligence, and talent.

While some people left disappointed with the game’s inappropriate gameplay, others were enthusiastic about the new accessibility.

When players assigned characters in this way enter the game as kings, they are assigned an assistant vassal to help them. Elix referred to this vassal as ‘Grand Duke.’

The reason the Archduke was important was because he also had the power to interfere with the empire.

Even if you become a king and build a country, if you are not trusted by the Grand Duke or if you engage in tyranny, laziness, or heartlessness, you will be killed through riots, coups, or assassinations. Of course, there were cases of failure due to invasion by other players, etc.

In this case, the player who was killed had to be given a character and start over. It’s over when you die. It was a progression method unique to Hell difficulty. Most users left without being able to get over this first hurdle.

However, there were many users who calmly found the problem and tried again.

Of course, there were no penalties for dead road players. As characters die, their stats inevitably decline.

Additionally, if the player died more than ten times, the player lost his senses and was deprived of all powers.

Even though there was a character, it couldn’t be operated with a controller.

In that case, you became a puppet following the Archduke’s orders, and there was no way to solve the problem other than quitting the game.

It makes no sense, but Elix allowed all of this. The important thing here is that no matter how many times a person dies, the Archduke will always be the same.

Despite this extremely difficult level, Elix was the perfect game that everyone was excited about, everything was shrouded in mystery, and there were no errors or bugs.

And 6 months later. The world is once again in a frenzy. It was because of a notice sent through the game.

Above the noisy game screen, there was an unfriendly phrase that excited everyone.

[The open beta testing period has expired. You are entering the official server.]

Announcement of the official service of Ellix, which has intoxicated people around the world. Many people were excited, excited, and looking forward to it.

But it was never something to be excited about, something to look forward to, or something worth waiting for.

[There are 23 hours and 58 minutes remaining until entry.]

okay. It was never something worth getting excited about.

***

I opened my eyes with a headache piercing my brain. Hard floor and dazzling visibility. When I barely covered my eyes and sat up, I heard a rumbling noise in my ears.

Perhaps because of the headache, all noises became a buzz. As I held my ears shut and slowly blinked, my blurry vision gradually began to become clearer.

And when the view became clear, Sehyeon heard a sobbing sound. When I looked to the side as if fascinated, I saw a child sitting down and crying.

15 years old, no. He was a boy who looked to be 14 years old, wearing a school uniform and crying.

I was about to say something, but suddenly all the memories passed through my mind. That memory disappeared as if in darkness after the moment I collapsed from a severe headache.

okay… She had collapsed.

Sehyeon’s eyes slowly turned into space. It was a pure white space where not only the sky and the earth, but even the area was not defined. It was like an endless sub-space where it was difficult to estimate the height and width.

The sounds of muttering and sobbing were tangled together and echoed around the area like a speaker. There were voices trembling with fear, and there were also angry shouts and screams.

Sehyeon’s gaze shifted again to the young student sitting next to him. After staring for a long time, I could barely blink. It was only then that the current situation began to enter my mind.

Sehyun was not the only one in that space. There were too many people to count, sitting down in subspace and shaking. There seemed to be thousands of people in sight.

A space that could accommodate so many people suddenly felt creepy. I didn’t feel cold or heat, nor did I feel wind, humidity, dryness, smell, or anything else.

Sehyun clenched her trembling hands and tried to stay calm. Anxious thoughts kept creeping into his head, but he bit the inside of his mouth and tried to push them away.

As I stood up, ignoring the sound of my heart pounding in my ears, I saw people around me flinching and increasing their distance. Ignoring the sensitive gaze, Sehyun looked around.

Regardless of gender, age, or distinction, people of different appearances and races came into Sehyeon’s field of vision. Most people were panicking, but there were some people like Sehyeon who were trying hard to stay calm. They were all rolling their eyes and looking for a turning point in this situation.

Of course.

Everyone near Sehyeon was in panic. Only one student, sitting next to him and sobbing, was the most sane.