prolog
This is f*cked up.
Matt Damon, trapped on Mars, had time to think carefully, but Dojin didn’t have time to do so.
What do you mean by thinking carefully when there’s a hole the size of a person’s head in your stomach?
If this isn’t f*cked up, then there’s probably no f*cked up person in the world.
“Ugh… … !”
As I moved my body a little, a dull pain ran through my body.
Because it is virtual reality, the pain is not the same as in reality, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
Rather, it was an extremely unpleasant sensation, as if the wound was being dug up while under poor anesthesia.
However, that doesn’t mean you can just sit there and wait for death.
Dojin gritted his teeth and checked to see if any other players had survived the deadly beam barrage.
But all he can see is melted rock and the black sky through the gap he fell into.
‘Damn, is this event really going to fail like this?’
However, considering that the ground was covered with rays like a carpet bombing, and the ground was splitting and collapsing in its aftermath, swallowing people up, it was even more surprising that Dojin was alive.
It would be greedy to hope that there would be another lucky person like that, and even if a few more people were alive, the situation would not be resolved.
By the way, the only one who survived until the end was himself, who was at the bottom of the ranks and was even called a glass cannon.
Dojin laughed so hard that his shoulders shook.
“Haha, ha- ugh… … !”
The price for moving again is a stabbing pain.
Dojin leaned back and closed his eyes, determined not to move.
Then, instead of the pain, I began to imagine a dark future ahead.
“… … .”
Death penalties such as level down, item drops, and connection restrictions are not a problem.
I would lose the world event rewards of all time, but I could handle that.
The real problem was the penalty that would result from failing a world event.
Even if you fail the World Boss Raid, LOST has a huge impact on the entire world.
For example, when the attempt to subdue the resurrected tortoise, Gallente, failed, the area that was consumed by the poison remains a land of death to this day.
But what would happen if an event that required blocking an enemy of this scale ended in failure?
Just imagining it made it hard for Dojin to shake off the gloom.
‘You f*cking Möbius bastards. At least you should make the clear angle visible.’
For Dojin, LOST was not just a simple virtual reality game.
It was an escape from the hell of reality and my miserable body that couldn’t even walk on its own legs due to the aftereffects of a traffic accident.
If there had been no such refuge, Dojin would have killed himself long ago, crushed by the misfortune that had befallen him.
Of course, he lost a lot while living a crazy life on the game, and his life became miserable… but even so, or rather, because of that, Dojin couldn’t help but become even more obsessed with LOST.
But now, we are faced with a situation where we cannot even imagine how the world will be ruined.
Dojin found that creepy and scary.
And at the same time, I felt so pathetic that I couldn’t stand being afraid of something like that.
“You idiot… … .”
There is no limit to self-hatred.
A terrible sense of guilt is choking me.
It was certainly an unbearable misfortune, but it was not as if there was no opportunity to mend it.
It was none other than Dojin himself who had thrown his life into the abyss beyond repair.
Dojin, who was tired of running away and of his pitiful self and appearance, thought.
I want to die.
‘no…….’
I want to live again.
That was when.
“This time too… is this the limit?”
Likewise, the voice of someone dying was heard.
Naturally, Dojin’s head turned.
A white silhouette was visible through the gaps in the fallen rocks.
The protagonist of this world event, Princess Seonghae, showed off her overwhelming power by slaughtering numerous monsters on the battlefield where even the LOST rankers were helpless.
But now, even she seemed to be in a situation no different from Si-woo.
The once splendid platinum hair was stained with dirt and blood, and the once beautiful white armor was torn to pieces beyond recognition.
And serious injuries visible all over his body.
Even though she looked like a corpse if he closed his eyes, Dojin absentmindedly called her name.
“Princess Seonghae… … .”
Princess Seonghae raised her head in response to Dojin’s voice.
The Seonghaean (星海眼), which looks like a direct copy of the Milky Way, contains Dojin.
“This time too… is it you?”
It was a difficult statement for Dojin to understand.
This time too? Now that I think about it, I think I said something similar a little while ago.
No matter what his real-life appearance is like, Dojin is a shining ranker in LOST, ranked 998th.
He also achieved this by beating out competitors who had started playing the game three years before him.
Dojin’s intuition was telling him so.
It is certain that the phrase ‘this time too’ uttered by Princess Seonghae is a keyword with a very important meaning.
‘Could it be that there is a hidden quest in this situation…?’
No, it’s a hidden quest in this situation.
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It’s already a proven fact that those f*cking Mobius guys are perverts who enjoy tormenting users with difficult, if not dirty, difficulties.
But even taking that into account, the difficulty of this world event was too much.
But the difficulty level is set so that it is impossible to break it from the beginning.
Assuming that the way to overcome that is through the hidden quest that occurs during the conversation with Princess Seonghae now… …?
It makes sense.
The more his head spun, the more violently Dojin’s heartbeat became.
The image of him just moments ago acting like he was feeling disillusioned with life and suffering from severe depression was nowhere to be seen.
I know. It’s so hopeless and pathetic to see someone so excited about a hidden quest.
But there was nothing I could do.
Because Dojin is already addicted to this world.
“You were always the one who accompanied me through my countless deaths.”
Repeated death. A new keyword has emerged.
‘It’s likely to be a regressor concept.’
Dojin thought about it as quickly as possible and came to a conclusion.
I had a burning desire to be more careful, but my increasingly dull senses told me that I didn’t have much time left.
I had to get the hidden quest quickly before I was forced to log out.
Dojin opened his mouth urgently.
“You’re repeating death?”
Princess Seonghae nodded.
“To prevent destruction, I had to become strong. I was stronger the second time around, and I was stronger the third time around. Now… I’m stronger than ever. But, ironically, I’m weaker now than I’ve ever been. To the point where I want to give up.”
Dojin’s expression, which had been focused on not missing even the slightest hint, became clouded for the first time.
This is a conversation that triggers a hidden quest.
I knew full well that it was foolish to empathize with useless emotions.
However, Dojin could not dismiss Princess Seonghae’s words that she was so exhausted that she wanted to give up everything as just an NPC line.
It was because he remembered his past, when he had been crushed and turned into a wreck in the face of unbearable misfortune.
Maybe that’s why there was a lot of sincerity in Dojin’s words that he spoke with difficulty.
“…You can’t give up.”
Princess Seonghae looks straight at him and asks.
“Why?”
Dojin tried to answer, but… … .
“that…….”
I couldn’t help but mumble.
His tongue seemed stiff and wouldn’t move.
I wondered if I, who had lived my life running away, was really qualified to tell her, who had fought against destruction by repeating countless lives, not to give up.
But Dojin’s silence seemed to have a different meaning to Princess Seonghae.
“Do you pity me? Do you think I am a very unfortunate woman?”
“I am-“
Dojin tried to say something urgently, but ended up closing his mouth when Princess Seonghae continued speaking.
“Thank you.”
“… … ?”
Princess Seonghae smiled silently as she looked at Dojin who was looking at her in a dazed manner.
“Jealousy and affection, admiration and resentment, awe and fear, anticipation and anxiety… I lived surrounded by countless emotions and gazes. That was my life as the strongest spear and shield of the empire. But when I think about it, no one pitied me. No one in my eyes… looked at me with such eyes.”
Dojin couldn’t say anything.
The terrible fatigue and time-worn regret in Princess Seonghae’s eyes made her like that.
Princess Seonghae asked Siwoo, who was so overwhelmed and unable to move.
“Do you have any regrets or regrets about your past that you would like to change?”
“Yes.”
This time I had no choice but to answer.
Dojin’s answer was almost instinctive, as he had always hoped for it and had even fantasized about it just a moment ago.
It was to the point where I had to wait a moment after answering to realize that I had answered.
Princess Seonghae laughed and shook her shoulders, finding the answer that came back so quickly amusing.
Then he pulls something out of thin air.
It was a strange ornament made of silver and gold.
She said, looking down at the decorations.
“Well… how many people live their lives without regrets? There must be something you want to change, too. This is my repayment for being a companion to me so that my repeated deaths wouldn’t be lonely. And… it’s also my repayment for sympathizing with a loser who throws away the duties that should have been theirs.”
I could tell just from the atmosphere.
The hidden quest will begin soon.
It was a pity.
I couldn’t figure out exactly what or why I was disappointed.
My head was very complicated, perhaps it was a side effect of enjoying human thoughts and emotions for the first time in a long time.
To make matters worse, I was overcome by unbearable drowsiness.
‘Damn… Am I getting logged out…?’
Princess Seonghae’s voice rang out in my blurred consciousness.
“I will give you back the time that has already passed. So live. A life without regrets or stains.”
Although his speech was solemn and stiff, as befitting a member of the royal family, his voice was warm.
* * *
Something was strange.
When you open your eyes, the first thing you should see is the cover of the speckled capsule (the virtual reality interface device).
And beyond that, the view of a gloomy attic should be visible.
But what I was supposed to see wasn’t there, and all I could see was a ceiling covered in colorful stickers.
The problem was that those childish stickers were very familiar to Dojin.
“dream……?”
Dojin, who had been mumbling vaguely, was surprised by the voice that came out of his mouth.
The voice should be clear and crisp, but it was so clear and youthful.
That wasn’t the only strange thing.
Dojin’s body, which was sick from the aftereffects of a traffic accident and a long period of being a recluse, often complained of chronic pain and fatigue.
But now I felt drowsy and good, as if I had just woken up from a satisfying sleep.
A considerable sense of discomfort builds up, one by one.
And that sense of discomfort eventually brought my hazy mind back to life in an instant.
“Huh!”
Dojin’s eyes, which had been half-asleep, suddenly opened.
Then, an unfamiliar yet familiar scenery came into view.
Yes, that’s right. It was a studio apartment where I used to live.
Dojin thought it was a dream, so he hit his own cheek with his fist and got up, quickly heading to the bathroom.
Then I stopped and looked at the floor.
It was far. It had been a long time since I had seen such a distant floor since I couldn’t stand.
“I am walking.”
Dojin muttered in a hurry and took trembling steps.
Crazy.
When I was moving unconsciously, my steps were fine, but when I became conscious, they became a mess and I fell over.
But I didn’t feel any pain.
Dojin went into the bathroom, relying on whatever he could find around him.
And then I looked in the mirror and froze.
“… … .”
There was Dojin in the mirror.
Dojin, a young and energetic man before he became disabled in an accident.
Dojin blankly looked at himself in the mirror.
I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t think anything.
So I just kept watching.
To confirm that this is reality and not unreality. Keep going.
