Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Click, click.

“Holy shiiit!! I finally beat it!”

I shouted in triumph and shot up from my chair.

The roguelike RPG [Again Origin]. It was a genre where, if your character died in-game, you had to restart from the very beginning.

I worked as a nurse at a general hospital in my neighborhood, and I devoted every bit of spare time I had to the game.

For someone like me, who had neither friends nor hobbies, games were the only happiness that soothed the misery of working life.

For the past five years, I had played by carving time out of even eating and sleeping. And as a result, my effort bore fruit.

[PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu, congratulations! You are the first on the global server to clear Extreme Mode.]

[PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu, the one and only player to achieve the first clear of Normal, Hard, Challenge, and even Extreme Mode in succession!]

[We offer our deepest respect for your astonishing skill and relentless spirit of challenge.]

[Our operations team sincerely congratulates you on this moment, which will be remembered as legend on the global server.]

A system window hung in the middle of the monitor, enormous enough to cover half the screen.

A shiver ran down my spine.

It was a deeply moving moment.

The bridge of my nose stung, and tears gathered in my eyes.

Ah, I actually pulled it off.

Honestly, because of the absurd difficulty, there had been several times a day when I’d had to endure the urge to throw my keyboard.

But my competitive spirit alone refused to lose, so I swallowed the curses that threatened to burst out and kept playing.

By the time I reached Extreme Mode, the number of characters I had restarted with was already in the thousands.

Maybe it had easily passed ten thousand.

After it hit four digits, I stopped counting properly.

“I still did it.”

The patience had been worth it.

After taking a screenshot to commemorate this moment worthy of emotion, I was just about to close the system window.

“Ah! I’ve got to check what needs checking.”

I grinned and opened the community.

It was three in the morning.

It was the time when other people slept, but the rotten old-timers obsessed with the game began their real activity.

If a user had logged into the game, they should have seen my achievement through the system message by now.

I had achieved the result I’d been waiting for, so how was I supposed to hold back?

Scroll.

When I moved the cursor down, the community was already in the middle of a heated debate about the achievement I had just accomplished.

-Crazy, did you see the system message that just popped up?

↳ Wow, they cleared Extreme too? How the hell did they actually clear it?

-I barely cleared Normal Mode today, but this is seriously insane

↳ LMAOOOO Normal? Isn’t that a problem with your intelligence?

↳ For real lololol you can clear Normal with your feet

-But seriously, is there anyone besides PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu who even reached Extreme Mode?

↳ Nope, no one

↳ PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu is the only one in the whole world

-At this point, doesn’t this make South Korea the nation that possesses PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu? lol

-[Breaking News] PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu even made the news!

↳ Huh? Is it real?

↳ Why is this real?

I chuckled as I watched the users making an exaggerated fuss over my achievement.

It was only natural for the users to react like that.

The difficulty of [Again Origin] was famous enough to make even its diehard fans stick out their tongues.

On top of that, the Extreme Mode I had cleared was the final mode that existed in the game.

“Phew, what do I do now?”

After savoring my joy for a moment, I quietly muttered to myself.

When I cleared Normal Mode with the shortest record, Hard Mode existed.

When I cleared Hard, there was Challenge.

And when I cleared the Challenge, there was Extreme Mode.

There had always been a goal to move toward.

And I had thrown myself even deeper into it, using the thrill of achieving each goal as fuel.

Maybe that was why I had been able to stack up countless achievements on the global server.

But now that I have cleared Extreme Mode, the final difficulty?

For a moment, my character standing over the corpse of the final boss entered my view.

For some reason, that back looked lonely.

Just as emptiness was about to settle in,

Ding!

Huh, what is it?

“A private message?”

A red dot blinked in one corner of the monitor.

There was no one who would contact me.

Who was it?

Click.

[This is a private message sent to PingkkyuㅤGyongdyu.]

[Our development team offers its respect for your outstanding skill and strategy. Therefore, we would like to present a special reward and proposal to you, who have achieved such a remarkable accomplishment.]

[We invite you to the beta test of Developer Mode, the next stage after Extreme.]

“A beta test?”

My eyes flew open at the unexpected message.

Extreme Mode was not the end.

A new goal was being created.

And solely for me.

Just hearing it was enough to make my mouth water.

[Additionally, as a special privilege, we will grant you one customization of your choice.]

[Please reply with the customization you wish to choose, and the beta test will begin.]

[Again Origin] was a roguelike, but it had an unusual system.

From appearance and gender to items… jobs and stats, every character was generated at random.

It was another reason [Again Origin] was called a game with a damnable difficulty.

The difficulty of the game itself was already absurd, yet it also demanded gacha luck from the user.

But I could set up my next character to my tastes?

Anyone who had played the game would know.

This was an unbelievable benefit.

Of course, I could choose only one customization.

‘What if I picked a customization so overpowered it was practically bug-tier?’’

There was enough possibility.

Starting with legendary weapons, then broken traits and skills, or even jobs with potential.

The vast knowledge I had that could help me thrive in the game surfaced vividly in my mind.

But.

The instant I heard the word customization, something else came to mind.

My hesitation was short, and my decision was quick.

[Input Window]

Please enter the text.

……

…

…

[My Message: Infinite Blink]

***

Inside a cave filled with moisture.

In the thick darkness, eyes gleamed along with rough breathing.

“Chwik—!”

White creatures appeared with a bizarre cry no human vocal structure could produce.

Hydras.

They were monsters also known as the Serpents of Ruin.

The bastards flicked their tongues with eyes overflowing with malice.

There were dozens just within sight.

Considering the habit of those creatures to form groups, they might only be the tip of the iceberg.

But as if that fact meant nothing, a man in golden armor advanced.

“Found you.”

The man muttered indifferently and drew his greatsword.

The hydras also rushed in, sliding quickly over the rough ground.

One against dozens.

It was an overwhelming difference in force.

However, without so much as blinking, the man swung his greatsword.

With a single slash, dark flames surged up.

The hydras charging at the front line were turned to ash without leaving even their shapes behind under the mighty firepower.

The hydras in the rear, watching the sight, also flinched and retreated.

“Utterly laughable. There is no path of escape for you bastards.”

When light flashed once again, the fleeing hydras crumbled without even leaving their forms behind.

Barely a few minutes.

That was all the time the man needed to wipe out the hydras.

Just then, a girl loitering nearby watched his mood and held her breath.

‘That man is Kwon Hyeok-jin, the one called a Seven Star….’

One of the seven heroes called the strongest in all history across the entire world.

His deeds were so remarkable they called to mind the protagonist of a game.

One day, appearing suddenly like a comet, he built tremendous achievements in a short period of time and overturned every record.

This mission was the same.

Dozens of people had entered the cave and failed to return alive.

He had handled a mission called unprecedented all on his own.

What happened today would also become one of the countless achievements of the man called the strongest.

“G… Good work. Here is some water.”

“Thank you. The Guild is exaggerating. To think they were struggling over bastards of this level…. Well, no matter. I have executed them all.”

“You’re amazing.”

“This much is nothing. The Guild will be waiting for the results as well, so let us hurry.”

Kwon Hyeok-jin said that while shaking the blood from his sword.

Just as the situation was being wrapped up that way,

Seo-rin, the girl with dark ash-gray hair, pricked up her ears.

“What is it?”

“Th… That is… I think I hear a strange sound from over there….”

The girl pointed at a shadowed tunnel.

“Were there still remnants left? I received no word of such a thing from the Guild. Well, it does not matter. Guard the baggage properly. I will end this in one breath.”

Variables were common when exploring dungeons, so that did not matter.

Proceeding with the exploration and relaying information was the role of explorers.

Since people were the ones doing it, information was often exaggerated or distorted in the process.

That was how variables occurred.

But to Kwon Hyeok-jin, who possessed innate talent and skill, it was nothing worth worrying about.

If a problem appeared, he only needed to solve it as usual.

He gripped his greatsword again and was about to advance.

“You bastard, I will finish you quickly too…. Huh?”

Slaaash—!

Red blood surged up like a fountain.

The right arm of Kwon Hyeok-jin, who had been gripping his sword, vanished without a trace.

Clang—With a cold metallic sound, the sword rolled across the floor.

It was something that had happened without warning.

Having lost his right arm in an instant, Kwon Hyeok-jin clutched his own forearm with a deathly pale face.

“Aaaaaaagh! My arm! My ar… fuuuuuck! Porter! Potion… Hurry, the potion….”

Kwon Hyeok-jin tried to turn toward the ash-haired girl.

Unfortunately, however, his words could not reach their end.

By the time he suddenly came to his senses, the unidentified monster was already standing face-to-face with him.

“…Huh? When?”

He had no time to deal with the sudden situation.

Crack!

The monster’s fist smashed down into the crown of his head.

One blow.

With a single blow, the hero of humanity lost his light.

***

“Huff, huff… Eek! This is insane… It’s insane!”

Right after witnessing Kwon Hyeok-jin’s body get crushed like minced meat,

Seo-rin, drenched in blood from head to toe, sobbed as she ran and ran.

Kwon Hyeok-jin, called a Seven Star and known as a hero of humanity, had died without being able to offer any resistance.

That thing was a monster.

An overwhelming monster.

Perhaps it was an enemy that present humanity could not oppose.

Otherwise, she could not think of any way to explain the current situation.

“Why is a monster like that in a place like this…?”

I don’t know. I don’t want to die.

It was in the middle of that thought.

A human silhouette fell across the line of Seo-rin’s desperate sprint.

‘A person?’

Where did he appear from?

I didn’t hear a single sound.

She felt doubtful for all sorts of reasons, but before that, a sense of danger struck her first.

If he wandered around in front of that monster, the number of casualties would increase again.

“R… Run away! That thing is a monster! You’ll die like that!”

Even as she warned him with words, doubt rose in one corner of her mind.

Even if he really ran, could he get away from that monster?

The gaze of the monster chasing her reached the man.

Ah, that man is going to die too.

The instant she squeezed her eyes shut in certainty,

“Blink.”

She heard the man mutter something.

The instant she opened her eyes again, the man was standing in front of the monster in the blink of an eye.

At the same time,

Slaaash!

Half of the monster’s body swelled up like a balloon, and red blood began pouring down from the ceiling of the cave.