Meanwhile, in South Korea, inside a tall skyscraper...
A door clicked open. A young girl in a black and white school uniform slipped inside, quietly shutting the door behind her.
The sound was muffled in the small, stale air of the condo.
She glanced around the dim space, her uniform standing out starkly against the gloom, before flicking on the lights.
The room was messy. A mess of empty instant noodle cups and soda cans covered her desk, and clothes were piled on a chair. It was clear things had been left without organizing and cleaning for a while.
Yu-Seol sighed.
She started cleaning the area where she needed to sit, clearing just enough space on her desk by shoving the debris aside.
She threw her heavy bag onto the unmade bed and immediately logged into her PC, the glow of the monitor illuminating her tired face.
"When..." she sighed, dragging her word with a yawn.
She leaned back and stretched her arms high above her head. "...is a good game finally going to come out?"
She grabbed her phone while the PC booted.
She checked the Discord. Nothing noteworthy so far. Just the usual channel- memes and pointless arguments from gooners and trolls.
Reality is boring.
Life is mundane and repetitive.
She turned her eyes lifelessly to the window, looking out at the dark, oppressive sky.
The perpetual light pollution of Seoul had long since drowned out any hint of stars.
She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes for a moment as she waited for the familiar boot-up sound and blue light to light up.
After a few minutes of what felt like a micro-nap while mindlessly doom-scrolling on her phone, the monitor finally flickered to life.
"Ah, finally. I was sick of waiting."
She began her routine. A quick search through Steam revealed not much of interest.
Just the usual early-access survival games, asset-flips, and gacha clones.
She expanded her search, clicking through various forums and gaming sites, her disappointment growing of this current still water.
"Forget it…" she muttered. "I'll just finish my homework first— Huh?"
Her eyes snapped to the screen. An inconspicuous ad, one she hadn't even consciously had entered, somehow, had redirected her to a new website.
She must have accidentally clicked it during her fast, frustrated tapping.
[ Project Moon ]
The name was simple, displayed in stark white text on a black background. A sleek, minimalist page loaded.
> * Would you like to register for a new virtual reality game?
> * Version 0.1 only allows 50 slots for this version.
> * Provide your details below and submit it once you have finished.
>
This registration was oddly short. A username, age, gender, occupation, and hobbies.
"Huh?" Yu-Seol frowned, glancing at the strange registration form.
Her cursor hovered over the close-tab 'X'. If it had asked for her email and password, or her address, or any important credentials, she would have instantly left and dismissed it as a phishing scam.
But this one… it was asking for nothing sensitive. It was almost too simple.
She scratched her head, her curiosity piqued against her better judgment.
She glanced curiously at a loading bar for an embedded video.
When it had finally finished buffering, an overview of the game started playing as a trailer.
It showed a tall, authoritative man.
He was wearing a noble and militaristic black uniform, severe and immaculate, with a high, feathered collar.
He wielded a crimson sword that looked like a Chokuto that seemed to be forged from hardened red crystals.
The man was in a ruined raining city, and he was being swarmed by cyberpunk-looking humanoid figures with red lifeless gazes.
They wore black, cobalt-lined suits, but their heads were just smooth, dark visors reflecting the shadows, with glowing crimson eyes burning from their eye pockets behind that mask.
Rough, mechanical breathing was the only sound they made, giving off an unsettling feeling.
"Are they like... mini-Darth Vaders?"
Yu-Seol wondered, instinctively zooming the video to full screen to scrutinize it.
The creatures had tanks of red liquid on their backs, connected by thick hoses to massive red hooks that functioned as their hands.
They tried to slash at the man's sides, but he moved with an impossible speed.
He easily deflected their attacks, his crimson crystal sword meeting their hooks with a shower of sparks.
He brutally sliced them in half as if he had already fought them thousands of times.
Each of his swings was so fast it left crimson afterimages, tearing through the armor of the humanoid monsters on the screen with a sickening sound of flesh being torn and blood spilling like a pressurized fountain.
The combat was fluid, bloody, and unbelievably realistic.
Yu-Seol stared at the fight with an agape mouth. "So cool…"
She quickly shook her head, forcing herself to be skeptical.
"There is no way this is real. It's too realistic, too high-quality for some unknown site. It's probably a pre-rendered 'target' video."
She paused. "… But, it's better to try than to do nothing."
Yu-Seol quickly registered. She typed:
* Username: Zenith_Sword
* Age: 19
* Gender: Female
* Occupation: Student
* Hobbies: Gaming, Kumdo (Kendo)
She hit submit, and another notification popped up.
[ You have been registered as "Zenith_Sword"! This is your code: 8A4F-C91E-B5D0 ]
[ Please paste the code to the site's URL, and you will be sent to the community hub with updates and the waiting time for the registration for version 0.1 to be completed. ]
Yu-Seol copied and pasted it, and a new page loaded.
The crazy thing was that this wasn't just a landing page. There was a global chat, already active, and even a forum.
"Wow. I thought this was just the registration page, but this site has everything... it's already complete?"
She wondered how the site could deal with bot accounts without email verification or other credentials, but that wasn't her problem.
She quickly clicked on the global chat, and there were already messages flooding in.
[ Global Chat ]
The_TunaGoddess: Hey, do you guys think this company is real?
Lord_Godrick: Who knows? Maybe not? Maybe yes? The timer for the registration to end is tomorrow.
The_EmperorOfMankind: We can only wait. That trailer was high quality. It looked like a Netflix Adaptation Trailer. Fuck. I thought it was a film or something.
7/11_gasoline_hits_different: I hope its real. If it isn't. I am gonna find whoever made this site and load my shotgun.
The_TunaGoddess: Calm down, Mr. Terrorist.
I_Killed_The_Entire_Population_Of_Puerto_Rico: I'll bet 25 cents this is fake.
Arnold_Schwarzeneggro1234: I wonder what power progression does this game have?
Lord_Godrick: Meh. Looks like an apocalyptic cyberpunk world. Maybe we can do some shooting and saber fencing.
The_Enemy_Of_All_Women: I want to see if I can remove my pants.
The_DeprivedAfrican: You want to see your tiny mushroom, little man?
The_Enemy_Of_All_Women: What the fuck did you just say to me you little shit?!
The_DeprivedAfrican: Tehe. 🤭🖕
The_TunaGoddess: …
BallsDeep69: …
Yu-Seol glanced at the chaotic, degenerating chat and scrolled up, trying to find any relevant information.
As she was searching, she paused. A new message appeared, but the username was a shining gold as if pronouncing they were a 'VIP'.
"Eh? Why does this guy have a shining name?"
Light: Hello. Nice to meet all of you registered players. I am the leading developer of Project Moon and the representative of this Company.
The chat momentarily froze, then exploded.
Dog_WaterFighter: Holy shit. The One Piece is real!
The_EmperorOfMankind: Is this game really about to get released? Why didn't your management advertise it in the real world?
Most of the players began to ask the same question while sharing their own puzzlement of this supposedly secretive company and a realistic virtual reality game.
They didn't buy it. The truth of this matter.
It was certainly strange, Yu-Seol squinted her eyes.
That was the first question she'd had as well. But as she was about to ask her own, a reply came from the developer.
Light: We have a limited budget for this campaign. So we placed more emphasis on playability and R&D rather than advertising.
It was a reasonable, if slightly suspicious, answer.
Yu-Seol nodded. The crowded chat also seemed to accept it, as they immediately moved on to other, more pressing questions.
Lich_King: How advanced is this virtual reality game?
It was the question on most of the community players' mind.
The developer, 'Light', answered this one while ignoring the flood of irrelevant messages.
Light: Good question. All of the sensations are realistic. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste… everything is the same as the real world. There is one key difference: you can't feel pain. However, you can feel all other sensations, such as the impact of a blow or the warmth of a fire.
This was amazing, from Yu-Seol's perspective. No company on Earth had reached this level of realism.
Even the most advanced haptic suits were clumsy and partial. The other players in the chat erupted, half not believing it, the other half skeptical but hopeful.
'Light' continued to explain.
Light: The in-game time has a ratio of 1:1 to the real world, with a time difference of about 12 hours. Because the system runs by overwriting your dreams, entering the game is no different from sleeping. You will wake up feeling fully refreshed.
Wasn't this amazing? Yu-Seol thought, her heart starting to beat faster. They could play all night and still sleep well without any interruption?
Wouldn't this single-handedly revolutionize the way people sleep, let alone game?
Insomnia wouldn't even be an issue.
BallsDeep69: Holy cow man. If this is real then I am PAYING for it. Shut up and take my money!
Lord_Godrick: My god. This is literally black technology. This is world-changing. Whoever made this must've been some aliens that were too bored.
Dog_WaterFighter: Is this free?
Light: It's free. We just ask for your cooperation to follow the player handbook. 😊
Light: [Player Handbook.pdf]
When Yu-Seol opened the PDF handbook, she was greeted with a professionally designed document.
The first page was an introduction to the setting: The City.
It was a ruined world, a massive, sprawling dystopian metropolis.
The game was described as a "super-massive open-size MMORPG World."
The objective was for players to survive in an apocalyptic era while rebuilding human civilization and exploring the vast, dangerous world.
There were features listed, such as deep crafting for materials and equipment, real world survival, infrastructure, farming, skills like embroidery & many more, and a complex status system.
The features were endless, and more were being added into the game.
The rules, however, were what caught her eye. They were strict. It was heavily emphasized that this was a cooperative game.
"You aren't allowed to kill or harm other players. Players must work together in this world."
The handbook stated that the only way to "compete" was to gain higher status within the faction and acquire better gear out in the City. The game was competitive in nature.
The higher your contributions. The higher the reward.
There were no limits mentioned for the advancements of individual strength or group battle power, with hints of various advanced technologies that could be made in future updates.
After the main rules, there were the consequences for betrayal.
* Least Severe: Being forced to do community work without any rewards.
* Mid-Level: Getting temporarily banned for a day or a week, accompanied by a significant reduction of favorability from the Faction Leader.
* Most Severe: Getting banned permanently, losing all privileges of playing the game ever again.
Yu-Seol felt at a loss for how strict it was. A permanent, non-negotiable ban for PKing and betraying the faction? That was unheard of.
But the handbook also balanced this.
It seemed the Faction Leader wouldn't force them to do impossible things nor are they not allowed to do what they wanted.
The document promised that the Faction Leader would always reward players based on their contributions and the difficulty of the mission.
"Rewards will always be proportionate to the services rendered and the loyalty shown to the faction."
It was crazy. Yu-Seol thought, re-reading the PDF. This certainly wasn't real, right? A game with this level of technology, this kind of premise, given away for free?
It would be enough to shatter the entire gaming industry overnight.
The global chat, which had been buzzing with excitement, also went silent.
The other players were clearly reading the handbook, contemplating their own thoughts, and wondering if this was all just an elaborate joke.
A final, golden message popped into the chat, breaking the silence.
Light: Well then, let us meet again after a week. My dear players.
The players were left with many questions unanswered. But most left it out and continued on their life while the rest curiously went and checked anything related to this site.
But to no avail… it was as if it hadn't existed in the world in the first place.