The next day.
Dong Boyun took public transportation to visit his good friend Smith.
They had originally planned to play Dungeon Raiders together the night before, but Dong Boyun had bailed on Smith. To make up for it, he came over in person today so they could duo-queue the game, making sure he wouldn't flake again.
Unfortunately, at 10 a.m. in the Mid-Star Starfield, Dungeon Raiders was undergoing a maintenance update. The official notice said the update would last at least an hour.
Seeing this message, Smith furrowed his brows tightly and grumbled angrily, "What terrible luck. It's like this maintenance was tailor-made just to stop us from playing together!"
Dong Boyun wasn't nearly as frustrated. In fact, upon hearing the news, he secretly smiled to himself.
Dungeon Raiders might be down, but he still had Tasty Crush to play.
While Smith was still grumbling, Dong Boyun seized the moment and opened the smart-brain screen on his wrist to launch Tasty Crush.
Smith noticed what was going on just as Dong Boyun was already immersed in the game.
He frowned in confusion, watching him.
Dong Boyun was so into it, he forgot Smith was even there. He shouted gleefully, "Yes! Another level cleared! Three stars on the first try! And I got a brand-new trophy! I'm amazing!"
Smith asked, "Dong, what are you doing?"
Only then did Dong Boyun remember he was at Smith's house, and that he'd come over today to apologize for yesterday. Embarrassed, he explained, "It's a game called Tasty Crush that I discovered recently. It's a smart-brain game, but really fun. It's totally different from what we've played before—and it looks super delicious, too."
There was a lot packed into that sentence, and it took Smith, being the same age, a moment to process it all.
Smith picked one part to focus on: "But haven't we already played a lot of smart-brain games? Even the ones that seemed fun at first all became boring after a while. None of them are even one-thousandth as fun as Dungeon Raiders."
Dong Boyun shrugged, agreeing. "That's true for most of them—but this one is different—"
He opened his mouth to try and explain, but he wasn't great at convincing people. The reasons why this game was so good were hard to put into words.
He scratched his head in frustration and paused his game. "Okay, I don't really know how to explain why it's different. Why don't you try it yourself?"
Smith glanced at Dong Boyun's screen.
It showed a medium-sized grid filled with colorful snacks in each square.
Just looking at it, he couldn't make heads or tails of it—how to play or what made it fun.
Standing beside him, Smith looked completely baffled, scratching his hand absentmindedly.
Dong Boyun smacked his forehead. "Oops, I forgot—this is my account, so there's no tutorial. You probably don't know how to play. Let me teach you. See the goal at the top of the screen? This level wants you to collect 25 chocolate cakes and 25 egg yolk pastries. The icons up top match the ones on the board—you should be able to recognize them. To collect them, just swap two pieces to line up three of the same kind."
Smith listened surprisingly attentively, like a student in class. Once he understood, he carefully tried it himself.
...
"Ah! On the right! You can line up four green plum jellies!"
"But this level's goal is to collect chocolate cakes. Why go after green plum jellies?"
"You don't get it—lining up four of the same creates a special item. Try it."
"Whoa, it worked! This item's awesome—it cleared six pieces in one go!"
After successfully clearing the first two levels, Smith was fully engaged. Without waiting for Dong Boyun to say anything, he hit the [Next Level] button and eagerly prepared to continue.
Just then, Smith—thinking he had mastered the game—noticed something different. On the 5x11 grid, a portion of it looked misty and unfamiliar.
"Dong, what's this?"
Dong Boyun was a bit stunned—he hadn't seen this kind of level before either.
At that moment, the cute little mascot girl popped up, hands on cheeks, as if reading their minds, and a tutorial text box appeared:
[Look, Organizer! Some snacks are wrapped in packaging paper. Oh dear, a clumsy organizer must've accidentally left the wrappers in the Messy House and wrapped all sorts of snacks in them. Let's tear off the wrappers and sort the snacks again!]
Smith suddenly understood. "Ah, it's a new type of level. But… how do we tear off the wrappers?"
Another box popped up beside the mascot, again reading minds like magic:
[Oops, almost forgot to tell you how to tear off the wrappers!]
The screen dimmed except for the misty part. Two columns and three rows were highlighted, with a text prompt:
[Swap the snack pieces to line up three of the same to tear off the wrappers and collect the snacks at the same time.]
Smith chuckled.
He hadn't seen the earlier tutorials, so this was his first. He couldn't help but laugh—it sounded exactly like a kindergarten teacher talking to kids.
Following the instructions, he swapped pieces, matched three, and tore off wrappers...
Dong Boyun asked with a tinge of jealousy, "What level are you on now?"
Smith glanced at the top of the screen. "Ah, level 10, I think? Yeah, level 10."
"So, after three levels, do you see why the game is fun?"
"I totally do! No wonder you said it was good—it really is!"
Next to him, Dong Boyun felt a bit sour. Of course he was happy Smith liked the game he recommended—but it still stung that Smith got to try a new level before he did. No way he wasn't at least a little salty.
But since he was the one who introduced the game, and Smith didn't pick up on his jealousy, he had no choice but to play it cool and let Smith continue.
Suddenly, Smith exclaimed, "Ah! I failed!"
The result screen popped up. All three stars were empty—no trace of gold ever having touched them. The snacks that usually danced around the screen were now drooping sadly, lying flat on the surface. Even though they had no faces, they somehow looked dejected, radiating disappointment.
It was the first time Smith had failed a level—and also the first time Dong Boyun had seen the failure screen.
Smith looked a bit defeated. Dong Boyun, on the other hand, was thrilled. He immediately pushed Smith aside and said in an overly serious tone, "You're just new to this. You probably didn't know what to do. Let me handle it."
Smith stepped aside, half-convinced. "I think it said I ran out of action points before unwrapping all the snacks. That's why I failed."
Action points?
What's that?
Dong Boyun had never noticed that before, but he didn't care about that now—he just wanted his screen back.
—At least now he could play the new level himself.
Since it was a retry after a failure, the tutorial popped up again. Dong Boyun also noticed the "Action Points" displayed in the upper-left corner—something he'd missed earlier.
After confirming the level's objectives again, Dong Boyun took a deep breath and began his battle of wits with the "clear plastic wrappers" around the snack icons.
At first, he worried he'd fail like Smith did.
But surprisingly, he cleared the level on the first try.
Three stars lit up in brilliant gold, like his soul had been filled with light.
Dong Boyun puffed up with pride and said smugly, "Done."
Smith, clearly impressed, looked at him in awe. "That was awesome."
Then Smith pulled up his own smart-brain screen and scooted next to Dong Boyun. "How do I download this game?"
Dong Boyun helped him open the app store, searched for Tasty Crush, and clicked the blue download icon next to the top result. Smith's home network was fast—the game downloaded in no time and appeared on his smart-brain desktop.
"All set. You can play now."
Smith immediately launched the game and began his own journey.
...
Before they knew it, an hour had passed.
During that time, neither of them spoke a word. They were both deeply immersed in the world of Tasty Crush, completely hooked.
It wasn't until Smith's VR pod chimed:
[Your reserved game Dungeon Raiders is now available. Maintenance is complete. You may log in.]
Only then were they pulled out of their Tasty Crush daze.
Smith and Dong Boyun looked at each other. Neither showed any intention of exiting the game or closing their screens.
Smith cleared his throat and said, "I just started a new level. If I don't finish it now, I'll waste the free first-clear reward."
Dong Boyun awkwardly added, "What a coincidence, me too."
Smith tested the waters, "So... how about we skip Dungeon Raiders for now and keep playing Tasty Crush?"
Dong Boyun nodded enthusiastically. "No problem!"