"Foxseo, you're so cool!"
"Wow, he already cleared floor 100? How did he do that?!"
"Is this guy a NEET or something?"
Comments flooded the in-game chat as an automated system announced that Foxseo reached rank #1 after clearing all 100 floors of the Golden Labyrinth in the online monster-taming game called Eterna. He was the first player to do so, and his rank skyrocketed from rank #10 to #1 from his recent victory.
Eterna was a standard monster-taming game where summoners would tame as many monsters (often referred to as pets by the community) and bind them with contracts. The summoners would then use the best pets/monsters for the fight to clear the game's content.
In a dark bedroom, blue curtains were drawn and a shadow cast on a hunched form in a rather uncomfortably small bed.
"I can't believe I just did that," the form exhaled in relief. Empty, blue eyes reflected the bright glow of a victory screen from his phone where his in-game character and his pet stood with very few hitpoints left. Above his character was a nameplate that read 'Foxseo', and in front of his character was a corpse of a three-headed dragon with blood drooling from its many mouths.
With a small victory arm-pump, he closed out of the game and glanced at the clock on his phone that read 23:02. His stomach grumbled and a hopeless smile plastered onto his lips. 'Right, I forgot to eat today. I've been too focused on beating floor 100.'
Stretching into a stand, he freed himself from the puddle of blankets and walked out of his one-room apartment. His name is Seo Junwoo, he's 19 and currently out of education. Today was his day off from his parttime job, so he spent most of his day (and his wage) on Eterna training his pets and grinding through the floors before he finally beat it.
Junwoo was too tired to make dinner tonight, he chose the easy option of going to the convenience store just down the street. They were open 24/7 and had convenient packaged ready-meals for very cheap. In fact, he'd go so frequently that the owners were concerned about his health and would throw in some fruit and vegetables to ensure he was eating properly. His neighbourhood was generally pretty quiet with no disturbances and it's often quite peaceful.
The almost-midnight sky was beautiful today. The stars were hidden by clouds, but still shining through and the streetlights held a soothing haze. As Junwoo strolled along the street, he received a notification from the game's forum.
'A new patch?' He pondered, and clicked on the notification. Casually scrolling and reading the posts, his body moved through the world on autopilot. It was about time to cross the road.
Junwoo suddenly looked up. BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEP..
His breath hitched, he barely let out a gasp as horn blared, cutting through the once silent night. Tyres screamed against the asphalt, brakes cried out and a phone dropped to the floor, glass shattered and danced on the floor when-
BANG.
For a moment, it felt like he was bathing in a warm darkness and silence returned to the world until golden eyes snapped open. Around him was a strangely familiar scenery - a forest? Trees too tall to see the top, bushes rich with various fruits.
He looked down. Small feet wrapped in sandals, and a white robe-like attire clung loosely to his skin. A black belt tightly secured the ensemble. A soft hand ran through his air - long golden locks… and ears? Very fluffy ears sprouted from his head, also golden and long.
'What?' His internal monologue started. 'What is this?' Junwoo wasn't quite sure where he was, but something didn't feel right. All he can recall are loud unknown noises and a sudden throbbing pain in his joints that slowly disappeared.
Vision blurred and his brain felt like it was on fire as he stood up. He felt… short. Much shorter than he should be. There was a strange weight behind him, and as he turned around a golden tail with a white tip waggled behind him.
"Am I a fox?!" He pleaded with himself, panic spreading across his face and hands slapped his cheeks to try to wake himself up. His hand ran across his lips, small fangs protruded. He tried to pull on his ears, there's no way right? He knows for a fact he was a Human, his name was… wait. What was it again?
Flush with panic, he started to hyperventilate. Why couldn't he remember anything? He needed help, to find someone. Anyone. They might know what would happen.
One final deep exhale, he tried to calm himself. "No, it's all a dream. It must be a dream." A pathetic laugh breathed out through his fangs.
This didn't feel right at all, he couldn't remember why, but this wasn't right. Suspiciously green and lush grass beneath his feet flickered like flames with the wind. Reluctantly, he forced his feet forward into an awkward walk towards what looked to be an exit in the forest. Trees parted and the grass turned into a dirt path, and what lay beyond the dirt path looked to be a quaint village in the middle of nowhere.
"Surely someone in that village can help me," a whisper escaped his pink lips. A shaky step forward… and huh?
His hand pressed against an invisible wall in front of him, and a blue shimmer rippled across as a bubble became momentarily visible around the entire town.
Text boomed in front of his eyes 'UNTAMED PETS MAY NOT ENTER AT THIS TIME'.
"Untamed… pets?!" Exasperated, he kept trying to push through. The text spammed his field of view as he relentlessly tried to enter, banging on the barrier before giving up and sliding onto his knees. Eyebrows knitted together, and a tear dropped.
Why did he feel so hopeless? Why couldn't he get out of this place? He was desperate, alone and it was starting to get cold. His stomach whined, a pang of hunger hit him hard.
He froze, hair on the back of his neck stood on its ends. A low growl emitted from behind him. Slowly, he turned around and faced what looked like a wolf with extra large claws, two mouths, matted black fur and four glaring eyes.
He couldn't walk back, he was pinned to the invisible wall. "Hey, wait…" Junwoo's voice was shaky and his legs quivered.
Too afraid to run, he put his hands up and clenched his eyelids. The wolf started to close the gap, claws digging at the ground as it pounced.
Junwoo screamed in agony as he fell to the ground, teeth clamped around his legs and a health bar appeared in his vision which slowly decreased. The wolf continued its assault, despite the kicking and punching Junwoo kept throwing at it which didn't seem to deal any damage to the monster. It towered over him at twice his size with a deep black aura surrounding it. A red number appeared next to its health bar that read 'Lv.10.'
Junwoo despairingly clawed at the frightening beast but it relented and backed off in a whimper, large claws sprouted from the injured male leaving a large gash in the eye of the wolf. It oozed out blood.
Critical Hit -50 HP
The health bar of the wolf dropped by 1/6th.
'Really? That did nothing? Oh shit here it comes again…'
He was in distress and tried to shuffle away, unable to escape on his legs. The bones in his legs felt crushed, it was agonising with each move but if he didn't try he could end up dying right here.
Adrenaline kicked in and he hobbled onto one foot, limping away as the wolf recovered from its flinching state and charged up another attack. Red lines swirled into a small vortex and generated a ball of fire. The ball grew larger and larger, the wolf howled which echoed throughout the forest.
Junwoo couldn't escape quick enough. He dropped back down to the floor. This was it. Bracing himself for the attack, he tightly shut his eyes and covered his face with his arms.
And then, it dropped.
The wolf fell to the ground and burst into dust.
Appearing from the dust was a tall human with untamed, long white hair. Deep crimson eyes were locked on the small quivering form in front of him.
He smirked.
"This looks like the new monster that was just released. Nobody has seen one yet." The towering figure started scrolling on a menu that showed a full compendium of monsters. Junwoo breathed a sigh of relief, but the tremors in his body didn't subside.
The glare from the man's eyes were focused right on him. There was a dark shade over number 202 in the man's compendium with a question mark over the picture.
"Oi," this got the attention of the small fox-like man on the floor. "You still alive?"
Junwoo gulped and begrudgingly nodded. He remained silent.
"Cool. You're mine now, stay still." A staff appeared in the new figure's arms, and armour clanged as he raised it up high in front of him. It stretched longer than him and at the top was a glowing red crystal that burst into flames as he chanted.
He felt impending doom. He tried to listen in to the inaudible words that were chanted. A wave of fear washed over Junwoo when the staff started to glow even more bright, and braced himself one more time. This was it. He was really going to die…