“Luck helped a little. Effort too. They were running maintenance all evening into dawn, remember?”
“Yeah, the notice earlier said they really did a ton of maintenance.”
“Someone posted on the board that if you log in the instant maintenance ends and sprint like crazy, you can break free. I tried that too, but of course everyone had the same idea. No matter how fast you log in, it doesn’t work. I was about to log out, thinking what kind of crap game is this, when I saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“A little off to the side, there’s this guy—not being pushed by anyone—pressing himself on a woman in that sneaky way you get in a crowded subway, like a subtle shove. Each time she turned around, he played innocent. Even when she tried to slip away through the crowd, he kept tailing her. Total creep.”
“Ugh. If it were me, I’d have pulled a knife and stuck him right away.”
“You’re… scary, you know that?”
“Isn’t that reasonable? It’s a game; we’ve got knives. Just give him a quick stab.”
“You might actually be good at this game. I can see it already.”
Jaejung hyung chuckles at my comment.
“She turned around a few times and yelled at him, but that pervert pretended not to hear. He stuck so close—just shy of being obvious to others—that it was awkward to report him. Looked like she was pulling up windows trying to figure out how to log out.”
“She ran into a real piece of crap. But if she’d just logged out, you wouldn’t be telling me this. You did something, didn’t you?”
He smiles and shrugs.
“I shouldered through the crowd, tailed him, and drove my dagger straight into his head. Man… it sent a chill through me. The grip fits snug in your hand—feels good. You don’t feel anything when you stab, though. Wounds just show up as a thin red line, no spurting blood or anything. Not particularly gory.”
“You scary man… You just spiked his head in one go? So did he die?”
Another shrug, like it was nothing.
“Yeah, he just died. Must’ve been pushed out of the safe zone. He still should’ve had HP, but seeing him die in one hit made me think there was something going on. And after I killed one, the ID over my head turned red right away. You know the names float over your head, right?”
“Yeah. If you tilt your head up, you can see them. Other people’s too.”
“At first it’s white. Kill one person, it flips immediately. Lots of games have that kind of system, nothing unusual. The problem is, it stands out too much. Like a red wolf among white sheep.”
I nod.
“Wolf’s about right. He was prowling after a pretty little sheep.”
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t like that. Anyway, I explained to the woman how to log out, told her a few other basics, and the atmosphere around us felt off, so I had her log out first—and then had myself a little scuffle.”
“You definitely stood out. For real.”
“The ones who saw me one-tap a guy didn’t come at me while they were near me. But once we got mixed into the crowd again, it turned into a shitshow.”
“So you died in the end.”
“Yeah, what can you do against a dogpile? But when I died, I didn’t respawn at the starting point.”
“Where did you go?”
“Didn’t realize at first. There was a red crystal there, with some kind of sigil. Not a town—turned out to be a return point.”
“A new point existed?”
“Right. Turns out it was the quest completion point. There’s a starting quest, and that was the destination—so I basically cleared it for free.”
“And then?”
“Checked my inventory and saw I’d dropped my shield. At least I didn’t drop the dagger—that would’ve been bad. After that? Nothing fancy. Roamed around, hunted mobs, collected items and money.”
“I should try that too. Think it’ll spread soon?”
“Who knows. Anyone who knows won’t share it. If they do, every dog and cow will port in with return stones, and the place will turn into chaos. You know where the best hunting grounds are?”
“Where the XP and money are great?”
“No—where there’s no one else and I get to kill everything alone. If you find honey like that and then broadcast it, you’re a clown. Dominate the nearby hunting grounds for a few minutes, then when people start to flood in, hop to a higher zone. The key was escaping that bottleneck. While everyone’s standing still, I’m already running.”
So small steps make a big difference, huh?
“Anyway, you get one stat point at level 2, so when I hit 2, I put my first point into Strength. And—wow. That’s when I thought I might actually fall in love with this game.”
“Why?”
“Because when I raised Strength, I actually got stronger. I’ve played a ton of VR games, but I never imagined this. I don’t know what they did to the sensory model, but you feel the increased strength. The dagger in my hand felt lighter immediately.”
“That’s amazing.”
That you can raise a stat and have your real sensations change—beyond what I imagined.
I’d thought it was just numbers, but I’ll have to rethink that.
“I tried Agility too—really got faster, and my body knew it. Even my sprint sped up a bit. It feels like every part of using your body improves a little. They nailed the micro-details.”
“What about the boss? What’s he raising?”
“No idea. He said he’s going swordsman, but at this point, I’m thinking of talking him out of it. Swords look like they’ll demand insane sense.”
“Swordsman’s hard?”
“There are no weapon restrictions in this game—you can wield whatever you want. But you need the sense to make it work. Tell me—which hurts more: getting stabbed with the blade or hit with the flat?”
“Blade, obviously.”
“Right. Each part of a weapon has different impact values, and damage is calculated from swing force, speed, centrifugal force, all combined. If you’ve got no sense and try to play melee, you’re going to get wrecked. On the other hand, someone with good sense and perception? They’ll be insane. Two people can use swords with identical ‘damage’ ratings, and the difference in combat sense will be like heaven and earth.”
“How do you know that? Do damage numbers pop up when you hit mobs?”
“Nope. But I kept switching things up with each kill and could tell.”
Yep—definitely a former pro. No floating numbers, and he still figures it out by testing. That’s a separate skill from having high RTP. Hard to emulate right away.
***
I went home, took a quick shower, and wolfed down some convenience store food.
I get into the VRS and lie down. The world flips over almost instantly.
Other servers are already full, making character creation tough. I was torn between Server 9, Arshila, and Server 10, Forne, and chose Arshila.
Forne just didn’t sound good.
A system tone says it’s scanning my body; a virtual body surfaces before my eyes.
The boyishness is almost gone now—sharper eyes with a slightly darker look, a keen jawline. Hair cropped short and swept up. Overall, a slim build—my scan appears on the screen.
Physique: unchanged.
For hair, I pick the soft two-block perm from that commercial, just adjust the length.
Color: plain deep black.
***
Name: Jooho
Level: 0
【Strength 1】 【Agility 1】 【Vitality 1】 【Intellect 0】 【Mana 1】
***
For the character name, I just shortened my real name.
Character creation ends, and the screen transitions as if my consciousness dissolves.
As my scattered awareness and senses re-thread into one, a clear, gentle woman’s voice comes from somewhere.
< Welcome to the world of Lost Sky. >
Brainwave verification.
Joo Seungho. Male.
Character name Jooho. Level 0.
Loading……
It’s the view you get when a plane rises above the clouds. Below, an ocean of white; above, pure blue sky. I’m floating between them.
When the twenty-second loading bar vanishes, I begin to drift down toward the ground.
I pass through thunderheads. Far below: mountains here, a lake there, fields, a river. In the distance, a place belching lava; elsewhere, rain pouring down. Storms raging, regions frozen solid—far-off vistas.
As I fall to about the level of a green-lit forest zone, my speed eases; my perspective flips, and suddenly I’m standing in a spot within the woods.
I think the point was to show the whole map—to convey the scale. Judging by how it stamped itself into my perception, I’d call it a success.
Behind where I stand, a massive blue crystal is driven into the earth, rising tall. Around me, dense trees crowd together.
Warm light filters through leaves that canopy the sky.
A cool, fresh woodland scent rides the breeze and brushes my nose, grass smell and all.
This is… better than I expected.
For the first time, I think getting away from the city’s relentless noise and overstimulation and being somewhere like this might actually be nice.
And when would I ever make time to stroll a forest like this? In reality, you couldn’t just wander deep mountains unprepared. The fact that I can here feels incredible.
[ Notice ]
We are adding 10 more starting points.
As compensation for the bottleneck issue, all users will receive 100 White Potions.
For three hours, experience gain will be doubled.
A speed boost will be applied to all users near starting points. This effect ends after passing a certain zone.
Looks like they took a lot of flak over the bottlenecks. After that insane maintenance spree, they finally rolled out compensation.
First, I open my inventory to check my belongings.
***
0 Novice’s Dagger / ATK 1–3
0 Novice’s Shortbow / ATK 1–3
0 Novice’s Spear / ATK 1–4
0 Novice’s Leather Top / DEF 1
0 Novice’s Leather Bottoms / DEF 1
0 Novice’s Leather Shoes / DEF 1
0 Novice’s Wooden Shield / DEF 2
***
The Novice’s Dagger—Jaejung hyung told me, but it really is a true blade. I stare, blank, as sunlight glints off the edge through the leaves.
The blade is about 40 cm long, double-edged. The grip is wrapped in ocher-colored leather; when I close my palm around it, the texture feels rough.
Honestly, point something this sharp at most people and they’d flinch—unless they’re used to knives, like career criminals, detectives, or special forces. People freak out even when you pick up a kitchen knife at home.
Weapons checked.
Now what?
Do I kill someone, like Jaejung hyung suggested?
My eyes begin to sweep the surroundings.