***
"Ugh, what kind of garbage game is this?"
I clenched my fist while looking at the "Game Over" text that appeared on the monitor.
The moment the character I had painstakingly raised disintegrated into thin air.
I was overcome with such intense frustration that it was a miracle I didn't throw the mouse.
However, as if accustomed to it, I soon calmed myself down and put a cigarette in my mouth.
"...... My life, clinging to just this one game for over 5 years already, is also a legend."
I lit the cigarette and looked out the window.
Then again, was I in a position to call anything garbage?
My parents gave me the name Park Hyunmyeong, telling me to live wisely. But I was living days that were anything but wise.
Outside the window, the sun was already high in the sky.
It was a weekday, not a weekend. A time when everyone else was working hard.
I, who was a complete jobless bum, was engrossed in the game like a shut-in, without even washing.
"It's time to quit."
Pangenia, a game that had a brief surge in popularity 5 years ago.
At the time of its release, it received a lot of criticism, being called a crazy game.
This was because when a character died, everything would vanish, and the player had to start the game from the very beginning.
Furthermore, it boasted an unprecedented, extreme difficulty, with no one having ever cleared it.
Perhaps because of that.
The brief flash of popularity quickly faded.
To this day, I honestly doubted if anyone other than me was still playing the game.
The concurrent player count recorded on the homepage server was always either 0 or 1.
For reference, 0 was when I wasn't playing, and 1 was when I was playing.
...... It's a pathetic game with only 1 concurrent player, and it's amazing they haven't shut down the server yet, but whatever.
As it happened, I had plenty of time.
I had quit my job, and I no longer had a girlfriend who nagged me every day.
"Ha, damn it."
With a memory that suddenly surfaced, I tightly closed my eyes.
"Oppa, you're a good person but... I'm sorry. I can't keep dating someone with no future forever. I'm at an age where I need to think about marriage now."
I was unceremoniously dumped by the girlfriend I had dated for 5 years.
It seemed I was the only one who had envisioned a future together.
"All my friends are dating and marrying people who work in prestigious companies or well-known large corporations, but Oppa is... Sigh. Let's just stop."
She had concluded it all by herself and left. That bad woman.
Thanks to that, I also quit the company with no future. What should I do from now on? Should I learn a trade for a change?
Click. I picked up the mouse.
Soon, the words "Would you like to create a character?" appeared on the screen.
"Life is always the last chance before the last chance."
I had thought the same thing when I created my previous character. However, the last of the last is always the true last.
Of course, besides the character that was just deleted, there were already numerous characters in the creation window.
There were characters that had reached max level, and characters adorned with all sorts of treasures, yet I was certain that none of them had the specs to clear the game.
This crazy game had an unbelievably high difficulty at certain points.
Bosses that made me question if they were meant to be defeated, villains who suddenly betrayed you when you thought they were allies, named NPCs who would hunt you down and kill you if you had a bounty on your head, and so on...
For example, the character "Brain-Dead Scammer," created to test if the game company was managing things, had max level and quite a few treasure-grade items, but because it had done so many bizarre things, it received a special bounty from a named NPC, resulting in immediate execution upon logging in.
Some named NPCs, who were on the level of being the strongest in the world, surpassed the player's max level, so if you got on their radar, your character was essentially deleted.
That's why I couldn't even log in.
Anyway.
"Let's play for fun, for fun."
Even the character I risked my life to create for clear had ultimately been deleted.
I felt like crying when I thought of the items it wore. I had gathered all the unique-grade items from other characters and raised it...
There were a total of 15 unique-grade items revealed in Pangenia so far. I had pooled eight of them onto one character.
It was the gamble of a lifetime. One where 5 years would vanish if I died.
But I died. The character was deleted, and all the items were gone. Damn it...
"1.6 million Soul Points? It's true that unique items give a lot of points."
But as there are losses, there are also gains.
Pangenia had a Soul Point (SP) system.
When a character dies, the value they possessed was converted into points.
Players could then use those Soul Points to gain advantages when raising new characters.
Over 5 years, hundreds of characters were deleted, accumulating about 80,000 SP. However, when the character with 8 unique items was deleted, 1.6 million Soul Points were generated.
Not only were there unique items, but the chapter progression was also the highest. It was certain that the character was close to clearing the game.
"If one talent costs 10,000 Soul Points, that's more than enough."
A representative use of Soul Points was in the "Talent" section.
When creating a character, you could invest points into desired talents, and depending on the invested point value, rapid growth was possible.
The upper limit was also 10,000 Soul Points.
For reference, "Myungranjeot Conan," who had invested 10,000 Soul Points into swordsmanship in the past, died while holding the title of "Master of Swordsmanship."
"Normally, I would invest in the most common lightning-based magic talent..."
There were several pre-determined routes. The most common was, of course, the lightning-attribute magic talent.
However, this game had hundreds of types of talents that could be invested in. With 1.6 million points, even if not all of them, a significant portion could be maxed out.
"If you invest over 3,000 points in each of the Five Great Element talents, the Void (허) attribute unlocks. If you invest another 5,000 points in the Void attribute, you can obtain the Void (허무) trait."
Talents gave birth to other talents. This was a type of "Hidden Piece." There were countless "designs" like this in Pangenia. Even I, an ultimate veteran, hadn't figured them all out, which says it all.
"If you have the Void trait, you can use opposing magic. You can also increase affinity for both Light and Darkness, so I should definitely get it."
In this game, a single character cannot simultaneously use conflicting attributes. Unless you use tools or other mediums.
However, with the "Void trait," you could use such opposing magic or attributes together.
But since just obtaining the Void trait alone required 20,000 points, there wouldn't be enough points to invest in other talents.
The game was already difficult. If a character died, the invested SP was also lost. Therefore, it was difficult to start with a distinct talent.
"But true enjoyment comes from randomness. Let's go, All Random!"
If I overthink it and plan routes, my head will just hurt. To truly enjoy and quit the game, there's nothing more certain than All Random.
Everything, including traits, is randomized!
It was a destructive choice, but a smile spread across my lips.
The goal was not clearing, but playing for fun.
I bet all 1.6 million points on random.
"I won't be able to clear it anyway."
I had tried every possible struggle to clear it.
To state the conclusion upfront, this game was not released to be cleared.
At the time of Pangenia's release, the developer had issued a declaration to the users:
―To the person who clears the game, I will grant one dream.
"I will grant a dream." With those words from the developer, promising to grant anything, countless people challenged it and were frustrated.
Even now, 5 years later, the game had not been cleared.
About a year ago, there were still a few players, but now it had become a game I was challenging alone.
But I intended to play the game properly for the first and last time.
"Press it?"
I had randomized the appearance before, but choosing 'All Random' was also a first for me. That "All Random" button was notorious for being inefficient and a waste of effort.
The essence of my past time. The choice that contained everything was not easy to make even after deciding.
I closed my eyes.
And.
Click!
I pressed it.
Firmly. Simultaneously, dice began to roll, and everything started to be decided randomly.
But that wasn't the end.
<Hidden Piece has been activated.>
<Congratulations! You have satisfied the anomaly and have been invited to Pangenia!>
A phrase I had never seen before appeared on the monitor.
"Hidden Piece?"
【You who are in the vortex of creation and destruction, brighter than light, darker than darkness. May you be happy in Pangenia.】
The game intro also appeared.
Just as I was about to press the skip button as usual.
"Huh...?"
Those words floated out of the monitor and shimmered.
It was at that moment.
―Damn god! I will burn all the worlds you created!
A voice like scraping metal was heard.
Simultaneously, a hellscape unfolded before my eyes.
The Pangenia continent was falling onto Earth, and it was collapsing together.
The quality was no joke, appearing as if it were a real situation, not crude graphics.
Was there such a video in the intro?
Before I could even feel that question.
My consciousness vanished into the distance.