“Over there! Over there!”
The glider flew through the sky that was slowly brightening as dawn approached, with the five of us dangling from the handle.
From above, a few replicas of the house scattered here and there entered our eyes. Although they appeared to be identical to the one we built looking down from a high place, we could distinguish them by comparing it to the original terrain and the border of the edge of the world.
“That forest over there. Isn’t that where Prez and Sunah wandered after teleporting?”
“That lake in the distance looks like where In Hayoon and I went to get clay…”
“Then that house standing over there must be the house we originally built. Let’s land!”
We all put pressure on the handle, tilting the glider to hover down. Soon, the glider landed gently on the ground and our feet touched the now dried mud.
“It’s all dry. It’s okay.”
The brown mud covering the ground.
The green grass rising above it.
The blue sky spreading above our heads and beyond the horizon.
And the two-story red brick house standing in front as if stepped out of a fairytale.
On the vast endless meadow, the warm light of dawn shone down, along with the cool morning breeze that brushed past our exhausted bodies.
We took a breath on the cool breeze, standing amidst the scenery of brown, green, blue, red, and various other vibrant colors.
“Hoooo…”
“We’ve arrived at last… It’s all over.”
The feeling was similar to returning home after a long summer vacation.
Unlike the excitement at the beginning of the trip, when we were expecting to explore something new, we returned exhausted. We felt so beaten up as if we got off the bus riding for a long journey with our friends, and walked silently without saying anything.
Our feet halted in front of the wooden door, which was the only entrance to our brick house. Our mouths sealed, not knowing what to say anymore after the exciting adventure.
For a moment, we only stared blankly at each other, then suddenly, burst out laughing.
“You’ve all worked hard.”
“Joon, you too…”
“Let’s go in.”
“Yeah.”
Although that was what we said, we stared at the wooden front door of the house we built, straddling two different worlds on both sides.
There was no sign of the wooden door with its hinges ripped off, no fake Sunah lying down with an arrow stuck in her forehead, or replicas of ours trying to merge our bodies tiresomely.
It was just a brick house standing peacefully at the border, just as it was when it was first built.
It felt like we were back to our cozy home, after wandering around a strange place.
“Let’s go back.”
I approached the door slowly and pulled the wooden doorknob.
Creak–
The door opened with a creak, I stepped inside the house, passing the wooden doorframe.
Step.
“…The end.”
With this one single step, I finally entered the original world of the game from the other bizarre world beyond the edge of the world.
“Come in, everyone.”
“Haaa.”
Sunah was second to enter the house, passing the threshold with an exhausted expression.
Gyeongwon raised his leg excessively high, as if passing an invisible obstacle on the wooden doorframe and entered after Sunah.
Dukhun entered next while wiping the sweat on his forehead.
And finally, Hayoon entered last, with her hands clasped behind her back and walking gracefully as usual.
“Huuu… Let’s sit down.”
We soon slumped down on the living room carpet, woven by the wool of the sheep we captured before crossing the border, and faced the fireplace that had long become cold.
Amidst the silence, a speech bubble appeared above Dukhun’s head a while later.
[Admin (Oh Dukhun): Are you guys done?]
“Yeah, we’re done. Just open the menu and logout.”
[Admin (Oh Dukhun): ㅇㅇ]
Under our surprised eyes, Dukhun’s body began glowing in a faint blue light.
Poof.
And soon after, his large body disappeared before our eyes, leaving only a few waves of energy behind.
Shiiiiing–
Next, my body began shining blue similarly to Dukhun.
Knowing my time had arrived, I looked at the members.
“I’m leaving, see you guys later.”
Sunah smiled brightly as if biding me farewell.
Gyeongwon and Hayoon also nodded their heads in parting greetings.
Shiiiiing-
Poof.
“Uh… uhm.”
My eyes felt heavy as I opened them, as if I had a very deep sleep.
My head felt dizzy for a moment, sleep seemed to still collude with my mind as if I was completely in a coma.
My shoulders were leaning uncomfortably on the seat of the internet cafe. Because of the uncomfortable position, my neck and back were sore.
The white monitor desktop entered my vision as soon as I opened my eyes.
‘…What time is it?’
The clock displayed in the corner of the desktop told me that it was just past 6 p.m.
Suddenly, I felt two pairs of eyes on me. When I turned my head, I saw two elementary school boys staring blankly at me, curiosity laced in their expressions.
At that moment.
[Special ability ‘Life Design’ has triggered.]
[Lower your head immediately.]
My mind was already in a half asleep state so my head was lowered as if it was about to fall.
But seeing the prompt, I lowered my head even more.
“Oni-chan hayaku okinai to jigoku shichau yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
[T/N: Oni-chan hayaku okinai to jigoku shichau yo (鬼ちゃん、早く起きて。地獄が始まるよ) is Japanese. Meaning of the whole sentence is: Oni-chan, hurry up and wake up. Hell is about to begin.]
Suddenly, the unconscious body of Dukhun lying on the marble floor of the internet cafe sat up with a start, swinging his arms around.
Whack–
A thick fist flew past my head that was lowered in accordance with the system’s prompt and landed on the seat behind.
At the sudden violence, the elementary students were surprised and they frantically ran away.
“Huh, huh, where… where…?”
Dukhun opened his eyes, slowly coming to his senses after a long sleep. He looked around with a bewildered expression, trying to discern his location.
“The ceiling looks familiar…”
“Wake up.”
Jinhee was standing next to Hayoon and typing on her keyboard, helping Hayoon to log out of the game and disconnecting the character connection. She glanced at Hayoon, who seemed to absentmindedly muttering something and urged.
Hayoon’s cheek, with her eyes closed like a sleeping princess was pressed against Jinhee’s elbow as she roughly manipulated the mouse.
“….Joon.”
Sunah also opened her eyes in the meantime, seated beside Hayoon’s seat.
“Sunah.”
“You’ve worked hard.”
Sunah smiled shyly at my sincere praise.
Just as everyone woke up from the deep slumber, message began to pop up in my mind one by one.
[You have come across and survived a B-rank ghost story – Legend of Herobrine.]
[You have earned 15 Ghost Story Points.]
[You’ve received 10% bonus points for each contributing member.]
[Contributing member (5 members): Ahn Gyeongwon, Oh Dukhun, Yoon Sunah, Lee Jinhee, In Hayoon.]
[You’ve received an additional 50% bonus point on the total 15 points, 8 points.]
[Current Ghost Story Point: 264 +15 +8]
[Current Ghost Story Points: 287]
[You have come across and survived an A-rank ghost story – The Far Away Land.]
[You have earned 40 Ghost Story Points.]
[You have explored the world beyond the edge of the game world and used your wits and skill to successfully discover its origin!]
[You have earned 200 Ghost Story Points.]
[You’ve received 10% bonus points for each contributing member.]
[Contributing members (5 members): Ahn Gyeongwon, Oh Dukhun, Yoon Sunah, Lee Jinhee, In Hayoon.]
[You’ve received an additional 50% bonus point on the total 240 points, 120 points.]
[Current Ghost Story Points: 287 +240 + 120]
Ding~
[Current Ghost Story Points: 647]
[Your understanding of the character Yoon Sunah has increased by 10.]
[Your understanding of the character Ahn Gyeongwon has increased by 20.]
[Your understanding of the character Oh Dukhun has increased by 20.]
[Your understanding of the character In Hayoon has increased by 5.]
‘….There’s no mention of defeating Herobrine.’
Well, the consciousness of Herobrine, the first person to be pulled into the game, had already been torn apart into several pieces and merged with the system a long time ago.
It would be impossible to eradicate the character Herobrine. Only when we deleted all the illegal version files in the world would it could be resolved.
“Ugh… I feel so tired…..”
While I was blankly staring at the system window, where several messages popped up one after another, the members all woke up. They stretched their limbs that were crouched up for a long time.
“Ugh… heeeuuummm.”
“Ah, we should just get up. Okay.”
The bones of their unmoving limbs let out satisfied cracks as they stretched before helping each other stand up.
Since our prepaid time for the computers were almost up, we left the building of the internet cafe and stood in front of the main entrance.
Gyeongwon raised one of his stiff shoulders and rotated up and down, making a few pop sounds appear at the movement.
“Uuuggghhh…. My body aches, Prez.”
“Stop your whining when you’re just stretching.”
I cut him off with an annoyed expression, he kept calling for me, ‘Prez this, Prez that’ whenever his mouth opened.
I was sick of listening to the words ‘President’ and ‘Joon’ so many times today. I felt like my ears were about to get calluses.
“By the way Jinhee, it wasn’t you who entered the cheat codes the first time, right?”
“Oh, yes. It was someone else.”
Jinhee puffed up smokes from the cigarette in her hand as she answered, her body languidly leaning against the wall.
The sight of her casually smoking while speaking felt very natural to us, as it was aligned with her persona, so none of us bothered to point it out.
“Was it a woman or a man?”
“…A man.”
Flickering the ash on the tip of the cigarette with her fingertips, she added.
“I couldn’t get a good look. But he had heavy dark circles under his eyes.”
“… Hmm.”
“Who could it be…?”
I pondered on it carefully, trying to figure out who it could be but nothing appeared in my mind.
“Anyway, everyone worked really hard today, so you all must be tired. Let’s settle the payment later and go home for now.”
“Okay…”
The members nodded with tired expressions.
“Payment?”
Jinhee asked as she threw away the cigarette at hand before stepping on it.
“Mmhm. The Ghost Story Points. I decided spend the points I earned this time on everyone.”
“….Really?”
“I received about 600 points this time. Which means I can level-up each of you for one level or pay you 1 million won.”
“Oh, 1 million won.”
Jinhee’s attention also shifted to the money as she smirked and put her hands in her pockets.
I nodded in affirmative.
“Yeah… if you don’t want to level-up, you can take the points in cash. You can think about which one you want over the weekend. We’ll discuss it again in school on Monday. For today, let’s just part ways now and go home.”
“Go home…..”
Sunah agreed wholeheartedly while rubbing her tired eyes.
Vroom- Vroom-
“You boys will walk home.”
“Ahaha… Joon, sorry! See you at school!”
“Bye!”
“Kyaaaah…”
The motorbike of Jinhee came alive with a loud noise as she started the engine. Black smoke immediately poofed out from behind the bike as it swiftly moved forward, creating a gust of wind. Sunah and Hayoon, who were seated at the backseat of the bike, held onto their clothes and closed their eyes tightly.
The few of us left behind the coil of black smoke had a shabby appearance, like abandoned duck eggs on Nakdong River.
[T/N: The Nakdong River is the longest river in South Korea, stretching about 510 kilometers (317 miles). It originates in the Taebaek Mountains and flows southward through the southeastern part of the country, eventually emptying into the South Sea (also known as the East Sea).]
“The apartment complex I live is right in front, so I’m gonna walk there. What about you guys?”
When I asked Dukhun and Gyeongwon, Dukhun mumbled with a hesitant expression.
“Well, it’s not that late, so I guess I’ll just take the bus.”
“Okay, let’s go together in a taxi.”
“Arigatou.”
Gyeongwon took out his wallet and went out onto the street to catch a taxi with Dukhun tailing behind. I also bid them farewell and turned back to go home.
‘Oh no, Babamba ice cream.’
I quickly changed the direction from the front of the apartment complex’s entrance glass door and headed to the convenience store in the shopping district.
‘…Hmm. Dad, Mom and me, ‘2+1’. Then I should buy three, for me and my parents.’
Entering the convenience store, I quickly picked up three Babamba ice cream and headed to the checkout counter. The weekend part-timer on the counter scanned the barcode with an indifferent expression.
“2,000 won. Do you need a bag?”
“No, it’s okay.”
“Goodbye.”
I finished my ice cream shopping and went back to the apartment complex and got into the elevator before pressing the number to my desired floor.
The vague sound of the familiar TV show entered my ears as soon as I stood in front of the entrance door of our apartment. When I opened the door and went in, a familiar sight greeted me once again.
The back of my father still lying on the living room sofa and watching TV was seen as I entered the living room.
“You’re back?”
“Yes, haha… I bought three Babamba ice creams for us.”
“Good job. Keep the change.”
“Thank you, Dad, you’re the best.”
My mother, who was preparing food in the kitchen, poked her head out hearing my voice.
“My son, are you back? You didn’t even answer my phone.”
“I was wearing headset… sorry.”
“It’s okay, you came back earlier than expected. I thought you were going to come home after playing all night since it was the weekend after your midterms.”
“Haha… I’m just tired…”
“Dinner’s ready. Come quickly.”
As soon as I heard that, I ran excitedly to the table. However, the table was empty with nothing there.
“Set up the food bowls and chopsticks. Your father won’t move his butt from the sofa no matter how many times I call him.”
As if to defend himself, my father’s voice came rumbling from the living room far away.
“I’ve done all the dishes…”
“I’m joking, haha. Come and eat.”
“Good.”
My father finally stood up from the sofa and came over at those words.
However, looking at the empty table, he tilted his head with a confused expression.
“Where’s the food?”
“Set the plates.”
“I’ve been fooled.”
As he said that, he already had a Babamba ice cream in his mouth.
“No, you! Why are you eating ice cream before dinner!”
“Am I a kid? An adult can eat whatever he wants whenever he wants.”
“Joony is learning from you!”
I put down the plates and laughed in disbelief at my Mom’s comment.
Does my Mom still think I’m an elementary school student?
“Joony isn’t a kid anymore to learn such things. Right, Joony~?”
My Dad teased my Mom with a ice cream stick in his mouth. The ice cream was already gone in his stomach while he spoke.
I ended up laughing louder than usual.
Perhaps after the extremely stressful situation of entering the game and encountering many dangerous situations, the sight of my parents bickering with each other appeared to be amusing in my eyes.
“Oh my, do whatever you want. I don’t care anymore.”
“Are you angry? Hmm? Joon, your Mom is angry.”
“Pfft haha.”
* * *
♦
[Year 2026? Mon Tue Sun Thurs?11th, 03: + Lee]
[Lee? Joon: Number of Attempts – 1]
[Ghost Story: 2nd □]
[Causality?? Rate: 83%]
Clang-
The elevator standing on the ground level started descending with a rumbling noise. It was coming down to the basement where I was.
In front of the elevator door in the basement, I stood with my arms crossed, waiting for my crew members.
Clang.
Creeeek-
Soon, the elevator arrived at the basement.
The door opened, and Jinhee with few of other crew members were seen inside. They were carrying a black box, pushing aside the double and triple iron bars, they got down from the elevator.
“We’ve safely collected it, Captain.”
“Thank you.”
I raised my hand to stop the others who were about to move along the passage together.
“The Crew Captain and I’ll handle things from here. It’s quite dangerous.”
“Yes! Understood!”
With a respectful salute, the others moved away and headed for the equipment room to take off their protective gear.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
We walked through the empty corridor and soon arrived at the Research Lab.
The space was specifically designed and built for engineering major students. Various wires and cables were strwen all over, entertwining in a tangled mess.
As soon as we entered, the sight of Gyeongwon typing on a keyboard in front of a big monitor was seen. Several other researchers along with him were bustling inside, setting some things. Hearing us entering, they turned around and greeted us.
“Is that it?”
“Uh-huh.”
Jinhee soon put the black box that she had been carrying next to him. After that, she unlocked the box, and opened the lid.
The main body of a computer, more precisely a motherboard, was lying inside the box.
“It’s inside the hard disk of this motherboard, to be exact.”
“Okay. Who’s going in?”
“I’ll go.”
I calmly walked over to the computer and sat down the seat in front.
“Okay. I’ll have it connected.”
Soon, Gyeongwon connected the motherboard we had brought to the computer and turned it on. His fingers flew on the keyboard as if searching for something.
“Found it.”
Paat–
The earliest version of Clover Corporation’s mega-hit game, MyCraft, soon appeared on the monitor in front of me.
[MyCraft – Pre Pilot]
(WARNING X WORK IN PROGRESS, DOES NOT REPRESENT THE FINAL LOOK OF THE GAME.)
Before we knew, a strange being called the Demon King was resurrected, plunging the world into a great chaos. At that time, the Clover Corporation activated a hidden code functioning as a virus, which they had instilled in all the electronic products they had produced so far.
Because of that, everything from home appliances to cars, software, and even toys made by Clover Corporation stopped working completely. Such a breakdown only accelerated the demise of the world.
This game called MyCraft was deleted from all over the internet and disappeared from the world.
To obtain the file of the game, we had no choice but to desperately search through the residences of the developers involved, and the headquarters building of the Clover Corporation. Eventually, the last game file from a researcher’s backup main unit was successfully obtained and taken into our hands.
The images floating on the monitor in front of me was the earliest development version of the said game.
The motherboard was obtained by Jinhee and her crew members after searching through the addresses of Clover programmers’ homes in the ruined city.
There was something suspicious about this game that we absolutely had to check.
[SEVER: Ghost Story Club] [1/1]
[SEVER: Ghost Story Club] [FULL]
“I made a server. It’s connecting.”
“Okay.”
[Loading….]
“This can be dangerous. So everyone turn off the lights and go outside.”
Since this file held the earliest version of the game, there was no transparent wall inside.
I was afraid that some kind of invisible force might flow out from beyond the virtual world and harm the people.
“We’ll be back in 10 minutes. Be careful, Captain.”
“Okay, everyone go out.”
Click.
Soon, all the lights were switched off and everyone left the lab one by one.
Jinhee and Gyeongwon, with the other researchers waited outside after leaving.
The lab had been turned into a dark void, without any sound or light.
The only light that accompanied me was the monitor screen shinning dazzlingly bright.
“Huuu.”
Suddenly, the situation of me sitting in this dark space made me remember a memory of my younger self. When I used to play games secretly in a dark room late at night.
Light from the monitor at that time also shone like this, hurting my eyes.
“Let’s get started.”
I relaxed my shoulders and picked up the VR headset in front of me.
I was well aware of the danger for staying connected to the game for an extended period of time. Therefore, I planned to check only what I needed and quickly exit.
Perhaps this could get me too engrossed in the game.
Shii-ing–
Soon, the scene of the game appeared on the screen of the VR headset, covering my whole vision without any gaps.
[Select World]
[Create New World, Lee Joon-1]
[Loading….]
Pop.
A forest of hexahedral cubes soon appeared before my eyes.
As soon as I landed inside the game, I quickly used the cheat key to teleport to the southern end. My objective was to find the location of the transparent wall.
“Is this it?”
A green pasture that stretched out endlessly.
And the blue sky above.
For me, who lived in a world ruined beyond repair, with countless strange phenomena encroached everyday, the sight was new.
I moved the character near the place where the transparent wall was supposed to be. Thanks to the VR headset, my consciousness soon entered the game before I knew it.
‘I need to walk straight from here.’
I crossed the boundary line of the edge of world, without being blocked by the transparent wall, and headed toward the horizon.
Thump, thump.
My feet moved for a long time through the grassland that stretched endlessly beyond the edge of the world.
After walking for about 30 minutes, a small hill appeared on my way. I passed over the small and finally stopped in front of a large crater that seemed like could fit several mountains.
“….As expected.”
I crossed my arms and muttered to myself as I looked down at the sunken terrain.
An enormous crater was stretched before my vision, as if a nuclear bomb was detonated.
Perhaps it had been so long, the crater had started growing moss and grass around the edges. Animals crawling around the slopes and eating weeds were also seen.
The depth of the crater was tremendous, which indicated that it could not have been formed naturally. It was definitely evidence of a huge explosion that occurred there a long time ago.
‘Somehow.’
Since I had checked what I needed to, I just turned my head again and went back the way I came, my mind wandering around.
Events that occurred in different time periods, however, the crater created from the massive nuclear explosion looked unbelievably identical.
That pointed out to a lot of things.
“Huuu.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
I soon ended the connection and took off the VR headset. Gyeongwon and Jinhee asked me with worried expressions as soon as I took it off.
I gestured them that it was okay and stood up.
“I checked everything. Delete it.”
“….What? But why? It’s the last file left on Earth.”
“It’s okay. I figured out everything I needed to know. And…”
I looked at the monitor as I said.
“Let him rest now.”
“….Okay.”
Gyeongwon soon approached the computer and started typing on his keyboard, deleting the game.
A message appeared before my eyes as soon as the game was deleted.
Pop.
[Legend □ survived X cast? Energy 3W Hero? Herobrine? Co § ss? 4A!? Story come? Ghost vfi]
[Ghost?? Story kF points 5 earned?□□ have? All-]
Although the system window appeared to be broken, I understood that it was most probably conveying a message saying that we had defeated the ‘B-rank ghost story – Legend of Herobrine’.
His broken consciousness, that was trapped inside the game world, now no longer existed on Earth.
We quietly turned off the lights in the laboratory and left the dark space.
◆♣◆◆♤◆♤◆♣◆◆♤◆♣♣◆
♤◆♤♣◆♣♤♣◆◆♤♣◆♣♤♣
◆♣♤◆◆◆♤◆♣◆♣
♤◆♤◆◆◆♣♤◆◆◆
Conclusion: Everyone has their own role.
T/N: In case the readers are confused, this MineCraft in the novel is different than the original MineCraft people play. The ‘mine’ in this MineCraft of the novel is a possessive pronoun, which means ‘my own’ not the common noun ‘mine’, a place from where we get minerals. Some of you may have already discovered that even the playing methods of this MineCraft of the novel are way different than the original MineCraft we play.
If you hadn’t noticed, I used ‘MineCraft’ in the MC’s current life (2nd attempt) but ‘MyCraft’ in the MC’s previous life (1st attempt). It’s because that’s exactly what was written in the original text. For better understanding:
MineCraft: 마이크래프트
MyCraft: 마이프래프트
As you can see, the two words are a bit different from each other (3rd character). To express the difference, I had to use two different pronouns in two different timelines. Hope it clears the confusion!
