Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Today was an unusually lucky day.

I woke up in the morning with a weird headache. I did my usual 1x a day and it burst into iridescence.

The same thing happened on the way home. For some reason, I got home from work on time and found a seat on the subway.

“I wish every day was like today.

I closed my eyes in a daze.

Ding, ding, ding-.

* * *

Pick.

The sound of a tautly pulled line snapping. Kim slowly opened her eyelids.

‘……what?

Dark.

There are no lights inside the subway car. There is only an unidentifiable blue fluorescent light streaming in from outside the car window.

My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. Before I could ask myself, “Were night eyes normally this bright?” I saw them.

Debris. Debris. Trash.

The window opposite is shattered. Cloth chairs with ripped seats, a shattered billboard that’s fallen to pieces…….

“Well, well.”

Kim woke up with a start. Her mind snapped back to reality. He’d dozed off for a moment, and a new subway car he didn’t recognize had been smashed.

Suddenly, her mind went crazy. Kim fumbled in the pockets of her coat.

“…nothing.”

No cell phone, no wallet, no earphones. I don’t even have my glasses, which I carry around with me every day even though I don’t use them.

My legs were shaky. His breathing quickened. Kim stood still and paced the vehicle.

Nothing changed.

He didn’t wake up until his lungs were in agony… and someone showed up to find him.

No one.

“Let’s get out of here.

I don’t know how many minutes passed, but I finally made up my mind. I had to do something, I had to get out there, and surely I would run into someone.

I walked, careful not to step on any shards of glass. The car’s door was crooked on one side, and on the other side, it was not visible at all.

Did it go off the tracks and crash? Did the subway? But how else could this happen?

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

I stepped out of the car. Before I could feel the satisfaction of having accomplished anything, my other senses alerted me.

Odor.

An unidentifiable fishy odor hit my nose. Glowing blue water dripped onto the platform floor. The walls were streaked with marks.

That was the only light source.

It’s a light that feels ominous somehow. But it’s better than seeing nothing at all.

With a small sigh of relief, Kim turned her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the wall with the platform’s name on it.

The language written was neither Korean nor English. Strange characters that looked like a combination of alphabets and hieroglyphics.

It was interpreted arbitrarily by the brain.

[Tulavia].

It’s an unlikely name for a Korean subway map, but it’s not entirely unfamiliar.

Giddiness.

An instinct to escape the unexpected. Kim’s mind was sharper than usual. His mind sifted through his memories and came up with answers.

“Polaris.

The name of the mobile game.

The genre is strategy. Hiring the agents needed to carry out an operation as a commodity, such. A common, if not common, collectible game.

Kim also knows the story of Polaris inside and out, as he’s been playing the game since it opened, fascinated by its unique world.

“No, but does this make sense…?”

I couldn’t wrap my head around it – how could a real person fall into a mobile game world?

But…….

Kim looked around the subway station again.

It was so different from the stations I’m used to in Korea. Stupid. I can’t believe I didn’t realize how dark it was until now.

“What if this is really… in the game.

The story of Polaris came to me by itself. Tulavia, the very first place name in the beginning, right from the tutorial.

If yes.

There’s something you need to check here.

Kim walked down to the tracks. Her heart pounded as she did something she had never done before in her life. She was worried that the car would suddenly stop moving.

I looked back, relieved.

The lead car looked like a piece of scrap metal. There was no way it could be operated as it was.

Walked on the tracks. Trying to remember the tutorial’s script as best I could. My head was so full that I didn’t even feel bored.

How much distance have we traveled?

“…… is for real.

The rail broke and a trail appeared on the left. The path was a gaping hole in the ground.

A not-so-spacious space. As soon as I crossed the entrance, I could see what was inside, and it looked like a world away from the subway.

A tree with disorganized branches.

Ivy, strangely colored purple.

The vines were bulging inward, like a pregnant woman’s abdomen.

My heart was pounding, but for a different reason. The illustrations that adorned the tutorial overlapped with the scene in front of me.

Fact and fiction were completely aligned.

“No, but.”

I felt out of place. The communal aspect of the game was there, but one thing bothered me.

Kim approached the vines as if mesmerized. The closer she got, the stronger the uneasy sensation became. The plants grew as if to wrap around or hide something. I couldn’t help but feel artificial.

Removing the vines wasn’t much of a hassle. It was so moisture-free that it rustled whenever it touched my body, much like a fallen leaf.

I didn’t even have to clean it all up.

My lips quivered as I looked inside.

What was hidden was a three-meter-high glass tube.

A cylinder filled with an unidentifiable greenish solution.

Funnily enough, it reminded me of a large bottle of liquor I saw at a friend’s house.

There was a man in a glass tube. Like ginseng wine.

“Ha.”

This is a player.

Like many other mobile games, you’ll have a title in addition to your user-defined name. Traveler, Commander, Doctor, Teacher, Pioneer, etc. In Polaris, you’re called “Professor”.

A tutorial and prologue. This is where the story of Polaris begins, as the player awakens from their slumber.

The player can be male or female. It’s up to you. Both are drawn as sharp and intelligent and have the same personality, so gender doesn’t matter much.

Once you choose, you can’t change it. As an aside, there was a lot of mocking of the “male professor” in the community. As is often the case with collectible mobile games, there is a strong preference for female characters.

The player in front of you is a woman.

However, if.

“Then fuck. What about me?”

If you are not the player. If there is another person who fulfills the “role” of the player.

Is Kim a mere foreign body?

It was then.

Beep. Beep.

[Update Agent Record].

[Displays agent information].

[Agent name: Kim Yi Hyun].

[Rating: ★]

[Talent: Unknown].

I was dumbfounded.

The letters that appeared out of nowhere baffled her, but there was one that she couldn’t ignore.

“1Where is ……?”

Too small? That would be a problem if it were a problem. But that wasn’t the point.

Polaris, there is no such thing as a 1-star agent. The character doesn’t exist in the game.

“No talent, no talent.

Polaris is a collectible strategy game, which means its business model is to draw. There are several devices to emphasize the uniqueness of high-ranking agents.

Talents are a prime example. Agents with 4 stars or higher are born with certain traits.

Anything less than 4 stars? [Talent: None] with a sticker on it. Suggesters have no choice but to do it, because that’s how games make money.

“But my talent is unknown?

It means you don’t know, but it’s there. On a topic that’s only 1 star, not 4+.

And finally.

[List of skills].

[Craft a special weapon].

Skill. Words that are just plain old words when you look beyond the display.

But when I got into the real world, it felt completely different. Familiarity is bullshit, it’s just unnatural.

“Did I have this skill in the first place?

I don’t remember it at all.

Playable characters in Polaris have one skill by default. Only 6-star characters get an additional one.

“I don’t know all the skills.

Users who memorize 3-star characters by heart? I doubt it’s 1% of the population.

But I was still able to say.

[Craft Special Weapons]. This is a skill that no Agent has.

“Of course.

The “special armor” is Polaris’ value-added system, meaning you can only unlock it with money.

Again.

Polaris is a “collectible strategy game”. You’ll need to recruit agents to take part in missions and equip them with weapons.

There’s no ceiling. During the so-called Tier 1 pickup period, the community is full of songs.

Subject : This time, the pole vaulting was done….

Mupop 300 cha full pickup?

This shit is strategy gaming??????

└ No, it’s a shit game.

└ No. Pachinkon?

└ You should have been strategic with your picks, Paulbun.

└ AstroLoveHaAstroLoveHaAstroLoveHaAstroLoveHa

└ Astdan is everywhere;

Something like this. This is why it’s called a strategy (pachinko) game.

Kim then focused on one word.

“…… made?”

In-game, the word “supply” is used. Skills, on the other hand, use the word “crafting”.

What this difference means.

‘So what, it’s not like I’m pulling the rug out from under you….’

The ability to craft your own Gacha weapons.

“Isn’t this a scam?

You’ve got the cheat key.

* * *

Tsk!

With a throbbing headache, Kim rolled her eyes. For the sixth time. The previous five attempts had all failed.

And failure is the mother of success. It’s only now that we have a significant result.

“It’s real.”

I looked down at the dagger in my hand and chuckled to myself. The blue granules gathered together, forming a blade.

My feet seem to lift off the ground. What little sense of reality I had left was blown away.

“It’s only one star.”

The crafted dagger is a 1st-grade [Glitchknife].

I tried the skill a while back, imagining every weapon I could think of from 6 stars to 2 stars. As I said, the results were disastrous.

The skill didn’t trigger as a headache hit. A rejection, a bounce. The higher the rank of the weapon you were crafting, the stronger the recoil.

“Is it because my agent rating is low?

I didn’t have any trouble using the skill itself.

I could write as naturally as I could move my hands and feet. Just as the language on the walls of the platform interpreted the language of the Polaris universe.

“It’s working fine.

Glitchknife] disappeared as soon as I decided to disengage it. The connection between the skill and my mind was deeper than I thought.

It’s cringe-worthy… but it helps.

“Because the worldview is pretty bleak.

A world that’s not quite apocalyptic, but it’s close. If you’re illiterate and incapacitated here, I’m confident you’ll be a guest within a week.

“Yeah. Where’s the one-star?”

It’s kind of funny to see a 1-star character wielding a 6-star weapon. I’m glad that unlike agents, equipment is a 1-star minimum.

“By the way.

Kim shifted her gaze to the glass tube that stood out among the vines. The player character hadn’t woken up yet, despite the commotion next to him.

“How do I do this?”

My head feels cooler than before. Maybe it’s because the game system lacks realism. Or maybe it’s because I’ve come to terms with the situation.

That’s probably a good thing. The immediate goal is survival. We know where we are, but we don’t know exactly what time it is.

‘Assuming it matches the tutorial, …….’

It’s a risky proposition.

Polaris is a strategy game in more ways than one. Players are suddenly thrown into a crisis and the battle begins.

Two options come to mind right now.

“You can either get out on your own, or you can stay here and wait.”

I’d avoid the former as much as possible. Tulavia was once a closed area. It’s not completely devoid of people, but not all of them are normal.

Bum. Similar in texture to a modern-day homeless person or hoodlum, but different in flavor. This world is dozens of times worse than the modern world.

Besides, who’s the only one.

Beasts are everywhere.

“I think I’m going to die within a day.

I’m not sure I can handle it with a one-star weapon. Even if I could somehow deal with the beasts… how would I find food and shelter?

I left it as a last option. I could wake up the player and have them travel together, but that would mess up the whole plot of the game.

‘Even if it goes according to plan, it’s a shit show.

A world that gets worse as you go. And when the player is gone, it’s a world that’s truly doomed.

If things do turn out differently, let’s hope it’s for the better.

The next means is standby.

‘If the game stays the same, Leila will come.

A major character in Polaris. A character with as much flavor as the player.

Leila explores Tulavia with her colleagues from the ‘Celbrosics Lab’ and discovers this place. The story begins when she wakes the player from a long sleep.

The player is still here. That is, Leila hasn’t arrived yet. If you wait, the people from the Celbrox Labs will come.

“I’m meeting the characters.

As a longtime gamer, I was excited. But more than that… I wanted to meet a human being, and maybe that would be a little reassuring.

‘……Let’s wait.’

I moved away from the player and sat down near the common entrance. I had a lot to think about until Leila arrived.

Hopefully, the time zone wasn’t too far off from the tutorial.

* * *

Wrong idea. There was a visitor who had beaten Leila to the door.

Dada Dada Dada.

A sound was heard outside the cavity.

Kim jumped to her feet. Before she had time to ponder what the sounds were, they came into view.

Spiders, in a nutshell.

To describe it better, it was a giant spider. A huge body that reached the waist of an adult male. Its crimson eyes stared straight at Kim Yi Hyun.

Speeder.

The common mob. It was ridiculous, even to myself.

That’s a mob?