Chapter 2

A New Beginning

1

After regaining his composure from anger and confusion, Yohan first called the game company that operated Arpedea Online.

"Yes, this is DreamMax Corporation. How can I assist you?"

A female customer service representative answered with a bright voice.

"Um, when I logged into the game, my character seemed strange..."

Lacking confidence, Yohan stammered and explained at length that when he logged in after a week, his account seemed to have reverted to its initial state.

"Please wait a moment, sir."

After checking something, the representative shook her head.

"There's nothing wrong with your account, sir."

"What do you mean? There's nothing wrong?"

"Didn't you create your character four days ago?"

"No, what are you talking about! Bartz was a character I created during the open beta! No one in Arpedea Online doesn't know Bartz! And you're saying it was created four days ago! What kind of nonsense is this!"

Excited, Yohan no longer stammered.

In Arpedea Online, the 'Hero's House' meticulously manages and records the first, most, and best achievements, as well as various unique cases that occur in the game.

Bartz's feat of slaying a dragon alone was also proudly recorded in the Hero's House. The idea that his character was just created four days ago was absurd.

"I'm sorry, sir. Could you please wait a moment?"

The representative, sensing something was amiss, typed on the keyboard for a while to find something.

After waiting anxiously, Yohan heard a shocking announcement.

"Sir, the warrior Bartz you mentioned was deleted five days ago."

"What?"

According to the representative, the situation was as follows.

The warrior Bartz, originally raised by Yohan, was officially deleted five days ago, and later, a new character with the same name was created.

"I didn't delete it! I couldn't even log in because I was at my grandmother's house in the countryside! Am I crazy? Why would I delete a character I spent so much effort on!"

"But, sir, the data shows that it was deleted."

The representative checked several times, and it was indeed the case.

Yohan felt as if the breath was knocked out of him.

This is wrong.

It's not just wrong; it's terribly wrong.

At that moment, one word came to Yohan's mind.

'Hacking!'

In this situation, the only plausible explanation was hacking.

With the rampant cash transactions of in-game items, hacking spread like an epidemic in online games.

High-level players who had their items hacked went bankrupt in an instant, and those who had their cherished characters deleted quit the game one after another.

Each game company built strong security programs and firewalls to combat hacking, but they couldn't completely block the attacks.

At least, capsule-based virtual reality games were in better shape. The introduction of voice, fingerprint, and iris recognition programs enhanced security.

However, they were not entirely safe.

As new security devices and programs emerged, hacking techniques also advanced, mocking the efforts.

Arpedea Online, which recently topped the virtual reality game connection rankings, saw a significant rise in stock prices. The value of in-game items also increased, and real-money transactions became more active.

As a result, one by one, users who had been hacked began to appear.

Yohan had seen the complaints of such users on the homepage bulletin board. He thought it was just someone else's problem, but now it had become his own.

"This, this is hacking! Someone logged in without permission and deleted my character! You have to take responsibility! The company has to take responsibility!"

Panicking, Yohan started to make demands.

"Sir, what do you mean by 'take responsibility'?"

"What do you mean, 'what do I mean'? The company's computers were hacked, so you have to take responsibility. You can't possibly think I deleted it, right?"

Yohan's computer, which connected the capsule to the internet, had not only the security program provided by the game company DreamMax but also a paid antivirus program. Most viruses and malicious spyware couldn't penetrate it.

Yohan was convinced that the company's database had been breached.

Even if his computer was hacked by an unknown hacking program, he believed the game company was responsible since he had installed their security program.

Moreover, it was absurd that a famous character in the game could be deleted without any questions or confirmations!

"Sir, it seems you were careless with your personal information, which we cannot be responsible for."

"Ah, really, I wasn't careless!"

"Our company operates the best security program to protect our customers' accounts."

"So, you're saying it's all my fault?"

"There's no record of external intrusion into our servers in the past week. Therefore, in this case..."

The representative was saying that the company was not responsible and that recovery was difficult.

Yohan felt as if his head was spinning.

How could the company treat a customer who had invested a significant amount of time, money, and passion in the game so heartlessly?

"Shut up! Just bring my character back! If you don't, I'll sue! Restore it to its original state!"

"What are you going to restore, you brat?"

Yohan's voice was so loud that his mother entered the room and snatched the phone from his hand.

"Hello. Don't worry about that character. This boy will focus on his studies now."

"Mom! What are you doing? That's not just any character!"

Yohan jumped up, but his mother, Mrs. Kim, hung up the phone without batting an eyelid. She then scolded him with a barrage of words.

"You ungrateful child! Did I buy the capsule for you to play games or to study? You don't study and just waste your time in that virtual world. Does playing games make money, or at least..."

The scolding continued for an hour. The final conclusion of the scolding, which had been ringing in his ears, was as follows.

"If you do something useless again, I'll sell the capsule to a scrap dealer!"

"Mom!"

"Shut up! Hurry up and eat and study!"

It was the worst situation.

Feeling utterly defeated, Yohan slumped to the ground.

2

Yohan wasn't the only one going crazy.

When it was belatedly discovered that Bartz had been deleted, the relevant staff at DreamMax mobilized to investigate the incident.

If it were just a random character, it wouldn't be a big deal, but Bartz, known as a dragon slayer, was a significant issue. Moreover, it was an unintended deletion by the user.

"Is there a possibility of external hacking?"

The security team leader and members shook their heads in response to the vice president's question.

"There's no record of external intrusion into the company's data in the past week."

The character was deleted five days ago, so it means the user's data in the database wasn't hacked.

"Then is it the same as other cases?"

"The user probably leaked their personal information without realizing it."

The customer service team leader had a look that said, "Isn't it obvious?"

They probably unified their account IDs and passwords for convenience or fell for a phishing email and leaked their personal information.

"Hmm, if the problem is on the user's side, recovery is difficult."

Even if there were no issues on the user's side, recovery couldn't be provided.

If the company's mistake wasn't clear and they restored the character out of kindness, it could lead to misunderstandings like, "Is there a problem with the game?"

If that happened, the company's credibility would plummet, and even users who weren't clearly hacked might demand recovery.

"Still, we can't just let it go. Bartz is quite famous, after all. If a famous character disappears, there will be a lot of talk among users, right?"

"Just ignore it appropriately."

The vice president said calmly.

"Appropriately ignore it? Vice President, this is a serious issue. If this incident causes Arpedea Online's market share to drop..."

Bang!

The vice president slapped the table, startling the employees.

The vice president glared at the employee who had just spoken and said,

"Is Arpedea Online not fun?"

"Uh? No, it's very fun. How could it not be?"

It wasn't flattery. With millions of users and the top game connection ranking, it didn't happen by chance.

It took ten years just to conceptualize and secure the necessary technology.

With its vast fields, solid settings, numerous quests, and continuous events...

Arpedea Online added its unique strengths and depth to the advantages of other games.

Unlike other games that felt cold and artificial, Arpedea Online had a natural warmth.

It was a charm that drew people in, even if it wasn't immediately apparent.

A game that became a part of daily life and provided endless enjoyment.

That's what Arpedea Online was.

"Then you should have pride and confidence! Does it look like Arpedea Online would wobble because one user got hacked?"

Absolutely not.

While the hacked user might be upset, other users wouldn't quit the game just because of this.

"This kind of thing will fade with time. We just need to comfort the Bartz user appropriately and leave a notice, 'Users, be careful of personal information leaks.'"

"Will that be enough? What if users protest collectively?"

The vice president, Jeong Kyung-wook, chuckled.

Protests in games are common, but there's no need to worry about this issue because of Bartz.

"It won't happen. Bartz is a lone wolf. Who would protest for him?"

Bartz doesn't even join guilds or parties.

No one in the game is close to Bartz. While there are users who admire him and raise warrior characters, they wouldn't protest collectively.

"The Bartz user might take legal action."

Considering the rising value of in-game items and the current real-money trading prices, it's a possibility. However, the vice president dismissed even that possibility.

"He's only seventeen. How much does he know about the law? Besides, where would he get the money for legal fees? And we didn't do anything wrong. What's there to be afraid of?"

It was a valid point, but the vice president seemed somewhat sinister.

The employees felt that way.

Maybe it's because the vice president occasionally controls the Great Demon King NPC.

"Just comfort and pacify the kids. They'll forget quickly and get absorbed in something else."

"If things go smoothly as you say, that would be fortunate..."

"Don't worry, the users won't leave. It's not good to be too accommodating. If you give in to every demand, the principles will collapse, and it will be a mess."

Thus, DreamMax decided not to restore Bartz.

Mourning the death of the dragon slayer Bartz.

3

"Get the dirty end, you nose-picking bastard."

Virtual Simulator.

The original name for the virtual reality device known as a capsule. It's called a capsule due to its shape and convenience.

It was originally developed for educational and service purposes.

Currently, like Yohan, it's used to connect to a virtual English village to learn conversation, to work and hold meetings from a mansion, and to browse materials in a virtual library or shop and travel in virtual spaces.

However, like the fate of home computers in the past,

the capsule was used more for gaming than its original purpose, and its specifications evolved in that direction.

While it didn't lose its original functions, the main reason people bought capsules was to enjoy virtual reality games.

Especially for Yohan's age group, buying a capsule for studying was just an excuse.

"Ha! I'm going crazy."

Yohan disconnected from the virtual English village after less than ten minutes. It was difficult to deal with the learning NPCs who spoke randomly, but more importantly, he couldn't concentrate.

The reason he couldn't concentrate was that Bartz, who was like a second self to Yohan, had disappeared.

Some might say, "What's the big deal about just a character?"

But that's what someone who hasn't played games would say.

Yohan, who had been expelled from school last year, was deeply immersed in Arpedea Online, which he had started playing during the open beta.

With the start of commercialization and various patches, the game became much more interesting, and Yohan enjoyed serious battles and adventures with his character Bartz.

He invested all his time and passion into the game for almost a year. He saved time for sleep and did odd jobs to level up, except for the time he spent at a high school equivalency academy.

He never felt tired or bored.

The game offered dreams and adventures that he couldn't experience in reality, as well as thrills and excitement.

Bartz, his only character, not only met but exceeded his expectations by 120%, and completely relieved the stress he had accumulated in reality.

'Why did this happen?'

He thought hacking was just someone else's problem.

He reported it to the cyber investigation team, but they only said it would be difficult to catch the hacker.

Yohan couldn't console his empty heart. He tried to forget by watching anime, TV, and even studying, but he couldn't forget, and the hole in his heart remained unfilled.

It felt like the world had collapsed in an instant.

Bartz, who was different from his real self.

The loss of Bartz, whom he had nurtured with affection, brought him unbearable sadness and a sense of emptiness.

'What should I do from now on?'

Seventeen years old. A pathetic life, having dropped out of high school.

He wasn't good at studying, and he had no special skills.

He had no close friends, and his family was just getting by.

In such a reality, the time and effort he had invested over the past year in the virtual world, where he was another self, was Bartz.

Thanks to the days of adventure he experienced as Bartz, he could forget the mundane reality. Although it was a virtual world, he could enjoy happy and fulfilling times there.

He gained fame from people who feared him as a paladin and praised him as a dragon slayer.

Now that Bartz was gone, the young man, Kang Yohan, was just a high school dropout.

"Really, I want to die. Damn it..."

To fall so low in an instant.

He might as well be dead.

His proud alter ego, his life-like Bartz, was gone.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

While Yohan was sighing deeply, his phone rang with an unknown number. Yohan answered it, thinking it might be a wrong number or a useless call, but he could just hang up if it was.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Kang Yohan? I'm Yang Ho-sik, the team leader of DreamMax's customer service."

Yohan's eyes widened.

The game company was calling. Could they be trying to restore his character?

"This time, we received a report about your situation. It's truly regrettable. We are also very sorry about the disappearance of the dragon slayer Bartz."

"Then you're going to restore my Bartz? And find my items?"

Since the cyber investigation team was unhelpful, the company was his only hope. However, his hopeful expression quickly turned gloomy.

"I'm sorry, sir. Since 24 hours have passed since the deletion and the three-day character recovery period specified in the terms of service has also passed, there is no way to restore Bartz normally."

"But... I was hacked."

In the week he spent at his grandmother's house, everything ended without his knowledge.

And they're saying they won't understand that?

"We also regret that. However, since our database was not hacked, we suspect that the hacker might have hacked your computer, which had weak security."

"That doesn't matter. Can you really not restore Bartz?"

"Yes, once the recovery period is over, the data is automatically deleted."

"But he's a dragon slayer."

"The records are managed by the Hero's House, and for fairness, we do not keep deleted account data separately."

Actually, restoration is not entirely impossible. Even if it can't be done exactly, a similar character could be created.

However, since DreamMax's current stance was not to restore, Yang Ho-sik was emphasizing the terms of service to align with the company's position.

Yohan's shoulders slumped like a deflated balloon.

Just a moment ago, he was filled with hope that he could get Bartz back, but now the despair was even deeper.

"Ugh... Is there really no way to restore it?"

"I'm sorry, but there is a responsibility on your part for being careless with your personal information, which makes it difficult for us to act."

"But I'm the victim! What did I do wrong