Chapter 1

The Life of a Former Ranker as a Newbie - Chapter 0 (1/271)

Prologue

Fuck it.

While Matt Damon, trapped on Mars, had time to reflect, Dojin had no such luxury.

With a hole in his ship as big as a human head, there was no time for reflection.

If this wasn't fucked up, then probably no one in the world was.

“Ugh...!”

A heavy pain coursed through his body as he moved slightly.

In the virtual world, the pain wasn't as real as in reality, but it wasn't painless either.

It felt more like the unpleasant sensation of fumbling with a wound under a poorly administered anesthetic.

But he couldn't just sit there and wait to die.

Dojin gritted his teeth and checked if any other players had survived the lethal beam bombardment.

But all he could see were scorched and melted rocks and the black sky visible through a deep crevice.

‘Damn, is this event really going to fail like this?’

Considering how the ground had split and collapsed, swallowing people in the aftermath of the beam bombardment, it was a miracle Dojin was still alive.

Wishing for another lucky bastard was greedy, and even if a few more had survived, it wouldn't change the situation.

Still, it was absurd that the only one to survive until the end was himself, the lowest-ranked player known as a "glass cannon."

Dojin laughed, his shoulders shaking with disbelief.

“Haha, ha- Ugh...!”

The throbbing pain returned as he moved again.

Dojin resolved to stay still, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

But instead of the pain, a bleak future began to loom in his mind.

“...”

Level down, item drop, and connection restrictions—death penalties like these were no big deal.

He could even accept losing the rewards from the world event, one of the greatest in the game's history.

The real problem was the penalties that would result from the failure of the world event.

In the game LOST, even failing a world boss raid could have a massive impact on the entire world.

For example, the area that was overrun by poison after failing to defeat the resurrected unicorn Galante remains a land of death to this day.

If this event, which required stopping an enemy of this scale, ended in failure, who knew what would happen.

Just thinking about it made Dojin feel depressed.

‘Those damn Moebius bastards. They should at least show a clear path to success, right?’

To Dojin, LOST was more than just a virtual reality game.

It was an escape from the hell of reality, a place where he could forget his miserable body, unable to walk due to the aftereffects of a car accident.

Without this escape, Dojin would have already taken his own life, crushed by his misfortune.

Of course, he had lost a lot and his life had become miserable, but that was why he was even more obsessed with LOST.

Now, he faced a situation where he couldn't even imagine how the world would be ruined.

Dojin found it terrifying.

And at the same time, he found it pathetic that he was afraid of such a thing.

“Fucking bastard...”

There was no limit to the self-loathing.

A suffocating sense of self-disgust gripped his throat.

It was undoubtedly a crushing misfortune, but there had been opportunities to mend things.

The one who had plunged his life into the abyss was none other than Dojin himself.

Tired of running and of his pathetic self, Dojin thought:

I want to die.

‘No...’

I want to live.

Then, a voice was heard.

“Is this... my limit again?”

It was the voice of someone else who was dying.

Dojin's head turned naturally.

A white figure was visible through the gaps in the collapsed rocks.

The protagonist of this world event, Princess Seonghae, who had shown an overwhelming presence by single-handedly slaughtering countless monsters in a battlefield where even LOST's top rankers were helpless.

But now, she seemed to be in a similar predicament to Dojin.

Her once brilliant platinum hair was dirty with dust and blood, and her beautiful white armor was shattered beyond recognition.

Severe injuries were visible all over her body.

She looked like a corpse, and Dojin involuntarily called out her name.

“Princess Seonghae...”

Princess Seonghae lifted her head at the sound of Dojin's voice.

Her eyes, like the Milky Way, focused on Dojin.

“Is it... you again?”

Dojin found it hard to understand.

Again? Now that he thought about it, she had said something similar earlier.

Regardless of his real-life appearance, Dojin was a shining ranker at 998th place in LOST.

He had climbed the ranks by surpassing competitors who had started the game three years before him.

Dojin's intuition told him that the word "again" used by Princess Seonghae was a crucial keyword.

‘Could this be a hidden quest...?’

Yes, this situation called for a hidden quest.

The developers of LOST, Moebius, were known for their sadistic enjoyment of tormenting players with impossibly difficult challenges.

But even considering that, the difficulty of this world event was extreme.

It was designed to be impossible to clear.

What if the way to overcome it was a hidden quest that would arise from a conversation with Princess Seonghae?

It made sense.

The more he thought, the faster his heart beat.

The depressed and hopeless attitude he had just moments ago was gone.

He knew that getting this excited over a hidden quest made him look hopeless and pathetic.

But he couldn't help it.

He was already addicted to this world.

“Your repeated deaths have always been accompanied by you.”

Repeated deaths. A new keyword.

‘The reincarnation concept is highly likely.’

Dojin quickly deduced the conclusion.

He wanted to be more cautious, but his dulling senses hinted that time was running out.

He needed to get the hidden quest before being forcibly logged out.

Dojin spoke urgently.

“Are you repeating deaths?”

Princess Seonghae nodded.

“To prevent the destruction, I had to become stronger. I was stronger the second time than the first, and even stronger the third time. Now... I am stronger than ever. But ironically, I am weaker than ever. So weak that I want to give up everything.”

Dojin's expression, which had been focused on not missing any hints, wavered for the first time.

This was a conversation to trigger a hidden quest.

He knew it was foolish to empathize, but he couldn't dismiss Princess Seonghae's words as just NPC dialogue.

Her words about being tired and wanting to give up reminded him of his own past, where he had been crushed by misfortune and become a cripple.

That's why his response, though difficult to articulate, was filled with genuine emotion.

“...You can't give up.”

Princess Seonghae looked at him and asked.

“Why not?”

Dojin tried to answer but...

“That's...”

He couldn't form the words.

His tongue felt heavy and wouldn't move.

He wondered if he, who had only ever run away, had the right to tell her, who had faced destruction repeatedly, not to give up.

But Princess Seonghae seemed to interpret his silence differently.

“Do you pity me? Do you think I am the most unfortunate woman?”

“I...”

Dojin tried to say something but was silenced by her next words.

“Thank you.”

“...?”

Princess Seonghae smiled silently at Dojin's bewildered expression.

“Jealousy and affection, admiration and resentment, reverence and fear, expectation and anxiety... I have lived surrounded by countless emotions and gazes. As the strongest spear and shield of the empire, that was my life. But thinking about it, no one ever pitied me. No one... ever looked at me with such eyes.”

Dojin couldn't say anything.

The intense fatigue and deep regret in Princess Seonghae's eyes made it impossible.

She then asked Dojin, who was overwhelmed.

“Do you have a past you regret, a past you want to change?”

“I do.”

He had to answer.

It was something he had always wished for, even just moments ago. His response was almost instinctive.

It took him a moment to realize he had answered.

Princess Seonghae laughed, her shoulders shaking.

She then pulled something out of the air.

It was a strange ornament made of silver and gold.

She looked at it and said,

“After all, how many people have lived without regrets? You must have something you want to change. This is a reward for being my companion through the loneliness of repeated deaths. And... a reward for pitying me, a coward who abandoned my duty.”

The atmosphere made it clear.

The hidden quest was about to begin.

He felt a sense of loss.

He couldn't pinpoint what or why, but his mind was too complex after experiencing human thoughts and emotions for the first time in a long while.

To make matters worse, an overwhelming drowsiness hit him.

‘Damn... am I logging out...?’

As his consciousness blurred, Princess Seonghae's voice echoed.

“I will return the time you have lost. Live. A life without regrets and stains.”

Her tone was dignified and stern, but her voice was warm.

* * *

Something was off.

When he opened his eyes, he should have seen the mottled cover of the capsule (virtual reality device) and the dimly lit room beyond it.

But instead, he saw a ceiling covered in colorful stickers.

The problem was that these childish stickers were very familiar to Dojin.

“Is this a dream...?”

Dojin mumbled groggily, surprised by the clear, young voice that came out of his mouth.

His voice should have been hoarse and cracked, not this clear and youthful.

What was strange didn't stop there.

Dojin's body, weakened by the aftereffects of the car accident and a long period of inactivity, usually complained of chronic pain and fatigue.

But now, he felt refreshed and comfortable, as if he had just had a satisfying sleep.

The growing sense of unease finally snapped him out of his daze.

“Huh!”

Dojin's sleepy eyes snapped open.

He saw a familiar yet unfamiliar room.

It was definitely the one-room apartment he used to live in.

Thinking it might be a dream, Dojin punched his cheek and quickly got up to head to the bathroom.

He stopped and looked at the floor.

It was far. He hadn't seen a floor this far in a very long time, since he lost the ability to walk.

“I can walk.”

Dojin muttered in disbelief and took a shaky step.

Thud.

His steps, which had been fine when he moved unconsciously, became tangled and he fell.

But he didn't feel any pain.

Dojin leaned on anything he could find and made his way to the bathroom.

He froze when he saw his reflection in the mirror.

“...”

The mirror showed Dojin.

The young and vibrant Dojin from before the accident.

Dojin stared blankly at his reflection.

He couldn't speak or think.

He just kept looking.

To confirm that this was reality, not a dream. He kept looking.