NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
Episode 1 – A Sudden Visit (1)
“Hah…”
A sigh escapes me the moment I open the door and step inside.
The darkened house is predictably cold and gloomy. But since I live alone, this empty silence isn’t so strange. In fact, if I did sense any presence, it would probably be even scarier.
The droop of my shoulders as I enter is more due to my newly started job and the struggle that comes with it than the house itself.
I even brought work home today. Working from home might be convenient, but honestly, it hasn’t been all that great until now.
‘Just a little break.’
Even if I’ve been out of the house all day, household chores don’t disappear. Yet, I put it off yet again. I have work to do, but right now, I just feel completely drained.
“Ugh…”
Feeling a strange fatigue, I change into some uncomfortable or, at best, lightweight clothes and flop down in front of my computer desk, which is filled with stuff in the otherwise empty room. My physical fatigue is a burden, but the mental fatigue that comes from keeping my nerves razor-sharp all day at work is just as much to blame.
If they asked me to work more in this state, my mind would surely deteriorate further, so I instinctively thought about playing the game I recently picked up as a hobby.
It’s nothing extravagant—just a couple of hours of light gameplay each day. But considering how busy I am and my general disdain for physical activity, it’s a pretty good hobby.
‘Can’t do too much.’
I quickly input my password and opened my desktop, pondering what to play today. Lately, I’ve been into an RPG with daily quests, so I figured I’d just do that and log off afterward.
“Hmm?”
However, as I stared at the magnificent sunset over the vibrant grassland and forest as the backdrop, with neatly organized icons that barely spilled over two rows on my 27-inch monitor, I discovered ‘it’ while yawning and clicking on a familiar game icon.
“…What is it?”
Blurted out, I looked closer at it. At first, I thought I was mistaken. I see this wallpaper every day, but maybe there was a part I hadn’t noticed.
Gradually, my eyes widened, and my breath hitched. A mix of confusion and surprise hammered at my head, and I couldn’t help but stifle a nervous laugh that lingered on my lips.
‘Did I, without realizing it, undergo some sort of function update?’
My mind tried to rationalize as if it were the most natural thing. After all, a moving wallpaper isn’t impossible; therefore, my reasoning wasn’t entirely unfounded.
If the wallpaper suddenly showed “a group of people” setting up tents on my beautiful grassland, that would be fine, too.
‘Well, they’re kind of cute.’
They’re probably just data files, but the tiny figures on the screen had a strangely addictive quality.
Before long, convinced that they were part of a stored video, I forgot that I needed to play a game and watched the footage, wondering how long it had been since this update. Inevitably, the same scenes would repeat in no time; after all, the file size couldn’t be too large. I intended to watch up to that point.
‘Did they just arrive here?’
The thirty or so of them seemed occupied with building houses. Their appearance resembled mine—Koreans—with black hair and dark eyes, regardless of gender or age.
But their clothing was a bit different. Dressed in rough fur garments, their attire felt foreign. Looking at the tents they were building and the horses they brought along only cemented my thoughts.
‘But how long is this going to last?’
Lost in observing them, I suddenly realized it was 7 PM. At this hour, according to the time set, my wallpaper would transition from day to night.
I watched as the people stopped their work and began to light fires around them to illuminate the area. I snapped back to reality. There was a mountain of tasks waiting for me, and I couldn’t just zone out staring at my wallpaper.
‘It’s fascinating, but they’re moving too much; it’s distracting.’
Clicking my tongue, I randomly dragged the figures crawling in one corner of the screen with a left mouse click.
[35 Immigrants Selected]
[Master Program Activated]
“!?!!”
At that moment, an unfamiliar window popped up on screen, and a program began running. It was definitely not something that would happen just from dragging something on the desktop.
“What the heck?”
I froze, pulling my hand back from the mouse. A wave of unease washed over me, wondering if I’d caught a virus. Images of hacking and virus attacks I’d seen on the news flashed through my mind.
However, the window that read [Master Program Activated] simply sat in the center of my screen. It wasn’t rummaging through my computer or causing chaos.
‘No way.’
Still on edge from this sudden event, I cautiously grabbed the mouse again with trembling hands. It was only natural to feel nervous about something I’d never experienced before in my life.
[Master Program Synchronization]
[Would you like to synchronize? Synchronization will enable interference via the Master Program.]
When I clicked that window, this suspicious program claiming to be the Master Program posed a bizarre question about syncing.
I immediately tried looking for a close button. No way I would hand over my computer to some random program I knew nothing about.
“It’s not here?!”
But I failed to locate the close button. In a panic, I tried everything—minimizing the window, checking the task manager, and so forth.
Yet there was no available way to reject this creepy program. Everything was frozen.
‘Oh, come on.’
Eventually, I reached for the power button. I was terrified my infected computer wouldn’t turn back on, but this was my only option.
“Hah…”
The problem was, no matter how long I pressed the power button, the computer wouldn’t shut down. As the stress mounted, my head throbbed painfully, and I had no choice but to yank the cord out.
[Would you like to synchronize the Master Program?]
Afterward, I genuinely recoiled in horror and fell off my chair.
My sore backside was hardly on my mind. The only thing before me was my computer, still functioning perfectly, even without power plugged in, displaying text as it always had.
*
“Press it.”
In the empty room. Just me living in this house. Silence would reign if I didn’t make a sound, and the dim light only added to the dark atmosphere; I muttered softly.
In the dark, the only thing radiating light was the monitor, forcing me to make a choice. Even with the power unplugged, the working computer was clearly responsible for this unbelievable phenomenon.
A normal person might have pulled out a camera right away to record this occurrence and fled the house.
‘Why not me?’
Yet, I didn’t do that now. I simply stared blankly at the monitor, trying to calm my racing heart.
I recognized how unusual it was for me to be this composed. This might be the moment where something absurd was happening to me after all.
[Master Program, Synchronizing]
[Synchronization 11%···]
Straightening my chair, I sat down again and carefully grabbed the mouse, clicking the window that popped up. At the same time, synchronization commenced.
The progress was remarkably rapid. In less than a minute, it had surpassed the halfway mark.
[Synchronization Complete, Official Operation of the Master Program]
As soon as it hit 100%, this bizarre program launched.
“Is that it?”
And nothing happened. The window that demanded synchronization disappeared, and the familiar wallpaper returned, with the people still lighting fires and building their homes.
Dumbfounded, I clicked again and dragged one of them closer.
[Chieftain Balun]
[Trait: Leadership]
[Placement: -]
“???”
A completely different outcome appeared.
I dragged a man, hammering tent pegs with what looked like a wooden mallet, and surprisingly, a blue line formed around his body, displaying small bits of information.
The Master Program or whatever it was clearly activated.
The catch? The guy seemed utterly unaware that anything was amiss and continued to shout to others, focusing on his work.
[Zoom Observe]
Having dragged, I naturally tried right-clicking. To my astonishment, an option for zoom observation appeared.
I pressed it absentmindedly.
‘What the hell.’
I gasped. The entire wallpaper began to move and instantly zoomed in. The tiny figure, which had been the size of my fingernail, had now claimed the spotlight on my 27-inch monitor, and with mouse control, I could observe him working freely.
His rough skin, beads of sweat, and his well-built physique, with an open upper garment. Even the world behind him on the wallpaper.
Was that truly the grassland and forest I always saw? The realism was off the charts. Excluding the fact I could control the camera angle, it felt like I was watching a well-produced film.
“—.”
And approaching him was a woman who spoke words I couldn’t comprehend. He looked up as she called to him. With long hair flowing down her back, her face almost seemed to meet my gaze through the screen.
I couldn’t help but admire her. She was stunning.
[Chieftain’s Daughter Riena]
[Trait: Martial Arts]
[Placement: -]
‘So she’s his daughter.’
Reducing the screen size again, I dragged the woman who had approached him. The popped-up information revealed she was the daughter of Chieftain Balun, who I just saw working.
“Martial Arts?”
Having seeing the term listed as her trait, I noticed she bore a bow on her back and a sword at her waist.
It didn’t quite match the image of a delicate woman, but I brushed that aside and tried something different with Chieftain Balun.
I clicked the left mouse button.
“Ugh?”
And I flinched in surprise. Balun, who I had mistakenly grasped with my mouse cursor, was sucked into the air and dragged along with the pointer.
In shock, I dropped my hand, causing the cursor to shake wildly, and I inadvertently dropped him onto a distant part of the desktop.