NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
– [Announcement] Service Termination Notice
Hello, dear users of Abyss. This is the GM.
It seems this may be the last time I get to say hello like this.
It’s sad, but we regret to inform you that Abyss will be shutting down by the end of this year. All access will be available only until December 31, 20XX, at 23:59, after which game play will no longer be possible.
I sincerely thank and apologize to all the users who have loved Abyss until now.
–
“What the heck does this mean…?”
I sat in front of the computer, reading the words reflecting off my retinas.
“We are shutting down the service, service termination… shut down…?”
I repeated it over and over as if denying reality.
Yet, the meaning of those words remained crystal clear, and I despaired once again.
“It was a bad game, sure, but I didn’t actually want it to die….”
Today, my only friend has passed away.
It means the game I was playing has gone belly up.
Sure, it was already half-dead, a game only a few were playing, but I never expected it to be officially killed off like this. Termination? I mean, come on, termination?!
“You said you’d patch it and bring it back! You said you’d listen to the users!”
And then you just stab us in the back like this?
Not too long ago, you even held a user meeting. I was so bummed that I couldn’t attend!
Once again, I feel betrayed by the management. I must be a fool for believing in these people.
“Ugh….”
My insides are burning. I can’t possibly hold this in with a sober mind.
For times like this, I pulled out that red-capped one I had stocked up in the fridge.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use this.”
Honestly, I don’t particularly like alcohol. I don’t even drink it often.
Yet, when an unexpected disaster like this hits, I prepared something strong just in case I needed to rely on a bit of liquid courage.
“Ugh….”
It feels like my throat is on fire. Maybe it’s the soju without any snacks, but my stomach feels like it’s ablaze too.
Ugh. Is it just the soju without any snacks, or is my stomach literally on fire right now?
Wait, thinking back on it, even if there were snacks, it probably would’ve been the same. My insides are flipping like a pancake.
Since my alcohol tolerance is low, the effects hit me hard and fast. But maybe it’s because I’m feeling particularly emotional today, so the soju just whooshed down my throat.
“I’m dying, I’m really dying… Seriously, I think I’m gonna die. Damn you Eonix bastards…”
With a flushed face, I cursed at the game company. Honestly, I feel like I could drop dead any second now.
They say you realize what’s precious only after losing it, and only now do I understand just how important Abyss was to me.
Maybe it’s the booze, but suddenly I was overwhelmed with emotion and started crying like a little kid for a few minutes.
“What the hell am I doing…?”
Maybe it was the tears, but I sobered up a bit. I put down the soju bottle on the desk and grabbed my phone to get a grip.
I headed to the Abyss gallery, the usual spot.
It was a community made for the few users to share game info, vent about the game, and do some socializing. Of course, I wasn’t into the socializing part.
“[Abyss<<<< The worst game on the planet, totally upvoted lol]”
“[Eonix, you bastards, we agreed to do this right! I went to a meeting to save the game, and you guys are screwing around!]”
“[I heard there’s a funeral, so I came to pay my respects from the other gallery]”
“Wow, a lot of people showed up.”
Unlike before when only one or two posts would go up an hour, it had become quite lively.
Turns out, people flocked here after hearing the news that the game had tanked.
Even so, it seemed like everyone remembered the game Abyss, considering it once held some prestige.
I quietly watched for a bit and felt the urge to chime in, so I wrote a post.
“[What a gloomy night hehe….]”
(With a photo of two soju bottles on the desk)
Today marks the day my only friend passed away.
They were my first friend after turning twenty, and it’s so absurd how they just vanished.
Drinking a lot in my sadness has led to this…
You guys, don’t drink stuff like this, okay?
– You’re just being dramatic lol
– It’s your fault! If you hadn’t acted like Camilla, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.
– Aren’t you managing your friend properly?
– That friend is MY friend, you know!
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– So they were the popular kid, huh?
– Teacher, if you drink like this without any snacks, it’ll mess up your stomach! At least snack on some chips while you drink!
“If you eat like this, you’ll upset your stomach. Have it with some snacks,”
The reactions were unexpectedly heated. Perhaps it was because I had been active as a top-tier user and had written攻略 articles in the gallery, the comments were flooding in and they were generously giving it recommendations, quickly getting it listed as a concept post.
“Ugh.”
Seeing that made me smile slightly, thinking that my days weren’t in vain, but then I stepped back inside.
“What’s the use of all this?”
The game had already collapsed.
Maybe it was the gloom that was sinking into my body, but my eyelids felt heavy.
Leaning back in my chair and looking at the ceiling, I noticed the fluorescent light flickering at the edge of my sight.
“I wish all of this was just a dream.”
It would be great if I woke up and the closure announcement was gone. I hoped that Abyss would become the game that everyone could play.
If that happened, I’d dedicate everything to playing the game.
“Please let our game be a god-tier game…”
My hazy mind felt a genuinely desperate longing in my true wish.
“That can’t be…”
But ideals and reality are always different.
It had long passed the age where I could dream, and I couldn’t hold on to the alcohol any longer as I drifted off to sleep.
*
Would you believe it if the world changed when you woke up?
It wasn’t that strange creatures were flying in the sky, or that a zombie outbreak had suddenly occurred, or that people suddenly swapped the roles of men and women.
Compared to those examples, it was a rather trivial change.
It wasn’t a complete upheaval of the world; rather, I experienced a subtle but significant change.
First of all… the game I played became a god-tier game overnight.
[Abyss PC Bang Dominating with 1st Market Share!]
[People are shocked at the salary of Abyss Pro Gamer Lee Jun Hyuk. How much could it possibly be?]
[Tips for Farming for Newbies]
The game I was playing, Abyss, was regarded as barely worth a decent talking point. Frankly speaking, it was a failed game.
At one time, it was hailed as the hope of domestic games and gleamed briefly, but then it plummeted continuously.
The bizarre patches from the development team and the stagnating user pool that only continued to play.
No matter how many patches there were, the balance between the heroes was never right. The player base dwindled further.
With concurrent players barely reaching 3,000, the game held little hope.
There were so few players that it took 20 minutes just to get a ranked match? While I was a top-tier user, it was clear that it was fundamentally a failed game with no players.
I used to be a top-tier user, but it was clear that this game was fundamentally a graveyard with no players.
“Wait, what the heck?”
What in the world is happening? My last memory was going to bed, feeling utterly bummed after seeing the notice about the Abyss shutting down.
But suddenly, when I woke up, the official site was filled with patch notes and events as if it was thriving, not a single mention of shutdown!
That wasn’t the only change.
“Hmm…”
I walked to the bathroom to check my reflection once more.
In the mirror stood a beautiful woman named Hana welcoming me.
“Is this real? Seriously.”
I’d seen this face a few times already, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Still, this woman’s appearance was strangely familiar to me.
After all, this woman is…
“Camilla!”
She was the character I primarily played in the Abyss.
That familiar voice, the recognizable features, and even her body shape—there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize the character I’ve played thousands of matches with.
So yeah, I’ve turned into Camilla overnight. I became a game character, a woman!
And the game, the Abyss, had become a masterpiece.
The former statement is vague, but the latter is good news. There’s nothing worse than a game shutting down, so when adding both statements together, I had to consider it a net gain.
Anyway, that aside.
“Why?”
So why did this happen? Naturally, I couldn’t help but wonder.
There’s no way anyone could explain how this occurred, so I’ll pass on that. What I really wanted to know was the cause.
That’s when something popped into my head.
“Wait, could it be…”
-I hope the Abyss becomes a masterpiece. I’d do anything for that.
Was it because of that drunken thought?
It’s absurd, but it’s the only explanation I could think of.
It seemed like someone up there heard my desperate wish and made it happen…
Realizing that, I dashed out of the bathroom and flopped down on the floor.
“Thank you, thank you!”
Then I praised the heavens like a crazy woman.
This time, as a user, I’d do my best to ensure the game doesn’t fail. The Abyss will be with me forever from now on.
I quickly sat down in front of my computer and launched the familiar game, thinking to myself.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has come my way!