Ghost Story Club

“Listen. Even parents and siblings who have lived together for decades can have a fallout because of money, so if money comes up between us who are fighting to protect this world, who knows what we will do. Of course, I don’t think any of us are inhuman enough to hurt each other, but what if someone from us takes the money and runs away?”

“Hmmm.”

“For example, what if Teacher Jang Hwaeun suddenly gets possessed by a ghost story, steals all the money and runs away?”

The scenario was quite possible.

The image of Teacher Jang Hwaeun, laughing like a mean villain with a stocking mask on her face as she steals the money appeared in our minds as if it was bound to happen.

“With some tricks, even minors can buy lottery tickets. We can ask our parents to buy lottery tickets for us and tell them that we got the numbers from a precognitive dream where our ancestors told us the numbers. However, what if your parents decide to move to a better place because of the sudden richness? What if they decide to go on a family trip with the money during the vacation when we’ll have to chase down ghost stories? What if your money-grubbing relatives come to bother you, asking for money?”

“We shouldn’t only aim for money as a reward for solving the ghost stories. After all, defeating the ghost stories isn’t something that can be done with money. Even the celebrities got infected during the incident of Fourincess, although they had money. And the Chairman of the broadcasting studio was caught even though he had a lot of money. This makes one thing clear, even if you have a mountain of money, it’s useless unless you’re mature enough to know where and how to use them. We’re stuck at school until graduation, so we don’t have time to indulge ourselves.”

“Still, we can have just a little…”

The club members glanced at each other with reluctance.

“You seem to have thought it through, President. Huuu.”

Dukhun shook his head with a sigh as if he was feeling helpless.

But Gyeongwon seemed to have his own opinion and began to pester me.

“But Prez, it’s not bad to have money now, right? We will definitely find a way if we think hard enough…”

“Maybe you don’t know but there’s a ghost story about winning a lottery.”

At my sudden mention of a ghost story, Gyeongwon showed a puzzled expression.

“The story centers around what will happen if you win the lottery. Welfare organizations start calling you and asking you to donate to them. Even hooligans start making a scene in front of your door.”

“… Ah, that one.”

Gyeongwon nodded as he remembered the story.

“It’s a famous story. But it’s just a rumor-”

“Not for us.”

I held out my hand, stopping Gyeongwon who was about to say more.

“Those kinds of groundless rumors, superstitions, ghost stories, conspiracy theories. For us, they all become real.”

In short, winning the lottery itself can be a trap that might entangle us with more trouble and hassle. It might also lead us to commit crimes which we obviously don’t want to partake in.

Perhaps he finally got the message, Gyeongwon nodded with a regretful expression.

While we were busy discussing winning lotteries and earning billions of won, Hayoon was the only one who was quiet.

“If one day we stumble upon a situation where we have to pour money like water, then that’s the time we’re gonna implement the plan. But for now, let’s just focus on the goal in front of us. If the Demon King is resurrected, whether we’re the president of a big company or a millionaire, our life is over.”

“Okay, Prez. Then can I ask you one favor?”

“What?”

Raising his glasses, Gyeongwon asked with his eyes shining brightly.

“1 billion won seems a bit less. So we want 2 billion won. 2 billion won per person.”

The members became shocked at his sudden demand.

“T, that much…”

“Um, that’s a bit too much… …

Dukhun and Sunah stuttered, unable to wrap their heads around so much money.

However, contrary to their astonishment, I nodded coolly.

“Deal. No, scratch that, let’s just double it to 4 billion won per person.”

“4 billion won?”

This time, the members gaped at me.

“Then in total… Since there are 7 of us, 28 billion won? Is that possible, Joon…?”

“Definitely possible. We can just buy all the lottery tickets, bitcoins, and stocks of Korea with paper money. There’s a chance that the ability to turn back time might disappear after we defeat the Demon King and reach a happy ending, so let’s prepare in advance starting from the winter break of our third year.”

“Okayeeeeeeeeee!”

Gyeongwon muttered to himself saying, ‘This is it,’ and pushed his glasses with trembling hands.

“From now on, I will work as hard as I can! I’m sorry for showing you a pitiful appearance a little while ago, everyone. I apologize. Can you please forgive me-”

“Oi, you.”

Dukhun cut him off as he placed a heavy hand on Gyeongwon’s shoulder.

“I already did.”

At those words, Gyeongwon flinched as if he couldn’t believe it and then lowered his head.

“I… What on earth was I… my…! I behaved like that to the friends who believed in me… I…”

“Turned your back, you piece of shit.”

Dukhun reprimanded him harshly while comforting him.

“It’s okay for a man to cry when everything is over.”

“W, who is crying…”

Although he said that, Gyeongwon secretly wiped his eyes as he turned around.

“Cheer up, Kakarrot. You’re our No. 1!”

[T/N: Kakarrot is Saiyan name of Son Goku, the main character of the Dragon Ball series.]

“Everyone believed in me… but I…”

“Forgive me, Sasuke. This perhaps is the end between us…”

[T/N: Sasuke is one of the main characters (perhaps the antagonist?) of the anime series Naruto.]

Taking advantage of Gyeongwon’s overly emotional state, Dukhun casually spit out famous dialogues from animes he’s always wanted to say.

Soon, Sunah walked towards me, not before throwing a look of contempt to the pair.

Even Sunah could make that kind of expression.

“When is Jinhee coming…?”

“I don’t know. I just wish she’d come sooner.”

Perhaps it was the first time I missed Lee Jinhee so much, although she was basically a bully.

A while later.

We were still gathered around in the living room on the first floor.

After briefly discussing where and how to spend the money we would be gaining in the future, the conversation became a bit dull among us.

The sky outside continued to darken as night began to approach.

In the quiet environment, the crackling of fire burning was the only sound we could hear.

“I suddenly realized something.”

Basking in the flame quietly for a moment, Gyeongwon slowly opened his mouth.

“Among the fakes that ran away earlier, Jinhee wasn’t there, right?”

I tried to remember the figures that ran away, and thought about it carefully before answering.

“Yeah. She wasn’t there.”

“As expected.”

As if he had thought about it, he soon started explaining.

“It seems that something is constantly self-replicating here in this Far Away Land, beyond the edge of the world.”

“Hmm.”

I had also had a similar hypothesis.

The house that stood there was exactly the same as the one we built.

The fake Sunah that suddenly appeared.

And the replica of the members of the Ghost Story Club.

“The reason Jinhee wasn’t among the group earlier is probably because she didn’t play and enter this game.”

“Like copy and paste? We’re still human beings, right?”

“Yeah, but inside the game and beyond the border, we’re treated as NPCs. Well, looking at our replicated selves, it doesn’t seem like they even have the ability to move properly, let alone think…”

“But who would do something like this…”

At Sunah’s question, Dukhun answered while turning the firewood with a poker.

“It doesn’t seem like someone is doing it on purpose.”

“Then?”

He turned the firewood over a few times, let out a deep sigh as he pondered.

“Ah, if I were to explain, it’d take too long. Must I explain it in detail?”

“It’s okay. Time is all we have left.”

“Shoganaina. Then I’ll share my opinion for now.”

[T/N: Shoganaina (ショガナイナ) in Japanese translates to “It can’t be helped” or “There’s nothing we can do about it.” It’s an informal way to express resignation or acceptance of a situation that cannot be changed.]

Carefully putting down the poker in hand, he turned to us and began explaining.

“Is anyone familiar with the word ‘Roguelike’?”

“….Roguelike?”

I pondered on the term carefully, trying to remember where I had heard about it. But nothing came to mind since it was the first time I heard it.

I looked at Sunah and Hayoon for opinion but they appeared to be not familiar with the term either.

“Sorry, this is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

Then, Gyeongwon, who was also pondering on the term, opened his mouth and explained in a familiar manner.

“It’s a term used for a special type of game, Prez. Just like the tags action, adventure, and racing, there is a genre called ‘Roguelike’.”

“Hmm. Gyeongwon, I thought you said you don’t play games.”

“No. I saw it on Namuwiki.”

[T/N: Namuwiki is the Korean version of Wikipedia.]

I see.

“So what kind of genre is it? I can’t tell just by the name.”

“Hmm. To put it in one sentence, ‘games where you explore randomly generated dungeons’ are called the Roguelike genre.”

The common concepts of Roguelike that Dukhun explained were as follows.

The hero begins his adventure on the first floor of a dungeon. At the lowest level of the said dungeon is where the Demon King resides in a deep slumber.

The player begins his journey underground, clearing one level at a time.

Each level of the dungeon holds unique threats that increase every time he clears a level. Monsters, traps, and countless threats attack the hero as the hero continues his journey to the lowest level of the dungeon.

Amidst the journey, if the hero becomes hungry, he has to eat food. And if the hero dies in any level, then he has to start over from the very first level. Because of the repeated process and the difficulty level increasing at each level, these kinds of games are hard to play and win.

Even if the hero starts from the first level of the same dungeon in a new round, the structures of the traps and other elements are completely different.

Moreover, the ghosts of the previously dead warrior characters which died in the dungeon in the previous rounds also appear on the way to the new journey and attempt to hinder the player of the current round.

It was the common concept of Roguelike games, where you have to overcome all the hurdles and clear the levels of the dungeon one by one. Then, you must reach the lowest floor where Demon King resides and kill him to win the game.

“…That’s all. I tried to explain it in a way so that the President, who is the only one who played online games, could understand.”

“Yeah. I understand. But what does that have to do with the current situation?”

“There are a few common elements between this game called MineCraft and the roguelike genre… Although from the outside, they seem like completely different categories, but they share some similar characteristics.”

Dukhun picked up the poker again and began poking the firewood as he continued with his explanation.

“Similar characteristics?”

“Mmhm, can you guess?”

“Well.”

For a while, I pondered deeply about the two games. However, nothing was coming to mind.

The genre which is called Roguelike.

According to the explanation, it was like an RPG game where the player has to explore randomly generated dungeons. And the MineCraft we were playing is like… an architectural simulation game?

Aren’t they completely different?

“I don’t understand. The two games are completely different. I don’t think they have anything in common…”

If I were to find similar characteristics, it would be that both are played on a PC with a keyboard and mouse.

“Prez, then I’ll explain what I understood from Dukhun’s explanation…”

Pushing his glasses, this time Gyeongwon started explaining.

“The similarities between Roguelike and MineCraft is the limitless freedom. The freedom to interact with other in-game elements, the characteristics of intentionally implementing classic graphics, the characteristics of searching for resources, and the survival element of having to consume food.”

“I know.”

“However, I don’t know if these are the many elements that Dukhun was talking about.”

“Oh, shit. You forgot one. Although you mentioned most of the things.”

Dukhun interrupted while poking the burning firewood.

“The key characteristic of the roguelike genre is randomly generated dungeons.”

“Aha.”

As if realization dawned over him, Gyeongwon nodded with a smile.

However, me, who should be the one understanding the explanation, was still bewildered. Feeling frustrated, I ended up throwing one of my shoes at Dukhun’s large back.

Thud.

“Ow.”

“Explain it in simpler terms so that Sunah and others, who haven’t played a game ever in her life, can understand.”

“Okay. Then, listen carefully.”

Dukhun cleared his throat as he started.

“The unique and key characteristic of the Roguelike genre is randomly generated dungeons. Programmers call it ‘procedural level generation’. It’s actually the game system, and every time the player starts a new round, the dungeon structure is completely and randomly recreated.”

“Yeah. I understand that much.”

“In other words, the developers only coded the basic principles of how the game works, and the computer randomly creates the dungeon structure, traps, monsters items, and NPCs.”

From his explanation, it was easy to understand.

It appeared to be that unlike ordinary RPG games, where the maps of the worlds are fixed, and it doesn’t matter how many times the player dies and starts a new round, with the help of the program, this Roguelike genre would randomly generate the map once a new round starts.

“Now, back to the MineCraft ghost stories we were discussing before starting the game. When we first started our journey to find the edge of the world, we used the teleportation cheat, right? Do you know why it was possible to use the cheat key?”

“Why…”

Why was it possible to use the teleportation cheat?

Thinking about it carefully, I quickly answered what I thought.

“Because it takes a lot of time to walk to the edge of the world? About 80 hours?”

“Yup, that’s right. That means that the map of this game world is incredibly large.”

“…That’s right.”

“However, who created such a large map? The creator? The programmer?”

With my limited knowledge, I pondered on the question deeply. However, even after thinking for a long time, I felt like it wasn’t the correct answer.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“Hmm… I think they’re too inefficient to do so.”

“Correct.”

Finally putting down the poker, Dukhun slowly turned to us with a serious expression.

“This game, MineCraft, also uses the system called ‘procedural level generation.’ When we first started playing, the President fell into a hole and couldn’t get out. So I had to create a new world map.”

“…Yeah. I remember.”

“The world back then when we first started playing and the current world we’re in after restarting the game are different. Do you understand?”

Changing his position, he sat crossed legs as he explained more.

“Just like in the Roguelike genre where a new dungeon is generated every time the player starts a new round, this game also recreates a new world every time a player starts a new round. Why? It’s inefficient for people to create such a large map by hand or by coding one by one. And since the game’s concept itself is about crafting and exploring, players also want a new experience every time.”

“…I see.”

At his explanation, I began to trace back to my memories and realized that during the first round, I was standing in an open field but when I started the second round, I was drowning in a pond.

If the developers had carefully coded the game and the world map, there was no way a player would start in such an odd location.

‘Which means the computer created the world randomly.’

“Do you understand, Lee Joon? The three ghost stories that Ahn Gyeongwon mentioned at the beginning are all connected.”

Dukhun patted his fat thighs as if he had reached a conclusion.

“Both the edge of the world and the Far Away Land are ultimately places that exist outside the game. They’re the areas which the programmers didn’t create themselves. However, they still exist as a part of the game world. What does it mean?”

Although the question was thrown at me, Gyeongwon nodded as he answered on my behalf.

“This is done with the help of computer’s ‘random variable generation’.”

“Random variable generation?”

“It’s similar to the procedural level generation and creating random elements which I explained earlier.”

Dukhun nodded and said as he agreed to Gyeongwon’s answer.

Stare.

I wanted to know more about the terms they used to explain the situation so I stared at him with an expression of intrigued. But Dukhun just nodded at me, who was asking him to explain more with shining eyes.

Nod.

Dukhun nodded once again.

Silence stretched between us as one stared and the other nodded.

The sky outside has completely darkened as night dawned on us.

The crackling sound of firewood burning was practically loud in the darkened silence.

Stare.

Nod.

Dukhun nodded as I stared.

With a puzzled expression, I opened my mouth.

“…That’s the end?”

“You are done explaining?”

“Ah, Atari-mae. I’m done.”

[T/N: Atarimae (アタリマエ) is Japanese which means ‘obviously’, ‘of course’ etc.]

With a self-satisfied smile, Dukhun nodded to himself. Then realizing something, he flinched as he asked.

“You guys, did you still… not understand?”

“Huuu. I didn’t understand a single word you just explained.”

“Huuu.”

Shaking his head with a regretful look, he started once again.

“So the procedural-”

“It’s okay, you explained enough. Thank you, Dukhun. We’ll hear the rest from Gyeongwon.”

I patted his thick shoulder as to show my appreciation for his hard work and cut him off.

“Finally, you chose wisely, Prez.”

Gyeongwon pushed his glasses as he praised my choice. His eyes sparkled when the members’ attention shifted from Dukhun to him.

“So, the question is, what’s beyond the creative world that humans have created?”

Feeling intrigue creeping in, the members leaned forward as they listened to his explanation. Their expression turned solemn as they listened more intently than before. Perhaps they were impressed by how he explained many complicated situations before, they expected him to explain the current situation better than anyone.

T/N: If you like my work, consider supporting me on Kofi.