Surviving Among the Entities

“Ddeu!”

The silver-haired girl with red eyes showed her palm to the camera.
Her action instantly caused the chat to flood.

[Ddeuha ddeuha!]
[Ddeuha!]
[Nongshuk heck ppa kkkkkk today too!]
[Starting the broadcast means you’ve finished preparing that thing you mentioned a while ago!?]

A former internet broadcaster.
A current internet broadcaster.
Formerly a man.
Currently a TS little girl.
Currently ranked 2nd on the monthly platform rankings.
1.2 million YouTube subscribers.
Average 800,000 video views.

“Ddeutddaei!”

Nickname BJ Ddeutddaei.
Lee So-hee started her broadcast.

“Ddeutddaeddaeddae!”

As the tiny VR headgear fitting her small hands appeared on screen, the viewers’ chats poured in like a downpour.

[Wow! You’re doing this now?]
[Had to since you were on a month-long hiatus]
[It was so sudden when you got into F1 and went abroad]
[Why did you suddenly get into racing when you had no interest before?]
[Must have a racer boyfriend.]
[Ah, my horn…….]
[Bro, my horn hurts, take responsibility…….]

“Ddeutdait!”

Like a skilled broadcaster, she quickly extinguished the ruckus, put out the fire, changed the topic, and focused the viewers on the broadcast.

[Topic: Today’s Content – Experiencing the world’s first virtual reality game, The Center of the World]

Her advantage over other broadcasters was her lack of dilly-dallying.
After quickly putting on the headgear, lying in a comfortable position, and switching to broadcast mode, she waved to the screen beneath the starry night sky.

“Hello, everyone!”

The chat exploded.

“Here I can speak normally!”

[Is there a vtuber who strictly RPs in reality but not in virtual reality? Pwusseungpwusseungppasseung!]
[When did she stop being a vtuber that you’re still talking about RP?]
[Vtuber -> Accidentally exposed cam -> Female cam -> Pretending to be skilled gamer -> Pretending to be ddeutddae gwangin]
[First time hearing someone speak like that dddd]

“I found out in advance while setting up for the broadcast that we can speak normally here! It must be because it’s virtual reality, I think!”

[She really does keep up the RP pretty well.]
[Respect, Ddeutddaei, you’re a vtuber even without a rig!]
[What was Ddeutddaei’s RP again? I forgot.]
[I also forgot kkkk]

“Anyway, can you see the screen well? I did some basic research beforehand. So no spoilers, okay! If you keep giving spoilers and disrupting the broadcast, I’ll ban you for 10 minutes, so keep that in mind!”

She turned around as if showing off her body.
Through the pre-set settings, the chat was displayed in one corner of her view.

“The avatar is supposed to be our actual physical body. I thought customization was possible, but it’s a shame it’s not.”
[So does that mean people with physical disabilities are also disabled in virtual reality?]
“I’m not sure? How about you guys? My ddeurangs have painful faces, right? Has it changed or is it the same?”
[Why start a fight?]
[Ddeutddaei evolving into Mesgaki…… Not bad.]
[Http://dlrjtdmssbtmfksek.com check this link.]
“Will I get scolded if it’s something weird?”

After accessing the link and confirming the contents separately, she shared the screen with the viewers.

[Virtual reality, hope for the disabled? Automatic correction of impaired body parts, intentional correction?]
[Congenitally visually impaired also regain sight in virtual reality,]
[A blind person seeing the world for the first time through virtual reality and shedding tears.youtube]

After watching various articles and YouTube videos with the viewers, she resumed the broadcast.

“People with physical disabilities can also enjoy games, huh. Well then, shall we check out the content next?”

Next, she stared at the countless stars floating in the sky.
As she looked at them, a small guide window appeared before her eyes, showing which star represented which world.
Each star was a world, a game.

“Jungle, racing, card battle, guns, war, cuisine, cooking, combat… so many. Where should we go first?”
[Obviously an RPG.]
[There are many RPG-style worlds, but among them, medieval fantasy is the most popular.]
“Really? Let’s go there then!”

Using the search function, she searched for medieval fantasy.
When she tapped the star she found with her finger, the background changed, and a magnificent medieval-style city appeared.

“Kung!”

Without even a moment to be entranced by the splendid fantasy world, a man walking on all fours barked at her.

“Kung kung!”

“Kung kung! Walwal!”
“Uegh, what, what are you doing?”
“Walwalwal! Kungkungkung!”
[Ah kkkkkk a himunae appeared right after entering kkkkkk]
“Himunae? What’s that?”

When Lee So-hee asked, the viewers explained in detail.

[It refers to people who go crazy trying to find hidden classes.]
[They try all sorts of weird things.]
[For virtual reality games, they obsessively search for hidden classes, believing they must exist kkkk]
[The funny thing is, since Gat Seung-hoon didn’t officially announce what classes exist in the game, it might actually be true.]

Hidden class?
Lee So-hee frowned at the unfamiliar term.

“There’s no way such a thing exists.”

A concept featured in fantasy game novels, referring to a special and powerful class.
Several times stronger than other classes, with exclusive items, it was a protagonist-only class used to break the in-game balance and allow the protagonist to monopolize everything, for the sake of the protagonist’s uniqueness.

“It’s not a web novel, and if a hidden class existed in a game, it would ruin the balance and the game itself, wouldn’t it?”

Additionally, to further enhance their uniqueness, hidden classes were often depicted as having extraordinary and hidden methods of job advancement.

“They’re shouting about finding a hidden class?”
[If you see lunatics or eccentrics, you can assume that’s what they’re doing.]
“Well, I was going to observe the himunae as content anyway since I planned to check out the overall game today. Excuse me? Why are you acting like a dog?”
“Walwal!”

The man who had been imitating a dog wrote on the ground with his fingers.

[Wondering if there’s a Beast Master hidden class.]
“What does that have to do with imitating a dog?”
[Maybe we need to achieve shimsim-habil like the spirit of a dog.]

Starting with that man, she discovered numerous himunae in the city.

“Like how repeating a basic sword technique ten thousand times can make you an absolute master, maybe repeating basic swordsmanship that many times will unlock a hidden class!”
“Who knows, maybe eating a lot of food will unlock a hidden Gourmet or Glutton class?”
“Maybe doing a lot of good deeds will unlock a Saint class?”
“You guys don’t even know the ‘hi’ in hidden class, obviously a hidden class has to be a Blacksmith, right? Hey! Teach me blacksmithing for free!”
“What if sleeping for ten thousand hours in the game unlocks a dream-related hidden class?”

The most absurd were the users gathered at the city’s sculpture guild.

“Sculpting! I’ll learn sculpting!”
“Teach me sculpting!”
“Can only one person become a hidden class? Or can multiple people?”
“I don’t know! I’ll be the sculptor!”
“There’s a sculptor’s guild, so a sculptor must exist! Hidden class here I come!”

They were all trying to become sculptors, carving marble indiscriminately.

“Let’s try progressing the game’s story now.”

The game’s story was about players growing into true heroes summoned from another world by a goddess to save this world from the Demon Lord.
To assist with this, a knight from the city kindly taught the basics, allowing her to easily adapt to the game.

“Then may you become an excellent hero, Lady So-hee.”
“Thank you! See you later!”

After completing the tutorial, she confidently left the city gates wielding a basic beginner’s leather equipment and an iron sword.

“Status window!”
[Wow, she’s voicing it out loud.]
[Doesn’t it just open without saying it out loud?]
[I think it opens even if you just say it internally.]
“Geez, you all lack romance, romance!”
“Excuse me, are you a beginner?”

No sooner had she left the city gates, another user approached her.
It wasn’t difficult to distinguish users from NPCs.

‘Treating me as a hero, so they must be a user.’

After politely greeting her, he handed her a business card and disappeared.

“Contact me at the address on there if you need anything.”

Lee So-hee checked the wooden business card.

[★Lowest Price★The Cheapest House in Korea!★100% Korean! Don’t buy from foreigners, buy Korean gold from us Koreans!★Only 55,000 won for 10,000 gold!★If I just give it away, what’s left for the boss?★Your smiles will remain★Open chat////Tkftnddldmldhkd]

“It was a salmungi!”

The tutorial alone gave 100 gold, yet 10,000 gold for 55,000 won?

“The himunae are still starting out, but the salmungi are already normally playing the game and selling game money. Impressive.”
[Can’t we report this and get them suspended?]
[Fact is fact, no one has been suspended despite numerous reports.]
[Really? Then I’ll do it too kkkk]
[I thought it was Shinseunghoon at first, but he still can’t match that guy.]
[Is Jeongsanghwanimreally a joke?]
[It’s not salmungi, it’s da.rk.gei.mer. Please correct it, everyone.]

Feeling the game’s popularity, she headed to the hunting grounds, and the first thing she discovered were people jumping off cliffs.

“If I die over ten thousand times, maybe I’ll unlock a Grim Reaper-like hidden class-ooooh!”
“There really are a lot of himunae. Aren’t you scared?”

She had already experienced pain.
During the tutorial, she had been hit by the knight’s sharp sword and even died from the knight’s attacks.

“It didn’t hurt that much, but it’s not painless enough to intentionally die either. But looking at them, it really is impressive.”
[That’s just how himunae are.]
“Well, let’s quickly do some hunting. Heheh, my sword is crying to taste blood!”

The first enemy she encountered was, of the classic fantasy duo of slimes and goblins, a goblin.

“Yap! Yapyap! Taste my blade!”
“Kieeck!”
“Kieeck!”

As expected for beginner monsters, they weren’t difficult to kill.

“Huh? Why is this one acting strange?”

However, one goblin’s reaction was peculiar.
It didn’t flee, cower in fear, or attack her.

“Kieeck……”

While the other goblins had greedy and wicked faces, this goblin had a serene, enlightened expression like an accomplished monk. After briefly closing its eyes as if deep in thought, a single pristine, clear teardrop rolled down its cheek.

“Ki, ki……”
“What’s this? A named monster or something? Or a bug?”
“Ki-ga…christ……”
“Woah! It spoke!”

In that moment, a light suddenly poured down from the sky, enveloping the goblin and making it disappear.

“……What did I just see?”
[What? Why did that goblin suddenly ascend?]
[????]
[What? An easter egg?]
[What’s Ki-ga-christ?]
[I know cheese crust, but.]
[You food ignoramus up there. You should eat gold crust zz]
[No, you’re the food ignoramus. Soboro crust is the real trend kkkk]

She tried to take a moment to think calmly, but soon the ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

“A strange light came down from over there!”
“I saw a goblin ascend!”
“Hidden class-eueueue!!!”
“Him! He became a hidden class!”
“A foreigner!? Dammit!”
“That face! Isn’t that a Korean vtuber!? A Korean!”
“Let’s help our fellow Korean! You became a hidden class, right!? What’s the method!”

Terrified by the wave of obsessed users, possibly numbering in the thousands or even tens of thousands, she fled.

“Uwaaah! It wasn’t me!”

“……Is this the atmosphere for all RPG games?”

After briefly disconnecting from the game and returning to reality, Lee So-hee stretched her neck and asked.
Her body still trembled at the thought of the crazed wave of users.

[Yup, they’re all pretty much like that.]
[The funny thing is, foreigners imitate it too kkkk]
[Why them? Isn’t the hidden class thing specific to Korean gaming culture?]
[Gat Seung-hoon made the game -> Gat Seung-hoon is Korean -> Korean gaming culture info leaked -> Hidden class? -> No detailed in-game info at all -> Korean craze for hidden classes -> They think there must be something -> So they follow!]

“What a mess.”

After refilling her water, the returning Lee So-hee asked about something she was curious about.

“But doesn’t your body enter a sleep state while in the game? Doesn’t that make you vulnerable to crime?”
[That’s why many people avoid playing games due to that concern.]
[Vulnerable to crime while sleeping? Then how does everyone sleep at night?]
[If you experience a crime while gaming, you’d experience it even if you didn’t game. Why are there so many cowards?]
[Don’t you just need to lock your door properly?]
[You get a message if there’s an external stimulus while gaming, right? Isn’t that enough?]
[But what if you wake up tied up? Or with a knife being held against you?]
[Https://dlqjsdpehsbtmek!.youtube Check this out.]

Since it was the same viewer who had sent the previous link, she clicked on it without suspicion.

“Oh?”

The video was a compilation covering incidents and accidents that had occurred worldwide while playing virtual reality games.

“A burglar breaking in while gaming, slipping on a banana peel and remaining unconscious for 3 hours?”

The channel name was Mystery Tracker.
The video’s content also covered mysterious incidents that had occurred while playing virtual reality games.

[“A man who tried to sexually assault a woman gaming was struck by acute myocardial infarction and collapsed.”]
[“A burglar who tried to assault someone gaming stepped on a Lego, cried out in pain, fell down the stairs, and suffered a cervical fracture resulting in complete paralysis.”]
[“A perpetrator who tried to strangle a man gaming to death suddenly experienced abdominal cramps, rushed to the bathroom, and collapsed from high blood pressure while defecating.”]
[“Everyone, could this truly be a coincidence? Virtual reality games? Even the world’s greatest resolver cannot resolve everything, this is the work of alien technology!”]
[“Aliens abducted ghosts through radio waves and used them to create virtual reality. The NPCs, the monsters, they were all once living people, ghosts wandering the heavens!”]

The viewers mocked it.

[Kkkkkk turns out it was a conspiracy theory channel.]
[You actually believe this kind of thing? Truly ddeupy level…….]
[Geez, don’t go around saying Ddeutddaei watched this.]

However, Lee So-hee’s reaction was slightly different.

‘It could be true.’

At the very least, she was someone who had experienced the mystery-related parts herself.
Not only her current body, but also the school ghost incident and her own fan, an otaku ghost – weren’t those real?

“Well, let’s take a break and reconnect later!”

During the break, they discussed the game.

“The NPCs felt so real. How were they so natural? At least I could distinguish them since they called me a hero, but still.”
“Aren’t there going to be people falling for the NPCs? A love between a human and an NPC, it’s possible, right?”
“Does each game only have one server? With people from all over the world connecting simultaneously? But I didn’t see any foreigners? What? The map is the same size as Earth? Insane, isn’t it?”
“You met a foreigner and could communicate? Automatic translation? Wow, that’s revolutionary?”

Sometimes broadcasts can slip into random chatter.
Before long, her broadcast had turned into a discussion about the practical applications of virtual reality.

“What happens if you commit a crime in virtual reality? Oh, really? No particular restrictions? Wow, it’ll really become a lawless land.”
“Look here? There are differences between games, some allow crimes and some don’t. Each game has its own established laws. It’s really amazing.”
“Wow, look at this? Someone committed a crime in a hunter game and was actually imprisoned? The imprisonment time runs in real-time! It’s even set up so the imprisonment time only passes while logged in!”
“In apocalypse-genre games where there are no laws, it’s fine to commit crimes. But in those places, pillaging and living violently is part of the game’s enjoyment anyway.”
“What about sexual crimes? The game automatically adjusts pain, so that’s fine, but sexual crimes aren’t a matter of pain, are they. Huh? A link? No, what? It says the game itself judges and suspends you based on whether there was intent or not? It can read our thoughts too?”

In the midst of their chattering, Lee So-hee overheard another customer’s conversation.

“Fortunately, it unfolded as expected. What do you think? This is the very world where we had previously failed.”
“It exceeds expectations. I never imagined there would be humans who gave up developing abilities in reality and instead sought to easily earn money in the virtual world.”
“We had fallen too far behind the times. Humans’ greed always stays ahead of us, even clinging to virtual currencies devoid of actual value.”
“The greed and laziness inherent in the desire to earn money without doing any work or effort has high purity. They will make excellent employees in the afterlife.”
“The most surprising thing is that more humans deceive and defraud others than in reality due to the lack of laws. This too is a combination of laziness and greed to earn money easily, producing numerous sinners.”
“Unlike our failed creation, the AI here does not siphon human souls, which is the icing on the cake. The chairman was quite satisfied.”

What kind of conversation was this?
Could they be NPCs?
She looked behind her, but there was no one there.

“Wasn’t there someone here just now?”
[Who? There was no one, though?]
[Kyaaak! A ghost!]
[A cyber ghost!]
[A virtual reality ghost! Call an exorcist right away!]

“No, nevermind, shall I disconnect for now then?”

As she was about to disconnect, a viewer sent a donation.

[The final boss appeared! But the final boss is Jot Seung-hoon kkkkkkkkk]

“What? Where? I’m going now!”

Arriving at the location the viewers had told her, numerous duelists were facing off against Seung-hoon Lee.

“Today, as the final boss, I have come to impart a goal upon you. Of course, while the fate of being the final boss may not exist, as the administrator of this place, it is important for me to impart a goal to you.”
“Woah, it really is Seung-hoon Lee. But the final boss? Is the game developer chairman making himself the final boss now?”

[Just like with racing, it’s a bit much.]
[Rl the development team gets too involved.]

“The goal I shall impart to you is to defeat me, the strongest. Whoever defeats me will obtain a card that can grant any wish. And that wish, hmm, the real me may even grant it for you.”
“What? Is that for real?”

[Sarang Corporation job! Sarang Corporation job!]
[Money! Money money!]
[The world’s greatest resolver can resolve anything, so maybe I should ask him to resolve my appearance?]
[Add customization! This is it!]

“Now then, let us begin the duel. I shall take on all of you gathered here, one by one. I shall let you take the first turn.”
“Like I’d pass that up? Here I come!”
“A wish! Let’s fulfill a wish!”
“The world’s strongest duelist will be me!”

The people drew their cards. As the duel began, the spirits of all sorts of cards appeared and attacked Seung-hoon Lee.

“This is the end!”
“Indeed, my life points have been depleted. Ordinarily, this would be my defeat.”

However, the game did not end.

“Activating the special card, ‘The Right Eye That Sees Demise.’ This card activates when defeated in a game. When activated, the opponent can no longer use any of the cards involved in that game’s defeat.”
“What?”
“No way, what kind of bullshit card is that!?”
“Second special effect, activating ‘Future Sight.’ ‘The Right Eye That Sees Demise’ observes the future, granting me 3 extra turns.”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
“Next, activating the special card, ‘Mirror of Resentment.’ This summons a replica player with an identical deck to the opponent’s, who will fight on my side. The effects of the cards in the replica player’s deck are identical to the originals’.”

Lee So-hee didn’t know much about the card battle.
However, even she could sense how preposterous this situation was.

“Continuing on, activating ‘Special Enhancement Potion,’ enhancing the effect of ‘Mirror of Resentment.’ All cards held by the replica players are enhanced, and they immediately start their turns.”
“My turn!”
“My turn!”
“My turn!”

The virtual players simultaneously drew cards and played them.
Sheer numbers were meaningless, and after the replica players attacked the users for 3 turns, everyone had been defeated.

“Those who wish to challenge me, come to the Tower of Babel. I shall await you at the topmost floor.”

After observing the spectacle, Lee So-hee gave her assessment.

“Not even a munchkin merry-go-round, just complete imbalance.”

She uploaded this scene to YouTube.

[A hidden class?]
[Wow! There are hidden classes in duels too-ueueue!]
[Hidden classes do exist! That’s why they’re going so far!]
[That’s not a hidden class, it’s secretly showing a hidden class! It’s not a character intentionally included to be caught!]
[Hidden class-eueueueueueueue!!!]

The himunae around the world became even more rampant.