Integration

No one was inherently born evil.

It was a sentence that had stuck with me my whole life. It was my father who had said it to me, ironically he said that whilst he was beating up a gang of thugs that had tried to rob me. His actions always contradicted his words.

"Why am I remembering that hypocritical piece of shit now."

I had immigrated to South Korea when I was just a child—I was forced to. The man that preached pacifism his whole life murdered my mother. He turned himself in, leaving me all alone. Luckily my relatives had a bit of sympathy left in them and arranged for me to immigrate to South Korea from Japan. The loneliness that had been built over the years resulted in me separating myself from the reality that was in front of me, and I developed a wall that separated me from the people I always met.

But all of that was insignificant. My biggest regret right now was the message displayed on the monitor Infront of me.

[Congratulations! You are the first player to reach the epilogue of 'The Doomed Regressor']

I felt immense regret reading that message. It couldn't end like that, right? It had to be a joke. I desperately hoped for that.

'The Doomed Regressor'

A story based game that had released more than a decade ago. It gained quite a lot of traction at its start but the hype soon died out. For a story-based game, the story was botched with numerous plot holes and inconsistencies in the story. The difficulty of the game was significantly raised after you played for a few minutes.

Soon, the game became obsolete. It was never mentioned again, and the few players that remained eventually left the game. Except for me, I was the only fool who enjoyed this game, I played it every day for the past 15 years. It was a game that should've been paid from the start but surprisingly it was free. Even though I was the only player the game kept updating every few months.

[The final update for the game's epilogue will be released tomorrow!]

"Eh? I have to wait a day just to see the epilogue?"

It felt as if the curtains had been dropped on the biggest aspect of my life. Whenever I was bullied in school I would rush home to play the game. When my relatives verbally and physically abused me I'd hide in my room and play the game the whole night. Even when I drew the short stick and was stationed to the front lines I coped by playing the game.

"I emptied my steam wallet on buying the game's dlcs..."

My decision to buy the dlcs was stupid as I barely had enough money to pay rent. I ran away from my relatives' house as soon as I turned 18 and started doing part-time to sustain myself.

While I thought about my part time I suddenly remembered what time it was.

"Any minute now."

My smartphone started ringing and an annoying ringtone replaced the silence in my gloomy room.

"Hello."

"Haneul-ssi! Where are you?! Your shift started half an hour ago!"

My diligent coworker Yoo Mia had decided to interrupt my peaceful gaming session. I thought I had enough time but I lost track of time and ended up playing more than I originally planned to.

I silently exhaled and got ready to head out for work. The sky was particularly grey today and a grim feeling loomed in the air. It was about to rain at any minute. I took my umbrella with me just in case and made my way to the grocery store I worked at.

I forgot to bring my hoodie with me as it was surprisingly chilly. The weather forecast said today would be a normal temperature... Liars.

After walking for 20 minutes and finally reaching the store, there a grumpy face awaited me.

"Hello."

"Kim Haneul..."

"It's nice to meet you Dowan."

"Nice to meet you my ass! You were again late for your shift! This is the third day this week!"

"I informed you before I was sick."

"I heard everything from Mia. You were busy playing games."

That stupid...

"I'll treat you to Tteokbokki later dowan."

"Use honorifics damnit! I'm half a decade older than you."

The man in front of me was Han Dowan, the store's manager. He was an ugly and obnoxious man that didn't waste any chance he got to berate me. I tried to act composed in front of him whenever I messed up so that he wouldn't fire me.

I got inside the store and sat at the cash register. Recently we'd been getting fewer customers due to the supermarket that had opened right in front of our rundown store. The rich snob who built it had a kind heart, and most items there were lower than the original price.

"Jeez, what kind of level of rich do you have to be to do that?"

"Still murmuring to yourself?"

"Ah..."

I turned my head and my nose picked up the scent of a rosy and caramel perfume, what a weird scent.

"Yoo Mia, it's nice to see you."

"Why are you so formal with me? Nice to meet you too."

It was as she said. I was too formal with someone younger than me. Yoo Mia was a remarkable person, she was currently a student at S University and only worked part-time due to familial issues. Seriously a scholarship at S University? She was a genius. Me on the other hand...

"Haneul-ssi, why were you so late even though I called you?"

"I had to walk all the way here."

"Ah, why don't you commute by bicycle?"

"You come here on a bicycle?"

"Yes! It's a new thing I'm trying to do to keep myself fit. Did you know that riding a bicycle burns...."

Yoo Mia drifted into her world and kept explaining the benefits of riding a bicycle to me. A bicycle, huh. I remembered a time my mother bought me a bicycle only for me to never ride it... Maybe I should've picked that up as a hobby too. Well, no use lamenting over past grievances.

"Ah, haneul-ssi I forgot to tell you, I finally got an interview!"

"Oh, congratulations that's good for you. How long would be the contract period?"

"Ah... It's not a contract..."

Uh... Right. I'd forgotten Yoo Mia lived in a different world than me. Unlike me who could only get contracted for an office job and then get fired soon after due to my personality, Yoo Mia was someone who would score a high-paying job on her first attempt. But seriously her first job and not a contracted offer? The world was cruel.

"Don't give up haneul-ssi! I'm sure you'll get one sooner or later."

"Right. I have applied..."

"What are you two talking about?"

Geh. Not again.

"Dowan ahjussi, we were discussing office jobs."

"Must be nice, right? I remember the first office job I got. It was at an IT company, although I got fired soon after."

Wow, that wasn't surprising. But this person was able to get an office job? The most surprising part of his story was the fact he was a university graduate.

I listened to their stories a bit more and my mind fell into a state of despair. They were people just like me then, why? Why was the genre of their life so different than mine? If Yoo Mia was a fictional character she would undoubtedly be the main heroine who had to be rescued. While my genre was probably along the lines of a boring slice of life. There wasn't even a perfect genre to describe how miserable I was.

I lightly shrugged my shoulders and opened the cash register. It was a pointless task just to pass the time. The clock in front of me kept ticking and the air became more and more awkward. Han Dowan sensed the gloominess and hurriedly left, while Yoo Mia started fiddling with her smartphone.

I opened my smartphone and saw a notification pop up.

[You have received a message.]

Hm? I opened the steam app on my phone and my eyes slowly widened at the sender of the message.

[Incoming message from jik009]

Huh? No way? jik009? That was the name of the creator of the game. Why would I be getting a message from the game's developer?

I opened the message and inwardly read a rather sophisticated message.

[Thank you for playing my game.]

I began to type.

[Are you the actual game developer?]

[Yes.]

[Why did you message me...?]

[To thank you for being the game's only player.]

[The final update will be released in a short while.]

[Wasn't it suppose to be tomorrow?]

[Yes, but I don't have much time?]

What? Why were they talking like that? I looked at the clock and the time was currently 6 pm. That much time had passed since I came to the store? I really lost track of time.

The messages of the developer kept getting weirder and weirder and my heart felt heavy.

[It was nice talking to you. Again, thank you for playing the game.]

They went offline after saying that. The update would be released soon? I couldn't wait to go home and start playing.

I closed the cash register and turned my head to the side. Yoo Mia was still playing with her smartphone. I gazed at her for a few minutes and couldn't help but be mesmerized by her. She was surprisingly beautiful, the store manager had tried to make advances to her but he always got turned down. I could somewhat understand the feeling of the men who were captivated by her. But I didn't hold any feelings like that towards her.

"Checkmate."

"Yoo Mia? What are you doing?"

"Ah, I'm playing chess?"

"Do you play it often?"

"Yes! I'm getting quite good at it."

She was really brilliant. Despite her financial issues, she was still shining. If the world were a story Yoo Mia would be its main character. Perhaps she sensed the pessimism in my voice, Yoo Mia tried to comfort me.

Suddenly a violent earthquake shook the entire store and I desperately held onto the desk in front of me. The earthquake weirdly lasted for a few minutes before it finally went back to normal.

"W-What kind of earthquake was that?"

"I don't know..."

This wasn't Japan, so for an earthquake like that to have appeared was out of the ordinary. I looked at the clock and the time was currently 6:25. It was five minutes less than the time of the game's update.

I pulled out my smartphone and searched for the game, if I I updated it now I wouldn't have to do it later.

'0 results.'

What? I tried typing 'doomed' but the results were the same. What was happening? How could such an old game that hadn't been removed for years suddenly get removed before its final update? It didn't make any sense.

I started to get goosebumps as the hand of the clock moved closer to the 30-minute mark.

The time, the atmosphere. It all felt familiar, I had seen this same setting somewhere before... But it wasn't possible, right?

"W-What the hell is that!"

The loud scream from outside the store made our attention turn toward the entrance. I rushed to the entrance and got out of the store. The man's scream and the words he said. No no no, it wasn't possible. It couldn't be.

"What happened?"

"I-In front of you!"

I turned my body around and my eyes widened. I couldn't stop my jaw from opening. It wasn't possible, but it was. It shouldn't have happened, but it did.

"Haneul-ssi, what happened?... What the hell is that?"

All of our eyes were fixated on the glitchy circle in front of us. My heart slowly sank as I confirmed the details of what was in front of me.

No one said a word, everyone was too busy silently inspecting the circle in front of us.

Soon, a screen popped up before us. Only one line of message was displayed on it

[Integration is complete.]

[The free trial for Earth #98017 has ended.]

[The first calamity will shortly commence.]

This was the moment, the genre of my life changed to tragedy.