Surviving as a One-Star in a Dead Game

Today, I was exceptionally lucky.

When I woke up this morning, my head felt strangely clear. As usual, I did my daily pull and got a rainbow.

The same thing happened on my way home. Not only did I get off work on time, but I even found a seat on the subway.

'If only every day could be like today.'

With a fleeting thought, I closed my eyes.

Clunk, clunk―

* * *

Snap.

The sound of a taut line snapping. Slowly, I opened my eyes.

'...What's this?'

It's dark.

There are no lights inside the subway car. Only an unknown blue phosphorescent light seeped in from outside the window.

My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. Had my night vision always been this good? Before I could ponder that, I saw it.

Fragments. Debris. Trash.

The window opposite was shattered. The seats were torn and the display board was smashed and sagging.

"What, what the hell?"

Startled, I jumped up. I was instantly wide awake. I had only dozed off for a moment, and the subway was wrecked.

A sudden thought struck me. I hastily searched my coat pockets.

"…Nothing."

No phone, no wallet, no earphones. Not even the glasses case I carried around every day without using.

My legs trembled. My breathing quickened. I stood still, glancing around the car.

Nothing changed.

I didn't wake up from the nightmare as my lungs ached, and no one appeared to find me.

No one was here.

'I need to get out of here.'

I don't know how many minutes had passed, but I finally made up my mind. I had to do something. If I went outside, I'd surely meet someone.

I walked carefully to avoid stepping on glass shards. One of the car doors was dented, and the other was completely gone.

Did the subway derail and crash? But if it did, how could it end up like this?

"Whew, whew."

I stepped out of the car. Before I could feel any sense of accomplishment, another sensation hit me.

A smell.

A strange fishy smell wafted to my nose. The blue glowing liquid flowed across the platform floor. There were traces of it on the walls too.

That was the only light source.

It felt ominous for some reason. But it was better than seeing nothing at all.

With a small sense of relief, I turned my head. At the end of my gaze, I saw the wall with the platform's name written on it.

The language wasn't Korean or English. It was a bizarre script, like a mix of alphabets and hieroglyphs.

It translated itself into my brain.

[Tullavia]

A name that shouldn't exist on a Korean subway map. Yet, it wasn't entirely unfamiliar.

A sense of déjà vu.

Was it an instinct to escape the sudden situation? My mind was sharper than usual. My thoughts dredged up the answer from my memories.

'Polaris.'

It's the name of a mobile game.

The genre is strategy. You hire agents with resources to carry out missions, one of those common gacha games.

I was very familiar with Polaris' story. I've been playing it since it opened, captivated by its unique world.

"No way, this doesn't make sense…"

It was hard to accept the situation. How could someone from reality fall into a mobile game world?

But....

I looked around the subway station again.

It was very different from the stations I used to frequent in Korea. How had I not noticed this sooner, no matter how dark it was?

'If this is… inside the game.'

Polaris' story came to mind. Tullavia. It's the first place you encounter in the tutorial, right at the beginning.

In that case.

There's something I need to check here.

I stepped onto the tracks. My heart pounded at the unprecedented action. I worried the train might suddenly move.

I looked back and felt a bit relieved.

The front car was a wreck. There was no way it could run in that state.

I walked along the tracks. I tried to recall the tutorial script as much as possible. My mind was so preoccupied that I didn't have time to feel bored.

How far did I walk?

'...It's here.' 

The rails ended, and a path appeared to the left. Inside, there was an open cavity.

It wasn't a large space. Stepping in, I could see the entire interior at a glance. It looked like a different world, completely separate from the subway.

Trees with disorderly branches.

Ivy vines tinged in a bizarre purple hue.

The vines were swollen inside, like a pregnant belly.

For a different reason, my heart pounded. The tutorial illustration overlapped with the scene before my eyes.

Reality and fiction perfectly matched.

"But wait."

Something felt off. Or should I say, out of place. The cavity looked exactly like the game, but one thing bothered me.

I approached the vines as if drawn. The closer I got, the stronger the sense of unease. The plants grew as if to wrap around or conceal something. It felt artificial.

Removing the vines wasn't a hassle. They were dry and rustled when touched, like fallen leaves.

There was no need to clear all of them.

When I confirmed the inside, my lips trembled.

What was hidden was a 3-meter-tall glass cylinder.

A cylinder filled with an unknown green liquid.

Oddly, it reminded me of the huge jars of alcohol I'd seen at a friend's house.

There was a person inside the glass cylinder. Like ginseng in alcohol.

"Ha."

This is the player.

Like other mobile games, players have a set title regardless of the name chosen. Traveler, Commander, Doctor, Teacher, Pioneer, etc. In Polaris, the title is 'Professor.'

The tutorial and prologue. Polaris' story begins when the player, who has been asleep here, wakes up.

The player could be male or female. It depends on the user's choice. Both are portrayed with sharp, intellectual impressions, and their personalities are the same, so gender doesn't matter much.

Once chosen, it can't be changed. By the way, in the community, there are often jokes about the 'Male Professor.' In most gacha games, female characters are generally preferred.

The player in front of me was a woman.

But if so.

"Then what the hell am I?"

If I'm not the player. If there's someone else to play the player's role.

Am I just some insignificant nobody?

At that moment.

Beep. Beep beep.

[Agent record updated]

[Displaying agent information.]

[Agent Name: Kim Ihyun]

[Grade: ★]

[Talent: Unknown]

I was dumbfounded.

The sudden appearance of text was shocking in itself, but one part was especially striking.

"One star...?"

Was I so insignificant? If that's the problem, it's a problem. But the core issue is different.

Polaris doesn't have one-star agents. I became a character that doesn't exist in the game.

'And what does 'unknown talent' mean?'

Polaris is a gacha strategy game. That means the business model is based on pulling characters. Several mechanisms emphasize the specialness of high-ranking agents.

Talent is a representative example. Agents of four stars or higher each have unique traits.

Below four stars? They get a [Talent: None] tag. It's unfortunate but necessary for the game to make money.

'But my talent is unknown?'

That implies I have a talent, even if it's undefined. It's not even four-star level; it's just one-star.

And finally.

[Skill List]

[Special Weapon Manufacturing]

Skill. A plain word when seen on a display.

But in reality, it felt entirely different. Far from familiar, it was unnaturally jarring.

'Was there ever such a skill?'

I had no memory of it.

Each playable character in Polaris is assigned one skill. Six-star characters have one additional skill.

'I don't know all the skills by heart, but.'

I mean, how many players memorize the skill names of three-star characters? It's doubtful even one percent do.

But even so, I could be sure.

[Special Weapon Manufacturing]. This is a skill no agent has.

'That's obvious.'

'Special Weapon' is part of Polaris' gacha system. Equipment that can only be pulled with money.

To reiterate.

Polaris is a 'gacha strategy game.' You have to pull agents for missions and then pull weapons to arm them.

There's no ceiling. Whenever a top-tier pick-up period comes, the community is filled with wailing.

Title: This Time Polaris Ruined My Life…

300 pulls, full pick-up, is this a joke, ahaha

Is this a strategy game??????

└ No, it's a shitty game?

└ No, it's a pachinko game?

└ Should've strategized your pulls, you Polaris noob

└ I love you Astra I love you Astra I love you Astra

└ The Astra cult is everywhere, dammit;

Something like this. The reason it's mocked as a strategy (pachinko) game.

I focused on one word.

"...Manufacturing?"

In the game, the term 'supply' is used. In contrast, the skill says 'manufacturing.'

What does this difference imply?

'So,

does that mean I don't pull them with luck…?'

The ability to create gacha weapons directly.

'Isn't this overpowered?'

I got a cheat code.

* * *

Zzzing!

With a pounding headache, I grimaced. This was the sixth attempt. The previous five had all failed.

But failure is the mother of success. Finally, there was a meaningful result.

"It's really made."

Looking down at the dagger in my hand, I laughed helplessly. Blue particles had gathered to form a blade.

I felt like I was floating off the ground. Even the last remnants of reality had vanished.

"It's just one-star trash, though."

The manufactured dagger was a one-star [Glitch Knife].

Earlier, I had tried to use the skill while imagining various weapons from six-star to two-star. As I said, the results were terrible.

A headache hit, and the skill didn't activate. It felt like a rejection or a repulsion. The higher the grade of the weapon I tried to make, the stronger the backlash.

'Is it because my agent grade is low?'

There were no issues with using the skill itself.

It was as natural as moving my limbs. Just like how the text on the platform wall, written in Polaris' in-game language, had been translated.

'And it deactivates easily.'

As soon as I willed it, the [Glitch Knife] disappeared. It seemed my skill and mind were more deeply connected than I thought.

It felt creepy, but… it was helpful.

'This world is pretty grim.'

It's not an extreme apocalypse, but it's a world on the brink of collapse. Here, being illiterate and powerless? I'd be dead in a week.

"Yeah. Even if it's one-star trash, it's better than nothing."

It's funny to think of a one-star character wielding a six-star weapon. Fortunately, one-star is the lowest rank for equipment, unlike agents.

'By the way.'

I turned my gaze to the glass cylinder, emitting an overwhelming presence between the vines. The player character hadn't woken up yet. Despite the commotion nearby.

"What do I do with this?"

My head had cooled down a bit since earlier. Maybe it was the game system's fault, making me lose my sense of reality. Or maybe, conversely, because I'd somewhat accepted the situation.

It didn't matter. The immediate goal was survival. I knew the location of this place, but I didn't know exactly what time it was.

'If we assume everything matches the tutorial....'

It's highly dangerous.

Polaris is, after all, a strategy game. The player is suddenly thrown into a crisis, and the battle begins.

There were two options that came to mind.

"I can either escape on my own or wait here quietly."

I'd rather not choose the first option. Tullavia is an abandoned area. Even if there are people, they're far from normal.

Vagrants. They may resemble modern homeless or gangsters, but their sanity is on a different level. This world is tens of times harsher than modern times.

And it's not just humans.

Monsters are everywhere.

'I'd die within a day.'

I had no confidence in surviving with only a one-star weapon. Even if I could somehow handle the monsters… what about food and shelter?

So, I kept that as a last resort. There's also the option of waking the player and going together, but that would mess up the entire game's storyline.

'Though the world is already heading towards ruin, even if things go as planned.'

It's a world spiraling into disaster. If the player character also falls apart, the world could be genuinely doomed.

If the storyline has to change, I hope it's for the better.

The next option is to wait.

'If the game follows its plot, Layla should come.'

Layla is a key character in Polaris. She's a character surrounded by numerous hints and mysteries, just like the player.

Layla, along with her colleagues from 'Selvologics Lab,' explores Tullavia and finds this place. She wakes the player from their long sleep, starting the story.

The player is still here. Which means Layla hasn't arrived yet. If I wait, the Selvologics Lab team will come.

'I get to meet the characters?'

As a fan who has enjoyed the game, it's exciting. But more than that… I just want to meet people. It would at least bring some comfort.

'...I'll wait.'

I sat near the entrance of the cavity, away from the player. There were a lot of things to think about until Layla arrived.

I just hoped the time didn't deviate too much from the tutorial.

* * *

I was wrong. There was another visitor who arrived before Layla.

Da-da-da-da.

I heard a sound from outside the cavity.

I quickly got to my feet. Before I could even think about what it could be, it appeared in my sight.

Simply put, a spider.

To describe it further, a huge spider. Its massive body reached the waist of an adult man. Its blood-red eyes stared directly at me.

A Speeder.

Commonly referred to as a low-level monster. I couldn't believe I was calling it that.

Is that really a low-level monster?