Episode 3
Beep—
New Generation Monitoring Team.
The Monitoring Team was one of the teams responsible for managing special users and tracking their activity.
Because they were tasked with responding to and managing the countless anomalies that occurred in the game, the team was quite large, and even within New Gen, it was composed of highly skilled staff.
Kim Nayoon, a staff member of the Monitoring Team, looked at the red square notification box and showed a shocked expression.
[EMERGENCY]
[EMERGENCY]
This red square box was an alarm message that appeared when something urgent happened in the game.
Emergencies could be triggered by various situations, but they usually appeared when users accomplished something that had never been done before or when a highly improbable event occurred.
In short, they were alerts triggered by so-called “irregularities.”
During the open beta and the official launch, these alert messages appeared almost daily.
That was because as users reached 100,000, then a million, ten million, and even a hundred million, there were always a few who managed to beat the odds.
Those users carved their names into New Gen’s history and now proudly stood among the top-ranked players.
It would be no exaggeration to say that every current top-ranking user had triggered one of these emergency red alerts at least once.
“Everything going on now is probably top-rank level anyway…”
Kim Nayoon was in charge of handling irregularities among new users.
Over a year had passed, and it was safe to say that no new user had really stood out.
That was only natural—after all, everyone had started playing New Gen.
All users of the once-saturated semi-virtual reality games in Korea had moved over to New Gen, including the top-ranking players from those games.
“Basically, everyone who wants to play is already playing.”
And none of the new users had triggered a red box.
“Even if they make alt characters, it doesn’t matter.”
The red alert box was only triggered when someone surpassed a previously achieved milestone or achieved something no one had done before.
Faced with this unexpected situation, Kim Nayoon quickly opened the red alert box.
[First Achievement]
[Category: Synchronization Rate]
[Details: Synchronization Rate 80%]
“!”
Kim Nayoon’s body trembled.
“Wh-Wh-What is this? An 80% synchronization rate?!”
– Registered in the Hall of Fame.
– Rankings are being recalculated.
– Leaderboard:
Jinwoo [Synchronization Rate: 80%] NEW!
Slayer [Synchronization Rate: 49%]
Starlight [Synchronization Rate: 46%]
…
New Gen had a system called the Hall of Fame.
This Hall of Fame was, as the name suggested, a ranking system—one that arose due to the unique characteristics of New Gen.
New Gen was a completely open-world game.
The extreme degree of freedom it offered conflicted with predefined quest answers.
That’s why the Hall of Fame system had been implemented.
Each quest could now have multiple valid solutions, and instead of one correct path, those answers were scored.
Even if two people completed the same quest, the rewards could vary depending on their chosen method.
Players could see the score of their solutions and access the Hall of Fame accordingly.
It was a transparent system—one that eliminated any room for complaint.
People assumed the Hall of Fame only applied to quests, but in reality, that wasn’t the case.
From the very beginning, even at character creation, New Gen had been assigning scores to everything.
Synchronization rate was part of that scoring system.
“N-No way…”
Kim Nayoon was stunned.
“An 80% synchronization rate?”
The gap was enormous compared to second place, 49%.
Slayer, who held second place, was a top-tier ranked player with a legendary combat class.
Third place was also a top producer-type ranked player, and that 46% sync rate was what allowed them to grow quickly and stay ahead.
But now—80%?
“Who is this person? Jinwoo? Who the hell is Jinwoo?!”
Kim Nayoon immediately pulled up the user’s profile.
Jinwoo flexed and moved his hands, rediscovering a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time:
Precision.
That precision had returned, even if just a little.
– Adapting to synchronization rate.
– With a synchronization rate of 80%, all senses are now crystal clear!
– Minimum synchronization rate: 80%
– Higher sync is not possible due to low character level.
– Hall of Fame bonus received!
– All stats increased by +10!
“Got it. Nailed it.”
Jinwoo clenched his fist tightly.
“This is it.”
With this, he could craft equipment.
“And make money too.”
Production was now possible.
Then, a scream rang out.
A thunderous boom echoed from the sky.
Screeeeech—!
“What’s going on?”
“It’s a wyvern!”
“A wyvern appeared!”
“Run! Evacuate to the safe zone!”
The tutorial had begun.
A quest alert appeared before Jinwoo.
[Wyvern Attack!] – Tutorial Quest
Objective: A wyvern is attacking the village! Survive its attack and protect the town!
Fail Condition: Death
Reward: Tutorial reward
“What? A tutorial quest?”
Screeeeech—!
With a terrifying shriek, a massive creature flew through the sky.
“A wyvern?”
[Wyvern][LV 35]
Definitely not the kind of monster you’d expect in a tutorial.
“A wyvern in the tutorial?”
A brutal way to start.
In his old game, Eternal Sunshine, wyverns were high-level monsters that were notoriously difficult to hunt.
And here—there were three wyverns.
Level 35.
Jinwoo checked his own stats:
[Jinwoo][LV 1]
[Class: None]
[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 100/100]
[Strength: 5 +10]
[Endurance: 5 +10]
[Agility: 5 +10]
[Intelligence: 5 +10]
A very simple status window.
‘Well, I am level 1.’
The level difference between him and the wyverns was a whopping 34.
“But hey, all my stats are +10? There was a Hall of Fame bonus notification… Is it because of my high sync rate?”
He wasn’t exactly sure, but he had definitely received some sort of bonus right from the start.
“Nice. This really is a god-tier game. Giving you bonuses right out of the gate.”
Jinwoo looked up at the flying wyverns.
He immediately understood.
The crushing pressure they radiated.
‘These wyverns weren’t made to be defeated.’
They were event monsters—meant to be run away from.
‘If I try to fight them, I’ll die instantly. And it’s not like I even have a weapon.’
He was barehanded.
The wyverns soared overhead, and Jinwoo had neither the means to reach them nor the gear to fight back.
‘So what should I do?’
Being a game with high freedom, there were no obvious choices presented.
‘Should I just run?’
Jinwoo wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to flee or if there was another quest to trigger.
‘First things first…’
He stayed still, scanning the area.
‘Are there other users?’
Nope. Only NPCs.
The terrified villagers running away were all NPCs—no other users in sight.
‘If they were players, they’d be just standing there like me.’
Definitely a solo tutorial.
‘I guess after this, I’ll finally get to play with other users.’
“A wyvern showing up in the tutorial… that’s brutal. Still, there’ll be players who try to take it down. It wasn’t designed to be killable, but some people are just that good.”
He recalled seeing posts on the community boards about insane veteran players and their exploits.
Screeeech—!
The wyvern roared again, spewing something from its mouth. As soon as it hit the ground, things started melting.
Even rooftops got hit by the acid—but buildings at least held up somewhat.
‘Get hit by that, and it’s instant death.’
“Whoa.”
As Jinwoo watched in shock, a fleeing villager slapped him on the back.
“What are you doing?! Run! That acid will kill you instantly! Get inside a building!”
The NPC continued:
“Pick any house, just get inside! That acid won’t melt buildings! The town watch went to call a knight! It’ll be fine soon!”
Jinwoo looked around at the buildings.
‘Is this like a branching path?’
He ran forward.
Then he smelled something.
“Fire…”
It was the distinct smell of heat—a forge. Without hesitation, Jinwoo ran into that house.
“Knew it.”
Heat washed over him.
He had entered a blacksmith’s workshop.
But something was off.
Instead of a blacksmith, a wounded man was groaning in pain against the wall.
[Captain of the Town Watch][LV 21]
‘Town Watch Captain?’
“Urgh…”
The man’s shoulder armor had melted—his upper body drenched in blood.
“Are you alright?”
Jinwoo asked, but the man shook his head.
“Damn it. Got hit by the wyvern. I need to go call a knight…”
Apparently, this was the same town watch the villagers had mentioned earlier.
“What’s the situation outside?”
“The wyverns are flying around, villagers are evacuating.”
“At this rate, the damage will be massive. Something’s wrong. There was a giant wyvern. And the acid it breathes…”
Ssssshhhhh—!
Suddenly, the ceiling began to melt.
“It can melt buildings too! We need that knight!”
The captain looked down at his ruined weapon.
“Damn it. If only I had a proper weapon…”
His eyes turned to Jinwoo.
“Can you fix this sword? Please. The blade is dull and warped. Even just a temporary fix. If you can make it usable—even just for a few swings—I’ll reward you!”
Ding—!
A cheerful alert popped up in front of Jinwoo:
Quest: Help the Town Watch Captain
Grade: D
Details: The captain of Insert Village’s watch was severely wounded during a sudden wyvern attack. Though he can still move, his gear is ruined…
