"Wow.. that’s an amazing name…. Baek-Hyeon.”
I didn’t answer him, mostly because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say, while the screen in front of me showed my name clearly as if it was trying to prove that it truly belonged to me.
A single-player survival game, with no party system, no teammates, and no chat function, meaning there was no one to rely on and no one to blame except myself.
Just me.
At first, I only downloaded it because Choi Han kept insisting over and over again, telling me to just try it once and promising that I would like it, even though I didn’t really trust his words.
I didn’t expect much when I finally opened the game for the first time.
After work, I returned to my small room, ate cupp noodles while sitting on the floor, and stared at my phone for a while longer than necessary before finally tapping the app icon.
[ MAIN OBJECTIVE ]
《 SURVIVE 》
There was no long explanation or kind tutorial waiting for me, only a single objective displayed on the screen as if nothing else mattered.
Survive.
I died in less than ten minutes.
[ YOU HAVE DIED ]
[ RETRY? ]
(Yes)
I died again.
And again.
The monsters were fast, the traps were placed in ways that felt unfair, and the map showed no mercy just because I was inexperienced or tired.
But every time I died, I noticed something new, even if it was something small.
This game didn’t feel like reality.
Reality punished me even when I didn’t do anything wrong, while this game only punished me when I made a mistake.
If I died, it was because I messed up.
If I survived, it was because I earned it.
I liked that kind of fairness more than I wanted to admit.
Slowly, I started remembering everything.
The way monsters moved before attacking, the locations of hidden paths, and which areas I absolutely needed to avoid in the early stages if I didn’t want to die immediately.
The deaths became fewer over time each scenario.
[ DEATH COUNT: 42 → 41 → 39 ]
At work, I spoke even less than before, doing my tasks quietly and avoiding unnecessary conversations, while at home, I logged into the game as soon as I could.
The game became a quiet presence that stayed with me without demanding anything else.
No voices.
No judging looks.
Just the sound of my own footsteps echoing through dark areas, always followed by the feeling that something might be watching me.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ]
《 FIRST NIGHT SURVIVED 》
I stared at the screen longer than I probably should have, feeling strangely happy over something so small, even though I knew it shouldn’t matter this much.
But it did.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks slowly became two whole years, with the game continuing to update as if it was growing alongside me.
New monsters appeared, maps became harder, and the system showed less mercy than before, but no matter how difficult it became, I adjusted myself every single time.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ]
《 NO SAVE CLEAR 》
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ]
《 PERFECT ROUTE DISCOVERY 》
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ]
《 GHOST RAIDING WORLD — TOP 0.01% 》
I didn’t tell anyone about it.
There was no one I wanted to tell.
And finally.
[ FINAL CONTENT UNLOCKED ]
《 CORE RAID 》
Only one clear was allowed, and once it was completed, the game would end permanently for everyone.
I didn’t hesitate when I entered.
If this world was going to end, then I wanted to be the one who reached the very end of it.
[ THANK YOU PLAYER33 FOR BEING THE FIRST TO COMPLETE GHOST RAIDING WORLD ]
The developer’s message kept playing on repeat, thanking me for staying until the very end and offering me a gift in return.
I already knew what I wanted.
A continuation.
Because I didn’t realize—
that this game wasn’t really ending, but instead quietly preparing to move somewhere else, far away from a screen.
The screen stayed on for much longer than I expected, with no logout button or return menu in sight, only the developer’s message repeating itself over and over again as if it was afraid I would forget it the moment I closed my eyes.
I sat there without moving, my phone growing warm in my hands, while my thoughts felt strangely empty, like everything I had poured into this game over the last two years had suddenly been drained out of me.
Two years.
When I thought about it properly, it was a scary amount of time to give to something that no longer existed.
I let out a quiet laugh, because if anyone saw me right now, sitting alone in a dark room and smiling at a finished game, they would probably think there was something wrong with me.
Eventually, I forced myself to close the app, and the moment I did, the room felt smaller and quieter than before, like something important had been taken away without asking for permission.
I checked the time and realized it was already past three in the morning, which meant I had barely a few hours left before I had to wake up and pretend to be a functioning adult again.
The next day felt painfully slow, with the crowded subway pressing people together and the noise making my head ache, and I found myself missing how the game never touched me unless it was trying to kill me.
“Baek-Hyeon.”
I looked up when I heard my name, only to see Choi Han standing there with two iced coffees in his hands, smiling like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong between us.
He handed one to me, and without thinking, I accepted it, realizing only afterward that this had already become a habit I never agreed to.
“You look exhausted,” he said, laughing lightly, as if staying up all night to finish a game was a normal thing to do. “Did you play until morning again?”
“…Yeah,” I answered, because lying felt pointless.
“You cleared it, didn’t you?”
“…Yeah,”
“That’s insane,” he said, clearly impressed. “First in the world.”
I wanted to show off, but really there was only a hollow feeling that came up in my heart.
“What are you going to play now?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again, because for the first time in a long while, I didn’t have an answer.
That night, out of pure habit and maybe a bit of hope I refused to admit, I reached for my phone again, only to find that the game’s icon had completely disappeared, as if Ghost Raiding World had never existed in the first place.
I stared at the screen for a long time, wondering if I had imagined everything.
Then..
*Ding一
A notification appeared out of nowhere.
[ UNKNOWN APP INSTALLED ]
My heart skipped a beat as I tapped on it.
[ GHOST RAIDING WORLD ]
[ STATUS: PREPARATION ]
[ PLEASE WAIT ]
And in that moment, before anything truly began, I had a very bad feeling that this world wasn’t done with me yet.
