2002.
A time when South Korea was engulfed in a sea of red.
Growing up, I often heard comments like, ‘You must not have even seen the 2002 World Cup.’
But there was something else I heard even more often.
“Jin-hyun, you’ve never experienced [the day the dungeons appeared], have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
It was a common topic during company dinners.
I would have preferred to go straight home after work, but some companies treat these gatherings as part of the job.
“Wow, lucky you. What month were you born in, Jin-hyun?”
“October.”
“Ah…! Then it lines up perfectly. Wow, I still remember it vividly. October 10, 2002. I was in elementary school, playing on the computer at home, when suddenly, the world went dark.”
The team leader, nearing his 40s, began recounting his story with excitement.
He always brought this up when he was drunk, but it made sense—the [Day of Destiny] marked a monumental shift in human history.
“When dungeons first appeared worldwide, someone said, ‘This feels like something straight out of a game fantasy novel!’”
“Even now, so many games draw inspiration from it, including ours.”
“Exactly! Our boss started this game company because of that, and we’re living off it. Heh. People complain about us making money off dungeons where people die, but….”
“Let’s have another drink. Can’t waste a Friday night, can we?”
A colleague seated next to the team leader handed him an empty glass and glanced my way, nodding toward a young woman sitting beside me and then toward the door.
“Ugh…
“You okay, Ye-eun?”
“I think so….”
“Want to step outside for some fresh air?”
“Yes… Ugh….”
I stood up with my junior, who looked like she was about to throw up, and headed outside.
The street was already packed with intoxicated people, and we breathed in the cool air to steady ourselves.
“They begged me to come to this dinner, and now they’re completely wasted?”
“Well… no, it’s nothing.”
“You feeling any better?”
“A little. I can still manage. For now.”
[ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!]
A sudden monstrous roar echoed through the streets.
Startled, my junior clung to me, and I gently patted her shoulder, pointing to the large screen mounted on the building opposite us.
“It’s just an ad.”
“Ah.”
Her already flushed face turned even redder as she looked up at the video on the screen.
[ROOOAAAAARRRR!!]
A massive demon that seemed straight out of a fantasy movie or game.
A bipedal demon breathing fire—not in some pitch-black wasteland or medieval castle, but in the middle of a historical site.
“Gwanghwamun, huh? That’s footage from last month’s [Gwanghwamun Dungeon] raid, right?”
“Yes. It’s the S-rank dungeon [Gwanghwamun Bahamut] they were clearing.”
[Lightning Strike!!]
*”…That’s footage of the S-rank hunter, [Blue Lightning].”
A young man wielding blue lightning fought against a monster over 10 meters tall.
“He’s born in 2002, isn’t he?”
Someone my age, born in the so-called [Year of Catastrophe].
In fact, if I remember correctly, he was born on October 10—the same day dungeons appeared.
We share the same birthday, but our fates couldn’t be more different.
With the emergence of dungeons, humanity experienced ‘awakening’.
Regardless of age or gender, awakened individuals took on the task of conquering dungeons, eliminating countless threats.
At the same time, they amassed unimaginable wealth.
Some called it blood money, but the resources and materials they extracted from the monsters made Awakened individuals unbelievably rich.
“Isn’t his annual income something like 200 billion won?”
“Yeah. He’s one of only four S-rank hunters in Korea. Some even say that’s too little for him.”
Hunters meant money.
Even a broke laborer could make lottery-level earnings if they awakened.
That’s the world we live in now.
Non-awakened people slog through 10-hour workdays for a monthly paycheck of around 2.5 million won, while hunters could rake in tens of millions in just a few days of dungeon farming.
“Are you jealous, senior?”
“Jealous? Of course. Sure, it’s dangerous, but they make so much money.”
I envied them, but that world felt completely out of reach for someone like me.
“If I were awakened, I’d probably be a hunter by now.”
“Um… you know…”
My junior hesitated, leaning closer and lowering her voice.
“What if we tried something together? Like joining a public raid as porters and exploring a dungeon?”
“What?”
“You’ve heard those rumors, right? That dungeon air is infused with ‘mana’, and the longer you stay in a dungeon, the more sensitive you become to it, increasing the chance of awakening….”
“Ye-eun, you’re definitely still drunk, aren’t you?”
I flicked her forehead lightly and pushed her away.
“If it were guaranteed, that would be great, but unfortunately, I’m not someone who bets my life and future on uncertainties.”
“…”
“Dreaming of a rosy future is enough for buying lottery tickets. Oh, speaking of which, should I buy one while we’re out?”
“If you buy me a chocolate milk too.”
“Sure, sure. Let’s head back inside; Team Leader is probably dying by now.”
I felt someone’s gaze behind me, but I ignored it and made my way to the convenience store, glancing at the screen again as I passed.
[Your peace is protected by ‘Heroes’!]
“Heroes, huh.”
Everyone dreams of being someone like that at least once.
But it’s just that—a ‘dream’.
“Ye-eun, about the lottery tickets. What if I buy four of the same number and we each take one?”
“Huh?”
“You never know. We might win the jackpot. Good fortune is meant to be shared.”
Yes.
This was far more realistic.
The odds of waking up as an Awakened were much slimmer than the possibility of 2 billion won landing in my bank account from a lottery win.
Awakened individuals were from another world entirely.
It was now 2030, and the global population of 7 billion had only recently surpassed 100,000 Awakened individuals.
A story completely unrelated to me.
“By the way, Deputy Manager.”.
“Yeah?”
“If you did awaken, what would you do?”
“If I awakened? Even if it were just F-rank, I’d quit my job immediately.”
Whether it’s a lottery or awakening, it’s a miracle either way.
* * *
After a night of drinking, I barely managed to make it home and collapsed onto my bed.
I’d carried my drunk junior back to her studio apartment and walked an hour to my own place.
“…”
My body was begging me to sleep, but I still had homework to do.
Click.
I turned on my computer and powered up the large tablet sitting beneath the monitor.
If someone asked me why I wasn’t sleeping—
‘To burn stamina, of course.’
I had to use up the stamina in my ‘mobile games’.
I opened several app players on the PC, launched a few PC clients, and split the tablet screen in half to run two games simultaneously.
Eight mobile games.
If you’re wondering whether any of them were related to my company, the answer is no.
That’s work, and while I might be working there, I have zero desire to play our company’s games.
“Ah, crap.”
Three of my games already had maxed-out stamina.
If I’d passed out and woken up the next morning, all eight would have been maxed out.
“Damn the company dinner.”
A curse slipped out.
It hadn’t even been a proper dinner—just an excuse for the team leader to vent his frustrations.
Click, Click.
I quickly completed my homework, starting with the games that had maxed stamina.
Known among gamers as “dailies”, these tasks were a must-do.
I delved into a fantasy world to retrieve relics, issued battle commands to gun-wielding androids in a near-future sci-fi world, interacted with high school girls in uniforms, and delivered fried chicken as a traveler with wings across a dreamy continent.
“…”
In just 10 minutes, I’d been called various titles across eight different games, completing my dailies as I pulled out the lottery ticket from my wallet.
“If I hit the jackpot, I’ll max out all my characters—no, I’ll buy a new computer first.”
Maxing out characters involved pulling multiple copies of the same unit to unlock special skills, equipping exclusive weapons multiple times, and reforging them to create the strongest setup.
On average, this cost as much as a person’s entire monthly salary—roughly 2 million won.
“Hah.”
For Awakened individuals, that was the kind of money they could earn by casually slashing a sword in an E-rank dungeon for a day.
The harsh contrast between my reality and theirs occasionally made me sigh, but there wasn’t much I could do.
There was only one thing I could control.
“…If I finish editing and uploading the video tomorrow, I might hit the monthly target.”
Using the small profits I earned from these eight games to grow my capital little by little.
My earnings were less than a monthly salary, but they were enough to help cover the cost of rice. So I diligently prepared for the inevitable comments like, “Why didn’t you use up your stamina?” by making sure my games were in order—
Thud.
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, the lights went out.
Everything turned pitch black.
A late-night power outage? I tried to rationalize it, but my heart sank.
Even my tablet had powered down.
This wasn’t just a simple blackout.
Even if the electricity in the entire building had failed, it shouldn’t have affected my tablet, which was running on its battery.
This was—
Crackle!!
A powerful electric current surged from somewhere, its direction clear.
I turned my head toward it—
Kwa—-ang!!
A massive explosion.
And with it, my consciousness faded.
Through the haziness of my fading awareness, I saw something appear before my eyes.
[System: Humanity’s Awakening Phase has progressed to [Level: Low]. The third large-scale awakening will now proceed through random selection.]
?
[Your ability is the ‘abilities of the protagonist of the last game you played’. This ability will be—]
[ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]
Beyond the flood of red error messages filling my vision, I could make out something—.
[Error. Overlap. Discussion. Combination. Reconfiguration.]
Enormous, indescribable entities.
They appeared to be discussing something, as if I were the topic of their debate.
The one at the center extended something resembling a hand toward me.
[The individual’s ability has been determined as ‘Summoning.’]
As my consciousness completely blurred—
[Summon them. Those who traveled the world by your side.]
Those words echoed in my mind before everything went dark.
* * *
Morning.
“Good morning, Master.”
“Who are you?”
Standing next to my bed was a black-haired, golden-eyed maid.
Right beside my bed.
?