LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 1: Message (1)
Looking back, there were many happy days.
Even though it was just a mobile game, Arteil had brought Kim Hyunwoo many memories over the past five years.
From nurturing and growing a territory from nothing.
To diligently raising beloved 1-star characters to 5-stars.
And devising strategies using those characters that he nurtured himself to solve labyrinths.
He truly enjoyed it.
But now, it was time for it to end.
[5-star character 'Beast King' demands a gift! Requested gift: Halcerthe's Gauntlet (Payment of 72,000 won)]
[5-star character 'Absolute Darkness' demands a gift! Requested gift: Laios's Amulet (Payment of 68,000 won)]
[5-star character 'Crimson Dragon' demands a gift! Requested gift: Blood Diamond (Payment of 99,200 won)][5-star character 'Hero King' demands a gift! Requested gift: Famous Sword 'Lykesister' (Payment of 142,300 won)]
[Refuse]
[Refuse]
[Refuse]
[Refuse]
[5-star character 'Beast King' gets angry!]
[5-star character 'Absolute Darkness' is disappointed!]
[5-star character 'Crimson Dragon' is annoyed!]
[5-star character 'Hero King' sneers!]
[The affection of the 5-star character 'Beast King' is about to drop!]
[The affection of the 5-star character 'Absolute Darkness' is about to drop!]
[The affection of the 5-star character 'Crimson Dragon' is about to drop!]
[The affection of the 5-star character 'Hero King' is about to drop!]
[※If affection drops, abilities will decrease!]
Seeing the smartphone messages popping up before his eyes, Kim Hyunwoo let out an involuntary chuckle.
‘Why was I so scared of this message that I even worked night shifts to pour money into it?’
Kim Hyunwoo pressed the home button and turned the game off.
Right after, he went into the ‘Applications’ section, found Arteil, and pressed hard to delete it.
[Do you want to delete 'Arteil'? Y/N]
A notification window popped up as if seeking confirmation for a final decision.
Without hesitation, Kim Hyunwoo pressed the button, and soon, Arteil, the game he had been playing for about four years, vanished from his smartphone.
Just like that, ten years passed.
“Huh?”
Kim Hyun-woo entered the game, quite unexpectedly.
Into the game ‘Arteil’, which he had quit a decade ago.
At least, Kim Hyun-woo, who likes subculture, knew that normally, web novel protagonists who possess a game usually recognize and adapt to being in the game within the first few minutes to a few hours.
Rebuild the fief 'Lartania' and eliminate the Labyrinth.
Reward:
Survival
Failure:
Death
However, unlike those extraordinary web novel protagonists, it took Kim Hyunwoo a full three days to accept the fact that he had entered the game, even with such notifications before his eyes, but once he accepted it, he thought,
‘Surviving should be easy.’
Of course, Kim Hyunwoo has been playing Arteil for nearly four years.
Naturally, most of the information in his head has faded over time, and the labyrinth exploration, a main element of Arteil, must have changed from when he could devise strategies with his eyes closed.
Yet, the reason Kim Hyunwoo could make such a judgment when he regained his composure was precisely because he was the Lord of the territory he had built until now.
In other words, it was because he had become the Lord, the playable character of the account he had been using.
Kim Hyunwoo, who had not taken a single step out of his room since falling asleep on the subway home after finishing a night shift, was convinced he had entered Arteil because of the word ‘Lartania’ in the notification window.
Lartania was the name of the territory Kim Hyunwoo had chosen when he first started Arteil and had used until he quit the game.
Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo was not worried.
No matter how long Kim Hyunwoo hadn’t touched the game in ten years, the territory he had built should remain the same.
Since the territory, which was more like a vast kingdom than a mere territory and had been in the top 0.1% of Arteil, it was expected to significantly lower Kim Hyunwoo’s game difficulty.
That was the expectation, for sure.
“Shit, what’s this…?”
Kim Hyunwoo looked around with a desolate expression.
What he saw was ruins.
No, it was more accurate to say there was just nothing rather than ruins.
The ruins were just a small part, and the rest was truly just an empty piece of land.
“Where the hell is my territory?”
Kim Hyunwoo, who even used swear words he normally wouldn’t in a situation where they involuntarily came out, looked more closely around, but the fact that there was nothing around did not change.
“Ah…”
In fact, what Kim Hyunwoo further realized was that the Lord’s castle he was standing in seemed like it could collapse at any moment.
And while Kim Hyunwoo was looking at what used to be his territory with a dumbfounded face,
[...My Lord, welcome back]
[From now on, I will assist you in rebuilding the territory]
Such a voice could be heard in Kim Hyunwoo’s ears.
Startled by the voice in his ear, it didn’t take long for Kim Hyunwoo to realize who the NPC speaking to him was.
‘Loria, the NPC help of Arteil.’
Kim Hyunwoo immediately asked questions to the NPC who appears with an empty territory screen at the start of the game, informs players about various things, helps build the territory, and later manages the player’s territory.
Beginning from why he entered this game to why the territory ended up like this.
Naturally, he did not get an answer to the former question.
However, for the latter, Kim Hyunwoo was able to hear a shocking answer.
“…It’s been ten years?”
[Yes, it has been ten years since you left Lartania. The territory has fallen into a decline repeatedly in your absence and has been regularly looted by the neighboring territories]
“That’s absurd. I mean, is there even anything left to loot in this land of nothing?”
[There are still people living in the territory]
“What? Where exactly?”
[In the residential area you see to the north]
Kim Hyunwoo turned his gaze to the north.
What he saw was the place he earlier thought was ruins.
A slum where the shapes of houses were barely maintained, practically couldn’t even be considered ruins.
[Most of the people have left, but about 120 residents are still living here]
As Kim Hyunwoo made a dumbfounded face upon hearing that, a very familiar window soon popped up in front of him.
[This is the current detailed information of the territory]
A familiar window that Kim Hyunwoo had looked into thousands of times before.
Territory: Lartania.
Territory Development: -20
Territory Residents:
[Humans: 98]
Owned Buildings:
[Lord's Castle]
Owned Troops:
-None-
Heroes in the Territory:
Kim Hyun-woo (Lord)
Kim Hyunwoo, who read everything in the window that appeared before his eyes in less than five seconds, let out a hollow laugh of indeterminate frequency and said,
“Is this… really the state of the territory?”
[Yes, this is the current state of the territory]
Hearing Loria’s words, Kim Hyunwoo unwittingly clutched his forehead.
There were too many things to criticize one by one.
He was displeased that the territory window, which was a hassle to check even once when it went over 50 pages, was in this state.
He was furious that the territory development, which never went into the negatives when he started the game, was now proudly marked in the negatives.
Above all, what made him the angriest was…
“Shit, all my money…”
The fact that tens of millions of won in cash, which he had poured into growing this territory ten years ago, had simply evaporated.
He felt an immediate urge to fly into a rage, but Kim Hyunwoo knew.
That raging about it now would leave him with nothing.
Hence, with a sigh, Kim Hyunwoo, looking at the territory window, opened his mouth with a glimmer of hope.
After all, even though Kim Hyunwoo had spent a lot on the territory, the place where he truly lost a lot of money was somewhere else.
“Just wondering, but none of the heroes I raised are left, right?”
Kim Hyunwoo, a student who, filled with a sliver of hope, recalled the heroes he had insanely spent on to the point of reaching his limits by working night shifts like crazy.
[Yes]
However, Kim Hyunwoo involuntarily covered his eyes with his hands at the NPC’s answer that shattered his expectations.
‘I kind of figured they wouldn’t be there.’
In fact, Kim Hyunwoo naturally knew that the heroes would not remain.
Because in this game, Arteil, it’s not enough to draw heroes through gacha; if you don’t continuously manage them and increase their affection, they will break their contracts and flee.
At the time of playing, Kim Hyunwoo was afraid of his raised heroes’ affection decreasing and them fleeing, so he had poured in an absurd amount of money.
Eventually, he quit because of the game company’s harsh monetization policy.
‘If I had known this, I would have just kept on playing the game.’
Though late regrets flooded in, he soon collected himself with a sigh.
Kim Hyunwoo was already in the game, and he had to rebuild the territory to survive.
[My Lord, there is something more I need to tell you]
A voice reached Kim Hyunwoo’s ears as he began to ponder deeply.
“What is it?”
[Are you pondering how to rebuild the territory?]
“What else would it be?”
Kim Hyunwoo’s response was a bit brusque.
[It's very good that you're thinking about reconstruction even in this situation, but there's a more pressing issue that needs to be addressed first.]
“What is it?”
[In five days, a Labyrinth Break event will occur]
However, Kim Hyunwoo’s response began to take on a questioning tone as the conversation continued.
“A Labyrinth… Break event?”
Kim Hyunwoo ended with a question, but he was not unaware of the Labyrinth Break event.
The Labyrinth Break event.
It is an event that occurs every two months in Arteil, where monsters pour out of a labyrinth near the territory, and players must fend them off to receive rewards.
From the user’s perspective, it’s a generous event because you can obtain red stones, which are cash currency, and blue stones, which are in-game currency.
However, that can only be called a generous event if there are heroes and troops capable of adequately defending against the Labyrinth Break situation; if not, the territory will simply be devastated.
In other words, the current situation is extremely bad for Kim Hyunwoo, who lacks the power to stop the Labyrinth Break.
[You may not be aware, but if the Labyrinth Break is not stopped for 60 times, the Territory Stone that constantly controls the gate of the labyrinth will break, causing the territory to disappear]
“How many times are left?”
[So far, invasions by monsters have been allowed 59 times, and now only one chance remains]
“Shit.”
Kim Hyunwoo muttered to himself upon realizing that he had only five days left for his survival limit.
[My Lord, given the circumstances, perhaps it would be wise to send a message]
“…A message?”
[You may have forgotten, but upon the Lord's return to the territory, it is possible to send a message once to the heroes who have left the territory]
Kim Hyunwoo was able to hear such words from Loria.