Arthur stepped outside.
And the world… was not the one he remembered.
Seoul was no longer just a city of neon lights and taxi horns. The sky shimmered with faint veins of code, as if the atmosphere itself had turned digital. Towering obsidian spires—some cracked, some pulsing—had pierced the skyline like jagged needles through a canvas. Around them, strange structures floated mid-air: floating platforms, spiraling staircases that defied gravity, and translucent blue orbs pulsing with strange energy.
Holographic System Consoles flickered before every person's eyes like ghostly HUDs. Arthur could see them in real-time—stats, inventory screens, quest prompts. A kid down the street accidentally activated a fireball spell and torched a vending machine. Two salarymen nearby were furiously arguing over who got to loot a digital treasure chest that had spawned near a bus stop.
"Goddamn," Arthur muttered, eyes scanning the surreal skyline, "they actually integrated it perfectly…"
Buildings had merged with fantasy architecture. Brick apartments now had moss-covered turrets. Street signs flickered between Korean and System Glyphs. Even the animals—stray cats, crows, and pigeons—now had health bars hovering above their heads, some tagged as [Low Threat — Tier 0].
He let out a low, breathless laugh.
"This is... my world. My game. My code. In the flesh."
His console flicked open in front of him—a familiar interface only he could manipulate so effortlessly. The world was real, yes, but he had the cheat sheet. He knew the systems, the commands, the secrets. The things that would take others years to figure out were etched into his memory like divine scripture.
He cracked his knuckles.
"If this is real... then there's no time to waste."
He tapped the console once.
[Destination: Gungnamji Pond, Seodong Park — Warp Initiating...]
A flicker of blue light engulfed him, and with a rush of digital wind, Arthur was gone.
The air near Gungnamji Pond shimmered with power.
Dozens of people stood around the lake—some geared up in low-level armor, others in plain clothes, clearly just figuring things out. All of them had the same expression: awe, confusion... and a spark of desperation.
"It's here."
A whisper cut through the crowd as the waters began to churn.
A monstrous ripple spiraled outward, and then it rose.
[Aquaegis.
The Water Beast of Seodong.]
Towering twenty feet tall, its body was serpentine, layered with sapphire scales that shimmered like liquid glass. Its face was part-dragon, part-angler fish, with long, glowing whiskers and tidal energy rippling off its spine. Above its head floated a system tag:
[FIELD BOSS: AQUAEGIS — LV. 25 — First Kill Bonus Active]
The crowd surged forward. Someone shouted, "Ten stat points if we kill it!" Another added, "It's just like the forum leak said! This is the first field quest!"
They charged.
And were immediately crushed.
Aquaegis moved like a tidal wave wearing armor. It slammed one tail into the ground and sent shockwaves through the area. A spin attack launched bodies into the pond like skipping stones. The beast opened its mouth and screamed—not a roar, but a screech that made the system console of several players glitch and spark.
Arthur appeared behind a tree, watching the carnage unfold.
"Idiots," he muttered. "You can't brute-force it. Not yet."
He tapped his console.
[Activate: StreamCam — Begin Recording]
A small blue eye hovered above his shoulder, silently locking onto him. The feed was live.
Arthur stepped forward.
The beast turned to him.
"Oh, don't give me that look," Arthur said. "I made your hitbox, remember?"
Aquaegis lunged. Its claws swiped from the left.
Arthur sidestepped effortlessly. "Here comes the left hook… followed by the double tailspin... annnnd—there's the spiral dive."
He moved like smoke through every attack. Clean, calculated, unbothered.
"I know all your patterns," he said, ducking under a crashing wave. "I wrote them."
The beast shrieked and activated a new command:
[Skill Command: Hydro Spiral Lance]
[Skill Command: Torrent Lockdown]
Jets of water speared out in unpredictable arcs, but Arthur rolled and flipped through them with pinpoint precision. He grinned as the timer in his head ticked past 40 seconds.
"That should do it."
He raised his console.
[System Override: Command — Summon: Common Sword]
A blade formed in the air. It wasn't flashy—just a plain steel short sword with a leather grip. Absolutely pathetic by system standards.
Arthur caught it mid-air.
"Let's see... weak point one... the soft underfin," he whispered. He dashed in, blade flicking. Sparks and data scattered.
"Two… the inner gill when it opens its mouth to roar."
Another slash—perfectly timed.
"And three... the cluster behind the second dorsal node."
A final thrust—clean, clinical, right into the core.
Aquaegis let out a strangled cry, thrashed once, and collapsed into a glowing pool of data particles.
[Field Boss Defeated — First Kill Achieved!]
[+10 Stat Points]
[Hidden Quest Cleared: Survivor's Dance — Bonus Objectives Met]
[Reward Acquired: Beast's Heart (Rare Item)]
[Reward Acquired: Command Skill — Water Strike]
[Reward Acquired: Fragment of the World (??? - Quest Item)]
Arthur wiped the sword on his coat and sheathed it even though it didn't have a sheath. The sword de-materialized a second later anyway.
He tapped the console again.
[End Stream — Save Recording] [Post to: StreamTube] [Username?]
Arthur smiled at the prompt.
"Anonymous," he said. "Blur the face, cut the voice."
[Uploading…]
Across the world, viewers clicked in. The comments detonated instantly.
["ANONYMOUS IS BACK?!" "DID YOU SEE THAT DODGE???" "Bro used a common sword!?" "Who the hell is this guy!?" "Wait—is that the dev?"]
Arthur scrolled the rewards once more. His eyes lingered on the [Fragment of the World]. It shimmered in a way normal items didn't—like the system didn't fully understand it, or maybe it was something even the system hadn't anticipated.
"Good," he whispered. "That's one down. Three to go"
He turned and walked toward the horizon, console already bringing up a new map.
[Next Objective: ???]
Arthur Creed—no, Anonymous—disappeared from the lake and is enroute to his next destination.