Everyone has that one game that defines a part of their life.
For Woojin, that game was Gate Hunter.
Gate Hunter was a virtual reality game set in a modern hunter world.
Its graphics looked a decade ahead of anything its competitors had to offer. It featured a massive open world and NPCs that reacted so naturally they felt almost human.
“No way. Did they interrogate aliens to make this?”
“The combat is insane. This game is absolutely nuts.”
“And it's not even online? It's a single-player package game? Say no more—take my money!”
Released during Woojin's teenage years, the game swept the world by storm. At its peak, it racked up millions of downloads every single day.
But in the end, it failed.
The reason was simple.
It was too difficult.
〈Tip: Death resets everything to zero. Treasure your life.〉
The very first message that appeared when the game began.
Players who underestimated that warning learned the hard way.
Because in this game, you only had one life.
[Park Siwoo (Main Character, Starting Character)]
Traits: Swordsmanship Prodigy
Difficulty: ★
Recommended Class: Swordsman
[Fastest Clear Times]
...
[Park Siwoo User Forum]
— Why is killing five tutorial goblins so hard? Is it normal to get stuck in an infinite reset loop here??
— Totally normal lol. Grind hard for a month and you'll get it lol.
— How does a swordsmanship genius keep getting slaughtered by goblins?
— Guess your brain isn't a genius lol.
— Damn it. One wrong line of dialogue and I got sent back to the starting village lol. How is this guy only one star?
— Played Siwoo for two years, made one mistake, and now I'm back to square one lol. What do I do?
— Starting life from zero again, let's gooooo.
Even the protagonist—the very first playable character—took an entire year before anyone managed to clear his route.
The difficulty was so brutal that ordinary talent simply wasn't enough.
And Han Sia, the second character unlocked after clearing the first...
〈Tip: To become a great mage, you must learn to control mana.〉
[Han Sia (Heroine)]
Traits: Magic Prodigy
Difficulty: ★★
Recommended Class: Mage
[Fastest Clear Times]
...
[Han Sia User Forum]
— Seriously, how the hell do you cast magic? LOL.
— Master... I want to use magic so badly...
— Breaking news! Successfully cast Fireball after twenty playthroughs!
— Talented players are the worst. Downvoted.
— Academy exam attempt number thirty. Failed again lol.
— I seriously can't do this anymore!
Most players never even reached monster hunting.
They dropped out during the Academy phase, where they had to personally sense mana and learn to cast spells before graduating.
It wasn't surprising that players stuck in endless loops of failure started quitting one by one.
Fifteen years after its release, only a handful of people still played Gate Hunter.
Which made sense.
Plenty of games had come out since then that were easier, prettier, and offered instant gratification.
By now, Gate Hunter had become little more than a nostalgic relic.
Aside from weirdos like me, there can't be many left.
Woojin climbed into his capsule and logged in.
[Welcome back, Kukuruppingpong!]
[Current Playable Characters]
Fastest Clear
Fastest Clear
Fastest Clear
Fastest Clear
Day 1,832 in progress.
"Ugh. Just looking at it gives me chills."
Woojin grinned at the character list.
Those five lines represented fifteen years of his life.
Thankfully, Gate Hunter had completely changed his life for the better.
The personal streams he hosted while playing the game had exploded in popularity.
Woojin, the player who conquered the infamous game in record time.
His broadcasts gave viewers immense vicarious satisfaction, and the donations poured in.
His life changed overnight.
Becoming the world's greatest VR gamer was simply a bonus.
Even now, with Gate Hunter's popularity long faded, that reputation remained.
Because even those who no longer played the game still watched his strategy videos obsessively.
At this point, he could live comfortably for the rest of his life without ever touching another game.
For all the curses people hurled at it, Gate Hunter was the game that had saved his life.
"Today's the day I finally beat it."
Kim Minwoo.
Five-star difficulty.
The final character route in Gate Hunter.
And he was infuriating beyond words.
[Kim Minwoo (Eldest Son of Ilseong Group)]
Traits: Diamond Spoon, Talentless, Arrogant, Lazy, Cowardly, Womanizer, Crybaby, Freeloader
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Class: Swordsman
Objective: Slay the Dragon Lord within three in-game years.
The eldest son of Korea's number one conglomerate.
That was his only redeeming quality.
Everything else about him was garbage.
〈Tip: Kim Minwoo has an exceptionally strong sense of self. Please respect his opinions!〉
"You damned bastard."
Just remembering the opening message made Woojin grit his teeth.
Each character had their own unique strategy route.
Kim Minwoo was no exception.
"Strong sense of self."
You couldn't truly understand what that meant until you started playing.
This character directly interfered with the player's actions.
And he did it constantly.
Try to enter a gate?
[Kim Minwoo refuses to enter the gate!]
— A gate? Why would I go into such a dangerous place? I already awakened, didn't I? Need items? Just buy them with money.
[Kim Minwoo refuses to act!]
— Drink elixirs to strengthen my body? No thanks. I heard they hurt like hell. I absolutely can't handle pain.
[Kim Minwoo refuses training!]
— Ugh, grinding skill proficiency is such a pain. I can live just fine without doing any of this.
The worst part?
Even after forcing him through endless training, he could barely surpass the level of a mid-tier awakened.
He was catastrophically untalented in every field.
And absurdly cowardly.
Woojin still vividly remembered fighting the first boss.
[Kim Minwoo is overwhelmed by extreme fear!]
[All stats reduced by 50%!]
[All skills sealed!]
[Refuses all combat actions and attempts to flee!]
— Eek! Run away!
[You have died.]
[Game Over.]
Three in-game years.
No matter how perfectly Woojin optimized his route, he simply couldn't find a way to kill the Dragon Lord.
How were you supposed to defeat the final boss in three years with a character like this?
The users watching his stream that day had all reacted the same way.
— Watched the strategy stream. Kim Minwoo is an absolute legend lol.
— This guy's a swordsman? Siwoo was an angel compared to him lol.
— Like Ppingpong said, maybe it'd be different if he had another class lol.
— Seriously. If he were a necromancer, maybe. But you can't change classes in this game lol. Pure suffering.
That first battle had been pure despair.
If only he were a summoner class like a necromancer.
Kim Minwoo lacked talent—not his summons.
Even an F-rank skeleton could pull its weight if you loaded it up with powerful artifacts.
And undead summons weren't cowards like him.
Unfortunately, Kim Minwoo's awakened class was...
Swordsman.
He truly lived up to his five-star difficulty.
After that day...
[Kim Minwoo Attempt #1,024: Let's Make Some Allies!]
Woojin had thought that if talent was the issue, companions might solve it.
So for the first time ever, he tried party play.
But...
[Kim Minwoo becomes deeply offended!]
— A commoner dares lecture me?
Just when Woojin thought he'd finally recruited someone, Kim Minwoo's talent for turning allies into enemies left even him speechless.
You socially dysfunctional bastard!
That's when he realized.
Kim Minwoo was fundamentally incapable of having companions.
What followed was a painfully long ordeal.
Eventually, Woojin found a new path.
He clawed his way up the family hierarchy, secured more authority, amassed wealth, and bought every artifact money could buy.
If you lack talent, compensate with money.
If money isn't enough, spend more money.
And if that still doesn't work, spend even more.
One thousand eight hundred thirty-two days.
That was how long he'd invested in this clear attempt.
Now, it was finally time to reap the rewards.
[Connecting to game.]
[Broadcast starting.]
A massive door appeared before him.
[Entrance to the Dragon's Sanctum]
[The resting place of the final boss, the Dragon Lord.]
[Time until awakening: 1 day.]
[Defeat the Dragon Lord to clear the game.]
This is doable.
Right before the Dragon Lord awakened and rampaged.
Kim Minwoo was at his strongest.
The Dragon Lord was at his weakest.
"Let's go!"
The doors opened.
A colossal creature, enormous even by dragon standards, emerged.
— An uninvited guest.
[You have witnessed the form of a dragon!]
[Overwhelming fear grips you!]
Crack...!
The rings on his fingers began to fracture.
[Mental Protection Artifact activated!]
[Iron Will (S) activated!]
[Indomitable Spirit (S) activated!]
[Clear Mind (S) activated!]
[Viking's Courage (S) activated!]
[Berserker (S) activated!]
[Resisting the Dragon Lord!]
[Resistance successful!]
[Immune to fear for 15 minutes!]
All five rings shattered instantly.
Damn it!
Did they know how hard he'd worked to obtain those?
Five top-tier rings destroyed just to resist a single glance.
— LOL five artifacts destroyed by one look? Are those exchange rates for real?
— This game is insane lol. Did they actually intend for people to beat this?
Fifteen minutes of fear immunity.
He couldn't waste even a second.
Woojin activated every artifact he had collected through years of relentless effort.
[Dwarven King's Roar (S) activated!]
[All equipped item stats increased by 50%!]
[Sacred Hymn (S) activated!]
[Kim Minwoo's talent limit increased by 100%!]
[Lightning Blade (S) activated!]
[Sword attack power increased by 100%!]
[Sword Dance (S) activated!]
[Swordsmanship proficiency increased by 200%!]
No matter how worthless someone's talent was...
If enough multipliers stacked together...
Slash!
Even the Dragon Lord's scales could be cut.
Slash after slash.
The battle entered a state of near trance.
Three minutes.
— What the hell? How is he dodging all that and counterattacking?
— That's why Ppingpong is the world's number one lol.
[Dragon Lord HP below 85%!]
[Achieved astonishing feat...]
...
Eight minutes.
[Dragon Lord HP below 63%!]
[Achieved impossible feat...]
— Oh crap. Didn't he already use all his items?
— This isn't looking good. The patterns are getting crazier.
— Wait, there's an achievement called "Impossible"? First time seeing that.
— Same here.
Fourteen minutes and fifty seconds.
[Dragon Lord HP below 50%!]
[Achievement Unfathomable: "The One Who Found Possibility" acquired!]
At that moment—
— The entertainment ends here.
[Dragon Speech (EX) activated!]
[Artifact activating...]
[Cannot resist!]
[Control over body lost!]
Thud.
His body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Ha...
An EX-rank skill.
A bitter laugh escaped him.
This monster had never been meant to be defeated.
Maybe with another class. But a swordsman? Impossible.
Kim Minwoo's cowardly nature and the swordsman class were the worst possible combination.
From early-game growth to late-game potential, everything about him was terrible.
How the hell are you supposed to clear this?
Woojin had conquered this game countless times.
But for the first time, he saw no answer.
Then—
The screen froze.
Instead of the usual red system messages, blue text appeared.
〈Player.〉
〈Congratulations.〉
〈You have surpassed our expectations and shown us true potential.〉
[Notice: Final Stage, Phase 6, unlocked!]