DNSG CH 01

“Is that person the number one ranked player?”

At the headquarters of Unrealz, the company behind the popular RPG game Dungeon of Legend.

With the game’s 10th-anniversary event approaching, the office had been filled with complaints and groans about how busy everyone was. Yet, in an instant, the entire office fell silent.

A woman with long black hair reaching all the way down to her waist walked through the hallway and entered the office.

‘The mysterious number one ranked player, Myojin, has actually come to our office!’

The employees secretly stole glances at Myojin as she passed right in front of them, their fingers continuing to tap away at their keyboards.

The company messenger immediately became lively.

She looks younger than I expected.

Exactly. This is my first time seeing her in person.

I think that goes for everyone here. She never appears offline.

How did Director Seo manage to bring her here?

Did he threaten her or something?

LOL, no way.

Huh??? She’s going into the conference room.

Everyone’s eyes immediately turned toward the conference room Myojin had entered.

As soon as she disappeared inside, the sound of keyboard typing grew even faster.

Does anyone know what’s going on between those two??

This is the company announcement room.

(Message deleted.)

Sorry.

Seo Seok-ho turned off his smartphone screen and pulled down the blinds covering the window that offered a clear view of the office.

The first VR game he had developed, Dungeon of Legend, was a hit title that had been around for ten years now.

And the fair-skinned girl standing before him was the star of his greatest creation.

The first player to clear a Transcendent-level dungeon.

The youngest number one ranked player.

A celebrity among the top-ranked players.

The Radiant Myojin.

Known by many different nicknames, she was influential enough that searching for her on Grassleaf Wiki would bring up a dedicated page.

Myojin was, without a doubt, a VIP guest.

So it was only natural that all kinds of rumors and speculation were flying around among the employees.

“You can forget about ever getting married because of me.”

“Did you ever actually plan on dating?”

Myojin pulled an unofficial guidebook out of her bag as she replied. The hardcover was covered with signs of use from being opened countless times.

“Why are you so sure I didn’t?”

“Because if you were really a bachelor who wanted to get married, you wouldn’t be working overtime for months because of the development of a new game, would you?”

“Whenever I see you like this, you’re exactly like your mother.”

“You’re exactly like my sister too, Uncle.”

“You really never let me win an argument.”

“So what’s wrong this time?”

Myojin’s gray eyes shifted toward the metal watch woven around Seo Seok-ho’s wrist like a net.

It was a new product that Unrealz had been ambitiously preparing—the VR Watch.

“The login device isn’t working.”

“Isn’t it a client-side problem?”

“I don’t think it’s a conflict with the security program. There are several possibilities, so I’m checking them one by one.”

“Let me see.”

Myojin reached out and removed the watch hanging from his wrist like a shackle.

The very same troublesome watch was the reason her uncle hadn’t been able to come home for nearly a month.

It was revolutionary technology that had transferred all the functions of a bulky VR device into a tiny watch!

This project, which would once again showcase Seo Seok-ho’s genius to the world, was encountering difficulties right before its successful completion.

Myojin narrowed her eyes and glared at the watch for no particular reason before putting it around her own wrist.

“It’s really big.”

The watch spun loosely around her painfully thin wrist.

Perhaps he was wondering what she was doing, because Seo Seok-ho simply stared down at Myojin.

She pressed different parts of the screen and muttered,

“Uncle, isn’t this something only a chosen person can log into? Like Digimon.”

“Myojin, don’t randomly press things and break it. Just put it down.”

Seo Seok-ho spoke soothingly.

His tone was almost exactly like someone talking to a ten-year-old child.

There was a reason for that.

After Myojin had become an orphan at a very young age, Seo Seok-ho had naturally taken on the role of her parent.

Seo Seok-ho gently pressed the area around his tired eyes, which had become stiff after working overtime for two consecutive days, and continued nagging her.

“I told you to listen while you’re at the company, didn’t I? If you keep causing trouble, then the promise I made to let you access the test server before the next major patch will be—”

“Uncle, the login screen is showing.”

“…What?”

Seo Seok-ho’s hand, which had been massaging his tired eyes, stopped.

The metal watch that had slipped down to the middle of Myojin’s forearm began emitting light, and a holographic window appeared in midair.

[Please enter the ID you wish to log in with.]

Myojin playfully shrugged at the frozen Seo Seok-ho.

“Looks like I’m one of the chosen ones after all.”

“That’s impossible…”

A dry voice escaped between Seo Seok-ho’s lips.

The problem that had been troubling him for an entire month had suddenly been solved just like that?

“Should I log in?”

Myojin asked with an innocent expression.

In the darkness before her eyes, white letters appeared in brilliant light.

[Player Myojin is logging in.]

[Loading data……]

[Please wait a moment.]

Although Myojin entered the VR world every day while playing the game, her heart still raced whenever she activated it.

She recalled the explanation her uncle had given her.

‘Logout works through voice recognition, and to send a message to the development team, tap your wrist twice.’

She had entered the game under the condition that she would only check whether everything was functioning normally with Seo Seok-ho.

[VR…… The virtual reality world is being created.]

After a short while, the surroundings gradually began to take shape, as if lights were being switched on one after another.

Gray walls and a ceiling appeared.

📍 Roots of the World Tree – B1, Corridor

A translucent window floating in the air displayed her current location.

“Huh…?”

Myojin blinked.

It was an unfamiliar place.

‘I was told I would wake up at the place where I last logged out.’

The situation unfolding before her was completely different from what Seo Seok-ho had explained.

And besides…

The Roots of the World Tree?

‘That’s a place from the unofficial guidebook.’

Myojin immediately remembered the contents of the book she always carried with her.

The World Tree was the place where players first entered Dungeon of Legend.

Those beginning their adventure received magical power from the World Tree and became known as Adventurers.

After completing the tutorial quests, the Adventurers headed to a village to choose their class.

The teleportation portal used at that time was created from the roots of the World Tree.

…That was what the book said.

Yes.

She had definitely read that information in the guidebook.

Therefore, the fact that she had woken up at the Roots of the World Tree was clearly a data error.

‘I’m curious, though.’

She wanted nothing more than to explore every corner of this place.

‘But a promise is a promise…’

Suppressing her curiosity, Myojin tapped her wrist twice.

As promised, she intended to inform her uncle about the error.

A faint vibration spread through her arm.

According to Seo Seok-ho’s explanation, the message would be transmitted simply by thinking about it.

— Uncle, I found an error.

— What kind?

— I spawned somewhere I’ve never been before.

— Anything else besides that? Are your movements okay? Move your arms and legs and try jumping. Also, check whether the door-opening motion works properly and whether the skills are being implemented correctly.

Faced with the barrage of questions, Myojin shrugged.

‘He always calls me a geek, but when it comes to work, Uncle gets seriously scary too.’

She stomped her foot against the ground and jumped.

From the moment she jumped until she landed, the movement was perfectly smooth without the slightest glitch.

She also rotated her arms and legs widely, stretching her joints, but nothing felt particularly strange.

“Hmm, movement is fine.”

Next came the problematic door-opening motion.

It was one of the motions that most frequently caused errors in 3D games.

As luck would have it, she spotted a golden doorknob nearby.

Myojin immediately grabbed it and pulled.

There was not even a hint of hesitation or suspicion.

“Waaaaah!”

An unexpected cheer erupted from beyond the open doorway.

Then, an unknown powerful force suddenly shoved her from behind.

“W-Wait, whaa—?”

She lost her balance and staggered forward, only to be sucked through the doorway before she even realized what was happening.

New location information appeared.

📍 NPC Training Center, Waiting Room

NPC…

Training Center?

Myojin’s eyes widened.

One by one, unfamiliar people began appearing around her.

The scenery slowly loaded piece by piece, like a low-performance computer struggling to process high-spec data.

Before long, she realized that she was standing in the middle of a crowd of hundreds of people.

“Welcome! Once again this year, so many people have come to take the test to become Dungeon Makers!”

A voice whose gender was difficult to distinguish thundered through the area from somewhere.

What… is all this?