Everyone is Young Except for Me

The wind blew, covering my entire body and causing me to break out in goosebumps. First was my face, neck, shoulders, legs, and then my back. The hairs on my arms seemed to be soft though. Simultaneously, messages appeared in front of me.

[You have been selected by seven stars for the first time.]

[The Big Dipper is crying out that you are the true king.]

[The heavenly star ‘Monarch of Brilliant Promise’ has been acquired.]

[All stats have been raised by 20 points.]

The system messages called me the true king. The voice was echoing in my head, not my ears.

[Humans...]

It was the voice of the guide who existed in ‘Brightness’, which was now on the Altar of the Stars.

[Under the seven stars of the Big Dipper, take note that the true king has awakened.]

The strange voice that was still a mixture of male and female voices was showing off like it was an inviolable existence no one could go against.

[A person who walks seven lonely and arduous paths at the same time will appear. However, he is now like a leaf in the wind. He who hides what he hears and he who hides what he has seen—be careful until he stands tall as the king himself.]

I was forced to listen to the divine voice that spoke of what seemed like a prophecy. At the same time, the Altar of the Stars started to shine.

“......”

I suddenly landed on the ground and stared blankly at it. The seven stars of the Big Dipper let out their iridescent colors, like puppies greeting their owner. Then...

“Um?”

From the star on the far left, they started to overlap one by one. Soon, all the stars came together as one. Watching this, I felt an unfamiliar and mysterious feeling. At this moment, a light burst. It was a terrible flash. The dazzling brilliance that was like the divine sun quickly calmed down and in front of me was a colorful figure. 

“The keeper of time, who has protected the prophecy of God Gaia from the beginning, greets the master of the seven precious stars.”

...Who? I looked surprised. An old man—who had a long white beard, white hair, and a staff that was like an old tree—knelt down on one knee and bowed to me. 

Simultaneously...

“I greet the king of the seven precious stars, as foretold by the God of Creation, Gaia.” Psyche also knelt down and bowed.

The sudden situation made me speechless. I was a king...? I couldn’t say anything to the two people who unreservedly called me a king, so I just watched them bow their heads. Then I spoke to them after a short moment, “Get up. This is really embarrassing.”

I held one of their arms and slowly raised their bodies, carefully observing their faces.

“...”

They were crying, but they didn’t look sad. It was like tears of joy after being liberated from something.

“You must have many questions, but there isn’t much time. Brightness has disappeared, and the time and space that it sustained have started to break.”

The sound of something cracking came from above. I instinctively looked up at the sky. No, the entire space was cracking.

“Reach out to the light in front of you.”

The old man looked at me, and I reached out without asking why. I felt like I grabbed something at the end of the light.

[The Sealed Star Fruit has been acquired.]

...What was this? I wanted to take a closer look, but I didn’t have enough time. 

Psyche said to me, “Please take care of the Star Fruit, and don’t lose it. Right now you have to be careful. Like a leaf in the wind, many trials and tribulations will come your way. However, don’t forget. If you move forward through any challenge without losing hope, there will be light at the end...”

Was it because she knew we had to separate? Her eyes seemed a bit sad, but they also swirled with an unknown emotion. Simultaneously, the old man beside me wielded his staff and created a black space behind me. I started trembling.

“Don’t be alarmed. This is the way for you to escape from here.” He started to chant a spell while moving his index finger, and I was sucked into the black hole-like space.

It was dark all around me. My surroundings were filled with dark spheres. In a small light in the distance, there stood Psyche and the old man. Their lips moved as they spoke to me at the same time. I could only hear one thing: “May the protection of the stars be with you.”

It was the last of it. The light gradually disappeared and completely concealed its appearance. I closed my eyes as my consciousness gradually faded. As I lost consciousness, I heard a drowsy voice say, [The tutorial has ended.]

* * *

Union—the corporate group with the highest stock price in South Korea and the creator of Arkstar, the world’s leading virtual reality game—was a company that recently achieved the dream of having one billion users all over the world.

Yoo Minseok, the team leader of Union’s Strategic Planning Office, yawned as he leaned against a soft chair.

“Ha~ap. Oh, why is the weather so good?”

He felt bored and tired with the daily routine. Turning in his chair, he felt like he was on a summer getaway as he soaked up the sunlight.

“Hum hum~♪ hum hum hum~♬”

He was humming and about to bring the coffee to his mouth when someone slammed open the door.

“Team Leader-nim!”

“Hey, you crazy guy! Hah...” Yoo Minseok got a shock and poured the coffee mix he was holding onto his clothes. He screamed when he saw that the expensive shirt he bought a few days ago through installments was wet. “What is it? What? Why are you looking for me?!”

“It is serious.”

Yoo Minseok hurriedly wiped his shirt with some tissues and asked, “Ah, this is expensive... What is going on? Was there an error in the game?”

“Yes, there was an error.”

“What...?” He paused for a moment. It was because he didn’t understand what Cha Jincheol was talking about.

‘An error occurred in Arkstar, in which no mistake has ever occurred before?’

He couldn’t believe it. As far as he knew, Arkstar was managed by Gaia—a supercomputer known to be the best artificial intelligence in existence. What’s more, Gaia wasn’t a typical supercomputer. It was the world’s leading supercomputer created after the introduction of quantum mechanics technology, and its performance was 10 billion times that of existing supercomputers. Things that existing supercomputers would take 150 years to calculate could be done in four seconds. Gaia was also the best artificial intelligence that the CIA and NASA had ever seen.

There was an error with the supercomputer that didn’t allow a single bug...? It was ridiculous.

Yoo Minseok shook his head and asked Cha Jincheol not to joke around. “Don’t talk nonsense. What is going on?”

“I think you should see it for yourself.”

“...?”

‘Is something really happening? Ah, don’t tell me.’

The two of them moved quickly and arrived in front of a huge monitoring room underground.

“Team Leader Yoo, you came.”

“Hello, Department Manager-nim.” Yoo Minseok bowed his head to Department Manager Lee Seokjun in front of him. Then he asked Cha Jincheol, who had sat down again, “Hey, did you really get an error? Even Department Manager-nim is here...?”

Cha Jincheol didn’t say many words. He just showed the video on his laptop. “Look.”

It was a video of a foreign user hunting monsters. He seemed to be a high-level ranker who used some pretty brilliant skills. By the way, he seemed somewhat familiar. Yoo Minseok had seen him somewhere before.

‘Where did I see it...?’

“It is the video of the US user Michael, ranked 1st in the world.”

“Ah, yes! No wonder he seems familiar. Isn’t he a Star Fruit talent? I didn’t know he was so strong. Isn’t this hunting speed very fast? By the way, showing me this...”

It was at this moment that...

“...What?”

The video stopped. No, the video didn’t stop. Only the monsters stopped. Michael was screaming in a confused manner, but his body didn’t listen to him. Michael couldn’t move regardless of how he tried. 

Yoo Minseok couldn’t hide his confusion. At this moment, a voice rang out, [Humans...]

[Under the seven stars of the Big Dipper, take note that the true king has awakened.]

Yoo Minseok was sucked into the voice that seemed to prophesize the end of the world.

[A person who walks seven lonely and arduous paths at the same time will appear. However, he is now like a leaf in the wind. He who hides what he hears and he who hides what he has seen—be careful until he stands tall as the king himself.]

The unidentified voice finished the last words, and time flowed again like nothing had happened. In the video, a red light started to soar around Michael. Yoo Minseok observed closely with the eyes of a hawk. His expression became more serious than ever as he realized what was happening.

‘What the hell...?’

The red light gradually became bigger and bigger until it became a pillar, radiating a bright light into the sky. The monsters around Michael turned into grey ash as they touched the light. Then the video ended.

“...Crazy.” Cha Jincheol didn’t say anything else and played another video.

It was Torres of Spain, who also used the Star Fruit. He was emanating a dark purple light. It was the same with the videos of other users. Yoo Minseok’s face was stiff as he watched all the videos.

“This is the real big deal.” Cha Jincheol tapped the laptop a few times and opened the management system messages. He turned the mouse wheel and lowered the screen, showing it to Yoo Minseok.

The first words that Yoo Minseok let out after confirming it were… “I’m going crazy...”

The thing he saw in front of him now was a message with a single line, but the impact was enormous. He pressed his hand against his tingling temples.

[System. CODE-0 activated.]

“...Shit. It looks like I’ll be working late tonight,” his quiet words rang through the monitoring room.