Chapter 1: The Dream Begins Where Reality Ends

Chapter 001

-Tring!

[You have awakened]

When this notification appeared, Lee Tae-sung thought his life had turned 180 degrees.

“Wuhahahat! I’m a Hunter now! Rich! Elite! Celebrity! Superstar!!”

He even screamed inside his house.

Twenty-nine years old.

After graduating from college, he had been working at a small business… no, a shitty small firm.

A company where overtime was a given and supervisors practically forced six-day work weeks.

Of course, he didn’t like it.

If he had the ability, he wanted to quit a place like this and enter a major corporation.

However, it wasn’t easy for Lee Tae-sung, who graduated from an average university with average grades, to get into a major corporation all at once.

Why did everyone look for “new hires with experience” anyway?

He was forced to go there to make a living, but life was too difficult.

He couldn’t even enjoy his hobbies properly and spent most of his life working and sleeping.

He would be thirty next year.

Due to the sense of crisis that he had to escape this shitty company quickly, he was so tired he almost suffered from insomnia.

“But it’s all over now!”

He had awakened as a Hunter.

Of course, a Hunter’s life wasn’t easy either.

The glamorous figures seen on TV were only a part of it; in reality, it was said to be very dangerous.

But so what?

What mattered now was that he had escaped this tedious life.

However…

[Held Skill: Dream]

-Abilities within dreams become reality.

When awakening, one receives a skill at random, and Lee Tae-sung had only one.

He was slightly disappointed, but he tried to pull himself together.

‘It’s fine. One good thing is better than several vague ones.’

With one good skill, he could become a sufficiently powerful Hunter!

Therefore, Lee Tae-sung was not disappointed.

From then on, he tried to use the skill.

Hunter skills were unfriendly, so one had to get a feel for them by using them directly.

In particular, Lee Tae-sung’s skill was not a one-dimensional thing that simply caused fire or lightning, but had a rather abstract explanation.

He repeated his research for the exact way to use the skill.

“Do I get the abilities from my dreams?”

At least that’s what the explanation said.

If he became Superman in a dream, could that power come out into reality?

From then on, Lee Tae-sung tried to sleep a lot.

The goal: Sleep at least 12 hours a day!

He had to sleep as much as possible to dream, and eventually, he would have at least one dream of becoming a superhuman.

As a result of such efforts, one day he had a vivid dream.

In the dream, he had become an immortal flying on a sword.

It was so vivid that it felt almost real!

“I-I did it!”

He shouted as soon as he woke up.

He immediately pulled out a kitchen knife and tried to make it float in the air somehow… but failed.

He threw it into the air and almost stabbed his own foot.

Thinking something was wrong with the dream, he tried again and had several dreams of becoming a superhuman.

However, he never used that power in reality.

Later, wondering if he was barking up the wrong tree, he tried in other directions.

Movies, animations, manga, novels, etc.

He tried to bring them into reality while imagining them through various media.

It said he brings dream abilities into reality, right?

If he wished for it seriously, wouldn’t that be a dream?

And…

“Why… why isn’t it working…?”

A full six months.

That was the time Lee Tae-sung spent trying to use his skill.

However, nothing was possible.

If not for the status window in front of his eyes, he would have thought that his awakening itself was a dream.

A feeling of futility surged.

If there had been no hope at all, it would be one thing, but since he had it and then didn’t, it felt like it had been stolen.

He couldn’t even register with the Hunter Association.

The condition for registering with the Association was to demonstrate an awakening skill.

Skills that could be called proof of a superhuman were impossible to imitate.

But since Lee Tae-sung only had a status window and couldn’t use a skill, it was naturally impossible to prove he was a Hunter.

In the end, Lee Tae-sung had to return to being a job seeker.

“Sigh. What do I do…”

He had already quit the shitty company he used to attend.

The boss said he could come back whenever he wanted, but he couldn’t bring himself to return.

Still, if his life as a job seeker grew indefinitely long, he might have no choice…

“…I couldn’t even play properly.”

Naturally, he had more leisure than when he was at the company, but his mind was always uncomfortable because he was worrying and trying this and that to use his skill.

So, thinking about becoming an office worker again made him feel wronged.

“Fine. Let’s play to my heart’s content for just one month. And then I’ll get a job again without regrets.”

Coincidentally, there was something he really wanted to do.

A virtual reality game, Dream World.

It had gained sensational popularity since its launch two years ago, and 1 billion people worldwide were enjoying it.

Lee Tae-sung also wanted to do it, but the price was high and he had no time.

As a result, he didn’t become a Hunter… but he still needed something to heal his mental state.

“It’s gotten a lot cheaper. When it first launched, the connector was over 50 million won.”

The current price of the Dream World dedicated connector was around 5 million won.

It had decreased to one-tenth.

He had worked part-time jobs since he was 20, and he had the money he saved while working at the company along with his severance pay.

It was a big expense… but he could handle about 5 million.

Before returning to real life, let’s enjoy it one last time!

—

-Ding-dong!

-Delivery!

At the sound of the doorbell, Lee Tae-sung jumped up from his seat.

“Yes, I’m coming!”

His footsteps toward the front door were quick.

It wasn’t a normal package; it was what he had been waiting for!

The evolution of AI, the evolution of autonomous driving.

As modern science developed, virtual reality games were born… actually, no.

No matter how much technology advanced, it was impossible to create a virtual reality that felt like real reality by manipulating human brain waves.

There were several similar attempts, but all were discarded due to problems like danger or lack of perfection.

Virtual reality, which was thought to be impossible forever, was realized through the appearance of Hunters.

[American Hunter Alex Caesar. Creates true virtual reality!]

[Two years after opening. 1 billion virtual reality subscribers worldwide!]

Alex Caesar.

He was a famous American Hunter.

It wasn’t known exactly how, but it was said that it was possible to create such a virtual reality with his skill.

The mechanism was still shrouded in mystery.

In any case, the virtual reality game was born through the combination of virtual reality created by supernatural powers and connectors created by high technology.

Virtual reality has many fields to be used in, but Dream World was born because Alex insisted it must be released as a game.

Naturally, gamers around the world were enthusiastic, and even ordinary people with little interest in games were hooked.

This was a game in name only; it was truly another world!

The 5 million won connector was in the form of a capsule that one person could enter.

Actually, even now he wondered if this was right, but…

If he started his life as a job seeker in his current state, he didn’t think he could do anything properly.

‘Let’s enjoy it for just one month, and then sell it used. It’s a reward for my life.’

That wouldn’t be a big loss.

Lee Tae-sung made up his mind and lay down inside the capsule.

[Welcome to Dream World, Lee Tae-sung.]

Uniquely, setting a nickname was impossible in Dream World.

Only real names could be used.

Appearance could be adjusted, but even that range wasn’t large.

[Would you like to change your appearance?]

He had little interest in changing his appearance either.

[Please select a hair color]

[Please select an eye color]

[Adjusting specific body parts…]

“Ah, skip it, skip it.”

A customization window appeared, but Lee Tae-sung skipped it quickly.

The initial setup stage passed by rapidly.

The initial setting process ended quickly and reached the end.

[The starting city will be determined randomly]

[Enjoy the world within Dream World that feels like reality]

After a moment, just as he felt sleep coming on, the scenery before his eyes changed.

He was now standing in the middle of a street, with elegant pavilions to the left and towering pagodas to the right.

“Wow… this is no joke…”

He gaped in admiration.

Dream World, Dream World—now he knew why everyone talked about it.

This was something only someone who had actually logged in could know.

He had clearly been lying inside a capsule, but now he was in a completely different world!

“You. You’re a stranger. Is this your first time in our city?”

At that time, a man wearing martial arts robes spoke to Lee Tae-sung.

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Welcome to Ellyn. Our Ellyn is an important trading city on the Western Continent where various goods gather.”

The city of Ellyn.

It was the city Lee Tae-sung had come to.

The man tapped his own chest.

“And our Flying Dragon Sect is one of the core sects of this Ellyn. Are you by any chance interested in joining this sect?”

Dream World was a world where various elements were mixed.

Martial arts and magic, hybrids of the two, sorcery, monsters, demons, and so on.

It was a massive worldview where all sorts of things were mixed together.

Moreover, nothing was fixed, and the world changed as if it were alive according to the flow of time.

It was safe to say that the Dream World of two years ago and the Dream World of today were completely different worlds.

However, there were things that did not change.

Representative examples were things like the initial starting point.

Since two years had passed since its launch, basic guidelines and such were known among people.

Gamers were known as “strangers” in this world, and they usually joined and acted within a specific faction.

Depending on which faction they joined, their skill tree was determined.

-You can go with two tech trees, magic and martial arts, and hybrids are also possible.

-But honestly, martial arts is better for newbies.

-Magic has a high ceiling, but the process of reaching it is too painful.

The opinions among users already playing this game were generally like this.

“Yes, I’m interested.”

Lee Tae-sung also wanted to have fun rather than suffer, so he planned to start with martial arts.

He could change it later, so there was no need to worry much.

“Then follow me. From now on, you are a member of our Flying Dragon Sect. You will be appointed as a Third-Class Member, and I will also pass down basic martial arts. Depending on the contribution you make to the sect, your rank will rise and you will receive better rewards and martial arts.”

The man was Jang Won-cheol, a Second-Class Martial Artist of the Flying Dragon Sect.

Strangers were talents that any faction wanted to recruit.

Regardless of their aptitude, they would resurrect even if they died.

Thanks to that advantage, almost all organizations wanted to recruit users.

To put it simply, Jang Won-cheol was a member of the Flying Dragon Sect’s human resources team.

He walked around the city and suggested joining the sect whenever a newbie appeared.

It was surprising for a thought one might expect from a game NPC.

‘They said they aren’t like simple game NPCs. It’s true.’

Jang Won-cheol, walking ahead, seemed like a real person.

Similarly, the other NPCs were the same.

The moment you treated them as virtual characters and acted rudely, life in Dream World would become very complicated.

The number of users who had ended up like that over the past two years was countless.

-Newbies are practically the lowest class in this world. The moment you don’t show manners to NPCs, you’ll die without rest.

-Not just newbies, but even users who have played since the open beta haven’t reached the highest level.

-It’s a really crazy game. If it weren’t virtual reality, I would have quit, seriously.

A game unfriendly to users.

If it were such a game, it should normally fail, but since no other game could do as much as Dream World, it was doing better as the days went by.

“Now. This is our Flying Dragon Sect.”

He passed through the main gate of the pavilion, which had a large plaque, and went inside.

Jang Won-cheol handed Lee Tae-sung over to someone inside and went back out.

It seemed he had left to look for new newbies.

“Third-Class Member Lee Tae-sung. Take this.”

Lee Tae-sung received a booklet.

[Three Talents Sword Technique]

-Grade: Third-Rate Sword Technique A martial arts-type skill.

-Tring!

[Would you like to learn the Three Talents Sword Technique?]

[1 Skill Point is required]

Lee Tae-sung’s current level was 1.

He had the 10 skill points initially given.

Dream World was structured so that when you leveled up, you gained skill points instead of stats, so you would have a large amount of skill points at high levels.

Because of that, he didn’t feel it was a waste to use a skill point and used it immediately.

And at that moment.

-Tring!

“A new skill has been acquired.

[Skill: Three Talents Sword Technique]”

“!!”

Lee Tae-sung was startled.

‘This…!?’

The voice that just reached his ears was not the Dream World system voice.

It was the notification he had heard when he awakened in reality!