Department of General Oversight – Arcade Headquarters, Seoul, South Korea. 3:50 AM.
The hum of the servers was the only sound accompanying the early morning. In the monitoring room, dozens of screens displayed statistics, graphs, and windows full of code updating in real time.Kim Sohoon lay slouched in his ergonomic chair, eyes half-closed, a steaming cup of coffee in hand.
"Damn night shift..." he muttered, rubbing his neck. "Why do I have to be here? Oh right, they left me... Who the hell works at this hour? Do they think we're machines or something?"
He stretched lazily, spun his chair a bit, and let his gaze wander over the monitors—until a blinking alert in the top-left corner caught his eye.
[SYSTEM ALERT]: The Temporal Modulator will gradually adjust back to the pre-Tutorial configuration. Auto-confirmation has been executed.
He frowned. "This crap again?" he grumbled. He sat up and read more closely. "'Temporal Modulator adjusted'... Damn it."
He sighed heavily, like his soul weighed him down. Standing, he dragged himself to the vending machine to grab another energy drink. But just before pressing the button, he paused, looking back at the monitors.
"The Launch Day is getting closer... and with it, the arrival of players," he whispered, as if trying to convince his body to keep going. "Damn... more work."
He briefly considered requesting a shift change—but after thinking it over...
"Damn it, the other shifts are even worse. Nah... I'll stay on this one. Only four hours left anyway."
The machine beeped, and the can dropped with a dull thud.Sohoon picked it up, cracked it open, and trudged back to his chair—resigned to yet another night where the world kept changing… and no one outside even knew how much.
***
Meanwhile, inside the simulation.
In the hidden base:
Indominus was a pain in the ass to fight—not because it was strong, no. The bastard clung to me like a parasite, predicted my every move, and gave me no room to breathe.
To make matters worse, the damn walls joined the party. They started firing bursts of bullets so fast that the ones I had frozen mid-air before now cut through space like beams of light.
Frustrated, ducking and weaving through sparks, smoke, and shrapnel, I shouted:
"Quincy! What the hell is going on?"
[I'm scanning and analyzing the situation,] he answered in his usual mechanical voice, calm as ever—like we weren't in the middle of literal hell.
"Hurry up! Dodging is hell when you're restricted!"
[Scan complete... Both the robots' network and the main system are operating at quantum-level speed. Actually, by my calculations... even faster.]
"So that explains their speed and reaction time..."
[Correct, Master. Though if you want to neutralize them, I recommend raising your strength to 5200.]
"I don't want to damage the facility, Quincy."
[It is necessary, Master.]
"No. I'll find another way."
Amidst the chaos—bullets exploding inches from my body—I stopped for just a second to think.Then the idea hit me:
"The control center... If I get there and disable their security system, I can get rid of these bastards."
[Understood, Master.]
Four hellish minutes later...
"Quincy!! Did you find it?"
[Master, I've detected three possible locations.]
"Where?"
[One is 90 meters east. Another is 60 meters underground. The last is 30 meters above you.]
"Alright... I'll check them all."
I dashed east, dodging gunfire, Quincy guiding me through the maze.The robots chased me harder than ever—like unleashed hounds.
Then, that cursed alarm blared again:
[Security system ineffective... deploying reinforcements...]
"What!? These... weren't all of them?!"
[Deployment successful... Indominus units, Tank-700s, and Risa-G35s dispatched.]
"How many damn models does this base have!?"
[950,000 units deployed.]
"WHAT!? How the hell do you say that number like it's nothing?! Wait... Are there more!?"
After the alarm, the gunfire intensified—falling like a relentless storm.Robots poured in like someone had cracked open an ant nest, swarming every corner.
But the worst part... was the bullets.They weren't normal anymore. I could see them shifting midair, adapting to their environment. When they hit walls, they passed through like wet paper.
And that's when I knew...This damn AI had been underestimating me from the start.
I finally reached Point A. I was gasping for breath. But there was no control room—just a massive weapon storage.I tried grabbing a few, but an invisible restriction stopped me from activating anything.
I rushed to Point B, metal footsteps thundering behind me like a war drum.
Another dead end. Just old mining tunnels, long-abandoned. Darkness. Silence. Another waste of time.
With no other choice, I made for the final point.
But on the way, I was ambushed—brutally—by the Tank-700s. Explosions shook the corridors. Metal underfoot trembled.I'd walked right into a trap.
Indominus models. Dozens of them.
I had no more options. I was surrounded. Sparks flew. My muscles tensed.
"Screw it... Quincy, raise my strength. I'm gonna punch a hole through this damn base."
[Acknowledged, Master.]
"NOW!"
Thousands of robots swarmed me like a tidal wave of steel. The ground shook under their steps. The air grew heavier with every second.
[Adjustment complete.]
"This base needs a serious redesign."
I smashed the floor, then leapt. The impact was so devastating, I obliterated most of the bots in one move.
But... I overdid it.
I jumped so hard, I blasted out of the mountain—leaving a hole so massive, it was visible from miles away.Wind whipped across my face as I descended, and when I hit the ground, a cloud of dust exploded around me.
I got up fast. What I saw was impossible:
The mountain—and the base—were self-repairing.
I raced back, climbing frantically toward the summit. I couldn't let it reset. Not now.
But something was following me.
An Indominus. One had survived.
No time to waste.
It swung at me—I dodged by a hair. Spun, pivoted, and my fist hit its core.A burst of sparks. Destroyed.
I reached the top.The hole I'd made... was almost gone.
I jumped in—just before it sealed completely.
And there it was.
The control center.
But then...
[Intruder detected... initiating self-destruction protocol.]
sigh"Typical."