* * *
Time seemed to stop.
Hojin froze, forgetting how to breathe, staring blankly at the hero.
As if to confirm that Hojin hadn’t misheard, the hero met his gaze with quiet certainty.
After what felt like an eternity, Hojin furrowed his brows and found his voice.
“…What?”
“I’m living here by choice. I love this world.”
“This… world?”
“Fantasy Land. It’s peaceful and beautiful here. I can truly be myself. Everyone reveres me as a hero and thanks me.”
The hero’s lips curved into a smooth smile, leaving Hojin speechless.
“I’m happy here.”
His ruby-red lips parted to reveal white teeth.
A faint blush spread across his snow-white skin, and his large eyes curved like crescent moons.
He looked genuinely happy. There wasn’t a trace of deceit in his confession.
Whenever the hero smiled, Hojin couldn’t help but smile back, no matter how bad his own circumstances were.
The hero’s happiness was his happiness.
But not this time.
As he stared at the blissful hero, Hojin felt his heart plummet, shattering into pieces on the cold, hard floor. Despair engulfed him.
He wanted to say something—anything—but his lips wouldn’t move.
He could only watch as the hero glanced to his right, furrowing his brow slightly.
“Anyway, I have to go. I don’t have much time to talk to you like this.”
With that, the hero raised a large hand and waved it lightly.
Snapping out of his stupor, Hojin’s eyes widened.
“W-Wait! You’re leaving?”
“Yup! Fix all the bugs, okay? Please. Take care!”
The hero winked playfully and turned around with a radiant smile.
“Jin Youngwoong! Wait…!”
Hojin reached out toward the floating hero, standing on tiptoe, but couldn’t reach him.
The hero’s figure began to break apart into square pixels, starting from the edges of his body, before completely fading into nothingness.
He was gone.
Even the computer screen, which had been left on without a single mouse movement, abruptly powered off, plunging the room into darkness.
Once again, Hojin was alone.
“He’s gone…”
Hojin muttered as he stared blankly at the empty space where the hero had been. His strength drained away, and he collapsed into his chair.
Belatedly, he pinched his cheek.
It hurt.
So, this wasn’t a dream—it was reality.
Resting his elbows on the desk, he buried his face in his hands. Maybe he was losing his mind from overwork and stress.
“…Inside Fantasy Land?”
Repeating the hero’s words, Hojin’s gaze snapped to the dark monitor.
He grabbed the mouse and moved it, turning the screen back on.
Though his head throbbed and his stomach churned from overwork, his hands moved as if possessed.
He prioritized fixing the errors the hero had mentioned, especially those marked in glaring red text.
Once he resolved the issues, he logged into the game with his admin account to verify everything.
“Stardust Beach. Warp to Stardust Beach…”
While regular players couldn’t warp to areas they hadn’t visited before, Hojin’s admin privileges allowed unrestricted movement.
He opened the map and selected ‘Stardust Beach’, a newly released zone.
His plain-looking admin character teleported instantly to the shimmering shoreline.
Hojin, his eyes hollow, directed the character to move quickly.
As he ran around, he spotted a man standing on a cliff, gazing out at the sea.
Bathed in the fiery light of the setting sun, his hair appeared almost crimson, though it was actually a brilliant white.
His blue eyes shone like the ocean itself.
Wearing gleaming silver armor, the man stood still as Hojin’s character approached. Hojin gasped sharply.
“He’s here.”
As he moved closer, the character’s name appeared beside the man.
[Hero Jin]
Hojin had contributed to designing this character.
For an average player, pulling this character and directly controlling him was akin to plucking a star from the sky.
He was a legendary character, obtainable only through an infamously low-probability gacha system.
But since Hojin had crafted the character with just one person in mind, that person got to play as this character from the start.
The man on the screen was identical to the hero who had appeared moments ago in Hojin’s office.
He had to talk to him.
Nervously, Hojin initiated a conversation.
The character, wearing a gentle smile, immediately turned to face him.
[Hero Jin: Are you a traveler? I love adventures too.]
It was the default greeting.
Hojin tried speaking to him again.
[Hero Jin: We’re going to be great friends!]
Another default line.
He tried again.
[Hero Jin: Are you a traveler? I love adventures too.]
[Hero Jin: We’re going to be great friends!]
“…I can’t talk to him.”
Hero Jin—no, the hero—kept repeating the same lines.
It seemed to be because he was functioning as an NPC who gave quests to players in this area, rather than operating as the player-controllable version of Jin Youngwoong.
Feeling frustrated, Hojin exited the game.
He could rewrite the script to make the hero say something else, but that would just be the hero parroting lines Hojin had written.
It wouldn’t be a real conversation with the actual Jin Youngwoong.
“What should I do?”
Hojin closed his eyes tightly, overwhelmed by despair.
It was fine if he couldn’t see the hero often.
Just existing on the same plane as him was enough.
But for the hero to cross into another dimension entirely?
That was unthinkable.
A world without the hero was no different from hell.
“What do I do…?”
Slumping over his desk, Hojin shut his eyes.
He desperately wanted to meet the hero again and convince him to come back.
Hojin wasn’t good with words, but surely, if he asked for a conversation, the hero would listen.
Because Jin Youngwoong was that kind of person.
The one person who acknowledged Hojin’s existence, even when everyone else treated him like he was invisible.
Hojin closed his eyes and recalled the past.
Specifically, the day he introduced Jin Youngwoong to Fantasy Land.
“L-long time no see. How have you been?”
From his high school days, Hojin had been passionate about game development.
He had given up on college early on, dedicating his time to making games, whether at home or in internet cafes.
He created pixel art for game characters, programmed them to fight boxy monsters, and distributed his lightweight games online.
One of these games caught the eye of an employee at Happening Games, leading to Hojin being hired.
Escaping his room to work at an actual company only fueled his passion further, and he poured all his energy into game development.
He worked tirelessly to create a game that Jin Youngwoong would love, guided by the hero’s offhand comments about his tastes.
Finally, after completing the beta version, Hojin reached out to Youngwoong after a long time.
Though they only exchanged messages on each other’s birthdays, they always made a point to stay in touch at least once or twice a year.
However, it had been years since they’d last seen each other.
Hojin asked if Youngwoong could spare a moment despite his busy schedule.
Youngwoong, in a voice slightly deeper than Hojin remembered, agreed.
“It’s a gift.”
They met at a café near their old high school. Hojin, who had arrived early and was nervously fidgeting, quickly pulled out a CD case as soon as Youngwoong sat down.
A piece of paper inside the transparent case rattled softly.
“A gift? What is it?”
“This, um, it’s a game I made. It’s called Fantasy Land Hero… You can download it by scanning the QR code. It’s not officially released yet. And, um, this ID is yours.”
The game was mobile, so it didn’t actually require a CD.
Still, Hojin had included the code and account details on a piece of paper, sealed inside the case to keep it safe.
Youngwoong had once mentioned liking CD games, after all.
Youngwoong accepted the case and silently looked at the paper inside.
ID: real_hero
Password: heroiscoming00
“Hero…?”
“Yeah, it’s just for you. I hope you like it.”
Hojin’s face burned with embarrassment.
This was a game he had envisioned since high school, and completing it after joining a reputable company had taken years.
He had poured countless sleepless nights into it.
If the nosebleeds he’d endured were collected, they might have filled dozens of blood bags.
But now, showing it to Youngwoong made him feel exposed, as if his hidden feelings were on the verge of being discovered.
Youngwoong stared at the paper in silence.
The tension made Hojin’s nerves sharper, and for the first time, he noticed the hero’s demeanor.
The last time they’d met, shortly after graduating high school, Youngwoong had exuded confidence, his smile brimming with self-assurance.
Now, though, his presence felt quieter, weighed down by something unspoken.
“…I’ll definitely try it. Thanks.”
Before Hojin could delve deeper into the subtle change in his friend, Youngwoong smiled.
That familiar, beautiful smile erased Hojin’s doubts.
In hindsight, he shouldn’t have been so easily reassured.
* * *
