I Entered a Gacha Game That Had Been Abandoned for 10 Years

1 – Message (1)

Episode 2

Message. (1)

Looking back, there were many joyful days.

Even though it was just a mobile game, Arteil brought a lot of memories to Kim Hyunwoo over the past 5 years.

From cultivating territories that were once empty, one by one.

To diligently raising 1-star characters he loved to make them 5-star.

And strategizing with the character he raised to clear dungeons.

He really enjoyed it.

But now, it was time to end it.

[5-star character ‘King of Beasts’ demands a gift! Required gift: Gauntlet of Halkerte. [Payment: 72,000 won]]

[5-star character ‘Absolute Dark’ demands a gift! Required gift: Amulet of Rhaeos. [Payment: 68,000 won]]

[5-star character ‘Scarlet Dragon’ demands a gift! Required gift: Blood Diamond. [Payment: 99,200 won]]

[5-star character ‘Hero King’ demands a gift! Required gift: Sword ‘Lycasis Testar’. [Payment: 142,300 won]]

[Decline.]

[Decline.]

[Decline.]

[Decline.]

[5-star character ‘King of Beasts’ is angry!]

[5-star character ‘Absolute Dark’ is disappointed!]

[The 5-star character ‘Crimson Wyrm’ is causing irritation!]

[The 5-star character ‘Hero King’ is being sarcastic!]

[The favorability of the 5-star character ‘King of the Merfolk’ is decreasing!]

[The favorability of the 5-star character ‘Absolute Ruler of Darkness’ is decreasing!]

[The favorability of the 5-star character ‘Crimson Wyrm’ is decreasing!]

[The favorability of the 5-star character ‘Hero King’ is decreasing!]

[※ If favorability decreases, stats will also decrease!]

Kim Hyunwoo, staring at the smartphone messages that kept popping up, couldn’t help but let out a dry, mocking laughter.

“What’s so scary about this? Did someone really make money working part-time at night because of these messages?”

Kim Hyunwoo pressed the home button to exit the game.

Immediately after, he entered the application, found Arteil, and clicked on it to press “Delete.”

[Do you want to delete ‘Arteil’? Y/N]

A notification window appeared as if urging him to make the final decision.

Without hesitation, Kim Hyunwoo pressed the button, and soon, the game Arteil, which had been with him for about four years, disappeared from his smartphone.

That’s how it went for ten years.

“Huh?”

Completely out of the blue, Kim Hyunwoo found himself inside the game.

Moreover, it was the game ‘Arteil’ that he had abandoned ten years ago.

####

At least, Kim Hyunwoo, who liked subcultures, knew from typical web novels that protagonists usually get used to being in the game after a few minutes to a few hours of realization when they are reincarnated into a game.

—-

Rebuild the territory ‘Larvania’ and eliminate the labyrinth.

Reward: Survival.

Failure: Death.

—-

However, even though the notification window appeared in front of Kim Hyunwoo, it took him a whopping three days to admit to himself that he had entered the game. Once he acknowledged it, he couldn’t help but think, ‘Surviving should be easy.’

Of course, it had been almost ten years since Kim Hyunwoo played Arteil. Naturally, most of the information in his mind had become faint with the passage of time, and the maze exploration, which was a main element of Arteil, was now different from the strategic planning he used to do in the past.

However, the reason Kim Hyunwoo could make such a judgment when he regained his composure was the territory lord he had nurtured until now.

So, in simple terms, it was because I had become the player character of the lord in the account I was raising.

From the moment Kim Hyun-woo first entered Artesia, convinced that he had come in while riding the subway home after finishing overtime and falling asleep, because of the letters ‘Lartania’ in the notification window.

Lartania was the name of the territory that Kim Hyun-woo had established when he first started Artesia and the name of the territory he had used until he quit the game.

Therefore, Kim Hyun-woo wasn’t worried.

No matter how long Kim Hyun-woo had quit the game for ten years, the territory he had raised would still be there.

Even in Artesia, he expected that the territory, which had been among the top 0.1% of high-ranking players and was more like a huge kingdom than a territory, would significantly reduce the difficulty of Kim Hyun-woo’s game.

He was certain about that.

“What the hell is this?”

Kim Hyun-woo looked around with a hopeless expression.

What he saw was ruins.

No, it was more accurate to say that there was simply nothing.

The ruins were only a small part, and the rest was truly a barren land with nothing.

“Where the hell did my territory go?”

Unknowingly, using profanity in such a situation, Kim Hyun-woo looked around more carefully, but nothing changed.

“Ah…”

What Kim Hyun-woo actually realized was that the lordship he was standing in seemed like it could collapse at any moment.

And as Kim Hyun-woo was making a bewildered expression while witnessing that he was the Lord of a territory.

“[…Welcome back, Lord. We will assist you in rebuilding the territory.]”

“From now on, I will help you rebuild your territory.”

Such a voice resounded in Kim Hyun-woo’s ears.

####

Momentarily taken aback by the voice in his ear, Kim Hyun-woo soon realized who the NPC that spoke to him was.

‘Loria, the help NPC of Artesia.’

When you first start the game, she appears with an empty territory screen and guides the player on creating and developing the territory, and later manages the player’s territory. In response to this, Kim Hyun-woo immediately threw a question.

Starting with why he had entered this game, and why the territory had turned out like this.

Of course, he didn’t get an answer to the former question.

However, regarding the latter question, Kim Hyun-woo received a shocking response.

“…It’s been ten years?”

“Yes, it has been ten years since you left Lartania. The unmanaged territories have been deteriorating during this time and have ended up in this state, repeatedly being raided by neighboring territories.”

“Are you kidding me? No, is there anything to raid in this empty land in the first place?”

[The residents of the territory are still here.]

“What? Where exactly?”

[The village you see to the north.]

Kim Hyun-woo shifted his gaze northward.

What he saw was the place he had previously thought was in ruins.

A barely standing structure, more like a collection of planks that couldn’t even be truly called ruins.

[Most of the residents have left, but about 120 inhabitants remain.]

“…”

As Kim Hyun-woo processed this information, an incredulous expression crossed his face, soon followed by a very familiar window appearing before him.

[This is the detailed information about the current territory.]

The familiar window that Kim Hyun-woo had stared at countless times before.

—-

Territory: Laritania

Territorial Development: -20

Residents

[Humans: 98]

Owned Buildings

[Lord’s Castle]

Military Forces

-None-

Territory’s Heroes

Kim Hyun-woo (Lord)

—-

Kim Hyun-woo read through the window that appeared in front of him in less than five seconds, without saying a word, and let out a disheartened laugh several times.

“Is this… really the state of the territory?”

[Yes, this is the current state of your territory.]

As Kim Hyun-woo heard Loria’s words, he unconsciously rubbed his forehead.

There were too many things to tackle one by one.

Just flipping through it, the territory window, which had become a burden to even check once it surpassed 50 pages, was frustrating.

And the fact that the territorial development, which had never gone negative at the start of the game, was proudly marked in the negatives, was infuriating from the outset.

But what angered him most of all was…

“Damn it, my money…”

Ten years ago, he had poured in his blood, sweat, and tens of millions of won in cash to develop this territory. All of it had simply vanished into thin air.

He felt an urge to explode in anger right then and there, but Kim Hyunwoo knew better. There was nothing to gain from losing his temper at this point.

So, with a sigh, Kim Hyunwoo glanced at the window of the territory and tentatively spoke, half-hoping for something.

Thinking back, even though Kim Hyunwoo had invested a lot in the territory, the place that had truly drained him of his money was elsewhere.

“By any chance, are there any of the heroes I raised still here?”

With a hint of hope, Kim Hyunwoo asked, recalling the heroes he had spent exorbitant amounts of money on, pushing himself to the limit by working night shifts despite being a student.

[Yes.]

However, at the NPC’s response that shattered his hopes, Kim Hyunwoo instinctively covered his eyes with his hand.

“Of course, I had a feeling there wouldn’t be any left.”

In reality, Kim Hyunwoo knew quite well that the heroes wouldn’t be around. In the game, Arteil, once you obtained heroes through gacha, it didn’t end there; you had to consistently manage and raise their favorability. If not, they’d terminate their contract and leave.

At the time of playing the game, Kim Hyunwoo had been terrified of the heroes leaving due to dropping favorability, so he had poured an unreasonable amount of money into it.

In the end, due to the predatory monetization policies of the game company, they had left anyway.

“If only I had known, I would have stopped playing the game.”

Regret surged late, but he soon let out a sigh, trying to compose himself.

Kim Hyunwoo was already immersed in the game and needed to rebuild the territory to survive.

“[My Lord, there is something else I need to inform you about.]”

A voice reached Kim Hyunwoo’s ears as he began to contemplate.

“What is it?”

“If I may, are you considering how to rebuild the territory?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

A somewhat blunt response from Kim Hyunwoo.

“Even in this situation, it’s excellent that you’re thinking about rebuilding. However, there’s a more pressing issue you need to address beforehand.”

“What is it?”

“Five days from now, the Labyrinth Break incident will occur.”

However, as the conversation progressed, Kim Hyunwoo’s responses started to carry a tinge of skepticism.

“The Labyrinth Break incident?”

Kim Hyun-woo had ended the conversation with uncertainty, but he was not oblivious to the Labyrinth Break crisis.

The Labyrinth Break crisis.

It was an event that occurred every two months near the territory in the labyrinth in Arteil. Monsters poured out, and players had to fend them off to receive rewards.

From the user’s perspective, it was a lucrative event because they could obtain the cash currency Red Stones and the in-game currency Blue Stones. However, it could only be considered a lucrative event if there were heroes and forces capable of properly preventing the dungeon break. If it couldn’t be stopped, the territory would simply turn into a wasteland.

In other words, for Kim Hyun-woo, who lacked the power to prevent the dungeon break, the current situation was not favorable.

[You may or may not be aware, but if you fail to prevent the Labyrinth Break for 60 consecutive times, the Territory Stone controlling the gateway to the labyrinth will be destroyed, and the territory will disappear.]

“How many times are left?”

[So far, you’ve allowed the monsters to invade 59 times, and now there’s only one time left.]

“Damn it.”

Kim Hyun-woo realized that his survival limit was only five days and muttered without realizing it.

[My Lord, under these circumstances, how about sending a message?]

“…Message?”

[You may have forgotten, but if the Lord returns to the territory, you can send a message to the heroes who left the territory, limited to once.]

Kim Hyun-woo had heard such words from Loria.