The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1
Prologue
I’ve been able to see ghosts since childhood.
They never caused me any real harm.
They didn’t hurt me at all—in fact, there were many benefits to it.
They’d tell me the answers to test questions.
They’d point out coins I’d dropped.
They’d let me know when there was a cute cat nearby.
But since it was such a useless ability, I’ve kept it hidden my whole life.
Should I have become a streamer instead?
But then…
-You there? Can you see me?
Why can I see ghosts inside a game too?
Chapter 1
0.
In the year 20XX.
Virtual reality was invented for the first time in human history.
Simultaneously, the first game based on that virtual reality was created.
Eternal World.
Eternal World, which emerged under the title of “the eternal realm,” is a game enjoyed and beloved by 2 billion people worldwide.
The visionary developer who first invented virtual reality and created a game from it.
Park Won.
When he launched Eternal World, he left behind these words:
“Eternal World is another reality—an eternal world. Anything the human brain can do in reality can be faithfully recreated in Eternal World. Even supernatural abilities, if you possess them, can be replicated.”
He boldly proclaimed that users could recreate anything they could do in reality.
And all the users resonated with those words.
In fact, many praised it as even more than that.
Anything the mind can do, you can do.
That was Eternal World’s greatest selling point.
1.
Yoo Sung-hyun had been able to see ghosts since childhood.
I couldn’t remember exactly when it started.
It had been that way for as long as I could remember.
Besides, they never caused me any harm.
-Boy, if you go over there, you’ll find a 500-won coin lying around!
-Oh! Sung-hyun! There’s a cute cat over that way, you know?
-Ha ha! Sung-hyun, you’ve grown so much! Keep growing strong.
The ghosts were all kind to me.
So there was no reason to be afraid.
In fact, they were far more helpful than anything else.
Seeing ghosts was so natural to me that at first, I thought everyone could see them too.
But as I grew older, I gradually began to understand.
That I was the only one with this ability.
Still, like any other parents, my parents couldn’t help but worry.
So the moment they learned I could see ghosts, they took me to a psychiatrist first.
They didn’t believe in ghosts, after all.
But all I heard was that there was nothing wrong with me.
“Your brain and all other aspects appear completely normal.”
When psychiatry proved useless, they next sought out shamans renowned for their spiritual powers.
My parents were that desperate.
But most of them were charlatans.
“Ah! It’s right above the child’s head!!!”
“Huh? It’s not above my head—it’s on your shoulder, ma’am.”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
No one else could see ghosts besides me.
Perhaps because of this?
Naturally, I became a famous child in the neighborhood from an early age.
The kid who sees ghosts.
I didn’t particularly mind it.
It was the truth, after all.
So I thought nothing of it.
I believed that lying was worse than telling the truth.
But as I grew, I came to understand something else.
That sometimes, lies are necessary.
I didn’t know it at first.
The piercing stares of others, and how those arrows of judgment turned toward my family.
I was too young to comprehend it.
How much my family suffered because of me.
So I told my first lie.
“Mom, I can’t see them anymore.”
I wanted Dad, Mom, and my sister to stop suffering.
After that, once we moved far away, our household was always harmonious.
A sister who cherished her younger brother, and parents who cared for their two children with utmost devotion.
We were the kind of family people always said was peaceful, no matter where we went.
When ghosts spoke to me, I only answered when I was alone and pretended not to hear otherwise.
Thanks to this, I gained many benefits, but I kept it all strictly hidden.
Only my sister Yoo Mi-na knew the truth.
Perhaps that’s why?
Because I saw ghosts and received their help so often, I developed an indifferent temperament.
I rarely got surprised, and I maintained a calm demeanor at all times.
Thanks to this, I was quite popular among my friends as well.
“Hey, Sung-hyun. You know what?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“You’re talking about finding that ten-thousand-won bill this morning, right?”
“What?! How did you know that?!”
Perhaps it was also due to the mysterious aura that made people wonder if I was some kind of fortune teller.
In any case, I grew up well enough that my parents had nothing to worry about.
I grew so well that I even completed my military service as a Grade 1 active-duty soldier—which was perhaps the only minor drawback.
When I was discharged and returned home, I, Sung-hyun—usually composed and unflappable—found myself looking at my older sister, Yoo Mi-na, with a somewhat bewildered expression.
I’d heard about the house moving while I was away and about my sister selling the computer I used to use, but I’d never heard anything about her installing a massive capsule in my room.
“What is that?”
“Ohhh! You noticed! Sung-hyun!”
“If you couldn’t see that, they would’ve exempted you from the military for poor eyesight, wouldn’t they?”
“Don’t say things like that! Look here! Behold—the latest model capsule!”
Ignoring my reaction, my sister was practically bursting with excitement, and I found myself tilting my head in confusion.
“Hmm. A capsule?”
Even during my time in the military, I had ears to hear with, and that place was still inhabited by people.
I already knew that virtual reality had been developed while I was serving and that games based on it had been released.
But why was it in my room?
That was what mattered.
At least my room wasn’t too small, so they were able to install it in the empty space next to my bed.
Still, with the capsule taking up space, I couldn’t help but feel my room had become a bit cramped.
I looked at my sister with slightly resentful eyes.
“Hehe! You don’t need to thank me!!! My little brother just got discharged, so I had to get him a gift like this!!!”
“No, I don’t really need it.”
“Huh? Why not?! Everyone else is dying to get one!??”
Normally, such a response to a gift would be disheartening, but my sister Yoo Mi-na knew me well enough that it didn’t bother her.
And since I knew my sister just as well, I couldn’t help but smile.
She’d bought it thinking of me, so I shouldn’t complain.
It was just that the price was so expensive I felt sorry, but since she gave it with good intentions.
“Well, since it’s a gift, I’ll accept it gratefully. Thank you.”
“Hehe, and look at this!”
“Yeah?”
When Mi-na held out her smartphone and showed me a video, it was one I’d already seen.
It was an interview video of Park Won, the developer of Eternal World and the century’s genius who created the first virtual reality.
And then came that famous quote.
-…If you possessed a superpower, we would recreate that superpower as well.
Why was she showing me this?
I looked at my sister Mi-na with that expression on my face.
Mi-na glanced cautiously toward her parents in the living room before whispering to Sung-hyun.
“…So you can go into the game and see ghosts too, right?”
“….”
At those words, Sung-hyun looked at his sister with an expression of genuine exasperation.
“Sister… there are no cyber ghosts.”
“…I, I know that!!!”
When Mi-na’s tentative remark was openly dismissed, whether from embarrassment or something else, she let out a sharp cry and retreated to her room.
Watching his sister’s door slam shut with a bang, Sung-hyun shook his head as if unmoved.
His sister, who used to be bullied in his stead when he claimed to see ghosts as a child, had now become an enthusiast of specters and the paranormal.
It was surprising, honestly, but such things happened.
One should respect people’s interests, but cyber ghosts simply didn’t exist.
‘She begged me to look before, and I did, but there was nothing.’
Whenever she came across those common urban legends about cyber spirits, she’d bring them up, and Sung-hyun had suffered through them for a while.
Even after I’d confirmed it clearly back then, she’s still like this.
If a younger sibling claims to see ghosts, one might genuinely be curious enough to ask about it.
But from what Sung-hyun had experienced, all the urban legends and paranormal stories were fiction.
“Hm? Why is Mi-na acting like that?”
“Well, isn’t she just sulking because Sung-hyun won’t pay attention to her?”
Sung-hyun’s mother, Lee Na-kyung, who was sitting in the living room, tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
And beside her, Sung-hyun’s father, Yoo Kwang-jin, who had been watching television, spoke as if it were no big deal.
Seeing his parents remain unchanged, Sung-hyun nodded as well.
“Yes, something like that.”
“See? Mi-na always bothers Sung-hyun like that.”
“Oh my? Isn’t that just what siblings do when they’re close?”
“I’ll go wash up and change then.”
As Sung-hyun spoke while changing out of his military uniform, his father Yoo Kwang-jin nodded and replied.
“Yes, thank you for coming home.”
“No, Father drove me here, so you must be more tired.”
“Ahem, why are you saying such things?”
“Oh my? You’re just like Mi-na and your father~”
“Ahem ahem.”
Watching his father grow embarrassed at the thanks and turn away, Sung-hyun smiled and headed into the bathroom.
Home really was the best.
2.
After being discharged and returning home, he’d finished a pleasant dinner out with the family.
It had been so long since the entire family gathered for a meal together.
Especially with Sung-hyun’s arrival, everyone seemed in good spirits and returned home cheerfully.
As the evening grew late.
The moment Sung-hyun returned home, he washed up, and as he lay down on his bed, a capsule installed beside it caught his eye.
It was far too large to go unnoticed.
‘A discharge gift.’
My sister is truly thoughtful.
Even if most people had the money, it’s certainly rare to find a sister willing to buy something like this for her younger brother.
And on top of that.
‘This makes money?’
I’d heard about it plenty of times.
Even my juniors would mention playing Eternal World in capsule hotels after coming back from leave or overnight outings.
I’d never been particularly interested in games, so I hadn’t paid much attention.
I never expected my sister would actually buy me a capsule.
And the fact that the game makes an astronomical amount of money.
I probably wouldn’t have cared much if my sister Mi-na hadn’t mentioned it during dinner.
I’d just thought—isn’t it just a game, after all?
‘Since my sister makes money from it too.’
Logging in immediately wasn’t my style.
Whatever I do, I need to understand it properly first.
You could say I’m the type to tap the bridge before crossing it.
It was a habit from childhood.
There’s nothing wrong with being cautious.
Rather than logging in at this late hour, it would be more efficient to gather information first and start tomorrow morning.
I got out of bed and sat down at my computer.
What should I search for first?
My sister had already told me quite a lot.
Which beginner village to choose and what to do first in the beginner village.
She’d even mentioned hidden pieces that could only be obtained in certain beginner villages.
I wasn’t particularly curious about how my sister knew all of that.
She’d always been extraordinary since childhood.
I just accepted it as it was.
‘Hindel Village, wasn’t it?’
I searched for the village first.
Multiple results flooded in, dizzying my eyes.
Information crashed over me like waves.
As I read through them one by one.
‘The village of the Demon King and the Hero….’
My sister had explained it, but seeing the actual village background made it feel more real.
A statue of the hero’s party stood there, and many people paid their respects to the hero at that location.
The hero Hindel.
The village where he grew up and eventually slew the Demon King.
It was quite fascinating.
And it wasn’t just the village.
‘I never thought a game like this would exist.’
I appeared calm on the surface, yet I was marveling at what I saw more than ever before.
I scrolled through the videos with an expressionless, composed face, watching several clips one after another.
They were merely videos of beginners active in Hindel Village, yet they overflowed with vitality beyond any other footage I’d seen.
The vividness and realism far surpassed anything movie CGI could offer.
The imagery was so authentic that one could believe it was entirely real.
Even I found myself captivated by that landscape and those visuals.
‘How magnificent.’
Eternal World.
Another reality—an eternal world, as the name suggested.
I thought the name truly suited it perfectly.
My interest grew with each passing moment.
If my sister hadn’t urged me to look into it, I wouldn’t have bothered searching on my own. But had I discovered this first, wouldn’t I have started playing even without Yoo Mi-na’s recommendation?
That’s what I felt.
Though I wasn’t naturally inclined toward games, this transcended gaming itself.
The thought of not doing this felt like a genuine loss.
For the first time in ages, I felt that thrilling excitement and smiled softly to myself.
Just as I was about to explore more videos with renewed interest, I blinked repeatedly and tilted my head in confusion.
‘That’s strange.’
Was I drowsy?
To be safe, I rubbed my eyes and looked at the screen again.
Yet the anomaly persisted.
Within the video, there was a figure—a human shape that appeared like broken pixels, as if smoke ready to scatter at any moment.
It was a form I knew all too well.
‘Why is there a ghost in the game?’
It was the shape of a ghost.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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