In South Korea, every physically and mentally healthy man goes to the military.
And most South Korean soldiers live lamenting their youth, trapped behind fences, unable to enjoy it…
But today, I, Dokgo Young, was different.
“Let’s win! Sergeant Dokgo Young, aren’t you going to eat?”
“Yeah, you go ahead and eat the army food.”
“You seem in a good mood today. Why is that… oh.”
Because…
“…Sergeant Dokgo Young, now that I think about it, you’re being discharged tomorrow, right?”
“Kekeke, that’s right. You keep running around. I’m going home now. Ahahaha-!”
Because I was being discharged tomorrow.
Wow, damn, the world is beautiful.
I just returned all my military gear to the supply officer and finished all my discharge preparations.
All that’s left for me now… is to wait until the sun rises tomorrow morning.
“Then you won’t be working today either, right? You have a lot of time left… what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to the PC room to play some games.”
“Ah, that game you’ve been really into lately?”
“Yeah.”
I spent my final days in the military playing games.
The game is called ‘Catch the Outlaw.’
Shortened to ‘Catch Outlaw,’ it’s an open-world adventure game set in the Wild West.
A month ago, a junior recommended it to me, and I tried it for the first time. It was so fun.
Still unable to forget that thrill, I planned to enjoy the game at the PC room even on my last day before going home.
“I don’t play Catch Outlaw, so I don’t know much, but I heard Corporal Kim installed the DLC on PC number 4 in the PC room.”
“Catch Outlaw has a DLC? I didn’t know… well, thanks anyway.”
Catch Outlaw DLC…
Just thinking about it made my heart swell, and I hurried to the PC room.
But then, my junior’s words stopped me.
“But Sergeant Dokgo, the supply officer said if you get caught playing games in the PC room, you’ll get penalized…”
“Let them penalize me. I’m being discharged tomorrow, what does it matter?”
“Haha, but they say even falling leaves should be careful in the final days.”
“Is the supply officer a falling leaf? And with my rank, do you really think I’ll get caught? Stop worrying and go do your work.”
“…Yes, understood.”
Looking back now, I can’t remember that junior’s name or face.
“Then, Sergeant Dokgo, good luck.”
I should have found that strange at the time…
“Yeah, sure.”
Like an idiot, I ran off to the PC room to play games.
**
“Wow, there really is a DLC?”
The DLC for Catch Outlaw was indeed installed on PC number 4, just as my junior said.
Discovering this, I quickly launched the game.
At first glance, the Catch Outlaw DLC didn’t seem much different from the main game.
But…
“Ooh…”
As soon as I saw the screen with ‘Character Creation,’ I could feel a massive change.
In the main game, you could only switch between male and female characters provided by the game…
But now, you could customize your own character as you wished.
Even the customization options for traits and appearance were incredibly detailed, allowing me to create the character I wanted.
“I never thought I’d be making my own character in Catch Outlaw.”
Amazed by the new feature, I dove into character creation.
First, gender.
After debating between male and female… I chose male.
Because I had already played a lot with female characters in the main game.
Next, traits.
In the main game, you had to achieve milestones to unlock traits, but in the DLC, you could set them from the start.
Having decided to create my own character, I carefully selected only the most overpowered traits.
[Best Gunslinger in the West]
[Master of Weapons]
[King of Combat]
[Superhuman Senses]
[Irresistible Charm]
Filling my character with traits that were hard to get in the main game made it practically a cheat character.
Especially the first trait, [Best Gunslinger in the West].
With this, aiming was almost like using an aimbot, perfect for a character meant for killing time.
After setting the traits to my satisfaction, the next thing was the character’s age.
“Wow… I can set the character’s age too?”
In the main game, I often used female characters because their smaller size made it easier to dodge bullets.
So then…
[Character Age: 6]
“Here comes the little boy prodigy gunslinger~”
Making the age younger not only made the character overpowered but also smaller, making it harder to get hit by bullets.
This was a perfect custom character.
Satisfied, I saw the final customization option.
[Please name your character.]
Name.
Since I had gone through the trouble of creating the character, I didn’t want to give it a random name.
“Name, name… ah.”
After thinking for a while, I came up with a good name.
[Billy the Kid]
The famous outlaw from the Wild West, Billy the Kid.
It was a name that fit perfectly with Catch Outlaw.
But…
“Ah… I don’t really like this…”
Using the name of a real person felt a bit off.
So, I thought deeply about keywords related to outlaws and bounty hunters…
“Outlaw… Wild West… bounty hunter… bounty hunter?”
I recalled the name of a famous bounty hunter I knew and combined it with Billy the Kid.
[Roronoa the Kid]
“This is a bit long.”
Shortened a bit…
[Noah the Kid]
“Good.”
From now on, this character’s name is [Noah the Kid].
And so, I finished creating my character.
This 6-year-old gunslinger, packed with overpowered traits, is named ‘Noah the Kid.’
All that’s left is to start the game.
“Let’s go, to burn through my last days of military service….”
Having prepared myself to spend the remaining days of my military service well, I pressed the start button of the game.
And then….
Whoooosh.
“……Huh?”
Suddenly, with a flood of light from the monitor….
Dizzy.
“…What, what the hell….”
I passed out right then and there.
I didn’t know it at the time.
That the one day left of my military service….
Had just extended to over 6,205 days in that moment.
**
“Waaaaah-!! Hwaaaaah-!! Don’t press start-!! Don’t, don’t press it-!!! Aaaaah-!!”
“Whoa-! Kid-! What’s wrong!”
“Kid-! Kid-!!!”
Slap.
“Huff…, huff….”
“Are you coming to your senses?”
“Wa, water, give me some water!”
As I woke up with a stinging sensation on my cheek…, I saw the faces of Deaf Man Bob and his wife Mari in front of me.
Damn it.
I was still stuck in this damn western game.
Just because I played a game the day before my discharge, I got possessed into it….
When I first entered, I was in a 6-year-old’s body, but now I’m 23.
17 years.
I’ve lived 17 years in this damn western game.
I should’ve adapted by now, but I can’t stop cursing. F*ck.
“Kid-! Are you coming to your senses or not!!”
“I’m awake, so shut up. …My head hurts from the hangover.”
“Seeing how foul-mouthed you are, I guess you’re back to normal…. But why are you sweating so much? Did you have a nightmare?”
“…….”
…A nightmare?
The dream I just had wasn’t a nightmare.
To me, this barbaric world wrapped in romance is the real nightmare.
I will escape this place and return home. No matter what.
The only silver lining is that there’s a way to return to my original world.
The method was simple.
Since this is a game world.
‘Log out.’
I just had to log out and leave.
The only problem was….
[Logout unavailable]
[Amount remaining for logout: $894,556 / $1,000,000]
“Damn it. This f*cking world.”
“Geez…, you scared me.”
“Stupid capitalism. The proletariat revolution should’ve succeeded and created a utopia where money is worthless, but no, this sh*t had to happen.”
“Who does this guy think he is, cursing at thin air….”
“You think I wanted to become a delinquent?”
“At least you know you’re a delinquent.”
The reason my swearing has increased and my personality has turned into this mess is all because of this damn game world.
After being thrown into this barbaric world the day before my discharge and living trapped here for 17 years, how could my personality not turn sour?
The most infuriating part is that there’s a way to log out, as if it’s some kind of hope torture.
One million dollars.
At the current value, roughly 36 billion won. If I had that amount, I could leave this place.
So, to fill that amount, I’ve done all sorts of things since I first possessed this body at 6 years old, and now at 23, I’ve settled in Justice Town.
After 17 years of grinding like a dog, I’ve saved quite a bit, but there’s still a long way to go.
“Ah, damn it…. Please, just send me home….”
“Mari, what’s he saying now?”
Instead of Bob, who’s hard of hearing, his wife relayed what I had muttered.
“Kid says he wants to go home.”
“Home? Go home! Who’s stopping you? The sun’s been up for a while! Hurry up and go home so we can clean the place!”
As Bob said that, he nudged me with the mop he was using to clean the floor.
“Take those corpses with you on your way out!”
“…Corpses? Ah…, yesterday’s work.”
Looking where Bob pointed, there were neatly arranged corpses of outlaws.
All together, they were worth about $1,200—a pretty hefty sum.
The reason I settled in Justice Town was precisely because of that.
Justice Town was a respawn point for outlaws in the game.
After a certain amount of time, outlaws would naturally show up, making it perfect for bounty hunting.
“…Still, lately it’s been small fry, but this batch has a decent bounty.”
“Decent or not, just get rid of those corpses! It’s getting hot, they’ll start stinking soon!”
“Ugh…, damn it. Do you know how much money I spend at this tavern? The regular treatment here is absolute sh*t. Fine, I’m going.”
Under Bob’s nagging, I had no choice but to get up.
Then, grabbing a corpse in each hand, I tossed them outside the tavern.
“Ah, right, Bob. I’ll be back after getting the money from the sheriff and having a drink, so don’t close up.”
“Man, you’re really something. No wonder people call you a delinquent…. Tsk, fine!”
With that, I left the tavern while listening to Bob’s grumbling.
What greeted me was the already high, scorching sun and four corpses whose eyes hadn’t even closed yet.
“But how am I supposed to move these by myself?”
The distance from Deaf Man’s Tavern to my house is quite a bit.
As I was wondering how to move these corpses, I suddenly remembered something.
“Damn it. Back then, just seeing a corpse would make me cry and freak out, but now it’s nothing.”
17 years since I got possessed.
Somehow, I’ve become ridiculously accustomed to this damn Wild West era.
