Chapter 1

“Alright then, big brother, work hard at your part-time job.”

“Right, go on inside.”

Jjireung-jjireung.

As soon as I stepped outside, the icy night air enveloped me instantly. The cold air that came with my breath refreshed me, easing my fatigue as my body turned.

“Uuuum—”

I stretched my body and loosened my stiff muscles before heading home. The streets were already immersed in night, but the city glowed brightly with streetlights, signs, and lights seeping out of homes.

Walking along, my hand naturally went into my pocket towards my phone. There were numerous messages and texts piled up that I hadn’t checked because of my part-time work.

However, there was something I had to do first: opening the gallery on my phone’s home screen.

After a light touch and a brief loading time, a world of paradise unfolded before my eyes. The gallery was filled with countless pictures, 3D images, and videos.

And what they contained were robots.

“Right, these are them!”

The gallery was a repository of all kinds of robot images—realistic robots from X-dam series, children’s cartoon robots seen on TV, to humanoid robots from movies, encompassing every genre.

All of them injected energy into me.

“Oh, ohoh, ohohohoh!”

Without realizing it, exclamations of ecstasy and awe escaped my mouth, but this reaction was only natural if you’re someone who sees robots as things of grandeur and elegance, with their restrained yet distinct weapons-focused designs. Yeah, sure it is.

“Tsu-eup… haaah….”

“Mommy, look at that older brother, he’s taking something!”

“Don’t look at things like that! …But, sweetie, where did you hear about that?”

“Uh-huh! Daddy said it last time!”

“Kim Cheol-soo, you…!”

The mother and child walked away muttering.

Even though I did what any person who sees robots should do, the looks they gave me as if I were some strange person made me resent the narrow-mindedness of this world for a moment. But it was just a fleeting thought.

“Hmm, robots are always perfectly awesome.”

I was now at 100% robot enthusiasm.

With this level of enthusiasm, I could easily shrug off the scolding from the passing mother and daughter.

Boooong—

Thinking that, my phone vibrated. Now that I thought about it, my phone had rung a couple of times while I was working my part-time job.

Recalling that, I closed the gallery and checked the messages. But all that awaited me in the Inbox was a pile of spam emails.

“…”

Promising opportunities that say now’s your only chance, self-proclaimed team leaders asking for investments, free offers… Hmph.

If they know these things so well, why don’t they invest their own money and make a profit? And if something is really free, they’d surely grab it themselves and share it with relatives till the fourth degree.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue and reported each spam mail one by one. After that, I revisited the robot illustrations saved in the gallery to restore my waning enthusiasm for robots.

Hmm, robots are indeed perfectly awesome.

Ding-dong.

“Huh?”

On a familiar notification, I opened KakaoTalk to see my friends giggling over trivial topics as usual. While I was scrolling with a small chuckle, another new alert popped up.

It was a personal message, not from the group chat.

[Informant]—Hey Jeong Eun-woo, have you heard about that?

A strangely intriguing question.

Was it because this person, who was named appropriately, often shared various stories? I instinctively responded.

– What?

[Informant]- Remember that game you used to play nonstop, Age Of End (AOE)?

– Yeah

AOE, or Age Of End.

With a name as bleak as it seemed, this single-player RPG game drew attention for its apocalyptic scenarios and clichés combined with extreme freedom.

Customizable characters, interactive NPCs, high degrees of freedom in both the story and gameplay…

It all sounds like the godliest game ever, but AOE had a fatal issue.

It was maddeningly difficult, not in a meaningful way to teach skills or as a gimmick, but purely out of the despairing backgrounds and mercilessly hard difficulty, waiting for the players.

As a result, carefully crafted characters were wiped out, beloved NPCs met terrible ends, the extensive freedom led users into the question, “So now what?” until the world crumbled with them.

Thus, users quickly abandoned it, and the internet was filled with horror stories of the experience, solidifying its reputation.

As the name aptly suggests, AOE is a terrible game.

A game so bad it shouldn’t even be considered. Of course, had the developers acted swiftly, they might have avoided such infamy. But the developers showed no reaction at all.

Despite this, there was no better god game for someone like me who appreciated the appeal of robots along with apocalypses. The game featured robot summoning magic. Robots, Metal! Metallic flair! Truly, perfectly amazing…

Though there were certain restrictions and some performance flaws, once you learned and grew with it, the ability to summon large, beautiful robots was like something custom-made for me.

Sip, it still makes me drool just thinking about it.

Of course, aside from the robot summoning, there were plenty of other cool elements. High-speed future tanks racing across the terrain, autonomous howitzers with multiple legs, and various enemy weapons—all these added pluses.

Recalling those old memories, the urge to replay Age of End bubbled up. After such thoughts, I sent a KakaoTalk message to Bogeoni.

– Why is that?

[Informant]- There’s a DLC about to come out for it, isn’t it?

– Huh? DLC? Now?

[Informant]- Yeah

“Huh.”

Despite myself, a hollow laugh escaped.

It’s understandable—Bogeoni was talking about AOE, a game that had been around for over 10 years. A game that could aptly be called a classic by now.

And yet, suddenly, a DLC announcement?

– That’s crazy.

[Informant]- Right, isn’t it pretty old now?

– Yeah, it’s been about 10 years.

[Informant]- Yooookk chicken coop inside…

– Hey, you, even with chicken coops—

I stopped typing there, remembering that guy is a pure-blood unicorn and a devout fanatic of chicken coops.

Wise people avoid unnecessary conflicts. And one must not start battles one cannot win. The action just taken is not out of fear but simply the desire to avoid falling into the infinite loop of “Clean that chicken coop!”

[Informant]- ???

[Informant]- What’s going on? I suddenly got this evil vibe that someone entered the ‘chicken coop’ territory. What did you do?

…Sharp guy.

– I didn’t do anything.

[Informant]- (Skeptical emoticon)

Tsk, this guy is sharp with his instincts.

Still, if I let this go, I’ll be caught in that infinite loop again. Quickly, I changed the topic.

– Anyway, where did you get this information?

[Informant]- Here, it’s this.

[Informant]- https://aoe.com/community…

Upon clicking the link Bogeoni sent, the screen revealed an exceedingly familiar community interface.

AOE Net.

A place where the grizzled veterans of Korea’s gaming scene wandered the underworld seeking newbies.

And the moment a newbie appears, these veterans engage in intense battles, twisting their bodies in the claim that “Our game is easy!”—a sight worth seeing.

Putting those feelings aside and scrolling down, sure enough, there was a notice with several icons plastered all over it, exactly as Bogeoni had said.

– A DLC? Click now.

“…”

These old men, they sure are excited again.

Smiling faintly as I clicked on the notice, a familiar melody softly resonated in my ears.

~ ♪ ~ ♩ ~ ♬.

‘This is the AOE theme music, they really put effort into this.’

While thinking this, my phone’s screen had already transformed into the main page of AOE.

Though crude both in the past and now, it brought an inexplicable sense of nostalgia that teased my eyes.

At first, I wondered why they had to make such a fuss about just one DLC, but then I recalled how games one once enjoyed deeply can abruptly stop receiving updates or even shut down.

And since AOE was an old-school package game, any update—no matter how late—is still something to look forward to and be excited about.

Still, I couldn’t help but wonder why they had to mimic the game’s main screen format for a DLC announcement.

[Informant]- Hey? Are you dead?

[Informant]- Hahaha, looks like you’re frantically reading the announcement.

Bogeoni’s accurate text analysis, this guy is sharp with instincts.

Ignoring him, I focused on the phone screen. Presented there were only four options: Start Game, Load, Options, and Exit—a dreary AOE main menu that never changes.

As always, the AOE vibe.

Without much thought, I clicked Exit to see the notice but instead received a notification with a gentle vibration:

[Locked feature]

“…”

Trying Option or Load produced the same screen, denied access. The only remaining option was Start.

Ding!

“O?”

After touching the Start button, the familiar sound effect played and the screen transitioned—but there was a problem: instead of the DLC announcement, it displayed AOE’s character creation screen.

[Please create your character.]

“…?”

Do you have to create a character to see the announcement? They’ve made it unnecessarily difficult to simply read a notice.

Ding!

[Informant]- Hello? Are you actually dead?

Bogeoni’s text reminded me of his unsuccessful attempt to sell AOE back then. Hmm, since a DLC is coming, I can give it another try?

Once that decision was made, I quickly customized the character’s appearance on the screen. Naturally, it was the frail girl character this guy loved so much.

Adding negative character traits for bonus points, I invested the bonuses into positive traits and stats as I built the character. After all, I’ve literally done this hundreds of times—so much so that I could do it with my eyes closed.

After a short while, the phone screen displayed the figure of a delicate girl who looked sickly at first glance.

Nice, my crafting skills are still sharp.

Thinking this, I selected the awakening ability last. Naturally, the choice was Robot Summoning. With this chance, I would definitely spread the awesomeness of Metal and Robots to this fanatic of the Chicken Coop faith.

“Hmm.”

Though not my personal taste, this is certainly complete enough that this guy should accept it.

After capturing a screenshot of the finished character to send to Bogeoni, I pressed the character creation button, and finally, accompanied by a white screen, the DLC announcement appeared—

Eh? Why is it so bright…

… .

“Hyyuh!”

Jolting awake with a sense of discomfort, a girl opened her eyes.

Breath was shallow, her consciousness muddled. Without room for thought, she breathed heavily for a while before her convulsing body gradually stabilized.

“Hek, heyyuh…”

Her moist eyes, still breathing heavily, scanned her surroundings. Soon, they shone with a spark of realization.

“Eh? Where is this—”

Surprised by the entirely different atmosphere from before, her head quickly turned around.

Then, the pale-faced girl raised both hands and brought them to her chest.

“…Am I… there?”

And then, her hand moved toward her groin.

“…It’s gone!!”

With that cry, the girl collapsed with an expression as if she had lost her kingdom.

“Huh, without even getting to use it…!”

Her mournful cry echoed her deep sorrow. The cries of anguish reverberated over the trash pile where there was no one else, but naturally, there was no response.

Eun-woo, 22 years old.

That was how he became the oddly adorable girl robot summoner he had created.

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The Bottom Banner Wrapper Swiper Container Initialization and Horizontal Scrolling Features remain translated as code in the original language for technical accuracy.

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