Chapter 1

What is punk?

A world where technological advancements like science and magic have developed so much that human dignity becomes less valuable than a piece of paper.

A world where intangible values like love, religion, and truth are not even worth joking about.

A story set in such a world is called the punk genre.

A dystopia with advanced steam engines is steampunk.

A dystopia with advanced diesel engines is dieselpunk.

A dystopia with advanced mechanical engineering is cyberpunk.

Just sprinkle a bit of SF seasoning on a dystopia, and you get punk.

I love this punk genre.

As money becomes increasingly important, even emotions are being calculated in monetary terms. Seeing myself struggling to survive just to earn money feels like a story from another world.

Of course, the world I live in hasn’t completely fallen apart yet, and technology hasn’t reached that singularity, but as the years go by, I can see it heading in that direction. By the time I grow old and die, it might turn into cyberpunk or biopunk.

As you can tell from all the “punk-punk” talk, my favorite game series is undoubtedly the <Punk City> series.

A series that appeared 10 years ago, showcasing a high-quality open world and introducing a new genre to the gaming market.

This series caused a phenomenon where every game company jumped into open-world games, but none could even come close to its fame.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the only rival of the Punk City series is its own past.

As the title suggests, the setting of this masterpiece is a punk worldview.

The base is SF punk, but with the addition of magic and genetic engineering, it claims to be a fusion punk.

I’m a hardcore fan of this series and consider myself a veteran.

I could proudly say that anywhere.

Not that my controls are exceptional, but I’m the kind of veteran who brings out ingenious strategies through meticulous planning.

After getting a job, my playtime reduced to about an hour a day, but before that, I played over 9 hours a day, and before I knew it, I had clocked a total of 20,000 hours.

(Of course, in the community, I still act like a newbie, saying “Hawa-wa, former newbie.”)

But even as much as I love this series, I have one complaint.

While playing through all kinds of endings and concepts, repeating so many times that I lost count,

Getting bored of the 3rd installment and revisiting the 1st and 2nd, each surpassing 4,000 hours,

Those damn developers

Aren’t releasing the 4th installment.

*

Originally, the series would release a new installment every 2-3 years, but after 3 years passed without a new release, my first reaction was understanding.

‘Games aren’t something with a fixed outcome, so it might take some time.’

Next was depression.

‘Could it be that the company is out of money? Or have they lost their love for the fans?’

Then came negotiation.

‘I’ll give you more money! If it’s not enough, release a DLC! Please, just release the 4th installment!!!’

Then anger.

‘You bastards! How could you do this! I loved you so much!’

And now, denial.

“Hehe. No way. The 4th installment must have been released. I’m just too stupid to find it.”

The problem is that I’ve been in this denial stage for 2.5 years, and the entire Punk City fanbase is in a similar state.

It’s been 5 years since the 3rd installment, and with no news, the word “Punk City” has become a trigger for fans.

================

Me: Tire Punk Man

– The title says it all.

Comments:

– What? Punk City? Punk City? Punk City? Punk City?

– Punk? Punk? Punk City? Punk City?

– The end of waiting has come, let’s all hold hands and pray Punk City Punk City

================

That’s roughly the state of things.

While I was also in that line, eagerly waiting for the 4th installment, my angel suddenly appeared.

As usual, I came home from work, washed up, and turned on my computer.

While Punk City 3 was loading, I alt-tabbed to check the community as part of my routine.

And as soon as I entered the community, I saw a trending post.

[Punk City 4 Development Rumor Leak]

Thinking it was just another bait post, I clicked on it with a sense of indifference.

But the images and videos that unfolded were too credible to be a bait post.

By the time I was almost done reading, I couldn’t help but believe the leak and was about to cheer in joy.

But at the very end of the post, I saw:

[By the way, this is all fake.]

“…”

Only then did I understand why this post was trending.

Those bastards…

They couldn’t let others suffer alone.

If it were the usual me, I would have joined the bandwagon to bait others and clicked the recommend button, but having just come home after two consecutive night shifts, I wasn’t in the mood.

My blood pressure was rising.

My neck was tightening.

My chest felt heavy.

And then, a sudden headache.

Ah.

Something exploded in my head.

Without any resistance, I collapsed on the spot.

What a damn way to go.

*

Fortunately, by the grace of God, I woke up alone the next morning.

It was truly a relief.

Living alone, if I had collapsed, no one would have reported it. This was a stroke of luck.

I thought I’d take a sick day today and tomorrow and visit the emergency room.

As I was about to move, I noticed something strange on my computer screen, which I hadn’t turned off before collapsing.

It was a trailer uploaded on the official Punk City YouTube channel.

“Huh?”

Forgetting even about going to the hospital, I instinctively tried to play the YouTube video, but my right hand wouldn’t move.

I couldn’t feel anything.

It didn’t stop there.

Not just my right hand, but my left hand, legs, and even my face.

Gradually, I lost sensation in my entire body, and my vision went dark.

When I regained consciousness, I was still lying on the cold floor, staring at the fluorescent light on the ceiling.

Desperately racking my sluggish brain, I came to a conclusion…

‘Damn it. Even in death, it’s a light path ending.’

Anyway, God must hate me.

Can’t even let me die peacefully.

While I was lamenting, my senses gradually faded away.

It was truly the end.

*

I opened my eyes again.

I could clearly feel myself standing in a white space.

I spent a few minutes doing a reality check, thinking, ‘Surely, I’m not getting another light path ending.’

In conclusion, I was indeed here, and this was neither a dream nor an illusion.

My fingers and toes moved fine.

My nose caught my familiar scent.

I could hear sounds and voices clearly.

And finally, the busty beauty in front of me was clearly visible.

…. Huh?

“Who are you?”

The woman in front of me spoke.

“I am the Goddess of the world you loved.”

*

To summarize the conversation with Maman… no, the Goddess:

I had died, and she was the Goddess of the Punk City universe.

When I asked how a game from our world came to be, she said she wanted to show off her beloved world but had no one to share it with, so she got bored.

So, she kept showing this world in the dreams of capable and well-funded game developers over the years, and unconsciously, they turned it into a game.

‘Sorry for calling you bald.’

I had cursed the developers for not releasing the game, calling them bald, but now I felt pity for them, having been gaslit in their dreams for decades.

Let’s pause for a moment of silence.

When I asked why I was here, she said she was moved by how much I loved her world, even in my dying moments, and wanted to reincarnate me here.

She added that she had no expectations of me.

She just wanted to see how I, who loved her world, would live in it.

It wasn’t a demand.

If I didn’t want to go to that world, she would send me back to Earth.

If I went back, I wouldn’t be resurrected, but I’d go to reincarnation or heaven.

She gave me two choices.

Either take the Earth Afterlife Portal behind me or the Punk City Reincarnation Portal behind her.

I wanted to dive straight into Punk City.

But my rationality held me back.

Doesn’t it seem strange?

The logic of reincarnating me just because I loved her world.

What’s the catch?

Or is she just bored?

Maybe she’s a naive Goddess with too much pride in her world?

No, considering recent reincarnation stories, there might be some terrible scheme…

Then I thought, if she’s a Goddess, maybe she can read minds, so I quickly gathered my thoughts.

But she responded to my rude thoughts with the most benevolent smile I’ve ever seen.

“Do I need a reason to show off my beloved world to someone who loves it as much as I do?”

Like a fan showing endless goodwill to another fan of the same genre.

Like a veteran licking a newbie.

It was just unconditional love without expecting anything in return.

The Goddess, with her loving smile and embrace, hugged me despite my disbelief and rudeness.

Instead of scolding me, she comforted me, saying it must have been hard living in disbelief.

And she said:

“That world might be a bit different from what you loved through the game. But I want to tell you this: No matter what series it was, just as you loved that world, you too deserve to be loved, no matter who you are.”

I felt her touch.

With each stroke of her warm hand, my doubts melted away.

The Goddess told me one last thing:

“Have confidence. No matter what anyone says, you are the protagonist of your life.”

A tear rolled down my cheek.

For someone who lived alone without knowing love, unconditional love was so warm.

Her benevolence, returning love just because I loved, was so dazzling.

I couldn’t help but swear at that moment.

“I will definitely live happily.”

On the day I was reborn as a child of my mother, my second life began.

*

The Reincarnator disappeared into the portal, leaving only the woman in the white space.

She sighed as she looked in the direction where the Reincarnator had disappeared into the portal.

“Did I burden him too much…?”

Just before he threw himself into the Reincarnation Portal, the Goddess saw that his heart was filled with a sense of responsibility.

This wasn’t what she intended, but his mind was filled with a sense of duty to benefit the world as the protagonist(?).

“Sigh…”

There’s no need for that.

I just wanted to give him the opportunity to experience the world he loved through the game.

It’s his second life, and I’m worried he might be so burdened by responsibility that he won’t look around.

I wanted to tell him through a revelation that he doesn’t need to be so overwhelmed by responsibility, but I stopped.

After the lower world’s civilization developed, she clearly stated through the Prophets that she would no longer directly intervene with revelations to ensure her children’s independence.

In such a situation, giving a revelation only to the Reincarnator would be favoritism and a denial of her own promise.

From the moment he descended to the lower world, he was her child but also an independent individual.

Out of respect for her new child’s independence, she decided not to give a revelation.

She erased her worries about the Reincarnator from her mind and began working on his body.

Since he’s reincarnating, why not make him look the way he wants?

Of course, he didn’t specify how he wanted to look.

But people often reflect their desires in their characters.

So, the appearance of the character he played the most would be the one he desires.

The Goddess checked the characters the Reincarnator had created.

Among them, she checked the one with the most playtime…

And was horrified.

“What… is this?”

The character with 3,000 hours of playtime was a grotesque creature with eyes the size of fists, protruding cheekbones, and purple skin.

Not a single hair on its body, armed with just a Dildo.

And the nickname was Prostate Ga-

She stopped reading the nickname.

In her thousands of years of existence, she had seen countless madness and evil, but this nickname was on par with, if not surpassing, all of them.

Fortunately, the Goddess understood human minds well, so she didn’t mistake the gag character for the Reincarnator’s true desire.

Her gaze moved to the next one.

Total of 2,000 hours.

A man with sunglasses, rabbit ears, and a reverse bunny girl outfit… with hairy legs and a beer belly.

The concept was a hypnotist uncle who hacks people.

“Rejected.”

Total of 1,400 hours.

A girl(?) with a rainbow-colored glowing bomb head and a scruffy beard.

The concept was a magical girl who turns people’s heads into bomb heads with a hammer. (Gender is both.)

“What the…”

The Goddess continued to check the Reincarnator’s characters.

What the hell was wrong with this guy’s brain?

With each character she checked, she felt her SAN points dropping, and she eliminated the candidates one by one.

And at the end, she found a face of a kind-looking man.

A face so kind that if he talked to someone on the street, 10 out of 10 people wouldn’t suspect him.

In human terms, a handsome man with a likable face.

That must be the Reincarnator’s true desire.

‘Phew…’

Finally done, she sighed in relief.

Satisfied with the Reincarnator’s completed appearance, she looked down at the lower world.

Anticipating the story the Reincarnator would write in that world.

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