Chapter 1

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Episode 1. Kidnapped by a Trash Game. (1)

As usual, on a very ordinary and uneventful summer day.

Taking advantage of the rare holiday, I was leisurely spending time on my bed with the cool breeze from the air conditioner.

While others might be playing games or going out for drinks with friends.

I considered moving either my head or body on this sweet holiday to be a truly exhausting task.

– Gyaaaaaah!

“Ahahaha, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this.”

In my hand was a modern-day essential.

Showing a streamer’s video playing on YouTube, it unknowingly made me smile.

And that video was a playthrough of a mobile game that had almost all its users leave and was now considered defunct.

<The Legendary Crash Game, ‘Astral Lagrange’ 24-Hour Non-Stop Play.>

A streamer who claimed to be a trash game expert was experiencing the game’s uniquely terrible aspects.

While giving real-time evaluations filled with all sorts of curses.

– “How on earth do you even play this? It’s just unnecessarily packed with random stuff!”

And in response to the streamer’s words, the chat window of the viewers watching the video quickly started to fill up.

– [Exactly.]

– [This game was already getting flak for this before.]

– [It pretends to be a resource management game but demands extreme micro-control lololol.]

– [Resource production separate, collection separate, control separate.]

– [The only reason people stuck around despite the cursing was because it was generous with rewards and had a decent BM.]

– [Yeah, true.]

– [True.]

– [But that was only up to three years ago, after that they messed up the BM and everything else, leading to its downfall, right?]

– [Since it’s dead, that’s why this guy’s playing it, right?]

– [Yeah, that’s right.]

– [Lol, true.]

“They’re not wrong.”

Looking at the chat, I could recall things about that game which I had completely erased from my memory.

Once a game that topped the mobile store sales charts and briefly brought a sci-fi craze to Korea, ‘Astral Lagrange’ was literally a game that ‘used to be great.’

It was an unprecedented item that maintained the top spot for almost a month, even with the sci-fi tag that often led to shutdowns in Korea.

In a country where if you gather 10 Star Wars fans, 10 Galaxy Trek fans, and 10 Doctor Who fans, you’d only get 12 people, this game was a miracle.

It was a game that made sci-fi geeks like me unconsciously reach for it.

The character designs were quite charming, and the detailed modeling was meticulously crafted.

Moreover, the characters’ actions weren’t just ‘boing boing’ but were on par with AAA action games.

The designs of all the mechs and ships that come to mind when thinking of sci-fi were also brimming with charm.

During the game’s peak, various communities were flooded with mech and ship enthusiasts, creating a bizarre phenomenon.

Naturally, with such cool yet insane designs, the game offered spectacular battles with plenty of user interaction.

Unlike typical mobile games, it had a truly user-friendly BM.

‘Any character, ship, or mech can clear everything!’

With the developers promoting this catchphrase.

It made guys like me, as well as ordinary people, enjoy playing and expect to recreate the storm of past games like Inxstellar.

Well, we did expect that.

But about three years after its grand launch.

As the user base stabilized and new inflows dried up, the game’s sales began to decline.

Perhaps due to pressure from the parent company because of the continuous drop in sales rankings.

The developers suddenly started rolling out all sorts of insane BMs.

Along with limited characters, mechs, and ships with crazy performance.

Later, they created a structure where without these so-called ‘key characters,’ battles or explorations were impossible.

As a result, users started leaving one by one, and sales dropped further. Then, the developers crossed the line again with updates, causing more users to leave.

And then, the developers would pull all sorts of reckless moves, only to further increase the number of users leaving.

You’d think even the worst management couldn’t mess up this badly…

I still vividly remember the time I had to say goodbye to a game I had poured hundreds of thousands of won into, filled with affection.

And now, three years have passed since I decided to live in the “real world.”

-[It’s been a while since I last saw this game. I used to have so much fun with it.]

-[True.]

-[Would you play it again if someone asked you to?]

-[Why would you want to pick up cheap crap again?]

-[Honestly, the people still playing seem like… demons…]

-[Take that back… what you just said…!]

And just like that, a once-great game had fallen into the abyss of being a “crap game.”

Now, watching a playthrough of “Astral Lagrange,” a game that only hardcore concrete-loyalists remain in, I felt a slight sense of nostalgia, even though it didn’t end well for me.

While I was lost in thought, the chat in the stream started flooding with new messages.

-[Wait, this game is still alive?]

-[Yeah, I heard they just hit their 6th anniversary and even ran ads.]

-[They said they fixed the BM and are giving out comeback rewards, causing quite a stir.]

Rewards, huh?

Of course, right after that, other messages started pouring in.

-[You believe that? You believe that? You believe that?]

-[The comeback rewards are fake.]

-[F*ck]

-[This]

-[Sh*t]

-[Did you fall for it again, kid?]

-[Nope.]

The chat was instantly buried under a wave of hostile messages, showing just how much trust had been lost.

But despite that, my curiosity was piqued by the current state of a game I had once poured so much money and time into.

Since it was a holiday, I had nowhere else to go anyway.

“Let’s see… Astral Lagrange, Astral Lagrange, Astral Lagrange…”

After scrolling past countless knockoff games and similarly named titles, I finally found it.

“Alright, got it.”

The game, which had a measly 1.7-star rating when I quit, had somehow recovered to a 4.5 rating. With a bit of hope, I downloaded it.

But the moment the download finished and I was about to start the game, memories from three years ago came flooding back, triggering my PTSD.

“Sigh… I don’t really feel like playing it now.”

Was it really worth wasting my precious holiday on a verified crap game?

Just as my finger hesitated over the play button…

-Ding♪

“Huh?”

Before I even logged in, I received a notification email from “Astral Lagrange.”

<<Astral Lagrange Return Guide for Long-Term Inactive Players>>

<To the Commanders who have explored the desolate cosmos and hunted alien monsters:>

<We are aware of the recent negative reviews and are committed to showing you a completely renewed "Astral Lagrange"!>

<Install the new update and receive various free rewards and random draw tickets!>

<Additional rewards will be given to returning Commanders!>

<...>

The email clearly mentioned the rewards discussed in the stream chat earlier.

The problem was, there was no information on *what exactly* those rewards were.

“Seriously, in this day and age, they don’t even show the package list or the probabilities?”

Seeing this, I immediately thought of those infamous scam games and reached for the delete button.

But then…

<...By receiving this email, you are automatically enrolled as a tester for the newly updated game!>

With that final line, my vision went dark, and I lost consciousness.

==========

When I opened my eyes again…

“Ah, the familiar ceiling.”

I was greeted by a ceiling that felt both familiar and new at the same time.