It’s nothing new, but South Korea is full of talent.

There are so many smart and exceptional people.

And the game industry is no exception. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Prominent figures, various social organizations, and especially those lucky enough to be entangled with the state—professors and such—have repeatedly tried to classify games as a disease, but even so, it’s said that the game industry has brought in more foreign currency than even the Hallyu wave Korea is so proud of.

Even if most of the money-making games turned someone’s life into in-game currency and were laced with gambling elements, people naturally gather where the money is.

So of course, the game industry was overflowing with talent too.

Of course, like everyone else, they were swept away like dust after the war, but not all of them died.

Several of them survived.

Among them were developers now working in Jeju.

One of them was the development team behind Red Archive, which Gong Gyeong-min used to enjoy, but Gong Gyeong-min—who’s deeply interested in the gaming scene—managed to bring in a good number of young, talented, and promising developers to Jeju, beyond just them.

Naturally, Foxgames—who already had the image of a has-been, a useless old fart clinging to his past glory—wasn’t even on the candidate list.

The talented developers, with full support from the new Seoul government, went on to develop a new game called Seoulgrad.

And lo and behold, it was the same genre as ours.

Cheon /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ Young-jae, who knows a fair bit about games, says it's not exactly the same genre—that Seoulgrad is technically a looter shooter—but to me, it looked the same.

If guns appear on the screen and you shoot people, what’s the difference?

In truth, there's no need to nitpick genre differences between the two.

Even from my layman's perspective, Seoulgrad was overwhelmingly better than Skeleton Monster Battle.

Despite both being developed under the same low-spec limitations, the results were night and day.

I’ll be honest.

The moment Cheon Young-jae showed me Seoulgrad, the only thing that flashed through my mind was: Oh shit.

That’s right.

This isn’t going to work.

It’s like we both did a craft project with the same modeling clay—only they made Neuschwanstein Castle, and we made a humble thatched-roof cottage.

Actually, even calling it a cottage is generous.

It’s a temporary structure with a slate roof.

And that temporary structure even asks for an entrance fee.

[Contains in-game purchases]

It hasn’t officially been updated yet, but Skeleton Monster Battle uses an in-game payment system.

A trash game that even tries to suck up your credit? That’s what this is.

No one’s going to look at it kindly.

Foxgames understood the seriousness of the situation.

“Shit... I think I get what kind of game they bashed out. Kharkov, that looter shooter that was big before the war, right? Seoulgrad. They slapped Russian on Seoul and said fuck it, let’s just rip off Kharkov. That’s it. These bastards probably chew up conscience for breakfast. Don’t they have any pride as devs? Also, fuck... where’d they get those assets? No way they’re still accessing the dev market. Did they hack my files or something?”

He may have no character, but as a former exec at a major company, Foxgames rarely cursed. Seeing him stumble over awkward Korean swearing instead of his usual broken English told me just how badly Seoulgrad had shaken him.

But really—was he in any position to say that?

There’s plenty I could nitpick, but right now, the most pressing issue isn’t some developer-level suspicion.

He used my name.

I, Park Gyu, lent my mythic-tier name, and now the game looks like it's going to lose the competition before it even launches.

Sure enough, the moment Seoulgrad was revealed, public opinion of our Skeleton Monster Battle (aka "Stel") nosedived.

Choi Myeong-jin: Wow... this game’s over. Like, really over. It’s a game that can’t game.

YeonwooDad: Haha, the class gap is insane ^^

DryGin: What must it feel like to have such a clear skill gap thrown in your face?

InAnAgeWhereZeroCalJokesMakeSense: Can Foxgames even show his face anymore? I mean, he’s supposedly a senior dev, and the gap is this big?

WantedToPlayPUBG: They just recycled Sudden Attack and slapped a new name on it. And in-game purchases too? Can't drop that damn dog meat BM, huh?

Anonymous1818: That bastard Foxgames has always been like this. Never made anything himself, just stole other people’s code and strutted around like he made it.

DogGames: Stel looks like dog meat compared to Seoulgrad, tch.

SassyCutie: Even if washed-up Skeleton and Foxgames join forces, all you’ll get is a washed-up game.

...

...

The criticism only grew harsher.

Ironically, the loudest critics were once his fans.

People who had played Foxgames’ ambitious but prematurely shut down game—canceled because of his negligence in maintenance—were now dragging out their resentment and leading the charge against him.

Has-been. Dog meat. Dead game.

The worst possible labels you could slap on a game were now glued to Foxgames like titles.

I reached out for a serious conversation.

“Sorry, but... can you take my name off it?”

I can’t let my name be used in a game like this.

If my name gets slapped on a dog meat game, then Skeleton becomes dog meat too.

What I had hoped would quell the backlash was only accelerating my own downfall. I couldn’t just sit there and take it.

Sure, we had agreed before, but it wasn’t a written contract. Just a verbal agreement.

And besides, the character Skeleton has a real name: Steamray.

“Just roll it back to the version with the mustache. Take Skeleton’s name off. I’m okay with leaving my name in the credits as a consultant, but anything more is too much.”

Even if I’m half-rotted, I’m still a cutlassfish. I know a lot of powerful people in New Seoul.

Even if Jeon Si-hoon doesn’t help, I can ask Kim So-uk, or hell, even Kim Daram to sabotage this thing before it launches.

Foxgames listened to my words with a face that said he understood everything.

“Yeah. Skeleton. I know what you’re worried about. Of course I do.”

“What I want isn’t understanding. I want my name off it.”

“Fine. I’ll delay releasing the Skeleton character. If the game picks up later, we’ll release him then.”

“No, it’s not going to pick up.”

“A fight’s not over till it’s over.”

I silently watched him on the screen with a blank expression.

I’m going to pull my name anyway.

But I’m the one who agreed to this mess, so I figured I should at least listen to his grumbling for a bit. That much decency I can spare.

“To be honest, Seoulgrad? Yeah. It’s well made. Graphics are nice, gameplay’s fun. It’s a well-ripped-off game. But Skeleton, how many games have you really played?”

“Not much. Just a little of the stuff you developed.”

“Do you know how many games start strong and then crash and burn? You know The Saga, the game I developed and serviced on Viva! Apocalypse!? You remember how crazy popular it was at the start? Huh? Global users were going nuts, right?”

“...Yeah.”

That was true.

No reason to deny it.

“Game development’s important, sure. But maintenance? Just as important. Even the company I was at made dozens of games that had the Yankees foaming at the mouth. But they failed because of shitty operations. What’s the point of flashy combat and top-tier engines if you kill the game in management?”

I glanced at Cheon Young-jae, our resident gaming expert.

He nodded.

Seems like he agreed.

Anyway, Foxgames seemed to be getting carried away with his own speech, his voice rising with emotion the longer he spoke.

“Yeah, Seoulgrad looks better than Stel. It’s a roided-up twenty-something gym bro ballooned with muscles. We, on the other hand, are skinny old guys. But not your average old guys. We’ve got labor-forged, real-world compressed muscle. To a newbie, the balloon guy might seem stronger, but in a real fight? That’s a different story.”

“...”

He had a point.

Some people are weaker than they look, while others are way more than they appear.

Especially in the Chinese hunter world, you’d see that a lot.

The media-pushed People’s Hero would flop in the field, while some unknown hunter in ragged gear would show shocking performance.

...Not that it mattered. They all died not long after.

“The game Stel is based on—Sudden Attack—was serviced for over 20 years. There’s basically no chance of major technical issues. The gameplay’s proven too. Sure, people call it outdated dog meat, but hey, if dog meat didn’t taste good, why’d our ancestors eat it for hundreds of years? Boiled dog meat with special dipping sauce and soju? That stuff’s amazing. Man, just talking about it makes my mouth water.”

I learned something new.

Foxgames was a dog meat fanatic.

My opinion of him dropped slightly, but I had to admit his words made some sense.

“...Let’s just give it a shot. We’ve got a trump card.”

“A trump card...?”

Foxgames didn’t say what it was.

He just smiled faintly, like a sage from some religious myth who already knew everything.

At least in gaming, Foxgames wasn’t a coward.

Skeleton Monster Battle launched on the same day as Seoulgrad.

There’s no need to mention how Seoulgrad dominated.

Lines out the door.

Over 100,000 players in queue.

Meanwhile, Stel? A ghost town.

There were a few users, but most of them had only logged in to curse out me and Foxgames.

But even on the darkest day, the reversal Foxgames talked about began to show.

KYJ2321: What kind of game has this many bugs?

BeautyTissue: No matter the times, releasing a game without even one proper beta test is just trash.

vxbTqs: Fuck~ I could make a better game blindfolded.

...

...

Criticism of Seoulgrad began to visibly increase.

Most complaints were about connection issues, but some were seriously questioning the game’s polish.

Players who couldn’t log into Seoulgrad had no choice but to try Stel.

Reception was... so-so.

Not great, not terrible.

Mostly people calling it outdated.

But at least there were no reported in-game issues.

As Foxgames said, Stel was built on a game with over 20 years of proven stability.

“Games are, at their core, rule-based competitions. Look at chess or Go. No one’s complained about them in hundreds of years. Same goes for FPS. The core gameplay was established over 20 years ago. Everything since then is just a descendant. Those rules are already finalized, and everyone’s agreed on them. Ugly graphics? Doesn’t matter. You’d be surprised how fast people adapt to them.”

Foxgames was confident.

And sure enough, just like he said, the fate of the two games began to diverge.

While Seoulgrad suffered constant server outages and bugs, Stel steadily gained traction.

And Stel hadn’t even released its main feature—the Monster Battle mode.

Naturally, Skeleton hadn’t been released yet either.

Foxgames was waiting for the right time.

“At this rate, Seoulgrad’s going to crash within a week. Player complaints are already maxed out. That’s the fate of a rushed game. Young devs may have flash and flair, but real coding and development? That’s all about grind. You’ve gotta have ass strength.”

He was predicting a crash within a week.

That’s a long time.

At this rate, I might get pulled into a Rupture before I even see Stel’s success.

But the game’s slow upward trend was encouraging for a face-model like me, who lent his name.

In fact, my own reputation on the forums had started to rise, even if only slightly.

VOO8322: So, when’s Monster Battle mode coming out? It’s launching with Skeleton, right?

LostPoverty: People who datamined the client say the data’s already there, just locked. Probably not long now. Seoulgrad is crashing hard anyway.

Kim Myeong-cheol89: I’m looking forward to Skeleton. People keep bashing him, but didn’t that battle he showed us mean something?

108Steps: Fr, Skeleton was sick. It’s all the newbs talking shit. Especially those Jeju punks, tsk tsk.

YYA_love: Without Skeleton, we’d all be dead already. These latecomers bashing Skeleton? First-gen Seoul settlers don’t trash him.

BlueSky: I wanna hunt monsters as Skeleton ASAP lol

YeonwooDad: Haha, how much are the in-game purchases going to be, I wonder?

...

...

“......”

Is this... the positive function of games?

Even I’m starting to feel excited.

He might not be the best, but the man of stubborn resolve—Foxgames—and his implementation of Monster Battle. And within it, Skeleton’s heroic glory.

But the world has a way of throwing a wrench in things.

Just when one thing starts going well, something else also goes well—and you’re forced to choose.

Call it a blissful dilemma, but hey, people want to have it all.

Anyway, the one who disrupted my happy waiting was none other than Jeon Si-hoon.

“Oh! Hunter Park Gyu! Could you come to our office today?”

The man who would someday be king of Seoul had better tact than the king of Sejong.

“I’ll send a car discreetly. That woman has spies everywhere. Ah, yes—it’s about that.”

Jeon Si-hoon gave a low chuckle and clearly enunciated that fateful word:

“The Rupture.”

The meeting of a hero at his peak—and a washed-up relic—was about to begin.