My name is Park Jae-gun. I am thirty-five years old, and what people would call an ordinary factory worker.

  Inside my cramped studio apartment, the heat radiating from three or four laptops filled the room.

  I habitually scanned the screens of the laptops one by one.

  With over ten multiple accounts running non-stop, this was my second workplace and my only sanctuary.

  "Six Rares, fifteen Uncommons... Huh?! Isn't this an Epic?!"

  A faint red aura glowed in the corner of the monitor. It was an Epic-grade item.

  For a moment, my heart dropped before it began to race.

  "Wow, I really hit the jackpot this week, didn't I?"

  A twitchy smile spread across my face.

  Others might mock me as a 'gold farmer' who just leaves laptops on to mine game currency, but to me, this modest income was the only salvation that made me forget the hardships of reality.

  I paused my mouse for a moment and stared blankly at the screen. In my mid-twenties, my life also had its glorious 'golden era'.

  Back then, I lived drowning in the swamp of typical Korean mobile RPGs.

  It was a time when I luckily ran a named guild that dominated the server. Controlling the hunting grounds, monopolizing boss monsters, and distributing the acquired items.

  A single word from me could shake the entire server. On the screen, I wasn't just a character; I was the law and absolute power.

  The sweetness of that illusion was stronger than any drug.

  Of course, that glory didn't last long. Faced with the massive wave of 'Server Transfers', our guild crumbled into obscurity, and I had to miserably quit the game.

  However, the taste of that power, the sensation of manipulating the world with a single finger, remained etched into my soul like an indelible brand, even ten years later.

  While I was intoxicated by the red radiance of the Epic-grade item, a sound sharply pierced the silence of the room.

  It was the sound of a TV commercial, which I normally would have dismissed as background noise.

  I turned my head, and my gaze fixated on the TV screen.

  "...That's a game?"

  On the screen, an overwhelming landscape unfolded, as if mocking the boundary between reality and virtuality. The camera soared high into the sky and swept across the land.

  A vibrant medieval metropolis, endlessly stretching green fields, a lively flowing river, and a sea with crashing rough waves.

  And even the thousands of dungeons filling the place, along with gigantic boss monsters exuding an intimidating aura.

  It was on a completely different level from any graphics I had seen so far.

  This wasn't something that could be explained with the mere word 'graphics'.

  Soon, the screen faded to black, and a majestic narration flowed out.

  [Beyond the limits of existing technology, humanity's first Virtual Reality MMORPG.]

  [You will live a second life on this vast continent.]

  The golden letters embedded in the center of the screen struck my retinas intensely.

  [Liberty Online]

  It wasn't just the name of a game.

  It was like an irresistible invitation to salvation, thrown at me as I endured a miserable reality, running over ten gold-farming characters in a cramped studio.

  What I had only imagined in my delusions had become reality. With trembling hands, I pulled my laptop closer and searched for the official Liberty Online website.

  What decorated the site's main page was a massive machine with a round, semi-transparent cover.

  [Device: Omega Capsule]

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  The explanation was simple. You lie down on a cushion as soft as a bed and close the cover.

  Just 3 seconds after pressing the connection button. The moment your physical body falls into a deep sleep, your consciousness is transmitted to the vast lands of Liberty.

  "A real... a real virtual reality?"

  Complex principles didn't matter.

  The mere fact that the moment I crawled into that narrow capsule, I could log out of this damp studio and my agonizing reality, made my heart pound fiercely.

  "25 million won?!!"

  The moment I saw the number written at the bottom of the screen, a scream burst out of me without realizing it.

  An amount I could barely meet even if I scraped the absolute bottom of my bank account balance. It was practically my entire life savings, gathered with blood, sweat, and tears over five years of gold farming and factory shift work.

  My mind became complicated for a moment, but the hesitation didn't last long.

  'It's humanity's first virtual reality. This isn't a gaming console; it's an entrance ticket to a gold mine.'

  From my experience, the early market of such a mega-scale game unconditionally makes money.

  On top of that, an open run where everyone starts equally from zero? My intuition from ten years as a gold farmer was sending a strong signal.

  If the capsule price was 25 million won, the value of the items pouring out from within it was bound to transcend imagination.

  Just by preempting the early hunting grounds, I could easily make back the capsule's cost within a month and then some.

  Perhaps, it might be a chance to completely change my life.

  "Yeah, this isn't an expense; it's an investment."

  I pressed the pre-order button with trembling hands.

  The sound of the mouse click sounded exceptionally loud.

  It was the moment I went all-in, betting my entire fortune and life on Liberty Online.

  ———

  Clang―! Clang―!

  Mechanical noises striking my eardrums at regular intervals. Inside the factory filled with scorching heat, I moved like a machine part.

  Pushing a flat iron plate into the machine and pressing the button, the heavy press would forcefully come down, creating sharp angles.

  A tedious daily routine I must have repeated thousands, tens of thousands of times. My hands moved mechanically, but my mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of the 25 million won capsule I had purchased last night.

  "Hey! Who stamped this!"

  A sharp scream pierced through the mechanical noise. I turned my head to see the boss pointing at the stamped door frame with a bright red face.

  "Uh... That was me. Is there a problem?"

  I answered blankly while dusting off my gloved hands. Before I could even finish, the boss jumped up and down, yelling.

  "You stamped them all backwards, you bastard! Are your eyes just for decoration? These all have to be scrapped now, what are you gonna do! I'm deducting this from your paycheck this month, so you better know it. Ugh, my luck. Where did such an idiot come from... Tsk tsk!"

  Having no intention of hearing my apology, the boss spat out his annoyance and turned away, walking off. Only the insulting afterimage remained in the empty workshop.

  "...Tch, it's so easy for him to dock someone else's pay."

  Unfairness welled up inside me, but I just dropped my head and bit my lip.

  Instead of pouring curses at the boss's back, I pushed another iron plate back into the machine.

  'Yeah, bark all you want. I'm going to log out of this hellish factory soon anyway.'

  The sound of the press coming down started to sound light and cheerful. In my mind, the vast territories of Liberty Online were already unfolding.

  Before clocking out, I made a decision I had buried deep in my heart.

  My precious annual leave days that I had originally planned to cash out at the end of the year. But to me right now, 'time' was much more desperate than a few extra pennies in my bank account.

  A whopping 15 days, including weekends.

  It might be a short vacation to someone else, but to me, it was a life-risking gamble for the 'open run'.

  "That meager leave allowance? I'll make ten times that if I just loot one good item in Liberty."

  Finally, the day of the capsule installation dawned.

  Massive machine parts filed in along the narrow hallway of my studio apartment.

  Every time the installation technicians sweated as they carried the parts, my musty studio slowly lost its sense of reality.

  Soon, in a corner of the room, taking up a third of the total floor space, its massive, imposing figure was revealed.

  The Omega Capsule emitted a smooth gloss all on its own between the worn-out linoleum floor and stained wallpaper. It looked completely out of place in the cramped studio, like a spaceship that had flown in from the future.

  I went over the precautions the installation technician had told me several times in my head.

  How to operate it, sensory perception within the virtual reality, and above all, the crucial logout process.

  To a 10-year veteran gold farmer, 'familiarizing oneself with the manual' was the most basic of basics directly linked to survival.

  The next day, 11:55 PM.

  As I turned off all the lights in the room, the blue light emitting from the capsule pierced the darkness and illuminated my face.

  Only 5 minutes remained until the server opened.

  I had to blow through the tutorial faster than anyone else, and while others were crowded in front of the NPCs, I had to already be at the hunting grounds.

  I knew better than anyone that a 1-minute gap in the early stages would later return as a difference of tens or hundreds of thousands of won in profit.

  In the silence before the storm, I laid my body down on the soft seat inside the 25 million won capsule, like a warrior heading to the battlefield.

  Whirrr― With a smooth mechanical hum, the semi-transparent cover closed.

  The view of the cramped studio was blocked off, and a closed-off space exclusively for me was formed.

  I reached out with a trembling hand and picked up the two bio-patches equipped inside the capsule.

  This device, which looked like a small square band-aid, was the bridge that would connect my brainwaves to the virtual world.

  I carefully attached the patches to both temples.

  'This is the button that will change my life.'

  I pressed the glowing blue square touchscreen with the tip of my finger.

  Then, a flashy interface floated up like a hologram on the transparent cover before my eyes, and a soft voice tickled my quiet ears.

  [User's vital signs confirmed. Would you like to connect to Liberty Online?]

  The harder I tried to calm down, the louder my heartbeat grew. Swallowing dryly, I answered.

  "Yes!"

  In that instant, the numbers before my eyes began to swirl and count down.

  My vision slowly faded, and I felt a sensation of my body floating.

  A faint vibration could be felt from the patches attached to my temples, and the damp air of the studio instantly vanished.

  Blackout. And the feast of blinding light that followed.

  [Welcome to Liberty Online.]