Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 5

Episode 5

"Uwaaaa......!"

I made a bizarre noise and spammed the chat in a fury.

Me: Operator-nim, I'm telling you, it's already been 24 hours!

Me: A person dies if they don't eat or sleep for 72 hours! I'm telling you, I'll die!

This buggy, flopped game is going to kill someone now!

GM Ari: A person won't just die like a lie just because 72 hours have passed, Shari-nim!

GM Ari: According to the Guinness Book of Records, there are people who have fasted for over 70 days... (Typing...)

Me: Are you kidding me?

I couldn't take it anymore.

The reality that I had to remain trapped in this goddamn game was enough to break my sanity.

Me: XX, you incompetent developer XXX bastards!

Me: This is all because you bastards made this piece of shit, flopped game!

Me: So why the hell did you have to do another version upgrade, XX, XXX!

GM Ari: Please calm down, Shari-nim.

GM Ari: Unfortunately, this is the only way for now. T_T If you could just trust us and wait...

Dduk.

The white screen suddenly disappeared.

Just like a user who once cursed me out over a missed reward due to a bug, I was leaving a stream of curses, but I just closed the chat window at the frustrating reply.

"Damn it. I shouldn't have trusted those developer bastards."

Then again.

Normal game developers wouldn't have made a game so full of bugs that it needed a 308th version upgrade in the first place.

I wasted a precious two months for nothing, waiting for that damn bastard's reply.

'What do I do now?'

I bit my lip, glaring at the innocent bug report NPC for no reason.

I couldn't just wait two days as the operator suggested.

48 hours is about four to five years in game time.

'Even if it's not real time, how am I supposed to endure what feels like four years...!'

The last two years, which I remembered in fragments, were already terrible.

I trembled with rage without realizing it at the thought that I might have to live like that, just grinding away again.

"I can't just stay like this."

I had to get out quickly, before I died.

Fortunately, I knew the only remaining method.

Game Over.

Death.

You have failed to save the world and have met your death.

Would you like to return to the save point?

RETURN / EXIT

When a character dies, that message pops up along with the game exit window.

'Sigh, I really didn't want to use this method...'

This was the very reason I had bothered to file a bug report and wait for so long.

Because, upon a game over, all the items and coins you've accumulated are reset.

In other words, the coins I had illicitly accumulated would also vanish into thin air.

But since things had come to this because of those incompetent operator bastards, I had no choice.

'It's not real money, just some game coins. I can just gather them again.'

I decided to just go out to a field teeming with monsters and get attacked.

"Kkue-e-ek!"

A nearby Lv.4 Wild Boar charged at me.

At the same time, a system message popped up with the minor effect 'HP -1'.

"Ouch."

Its sharp tusk rammed into my waist, but it just stung a little, like a paper cut, with no other real pain.

I glanced indifferently at my waist, where a hole had been pierced by the monster's attack and blood was trickling out.

They say you can feel all five senses, but a game is just a game.

There was no way it would let you feel pain beyond a certain level.

HP 999

HP 997

HP 996

As if they smelled the blood, other monsters joined in and started attacking, but the damage wasn't that high.

'Is it because they're low-level?'

But this area was near the game's starting point, so most of the monsters' levels were low.

The 'Teleport Scroll' sold at the general store only allows travel within the territory, so it might take a long time to travel to a place with high-level monsters.

So I decided to just stand still and take the hits.

I had come out to the field early in the morning and spent the entire day getting beaten by the monster horde, and before I knew it, it was night.

HP 99

My health bar, which had been full, was finally starting to run low.

"Now I can finally get out!"

Despite my robe being torn to shreds and my body being a wreck from the attacks, I was filled with ecstasy.

It was then.

Danger! Health is below 10%!

Automatically teleporting to NPC's assigned region.

"Huh? What's this?"

Shushushuk----

The dense forest that had been spread out before my eyes suddenly distorted like a heat haze...

And before I knew it, I was standing in the familiar alley.

You have arrived in Dover Village.

"Crazy... What is this?!"

This goddamn NPC character wouldn't die.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

Danger! Health is below 10%!

Automatically teleporting to NPC's assigned region.

You have arrived in Dover Village.

Danger! Health is below 10%!

Automatically teleporting to NPC's assigned region.

You have arrived in Dover Village.

Danger! Health is below 10%!

Automatically teleporting to NPC's assigned region.

You have arrived in Dover Village.

.

.

.

"Please... you crazy game!"

The familiar alley again.

Standing in front of the apothecary, I screamed and punched the air, not caring if the passing AIs thought I was strange.

I had invested a precious two days of game time to get attacked by the monster horde, reaching the brink of death a whopping three times.

But I couldn't die.

Far from dying, my robe, torn from the monster attacks, and my reduced health were all restored, as if it were a lie.

I had worked as an operator for this game for quite a long time, but I had no idea that an NPC character couldn't die from monster attacks.

I'd never had a reason to die, so it was only natural.

"Ha..."

Jjii-ik.

With a deep sigh, I tore a teleport scroll.

My vision immediately distorted, and my location changed.

I returned to the field full of monsters.

But I wasn't stupid enough to try again after failing three times.

Hwiiiiing----

Looking down at the cliff where the wind was whipping violently, I muttered grimly.

"Now, this is the only way."

If I jump from a high place and die, my HP will be depleted all at once, with no time to be left at 10%, so I won't be automatically teleported and survive anymore.

It would have been great if I had tried this method from the beginning.

Unfortunately, this area has almost no tall buildings, so I hadn't thought of it.

'Maybe I am an idiot.'

Calmly admitting it, I finally looked down and took a deep breath.

I know better than anyone that it's just a game world, but looking down at the distant cliff below still made my legs shake.

"It's fine! It won't hurt even if I die...!"

Shouting that, I threw my body off the cliff with all my might.

And then.

Tung!

"Eok!"

As if there was a transparent wall past the cliff, I hit something invisible and was bounced back onto the clifftop, tumbling.

"Ugh! Ack! Eok!"

After rolling a few times, I lay wretchedly on the dirt ground and stared blankly at the sky.

The unchangingly clear, blue game sky greeted me.

"Ha, ha..."

I laughed, dumbfounded.

I immediately understood why I hadn't fallen off the cliff and had bounced back.

They probably restricted it as a terrain break...

"Please..."

At this point, it felt like the entire universe.

No, like the entire goddamn game world was stopping me from escaping.

Why was this? It didn't even hurt that much, but my eyes burned.

Choking back sobs and suppressing my rage, I finally couldn't hold it in and spat out a curse.

"Fuck...!"

It was that moment.

GM Jinu: Tsk tsk, there's no more map there, so you can't fall.

GM Jinu: You should have just gone and found a mountain with a map.

A chat window suddenly appeared before my eyes.

I was bewildered by the sudden phenomenon, but it was a pretty good idea, so I was tempted for a moment.

"...Oh, should I?"

GM Jinu: Wow lol

GM Jinu: Even if you do that, you can't die because of the NPC settings.

GM Jinu: Don't do useless stuff.

A new chat popped up, as if it had heard my words.

"...What is this."

I sat up, dumbfounded, not understanding the situation.

Then, chats started popping up one after another.

GM Sera: Is this the place they said someone was trapped and couldn't complete the task log out?

GM Sera: Making a holy pilgrimage.

GM Ari: Hello, Shari-nim!

GM Ari: It's an emergency, so we've assembled the entire Production Team, and as a temporary measure, we integrated the all-region server chat to create a dedicated chat window for you!