I fell into the world of cyberpunk games

[Why are you looking so piercing? It’s difficult to touch. You know you shouldn’t interfere with other people’s games, right?]

The staff reacted sensitively when I looked carefully at the electronic drug hardware with the Lee Shi-ho logo on it.

I nodded my head as a sign of understanding, and then took a step away from the den of those cyber thugs.

It wasn’t a big deal.

I didn’t come all the way here because of something related to the headquarters.

The reason I came to the game center was purely for personal reasons.

Still, the reason I stopped in front of the slogan of the headquarters was just.

Just, I felt a pity that I might be receiving the money I earned from sucking the backs of these people from the head office as a monthly salary.

It’s a silly idea.

If I’m directly working on e-drugs, I don’t know, it’s not like that.

The position of a restaurant chef or on-site manager of a bar was an industry that was as far from the e-drug den as heaven and earth.

I was the kind of person who didn’t harm others and made as much money as I tried, or even less than I tried.

There is no reason for me to feel guilty.

Of course, strictly speaking, I may be contributing to their suffering to some extent just by working for the headquarters and receiving money.

But what? Will there be a strike and starvation?

I’m not an adult, and I don’t want to impose such a harsh standard on myself.

In the first place, I’m just a slave who has to put my identity and salary on a mortgage.

All of the mega corporations called megacorps operate in a similar way.

It monopolizes the market by acquiring or killing other companies, and sucking their money by enslaving consumers and workers.

However, in the case of Shiho Lee, such a mechanism is only exposed very explicitly in the form of an electronic drug.

The reason Dusk’s lower classes are drawn to e-drugs is not simply because the stimulus is so intense.

Because, literally, games are better than life (Better-Than-Life).

It is happier to drown with your eyes closed in an imaginary paradise filled with pleasure, than to suffer in a real hell where there is no hope.

Our head office Shiho Lee is very vicious in that he takes advantage of such people.

However, we cannot point to Lee Si-ho as the only source of their suffering.

Because the source is the painful reality itself.

Fundamentally, there is a problem with the Megacorps who created this society and the city as a whole, and by the same logic, I should not look for a job or spend money in this city at all.

This is Dusk City, and everything that happens here is under the control of the Megacorps.

Whatever kind of production and consumption I do here, it will all return to the profits of the company in the end.

f**king hard.

I did not want to escape from reality by falling into such excessive nihilism or pessimism.

I’m just doing what I’m capable of.

It’s not a good sight to see right now, but what can I do?

You cannot overturn it, and you cannot persuade the president by resigning from the company or going out on your own.

It was beyond the limits of the nation to prevent the phenomenon of that stark society.

It is the same as setting up a plan to solve drug problems, low fertility problems, and security problems alone.

It’s like the manager of a pub on the outskirts.

That’s absurd.

[…] Or, are you also interested in VR games, Masked Asian? It’s the package sale period. Why don’t you try it at least once? I’ll recommend a good one.]

The masked game center staff smiled slyly, wondering if she interpreted the thoughtless thing in a different way.

However, just because I couldn’t stop it, I had no intention of even participating in that scene.

is this crazy I have to recommend what you recommend.

It’s not called e-drugs for nothing. In this world, games are diseases and drugs.

This novel was posted at readwn.com

Most of them are VR games that directly touch the brain using a brain-computer interface.

In the virtual reality in that game, even with the same action, an increase in neurotransmitters that is at least tens or even thousands of times higher than in reality occurs.

These stimulate the brain circuits to feel amplified pleasure.

At first, it started with a light 5-fold amplification, but after a few months, it quickly reached hundreds of times.

This is because they develop a tolerance for existing pleasures and seek higher and higher magnifications.

Once you start, you can’t stop forever.

I’m just walking on a path from which I can’t go back.

Eventually, he loses his mind and becomes unable to feel any emotion in reality.

A few months would be enough to turn into a zombie-like moron over there.

It was not for nothing that e-narcotics kicked off the existing substance drugs and reigned supreme in the industry.

Compared to VR games, marijuana and cocaine are considered as cute and addictive substances like cigarettes.

Dick Shimizu, who was recommended as a member of the Game Center as a member of the Yakuza-Nal Game Center, is a chicken boss who sucks cannabis on fictional days. You can get hooked if you put your hand on the wrong one.

It was that dangerous.

It was best not to even try at all. I’ve never done it, but at least I’ve heard of it.

So he shook his head and said.

“no. take no interest.”

[You are always firm. There is a saying in the Buddhist scriptures, ‘There is no fire greater than desire’… It is indeed the virtue of Asian temperance.]

It’s a start again.

Now it’s not surprising. Yeah, you wouldn’t be a Dusk person without one or two minor prejudices against Asians.

This friend here seemed to have a baseless conviction that all Asians were Buddhists.

Next time, I’ll have to bring a wooden table to the game center. If you shout ‘Nam-Amitabha Buddha’, they’ll say it’s really good.

[Hmm, then can I guide you to the ‘that’ you always do?]

The game center staff coughed and asked if I was offended when I did not respond even after reciting the Buddhist scriptures of conversion.

I nodded and glanced at the Cyberwatch.

The time is now 2:46. We had about two and a half hours left before we left for work. it’s pretty slow

… I hope you reach your goal score today.

* * *

“These crazy bastards… .”

The two-handed controller, designed to act as both a keyboard and a mouse, was clenched brittle and gently put down.

If it breaks, it’s a big deal.

no money to ask It’s also an old-fashioned controller that’s hard to find these days.

When you take off the helmet-type headset with the built-in monitor, the scene of a devastating defeat disappears before your eyes.

In the end, compared to the time invested today, the game score was still at a standstill.

You only need to raise 100 points, but it’s hard as if you’ve hit a wall.

You take a deep breath and stand up from your seat.

What I played was a non-virtual online game.

The legacy of an older generation forgotten with the commercialization of neural interface technology and the proliferation of VR e-drugs.

A healthy electronic entertainment designed to achieve a sense of accomplishment with only one’s control, effort, and a small charge without brain manipulation. The closest source to the original meaning of the game.

It can be seen as a more advanced form of computer games played in the past.

It is a non-mainstream of the minority, but it is in a position of standing on the edge of a cliff right before it goes extinct.

Whether this game center only handles e-drugs or not, if you go really deep, there are about one or two devices dealing with these kinds of classic games.

That’s why I keep stopping by the Kabuki Game Center.

Whether you want to feel nostalgic for computer games of the past, or you want to soothe your tiring daily life with online games… It wasn’t for that reason.

For that reason, I would have chosen a single healing game rather than a competitive or PVP type of game.

If that had been the case, there would have been no need to be terribly teased and tremble with a sense of defeat.

The reason I keep going even though I suffer so much is because I have a clear purpose.

“Video Game Addicts (Arcadenik):

Pick one of the old-fashioned fringe online competitive games piled up in dust at game centers all over Dusk City to achieve a certain score in a ranked game.”

kind of… Should it be called Hidden Peace? It was one of the hidden achievements of the original game.

The reason I still remember it is because the conditions for achievement were easy and simple, and the rewards were quite savory.

In the strategy video, it was emphasized in bold letters that it would be beneficial to unconditionally break this achievement.

Of course, that it is easy is the story of the game to the last.

The character of the player in the game is full of talent, so after trying a few times, he automatically achieves the goal score, but in reality, it was not easy at all with my physical abilities.

I wasn’t one of those people who heard that I couldn’t play anywhere, but these non-mainstream classic game users seem to be just idiots.

When I tried a shooting game, I couldn’t get my headshots right over and over again through tiny gaps in buildings.

When I play a fighting game with a sword and a shield, I attack the 0.1-second gap between my character’s movements and cut off limbs in an instant.

It has to be said that it feels similar to the old characters who almost took over the classic arcade games.

They were great gatekeepers who prevented my score from going up above a certain level with great and even bizarre plays.

There is no special equipment for the very Jangpanpa.

Eat rice all day and just watch this one. Or the reaction speed is beyond imagination due to body remodeling.

Anyway, today was a failure.

I don’t even have the motivation to try again because of those crazy bastards. If I try to match again, I will only meet the same guys.

When will you be successful in this trend?

Will it be successful in the first place?

And even if you succeed, will there be a reward? .

That was the question.

Perhaps they are trying to confirm the existence of the reward itself rather than the profit to be obtained from the reward.

In the original story, when the target score was achieved, a masked old gentleman in a tuxedo appeared and asked to choose from several options, such as experience points, high-ranking weapons, and additional body modifications.

If you choose one, you will be rewarded as it is.

What would it be like now that the world in the game has become a reality?

If the target score is achieved, will an old gentleman in tuxedo appear out of nowhere?

What will be the reward options?

Even with additional modifications and weapons, the experience value must be a concept that cannot be applied in reality.

It is a well-known fact that this is the Dusk City of the game world.

However, do the elements in the game work even when they come to reality, and if it works, is the place where I am located in reality or a world made up of 0 and 1 data in the game?

Was this really the future of the 21st century Earth where I lived, or was it just falling into a parallel world that looked similar?

There are many questions that have not been revealed yet.

And this hidden achievement was perhaps the only clue.

All the other elements in the original game are too complicated to forget, or even if I remember, they are just difficult and dangerous types that are impossible for me to challenge.

This is the reason why I never give up even though I am robbed like a dog every time, and I stop by the game center whenever I have free time to challenge myself.

… Well, if you leave out the dirty, dead players, the game itself is also fun.

As for the future technology, the graphics, controls, and sound are all excellent.

Raising the score is sometimes difficult, but if it hadn’t been for it, I could have enjoyed it as a daily pleasure.

Right now, the stress was just as great as the fun. It wasn’t just entertainment, it was homework.

And today’s homework must be postponed to tomorrow.

It’s already past five o’clock.

I have to stop here because of time and go to work soon. I don’t think there will be any outstanding results if I do more.

Tomorrow’s me who will try again will show better skills than today’s me.

I gave up neatly, paid the fee and left the Kabuki Game Center.

“… .”

Startle.

The moment I stepped out of the flashing game center front door, I had a subtle feeling as if someone was watching me.

I looked around, but no one was there.

As usual, on the plastic wall covered with graffiti, the long hanging pachinko machines flickered in place with a buzzing sound.

… Maybe it’s the mood

With that in mind, I urged my heavy steps every day.

Oh, I don’t want to go to work.

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