Chapter 1

　　Don’t they say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re on the brink of death? Yeohwan thought blankly, blinking through eyelids sticky with blood.

　　Not the agonizing pain of his shattered bones, as though his entire body had been crushed flat. Not the grotesque angles of his twisted limbs. Not even the bloody foam gurgling up his throat with every attempted breath.

　　None of it could eclipse the presence of the massive window blotting out the sky.

　　[In a moment, your soul will be transferred to the Starting Member Selection Area.]

　　[Time remaining: 54 seconds]

　　To think this kind of pointless hallucination is what I see right before I die. I really was a gaming addict.

　　A wave of belated self-loathing and regret washing over him, Yeohwan’s consciousness swiftly faded away.

* * *

　　Hero of Knights.

　　Released in the first half of the year, this mobile game boasted a rather colorful identity as an “otome card collection strategy game.” It caused a massive stir, gaining sensational popularity within a single day of its release and instantly shooting into the top ten in grossing charts. Yeohwan had started the game because of that very hype.

　　[I thought it would just be romance since it’s an otome game, but the combat is the real deal.]

　　[The card illustrations are so pretty!]

　　[I started playing after I saw my girlfriend playing it and it’s a blast.]

　　‘Hero of Knights’, or ‘HoK’ for short, was on a completely different level from existing otome games.

　　“Form your own order of handsome knights and save the world.”

　　Of course it featured gorgeous illustrations and individual affinity storylines that fit its grand premise. But it also offered a combat-focused main story, an intricate strategy system, and progression mechanics that grew increasingly complex the deeper you delved. By drawing in other gamers who were crazy about strategy and progression, it successfully expanded its player base.

　　What the hell. This is actually amazing.

　　It was only natural that Yeohwan, who had started the game half out of curiosity, ended up completely hooked on ‘HoK’. He poured himself into the game, sparing no expense on microtransactions. His dwindling bank balance was a bit of an issue as the days went by, but that was it. He didn’t want to skimp on an investment in his own happiness.

　　Thanks to this, he managed to collect most of the knights, and as a result of his borderline obsessive analysis, a balance chart he posted on the game’s forum was even pinned by the admins. And that wasn’t all. By unsparingly devoting his money, time, and effort, Yeohwan firmly secured and maintained the number one spot on the server rankings.

　　It was fun. Seriously, he had lived like a total addict.

　　Was that why this was happening?

　　Yeohwan looked around with a vague sense of detachment. The space was dyed entirely white, as if flooded with light. There was no floor, no ceiling, and no conceivable end, just a space of absolute nothingness. Yeohwan stood blankly somewhere within that void. His body, which had been turned to pulp in the traffic accident, was perfectly restored. He felt no pain.

　　Could this be the afterlife? If it weren’t for the system window floating in the upper right corner of his vision, Yeohwan would have come to that conclusion.

　　[Please select your Starting Member.]

　　All around Yeohwan, “cards” floated in a wide circle. As he calmly inspected them one by one, his expression grew more and more complicated. Letting out a scoff, he finally tilted his head.

　　“Come on. Are you kidding me?”

　　The illustrations on the cards were all knights from ‘Hero of Knights’. Yeohwan had collected almost every knight in the game and used them to death. There was no way he wouldn’t recognize them.

　　Is this what the death of a gaming addict looks like?

　　Caught between bewilderment and disbelief, he stood speechless for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. Whether this was a delusion or not, he figured he might as well do something.

　　“If I have to choose, a natural S-Class card would be best… What the?”

　　As Yeohwan reached for the S-Class card he always depended on until recently, a transparent barrier materialized in front of him. He kicked it in annoyance, and a system window popped up as if it had been waiting.

　　[The maximum rank for a Starting Member is B-Class.]

　　“Then you should’ve said so from the start!”

　　Are you messing with me?

　　Feeling offended, he brushed his hair back in irritation and spun around. If the highest rank he could pick was B-Class, then he obviously had to choose a B-Class.

　　“A natural B-Class, huh…”

　　Before he knew it, Yeohwan was seriously evaluating the cards. His small head worked furiously, calculating which B-Class knight would yield the most optimal efficiency. A glint of a gaming addict’s madness flickered in his tenacious gaze.

　　Finally, his eyes settled on a single card.

　　“I used this guy a lot in the early game.”

　　Van Herdos.

　　A berserker in the bruiser position with an excellent balance of tanking and damage dealing. Though his rank had its limits, it was a card Yeohwan had used relentlessly until he built a deck of S-Class knights.

　　The moment he grasped the “Van Herdos” card, the system window appeared once more.

　　[Starting Member selection complete.]

　　[Shin Yeohwan’s “Soul Transfer” system will now initiate.]

　　[System guidance will commence upon the completion of the “Soul Transfer”. We wish you a pleasant journey.]

　　Soul transfer?

　　Before he could even process the unfamiliar phrase, the pure white space flashed and went dark.