Chapter 2. The Beginning of Restructuring ()
Ten years ago, a car accident changed everything for Lee Eun-Ho. He lost both his parents, and the body that he had once considered his greatest asset—his future—became nothing more than a burden. Every door in life slammed shut before him.
From the moment Lee Eun-Ho opened his eyes and swung his legs off the bed every morning, despair clung to him. It stayed with him through each agonizing movement until he crawled back into bed at night.
It struck whenever he entered the bathroom, bent over to wash his face, struggled into his pants, slung a bag over his shoulder and stepped outside, chose the subway over buses, and faced stares whether going up or down.
No one knew better than Lee Eun-Ho himself just how stiff his right leg had become and just how heavy it felt. The sensation of it refusing to move no matter how hard he tried had been etched so deeply into his being that he could even feel it in his dreams.
Now, he was told that his limp—his uneven gait—had improved.
[Trial reward has been granted.] [Limp recovery progress: 20%.]
To the average person, a phrase like ‘limp recovery’ would have meant very little. However, Lee Eun-Ho could tell instantly.
Swish. Tap.
There had been a difference—subtle, nearly imperceptible, but undeniably there. His leg felt lighter, even if only by a few grams.
Certainly, but ever so slightly, his leg was moving according to his will.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart pounded with a surge of hope—something he had not felt in years. The good kind of pressure, now almost unfamiliar, had cleared his head like a gust of fresh wind.
Time, which had stood still for a decade, finally started to move again. He felt like standing at the starting line of a race—both feet planted in the blocks, waiting for the starting gun.
“Hey, what’s this? Did you guys see that too?” one of the game company employees asked, tone edged with confusion.
“It’s telling us to pick a trial reward?”
The group started looking around.
Whoosh. Whoosh—!
One employee waved his hand through the space, then waved again.
“It disappears and then comes back,” he muttered. He pinched the status window and spread his fingers. “And we can resize things! What else can we do?”
Excitement sparked in his eyes as he started shouting. “Status window! Inventory! Skills!”
It sounded as though he was casting spells.
“Nah, I’m only getting a status window.”
“Is this some kind of virtual reality? Has my time finally come?”
“Your time? You’ve been reading way too many web novels.”
While some spoke nonsense with ridiculous seriousness, others clung to their phones, reporting what they were seeing and hearing from elsewhere.
People mentioned a giant circle appearing in the sky and reported people vanishing without a trace. Others insisted it was all a hoax.
Lee Eun-Ho’s phone remained silent, as always. However, ringtones and alerts rang nonstop around him. There was no need for him to check the news; it had been unfolding in real time all around him.
“We’re clearly not the only ones involved in this trial,” Lee Eun-Ho said.
“Sorry, um, E-Eun-Ho? C-can you see this?” Ji-Eun asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, I can see it. Glad I’m not the only one losing my mind.”
“You can see my screen? The image too?” Ji-Eun flinched dramatically, seemingly worried that he could see her avatar, which was just wearing underwear.
“No. I only see myself on my screen. You know... my affiliation, stats, and stuff like that," Lee Eun-Ho immediately reassured her.
“Phew... Anyway, who’s messing with us? Something about Earth, they say? What kind of prank is this?”
Ji-Eun called it a prank, but Lee Eun-Ho thought differently as he moved his right leg forward, then back again.
Swish. Swish.
Although just slightly, he could now move his leg. If the miracle of reviving his dead leg was a prank, he was ready to give it everything he had.
“There must be more trials, right?” Lee Eun-Ho asked. “I’m pretty sure the announcement mentioned that this was our first trial.”
“Oh, did it say that?” Ji-Eun replied.
“If the broadcast is telling the truth, then this is probably some kind of elimination process with multiple rounds of trials. I just wish they told us how many people they planned to leave standing.”
“Eun-Ho, do you really believe all this? Weren’t you just about to leave a minute ago?” Ji-Eun asked.
She bit her lip as she glanced at him nervously, clearly skeptical about the part about restructuring or removal. She did not see Manager Choi vanish with her own eyes, after all.
It did sound crazy, though—people vanishing like files being deleted. However, even so, Ji-Eun’s disbelief frustrated Lee Eun-Ho. Perhaps it was his own desperation making him impatient.
“I want the reward,” Lee Eun-Ho muttered.
“The reward?” Ji-Eun asked.
[The second trial will begin shortly at 1:30 PM. Safe zones will be generated randomly at the start of the trial. Please remain alert.]
Lee Eun-Ho grabbed Ji-Eun’s hand just as she started biting her nails again.
“Ji-Eun! The first safe zone—the one we’re in right now—is at the center of the twenty-fifth floor, right?”
“Yeah, because the east side is closer to the café elevator, and the west side is the smoking area.”
“And you haven’t seen anyone come up here since the announcement, have you?”
“No, not a single person.”
Seeing no one else had come to this safe zone, Lee Eun-Ho made an assumption. “Then I’m guessing there’s a safe zone on every floor.”
“So do we just wait here?”
“I don’t think so. That first trial was probably just a tutorial. It was easy because it's supposed to show us how trials work.”
“So if there’s no safe zone nearby next time...” Lee Eun-Ho muttered.
“We might not reach it in time...”
“That too. But it could be already full when we get there.”
“What happens then? Does that mean we failed the trial?”
Would someone really just turn around and say, ‘Guess I was too late!’?
“People would likely try to fight for it.”
Lee Eun-Ho had to stay rational and prepare for the worst-case scenario.
“First, we need to find something that we can use as a weapon,” Lee Eun-Ho added.
“A weapon...? Are you serious about fighting?”
“I don’t know if we'll find anything useful, but we should at least try.”
This was just an office building—there would not exactly be a pile of weapons lying around. Chairs were too heavy, while box cutters and scissors were too short. They could not exactly swing a keyboard like a sword either.
“A mop, maybe?” Lee Eun-Ho suggested.
“You mean a cleaning mop?” Ji-Eun asked to confirm.
“It’s big and heavy, though... so maybe it wouldn’t be very efficient, especially if we need to use the stairs.”
Ji-Eun remained silent.
“There’s a janitor’s closet on every floor. Let’s keep brainstorming as we go,” Lee Eun-Ho said.
Lost in thought, Lee Eun-Ho felt Ji-Eun’s wide, uncertain eyes staring at him. It was 1:15 PM already; they only had fifteen minutes left before the second trial. They had no time to waste.
“If you’re uncomfortable, feel free to head back to the office. I’m not trying to pressure you,” Lee Eun-Ho said.
“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that... suddenly talking about fighting and weapons threw me off.”
“If that’s all, you can panic later. Let’s get through the trial first.”
“Eun-Ho, you feel kind of different.”
Leaving Ji-Eun behind, who looked conflicted, Lee Eun-Ho limped away, scanning the area carefully.
“Anyway, grab something useful if you see any. It can be anything easy to carry.”
“W-wait, you want me to carry something too?” Ji-Eun pointed at herself in disbelief.
Did she think she wouldn’t have to fight?
“You have to protect yourself, don’t you?”
1:25 PM.
"Only ten minutes left. Let's just wait here for now," Lee Eun-Ho said.
“You want to take the stairs?” Ji-Eun asked.
“I mean, if there’s no safe zone on the rooftop, we’ll need to be able to go down quickly.”
“Let’s take the elevator, Eun–Ho.”
“You know what it’s like during rush hour. I think we’ll have hundreds of people squeezing into three elevators.”
“But Eun–Ho, y-you don’t like stairs.”
The concern in her voice made Lee Eun–Ho smile. She was right. His steps were painfully slow, and it exhausted not just his injured leg but his whole body. Still, if enduring a little pain meant reviving a leg that had felt dead for a decade, he'd be more than willing to persist.
“I’ll be fine.”
***
[The trial is starting. Please evacuate to the safe zone before time runs out.]
“Eun-Ho, look at this!” Ji-Eun shouted.
A new window had appeared in front of her, hovering just above her status window—a floating, semi-transparent, white rectangle about the size of a twenty-seven-inch monitor.
“It looks like a map of the building!” Ji-Eun added.
“Well, that’s something. I was worried we’d have to search every floor,” Lee Eun-Ho replied.
The display showed a familiar setting in an unfamiliar style. The MS Tower had twenty-five floors in total. A blinking pin highlighted their location, and several areas were marked in green to indicate safe zones.
“Well, it seems like the safe zones are located on floors nineteen, eleven, and three. What should we do?” Ji-Eun asked.
“Let's go to the closest one. Run!” Lee Eun-Ho replied.
Clunk!
As Lee Eun-Ho flung open the fire door that led to the stairs, he caught sight of a blinking clock next to the floor plan.
[09:50]
***
“Haa... haah...” Lee Eun-Ho was out of breath.
“You okay, Eun–Ho?” Ji-Eun asked.
His clothes clung to his sweat-drenched body. He felt extremely exhausted, but they had at least made it to the twentieth floor. They were just half a flight away from the safe zone on the nineteenth floor.
Keep going.
Lee Eun-Ho reminded himself that it was just like the interval drills from his track days.
Sprint one minute, jog the next.
Ji-Eun glanced at him, clearly worried. “Should we stop for a second? You seem really exhausted...”
“N-nah, I’m fine. I’m not tired at all.”
How could I be tired?
Feeling his right foot make solid contact with the ground was exhilarating. The sensation of running—real running—left him so breathless it almost brought him to tears.
If all this is from just one reward, what would happen if I got a full recovery?
“Eun-Ho...”
“We’re here. We’re on the nineteenth floor.”
Clunk!
When he opened the fire door, a scene vastly different from the rooftop greeted him. A crowd was already buzzing inside. Some sat on the ground, others stood in tense groups, and some rushed from one spot to another.
They all had different expressions but shared one behavior—stealing glances at the elevator lobby where the green border indicated safety.
“Hey, Ji-Eun! What’s going on here?!” a man shouted from nearby.
“Oh, Team Leader Park!”
“People are saying others vanished into thin air! If someone’s trying to cause panic and slack off, they'll be faced with disciplinary actions!”
She chuckled awkwardly, but Team Leader Park—middle-aged and clearly irritated—gave Eun-Ho a strange look.
“Why are you drenched in sweat? Don’t tell me you two were caught up in this nonsense too...”
“We’re in a hurry, so please excuse us,” Lee Eun-Ho said.
“What?”
"Take care, sir!" Ji-Eun hurried after Lee Eun-Ho, leaving the awkward encounter behind
[02:20]
They were running out of time.
“That’s our head of Management Support. Their office is on the nineteenth floor!” Ji-Eun added.
“Ah, okay,” Lee Eun-Ho absentmindedly replied; he really couldn't care less. “Anyway, we made it.”
Through the glass doors was the elevator lobby, where a green glow lined the walls. Dozens of people were already gathered inside.
“There are... quite a lot of people here already,” Lee Eun-Ho commented.
“Yeah. How many people can this place even hold?” Ji-Eun asked.
Lee Eun-Ho was aware that the elevator area on each floor was identical in size.
“If packed tight, probably about a hundred.”
“A hundred? How do you know that, Eun-Ho?”
"Because it's about sixteen steps across and seven steps deep."
“Sorry, what?”
Ji-Eun stared at him as though he had just recited rocket science.
"So my steps are about thirty centimeters each, meaning it’s one person per step. Then, sixteen by seven is a hundred and twelve, so... let's call it around a hundred."
“Wait—do you measure your steps all the time?”
“It became a habit. You know, estimating steps and timing distances... It’s kind of automatic now.”
Genuinely amazed, Ji-Eun looked at him with her mouth agape. “Wow, Eun-Ho... that’s amazing!”
“Not really. It’s just... normal. Haha.”
“Normal? You’ve got killer spatial awareness.”
It was not anything special for Lee Eun-Ho. Back when he ran track, calculating how far he had left and how much energy to conserve was a necessity. Besides, after his accident, those habits only grew sharper.
“Looks like there are still a lot of people outside, though. We should stay alert,” Lee Eun-Ho warned.
Only about fifty seconds remained, and people were still pouring in.
“Hey, Assistant Manager Kang! Are you here for this trial thing too?” a man shouted.
“Ah, yeah. I felt uneasy ignoring it. What about you, sir?”
“Me? No, no. I have a client meeting. I was just about to leave.”
He’s going to a meeting in slippers?
Assistant Manager Kang gave the manager an obvious once-over. The manager cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward.
With under thirty seconds left, the lobby was now packed shoulder to shoulder. When the timer dipped below ten seconds, people started shoving.
“Hey! Move in a little, will you?!”
“Ow! Stop stepping on my feet!”
“Is that you, Team Leader?”
With under five seconds to go, the Management Support team leader stumbled for the door, his glasses crooked on his nose. However, he did not make it; the wall of bodies blocking the entrance did not budge.
“Wasn’t he the one threatening disciplinary action earlier?”
“What do we do? He’s not going to make it!”
[Three, two, one.]
“Stop pushing!”
“W-wait!”
[00:00]
[Time is up. Trial complete.]
The second trial ended.
“I-I made it in, right? I did... didn’t I?”
Only Team Leader Park’s upper body had made it past the glass doors.