I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-1

Ch-1. **Hidden Piece**

—

“What the hell. What kind of trash game is this.”

Staring at the words *Game Over* blazing across the monitor, I clenched my fist.

The moment the character I had poured my heart and soul into disintegrated into thin air—

It was a miracle I didn’t hurl the mouse across the room. The rage that surged up was that intense.

But as if used to it, I soon calmed my heart and put a cigarette to my lips.

“…Seriously, my life is legendary too. Who else spends over five years playing one damn game.”

Lighting the cigarette, I looked out the window.

Come to think of it, who am I to call anything trash?

My parents named me Park Hyun-myung, hoping I would live wisely. But my days were anything but wise.

Outside, the sun was already high in the sky.

A weekday, not a weekend. A time when everyone else was working hard.

Meanwhile, I—a certified bum—hadn’t even washed, sitting here like a shut-in, absorbed in a game.

“Time to quit.”

The game *Pangaenia*, which had enjoyed a brief spike of popularity five years ago.

Back when it launched, people cursed it out as a “crazy game.”

Why? Because when your character dies, **everything** evaporates, and the player has no choice but to start again from scratch.

On top of that, it boasted unprecedented, brutal difficulty. No one had ever cleared it.

Maybe that’s why.

Its short-lived popularity died out in an instant.

Honestly, at this point, I’m not even sure if anyone besides me still plays it.

The concurrent user count displayed on the official website’s server always reads either 0 or 1.

For reference:
0 = when I’m not playing.
1 = when I’m playing.

…It’s a doomed game with a single active user, and yet they still haven’t shut down the servers. Miraculous, really.

Well, I had plenty of time anyway.

Quit my job. Broke up with the girlfriend who nagged me every day.

“Ha… damn it.”

A memory flashed abruptly, and I tightly shut my eyes.

*—Oppa, you’re a good person, but… I’m sorry. I can’t stay with someone who has no future. I’m at the age where I have to think about marriage now.*

I got dumped. Hard. By the girlfriend I’d dated for five years.

Apparently I was the only one who pictured a future together.

*—All my friends are dating or marrying people from big companies or professional fields, but you… haa. Forget it. Let’s end this.*

And she wrapped it up on her own and walked away. What a bitch.

Thanks to her, I also quit my “no-future” job. What am I supposed to do now? Maybe I should learn a trade or something.

*Click.*
I picked up the mouse.

The message *Would you like to create a character?* appeared on the screen.

“Life is all about the final final attempt.”

That’s what I thought when I created the previous character too. But the last of the last is always the real last.

Of course, aside from the one that had just been deleted, there were countless characters already sitting in the list.

Some had reached max level, others were decked out with all sorts of treasures—but even then, I was certain none of them had the specs needed to clear the game.

This insane game has certain sections where the difficulty spikes into sheer nonsense.

Bosses that make you wonder if clearing them is even intended, allies who suddenly betray you out of nowhere, named NPCs who track you down and kill you if you get a bounty on your head…

For example, I created a character called “The Brain-Dead Hunter” just to test if the developers even monitor the game. He was max level, had several treasure-grade items, but he’d done so many depraved things that a top-tier bounty was placed on him by named NPCs—so the moment you log in, he gets insta-killed.

Some named NPCs are among the strongest in the world, surpassing the player’s max level. Once such monsters mark you, your character is as good as deleted.

So I can’t even log in with him anymore.

Anyway—

“Let’s just play for fun. For fun.”

The character I had created with the intention of clearing the game ended up deleted too.

Just thinking of the items I’d equipped him with was enough to make me cry. I had gathered every unique-grade item from my other characters and funneled them all into him…

There are 15 known unique-grade items in Pangaenia. I had dumped eight of them onto that one character.

It was a historic gamble. If he died, five years’ worth of effort would vanish.

And he died. Character deleted, items gone. Damn it all…

*1.6 million Soul Points? Unique items really do give insane amounts of points.*

But when you lose something, you gain something too.

Pangaenia has a Soul Point (SP) system.

When a character dies, their value is converted into points.

Players can use those Soul Points to give new characters certain advantages.

Across five years, after hundreds of character deletions, I’d only gathered about 80,000 SP. But when that character holding eight unique items died, I suddenly gained 1.6 million.

Not just the unique items—his chapter progression was the highest of all my characters. He was undoubtedly the closest I’d ever gotten to clearing the game.

*One talent costs 10,000 SP to max out on creation…*

The primary use of Soul Points is for “Talents.”

When creating a character, you can invest SP into talents, and depending on the amount invested, the character’s growth skyrockets.

The cap is 10,000 SP per talent.

For reference, the character “Pollack Conan,” who I once invested 10,000 SP into swordsmanship, earned the title *Master of the Blade*—and then died.

*Normally, I’d invest in the lightning-type magic talent…*

There are a few established routes. The safest is lightning-attribute magic.

But this game has hundreds of talents to invest in. With 1.6 million SP, I can’t max out everything, but I can max out a damn lot.

*If you invest 3,000 SP into each of the Five Great Elements, you unlock the Void attribute. Then if you put 5,000 into Void, you get the Void trait…*

Talents give birth to other talents. A kind of hidden piece. Pangaenia is full of these “designs.” Even I—one of the most veteran players—haven’t uncovered them all.

*If I get the Void trait, I can use opposing magics. I’ll be able to level Light and Darkness affinity together. Gotta take that.*

Ordinarily, a character cannot use conflicting elemental attributes simultaneously unless through tools or special mediums.

But with the *Void Trait*, one can wield such contradictory magic and attributes.

The catch? Getting Void alone costs 20,000 SP, making you short on points for other talents.

And this is an already difficult game. If your character dies, the SP you invested disappears too. It’s hard to start with strong talents.

*But real fun comes from randomness. Let’s go, All Random!*

Planning routes and calculating things only gives headaches. If I want to truly enjoy the game one last time, nothing is more certain than the All Random option.

Every trait—everything—randomized.

A disastrous choice, yet a smile tugged at my lips.

No more clearing attempts. Just pure fun.

I wager all 1.6 million SP on pure randomness.

*Not like I can clear it anyway.*

I’ve tried every trick in the book to beat this game.

To cut to the chase, this game wasn’t released to be cleared.

Back when Pangaenia launched, the developer once declared to the players:

—*Anyone who clears the game, I will grant them one wish.*

Granting a dream. Any dream. That single statement made countless people attempt—and fail.

Five years later, the game still remains uncleared.

Up until about a year ago, there were still a few players. But now, it’s just me.

Still, for the first and last time, I intend to truly enjoy the game.

*Press it?*

I’ve randomized appearance before, but never chosen *Total Random*. Even among players, the “All Random” button was infamous for being utterly inefficient and pointless.

The distilled essence of all this time. A choice that held everything. Deciding wasn’t easy.

I closed my eyes.

And then—

*Click!*

I pressed it.

Decisively. And dice began to roll, determining everything at random.

But that wasn’t the end.

<Hidden Piece has been activated.>

<Congratulations! You have met the singularity requirement and are invited to Pangaenia!>

A message I had never seen before floated onto the monitor.

“Hidden Piece?”

【O you who dwell in the whirlpool of creation and destruction, brighter than light and darker than darkness. May you find happiness in Pangaenia.】

The game’s intro sequence began to play.

I tried to press the skip button as usual—

“Huh…?”

The text started to ooze out of the monitor.

And then—

—*O accursed god! I shall burn every world you have created!*

A voice like scraping metal rang out.

At the same time, a hellscape unfolded before my eyes.

The continent of Pangaenia fell onto Earth, and both crumbled together.

Not crude in-game graphics—this looked real. The quality was absurd.

Was there ever such a scene in the intro?

The question lasted only a moment.

For my consciousness faded into the distance.