Surviving Among the Entities

I started my day with an early morning shower. Beyond the bathroom door, my phone was playing YouTube news at maximum volume, having replaced the TV.

[Next story: Kim Hyeong-un, the perpetrator of the indiscriminate knife attack on the tree-lined street this morning around 5 AM, has ultimately passed away in the hospital. He was recently receiving psychiatric treatment, according to reports about the assailant who killed around twelve pedestrians in the random stabbing incident on the tree-lined street.]

As hot water scorched my body, I looked into the mirror and made eye contact with my reflection.

[He was my university classmate, and I felt something was off about him even back then. How should I put it…he seemed normal usually, but there were times his gaze would turn chilling and give me the creeps, making me think he was going to commit a huge crime one day.]

My left brown eye and my right eye that appears brown at a glance but has a faint bluish tinge swirling within.

[I had an bad feeling about him from the start, so I didn’t associate with that friend much. I can read faces, and his features showed he was selfish, quick to anger, and treated others like objects. But I never imagined he’d do something this horrific…]

The gift, or calamity in the guise of a gift, left by the Blue Moon – I still haven’t discovered its purpose and abilities.

[Based on the extremely violent game found on Kim Hyeong-un’s computer, some believe the perpetrator became unable to distinguish reality from the game due to gaming addiction. Let’s hear an expert’s opinion on this.]

Well, I’ll figure it out eventually. But since I’ve decided to squirm, I need to go out for proper preparations today.

[Yes, regarding the game Stardew Valley found on the perpetrator’s computer, it may seem like just a farming game at first glance. But if you look deeper, you’ll find it has an extreme level of emotional violence.]
[For what reason?]
[In addition to farming, Stardew Valley allows you to interact with virtual people. You can raise your relationship levels, and if you keep going, you can become lovers or even get married. But relationship levels can also decrease, and your spouse can get bored of you too.]
[What happens then?]
[You restart the game. Like a psychopath, treating everything that happened as if it meant nothing.]
[That’s really chilling.]
[The perpetrator was diagnosed with excessive stress at the psychiatric hospital. That means he harbored immense resentment towards society. An ordinary person would use normal methods like communication, compromise and effort to untangle their knotted threads. But Kim Hyeong-un likely lacked both the ability and the will to do so. He probably just wanted to reset everything like in a game.]

By the time I finished my shower, the news segment had also concluded.

[To prevent such incidents, we may need to register gaming addiction with a disease code and implement more thorough, stronger regulations on games…]

I turned off the lights in my home, which I may not return to for several days, and headed out.

“Shall I go retrieve it then?”

Surviving Among the Entities was never a popular game from the start. At least when I discovered it, it was just an ordinary dying indie game.

[Negative Review: This game is stupid fucking hard.]
[Negative Review: Is this a torture simulator? As advertised, you die constantly.]

It captured the creepypasta vibe well and did a good job depicting entities that humans cannot defy, but the problem was that it did too good a job, making survival itself near impossible.

[Negative Review: “Identify the randomly appearing entities’ dispositions and methods to overcome them, and survive for as long as possible!” <- The game description lmfaooo]
[Negative Review: “Desperately hope that the randomly appearing entities don’t show up, and test your luck! You die instantly if you encounter them!” <- I rewrote the description, how’s this?]

The progression of Surviving Among the Entities was as follows:

First, the game progressed in turns, and each turn you would wander around an area and trigger events. The events were divided into four types: positive events, negative events, mundane small talk with no changes, and entity-related events – according to the wiki, the probability for each was 30%, 30%, 30%, 10% respectively.

Second, for events other than small talk, the current situation would be displayed as text along with an image. After reading it, you would input text describing how you want to act, and the connected AI program would determine the outcome.

That was the entire game system – simple, but deceptively difficult due to its very simplicity.

[Negative Review: This game is like playing a TRPG. The dice has sides from 1 to 99, but you only roll 1s with a 99% chance. Utter garbage TRPG.]

The reason was that back then, there was no information available about the entities. In those days before the gallery or wiki existed, the entity information only existed in the developer’s mind.

[Negative Review: Hey dumbass, don’t you need to give hints about what the entities want or why they’re doing this? There are plenty of ways to include that, like a library or incident notebook? But this dogshit game just tells you to headbutt the ground without any hints, and makes you solve it subjectively instead of multiple choice? Did the dev not have a mom?]
└[Developer Response: Entities are beings that humans cannot defy. This game is about the fun of discovering that, so having too much info would ruin the fun.]
└[It’s not fun at all as is though?]

The developer had a strong artisan spirit and abundant passion for the game, but lacked understanding of the general public.

[“Guys, I made a game, wanna try it out?”]
[“Surviving Among the Entities? What is this? Don’t just randomly upload crap to the indie game gallery.”]

For me, the process of solving it was intriguing, so I hoped the game wouldn’t fail. Fortunately, the developer was someone who could improve, and he eventually broke his artisan spirit to accept input from other users. A gallery was created, then a wiki, widely disseminating entity information. The game became known as a difficult but playable creepypasta masterpiece.

‘Though it did become flooded with annihilation endings from listening to others’ opinions too much.’

But not all entities heralded annihilation and destruction. Sometimes there were merely useful tools or peculiar beings that meant no harm to humans.

‘Entities graded as having absolutely no danger to humans.’

The safety grade.
I will now go and encounter some of those.

[“Gangbyeon Station, this is Gangbyeon Station. Exit is on the left.”]

The history of humanity is a struggle of classes.

-Where are you headed?
“One ticket to Yangyang, please.”s constantly seek to divide into hierarchies and categorize each other, striving to achieve a sense of superiority through ranks. This persists into the modern era, with ranks being established in numerous fields.

“Want to stop at the rest area on the way?”
“Why? Need to use the bathroom?”
“No? The walnut cookies at rest stops are the truth, you don’t want any?”
“Can’t eat on the express bus, right?”
“Just eat them all before getting on then.”

Whether your university is in Seoul or a regional one, public or private.
Whether the car you drive is a foreign or domestic brand.
Whether your workplace is a large corporation or an SME.

“Then let’s depart.”

And among entities, there were also ranks – four grades to distinguish them.

“We’ll take a 10-minute break at the rest stop~”

The most destructive grade with the power to annihilate something: the “Annihilation Grade”.

However, even within the same grade, there was a wide gap. Some could only annihilate a single city at most, but depending on the entity, they could annihilate regions, nations, continents, the world, or even the entire universe.

“Then let’s go~”
“Driver! Wait a moment! We didn’t get on yet!”
“Waah! Waaaah!”
“Ugh! Stop drooling and swallow before talking!”

Next was the “Danger Grade”, one step below the Annihilation Grade.

Entities with formidable power, but whose physical attacks could be blocked or tended to claim only a few victims.

“We’ve arrived in Yangyang~”

Third was the “Symbiosis Grade” – entities that don’t harm humans first or have no interest in humans at all.

Depending on how they were utilized, they could help humans or cooperate in sealing or driving out other entities. But conversely, if handled incorrectly, they could easily become dangerous.

“Where would you like to go?”
“Do you happen to know where the Daerim Bookstore is located?”
“The Daerim Bookstore? Ah, over there! I know it. Shall we head there?”
“Yes, please.”

And finally, the “Safety Grade” that I intended to encounter now.

“That’ll be 8,900 won.”
“Thank you.”

For me, having never been to Gangwon Province except Cheorwon, the city of Yangyang was an unfamiliar place. But the run-down building that looked like it was built in the 80s before me was recognizable.

‘You have visited Yangyang, Gangwon Province. While wandering the city with nothing to see, you found your gaze drawn, as if entranced, towards a shabby, run-down bookstore.’

I checked the peeling paint on the signboard above the door.

‘The bookstore’s name is “Daerim Bookstore”. Upon entering, you were greeted by the musty smell of old books.’

As I slid open the door and went inside, the musty smell of old books welcomed me.

‘The elderly bookstore owner showed no interest in me, with an attitude suggesting I should buy something if I want, or just look around. While browsing the store, I discovered a peculiar book.’

Ignoring the indifferent old man, I looked around the bookstore and found a strange book atop a pile of used books in the corner.

‘The book was pure white, with the cover and contents all spotless white. A book without anything written on it resembled a notebook at first glance, but amidst this aging bookstore filled with old things, it alone looked brand new.’

I checked the very last page of the pure white book with its cover and contents pristine.

‘In the center of that last page, these words were written:’

[May fortune find you who discovered this.]

While purchasing the book, I tried conversing with the old man to ask where he had acquired it.

“One thousand won.”
“When did you acquire this book?”
“One thousand won.”
“Could you tell me where you got it?”
“One thousand won.”

Like a parrot, the old man only repeated the same response, making proper conversation impossible.

“I don’t have cash, let me get some money…”

No sooner had I finished speaking than he pulled out a card reader, giving an impression akin to someone whipping out a smartphone in an 80s period film setting – awkward yet quite comedic.

“Thank you. I’ll come again later.”

On my way to find a motel to stay the night, I pondered:

‘Has this bookstore been here originally, or did it appear when the entities became reality?’

Not all entities appear through random events. Certain ones appear at fixed locations with set probabilities, and this book I obtained was an entity that appeared in the fixed map of Yangyang.

‘I recall them saying the reason for creating maps was for those kinds of entities.’

However, as I hadn’t experimented yet, I purchased a pen from a convenience store on my way to the motel.

“The mother of success is not failure, but experimentation.”

After checking into my room, I wrote something on the very first page of the notebook. Upon closing the book, something came to mind:

[My Mind’s Notebook]
[Grade: Safety]
[A pristine white book without cover or contents. Anything written inside is stored in your mind, accessible at any time.]

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Got it.”

One concern has been eliminated.