Han Sung-hyuk was living in a villa belonging to his character’s father, a walled and tranquil palace with about five servants. We decided I would have to hide in a barely used antechamber for a while until a strategy became clear to us. At least I didn’t need to eat or any other normal human function.

  Still, it was tedious, dodging servants to catch precious glimpses of the sun and breaths of fresh air. Although there was no sign of pursuit, I couldn’t be careless.

  We spun the wheel every day. On the second day, I received a few coins, but on the third day, Han Sung-hyuk lit up with a sudden silvery glow. Stowing away the box of Strength-boosting tteokbokki I had just received, I watched him warily. The beautiful light pulsed momentarily, then vanished.

  “What happened?”

  “I got a special Skill,” he replied, voice hushed with disbelief. “Holy shit.”

  I tried not to laugh in surprise. His exclamation had made him sound like a normal guy of his age, for a change.

  What else could we do? I languished in the antechamber, peering through the lattice of the window at the blue sky, the leaves on the trees outside beginning to yellow as the days grew shorter.

  I finally received my own special Skill on Day 10. I lit up with a soft silver light, and felt a ripple run across my whole body as a dialogue box announced:

  For once, I barely registered the stupid comments of the game. How far, fast and high could I fly? I wanted to test it out immediately, but I curbed my excitement. There would be opportunities to test this later, somewhere safer where I wasn’t a wanted fugitive.

  I received another special skill on the thirteenth day:

  This one made me panic. I didn’t have a bad voice, I thought, but singing in public sounded like being lowered over a pit of scorpions. I had to be dragged to the microphone at karaoke, usually by Poppy and Lee Wai Meng, although I would usually only crumble when Tommy gave me quietly pleading eyes.

  Lee Wai Meng would have to drag me by himself now.

  Han Sung-hyuk received his second special Skill on the fifteenth. Otherwise, spin after spin yielded only small, random items, occasionally skills, and some money.

  Half a month had come and gone. The gingko trees in the courtyard were clothed in gold. There were five months to the official’s examination. I was already going insane.

  There was no other way out, except to wait for Han Sung-hyuk to pass.

  Then on the seventeenth day, the wheel tik tik tiked before my eyes to the gold panel.

  Almost falling over my own feet, I dashed to Han Syung-hyuk’s room and hammered on the door. I didn’t care about hiding now. I just wanted to get out.

  “Han… Sung-hyuk. Sung-hyuk! I got an Autopass! We can leave the game now! We don’t have to wait until the exam!”

  The door flew open as I swung my fist and I topped straight into the man himself. I was about to apologise, but he grabbed my wrists with clear excitement. “We can get out of here? We can get out? Yes! Yes, get us out of here!”

  Nothing else needed to be said; I activated the Autopass with immense relief. The world shimmered.

  I locked eyes with Han Sung-hyuk. It was hard to tell with the scenario world disintegrating, but he seemed to look as relieved as I felt. Were his eyes a little pink?

  “Sung –”

  Thanks. I’m so happy that I want to punch this game in the face.

  I materialised in the room of doors.

  I let my legs give way and collapsed on the stone floor, breathing deeply to try and combat the welling feeling in my eyes. Curled on the cold ground in the foetal position, drained, I closed my eyes and began to quietly sob.

  When I ran out of energy to cry, I realised I was praying silently. I still didn't believe in God. But I would take anything I could get.

  Please, please let my friends be with me in the next scenario. Please let us all get out safely. Please.

  Breathing heavily, I twisted enough to read the text box. I had to read the words several times before they sank in.

  “Yes.”

  The lobby shrank into a pinprick and I was back amongst the nodes of my skill web.

  At this stage of the game, that was barely anything. And I’d lost any chance of gaining anything by using the Autopass. I had to try and do what I could with this meagre number of points.

  I examined the nodes around me again, now dimmed to grey without Experience Points to power them. Only two glowed softly in the darkness, Angel’s Flight and Angelic Voice untethered by Experience.

  Aura, Heal and Divine Wrath were all skills I had invested in previously. But there were others –

  I thought I heard a whisper, an old man’s voice, but I blocked my ears to the sound.

  I ignored the stupid commentary. Fifteen Experience Points went into obtaining Level 2 in each skill. The last ten Experience Points I eventually divided between Divine Wrath, Sanctuary, and Dispel Curse, bringing them all to Level 3 with only 1 unusable Experience Point left.

  “Yes.”

  Breathe. “Yes.”

  Slow and stiff, and headed for Door Five, each step heavier, slower, than the last. I closed my eyes as I stepped through, and when I opened them again...

  I was still alone.

  I looked at the tasks. My eyes lingered on ‘man-devouring’, and then on the two cryptic tasks. Then I closed the textboxes and looked around.

  I stood in a wooden hut, it seemed, the walls hung with bells and jewel-toned fabrics. Turning, I jumped at the sight of a goat skull mounted on the wall behind me.

  Man-devouring.

  There may not be only goat skulls in here.

  A stove radiated heat into the small space, warming my face, while my back felt a chill from the outside. I pushed open a door and a flurry of snow leapt into my face, and when I finally reopened my eyes, I could see that I was surrounded by dark and frozen woods.

  I closed the door again, retreating back into the warmth. I found a stuffed stool and pulled it before the stove, staring into the flames.

  This was... peaceful. Nobody here to fight against. Nobody to be afraid of.

  But my friends were out there somewhere.

  Lee Wai Meng and Calvin.

  Peach.

  Jesse.

  They would be here soon, I was sure, so I could wait. The passing days in this cosy little cabin were so different from the trudge of the ones hidden in the antechamber. Sometimes, at night, my mind would wander back to that scenario, wondering what would have happened if I hadn’t found an Autopass, then my mind would skitter away like it had touched a flame.

  I didn’t do any dailies. I didn’t spin the wheel.

  I sat at the window of the cabin and watched the world as it snowed, and I walked out and left prints when the blizzards stopped. I had never seen snow before. I didn’t realise it was so… silent. The deep glittering softness covered everything, until all I could see and hear was white silence, like I was swaddled in a thick blanket.

  I made tea, not because I needed it, but because it was there in the kitchen, and at night, even the goat skulls that hung on the fenceposts of the house, burning suddenly with a flame that would light itself at dusk and extinguish with the dawn, were more comforting than the thoughts and dreams that began to follow me through the night like wild dogs.

  I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t want to be awake.

  The first knock on the door came after a week.