Before Warlord, online games were just another hobby.
After Warlord, they became careers.
By 2035, the world’s first fully immersive virtual reality game has grown into something few people could have predicted. Professional players sign sponsorships worth millions, famous guilds operate like real companies, and the rarest items can be worth more than a house. Winning inside the game no longer earns bragging rights alone, it can decide what kind of life a person lives outside of it as well.
An Jaehyun throws himself into that world with everything he has.
He is talented enough to stand alongside the best, stubborn enough to keep pushing when others quit, and ambitious enough to believe that one day he can challenge the handful of guilds sitting comfortably at the top. Along with companions he trusts, he helps build the Hahoe Mask Guild into a name capable of shaking the balance of power. For a while, it feels as though every difficult choice and sleepless night is finally leading somewhere.
Then everything falls apart, and it happens because of the people standing closest to him.
The betrayal doesn’t just cost An Jaehyun his place inside Warlord. It takes away years of effort, the future he imagined for himself, and the people he thought would be standing beside him until the end. By the time the dust settles, the famous player known throughout the game is gone, replaced by someone trying to make ends meet while watching former allies enjoy the rewards that should have been shared.
Most people would call that the end of the story.
For An Jaehyun, it turns out to be the beginning.
Without warning, he wakes up at the point where everything originally started, long before the guild existed, before the betrayals, before anyone knew his name. This time he remembers all of it. The hidden quests that will change the game, the mistakes that slowly trapped him, the faces behind friendly smiles, even the opportunities that slipped through his fingers the first time around. Knowing the future doesn’t guarantee victory, but it does make every decision matter a little more.
So he makes himself a promise, one simple enough to remember.
He will stop depending on people who can abandon him when success is within reach.
Armed with experience that no new player should possess, An Jaehyun steps back into Warlord determined to reach the top by his own hands. Every dungeon, raid, rare item, and dangerous quest becomes another move in a game he has already lost once, except this time he has no intention of following the same script, and the world that once discarded him may not be ready for a player who already knows where the road leads.
