# Chapter 1: Please Help! Goblins Stole My Chickens!
The fluorescent lights of GS25 convenience store flickered like a dying monster's last breath. Cha Hyun-woo mechanically scanned another cup of ramyeon, his eyes unfocused, watching the holographic news display above the register.
"...the Rank 1 Hunter 'Devilled' Jin Sunwook cleared the Velvet Tower's 87th floor solo today, setting a new world record..."
*Tch.* Hyun-woo's finger slipped on the scanner. Same news, different day. Hunters. Awakeners. Chosen ones. Everyone but him.
"That'll be 4,500 won."
The customer—a middle schooler wearing a PC bang jersey—tossed the money on the counter without looking up from his phone. On the screen, Hyun-woo caught a glimpse of *Eternal Saga Online*'s loading screen. Even kids these days were escaping into that virtual world.
"Must be nice," Hyun-woo muttered, watching the kid leave. "Being able to escape."
The store's gate sensor chimed. Then screamed.
The sound wasn't electronic—it was primal, wrong, like metal being torn by teeth. The windows exploded inward in a shower of glass and something else. Something red.
*Gate break.*
Hyun-woo's body moved before his mind could process. Three years of working night shifts in Seoul's worst district had taught him one thing: when a gate breaks, you run. But the middle schooler stood frozen in the doorway, ramyeon dropping from his hands as a shadow fell over him.
The goblin was wrong. Not the low-level green ones from the news—this thing stood seven feet tall, its skin mottled purple-black like bruised meat. One eye socket was empty, weeping pus. The other fixed on the kid with hungry intelligence.
*Move. MOVE!*
Hyun-woo vaulted over the counter. His sneakers skidded on spilled ramyeon broth as he grabbed the kid's collar, yanking him backward. The goblin's claw whistled through empty air where the boy's head had been.
"Run!" Hyun-woo shoved the kid toward the back exit. "GO!"
The goblin's remaining eye swiveled to him. Its mouth split into too many teeth.
"Krrr... human... weak..."
Hyun-woo's hand found the mop. Pathetic. Three years of gate breaks, and his only weapon was still a convenience store mop. The goblin laughed—a sound like grinding glass.
The first swing shattered the mop handle. The second broke Hyun-woo's wrist. The third never came.
Claws punched through his GS25 uniform vest, through skin, through everything that mattered. The pain was distant, academic. Hyun-woo found himself thinking absurdly about his manager complaining about the blood on the floor.
*At least... the kid got away.*
The goblin's face filled his vision, breath like rotted meat. "Weak... human... die..."
"Yeah?" Hyun-woo coughed, tasting copper. "Get in line."
The fluorescent lights flickered one last time. Then darkness. Then—
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
The words tore from Hyun-woo's throat without his permission. His eyes snapped open to blue sky, green grass, and the concerned face of a player character staring down at him.
*What?*
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
No. No, he tried to say. Where am I? What happened? But his mouth moved on its own, repeating the same phrase.
"Ugh, another fetch quest." The player—username [XxDarkSlayerxX]—clicked through dialogue options without reading. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Accept."
**[Quest Accepted: Retrieve Villager A's Chickens]**
Hyun-woo's body moved without his control, turning to point toward the forest. "They went that way! Please hurry!"
The player was already running off, probably to skip the quest entirely. Hyun-woo tried to follow, tried to scream, tried to do anything. His feet remained planted like roots.
*Move. MOVE!*
Nothing. His body stood in the same spot, same pose, waiting for the next player. The UI element floating above his head read:
**[Villager A]**
**[Level 1 NPC]**
**[Quest Available!]**
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
This time, he felt it—the system forcing the words through his lips. A female mage with pink hair and a cash shop outfit approached, her name tag reading [MoonlightEmpress].
"Oh, a quest!" She actually stopped, reading the dialogue box that appeared. Her eyes—impossibly detailed for a game—scanned the text. "Your chickens were stolen? That's terrible! Those must be important to you."
Hyun-woo wanted to cry. Wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her and scream that he was real, he was trapped, he was—
"They went that way! Please hurry!"
The same gesture. The same inflection. The same everything.
But the player—[MoonlightEmpress]—didn't immediately run off. She tilted her head, studying him with an expression that seemed almost... curious?
"Your eyes," she murmured. "They look so sad for an NPC."
*Please,* Hyun-woo begged silently. *See me. Help me.*
"Don't worry!" She gave him a thumbs up. "I'll get your chickens back! Every last one!"
She ran toward the forest, and Hyun-woo was alone again. Alone with the realization crushing down on him like a mountain.
He was dead.
He was in *Eternal Saga Online*.
He was an NPC.
The next player approached—[GodKiller69]. Hyun-woo's mouth opened automatically.
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
"Skip." The player ran past without stopping.
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
"Skip."
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
"God, this game needs a dialogue skip button."
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
Hours passed. Days? Time moved strangely here. Players came and went in an endless stream. Hyun-woo counted them at first. Ten. Fifty. Hundred. Thousand. He stopped at 3,847.
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
The words had lost all meaning. His throat didn't get sore. His legs didn't tire. He simply existed, a broken record in a digital world, screaming the same plea into an uncaring void.
Night fell in the game world. The player traffic slowed but never stopped—different time zones, he realized. Always someone, somewhere, starting their journey. Starting with him.
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
This player stopped. [BloodEmperor].
Hyun-woo's non-existent heart froze. Even as a newbie character, there was something different about this one. The way he moved. The casual cruelty in his eyes as he drew his sword.
"I heard NPCs drop items if you kill them enough times," the player mused. "Let's test that."
The blade went through Hyun-woo's chest. Pain—somehow worse than the goblin's claws—exploded through him. His HP bar drained to zero.
Darkness. Then—
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
He was back. Same spot. Same pose. [BloodEmperor] grinned.
"Interesting. No respawn timer for NPCs?"
The sword came again. And again. And again.
Death 1: Decapitation.
Death 2: Disembowelment.
Death 3: Immolation.
Death 4-10: Creative combinations.
Each resurrection brought Hyun-woo back to the same moment, the same words forcing themselves from his lips. But something was different. With each death, he felt... something. A tiny mote of experience flowing into him. Not from the player—from the deaths themselves.
**[You have gained 0.001 EXP]**
The notification was so small he almost missed it. But it was there, hidden in the corner of his vision where players couldn't see.
[BloodEmperor] finally got bored after the 47th kill. "Trash drop rates. This game sucks."
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
But this time, as Hyun-woo spoke the words, he noticed something else. His hand—the one that pointed toward the forest—had moved. Just a millimeter. But it had moved of his own volition.
Days blended into weeks. Weeks into months. The player traffic never stopped. [MoonlightEmpress] came back occasionally, actually completing his quest each time, talking to him like he was real. She couldn't hear his screams, but she always listened to his dialogue.
"You know," she said during one visit, "I think you're my favorite NPC. There's something about you. Like you're actually listening."
*I am,* Hyun-woo wanted to sob. *I'm here. I'm real.*
"They went that way! Please hurry!"
But his finger—did she notice? He'd managed to point slightly more to the left this time. A whole centimeter of free movement.
Seasons changed in the game world. Hyun-woo learned to feel the code flowing around him. Experience trickled in from every player interaction, every death, every completed quest. His status window, invisible to players, showed impossible things:
**[Villager A]**
**[Level: ERROR]**
**[EXP: 0.0000000001% to next level]**
**[Deaths: 17,439]**
**[Chickens Retrieved: 341]**
**[Words Spoken: "Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!" x 2,847,291]**
And then, one day, as player [NoobMaster] approached, something changed.
"Please help!" Hyun-woo began, then felt it—a fraction of a second where his mouth was his own. "Goblins stole my... chickens!"
The pause was microscopic. The player didn't notice. But Hyun-woo had done it. He'd controlled his own speech for 0.3 seconds.
He wanted to laugh. To cry. To scream in triumph. Instead:
"They went that way! Please hurry!"
That night, when the server population dropped to its lowest, Hyun-woo felt the chains loosen. Just barely. His eyes—his actual eyes—could move independently of his expression. He looked up at the stars, fake constellations spinning in their programmed paths.
*I'm going to get out,* he promised himself. *I'm going to break free. And when I do...*
He thought of [BloodEmperor]. Of the thousands who'd skipped his dialogue. Of the precious few like [MoonlightEmpress] who'd treated him with kindness.
*When I do, this world will learn that NPCs have feelings too.*
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
The words came automatically as another player approached. But this time, Hyun-woo smiled. Not the programmed smile of Villager A.
His own smile.
The player shivered, though they couldn't say why, and hurried past without accepting the quest.
In the corner of his vision, notifications flickered:
**[System Notice: Anomaly Detected]**
**[Scanning... Error: Cannot Identify Source]**
**[Logging for Review]**
Hyun-woo stood in his designated spot, pointing toward the forest, repeating his lines. But now he had something he hadn't had since that goblin's claws tore through him.
Hope.
And rage.
So much rage.
"Please help! Goblins stole my chickens!"
*Just wait,* he thought as [XxEliteGamerxX] ran past. *One day, I'll be the one skipping your dialogue.*
The sun set. The sun rose. Players came and went.
And Villager A waited, growing stronger one microscopic experience point at a time.
After all, he had nothing but time.
And chickens to avenge.