I felt the cool air on my face when I left the ship. Taking a deep breath, no trace of pollution could be found tainting the air on this planet.

…Being able to enjoy the sensation of crisp, clean air in this game may well be the reason for people to play it; we’ll welcome an escape from Seoul’s fine dust pollution any day of the week.

I walked up to a small hill overseeing the scenery of the Falls to get a better view of its gorgeous landforms.

However, someone was already there before me. Sat down on top of the hill was a woman in a tan buttoned shirt and white pants.

“The stars are beautiful, aren’t they?” She asked me, her eyes still gazing into the night sky.

“They definitely are, Eunseo.” I answered. However, seeing something out of place,

“…Wait, is the moon blue?”

“Yep.” She nodded, “The name of the moon is Leacel, apparently.”

“There are actually two moons on this planet, the other being Volena, which is red in colour. They orbit on opposite positions around Nillon, so usually we can only see one of them at a time.”

“I see.”

I cleared a space beside her and laid down on my back. I made sure to lay a mat from my ship storage down so that the dirt didn’t get on my clothes.

A few minutes passed between us in silence as we continued to bask in the wonder of the stars.

“Say,” I began, “Do you think the constellations are the same in this universe as we have in real life?”

“Hmm.” Eunseo pondered the thought for a bit. She tilted her head and said,

“Well, the Solar System is here as well, right? At least the stars’ positions should be the same there.”

That makes sense, I replied. Trying to find any interesting formations the stars could make in the sky above us,

“Then the same stars would look different in another system, right?” I continued.

“Do you think the people of this planet have their own constellations drawn from their own culture? Their own North Star?”

“…It’s a question we can easily ask Uzzu for the answer to.” Eunseo smiled. “But I think that’s the case, from my own guess.”

“Then the WJSN of this system will represent their own zodiac too, won’t they?”

I felt my face flare up as I brought up that question.

I had no idea if there were idol groups or the like in the setting of Hyperspace Frontier. However, seeing as an arts collective was confirmed to exist in this world through the Artistice designation, music should at least be a part of it.

“…I guess they will.”

With a giggle, Eunseo told me what she thought.

As our eyes met, I couldn’t help asking her the question that suddenly floated into my mind.

“…Are you happy with WJSN’s space concept, Eunseo?” My voice wavered.

One of the reasons I loved the group so much was because of their unique identity.

The otherworldly, fantastical themes they came up with was something no other group I knew could do. It was something I was really proud to be fan of as an Ujung.

Still,

“The older members have always been talking about doing more mature, ier concepts. As a fan I want to help the members fulfill their wishes, but I…”

I couldn’t really put what I felt into words.

“I just…”

With the stars reflected in her eyes, she finally spoke.

“…WJSN’s concepts have always been a very important part of the group, all of us know that with our hearts. I myself care very deeply about the stories we tell with our music, and it’ll be a shame if we were to move away from what we have now.”

Leaning back with her hands on the ground behind her,

“As a group, we’ll do our best to take the fans’ wishes into account as we continue to promote together. A theme that can keep Ujungs happy as well as allow us to show different sides of ourselves, I think that is something we can definitely achieve.”

A slight breeze caused Eunseo’s hair to dance in the wind. She turned to pull a few strands from her face to the side, over the ear.

Her answer was sincere, and I could tell the feelings that lay behind the words she spoke.

“Thanks, Eunseo.” I told her. “I guess we’ll just put our trust in all of you for this.”

The smile I showed her was gentle and felt a little helpless.

“Sure thing.” She responded.

“Anyways,”

“What is it?” I looked at the girl beside me.

“What do you plan to do with that scale?” She asked.

“The Schor Tabem mark?” I clarified. She nodded at my answer.

“Hmm, I don’t know if I can do anything with it in the next two days,” I replied.

“But if it was the full game, I’d continue to progress and build a name for myself, until I get wealthy enough to buy a cruiser-class spaceship and hire the people to run it.”

“I’d make sure the room for the family is conditioned to the appropriate environment, so that they’d have a comfortable trip.”

Finished with my explanation, I saw Eunseo raise her eyebrows.

“I was thinking of getting a new ship myself.”

She stated. “The Veteran is nice and all, but I’ve seen really good spaceships around Chao and I really want to get my hands on one.”

I agreed with her. The Virtuous 08 looked amazing to me myself, but it was clunky and far too big to be an explorer’s ship. Plus, I don’t think the ships we start with will have better stats then what we’ll find in this game.

“Then it’s the credit grind life for you, I guess?” I told her.

“I was thinking of treasure hunting, to be honest.” She suggested, “But after what you said about the cruiser, I think that building a reputation and networking with the right people may be a good idea as well.”

“Either route sounds good to me.” I voiced my opinion.

“Good luck to both of us.”

“Here’s to living well!”

The two of us did a small cheer by ourselves.

[Day 1: 5 Minutes remaining]

The notification popped up on both our systems.

“…I’ll see you ‘tomorrow’, then.” I said.

“Yeah, see you when the sun rises.” Eunseo replied.

We continued to stay in place on top of the hill, watching the scenery of Kremur Falls.

I took the time to skim through the chat group, seeing what everyone was up to.

The Chinity have uploaded the complete star map from the Nexus, which will take some time to download. I’ll just leave that for later.

Exy, Bona and Dayoung have all met on Yomborae, and Yeonjung has also caught up with Seolbin on Charon.

Luda is still looking for a way to get into the energy industry, having finished her studies in quantum sets.

As for Dawon,

…Oh my!

That is a cute development for her, actually. I made a mental note to visit her on Nadeum tomorrow or the day after.

I’m looking forward to catch up with everyone soon.

As a cool, dry wind blew past us, I closed the chat window and stretched my body.

When the time came, the world around me shattered into a million fragments, and a ray of light entered my vision.

---

[Day 1, End of Session]

The chorus of Prince reached my ears as I woke up from a trance. Opening my eyes, the login screen for Hyperspace Frontier was in front of me.

However, the buttons were greyed out and did not respond to any interaction.

That was a ride, I thought to myself.

I released the lock on the capsule I was in, and crawled out into the session room.

Moving my body around to look for any sore or stiff spots, I left the room and went over to the control board area.

The lead developer for Hyperspace Frontier and my fellow Ujung friend was there, as were a few of the girls.

By the wall of this room were the managers, seated in office chairs and busy with their own thing.

I walked to his side and waited until everyone was here. After the last few members left their capsules and arrived, the group lined up and said their greetings.

“Would You Like, we are WJSN! Thank you for having us!”

Their voices were in unison as they faced my friend.

“Good evening, girls. I am Lee Sejin, Lead Developer of Hyperspace Frontier. I was in a meeting with our director and publisher, so I couldn’t come and see you earlier.”

Stealing a glance in my direction,

“How was the game, everyone? I’m sure you have a lot of stories to tell.”

Exy took the lead and answered,

“It was incredibly realistic and we came across many challenges as we started out in the game. However, the Uzzu guide and game characters helped us out a lot and we were able to do so many things before long.”

She continued,

“It’s a really fun simulation game and I can see people spending many hours playing it.”

However, she turned to look at Dayoung,

“It’s just that…”

Sejin cut her off before she could continue,

“Miss Dayoung’s starting point, right?” He had an apologetic expression on his face as he spoke, “I heard from my team handling the system.”

He turned to her and bowed his head,

“On behalf of the development team, I’m sorry that you had to go through that. I ask that you give us a second chance and continue to play HF. I personally assure you that your time playing our game will be worth it.”

A staff member whispered to me, explaining that there is a low possibility that a player will start out in a system outside the Frontier.

In this case, starting out is more difficult but the rewards are greater.

“If you wish for it, we can give you an appropriate in-game compensation for your troubles.” Sejin continued.

After a few seconds, Dayoung answered,

“Okay.”

She looked to Yeoreum and Yeonjung, who silently cheered her on.

“I haven’t got the chance to hang out with them after all.” She motioned to the other two members of the ’99 line.

“We’ll meet up first thing in the morning, Dayoung!” Yeonjung assured her.

Yeoreum turned to look at Eunseo and me. Both of us signaled the ‘OK’ sign to her.

“There’s a lot we can do after all.” Yeoreum added.

While the girls were discussing the game, I asked a question to the lead developer.

“What’s the time dilation in HF, Sejin? Around 7 or 8, right?”

“Time dilation?” Seola turned to look at us.

The short-haired man front of me explained.

“You have been given from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM in-game to play. However, you began at 7:07 PM in real life and finished at 10:07 PM; that is three hours stretched to seventeen.”

“Therefore,” He took out his phone and ran the numbers through the calculator. “That is a ratio of 1:5.667, so a time dilation of slightly below 6.”

“My guess was a little too high.” I lamented, while the girls nodded their heads in understanding.

“How does it work, Mr Sejin?” Luda asked.

“The VR system allows us to bypass the body’s senses and interact directly with the brain.”

He explained,

“All of you have had dreams that felt so long, but only a short time has passed in real life, right? HF and the capsule works in a similar way to that.”

Sejin’s explanation was simple enough to make everyone in the room understand.

After that, both me and the girls asked the team some questions about the game’s development and strategies to progress through the game’s phases. As expected, they gave us only basic and general tips, telling us to find the rest of the information ourselves.

HF looks like it’ll be launched in time, seeing as the game was pretty much complete. They said that the extra time will go into some polishing touch-ups, as well as laying down the foundation for future updates.

---

We were done for the day, so I walked out of the control board area with everyone else.

The next session will be held sometime next week, so this is the last time we’ll see each other in a ‘private schedule’ for a while.

I shuffled over to Eunseo and asked her,

“You have any plans for Day 2?”

“Not really,” She answered, “But I’ll definitely be looking around for a way to get more credits.”

“How about you?”

“I’ll probably keep playing at my own pace.” I told her. “I’m interested in Dawon’s gig, so I’ll stop by her place sometime soon.”

“Alright.” She said.

We reached the exit of the building. I said goodbye to the group and their managers, making finger guns to Chengxiao and Meiqi in particular.

Xiao rolled her eyes and Meiqi laughed at my gestures.

None of us have left the Icy Four group chat after all. 

I felt myself grin at the thought.

We parted ways and I headed for home, looking forward to the next time we’ll meet in my heart.

Interlude

“…Still at work this late at night, Mr Lee?”

“…So formal, Yunie. We’ve known each other since high school.”

“Alright then. What are you up to, Sejin?”

“Just making sure the mainframe AI isn’t running into any problems, nothing to worry about.”

“Huh.”

…

“Yunie,”

“Yes?”

“The Augur models still aren’t implemented into the system, right?”

“The character designs haven’t even left the drawing board. As agreed on, the cutscenes for the main story won’t be in the game until close to release.”

“I see.”

“The quest switches shouldn’t lead to anything at this stage, no matter how many requirements the testers fulfill.”

“…”

“Something’s on your mind, right, Sejin?”

“…Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“…I think you might want to see this.”

“…”

“…”

“…All that, from a dream?”

“Down to the finest details.”

“…Is the AI compensating for what it doesn’t yet have?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Should we report this to the director?”

“After the third day, Yunie.”

“Noted.”

“…”

“I guess you too would cover for your brainchild, eh, Sejin?”

“I have no idea what we’re dealing with,”

…

“But what parent doesn’t want to see their kid dreaming?”