The reason I became interested in the game Surviving the Entities was as follows.
[What a fucking unreasonable asshole.]
[This guy's such a troll even in games.]
[Seriously wanna punch him. Total Teemo type.]
[I am not familiar: I have never played a game before. What is Teemo?]
[No way someone hasn't played games in this world.]
[Why can't you just admit you're a troll?]
These were the reactions from people during a heated debate on the forum.
To counter their words, I looked up the game they were talking about and played it myself.
[Crazy support, stop killing the minions!]
I didn't start without any knowledge. After thoroughly studying the game, I began playing, but unfortunately, it was a game that championed extreme egoism, and I got hammered by my own allies.
[This game involves killing enemy minions or champions to earn gold, buying equipment to grow stronger, destroying the enemy's towers, and ultimately destroying the Nexus.]
[So why the fuck is support eating minions?!]
[Looking at your AD carry's skill hit rate on lane targets, it's far better for win rate if I grow instead. So buy me buff items as soon as gold comes in. And stock up on wards too.]
I explained to them why I was doing what I was doing.
[You're jungle, why keep eating lane!]
[Killing mid's minions doubles my growth speed.]
[Why the hell!!!]
[Because mid died to solo kills six times in ten minutes. You're barely helpful in the game anyway, so me taking lane EXP and gold is way better for victory.]
Despite my polite persuasion, I got hit with a message about being banned for intentional game disruption.
Online games aren't for me. Normally, I'd stop there, but maybe because Korean blood flows in my veins too, being called bad at games sparked fresh anger, and I wanted to hear that I was good at games in some other game.
[Online games don't suit me, so let's find a single-player game.]
That's when, while searching for a game to play, I discovered Surviving the Entities.
It was a game with a highly intriguing concept. Throwing in enemies reinterpreted from urban legends, ghost stories, myths, or mysteries was something I'd never seen before—I later learned it was called creepypasta.
I played it for several years after that, even making it into the rankings, but what's important now is that the Blue Moon is one of the entities that appears in that game, and even though I quit half a year ago, I still remember the info.
"Blue Moon."
I wrote down the Blue Moon's information in my notebook. Thinking only in my head is like oil floating on water—it changes shape—so writing it down solidifies the form.
[Entity Name: Blue Moon]
[Class: Dangerous]
[This entity is visible only to its victim. It appears as a blue full moon, initially only at night, but becomes visible during the day as time passes. It lasts for a total of 7 days, and as time goes on, the victim is consumed by madness, ultimately becoming a mass murderer in a bad end.]
Judging by the current situation, I was definitely marked as the Blue Moon's victim.
"At least under the assumption that I haven't gone mad."
However, every entity in Surviving the Entities had its own countermeasures. Since entities were almost impossible to destroy outright, avoidance or temporary neutralization was more accurate, and the Blue Moon had such methods too, which I wrote down below.
[First method to survive the Blue Moon: Raise mental strength to 80 or higher to overcome the madness.]
I immediately crossed it out hard. Raising mental strength to 80 or higher was impossible. Normal methods couldn't get it past 70, and going beyond required help from specific entities or special events.
'Above all, high mental strength isn't always a good thing.'
Over 60 mental strength, and NPCs treat you like a philosopher.
Over 70, like a saint.
Over 80, like the pinnacle of humanity.
'And from 90...'
Anyway, 80 was the pinnacle of humanity level—something my real-life self couldn't achieve. I was just an ordinary human, didn't have that high mental strength, and even with game knowledge, reaching that in five days was impossible.
Below that, I wrote the next countermeasure.
[Second method to survive the Blue Moon: Use other entities to escape it.]
Entities are dangerous to humans. Like radiation, which has no feelings toward humans but causes death just by existing, an entity's danger doesn't change regardless of what it thinks of humans.
However, among entities, there are many that are extremely friendly to humans, safe, or just useful tools.
"The problem is those entities appear in random places, so even with game knowledge, you can't reliably get them."
I crossed this one out too. Right away, I wrote the next solution.
[Third method to escape the Blue Moon—the easiest, fastest, and currently the only method.]
After a slight edit, I wrote the answer.
[Commit suicide.]
Suicide before being consumed by madness.
"..."
I stared blankly at the answer, then crossed it out the same way. Whether Surviving the Entities had become reality, or I'd just gone mad, or some unimaginable phenomenon was occurring, one thing was certain.
"Experience is the parent of the self, the nourishment that fattens the soul."
I wouldn't get a chance to have this experience again, and I wouldn't miss it.
"A great opportunity to experience what madness truly is."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I strolled the streets under an umbrella in the drizzling rain. Everything was the same as the usual world, but I could feel subtle gazes directed at me.
"Mom! Is it raining now?"
"Huh? No."
"Then why's that uncle using an umbrella?"
"That's a parasol, for blocking sunlight."
I understood the mother's kind reply to her child, but this was just a regular umbrella.
'The rain's heavy, huh.'
In the rain visible and felt only by me, I cautiously looked up at the sky. The Blue Moon, larger than before, hung in the sky, gazing down at me.
Just one day had passed, yet I could see the Blue Moon even though it wasn't night.
'What does the falling rain mean?'
When you become a Blue Moon victim, the screen changes over time. Sometimes rivers of blood appear, or all faces become identical, or frogs rain from the sky—all representations of madness.
'Users analyzed it as likely manifesting the inner madness.'
Humans are ten people, ten colors, so madness is too—it's natural it changes every time, and I could understand my current situation.
'But is my madness just this much?'
Blue Moon in the daytime sky and falling rain—such a bland madness.
"Hmm."
And the periodic madness of stepping on earthworms.
"Sorry."
The crushed earthworms writhed like they were dancing. This made six today already. Even paying attention while walking, I'd snap out of it and they'd already be underfoot.
I wandered all day like that, but there were no further changes—it was the same peaceful village as always.
'Such peace, only four days left now.'
A mass murderer who would shatter this peace would appear in four days—and that would be me.
'What would the news say?'
A big headline about the Bucheon stabbing spree?
Suspect: 25-year-old unemployed male.
High school dropout addicted to games, mistaking reality for a game, commits mass murder!
'Surviving the Entities doesn't exist in the world anymore, so they won't call me a game addict.'
If they investigated me more, maybe something like this:
The path of a knowledge thief who sneaks into top universities for lectures as a hobby, turning into a murderer.
NEET living off parents' insurance money goes on a stabbing rampage in rage when the cash runs out.
"Let's head in."
On the way home, I stepped on ten more earthworms.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Three days until becoming a mass murderer. Now the earthworms completely covered the roads.
"..."
I couldn't avoid them even if I wanted to, so I stepped on them as I walked. The Blue Moon in the sky had grown even larger than yesterday, looking like it would crash into Earth any moment.
"Hello?"
"Hello?"
The people on the street were no longer human. They looked human on the outside, but as if filled with earthworms under their skin, they leaked them out from hollow facial features.
"Hello?"
"Hello?"
Was this just how it felt to me? Did their worm-filled skin and parrot-like repetition only seem that way to me, while reality was normal people?
'So the Blue Moon's madness manipulates the five senses to create illusions?'
I didn't know—if so, it was better to call it hallucinations than madness.
"Hello?"
"A pack of cigarettes, please."
"Hello?"
Words didn't get through, but actions were fine, and they seemed to hear me normally enough to buy things.
"Three more packs, please."
It might not work tomorrow, so stock up now.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Two days until becoming a mass murderer.
The world was no longer the one I knew.
"Blue indeed."
The Blue Moon, occupying half the sky, emitted light in place of the sun, dyeing the world entirely blue, and the all-blue world was terrifying to walk through, overgrown with bizarre plants.
"Like earthworms."
After observing the plants closely, I put up my umbrella and headed out. The rain was stickier and heavier than before, but with no wind, the umbrella sufficed.
"Hellohellohellohello."
"Hellohellohello."
People had become monsters, half-human, half-earthworm, brazenly strolling the streets and greeting each other—it was pretty funny.
Hello? Hello! Let's sightsee a bit more. I took the bus and circled the city. Worm-humans filled it to the brim, and worm-like plants covered the buildings. "Hello?" But even that day, I didn't feel much impact.◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The day I become a mass murderer.
Finally, I could experience something impossible through normal means.
"Amazing."
The Blue Moon filling the sky shone even more blue, filling the world with blue. Strangely, though, my brain perceived the blue not as blue, but as red.
I was experiencing a quantum superposition-like phenomenon: perceiving the blue visually as blue while also as red.
"Is this mental corruption?"
I put up my umbrella and went outside. I waded through earthworms piling up to my ankles, and the rain was so fierce the umbrella was useless now.
'Let it hit me as I go.'
I tossed the umbrella in a trash can. On the way, the people I encountered were gigantic earthworms—some standing rigidly upright, others crawling.
'Good lord.'
Could "standing rigidly upright" and "crawling" coexist? But there was no other way to describe them, and finally, the moment I'd been waiting for arrived.
"It's bad today."
Actually, ever since the Blue Moon appeared during the day, my emotions had started changing.
Seeing earthworms filled me with disgust, a desire to tear them apart—like becoming an earthworm hater.
It started as mild irritation, but grew over time, and now a boiling desire to rip them to shreds and devour them surged.
As if earthworms were my arch-nemesis.
As if earthworms were bugs that shouldn't exist in the world.
"So this is how it is."
And that was the end.
"Bland."
The madness from the Blue Moon wasn't that impressive.
"Shall I smoke one before heading in?"
Even if the world looked like this to me alone, I couldn't just smoke anywhere—I was heading back to my one-room when the sky rumbled.
Entity Voice
O thou, human, lowly mortal, earthly worm, eternal weed, embodiment of unattainable greed.
The Blue Moon was watching me.
The Blue Moon was asking me.
The Blue Moon, covered in countless—tens, billions, trillions, innumerable—eyes and mouths.
Entity Voice
What art thou?
What a profound question. Depending on how you define humanity, whether you believe in souls, whether you base it on the self—a philosophical one.
"Hello?"
I only had one thing to say.
"I'm Lee Seung-hoon."