Dusk (BL Light Novel)

The boss of the hidden dungeon known as Hidden Mirror Maze—or “HMM” for short, nicknamed Eungeomi—had been a hot topic for a while. The concept alone, where the boss’s name, skill labels, and damage numbers were all invisible, had sparked all sorts of interest from players. But once the announcement dropped that entry into Eungeomi was no longer possible, it became firewood thrown straight into the heart of the community.
[System] Jeopa Officer “KindaThatWay” has defeated you.
[System] Gained 1,750 Fame.

Theories about null mostly fell into two camps: one, that it was an AI who had developed self-awareness and been deleted by the devs; or two, that it was just a marketing gimmick.
Most players leaned toward the latter—that the devs had created a one-time boss to grab attention, and posted a deletion notice once bugs occurred. It was the more realistic take. And it had definitely worked: Retaking’s footage even spread overseas, and foreign gaming forums were still burning with speculation. With that level of engagement, it was almost justifiable to make a boss of null's quality a single-use event.
[System] Jeopa Leader “ClientKO” has defeated you.
[System] Gained 1,770 Fame.

[System] Jeopa Leader “Nunuseum” has defeated you.
[System] Gained 1,790 Fame.
Retaking, though, wasn’t so sure. I snorted at the idea of a sentient AI being deleted by its creator, but he—who was sometimes weird and prone to occult nonsense—said “you never know.”
Of course, he only said that to me. At first, he’d brushed it off casually on stream: “Marketing move, obviously.” But later—must’ve been one of those sentimental late-night moods—he messaged me out of nowhere at 2 a.m., pouring out his thoughts.

“Could AI really be crafted that delicately? I dunno, fighting null gave me this weird uneasy vibe… What if it really was an AI that developed self-awareness? Even in that hidden story video you sent me, didn’t you hear what null said?”
[System] Jeopa Commander “SoNice” has been defeated.
[System] Gained 1,815 Fame.
[System] Used Waypoint Scroll. Warping to Outpost 54.

It was like a kid asking, “Santa’s really gonna come to our house on Christmas Eve, right?” Eyes sparkling. If it were someone like Moon Sunhwa or any of my other friends, I’d have ghosted instantly. But with Retaking… it was harder. Maybe because I was the only one he could say stuff like this to. (Seriously, how many people are gonna tolerate 2 a.m. theories about a game boss’s selfhood and lore?)
Not that it turned into some deep heart-to-heart. My personality doesn’t allow me to just nod and agree to everything, so 90% of it was me countering whatever he said.
Could AI really be crafted that delicately?
You insulting ZeroSoft’s engineering team right now?

It felt creepy fighting null, though.
It looked creepy, yeah.
What if it did gain sentience? Remember what it said in the hidden story vid you sent?
If an AI gains self-awareness, wouldn’t that just be a byproduct of its own programmed values?
Then I had a moment of guilt. Crap, maybe I was just nitpicking too much. I glanced at our chat and saw Retaking’s messages had thinned out noticeably. I scrambled to patch it with: “Still, if you’re right, that means we went through something pretty crazy, huh?”

He immediately bounced back: “Right?? hehe” and started chattering again, bright as ever. We kept talking till well past 4 a.m.
What am I supposed to do with this simple idiot? I sighed deeply, but still kept Dusk open and chatted with Retaking all night. That was... a few weeks ago now.
Lately, there hadn’t been much talk about null. The wildfire had burned fast and bright, then fizzled out—like most things do. Aside from a few players sharing new theories, null had largely vanished from conversation.

Dusk had returned to normal. Whenever Retaking started a stream, other players would post real-time updates of us to the community forums. Threads comparing our ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) skills would always resurface right when I’d finally forgotten about them.
Whenever I went looking for him in the field, Retaking would happily hit me no matter when I showed up. We’d kill each other, exchange a few lines of banter, then bolt in opposite directions—same as always.
[General] “Deadline” : qyv;;;
[General] “Deadline” : 7979;;;
[General] “Deadline” : 7997797897
[System] Jeopa Strategist “Deadline” has been defeated.
[System] Gained 1,815 Fame.
If anything had changed… it was Retaking. Lately, work had been piling up for him. More and more often, he’d post that there’d be no stream, or start late.

That I could understand. But despite having less game time, he’d started chatting with me more over KakaoTalk. Especially in the late hours between Thursday and Friday—he never missed a week.
Maybe he felt like we’d lost our chance to chat inside Eungeomi, and was making up for it. He’d send me the most mundane stories for half an hour straight—stuff you’d never say on stream. Just last week, he even begged to call me because he said chat felt too slow.
Two guys on a late-night phone call whispering for nearly an hour? Too cringey—I declined. Still, it was obvious he was trying to squeeze out even one more sentence of conversation with me.

[System] Jeopa Commander “Healpls” has been defeated.
[System] Gained 1,830 Fame.
Does he think I’m a girl? That crossed my mind once. I even thought about dropping my gender into chat, real subtle-like.
But after watching how he treated me for a while, I figured—probably not. If he saw me as a potential love interest, there’d be little hints, but I didn’t feel any of that.

Instead of trying to show off or act kind or boyfriend-material, he just... talked to me. Like I was someone he genuinely enjoyed chatting with. A friend.
So that night, I backspaced the message I’d typed out after thinking way too long. “You know, I had a wet dream today.” I’d figured it’d shock him enough to settle the matter, but in hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t send it.
If it’s not romantic, maybe it’s just that work’s gotten so rough lately, he needs someone to vent to. That thought made me feel kind of bad for him. Must be really busy… See, I told him to quit that job.

[Combat] You were killed by “Malatang.”
[System] You died in a contested zone.
[System] Killed by a player. Lost 4,790 Fame.
[Faction] Jeopa Commander “Malatang” has defeated Bia Commander “Honeybread.”
Got distracted and wandered into a six-man party. Dead.
Retaking wasn’t online today either. Maybe it was just that kind of night—most players had logged off early. The field was emptier than usual. No point sticking around just to get steamrolled by zergs.

I yawned wide and clicked Resurrect + Return to Base. Then logged off entirely.
It was a little past 2:30 a.m.
Retaking had mentioned he’d be working late tonight. So around now, he was probably finishing up or on his way home. Working this late… would he even be able to get up in the morning? I found myself a little worried.

I shut off my PC, grabbed my phone, and flopped onto bed. Plugged in the bent charger cable next to my pillow, grabbed the tiny remote off the shelf, and clicked the button. The room light turned off with a small beep.
Blanketed up, I blinked slowly. Except for the city lights peeking through the curtain, the room was dark.
Perfect sleeping conditions. But I wasn’t sleepy at all.

My body had long synced with a pattern of PvP’ing with Retaking until 3 a.m., then watching his stream till I nodded off. Trying to sleep early went against everything I was used to.
I really couldn’t sleep in tomorrow.
The more I worried, the more sleep slipped away. And the less I slept, the more anxious I got. It spiraled fast—and just when I started to get annoyed, my phone lit up, flooding the room with pale light.

Saved by the bell.
I instantly reached out and grabbed it. Dimmed the brightness all the way so it wouldn’t blind me. Pulled down the notification tab—there was a KakaoTalk message.