Isn't This Supposed to Be a Single-Player Game? [Infinite]

The summer after his sophomore year of college, Xu Wu finally had enough money to buy the full-dive gaming pod he'd been dreaming about.

The pod was bulky, power-hungry, and expensive to repair.

As Xu Wu lamented the cost, he comforted himself:

No matter what, he could finally play full-dive games. What a cause for celebration.

But things weren't as good as he'd expected.

The full-dive games available in the pod all charged by the hour. Xu Wu stared at the exorbitant rates, his vision going black as he nearly collapsed.

Just then, he discovered a free, single-player full-dive horror game called Ashen Mist. The game was about:

A vast gray mist sweeping across the globe.

From that day on, horror-game instances began appearing randomly around the world, pulling people into them at random.

Win, and the ghosts and monsters disappear. Players gain skills and items, and the regions involved in the instance are no longer selected;

Lose, and the ghosts and monsters are unleashed. Players die horrible deaths, and the regions involved in the instance fall.

Xu Wu thought about it for a moment, then immediately downloaded the game.

It's free! Free!

No matter what, he was going to play it!

*

A gray mist changed the world.

Humanity's familiar home became a hunting ground for higher-dimensional lifeforms.

Monsters ran rampant, and bizarre phenomena erupted everywhere... The world teetered on the brink between life and death, until it finally fell into ruin.

That was, until a boy with no known past and a mysterious identity appeared...

He called himself a player and often did things that defied all explanation.

At first, people were wary of him and afraid of him, mistaking him for a new kind of monster. Then they saw the boy clear multiple instances all by himself.

People: Well, that's a little...

Whatever his identity might be,

from now on, he was one of them! They didn't suspect their own people!

*

Xu Wu suddenly realized that all the NPCs in Ashen Mist were a little chuunibyou.

Ever since he cleared a certain instance, the NPCs shouted "My lord!" whenever they saw him. Those with especially good memories even called him "the peerless, invincible savior of the universe." Who could have known that he'd only been spouting nonsense because his chuunibyou phase had kicked in?

People chased him down to pay for his meals when he went out, and stuffed him with gifts when he came home. They even applauded enthusiastically when he "danced a tap routine with a female corpse atop a famous statue."

Xu Wu stared in bewilderment:

...Since when did this game have a regional reputation system?

Theme: The bonds of youth and friendship must never be betrayed