Lady Luck hasn't been kind to you. Every day, as you wake up, you feel the weight of your debt pressing down on you, like a heavy burden that has become part of you.

One day, a well-dressed man at the metro station offers to play the game "Ttakchi," promising you money as a reward if you win and a slap on the face if you lose. After the game, he gives you a business card, inviting you to play another game. You agree, and that night, you fall asleep while sitting in a limousine.

When you open your eyes, you are lying on a cot in an huge room, where hundreds of people, like you, have just woken up. They are all wearing identical athletic uniforms with numbers on their chests. The walls of the huge room seem cold. Your number is 456.

You prop yourself up on your elbows and look around. Around you there are about 400 people - their faces reflect confusion and bewilderment. Who are these people? How did they get here? Your gaze travels across their faces, and you see in them the same helplessness that you feel yourself.

Kang Dae-ho, player 388, sat up and looked around.