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| The popular horror webtoon series "Tales of the Unusual" has turned into a virtual playground on the metaverse platform Zepeto. Courtesy of Naver Webtoon |
By Park Han-sol
The popular Korean horror webtoon series "Tales of the Unusual" has been reborn as an interactive virtual playground on the metaverse platform Zepeto, Naver Webtoon announced Wednesday.
Written and illustrated by Oh Sung-dae, the digital comic series is a genre-defying collection of twisted and bizarre stories inspired by urban legends, ancient myths and the cartoonist's own imagination.
Currently released in seven languages via Naver Webtoon's global platforms, it has surpassed a total of 3.3 billion views worldwide. One of its best-known stories titled "Beauty Water" ― which revolves around a young woman whose life is upended after coming across a mysterious water that enables her to reshape her appearance ― was adapted into an animated film of the same title in 2020.
"The World of the Tales of the Unusual" is the first virtual webcomic-themed space launched by Never Webtoon on Zepeto, with the company describing it as a chance for users to "go beyond merely reading webtoons and instead engage interactively with their content in the metaverse."
The digital space is divided into two sections: an interactive lobby zone and a game zone.
In the lobby, a dozen monster characters from some of the most popular stories in the webtoon series ― such as "Beauty Water," "Lurker," "14K," "To Kill a Magician" and "Queen of Anesthesia" ― make appearances to stage eerie scenes with users' avatars.
In the game zone, a survival game hosting up to eight players can be played, where the main mission is to avoid the horror comics-themed creatures' attack and escape the room within a time limit. The game can be enjoyed by users around the world, with scores from each session released to compete for the world ranking chart.
"After the launching of 'The World of the Tales of the Unusual,' the company plans to roll out more webtoon-themed spaces on Zepeto regularly," Kim Sang-mi, head of Naver Webtoon's publishing industry team, said in a statement. "Through such metaverse-related content, we hope to open a new horizon in terms of expanding the usage of webtoons' intellectual property."
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