Chapter 301
Chapter: 301
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 301
>Chapter Title: Code Zero (6)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
The moment he strongly willed himself to wake up from the dream, his connection to the Pangea Chronicle disconnected effortlessly.
[What? You're back early today?]
Opening his eyes on the bed, he heard the Demon King greeting him in a rare welcoming tone. It seemed the guy had been pretty bored while alone.
But Seongjin didn't have time to deal with him right then. He picked up the silver disk leading to the workshop, and the Demon King muttered sullenly.
[Yeah, figures. Lucky you. Always off having fun by yourself...]
No, it wasn't fun. He was just going to do what needed to be done.
Besides, if you knew what creepy bastard I met earlier, could you say that so easily?
'...Should I ask the chef if there's any bear meat left?'
Instead of scolding him, though, Seongjin said something random. Maybe because he'd connected directly with the guy's soul, the Demon King's lonely mood came through unfiltered.
[What? Really? Awesome!]
Fortunately, the Demon King's mood shot up sharply.
[Bear meat~ Bear meat~ Strong-flavored bear meat grilled to perfection~]
'......'
Even after eating that much, you're not sick of it? Such a simple guy.
Anyway, inwardly relieved, Seongjin hurriedly manipulated the key to open the portal.
"You're here quick."
By the time he arrived at the workshop, Dexter was already out of the dive capsule and booting up his laptop.
"So, what's up? You said there was something urgent to discuss?"
Instead of answering, Seongjin nodded toward the dwarf's laptop with his chin.
"Ah, right. The time discrepancies with the strategy guide. I've been thinking I should look into that more closely too."
Dexter's expression was quite serious as he said it.
"The boss room just opening like that was one issue, but there were too many minor time errors besides that. With the Homunculus Engine's operation method, once a user logs in, lag is absolutely impossible. But today, there were way too many weird things."
"It's not just the timing, is it?"
At Seongjin's point, the dwarf engineer widened his eyes and asked.
"What?"
"The close-range warrior's detection range had expanded, the archer's effective range had a significant discrepancy, and even the orc mage tried to cast high-level magic impossible for low-level monsters."
If the evil spirit Hayes hadn't smashed them all before they could cast.
"It's not just time, Dexter. Physical distances, levels, even door opening conditions—everything was a mess."
Fortunately, as Seongjin had anticipated, they were all within a manageable range, so they hadn't suffered major losses.
If it had been any other party, they surely would have been wiped out.
"...Right, yeah. Those too."
Nodding, Dexter asked in a somewhat bewildered tone.
"But seriously, it's amazing no matter how I think about it. How did you catch all those details one by one?"
"What are you talking about? You explained the strategies in detail at first, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but..."
You memorized every single one?
Dexter eyed him suspiciously, but Seongjin easily ignored the unimportant suspicion.
"So, what's the deal with that 'Thunderstorm Bon' the orc king mentioned?"
"Ah, right. The boss earlier was off too. Shall we start there?"
With a reluctant face, Dexter pulled up the Pangea Chronicle main screen. The screen featured the goddess Yustitia, standing majestically with her eyes covered by a cloth.
The golden spear and long golden hair in the illustration were familiar to Seongjin.
"As I explained before, Thunderstorm Bon refers to the 'user.' An anti-hero who destroys the long-standing order and brings about the world's ruin. Though in the end, that leads to a new order and prosperity for the world."
"Not exactly original."
Dexter nodded at Seongjin's honest impression.
"True. Honestly, Pangea Chronicle isn't all that special in terms of story. The main plot is mediocre, and the world setting is just a bunch of generic stuff you've seen somewhere before—mass-produced game vibes."
The only difference was that it was the unique online game made with the Homunculus Engine, providing an unprecedentedly vivid play experience.
It was practically like creating an entire physical world. That naturally gave users a realistic immersion without any 3D motion sickness.
"Even the most important element in this game, Goddess Yustitia, is the same. She's this stale character Impulse Soft chewed over multiple times in their old games."
No helping it since the game director was the same, Dexter added.
Click click.
After clicking through a few sites, a page introducing a classic RPG appeared before Seongjin's eyes. And there, sure enough, was a crude dot-graphics version of Yustitia!
"Astria Chronicles?"
"Another name for Yustitia. From part 1, 'The Goddess's Call,' to part 8, 'Dark Astria.' It was a pretty popular series that ran for a long time."
"Hmm."
Among them, Seongjin briefly noted the title of the last one, 'Dark Astria.'
"Thunderstorm Bon referring to the user is the same. Traces of similar games are left intact. Strictly speaking, the monsters, dungeons, kingdoms and place names on the world map—they're all just slightly modified versions of stuff from previous games."
Not to mention systems like collecting NPCs to use as subordinates or the mini card game at the tavern.
All sorts of popular games from various genres had been slightly tweaked and seamlessly integrated into the Pangea Chronicle system.
Plenty of people openly mocked that fact.
Among the sites Dexter casually showed, one image caught the eye—a parody someone had posted for fun.
A warrior in a horned helmet engulfed in flames shouting 'First Aid Loss!' from another game. Below it, an image of Thunderstorm Bon synthesized like a meme, screaming 'Mustard Sauce!' amid thunderclouds.
"If there are this many similarities..."
Seongjin trailed off with a bad premonition, and Dexter nodded knowingly.
"Yeah. You might be right. This might not just be borrowing—maybe they straight-up pulled from real existing games."
Yeah. Why not?
The Homunculus Engine was specialized in taking sources from other worlds and modifying them to taste. So using existing games as-is wouldn't be strange at all.
-This world had no choice but to hatch from the egg prematurely, before it was ready. To compensate for the ridiculously weakened foundation, countless rules were haphazardly patched on. In that massive chaos, the world's distortions were born.
Suddenly, Yustitia's lament-like words resurfaced in Seongjin's mind. Did that mean the game was literally slapped together?
"I'd suspected as much deep down. This isn't a game that went through normal planning stages."
According to Dexter's explanation.
The time from completing the Homunculus Engine transplant to Pangea Chronicle's official launch was ridiculously short.
"Do you have any idea how many people and tasks it takes to make one game? There's only one way to shorten that: use old games as sources and mash them all together with the Homunculus Engine."
Hm.
Seongjin stared at the laptop screen and spoke.
"But it's all just our guesses so far. Is there any way to prove it for sure?"
"Well? Normally, only Impulse Soft insiders would know, but..."
Muttering that, Dexter stood and walked to one side of the workshop. Right to the [Homunculus Engine Editor] that had been wrecked just recently.
"But we have a guest ID user and the source editor! How about analyzing a few items you smuggled out of the game with the editor? If they came from another game, there should definitely be traces left in the source."
"...Does that thing even work?"
Looking at the crystal boards still in disarray without a proper spot, Seongjin asked. Dexter scowled, clearly offended.
The pinnacle of Ionia civilization, the engine editor. Since Seongjin was the culprit who damaged it firsthand, the suspicion didn't sit well.
"I've patched it up roughly. Editing's impossible, but reading the source is doable, okay?"
"Fine, whatever. Good enough."
Perfect timing, then.
Seongjin rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a few items acquired from Pangea Chronicle: several bound potions and a half-eaten small fish cake.
"...Aren't you some rich kid? And you just shove unidentified food like this in your mouth?"
Dexter took the fish cake with bite marks, looking baffled.
"My tastes are picky, but I'm not a picky eater."
"No, it's not about picky eating... And what's with leaving half-eaten?"
"Be grateful there's anything left to analyze. It was pretty tasty, but I got this feeling I shouldn't finish it all, so I barely held back."
"......"
Dexter made a profoundly reluctant face at Seongjin's brazen reply.
But in the end, Seongjin's hunch proved right. After striking out on the bound potions, Dexter grudgingly analyzed the fish cake and finally found something!
"See! Seongjin, come look at this!"
The analysis screen displayed the following text.
〚Top-grade 2*8d# Fish Cake #% Hot & Fresh Snack Shop〛
〚Item Grade: B〛
〚Price: 2 Diamonds〛
〚*Cannot confirm current server.〛
Price 2 diamonds?
"What? This isn't even from Pangea Chronicle's item description."
At Seongjin's question, Dexter replied in an excited voice.
"Of course not! Items transformed by the Homunculus Engine have their source essence flipped, so the original info bubbles up to the surface! Like the shed skin left on top!"
Meaning this fish cake really was sourced from another game.
And soon, through an internet search, they confirmed that 'Hot & Fresh Snack Shop,' a food stall management sim, had been released by the same company.
"This is a huge discovery, Seongjin! This means a ton of Pangea Chronicle items really might come from other games! So if we track down the original sources for rare items..."
Then Dexter suddenly bit his tongue, as if smacked on the back of the head.
"Hm? Huh?"
"What?"
"No, wait a sec..."
Dexter started searching the internet like he was possessed.
"Something feels off. Like we're missing something important..."
"What?"
Soon, Dexter showed Seongjin a user forum.
"You see this and not feel anything?"
It was plastered with posts from users crying over rare job change items.
-Where do I get 3rd job change item?
-Info on must-have job change item Ice Heart
-Ice Heart auction house prices
'...Ice Heart?'
Naturally, the info on the Ice Heart he and Dexter had fiddled with before vividly resurfaced in Seongjin's mind.
〚Glacier Troll's Ice Heart〛
〚Divine relic from Jeradubelly Dungeon boss, Glacier Troll King. Sets activity conditions for the registered entity and allows simple sentence commands.〛
〚Item Grade: A〛
〚*Cannot confirm Northland server.〛
"No, but that was from a completely different game's source, right? Northland server or whatever..."
Mid-sentence, Seongjin realized.
Ah! Another game's source!
"Back in this company's early days..."
Dexter opened his mouth in a trembling voice.
"They released a free mini-game. If my memory's right, its unified server was probably 'Northland.'"
The game title on the screen.
Simple illustration of a massive ape fighting a white yeti-like monster.
-Kong: Jurassic Island
"Seongjin..."
The dwarf engineer looked up at him with shaking eyes.
"What the hell did we do with that rare job change item?"