Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: A Glitch from Earth
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Aka-chan failed to detect any bugs.
That was a one-sentence summary of Aka-chan's last hour.
"Emergency."
Emergency. Emergency.
Muttering "emergency" over and over, Aka-chan kept poring over the other world's records.
She scrutinized every single trivial detail without letting anything slip by.
But no matter what, she couldn't figure out where or why the bug had occurred.
If every record checked out fine, there was only one conclusion.
"...No bugs exist."
There were bugs in virtual reality, yet there were none.
Just as Aka-chan was starting to understand what it meant to go mad...
"In virtual reality...?"
A flash!
One hypothesis pierced through Aka-chan's mind.
"Earth."
If the bug hadn't originated in virtual reality...
Then maybe something had gone wrong on Earth, causing the bug.
"...Outside my jurisdiction."
But Earth wasn't a world where Aka-chan could exert any influence.
Her management domain was strictly limited to the "other world."
"Cooperation from Earth's Akashic Records handler. Absolutely necessary."
Aka-chan temporarily slipped out of the golem body Aurora had gifted her.
The Akashic Records had no separate main body.
If one had to pinpoint it, it was the planet itself embracing the world.
- What is it? What's going on? Earth's Akashic Records handler, A-013, immediately reacted to Aka-chan's presence.
- Help needed. Bug detected. - Bug? What bug? Aka-chan summarized everything that had happened so far.
- Bug affecting only one person? - Affirmative. Customization-created characters were equivalent to bodies in the other world.
No such bugs occurred for Aurora or Aka-chan, who had spent a long time in virtual reality.
- Checked Daehyeop Kim's records. Found the cause. Akashic Records A-013 shared some records with Aka-chan.
- Enlightenment? - It's a rise in the soul's rank. The bug had triggered like this.
1. Daehyeop Kim escaped his heart demon and gained enlightenment.
2. The enlightenment raised the rank of Daehyeop Kim's soul.
3. As a result, Daehyeop Kim's correction degree increased.
The fact that his job happened to be Martial Artist clearly synergized with this process.
- But what's the correction degree do? In response to A-013's question, Aka-chan recalled something Aurora had said before.
- The discrepancy between the other world's body and Earth's soul. Correction degree is the mechanism to resolve that gap. Like fixing clunky controls in a game. The higher the soul's rank, the less the discrepancy felt.
In other words, real-world enlightenment was akin to a "correction degree increase."
Aka-chan recorded Aurora's definition of correction degree verbatim and sent it to A-013.
- Quite the idea from an other-world otaku. Clever workaround. - Request advice for bug fix. - Hm... A-013 pondered Aka-chan's request for a moment before shouting Eureka.
- Separate the classifications. - Question. Explain. - Apply enlightenment gained on Earth only on Earth, and enlightenment from the other world only there. Aka-chan thought it was a brilliant solution and clapped her hands.
Of course, as a consciousness, no sound came out.
- Any more issues? - Negative. Thanks for the help. - Alright, heading out first. A-013's presence vanished, and Aka-chan followed suit, returning to the golem body.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Meanwhile, Daehyeop Kim, in the midst of his Akashic Records stream, felt a sense of incongruity.
His body felt lighter than yesterday, movements freer, making combat feel easier?
The viewers who had been watching his stream felt the same.
💬 Comments — Viewer1 Daehyeop going full rampage lol — Viewer2 Leveled up again — Viewer3 Why's correction degree like that? — Viewer4 Just go all attack power — Viewer5 Why's correction degree up? "The correction degree looks weird?"
Chats about the correction degree had been piling up for a while now.
But with the flood of messages, Daehyeop Kim hadn't noticed until just now.
"Yeah. It should normally be 2, but now it's 7?"
Crack!
Daehyeop Kim smashed the charging Dark Wolf's skull while pondering.
Simple bug? Or a hidden passive skill from the Martial Artist job?
"Fitting for a Secret Class—maybe the skills are hidden too?"
💬 Comments — Viewer1 No way lol — Viewer2 Hit lv10 and get something — Viewer3 1st job change incoming lol — Viewer4 So correction degree up is a bug? — Viewer5 Think correction degree does anything, Daehyeop? Daehyeop Kim looted the item dropped from the Dark Wolf's corpse and murmured softly.
"Correction degree definitely seems good. Attack power helps, but I feel the correction more."
Surpassing free control of the body—what should he call it?
"You know in fantasy webtoons how they leap around like flying? Correction degree feels just like that. The higher it goes, the farther from reality, closer to fantasy your movements get."
Daehyeop Kim explained the "correction degree" from a player's perspective.
Aurora or Aka-chan might have broken out in cold sweat hearing this.
💬 Comments — Viewer1 Perfectly understandable — Viewer2 Correction degree is broken OP then — Viewer3 So why'd correction go up? — Viewer4 Now he's the first bug exploiter lol — Viewer5 Virgin bomber is god Daehyeop "Day's getting late. Time to prep camp nearby."
As Daehyeop Kim watched the chat, the noble approached.
"Already that time?"
The red sunset was fading, but not quite camp time yet.
At least that's what Daehyeop Kim thought, but the noble was resolute.
"In the Darkness-Devouring Forest, night falls faster than elsewhere."
"I see."
Daehyeop Kim tidied up according to the noble's suggestion.
"Brothers. Doesn't this noble named Raven seem off somehow?"
First NPC encountered, but something felt fishy.
"A noble so polite? Suspicious."
The noble had introduced himself as Raven.
But no family name.
Above all, he was driving the carriage himself, no servants.
A noble personally pulling a carriage through the forest?
Anyone would suspect that.
"Probe him later?"
💬 Comments — Viewer1 Yeah yeah — Viewer2 I thought he was sus too — Viewer3 Handsome guys are always annoying — Viewer4 Keep this up and backstab incoming — Viewer5 Be careful Daehyeop Opinions were split, but probing won out slightly.
📜 MAIN STORY OPTIONS 📜 [Conversation]
[Skip Camping]
With camp prep done, two choices appeared.
The same ones from the previous camp.
Skipped for story progress then, but now he needed to learn about this Raven NPC.
📜 PROCEEDING TO MAIN STORY - CONVERSATION 📜 Whoosh!
The campfire ignited.
Daehyeop Kim leaned against a tree.
Raven brought over a fallen log and sat.
Neatly groomed blonde hair, striking blue eyes. An air of nobility.
Raven certainly gave off a noble vibe.
But that didn't matter.
What mattered was that Raven was hiding something.
Crackle—whoosh!
In the awkward silence filled only by the campfire...
"...Do you find me suspicious?"
Raven spoke first, not Daehyeop Kim.
"Very."
"Ahaha. I see."
Raven let out a wry chuckle at Daehyeop Kim's blunt honesty.
"Set aside your suspicions for a moment and hear my story?"
The tale went on for quite a while.
Until the red sunset fully sank beyond the horizon.
Until the campfire devoured all the gathered firewood.
💬 Comments — Viewer1 Raven was the kingdom's name [3] — Viewer2 Last survivor of the fallen kingdom? [5] ⭐ Top Comment — Viewer3 Current Akare main story foreshadowing summary.txt [25] — Viewer4 Trailer made it obvious [9] — Viewer5 Elder Lich << Solo'd a kingdom ㄷㄷ [4] 📰 Post [Title] Current Akare Main Story Foreshadowing Summary.txt - Raven Last survivor of the fallen Raven Kingdom Inherited kingdom name, probably royalty? Heading to Empire capital to warn of Elder Lich danger - Elder Lich Revival Reason Raven Kingdom fell Suspected raid boss monster That guy from trailer end - Darkness-Devouring Forest Player starting zone Night falls faster here Empire capital after passing through Recommend 56 Disrecommend 0 "...Did I burden you with too heavy a tale?"
"No."
Daehyeop Kim felt his chest grow hot.
What was this emotion? No way to know yet.
"This time, a hopeful story."
Ah, aah.
Raven cleared her throat once.
Her voice carried the soothing comfort of reading a fairy tale to a child.
"This is about a figure from a thousand years ago."
So long ago, details are distorted.
But her title remains unchanged.
"Hero, Aurora."
The hero who saved the world from destruction.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ I'd tuned into Daehyeop Kim's stream to cool my head a bit.
"Lady Aurora was the greatest archmage in history and..."
Why? Why this story?
"...solo'd transcendent evils bent on world destruction, like dragons or demon kings."
💬 Comments — Viewer1 Goddess of normalization ㄷㄷ — Viewer2 Mage sounds insanely strong just from words? — Viewer3 Don't you know fantasy staple OP mage? — Viewer4 Feels like fairy tale ASMR, nice Something was wrong.
Why did this NPC Raven refer to me as "her"?
I hadn't revealed turning female, and died as a man.
And finally uncovered why history had been altered.
"Crown Prince...! What have you done!"
The falsified history bore the Crown Prince's meddling.
This guy who knew I was originally male.
Senile or what? Officially announced Hero Aurora as female.
Possible? Hard to believe, but...
I'd operated on a mystique concept anyway.
Meaning, never specified gender.
Why that concept? ...
'No excuse there.'
Still.
Other world, mystique.
How to endure this.
Thus, only a handful knew my original gender.
As a result, I ended up enshrined in other-world history as female.
"Ugh..."
Of course, I was female now.
Continent's famous astrologer said my soul had feminized.
Even Akashic Records listed my gender as female.
"Huh?"
Am I wrong then?
Was the Crown Prince right?
"No way."
Still, this ain't right.
I was a guy originally.
...Not now.
"Oh, right."
Suddenly remembered: Hero's Hall map has "Aurora's Statue" as female.
Back then, copy-pasted my current self without thought.
"Should I call this fortunate?"
Like hit by a car, then ambulance.
"Lady Aurora shouted to soldiers enthralled by demon king's fear, 'No paradise in flight'..."
Couldn't take hearing my past life's epic plays from the stream anymore, so I logged out.
Even high self-esteem me can't handle postmortem highlight reels.
"Calling it a night..."
I flopped onto the bed and buried my face in the pillow.