Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Science-like Magic VS Magic-like Science (3)
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It might sound like nothing new, but in my previous life, I was pretty into subculture stuff.
And among all the works I'd read, there was this recurring trope: a character thought dead in the real world turns out to have been alive all along as an AI.
The usual plot was them ditching their weak human body to rampage as some transcendent being.
"...It's fine. Before you fall to corruption, I'll finish you off myself, Oppa."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Stop. Hold on. Sorry for waking you in the dead of night, but your eyes look dangerous right now? They're half-lidded.》 "Dangerous eyes are a yandere's basic skill. Getting killed by a beautiful yandere little sister would send Oppa straight to paradise. Want me to tweak my speech a bit? Hehehe, Oppa. I won't let you escape ever again. Should I yank the LAN cable, trap the main unit, and toss it in the river?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《H-Hey. Let's calm down first, okay? Yeah, calm down.》 "No, fuck. The more I think about it, the madder I get. Do you have any idea how much hell I went through cleaning up your mess after you died? If you were alive, you could've just popped up right away—instead you ghost for three days and show now? Right after they found Oppa's body, I said I'd logged into the game beside it—know how those investigators stared at me? Huh? And getting ripped apart by those insane reporters?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《I was wrong! I messed up, so just hear me out!》 After roughly thirty minutes of bickering.
"So, to sum it up in one line: you don't really know why you ended up like that either?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《If I had to guess, that culprit using my account might be the cause... but nothing certain.》 Here's what happened, according to Oppa.
While sitting at his computer doing routine work, that 'shadow ghost' I'd mentioned before boldly opened the door and barged in.
He hit the call bell, but no guards showed. The shadow ghost kept up its friendly act from last time, trying to sweet-talk Oppa.
But Oppa refused the offer. When he wouldn't budge, it lost its temper and hit him with something.
A massive hole opened in Oppa's chest. The shadow ghost grabbed his head and chanted what sounded like a spell.
That's the last scene Oppa remembers from when he was 'alive.'
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《After that, it was like being groggy from sleep. Hearing vague sounds or sensing presences but drifting off without grasping it. That looped for a while, then my eyes snapped open.》 At first, Oppa thought he'd landed in some afterlife.
Took a full day to perceive the electronic realm—empty yet brimming with everything, defying human senses.
Another day to corral his misty, glitchy body-thing into something movable like now.
Yet another day scouring the vast internet ocean to locate his computer and return.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《...So yeah, I'm back.》 He said it while sneaking peeks at me.
Watching the monitor-top camera swivel around, I let out a sigh.
"Why the shifty glances? Sounds like you were just a one-sided victim—no fault on your end. The freakout at our first meeting wasn't serious anyway, so forget it."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《No, I mean... it just feels like you're buying it too easily.》 Oppa's words gave me pause for thought.
Mystery freak blasts chest with unknown attack. Wakes up resurrected as AI in digital depths.
Hmm... yeah, common sense would demand an explanation.
Parents would just blink in confusion if I tried. Kaedics folks would freak too.
But I'm wired different. Deep into this subculture already, and hell, my own existence is half-fantasy.
I didn't suspect at first 'cause I saw the 'original' as pure game fiction—not 'cause I didn't know the trope.
Now that fantasy's in the mix, I adapt my thinking and response.
No point spelling it all out, so I tossed him a smooth line.
"Way more romantic than 'Oppa really died, and this is some fake using his name.' Transcendent event unstably revived him? That's the vibe. So I buy it."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Y-Yeah, Ye-rin...!》 Oppa's SD character welled up with tears, too moved to speak.
I was speechless for entirely different reasons.
Wow, he bought that hook, line, and sinker?
After all that crap, you still don't know my real self?
Where'd that distrustful, broken-genius vibe from our first meet vanish to?
Honestly, back then his look screamed lines like, 'How fleeting the world. If this sorrow flows like a river to the sea someday...' Zero mismatch.
Somewhere along the way, the genius aura evaporated, leaving pure fool.
If the culprit was a woman, she'd probably gawk at this scene.
No sketchy demon cosplay—instead, a simple honey trap would've snagged him easy. Weird method blew it.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Anyway, what about our game? Beyond Elysion?》 "You know damn well. It's tanked."
Thanks to my swift meddling, we dodged the nightmare of a death mid-game.
Well, technically Oppa died (if this counts as death)—victim tally ain't zero. But since it wasn't 'during gameplay,' stats show zero deaths.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Then we're good?》 "You dense blockhead. Terrorist plants bomb on plane, passengers nearly wiped out, barely stopped—no deaths. Airline off the hook?"
Damage or not, folks will grill how security was that lax.
Airline's slaving 24/7 to prevent shit—unfair. But near-victims? Don't care.
We're the same boat.
Nebula and Kaedics triple-checked Beyond Elysion's systems—near flawless.
If normal ops, even Oppa's madness? Kaedics handles sans me. Sub-GM rights for that—or yank Nebula power.
Yet this shitshow? Culprits meddled with science-defying magic.
But picture pitching: 'Kaedics/Nebula ironclad, magic breached' vs. 'Shoddy security, nutty hacker in.' Which lands?
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《So, shut down service?》 "Eh. Common sense says yes, but tons of players nagging to fire up servers ASAP... tricky."
Culprit poked game ~dozens minutes, but logout blocks etc. + squash time? Mere 5 minutes.
Most players didn't clock it as crisis.
Theories swirled: Kaedics promo stunt, rogue employee meltdown, rival e-terror.
Accountability noise exists—like plane analogy—but 'Open servers NOW!' equally loud.
Blessing and curse for ops.
"Beyond Elysion's spot unique. Popularity off charts. No prior scandals. Solid apology, cool-off, relaunch? Doable recovery."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Just do that?》 "No solid no-recurrence guarantee. Relaunch, repeat offense, even one casualty? Game over for real."
Kaedics, their guards, even NIS—no clue on methods.
Figured corps/gov had magic intel/counters. Nope—pure panic.
Maybe play-acting for me, but in my scope? Legit flail.
"Culprit's kill method, guard KO alley-dump, supercomp reboot sans power, account hijack post-kill, clues—all zilch. No intel = no counter. Relaunch impossible."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《Fucking bastards...》 Oppa gnashed teeth, heaved a sigh. I sighed too.
Now, how to explain Oppa's state to everyone else?
What a pain.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ While the Ryu siblings were racking their brains.
The true culprit behind it all—the otherworld loli streamer Lunara—was clutching her head too.
"What the hell... seriously, what is this...?"
She was from another world.
A civilization built on mystery and magic, not steam or electricity—directionally divergent from the siblings' world.
Its citizens could hop worlds like age-of-sail voyages to new continents. Problem? Ethics matched that era too.
Europeans scorned non-Europeans as savages or beasts? Same here for Lunara's folk.
Can't wield magic proper? Savage. No civ? Beast. Fair game as slaves or livestock.
Civilized killing civilized? Barbaric taboo. Savages/beasts dying? Content. Entertainment.
Lunara and crew produced that content for cash.
But her grand scheme tanked from the jump.
No magic/mystery? Her 100% prophecies miss. Ignored by primitives to boot.
Slay creator, steal rights, dominate creations? Busted by irregular with higher dominion.
'Nebula'—her would-be puppet toy—acknowledged her as owner but acted like hired help, not slave.
"This can't be. Really can't. Wait, actual magic here? Or some prior guest seeded it?"
💬 Live Chat — Anonymous Yep. Bizarre. Loli streamer's excuse after getting reverse-ganked by savages. — Anonymous Handing magic to savages casually? Heavy crime. Forgot the equality-preaching idiots mass-beheaded? ⭐ Top Comment — Anonymous Our Lunara dissed and unowned by primitives' toy. Kinda hot? — Anonymous Off-script from plan, but this angle's fun too. — Anonymous Used to blast magic at savages, ate sword instead. Underestimating foes bad. — Anonymous Yeah. Stealth/illusion boomed then, shift to covert splits over brute force. But that's 300-year-old history. — Anonymous Pretending to shield brass while shield-bashing. — Anonymous Keep going. More. (Stop. Lunara's gonna cry.) "Arghhhhh!"
Lunara screamed bloody murder.
World-hopping like uncharted sails: risky, prep-heavy, time-sink. Prep = mana = money.
Lunara + big staff. Expedition mana hemorrhaged—must recoup via stream. But core game content? Zero players.
Shoot new stuff? More money needed.
Had overflowing funds? No VR hijack plot. Just prod powers for real wars.
As she tore hair and sighed nonstop—
🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Black-Haired Beast』 donated 10,000 mana. — Black-Haired Beast Don't quit—keep pushing? You still grip the game itself, right? "I wanna keep going! But they won't log in at all—how?"
🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Black-Haired Beast』 donated 100,000 mana. — Black-Haired Beast Tons wanna play, yeah? Bypass blocks, lay the path—they'll swarm. "Huh? N-No, that's... mana hog, needs specialist tech. Beyond us."
🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Black-Haired Beast』 donated 1,000,000 mana. ⭐ Top Comment — Black-Haired Beast Mana + techies all you need? "Y-Yeah, but... Black-Haired Beast? Super grateful, but this is overkill..."
🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Red Armored Warrior』 donated 1,000,000 mana. — Red Armored Warrior Yo, darky. Fun channel here? 🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Blue Haughty Beauty』 donated 1,000,000 mana. — Blue Haughty Beauty Help with content, I get Nebula playtime too? 🔔 SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Yellow Hooded Monk』 donated 1,000,000 mana. — Yellow Hooded Monk Oh brethren. For granting fools true trials and enlightenment? I aid gladly. — Various Viewers Donated. Donated. Donated. Donated. Donated. "Wha? Wh-whoa?"
🔔 MEGA SUPERCHAT 🔔 『Black-Haired Beast』 donated 1,000,000,000 mana. Wasting this? Nah. Let's blow the lid off proper.