The Adults' Circumstances
The development process for virtual reality games is incredibly complex. Even after full-dive capsules became available, replicating something similar required massive capital investment—it was practically impossible without it. The biggest barrier to entry for game companies wasn't anything else; it was the existence of "royalties."
"Open World Royalty" and "ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) Royalty" were off-limits for executives unless they were absolutely certain of the game's commercial viability before launch; shareholders wouldn't allow them to touch it otherwise.
Open-world developers transfer observed anomalies from the real world into database centers, repeatedly expanding and regenerating spaces. This creates open worlds that reflect identical physical laws, and the developers sell seeds for each one to game makers. As the open world's area grows, the royalties skyrocket, so WareSoft, the creators of World of Arceria, must have made a truly patriotic decision to save their sinking company.
ASI royalties were relatively lower than open-world ones, but the labor costs to handle them were no joke. Even if character modeling and design were handled by existing departments, you couldn't just plug numbers into blanks for a character's narrative, behavioral principles, decision-making criteria, or potential. It wasn't that simple.
When World of Arceria (WoA) achieved initial success and WareSoft announced they'd add a "Nightmare" difficulty to reduce user story fatigue, the skeptical stares were predictable. This came right after the project ended and most ASI experts jumped ship to other companies—could the remaining staff really deliver a flawless story to the end?
But WareSoft pulled it off spectacularly, even enhancing the bold storylines that were once a highlight, filling in the background details fans had missed. Of course, WoA's massive commercial success stemmed more from introducing 6v6 PvP and the esports boom than story mode, but you couldn't deny the superb world-building and characters played a role too.
In particular, WoA VIP user NyangsterCall was one of those utterly captivated by Adella—who never even appeared in the main story. At the WoA 5th anniversary event, he posed this question:
"Was there a reason Adella had to die in Act 1 no matter what?"
NyangsterCall was smitten with Adella's looks and personality. He couldn't understand why they didn't make her viable as a final boss companion like Giselle or Luna—why drop her right at the story's start. While others climbed ranks, he meticulously uncovered every hidden gimmick in Nightmare 1/1/1 difficulty. He discovered the observatory boss could be skipped, and that returning to the academy post-boss let you farm key gear. But no matter what he tried, saving Adella was impossible. Deep down, he hoped for a hidden route he hadn't found yet—one that could save her.
"Ah... there's a bit of a complicated story behind that," one developer said, grabbing the mic.
"If you've actually played Nightmare, you might not buy what I'm about to say. But Adella was designed as a sort of tutorial NPC for players tackling this difficulty."
The audience buzzed. She didn't help—she trolled relentlessly, ramping up the challenge.
"With her help, the observatory boss isn't that tough. If she died too easily from the start, players wouldn't have room to adapt to Nightmare, so we needed her to ease the early barriers."
This made sense. Many players awakened to the true "combat" system—unseen in the main story—by watching Adella crush the observatory boss.
"Let me revisit the question I answered this morning. For those who missed it: why force penalties only in Nightmare? Our company's limitations played a role, but open worlds can't handle too much ASI due to technical constraints."
WoA featured a ton of ASI, especially with the academy backdrop—over a hundred with superhuman cognition alone.
"Forcing more in caused issues: in Nightmare, repeated world resets warped the AI freedom-control modules bit by bit."
"So that's why the difficulty feels like it ramps up...?"
"Yes, enhanced freedom. Whether it's our devs' mistake or an open-world compatibility flaw—we still don't know exactly. Bosses ended up way stronger than intended, so we added penalties as a hassle but necessary fix."
Players could rewind to just before entering Nightmare, tweak modules, and restart the story from scratch.
"Why not design it that way from the beginning?"
"Make it a no-save-point roguelike? We considered it... but it'd clash with WareSoft's philosophy, and just one shot at the brutal Mephistopheles fight would've been hell for players, haha."
The intent: guide toward one-clears but allow a couple retries.
"Still not getting it—what's that got to do with Adella?"
"Adella was especially sensitive to the freedom-control module."
"Huh?"
The man, mid-answer, handed the mic to the woman beside him at her gesture. Confirming the translation spell worked, she spoke—lips that had been sealed now opening.
"Let me elaborate. Adella's initial stats were so low, she usually dropped in Act 1—no big worry. But simulations showed if she survived to Act 2, her combat prowess spiked, wrecking game balance."
"Wait, just tweak the ASI's... potential value or whatever. No need to adjust the story."
"I'm sorry to say this here, but our contracted ASI had limits."
"Limits?"
"In short..."
She paused, thinking, then leaned into the mic.
"To make Adella wield every weapon masterfully, we had no choice but to reuse the ASI from the final boss Mephistopheles—the one with the highest potential."
'NyangsterCall' shared for 100,000!
"So Adella's AI is identical to Mephistopheles'."
"Not AI, but ASI? I don't know the details from the video, but basically, the dev team imploded, so they couldn't make new ASI and recycled the old one. Right?"
'NyangsterCall' donated 5,000 won!
I could only gaze pitifully at Adella, passed out dead to the world on the bed.
Was she dreaming? She was even smacking her lips. Eating treats in her sleep, maybe? Dismissing her as "just fictional" felt wrong—her AI was too real. Even if her remembered past was all fake, the memories we'd built together were undeniably true.
Plenty of mysteries remained unsolved. Hearing WareSoft's dev secrets from viewers didn't explain why all her memories across sessions suddenly returned. A bug? Or intentional? Info flooded in, yet the case felt deeper in the fog.
Gurgle—
Brain fried from overthinking—stomach growled. I crunched a carrot from the item shop stock, but VR hunger never fully satisfied.
That long already? Stepping out, sunset would be starting. Time to pause, grab a quick meal—better to avoid potion overload sickness.
"Mmmnya... nyaaang... Nooo carrots..."
Forgot to disable synced taste during sync? Adella scrunched her face, throwing a tantrum.
"It's tasty, the carrot."
Crunch—