Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: Non-Player V: Shin Noah
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The Void's appearance had now become shabby.
Once, the river graphics had flowed beautifully in what seemed like a virtual reality game, then degraded to an AAA game, to an ordinary 3D game, then to a '90s console game――.
Ultimately, it had fallen to the level of a dot game.
In this Void, no sea or river flowed. Blue, sky-blue, and white dots simply remained fixed in place.
Mountain ridges were modest green and dark green. Trees were dark brown and yellowish brown. Rocks were gray. Clouds were white.
Players had transformed into mere flesh-colored dot clumps with a bit of decoration.
“…….”
Sim A-ryeon logged in on cycles of one year, three years, nine years, twenty years, fifty years, and each time, her "graphics" degraded.
From a character that looked like it had received the utmost care from an AAA game's graphic designer, to one that could appear in any ordinary 3D game, to a design from a low-res '90s game.
By the time they met last, if you didn't know it was Sim A-ryeon, it would have looked like nothing more than a polygon lump wandering around with "green hair," "long hair," and a large wooden easel.
SG Net had also met its end.
-Goryeo Jang: Guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha today.jpeg
-Goryeo Jang: Guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha today.png
-Goryeo Jang: Guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha today.jpg
-Goryeo Jang: Guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha today.jpeg
The first page of the message board had only posts left by one person.
Even those were from far in the past.
Sim A-ryeon hadn't logged in for the last hundred years. She had probably given up on enduring this "dead game" any longer.
Seo-gyu had become a player hundreds of years ago, yet the fact that SG Net was still maintained suggested that the awakened ones who were "logged out" hadn't died but had been "dragged into the domain of the outsider god."
[Service Termination Notice.]
Finally.
[Hello, players. This is the "Operator of Myriad Phenomena."]
[Unfortunately, "Reality Online" has been decided to end service.]
[We sincerely thank all players who enjoyed and loved "Reality Online" until now.]
["Reality Online" servers will shut down in 72 hours.]
Three days.
The monster that had hidden its true form for over hundreds of years would surely crawl out from its lair at the moment of the world's destruction.
I waited, gripping tightly my cherished sword Do-ha, which had stayed with me for over two hundred years in this loop without so much as a single nick.
And exactly seventy-two hours later,
[Hello. Everyone. This is the Operator of Myriad Phenomena.]
Suddenly, atop the mosaic sky made of dots, a single brilliant blue butterfly revealed its form.
That butterfly alone possessed a clearly different "resolution" compared to its surroundings.
The moment the monster came into view, I unleashed a single slash, but regrettably, it didn't reach the sky. That mosaic sky probably wasn't established as spatial reality.
Ignoring my attack entirely, messages scrolled before my eyes one after another.
[We shall set off on a new journey.]
[A very long time may pass before we arrive at the new destination, but we hope to meet you again somewhere at the end of the looping Möbius strip.]
[Thank you.]
[We truly wish to meet you once more.]
At that moment.
“ Ah ah ah! ”
A mechanical noise came from behind me. Infinitely alien, yet somehow familiar.
I, who had been glaring up at the outsider god-level monster with chilling hatred, couldn't help but flinch and turn around.
There.
“ Gui-ld Lea-der! ”
Green dot hair.
Flesh-colored dot face. Eyes and mouth composed of black dots.
A dot clump far smaller than me stood there.
“ I’m he-eere! ”
The dot took step after step toward me, swinging its arms back and forth in exaggerated fashion. Thud. Thud. Crude footstep sound effects rang out each time its shoes hit the ground.
The dot clump hugged my waist tightly-. That, too, was merely a sound effect. No sensation registered on my waist.
I hesitated, then opened my mouth. It had been so long since I'd spoken to another person that my tongue felt sluggish.
“…A-ryeon?”
“ Yes! ”
The dot smiled. Probably beaming.
Each time it spoke, a trilling electronic text-to-speech sound followed. Mechanical tones with barely any inflection struggled to imitate a human voice.
“How did you end up, no. Why are you here…….”
“ Why no-ot! Ser-ver clo-sing no-tice went up! Hur-ried and lo-gged in! At the ve-ry end, yeah, I wa-nna see it to-ge-ther with Gui-ld Lea-der! ”
“…….”
“ Sor-ry I’m la-te, Gui-ld Lea-der. He he. ”
I.
[Notice.]
[Server will auto-terminate in 30 seconds.]
Hugged "Sim A-ryeon" tightly.
It felt like embracing empty air; nothing registered in my arms. I stroked her hair, always messy and sticking out every which way. Again, nothing felt.
“ Gui-ld Lea-der? ”
“No. Nothing to apologize for. You have nothing at all to be sorry about, A-ryeon. If anything, I'm the one who's sorry, as your guild leader. I……. For the next time. To gather information somehow. So, I never imagined you'd end up like this.”
“ Gui-ld Lea-der. ”
Sim A-ryeon reached out her hand.
[Server will auto-terminate in 20 seconds.]
“ Don’t be sad, Gui-ld Lea-der. ”
[Server will auto-terminate in 10 seconds.]
“ I, re-al-ly love the ca-fe mo-cha you make, Gui-ld Lea-der. ”
[Server will auto-terminate in 3 seconds.]
[Server will auto-terminate in 2 seconds.]
[Server will auto-terminate in 1 second.]
“ So, next time too ”
As the countdown reached zero, the dot world instantly faded to 16-bit colors.
Then, without the slightest pause, to 8-bit, to 4-bit, converging into a landscape composed solely of black and white.
The nutrients of our world, our reality, our very essence—all of it was being voraciously devoured by the butterfly atop the Void.
Sim A-ryeon worked her lips, but only an a-a-a electronic screech, impossible to construe as a human voice, rang out.
In that instant, I sensed the outsider god exerting its full power to "entrance" me. I also intuited that if I succumbed, even the chance to end my own life would vanish.
I ignited my final burst of aura. While holding Sim A-ryeon just a little tighter.
“ ······ ······ · ”
Her voice, now degraded below even 1-bit, was utterly incomprehensible, but I was certain it was the sound of a smile.
Fade to black.
My reality encountered "server shutdown."
9
There is an epilogue.
Quite a few, in fact.
It would be nice if, from here, the Undertaker's grand counteroffensive commenced, smashing the outsider god that dared to touch our world――reaching a happy ending right away, but regrettably, that wouldn't be attempted until much later.
The "Operator of Myriad Phenomena," or "Logout Game," wouldn't yield a攻略 method until after surpassing the 555th loop.
So for this episode, rather than skipping straight to the 555th loop, how about spinning some minor epilogues?
First epilogue.
“What, what is this? Where are we?”
“Huh? Busan Station? I was in the park just a moment ago…….”
“Cult leader? Cult leader, where are you?”
Murmurs rose.
Immediately after dying to the outsider god, I opened my eyes to familiar whispers.
Busan Station concourse.
Not my actual hometown, but one I could call the regressor's hometown. People who had just been entrapped by the Void were panicking.
'Ah.'
A momentary wave of exhaustion washed over me.
Even if I was a genius at mental management, regressing right after such a bad end wasn't something I could shrug off easily.
At times like these, I relied on my personal regression routine. Quickly stand up, head to the vending machine and grab a Silence to drink, subdue the tutorial fairy to save Seo-gyu's life, then snag the silver bell from the souvenir shop—a whole sequence of routine. Habit. Suggestion. Ritual.
Isn't it amusing?
In a world where everything eternally repeats in a perfect circle, the way for a human to protect themselves is to draw an even smaller circle within it. Thus, the world becomes a clock with hour and minute hands, tree rings tracing the rhythm of time, and ultimately a circle dance, whirling away.
I raised my upper body. Pushed against my weight to rewind the spring of life once more. And.
Tuk-
“……?”
Something had entered my life.
A very light laptop rested on my thigh.
'Laptop?'
It was something I'd never seen before. And by "never," I mean truly, across every single loop, this was the first time I'd witnessed a laptop placed on my thigh.
My eyes widened.
I immediately powered it on.
*Beep*, *ziiiing*......
The boot time dragged on slowly.
My heart pounded. I ignored the murmurs from the people around me.
What mattered now was that this unidentified object had abruptly intruded into my regression—into the eternal circle dance.
Soon, the desktop appeared. A pristine white canvas, devoid of any extraneous icons.
The only thing there was a single nameless notepad file, sitting alone in the upper right corner.
“…….”
*Click*.
Guided by my heartbeat, I clicked the file. A notepad window popped up on the screen.
[ What is this world? ]
A single line of text.
In that instant, I intuited it. This laptop, this notepad file—it was none other than a ghostly artifact left for me by the outsider god, the "Operator of Myriad Phenomena."
A reward for the sole survivor, the ultimate winner of the game it had hosted? Or was this enigmatic Q&A itself another game?
Either way, the me from the 135th loop couldn't judge.
The only certainty was that, following my staff-sword Do-ha, another item had become bound to my endless regressions.
"Hmm."
*Tap*. I typed my response into the outsider god's notepad.
[ F U C K Y O U ]
......
The laptop showed no reaction.
What had gone wrong?
After a moment's thought, I realized my blunder: the opponent had asked in Korean, but I'd replied in English.
A clear mistake on my part. I hastily deleted the response and hammered the keyboard again.
[ Go jerk your tiny dick, you dog-cunt motherfucking shithead bastard ]
*Tick*-
The laptop screen went black. It had shut down on its own.
Afterward, the laptop refused to turn on again until the next loop.
It seemed opportunities to answer questions were limited to twice per loop.
10
Second epilogue.
As I already mentioned, even though I'd acquired the bound item known as the laptop, that didn't mean I'd succeeded in subjugating the outsider god.
Thus, makeshift countermeasures were necessary.
I gathered No Do-ha and the Saintess and earnestly implored them.
"If a status window ever appears, no matter what, we must ensure no one opens it—from now on, we need to lay the groundwork to prevent that."
"Hmm……."
"We can't afford to be choosy about methods. Using the National Highway Management Corps' authority, with the constellations' whispers, relentlessly brainwash and instill how harmful the 'status window' is."
"Alright, got it……."
"Saintess, if you spot any awakened one entranced by a status window, notify us immediately without delay. The National Highway Management Corps will step in to arrest and imprison the individual."
"Yes. Undertaker."
"Throw the arrested awakened ones into prison as life-term inmates. Hell, treat them as death row if you must. Spread rumors that they're mentally corrupted, spreading like a virus to those around them—that should minimize backlash."
Of the seventy-two death row inmates mobilized for the Inunaki Tunnel subjugation, quite a few had been imprisoned for this very "status window viewing crime."
My countermeasures didn't stop there.
'The allure of the Logout Game stemmed largely from fulfilling the desire for ascension. Visible numbers for damage dealt, experience gained, levels raised.'
Simply suppressing the awakened ones wouldn't stem the flood of "status windows." Where there's desire, demand follows.
We needed an alternative to at least partially sate that desire.
That was "Cafe Hideout."
-Goryeo Jang: (1000m) This bro likes quiet cafes just fine, but he doesn't hate lively ones either. But deep down, bro's bummed cuz too few customers show up and he ends up with the whole cafe to himself unintentionally lol…… Bro's bored, so y'all come down quick.
└Baekhwa Girls' High School 9th Grader: (1200m) >_[);; └Goryeo Jang: Idiot lol 1000m or 1200m ain't much diff but you act all smug about it lmao └Baekhwa Girls' High School 9th Grader: (1200m) The fishies are so pretty]_[);; └Goryeo Jang: Fishies? What fish? └Baekhwa Girls' High School 9th Grader: (1200m) lol]_<);;
└Goryeo Jang: ???
The Depth system.
I assigned numerical depths to the awakened ones based on their ranks.
The difference between level 10 and 11 was hard to discern. But between 100m and 200m depth at Cafe Hideout, or 300m and 400m—the difference in upscale interior and service was obvious to anyone.
That was the extent of my countermeasures.
Built a hideout in the undersea tunnel to prevent mental-type monsters from intruding freely.
Designed the Depth system and cafes to fulfill the awakened ones' desire for ascension.
Continuously hammered in awareness of the "status window" via National Highway Management Corps edicts and constellation warnings.
This ironclad defense succeeded; after all contingencies were complete in the 197th loop, we never faced world-ending destruction from the "Logout Game" even once.
Now, as a regressor, all I had to do was wait until a precise攻略 method was developed.
No particular issues arose. As proven in this episode, I was quite accustomed to waiting.
Therefore.
"A-ryeon."
"Y-Yes? What’s up……."
"Saw a slime on my walk, so I brought it. Here, take it."
"Whoa?! Perfect timing, I was in the mood to bash a slime—h-how'd you know……?"
"And this is a donut from Haeundae Bakery, the one you like. Here."
"Huh?! Wha, wait, is today my birthday? Th-the guild leader's being nice to me! A miracle that happens once every 700 days if that……!"
For today's epilogue, let's wrap it up watching our problem child happily munch donuts after bashing a slime with a club.
"Ehehe……. Thanks, guild leader!"