Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Episode 51
DLC [Professor of the Heroic Tale]: Hotfix Ver2.3.1a(2)
“What happened to the real me?”
“…….”
In response to my question.
Dino shook his head nervously.
Could it be that he couldn’t speak?
“If I die in the game, do I die in real life?”
“…….” Nods.
One thing became clear.
I must not die.
“Why was I summoned to this world, this game?”
“…….” Shakes head.
“Is that the only way you can respond?”
“…….” Shakes head.
“Then why just shake your head? Do you want to die?”
“…….” Shakes head.
“Speak.”
“Uh, okay.”
I tried asking the previous questions again. The real me. Death in the game. The reason for being summoned, and so on.
“…I, I don’t know.”
“You do know, don’t you?”
“…I don’t know!”
But Dino just looked troubled.
“Is that all there is to it if you don’t know?”
“Uh?”
“You should know.”
“Ah, I know…!”
“Is knowing enough? You need to speak.”
“Stop tormenting me…! I can’t say anything….”
“You’re my assistant. Helping is your role. If you remain silent when I’m asking for help, what’s the difference from not knowing at all? You useless creature. You bug.”
“Stop it…! Even if you torment me like that, I won’t say anything…!”
My bullying didn’t work.
Perhaps it was a systematic restriction.
“Then, am I the only player in this worldview?”
“Yeah! It’s a single-player game… So in your worldview, you’re the only player.”
In my worldview, I am the only player.
That statement sounded quite significant; was it my over-interpretation?
“Then….”
After a moment of thought, I continued the logic.
“From what I hear, that means other people have their own worlds too.”
“Y-Yeah. And everyone’s world is a little different.”
In short, it’s like a sandbox game.
It was an interesting and fascinating statement.
“Oh, right.”
Then Dino clapped his short front arms like a dinosaur.
“By the way, there are people waiting for you…!”
“They’re waiting for me?”
“Uh-huh. A lot! Like, this much!”
He spread his tiny arms wide.
By the length of his arms, it seemed to be just one or two people.
But apparently, it was more than that.
“Who are they?”
“Players like you…! And you’re very famous among them…!”
“Why am I?”
“Well, because you’re on [Hell Difficulty]…!”
I wondered why that would make me famous.
Dino smiled brightly, and his words hit the back of my head.
“…The only one still alive!”
Ah, I see.
I finally realized something. This really seemed similar to a single-player game in reality.
But even if the game is played alone, isn’t it possible to communicate with other gamers in the community?
The people Dino mentioned who were waiting for me seemed to be from that community.
“Then, have all the other [Hell Difficulty] players died?”
“Uh-huh.”
Thinking about it, that would make sense.
How many assassination attempts had there been since the first day of employment?
There were countless situations where I could have easily died.
But I survived.
Was it because I was a seasoned player? Because I was excellent and outstanding?
That was half true.
The other half was that I was lucky.
Bugs, tips, desperate performances, and understanding of the game were all important… but ultimately, if I hadn’t been lucky, I would have died. I knew that fact all too well.
“…But if everyone has their own world anyway, what does it matter that I’m on [Hell Difficulty]?”
“Uh-huh. That’s, you know? Later, there might be a multi-player DLC…”
Surprised, Dino’s speech lagged, and a blue status window appeared in his mouth.
「 ⧉ 」
At the same time, the focus disappeared from his eyes.
It was indeed a restriction.
It seemed that the [Stigmata] of systematicity had sealed his mouth.
What was he trying to say?
Multi… with DLC?
Well, DLC is an element that can be added at any time.
Perhaps a multi-server might be created in the future.
A server where single players can gather.
‘I get the gist.’
Then I could also guess why I was so famous among them.
[Hard Difficulty] had a much larger reward system and game scale compared to [Normal Difficulty].
To defeat overwhelmingly strong enemies, one must become overwhelmingly stronger.
It wasn’t just about higher numbers.
The actual game scale had changed.
Dungeons that used to go down to the third basement level were now expanding to the fifth.
The same must be true for [Hell Difficulty].
At the point where the main story was only at level one, weapons of [Legend II] grade had been released, and I had picked them up.
Of course, thanks to the [Error Space] and the situation unfolding well, but even so, it was an unreasonable growth rate.
It would continue to be so.
I would become overwhelmingly stronger than players of other difficulties. As long as I could survive.
That seemed to have created anticipation among many.
At that moment, the dazed look in Dino’s eyes returned.
“…Uh. What was I saying…?”
Then he asked.
“Anyway, do you want to go see? Other players? They’ll all be waiting for you at [End Ocean]!”
Meeting them sounds good.
I don’t mind.
But I decided to think a little more about this situation first.
First, this game.
The game called “Hiaka Academy: Assassination Studies” was actually released alongside two others: “Warrior Studies” and “Magic Studies.”
They were released in the order of Warrior-Mage-Assassin.
I had tried all three, but the assassin was the most fun, so I had delved deeply into Assassination Studies.
The game was released in a foreign country.
Poland or Finland… or something like that. Somewhere in Europe.
The game system was quite complex, making the entry barrier high.
It gained a cult following among enthusiasts overseas, but it didn’t resonate much in Korea.
So when I tried to use the community, I had to rely on overseas communities.
“Dino. How many people have died in [Hell Difficulty]?”
“Uh, a lot.”
“Roughly how many? Hundreds?”
“More than that.”
‘Huh,’ he looked up.
This time, there was no restriction.
“More than hundreds, huh….”
I couldn’t know what had happened to them.
All I knew was that they had died.
“Did many players of other difficulties survive?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You mentioned [End Ocean] earlier; where is that?”
“It’s a sea where people who have seen the game’s ending can go.”
So, players who have seen the ending of a single-player game can access the community at the end… is that it?
“I haven’t seen the ending yet.”
“Yeah! So you can’t go deep. It’s very rare for someone who hasn’t seen the ending to appear in the offline world.”
I see.
It’s still vague, but I’m starting to get a sense of it.
Thus, as we continued to converse, I was able to visualize a forest in my mind.
This world is divided into several dimensions.
1.
The world inside the single-player game: [Overworld]
2.
The world outside the game: [Offline]
3.
The community of users who have seen the ending: [End Ocean]
[Overworld] is the world I just came from.
The address of my world is what came to mind when I connected: <Seed: 3340 1414 5592 **** ****> ← this is my world’s address.
[Offline] is the white world where I’m currently standing. A space where I’ve been temporarily expelled due to seeing the ending or hotfixes.
And Dino is now telling me to go to [End Ocean], number 3.
There, many people from other difficulties, who have seen the game’s ending, are waiting for me.
< Time remaining until Ver.2.3.1 patch completion… [21 minutes] >
I glanced at the time and made up my mind.
“Alright. Then, I will go to this place called [End Ocean].”
“Uh-huh. Hop on!”
Me?
Dino came closer and bent down.
Exposing the back of his gray dinosaur costume.
Hop on? On this kid’s back?
“You have to control it well.”
Indeed, there was a long button on the back of Dino’s dinosaur head.
[ JUMP ]
Gray dinosaur. White world. Jump button.
This feels familiar somehow…
Anyway.
As I climbed onto Dino’s dinosaur costume, surprisingly, I shrank, and it felt like I and he had become one, sticking together.
“We’re going! We have to surpass 10,000 points!”
“Got it.”
Dino started running.
Pitter-patter.
Surprisingly, there was no shaking.
< Current Score: 1 >
< Current Score: 2 >
⋮
The score floating above my head began to rise.
We have to surpass 10,000 points. I wondered what that meant; it must have referred to that score.
However.
As I moved while riding on Dino,
the world began to change rapidly, unlike when I walked alone.
Cacti appeared, and the sky’s scenery changed.
Dino was not running through [Offline].
He was seeping into Subspace.
< Current Score: 15 >
< Current Score: 17 >
⋮
The flow that followed felt somewhat familiar.
< Current Score: 35 >
As Dino started running faster,
cacti appeared.
I hit the jump button.
Bam!
“Ow!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Press the button gently…!”
This is ridiculous.
Who told me to put a button on my head?
But since it hurt, I decided to press it gently.
Bam. Bam.
“Ow! Ow! It hurts…!”
But even pressing gently, would he not say anything?
I decided to press it even more gently.
“I said it hurts! Press it gently, bro!!”
I gave up.
Bam! Bam!
“Ow ow!”
< Current Score: 65 >
< Current Score: 79 >
< Current Score: 139 >
⋮
So, as I jumped continuously, this time a pterosaur flew by. I didn’t press the jump button and dodged upwards.
This too was a familiar flow.
< Current Score: 512 >
Then at some point, the pterosaur began to fly at a very ambiguous altitude.
“What should I do?”
“It’s okay. I think I can dodge it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll trust you.”
The pterosaur crashed into my forehead.
Oh damn, that startled me.
< GAME OVER >
When I opened my eyes, the cacti and pterosaurs had all disappeared.
Dino was looking at me with a serious expression, as if he found me pathetic.
“Hey, what are you doing? That was an easy section with only 350 points.”
“You said I would definitely dodge it!”
“When did I say that?”
“…….”
He tilted his head as if he really didn’t know.
Look at this guy. Just when I thought we had gotten a bit closer, he became quite brazen.
But for some reason, it felt like I was fighting with a child… so, I just decided to keep my mouth shut.
“I’ll try again. This time, do better.”
But I had already figured out the gist of it from my first attempt.
I roughly understood the level of this game.
< Current Score: 611 >
< Current Score: 1,552 >
< Current Score: 2,914 >
⋮
I felt bored and wanted to die.
Dino was getting faster and faster.
Night fell on the path we were running.
The cunning tricks of the cacti and pterosaurs continued.
Bam!! Bam!!
“Ow! Ow!”
I was able to jump over them in an instant by hitting the button hard. I thought I heard something about pressing gently in between, but the wind was strong, so I couldn’t tell.
Bam bam bam bam bam!!
“Ugh!!”
< Current Score: 6,335 >
< Current Score: 8,595 >
< Current Score: 10,000 >
Finally, we arrived.
Dino, who had been scratching his head, smiled brightly.
“By the way, you did well. It’s the first time I’ve reached this point in two tries!”
I didn’t say, “Aren’t I the first person you’ve met?”
I just turned my gaze to the distance.
At the edge of the once white world.
The sea was spread out.
Is this where [End Ocean] begins?
There are many people waiting for me inside this…?
Ding…
Ding…
Ding….
Something fell to the ground.
…Thud.
The dazed blue eyes focused. Eve reached out to grab what had fallen.
The thing that had been dangling fell, but for some reason, it didn’t stick to her body.
No matter what she did.
It wouldn’t stick.
After that, the bell no longer rang. No matter how much she shook it. Only a dull sound would come from tapping the outside.
“…….”
Eve turned her head and gazed into the distance.
Dazed, for a very long time.