The Birth of Super Gemini

Two weeks had slipped by since the Latia Shock.

For the first of those two weeks, chaos reigned unchecked. The updated Yggdrasil had forcibly shut down the vast majority of game labyrinths built before it, and the community forums had degenerated into a lawless wasteland of unverified rumors and secondhand information.

And amid all that chaos, certain people were moving in secret.

"Are you ready?"

At Wolya's question, Ryu Hwi let out a sigh.

"Do make certain of it, now. You are the master of our Jucheongwang, after all."

"Shut it. Is this why you dumped the shop on me? Damn it all."

Ryu Hwi grumbled, visibly annoyed.

"Well, so long as I get to keep working with you, a CEO's chair is yours for the taking."

Jucheongwang. The curiosity shop Wolya had run all this time. It had collapsed during the attack and closed its doors temporarily, but now the decision had been made to open it once more — as a shop that did something entirely different from before.

"You want me to be the billboard? You've genuinely lost your mind."

"Can't be helped, can it? 5555 loathes showing her face in public, and most people can't comprehend my tastes, so it would be rather awkward for me to step forward myself."

Wolya spoke as if lamenting the injustice of it all. Her current prosthetic body was a grotesque concept — a monstrous, kaiju-like torso with nothing but the face of a woman. And atop all that, the voice coming out of it was a deep, dignified adult male's. It was guaranteed to sow confusion in anyone who laid eyes on her.

"Send out Unit Zero, then! Zero!"

"She's even more reluctant than 5555 to put herself out there! She only forced herself into that last party because she had to, did she not? Besides, scarcely anyone in this world is as famous as you are. The advertising effect is guaranteed."

"Didn't I tell you I can't stand being used?"

Wolya's request was simple: now that a new game labyrinth had been made, would Ryu Hwi serve as its billboard? More precisely — record himself playing the thing under Jucheongwang's name and upload it to Yggtube.

"Mutual benefit! Now, of all moments, is our chance to spread the name of 'Jucheongwang' far and wide! Just this once — just once, I beg of you! Succeed in this, and our renown will soar higher still! After all, this is the announcement of the very first game labyrinth created since the 2.0 update!"

That was what made him hesitate.

"That's only if the labyrinth this lunatic built turns out to be any good."

The reason labyrinths were so unstable was simple: ever since the update, not a single game labyrinth existed that could satisfy Yggdrasil, so the system itself couldn't operate properly. What's more, only old-version labyrinths remained, which meant diving in and spinning Random Boxes was utterly pointless — old-version skills and items stood no chance against the S.E.N.

"I have no intention of cutting corners on the first labyrinth to bear Jucheongwang's name. 5555 has been pouring her everything into this one since long ago."

According to Wolya, all the mods 5555 had ever built had been nothing more than practice for this.

"No one has the courage to step forward yet, and everything anyone produces is trash that apes the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠labyrinths of a bygone era — Yggdrasil refuses to accept any of it. In a situation like this, seizing the 'first' would be an enormous advantage."

Wolya had once spoken of an intention to create a new game labyrinth someday. This was that golden moment. If Wolya's plan succeeded, they would undoubtedly surge ahead of every competitor in the field.

"I'm counting on you. You are the representative of Jucheongwang now, are you not?"

"Is this why you handed it over, you damned—"

Wolya had abruptly offered Ryu Hwi the ownership of Jucheongwang out of nowhere. And this is what she'd told him at the time:

'I have a dream I intend to see through. For its sake, I am willing to do anything — just as you are. I will handle every last bothersome detail, so all you need do is sit in the master's seat of Jucheongwang.'

Wolya's resolve was genuine.

"And if you ever feel I'm making use of you without your leave, you may dispose of me at any time."

There was no telling how Yggdrasil would change in the days ahead. And so long as the S.E.N — a cabal of unknown identity and unfathomable intent — might strike at any moment in any way, continuing to move by the old methods had its limits.

He needed power.

He needed an army that would move at his command.

Wolya in particular — no, 5555 — the one capable of creating game labyrinths — was someone he absolutely had to keep in his grasp. In the coming era, there would be no ability more valuable. Above all, if she truly had some manner of connection to the Diamond ranks, she might yet become his trump card.

That was why he had become the owner of a game labyrinth development company called Jucheongwang.

All well and good, except…

"You said you'd handle every bothersome thing, and then you hand me one of the most bothersome jobs imaginable?"

His first duty as master of Jucheongwang was to test — and simultaneously promote — the brand-new labyrinth 5555 had created.

"Let me say this plainly. If the labyrinth you built turns out to be garbage, none of this ever happened."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it… It'll be fine! Have faith in 5555!"

"Aaand, filming setup complete! Shall we inject the source?"

Wolya had prepared a 'sapling' of Yggdrasil. Until the Latia Shock, these saplings had been treated as Latia's exclusive monopoly, but now anyone could apply and receive one after a simple screening. Someday, there might even come a day when every household had its own.

Ryu Hwi slotted the box containing the game source into the groove of the sapling's glass tube. The moment he did, countless strings of characters burst forth from the box and soaked into the sapling.

This was where most attempts failed. The upgraded Yggdrasil spat out any source it judged 'substandard', as if such things weren't even worth processing. Countless development studios, shouting 'Latia's gone, this is our era now!' and charging in to build labyrinths the old way, had failed to clear even this very first step.

"It's a solo-developed game, so the scale isn't grand, but 5555 takes pride in the fact that the quality of the source itself is second to none… so she says."

Before long, every last character had been absorbed into the sapling. Then strange, intricate patterns surfaced across its entire surface, and directly above it, a bright, cheerful hologram unfurled into being.

"Oh—ohhh?!"

A 'Jucheongwang' logo rendered in vivid red rose upon the hologram.

Had it… worked?

While he was still only half-believing, a fresh alert bloomed across his field of vision.

"Oh—OHHHHHH!!"

Wolya leapt clean off the ground.

"Did you see that?! Did you see it?!"

She was hopping around like a child. So it really had worked.

"So when a labyrinth gets created now, it broadcasts a global alert? Which would mean…"

A 'labyrinth creation alert' had never once appeared before. Which meant this was the first labyrinth created since the Yggdrasil update — the first in history.

"Ryu Hwi, try Conversion at once! I wish to record this historic moment — hurry, hurry!"

Ryu Hwi shot a sidelong glance at YggON. Up until now, other gamers had needed a dedicated connector to enter Yggdrasil's labyrinths. He'd heard the connectors were gone now that Conversion had been unlocked, but he had no idea what difference there might be between that and YggON's conversion.

If there was no visible difference, then converting in front of others would be no problem at all.

He dove into the game labyrinth without further worry.

"Ah — he's gone!"

Wolya's voice reached him just before he crossed over.

A crisp, fresh breeze brushed his cheek. When he opened his eyes, what spread out beneath the blue sky was a world straight out of a fairy tale.

What a strange sensation. Even after experiencing countless game labyrinths, the feel of this one was different. It was hard to put into words, but something like its sense of reality was simply… other.

He looked around. Colorful blocks lay scattered across every corner of the world — a whimsical, charming little realm that looked as though it had been drawn straight from a storybook's illustrations.

YggON spun in circles all around him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"In other words, the level of polish is on a whole different plane?"

YggON's praise simply would not stop. Which meant, presumably, that this labyrinth's completeness really was that high.

"So then, what am I supposed to do here…"

An arrow appeared in his field of view, kindly pointing the way forward. He marveled anew — the vast majority of labyrinths these days couldn't even manage something this basic.

«Ryu Hwi! How is it?! Did you get in properly?!»

5555's noisy voice stabbed straight into his ears.

«How's my labyrinth? Is everything working right? Anything weird anywhere? Is the tutorial function operating correctly? How is it?»

"Shut up! I haven't even had a chance to look around yet, so sit still! What's with the zero patience?!"

«Ah — okay.»

The moment the racket went quiet, Ryu Hwi started moving in the direction the arrow pointed.

«How is it? How is it? How is it? Oh, and by the way, that game is—»

"PATIENCE!!"

Only after finally gagging 5555 did he sit down and experience Super Gemini for himself, checking it piece by piece.

Super Gemini offered a choice between Single Mode and Multi Mode, and the way you played changed completely depending on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠which you picked. Single Mode ran an adventure game following the story flow of Super Gemini itself. A great many items were prepared throughout the labyrinth, and which items you used could transform the entire playstyle — it wasn't just that your skills changed; even the system itself seemed to shift. On top of that, you could craft your own custom items out of the tools lying around, giving the game a tremendous degree of freedom.

That sense of free creation reminded him of Doki Doki Builder — except here, there was none of that place's utterly senseless cruelty. No indestructible god descending nightly to demolish everything you'd made.

"Not like I can use them anyway, thanks to the YggON system."

Even when he picked up dropped items, he couldn't wield them directly.

"A brand-new labyrinth finally comes out, and I still can't enjoy it the normal way…?!"

"Huh? What's the dividing line between them?"

He vaguely grasped the distinction. If he picked up a rock lying by the roadside, it wouldn't be stored in his inventory — but he could still throw it, hold it, play with it. Super Gemini, in other words, was absolutely stuffed with items like that 'rock'.

"So even without touching the Random Box, you can get plenty out of this?"

In the early stretch of the tutorial, a event played out in which a princess was kidnapped. A wonderfully clear and convenient premise.

"Wasn't pain control supposed to be impossible?"

Not one of the labyrinths he'd played so far had ever implemented it.

"……"

The reason pain suppression had never worked was almost too absurd to process.

"Game labyrinths were always just a means of survival, after all."

But this labyrinth had never forgotten the most fundamental truth of all: having fun. Now he understood why YggON rated it so highly.

It was his first labyrinth in a long while — and moreover, the very first labyrinth of the Jucheongwang that would carry him into the future. He explored the place with none of YggON's enhancements. The whimsical field, tinged with a slightly unreal charm, carried an overwhelming fairy-tale ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠air. Making use of the various items that appeared along the way, he ventured deep into Super Gemini's many strata: across the grasslands, into a lava zone, across snowfields, down into a valley swept by wind. This was the first time in his life a game labyrinth had made him feel the pure, simple joy of the game itself.

"Magic stones are pouring out of this place."

And the sheer volume coming out was nothing short of extraordinary. The quality of the stones themselves was leagues beyond anything mined in World of Phantasm.

"A portion of the magic stones mined in a labyrinth goes back to the developer — that was the rule, right?"

The more gamers connected to this labyrinth, the greater the returns. The larger Jucheongwang's foothold grew, the higher the social standing of 'Ryu Hwi' climbed with it. He had accepted the position reluctantly, true — but it would become an enormous asset in achieving his goals. In this moment, right now, countless 'plans' were assembling themselves in his head.

"Scheme? I merely came up with a way to broadcast this labyrinth far and wide in record time. Now then, YggON… the moment we have waited for, and waited for, has finally arrived."

"RANDOM BOX!!"

The moment he had waited for and waited for — Random Box time!

"Shut up! Random Box! RANDOM BOX!"

To any observer, he looked every inch the fully fledged gacha addict.