Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: G-STAR — Demon's Relic (3)
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Subjugate the 72 demons to forge a contract with Lucifer.
Though the game started with that grand premise, Hansu’s heart wavered each time he met a new character.
It was inevitable.
Every demon he encountered was so masterfully designed that each one pricked at his otaku heart.
The demo version featured a total of fourteen demons.
Among them, if Hansu had to pick his absolute favorites, there were a few.
Excluding Lucifer and Paimon, who had already been introduced, there were four more.
—Ugh, don't look at me like that! It makes me nervous… my stomach…!
Marbas, who would clutch his stomach and tremble whenever he became the center of attention.
—Lucifer's scent. The one chosen by him…! I'll protect you! So those other damn bitches don't try to seduce you, Contractor…!
Andras, who would smile faintly with a blush on her face and unfocused eyes.
—A-A pervert! The reason you're so covered up is because you're not wearing anything underneath, right! I know everything! Wh-what? Lucifer's…
And Sitri, who would cover her eyes and shiver. These three demons simply appealed to Hansu due to their personalities.
If asked whether that was enough, Hansu’s answer would be ‘Yes.’
While their character archetypes might seem cliché, it also meant there was a certain expectation a user could have when interacting with them.
To put it simply, the three demons mentioned above were particularly dependent characters.
Imagining how the power dynamics in the relationship would shift as he grew closer to them was quite enjoyable.
And at the extreme end of that spectrum was another character.
The last one, Agares.
—You pathetic human! Who do you think you are, trying to make a contract with me? How filthy! Disgusting!
Agares was a girlish character with sharp, upturned eyes and a mischievous smile that revealed her canine teeth.
What more needed to be said?
In industry terms, a *mesugaki*—a character who maintained a provocative attitude and constantly spewed insulting remarks at the protagonist.
At first, Hansu was displeased after contracting with Agares.
The character was just too insolent.
He knew she was what they called a *mesugaki*.
However, he wasn't keen on the stress that would come with raising his affinity with her.
No, it was more than that. Every time he used a skill, lines like, “Pathetic♪ Can't even do that?” or “Is that the best you can do with my power? Go die!” made his blood boil.
So, in a fit of anger, Hansu tried to remove Agares from his slot.
That’s when it happened.
The true nature of the character Agares was revealed.
[Would you like to terminate the contract?]
After the notification, Agares’s expression crumbled.
She looked like a puppy caught in a downpour.
Her eyes trembled with anxiety, and her lips parted, unsure of what to say. It made her feel less like a creation and more like a character with a real soul.
She spoke.
—Are you really… going to leave me? If I did something wrong, I’ll fix it. I won’t say mean things anymore. So…
The camera angle showed the protagonist looking down at her as she mumbled and teared up.
The scene was perfected by Agares’s hand, desperately clutching the hem of the protagonist's robe.
Hansu felt a strange sense of depravity.
It was enough to wash away the negative feelings he had for her until that moment.
After some thought, Hansu pressed ‘N.’
He decided to watch her a little longer.
—Th-thank you! I’ll do better from now on! Yeah! I won’t say mean things anymore…!
Agares’s innocent, bright smile as she clung to him was disarming.
A system window popped up.
[Agares's affinity has increased by 3.]
Hansu realized it.
‘A special gimmick!’
It must have been an Easter egg triggered by a specific in-game action.
Hansu tested to see if it was repeatable by bringing up the contract termination notification several more times.
He came to a conclusion.
The second time, Agares would apologize, but from the third time on, she would fall into a depression.
Her affinity would drop by -1 each time.
Next, he checked the contract termination events for other characters.
And so he concluded.
‘Ah! So every character has a contract termination event?’
And the types of Easter eggs triggered by the notification varied quite a bit.
The most peculiar one he found was Andras.
[Contract termination failed.]
Simultaneously with the notice, the system notification would flicker and glitch out, and Andras’s dialogue would appear.
—Hehe, you shouldn't even joke about that.
There was a chilling charm to it.
That’s right.
Just as her yandere personality suggested, Andras had a gimmick: ‘once a contract is made, it cannot be terminated.’
Hansu let out a gasp of admiration.
‘This is… a dating sim?’
Then what have I been playing all this time…?
Just as Hansu’s grip on the controller tightened…
“Your time is up!”
He was pulled back to reality.
Despair washed over Hansu’s face.
“What? What? Why?”
The question slipped out unconsciously, but his returning reason gave him the answer.
At the G-STAR booths, each person was allotted a specific amount of playtime.
And for Demon's Relic, despite having 80 stations, the line stretched so far back he couldn't see the end.
Hansu trembled with disappointment.
‘Ah, I don’t think I even finished half of it.’
Of the fourteen characters presented in the demo version, he had only obtained eight.
He hadn't even gotten to properly test out the combat concepts, which bothered him immensely.
Most of all, he hadn't even figured out the gimmicks of the characters he already had.
He hadn't collected the characters’ reactions to each dialogue option, so why did it have to end now!
Today, Hansu’s world came crashing down.
However, there was one piece of good news for him.
“As soon as G-STAR is over, the demo will be distributed for free. Oh, and we’re also planning to release a webtoon, so please look forward to it!”
A Korean staff member who had approached him said.
Hansu’s world began to shine again.
He scrambled to his feet and pulled out his smartphone.
『Hansu The King: Found the game of my life.
Demon's Relic is a god, and Cheon Yeon-ho is invincible.
No counterarguments accepted.』
He waited eagerly for G-STAR to end.
* * *
It was a roaring success.
Looking at the endless line in front of the booth, no other words could describe it.
“Wow, don’t you think we need to hire more staff?”
I answered Han Seo-rim’s question.
“I already contacted the main office. About ten more people will be coming tomorrow.”
Even aside from security, the absolute number of staff was severely lacking.
The photo zone in front of the booth, where the cosplayers were, was so crowded it looked like someone could get crushed to death, and the line for Demon's Relic was a swarm of people, like an army of ants filling an entire section of the exhibition hall.
This was something that hadn't even happened with *Hellic*.
There could be several reasons, but the first one that came to mind was this.
‘An AAA-grade dating sim.’
Considering the high loyalty of subculture users, their interest in this game was somewhat understandable.
They had taken the image and quality that Rewind had built up publicly and projected those expectations onto a dating sim, inflating their anticipation.
And why not?
Most dating sims, due to the hardware limitations of mobile devices, couldn't implement certain systems that were possible in a packaged game.
In other words, the questions about gameplay, which had always been a problem for the genre, could be somewhat resolved.
Of course, there had been voices of concern.
Opinions like, "How can a developer known for creating gloomy, sad endings set in hell make a dating sim?" But looking at the scene now, it seemed those worries were thankfully being dispelled.
‘Their expressions are quite bright. The level of interest is high, too.’
I glanced over at Han Seo-rim.
More accurately, at Han Seo-rim’s smartphone.
She was flicking through community reactions with her finger.
Users who had already visited the booth were leaving rave reviews and sharing information about the game.
At that moment, Han Seo-rim asked.
“But, sunbae.”
“Yeah.”
“Isn't releasing the demo for free a bit too generous? Couldn't we have at least sold it for a few thousand won?”
“Free is the right call. We need to lower the barrier to entry.”
“Huh?”
“Demon's Relic is a game that needs to be expanded into an IP. We should be more focused on building a fandom than on immediate sales.”
The marketing point for Demon's Relic was the ‘formation of a loyal fandom.’
In other words, to attract as many subculture users as possible and create a market for secondary creations.
They might not know the game, but they know the characters.
It’s pointless to even talk about how many potential customers that concept creates.
The same goes for the extent to which character personalities are solidified and the world is expanded through secondary creations.
Considering the sales figures Demon's Relic recorded in my past life, it was a worthwhile investment.
No matter how many resources it took, if we could successfully establish Demon's Relic in the subculture market, the return would be greater.
In conclusion, the free distribution of the Demon's Relic demo was a lead generation strategy to increase sales for the official release in the future.
“We’re planning for a 2017 release, so… we need to gather as many as we can until then.”
I replied, getting up from my seat.
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to grab a drink. You want one?”
“Anything is fine.”
“A can of Pine…”
“Coke.”
Han Seo-rim’s eyes were bloodshot.
I made a swift escape.
* * *
G-STAR continued on like that.
All the while, I was thinking about the marketing direction for Demon's Relic.
‘First, we’ll need to create a second and third demo based on this version…’
Setting aside other marketing efforts, we needed to do at least that much just for the game itself to build an ecosystem.
The 14 demons revealed in this demo are the main characters who drive the in-game story.
In other words, they are the characters who take on the role of chapter protagonists within the game.
However, how could we build a character market with only fourteen out of seventy-two until the release?
But then, how could we possibly dump all seventy-two at once?
The reason for releasing the demo in versions was the need to let users become familiar with the characters and build interest in the game.
Humans are quite conservative creatures.
The time it takes to accept new information is longer than one might think, and the time needed to get used to it and form an attachment is even longer.
So, rather than releasing all 72 demons at once, a sequential expansion of the demo to let users recognize the characters would be a much more beneficial approach.
External promotions would also be conducted in a related manner.
‘A webtoon, a setting book… yeah, let’s release illustrations and scripts too.’
It would be best to release fragmented pieces of game information one by one, allowing users to speculate about the world and characters of Demon's Relic.
To plant a sense of anticipation with the idea that ‘characters like this will be coming out in the future.’
Yang Gil-sang would handle the specific direction, but I had to draw the big picture, so my thoughts didn't stop.
It was then.
“Huh?”
I ran into him in front of the vending machine.
“President Cheon Yeon-ho?”
“…Are you the gentleman from NQ I met before?”
“Ah, you remember me!”
Kim Seon-u.
In my past life, he was my closest friend. In this life, he was an employee of NQ’s planning team whom I had met once at an izakaya.
The one who gave me the nickname "artistic psycho."
“Congratulations! The response to your new game is amazing…”
He struck up a conversation with his usual friendliness.
Typical of him.
Always smiling to everyone’s face, so he had no enemies. His ability to maintain his dignity to the very end was remarkable.
I felt it again—this calm in my emotions was truly strange.
Have I really let it all go?
Pushing aside the momentary question, I replied.
“You’re too kind. The NQ booth seems to be doing quite well, too.”
It wasn't a lie.
It was, after all, a new title from one of the country's top game companies.
No matter if it was a mobile game, its impact wasn't small.
In fact, the NQ booth was quite crowded.
Of course, it was nothing compared to Demon's Relic.
Despite that, Kim Seon-u’s expression wasn’t great.
“…The reviews are a bit…”
He laughed awkwardly, letting out a weary sigh.
I understood.
I had also participated in that project as an employee in my past life.
Come to think of it, I became friends with him during that project.
I turned my eyes to the vending machine and said.
“It will be a success.”
“You think so?”
“The target audience NQ is aiming for isn't at this event, is it?”
“Haha…”
NQ’s new title was a bonsai-style RPG.
In other words, a game where you buy in-game growth with money.
They were targeting NQ’s existing user base, the cash cows who individually contribute to sales in the hundreds of millions.
The reaction at G-STAR, which has a relatively young audience, wasn't actually that important to them.
Kim Seon-u knew that too.
What he was saying now was just polite conversation.
*Clunk!*
I took out the can with a picture of a pine needle on it and popped the top.
Then I handed it to Kim Seon-u.
“Keep up the good work. I’ll be rooting for you.”
“Ah.”
“I’ll be on my way now.”
“Wait a moment!”
Kim Seon-u stopped me as I was about to leave.
When I tilted my head, a look of ‘oops’ flashed across his face.
“Uh…”
After a moment of glancing around and thinking, he smiled amiably and said.
“…Could I get your autograph?”
I have no idea what he’s up to.
“I’m not that important of a person.”
“You’re plenty important, though?”
“Is that so.”
When I stripped away my prejudice, something became a little clearer.
The fact that this guy admired me.
It wasn't a welcome feeling.
Because I didn't know what he might be thinking behind my back.
“Give me the paper.”
“Ah, just a second…”
I was in the middle of scribbling my signature, wanting to get it over with quickly.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
It was a question that I hadn't thought of in my past life.
‘This guy values sociability so much…’
Why did he talk behind my back in our past life?
That would have been far from the ‘office politics without making enemies’ that he enjoyed.
I looked up at Kim Seon-u.
I couldn't find an answer in his bright face.
Come to think of it, he had never once shared his deep thoughts with me.
“…I’m really leaving now.”
“Ah, yes! Good luck with the rest of the event! Oh, you have to take your drink!”
“You can have it.”
As I turned and walked away, I was back in the G-STAR exhibition hall.
Seeing the teeming crowd, my worries immediately vanished.
When I returned to the booth, the atmosphere was noticeably more chaotic than before.
I asked Han Seo-rim.
“What’s going on?”
“An idol came.”
“?”
“You know her. Yuki? Yuka? The runny-nosed girl.”
“Ah.”
I looked up and saw her.
Minami Yuka, the former idol, playing the game with a silly grin. Behind her, Yang Gil-sang was practically hyperventilating.
Soon, Yuka stood up from her seat.
Our eyes met, and in that instant, I felt a sharp glare.
It was from Yang Gil-sang.
“Sunbae, did you fight with Gil-sang?”
I don't know.
And I don't want to know.
Anyway, only one thing was important.
“Director! I’m a fan!”
The fact that Yuka seemed to have taken quite a liking to Demon's Relic.
“Are you planning to review it on your broadcast?”
“Hai! Ah, speaking of which, would it be okay to stream the demo version?!”
“We would be grateful if you did.”
Minami Yuka.
As of winter 2015, she had 70,000 followers on her channel.
In other words, this meant a promotion for the demo version from an influencer with 70,000 subculture fans.
“Yatta! Please be sure to watch the live stream! It’s in two days!”
Yuka trotted away.
On the last day of G-STAR, Demon's Relic ended the event on a high note.
* * *
It was the day after we returned to Seoul.
“The demo version has been uploaded.”
Now, it was time to see the results.