Chapter 125
Chapter 125
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: Head-On Confrontation (1)
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Taking stock of them one by one, I thought again about how the man's reverse scales were far more numerous than those of the other prisoners.
They represented the magnitude of the memories the man had built with the woman—in other words, the magnitude of what he had lost.
One reverse scale for each memory.
A total of thirteen memories, transformed into thirteen bosses.
After finalizing that concept, my next concern was how to direct it.
‘The next reverse scale is….’
The day the man and woman became a couple.
The item is a magic pen.
I replayed the memory.
The setting was a living room sofa, where the woman was doodling on the man's arm.
The man asked.
—What are you doing?
The woman replied with a playful smile.
—I'm engraving myself onto you.
Then, she looked up at the man.
She smiled leisurely, and the man, after a moment of unease, smiled back.
Their eyes met, and their hands clasped together.
—What are you going to do?
—I think I've already given you my answer.
Their gazes met once more.
The man tilted his head.
Their lips touched.
‘Just up to this point.’
I laid out the format and began fine-tuning the details.
The cinematic should be around two minutes long.
If it's too long, players will lose focus, so it should only show enough to convey 'this is what happened.'
Fortunately, the genre is a Soulslike.
Since founding Rewind, I'd written narrative tooltips until I was sick of them.
Setting the mood with a cinematic and then shedding light on the item itself to add more explanation is a straightforward approach.
What needed to be expressed in reverse scales like the cigarette pack, lipstick, and magic pen was….
‘The emotion the man felt in that moment.’
Thankfully, in the vision I saw, the man's expression was honest.
So much so that his emotions could be expressed in text.
[Cigarette Pack and Lipstick]
A white cigarette, red lipstick, slender fingers.
Her eyes, a light brown that brightened in the sunlight.
[Magic Pen]
When held, a voice can be heard.
A voice that has now become a brand.
*Clack.* I finished typing and added it to the design document.
It was too early to go home.
Whenever this happens, I find myself unconsciously thinking about the next task.
Today was no different.
‘Now that I've finished planning one major chapter, the next one is….’
But before that, I needed to check the sound integration file that was uploaded today.
It was the sound for the playable character.
The model still needed adjustments, but for Chapter 1, we were at a point where a near-final demo could be played.
I went to the soundproof room and launched the game.
A white background, with a dummy monster in front.
I took control of the character and immediately checked the execution feature.
*Krrrk—*
The sound of the cylinder rotating was heavy.
The rusted effect was intentional.
It was meant to show that the man had spent a long time in hell.
‘Nice.’
It wasn't just that the effect was well-executed... yes, the sound of the cylinder rotating was tantalizing.
The crisp sound tickled the ears, firmly grounding the pre-execution sequence that could have otherwise been dull.
The rest was just as good.
*Clink, clank.*
The sound of loading bullets.
*Click!*
The sound of reloading.
And then, the two-shot execution.
*Crack, bang! Bang!*
I broke the dummy monster's arm, fired one shot into the back of its head, and another into the nape of its neck.
The entire sequence—the monster contorting, its head bouncing like a ball, its neck snapping with a grotesque *thud*—flowed together smoothly.
There were no camera angle adjustments yet.
The effects, which I planned to base around the camera angles, hadn't been properly implemented either.
And that's why it was a success.
‘The sense of impact is solid on its own.’
Gun-fu was the right choice.
The character's sharp movements, the precision of the motion, the sound design, and the monster's hit reaction—they all combined to convey a definite sense of weight.
Even PC users playing on low specs due to hardware issues would be able to feel a satisfying sense of impact.
‘Now, add the background, the effects….’
Then add lighting adjustments and, as the finishing touch, the camera angles?
‘…Not bad.’
The final product taking shape in my mind was quite impressive.
I got up and returned to the planning team's office.
It was 6 PM, and I could see the team members still in a meeting.
"We definitely shouldn't touch the revolver's ammo count. It would warp the game's foundation and make balancing even harder."
"Then we'll have to look at damage or special effects...."
It seemed they were discussing gun modding.
It's easier to understand if you think of it as implementing *Hellic 3*'s part-swapping system in the form of gun modding.
Of course, it wasn't typical modding.
After all, how many moddable parts could a police-issue revolver possibly have?
It involved attaching items from hell—boss items or farmed items.
Just then, the team members noticed me.
"Ah, President."
"Were you discussing the mods?"
"Yes, because of the balancing issues...."
"We're not touching the ammo count. The immediate task is to implement Rick Artmann's part."
Rick Artmann, fitting his vampire angel concept, had a lifesteal-related ability.
The item's effect was as follows.
[Fang of the Blood-Drinking Priest
Part: Barrel
Lifesteal 20% of damage dealt during an execution.]
Of course, it wasn't an entirely beneficial effect.
No matter how much we aimed for a 'lite' experience, the core was still a Soulslike.
Besides, since the character's main damage would come from a melee weapon, the firearm was designed to focus on changing the player's style.
"Let's add a risk to the existing effect—reduced execution damage. That way, players who focus on melee weapons can use executions as a secondary healing method."
At most, there would be 20 modding parts: 13 from bosses and 7 from farming.
There would be a maximum of two part slots.
Players could choose two from the barrel, trigger, frame, and grip.
Factoring out conflicting effects, duplicate slots, obsolete combinations, and niche builds catering to hipster tastes, the number of primary combinations would likely be around ten.
As an aside, using bullets as consumables could add even more variation.
That would be more than enough.
Given the nature of the genre, dedicated, hardcore players would squeeze every last drop of content out of it, even exploring the hipster picks.
"Wrap it up. Let's all go home early today."
The employees, who had been in a heated discussion just moments before, suddenly calmed down.
It wasn't that they disliked it.
I'm not dense; I could tell.
"I'm not kidding. I don't joke about things like this."
"Thank you for your hard work!"
Three minutes. That's how long it took for the planning team to pack up and leave.
Looking at the suddenly empty office, a thought crossed my mind.
‘Hmm.’
Maybe I should go home today, too.
Of course, it was just a thought. I didn't act on it.
Things are quite busy during development.
***
7:30 PM.
Han Seo-rim left work unusually early today.
Her work had gone more smoothly than usual, and she had completed her assigned tasks.
For the art team, this was quite a surprise.
After all, Seo-rim's usual pattern was to be the first to arrive and the last to leave.
It was so extreme that within the art team, 'workaholic' and 'Han Seo-rim' were practically synonymous.
But, at least in Seo-rim's mind, that was incorrect.
‘Leaving early is nice, too.’
Seo-rim was actually quite conscious of her work-life balance.
That was why she consistently went to the nearby gym before starting her overtime.
The reason she appeared to be a workaholic was simply her inherent perfectionism.
Added to that was her tendency as a manager to try and complete her greater workload within the same day.
In any case, leaving work while watching the sunset on a long summer day was quite an uplifting experience.
Maybe I'll watch a movie for the first time in a while.
Yeah, I could order some chicken.
With a small sense of anticipation, Seo-rim entered her home.
An unexpected break is a joy for any office worker.
Unfortunately, however, the scene inside her home shattered her hopes.
"Ah, Seo-rim, you're home."
"Dad?"
"It's been a while. You've been busy with work, so we haven't seen each other, have we?"
Her father was at home.
Normally, there would be nothing strange about a family being in the same house.
But not now.
Her parents had moved to the Chungcheong Province area years ago due to frequent business trips.
Only she and Jin-gyeong lived in the Seoul house, so if their father was visiting, it meant he needed to see one of them.
Judging by his friendly demeanor, he wasn't here to see her.
…No, even setting that aside, there was only one reason that busy man would make a personal visit.
"Hasn't Jin-gyeong come home yet?"
A faint trace of irritation was evident in his voice.
Seo-rim clenched her fists for no reason.
Just then.
*Click.*
A door opened, and Jin-gyeong appeared.
Not from the front door, but from the second floor, with all traces of his former vibrant self erased.
"Huh? Father, you're here?"
At the sarcastic tone, her father's eyebrow twitched.
"...It's been three hours. Since I got here."
"My, my. How was the old house on your long-awaited visit?"
The atmosphere grew tense, as fragile as thin ice.
The slightest touch would shatter it.
In this case, it would probably shatter into shouts.
Seo-rim knew the outcome of this conflict.
It was a conflict that had been going on for years, so of course she did.
She had tried to ignore it, but she couldn't.
Because, fundamentally, everything had happened because of her own greed.
Her intuition was telling her.
‘Ah.’
That she could no longer turn a blind eye to this matter.
A sigh escaped her, and hesitation surfaced.
Several faces flashed through Seo-rim's mind.
It wasn't a good thing.
They were faces that would only deepen her hesitation.
She clenched her jaw and took another deep breath.
And then, Seo-rim spoke.
"...Let's stop."
The frozen atmosphere remained.
But one person's face lit up, while the other's contorted into a frown.
The former was her father; the latter, Jin-gyeong.
"Hey, Han Seo…."
"That's enough."
Seo-rim cut Jin-gyeong off.
"...It's enough. How long are we going to let the mood in this house stay like this?"
There was one problem, and the solution had existed for a long time.
All she had to do was act on it.
‘…That's enough. This is enough.’
Her head throbbed.
***
"Want to go for a drink tonight?"
It was a day I was neck-deep in planning Chapter 2.
Uncharacteristically, Han Seo-rim had suggested we go out for drinks.
"Should we make it a team dinner then...."
"No, just the two of us."
What's this, a salary negotiation?
The thought briefly crossed my mind, and I soon found myself nodding.
I was planning to raise her salary next year anyway, so having a simple drink wouldn't be a bad idea.
So we ended up at the most highly-rated izakaya in Pangyo.
It was the same place where I'd come with Han Seo-rim and run into the NQ employees.
Fortunately, those people weren't here today.
For me, it created a comfortable environment to discuss her salary.
And so, just as the appetizers arrived and we'd had a couple of drinks...
"I'm going to resign."
Words I could never have expected to hear came out.
It was a terrible, completely... no, an utterly sudden and bewildering statement that couldn't even be compared to a salary negotiation.
For a moment, my fingertips trembled.
The alcohol in my glass sloshed.
As I stared at it, Han Seo-rim continued.
"I'm not saying I'm quitting immediately. I'm not that irresponsible. Of course, I'll see this project through to the end. That was our promise when we first met, wasn't it?"
Is she bringing up what happened that day?
—My time is very precious to me. And I'm someone who values interest more than anything. I guess you could call it mannerism, but I'm prone to it. Let me quit whenever I lose interest.
I remembered it word for word.
For me, her words were something I had to analyze.
Han Seo-rim let out a low breath and said,
"I'm sorry for telling you so suddenly, especially during development. But I felt I couldn't wait any longer."
I managed to reply.
"...It's fine."
There was one fortunate thing.
That I knew the future.
That I had always considered the possibility that Han Seo-rim might not stay in the game industry for long.
That I had always harbored the thought in a corner of my heart that something like this might happen one day.
Of course, that didn't mean I accepted it.
I needed to hear her reason.
Because I was certain her intention to resign was due to some external factor.
‘If it wasn't….’
She wouldn't have such a troubled expression.
Not the ever-confident Han Seo-rim.
I looked Han Seo-rim straight in the eye and asked.
"Can I at least hear the reason?"
Han Seo-rim's hands tensed.