Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Release - Demon's Relic (1)
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What is a pretty girl?
Jeong Han-su (4th year, repeating student, Han-su the King), a modern-day seeker of truth continuing that profound and weighty inquiry, spoke.
“Should we, maybe, start dating?”
They were at a cafe.
Across from him sat a girl who had just entered his department this year as a freshman.
The girl shyly lowered her head.
Han-su reflected on the past semester.
‘This is a guaranteed success.’
Han-su knew.
A confession wasn't a declaration of 'I like you,' but rather, 'We've shown this much interest in each other, so now that it's certain, let's solidify our relationship.'
He couldn't be more confident.
At least, in his own mind, he had been incredibly sweet throughout the first semester.
“So?”
The girl flinched at his prodding.
And then she answered.
“I’m sorry.”
“Of course, you’d say… huh?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re the one for me, senior.”
*Thud!*
Han-su shot up from his seat.
He asked again with a bewildered expression.
“But why…?”
This couldn’t be happening.
The answer came to the bewildered man.
“I should have said something sooner, but honestly, senior, you made me uncomfortable. I was scared every time you called me out, and I only came to meet you like this because you’re a senior in my department.”
Han-su trembled with a sense of betrayal.
Of course, he was the only one who felt that way.
Park Ye-ji, a university freshman.
This young woman, with her pretty and delicate features, recalled her interactions with Han-su.
‘So annoying…’
There’s a limit to how dense someone can be. She couldn't bring herself to tell him she disliked him to his face, so she had tried to refuse indirectly, but he just kept clinging to her.
A prime example went like this.
[Han-su: Ye-ji, wanna go get some food? lol I know a good pasta place.]
[Ye-ji: Haha… I have plans that day….]
[Han-su: I haven’t even told you which day yet?]
[Ye-ji: I think I’ll probably have plans.]
[Han-su: Then when are you free? Oh, by the way, I just heard Professor Seong’s Thursday lecture was canceled. You probably haven’t heard yet, right? Let’s eat then.]
He was completely unreasonable.
And his actions?
Whenever they met, all he talked about were pretty girls this, games that.
Normally, someone trying to show interest wouldn't spend the entire time talking about such things.
Ye-ji could confidently say she had never in her life met someone so socially inept.
‘No, they must exist somewhere.’
As far as Ye-ji was concerned, people like that probably stayed cooped up in the online communities Han-su supposedly enjoyed and never went outside (a misconception; it was really just Han-su).
Anyway, to sum it up.
“I’d appreciate it if you stopped this. I just thought it was polite to tell you in person.”
Ye-ji bowed her head and turned to leave.
Han-su tried to grab her, but she didn’t let him.
“Wait…”
Her departing steps were like the wind.
At this point, Han-su couldn't hold onto her any longer.
Han-su squeezed his eyes shut.
He could only gaze into the distance, lost in thought.
The sky was heartlessly blue.
The sunlight was so harsh that his eyes grew moist.
Han-su said to himself.
‘I loved you…’
No, he hadn't.
Jeong Han-su, 26 years old, had never been in a relationship.
In the face of yet another failure, he began to tear down the innocent freshman to protect himself.
‘I treated her so well!’
When she was a fumbling newcomer to the university, he had helped her make plenty of friends so she could adjust (he dragged her to drinking parties every chance he got).
During exam season, he got his hands on old tests and taught her late into the night in the department study room (Ye-ji had firmly refused).
He even brought her snacks, worried she might be hungry (he would wait in front of her classroom right when class ended, causing a scene)!
“Urk!”
Han-su clutched his chest.
Could he overcome the pain of this heartbreak?
Was there anything in this world that could soothe his wounded soul?
Would he ever find love again?
Just as he was thinking.
*Ding!*
A notification arrived.
[Demon's Relic Release Event!]
Han-su’s eyes widened.
“Ooh?”
A thrill ran through Han-su’s body.
There was.
Something to soothe his sorrow.
No, a place where ‘true love’ existed.
“Ah, so this is it.”
The place where I belong.
*Tap, tap, tap!*
Han-su immediately posted on the community forum.
『Han-su the King: Ahh, the day has come.
The ‘God’ has returned.
FutureIsntBright: Your future is looking really dark
WannaQuitJaehee: Ah, here we go again with the damn nerds running wild…』
Han-su ran home.
***
Demon's Relic was a game fundamentally designed with a subculture-friendly environment to facilitate IP expansion.
The groundwork laid for its release reflected this.
From the webtoon and novel to the lore compendium uploaded to the online site.
Just as originally planned, the potential user base who might not know the name Demon's Relic but recognized the characters' faces had grown immense.
To understand this phenomenon, one needed to understand the nature of subculture.
When an appealing character is introduced, discussions about them circulate through the community. As those discussions deepen, talented artists (illustrators) seeking attention join in and produce related fan art.
Once the fan art is created, it reignites the discussion, leading to the creation of other illustrations and even doujinshi.
Simply put, a subculture marketing campaign backed by a huge budget has a very low probability of failure.
Of course, it could still fail.
No amount of marketing can save a fundamentally flawed product.
But what kind of game was Demon's Relic?
In Yeon-ho's past life, a life only he knew, it had been an anomaly in the subculture game world, achieving unbelievable sales with nothing but the finished game itself, without any prior groundwork.
Now, with ample capital and support, nothing stood in the way of Demon's Relic's release.
Even that wild breath was no match for it.
Because they had deliberately chosen a different release window!
At the culmination of all these preparations, the anticipation for Demon's Relic had already broken through the ceiling of what was thought possible.
『GuksiNanaYo: 2 weeks left!!!』
With two weeks until release, the three demo versions had consistently satisfied expectations and incorporated feedback.
This went beyond the developer simply doing a good job; it instilled in the users a sense of ‘building the game together.’
What those users anticipated most was, of course, the main story.
Demon's Relic had meticulously hidden one of the most crucial elements of a subculture game: its main story.
At most, they had only shown glimpses of the inciting incidents or the rising action.
The webtoon, novel, and lore compendium were side material, dealing with the past before the protagonist's involvement or focusing on individual heroines' side stories. It was no wonder the fans were so thirsty.
The end of that long wait was here.
And, as if to quench that thirst with a burst of soda, an official release event had been planned.
Today was the announcement, a live stream from the Team 2 developers.
And so, the users were thrown into chaos.
[I'm Nishimura Keisuke.]
[I'm Jellen Copson.]
Muscle-fit athletic wear, scars all over their bodies, short hair optimized for fighting, and a feast of angry, battle-hardened, compressed muscles.
[―???
―???
―???]
The first meeting with the directors, who they had naturally assumed would be nerds, was, for them at least, the absolute worst.
***
The live stream was proceeding smoothly.
At least, if you could call the absence of thrown punches ‘smooth.’
In other words, it was a mess.
“When we have a difference of opinion, we spar. We hash out our ill feelings with our fists. Since primitive times, this world has only given the right to choose to the strong. We’ve learned to accept that cleanly.”
“But if a winner can’t be decided that way, we convene the High Council. The first time we called the High Council was for Paimon, who was revealed in the first demo, I believe.”
“Ah, I was surprised then, Copson.”
“The same goes for me, Nishimura.”
Nishimura and Jellen were men of romance.
At least, that’s how they saw themselves.
That’s just how people are.
When you accomplish something great, you can't help but want others to know how you did it and how much you struggled.
That desire had sidetracked the conversation to the topic of sparring.
It might seem strange to the users, but then again, who doesn't find a story about a fight interesting?
When the two went so far as to show a sparring video and provide commentary, the live stream had all but turned into a martial arts commentary channel.
“Ah, this was a close call. I was expecting a one-two punch here.”
“I anticipated your anticipation, Copson.”
[―Wow, they're hitting each other brutally
―Are these bastards really training to go pro?
―So is Paimon a trap?
―One of them is definitely a spy, that's for sure]
It wasn't entirely unrelated to the game development process.
At the top of the shared video, written in a formal, serious font, was the reason for the spar.
[―Ah, Nishimura! If you had won there, we would've gotten a busty loli pretty girl!!!!
[You have been banned from chatting.]
―Thank you! Thank you for giving birth to Andras!!!]
It was mass hysteria.
The only way to stop it was through external intervention, and just then, the right person arrived.
“What are those two doing?”
Yeon-ho (the Emperor) appeared.
The two masters of the heretical arts, who had been reviewing past grievances through their debate on swordsmanship (sparring commentary), instantly sensed the crisis.
“…Right, then, let’s get into the details of the official release.”
[―Hey, can't you at least show us the match that decided Sitri would be a bitch?]
Unfortunately for one viewer, their wish was not granted.
“For this official release, we will be unveiling the full map, new dungeons, the main story, and 36 new characters…”
Jellen Copson and Nishimura Keisuke.
The two were extreme martial artists who could trade blows all day long but would fall to their inner demons just from writing a single incident report.
And so, to the disappointment of some users, the announcement continued.
At the end, the details of the release event were fully revealed.
“Let’s introduce the prize first! It’s this figure!”
*Ta-da!*
What they revealed, complete with sound effects, were figures of the three most popular heroines from the three Demon's Relic demos.
Lucifer, who was at the center of the main story; Agares, the little brat; and Andras, the yandere.
It was naturally a structure that favored the heroines who had been building a fanbase since the first demo.
But setting aside that minor complaint, Rewind, as expected, did not disappoint when it came to limited-edition goods.
[―The quality is insane lolololol]
Rewind didn't release official merchandise often.
But that didn't mean they never released any.
In particular, there was a time-honored tradition that dated back to Hellic 2.
High-end quality figures.
Figures that cost hundreds of dollars to produce just one, maximizing their value as a product.
Nishimura got excited about this part.
“Look! They even implemented the part where the panty line meets the butt…!”
His face, spittle flying as he spoke, was consumed with passion and excitement.
How could it not be, seeing a character he designed come to life?
Amidst all that, someone asked.
[―Did they really have to implement that? Hmm;;;]
A comment pointing out the figure's suggestiveness.
In other words, the words of a ‘non-nerd,’ and Nishimura refuted them head-on.
He looked genuinely baffled.
“Isn’t it common sense for a figure to have panties implemented?”
He spoke with the air of a sage reciting a great truth.
The users showered him with praise.
[―He's a nerd, alright
―This director's got some serious credentials, huh?]
The live stream proceeded smoothly.