Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: A Mistake
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When do you think a person dies?
When their heart is pierced by a bullet?
When they're diagnosed with an incurable disease?
When they drink a soup made of poisonous mushrooms?
No.
It's when the game you waited for and rushed to play ends by hinting at a sequel.
『Han-su the King: Rewind, you sons of bitches!!!』
『Guksinagariyo: Sons of bitches… sons of bitches…』
Curses that would make the ears of a certain someone with the surname Cheon burn flooded the online communities.
They were, of course, the lamentations of those who had finished the story of *Demon's Relic*.
After all, for the main heroine, who had captivated users with her exceptional modeling from the prologue, to die without a single proper conversation was a cruel ending.
And not just die, but to leave behind a single feather and end on a hint of a sequel.
If it were a typical online game, they would have vented their brief disappointment while waiting for the next update cycle.
But this was different.
What kind of game was *Demon's Relic*?
It was a game that processed the sensibilities of a pretty-girl gacha game into a AAA title.
In other words, they would have to wait at least a few more years to see the story that followed.
How could they be so malicious!
The connoisseurs (core users) let out deep sighs, lamenting that the promises of the unorthodox developers of Team 2 were never to be trusted. Meanwhile, regardless of their woes, the Chancellor (Yang Gil-sang) roared with laughter as his tax revenues swelled.
“President! This is huge! Absolutely massive!!!”
Despite his excited clamor, the ratings for *Demon's Relic* weren't actually that high.
The game scored in the 8s from critics and the mid-to-high 7s from users, on par with the dozens of other games released each year.
But was a game company just there to chase high scores?
A corporation speaks through its revenue.
In the first week of release, global sales across Steam and PlayStation combined reached 1.8 million units.
Even Yeon-ho had to shake his head at this.
“…I have to admit it.”
Weeb stuff sells.
*Demon's Relic* had captivated the weebs of the world.
Just as it had in his past life.
No, it was on an even more devastating trajectory than his past life.
The Uncrowned Overlord.
That was the moniker of *Demon's Relic* in a now-vanished timeline, a game that had shaken the entire subculture market.
This life would be no different.
* * *
No matter how much the release of *Demon's Relic* was another team's business, I couldn't ignore it.
Not because we were in the same company, but because I was the president of this company.
“How is the event management coming along?”
“We have more users clearing the achievements than expected. It’s like they did nothing but eat and play the game.”
“That’s good news. It means they found it that fun. Have they all received their event prizes?”
“Yes, they turned out better than the samples. Now… we just need to draw the winners and ship them out.”
The game's debugging and post-launch fixes were out of my hands.
Bugs like Baal's chest launching like a missile were entirely for Team 2 to resolve on their own.
In a way, that made things easier for me.
All I had to do was coordinate external schedules.
What I focused on was managing sales and marketing, as well as ensuring the successful conclusion of the events we had promised.
I considered this work quite important.
After all, no matter how little interest I had in it, since we were promoting a subculture game, I needed to understand the market.
*Demon's Relic* was an IP business.
A business that used the game as its core to attempt infiltration into all areas of subculture content.
To draw on data that would only be verified in the future, the most important thing in such cases was the developer's passion.
In other words, it required a perverted level of detail for character merchandise that could be expressed through any medium.
So, I had a staring contest with the Lucifer figurine.
As the president, I felt it was necessary to understand what made it so appealing.
“Hmm.”
It was then.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Han Seo-rim approached me.
“A figurine? Is this your thing?”
“Me? Into 2D?”
*Me, who can't even get a date with a 3D woman?*
When I expressed that sentiment with my eyes, Han Seo-rim chuckled and turned her head away.
“There you go again. Really.”
“? What do you…”
“I get it. I get it. You can stop there. You’re just not honest with yourself.”
She even shook her head.
It was clear my intentions hadn't been properly conveyed.
Separately, Han Seo-rim had been acting strangely lately.
It was as if she was lost in her own world.
She would often chuckle to herself, then suddenly burst out with a “Ha!”
Sometimes she would ponder something alone with a groan, only to get angry out of nowhere.
‘Is she having a tough time these days?’
I prided myself on understanding that artists were a peculiar bunch, but the Han Seo-rim of late was a complete mystery.
Just then, Han Seo-rim spoke.
“Sigh, what can you do? A person’s heart is never simple, is it?”
“All of a sudden?”
“Well, I won’t cheer you on or reject you. It’s all my fault.”
“?”
Han Seo-rim swept her hair back, waved her hand dismissively, and disappeared.
It wasn’t just Han Seo-rim who was acting weird.
“Pr-President…!”
Jo A-yun had also been slacking off more.
Well, it wasn't as if the sound team had much to do at the moment, but she was slacking off a bit too much.
“A-yun, what about work?”
“I just finished reviewing and giving feedback!”
“Looks like you’ve gotten closer with the staff.”
“Hehe…”
Jo A-yun pulled over the chair she always kept next to my desk and stared at me blankly.
“What?”
“G-Get to work!”
How am I supposed to concentrate when you're staring at me like that?
I pushed the fleeting thought aside and forced myself to look at the monitor.
Jo A-yun's reflection appeared on the black screen.
I couldn't make out her expression, but she seemed to be looking around for something.
‘What’s wrong with everyone?’
It was truly a mystery.
* * *
Yang Gil-sang, Head of Business at Rewind.
A man who was the very symbol of the super-intelligent elite, having studied abroad at a prestigious overseas university and worked at a financial firm in Manhattan.
His in-house nickname might be a derogatory term like ‘the sweaty, bald bachelor,’ but it was all a sign of affection (probably).
He liked games and disliked loss (in many ways).
Always a great pillar of support for Rewind, he had recently found a small happiness in his life.
[Jin Yeon-gyeong: Drinks tonight?]
[Yang Gil-sang: 7 PM in Gangnam?]
[Jin Yeon-gyeong: Confirmed.]
Spring had arrived.
Gil-sang grinned to himself as he furiously tapped on his smartphone.
The secretaries who saw him turned pale as if they'd seen a ghost, but that was of little importance to Gil-sang.
He had met Yeon-gyeong through Yeon-ho.
As they drank together, they found they got along quite well, which eventually led to dating, and now, today.
‘Right, it’s about time I got married too.’
He was thirty-three this year.
He had bought a house, bought a car, and achieved social success. Wasn't it time to find some internal stability?
His partner was decent. No, she was great.
Above all, the lack of conflict in their personalities was the best part.
She preferred things neat and simple, never put on airs, and sometimes approached him with a fiery passion that made his heart flutter.
But beyond all those secondary reasons, there was one conversation that had given him the conviction that she was ‘the one.’
—Actually, I take hair loss medication.
—So?
—Huh?
—What about it?
It was a drunken confession.
To which Yeon-gyeong had replied nonchalantly.
—I think of us as dating with marriage in mind. Looks fade with age anyway, so what’s the big deal? Just stop taking the meds for a bit when we're trying for a baby. Or you could just shave it all off.
—Yeon-gyeong!
—Don't cling to me.
If angels existed, they would be like her.
With his happiness doubling each day, his work was also going smoothly.
As he was grinning like an idiot, lunchtime arrived.
Feeling refreshed, Gil-sang headed to his mother's snack shop.
Of course, he stopped by the Team 1 office first to go with Yeon-ho.
There, he saw something.
“Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu oppa! Do that thing! That thing!”
“Hurry, hurry!”
“D-Don't fight because of me…!”
“Kyahahaha!”
“Pahahaha!”
Myeong-gyu was grinning foolishly as he bantered with the dramatic duo.
Gil-sang shook his head.
‘How long is that guy going to keep this up?’
Poor guy… no, was he really poor?
He seemed happy, so it was probably fine.
It was just that he seemed to be at an age where he should be thinking about a serious relationship, and that was his only concern for his friend of the same age.
What if one day he declared he was marrying both of them and changed his name to ‘Abdullah Myeong-gyu’?
It was a terrifying thought because it seemed genuinely possible.
Just as the stray thought passed.
“Sorry I’m late. Let’s go.”
Yeon-ho appeared.
Gil-sang went to the snack shop with Yeon-ho.
Of course, whenever the two of them ate alone, the conversation was all about work.
They were in the middle of a brief coordination session before the afternoon work began.
*Ding!*
A notification popped up.
On both their smartphones simultaneously.
“Hm?”
“Is it a company-wide notification?”
The two of them checked their phones.
And froze.
[Rewind Official Account: Team 2 Surprise Stream]
Yeon-ho's expression hardened.
With trembling hands, he opened the streaming site.
[Everyone! Thank you!]
[Thanks to you all, Demon's Relic was a success!]
[So we've prepared a special event!]
[We're going to fulfill our 1-million-sales promise for Demon's Relic!]
[Alright, everyone! The promise that received the most votes was…!]
One thing was certain: this was not good news.
[A sparring match with the Sacho (President)!]
[Of course, the president is a beginner, so we'll have to go easy on him!]
Gil-sang glanced at Yeon-ho.
The light had vanished from his eyes.
‘How many pages will it be this time?’
A written apology seemed inevitable.
Gil-sang didn't know.
—If we succeed, I’ll do whatever you want, even sparring.
That Yeon-ho had actually said something to that effect in passing.
Yeon-ho began to devise a plan.
* * *
Ayado Goro, who had spent his entire life in the industry, once said:
—The species known as the director is generally lacking in social skills.
He was mostly correct.
Of course, he wasn't referring to the directors of large game companies who belonged to a corporate structure with a clear hierarchy.
After all, for a subordinate director within a company, social skills were paramount.
However, there were always exceptions.
Nishimura and Copson were such cases.
Before they had even experienced corporate life, they had each created a game as indie directors.
And they had failed spectacularly.
The company they joined together afterward was Rewind.
At Rewind, the company's policy was to guarantee the director's autonomy to the fullest extent.
Since Yeon-ho himself had trauma related to this, he tended to be quite lenient with their antics.
In addition, since Rewind itself started as a club, its internal regulations and hierarchy were flexible.
In any case, due to these circumstances, Nishimura and Copson were able to lead a work life that was half-entertainment.
This incident was also an extension of that.
“Huh? The president’s permission? We’re going to get it now.”
“Our Sacho cares deeply about the users, you know? He’ll obviously grant a request from the users!”
“And he did promise!”
Their childish reactions were inevitable.
Perhaps the situation had made them that way.
Think about it.
They had entered the game industry full of dreams.
Both had experienced the sinking feeling of having their first self-produced games fail miserably.
To then pour the next few years into a project and achieve a record of over 1 million sales must have greatly inflated their sense of accomplishment and need for recognition.
An inflated ego has a high probability of paralyzing one's reason.
This is even more true when that feedback comes directly in the form of cheers from users.
Attention is a drug.
And drugs have a much stronger effect on those who are severely deprived.
Their brains were bound to be fried by dopamine.
Like all who taste success for the first time, they made a mistake, and that mistake was, ‘Everyone loved it, so why not do the sparring content one more time?’
Of course, the users loved it.
[—Are they gonna crack Yeon-ho's head open?
—Can they hit him with a one-two-straight?
—Until he promises to make Hellic 4!!!!
—Until he wails like a little girl!!!]
People who had already seen their fighting skills in action videos cheered loudly.
However, there was something everyone had forgotten.
The laws of the martial world apply only within the martial world.
Even in the modern era without the principle of non-interference between martial artists and the government… no, precisely because it was the modern era, the law of the palace was absolute.
Yeon-ho appeared behind the two, who were laughing and hosting the stream.
His eyes were pitch-black and dead.
[—Oh, it’s Yeon-ho.]
The moment that chat message appeared.
“Why do I need to get involved?”
At the chillingly calm voice, the two flinched.
The moment their brains cooled and the dopamine supply was cut off, their reason belatedly screamed.
—You crazy bastards! What have you done!
The sight of their faces turning pale was broadcast live.
Yeon-ho spoke.
“Sparring is fine. It’s Team 2’s culture, isn't it? I respect that.”
Yeon-ho placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
“And what else makes things fun? It's fun when there's something at stake.”
“Sacho…?”
“Ah, I’ll permit it. But I won't be the one doing it.”
Yeon-ho looked at the two of them in turn.
Then, he delivered the sentence.
“You two made a huge hit this time, so let's have a duel. With your incentives on the line.”
Now, kill each other.
The chat exploded at the hastily arranged event.
[—LMAO
—A duel for incentives, oh damn ;;;
—The loser gets a pay cut!!!]
“A pay cut? Sounds good.”
“Eh?!”
“Doushite (Why)?!”
“The users want it. So you have to do it. Right.”
Here was a director who was getting a pay cut after a successful project.
Studio Rewind's Development Team 2, where the weak do not survive (for real).