Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Launch – Hellic 4 (4)
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There are many ways gamers enjoy their games.
From those who follow the standard guides to a T, to those who feel compelled to touch every single interactive element, to those who ignore all interactions and just push forward.
Generally, they can be divided into three categories, but of course, there are unusual players who fall outside these norms.
And among them is a class known as the best, the worst, the unorthodox—what more needs to be said?
“Hmph, again.”
It was James Han, known as the greatest gamer of the current era.
“The normal ending again.”
James Han’s playstyle was very easy to explain.
A ‘hard run.’
Just as the words imply, he thoroughly ignored any difficulty-adjusting elements and went straight for the bosses marked with ‘???’ to kill them.
He didn't even use executions properly in the process.
At most, he’d attach utility parts to supplement his basic attacks or use them to skip patterns.
The execution skill itself had invincibility and unstoppable frames, so whenever an annoying pattern was about to appear, he would visually confirm its tell and just break through it with an execution.
A playstyle only James Han could pull off.
No one else in the world could break down a game frame by frame to analyze and counter patterns, so it was a rare spectacle in itself.
The viewers’ reactions were explosive.
[Luka: How the fuck is that even possible? LMAO]
[Dadbom: ???: Just see it and dodge.]
[zessica: Unbelievable, seriously….]
He was at the pinnacle of the industry simply because he could create a nonstop spectacle with his phenomenal gameplay alone.
Of course, even James Han had his weaknesses.
Namely, the realms outside of physical skill: analysis and exploration.
“Where in the world is this multi-ending?”
It was the fourth day since Hellic 4’s launch, and though he was already on his fifth playthrough, James Han hadn't found any ending other than the normal one.
It wasn't just him, either; no one in the community had even come close to a multi-ending yet.
The one James Han was aiming for was the bad ending.
In a previous developer interview, Yeon-ho had explained that the bad ending was linked to the achievement, ‘I don’t remember the names of the weak.’
James Han knew the origin of that achievement better than anyone.
After all, how could he not know when something from his own words had been implemented into the game?
Curious about how the bad ending would play out, he had tried all sorts of methods, but the answer remained elusive.
“How do I get to see it….”
He was muttering with a frown when it happened.
[Hellic4NTR: I'm pissed, should we just kill everyone?]
For some reason, a person who seemed to have had his controller snatched by his wife offered an opinion.
James Han blinked.
An idea flashed through his mind.
“…Huh?”
In the words of old, it was a ‘Eureka’ moment.
* * *
Hellic 4 was a game surprisingly faithful to its concept.
That is to say, the setting of the ‘Hell of Slaughter’ was woven into the game, expanding its content.
In truth, this was the result of Yeon-ho’s insistence that the narrative be firmly embedded in the gameplay, but to put it simply, that was it.
“Let’s try hunting in the Ant Tunnel.”
The Ant Tunnel.
A space where friendly NPCs existed, serving as an in-game hub for maintenance. In terms of the main series, it was like the lobby where the Fire Keeper resides.
Given the map’s purpose, no combat situations typically occurred there.
Of course, that didn't mean they were good people.
As mentioned before, this was the Hell of Slaughter.
A place where people who had come to hell for the sin of killing others gathered.
They were all murderers.
They simply maintained peace under a pact because they hated losing their sanity through repeated deaths.
So, here’s the question.
Were they enemies that could be killed?
And if you did kill them, what would happen?
On the third day after release, someone had experimented with this, and the answer had been found.
[Luka: Don't they turn into monsters if you keep killing them?]
Friendly NPCs were indeed killable enemies.
In other words, a combat situation could arise within the Ant Tunnel if the user wished.
Killing them once was a warning.
Killing them twice established a hostile relationship with that specific NPC.
Killing them three times established a hostile relationship with the entire Ant Tunnel.
And beyond four times to five.
Each NPC had five lives, and once those were depleted, the NPCs would lose their sanity and become monsters.
This was referred to as an Ant Tunnel hunt.
While each NPC gave a special reward after being hunted, it was a piece of content still considered inefficient due to a much larger problem.
The problem was none other than the lack of growth.
Who would readily take on the challenge if the path from the Ant Tunnel to the player's private room was teeming with enemies?
Of course, there were bound to be people who would take on that challenge.
And James Han was not one to shy away from such a challenge.
“Oh.”
This choice could be related to the bad ending, so he decided to just go for it.
James Han began the Ant Tunnel hunt.
The enemies in the Ant Tunnel, being murderers, each possessed stats comparable to an elite monster.
Furthermore, it was a many-on-one battle.
Since the lobby wasn't very large, mismanaging aggro or positioning could lead to a situation where one had to fight multiple elite monsters at once.
Normally, in this situation, a player’s stress level would skyrocket.
But if there was no such stress, and if killing the enemies wasn't difficult, it would become a circus-like spectacle for the viewers.
[Dadbom: He's a real madman LOL]
Even a many-on-one battle couldn't stop James Han.
He pushed the damage to the absolute limit, exquisitely timed his dodges to gain invincibility frames for repositioning, and then used dealing and executions for further evasion and position adjustments.
He didn't get hit a single time.
Not until he had murdered all ten killers in the Ant Tunnel.
The highlight came after the fifth attempt.
James Han had succeeded in discovering a hidden piece.
—*Grrr….*
“Huh?”
This was the timing when all the NPCs turned into monsters.
When he left the Ant Tunnel and came back, a cinematic suddenly played.
[Hellic4NTR: ????]
The ten NPCs, now transformed into monsters, were shambling around when they spotted the man.
They took a combat stance, then suddenly began to clump together.
—*Graaaah…!*
At the center was the elder of the Ant Tunnel.
He had taken the form of something like a black, filthy slime, and his body began to stretch out, swallowing the other murderers.
The creature that merged with a sickening squelch was enormous.
It had an overwhelming physique and deformed joints, and it displayed its ferocious nature openly.
*CRASH!*
It thrashed about, sweeping through the lobby and clearing away all the objects inside.
In an instant, a ring was formed.
It was a boss stage.
[Conglomerate of Fugitives]
“So I just have to kill it?”
James Han licked his lips.
The chat was scrolling so fast it was impossible to read what anyone was saying.
A hidden piece was a welcome event.
Moreover, being its first discoverer was something that made James Han even more excited.
“Alright, alright. I’m the first to find this, right?”
He said, just as he was about to defeat the enemy.
James Han had overlooked one fact.
In fact, it was something he overlooked every time, despite falling for it again and again.
*CRASH!*
[YOU DIED]
“?”
The director of the Hellic series is Cheon Yeon-ho.
That Cheon Yeon-ho, the most malicious of the malicious, who isn't satisfied unless he screws over the users in at least one way.
The character had been one-shotted.
At that moment, James Han happened to see a single chat message scroll by.
[Yeonhou: lol]
A surge of emotion welled up, and James Han shouted.
“You son of a bitch!!!”
Cheon Yeon-ho, the son of a bitch.
He’d done it again today.
* * *
“The reaction to the Conglomerate is good.”
“It’s thanks to all your hard work.”
“You made us work hard, so of course we worked hard.”
I didn’t offer a further reply to Han Seo-rim’s words.
My gaze was fixed on James Han’s gameplay screen.
Watching it silently, I recalled the time when I first added that monster.
‘I hadn’t planned on putting it in, though.’
Initially, for the bad ending, I had intended to only introduce changes through the profiling progress. However, while designing the happy ending later on, I felt the need to add a special boss to the bad ending as well.
That was the Conglomerate of Fugitives.
The difficulty was hardcore, just like the conditions for the happy ending.
In crude terms, I inserted a ‘learn or die’ type of pattern.
The shockwave right after it appears is one such pattern.
It’s a pattern that appears only twice during the fight, where it greatly swells its body, gathers energy in its arm, and slams down. The way to avoid it is to immerse your body in the filth that appears on the floor.
Since I added the condition that it couldn't be avoided with a dodge roll, even James Han had no choice but to take the hit if he didn't know.
Of course, given the player, it didn't seem to be a major problem.
[Got it!!!]
“Wow, he’s really fast. That guy is just relentless.”
Just as Han Seo-rim exclaimed in admiration, the hardcore boss was defeated in just three tries.
Once he learned the patterns, it was easy from there.
The reward appeared on the screen.
[Seal of Hell?]
Should I call it something like a resident registration card?
While designing the bad ending, I chose that as the answer to ‘how to end the man.’
[…Well, I guess I can go see the ending now?]
James Han, feeling a sense of accomplishment, continued with the game.
Since his playstyle was focused on skipping, his progress was fast.
Before long, James Han’s character came face to face with the final boss.
As expected, he didn't use executions for anything more than utility.
He cleared the first phase's hit limit and the second phase's instant-death patterns with a playstyle that was only theoretically possible.
And so, the ending.
[Huh.]
The Seal of Hell glowed black and began to envelop the man’s body.
The man looked up at the sky, hollow.
As if sensing his own end, and as if he had let something go.
Han Seo-rim asked.
“So, what is that seal?”
“It’s a symbol of being mired in habit.”
My answer regarding the man’s end.
There’s that saying, right? If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.
Although it’s recently been used as a meme related to some nasty hobbies, it’s a true statement if you dig deeper.
What would happen if the man, in the Hell of Slaughter, repeated only killing until he began to desire only murder, not regret?
What if he became like the ones he sought to take revenge on, no longer a revenger himself?
He would become a monster, just like them.
No longer someone who needs salvation or forgiveness, but someone else’s hell.
[Oh, what’s this?]
James Han’s eyes lit up.
The man began to lose his sanity and turn into a monster.
*Click, clack.* With mechanical sounds, a gun barrel sprouted from his chest.
His heart was replaced by a cylinder.
His head became a hammer, and a spinal tail extended from his lower back, taking a form resembling that of a beast.
—*Grrrk….*
His cry resembled the sound of a cylinder spinning.
Every time his heart pounded, the gun barrel heated up.
The owner of the domain changed, and the ending played.
[GAME CLEAR]
I checked the reactions in the chat.
[Luka: That’s so cool.]
[micetester: Whoa LOL]
[Dadbom: The bad ending definitely has a bittersweet taste.]
[zessica: Not far off from what I expected.]
The reactions were generally favorable.
From the moment a bad ending was considered, this was the most plausible conclusion, so the users had guessed as much.
Thus, the focus was concentrated on the man's model.
The revolver sprouting from his chest and the demonic spinal tail.
And the cry that resembled the sound of a cylinder spinning.
In terms of coolness, it was the best among all the models that appeared in Hellic 4.
Accordingly, there was a reaction like this.
[Hellic4NTR: Hope this comes out as DLC…?]
That would depend on the sales figures.
* * *
Five days since Hellic 4’s launch.
The normal and bad endings had been discovered, but the happy ending had yet to be revealed.
It was becoming an established theory among users that, like the bad ending, something had to be obtained from a special boss.
But the answer was still far off.
As ordinary users were just now entering their second or third playthroughs, not many were familiar enough with the game to explore its hidden areas.
It was then.
『TheManWhoHadHellic4Stolen: ??? I think I found it.
(Screenshot of a side path in the final chapter)
Though I wasn't the one who found it.』
A hint had appeared.