Chapter 162
Chapter 162
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 162
Chapter Title: The Final Ending (5)
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Putting aside the trivialities, the path was first discovered thanks to the curiosity of a certain woman who had snatched her husband's gamepad.
It was the first game she had ever played, and the fact that there was still something she didn't know about this game—a game she had lost herself in for hours—piqued her interest.
What she wanted was the happy ending whose existence she had only just learned of.
The one who told her how was her husband, who had (unwillingly) handed over the controller.
"After seeing the bad ending route, I think there's another gimmick. Like a path or an object we haven't found."
By then, the woman's interest was in 'a path not yet found.'
By her standards, finding a path was easier than searching for a hidden item.
Finding the path wasn't as hard as one might think.
No, it wasn't hard *for her*.
All she had to do was find the details in the map's modeling that she had missed while initially following the cinematic direction in an unfamiliar area.
And so it went, up to Chapter 13.
Even the most感動적인 cinematic will fade if you repeat it several times a day.
When you repeatedly encounter familiar language or situations, the strange points eventually become apparent.
'Huh? Why does that path look different from the rest?'
The moment she thought it, she had her answer.
And her husband, who was watching that moment with her, let out a hollow laugh and muttered.
"This is why no one could find it..."
The path to the happy ending.
It was located beneath a section with a fatal drop, one that appeared at regular intervals on the map.
It was a testament to the director's viciousness.
In any case, setting aside the process of its discovery, once the hidden path was revealed to the community, countless challengers emerged.
And most of them despaired.
『GloomyFuture: That Cheon guy is fucking vicious, holy shit.
He did a great job with the difficulty scaling in the main story, so why the hell did he make this part so damn hard?
ManWhoLostHellic4: Hidden Ending << You don't have to do it.』
『BloodlordOfBangbae: Ugh... I don't think I can do it this playthrough. I'll have to come back with a refined build.』
『LetsGoForAWalkPoppy: This part has the classic feel of the original series... ^^』
The hidden path itself wasn't long.
In fact, in terms of content, it took about 30 minutes to traverse the path, leading directly to the boss room.
The reason players were crying foul was singular.
It was because of Studio Rewind's time-honored tradition, dating back to *Hellic 1*: 'The path to a hidden ending is never easy.'
Indeed, from the very planning stages of this hidden path, Development Team 1 had packed it with various trap gimmicks that had been discarded from the main game for being too difficult.
And at the end of it all, they placed a final boss.
What more needed to be said?
『OneMoreMoveKing: This boss is basically saying, 'I'm here to make you miserable,' lol.』
It was a boss that dared you to try.
It had earned a place alongside 'The Aggregate of Fugitives' as a hidden boss more difficult than the actual final boss.
Yet, there was one reason why players couldn't simply curse it out.
『FailedTheBarExam: It's infuriatingly well-made, lol.』
The quality.
It wasn't just difficult for difficulty's sake; they had created a boss that was the closest to the Souls-like identity of analyzing, overcoming, and growing the player, not just the character.
『JaewhoWantsToQuit: Ugh, I really want to kill that thing.』
They had created a boss that got under your skin by making you think, 'It feels like I *could* beat it, but...'
『OneMoreMoveKing: I miss you, Olson Rick....
You were a kind man...』
Difficulty aside, the hidden boss's popularity and infamy had already firmly captivated the players.
***
There is an immutable law in the gaming world.
When countless challengers across the globe are attempting a hidden path, it doesn't take long for it to be cleared.
That's how many prodigies and madmen there are among these players.
So, it was perhaps only natural that the ending was revealed less than a full day after the hidden path's discovery.
『LetsGoForAWalkPoppy: Someone in North America got the first clear for the happy ending!
(Link)
Whoa...』
Players who had been eagerly awaiting the answer all clicked on the video link.
The final ending, at last revealed.
The video began with the hidden boss of despairing difficulty, 'The Sleepless Hive of Grief,' melting into a puddle.
It was dead.
The item the boss dropped was similar in form to the 'Seal of Hell,' the key item from the bad ending, but this one was gold.
The item's name was 'An Unerasable Wish.'
Its meaning was immediately made clear in the ending sequence that followed, after a skip in the video.
The gist was the same.
Olson Rick died, and the man approached Anna.
His sinful life was to be ended by her hand.
The one difference was the presence of the key item.
*Shaaaah—*
As Anna's body began to scatter, the key item left the man's embrace and floated into the air.
This was where the ending reached its turning point.
The cluster of light, which had been faint in the normal ending, now took on the much clearer form of Anna and embraced him.
The man, realizing Anna's presence, wept in her arms.
The speakers filled with the man's sobs and Anna's laughter, which chimed faintly like a bell.
Of course, even this trace of Anna soon vanished.
All that remained in the space was a single golden door.
Then, he made a different choice than in the normal ending.
*Thud—*
The man stared silently at the golden door before reaching out with a trembling hand.
He grasped the handle, turned it, and stepped through.
*FWOOSH!*
A brilliant light poured from the door, bathing the screen in white.
The screen then focused on the man, standing alone in a white world where all spatial boundaries had been erased.
The camera closed in on his upper body, then zoomed in closer as he looked around and suddenly froze.
Soon, his face filled the screen.
The depiction of his expression was, without a doubt, the most detailed in all of *Hellic 4*, a true masterpiece.
The subtle twitching of small muscles, the change in his wrinkles, the contraction of his pupils, and the shift in his breathing with his contorting features.
His expression, which had frozen in surprise, slowly changed into a smile.
Reflected in his eyes, which the camera continued to zoom in on, was a single, long, vertical shape... the shape of a person.
The corners of the man's eyes curved into an arc, and the scene changed to show his hand.
A slender, delicate hand, and the man's rough hand, intertwined their fingers as the screen faded to black.
[GAME CLEAR]
[Achievement Unlocked: 'Reunion']
And that was how the video ended.
***
It was the height of restraint.
Those who watched the happy ending offered this assessment, as the ending painted the most ideal future in complete silence.
But that wasn't to say it was a negative thing.
On the contrary, it was overwhelmingly positive.
The visual artistry of the happy ending was crafted to satisfy everyone who already knew the man's story.
From the key item 'An Unerasable Wish' to the achievement name 'Reunion.'
With that as the beginning and end, all background elements were erased.
The mise-en-scène was extremely limited, leaving only the most intuitive elements.
In the white world beyond the golden door, the choice to focus with obsessive detail on nothing but the change in the man's expression was incredibly effective.
Expressing what he saw there through the reflection in his pupils and their clasped hands further stimulated the players' imagination and immersion.
In fighting terms, it was a straight punch thrown with all the body's might.
It was a direct and heavy blow that shook them to the core.
『BloodlordOfBangbae: How much do you have to grind the art team to get something like this? They're making art with cinematics, lol.
ManWhoLostHellic4: The sound design is insane too. If you listen closely, there's a faint BGM behind their laughter.
└ OneMoreMoveKing: Really? Gotta go listen again.』
It was a level of quality that left one at a loss for words, and beyond that, it brilliantly concluded the narrative of 'sacrifice and salvation' shared by the *Hellic* series, so the reaction from the fanbase was bound to be even greater.
There were also those who attempted a more detailed analysis of the ending.
『LetsGoForAWalkPoppy: The key item's name and 'The Sleepless Hive of Grief' all fit together perfectly from a design perspective.
Since the setting is the Hell of Slaughter, it's unlikely the victims themselves came to hell.
It's probably their pain that remained as lingering thoughts, right? And Anna's lingering thoughts would have been there too.
I think you could say the key item's name, 'An Unerasable Wish,' is the materialization of Anna's concern for the protagonist amidst all that.
I mean, even in the normal ending, it was Anna, who was part of the final boss, that opened the golden door for the protagonist!
And...』
The prevailing theory was that the choice to 'enter the golden door' in the happy ending stemmed from obtaining Anna's lingering will from the hidden path.
As this theory became accepted as fact, and with no rebuttal from the developer, the suspicion only solidified.
It was during this period of fervent narrative analysis.
One day, gamers learned a rather shocking piece of information from a post someone made.
『CorporateDroneProsecutor: What is this?
(Article about 'The Umbilical Cord Collector')
Olson Rick was based on a real person?』
The internet was once again set ablaze.
***
"Sir!!!"
The ear-splitting commotion made Gil-sang lift his head.
The head of the business department was blurting out words with a tearful face.
"Did you know he was based on a real person?! Sir, if this becomes a controversy, what about the bereaved family..."
It was astonishing.
Not that, but something else.
"You think I wouldn't know?"
It was astonishing that he was only finding this out now.
Well, Gil-sang only knew about the decades-old case because he had actually lived in the United States and had a penchant for urban legends.
In any case, Gil-sang dispelled the department head's worries.
"It's fine. We already took care of that during the development stage and all related matters have been handled."
"...Excuse me?"
"I was shocked too. You know how peculiar our president is, right? He just plows ahead with whatever he thinks is fine, without any thought for the aftermath."
Once he started complaining, words poured out of him like a fountain.
So much so that the department head, who had burst in with such alarm, clamped his mouth shut.
In the end, the department head received the information that allowed him to finally feel relieved.
"A portion of the profits will be donated to a fund for the victims' families. We tracked down the parties involved, reached an agreement, and all the paperwork is done."
Yang Gil-sang, Director of the Business Department.
Whatever his image within the company, he was an original member handpicked by Yeon-ho himself.
He was a super-intelligent elite, chosen by Yeon-ho for his abilities alone.
There would be no further problems on this front.
After confirming this, the department head let out a sigh of relief, then asked a question that belatedly occurred to him.
"...By the way."
"What is it now?"
"So, where is our president? He's been absent for several days."
Cheon Yeon-ho was the kind of man who would practically live at the company for a month after a launch.
So for a man like that to be nowhere in sight, it sparked curiosity.
At that, Gil-sang sighed.
"...He's gone."
"Pardon?"
"He went to the U.S."
Yeon-ho's words flashed through Gil-sang's mind.
—*I'll be out of the office for a while, so contact me if anything urgent comes up.*
What on earth did he go there for?
Even Gil-sang had no idea what Yeon-ho was up to.
***
I had come all the way to southern Arizona in the United States.
After a long journey, I was finally here.
[Jade Wilson 1951~1983]
[Anna Wilson 1953~1980]
I had come to a place where I could touch the man I had only observed as a spectator in Hell.
Though it was debatable whether touching a tombstone could be considered a real meeting.
I reached out my hand.
As expected, all I felt was the cold touch of stone.
'Jade Wilson.'
I finally engraved the man's name in my mind properly.
I was gazing at the headstone.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
A woman's gruff voice reached me.
I turned my head and, without realizing it, narrowed my eyes.
"Is this the first time you've seen me in person?"
The woman, who had a knowing smile, looked to be in her 30s or 40s with a strong Latin presence.
She was wearing a police uniform.
Her features were all too familiar.
I stood up from my spot.
"...It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Cheon Yeon-ho."
The woman extended her hand for a handshake.
Yes, that's right.
"I'm Ann Wilson. As you probably already know."
This woman, Ann Wilson, was the child the two of them had left behind.
From here on, it's the story after the epilogue.