Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Irony (2)
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A-yun's infection route was traced back to her mother.
Her mother, who delivered yogurt, had picked up the virus while making her rounds and brought it home, causing the whole mess.
It was no one's fault.
It was an all-too-common occurrence in this era, and if you had to name the saddest person in all this, it would be A-yun's mother.
“Oh, my poor daughter...”
Even while delirious with fever, a mother's heart worries more for her child than for herself.
The one silver lining was that the severity of the coronavirus symptoms varied from person to person.
Contrary to her mother's worries, A-yun was quite alright.
…In fact, if it had been a common cold, she would have been well enough to go to work without any issue.
So, what happened next?
*Clack! Clack-clack-clack!*
It was power-leveling time.
Now with a period where she could fully focus on the life (MapleStory) she had neglected while going to the office, A-yun devoted herself to the game day and night.
Her mother shouted.
“This darn girl!!!”
*Smack!*
“Aaaah!”
For Seo Jin-sook (57), it took only two days for “What will happen to my daughter?” to turn into “How do I make a human being out of this wench?”
“Ah, I-I'm sick...!”
“My heart hurts more, you little rat!”
“Aack! Aaaack!”
*Smack! Smack!*
A-yun's back was on fire.
Even so, she was focused on clacking away at her keyboard, efficiently using her experience coupons.
In a certain home somewhere in Seoul.
The answer to “Why you should make your children move out early” was unfolding.
Anyway,
“Ugh! I'm sick because of you, I tell you!”
“Uh, Mom, you're sick because of Coro—.”
“Shut your mouth!”
“Aaaaaah!!!”
To all the parents around the world, stay strong!
* * *
It was a mistake.
‘I never thought I'd get it.’
I feel like I'm dying.
Because of this damn virus, my fever shot up to nearly 39 degrees Celsius before finally dropping to 38. Eating has become a chore, and moving is torture.
I heard Jo A-yun's symptoms weren't that bad, but I'm practically half-dead.
One of the reasons for this was my own carelessness.
In my past life, I never caught Corona even when everyone else did, so I didn't worry about getting infected and suffering like this.
I might have forgotten that I was just a normal person, too.
Anyway, today it's finally 37.8 degrees.
I'm in a condition to work.
“…Send me the reports.”
[President... are you okay?]
“We're busy. We have to get it done one way or another.”
To handle the tight DLC release schedule, marketing plans, and everything else, lying around sick was absolutely not an option.
I showed my firm resolve, and Yang Gil-sang responded.
[…Ah, I understand.]
I soon understood the unspoken words that followed.
‘Hmm.’
The reports have piled up, haven't they?
[It's four days' worth. I handled the urgent ones at my discretion, but I think you'll have to take care of the rest yourself, President.]
Just as Yang Gil-sang said, the folder had grown quite thick.
I have no one to blame but myself.
It's because of my damn personality, which gets anxious unless I check and direct everything myself. I created a work environment like that, so the risk of a gap like this is naturally greater.
I started working without complaint.
Working from home was something I always did after office hours anyway, and sickness can be cured with medicine.
Besides, with video chat set up, there wouldn't be any communication problems.
‘The DLC development…’
Fortunately, with March just around the corner, the framework was complete. All we needed to worry about were minor tasks, bug fixing through QA, and optimization.
The decision not to aim for a large volume had paid off.
I checked my email.
[It's Ayado.]
The discussions with Sona regarding the release schedule and packaging were also finished.
I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Of course, in the game market, you never know what might happen before launch, so I couldn't let my guard down.
‘Maybe I'll stop here for today…’
Yes, let's rest a bit.
I closed my eyes.
Various other thoughts crossed my mind.
‘Things have gotten easier.’
Even though it's a disaster situation, when I think about it, this isn't so bad for me.
Leaving aside macroscopic issues like market expansion, it was true on a personal level as well.
How could it not be? It's the company I founded, but Studio Rewind…
has a lot of strange people.
Especially that damn Development Team 2. They'd get into fights almost daily, come in with a broken bone somewhere, and laugh it off, saying they had a ‘meeting’.
But now that working from home has become the norm, that kind of thing has disappeared.
The situation where valuable human resources were taken off the front lines was gone.
That wasn't all.
Late last year, strange rumors about Development Team 3 had started to circulate.
I thought the team was running smoothly with Yuri Jackson at the helm and that there were no problems with game development, but an atmosphere that was clearly ‘Development Team 2-esque’ had sprouted among the employees—talk of a ‘cult leader,’ ‘our faith,’ ‘the light,’ ‘salvation,’ and so on.
A bad weed must be pulled before it grows.
Corona helped with that.
Thanks to it, incidents within the company had decreased significantly….
*Ding!*
An alert came.
It was the intranet messenger.
‘Han Seo-rim?’
It's 11:30 PM right now. What could it be?
Curious, I opened the messenger.
And I held my breath.
“…?!”
[Han Seo-rim: (Attachment) lol]
With a trembling hand, I opened the attachment.
And there it was.
A dark space where not even a sliver of light entered. Within it, two men threw punches, relying on a faint light.
*Thwack!*
…It was a video of Nishimura and Kobson having a damn sparring match in some unknown location.
[Han Seo-rim: Ever heard of a dark tournament?]
[Cheon Yeon-ho: ?????]
What the hell is that, you damn nerd.
* * *
Let's go back in time to mid-January.
It was a time when Rewind's work-from-home policy (no clocking out) had just been confirmed, and employee morale was at a low.
The master of the Blood Heaven, director of Development Team 3, and a man mad for office politics, (Kim) Yuri Jackson, thought to himself.
‘At this rate, my cover will be blown!’
In the distant past, Yuri Jackson, who had stumbled into cosplaying as a competent director in the bizarre situation of ‘I, a commoner, was mistaken for the Blood Cult Leader?!’, now felt this situation was a crisis.
Because of Corona, the support of his team members (the faith of his followers) was wavering.
It was a disaster.
And it was a future that had been foreseen along with Corona.
In truth, Yuri Jackson's charisma came from his unique appearance and atmosphere. The only words he ever uttered were things like ‘I permit it,’ ‘It is forbidden,’ and ‘Flog that man severely.’
In other words, communicating through messengers or reporting systems could shake his charisma.
Indeed, the team members' reactions had been lukewarm lately.
But Yuri Jackson had now crossed a river of no return.
It was like a man who had been playing the part of a cult leader to survive, only to realize that he now had blood on his own hands.
How was he to overcome this predicament?
How could he make their faith steadfast once more?
Yuri Jackson, a heaven beyond the heavens of office politics.
He mobilized the senses he had keenly honed while surviving until now.
‘A team dinner? Should I organize a team dinner?’
No, if he did something like that in this situation, he would cause a stir not just within the company but outside it as well, leading to a terrible downfall.
A team dinner in these times? If he drew that kind of criticism, it wouldn't just be an office politics problem; his livelihood would be on the line.
‘Then, one-on-one meetings?’
He was supposed to have one-on-one meetings with dozens of team members?
No, that wouldn't do.
If he did, holes and flaws would appear in his many words, and he would crumble like a tower with a broken pillar.
‘There's no way to do it from within…!’
That meant he had to look outside….
*Tap, tap.*
Yuri bit his nails, staring blankly at the monitor with the messenger open.
Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, down his chin, and to the floor, but he remained motionless.
‘I have to find a breakthrough. A breakthrough…’
There was only one fundamental solution.
He had to unite the team members.
That's just how human affairs are, isn't it?
Even with lovers, when the bodies grow distant, the hearts follow.
Similarly, if the company atmosphere had elevated him to the status of an excellent director (Blood Cult Leader), he had to make that atmosphere extend externally as well.
In other words,
‘I have to make them continue to look up to me…!’
He had to exert some kind of long-term influence on the company so that they would revere him even when he wasn't there.
What method could there be?
Though he didn't know it himself, Yuri was a capable man.
His intelligence was no different from an ordinary person's, but when it came to understanding people and seeing the big picture, no one could match him.
That was why, even though it seemed like he was just muddling through, the remake of *Hellic 2* was progressing so smoothly.
In the end, Team 3's transformation into a blood cult was a religious phenomenon born from Yuri's inability to see himself objectively.
Anyway, that wasn't important right now. To get to the point.
Yuri recalled the characteristics of Development Team 3.
Collective madness, twisted faith, and dopamine addiction.
So, what was the way to entice them, satisfy their need for dopamine, and use the situation to solidify their trust?
“…I've found it.”
Yuri Jackson's eyes turned to a corner of the monitor.
A name was reflected there.
[Team 2 Jellen Kobson]
[Team 2 Nishimura Keisuke]
Looking at the gladiators of Development Team 2, Yuri smiled slyly.
* * *
A plague descended upon the martial world.
The martial artists, who used to gather in small groups to discuss the future of their world and the profundities of their arts, were all forced into seclusion. The prestigious martial arts tournaments were all canceled, fading into the annals of history.
There was no more chivalry.
There was no more malice, and thus, no more conflict.
An era of true peace had arrived, but the moment that peace felt welcome did not last long.
What is a martial artist?
They are people who prove themselves by revealing righteousness through martial arts.
The era of peace, where there was no longer a need to hone their martial skills, was a quiet euthanasia for them.
For those who could no longer prove themselves, peace was excruciating torture.
In other words,
[Michael should wear thin clothes that emphasize her flat chest, I tell youuuu!!!]
[Baaah!!! The Archangel of Judgment wears armor! It's obvious that armor is cooler!!!]
The directors of Team 2 were so desperate for a fight their bodies were twisting.
[Hah? Judgment is flat-chested! It's obviously hot when a blunt, flat-chested beauty falls for the protagonist and blushes!!!]
[You bastard!!! I knew you had pedophilic tendencies, but to have such a horrendous idea!!! Can you even call yourself human after that!!!]
[How invested are you going to get in a game character! This is a weeb game!!!]
[Baaah!!!]
Normally, at this point, they would have reached the conclusion, ‘We'll decide this with a duel!’
But now, they couldn't!
For a duel to even happen, they had to meet, but there was no space to meet and fight, and no audience!
The two of them were foaming at the mouth.
Another name for the disaster that Corona had brought upon them.
It was,
[Sparring is impossible? Who decides that?]
[Ah, let's decide that sparring is impossible with a sparring match!]
[You've had a good idea for once, Koitsu (you bastard)!!!]
Severe duel addiction and withdrawal symptoms.
As the conflict remained unresolved, the development of *Demon's Relic 2* slowed down.
Because the two of them didn't settle things with their fists, their pent-up frustrations grew and turned into a rift.
Now, the team members thought.
‘Someone please let those two fight!!!’
Since ancient times, when there's chaos at the top, it's the people at the bottom who suffer.
In an age filled with the cries of the common folk, the chaos of turbulent times, and rampant war, famine, disease, and death.
They appeared, extending a dark hand and delivering a secret whisper.
—A duel… you want one, don't you?
It was the very moment the Blood Cult's dark machinations began to spread into the central plains.