Chapter 191
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: Worldview (2)
Tell me, when do you think a planner dies?
When their meticulously crafted plan gets rejected?
-This plan won't work. It completely messes up the balance.
-Yessir!
No.
Then when it's treated as a cheap copy of someone else's work?
-Hmm, doesn't this overlap with Mr. Ji-seok's plan? Let's try to diversify the concept a bit more.
-Yessir…!
That's not it either.
The moment a planner truly dies is none other than ‘when their hard-wrought creation is ridiculed.’
-QA feedback is in. It's about the time stem….
-…What'd they say?
-That it's worse than having nothing at all.
-Aaaargh!!!
And so, the planning office of Team 1 lived day by day in sorrow and agony.
Of course, the department suffering the most was programming, stuck in the middle, creating rough prototypes, running them, sending them to QA, getting feedback, fixing them, passing them back to planning, getting revised proposals, then fixing and sending and fixing and sending again.
But that's human nature—a papercut on your own finger hurts more than a knife in someone else's throat.
The planning office, ignoring just how much the programming team was dying (it wasn't that they didn't know), was simply withering away over their rejected plans.
The mouth speaks the truth.
“Cheon Yeon-ho, that motherfucker….”
The biggest problem was the ‘Heart.’
There were too many variables arising from the changes in gameplay direction caused by the Heart.
Depending on the starting point and the route to completion, what the player could do changed drastically.
Calculating all of that to strike a balance was not a task for a human.
But it had to be done.
Because the one paying the bills wanted it!
They had no choice but to accept the absurd situation of having to become machines, lose their sense of self, and churn out creative yet stable ideas!
In conclusion, Cheon Yeon-ho was a motherfucker, and planning was madness.
It was a time when everyone in the planning team had come to accept this.
“It's done…!”
That's just how the world works.
There's no such thing as eternal pain and sorrow, and even a path that seems endless, when you look back, you find you've come this far. That's life.
The development of this absurd Heart, and the organic connection of the maps, had finally entered the finishing stages.
“Ah, ah….”
Sometimes, when a person is too exhausted, they forget how to speak.
That was the case for Kang Ji-seok, a senior on the planning team.
A single, clear tear streamed down his face.
He felt a sliver of what could be called inner peace, now that the end was in sight.
‘It was a long, long time of suffering and humiliation.’
But no more of that now.
The core system design was nearly complete.
With his years of development experience, he could tell that any future revisions would require nothing more than minor, localized adjustments.
Hellic 5—even though he'd personally participated in its planning, he couldn't imagine a future where it didn't succeed, seeing how fun it was even as a prototype without any graphics.
He stretched with a light heart for a moment, and soon, his eyes met Park Ho-su's.
The two, who had worked together for ages, had now become close friends.
It was no exaggeration to say they had become life partners, supporting each other.
That's why a single glance was all they needed.
-Drinks?
-Ok go.
Today was a day for a celebratory toast.
It was time to look back on their hardships, say ‘those were the days,’ and savor a slightly more human life ahead.
That was their judgment, and it was a complacency born from still seeing Yeon-ho as human.
“Alright, let's start brainstorming variations for each map's theme.”
“?”
“We've established the concept for each map and designed the related abilities and playstyles. Now we need to design the various events that can occur on those maps. Ah, I have one idea I'd like to hear your opinions on.”
Yeon-ho scheduled a planning team meeting two hours before closing time.
And then he spoke.
“You know the Violet Hell of Time, right? The collaboration with previous bosses in the last Hellic 4 DLC got a pretty good response, so I'm thinking along those lines. What I mean is… just like the Green Hell has day and night, in the Violet Hell, hitting a specific trigger will change the map's timeline. We'll throw in an event boss battle.”
“???”
“The White Hell is the hell that governs the self. For its variation, I'm thinking of changing monster attributes based on the school the player has joined. The self… meaning, what the protagonist must face there is their own inner self.”
It was obviously a terrifying amount of work.
But beyond just implementation, considering the subsequent balance and gameplay connectivity, it was clear that absurd problems would arise.
From Yeon-ho's perspective, he was just trying to implement what he'd actually seen in Hell, but to those listening, it sounded utterly preposterous.
The team members' lips moved, gaping like fish.
But there was only one possible answer.
“…Yes, sir.”
As if he'd lost all human compassion, Yeon-ho nodded and drove the final nail in the coffin.
“It'll be easy after this, though. We'll be moving on to planning sub-quests, side NPCs and their stories, and designing minor schools and extra skills. Don't you think the meetings will be fun?”
*Not at all.*
“For that part, let's go with a process of refining and arranging the ideas each of you brings to our internal meetings.”
In summary, he was saying:
First, die.
Die a horrible death planning the map themes, then resurrect as zombies.
After that, kill each other in the meetings (battlefield).
“Now, let's do our best.”
The time of suffering and humiliation is endless.
Only eternal pain and despair remain here.
Ji-seok and Ho-su looked at each other.
The liquid the two shared that night was not alcohol, but energy drinks.
* * *
These days, planning, programming, and QA were performing a hellish trio in concert.
While other teams seemed to be flowing along quietly, that didn't mean they were relaxed and peaceful.
If one had to describe it, they were in the eye of the storm.
This was especially true for the art team.
“Again.”
“Kay.”
“This one, too. Again.”
“…Kay.”
“From here to there, all of it. Again.”
“…”
From the moment an open-world RPG was conceived, the art team was destined to suffer just as much as any other department.
Putting everything else aside, the map design alone was a challenge.
They had to control everything from the elevation of the terrain to the shape of hills and the angle of obstacles, all to accommodate the gameplay designed by the planning side. Yet at the same time, they had to broaden the texture variations and create a beautiful overall landscape, ensuring it didn't look aesthetically confusing or monotonous.
It was a crucial task.
In Hellic 5, the world was the inner surface of a planet, where one could see all realms from a single spot.
That alone was disorienting enough, but with sky loops connecting the maps and drawing lines through the air, any mistake in saturation, depiction, or texture expression could make the whole thing feel claustrophobic.
Thus, for the sake of the proposition ‘a focal point within simplicity,’ Seo-rim was giving feedback on every single line of the art team's creations.
The team members were dying.
Seo-rim was stressed.
During these hectic development days, such things were naturally followed by a predictable next step.
『Rewind: Life is fucking shit. FML』
That step was an anonymous Rewind employee posting on the community's free-for-all message board.
No one knew who it was.
Even if they did, the name would never be spoken aloud.
You could say it was like the noseless final boss from that movie about a school for wizards.
Everyone avoided him, as merely speaking his name carried the risk of death.
Anyway, it was on one such day.
Seo-rim was having another hard day.
Her body was exhausted, her mind was weary, and life was no fun.
Ah, there was a time when the community board gave her a dopamine rush like nothing else, but now even that had become a habit, its stimulation dulled.
Seo-rim thought.
‘Am I in a rut?’
Well, it would be strange if she wasn't.
She had managed this far because there had been so many different incidents during development, but her work was always the same: planning, feedback, revision, and confirmation.
She'd been doing only that for ten years.
She fell into serious contemplation.
She had no intention of quitting her job, but she felt she needed a bit of a break.
Seo-rim now well understood the necessity of clearing her head.
‘How many vacation days do I have left….’
No matter how much this place was the pinnacle of sweatshops, they still let you use your vacation days.
Of course, working while on vacation was a common occurrence, but when you thought about it, how many professions weren't like that?
Seo-rim wasn't the type to get too bent out of shape over such things.
However, now that she had resolved to take a vacation and rest, she felt like maybe she should go on a trip this time.
‘Hmm, given the times, traveling abroad is a bit much. A domestic trip? Maybe I'll go to Gangwon Province. Yes, that's good. I'll just rest for four days somewhere with an ocean view.’
It was then.
“Team Leader…!”
“Yes, Surim.”
Gu Su-rim, an art team employee now in her fifth year, held something out to Seo-rim.
For some reason, it was a thin, white envelope.
“…!”
Startled, Seo-rim couldn't help but flinch.
Seo-rim's gaze fell on Surim.
Her eyes crinkled into a smile, and though her mouth was hidden by a mask, her flushed cheeks and the aura of happiness radiating from her entire being were unmistakable.
It wasn't a confession, of course.
Nor was the envelope a love letter.
It was just… that thing.
The thing that now made her think, ‘Shit, another one?’
“Surim, are you getting married?”
“Yes! Next February!”
“…Ah, I see.”
You're getting married.
In that moment, for some reason, Seo-rim felt as if her insides were twisting into knots.
She'd been a team leader for ten years now; how many wedding invitations had she received in her life?
How many weddings had she attended?
At first, she hadn't thought anything of it.
Until her early to mid-twenties, she had been a staunch believer in staying single, and even now, Seo-rim could live alone indefinitely if she wanted to.
But lately, she'd found herself thinking a lot about ‘dating,’ the thing that comes before that rascal called ‘marriage.’
Seo-rim forced down her bitterness and said with a smile.
“Co-congratulations…? You're getting married quite early.”
“Really? Twenty-eight seems about right.”
Seo-rim deliberately avoided recalling, ‘How old was I again?’
A woman's age is not meant to be counted after twenty-five, after all.
Meanwhile, Surim said.
“Can you come? We're not having a big ceremony because of the times, but I really want you to be there, Team Leader! You're my role model, and you've helped me so much…!”
It was a relief to know she'd done well in her professional life, but still.
“I'll have to check my schedule then. We're still in the middle of development.”
“Oh….”
Surim's shoulders slumped a little.
Seo-rim felt a pang of guilt but deliberately averted her gaze.
Setting aside the schedule issue, it was a shame that she no longer had the confidence to watch with a smile.
It was at that moment that Seo-rim heard Surim's mumble.
“…I was going to give you the bouquet, Team Leader.”
*Is she taunting me?*
Her head shot up, and Surim tilted her head in confusion.
“Oh, aren't you dating the President, Team Leader… Ah! Is it a secret relationship…?!”
Surim, not knowing what to do, began to whisper.
“I-I'm sorry. But you two look so good together, and it seemed kind of obvious… Ah! I don't think anyone else knows yet! I'll keep my lips sealed!”
Seo-rim had to struggle a bit to hide the rising corners of her mouth.
Words danced in her head.
*They look good together. From the side, it's obvious they're dating.*
‘Does it look that way?’
Oh my… maybe this is….
Seo-rim cleared her throat with a *hem hem* and turned her head away.
“You can go for now. I'll check my schedule for the wedding later.”
“Yes, ma'am! Then I'll get back to work!”
And with that, Surim turned away.
Seo-rim, feeling much better, began to handle her work with a refreshed spirit.
In other words, Seo-rim had no idea.
She didn't know Surim's true intention behind those words.
Or why a flood of reports came pouring in right after.
Or that Surim was praised by the other employees that day, hailed as their savior.
Seo-rim, in a good mood and thus accepting reports more leniently than usual, knew nothing.
That evening, while eating with Yeon-ho, Seo-rim simply said:
“You know, now that I think about it, aren't you coming to see me a little too often lately?”
“?”
“The staff might get the wrong idea.”
Han Seo-rim, possessor of the romantic intelligence of a grade-school boy with his first crush.
She has a bad habit of getting cocky the moment someone praises her.
“???”
Yeon-ho could only tilt his head in confusion.