Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Closed Beta (2)
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April 10th, on a day when the spring breeze gently caressed the cheek.
A-yun sat in a dark room with the blackout curtains drawn, staring blankly at the monitor as her fingers moved.
Click-clack, the sound of the keyboard bounced through the air.
Whirrr, the noisy hum of the fan echoed loudly.
Yet, A-yun didn't notice.
[…Farewell.]
Because on the screen before her, Nabi’s final moments were playing out.
A woman who had known pain in life and regret in death was finally reaching the end of her suffering. How could she possibly focus on anything else?
A-yun's world had already found its place somewhere inside that monitor.
She was playing a prototype of Hellic 2, one without any sound.
This was the story she now had to refine.
[Game Clear]
The words signifying the end of the story appeared.
Her 18th time clearing the ending.
A-yun let out a long breath, her gaze heavy and subdued as she clicked the retry button once more.
She was not yet ready to return to reality.
Deeper immersion.
She needed to heighten her sense of unity with the setting, the narrative, the protagonist.
To lay down the music, she had to understand Nabi, so that the story could conclude from Nabi’s perspective.
And so began her 19th playthrough.
A change occurred.
‘…Right.’
Even though it was a scene she knew well—Nabi taking a woman's form after sending Alice away, facing the jailer with her sword drawn, and finally collapsing to her knees as she struggled to hold her crumbling body together—A-yun felt a different emotion than before.
It was a strange change, one that couldn't be described with words.
Swaaa—
She heard the phantom sound of waves.
Even though the game was silent.
Watching the collapsing Nabi, A-yun murmured to herself.
‘So that’s how it was.’
Nabi must have heard this sound.
While facing the jailer, while sending Alice away, and even in the moment she faded.
A butterfly meant to roam a flower garden was instead always swaying by the waves.
This was a premise that encompassed not just the background, but Nabi’s entire life.
And so, she concluded.
‘Silence is better.’
The theme is a silent scream.
The silent playthrough was good because it didn't overtly display the heart-wrenching sorrow.
Rather, its simplicity made Nabi's struggle all the more desperate.
Her expressionless face, a mirror of Alice’s, rarely showed any change.
Even as her body crumbled, she was serene, causing the emotional weight to fall heavily.
But in that one moment, her final smile was all the more suffocating because of the contrast.
‘Kill the sound.’
She would delete all unnecessary melodies and rhythms.
A-yun thought only of what was essential.
‘The sound of waves.’
A noise that makes the stillness even more desolate.
‘Footsteps.’
The sound of footsteps, lingering where Alice had left.
‘The sharp sound of the jailer's fretsaw, the creaking footsteps, the erratic movements.’
All that gloom and menace would clash with Nabi and become a melody.
In other words, the sound effects of the gimmick patterns would transform into a rhythm.
It was good.
Because the tense metallic sounds would heighten the desperate tension.
‘And the background music?’
It was reverse engineering.
While the proper order was to layer sound effects over a base melody, A-yun took the unusual step of creating a BGM that fit the sound effects.
She knew instinctively that this was the way to express the emotions most purely.
In other words, she had built a framework of sound effects to maintain a consistent train of thought.
Having found her answer.
‘Silence, the seashore, a sad ending.’
She expanded on the keywords once more.
‘Exclude electronic sounds. Exclude grandiosity. A single, distinct melody is all that's needed.’
It must not be monotonous. It must be heavy, yet light at the same time.
The rhythm, subtly burrowing into you, must embrace the space and Nabi's story, as if soaking in the waves.
‘There is one thing.’
A-yun’s gaze shifted to her desk.
‘A music box.’
Despite its clear, pure sound, its unique weightiness made it difficult to pair with other instruments. Depending on how it was used, the melody could shift between eerie and poignant.
The slow melody, chiming from the music box, would embrace the sound of the waves, the footsteps, and the sharp clash of metal.
‘The ending BGM will be a music box.’
It would adorn the end of Nabi’s desperate and beautiful journey.
The seashore, quiet once more after the battle has ended.
As the ending credits roll, the fading sound of the music box will leave a lingering resonance.
Click—
She turned on the music box, and its chiming notes filled the room.
A-yun closed her eyes and deconstructed the melody.
Composition is a process of building up.
A-yun took the melody she had built in her mind and reassembled the rhythm, crafting it anew into a single piece of music.
Her speed was a testament to the fact that her emotions had already paved the way for the music.
It was like a lifelong writer instantly refining their feelings into words on a manuscript.
She hummed to herself for a moment in the dark room.
‘…Done.’
A-yun smiled.
Then, pulling a hat down low, she headed for the recording studio.
It took two days.
The time it took to breathe the final life into Hellic 2.
“Good work. This is great.”
The attempt was a success.
If Yeon-ho’s dazed expression was anything to go by, it was a definite success.
* * *
In June, the alpha version was finally complete.
It took that much more time to finish the debugging and internal QA even after Jo A-yun had filled in all the sound.
All discovered issues were resolved.
Though Myeong-gyu did suffer quite a bit.
“It’s done! It’s done!”
On the day the end of development was finally announced, Myeong-gyu bawled his eyes out.
There was a moment later that clearly showed just how much stress Myeong-gyu had been under, and that was the day we brought in an external tester.
“Whoa! Myeong-gyu! How’ve you been?”
“Ji-Jin-gyeong?”
Just like during the testing for Hellic 1, I had called Han Seo-rim’s older brother, Jin-gyeong.
He was a year junior to Myeong-gyu, and personally, it seemed they didn't get along very well.
Of course, it was Myeong-gyu who unilaterally disliked him.
It wasn't hard to understand why; being the epitome of an extrovert, Jin-gyeong must have clashed quite a bit with Myeong-gyu.
Anyway, putting such personal matters aside.
“I called you for bug testing, so Myeong-gyu will be in charge. If you find anything suspicious, have him try it again.”
I put Myeong-gyu in charge of QA.
That day, Myeong-gyu spent a total of seven hours grinding Jin-gyeong into dust.
“Again.”
“Whoa!”
“Again.”
“W-whoa…!”
“Again.”
“…?”
Myeong-gyu looked truly happy that day.
Jin-gyeong whined to me about it later, but that's another story.
In the end, all that mattered was that after all the hardship, the game had finally reached a level where a closed beta was possible.
And so, we came to today.
“You’ve all worked hard.”
It was the day of our team dinner.
The menu was pork belly, just a light first round.
I filled my soju glass and said.
“Almost two years. We hit the development timeline we planned from the very beginning. To be honest, aside from Seo-rim, this was the first time developing a game for most of you, and I’m just grateful for how well you all kept up.”
I wasn’t just saying that.
Even though Hellic 2 was a game made by rookies from a new studio, the final product had far surpassed all expectations.
How could I possibly claim this was a result of my efforts alone?
What I did was fundamentally within the scope of a director.
Coordinating the team, sketching out the overall game concept, and finally, shaping it into a single product.
We had come this far because every team member had excelled in their role.
Looking around, the smiling faces of my team were a reassuring sight.
On a day like this, I should share some good news.
“Rest today. Rest tomorrow, too. The day after, let’s get back to work.”
I raised my glass.
The team members, looking much more relaxed, also raised their glasses. Jo A-yun, in the middle of raising her soju glass, got her hand pinched by Han Seo-rim and sullenly picked up a can of cola instead.
The toast was simple.
“Cheers.”
The glasses clinked.
This was three days before the closed beta.
* * *
July arrived, bringing with it the sweltering summer heat.
And with it, the closed beta keys for Hellic 2 were sent out.
For the past few days, the community forums had been buzzing with nothing else.
In the first week of July, the most searched term on the forums was ‘PerfectlyClear,’ the owner of a closed beta key.
『(Chat)WaitingForHellic2: PerfectlyClear... where'd you go? Please show yourself, huh? You got it! You got the beta key!!!
(Chat)BangbaeBloodlord: PerfectlyClear, come out. Seriously, come out.
(Chat)S2PoppyS2: Please just give us a hintㅠㅠ
(Chat)SpaceWarFan: Pretty sure this guy's dead lol』
It had been a week since Studio Rewind’s official social media account posted that the closed beta keys and merchandise had been shipped.
Given the nature of the items, they would have been sent via express delivery.
Furthermore, considering it was common knowledge that ‘PerfectlyClear’ lived in Seoul, there was no way he hadn't received the game by now.
No, to put it another way.
‘PerfectlyClear’ had definitely received the game, which was why he hadn't shown up until now.
A post from just a week ago proved it.
『PerfectlyClear: lololol beta shipping has started lolololol』
A post so infuriating it could drive anyone up the wall.
Countless people had replied, begging for a review, but this was the result.
He’d gone completely dark.
『(Chat)CherryLipJaehee: Anyone know where this bastard lives?』
The moment a post like that finally appeared.
『(Game)PerfectlyClear: ...』
The man himself appeared on the forum.
『
WaitingForHellic2: What took you so long!!! You wanna see me die?!
BangbaeBloodlord: Review it. Please. I'm begging you.
SweetBelf39: Sir,,, how,,, is the game,,,?
ProDK: dude dude dude dude check your DMs please please』
The welcome was fervent.
For a moment, all new posts on the forum stopped, and a strange phenomenon occurred where all traffic flooded into ‘PerfectlyClear’s post.
A post with no content, only ‘...’ for a title.
After thoroughly teasing the forum members, he finally wrote another post.
『(Chat)PerfectlyClear: How is this an indie game?
Seriously, it makes no sense. I'm the kind of person who can't quit forums no matter what I'm doing, but for the whole week I was playing this, I didn't even think about them once;
Wow, I'm just in awe;
They say there are only 6 people on the dev team, but honestly, I think that's a lie;
When it comes out, you guys have to play it!
Oh, and one more thing.
(Alice_Figure.jpg)
The figure is super cute lol ㅋㅅㅋ』
It was a review.
A vicious review that said absolutely nothing about the game’s content.
It was only natural that the forum users, who had been on edge with anticipation, would erupt in flames.
『WaitingForHellic2: Aaaaaaaargh!!!』
Starting with the one who had been waiting day in and day out, countless users began to spew curses.
An ordinary person might have been hurt by such insults and quit the forums, but this time, they had picked the wrong opponent.
The undisputed number one keyboard warrior on the forums, a one-of-a-kind villain who could frustrate any opponent into rage-quitting.
This time, too, he showed a unique response.
『(Chat)PerfectlyClear: Sucks to be you, should've won a beta key lol』
That day, a forum user by the name of ‘WaitingForHellic2,’ Kang Seok-hoon, clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.
* * *
While the domestic forums were ablaze, a similar situation was unfolding overseas.
Somehow, every single person who received a closed beta key had gone completely dark.
Regular users, their expectations for the game swelling, could only feel their insides burn.
That was why the streamer James Han was drawing even more attention.
He had a history of saying he would release a video of his closed beta gameplay.
But even he had gone silent.
Like puppies waiting for their owner to return, users could only pathetically refresh the forums.
Hoping, praying, that someone would show up and say something, anything, about what the game was like.
It got to the point where people were even saying, ‘The game is so tragically bad that no one can bring themselves to review it.’
It was the so-called sour grapes effect.
『Go to hell, fucking Hellic』
It was at that moment.
A short review was published in 'On Game,' the undisputed number one gaming magazine.
『Playing the new hit [Hellic 2: Hell Of Alice].』
It was a review that appeared out of nowhere, in a completely unexpected form.
But one thing was certain.
That review caused an indescribable stir.
『I won't use phrases like 'the greatest of all time' or 'the best in the world.'
Everyone has a favorite game cherished in their heart, and I cannot force my opinion by denying their best and greatest.
But, even so, I must say it.
At the very least, this is the best ending of the year.
One that no AAA title can hope to match.
-Game Director Alid Russo.』
The master of Studio Valhalla.
A name that always came up when discussing the greatest directors, Alid Russo.
Anyone with even a passing interest in games knew his name.
Over 90% of those who loved packaged games had experienced playing one of his masterpieces.
The moment his review was posted, no one asked ‘why.’
Why he had left a review for Hellic 2 through a magazine, why he had a closed beta key for Hellic 2, or why he was praising it so highly.
The reason was simple.
A much larger question overshadowed all others.
『What in the world do you have to do to get a rave review out of that madman?』
The head of Valhalla, Alid Russo. His other name was the ‘Director Crusher.’
Because he had broken the spirits of countless directors with his brutally harsh critiques.
The industry was shaken by the mere fact that *he* had praised a game.
The name ‘Hellic’ began to take on an entirely different meaning.
To give an easy example.
『(Chat)DraftDodgerDK: Delayed my military enlistment. Feel like I have to play Hellic 2 before I go.』
A game that hadn't even been released had shaken someone's life.
It was exactly three days after that incident.
『On Air』
James Han went live.
On a new platform that had launched less than a month ago, a place called Twich.