Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: A Sticky Inspiration
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December 26th. The warmth of Christmas Eve had passed, and the end of the year was finally approaching.
Seo-rim took her seat as she arrived at work.
Her face was full of life.
There was only one reason.
‘I’ve got it.’
After a full day of contemplation, she had finally finished planning Chapter 2.
It was the realization of an idea that had stemmed from Yeon-ho's example.
*Click.* The file she opened with a tap of her mouse was the reference Yeon-ho had provided.
『Dark.
A color as if a lid had been placed over the sky. Looking down from beneath such a ceiling, something came into view.
Faintly illuminating the ground were the blue flames flickering from candlesticks placed here and there.
The floor was covered with the remains of something, and from them rose tombstones.
But if one had to pick the most striking feature, it would be just one thing.
“Fufufu…”
It was the women, sitting demurely on the tombstones, laughing.
They wore thin, sheer white robes, their skin so pale it was almost translucent.
Ornate gold jewelry adorned their clothes, and their faces were all hidden behind veils.
To draw a comparison, they were like brides in vulgar wedding dresses, or perhaps dancers.
Beside them, skeleton soldiers stood at attention, weapons in hand, guarding the surroundings.』
Following the background description was a drawing of the same terrible quality as always.
It was generally like this.
Seo-rim had to bring the scenery that existed only in Yeon-ho's mind to life by weaving together this awful drawing and his description.
That's why the feeling was crucial.
In other words, she had to grasp the focal point.
‘He was thinking about contrast.’
That was her first thought, considering the flow of Chapter 2.
Upon entering this place, the Pilgrim would see the dancers and knights and show hostility.
They would naturally perceive them as enemies.
And so, they would kill them.
Without a shred of doubt.
The moment they would realize their mistake was when, after crushing the skeleton soldiers, they extinguished the dancers' lives.
‘They turn to glass.’
The dancers, spurting blood as they died, would harden and turn to glass with a crackle.
But their veils would become mirrors, reflecting the Pilgrim.
The Pilgrim's blood-soaked face would appear in the mirror, and it would ask:
Did you really have to kill them?
The Pilgrim would be thrown into chaos.
Only then would the question resurface: ‘Were they truly enemies?’
And yet, they didn't stop.
‘Because I have to kill them to get out.’
As the narrative intended, it signified ‘rationalization.’
In terms of gameplay, placing the women in the path forward would create a situation where they had to be killed.
The dancers had one meaning.
‘Sacrificed civilians.’
Against the grim backdrop of a battlefield, the dancers, blooming beautifully alone, were a symbol of innocence.
Their adornments represented the value of life.
As such, beside the dancers were the enemy soldiers, the skeletons, who had sought to protect them.
The soldiers represented the enemy.
Everyone knows that what I protect and what the enemy tried to protect are not inherently different.
However, the value they placed upon them could never be the same.
‘Dialogue will be inserted.’
『This is all an illusion! We have to kill them to get out! We can't stop!』
It was a soldier's line.
The others would agree and press forward.
From this, one could surmise something.
These Pilgrims had experience killing civilians during wars in their past lives.
It wasn't a particularly unique event in history.
But in this hell that meted out punishment, they had to face it directly.
And so they would meet the chapter boss, the ‘Naked Queen.’
With a body reaching 10 meters in height, she would look down upon the Pilgrims, laying bare the morality they had ignored.
By wielding a sword made of countless intertwined dancers, she would make them die by the very things they had harmed in war.
Of course, the Pilgrims would overcome even the Queen and escape.
Towards the staircase above, where a single ray of light shone down.
The true form of Chapter 2 would only be revealed then.
Looking back from the exit, they would see a giant, coffin-shaped mountain of corpses.
The bodies of the Queen and the dancers, laid to rest there, would once again remind them of their wrong choices, hence its name: the ‘Coffin of Delusion.’
Seo-rim smiled.
‘How could I not think big?’
Chapter 2 was about the individual in war.
About a human becoming morally broken by growing accustomed to violence.
How could she possibly treat such a narrative lightly?
A thought that occasionally crossed her mind was that Yeon-ho's sensibilities were far too dry.
But, to put it another way, it was just that.
It was, in essence, a narrative that showed the duality of human nature.
In other words, Chapter 2 was a chapter that revealed the duality of morality through the act of not only crushing soldiers but also harming the dancers.
The way to express this visually was surprisingly simple.
*Ssk—*
Her pen moved.
She didn't touch the background settings.
Nor did she touch the main designs of the dancer and the queen.
She changed only one thing.
‘Motion and line of sight. That’s how I’ll create a sense of unease.’
Just one thing: redoing the dancer's motion and gaze to express that they were innocent victims.
The method was simple.
‘They’ll rush at the playable character as if they're trying to run away.’
But it couldn't end there.
‘Their gaze has to be behind them. …Yes, turn their heads about 130 degrees. To show they're being chased.’
So the key was to be pitiful, urgent.
An attack in the form of an escape.
‘This is it.’
Input produces output.
From what one has seen, heard, and experienced, the seed of a new image finally emerges.
Since starting this job, Seo-rim had played quite a few games.
Mostly horror games that Yeon-ho made her play.
Seo-rim envisioned the finished concept.
‘It'll be unsettling.’
From killing monsters and looting them, to the moment they face the queen.
The user fighting the dancers would constantly feel unsettled.
Because they would have to kill an opponent who was running away, yet towards them.
The thought solidified her conviction.
The movement of her pen gained even more momentum.
And so, the next day.
“Approved. Much better.”
Seo-rim's design safely passed Yeon-ho’s confirmation.
***
The models were completed in late January.
Since they were mostly modifications of previously created models, it didn't take very long.
I checked them.
The dancers in their thin robes, rushing forward as if fleeing with their heads turned 130 degrees; their skeleton guardians; and the queen.
The highlight was the sword the queen held.
It was a sword in the shape of dancers embracing and intertwining with one another, and by blurring the boundaries, it created a texture as if something had melted.
That subtle detail was what captivated the eye.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, the result was positive.
The models received high marks not just from me, but from every department in the company.
The QA department, who actually played the game, even added a rare side note.
[Dancers are sexy as hell.]
…Let's set aside the vulgarity of the word choice for a moment.
What was important was that this was the first time they had commented on the models, not just the gameplay or bugs.
In other words, the models were impressive enough to warrant such a comment.
That was a very important development.
Especially when considering the history of female monsters with grotesque beauty gaining cult followings in horror games.
There were many examples, but to name a representative one… right.
Doesn't everyone have a faceless nurse tucked away in their heart somewhere?
It was an unexpected gain.
This could be an even greater advantage, especially since *Hellic* could utilize these monsters as more than just simple enemies.
“Have you extracted the customization models for these?”
Farming for customization parts.
The dancers would become customization materials that users could acquire, which would surely help with the game's success.
The Hyper Duo answered.
“Of course! We poured our hearts into making them sexy even when they're in pieces!”
“?”
“We made Myeong-gyu sexy too!”
“???”
For a moment, I couldn't immediately comprehend what I had just heard.
“H-Hey, you two…!”
Myeong-gyu turned into a tomato.
…Whatever. It seemed like work was progressing well.
***
Usually, the department that plays the test version of a game the most is QA.
And the department that usually plays it the second most would be programming.
But Studio Rewind was different.
The programming department's playtime only ranked third.
So who was second? The answer would have to venture into a somewhat phenomenal realm.
“Hmm…!”
Jo A-yun (21), currently Rewind's sound director and its sole sound designer.
Hobby: gaming. Specialty: composing. The youngest employee in the company and every employee's nightmare.
That would be her.
A-yun's lips jutted out in a pout.
On her monitor was the test version of *Hellic 3*.
What A-yun did all day at the company was play this test version.
This was her 72nd playthrough, and she inwardly assessed it.
‘Boring…’
Of course, she didn't mean the game was boring.
She meant the melody that was coming to mind as she played Chapter 2 was boring.
A dark background with a covered ceiling, the surroundings faintly lit by blue candlelight, the dancers, and the skeleton soldiers.
With her accumulated experience, A-yun now knew.
Chapter 2 was a chapter completed by the dancers, who commanded a presence in the silence.
Therefore, it was right to compose the BGM centered around those dancers.
Focusing on that point brought to mind a low-pitched orchestra.
But it would be an orchestra stripped of its richness and grandeur, with the sound of a gloomy wind inserted in between.
Considering the atmosphere, it was a pretty good composition, but the problem was that if such music were actually put into the game, it would feel too dull.
‘No. It'll get completely lost in the game.’
When you thought about it, it was Hye-ji and Yu-mi's fault.
The two of them had flexed their strange artisanal spirit and made the dancers so alluring that it was nearly impossible to properly express that sticky feeling with a simple composition.
A-yun's 고민 deepened.
How on earth could she express gloominess, suspense, and allure all at the same time!
How could she make the music further enhance the chapter's atmosphere!
‘Ugh…’
Clutching her head, A-yun decided to just dive in and opened her composition software.
But as expected, no matter what instruments she used to build chords, she couldn't get close to the feeling she wanted.
It felt like her head was going to explode!
A-yun finally let out a scream, “Graaaah…!”
‘S-Sugar…! I need sugar…!’
She got up from her seat and headed for the break room.
Even then, her thoughts didn't stop.
Countless melodies and sounds were relentlessly storming through her mind.
The base melody was already in the process of taking shape.
It just needed to solidify around one key point, but that point was nowhere to be seen.
It was in that moment.
“Tsk—”
A sound that made A-yun stop in her tracks.
‘…Huh?’
A-yun's eyes widened as she looked in the direction of the sound.
Yeon-ho was standing there.
His brow was slightly furrowed, and upon closer inspection, he was pulling at a loose thread on his clothes.
No, that wasn't important.
‘Tsk, tsk…’
The tongue-clicking sound from just before kept replaying in her head.
To be precise, that saliva-mixed sound landed perfectly on top of the music playing in her mind.
In that instant, A-yun felt a thrill jolt down her spine.
‘I found it…!’
The missing point for the BGM.
The stickiness that had been missing from the sound.
“P-President!”
A-yun grabbed Yeon-ho's collar.
Yeon-ho looked at her.
“Yes?”
A-yun's lips quivered as she continued to think.
‘A whisper…!’
Mixing in short, clipped tongue sounds on top of the music would add that stickiness.
At key beats or timings, that sound would pop out and stimulate the ears.
No, for that to work, a tongue click wouldn't be enough.
There was a sound that evoked an even stickier feeling!
“What's wrong, A-yun?”
To Yeon-ho's question, A-yun answered.
Revealing her ecstatic inner thoughts, and also looking at Yeon-ho's lips.
“P-Please follow me to the recording studio…!”
The sound to be inserted was the ‘smack!’ of a kiss.
Yeon-ho's lips parted.
“…A-yun, did I do something wrong?”
His words didn't reach her ears.
***
In the company recording studio, Jo A-yun instructed me from behind the soundproof glass, her eyes shining.
Jo A-yun's hand was pointing at the microphone in front of me.
“Make a ‘smack!’ kissing sound right there. M-Mix in some saliva…!”
An idle thought crossed my mind.
Workplace sexual harassment… is this really okay?
Rating (1)