Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: E3 (1)
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To describe E3’s standing in the current game industry, one could summarize it as unique, and at the very top.
After all, it was a massive gaming event attended by all three of the world's major console companies. How could it be anything less?
Of course, E3's policy of restricting general admission to corporate invitees would later become an issue, pushing it to the brink of cancellation, but that was, quite literally, a story for another day.
At this point in time, E3 was, in name and reality, the greatest gaming convention in the world.
This year’s E3 in 2013, in particular, had an impact that even "historic" failed to describe.
‘The simultaneous reveal of the PS4 and Xbox One.’
The concurrent announcement of the eighth-generation consoles, and the flood of highly anticipated titles that followed—if I had to pick the most brilliant era for AAA games in my memory, it would be this one.
That made the preliminary work all the more important.
The leak was part of that work.
[The reaction is quite positive. As expected from a highly anticipated title.]
“You’re too kind.”
[We’ll proceed with the booth size as detailed in the document we sent. Oh, and the trailer for the conference…]
“It’s almost finished. With just a few more adjustments, we should be able to show it to you within the month.”
[Understood.]
What Studio Rewind needed to focus on was the demo version we would unveil, and the *Hellic 3* trailer for the conference.
The demo version just needed debugging.
The trailer and gameplay footage also only required minor revisions.
All preparations were proceeding smoothly.
[We’ll contact you as soon as there are any new developments.]
“Understood. Well then…”
*Click.*
The call ended.
It was already 7 PM.
Today was Friday.
“Sunbae, are you leaving?”
“Yeah, I can’t work out today.”
“I heard. By the way, is the studio really closed this weekend?”
I nodded.
It was a break we’d earned after crossing the hurdle of Sona’s demo review.
Even machines break down if you run them nonstop, so what more for people?
The employees needed a chance to rest, and so did I.
It was a decision I made, thinking we needed a little refresh.
“See you next week.”
“Okay.”
Han Seo-rim left first.
I tidied up my desk and left as well.
And so, I arrived home.
“I’m home.”
Not my own place, but my family’s home, to see my parents.
“What’s the occasion? Did you run out of side dishes?”
“Yes.”
I was out of side dishes at my place.
…A bachelor’s fridge is destined to be filled with his mother’s side dishes.
***
I have dreams from time to time.
Just as when I was making the previous game, the act of concretely visualizing each hell as I worked on the project would linger until I fell asleep, and those memories would resurface in the form of dreams.
The scene I was seeing now was one of them.
In a thicket during the fourth trial, on a night when a campfire crackled, splitting firewood.
The soldier suddenly spoke.
-I sometimes wonder if I truly sinned.
His expression was quite dark.
The soldier caressed his firearm with a soot-covered hand.
The Spartan said to him,
-Cease your odious act.
His voice was quite firm.
-Do not regret. Regret will only diminish the value of what you protected.
The soldier’s eyes widened in surprise, before he let out a low laugh.
Just then, the paladin and the barbarian returned from their patrol.
-What’s so funny?
-It’s nothing.
-How dull.
I looked at the four people sitting around the fire.
Coming all the way to the fourth trial, every one of them had broken down at least once.
Of course they had; this place was so unpleasant and horrifying that I felt they would have collapsed for good if they had been alone.
And yet, they were still moving forward.
That was my assessment.
They were able to endure because they were not alone.
They were in a relationship where they could lift each other up because they shared the same despair.
They were forming a bond so strong it was hard to believe they had tried to kill each other the moment they first met.
-I’d like some fruit.
-I’ve read about it in a history book. In your culture, didn’t the nobles indulge in the luxury of chewing expensive fruits and spitting them out?
-That was the next town over.
The time they were born, the place, their station—all were different.
But the lives they had lived and their reasons for being here were the same.
To define their relationship, they were comrades who supported each other while overcoming the same hardships.
Distilled into a single word, that’s what it was.
-Have a drink. Though it’s only water.
They had become brothers-in-arms.
-Alcohol. I want a drink.
-Would a barbarian even know the taste of alcohol?
-Better than a nagging old man.
-…This bastard?
-Stop it, you two. No matter how you old-timers gather, you wouldn’t know better than me.
The dream was racing toward its end.
Faintly illuminating those who were savoring a moment of peace in some dark hell.
“Yeon-ho! Stop sleeping and get up!”
Along with my mother’s voice.
***
It’s been a while since I woke up in my own room.
Plastered on the walls were game posters, and crammed onto the bookshelf were old game packages.
It felt like it had been two months, but perhaps a house you’ve lived in your whole life is different, because it felt comfortable without any awkwardness.
I was at the dining table, eating a home-cooked meal.
“Yeon-ho, I saw you on the news.”
“Did you?”
“My, I never knew my son would become such a celebrity. You know Jin-woo from downstairs? The one who passed the bar exam…”
My mother’s face was beaming.
It seemed she was even getting skin treatments with the allowance I sent her.
The main topic of her conversation was the kind of neighborhood power struggle I couldn’t comprehend, about what some other mom in the apartment complex did.
My father was in the living room, watching baseball again.
The way he bit his nails reminded me of Han Seo-rim.
His eyes were glued to the 80-inch TV on the living room wall (which I bought).
At that moment, the opposing team hit a home run.
“Damn it! Those rotten bastards!”
*Thwack!* My father’s remote bounced off the sofa.
Watching this whole scene, I couldn’t help but voice the question that had been lingering inside me.
“But Mom.”
“Yes?”
“What exactly is that?”
I pointed to a picture frame on the living room cabinet.
It was a sort of family history museum, displaying photos of my family from my childhood onwards.
And there it was.
“It’s your picture.”
My picture (an Alice cosplay and a composite photo).
“…I’m not blonde.”
“But the face is yours.”
A sense of despair washed over me.
In the family history museum, the only son, Cheon Yeon-ho, had finally evolved into a new-half.
If only it had ended there.
“It looks good on you. The relatives who came over for the holidays loved it too.”
…The holiday roast was already complete.
A wave of regret hit me.
‘I should have come home.’
I shouldn’t have worked during the holidays.
I could almost hear my drunk uncle’s voice.
-Huh? Did Yeon-ho’s little fella fall off? It’s fine! It’s fine! Kids these days can change that stuff! Anyway, pour me a drink!
I was starting to dread Chuseok.
***
The weekend passed.
Now, all of Studio Rewind’s employees were back at their desks.
The same went for A-yun.
It was her first day back since the last company dinner (where she ended up so drunk she had to be carried home on Yeon-ho’s back). After a good rest, she was somehow overflowing with energy.
“There are no major deadlines until June. Myeong-gyu, you focus on debugging the demo version. Seo-rim, you can slowly start on the next chapter… Next, A-yun.”
“Yes…!”
“It’s exam season, right? You must be busy. For now, just focus on the sound effects.”
A-yun grinned and nodded.
“Okay…!”
The downtime was nice.
There was no pressure from work, and balancing it with school wasn’t too difficult.
Of course, A-yun knew she was the only one with this much leisure.
This meeting was a case in point.
“We have two months left. We have to go to the US for E3, so keep your schedules clear for that time. The members will probably be us, Gil-sang, and about three other employees. Sona will help manage the booth…”
Yeon-ho was incredibly busy with E3 matters.
On top of that, he was also directing the game, so it seemed like even two bodies wouldn’t be enough for him.
It was the same for the others.
Seo-rim was, as always, absorbed in her work, and Myeong-gyu had once again become the master of the sleeping pods.
At least Hye-ji and Yu-mi had no major tasks and were taking it easy.
Yeon-ho was wrapping up the meeting.
“Alright, let’s leave it at that…”
It was then.
*Bzz! Bzz!*
A sound suddenly buzzed from Myeong-gyu’s phone.
“Ah, sorry. I forgot to turn off my alarm.”
Myeong-gyu said as he opened his phone.
A-yun exclaimed, “Ah!” in recognition.
“Million Order!”
It was the pretty girl collector game that the master of her guild had been obsessed with lately.
It seemed Myeong-gyu played it too.
Yu-mi and Hye-ji chimed in.
“What’s that? What’s that?”
“Huh? What, Myeong-gyu, you play this kind of stuff?”
“Ah, no…”
The atmosphere instantly became chaotic.
It was then that A-yun noticed the change in Yeon-ho’s expression.
“…Myeong-gyu?”
A twitching lip, eyelashes fluttering as he tried to maintain a blank face, and a voice deeper than usual.
A-yun had seen a similar expression before.
It was in a morning drama her mother used to watch.
-D-darling! What are you doing here at this hour?
-Who is that man?
The look of a husband who’s just found his wife in bed with another man.
Yeon-ho’s eyes, as he looked at the gacha game, were filled with just such bleak emotion.
***
Before long, it was June.
The online communities were abuzz with anticipation for the big upcoming festival, E3.
Of course, there were also those who were sad.
『(Chat) WaitingForHellic3: Anyone have a ticket for E3?
It’s a game expo… why are there no tickets…』
E3 was fundamentally an event with few general admission attendees.
They only sold tickets in the tens of thousands. For a festival that the whole world was watching, they released so few tickets that getting in was incredibly difficult.
It was perhaps only natural that no one in the community seemed to have gotten a ticket.
『
BangbaeBloodlord: Give up
zZoneHansu: Should’ve become a streamer… I heard famous streamers get invited by E3 directly.
┕FlawlesslyClear: U think all streamers get invited? z
┕zZoneHansu: ?
SweetBelfGuy41: so,,,sad,,』
Normally, the sorrow wouldn’t have been this deep.
But the reason for the funereal atmosphere was, of course, the leaked information about *Hellic 3*.
Since the series had delivered great satisfaction with each release, the level of interest was higher than ever.
『WaitingForHellic3: What do you think Hellic 3 will be about?
The Alice and Butterfly narrative is over, so they won’t be in it, but the Warden will be, right?
The hidden ending spoiler said the monster that met the Warden would be the protagonist. What do you guys think?
FlowerJaeheeCherryLips: I think he’s the protagonist. The subtitle for Hellic 3 is Demon Sword, after all.
TopRankSwordmaster: I bet you can only use swords this time. They might be overhauling the whole system.
┕WaitingForHellic3: Considering the console version of Hellic 2, they might have completely changed it for consoles this time.
┕FlawlesslyClear: tru』
With nothing but the title revealed so far, all sorts of speculation about the game were rampant.
But in this industry, you never knew anything for sure until you played it yourself.
The topic circled back to E3.
Specifically, to the people who would bring back meaningful information from the festival.
『(Info)BangbaeBloodlord: Here’s a list of Hellic users attending E3.
Looks like James Han from the US and Yuka from Japan are confirmed to be going.
If they release a demo, these guys will probably bring back info.
WaitingForHellic3: ffs james is a toxic troll! he’ll just say ‘should’ve gone to e3 if you’re so mad’
┕FlawlesslyClear: Yuka-chan is going too
┕WaitingForHellic3: who’s that, you weeb
┕BangbaeBloodlord: Snot Bubble
┕WaitingForHellic3: oh』
And so, while the community was in chaos, churning out all sorts of topics from complaints about *Hellic*, to information on past E3s, and even debates over which internet streamer was the best…
A hero appeared to bring order to the chaos.
『(Chat)S2PoppyS2: I’m off to E3!
(Photo of an invitation)
I’ll post a summary of all the info when I get back!』
One of the community regulars, ‘S2PoppyS2’, had suddenly revealed their invitation.
Naturally, the comment section exploded.
『
WaitingForHellic3: …how’d you get it?』
A dumbfounded question. The reply came back.
『S2PoppyS2: I’m a reporter for GameBu^^7!』
The identity of ‘S2PoppyS2’ was revealed.
『WaitingForHellic3: I BELIEVED IN YOU!!!
┕zZoneHansu: Look at this guy switch up』
And so, in a time full of chaos…
A group of people stepped into Incheon Airport.
Who else could it be but Studio Rewind, heading for LA.
Gil-sang chuckled and said,
“A-yun, you have to take your shoes off to get on the plane…”
“Old…”
“…”
E3 had begun.
***
There was something I saw right after arriving at LAX.
“Over here!!!”
Alid Russo had come to meet us at the airport again.
Beside him, Ayado Goro was adjusting his glasses.