Do You Expect Me to Believe That?
The man’s face flushed bright red as he immediately raised his offer. “J-just a moment. Then how about three thousand gold? That’s truly the absolute limit our company can offer.”
Three thousand gold. At forty thousand dollars per gold, that came to one point two billion won. I probably could have squeezed out a little more, but this felt like the right place to stop. Leaving some room here would let me invest properly in Hole Village.
With the endorsement of both the Mercenary Guild and the Merchants Guild, the rights transfer was completed. The contract stipulated that I would receive the three thousand gold over the next two months.
“You made a huge sum, but if the Voltaire Company was willing to pay that much, wouldn’t it have been better to auction it through the Merchants Guild? You could have gotten an even higher price,” Sezanne said.
“You’re right, but that wouldn’t have been proper repayment for the malice they showed when they tried to tie up Meni and her siblings under the pretext of a request.”
“Huh? Then… does that mean the rights document was completely worthless?”
“Exactly. Count Shulman secretly asked us to explore the dungeon without going through the Mercenary Guild. That tells me he has no intention of just leaving it alone. Once they finish exploring, they’ll open the dungeon if it looks promising.”
“Ah, so even if we drill a hole and build a village before entering the Forest of Dispute, it won’t do much good. They can just build a village right at the dungeon entrance instead.”
“Right. Even if we invest in drilling a hole and creating a support village, it’ll end up pointless. The investors who put money into Iparak’s project are going to take a loss. I was the one who suggested drilling the hole, but I didn’t expect things to turn out like this. Hahaha.”
He said he hadn’t expected this, but watching Jinwoo immediately use the money from selling the rights to upgrade everyone’s equipment to the highest grade made Sezanne suspect he had known all along. The fact that he was also outfitting the rangers Tom and Danny—who had come as monitors—with top-tier gear only reinforced the idea that he had some kind of plan.
You have played for 7 hours and 38 minutes. Vital signs are normal. All systems are stable.
The moment I stepped out of the capsule, I went straight down to the first floor to show my face to Mom.
“Don’t you need to pee after being in there so long? Holding it in too much will make you sick, you know.”
“The machine regulates your body functions. It even stops you from needing to pee.”
“Wow, that’s actually pretty amazing. So, want to have dinner together when Dad gets home? Oh, the phone’s ringing. Is it your dad?”
The name James Lee was displayed on the screen.
“No, it’s the company.”
I hurried outside and answered the call.
“I’d like to talk while we have dinner together. You don’t have any plans, do you?”
From the way James Lee spoke, it was obvious he suspected the house was bugged.
“No, I don’t. I’ll head out right away.”
“First of all, the observation team that was monitoring you has been withdrawn.”
“What? Did you find some other information that made observation unnecessary?”
“That’s not it.”
“Then why… wait, don’t tell me the entire investigation into the in-game sudden deaths has been canceled?”
“This is something I shouldn’t be saying outside, but… it appears this Changing game might be receiving government backing.”
“Excuse me? What do you mean the game is backed by the U.S. government?”
“The Department of Defense is involved, so we’ve been ordered to cease all investigation into this matter.”
“So is this game program being used for military training or something? It’s a fantasy RPG. How would that relate to training soldiers?”
I had known for a while that the military used virtual reality for battlefield experience and tactical training programs. But a fantasy game didn’t seem connected to any of that.
“I’m curious about that part too, but we no longer have the authority to investigate. That’s why I wanted to meet you—to let you know that we are completely withdrawing from observing Park Jinwoo. Please take this.”
James Lee handed me a business card.
“Susan Taylor, Executive Director of the U.S. Game Addiction Victims Association? What does this person do?”
“She’s the one who reported to us that there were problems with the games produced by Changing. If any issues arise, you can contact her.”
“So you’re completely done with this case, James Lee?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, that’s correct.”
“Hmm.”
“Oh, and you were curious about this, weren’t you? About how many testers there are for Changing’s Cliché World game.”
“Yes. When you said twenty or so people had died from sudden death, I wanted to know the death rate compared to the number of gamers.”
At my words, James Lee hesitated, unsure whether he should answer. But even if it would be shocking, he seemed to decide I needed to know.
“There are twelve testers for Cliché World.”
“Twelve? But didn’t you say twenty or so people died from sudden death before?”
“Correct. What I can tell you is that there are twelve game testers. When one dies, someone else takes their place.”
“Then fuck, that’s over a hundred percent death rate. Practically two hundred percent. How does that even make sense?”
Only now did I understand why the FBI had gotten directly involved in a mere game development case. It wasn’t just game development. They might actually be conducting human experiments. And I realized I wasn’t safe either.
I had thought that even if twenty or so people died, if there were enough testers the odds might still be beatable. But a two-hundred-percent death rate wasn’t something individual skill could overcome.
“It doesn’t look like there are any semiconductors or anything implanted in the body. Do you know how people are dying?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t have been trying to observe you.”
I wanted to call Secretary Kim right away, demand answers, and tell him I was quitting as a tester. But James Lee stopped me from taking out my phone.
“Even if you quit, could you share the information with me first? Actually, I’d like to examine the capsule myself.”
Although his superiors had ordered him to drop the case, James Lee still believed this sudden death incident was special. He wanted to enter the capsule himself.
I couldn’t help but hesitate at his request. If someone else logged in, the main computer would definitely notice.
“Since you’ve come down to your family home, we can say you used it while your family was away. That should work as an excuse.”
“All right. Let’s go to the house.”
I told my parents that a technician from America had come regarding the equipment, then took James Lee straight up to my room and put him into the capsule.
Biometric data does not match an authorized user. This device can only be used by authorized users.
But it was blocked from the login stage. Only authorized users were allowed.
“Then I’ll give you my personal email. Please send me the game play report there as well. For now, I need information on Cliché World.”
“Understood. In return, if you learn anything, contact me immediately. My life is on the line here.”
“All right. But if your life is truly at stake, wouldn’t it be better not to log in? Yet you’re going to keep playing, aren’t you?”
“…”
“There’s no need to blame yourself. When Changing selected the testers, they probably took this death rate into account. They chose people who could still play even when their lives were hanging in the balance.”
I had nothing to say in response to James Lee’s brutal honesty.
“What the hell do you mean the information was leaked to the FBI?”
Elon Busker’s face twisted with irritation at his secretary’s report. He had poured an enormous amount of money into preventing any leaks, so hearing that information had still gotten out was infuriating.
“We recovered everything after the incident, but it seems the testers’ families passed information to the Game Addiction Victims Association, and it flowed from there to the FBI.”
“Damn it. How much does the FBI know?”
“For now, they only know about the sudden deaths. But they’re probably suspicious that the testers died while playing the game.”
“Hmm.”
They probably still didn’t know that Cliché World was another world. But if they kept investigating why people were dying, they would eventually try to confirm whether the game itself had problems.
“Will you make it public?”
After a long moment of thought, Elon Busker finally spoke.
“Not yet. We’re not ready.”
“Then what do you plan to do?”
“…Contact Major General Michael. He was the one I reached out to back when we were talking about implanting chips in humans. Tell him I want a private meeting. If we can’t hide in our own shadow, we’ll have to hide in a bigger one.”
“You’re saying it’s not a game, nor is it a metaverse-style virtual reality. Then what exactly is this Cliché World?”
Major General Michael of the Cyber National Mission Force under U.S. Cyber Command stared intently at Elon Busker, who sat across from him.
“To put it simply, think of it as operating on Mars. This capsule was created to send humanity to Mars.”
Major General Michael looked even more confused. “You mean the planet Mars? So this is some kind of space equipment?”
“We leave the physical body behind and send only the mind—essentially the soul—to Mars, where it controls the hardware there.”
“Oh!”
Major General Michael let out a gasp of admiration. It was because Elon Busker, who had been singing about going to Mars for decades, had finally achieved a breakthrough. The idea of sending hardware to Mars first via spacecraft, then transmitting human souls from Earth to operate that hardware, was something no one had ever conceived.
“So you’re saying that while sending people’s minds—their souls—to Mars, the testers died?”
“Correct.”
“Hmm. Then do you have any results? Can you prove that the minds that went to Mars actually moved the hardware?”
“We do. It’s right here.”
Elon Busker pulled a black box from the storage compartment of his electric wheelchair. When he opened the lid, three glass bottles containing a red liquid were visible inside.
“What is this? A beverage? With cork stoppers… is it wine?”
Major General Michael nearly exploded, thinking he was being mocked. He had asked for proof that the minds sent to Mars had operated hardware, and instead the man pulled out glass bottles that looked like they contained wine. It was absurd.
“When we sent the first tester, a man named Aaron, to the Changing base on Mars, he said he could see a desert of sand. He also mentioned seeing a blue sky.”
“Mars has an atmosphere, so a blue sky is possible.”
“Exactly. That’s why we thought the transmission system had succeeded. But it hadn’t. That place wasn’t Mars.”
“A blue sky, but not Mars? Then where was it?”
Major General Michael’s mind flashed through Mercury and Venus, but neither matched the condition of a blue sky.
“At first, even Aaron thought he was on Mars. When he saw living creatures, he was thrilled, saying it proved the existence of aliens. But he soon realized the place he had arrived at wasn’t Mars.”
“How did he realize it?”
“Because a being called a god appeared.”
Knowing that Elon Busker had devoted himself to Mars exploration, Major General Michael had always listened to him with serious attention. But at the mention of a god appearing, he could only sigh.
“Have you fallen into a cult?”