Season 2: Chapter 192: The Background (2)
Almond had barely finished reading all the incoming donations.
"Ah. Thank you, TheRealOne."
— TheRealOne, lol.
— The real dumpling is good.
— LMAO.
— Pay 10,000 won to become the real one.
— It’s better than being fake, haha.
"Now, it seems like that's all for donations. I'll collect the mission money. It didn't come through earlier because of the lag."
Upon pressing the mission success button, he finally received the 200,000 won.
— FakeNapoleon cries, lol.
— You thought you'd live after that?
— He’s doomed, lol.
Thus, Almond finished collecting all the money.
[Ju-Hyeok: Still some time before the commander comes.]
He still had some time left until Civil Empire.
Almond pondered for a moment and made a suggestion.
"We have some spare time. Let's look up something related to the story mode.
— Oh, good.
— Wikipedia? Lol.
— Let's go to LIL Pro, lol.
It was common to look up interpretations for an ending after watching a complex movie, right? Almond intended to do something similar.
Before the story mode faded in his memory, it would be fun to go over the ending and epilogues with viewers.
'Wow, Yu Sang-Hyeon is quite adept now.'
Ju-Hyeok was surprised by Almond's choice. In the past, he would have taken a break if there was spare time. Now, he was naturally expanding the content on his own.
Ju-Hyeok's fingers stopped as he was about to send a piece of advice.
'I don’t think he needs it.'
Almond was already doing well on his own. First, he went on Wikipedia to read interpretations of the ending.
"What you are all most curious about... whether Luna wrote those letters or not. Hmmm..."
Almond found exactly what the viewers would be curious about.
'He’s thought a lot about it too.'
Ju-Hyeok realized Sang-Hyeon probably felt what he felt at the awards ceremony.
'We still have a long way to go.'
Their streaming style and concept had to keep evolving to climb higher.
'Higher.'
They were comrades who shared this common goal. That was why Ju-Hyeok could spend hours on community research that he wasn’t interested in and Sang-Hyeon could communicate daily when it didn’t fit his personality.
"Even after analyzing everything, opinions are still divided. Luna probably wrote them.”
— For real?
— Me too.
— Agreed.
— It's definitely Luna, lol.
— He must’ve thought that. That’s why he stabbed her so quickly.
"When looking through the archaeologist's memory, Luna was nowhere to be seen."
— Oh, that's true.
— Ah, because it's from Luna's perspective?
— Wait, really???
— Wow, Luna, that bitch…
Almond had his own conclusion.
"Whether Luna wrote it or not isn't important to the protagonist anymore."
— ???
— If Luna wrote it, that's really bad, right?
— Agreed.
— Did he just say it doesn't matter?
— People who are overly invested are funny, lol.
— Right.
"Whether Luna tried to use the protagonist or gained some benefit from it, the protagonist wanted to save Luna, right? From then on, it doesn't matter anymore."
— Wow~
— Such an alpha mindset.
— People like me, the losers, will never understand that...
— I hate people who take advantage of me.
— As if losers like you would ever be taken advantage of, lol.
— You fools, lol.
"Okay. Don't fight. You'll get banned."
As the chat heated up, Ju-Hyeok banned a few troublemakers.
— Oops.
— Bow down!
— Clearing up, lol.
— Let's go for the head~!
The chat quickly settled down and Almond changed the topic.
"Alright. Let's read a few mentions from LIL Pro."
Almond headed to LIL Pro after Wikipedia.
"The first post is…”
[Is Almond's reaction speed when stabbing Luna for real?... I would have hesitated for like 5 minutes…]
— Lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol~
— For real, lol.
— That was too much.
Posts about Luna's death, or rather, Luna being killed seemed to shock many on LIL Pro.
[Controversy has donated 1,000 won.]
[???: The protagonist wanted to save Luna, right? So stabbing her is okay from then on.]
— LOL.
— That's not what he said, lol.
— This got twisted, haha.
— Suddenly, he became a psychopath, LMAO
Almond's words were strangely twisted.
"Ahem. I just didn’t have enough time and stabbing Luna seemed like the only correct answer."
After navigating past one controversy, Almond read the posts on LIL Pro again.
"Oh... there's a lot about Luna?"
Luna played a significant role in the story mode, so many posts talked about her. There was both criticism and praise, but what stood out were stories related to special rewards.
[I asked overseas communities about the Luna sword that Almond received.]
— Wow, even Reddit doesn't know??
— Could this be the first?
└ It might be.
— Wow! National pride~ Do you know Almond? Almond, do you know? I love you so much~~
└ Are you insane?
— No one's shown up yet, right?
└ I feel like at least one person in the world would have the same sword as Almond, but they just haven’t said anything yet.
Some suggested that the new sword engraved with Luna's name that Almond received could be the only one in the world. Even the largest gaming-related community on Reddit didn't know of its existence.
"Hmm. It seems I've gotten something unique."
Almond didn't seem that excited. After all, such special perks usually only meant something to those who poured a lot of time into the game.
This was only Almond’s third time playing story mode and he cleared it on the first attempt because of a no-dying mission. It didn't hold much significance for him.
— This nut’s reaction will make Luna's fans cry...
— Hmm~ Being first for Almond isn’t anything special~ lol.
— This is so unfair…
— He’s mocking the world.
— The special reward is given to someone who doesn't understand its value, lol.
As playful criticisms flooded in, another donation also came in.
[RubySword has donated 10,000 won.]
[Almond~ Almond~ What's the next game for part 1 of your stream?]
"Ah. It’s probably going to be JetPumped given how the voting went."
— ???
— Eh?
— You're not playing LIL anymore?
[What? has donated 10,000 won.]
[The vote went well for Kingdom and JetPumped was last sempai.]
"Oh..."
— Oops, lol.
— That’s it?
— Why are you ignoring the Kingdom? lol
"Actually, I'm planning to play other miscellaneous games too."
— He just doesn't want to play Kingdom at all, lol.
— Miscellaneous games ≠ Kingdom.
— If he played Kingdom, it'd be so boring that everyone would leave.
— JetPumped, that game is hot right now (controversially, lol)
Almond hung out with the viewers for a while.
[Ju-Hyeok: Time's up.]
It was time to start the solo rank climb in Civil Empire. The S-rank commander who would help Almond had arrived.
[JosBar: Hello. This is the express train to S+ ^^]
It certainly felt like it would be a different game from when he played with BornToB.
***
Meanwhile, Song Ha-Na squinted her eyes in the lab while fiddling with data. She was unable to leave work late at night.
In the lab, researchers were seen squinting their eyes with almost the same expression as hers. They were running simulations and the names written in the simulation's database were Choi Sa-Rang and Yu Sang-Hyeon.
"How's model number one?" Song Ha-Na asked the researcher seated at the far left.
"Umm... Doesn't seem to be improving. Nor does it feel like the deterioration speed is slowing down."
"Then skip the projection-style play."
Song Ha-Na briskly drew a line through something on the hologram.
"Next, number two."
"No improvement. And no change in deterioration speed."
"Skip the changing waveform style. Sigh."
Song Ha-Na's lips turned down.
'It's the most used method.'
The first two were most applied in games among the full dive methods using brainwaves. The second method was especially used in Zombie School.
'Why isn't it effective?'
When Almond was playing Zombie School, the deterioration definitely stopped. Now there was no effect when they ran the simulation.
"Number three."
"None."
"Number four."
"None."
"... Number five?"
"It doesn't work."
"Confirmed."
Song Ha-Na wearily confirmed the results after looking around at the simulations. What would be the impact if a certain type of game was played indefinitely? That was what they had been experimenting with through simulations.
Of course, there hadn't been a case where it had improved the disorder so far. It only aggravated the condition even more.
'So it's back to square one...'
The assumption that something in the game had temporarily halted the deterioration of Sang-Hyeon's right arm could be an incorrect hypothesis. It was probably a cruel coincidence.
"Wait a sec."
As Song Ha-Na was examining the data flow, she paused and pointed at something.
"This. This is the same method used during Zombie School. Expand this graph."
"Ah, okay. Expanding graphs for number two and five.”
The graphs that condensed long periods of time expanded.
"..."
Song Ha-Na's eyes widened slightly.
"This number five, it's a direct simulation of Zombie School, right?"
"Yes."
"Look at this, the early part."
"Huh?"
The researcher appeared a bit surprised.
"Why didn't we notice? In the early part, there was no progression of deterioration at all."
In simulations spanning years, even decades, a single playthrough was too minor to examine in detail. Moving to just the second playthrough caused the treatment effect to disappear, which made sense.
"The effect lasts until the first playthrough is cleared. So... does repeating what we've done have no effect?"
Song Ha-Na shook her head.
"No."
Such an abstract factor couldn't have such a definite effect.
Song Ha-Na bit her nail for a moment.
"Stimulation."
She came to this conclusion.
"Yes?"
"When inserting a new map into the brain for the first time and inserting new skill information… the stimulation…"
"!"
The researchers froze in shock.
Song Ha-Na rapidly tapped the pad.
"Zombie School adopted an electrical stimulation method to perfectly download new terrains for the player when moving to a new area. It's an intense effect that can strain the brain, so it's used very sparingly."
"They used this in a game? Is the creator crazy?"
"That's why it's only used when absolutely necessary to cram in large volumes."
Of course, the creator was a bit crazy too. Song Ha-Na wanted to hug that crazy creator now.
"Simulate with this electrical stimulation in full-dive."
"Okay."
They had finally caught the tail. This untangled the twisted threads of these two individuals.
"And we need to bring that crazy creator here."
***
"Hmm. Someone's talking about me."
Kim Yi-Seo chuckled at his own sarcastic joke.
He scratched his ear and a burly staff member beside him advised, "Your name always comes up everywhere. It comes up worldwide."
‘Hahaha. Am I that famous? Right?’
Kim Yi-Seo felt pleased.
"No, not that kind of talk."
The staff member corrected the misunderstanding and showed the sentiments on Reddit.
"You're good at English, so I won't bother translating. There were a lot of posts about your direct handling of the balance."
"Praise?"
"Well... it could be by your standards."
Contrary to the staff's remark, the comments were filled with curses.
— Fucking ruined the whole game.
— My grandma’s yoga would be better balanced than this shit.
— JetPumped -> Shit Pumped
— He thinks of himself as Elon Musk, lol.
People worldwide were hurling abuses at JetPumped, a game he had developed and primarily balanced. Many said that the balance was off, especially concerning cash items.
"Sigh. It's chaos."
Kim Yi-Seo scratched his ear again.
"Just do that. The one like G-Star."
"Really? You want to do that?"
"Yes."
"Again?"
"Yes."
"... It's going to be dangerous."
"What's dangerous? If these bastards have a problem, let them come at me."
Receiving the command, the burly man stood up with a determined look and confirmed once more.
"Defeating the creator challenge. We're really doing it?"
"Yes. I'll show them the balance was right."
He was planning to prove the balance by directly competing with players at G-Star.
"I'll go no cash. Bring whatever. Post the notice. Right now."
G-Star was a game expo held in Korea. Since the country was a gaming powerhouse, it was also a festival that attracted people worldwide. Some of those ranting on Reddit would definitely come to G-Star in Korea to take him on if nothing else.
"Sometimes, you gotta show these brats who's boss, right? Hahahaha!" Kim Yi-Seo laughed confidently.
After all, he had never lost in the G-Star challenge, Defeat the Creator. He always dodged the balance controversy this way by being a creator and an outstanding player.
“Sigh. Not everything can be solved with fists, sir"
"Just do it."
"Okay."
However, Kim Yi-Seo didn't know. He didn’t know about the existence of a new challenger hunter at G-Star this time.