Game Market 1983
Chapter 245: Someone's Invitation

At an internal meeting, the slogan was proposed officially as Dragon Emblem Online's development commenced: "What we need to create isn't the 'first' online game. What we must create is the 'best' online game."

Among the development teams, the gathering of top-tier talents embarked on this online project and, as Hayashi put it, took a grand 8 years to complete, with numerous changes made except for the broad strokes outlined in the initial plan.

Apart from NPCs and monsters, within this online world, I roamed like a traveler, relishing the world without anyone else's presence.

Here, my character was the one who had taken the life of King Croel, transcending even the exceptional beings, and was once again ordered to plunge this world into darkness.

However, appearing as an ordinary human on the surface, conversing with NPCs didn't arouse any suspicions.

"Are you a traveler? Hehe~ That's wonderful. I truly feel that the world has become much more pleasant since driving out the demons. If more outsiders like you keep coming, our village will prosper in no time."

The exceptional being, surpassing even the demon I had defeated, nodded at the village chief's words, who had been to the village before.

"A fortune teller who visited the village once said something similar. They mentioned that more outsiders like you would gradually increase. They are beings who defeat the demon king at the end of the world and return. Take good care of them."

In this online world, players were referred to as 'outsiders' or 'pilgrims' by NPCs.

In the second episode of Dragon Emblem, the region culminating in the final unification was within the dimensional rift, the stronghold of demons.

Here, players seemed to be recognized as heroes who had defeated the demon king in the dimensional rift and returned to this world. Thanks to the kind village chief, I decided to stay in this village for a while.

Constructing a small house in the pioneering area near the village required about 8 hours in real-time. With nothing else to do while the house was being erected, I returned to the village and bought a guidebook from my inventory.

In this world, divided into two hours of day and two hours of night, meticulous attention to detail was evident everywhere, even in the smallest aspects, the children returning to their homes from the open field at dusk...

To the smoke rising from chimneys scattered throughout the village due to evening preparations...

The meticulously crafted scenes that induced admiration were hidden throughout the place.

Sitting my character on a nearby hill to view the village landscape, I leaned back in my chair, watching the setting sun blazing on the TV screen.

"I never expected it to be this well done. Everyone must have worked hard..."

As the sun, painting the sky red, sank towards the horizon and darkness filled with twinkling stars descended, warm lights began to emanate from windows accompanied by peaceful background music.

At that moment, I heard Yuki's voice from outside the study.

"Junhyuk? Haven't you showered yet?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll do that now."

"You must be tired from driving. Get some rest early tonight."

"Yeah, I will."

Though it felt unfinished, considering it would take quite some time to build the house, should I call it a day here?

With a hint of regret, I closed Complete Laon and left the study.

The Next Day.

When Yuki and Seolhyun left the house, I immediately called Hayashi.

It seemed as if he had been waiting for my call; Hayashi, with a mixed voice of laughter as if expecting my call, asked me as soon as he picked up the phone.

"How did it go?"

"How was it? It was really well made, wasn't it? I was genuinely impressed while playing it yesterday."

"To receive such praise from you, it's worth all the hard work of these past 8 years."

"That 'you' from the director..."

"What can we do? It seems the title stuck..."

"Anyway, what do you want from me now?"

"What can I say? Just enjoy breaking things, mess them up. For a while, approach it with the mindset of enjoying story mode like a typical RPG game. And if you replace any bugs, please inform us immediately. Oh, right. The data you've played through is crucial for our development team, so please take good care of it."

"Story mode..."

"From the planning stage, the director wanted a mechanism where users could control the online world themselves."

"Of course."

"So, we ask you. For a while, please act as a mediator between the users and us."

"So, you're dragging me into this in the end?"

"It's a bit manipulative, but please consider our old friendship. As you play, there will surely be aspects where you feel lacking. Please don't hesitate to convey those through the guide character."

"Guide character?"

"When your level rises to a certain extent, it will appear as your subordinate. Well then, I'm busy so..."

"Hey, Hayashi. Wait a sec..."

... He hung up.

That guy, blabbering about the director and cutting me off while saying his own thing?

Thinking about the Pentagon employees who were probably sulking by now, I felt something within me snap abruptly.

"Fine. Since it's come to this, let's thoroughly analyze each and every system and make them work hard."

Wait... but if I do this, won't I be falling into their trap completely?

Ah, whatever. Let's see who wins.

Forgetting my intention to have breakfast, I rushed to the study, turned on Complete Laon, and attempted to log into the online world.

"Your house has been completed."

As soon as I entered the village, a message popped up, and with a contented smile, I headed towards the pioneering area where my house was erected.

But just as I was about to leave the village entrance...

With tense background music, a rift in space occurred, and a huge monster jumped out.

"Grr!! Human scum... following me even to the dimensional rift."

Seems like a demon who fled from the story's dimensional rift...

"Eek!! It's a monster!!"

"Why is a demon here!?"

With the sudden appearance of the demon, the villagers started screaming and dispersing.

Ah, I wanted to check my house...

"Kukuku. There should be no one annoying here. Perfect. Eradicate them all~!!"

...The dialogue is too cliché. A typical villain's line...

Give me something with more impact.

As the being, appearing three times larger than humans, screamed towards the fleeing humans, our eyes met.

"What are you? Why aren't you running away? Are you the one eager to die by my hands?"

······

"Surely, it'd be better to refine the event lines a bit..."

But this guy... Can't he recognize me as a fellow demon despite being a human?

"Watch out, traveler! It's dangerous!"

Seeing the townspeople worrying about me, I chose a command from the guidebook just as I saw it:

"Die, human!"

"Get lost."

Kwaaaang!!

Even against a demon with astounding innate abilities, I could finish them off with just one command skill.

"Phew... That was easy?"

"Wow! To subdue a demon in one fell swoop. Indeed, you must be the hero who expelled demons from this land, traveler."

Whoa~! It feels like my skills are deteriorating.

Who on earth created this event scenario...!!!

&

Since then, whenever I found myself alone at home, I inevitably tried logging into Dragon Emblem Online.

While experiencing various events in the first town and sometimes getting annoyed by the exaggerated scenes, the system was maintaining an impressively high level of completion.

One unique aspect was the guide character mentioned by Hayashi. Once I reached level 3, this character suddenly appeared and trailed after me like a minion, mentioning that the demon king, Osiris, had fallen into human hands.

In this online world where no one else existed, this character was my sole conversational partner. Initially, they responded only with predetermined answers, but eventually, genuine conversations became possible.

It seemed like a conversational program akin to 'SimSimi', accumulating vocabulary and expanding its conversational abilities based on the exchanges we had. Interestingly, as I taught this character, even regular NPCs started speaking more naturally, depending on the database's accumulation.

Then, one day:

"Where should we go hunting today?"

"Human, until when will you just watch this peaceful world?"

"Why? It's peaceful and nice."

"We are demons. And you are our god. Don't you hear the cries of the fallen demon king Osiris from the rift of dimensions?"

"Osir... Never mind that. Don't mention that name."

"Human."

"Stop with that talk! What if the townspeople hear it?!"

Amidst frantically pounding on the keyboard, I chuckled at the guide character's flustered lines.

Their flexible response to the player's dialogues and actions made it seem like someone was actually controlling a player character.

Thanks to them, I didn't feel bored while moving through various regions.

Sometimes they'd assist in battles, and on desolate islands within the game, we'd sit around a bonfire and talk until dawn.

Then, one day:

While sending Yuki and Seolhyun to the broadcasting station and school respectively, I was heading to the library as usual when a call came from Hayashi.

"Do you even eat on time? Your playtime in the past 10 days has been enormous."

"I'm the type to be certain when I'm into something. Just wait. I'll upload a bunch of reports through that guide soon. By the way, that guide is really something! How did you program it? Sometimes, even I get surprised during our chats."

"Haha... That's true. You've reached level 10 now, so you've finally met the guide character we prepared."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Level 10? After appearing at level 3, did you forget due to being busy lately?"

"What? Hold on, Hayashi. I'll call you back later."

"Oh, okay. I understand."

No way, what kind of joke is this?

A character appearing at level 10 who was at level 3 and helped me?

It could be a simple bug, but surely Hayashi wouldn't make such a beginner's mistake?

Feeling peculiar, I turned off the power switch of Complete Laon.

After a while, as the title screen appeared, I attempted to log in using the developer protocol with my ID and password.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep.

Huh...? What's this sound? It's not from the TV.

With ears perked up, I searched through the desk drawers to replace the source of the unidentified noise.

And a while later, I carefully pulled out an item that caused the noise from the drawer.

It was the Game & Watch that had arrived from the future along with me.

"What's this? It's the first time I've heard such a sound..."

Scratching my head, I opened the latch of the Game & Watch, and on the upper display, faint letters popped up as if the battery was low.

"Will you accept the invitation?"

>

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