Chapter 49. Huh? Uh? Uhh…
Today, I am drinking tea made from fairy tears and slime extract.
It has a moderately bitter taste, a refreshing sourness, and an impressive sticky sweetness that lingers at the end.
I probably will not order this again next time.
Ah, I have already explained everything separately to the party members I usually spend time with, so I am sitting here alone, bored.
[Modak: Dad, I cannot remember very well, but did I ever call you Dad twenty years ago? I really cannot remember.]
I am not exactly alone since Modak has become rather talkative, but let us overlook such trivial things.
Today, my mood feels strangely light and floaty.
It feels like my brain has been overloaded.
I also suffered so much mental stress yesterday, so…
Uh…
Ueeeee…
“Ah! There you are. You have been waiting for a long time, haven't you? I am sorry I am late. I am not very familiar with this area, haha!”
While I was sitting there with vacant eyes, continuously sucking on my drink through a straw, a man in a suit approached me.
At first glance, he looked like a man in his twenties, but there was considerable experience in his voice.
Since he probably had the role of an operator who directly met users, it seemed they had given him a pleasant-looking face.
Unlike during the tester period, apparently they had made the excessive customization look natural enough that it did not feel strange.
His appearance might actually be quite different from his real one.
Why did they not have something like this when I was a tester?
They definitely could have done it but simply chose not to.
They were horrible people.
They deliberately released a game with insufficient content and an incomplete development state to the testers.
Go work overtime for a year and update the content!
What?
That is their daily life?
Yeah, right.
If this game allowed me to create more than one character, I would have made another bizarre character containing all my efforts.
I would have wandered around half-naked in the ultimate veteran-player fashion.
But for now, raising my current character was the priority, so I would put that aside.
“That certainly woke me up.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. You must be having a hard time.”
“Your atmosphere is quite different from reality.”
“Have we met before?”
“Ah! I am Lee Baeseo, the chairman's secretary!”
“…Ah~! Oh~!! Ahhh….”
“What kind of reaction is that?”
What else could it be?
It was the surprise of meeting someone I knew.
The novelty of realizing that a woman was also playing a male character.
And the lament of wondering if she was operating her own secretary because there was no one else to control.
That was all.
Today, I had cleared my entire day to inspect the artificial intelligence the chairman had mentioned.
I wondered what Ien and the village chief were doing right now.
Perhaps this would not take just one day.
It might take two days, three days, four days, five days, or even longer.
If that happened, I would tell them I could not keep doing it.
I did not want to fall behind by myself.
By this point, a certain question should have occurred to me.
I suppose it had only occurred to me now.
Why had I casually ignored this question yesterday?
I was furious at my own incompetence.
Returning to the main point, why was he asking me, someone who was not even a specialist in this field, to solve a problem with an NPC?
What exactly was wrong?
The answer was below.
“Actually, the problem involves two NPCs. The people I used as models were both very respectable individuals, but strangely, their personalities in the game turned out to be quite dysfunctional.”
“Isn't it just a bug?”
“If that were the problem, I would not have called you separately. I think the problem is that I completely ignored the process through which those two people's personalities were formed.”
“Couldn't you just input that information as data? Why me?”
“I tried that as well, but because they do not exist in reality, they quickly realize that their memories have been implanted and cause a commotion. But if we make their stories real within the game, it would have a huge effect on the overall story, and we cannot change it now.”
“Even after extending the schedule until the game's launch, you still couldn't fix it?”
“Hmm. They were originally scheduled to be revealed later along with a new region in an update. They are NPCs you encounter quite far into the game.”
“Ohhh….”
“I will put it simply. Become their disciple. The two people who served as their models were also excellent teachers who produced many disciples. When I met them, they were already respectable people, so if we simply implant the idea of raising a disciple, it should work.”
“I don't think I can do that because of the madness.”
“I keep a simple check on users of Mental Power because they are considered people of particular concern. If the madness problem made it impossible, I would not have called you. And if you complete this task successfully… How about it?”
“Oh-ho… This much… Huh? Am I seeing this wrong? How many zeros are there? Uh? Uh… O-Okay, I'll do it!”
And that was how things ended up.
What?
I was not incompetent after all!
I had simply opened a pouch that was guaranteed to receive money and prepared to stand beneath a rain of cash!
Yesterday, my head had simply gone empty because I was too excited!
My heart aches when I think about how I had gone crazy and suspiciously doubted my dear master—
No, the chairman.
Why had I fallen into such serious delusions yesterday?
Ah, cheers to a prosperous life!
Long live the chairman!
Long live capitalism!
Still, I was not particularly happy about having to postpone my original plans, being unable to raise the kids, and getting pushed around like this.
Everyone hates working even when their company pays them a salary.
It was just like that.
“Where do I need to go?”
“Haha, I heard that you prefer to get straight to the point! Then I will not waste any more time either and immediately transport you there!”
The man, who had already been talking for quite a while, said he would keep things short and opened a portal in front of me.
It was something familiar to gamers.
I had never seen anything like this in the game before, so I had assumed it was not a system that existed at all.
Was it an operator-only skill?
Anyway, after exchanging some brief greetings, I entered the portal.
Even if we exchanged this and that kind of small talk, I did not think there would be any particularly productive conversation.
There probably would not be anything I needed to know either.
Ah, I need to play the game quickly…
All the other users were running around searching for dungeons and making a huge fuss…
And I was falling behind all by myself…!
Of course, hehe!
Of course, it was true that I was spending much more valuable time than those people!
I was quite happy about that!
“…There is a place like this too?”
It was a flat grassy plain that seemed slightly larger than a domed stadium, with a small house visible in the distance.
If I had to describe the atmosphere, it felt like a mist-covered mountaintop where immortals from ancient legends might leisurely walk around while laughing and chatting.
Beyond the sea of fog, I could occasionally see similar pieces of land.
But the fog was so thick that I could not see what was below.
The game had a fantasy setting, yet they had also prepared scenery with such a martial-arts-world atmosphere.
Did that mean the next update would have an Eastern-style theme?
I looked at the sky.
Then I looked down into the fog.
I slowly turned my head and looked around the area.
After confirming that there was really nothing special, I finally walked toward the house in the distance.
It was quite far away and the house was small, so it was difficult to describe exactly what kind of house it was.
It was a house that seemed white, yellow, and glittering.
I was quite curious about what kind of person lived inside such an overwhelming house that reflected light so brightly that it hurt my eyes.
I was a little nervous after hearing that its inhabitant was a dysfunctional person.
But I had no idea what the chairman considered a dysfunctional personality.
Considering that he had deliberately sent me here, perhaps his standard for a dysfunctional personality was actually an ordinary, inconspicuous personality by everyone else's standards.
Putting aside what I was like in reality, the version of me inside the game was a guy who laughed loudly, dragged the kids around, and caused chaos.
Considering that they had entrusted this task to someone like me, it was certainly possible.
Come to think of it, people say that all novel characters should have one eye and a limp.
It is difficult to attract people's attention with an ordinary and predictable person who has no individuality and looks like someone you could find anywhere.
The same applied to NPCs in games.
Think about it.
What if Pie had not had a foul mouth and instead lived as an ordinary commoner who read the atmosphere and adjusted herself to those around her?
She would have left me long ago!
She might never even have met me!
Would it not be a success if you created a character that made people who refused to immerse themselves in the story and always thought realistically say, 'Hey, where does someone like this even exist in reality? Does this make any sense?'
“Hmm, arrived.”
A white and yellow house.
It had the flashy appearance of a well-built home where a wealthy child might live.
I wondered whether the person living here would have the arrogant and condescending personality of a rich kid commonly seen in fiction.
Or perhaps they would be a polite and kind person who completely overturned that cliché.
I was curious.
Knock, knock.
“Is anyone there?”
“Nuh-uh~.”
A reply came from inside the house in a slurred voice and drawn-out tone, as if the person were drunk.
Ah.
Was this the kind of pattern it was?
I really…
Had no idea…!
“Awesome?”
“Don't wahnna talk~!”
Apparently, she did know what 'awesome' meant.
The house itself had an Eastern-style atmosphere, and considering the chairman called them 'those people,' I had assumed they would be quite old and have a concept of not knowing English words.
Surprisingly, her voice was extremely young.
And for someone the chairman referred to so respectfully, she seemed so drunk that I could practically feel the alcohol through the door.
She seemed like an alcoholic who spent her life drinking.
Was this really the initial version of someone capable of inspiring respect?
That aside, this woman had absolutely no intention of opening the door.
What should I say to make her open it?
“…Open the door!!! Door! Open the door! FBI! Open up! Let me see your face! Hey! Open the door!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I grabbed the doorknob, kicked the door, shook it, and shouted at the top of my lungs.
But from inside the house, I could only occasionally hear laughter as if she found my efforts amusing.
The door did not move at all.
“Hey! I heard you were that strong! I came here to challenge you! If I lose, I will force my way under you and become your disciple, so prepare yourself!”
“Nooo~!”
“I like that!”
I had clearly expected the conversation to continue like a game of catch.
But suddenly, no sound came from inside the house.
Was she covering her ears and lying face down because she did not want to listen?
Unforgivable.
“Hey…!”
BANG!!!
For a moment, my memory was cut off as if someone had flipped a switch off and then back on.
I heard a loud noise.
And when I came to my senses, I was lying on the ground a fair distance away from the house, along with the door that had been knocked out with me.
This kind of dramatic presentation really was…
…
The grass was soft.
The sky was clear.
The breeze was pleasantly warm.
It was perfect weather for regretting doing something stupid.
“Keeep~ bothering meee. So annoying.”
A shadow fell across the clear sky.
The owner of the voice, which sounded louder than before, slowly approached me without making a sound.
I seemed to have touched something I should not have.
I had assumed there was a reason the chairman sent me here, so I had shouted whatever came to mind.
Would she accept my apology if I apologized now?
“Ugh… Why are you so violent….”
“Wouldn't that be self-defense?”
Damn it.
Were all the NPCs in this game programmed to say things that were technically correct?
Could they not just go along with the nonsense I said, like Oeppeun-i?
Why could we not take the easy route?
But despite being a dysfunctional person, she had not immediately killed me even after I had caused such a commotion.
Instead, she was calmly talking to me.
Was she actually quite a respectable person?
“Are you dead? Why aren't you saying anything?”
“It seems you are sober now. Your way of speaking has become normal.”
Of course, she still spoke somewhat slowly.
It probably meant she was basically the type of person who lived slowly and leisurely.
I liked that philosophy of life.
I also wanted to live leisurely, do nothing whenever possible, and earn a huge amount of money.
A rich unemployed person.
I had already become one, but it had been my dream for a long time.
