Chapter 126
<World of Arseria Gallery>
<Featured Post>
[Today's Emergency Maintenance Patch Notice][103]
04/02 23:00 ~ 04/03 23:59
Seriously, that's all it says in one line.
What did you expect?
But what are you going to do about it?
What can you do?
Other than getting fucking angry or cursing out customer support, what can you doㅋㅋㅋㅋ
...
Fuck, I got my account suspended for cursing out customer support.
(Account suspension reason screenshot.jpg)
[Comments]
-Wa! It's not even surprising anymore!
-You get arrested for cursing at customer support, bro;;
└ You should be grateful it ended with an account suspensionㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-They don't even say what they're inspecting, and somehow they make a new legend every timeㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-A protest truck... I guess we should send one?
└ Isn't this really worth sending one for?
└ This isn't even a minor gallery, so why are you bringing up trucks again? Stop overreacting
└ Solo queue is suffering from a balance disaster, tournaments have match-fixing, and now we're getting unannounced emergency maintenance over in-game issues? It's absolutely worth sending one.
-Even a small company wouldn't run things this way
└ Riot Games with a mysterious winㅋㅋㅋ
[A Credible Reason WareSoft Would Call Emergency Maintenance][84]
(NoName Part 2 Clear Screenshot.jpg)
(NoName Part 3 Clear Screenshot.jpg)
Can you see what's beside them? A character who shouldn't be here is sitting right next to the player.
[Comments]
-How the hell did Adela surviveㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Is this really it? Seems plausible.
-I've watched the whole stream, and this is seriously unfair;; They retried at least twenty times, even taking penalties, to save Adela.
└ That's exactly why it's a bugㅋㅋㅋ
└ I told you it isn't?
-The character customization is pretty damn good
-It was a pretty polished game, but it still has bugs
-Calling emergency maintenance just because some nobody streamer found a bug is seriously ridiculousㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Disgusting how people are trying to bury NoName now that the time is rightㅋㅋ][185]
When did the World Gallery become a place that only relays ACK?
The moment someone posts something that even slightly rubs them the wrong way,
Go back to your own gallery~
Looks like promotion~
Streamer freaks are fucking disgusting~
How are their patterns always so damn consistentㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Why is NoName being mentioned so much right now?
It's because they're a rare kind of streamer who broadcasts the story mode of a game that's been out for years and is as stale as can be, gets completely immersed in the game, and—of all things—plays it on 10/10/10 difficulty, while the streamer's skill is on another level, so people are eating it upㅋㅋㅋ
You call me a fake gamer whenever I say anything, but I've played since launch, you idiotsㅋㅋ
[Comments]
-Watching them fight bosses really gives me the same rush I felt when WoA first came out
└ Back then we had nostalgia goggles, and objectively speaking, NoName is even more insane
-People praise them like they're a pro, but a pro is just someone who makes games their profession. It's nothing special
-Just look at the second division—there are so many games that make your eyes bleedㅋㅋㅋ
-Well, that's about the level of a Korea that hasn't had a single Champions Cup in three years
-People overseas have already started trying to dox NoName
└ The Yankees have no chill
└ If they were going to get doxxed, it would've happened ages agoㅋㅋ The ordinary people who appeared on Docu 4 Days all got doxxed and ended up streaming against their will
└ In the end, it worked out for them, so that's good
<NoName Minor Gallery>
<Featured Post>
[The Things That Suck About WareSoft][31]
I knew something like this would happen eventually.
They poached all the major WoA developers to make a new virtual-reality game, started running things like shit, and finally caused a huge mess.
NoName looked like they took a serious mental hit. Are they going to quit streaming at this rate?
[Comments]
-These WareSoft bastards really never learn from their old mistakes
-They've played for hours, but customer support won't give them a straight answer and keeps telling them to wait until headquarters sends down instructions, like that's a solutionㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-They never said they'd stream tomorrow, right? Are we really not going to see them for another few weeks?
-I can't tell whether the streamer has a strong mentality or a weak one. I'm worried about them
└ They've got an iron mentality in-game, but after years of watching them on Twitch, my gut says they're actually a pufferfish
└ Oh, I felt exactly the same way
[NoName's Cutest Moments][14]
I was saving up a huge batch to upload after the stream, but my mood's completely ruined, so I'll just do it tomorrow...
[Comments]
-Even so, you have to upload that before you go!!!!!!!
-It was a perfect story except for the ending, damn...
-They seem to have been born with every kind of bad luck in the world
-If they don't bring Adela back, I've sworn I'll never play WoA again
-Could someone please extract just the audio of NoName singing? I'm begging you...
└(Author) I'll upload it tomorrow morning
[Extracting NoName's Voice Modulation][25]
I know a thing or two about this, so I made a voice-modulation extraction program for my own use, but why can't it extract NoName's?
There are two possibilities here: either the gender is completely different, or the real voice is almost identical. It's one or the other.
(Don't ask me to share it. You know it's illegal.)
[Comments]
-Wasn't it just some voice changer bought from Streaming Shop?
└(Author): No, no. If that were the case, it would've been easy—I could've just peeled off the overlay as-is.
-Either way, this is giving me a headacheㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Honestly, a bratty kid's voice would've been better
-NoName is just a baby... We have to protect them...
[I'm thinking of going to WareSoft and staging a one-person protest. Anyone want to join me?]
* * *
“Hello.”
[Name, are you doing well? Nothing wrong? Have you eaten?]
“Yeah, I just... grabbed something.”
[Oh dear, from the way you're talking, you only ate one meal again.]
In the pitch-black room, the smartphone screen occasionally lit up on its own, illuminating the ceiling.
I turned the phone face down and buried my face in the pillow.
When I could think of nothing else to say, Professor Cheon filled the silence again.
[Name's really low-energy today. Are you feeling all right?]
“What do you mean, am I sick? I'm perfectly fine. I guess I'm just a little tired from getting so excited yesterday.”
[Sorry for waking you so early today. Oh, right, Name, are you free on the 12th... I mean, next Wednesday? It's about the potion license contract. Someone wants to come see you for a moment, you see. I've set the meeting location as my lab for now.]
“Oh, I don't mind. Anytime works for me.”
[Yes. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it's nice to hear your voice after so long. Oh, right, you have the Academy tomorrow, so I shouldn't keep you any longer. Have pleasant dreams!]
“Yes, Professor Cheon. You too. Though I suppose it's not quite time for you to sleep yet.”
The call abruptly ended, and the light indicating the call disappeared completely.
The room was utterly quiet.
It felt as though I were floating in a world of nothingness, without a single light or sound.
I think I had wanted to tell Professor Cheon so many things over the phone, but in the end, the call had turned into nothing more than a brief exchange of greetings.
The unresolved knot in my heart felt so stifling that I eventually rolled over and pulled the blanket all the way over my head.
“I knew I'd seen her somewhere...”
Adela's silver bob wouldn't leave my mind.
It felt as though a winged cat were circling above my head, teasing me.
Adela was, at the end of the day, nothing more than an AI.
She was a character designed by the game company WareSoft for commercial appeal, given abilities and a backstory, and ultimately settled into the open world.
Still, it was no wonder I failed to recognize her at first, despite the silver hair, cat ears, and eyes that looked as though they had been slashed sideways.
The woman in the photograph had truly long hair, unlike the short bob she wore now.
“Alzahab's Pendant.”
Inside the pendant the Demon King had always worn around his neck in my previous life was a photograph of someone who looked exactly like Adela.
Could the fact that their faces looked alike have been mere coincidence?
Could it be that I had been reincarnated into the world of the game?
I let out a hollow laugh at the absurd speculation. That couldn't possibly be it.
For one thing, the open world in the game was entirely flat. What I mean is, just as flat-Earthers claim, the earth wasn't a sphere, and it had a definite boundary.
That was why the maps near the edge stretched into endless uphill slopes. Gravity acted toward the center.
But in the world of my previous life, the earth was exactly the same size as it is now, to the point that I could suspect it was a parallel world, and even the constellations were in the same positions.
And no matter how realistically the open world had been made, someone as sensitive as me would surely have felt something distinctly different from reality.
For example, every command I gave my body might feel 1 ms slower than usual, or mana might flow in a regular pattern instead of randomly.
But when the most plausible hypothesis was rejected by the most compelling evidence, all I could do was feel confused.
That, combined with the emptiness that came flooding in when the stream ended, made my head ache as though it might split open.
Twenty thousand people—yes, nearly twenty thousand viewers—had been watching me.
So I was definitely happy, or at least I should have been...
Why? Why was that?
Come to think of it, I didn't even say goodbye before turning off the stream.
It felt like having some alcohol would make it easier to sort out my thoughts, but of all things, there wasn't even a can of beer in the refrigerator.
I wrapped my arms and legs tightly around the pillow, which was as big as I was, and hugged it close.
Just as I had when I slept hugging Niobe, I pointlessly tried to act spoiled with my pillow.
Yeah, that's right.
I have no one I can talk to openly.
There was no one I could properly talk to about myself.
No one understood what I was feeling.
Maybe I had called Professor Cheon because I wanted to finally unravel all these knots.
But the reason I hadn't been able to was... obvious, in the end.
Reincarnation—or becoming aware of one's previous life—came with truly excruciating loneliness.
I turned on the light to see why my pillowcase was so damp, and found that it was wet with tears from my eyes.
This body had an absurd amount of tears in it, making my emotions so difficult to control.
I felt keenly that humans were slaves to their hormones, too, and tried to erase my worries with these silly thoughts, but they refused to disappear.
Crunch—
“Ah.”
I clenched my teeth, then suddenly felt something shift out of place, and a small pebble-like object rolled around in my mouth.
I worked it loose with my tongue and spat it out, and something white landed on the bedsheet.
It was one of my lower teeth.
“Damn, nothing is going right.”
When I touched the spot where the tooth had come out with my tongue, I tasted the metallic tang of blood.
Even then, I could feel the tooth right beside it wobbling as well.
Crack—
I opened my mouth as wide as I could, stuck my finger inside, and yanked the other one out too. This time, it felt like there was even more blood.
I tossed the two tiny teeth straight into the trash and lay back down on the bed.
The blood that kept flowing mixed with my saliva, and I gulped it down.
It came from my own body anyway, so it should be fine to eat.
Compared to the worries of my previous life, this was truly trivial—not even worth comparing—but if I wanted to sleep comfortably tonight, I needed to come up with a solution, so I brought my smartphone under the blanket.
[World of Arseria]
[Rating: Not Recommended (★☆☆☆☆)]
[ㅗ]
After leaving the rating, I tossed my phone carelessly onto the floor.
Just as I was about to fall asleep, a notification chimed.
I crawled sluggishly out of bed and checked the message I had received, squinting at the screen.
[Seomaru: I think I can make time tomorrow afternoon. Why?]
It was Yuna's older brother, whom I had contacted earlier to ask him to work as my editor.