Chapter 14
"Waaaaaah!"
"Save our Orpheus-oppa!"
"O-Oh-hyung!!"
"Waaah I'm so sad about Aboong"
I monitored the community's reactions after players cleared the story.
My intentions seemed to have worked well - despite being a villain character, players empathized with Orpheus.
Constellation [Magi-Engineer Consumed by Wrath], true name Ian Kali-Yuga.
In reality, he had been childhood friends with Saint Cartesia back when she was still Kate.
However, their relationship grew distant due to conflicts between their families, and Kate lost her life due to the Magi-Engineer's mistake.
The Magi-Engineer devoted himself to magi-engineering with the sole purpose of reviving Kate, eventually reaching Transcendence and ascending to Divinity.
The execution ceremony incident and the rampage of Orpheus's father, the Magi-Engineer - these were fictional elements I added to make the story more dramatic.
Unlike with [The Sacrifice That Overcame Sloth], I didn't need to faithfully recreate actual history, so I took some creative liberties.
Thanks to this, players were able to immerse themselves in Orpheus's tragic narrative.
Of course, there were also a few who didn't feel the same way.
Some left harsh criticism, seemingly dissatisfied with the story.
"But in the end isn't he just an evil person who killed countless people? Good riddance."
"This sends the wrong message that you can do anything for the person you love"
"Aren't you just glorifying evil deeds by suggesting that anything is fine as long as Kate is saved?"
Perhaps because I set him up as a villain to create shock value, quite a few people disliked him for his misdeeds.
I couldn't deny it.
Indeed, Orpheus was a villain who didn't care how many others he had to sacrifice for Kate's sake.
Nevertheless, there was a reason I set up Constellation [Magi-Engineer Consumed by Wrath] as the villain for this story.
It was because a villain is more effective than a hero at delivering shock and emotion through plot twists.
Just as a bad person making one sacrifice at the end leaves a stronger impression than a good person making hundreds of sacrifices, it's better to have the villain character who's been opposing you throughout the story complete the sacrifice in the final battle.
The players had built up resentment toward Orpheus after being tormented by him throughout Act 1's story, which made his narrative even more impactful when they entered his Mental World.
"Glorifying evil and misdeeds..."
I hadn't considered that angle.
Given the unique characteristics of the villain's story, this aspect was tricky to handle.
You can't satisfy every player.
Some will be uncomfortable with a villain taking center stage in the main narrative.
I suppose that's to be expected.
This is criticism I need to accept and endure as the one who set up Orpheus as a villain.
But through this criticism, my next story can find a better path forward.
"Not even that sad, what's with all the fuss."
"I found it boring, why do I have to watch some bad guy's backstory"
"Am I playing a game or watching a movie"
"Is this [Akashic Archive] or [Orpheus Archive]?"
There were also those who found the villain-centric narrative, rather than protagonist-centric, to be boring.
I could somewhat empathize with their feelings.
The players' point of identification is the game's protagonist, the Provisional Supervisor.
But this Act 1 focused more on Orpheus than the Provisional Supervisor.
Especially during the Mental World entry process and boss battles with forced defeat events, some seemed to question whether they were playing a game or watching a movie.
"I overlooked this aspect."
I made a note about protagonist prominence in my notepad.
Players need to be able to utilize the characters they've pulled and the Essences of the Abyss they've collected to feel proper satisfaction, but that was somewhat lacking.
It was an issue that arose from focusing too much on the Magi-Engineer's story with her.
I also made notes about other issues players raised about unpleasant experiences - the messy background explanations and story in the beginning, the appearance of proper nouns that made it difficult for players to understand.
"The next story will be different."
Today's problems won't be repeated tomorrow.
The story of my game will evolve with each moment.
The very next day
I released a new pick-up character.
The concurrent player count surpassed 300,000 as the revenue graph broke through its peak.
I couldn't stop the laughter from escaping.
[The Dream Storyteller waves her short arms in joy.]
"If there's any food you'd like, just let me know. I'll bring it right away."
I built a small temple near the Academy for Lady Constellation.
Though I couldn't build it too grand due to Lady Constellation's orders to keep it modest, I could certainly use the game's revenue to deliver fine cuisine to her.
[Saintess Kate]
A character I created to strongly imprint her recognition on players to fulfill my promise with the Magi-Engineer, even though [Knight Ren]'s pick-up hadn't ended yet.
As much as I wanted to release Orpheus, who was the story's protagonist, it felt a bit awkward to release a character who had already died and disappeared, and it seemed wasteful to release a villain so soon.
"I'll save him as a trump card for later."
I was planning to use him as crowd control if I caused operational issues and public sentiment turned sour.
[-This character will last until the server shuts down...]
[-Sorry but I got her in just one pull...]
[-I was trying to get Ren but got this weird Saintess? Is this good?]
Players were in a festive mood over the newly released [Saintess Kate] character.
I wonder if this fulfills the promise.
The Magi-Engineer wanted the Continent's people to recognize his real-world lover, Saintess Kate.
Whether he plans to resurrect her through the recognition imprinted on the Continent's people or not, I've definitely achieved that recognition goal.
[-Is this enough to take off?]
[-I'll continue my Ostinato to pull the Saintess!]
[-Only tried 10 times but it's so hard... how did Orpheus do it"]
Reset Marathon, shortened to "Resema"
It refers to the act of repeatedly resetting until pulling the desired character.
Since this world only had primitive games at an early stage, not to mention character gacha games, such concepts didn't exist yet.
But at some point, the method of deleting and creating new accounts until getting the desired character had spread widely.
Moreover, derived from Orpheus's narrative, it came to be called [Ostinato].
The players' Ostinato of repeating regressions until getting their beloved character.
As much as I wanted to block it all since it was potential revenue, blocking the players' Ostinato could mean the game company directly denying Orpheus's narrative.
To ruin the narrative and satisfaction we'd carefully crafted.
That's something I absolutely cannot do.
[The Dream Storyteller tilts her head, suggesting we should just let it slide to that extent]
After much contemplation, Lady Constellation whispered to me.
I decided to temporarily allow their behavior.
For now, I'd overlook those doing resets under their own names.
[-Where's the blonde tanned dark elf stroking the now-lonely Saintess's behind?"]
[-ㄴShoo, get out of Apelio]
[-I heard that Orpheus fellow was quite handsome, got any adult content?"]
[-ㄴOrpheus is male]
[-ㄴㄴI know]
[-ㄴㄴㄴ?]
"The chemistry between Orpheus and the Supervisor is real ;-;-;-;-;"
"Did you see the affection in the Supervisor's eyes when glaring at Orpheus? ㅠㅠ Too sad"
"..."
Given how many unusual perverts there were in the community, quite a few interpreted things differently than intended, but still, many shed tears over the narrative of the Saintess and Orpheus.
Currently it's become trendy not just among young men and women but even older couples to roleplay as Ian and Kate, so I'd say Earth's game narrative has been well received.
"I hope things work out well for the Magi-Engineer too."
The reason the Magi-Engineer cooperated in my game development was to revive Kate.
Now that the entire Continent is shedding tears over his and Kate's love story, it would be even more tragic if he failed in reality.
I hoped this story wouldn't end as just a dream.
That the tragic love that couldn't be fulfilled in the game would have a happy ending in reality.
* * *
In a corner of the Divine Realm
[Hello? What's your name?]
[Let's play again next time like today]
[You're cute like a frog]
[I'm a Saintess, a Saintess who protects people and guides them on the right path]
[I'm sorry Ian]
[Farewell, my frog prince...]
Divinity gathered from the recognition of countless people.
A deceased soul that could never live again unless time was turned back, as the soul itself had been destroyed.
When the faith that constituted that deceased one became unified, belief manifested as reality.
*Puwang-*
Within it, a naked woman opened her eyes.