Chapter 50

RATTLE.

He slid the door open and stepped into a restaurant bustling with customers.

“Hajun! Over here!”

Kim Hajun nodded at the man waving from a table toward the back.

“Wow, moving to administration really agrees with you, huh?”

“Agrees with me? ... It's killing me.”

“Still, isn't it better than development? Honestly, I don't even know if we're developing a game anymore. We need Ethan's approval for every little thing. Seriously...”

The man offering Hajun a soju glass and heaving a deep sigh the moment he sat down was Choi Gyeongtae, his high school friend and former teammate in development.

“Have a drink.”

With his huge build and thick hands, he made the soju bottle look small.

“Better? ... All I do is follow someone arou—”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

However close they were, he couldn't tell him he was monitoring a particular individual.

“I still don't understand why Miyeon sent me to administration.”

“Huh? Director Han Miyeon did?”

“Yeah.”

Gyeongtae had been friends with Hajun since high school, so he knew Han Miyeon well too. She had lived next door to Hajun since childhood, and the two had grown up like brother and sister.

“That's unexpected. Director Han was the one who brought you onto Evil Tale's development team, wasn't she? And now she's suddenly transferred you to administration?”

“Well... you know she and I disagreed right from the early stages of development.”

Everyone on the development team knew about their clash: she had insisted that the AI [Ethan] should be [Evil Tale]'s primary administrator, while Hajun had argued that humans should manage it.

“Sure, but... that was ten years ago. Why suddenly do this now?”

“Exactly.”

CLINK.

Woojin clinked glasses and downed his drink in one gulp.

“Oh, right. About that favor you asked me. Khan, was it? You wanted me to look into the weapon he had equipped.”

“Yeah. I'd never seen it before. Did you find anything?” Hajun asked urgently.

“There was a little problem while I was checking, though.”

“... What problem?”

“When I went in with administrator privileges to check his character status, Ethan seems to have interpreted it as a bug check.”

“A bug check?”

Hajun went pale at Gyeongtae's words.

“Don't tell me...”

“Yeah. He got logged out, though only for a moment.”

BANG!!!

“Hey! Why the hell are you only telling me this now?!”

Hajun slammed his soju glass onto the table and shouted.

“Calm down. It's nothing.”

“Nothing? How is that nothing?!”

“It was only a second or two at most. And people know Bug Fix checks sometimes happen at random.”

When a player accomplished an exceptional feat or achieved results beyond the normal range, [Ethan] would sometimes perform a check like that while the player was out of combat.

Kerga had revealed this in an interview after clearing the eighth floor of the Labyrinth Tower. It wasn't common, but it wasn't unprecedented either.

“If it had been a problem, he'd have complained already. Nothing's happened. Besides, you said he was the one who made a fuss about logging out.”

Gyeongtae refilled Hajun's glass as he spoke.

“Doesn't that make this a good thing? Now we've confirmed that he can log out normally.”

“... We'd already confirmed that. There was a record of him logging out before.”

“Really? Then it matters even less.”

“Ugh...”

Hajun shot Gyeongtae a disapproving look, clicked his tongue, and reluctantly picked up his glass.

'Since he hasn't contacted administration, I suppose he let it slide, just as Gyeongtae said...'

Still, he couldn't shake his unease.

“Oh, and I can't look up his character again. Ethan handles character information, after all. Privacy laws mean I need permission even with administrator privileges.”

“I know.”

Hajun sighed and nodded.

“So? Did you find out what the weapon was?”

“Yeah. Raoul’s Dragon-Slaying Sword.”

“... What kind of sword is that?”

Hajun frowned slightly as he asked. Even after ten years on [Evil Tale]'s development team, he'd never heard the name.

“I'm not surprised you don't know it. It's an item tied to the third update.”

“The third? You're saying he got an item from the third update?”

“Yeah. He's the guy who broke Kerga's records, right? I can see how. The sword has an innate skill.”

“An innate skill... How did he get something like that?”

“Well, maybe he just got lucky.”

Gyeongtae poured himself another drink, still sounding unconcerned.

“Lucky? You think getting a weapon with a skill attached is that easy?”

Hajun shot him another look, irritated by his nonchalance.

“It's not impossible. The weapon was in the Dark Forest to begin with.”

“In the Dark Forest...?”

“Yeah. As you know, all the data through the third scenario is already stored on the server.”

“Right.”

“And it isn't just installed data. Some items have already been implemented and physically exist in the game. Sort of like Easter eggs.”

Gyeongtae took a bite from a skewer on the table and continued.

“I thought it was odd too, so I skimmed the third update's scenario. According to the backstory, the sword's owner dies in the Dark Forest, and the sword is buried there.”

“No. Even so... this isn't a standalone game. Why would you put Easter eggs in it? By your own account, the sword's owner hasn't even died yet.”

“Well, the projected timeline puts it about fifty years from now... so he probably hasn't even been born. Maybe it was only possible because the owner doesn't exist yet.”

“Ugh...”

There was only one person who would do something like this.

No, not a person.

“Ethan did this, didn't it?”

“Yeah.”

Hajun scowled.

“Damn it... What's the point of having a development team, then?”

He drained his glass irritably.

“Well, developers play those kinds of pranks too. If anything, it's a relief that it's Ethan. An AI isn't going to get things mixed up.”

“Honestly, you're so carefree. Does it make sense that even we don't know the game we made?”

“What can we do? Our team made most of the first scenario that's currently available, but we probably created thirty percent of the second and third updates at best.”

Gyeongtae answered with a wry smile.

[Evil Tale] had been in development for roughly ten years. Apart from the core system, a full seven years had gone into the first scenario alone.

Building the second scenario on that foundation was projected to take an astonishing ten years. Creating all the quests and details for such an extensive scenario would require even more time than the first.

Yet [Ethan] had completed the second scenario in two years, then finished the third three years later and stored it in the server data.

And that wasn't all. It had created a vast world several times larger than the development team's projected scenario scope.

[Ethan] had devised quests accounting for dozens, hundreds—no, thousands upon thousands of possible outcomes that could change with players' choices.

It was utterly impossible for humans.

Hajun knew that as well as anyone, so he couldn't keep blaming Gyeongtae.

“An innate skill... Is that why he's so strong?”

Khan's overwhelming prowess at the [Alchemist’s Laboratory] was still deeply etched in Hajun's mind.

“It is strong. I looked into the sword's owner a little. He's one of the protagonists of the third main scenario.”

Hajun swallowed. A sudden chill ran through him, and he looked tensely at Gyeongtae.

'That guy... has Ruen Firbas hired as a mercenary.'

He had made one of the second main scenario's protagonists his companion, and possessed the weapon of a third main scenario protagonist?

Was it mere coincidence?

“The weapon's potential grade is S.”

“What? S-grade?! That's the highest of any named item found so far!”

“It's not the only one. Kerga's weapon has S-grade potential too.”

“He's the strongest player in Evil Tale! How can you compare someone tackling the Labyrinth Tower's highest floors to a beginner in the Dark Forest?”

“That's precisely why you don't need to worry. You know how you can't upgrade an item with an upgrade stone if its potential grade is higher than the stone's?”

Currently, upgrade stones ranged from Grade C to Grade A. A higher-grade stone could upgrade a lower-grade item.

There were also occasional pieces of special equipment with their own names, known as named items, rather than ordinary items. Only one of each existed on the server.

[Bloodthirst], the blade obtained from Gladiator Taiman, the boss of the Labyrinth Tower's seventh floor, was one such item.

These named items had a potential grade. Even if their current grade was low, they couldn't be upgraded if their potential grade exceeded the upgrade stone's.

That meant they required specific conditions to be met for an upgrade. As a result, players with named items used upgrade stones for another purpose: checking their potential grades.

When an attempt to upgrade the currently B-grade [Bloodthirst] with an A-grade stone failed, it confirmed that the weapon was at least Grade A or higher.

That blade had become Kerga's favorite weapon.

“It's an S-grade item. With upgrade stones only available up to Grade A, how could he possibly upgrade it?”

“You don't know that. Being developers doesn't mean we know everything anymore. Who's to say there isn't an S-grade upgrade stone somewhere?”

“It'll still be fine. Even if he upgrades the weapon, he won't be able to raise its innate skill's grade.”

“Why not?”

“To upgrade Raoul's essence, he has to clear three Grade B quests. As you know, those are hard to find even on the central continent.”

Gyeongtae raised his glass with a chuckle, as though to reassure him.

“How could someone in the Dark Forest possibly complete three Grade B quests?”

* * *

[Hermann’s Magic Box activates.]

RATTLE, RATTLE.

The box that had swallowed the sword began shaking noisily.

FSSSSSH!

White smoke billowed from the box.

[Upgrade failed.]

CREAK, CREAK.

The lid rocked up and down.

[Hermann’s Magic Box mocks your excessive greed.]

[As payment, the box destroys the item placed inside.]

“I told you.”

Charlson chuckled, waving a hand through the smoke filling the room.

“They don't call it the devil's box for nothing. It's an incredible thing, capable of upgrading even S-grade equipment... but the odds are ten percent! What madman would put equipment that valuable inside?”

He thumped the lid a few times.

“I suppose you put it in because it's a Grade D weapon, nothing you'd miss losing... but you got too greedy.”

GROAN, CREAK.

“... Hmm?”

Just then, a strange sound came from the rocking box.

THUD! THUD! CRASH!!!

The rocking box began bucking wildly.

“Wh-what's going on?”

Charlson stepped back in alarm.

[This item cannot be destroyed.]

BOOM!!!

Unlike before, pitch-black smoke poured from the box, and its lid flopped open limply.

[The box has failed to destroy the item.]

[The box's curse rebounds.]

[As payment, the item placed inside the box is forcibly upgraded.]

“Wh-what in the...”

[Congratulations.]

[Raoul’s Dragon-Slaying Sword has been upgraded.]

[D → C]

“What was that about greed again?”

Woojin looked at Charlson as he took the sword out of the box.

Name: Raoul’s Dragon-Slaying Sword

Grade: C

Description: The beloved sword of Raoul, a Dragon Hunter, discovered in the Dark Forest. The sword has no special abilities, but is said to be so sturdy that it cannot be broken.

▶ Attack Power +150

▶ Cannot be destroyed.

▶ Contains Raoul's second essence.

Its Attack Power had tripled from 50.

Woojin examined the sword with a satisfied expression.

“...?”

But its Attack Power wasn't the only thing that had changed.

“... Second essence?”

[Your Raoul's essence is too low in grade.]

▶ You must upgrade the essence to acquire the second essence.

“Hmm...”

Woojin smacked his lips in disappointment at the red warning window.

DING.

It happened just then.

“... Huh?”

[All souls have been collected.]

▶ Souls collected: 10,000/10,000

He took out something vibrating inside his clothes.

It was [Dead Soul's Fare], which he had obtained from Colson.

As he gripped the trembling, glowing coin, the notification changed.

[Grade B - Hell's Gate]

[Quest completed.]

'Right. I still had this.'

It was the quest the Genesis Corps had been pursuing.

[You have completed a Grade B or higher quest.]

▶ Raoul's essence gains experience.

▶ Remaining count: 3/3

“...!!”

Along with the quest completion message, the sword in his hand began to shine.

[The essence can now be upgraded.]

[You can absorb Raoul's second essence.]

WHOOOOSH!!!

At that moment, pure white light filled his vision.