Chapter 1: Prologue

[……Twist it. If you want to kill me.]

The sword embedded in the man’s heart was twitching.

At the end of his short life, the man haughtily asked for his death.

[……]

The woman who held the sword twisted it without saying a word.

His chest was cut open and blood gushed out, but he didn’t even let out a single groan.

[You’re still……so beautiful and yet I can’t have you]

The man’s hand slowly reached up to touch the woman.

The blood on his fingers dirtied her cheek.

The woman held no expression. Cold and firm, just how she was when he fell for her. It was a beautiful sight worthy of the end of his life.

The man wore a hazy smile.

Before long, his last words poured out like blood.

[Damn bitch……]

“Damn bitch” he said.

“Phew. It’s not lagging anymore……”

I sighed while looking at the screen. I once again looked over this character’s settings.

[Deculein von Grahan Yukline]

: Disposition — [Evil]

: Initial Job   — [Senior Professor]

: Initial MP   — [3357]

: Aptitude     — [ Rank 6]

: Aptitude Type — [Magic: Control Type/Elemental: Earth, Fire]

: Traits — [6]

: Personality — [13]

Deculein. One of the game’s mid bosses, a named villain. There had been a lot of bugs since there were a lot of important villains with a wide variety of branching storylines, but fortunately, he had done a lot of sneaky and cunning things throughout the whole game so that he’d die without fail within the first 11 hours of gameplay.

This time his cause of death was his fiancée’s sword.

“Uh, Woojin-ssi?”

I was going to play the game again, but I heard a familiar voice call out my name. I turned to look back.

“Ah, yeah. Ah-rah-ssi.”

Even without any make-up, her eyes looked big and her long hair was shiny even without special care.

This woman, who was endowed with such beauty, was Yoo Ah-ra.

She’s the one I’m dating, or rather dated.

“Is the testing going well?”

I shrugged at the question.

“Yes, I’m still on it~”

Yoo Ah-ra nodded silently. As I looked at her I noticed a new accessory hanging around her neck.

My lips pulled up into a pout unconsciously.

“Looks like it’s going well with your boyfriend, huh?”

“Huh? Oh…… I’m not sure?”

Yoo Ah-ra shrugged her shoulders as well.

Some of our gestures had become somewhat similar as we dated.

“I think it’s going well.”

“Hmm~”

I pointlessly drummed my finger on my mouse.

I had heard about it from the rumours, but I still felt very upset hearing this directly from her.

“Why do you ask?”

“……just because.”

Our break-up was already 6 months ago.

In the end, there was no one right or wrong. We just couldn’t understand each other anymore.

I was at my roots a loafer while she was a natural-born workaholic.

Her drive to improve led me to become a man who could make ends meet, but in the end she couldn’t accept my introverted nature.

……No, it was because I didn’t want to change.

“I wish you all the best in your marriage.”

“……Hah.”

“Aigo. Was that a bit pathetic?”

My eyebrows twitched provocatively along with my sarcastic remark.

However, it didn’t get to Yoo Ah-ra.

“Just get ready for work. There’s been changes in the setting so you have to get the modeling done.”

“Again? No…… Why does the author keep changing it?”

I sighed and looked at the clock.

9 p.m. It was already night time, but I still had a lot of work to do.

“Ah. Were you watching one of Deculein’s scenes?”

Yoo Ah-ra, who was looking at my monitor, smirked.

“Yes. He died after 11 hours. But if you use certain tricks, you can kill him right at the start of the game. Isn’t he supposed to be a mid-boss?”

“That’s one of our game’s charms. The more you leave Deculein to his devices, the more evil he’ll become, so the earlier you kill him off, the easier the game will be. The difficulty depends on the player’s choices.”

“……I see.”

The game was tested hundreds of times by all employees of this company, including me. I had already played it 4 times.

It must have been played a thousand times in total, but the mid-boss called Deculein always got killed except for one time.

“But did you know? The model for this character was actually you, Woojin-ssi.”

“…… For Deculein?”

“Yep. So I just kill him off right at the start.”

“What?”

I frowned.

There was still the Line “Damn Bitch…” displayed on the monitor.

“Fufu. Didn’t you notice while modeling him? You look similar.”

“That can’t be. I only met the author twice, you know?”

“I guess he saw you while dropping by the company. Anyway, look. You even have similar personalities.”

“……Similar personalities? Me and that guy, whose last words were “Damn Bitch”?”

“You’re similar.”

“Phew…… So that’s why I got dumped by you.”

As Yoo Ah-ra’s expression hardened, I raised my hands pretending to be scared.

“Aigo, I’m sorry.  Did that sound kind of pathetic, too?”

I couldn’t help it.

After hearing me call myself pathetic again, she lost her temper, so I couldn’t help but poke at her more.

Eventually Yoo Ah-ra also got involved.

“…… I’m the one who’s pathetic here”

“It’s just that you think you’re pathetic. Do you have paranoia? It’s me who’s pathetic.”

“Shut up. Just check the game. How do you feel about this time’s test run?”

I decided to change the subject. I put my eyes back on the monitor.

“The game itself is fun.”

The backdrop of this game was a fantasy world mixed with culture from the 14~20th century.

The whole framework was that of a massive RPG, but its main focus was its storytelling.

“The only problem is that, if this flops, the whole company will go bankrupt.”

REW appeared in Korea, the barren land of console games, like a bolt out of the blue.

As soon as it had been founded, it produced one successful game after the other. Now, REW, which the whole world was paying attention to, was creating a AAA class game that was already beating the profits and investments of the past before it had even been released.

If it failed, we’d be screwed.

Literally screwed.

“Don’t worry. It won’t fail. Didn’t you see the reactions to the game play sneak peek? There was a huge uproar.”

The story of the game and its difficulty depends on how the player acts.

Although it’s a single player game, you don’t play alone, but with several “named” characters equipped with advanced AI.

Thanks to that fresh approach and the hype that REW had built up, not only international players but also many international webzines had nominated our game as “GOTY (Game Of The Year)”!

“As long as we keep raising our IP reputation with a single console, we can rake in a lot of money online. We’ll make it, no matter what!”

As it had been said before, there were a lot of attractive characters and jobs in this game.

Knight, wizard, demon, demon hunter, administrator, adventurer, mercenary, king, aristocrat, etc….. The player could become anything.

“Okay. That would be great for me. I’d get a bonus after all.”

With a big smile I turned my head towards the window.

“……Oh, there he is.”

My seat was by the window, so I could see the street outside the company.

Near the entrance, a shiny car was waiting for Yoo Ah-ra.

“By the way, isn’t he more pathetic than I am?”

I whispered and pointed out the window.

I said these words casually.

She smiled slightly.

“……He’s a good person in a different sense from you.”

I was also a good person, huh? That was enough for me.

Even if she didn’t mean it like that, I’d just take it that way.

“Oh, yeah? That’s a relief then.”

Of course, I was still upset, but not as much as I was before.

As she said, the man in that car was a good person.

I’d be angry if he were some type of gangster.

“Yeah…… By the way…… You know……. That……”

Yoo Ah-ra seemed like she wanted to say something, but her mouth kept on snapping shut.

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She was going to mumble and struggle like that for a bit and then turn around saying “It’s nothing”.

I knew her habits just too well.

So I already knew what she wanted to say, as well.

“Ah-ra-ssi. We first met three years ago, right? So what are you trying to say?

Office romances were to be kept a secret.

We started dating before we joined the company, but as it evolved into an office romance we had to keep it a secret.

“……Well. What was I going to say again……?”

Yoo Ah-ra smiled helplessly.

Tick, tick, tick.

The short silence that floated between us and the sound of the clock was so loud that it bothered me.

The first person to break the silence in this awkward moment was Yoo Ah-ra.

“Well, Woojin-ssi. I’ll get going now.”

“Okay. Get some rest.”

“Yes. Good luck with work.”

Clack clack.

She moved further away accompanied by the sound of her high heels.

She was more perfect than anyone I’ve ever met, but she was actually more beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside.

That was how wonderful she was.

She was my greatest treasure.

She was also the first person who convinced me that people could change.

“……Good bye.”

I spoke words that couldn’t reach her anymore. I just mumbled them to myself.

I felt pathetic, so I just sighed and put my attention back on the monitor.

“No, but the author’s pretty mean as well.”

When I looked at this character called Deculein, who had already died, I got goosebumps.

This is supposed to be me? That’s ridiculous.

…….Although there was a certain resemblance.

Certainly, my appearance was used as his base.

I did think that he looked like someone I knew while I was modeling him.

I didn’t know that someone was me.

“I need to upgrade his appearance.”

Externally, the gold haul had ended, but the company’s and author’s greed remained.

So they gave me the highest authority and asked me to do the final touches on the models.

“Let’s see.”

Nobody would complain if a character was made a bit more handsome.

No matter how villainous he was, I was the model, so I should at least give him a decent face. I’ve never been called ugly after all.

“……Fixed.”

While I was checking over my correction, I suddenly saw the character’s “Characteristics” in my field of view.

“Hmmm……”

There were two characteristics in this game that determine the character’s personality.

“Traits” that directly affected the base specifications and “Personality” that indirectly affected them.

The more important a character is, the more likely it is for them to have one of these traits and personalities.

[Traits]

: Intimidating Grace

: Prodigy

: Mediocre Magical Talent

: Broken

: Aesthetic sense

: Fate of a Villain

Deculein’s qualities are these six above.

Oh my god, this combination “Prodigy” and “Mediocre Magical Talent”. It’s the worst of the worst, the most evil.

[Personality]

: Elitist

: Mysophobe

: Habitual

: Competitive

: Noble etiquette 

: Sensitive

: Authoritative

: Pretentious

: Resilient Mind

: OCD

: Atheist…….

There are a lot more personality traits.

“Such terrible characteristics.”

No matter how much he was based on me I was neither an elitist nor was I a mysophobe nor was I pretentious. I didn’t even have any authority so how could I be authoritative?

I glared at the monitor with dissatisfaction, glancing at the tapered codes next to the traits and personality columns.

“……Hm Hm.”

There was no one in the office. I looked over the other traits and personality codes.

I wasn’t going to do anything bad, I was just scrolling through them for fun……

Found one.

[Understanding]

“With that you won’t be so pathetic at least”

Looks like it’s similar to sympathy. But for some reason it’s classified as a trait and not as a personality.

I put [Understanding] among Deculein’s traits.

After that, [Billionaire]…… One has to have a lot of money.

Click, click, click.

In addition to that, I added a lot of other characteristics as a joke. [Man of great wealth], [Midas’ Touch], [Vision], [Iron Man] and so on……

“Just what am I doing?”

I put in this and that, about 5 traits that wouldn’t be that obvious, only then was I satisfied.

I let go of the mouse and leaned back on my chair.

Laughter unexpectedly flowed out of my mouth.

“……Huh. It’s been 7 years.”

7 years.

For you and me, 7 years was such a long time.

It was too long to just end in an instant.

No, maybe it was just me who thought of it as “an instant”.

You just gradually grew tired of this.

You must’ve slowly prepared for this break-up as well.

I was just not aware of your change…….

Driiing

“Uh!”

A loud notification. I almost fell off my chair.

[REW (5/107)]

[Lane: Woojin, are you still working?]

It was from an in-house messenger.

The sender was Lane-ssi, author of this game and general manager of the AI department.

As the name suggests, he’s a foreigner.

[Oh, yeah. If you want me to change the models, please let me know. I’ll change them right away]

I moved my mouse to remove the traits I just added.

[Lane: No…… That’s not it. I’m just waiting and watching]

I suddenly stopped.

What are you watching?

Are you watching me?

I looked around, but no one was there.

[What are you watching? Me?]

I blinked and stared at the monitor.

Soon, I got a reply with a smiling emoticon attached.

[Lane:Puhaha ^-^ No~ Look out the window!]

I turned my head towards the window without much thought.

“……Huh?”

Transparent glass and the sky stretching beyond it.

It gave birth to Light.

A flash fell while illuminating the heavens and earth.

Light craved itself into the air like human veins.

Lightning.

With my eyes wide open, fierce rays of light flooded in. 

A huge shock shook the world.

The bunch of rays that flooded the office blinded my vision and the delayed thunder rattled my ears.

Ruuuuuumble!

……I didn’t remember anything after that.

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