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#9화 개막으로의 카운트 다운 (2)

My older brother guy was making a fuss first thing in the morning, so I asked what was going on, and he claimed he saw a ghost last night. Is this kid just crying from a bad dream?

And if he wants to talk about it, he should go to our parents. Why come to me? Hmm, that doesn’t make sense. There’s no way those parents would take this guy’s moaning seriously—they’d just look at him like he’s a total idiot times a hundred. Coming to me, where they’ll at least give him the idiot look times two, is more reasonable.

It’s summer, so I might as well humor his silly ghost story.

“Alright, older brother! Your kind younger sister is here to listen, so go ahead and tell me.”

Saying that in a teasing voice, I watched his face rot like it was in a sewer. It’s surprisingly effective to poke fun at him sometimes.

At first, I listened to his story with the expectation of hearing a summer ghost tale, but as he kept going, I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes more and more.

“…So, you’re saying you’ll be kicked out of the house, drained by your job, and betrayed by your lover?”

“What am I supposed to call you? Older brother or you? What’s the right term here?”

“Cut the nonsense, just answer: did you or did you not say that?”

“Yeah, I said that. But it sounded like I know you well—more like I have a vague idea, and it seems you mistook some rumor for the truth.”

I fell into thought as I heard my brother’s words.

He probably thinks the nonsense the unknown entity was spouting is ridiculous, but from my perspective, it’s not.

That’s because I know our parents almost kicked him out once.

Back then, I managed to cover for him, so it ended there, but it means there’s a good chance he would’ve actually been kicked out had I not been there.

The job situation… well, right now, he’s with Kainix following the theory that “if we have to pay tribute anyway, it’s better to just pay it directly to a dinosaur,” but what if I hadn’t intervened?

He probably wouldn’t have even thought of creating a gacha game, and since he didn’t have any noticeable results, Kainix might not have paid much attention to him. It’s completely possible for a guy with little social experience like him to end up in some sketchy company, get drained dry, and be thrown away.

I can let the part about being betrayed by a lover slide, but just those two things I mentioned could easily happen if ‘I wasn’t the variable.’

In other words, that’s ‘the original story.’ The ironic part is that I’ve never actually seen the original, so I can only make guesses.

Is there someone out there who knows about the original, someone in a position similar to mine? Or is this part of the original too?

“There are too many possibilities, and I can’t pinpoint any one for sure.”

“Talking about ghosts? Well, if we try to explain it logically, the possibilities do seem to multiply.”

It seemed my brother misunderstood my words, but I didn’t feel the need to clarify since I wasn’t looking to explain myself.

What good would it do to reveal such things? It would just confuse my identity for him, and make him uncomfortable. It’s better to keep my mouth shut for life.

“First, let’s increase the security. There’s no need to elaborate on the ghost story, just say there was an intruder using mysterious techniques. They can interpret and investigate that on their own.”

“Is there any evidence besides the noise Nebula confirmed? Would they even believe it?”

“Police need evidence to act, but security guards operate on money and contracts. If something happens to you, it’s a loss for Kainix too, you know? Increasing security isn’t too hard, so they’ll surely do it.”

My brother seemed a bit flustered, thinking things might escalate more than he expected, but in the end, he nodded.

“Ah, if you’re going to work, let’s go together.”

“…Are we really going together today?”

“Of course! We’re graduating soon anyway, so school is pretty much self-directed now.”

Even if my brother’s the game creator, I’m the first player. I need to keep giving feedback.

*

When a game is released, the best way for an average player to experience it first is to be selected as a beta tester.

Why beta and not alpha? Because alpha tests are conducted internally, not with outsiders (though there are exceptions).

In culinary terms, the alpha test is when chefs and staff taste and refine the new dish, while the beta test is when they serve it to nearby restaurants to get evaluations before officially selling it.

But who am I? I’m the game creator’s blood relative, personal assistant, chief advisor, and invincible TS younger sister!

You might wonder why the last part matters, but in life, appearances are extremely, extremely, extremely important.

If the dull-looking developer brother goes to work every day to test games, people will just say he’s ‘obsessed with the game’ or ‘Is he not going to school?’ But if a charming young girl, a beauty, or something in that vicinity does the same, everyone interprets it positively.

“Yerin, you’re here again today!”

“Yes! Watching the game improve day by day makes it hard to just sit still. Is that too childish of a thought?”

“Haha, what does age matter when enjoying something fun? In fact, even other employees assigned as test players are similar. They started off reluctant, but now many come in on their days off just to enjoy it.”

The internal evaluation of Beyond Elysion was good.

No, it was beyond good—it was at the level where everyone involved was certain, “This is definitely going to succeed.”

“The testers created for Beyond Elysion, like ‘Hungry Shadow’ and ‘Dragon’s Sword Dance,’ are receiving sufficient praise too, but this will be a work beyond that. On the other hand, it’s a bit troublesome that departments that haven’t shown much interest until now are trying to interfere in various ways because of this.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, especially regarding the BM structure; there are many requests coming from Advisor Ryu. He’s ignoring all of them, though.”

Well, I can hardly blame him.

It’s a business instinct to squeeze all the profits they can out of profitable opportunities.

But that’s from the company’s perspective, and from the player’s viewpoint, excessive monetization is more of a drawback than a benefit.

Most importantly, my brother’s obsession with the game is no small matter.

He hasn’t completely erased the monetization system, but the benefits of it only include “same effect, but fancier skill effects” or “equipment effects that change only the appearance,” which gives no numerical advantages in-game.

In other words, even if you pay, you can look flashy and pretty, but you won’t become stronger.

While this structure does benefit time-rich players instead of those with money, it’s something we just can’t solve. At least we have access restrictions as a minimal safety net.

After chatting with the staff about various things, I laid back on a game machine that looked like a modified massage chair.

While there are kinds you wear on your head like helmets or headsets for pure game access, those are just for ‘access’ and are less convenient than these recliner-type, or capsule-type machines.

Since those have various devices to accommodate long sessions without moving much, they’re much more comfortable.

Sitting in the chair, I closed my eyes as if falling asleep, and after a while.

I found myself standing alone in a vast plain.

Kind of like a lucid dream. But the sense of reality was overwhelming, unlike anything remotely similar.

Each step I took felt the ground beneath me, the grass scent wafted into my nose, and the distant sound of the wind was all incredibly real.

Though the people here may not know, virtual reality games have been around for quite some time, and to me, with my memories from my past life, this felt like pure fantasy.

I glanced at my reflection in a nearby stream.

There I saw a face similar yet different from ‘Kang Yerin’ in reality.

The biggest differences were the eye and hair color changes. Also, my features were adjusted a bit, making me look slightly more proud and sharp compared to reality.

To put it simply, I looked like a villainess.

Contrasting that, my height and weight matched reality exactly.

It’s not that the shape-changing feature doesn’t exist, but I don’t really use it.

To me, this body feels halfway like a character… which is half a joke, and in reality, moving with different bodies in real life and in the game creates a sense of dissonance that I prefer to avoid.

I’m not the only one with this preference; people who have practiced martial arts or physical education often avoid changing their body shape.

Well, there are also players who create handsome and beautiful characters without a care.

Especially among ordinary players, there are many like that.

In regular games, players often make their characters beautiful too. There are even those who intentionally choose bizarre appearances, but they are not in the majority.

“Nebula.”

“Yes. Please tell me.”

“Recommend a suitable opponent for my current level. I’ve fought enough non-humans, so I want a human-type today.”

“The ‘Saintess of Reincarnation Iris,’ ‘Valkyrie Brynhildr of Forbidden Love,’ ‘Silenced Blade Hector,’ and ‘Grendel the Swamp Monster’ meet your criteria. Would you like to hear about new candidates?”

“No, I’ll go with Iris.”

“Understood.”

After the response, moments later.

A massive pillar of light shot up before me, and from within it appeared a beautifully enchanting woman.

With long silver hair and blue eyes. Dressed in a white battle dress, she wielded a huge shield and longsword that belied her slender appearance.

She embodied purity, sanctity, and nobility, smiling gently as she looked at me.

“It’s been a while, dear Goddess.”

“…Can we stop with the goddess thing?”

“But you and your companion are the creators of this world, so calling you a goddess isn’t that strange, right?”

As she spoke, wearing a somehow comical smile, this knight was none other than the ‘Saintess of Reincarnation Iris,’ a main character who plays crucial roles in both ‘Beyond: The Lost Era’ and ‘Beyond Elysion.’ Due to the concept of reincarnation, it’s fine for her to appear in both stories despite them having vast time gaps.

“If I participate as a regular player later, how would others feel if I get treated as special?”

“That wouldn’t matter. Once the ‘main story’ begins, I will forget all about you anyway. So until then, it’s just a short span of my life, so please indulge the whims of a mere creation.”

Since Nebula was fundamentally an AI created by my brother to be an ‘extension of his limbs,’ it didn’t have significant personality differences from any AI I knew before. However, the NPCs derived from Nebula often had such distinct personalities that it became hard to tell whether they were human or data during conversations.

They say highly developed science is indistinguishable from magic, and this is one of those examples.

Shrugging my shoulders, I drew my weapon.

Iris smiled.

“Are we using a sword this time? You did look quite good with the scythe last time as well.”

“I thought it’d fit the image, but using it was too cumbersome. I’d rather use an axe.”

That was the end of our light chit-chat.

I charged at Iris without any pretense, and Iris raised her shield, getting ready.

I guess it’s time to start the combat test.