Chapter 131

“Please, go ahead.”

As I abruptly sat up, small waves formed in the bathtub.

[We have confirmed that Mr. NoName’s account is currently not registered as a formal account with WearSoft. May I ask what type of capsule you are using?]

– What do you mean it’s not a formal account?

– Are you saying it’s a guest account?

– What’s going on?

– How did I enter Nightmare as a guest?

My mind was racing. Do they really have no information about me on their end?

“It’s a Samsung Stella A8.”

– Are you serious, is that a model from 5 years ago? LOL

– Does it even lag?

– So, World of Arseria is still running, huh?

– The ping must be awful, but how fast was the response time in-game?

– Even my grandfather wouldn’t use that.

└ Grandfathers don’t use capsules in the first place.

└ My grandma uses one, though?

[Ah, yes… I have confirmed that. Hmm, for now… I have just received your account recovery request through WearSoft Korea, and our headquarters has been aware of the bug occurring in the story progression prior to this.]

– What do you mean you’ve checked?

– Why are you beating around the bush?

– Just get to the point!

[‘Today and Tomorrow’ donated 1,000 won!]

– Ma’am, are you going to take responsibility if we can’t save Adella?

[…? Is there someone next to you?]

“No, I’m in the bathroom. I’m alone.”

[According to my report, Mr. NoName is currently experiencing a phenomenon where NPC Adella does not get eliminated as expected in Part 1, and as a result, the Chapter 4 boss Mephistopheles did not appear. Is that correct?]

“Please continue.”

[What we can suggest is the following. On the condition that this account is not used in ranked battle channels, we will reflect 100% of the experience and growth stats distributed to Adella onto your player character.]

“Then what happens to Adella?”

[We plan to remove her so that Mephistopheles can appear normally in the Chapter 4 stage.]

What kind of nonsensical talk is this…

– ?????????

– Are you out of your mind, ma’am?

– Ranked battles aren’t the most important thing right now!

– Are you worried about making the combat power inflated if you revert it to 100%?

– You’ve totally missed the point!

– NoName is getting angry.

– SAVE ADULLA!!!!!

Huh…

I took a deep breath again and organized my thoughts.

“I’d like to hear other alternatives.”

[As an alternate option, instead of formatting the entire world, we can clear the process for you. Although your combat power will be assessed as low since you didn’t defeat the boss, you should still be able to enjoy ranked battles with other users using this account.]

“Is that all?”

[Server recovery for guest accounts is not supported due to policy, but this situation has been deemed exceptional, so we’ve made this exception after discussions with our operations team.]

It was a tone that pressured me nicely, but in reality, they were just planning to delete the cause of the bug and wash their hands of it.

It’s not even fixing the barn after losing a cow, but covering it completely with a cloth.

“What I want is a little different.”

[What aspects were you dissatisfied with? We will provide you with the maximum support our company can offer, but…]

“I don’t care about ranked battles, but please allow me to proceed with the Chapter 4 boss battle alongside Adella.”

[Unfortunately, we do not have any arrangements for that part. I’m sorry.]

“Then I’m fine with not doing the boss battle. Just leave Adella and process the clear.”

[The condition for story clear always requires the defeat of Mephisto, so that part seems difficult as well. Moreover, Adella was not anticipated to survive after the clear, so we can’t predict what kind of errors it may cause on the server.]

– This won’t work, that won’t work. What can possibly work?

– This is really frustrating.

– Can I just cuss? This is something you have to admit, managers.

– What’s so hard about saving just Adella!!!

The core system code of the open world dictates that “combat power aggregation” events only occur after defeating the final boss.

Combat power aggregation is a necessary and sufficient condition for story mode clear, but Mephistopheles cannot appear simultaneously with Adella.

In simple terms, it means that the time bomb inside Adella must explode for the ending to come.

“Is this all WearSoft is capable of? I thought user-centric story progress and high freedom were advantages of World of Arseria.”

[Apologies for the technical limitations. This bug occurrence was caused by ‘unauthorized access for improper purposes’ using a guest account, so I recommend that you comply with our consideration.]

“I never had any unauthorized purposes from the start, so why is all of a sudden it my fault? And even if the source of the bug were to lie with me, isn’t it your mistake for allowing the story to progress?”

[Due to the peculiarity of your account during the Chapter 1 boss fight, a bug occurred where prior data was not deleted properly and two open worlds overlapped.]

“And so? Now you’re saying you’re going to delete Adella? Does WearSoft think it’s okay to stomp all over the memories created by a user with the justification of maintaining the server?”

I bit my nails hard.

In the first place, the hostage is on their side, and the information is on their side as well.

No matter how much I threw a fit here, the initiative would not shift to my side.

I wanted to visit headquarters right now and drop a meteor on them, but I genuinely couldn’t afford to do so…

It’s so infuriating.

[It’s disappointing to say, but we don’t view users from that perspective.]

“Ha, that’s exactly what you’re saying.”

[Due to information protection laws, we cannot access information about Mr. NoName, so I can’t empathize with every aspect, but… at least I would like to challenge your claim that you had no unauthorized purposes.]

“What?”

[Did you not know about the age restriction clauses for the Nightmare content and still violate them? Mr. NoName, you are not over 15, right?]

* * *

NaMe never intended to hide her age at first.

However, since she had a strong perception that she was an adult, she only had a small hope that she would be regarded as an adult even while having the voice of a child.

But until now, the primary reason for hiding her age was to avoid having her World of Arseria account banned.

She had skipped the mandatory age verification process required to engage in Nightmare.

If the company were to find out about this, it would be evident that all her cards were useless.

Her body was as still as if the hot bathwater had frozen completely.

Only her dark pupils trembled slightly and turned to the side.

It was the place where the chat room was.

For a moment, as if experiencing lag, the screen froze for two seconds, and then,

Words poured out sequentially like a massive dam breaking down.

– ?????????

– Not over 15 years old?

– What? What did they say?

– ???

– If not 15, then how old are you?

– Not a high school girl, but a middle school girl?

– How old is 15? Third year middle school?

– LOL

– Is this real?

– (оﾟдﾟо)(оﾟдﾟо)(оﾟдﾟо)(оﾟдﾟо)(оﾟдﾟо)

– Was she really in third year middle school when she was preparing for the academy?

└ Foreshadowing!!!

– Even if she’s in third year middle school, this doesn’t make sense!

– What has been shown until now?

– Honestly, even a third-year high schooler wouldn’t make sense, so what the heck?

– Is the company just confused?

[‘KongNangKong’ donated 1,000 won!]

– Um… Teacher, are you really a middle school student?

But not everyone was willing to accept the raw information as is. Considering the steps NaMe had shown so far, it was far too contradictory.

– Not a middle school teacher, but a middle school student?

– Don’t get excited over misunderstandings.

└ The absurdity of the situation seems to fuel the backlash. LOL

– Thinking about it makes me more upset, that general manager.

– Did they plan to divert the topic entirely?

– Whether this is true and the company neglected to catch it, that’s incompetence.

– If it’s not true and they mistakenly assumed it, that’s also incompetence. LOL

– LOL a middle school student (casting a spell for dual-element magic).

– LOL middle schooler (calculating the reverse Laplace transform).

└ What does that even mean? Why are the educational levels of the viewers here so high?

– You can tell just by their speech that they’re not childish. Those Twish folks seem too genuine.

– Hey, that’s a fact assault!

It was best to keep my mouth shut.

What should I do in this case?

In NaMe’s mind, dozens of choices branched out like tree roots every second, but none of them were the right answer.

In the midst of all this, Michelle Badiou called her with a flustered voice.

[Mr. NoName, it feels like I just heard your real voice. Are you with your family?]

The general manager had been asking NaMe since earlier whether she was with someone else.

And NaMe wasn’t so oblivious that she hadn’t caught on, so she immediately held her trembling hands tightly with the other and said,

“I am alone. But I am live on air.”

[Huh?]

“The platform is Twish, and there are currently 3,000 viewers.”

[Wait, why are you broadcasting while taking a call…?]

This is it.

NaMe was filled with conviction.

Forgetting that she was in the bath, she stood up hastily to take the call again.

Suddenly feeling dizzy from a sudden bout of anemia, she couldn’t contain her excitement at the thought that she had found a breakthrough.

The sound of water trickling down her skin echoed through the broadcast and the call without any filters.

“So, can I take it that WearSoft has neither the will nor the ability to resolve this bug incident?”

[That’s not what I mean…]

“What you said sounds nothing but that. Ultimately, isn’t it the case that you cannot freely create or adjust even a single boss mob without going outside the manual?”

NaMe had heard through the news that WearSoft’s stock had plummeted.

What could have led the company to be highly rated all this time?

People were expecting them to be the market leader in the current virtual reality game sector, driving the future of the virtual reality industry system.

But if it were revealed that the inner workings were solely outsourced to a small team of ASI experts and that they were just managers, what then?

“Of course, the company wouldn’t run that simply, and it must have some level of technology, right?”

But public perception is frightening.

People do not consider the middle ground.

If someone thinks that World of Arseria was created entirely by WearSoft, one could also easily assume the opposite, and NaMe believed that a person of such a high position like the general manager would understand what she was trying to convey.

The assumption appeared to be validated as the most satisfying response of the ongoing conversation came from the general manager.

[…] We will look for additional alternative solutions, so I would appreciate it if you could trust us and wait for a while, Mr. NoName.”

“I can wait until tomorrow. That’s as long as I can be patient. Otherwise, I will spread everything you said today to the press.”