Chapter 237

Slurp!

The man who left a diligent “advice” after making a rash choice that led to his suffering quickly finished his noodles.

Even skimming the community, whose level of activity made the page scroll with each refresh, he couldn’t help notice the usual chatter with players discussing hidden strategies or secret routes was missing.

When he realized that Rose had not written anything new recently, he made a disappointed click of his tongue.

One might criticize him for using an actual social chat app instead. However, they were still competitors after all, both striving for the event prize. Communicating outside the community felt strangely inappropriate, almost too friendly.

And if the other party thought the same way, no one suggested improving this “indifferently commenting under each other’s posts” communication method.

Then, what should he do now?

Simple. First, he needed to verify the potentially pivotal discovery he made yesterday.

“Alright… Alright.”

He opened one window on the internet, ready to record the event with a low-quality recorder in case something unexpected happened before he could read or listen to everything. Then, he started the game.

While praised for its coding optimization, Neo Heaven Prime had high system requirements. If he had too many applications running, it might lag at crucial moments—oh, how terrible.

Skipping the opening logo of Chaos Point’s dev team, which had become more than familiar, he went directly to the Load menu and started a game with the saved data ‘Karmatest023.’

The save point was just before the Black Market scenario.

What he wanted to check was the special stats only visible at the fortune teller’s, namely Karma and Affection scores, and specific character relationships.

Ding, Bang!! Crashgaagaaath—!!

– Ceci est absurde! You ignorant brat who doesn’t even know this much…!!

Speed-running infiltration sections or grunt-clearing parts, he breezed through. Skipping with triggers, he fought a boss already a hundred times, almost casually.

The periodic audio shockwave pattern was handled with a pre-installed combat enhancement drug, and he hid during moments when the cyberspace interface twisted to wait for recovery.

The reinforcement waves of Houndroids, assault drones, and underground market guards were dealt with using the mines placed at spawn points. After all, this save was specifically designed with exact calculations, so there would be no errors.

… Unless he missed completely while aiming, it would be a different story, but still, whatever.

– How frustrating… When I still have unbroken vows… –

The protagonist character, despite his annoying nature, managed to secure some benefits.

“Haa…!”

He just chose a random option and moved past the negotiations with the Black Market that followed. There was no intention to overwrite this save data. More importantly, what mattered was the dialogue response he’d get after returning for free conversation post-scenario.

– …You killed him? Leonard??

The girl, unable to recover her shaken pupils, blankly repeated the question, somewhere lost in thought.

The irreplaceable zero-tier back-up, the final barrier against a bad ending, the coal mine canary—why does she become ten times more terrifying as an enemy?—this sub-heroine character known by various nicknames and terms.

Anastasia Valentine continued to mutter with trembling voice.

– I… I’m sorry, it was my mistake. I didn’t expect you to move so blindly without a word. I would have told you… no, the problem that was already fated to happen eventually…

“…”

He listened carefully to the disorganized, broken words that slipped out amidst shadowy expressions. He even noted down any critical terms that pertained to fate or anything else that seemed significant.

This was now a well-known mistake among the community. If Anastasia’s advice to inform her when dealing with market negotiations or conflicts was disregarded, it triggered a negative event.

The effects aren’t visibly shown, but the Karma and Affection likely dropped about -50, seriously damaging the game conditions. If one had been playing recklessly till now, this could have even caused her departure or worse.

“…Okay. Next.”

It wasn’t a pleasant sight seeing Anastasia, who was frequently chosen as everyone’s favorite character, staring lifelessly at the monitor, but there was no other choice.

He was almost certain that the answer to unraveling this frustrating maze lay with her.

Gulped the cold water he fetched from the fridge and, after taking a deep breath, loaded the ‘Affectiontest042’ save.

If this entry was allowed into the battle, the infamously grueling combat with Leonar would pale in difficulty comparison.

So, here’s the hypothesis he constructed based on the game Neo Heaven Prime and also considering reality.

Except for some characters requiring recruitment for the evil path, the majority of characters in the early-middle stages, and those romance-able, lower their affection if the player does something stupid. Usually, this would also lower karma.

But karma and affection are separate entities.

And the game tends to weigh every choice heavily. Karma rarely sways significantly to one extreme easily.

As if to suggest all characters are complex, if karma hits around +300 due to an excessively righteous protagonist, a penalty kicks in during missions—killing enemies causes karma to drop, keeping everything balanced.

Similarly, someone who commits a massacre down to -400… such as a civilian genocide would receive standing ovations for merely picking up trash, gaining slight karma recovery.

Lastly, Anastasia Valentine was a character easily defined as unique.

Hence the Western players’ nickname, “Master Mind,” or Japanese jokes attaching her ASCII art and cryptic remarks like “Isn’t all this from clues I’ve given?”

In summary, a convenient entity, almost the only in-game guide with superior performance, it’s hard not to like the Valentine sister.

So, let’s combine these complex, intricate game mechanics with the current ongoing challenge.

With user numbers breaking ceilings worldwide, how can anyone not stumble upon clues? There are fanatics who update the wiki pages for items and quest branches alone!

“It’s absurd!”

It indicates a condition that doesn’t make sense through normal methods. It has to involve unconventional actions. For example, attempting scenarios without essential teammates.

Or obtaining information counter to the game’s known data, more than anyone else.

The condition known for antagonizing Anastasia involved maintaining Karma below -200 while keeping contact data or her within the ally roster during a weeklong period.

Especially considering the conclusion dialogue in complete darkness after her death where she says, “It’s a good thing. I don’t feel any guilt clearing filth like you.”

Except for the one fool who immerses so deeply in Neo Heaven Prime that they meticulously analyze every character dialogue.

Eh? Isn’t the ally roster expulsion triggered by affection hitting the bottom, separate from Karma?

What happens if Karma is kept as positive as possible while specifically lowering Anastasia’s affection then?

…Here lay the answer.

“Wow, crap. Wow seriously. Anastasia, can you please ease up with the trolling??”

Bullets rain from all sides as her soldiers overwhelm the area.

It’s hard to distinguish whether it’s a rhythm game or an open-world FPS RPG with so many red circles drawn on the floor.

Where? The ground. And what does it mean? Well, the targets indicate bombardment zones, so move if you don’t want to die!

“Arghhhhh!!”

Incredibly, he overcame the ultimate reaction speed test with relentless practice and determination.

1 phase… 2 phases… finally 3 phases.

The notorious boss battle was extremely challenging, but there were insufficient preparations due to other conditions and combat peculiarities.

Not only did he attempt countless times, at times he also desperately pleaded with the monitor, relying on pure luck.

But the payoff was immense. To the point of overflowing.

An entirely new dialogue and scene never seen even in comparison with Haven Wiki, and Anastasia personally handed an unprecedented item.

[Dimension Rift Interference Device Blueprint]

“Success… Could this be it?! What nonsense is this? This is clearly the only answer!!”

He was elated.

Not just because he took the lead in a developer-hosted event, but also because he felt he had taken a step closer to uncovering the secrets everyone was struggling with.

Most importantly, it felt like he held an unchanging certificate proving he was the most obsessed with Neo Heaven Prime.

Thus, the man spent every moment awake and sacrificed sleep while earnestly dedicating himself to gameplay.

He even custom-built his character manually this time after a long break from default presets, nearly this entire week.

As a result…

“Huh? Eeek!?”

Clang!!

In a dimly lit alley untouched by main-road lighting.

A man inexplicably appeared out of thin air, landing near the ground.

More specifically, falling into a large green garbage bin, filled with packages of stubborn material.

Despite the high fall, luckily landing in a less clean but soft cushion, he had no time to thank his stars. Besides the severe impact from not properly positioning his landing, he couldn’t believe the existence of such an eerie street near his home.

“Cough, splutter splutter!”

Ignoring all sorts of unidentifiable grime clinging to his clothes, he painfully coughed out the agony in his chest and barely crawled out.

His memory was jumbled, his whole body hurt terribly, his nose felt blocked, and the air smelled pungent.

He needed help. Even though society might be harsh today, surely someone would notice when he crawls on the street in a supposedly well-maintained South Korea.

But as he barely crawled toward light out of the dark alley, passersby continued walking by without a care for him.

The lingering gazes were… sticky and dangerous.

Or, is Korea this merciless to a young man like him? It seems much harsher than expected. Despite not paying much tax, he fulfilled national duties seriously and studied decently—well.

Suppressing feelings of injustice, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve and vigorously rubbed them.

At first, he thought everyone was just too busy to rescue him or even bother asking how he was, but as soon as his vision began to clear, he realized he was no longer in familiar surroundings.

The oppressive atmosphere, the green light from the central power plant reflecting onto various buildings and structures, dimly dyeing the sky lime green, the suffocating air, and the overwhelming neon lights stealing sight.

“Huh… Eh?”

It was the day Neo Haven gained another illegal entrant.