Chapter 467

“Ha ha ha… Is this what you call a happy ending? What a terrible mindset.”

Ester Merlin mumbled, lost in thought.

He had underestimated the game just because it was made by a 10-year-old girl.

He belatedly checked the game’s genre tags.

[#Open World #FPS #Action Adventure #Indie +More]

[#Mystery #Apocalypse]

Kaizen World was fundamentally a game that proclaimed the apocalypse genre.

Even when the man tried to capture Hibirisu, the witch who killed her, she just spoke incomprehensible words and left.

[It’s meaningless. Anyway, I’ll be forgotten in your memories.]

A happy ending is not a game over.

Therefore, he could still explore the map after clearing it.

Outside the village, the corpses of giant monsters were strewn about.

Occasionally, lively small monsters would charge in, but Merlin exploded their heads with his magic rifle.

“You cannot pass from here.”

The Lapavnik soldiers blocked the way.

He had reached the end of the map available to roam in the game.

And Ester Merlin was able to obtain a map from the soldiers.

His instincts as an old gamer strongly told him that he needed to climb the mountain, not the restricted area.

There, he could see Brooks, who guarded the grave of his daughter.

‘Are all the ones I’ve met doppelgangers? No, he did say he visited the village occasionally.’

He had cleared the game, but the more he explored the world, the more questions arose.

The identity of Hibirisu, the mass deaths of giant monsters, the witch’s notoriety, the twisted timeline.

Humans are creatures of curiosity.

He called up the save file again to uncover the truth.

In his second run, he decided to climb the mountain with Hibirisu to meet Brooks.

He encountered the witch along the way, but for some reason, she granted him a 7-day grace period.

The path was incredibly treacherous compared to his first run.

A relentless sandstorm hit, and the giant monsters that had been dead in the first run charged at him.

And somehow, he managed to reunite with his father, but the witch came and obliterated Hibirisu just like before.

Starting from the third run, Ester Merlin changed the game difficulty from hard to easy and focused on killing the witch.

He recorded the most efficient growth route and embarked on a mad hunt for monsters with Hibirisu for 7 days.

Around that time, he also grasped the mechanics of the magic rifle that the tutorial had failed to explain.

He loaded and fired an Arc Burst Scroll he had taken from a desert bandit, and a spear of lightning pierced the monster’s heart.

“Indeed, a genius is a genius. This has endless utility…! Only now does fighting feel satisfying!”

On day seven, the witch performed a truly bizarre battle that deviated far from common sense.

She unleashed 5-circle magic rarely seen in real life and shattered the ground with a single punch.

The giant monsters he had painstakingly tamed turned to stone and crumbled upon seeing the witch.

Merlin was ruthlessly defeated by the witch’s octa-casting.

“Children’s imaginations really are something I can’t keep up with.”

He focused again and attempted a rematch.

He no longer cared about the already passed bedtime.

Fully prepared, the fourth run began,

Tadadadang-!

[Cast: Plasma Cutter]

He successfully completed the witch hunt.

[▶Bad Ending 3: Shedding Skin, and Erosion]

Pachin-!

At that moment, a sound like shattering glass echoed from the sky.

But nothing appeared to happen at first glance.

From the witch’s shadow, Black Dragon Luri sprang out.

The young girl howled in front of the witch’s cold corpse.

[If you want to live, take Hibirisu and go immediately to the underground labyrinth of Mikasuela Desert. I deeply desire to kill you, but it’s your mother’s last wish.]

The girl transformed into a dragon, gathered the witch’s remains, and flew high into the sky.

The dragon’s decree manifested as text.

[May the day come when you repent for what you have done…]

That day, Merlin witnessed the true apocalypse.

The monsters melted en masse and turned into dark magic.

The magic drifted like smoke and began to gather into a single point in the sky.

The shape resembled that of a black hole.

“That’s dangerous. That’s really dangerous…!”

Merlin ran with all his might, checking the map.

Under the desert he had passed lay a massive underground labyrinth.

He descended the stairs for quite some time, unable to gauge its depth.

Kugugugung-!

Whether it was a large explosion on the surface, the entire labyrinth echoed loudly.

And the man discovered the witch’s hideout there.

“Could this be where the witch lived…?”

Hibirisu flipped through the pages of a book with an ant-like voice.

Ester Merlin gathered the notes left by the witch along with her.

[Can we neutralize the erosion by separating the dimensions? … X. Do not act based on probabilities.]

“Take a look at this, Merlin…! It’s a picture. The witch must have been a noble in the past.”

“Do they have photographs in this world?”

“Yes. People like us commoners can’t even dream of using them…”

Admiring the witch’s childhood photos, Merlin finally felt his vision clear.

“No wonder it felt strange. This game was a sequel!”

A sequel refers to a follow-up work that deals with a storyline that occurs after the original in movies or novels.

The world where the dangerous monsters were all found as corpses could no longer be called an apocalypse.

Then, Hibirisu was a fake protagonist.

He concluded that Kaizen World was a game that chronicled the tale of ‘Witch Esteria.’

“The fact that Hibirisu’s death is presented as a happy ending was solely from the witch’s perspective. Now I understand.”

All the puzzle pieces had been fitted together.

He took Hibirisu with him and went up to the surface.

“Gasp! What on earth happened? The sand desert… the village…!”

They were in the middle of a vast crater.

“It feels like I’m on the moon. It’s so horrendous.”

There was nothing to be found above the crater.

No people, no creatures.

Ding ding-

An alarm ringing at 5 AM in the real world sounded.

“Hibirisu, I will save you together with this world.”

The clue to the true ending was in sight.

Starting the fifth run under the terrible conditions of a time attack for work, Merlin began with a racing heart.

He kept yawning, but strangely, his mind was sharp.

* * *

Ester Merlin’s article submitted to Vox Media spread quickly, especially among American communities.

[Kaizen World Review: Highly advanced humanity should be able to make an omelet without breaking the eggs]

[Rating: ★★★★★]

He twisted the American saying “you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

This saying shares meaning with the Eastern phrase “the sacrifice of the few for the many.”

[Would you willingly accept it if the minority being sacrificed was you or someone you know? The game’s theme is quite profound and philosophical.]

Ester Merlin, known for his rigorous evaluations, had given a perfect score of 10 to an indie game after almost a year.

Looking at the detailed evaluation criteria, he had given all the scores 10 except for story and completion.

He utilized all his rhetorical knowledge to explain the excellence of the work along with diverse in-game screenshots.

[Lastly, I demand that No Name urgently add #SF to the Kaizen World tag. What SF enthusiasts wanted was not a clichéd space-themed shooting game; perhaps it was Kaizen World?]

Ester Merlin was also someone captivated by the anti-matter bullets showcased by Name in the true ending.

Even gamers who had looked on skeptically tried playing it once they saw the verifiable guarantee.

Three days later, the popularity of Kaizen World reached a point where a dedicated forum was opened in a large American community.

[Kaizen World Forum]

[Today’s KW evaluation.jpg]

-Kaizen World-

[Recent Evaluation – Overwhelmingly Positive (98%)]

[All Evaluations – Overwhelmingly Positive (97%)]

[Release Date – April 13, 2053]

[Developer – No Name]

-Reviews-

-Hibirisu is alive. (👍208)

-I played one round and got depressed. I played two rounds and got scared. I played three rounds and gained hope. And now I can say it. No Name is a god! (👍174)

-I do not recommend this for aspiring game developers. A masterpiece created solely with personal talent, bypassing the standard game development process. (👍140)

-Honestly, the witch is incredibly beautiful, right? (👍108)

-This work is excellent, but I’m more excited about the sequel. The vast world beyond the walls has me eager to know. (👍85)

-Did you all know that when you see the true ending, monsters become cute? (👍61)

The popularity in Korea goes without saying.

The unique game structure of ‘Happy Ending → Bad Ending → True Ending’ was almost forced.

Above all, it was remarkable that a game made by Name as a simple school project was gaining worldwide popularity, prompting many streamers to join in.

[Han Yong-chul]

[Kaizen World – I must save it;;]

[Broadcast Time – 3:43:28]

[Viewers – 28409]

“Wait, I don’t have a turn! Why do they keep attacking, and I have to keep running away? Aaaahhh!”

-HAHAHAHAHAHA

-Their monsters are pretty strong lol

-You could just take out several medium ones, but you’re going for a giant one lol

-You tried to save time, and now it’s going to end up wasting time, right?

-Where did Hibirisu go? I can’t see her.

-Not trusting your allies keeps you away lol.

-Yong-chul, forget about hardcore. Just lower the difficulty to normal.

-A 20m monster just respawned, but I absolutely can’t give up.

Han Yong-chul, laying a foundation to confront the witch.

The stronger the monsters, the more rewards and experience they provide.

Moreover, since the size of the defeated monster is recorded in the Hall of Fame, hunting giant monsters was a necessary task for users.

[SimSimMan]

[Kaizen World – Saving Private Hibirisu]

[Broadcast Time – 6:35:20]

[Viewers – 6018]

“Huh? What’s wrong? Why is it so empty? Did we teleport?”

-????

-Whoa

-Where did the entire desert go?

-Open World deleted joke lol

-You did it; you killed it!

Streamers experiencing erosion denied the reality unfolding before their eyes.

A region spanning several kilometers had completely vanished, leaving nothing behind.

[Daltori]

[Kaizen World – Hibirisu, take care~~!]

[Broadcast Time – 8:13:32]

[Viewers – 9324]

[I’m sorry. I’m sorry for forgetting our daughter. It has all been my fault from start to finish. Leaving you alone in the village… it’s all my fault.]

[Sniff… I should have hidden well, just as you told me…]

“Ugh… sniff… thank goodness we did it!”

-Daltori! Daltori! Daltori! Daltori!

-I believed in the witch!

-Is that really anti-matter weaponry at the level of national power? Daltori is truly a legend…

-I was really moved when she did octa-casting.

-Wow, I’m getting emotional tooㅠㅠ

-So touching.

-ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Dadㅠㅠㅠ

-Happiness after devastation… this really is a delicacy…

-Now I’m going in with Hibirisu and the monsters~~

The streamer who had seen the true ending unlocked the monster Pokémon content.

Since small monsters were not affected by the death of erosion, there was an obligation to tame them.

The Kaizen World wave that blew through Twish.

Name had their first collaboration with co-composer Judex.

[No Name / Judex Ch.]

[Just Chatting – Kaizen World BGM Medley]

[Broadcast Time – 0:28:23]

[Viewers – 59103]

[‘Yejis Girl’ donated 10,000 won!]

-While everyone is busy saving the world, am I right to be playing the flute alone? (I really don’t know)

Pillilili-

Upon receiving the donation, Name tilted her head while playing the flute.

“I’ll be cheering hard with my sister Judex from the back. Aja Aja fighting!”

The voice of Name shouting encouragement trailed off weakly.