NOVEL NEXT Chapter 116
Non-Player IV
Let’s talk about something different for a moment.
Although the phenomenon of humans being tainted by the presence of anomalies is often expressed as 'having faith,' there is actually a much better term.
Bewitched.
Enchanted. Captivated.
If you look at the Hanja character for "Bewitched (魅)," it includes a ghost (鬼) inside. A mysterious attraction. An impulse. From this, the ancients sensed a ghost, that is, an anomaly.
They also warned countless times.
Each anomaly is different. Naturally, the words that describe the attraction of anomalies are innumerable.
All these characters mean enchantment.
This is the same as why I constantly use 'aliases' when calling upon an anomaly.
If an anomaly occupies a single character or name, it’s like giving the anomaly a 'home.' Thus, calling the name of an anomaly is akin to saying,
-Hey, ghost. Anomaly.
-This is your home. Come here.
As I emphasize again, the name of an anomaly should never be fixed. If you must call it, you should use a different name each time, and if you lack the knowledge and experience to do so, it's best not to call it from the start.
As the founder of the Library Society, I deliberately created multiple ways to call upon anomalies.
Take the Ten Legs, for example.
It was called by various aliases such as 'Crawling Baby Cthulhu,' 'Lord of Shadows,' 'Thorny Hell,' and 'Lurker.' Considering that the Ten Legs is not a mental anomaly but merely a physical force, it might have been an excessive precaution.
And what about the Outer God, Infinite Void?
I prepared a plethora of terms for humans, enough to overwhelm them: 'Infinite Hell,' 'School Ghost Stories,' 'Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts,' 'Hyakumonogatari,' 'Forbidden Four Characters,' 'Hyakki Yagyo,' 'Baekhwa (白化).' Going further, although seldom mentioned in anecdotes, 'Heraclitus’ Wreath,' 'Backrooms,' etc…
I provided more than enough naming options for humans.
Only in this way can anomalies be driven away by the pressure of the characters without nesting.
Today's story is the same.
When I started the story, I named the anomaly 'Online Game.' But by now, you can guess there’s a more appropriate name.
'Logout Game.'
For those who get bewitched by this anomaly, the outcome is an exit from reality.
-Anonymous: There’s no content in this trash game, ffs
-Anonymous: For real, I haven’t been logging in to games lately. Even dailies are a hassle…
-Anonymous: When will this game end?
-Anonymous: Looking for a level 40 party!! No NPC porters, please ㅠㅠ
-Anonymous: Since all the game fanatics died, there’s barely anyone left here lol
-Anonymous: Wow, why is this trash game’s forum still alive?
The period players logged out grew longer, and the number of users accessing SG Net steadily decreased.
The community was gradually becoming desolate.
There was one named member who consistently posted nonsense from beginning to end.
-OldManGoryeo: Today, the guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha.png
└ Anonymous: You still haven’t logged off? What level are you?
└ OldManGoryeo: This old man has been max level for a long time, so now I just decorate the guild house instead of running dungeons
└ Anonymous: Max level, damn
└ Anonymous: But how does an NPC perform the guild leader role? Is it a bug?
└ OldManGoryeo: Seeing that the game company doesn’t patch it, it doesn’t seem like a bug?
Sim Ah-ryeon.
While others were logging off the ‘game’ one by one, Sim Ah-ryeon continued.
Once she logged in, what she did was nothing significant.
“Sigh. Trash game… It’s already been two years without an update, so users keep quitting, ah…”
Complaining about the trash game.
“Guild leader! Look at this! [Coffee Beans]! Hehe. If you receive this item, your favorability goes up, right? Hehe. It’s a drop item with a very low chance from defeating Necromancer Liches, and I collected them all and brought them! Eii, eii. Rise, favorability, rise quickly…”
Obsessing over the favorability system that I couldn’t understand and showering gifts repeatedly.
“Ehehe, uhee. Uheehee…”
Catching slimes from the Han River and beating them in all sorts of ways.
Watching her, even I thought, 'Won’t she get tired of it?’ because of her monotonous play pattern.
Sim Ah-ryeon herself seemed to get tired of it. She used to log in every day, but over time, her login intervals became 1 day, 3 days, 7 days.
Even so, it was a steady login rate compared to other players.
In fact, not just players, but even NPCs were almost gone.
At most, there were Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess?
If you searched, Go Yuri might still be around, but there was no reason to invite danger.
In the end, the three of us—me, Noh Do-hwa, and the Saintess—members of the Regression Alliance, decided to live together by the Han River.
There was no point in maintaining the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps any longer, and we couldn't survive just staying in the aquarium mansion in Yongsan.
Most of all, the warmth of life was too sparse in this world. It was inevitable for the last NPCs, or rather survivors, to stick together.
“Hmm. It’s quiet…”
Noh Do-hwa breathed out as she drank her coffee.
“The anomalies are not causing any disturbances and are holed up in the dungeons. The awakeners are all petrified and not moving. When I heard the Undertaker experienced countless cycles, I wondered what it would be like to witness the end of the world… Was this the sight?”
“It’s rarely this quiet.”
We watched the river bask in the sunlight for a while.
“I’ll go ahead and experiment.”
The Saintess said.
“Pardon?”
“I’ll find out where the logged-out people disappeared to. Whether they fell into a state akin to death, or if, as the Undertaker speculated, they were dragged into the ‘Divine Realm’ of the outer god. I’ll log into the game and find out.”
“…It’ll be dangerous. Other awakeners only had the sense of returning to reality, so they weren’t particularly affected. But if you’re aware of the outer god and dive in, it’s unpredictable how it will react.”
“But we need information. Anyway, the Undertaker is considering the next cycle. Then it’s better to take on the risk and gain even a little information.”
“...…”
“As you pointed out, rashly plunging into the outer god's divine realm is unwise. It might reveal the Undertaker’s ability. So, I’ll take on the reconnaissance.”
It was a valid argument.
Normally, we wouldn’t have used a card like the Saintess just to perform a scout’s duty.
In the chessboard of our strategy, the Saintess was the King. An agent that should never be captured or revealed to the enemy.
However, there were no more awakeners for the Saintess to monitor, and there was no longer a need to perform for the constellations.
We took a gamble.
In the guild’s basement, the Saintess murmured softly.
“Status Window.”
“...…”
“...…”
Noh Do-hwa and I watched the Saintess.
“How is it?”
“…I can see my abilities. And my level. But the terms indicating the awakening ability are quite different.”
The Saintess was looking at the empty air before her, as if letters were written there.
“Do you see a logout button?”
“Logout button… Ah. Yes, here it is. It’s at the bottom of the menu.”
“Hmm.”
“I’ll press it now.”
At that moment.
The Saintess froze. Her movements literally stiffened. The heartbeat that had been throbbing in her chest, the sky-blue eyes’ gaze, and the water-colored hair fluttering in the river breeze all stopped.
Everything. Completely froze.
“……”
“Hmm.”
Noh Do-hwa reached out her hand. But her hand simply swiped through the air.
“It’s an unpleasant experience, even after experiencing it several times. Hmm. It’s like a mirage or illusion since you can see it but not touch it…”
“……”
“You said you named this anomaly the Logout Game? It seems keen on turning our world into fiction…”
I set the timer on my watch.
Ten seconds.
That was the agreed time with the Saintess. The first logout state would last exactly ten seconds before she would escape.
Ten seconds passed.
The Saintess didn’t move.
“...…”
“……”
Anticipating such an outcome, we had also agreed on a second timing of three minutes.
Two minutes and fifty seconds passed.
The Saintess still didn’t move.
Foreseeing such a situation, our third timing was――
“Undertaker.”
“Yes.”
“She’s dead.”
“...…”
“Watching a dead person for too long is not respectful to the deceased. There’s a chance she might return, so I’ll keep an eye here. Please go upstairs…”
I agreed with Noh Do-hwa’s words.
The river was bathed in light.
After calming my mind, I made two cups of coffee and went back to the basement. Noh Do-hwa’s body had frozen.
“...…”
I took one cup of coffee and went back upstairs. I never returned to the basement again.
The next day, a message appeared before my eyes.
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
[The Admin of the Infinite Metagame informs you that a serious bug was discovered and patched at around 3 PM yesterday.]
[We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our users. Thank you.]
Sometimes, as a regressor, I have such thoughts.
Maybe others treat life more lightly than I do, who spins the wheel endlessly.
In my mind that remembers everything, there are countless endings the Saintess met and countless scenes of Noh Do-hwa’s death.
My companions often overlooked how their deaths would be remembered by me.
‘I can’t die yet.’
In a world where I was left alone, where everyone had fallen into fiction but remained a reality only to me, I waited.
For the moment the outer god would reveal itself.
‘The world has almost entirely fallen into your hands. You must be eager to declare your ultimate victory. But there still exists someone who proves [This is not a game] in your void.’
That someone was me.
‘I must be a thorn in your side. You anomaly.’
To complete its void, it had to eliminate the impurity.
If the outer god could no longer bear it and threw off the game's mask to reveal its true form, if [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame] showed its true colors, I planned to see that appearance and then die.
Until then, I absolutely wouldn’t die. The regressor couldn't be taken lightly. Unlike Old Man Scho, who always ended his life like a molly fish, I had tenacity.
“Guild leader, have you been well? Haa. Real life has been so busy lately, it’s getting harder to log in... But I’ll visit whenever I think of it! Hehe.”
Sim Ah-ryeon’s login intervals rapidly increased.
Now it wasn’t strange for her to log in once a year, once every three years.
Talking to her, it seemed she wasn’t aware that it had been three years. She probably thought she was logging in after about three weeks.
‘The flow of time is different.’
Well, it was natural for time to become strange in the void. Even in Baekwha Girls' High, Cheon Yo-hwa didn’t think she had spent four years there.
I didn’t just sit idly and let the time pass.
I entered the dungeon, known among Korean users to be the most valuable, and hunted all the monsters.
After waiting for a moment, the monsters respawned, but I killed them all.
For 11 years.
Originally, the experience points should have gone to the players, but I, a mere NPC, had ruined it all.
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
[The Admin of the Infinite Metagame informs you that a serious bug was discovered and patched urgently.]
[We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our users. Thank you.]
Soon after, the dungeon disappeared.
“Hah.”
Did it mean there was no longer a need to maintain the pretense of the game’s structure?
I went on to destroy the dungeons across the Korean peninsula. Each time, ‘emergency patches’ were made, and the once meticulously crafted ‘game’ rapidly deteriorated.
The cities and villages where players once interacted met the same fate. Beautiful natural scenery, streets, grotesque monsters, all objects were destroyed.
Only the petrified players who were still logged out remained scattered around.
My rampage continued for 37 years.
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
At some point, even the game stopped changing the night and day cycle.
Even the Sun and the Earth had been bewitched by the outer god.
The Han River's flow stopped. The cicadas' summer sounds ceased. Even when monsters respawned, they stayed in place.
A bizarre world.
A broken game.
A virtual El Dorado where nothing is born and nothing dies.
However, the eternal memory within my brain and the blood flowing through my veins constantly reminded me that I was still alive.
Now, the real-time was only the memories within my brain, and the real space was only the volume of my body.
[Emergency Patch Notice.]
212 years passed.
Footnotes:
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