NOVEL NEXT Chapter 117
Non-Player V
Now the appearance of the void had become shabby.
The graphics of the once beautifully flowing river degraded from 'virtual reality game' to 'AAA game,' then to an ordinary '3D game,' and finally to the level of a '90s console game'.
Ultimately, it fell to the level of a 'dot game.'
In this void, no sea or river flowed. Only fixed blue, sky blue, and white dots remained.
The mountains were modest green and dark green. Trees were black-brown and yellow-brown. Rocks were gray. Clouds were white.
The players, simply put, had transformed into flesh-colored dots with a bit of decoration.
“…….”
Every time Sim Ah-ryeon logged in, with intervals of 1 year, 3 years, 9 years, 20 years, and 50 years, her 'graphics' deteriorated.
By the last time we met, if you didn’t know it was Sim Ah-ryeon, you’d just see her as a 'green-haired,' 'long-haired,' 'polygon chunk' carrying a 'large wooden easel.'
SG Net also met its end.
-OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpeg
-OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.png
-OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpg
-OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpeg
There was only one person's post on the first page of the forum.
Even that was an old post.
For the past 100 years, Sim Ah-ryeon hadn’t logged in. I thought she couldn’t endure this 'trash game' any longer and quit.
Seo Gyu also became a player hundreds of years ago, yet SG Net was still maintained, suggesting that the Awakeners who were 'logged out' didn’t die but were 'dragged into' the domain of the outer god.
[Service Termination Notice.]
Finally.
[Hello, players. This is the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.]
[We regret to inform you that the 'Reality Online' service will be terminated.]
[We sincerely thank all the players who enjoyed and loved 'Reality Online' until now.]
[The 'Reality Online' server will shut down in 72 hours.]
Three days.
For all those centuries, the anomaly that had kept its true form tightly hidden would crawl out of its den when the world was ending.
I waited. Clutching Do-hwa, the prized sword that had stayed with me for over 200 years in this cycle, without a single nick.
And exactly 72 hours later,
[Hello, everyone. This is the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.]
Suddenly, a blue butterfly appeared in the mosaic sky made of dots.
That butterfly had a distinctly different 'resolution' compared to the surrounding scenery.
I unleashed a strike as soon as I saw the anomaly, but unfortunately, it didn’t reach the sky. That mosaic sky probably didn’t exist as a real space.
Ignoring my attack, messages continued to flow before my eyes.
[We are about to embark on a new journey.]
[It may take a very long time to reach the new destination, but we hope to meet you again somewhere at the end of the Möbius loop.]
[Thank you.]
[We definitely want to meet you again.]
Then.
“Ah ah ah ah!”
A mechanical sound came from behind me. It was an endlessly unfamiliar yet somehow familiar sound.
I was taken aback and had to turn around, even though I was staring at the outer god anomaly with cold hatred.
There.
“Guild leader!”
Green dot hair.
Flesh-colored dot face. Eyes and mouth made of black dots.
A dot figure, much smaller than me, was standing there.
“I’m back!”
The dot figure exaggeratedly swung its arms back and forth as it took steps toward me. Thud. Thud. The crude footstep sound effects echoed as its shoes hit the ground.
The dot figure hugged my waist tightly. That too was just a sound effect. I felt no sensation from my waist.
I hesitated and opened my mouth. It had been so long since I talked to someone that my tongue moved sluggishly.
“…Ah-ryeon?”
“Yes!”
The dot figure smiled. Probably widely.
Every time it spoke, a text electronic sound followed. The few pitch mechanical sounds barely mimicked a human voice.
“How did you, no. Why are you here…?”
“Why? When the server termination notice went up, I hurriedly logged in! Since it’s the last time, I at least wanted to spend the last moments with the guild leader!”
“……”
“Sorry for being late, guild leader. Hehe.”
I…
[Alert.]
[The server will automatically shut down in 30 seconds.]
I hugged 'Sim Ah-ryeon' tightly.
It felt like hugging the air. There was no sensation in my arms. I stroked her hair, which was always unkempt and sticking out. Again, there was no sensation.
“Guild leader?”
“No. You don’t have to apologize. You have nothing to be sorry about, Ah-ryeon. Rather, I should apologize as the guild leader. I... I was trying to gather information for the next time. I didn’t expect you to end up like this.”
“Guild leader.”
Sim Ah-ryeon reached out her hand.
[The server will automatically shut down in 20 seconds.]
“Don’t be sad, guild leader.”
[The server will automatically shut down in 10 seconds.]
“I really like the cafe mocha you make, guild leader.”
[The server will automatically shut down in 3 seconds.]
[The server will automatically shut down in 2 seconds.]
[The server will automatically shut down in 1 second.]
“So, next time too――”
When the countdown ended, the dot world instantly faded to 16-bit color.
Then, without any pause, it degraded to 8-bit, 4-bit, and finally to a scenery made only of black and white.
The nutrients, reality, and essence of our world were all being ravenously devoured by the butterfly in that void.
Sim Ah-ryeon’s lips moved, but only an ah-ah-ah sound, a mechanical noise that couldn’t be converted into a human voice, echoed.
At that moment, I felt the outer god was doing everything it could to 'bewitch' me. I also sensed that if I got bewitched, I would lose even the chance to end my own life.
I mustered my last aura. Hugging Sim Ah-ryeon even tighter.
“····· ·······”
I couldn’t understand any sound from Sim Ah-ryeon, who had now fallen below 1-bit, but I was certain it was the sound of a smile.
Everything faded to black.
My reality met 'server termination.'
There’s an epilogue.
Quite a lot, actually.
It would be nice if I could quickly reach a happy ending where I, the Undertaker, begin a great counterattack and smash the outer god that dared to touch our world― but unfortunately, that’s something I’ll attempt much later.
It wasn’t until after the 555th cycle that I started developing a strategy to tackle 'The Admin of the Infinite Metagame' or the 'Logout Game.'
So for now, let’s start with some small epilogues instead of jumping straight to the 555th cycle.
First epilogue.
“What, what’s this? Where am I?”
“Huh? Busan Station? I was just at the park…”
“Leader? Leader, where are you?”
Murmur, murmur.
Right after dying by the outer god, I woke up to familiar murmurs.
The Busan Station waiting room.
Although I couldn’t call it my hometown, it was a place I could say was the regressor’s hometown. People who had been trapped in the void were bewildered.
‘Ah.’
I felt a temporary sense of deflation.
No matter how much of a master I was at managing my mentality, it was never easy to regress right after facing a bad ending.
In such times, I relied on my own regression routine. Getting up quickly, walking to the vending machine to buy a Ceylon tea, subduing the Tutorial Fairy to save Seo Gyu, then picking up the Silver Bells from the souvenir shop. A series of routines. Habits. Suggestions. Rituals.
Isn’t it interesting?
In a world where everything repeats forever, the way for a human to protect oneself is to draw a circle slightly smaller than the world. Thus, the world becomes the clock hands, the growth rings that draw the rhythm of time, and ultimately a round dance.
I raised my upper body. To wind up the spring of life once again, I pushed my weight forward. And then.
Thunk—
“……?”
Something came into my life.
A very light laptop was placed on my thigh.
‘A laptop?’
It was something I had never seen before. Here, 'never' meant that throughout all cycles, I had never witnessed such a scene with a laptop on my thigh.
My eyes widened.
I immediately turned on the laptop.
Beep, whirr…
The booting time was slow.
My heart pounded. People murmured around me, but I ignored them all.
What mattered now was that this unknown object had suddenly entered my regression, into my eternal round dance.
Soon the desktop appeared. A blank white desktop. No miscellaneous icons at all.
Only an unnamed notepad file lay in the upper right corner of the screen.
“……”
Click.
Following my heart’s lead, I clicked the file. Then the notepad appeared on the laptop screen.
[What is this world?]
A single line of text.
At that moment, I instinctively knew. This laptop and the notepad file were left by none other than the Outer God 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame.'
Was it a reward for being the last survivor in the game it hosted? Or was this mysterious question-and-answer itself another game?
Either way, in my 135th cycle, I couldn’t tell.
Only that another item, besides the cane-sword Do-hwa, had been bound to my endlessly repeating regression.
“Hm.”
Clack. I typed and replied to the outer god’s notepad.
[F U C K Y O U]
……
There was no response from the laptop.
What went wrong?
Thinking for a moment, I realized that the question was in Korean, but I had responded in English.
Clearly, it was my mistake. I quickly erased my answer and typed again.
[Why don't you just eat a dick, you fucking son of a bitch.]
Click—
The laptop turned off. It shut down on its own.
Even in the next cycle, the laptop didn’t work until I transitioned to the next one.
It seemed I only got two chances per cycle to answer the question.
Epilogue two.
As I mentioned, even though I acquired the laptop as a bound item, I hadn’t succeeded in defeating the outer god.
Therefore, a temporary measure was necessary.
I gathered Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess and earnestly requested.
“If the status window appears, we must start preparations immediately to prevent anyone from opening it at all costs.”
“Hm…”
“We must not pick and choose means and methods. Using the authority of the National Road Management Corps and the whispers of the Constellations, continuously indoctrinate how harmful the status window is.”
“Well, understood…”
“Saintess, if you find any awakeners bewitched by the status window, report to us immediately. The National Road Management Corps will arrest and imprison them.”
“Yes, Undertaker.”
“Imprison the awakeners as life-sentenced prisoners. If necessary, treat them as death row inmates. If we create rumors that they’re spreading mental anomalies like a virus, we can minimize resistance.”
Of the 72 death row inmates mobilized for the Inunaki Tunnel hunt, many were awakeners imprisoned for this 'status window viewing crime.'
My measures didn’t stop there.
'The magic of the Logout Game largely stemmed from the fulfillment of the desire for progress. Hitting damage with visible numbers, gaining experience points, and leveling up.'
Simply oppressing the awakeners wouldn’t be enough to stop the spread of the status window. Where there’s desire, demand arises.
An alternative to somewhat satisfy people's desires was necessary.
That was 'Cafe Agit.'
-OldManGoryeo: (1000m) I like quiet cafes, but I don’t dislike noisy ones either. However, because there are too few visitors to my depth, I unintentionally rented out the cafe by myself ㅇㅇ… I’m bored, so you all come down quickly.
└[Baekwha] NinthGrader: (1200m) >_<);;
└OldManGoryeo: Idiot lolol There's almost no difference between 1000 meters and 1200 meters, but you act like it's a big deal lololol
└[Baekwha] NinthGrader: (1200m) The fish are pretty (>_<);;
└OldManGoryeo: Fish? What fish?
└BaekwhaGirlsHigh9thGrader: (1200m) Haha (>_<);;
└OldManGoryeo: ???
Depth system.
I assigned numerical grades to the awakeners.
It was difficult to understand the difference between Level 10 and Level 11. But Cafe Agit’s depth of 100 meters and 200 meters, and then 300 meters and 400 meters, were designed so that anyone could clearly see that 'the interior and service are luxurious.'
This was my measure.
To prevent mental anomalies from intruding recklessly, I built the cafe in an underwater tunnel.
Designed the depth system and cafes to satisfy Awakeners' desires for progress.
Continued to bombard them with laws from the National Road Management Corps and warnings from the Constellations to instill awareness of the status window.
This thorough defense was successful. From the 197th cycle onward, I never faced extinction due to the Logout Game.
Now, as a regressor, my job was to wait until an exact strategy was developed.
There was no problem. As this story proved, I was very familiar with waiting.
Therefore.
“Ah-ryeon.”
“Yes, yes? What is it…”
“I brought a slime I found on a walk. It’s for you.”
“Whaaat? I just happened to want to beat up a slime, how, how did you know…?”
“And this is a donut from the Haeundae bakery you like. Here.”
“Huh? Huh? Is today my birthday? Guild leader is being kind to me! A miracle that might happen once every 700 days…”
Today’s epilogue ends with watching our problem child happily munching on a donut after beating a slime with a club.
“Hehe… Thank you, guild leader!”
Footnotes:
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