Chapter 122 : Chapter 122
Chapter 122
The transcendent beings of Soul Calibur were no different from humans.
The same went for both gods and demons.
Nepas of Destruction was simple and violent.
Morganes of the Plague was always cool-headed and rational. The character was based on an office worker who would push up his glasses while reading a document filled with numbers.
Agrio-s of Domination was a character who could not control his desires. Once he felt an interest in something, he had to satisfy it, and if he couldn't, he would lose control of himself and run rampant.
The same was true for Truma, Lubra, and Famia.
Famia had a gentle and warm personality, while Lubra was quite pessimistic. He was the type to work for the world but always with a cynical smile on his lips.
Truma was full of confidence in himself. He had no fear of failure and held the belief that he was always right.
Han Yura had made them that way.
The personalities of each character, created with complex code, were at this moment having a profound effect on Reinhardt.
“This is the result of the simulation. Do you see? Both the demons and the gods are all paying attention to Reinhardt. They’re each acting according to their own personalities.”
“Wow, this is….”
Team Leader Choi Ho-jun marveled as he looked at the results on the monitor screen.
“It’s real. Famia is just chuckling like everything is fine, and Lubra has the attitude that it won't change anything anyway.”
“The only god actively making a move is Truma.”
“It doesn’t seem much different on the demon side, does it?”
“It’s similar. Nepas of Destruction is just throwing a tantrum, and Morganes of the Plague is probably busy crunching his numbers.”
“But Agrio-s acted without being able to control his impulse. Because Reinhardt caught his interest.”
Team Leader Choi Ho-jun stared at the monitor for a long time.
He was from the marketing team.
He didn't know much about the internal structure of the game and was a person who had devoted all his efforts to somehow making Soul Calibur famous.
“Did you design this, Section Chief Han?”
“No.”
“So they just happened to end up like this on their own?”
“Yes. That would be the case. Just as it has been until now.”
“Things are taking a strange turn. This means we don't know how to move forward either. I mean Reinhardt, not us.”
Reinhardt was trapped in the game.
Choi Ho-jun could now believe that fact.
Reinhardt was not joking, nor was he role-playing a concept; he was just a pitiful modern man who had suddenly been transmigrated into a game.
The only ones who knew this fact were Han Yura and Choi Ho-jun.
They had a duty to help Reinhardt.
It wasn't something anyone had ordered, but it was a sense of purpose that had settled in their minds as if it were a matter of course.
“My advice has already missed the mark completely. It’s completely out of control. It’s a story I created, but the characters in there all have their own will.”
“Is it like artificial intelligence?”
“No, I just created the personalities. It means I crammed in code like, they exhibit certain behaviors in specific situations. Actually, the reason things turned out this way is….”
Han Yura pouted her lips with a troubled expression.
“It’s because of Reinhardt. It happened because the initial axis of the story was completely twisted. If it were a game, it could be controlled to some extent through things like quests or difficulty adjustments, you see?”
“That makes sense. Kill this. Go there. Don't go there. If you make requests like that, most people will listen.”
“But Reinhardt didn’t have that kind of guide.”
CLICK.
The post by [Reinhardt] appeared on the monitor screen.
It detailed his journey from the moment of his first transmigration to the present day.
“…It’s suffocating. If it were me, I would have died long ago.”
“Me too.”
The two now felt the weight contained in the posts.
It wasn't someone’s lighthearted prank, but the writings of a person facing a life-threatening crisis.
“What should we do?”
“We have to help. By any means necessary.”
“The release date is not far off. General Manager Kim Du-yeol isn't saying anything, but I have a feeling he's very angry.”
“The release?”
Han Yura asked back with a look of disbelief.
“You’re going to release the game when a person is trapped inside?”
“I also think it’s a difficult situation. But it’s already been announced, and even if we release it, we will continue to help Reinhardt….”
“What if more people disappear then? What if a second and third Reinhardt start pouring out?”
“…Excuse me?”
“Can you be sure? You’ve already had that experience yourself, Team Leader Choi. If you had clicked just once there, you would have been in the same situation. Of course, it’s not one hundred percent. Isn’t that right?”
“Uh, that’s….”
He hadn’t thought that far.
It was because the incident was so far beyond the scope of common sense that his thinking had become rigid.
“You’re right, Section Chief. I don’t think we should release this.”
“We can’t. All of our users might disappear. The Reinhardt Challenge was popular not long ago, and right now on the community, [Reinhardt] is monopolizing everyone’s attention, right?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
There was no telling what would happen if the game was released like this.
It meant it wouldn’t be surprising if, without exaggeration, half of the users disappeared from the world.
“Then what should we do about this.”
“I’ll go meet the president. I have to talk to him. That we have to postpone it even if we get flak from the users. And while I'm at it, I'll share what's happening now.”
“…Excuse me?”
Share that?
Choi Ho-jun asked back in surprise, but Han Yura was nonchalant.
“There’s more than enough evidence. You were the same way, weren't you, Team Leader Choi?”
He hadn't believed it.
He had dismissed it as a joke.
But from the moment he experienced it himself, Choi Ho-jun had no choice but to believe.
“…I was. The president will be the same.”
“He will be. Don’t worry about the release issue. I’ll handle it somehow.”
“I’ll be counting on you, Section Chief. But then, what kind of bet did Agrio-s and Truma make? What are the exact details?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that it’s related to Reinhardt.”
“Is that so even after running the simulation?”
“The amount of source material I can input is too limited. The results weren't even coming out until yesterday, right? It was thanks to adding the data shared from Reinhardt’s side that we got results like this.”
In the first place, it had deviated far from the planner’s intentions.
Choi Ho-jun, while understanding, asked again.
“But we can still make a guess, can’t we?”
“A few high-probability options did appear. Like breaking Reinhardt’s will, or recruiting him, or inducing him to perform a certain action.”
“Recruiting him is one thing, but what do you mean by breaking his will?”
“In a certain situation, for instance, a moment like this might come. A moment where he must choose between the safety of a city where tens of thousands of people live, and the life of an innocent little kid who knows nothing.”
For a moment, Choi Ho-jun’s jaw dropped.
“…And what choice he makes there.”
“It’s just a guess.”
“You don’t even know which is the right answer?”
“I don’t. For now, we have no choice but to share the information with Reinhardt. While hoping he makes a wise decision.”
In any case, Reinhardt had carried the story this far.
Trusting his judgment was the best they could do for now.
“I’m going to go see the president. I’ll contact you, so keep an eye on things.”
Han Yura clearly recognized her role.
Since she had left the matters of that world to Reinhardt, she had to carry out the tasks she had to do in reality.
***
Soul Calibur’s developer, Skylines.
The company started from a very humble place. It gradually grew in scale by developing cheap games, and at some point, it produced a masterpiece called Soul Calibur.
It was from then that they got a decent office.
The number of employees gradually increased, the number of users buying the game also increased, and at some point, they were able to draw an enthusiastic response from overseas as well.
And Han Yura had been with them through that entire process.
She was a sort of founding contributor and was also the person who had wielded the greatest influence on the birth of the game called Soul Calibur.
“Is the president in?”
“Yes. He was waiting for you.”
“For me? He was waiting?”
The secretary guarding the president’s office door opened it for her instead of answering.
Han Yura followed obediently with a puzzled look on her face.
President Min Hyung-joon.
She could see the nameplate on the desk, and then the face of the man sitting in the chair, smiling at her.
“Section Chief Han. I’ve been waiting.”
“For me? Why? I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Our General Manager Kim Du-yeol seems to be in a bad mood. You know his personality.”
General Manager Kim Du-yeol.
He was a man who did his best to handle his assigned tasks but hated it terribly when the rules he had established were broken.
“He dislikes me.”
“Let’s just say you two don’t quite match. He probably doesn't dislike you personally.”
“He dislikes me personally. He respects me professionally. He must have been displeased.
Since I interfered with the marketing team’s work.”
“He probably thinks his territory was invaded. That’s why I waited. Because you’re not the type to do something without a reason, Section Chief Han.”
Han Yura was a person who poured all her passion only into development.
She was someone who tapped on her keyboard day and night to release Soul Calibur and its expansion packs into the world in a perfect state.
Since he had known her from early on, President Min Hyung-joon had waited without pressing her.
Because the reason for all her actions would surely be related to Soul Calibur.
“I’m going to tell you a very strange story today. It might sound like I’m crazy.”
“I like those kinds of stories. Every time you say something like that, our company seems to get bigger.”
“The company might take a pretty big hit.”
“It’ll be temporary. As long as the game is fun, users will open their wallets. We’ve experienced that, haven’t we?”
“A person who was playing our game got sucked into it.”
Han Yura brought up the main point with the same tempo she had been speaking.
“Ah, if it’s about that, I’ve been watching with interest too. It was Reinhardt, right? I think you were in charge of Aslan, Section Chief Han.”
“It’s real. He really got sucked in.”
“It was always good to see you approaching it with such sincerity.”
“Are you free now? If not, clear your schedule. Because there’s a place we need to go right now.”
This kind of thing could never be believed unless one experienced it directly.
Min Hyung-joon, perhaps thinking it was a joke, chuckled and moved along with Han Yura.
They got in the car, and he entered the location Han Yura mentioned into the navigation system.
“What’s here? Could it be something like that? A surprise party to commemorate the release of an all-time-great expansion pack?”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
“I’m already looking forward to it….”
Han Yura was looking forward to it as well.
After driving for a long while, the two arrived in front of an old villa building.
“Here?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a unique place. But it has character.”
He couldn't afford to be so relaxed for much longer.
Under Han Yura’s guidance, President Min Hyung-joon went through the same procedure as Choi Ho-jun.
He opened the old front door and went inside, looked around, and sat in front of the computer with a playful expression.
“I knew it. It was Soul Calibur after all.”
Seeing the familiar game screen seemed to give him more conviction.
Next was the selection of a colleague.
It was Reinhardt, of course, and President Min Hyung-joon readily followed the instructions, asking what kind of prank they had prepared.
“Alright, reject. Hmm? The rejection was rejected?”
“Come out now.”
“Is that it? This prank is quite perplexing. What kind of intention is hidden here….”
There was still no sense of crisis.
And at the villa entrance.
When Han Yura passed through the old glass door and stepped outside, and Min Hyung-joon followed.
THUD-
President Min Hyung-joon finally looked at Han Yura with a dumbfounded expression.
“Huh?”