Chapter 95
For a moment, I couldn’t answer: Then, I slowly opened my mouth.
"I believe I am the one."
As far as I remembered, I was the only viewer talking to the Creator at that time.
Upon hearing my answer, CEO Cha muttered slowly.
"Ha.. fuck."
Suddenly becoming the target of a curse, I looked at CEO Cha feeling bewildered.
He wasn’t... the type of person to swear often, was he...?
I felt a surge of confusion, wondering if I had judged him based solely on my experiences within the game.
But putting that aside, my primary question was what I had actually done wrong.
Honestly, my only crime was answering diligently.
As I cautiously gauged his reaction, CEO Cha leaned back against the headrest again and spoke.
"Keep talking."
Is it really okay to keep talking? He’s not suddenly going to pull out the Great Sun Tathagata, is he?
Still, knowing CEO Cha’s personality, he wouldn’t recklessly harm me as long as I had utility.
Gathering my courage, I continued the conversation.
"CEO Cha, were you... watching the final broadcast as well?"
"I tended pathetically. Suddenly saying there were no more games."
To think CEO Cha had been there during the Creator’s final broadcast.
I knew he had played the Creator’s games along with me.
This was because Samra had told me before I entered the 3Clean.
"The suitable candidate who played the Creator’s games is the CEO of Pasung."
"The reason I prevented you from contacting the CEO of Pasung is also related to that. I am simply trying to choose the best path. I will not betray you, Mr. Han Goyo."
However, that was all Samra had told me at the time.
After that, things moved too quickly for there to be time for a more detailed explanation.
I expected that if I met CEO Cha, we would talk about the Creator, but I felt somewhat blindsided.
’I thought he’d make me sign the contract before bringing up the Creator.’
I had assumed that for someone like CEO Cha, whether I signed the contract or not would be far more important.
"You must have seen the chat from those weirdos too."
"The chat?"
When I asked back in confusion, CEO Cha replied as if stating the obvious.
"They were always saying bizarre things."
In the chat?
I searched through my memories.
Every time I watched the Creator’s broadcasts, everyone in the chat window was always happy...
[EndingdoneNowstopGameStopStopStop]
[Doesit hurt?? Blood?Wontstop???Ah?Hurt?It hurts??]
[JustdiedrightJustnowinfrontofmyeyesheadexplodeddiedright]
[Imsorrylmsonylmsony.]
IwillneverdoitagainPleaseletmelive]
[SavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSaveme]
Waiting for the Creator’s games...
[AnyoneisFineJustbringanyoneandletmeoutPlease]
[HeheheeheheeheeTheyalldiedNowitsmytumHeheheehee]
[CantexitNoexitNoNoNoNoWhyisthereNoGamelwanttoStop]
[Thisis NotA Game ThisisReallyMyBodyI amReallyDying]
...playing enjoyably?
As I recalled the memories, I felt my blood run cold.
Why didn’t I realize the chat window was strange?
Those were messages that were impossible to mistake for normal.
Yet, until now, I had never given it a second thought, regarding them as nothing more than ordinary chat.
Even though I knew I had to maintain my composure, I couldn’t hide my agitation.
CEO Cha stared straight into my trembling pupils and spoke again.
"I heard that you, Han Goyo, played the games starting two years ago and saw the final broadcast this year."
He gazed at me intently as he spoke.
"I started the games four years ago."
".....What?"
"And I played for about six months."
"Then... our timelines..."
"Don’t match at all."
For CEO Cha, the Creator’s final broadcast had been three and a half years ago.
My heart raced.
Once I accepted the premise that the ’timelines didn’t match’ and retraced my memories of the past four years, strange points began to flood back.
Thinking about it now, S2P was strange too.
Unlike other games, S2P forced a five-person party, so I had played matches with random users.
But for a fixed group of unspecified people to play with me every single time I logged in?
Especially for a single-developer indie game, not some major online title.
Unless they were being held captive in front of computers, it was impossible.
Yet at the time, I felt nothing unusual and simply focused on the gameplay.
’Just how does the timeline work?’
As I harbored deeper questions, a chilling realization struck me.
For the past two years, I had played the games the Creator gave me without rest.
However, calculating the number of games and the time I spent playing, it was absolutely impossible to achieve within two years.
The game I played the most was the one where CEO Cha appeared as an NPC; I played it a staggering thousand times.
Even estimating a minimum of four hours per playthrough, that’s 4,000 hours.
Even if I played 24 hours a day without sleep, it would take over 166 days just to play that one game a thousand times.
And I didn’t just play that one game.
The archive games the Creator provided me were in the triple digits, at a rough estimate.
Two years were woefully insufficient to thoroughly play through hundreds of games.
’No, in the first place, it makes no sense for a single developer to create hundreds of games.’
’No matter how much they are dot-art games.’
My heartbeat gradually accelerated.
Eventually, the thumping sound of my pulse seemed to echo in my ears.
What did the Creator do to me?
What... am l?
My breathing became shallow, and it grew difficult to breathe.
I felt like I shouldn’t think about this any further:
"Roasted Chestnut."
A soft voice called out to me.
A soft touch tapped my cheek. It was a movement as if to soothe me.
I gasped, inhaling sharply, and snapped back to my senses.
Then I saw CEO Cha, who was just about to press the nurse call button.
I murmured blankly to him.
"I’m okay..."
CEO Cha let out a scoff of disbelief and looked down at me.
I even thought it was a statement devoid of credibility.
Sitting back down in the chair, he looked down for a moment.
Then he let out a long sigh.
He looked as if he were suppressing a surge of temper.
Seeing him calm his anger after almost pressing the nurse call because of me felt strange.
This was the same CEO Cha who had ripped through the side of the TRA Administration building.
The fact that such a person had actually held back because I had coughed up blood and fainted felt incredibly awkward.
Even while talking in the hospital room, he had been remarkably docile for CEO Cha...
’Is this really CEO Cha? Well, seeing him wield the Great Sun Tathagata, it must be him.’ In the midst of this, a ding sound echoed.
[You believe it is not yet appropriate for you to recall the past.]
[This is because the young god is small and frail.]
[You wish to register new characters as soon as possible to grow as a god.]
[Would you like to register ’Seomun Chan’ and ’Mok Sae-hwa’?]
Thanks to the system window, my confused mind settled instantly.
I felt a flicker of anger and thought to myself.
’If you know something, just tell me.’
[Digest.]
I was briefly annoyed that it sent only a single word, but then I remembered a phrase the system window had sent previously.
[You believe that if you completely digest ■■■, you might be able to register ’Cha ■■’.]
I still didn’t know what I was supposed to ’digest.!’
However, it seemed to mean that it would take time to recover my distorted memories.
Pressing the system window wouldn’t yield any results.
I completely regained my composure.
"CEO Cha."
I spoke in a fairly calm voice.
"As you said, the timelines are different, but it seems we did play the same games. Could you tell me which games you played?"
CEO Cha listed the Creator’s games he had played.
Among them, the Trial I had played was not there.
’It’s probably a Trial that hasn’t hatched yet in reality.’
I had already expected that CEO Cha wouldn’t know the game I had played.
It was a bit lonely to be the only one remembering a thousand playthroughs, but since telling him would only make me look strange, I kept it quietly to myself.
He likely already thought I was a weirdo; there was no need to become even weirder.
I continued the conversation with CEO Cha.
I also heard about his playstyle; unlike me, he didn’t aim for every ending and simply cleared the games as quickly as possible.
He didn’t care if it was a normal ending rather than the true ending.
As long as he cleared it, he simply handed it back to the Creator, saying he was finished.
He said the Creator didn’t have much to say about that either.
Additionally, CEO Cha encountered far fewer real-life people appearing as NPCs during his play than I did.
Thanks to the games provided by the Creator, CEO Cha was able to establish Pasung with ease.
He found Mok Sae-hwa and Seomun Chan, who had been NPCs in the games, and founded Pasung with them, using his memories of the gameplay to clear the Trials.
That was the reason Pasung was able to grow so rapidly in its early stages.
And the Trials he had played in the games were currently all owned by Pasung.
"I tried tracking the Creator in my own way, but I failed completely."
"Is that when you were contacted by Samra?"
CEO Cha gave a light nod and answered.
"Samra said they’ve confirmed the Creator is a transcendent being from outside Earth."
An Outer God...
It was a concept that linked back to Call of the Void, where Dominic had stayed.
Thinking about it, the zombie virus in Deadzone and other instances felt similar to the Trials and reality.
Deciding that I would have to ask Samra for more details regarding the Outer God, I asked the part I was most curious about.
"Then, how did you come to play the Creator’s games in the first place?"
The CEO Cha I knew was absolutely not the type to play dot-graphic indie games or seek out a game developer’s broadcast.
I could tell just by hearing his playstyle.
He had no particular interest in the Creator’s games.
He had simply played them like homework whenever they were given to him.
I was genuinely curious as to why CEO Cha had ended up playing the Creator’s games.
However; CEO Cha had no intention of answering.
"Are you interrogating me now?"
"No.."
I immediately shrank back.
I had thought he was being unusually cooperative for CEO Cha, but it seemed I shouldn’t push any further.
But even if I stopped asking about the Creator, there was one thing I absolutely wanted to confirm.
I figured CEO Cha would answer this much.
"CEO Cha. Um... I’m sorry, but I’d like to ask one last thing."
opened my mouth cautiously.
"Is the reason you looked for me because of the Creator?"
CEO Cha, who had been speaking without hesitation until now, remained silent and stared at me.
The gaze lingered. I didn’t avoid his eyes and waited for the answer.
Finally, he spoke to me.
"Do you think that’s why?"
But it was a question, not an answer.
’How should I know?’
I couldn’t argue with CEO Cha to give me a proper answer, so I just grumbled internally, when he suddenly pulled the Great Sun Tathagata from his inventory.
"So, Han Goyo."
CEO Cha reached out and slammed the white sword into the floor.
"Are you going to sign with the TRA Administration?"