novelraw Chapter 2 : The World I Created (2)
Chapter 2 : The World I Created (2)
Chapter 2 - The World I Created (2)
Thwack! Thwack!
Lee Taebaek was getting beaten with clubs by the guards. This was the price he had to pay for daring to spew vulgarities in a sacred courtroom.
Since Lee Taebaek was a death row inmate who had already received the highest possible sentence, there was no point in adding to his prison term. So, he was paying the price with his body instead.
It hurts like hell, goddammit.
“How dare you spout such bullshit in a sacred courtroom! Think you can run wild just because you're a death row inmate?!”
“You think the higher-ups will even bat an eye if a reactionary bastard like you dies before the execution? Whether we beat you to death or starve you to death right here, the city officials couldn't give a damn!”
“Guh… Ughh.”
My whole body screamed in pain. I curled into a ball, protecting the back of my head with both hands.
It's a pathetic pose, like a pill bug, but let's try to get a grasp of the situation, Lee Taebaek.
'These guys absolutely cannot kill me.'
I was certain of this one thing. If they did, they would be the ones on the execution block.
This world is an insane city that frames innocent people for the 'Crime of National Disturbance' and sends them to the electric chair.
This place, Lake City, the backdrop for this stage, is a world overflowing with cold chrome and plastic. It's a mad world where human dignity has dried up, and the air went beyond polluted to outright rotten a long time ago.
The people living in a city like this couldn't possibly be sane. This was even truer for those of high status. After all, a corrupt upper class is an essential element for a game's narrative.
High-ranking officials with perverted tastes spectate the executions. They'll enjoy their disgusting little pastime, laughing over glasses of champagne.
What if their toy, Lee Taebaek, dies before he can be fried in the electric chair? Whoever deprives them of their fun will be sent straight to the electric chair.
These bastards know that too, which is why they're avoiding my head and solar plexus as they beat me.
I had a moment of regret.
That if I'd known it would come to this, I should've just made a relaxing game like Stardew Valley.
Taebaek had once teased the adjacent healing-game department, calling their work child's play...
…CRACK!
A club struck his shin. The impact was solid. His eyes flew wide open.
“Ah.”
It hit the bone.
'Uwaaaaaaaagh!'
I bit the inside of my cheek hard, stifling a scream. Normally, one hit like that would have knocked me out, but for some reason, my body had become tougher.
Is it because I'm in a game?
'I don't need this kind of shitty game mechanic!'
A moment later, Lee Taebaek twitched convulsively.
“Hah… Hah……”
The two guards wiped sweat from their brows with their sleeves. One of them spat towards the sprawled-out form of Lee Taebaek.
“You've got a week until your execution, right? We'll be hanging around until then, so we'll be seeing a lot of you.”
The iron door shut. The realms of heaven and hell were split apart.
“For your information, just like the electric chair, 200,000 volts of high-voltage current run through these bars, little Taebaek.”
Just before leaving, one of the guards sneered at Lee Taebaek. He had a weak, sleazy grin on his face.
“If you happen to touch them, your flesh will melt right off. I'm only telling you this because if you become a cripple with useless hands, we'll be the ones stuck taking care of you.”
“Don't touch them, not even in your sleep. Not that it matters, since your whole body will be fried to a crisp in a few days anyway!”
They left, leaving Lee Taebaek sprawled on the floor. A short while after their footsteps faded away, he groaned, rubbing his forehead.
Scrape.
With his free hand, he clawed at the floor, his fingernails scraping the concrete. Between the strands of his jet-black hair, his eyes flashed with a crimson glint.
“I will… pay you back more than I received.”
But there's something I need to do before that.
That's right.
I have to plan my escape.
......
Think carefully, Lee Taebaek.
His eyelids were swollen, but through the narrow slits, his pupils shone with a calm light.
It's true that when faced with a situation so unreal it feels distant, a person can become surprisingly calm.
'First, this body's identity.'
He crossed his arms and racked his brain. Was there ever a named NPC who was a death row inmate? No. 99% of all death row prisoners ended up as dew on the execution ground.
The place where Lee Taebaek was imprisoned was called the Neuro-prison. It was an iron fortress the city government boasted was absolutely inescapable. It was, in fact, a well-founded confidence. Even from Taebaek's point of view, the security was so ridiculously tight that he could confidently say escape was impossible.
This Neuro-prison was the Avici Hell that the city government had built on Earth. However, there is an exception to every rule. It wasn't that the Neuro-prison had never had a single escapee.
There was an escapee.
Just one.
Let's hypothesize. Is this body I've possessed his? Probably not. For starters, the age is wrong.
That man was in his mid-thirties when he attempted his escape. This body, on the other hand, is in its mid-twenties at best. Most importantly, that man was serving a life sentence, not on death row.
“How enviable.”
Lee Taebaek sighed and leaned sideways against the wall, cooling his throbbing head on the cold stone.
'It seems pretty pointless to identify who this body belonged to.'
Even though he was Lee Taebaek, one of this world's creators, it was impossible for him to know everything.
“The important thing is that if I don't escape from here, I'm going to become a human barbecue.”
Lee Taebaek stared at a corner of the cell. A spider was encasing its prey like a mummy, a scene that seemed to perfectly mirror his own predicament.
His mind in turmoil, Lee Taebaek chewed nervously on his fingernails.
His intuition rang an alarm.
It told him that if he died here, it would truly be the end.
It was in that instant.
A jolt of insight flashed through his mind.
Why didn't I think of that?
Lee Taebaek moistened his chapped lips with his tongue and shouted with all his might.
“Status Window!”
“......”
“Stat Window!”
“......”
“You fucking bastard!”
Mocking his desperation, his shouts bounced off the walls, ceiling, and bars, scattering into empty echoes.
'Damn it. Of course.'
He was an idiot for expecting something like a status window. The moment he possessed the body of a death row inmate, his shitty fate was sealed.
“What's the point of logging in with Operator Mode...”
“...when reality is a bottomless abyss untouched by a single ray of light.” No escape route was visible. Just as Lee Taebaek was lamenting his circumstances with a gloomy look...
[Keyword 'Operator Mode' confirmed.]
[Large amount of information. Processing will be delayed.]
[Estimated time remaining... 60, 59, 58, 57 seconds.]
“Huh? Wh-What?”
As Taebaek unconsciously reached out to touch the words that had suddenly appeared before his eyes...
[Information processing complete.]
[Activating 'Operator-Exclusive System'.]
Time froze.
......
What is the essential requirement for a highly-rated game?
Game balance.
Games with immense freedom, games with graphics so spectacular they hurt the eyes, even games that become hot topics, fueled by massive expectations—all have failed. Unable to achieve proper balance, they vanished into obscurity, failing to make back their investment, let alone reach a quarter of their break-even point.
That is why game companies fight tooth and nail to balance their games. There are frequent cases where consistent patching allows a game on the verge of death to rebound. As such, balance patching is both a duty that determines the life or death of a game and a unique privilege of the operators.
[Buff (Temporary Authority)]
Description: Increases the caster's 'Possessions' and two of the following stats—Life, Spirit, Strength, Agility, Magic, Faith—for 300 seconds. The enhancement value and duration are proportional to the user's level. This ability is an Authority, not a Gifted. However, as the caster's level is still low, it is designated as a 'Temporary Authority'.
Restriction: The same stat cannot be enhanced consecutively. (※Cooldown until the buff is available again: 300 seconds.)
“Not a Gifted, but an Authority?”
Lee Taebaek wore a dumbfounded expression.
In Recons, there are skills that can be learned, and there are also innate abilities known as Gifted.
For example, 'sensing or manifesting' mana is in the realm of talent, thus it's a Gifted.
The magic that one 'learns and uses' after that is classified as a skill.
And yet.
'Temporary Authority?'
It was a concept he'd never seen or heard of. It wasn't a word you'd typically find within a game. A word that would be unfamiliar to a player, but intimately familiar to an operator.
Authority instead of Skills and Gifted? What kind of balance-fucked piece of shit game is this! If Recons had launched like this, it would have undoubtedly bombed hard.
Please, I wish there was a way to communicate with Earth. To demand a hotfix. And to beg them to get me out of here!
“This is ridiculous… Huh?”
Just as a dry laugh escaped him, Lee Taebaebaek lowered his gaze and rubbed his eyes. He wondered if his vision was failing.
[Nerf (Temporary Authority)]
Description: Slightly weakens all stats of any being who makes physical contact with the caster for 120 seconds. The weakening value and duration are proportional to the user's level. This ability is an Authority, not a Gifted. However, as the caster's level is still low, it is designated as a 'Temporary Authority'.
Restriction: However, if the disparity between the user and the target is too great, the values will be forcibly adjusted by a suppression effect.
…The Buff ability had just dealt a staggering blow to Lee Taebaek's understanding, and now there was a Nerf, too?
Game companies, when implementing a balance patch, usually start with 'nerfs' rather than buffs.
That's because it's much easier. When it comes to adjusting outlier stats, nerfing is a more reliable method than buffing.
The point Lee Taebaek was getting at was that a nerf can produce a tangible effect much more easily than a buff.
In a word, it's broken. Not just broken, but fucking broken.
This is completely off the charts. It's a shit-tier game.
He thought his character's starting situation was shit, but the game itself turned out to be the real piece of shit. His heart ached more now than when he was being beaten with clubs.
The painful sense of loss and deprivation washed over him—the feeling that Recons, the game to which he had dedicated his twenties, would have all been for nothing if it had been released into the world like this.
'If I were on Earth, this is the very first thing I would have hotfixed.’
Perhaps it was the aftershock of it all. Just then, a wave of drowsiness washed over him. Without any warning, sleep descended, and Lee Taebaek's eyelids slowly drooped shut.
[Activating Favor of the Chaos Goddess.]
[Twisting the world to summon her.]
Perhaps the fatigue, accumulated from a full day of stress and violence, had hit him all at once. Feeling his body become impossibly heavy, he slumped to the side like a pair of dropped chopsticks.
[Warning: Stamina consumption is high.]
Unaware of the true reason, Lee Taebaek collapsed into sleep.
And from the cell opposite, a shadow that had been quietly watching Lee Taebaek broke into a wide grin.