---

#10 Epilogue Countdown (3)

Let’s assume for example that a skill called “Swordsmanship Proficiency” was created as an indicator of a skill holder’s sword fighting capabilities.

A regular soldier has “Swordsmanship Proficiency Lv.1,” a seasoned knight has “Swordsmanship Proficiency Lv.5,” and a royal guard has “Swordsmanship Proficiency Lv.9,” and so on.

If this were a regular RPG, it wouldn’t be that complicated.

When using a sword, you just give a numerical benefit like +10%/+50%/+90% in attack power. Add some fancier effects here and there.

However, when it becomes a virtual reality game, things get a bit more complicated.

If a soldier idly yawns while wandering around the town and a royal guard have only different skill levels, but their movements and footwork are the same, wouldn’t that break immersion from the player’s perspective?

At least NPCs have it a bit better. They can pull off cooler motions.

A typical game developer might yell, “What the heck?” but we have ‘Nebula.’

Even big companies like Kainix exclaim, “How on earth did you even make this???” and completely fail at interpretation, while the older brother himself declared he couldn’t recreate it more than twice—so with the aid of spaghetti code or, rather, OPAQ AI, we can whip up something like “fictional martial arts based on the use of magical power,” which shouldn’t exist in reality at all.

But when it comes to players, the story becomes a tad more complicated.

No matter how well ‘Nebula’ creates martial arts, they can’t just shove it directly into the players’ brains.

Even Kainix’s elite legal team would struggle to cover for such absurdity.

Some might think, “Why not just not create a skill that indicates martial arts proficiency?” Indeed, this idea has floated around Kainix a few times.

After all, expressing strength through numerical values like attack or defense is enough; why take the difficult path?

However, the stubbornness of the older brother, who has almost full control over game development, is not your average bullheadedness. Regardless of what others said around him, he succeeded in weaving vague elements like ‘Swordsmanship’ or ‘Martial Arts’ into the system.

And that was the reason I could engage in a sword fight head-on with ‘Saintess of Reincarnation, Iris,’ an NPC possessing the highest level of combat skills in the paladin class.

Kaang!

The moment our swords clashed, my body was pushed back.

Iris charged forward like a heavy tank with her shield raised, and to my eyes, her movements appeared to be in slow motion.

Iris wasn’t actually slowing down. My sense of time was simply altered.

The first phase of the older brother’s martial arts recreation project.
“As the level increases and the skill proficiency excels, the player’s sense of speed relatively speeds up.”

I effortlessly dodged her attacks while simultaneously took in Iris’s figure with my eyes.

Then, I started to see red lines appearing all over her body.

As I passed by Iris, I swung my sword, tracing the red line on her side.

Whoosh! Blood spattered, and her health bar above her head dropped slightly.

The second phase of the older brother’s martial arts recreation project.
“By comparing each other’s specific skill levels, the one with the higher level can visualize the weaknesses of the lower level.”

Even with a wound on her side, Iris remained calm as if she were used to it, twisting her waist and extending her leg to kick at me.

With the shock equivalent to getting kicked by a horse, my body tumbled backward as she struck my chest.

While there was no pain, a burning warmth spread from my chest throughout my body.

This was a result of the older brother’s absurd remark that for a real game, there had to be pain perception. Who enjoys a game where you have to endure pain?

I noticed my health bar glowing red in the upper left corner of my vision and muttered quietly.

“‘Festival of Blood’”

In that instant, my body moved against my will, and with a chilling yet beautiful red effect, I slashed in front of me.

As the skill increased in power with every bit of health lost, Iris raised her shield to defend, but her health bar continued to steadily decrease.

The third phase of the older brother’s martial arts recreation project.
“When an active skill is activated, the player’s body moves automatically to launch the skill. The condition for activation is to say the skill name.”

In other words, normally the player controls the character directly, but when using specific skills, the character performs designated movements on their own.

Originally, what the older brother intended was kind of a shadow that would inform the player of ‘the action they should take’ beforehand, and when executed by the player, the skill would activate, but less than one in ten test players could actually use it properly.

By loosening the range of ‘prescribed actions’ to allow for some variance, it could activate as long as it resembled the action broadly, yet it still capped at about thirty percent effectiveness, ultimately shifting to this automatic activation system.

Though the older brother disliked the loss of realism, it’s proper to fix a system that most players can’t effectively use.

Though the default setting is automatic activation, it is possible to set it for manual activation, allowing those who prefer it to use that option.

Unlike automatic activation, which mechanically executes prescribed actions, manual activation requires the player to move directly for activation, which reduces unique delay and pattern reading issues, therefore holds some merit.

As the game ages and more veterans arise, I suspect more players will shift from automatic to manual methods.

Personally, I find it a bit cringeworthy that skill activation requires saying the skill name, but the method of activating it with just thought is tricky for players to control, leading to unexpected skill triggers at unwanted moments, hence this form came to be.

Well, that’s precisely what playtesting is for, so it’s important to acknowledge the critique.

Afterwards, I kept sparring with Iris for quite a while, and I managed to achieve a fairly decent record of seven wins and three losses.

In reality, this was possible only because we adjusted our levels and specs to a similar scale, and in the main story, I’ll have to gradually level up from level one, so actually facing her is quite a way off.

“It was a delightful time. Goddess, or rather, Erin. I almost wish it weren’t the last time. Be sure to visit in the main story.”

“Well, that’s no problem at all.”

I didn’t mention that even if I visited, she wouldn’t remember me.

After all, that would be a bit cruel, wouldn’t it?

Even if she’s an NPC, it’s hard to treat someone with such a strong human feel too coldly.

But why is she being so nice to me? When I asked other players, they said she wasn’t like that with them.

I asked the older brother if he had set up anything special, but he said it wasn’t anything like that.

Leaving behind the silver-haired beauty who welcomed me with a face full of kindness, I logged out of the game.

*

Once again, time flowed, and my status had leveled up from high school student to college student or maybe even a working adult.

In a sense, it felt like a downgrade, but let’s skip over that.

Game development was smooth sailing.

After the internal alpha test, the beta test held with the invitation of outsiders received a fiery response.

[Kainix X Nebula’s ambitious new release! ‘Beyond Elision’ is imminent!]

[A new wind blowing into the virtual reality game industry. A fantasy like never before!]

[Game expert Y, who participated in the beta test: “This work will be the masterpiece of my life!” causing a stir!]

Hmm… The responses were a bit over-the-top, making it feel somewhat cheap, but overall, public opinion was favorable.

Thanks to the attention from the fanbase that had steadily built over several years through ‘Beyond: The Lost Era,’ and hearing that this was a work that Kainix was investing heavily in after previously achieving solid results with ‘Starving Shadows’ and ‘Dragon’s Dance,’ the interest was garnered even further by the praise from the beta players.

Of course, as is usual in such cases, there was no shortage of negative opinions.

>Starting off with such excessive hype feels like it’s bound to flop.

>I heard Nebula only made one gacha game. Is it even in the same league to collaborate with Kainix?

>I heard Kainix delayed a lot of things from the beginning because their president is supposedly the child of a Kainix executive.

>Another family-run flop? I thought they were all self-made types but this is so pathetic.

Weird rumors were spreading like wildfire, as if they were true, tearing everything down with baseless claims.

>As a beta tester, the game is decent overall, but the monetization really sucks. Damn, if you’re spending money, you should get something back, but all you get is effects, cosmetics, pets, and home decoration stuff. I don’t think they care about making money.

>Oh hell, it’s doomed. For a game to do well, the business model needs to be structured appropriately. Who made such thoughtless monetization decisions? It was reasonable in ‘Starving Shadows’ and ‘Dragon’s Dance!’

>That’s a trademark of Nebula. An industry connection said that they messed up the monetization structure back in their last game too.

>Just because you’re a hipster doesn’t mean everything’s great. Kainix should really take charge of this.

Some players criticized the bizarre monetization model, wherein spending doesn’t make your character stronger, calling it quite unconventional for the gaming industry.

>This game is hilariously bad. There’s a unique skill that you can only get one of. If someone else gets it, I’m just left with my thumb up my butt.

>My prediction: One player with a unique skill wipes out all the other players.

>Is this some old-school fantasy? The balance is already wrecked.

>??? Is this real? Does something like that exist?

As for the unique skill… well, I can’t cover for that. But what can I do if the older brother insists on including it no matter what?

Kainix firmly dealt with those spreading baseless claims and false propaganda, but they didn’t completely shut down negative opinions either.

If Kainix pushed hard, they could probably cover the internet with only positive articles, but aggressive tactics like that often provoke stronger backlash.

More importantly, there was no need for such opinion manipulation; the game was already sufficiently engaging.

“Wow, the realism is stunning. It’s even better than Dragon’s Dance!”

“The NPC quality is insane. Talking to them genuinely feels like conversing with real people, it’s spine-chilling.”

“There are no curse filters, but talking about the game or virtual reality with NPCs seems to be muted?”

“Wow, it can support up to 100,000 simultaneous connections on a single server? Real player wars might actually be possible!”

“The modeling for the NPCs is top-notch. Anyone who said it would flop when brought to life better keep their mouths shut.”

“The combat system might divided opinions, but it fits my taste. It handles realism well while avoiding the unpleasant parts effectively.”

“Who are those guys saying monetization is useless? Damn, a bowl of rice soup costs 500 won. If I top up 10,000 won and eat twenty bowls in the game, I’m gaining scrumptious meals without worrying about calories—great deal, right?”

Even those who initially voiced negative thoughts with claims like “It’s exaggerated” or “False advertising” during the beta test, once the real game began, were chanting praises.

In a survey conducted a week post-launch, 60% of players answered “Very Satisfied,” 30% said “Satisfied,” and the rest were below 10%.

“Now that you’ve fulfilled your lifelong dream, are you satisfied?”

“Not yet. Nearly 40% of players didn’t respond with ‘very satisfied.’ My goal is 100% very satisfied.”

“You know, that’s unrealistic without linking everyone’s brains or spreading hypnosis. There are always going to be people who dislike things just because others like them.”

“…I’ll settle for around 90% satisfaction.”

That in itself felt somewhat unrealistic, but well, striving for improvement is a good thing.

Looking into those sparkling eyes, I suddenly felt that there would be no need to worry about hosting death games or the like.

After the ghost incident, even though security personnel were increased, nothing particularly happened.

Now that we’ve blocked off whatever that original source was, maybe I’ll finally get to enjoy the game peacefully.

And then, about two weeks later.

So, after the official release of the game. One month in.

[Yes, Yes, Yerin! Are you listening? Nebula isn’t responding! It doesn’t matter how many times we command from the outside, it doesn’t respond, and even power-off isn’t working! Ryu Inseo, are you home? If so, contact me quickly, Yerin! Are you listening? Yerin?!]

“—What the fuck.”

I saw the body of my older brother in his room, lying like a corpse, with a clean, round hole puncturing through his chest as if it were cut out.

A wound that seemed impossible to inflict with any ordinary weapon. I dropped the phone in my hand.