Chapter 42 – The Mysterious Girl (3)
Kwon DaeHo.
There was no one in Korea… no, no one in the entire world who didn’t know him.
He was a legend in the modern scientific community that had won three Nobel Prizes by the time he was 57 years old, regardless of the field of learning.
A genius of the century!
Some people said that there had never been someone that surpassed him in the past, nor there would be in the future.
But only a few people knew that he was the main person behind the development of Asrian Online.
“Tsk… A problem has happened.”
Kwon DaeHo was sitting in his chair while drinking coffee when he read a system alert.
A screen filled with holograms.
On top of that, there were a lot of numbers that disturbed the view.
Kwon DaeHo was concentrated on one of those numbers.
[Causality]: – 82%
It was a % that showed the stability of the world.
The bigger the negative number was, the more unstable the world was and vice-versa.
In other words, the situation in which the ‘causality’ had dropped to a minus 82% meant that the world of Asrian was fluctuating rapidly.
The world was converted to numbers through tens of thousands of different variables.
The number of inhabitants, predominant religion, politics, history, language…
All those figures were repeating a continuos sharp rise and fall.
There was only one possible explanation for the situation…
‘The main story’s flow is changing because of an external factor!’
But how was it that something like that had happened when they were about to apply the new patch?
Even he didn’t understand what had caused the situation.
‘We can’t apply the patch before the current situation gets solved.’
The main story that started after the patch would happen five years after current events.
Asrian was basically a giant simulation. What they were going to do was accelerate the time, so five years would pass in an instant.
But if the causality % dropped a lot, the number of calculations that the computer had to do would increase, and the system would be overloaded.
“Chairman!”
At that moment, one of the investigators Kwon DaeHo had called entered through the door.
She was one of the people that spent the day staring at the monitor because there wasn’t anything to do.
“I’ve found the reason! Doctor… No, chairman!”
Mari shouted happily.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! This is all because of a single user! I’m 100% sure of it!”
Mary turned around several switches, and then the screen changed to the gameplay of a certain user.
They could see a small girl, Louise, running while stepping on the trees on the screen.
It was the image of Hyun, who was using «Assimilation» on Louise.
The sight of Louise stepping into the sky and the background changing quickly was mesmerizing.
Kwon DaeHo’s mouth was open wide.
“What’s that…?”
He was the person in charge of development, but he didn’t have much free time, unlike the rest, so he didn’t have time to monitor the players.
It was also his first time seeing someone’s gameplay.
“Th-this type of movement… is it even possible…? How can a girl who seems to be 10 years old move like that?”
“Chairman, that girl is an NPC. The player is the one who’s Assimilating into her!”
Robert explained to him.
Because Kwon TaeHo wasn’t completely ignorant about the game, he understood what Robert meant.
After seeing how Hyun controlled his character, he laughed out in amazement.
“I can understand why you guys are so hooked on looking at gameplays. Looking at people like this would be very fun.”
“Haha…”
“Give me more detailed information.”
“Yes, sir.”
In the corner of the screen, the information about everything that had happened until then and things that would happen in the future was displayed.
Louise…
It also said what her identity was… and also how she would influence the future events that were about to happen in Asrian, so Kwon DaeHo understood the situation.
“I see… Because of that quest, things that should’ve happened in five years are already happening.”
“That’s the only possible explanation.”
“That’s amazing. To think that there’s already a user who can influence so much on the flow of the story… Once the quest ends, there will be a huge gap between them and the rest.”
They had a problem…
They couldn’t do the patch if things were going on like that.
There was a split in the future.
Asrian was created differently compared to other games.
It was a universe simulator rather than a fixed and linear world.
That meant that only when all the variables were under control could they accelerate time.
If they accelerated five years without careful consideration, there was a risk of the supercomputer exploding or the game’s universe being ruined.
“There’s nothing we can do about it… We have to wait for the quest to end. We can do the patch once it’s over, so what’s the problem?”
After figuring out what the problem was, Kwon DaeHo answered very easily.
But at the same time, the faces of the rest of the team darkened.
“Uhm… Chairman…? You’re saying we should push on the patch date, right?”
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“What are you talking about? Why should we push it? Did you forget that talks with NFM are finished, and we even signed a contract?”
“But we don’t know when the quest will end… And from our calculations, we won’t have enough time…”
“Are we lacking on time even if we stay up all night?”
“Understood…”
Kwon DaeHo looked at the other researchers who were silently looking at him.
Behind their stern faces, there was some sort of expectation.
He knew how they were feeling. After all, they’d worked together for the past few years.
“Okay, I’ll also help.”
“Yes! Doctor, you’re the best!” Mary exclaimed happily.
The rest of the team clapped.
They knew that if the chairman helped, they’d be able to finish any task in half the time.
With the ever-burning fire illuminating their path, Hyun and Louise kept walking.
Hyun looked at her once more.
Even though she was wearing torn-off clothes, she didn’t look normal.
Yes, it was as if she was part of a royal family.
From his experience, such people played an important role in the story, so Hyun asked her a few questions.
“Why do you talk in such a way?”
Louise was taken aback by the question.
“Wh… What’s wrong with how I talk…?!”
“It’s weird… No matter how you look at it. These days, no one talks like that—neither commoners nor noble ladies.”
“Th-this is…! A habit from when I was little.”
“Hmm…” Hyun looked at her suspiciously.
No matter how many times he thought about it, he couldn’t come to a conclusion, so he decided to stop thinking about it.
The maze-like complex dungeon was wide and dark, but Hyun just walked without getting lost.
The road became narrower; they even crossed a dangerously narrow cliff.
Because they were walking through a path where monsters didn’t show up, sometimes the road became dangerous.
They barely managed to walk out of the cave where light didn’t reach.
A huge cliff stood in their way.
There was no more road.
The only thing standing in their way was a cliff that you couldn’t figure out the ending of.
Just the fear of falling made her dizzy.
“Is… this the correct road…?”
Louise looked at him with fearful eyes.
In front of them, there was an abyss from where they could hear the echo.
“Yes, this is the road. I’m sure.”
Louise seemed confused at Hyun’s answer.
There was no place to step in front of them. What did he mean by that there was a road?
“That way.”
Hyun pointed with his finger upwards.
Louise followed his finger and looked up.
—A cylinder-shaped cavity.
At the top of the cliff, they could see a small hollow.
Louise’s face became pale.
“Do you know what a centrifugal force is?”
Louise shook her head.
“If we use centrifugal force, we can reach there.”
Fwoosh- As soon as Hyun finished talking, he became light and entered Louise’s body.
Louise knew what that meant.
She had experienced it while escaping from the people following them.
She was suddenly in a hurry.
That’s right. He was trying to enter her body to jump up there.
“No, you can’t! I will not do it!”
「Stay still!」
Hyun shouted through his soul, but Louise was resisting.
As the movement of the two entangled, Louise’s movements resembled those of a cat refusing to take a shower.
「Hmm… Say that you’re giving me control priority.」
Ting-!
In front of Louise, a message that asked if she’d give Hyun control priority appeared.
“No, no way! I will not sell you my soul anymore…! Take this evil magic away from my eyes at this very moment!”
「Hmm… If you press the left button, it should disappear.」
A few seconds later…
[You’ve received control priority!]
「Finally, some silence.」
Hyun sighed in relief and walked toward the cliff.
Now that she couldn’t move her body at all, it seemed like Louise was about to burst into tears.
Hyun could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.
“Sniff, my body has been completely taken over by a demon…!”
「Who’s a demon?」
He could feel the wind coming from the cliff.
It was understandable that Louise was scared.
After all, if they fell through it, no one would be able to find her body.
Of course, he was confident that wouldn’t happen.
Hyun stayed still while waiting for Louise to calm down.
「Watch closely.」
Hyun kicked on the ground.
He stepped onto the 90-degrees vertical cliff and began to spiral up the cylindrical cliff.
Suddenly, the view became dark.
It was Louise who had closed her eyes because she was scared.
「You can’t hesitate like that…」
As Hyun slowed down the speed a little bit, Louise felt that her body was floating.
The speed had decreased because the centrifugal force had gotten weaker.
‘I’m falling!’
The force between her body and the wall was getting weaker.
‘I’m going to die?!’
Louise’s face became pale because of fear.
But at that moment…
Hyun activated «Steps of the Wind» and kicked the wall. Her body began accelerating and recovered its flow.
「See? If the centrifugal force becomes weaker, you fall. The moment it stops, you fall.」
Pang- Hyun stepped on the wall, and just before hitting the other wall, he stepped on it again.
Like a particle spinning in a centrifuge, Louise’s body climbed the walls while spinning.
「If you remember the feeling, it isn’t hard to do it.」
From Hyun’s point of view, this ‘cliff climbing’ technique wasn’t hard to do it.
Anyone could do it as long as they got the timing right and had the guts.
But it was easy by Hyun’s standards. However, it was unclear how long it would take for Louise to learn it.
The cavity was structured so that the higher it got, the narrower it became.
Hyun increased their speed.
When he was starting to feel dizzy, Louise’s body had reached a flat surface.
Louise was able to calm down after lying on the floor and taking a deep breath.
“Ugh… My body, my body has returned to normal…!”
Since she didn’t want to get up, Hyun disassimilated from her and picked her up.
After a while, they entered through an entrance in front of them.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Just follow me, and you’ll find out.”
“I want to get out of this place…!”
“Not yet. If we get out right now, we’ll get ambushed by the opponents waiting for us to come out. Is that okay for you?”
Louise shook her head.
“Right now, there’s nothing we can do, so we need to make some preparations. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand…”
While walking, they noticed that the atmosphere of the place had suddenly changed.
There were lanterns fueled by Mana illuminating the road.
It seemed like the light was telling them the path they needed to take.
“What’s this place…” Louise asked with suspicious eyes while looking at the decor of the doorknob.
It was luxurious.
Only the doorknob would probably be worth more than a few hundred gold coins.
The item that was as luxurious as one used by the royalty didn’t fit the old and dark dungeon.
“How awkward. This isn’t a trap, right?”
“It’s okay.”
Hyun grabbed the doorknob and turned it around without hesitation.
Creak- The door opened and showed what was inside.
It was a room that was about the size of an average cafe.
Inside the room, there was some unknown sculpture; there were also lots of different weapons displayed.
‘This place hasn’t changed at all.’
A smile appeared on Hyun’s face.
It was a place unknown to even most rankers of Asra.
—The dungeon’s secret marketplace.
