The Master’s trip to Jeju Island.
Naturally, the internet has gone wild with all kinds of theories and speculation.
– He’s going to Jeju Island to relax!
The prevailing rumor is that after clearing the colossal Tower known as Babel, the Master came to Jeju—not Japan—for a long-term rest and reorganization.
– If you’re going somewhere like Jeju, wouldn’t Okinawa be a better choice?
This take mostly came from Japanese online communities.
Even that chatter eventually died down due to the chaos stirred up by the Shibuya Incident and several S-rank Towers being disrupted across Japan—leading to the Prime Minister’s descent into madness. As a result, even the Japanese were saying things like, “Babel’s gone anyway, so if he’s going somewhere, better Korea than Okinawa.”
– Have you ever seen the Master actually rest? He’s obviously trying to ‘normalize’ Korea.
Others floated more political interpretations.
Since it just happened to be election season in Korea, some believed that even though he’s technically half-American, the Master had returned to Jeju to exercise his right to vote as a Korean citizen.
– He really plans to stay in Jeju? Why?
– What’s the mayor of Jeju City even doing? At least go snap a pic with him.
– Apparently he’s actually just doing a gourmet tour of Jeju~.
The Illinois, a battleship-class summon, anchored just south of Seogwipo. Hotels around the area were instantly packed with people, driving up off-season lodging prices to double their usual rates.
Was it really a political visit?
Or had he anchored in Jeju simply to relax after conquering Babel?
– What if Ironblood is hiding in Jeju and he’s here to hunt her down? lol
– Come on, don’t be ridiculous. Why would Ironblood be in Jeju? Maybe Namsan, but not Jeju.
Or perhaps, while returning from overseas, he came to finally settle an old score—something that hadn’t been fully dealt with in the past.
– Guys, I actually know why the Master’s back.
Amid the sea of wild guesses, someone quietly offered a theory.
– Tomorrow’s the [Fermata 8X] Anniversary Update.
* * *
Everyone’s busy interpreting why I’ve chosen to stay in southern Jeju, but in truth, I just came to the spot geographically closest to the Korean server to reorganize my team.
There are a few things that fall under “reorganization.”
There’s the aftermath of Babel, managing my summoned units, and figuring out how to use the “ticket”—figuratively speaking—that I obtained after the conquest.
As for Tower Coins, they’re skyrocketing in value lately, so there’s no need for me to interfere with the market.
President Luigi has been managing the use of Tower Coins well enough on his own, so I can focus on preparing for the next Babel expedition.
That’s why I’m here, in Seogwipo.
“Kiharu, how far along is the patch?”
“The patch file for Fermata has finished downloading. Now I’m updating the other games.”
I’m pre-downloading game data through Wi-Fi.
While I was in the US and Japan, I did update the games occasionally, but dragging Illinois around to so many places didn’t really leave time to properly patch everything.
So now, I’m finally catching up.
And among those updates was a major patch that would significantly boost our summoner lineup.
“Kiharu, the moment of your power-up has finally come. Congratulations.”
The Fermata 8X Anniversary Update.
5-star Kiharu arrives.
“…This doesn’t seem like the original timing for her release.”
“So what? Good content is good content.”
Together with Kiharu, I pointed to the monitor showing the image of a newly revealed character.
“What do you think?”
“Anyone can tell they designed this with my presence in mind. I mean, a cosplay girl in a nurse outfit?”
Kiharu played a short clip, not the official intro video, but one of those quick Shorts-style promos.
“Isn’t this design clearly meant to seduce you, Partner?”
“You really think this is my type?”
“You don’t like white outfits? That plunging neckline too…”
“I never said I disliked it.”
On the screen, Kiharu winked and smiled toward the monitor in the skin (costume) promo video.
While most of the comments said things like “Wait, this is Kiharu…?”, everyone was clearly overjoyed.
Thanks to Kiharu’s healing toolkit being overwhelmingly better than most other female characters, it was only natural for fans to be thrilled.
Even though the developers didn’t go so far as to remove her entire chest armor, they did give her a white leotard-like inner suit. But still, none of that volume was lost.
“No matter how you look at it, she was clearly made with me in mind. Hmph.”
“Hey now—it’s just a skin. Or, what if this is her true form?”
“…Partner.”
Kiharu pointed at the woman on screen—a blonde-haired, blue-eyed goddess-like figure modeled after her.
“Is this really the true final boss made purely from the hearts of the Fermata 8X development team?”
“…”
“Fermata was developed by NPia, the same company that made [Granade Impact: Redive]—the game that featured Elaine. And because of that… they probably know the Master’s account data. They’d know his exact user ID and which characters he’s focused on building.”
“Right. So maybe… they decided to flip the setting a little and release ‘Human Kiharu’ as a playable character.”
Unlike the mascot version of Kiharu, the human form of Kiharu now possessed stats worthy of a true anniversary-tier character.
Why was Kiharu selected as the anniversary character?
Why was she re-released as a 5-star unit?
“NPia must’ve figured it out too. That the cat next to the Master is Kiharu. It’s not public knowledge, but they realized that their own company’s cat is the healer in our party.”
In other words, they deliberately targeted her for release.
When Drei first scraped the server data, this version of her didn’t exist.
She continued monitoring leaks afterwards, but I hadn’t paid close attention.
I had asked Drei to alert me in case a patch tried to nerf our summoned units, but this wasn’t an AOS game, and nerfs to mobile game characters were very rare.
– I nerfed the Master’s summon! I have the power to weaken the Master’s summons!
– Uh, Team Leader? You’ve got a call.
– A call? From who?
– The White House.
– …
Even just a wave of refund demands could cause massive headaches—but if it was the Master’s summon being nerfed, they’d face international backlash—especially from the U.S.
Which is why, just as they’d previously buffed Elaine by giving her new skills, they now gave Kiharu a power-up.
However—
“Drei. Did you ever talk to anyone at NPia about summoning conditions for familiars?”
“No. Not at all. Why?”
“Because I’m surprised that instead of just releasing a new 5-star version of Kiharu, they made her evolve from a 4-star unit.”
Most games would launch a brand-new anniversary character, sell premium packs, and shoot up to the top of the store rankings. But Kiharu, Fermata‘s anniversary unit, wasn’t released through the gacha system—it focused on upgrading an existing character.
“If they were just in it for the money, they’d have done a 5-star swimsuit alt for Kiharu—just like they did for Elaine. Maybe the Granade Impact and Fermata teams operate differently.”
“Or perhaps they inferred the ‘truth’ through observation?”
Elaine placed a cup of coffee down and voiced her thoughts.
“Master sent me into battle as a maid, not as the swimsuit version of myself. I, too, have never once used the skills of Swimsuit Elaine.”
“From your perspective…”
“She’s an entirely different person.”
In-game, swimsuit variants might seem like just another outfit, but if both versions can be deployed in the same party, then they’re treated as separate characters.
In other words—
“So the Fermata team realized you weren’t using Swimsuit Elaine, and decided to focus on strengthening base Kiharu instead?”
“That seems likely. Shall I ask Drei to hack their internal dev logs to confirm?”
“…No thanks. I don’t need to know that much about how other studios make their decisions.”
There are many types of darkness in the world, and among them is the ever-glowing office light of game studios that never rest.
Only their shortening lifespans could explain just how much overtime and weekend crunch the devs must’ve endured to release Kiharu as an anniversary unit tied into the main story like this.
“…Hmm.”
I paused for a moment.
“Drei. How’s the nationwide ‘Hunter Gacha’ program going?”
“The software’s all ready. We’re now coordinating with the U.S. to figure out how to distribute Awakening Serums. If we ask the Korean side… the government officials will probably just try to take selfies or something.”
“Right. It’s election season.”
Because it was National Assembly election season, I couldn’t recklessly request support from the Korean government.
At least not yet.
“Well… fine. For now, let’s leave the random Awakening part aside. Let’s take a look at the NPia dev team—go over their profiles. And then…”
“You’re planning to Awaken them?”
“Not exactly as Hunters—more like superhumans. Let them develop games using mana instead of stamina.”
Whoosh.
“No point sending a bunch of F-rank Hunters into dangerous Tower raids. Just have them use their mana to make games 24/7 instead.”
