[Late at night, in a development room at NPia Corporation.]
“…….”
A young man, furiously typing on his keyboard even at this late hour while sipping an energy drink, tightly shut his eyes as a messenger window popped up on the monitor.
“Whew… Seriously, the Master messed up the entire schedule.”
Everyone on Earth couldn’t help but talk about the Master, but for the developer—Kim Si-woo—there was even more reason to complain about him.
Because he left Korea and made all Korean men in their twenties take flak?
That didn’t matter. They were already getting bashed long before that anyway.
If anything, since the Master left, Blue Lightning stepped into politics, and things were starting to improve for men in their twenties. Some even referred to the Master as “the Reserve Army Martyr.”
Thanks to the revision of the Reserve Forces Act that followed the Master’s move to the U.S., Kim Si-woo, despite being in his eighth year, was no longer called up.
Was it because he invested in Tower Coins and got stuck at the bottom, losing money?
Quite the opposite.
According to what the Master had the President of the United States, Eisen Armstrong Luigi, publicly disclose, Tower Coins could be used in Babel, where you could buy special items that could awaken someone as a Hunter.
Because of that, Tower Coin prices skyrocketed several times, and Kim Si-woo—who thankfully hadn’t thrown his money into trash-tier stocks—cashed out with a profit of tens of millions of won.
If it were just a regular coin, he probably would’ve held onto it.
But Tower Coins weren’t stored as data like cryptocurrency. They were currency stored with an individual Hunter.
Investing in Tower Coins essentially meant investing in a Hunter’s credibility. If that Hunter disappeared or died in a Tower, the coin turned into blood-soaked scraps of paper.
So it wasn’t strange to hear that some Tower Coins lost value because a Hunter went missing or vanished inside a Tower.
Even so, Kim Si-woo had made a lot of money. And still, he had complaints about the Master who brought him that fortune.
“Ha… Gotta rewrite the entire main story roadmap… Redo the Kiharu event storyline from scratch… This was all supposed to begin next year, damn it… Haaa…”
The reason he was working overtime right now was squarely that guy’s fault.
“If he’d just told us he summoned Kiharu, we could’ve gotten a head start while he was over in America.”
He had suspected it.
There were logs with strange configurations for Kiharu. And the account in question just so happened to belong to the Master. That made him nervous.
After all, who goes for a 4-Star sniper, Full Limit Break, with Full Refinement? That’s rare.
When people started speculating whether Kiharu had been summoned, he was about to laugh it off as just another 4-star character…
“…He didn’t summon her on purpose, right?”
I mean, who would’ve thought a 4-star healer character, who joins the protagonist early on, would turn out to be the true final boss of the main story?
And who could’ve predicted that this so-called “Final Boss Goddess”—who was supposed to show up at the very end, after milking players through the 3rd anniversary, then reveal herself around the 3.5-year mark, and be released as a 4th or 5th anniversary character depending on her popularity—was actually Kiharu?
Even more absurd was that she’d be released early, not as a new character, but as a 5-Star human-type support character, and not even as a separate unit, but as a power-up to an existing one.
“President, seriously… ha.”
It was on the order of NPia Corporation’s President.
After Elaine swung her sword at Ironblood in real life and that single action generated billions in revenue, the President started doing whatever he wanted, no longer constrained by financial limits.
The idea to make Kiharu’s release a power-up instead of a separate summon was also born of the President’s madness.
Thanks to that, all schedules were upended, the story got scrapped and rewritten, and the “female final form of Kiharu,” who was supposed to appear at the very end, suddenly showed up during the anniversary event. And all the labor fell on the dev team.
“…Haa.”
At any other company, people would be quitting, but no developer in Korea was crazy enough to leave NPia now.
– Wanna take a break? I’ll give you a paid vacation for a whole year. Performance bonuses will be based on last year. Keuhuhu…
Because the President was insane.
– 300% bonus for all employees! Let’s work! Let’s make a higher-quality game and create more charac—cough—characters that people really want to summon!
As long as you could endure the endless crunch and exhausting overtime, working here was practically a blessing.
It got so bad that regular developers started saying things like, “Isn’t there a way for me to awaken as a Hunter?”
[Do you seek power?]
“Huh?”
At the bottom of the screen.
Behind a static-filled gray pop-up window, something like a shadow of a person began to flicker.
[Do you seek power?]
“…….”
[If you wish to become a Hunter, take my hand.]
“…A Hunter, huh.”
Kim Si-woo curled his lips into a crooked smile.
“If I become a Hunter, they’ll probably make me work overtime with Hunter-level stamina. No thanks.”
[…Very well. I understand your will.]
Pop.
The pop-up vanished.
“…Huh?”
Developer Kim Si-woo blinked several times at the sudden change on the screen, but all that remained were his usual development code and storyboard.
“…What?”
Confusion. Bewilderment. The drowsiness that had been creeping in disappeared in an instant as a chill ran down his spine.
“Don’t tell me… was that a miracle?”
If what had just happened was indeed a miracle—
“…I mean, I want to become a Hunter, not stay a developer with Hunter stamina and continue pulling all-nighters…”
Then it was no different from telling him—and any other developer who might receive the same offer—to become a game development machine, working tirelessly in front of a never-ending screen.
“I don’t want it that badly…!”
* * *
[…So he says, partner!]
“He’s not a real developer, huh.”
Justice, after quietly probing the opinions of various developers, found that about 32% had answered: “If I had Hunter stamina, I’d work hard at game development.”
“What a shame. While other people are praying for that one-in-a-million chance to get a top-tier weapon drop, we’re offering a guaranteed gacha ticket, and they’re turning it down just to preserve their work-life balance.”
“Commander, did you used to work for a black company or something?”
“Well… it was more of a dark gray, but my pay was garbage, so I didn’t work very hard back then. These folks, though? I’m offering them Hunter specs, and they’re still saying development’s too much.”
Truly unfortunate.
“Look at this. There’s a writer begging to be awakened into a Hunter, saying he’ll do 20 serial uploads a day if we just give him Hunter fingers and a Hunter spine.”
“I don’t think he’ll actually do it…”
“Sure, people talk big before they’re on the toilet and all that. But whether it’s writers or developers—if just 2 out of 10 follow through with the miracle, that’s already a win, right?”
Imagine it.
An AAA title releasing every year.
Or a game that’s supposed to roll out in eight versions over a year gets completed in eight weeks, and the next arc starts right away.
And for players who can’t keep up with the gacha rate tied to the story, the company declares: “All limited gacha characters will be distributed with free name cards!”
“Kinda makes me sad. If I weren’t a Summoner, but an elite developer or director with Hunter specs, I would’ve worked 18 hours a day, no problem.”
“Ah, I get it now. Why you became a Summoner.”
“What?”
“Because you’ve got that black company mentality.”
“Me? Hey, I’m not that black. If I were a real corporate tyrant, I wouldn’t be chilling here like this. I’d have already deployed you all around the globe to clear S-Rank Towers. Or Babel, maybe.”
I’m not black-hearted.
Extraordinary power comes with equal responsibility, and I get paid accordingly based on the results of acting on that responsibility. That’s all.
“People can say what they want, but I think I’m enjoying plenty of work-life balance right now.”
“…”
“Anyway, let’s check on that. Drei, Ironblood is…?”
“She’s definitely in Jeju. Completely dried up like a squid, turned into a punching bag.”
Drei handed me a document.
“After she became Ironblood and lost all her mana, some politicians here started conducting experiments on her.”
“Didn’t leave anything out, did they?”
“She was S-Rank. If her mana ever recovered, they probably wanted to benefit from it. But no matter what experiments they tried, they couldn’t get the results they were hoping for.”
“…”
“Ah, you’re wondering if there were… unspeakable experiments? Unfortunately, it seems there were none of that nature. She wasn’t treated as a woman, but as an Awakened subject.”
“I see.”
Not that I feel that sorry for her.
“Drei, did I ever tell you who was behind the creation of the Hunter Mobilization Act?”
“Was it because of Ironblood?”
“Correct. Funny how it’s still relevant… Men assigned to the reserves—if they awaken as Hunters—they’re to be reorganized as soldiers. That proposal originally came from her.”
It was lawmakers who passed the law, but the public support behind it was largely thanks to Ironblood.
“So, say Ironblood reawakens or her mana returns… she’d revive, right?”
“…Probably?”
“Then, let’s find out.”
“Commander, I can retrieve her… but are you seriously going to use her again?”
“Hm?”
“…Weren’t you planning to put her to use?”
“I will, but… actually using Ironblood again is a bit much.”
No matter how desperate you are for paper, you wouldn’t use a leaflet soaked in filth.
“It’s just a test. If she reawakens or regains mana, we’ll strap her to the front of Illinois’ turret and fire the main gun at her again.”
“Uh…”
“Gacha chances should be fair to everyone.”
Even someone like Ironblood has the right to draw a Hunter Awakening Ticket.
“Even a guy with 20 criminal records could win the draw and awaken. It’s technically possible for anyone.”
“And ten seconds later, Illinois bombards them and turns them into another Ironblood?”
“……”
……
“Isn’t ten seconds too long? I think three would be enough.”
We’ll let her awaken.
Just awaken.
