4

Chapter 4

My heart raced, and the corners of my lips kept rising without my realizing it.

Was this an Easter egg? Or an Ending route I had never seen?

Either way, this was a new .

To think there was still something I didn’t know about a game I had played to death!

I wanted to tear into every last detail right away.

Knowing my current reaction was far removed from that of an ordinary civilian, I curled my lips inward to conceal my smile.

Right on cue, Mo Haein finished her discussion and discovered the Sad Smiley I had pieced back together.

Faced with her look demanding to know what ridiculous thing I was doing now, I explained with a guileless expression.

“Well, when I picked up this candy, it said it could repair toys. It may be a toy, but I thought it must still hurt.”

At my remark, Mo Haein’s face went blank, while Park Seonggyeon burst into loud laughter.

“Ha! You’re such a gentle soul, aren’t you? Wanting to repair it and all.”

Park Seonggyeon patted me on the shoulder.

“But innocence is forbidden in here, okay? You have to be careful. I can’t explain the details, but this place is extremely dangerous.”

He went to great lengths to frighten me, warning that the toy could get back up and attack.

I apologized to him once more.

After haranguing me to his satisfaction, Park Seonggyeon abruptly focused on empty air and widened his eyes.

“Oh, Captain. This item description is a little unusual.”

He had read Sad Smiley’s item description through a System Window.

“Um, I’m sorry, but couldn’t we hurry? I want to get out of here.”

Pretending to be frightened, I urged Mo Haein and Park Seonggyeon to move elsewhere.

I was worried they might tamper with the Sad Smiley doll.

I didn’t know whether a broken toy could recover with Nut Candy, but since events seemed to be proceeding down a different route, I intended to keep leaving candy behind.

Of course, Sad Smiley was an item with nothing more than a recorded voice rather than an NPC, but I left the candy anyway.

“It does seem to mean something, but I already cut it in half. We have a civilian with us, so let’s focus on clearing the Trial first.”

Fortunately, Mo Haein chose to prioritize a swift Clear.

Now that she had even taken out the Black Moon Blade, it seemed she intended to force her way through and finish everything in an instant. An approach well suited to the Collapse Ending.

Whoosh. Mo Haein swung the polearm in a wide arc to fling away the rainbow-colored blood, cast me one final glance, and turned her head.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Park Seonggyeon’s mood had already improved. He kept inspecting his hands and had somehow replaced even his left arm with a toy arm.

Mo Haein still had only one toy arm, since she needed the other to wield the Black Moon Blade.

If not for the Black Moon Blade, she likely would have been the first to equip items on both arms.

I carefully observed the delighted Park Seonggyeon.

Since farming items inside a Trial was directly tied to survival, it was only natural to be pleased about obtaining another one so quickly.

‘But this is a little strange.’

Mo Haein and Park Seonggyeon had cleared HSF several times.

A variable had arisen, but now that Mo Haein had drawn the Black Moon Blade, the Clear shouldn’t be difficult.

No—it was guaranteed.

So was obtaining a single additional toy arm really enough to make him that happy?

“You look young, Goyo. Are you in college?”

I set aside my doubts for a moment and answered Park Seonggyeon’s question.

“Yes.”

At twenty-four, I would normally be a college student, wouldn’t I?

Explaining that I was a former professional gamer forced to retire by an injury and currently unemployed would be far too long-winded.

“What about the military?”

“Not yet.”

In truth, I was exempt…….

There was no reason to explain that in detail either, so I let it pass.

“How did you end up in here?”

“I just fell asleep, and when I opened my eyes…. I can go home, right?”

“Of course. Just trust your Hyung.”

The way he clicked his pincer hand as he spoke made him look suspicious, as though he could cause an incident at any moment.

Fortunately, before the conversation could continue, we entered the laboratory, the second area.

Unlike the glittering exterior that resembled a fantasy land, the laboratory was a ruin of shattered stone and exposed steel frames.

All kinds of equipment that looked better suited to biological research lay around the room, utterly out of place in a toy factory.

◆ Main Quest: Awaken the prince in pieces.

A prince in pieces sleeps within the toy factory’s secret laboratory.

You believe you must gather the scattered pieces to awaken the sleeping prince.

Pretending to look around the laboratory, I glanced sideways at the System Window.

We had to find the pieces of the prince doll hidden throughout the room, and obtaining the final piece required fighting the first boss.

Using his endlessly extending toy arms, Park Seonggyeon moved the collapsed debris and found the doll pieces in an instant, while Mo Haein solved the puzzle displayed on a computer screen and obtained a key.

Holding the limbless prince doll, she used the key to open the laboratory’s locked door.

Beyond the door, which bore a huge RESTRICTED AREA sign, stood a broken glass tank.

As though it had shattered only moments earlier, rainbow-colored liquid was still gushing from it.

It was the same color as the toys’ blood.

Drip. A droplet fell from the ceiling.

Wiping my wet cheek with the back of my hand, I considered an appropriate gesture to express my surprise. Then I slowly raised my head.

“Gasp……!”

When I hurriedly stumbled backward, Park Seonggyeon burst out laughing.

“Look at you jump. We’ll take that thing down in no time.”

An enormous hole of unfathomable depth gaped in the ceiling.

A gigantic spider toy descended through the darkness on a web of yarn.

All eight of its legs were made from toy blocks, and its smiling face had four pairs of eyes.

It was hardly an appropriate spider doll to sell as a children’s toy.

HSF’s first boss: Princess Tarantella.

“Once our Captain Mo starts swinging the Black Moon Blade, it’ll be over in no time.”

I glanced sideways at Park Seonggyeon. His eyes brimmed with greed as he stared at Mo Haein’s Black Moon Blade.

That oily gleam brought back a memory I had forgotten.

‘Ah…. Park Seonggyeon. I remember now.’

At that moment, a new System Window appeared.

You think an example would help you understand what ‘System’ and ‘Registration’ mean.

You have found a suitable example right before your eyes!

‘Park Seonggyeon’ is a sample Character eligible for Registration. Would you like to register him?

The timing was so perfect that it seemed to have read my mind. I didn’t hesitate this time.

‘Register.’

Registering ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’….

After you played one of the games in the Archive universe, a post-credits scene appeared following the Ending.

These scenes usually offered a brief glimpse of the player outside the Trial speaking with a character from Archive, though they occasionally moved to another location.

In those cases, the player could travel around Archive’s Republic of Korea.

I usually visited the Trial Response Agency.

Once, I had stopped by Mo Haein’s office and read an official document containing the ruling on an incident that occurred inside a Trial.

It concerned a death that occurred when one of the teammates who had entered the Trial with her attacked Mo Haein in an attempt to take the Black Moon Blade.

Mo Haein had cut the attacking teammate in half with it.

…This incident was precipitated by Second Lieutenant Park Seonggyeon’s unilateral attack. The attacked party’s counterattack has been confirmed as an immediate response to the initial assault.

1) The incident occurred during a boss battle.

2) The confusion at the scene allowed no time for deliberation.

3) The attacked party also sustained serious injuries.

Upon comprehensive consideration of the foregoing circumstances, the attacked party’s actions are judged to constitute lawful self-defense rather than an excessive response.

Despite the incident resulting in a death, Mo Haein’s claim of self-defense was recognized. Her punishment was light, consisting only of writing a report and serving a brief suspension.

The teammate who attacked her back then had been named Park Seonggyeon.

He had appeared only in a single passing line of the document, so it was no wonder I hadn’t remembered him.

‘He must have caused the incident in HSF.’

The toy limbs obtainable in HSF granted superhuman strength while also providing tremendous reach.

‘And it looks like today is the day he intends to do it.’

Park Seonggyeon seemed to be planning to obtain a toy arm before Mo Haein, steal the Black Moon Blade, and then commit the perfect crime by either killing her or turning her into a factory employee.

His actions had a high chance of interfering with the True Ending.

I also disliked the idea of him laying a hand on Mo Haein, a character I liked.

‘Besides, if he kills Mo Haein, there’s no chance he’ll spare me as a witness.’

For those reasons, I had no intention of leaving Park Seonggyeon alone either.

Read only on MUGEX

Registration complete!

You want to check the Sample’s Status Window.

I had been thinking this for a while, but the System Windows spoke strangely.

In the original game, System Windows used an utterly ordinary manner of speech.

They were simply System messages like those in any other game, there to guide the player.

Now, however, they kept behaving as though they were pretending to speak on behalf of my thoughts.

‘Is it related to my becoming the System?’

For the time being, our aims aligned, so I decided to go along with it.

Following the System Window’s instructions, I examined Park Seonggyeon.

‘Park Seonggyeon’s Status Window.’

• Park Seonggyeon (Sample) ♥x3
• Employee of
• Items: Cherry Picker (3), Nut Candy (12), Flashlight (1).

The information available to me as the System was exceedingly simple and meager.

The moment I thought of that complaint, another System Window appeared.

You are dissatisfied with your own simple and meager capabilities.

You believe you must hone your abilities as the System.

It seemed to mean that other entries would be added once my abilities improved.

I examined the sparse information carefully.

The three hearts must represent his lives, and as for his items…

“…?”

He had three Cherry Pickers, the toy-limb items. Park Seonggyeon had clearly obtained only two so far.

There was only one possible answer.

He had brought an item acquired during a previous Clear of HSF.

Unless there were special circumstances, the Trial Response Agency prohibited the use of items obtained on an earlier run, even within the same Trial.

Just as with the prohibition on items from other Trials, this was meant to minimize unexpected variables.

The Trial Response Agency also inspected every item obtained after a Trial was cleared, and all acquired items belonged to the agency by default.

There was no reason for them to give Park Seonggyeon a Cherry Picker, so he had clearly obtained it through illegal means.

‘He must have done something this dangerous because of Mo Haein.’

I became certain that Park Seonggyeon would cause the incident inside HSF today.

You are curious about the influence you can exert upon ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’ as the System.

You want to examine the additional entries beneath Items.

As instructed, I checked the entries listed below Items.

Message

Execution

There were only two, and I couldn’t begin to guess what either meant. First, I selected the less intimidating option, Message.

You think of a Message to send to ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample).’

Did that mean I could make a System Window appear before Park Seonggyeon?

As I tried to deduce how it worked, the screen of an old computer in the corner of the laboratory switched on, and cheerful chiptune music began to play.

The eight-bit background music announced the start of the boss battle against Princess Tarantella.

Tarantella’s smiling face split open in four directions, revealing rows upon rows of teeth.

“—-!”

An incomprehensible shriek tore from its gaping mouth and assaulted my eardrums.

At the same time, musical-note-shaped toys fell from the hole in the ceiling in time with the rapidly accelerating music. The musical-note toys were a gimmick that appeared only on the Collapse route.

Mo Haein sliced apart the notes and defended against Tarantella’s eight attacking legs.

As Park Seonggyeon watched the Black Moon Blade move as though dancing, he spread both pincer hands as wide as possible, then slowly closed them.

Clatter. A faint noise sounded between the notes of the chiptune.

While I was examining the System Window, Park Seonggyeon had equipped the third Cherry Picker on one leg.

He used his right toy leg to launch himself into the air.

He leaped between the falling notes and thrust out a pincer hand, about to attack Mo Haein.

At that instant, I sent Park Seonggyeon a Message.

I saw a System Window appear in front of him.

Ha

The System Window abruptly blocking his vision made Park Seonggyeon’s hand waver.

The pincer failed to strike Mo Haein, merely grazing her shoulder.

Mo Haein, who had nearly been knocked into Tarantella’s mouth, shouted.

“Park Seonggyeon! What the hell are you doing?”

Park Seonggyeon landed unsteadily on the floor, wearing a stupid expression.

Grinding out a curse, he immediately tried to swing his toy arm again.

But he froze halfway through raising it overhead.

Haha

Hahahaha

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Park Seonggyeon’s face, now buried beneath System Windows, turned deathly pale.

They were the Messages I had sent.