◈ Episode 169

Born in 1998, no mom or dad.

If you were famous in Polaris' domestic community, you were a famous person. First of all, your nickname was easy to attract aggro. You usually became prey to the swarms of people who came in every time there was a big update.

Well, of course I ate a lot of padlips… … .

Title: (Certified) Pervert Professor 123 Insiljot Review

Floating IPs were passed over without a hitch, but there were some who crossed the line with fixed nicknames. The personal attacks they made without thinking were all used as evidence.

There was no need to go to court for an actual battle.

Title: Sorry for causing trouble.

If the atmosphere felt cold, most of them would tuck their tails in. You know how reckless people in the community are, so even a little bit of threat would make them docile lambs.

Regardless of the issue, the '98 generation' is a veteran user. They are the type who enjoys the game itself deeply without hesitation, even if they have a job. They do not write strategy guides, but they often leave comments on newbies' posts.

Yoo Da-hee, nicknamed 'Female Professor Traveler, Female Cheokja', was also a user who received help from him.

Title: Question 5 for female college student who completed her military service!

Camellia Lee (bad word*^^*) How do you catch it??

└ Use dispel character or equipment + Ast

└ Neither of them are thereㅇㅁㅇ;;

└ Why play the game without Ast? Reincarnation in another world

I also received advice on how to conquer the stage where I was stuck.

Title: Question 21 for female college student who completed military service??

I pulled out 5 and this came up +_+ Is this a good thing???

└ I hate the concept. Are there no sane people in Polchan?

└ (Con that Astga despises)

Sometimes I even got cursed at.

Strictly speaking, he wasn't that strange of a person. He was just a user who enjoyed playing games normally, although he had a side of sincerity towards self-preservation. That was Yoo Da-hee's perception.

"Do you know Paul Chan?"

"You've seen it. You."

"Huh? Oh, me too, a little."

I was embarrassed to reveal my community nickname, so I just gave a vague answer. The man in front of me and the '98-born' didn't match. To begin with, Yoo Da-hee's reputation within the community was not good.

At first, I was a newbie who was just working on concepts, but as I gained more experience, I started having problems.

Title: Nothing to do, this is a crappy game -ㅅ-??

Title: Why did you pick a male professor when playing a game called Sipdeok? Are you gay?

Title: Sigh-_-;; If you can't do it, at least try Ping-Ping??

Title: Isn't it a fact that newbies' intelligence is dropping these days?

… … It is because he kept making such nonsense.

There was a time when I was attacked by someone who said they didn't remember when they were newbies. It was none other than someone born in '98.' I remember my face turning red and I was deleting old posts.

Those were the days when I was reckless.

"Enough with the small talk."

The tension rose again in the low voice.

"How long has it been since you fell here?"

"I don't know exactly when it was, but, uh, maybe about four months ago."

"How did you come to Cilicia?"

"I just opened my eyes and it was nearby…."

Just as Kim Yi-hyun explored Yoo Da-hee, Yoo Da-hee also explored Kim Yi-hyun.

"It wasn't you?"

It seemed like he was thinking about the title, but it wasn't Alba. Kim Yi-hyeon's concern was 'how much information should he disclose?' Even if it didn't seem dangerous, there was no reason to explain it straight away.

'On the other hand, there's no need to hide it.'

In the end, it was the line that mattered.

"It's been years. I came to my senses and I was in a Cadillac."

"Really? What's the difference?"

"Well, I guess we'll have to find out from now on."

I listened to Yudahee's story calmly.

"I said it casually, but it was actually quite precarious. When I opened my eyes, I was in some kind of construction site. It was an abandoned place where construction had stopped. I later found out that this was Polaris."

"How did you come to the city?"

"...Looking back now, it was a stupid thing to do. I just went into a random building and hid the whole time. Why, in movies, the person in distress wanders around uselessly and it puts the rescuer in danger."

Normally, I would have died.

The general situation is depicted. When you are suffering from hunger and thirst, you realize that there is no one to help you. You belatedly move in a hurry, but your body and mind are already exhausted.

Outside the city, danger abounds. You could end up as a meal for a monster, or you could encounter a vagrant. Which is worse, varies from person to person.

But Yudahee is alive and well here.

"Suddenly people started coming towards me."

"Aren't you a vagabond?"

"Yes, fortunately, he was a civilian. I heard he was on a regular cleanup mission in the city. He was barely rescued by grabbing onto his trouser leg."

He concludes his explanation by saying that he was extremely lucky.

If it wasn't a lie, it had nothing to do with the episode. It seemed like I had to contact Kabak and confirm the facts. Even if it turned out to be true, there was no guarantee that it was Yoo Da-hee's 'starting point'.

"I passed the quarantine quickly. There were no symptoms of mutation and the measured contamination level was low. At first, I was happy because I thought I was alive... but as time went on, I became more and more frustrated. I was in a situation where I had nothing to do."

"so?"

"It's just the same."

Phew, Yudahee let out a sigh.

"I barely make a living. I don't understand why Cilicia, which was completely ruined in the game, is doing fine, and the prices are going crazy, but there's nothing I can do about it. Where else would I go when I don't even have enough money for a week's worth of food?"

This was also something that would come out if investigated. Where Yoo Da-hee worked and how much she was paid. Every single thing she did, including records of her entry and exit from restaurants and lodgings.

Cilicia is such a city. And Kim I-Hyeon has the power to dig up other people's personal information.

"As I grit my teeth and live… I start hearing rumors."

Yoo Da-hee blatantly noticed.

"There was a company called Dustborne. It was suspicious. I thought, maybe there's someone in the same situation as me? Or maybe there's someone from the Polaris development company."

"What does it look like when you see it in person?"

"...Honestly, I don't know."

After a moment of hesitation, he opens his mouth.

"Because you're so different from me. You don't have to worry about your life, and the atmosphere is different too."

"What's my mood like?"

"I know this may be rude, but I don't think it would be awkward if you were this type of person from the beginning."

The answer sent ripples through Kim Yi-hyeon's emotions.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a negative feeling. Rather, it felt like the unpleasant feeling I had from the moment I heard the word 'Polaris' was diluted.

"Well, I told you everything about my situation."

A face that was shaking came into view. It was a cowardly smile. However, the eyes were overflowing with desperation and gloom that they could not hide.

"흠."

I decided that it would be okay to tell him to some extent. It was closer to give and take than sympathy. Kim Lee-hyun had gained a lot from the conversation so far.

He began to explain.

He didn't explain it in detail. Instead, he approached it mainly by focusing on the differences from the game that Yudahee was curious about. The reason why Cilicia didn't fall and the timeline was twisted in many ways.

The process by which Kim Yi-hyeon was able to settle in Cilicia. It was briefly explained. As the story progressed, Yoo Da-hee's chin dropped.

"You're lying, right?"

"It's your freedom to believe."

As for Yoo Da-hee, she couldn't believe it. Even though she knew the future through her knowledge of the game, was it really possible? An ordinary person who enjoyed playing a game?

"Were you originally from the special forces or something like that…?"

"I was just a cook."

"No, then how can you do this crappy game?"

Although the choice of words was extreme, it was an assessment that Kim Yi-hyeon also fully agreed with. It was not a criticism of the game itself, but of the worldview that was a mess. Even when I thought about it myself, I couldn't figure out how I had survived until now.

'I had some luck on my side here and there.'

However, he could not simply say that it was luck. He pressed into a short sentence the complex reasons why he was able to survive and carry out the episode so far.

"I've seen a lot of ugly things and made a lot of sacrifices."

It didn't matter if Yudahee couldn't sympathize. It wasn't new. The secrets that she couldn't tell Leila or Asterike were already engraved on her body like a tattoo.

I don't feel any regrets now.

I just had to do this because I was scared and worried.

"Huh, huh? What is this? Why…."

He pulled the pistol from his waistband and put it to his forehead.

"As I said, I've sacrificed so, so much to get here. It will continue to be so. It's already burdensome, and I don't want to deal with any more variables."

Yoo Da-hee's breathing became ragged as her eyes became sunken.

"What do you mean, what do I do? I can't do anything. I already told you everything. I live in a place where there are cockroaches, and I can't even buy coffee because I don't have money."

"Then you shouldn't have approached me in the first place."

"...Anything! I thought something would change. But, if that doesn't work out, I won't be greedy. Okay? I'll live quietly like I have until now. I'll just act like someone doesn't exist."

"Even if you just breathe, it's a burden to me."

Creak.

As the hammer came down, tears burst from Yudahee's eyes.

"I knew this would happen. I knew it would happen someday."

Yudahee lowered her head weakly. Instead of the floor that was cold in the night air, she saw scenes from the past. It was a near-death experience that she had only heard of.

A life filled with ups and downs.

I've experienced all kinds of accidents in my life.

Although I survived each time, there was no guarantee that I would be safe forever. The 'drifting' that had started a few months ago was a misfortune that was difficult for an ordinary person to handle mentally.

Realizing it too late.

Maybe I subconsciously knew that the end would come sooner or later.

So maybe that's why I tried to explore Dustborne so forcefully.

"Ugh, ugh. This life is really shit…."

She sat still, helplessly submitting to death. Unlike when Kim Hyun-i had pretended to be a soldier of the Legion and had brandished a sword at her, she didn't even dare to resist.

'Is there no way to physically resist?'

Kim Hyun-i put away his gun as a sour smell tickled his nose.

"What is your last name?"

"yes yes?"

"No, it's okay."

With this, we have figured out the character 'Yoo Da-hee'.

'I guess I can't see the agent records.'

It has some sort of spell, but it is not [Special Weapon Production]. It appears in a place that has nothing to do with the episode. The viewpoint is also different from the tutorial.

Comparing with Yoo Da-hee, it was clear what position he was in. If the professor was the first player, then Kim Yi-hyun was chosen as the second player.

'The word drifter suits you better than me.'

I think so.

The decisive cause of Yudahee's drifting was the death of Markus Dresner. It is a similar phenomenon to the appearance of parasites as the cracks in the world called Polaris widened due to the great disaster.

'In the game, they even brought in other characters from here and there for collaboration.'

A rift connecting to another world.

There was no setting more convenient to use in a game. At the time, I thought the money-crazy developer had the big picture in mind from the beginning, but now I see it differently.

'… … It's a game.'

With the appearance of Yoo Da-hee, some hypotheses were rejected.

There are many other Polaris worlds besides this one - the inference that Kim Yi-Hyeon simply fell into one of them. I thought it was convincing, but this time it was completely refuted.

'Is this really inside a game?'

A fundamental question about Polaris arose.

This was a world that existed somewhere between a game and reality.

But what if we exclude the information that 'Kim Lee-hyun' and 'Yoo Da-hee' have?

Could Polaris be called a game at that time?

'If this isn't some kind of cyberspace…'

How much weight is sitting on my shoulders?

The worries didn't last long.

'Nice to meet you.'

Kim Yi-hyun laughed it off. In the end, it was a question of living or dying. If he did well until the end, he and the people around him would be able to save their lives. Nothing would change.

It's always the same conclusion.

But today, I felt strangely good. I wanted to meet Asterike, Chelsea, the other colleagues from Dustborne, and the agents of Cellbrox Labs and chat leisurely.

He cut the rope that had been tied tightly. Yu Da-hee's whole body froze, fearing that the blade might stab her, but there was no bloodshed.

"It may be a bit of a scary reward, but I will support your living."

"...."

Even though it was what she wanted, Yoo Da-hee couldn't answer. She was ashamed of herself for wetting herself, and more than anything, she was terrified of Kim Lee-hyun, who was aiming his gun at her so cruelly.

I just listened without even raising my head.

"You can come to us. I know you don't need me to say anything, but don't talk nonsense. If you just follow the basic rules, we will help you live comfortably."

The words he spoke calmly had a bloody smell. When I heard about the path Kim Yi-Hyeon had walked, I came to understand his footsteps more realistically.

"...Can I ask you just two questions?"

Yoo Da-hee said in a crawling voice.

"Are you thinking of going back?"

"No. Not at all."

The answer came back immediately, as if there was no room for hesitation. She didn't ask why. Even though Yoo Da-hee didn't know Kim Yi-hyun's past, she knew that he couldn't go back to how he was before.

After nodding, I asked another question.

"You didn't intend to kill me at all?"

This time there was no gap.

"of course."

A phrase I had heard a moment ago rang in my ears.

It's your freedom to believe, he said.