HACKED 20

In <No Lifer>, there are Incarnations originating from all sorts of regions, all sorts of nations, and cultural spheres.

As you play the game, you naturally gather Incarnations of various origins, even if you do not necessarily intend to. It is a “salad bowl” in the truest sense.

However, as for why I ended up collecting only Incarnations with the South Korean origin trait…

It is not because I am a so-called “Guk-ppong” nationalist who goes around shouting “Peur-reok” like a habit on internet communities. There is simply a very simple and sad story behind it.

As I mentioned, I started this game due to the stress of quitting my job. So, why did I quit my job? It was because the idol group launched by the small entertainment agency I worked for—which had scraped together every bit of capital it had and then some—failed spectacularly. And why did that idol group fail spectacularly…

Of course, there were many reasons. But the biggest reason was the fact that the agency itself was a “Jot-so”—a shitty small company.

In the recent idol industry, where phrases like “It tastes like capital” or “It smells like money” are the ultimate compliments, the scale of the agency is the probability of success.

“‘The Miracle of a Small Agency’? Ah… there was a time such words existed. In an age where even the fury of the dragon that scorched the heavens is forgotten, and the stone monuments of princes are buried in the sand… and no one cares about such things, when survival has become a vulgar joke…”

…Is that too much like an otaku?

So, the group’s failure was perhaps inevitable. Our CEO, who frequently avoided coming into the office at all to “foster a free working atmosphere,” and showed the virtue of only handing over the corporate card before leaving during company dinners, but whose “intuition” was completely dead… are you doing well?

The story keeps drifting off track. Anyway, there was a second major reason why the boy group launched by our company failed, and that was that the foreign members all bolted.

That is right. Every single member with a different colored passport bolted without exception. For their own individual reasons, three out of the seven members left.

One guy was a former regional idol in his home country. Before the debut, he left the country saying he would attend his graduation concert or whatever, and then he simply never returned. He timed it exquisitely, taking advantage of the gap between the expiration of his trainee contract and the signing of his artist contract.

Upon hearing the news about him, all the employees clapped. That kid is smart, isn’t he? As the saying goes, a “Chuno” runaway should happen before signing the labor contract.

Of course, as is typical for the fate of those who flee after causing a nuisance to everyone, everyone gnashed their teeth, swearing that if he ever set foot on Korean soil again in his lifetime, they would chase him to the end and kill him. Clapping was clapping, and wanting to kill him was wanting to kill him.

Another guy got cast in an audition survival program held in his home country and ran away. That program was even a knockoff created by copying a Korean program without even buying the rights. Knockoff or not, the scale was impressive. Even the lower-ranked participants received millions of votes.

It was undeniable tampering and a dual contract, but our small and cute company couldn’t make a peep. Peep? Our “intuition-dead” CEO actually seemed happy at the words of that agency saying that although they hadn’t debuted in Korea, a contract is a contract, so they would set aside a certain amount of money during the contract period…

The last guy was a dual citizen of Korean descent from an English-speaking country. He also ended up bolting, but the reason was the most trivial and simultaneously the most mind-boggling.

“Mr. Deputy Manager, I’m not a trainee or a minor anymore. I’m going to succeed and earn a lot of money from now on. Can’t you really date me now? You know, like, I’m serious.”

…Because he launched a confession attack at me right after the debut schedule was fixed. For the record, he and I are the same gender, and there is nearly a ten-year age gap between us.

Hearing those words, I let the Americano I had just taken into my mouth dribble out. The background was the back of the company building, a shabby alley where crumpled flyers and trash rolled around. My first reaction was this.

“Child, are you crazy?”

“What? What did you say, Deputy Manager?”

“Crazy. You punk.”

“Oh.”

I went up to the office and immediately made an emergency call to the T&D (training and development) team. Ah, even if I call it the T&D team, it was just two people in total: one team leader and one team member.

“Aaargh! That jerk, even when he was a trainee, he kept saying things like, ‘Why can’t K-pop idols have a romantic relationship? Not even if it’s exclusive?’, ‘You’re telling me not to meet girls privately? Then are guys okay?’, and now he finally causes trouble! I thought it was just because he was a Westerner and open-minded, and that he frequented the A&R team because he was a production-focused member, so I let it slide! That was my mistake, my mistake!”

The T&D practitioner wailed while tearing at their hair, and a storm of departmental meetings and individual interviews ensued. And then… the guy bolted, saying he couldn’t endure the pain of being broken-hearted after his confession was rejected. He said he would go back to his home country, enter university, and live a “God-life.”

Due to this series of events, the remaining four Korean members suffered massive mental damage right before their debut. Redistributing parts, modifying choreography, re-recording, re-shooting, massive corrections of press releases scheduled to be sent to the media… without everything being handled properly, they debuted in a chaotic mess, like roasting beans on a lightning bolt.

The result was, well. It was 4K clarity without even looking. Not only did they fail, but the entire company staggered until everyone’s heads were chopped off in friendly harmony.

Thus, at the time, I was afflicted with a temporary status ailment. It wasn’t quite xenophobia… if I had to name it, it would be something like “Distrust of Foreigners.”

Status Ailment: ‘Distrust of Foreigners’ : The increase in favorability for an opponent of a different nationality is halved, and the decrease is doubled. Morale significantly decreases when assigned to the same unit as unit members of a different nationality.

If I were to explain it in <No Lifer> terms, would it feel something like this?

So, it wasn’t a complete coincidence that my eyes flipped when I saw the advertisement for the South Korean origin Incarnation pick-up gacha in <No Lifer> at that time.

However, now, I am regretting it a little.

If I had known that only crazy bastards like this would gather in my deck… shouldn’t I have collected Incarnations of other origins just a little bit?

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

“Ugh…”

My chest felt tight. I wanted to change my posture, but my body wouldn’t budge. A groan escaped me.

“Is he awake?”

“He seems awake, he seems awake.”

“He’s moving.”

“He’s scowling.”

The sound of chattering in the high-pitched tone unique to children pierced my ears. It seemed they thought they were whispering in their own way, but because the surroundings were quiet, it was heard all too well.

“Stop… I… some breath…”

As I barely managed to stammer, someone beyond my dark vision let out a sharp “Kya!” scream and burst into laughter.

“Huff.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore. I snapped my eyes open.

“……”

And my gaze met exactly with two pairs of pupils staring blankly at me.

Two children who looked so identical that their appearances couldn’t be distinguished were sitting on top of me. One person on the left, one person on the right. Even if they were called children, they weren’t newborns; they looked to be about 10 years old in appearance. Combined, the two would probably weigh as much as one adult man. Naturally, it was heavy.

“His eyes are open.”

“They’re open.”

“He’s looking at us.”

“Is he angry?”

“Are you angry?”

I was disoriented because they kept taking turns talking to me from both sides. First, I had to get these weights pressing down on my ribcage off me. I instinctively tried to raise my hand, but it got caught in the middle with a thud.

‘…Ah, right.’

I was lying on the sofas in the 7th-floor lounge, which had been pushed together like a bed. And my right arm was wrapped in bandages and fixed in one place. Beneath my hand, which was placed neatly with the back of the hand facing the ceiling, was a black panel.

As for why I was in this posture…

Power System Activation Progress… 94%

It was because I was activating the power system while I slept.

In order to activate the power system, the owner of this Pantheon—that is, the Compiler—must be in contact with the panel. Upon testing, the charging speed by contact was much slower when the person was unconscious than when they were awake.

To use a simple numerical analogy, if 100% is achieved in a total of 100 minutes by charging 10% of energy every 10 minutes, then when unconscious, 4% is charged every 10 minutes, reaching completion in a total of 250 minutes.

Looking at it this way, the former seems absolutely better… but let’s add the constraint that “consuming a large amount of energy in a short period results in fainting from acute shock.” Being slow means it puts less strain on the body.

Then, in the end, there is no choice but the latter. Unless you want to die after having all your life force sucked away by the panel.

‘Is there 6% left now…’

Of course, just because less energy is consumed doesn’t mean there is no impact at all. Even though it felt like I had slept for quite a while, far from my fatigue being recovered, it remained exactly the same.

No. Rather, my condition felt a bit worse than before I went to sleep. I felt like an electronic device that had its charger plugged in while simultaneously running an app with high memory usage, so the battery neither decreased nor increased. This wears out the lifespan of the device.

Well, it won’t be like that for long anyway.

Now, the task left for me is simple. It is just to quickly find the logout menu and escape from this bizarre world. But why am I activating the power system while gnawing away at my own flesh?

Why else? It’s just because it feels like I should. Whether it’s due to a lingering bad taste or a half-baked sense of guilt.

If this world itself is my dream or hallucination, it would be a relief if it disappeared the moment I woke up in reality. But what if it isn’t? What if it is a real time and space—be it another dimension, a parallel universe, or whatever—and the lives of those here continue even after I leave?

Until I came here, this place was hell itself. Actually, it feels like it’s still hell now.

Anyway, before this, it was truly a living hell. Because there was an Incarnation trapped in the same space as a corpse because the door wouldn’t open, and an Incarnation who endured with their body split wide open because they couldn’t treat the wound.

I felt like I should fulfill at least the minimum obligation to those who were so broken by the absence of me, a single player. If someone asks why I would go that far for mere game characters created by combining scraps of data… I have nothing to say.

‘Those scraps of data are living, moving, speaking, thinking, and suffering before my eyes… how can I just ignore them?’

“Master, where are you going?”

“Are you going to go?”

Right on time, the children popped their heads out and asked with pure innocence.