HACKED 27

I manipulated the terminal with quick swipes and entered the settings window.

<UserMyeong808> ― LV. 500

Currently Applied Titles:

• “Get a life” (Within top 10 server playtime rankings)
• “Pedal to the Medal” (Within top 10 overall server rankings)
• “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” (Achieved 100 consecutive wins in combat training)
• “Rabbit Princess” (Reached user level cap)
• “Jass-ga-ri-u-geot-deun-man-ga-ri-u” (Acquired 50+ Incarnations of Korean origin)

One-line Bio: (No content)

The profile window. The five titles I had applied appeared side by side. Without even taking a breath, I moved my fingers incessantly.

[Level Visibility Setting ― Public -> Private]

[“Get a life” ― Unequip] [“Pedal to the Medal” ― Unequip]

[“Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” ― Unequip]

[“Rabbit Princess” ― Unequip]

[“Jass-ga-ri-u-geot-deun-man-ga-ri-u” ― Unequip]

Done. If I had more time, I would have equipped some random title that screamed “newbie” to make the disguise more plausible, but this much was enough to pass.

<UserMyeong808> ― Level Private

Currently Applied Titles: (No content)

One-line Bio: (No content)

Ding!

As soon as I finished changing the settings, a message notification rang.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Mr. Myeong, I just saw your profile.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: You don’t have a single title yet.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Are you a total newbie? Or did you just not set them up? lolol

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Don’t worry! I’ll carry you.

“Wow…”

Chirpy stared at me with his mouth hanging open. I shrugged.

“What. Did you think I wouldn’t even put in this much effort while cosplaying as a newbie?”

“To think you’d even manipulate your titles…”

“If I’m going to fleece someone, I have to do it properly. And it’s not manipulation. I just took off what was already there.”

“In any case, you are truly thorough. Such wickedness and meticulousness, chipping away at the social trust assets of other Compilers who want to help newbies with heart and soul! You are exactly the type I’d never want to meet even through random matching!”

“Is that a compliment?”

“It’s a compliment!”

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: You saw it earlier, right?

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: The monster map matched with us is

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: ‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Implant Research Building Area C-113’

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: It’s a place where mutated scientists and test subject mobs appear.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: It’s not too difficult as long as you’re careful of poison damage and radiation lol

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Have you progressed

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: this far yet???

The main story of <No Lifer> is set in a desolate, near-future virtual world following a nuclear war.

While all regions appear evenly, the developer, <Boundary Laboratory>, is a Korean company, so Korean maps appear quite frequently. ‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Implant Research Building Area C-113’ is one of them.

Besides that, several maps in <No Lifer> utilize actual place names existing in reality in Korea. Looking at places like ‘Bombed Sangmu District Civilian Shelter H6 Sector’ or ‘Taehwa River Censored Memory Disposal Site—Delta’ gives me a strange feeling.

Anyway… I remember the main story related to that lab appearing quite early on. Just how much of a newbie does this guy think I am?

<UserMyeong808>: yeah

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Oh, what a relief! ^^

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Good job!! lolololol

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Seeing as you’ve already made it this far,

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: you have talent.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: You’ll be graduating from newbie status soon, won’t you??? lol

The bottomless praise showered upon a newbie just for breathing. He’s showing the typical behavior of an oldbie trying to hold onto a newbie as precious as wild ginseng.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: Usually, when you get a 2-on-1 match in a dimensional merging like this,

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: the monsters split half-and-half for the waves.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: I’ll take care of the ones coming to my Pantheon on my own,

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: so you don’t have to worry about a thing, Mr. Myeong lol

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: As for the monsters coming to your Pantheon…

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: …

The three dots appeared again. The indicator showing the other person was typing. I waited with my arms crossed and my head tilted back slightly.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: I’ll dispatch a few of my Incarnations to help you.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: I won’t let your Pantheon take even 1% damage lol

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>: I’ll send several good fighters to protect you.

‘Sending his own Incarnations? To this side? To catch the monsters for me?’

The moment I heard that, my intuition became a certainty.

“Wow, that’s great! We were just suffering from a lack of combat power, and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to block the enemies. It’s such a relief to meet such a kind per… Mr. Myeong?”

Only after a little more time had passed since his call did I slowly lower the hand that was covering my mouth.

“Why is your expression like that?”

Chirpy asked suspiciously, looking as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“What’s wrong with my expression?”

“It’s… very…”

“Very?”

“You are smiling very subversively.”

“It must be your imagination, Persona.”

“…”

Me, smiling subversively? There’s no way. A kind oldbie said he would help me with all his heart.

Come to me, sweet, easy honey.

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

The Pantheon of Compiler <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>. This place takes the form of a massive archive—a Great Library.

Whether they are buildings, islands, forests, or aircraft carriers, other Pantheons generally have concepts of sky and ground, indoor and outdoor. In comparison, <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s Pantheon was unique.

This entire Pantheon is a single dimension and a single Great Library. The walls of the Great Library are the boundary itself that separates the inside and outside of the dimension; therefore, this massive structure had no windows. Because beyond the walls, only a meaningless void exists.

Grand walls and bookshelves that seemed to continue infinitely. Books filling those shelves. It was a sight that overwhelmed just by looking at it.

Orderly bookshelves. Ladders, stairs, desks, and chairs. Type, type, type… This was the scenery the Incarnations here would see for their entire lives from the moment they opened their eyes.

Just as the space where <UserMyeong808> gives commands as a Compiler is called the “Central Command Room,” <IsItPresbyopiaCrap> gives commands from a place called the “Chief Librarian’s Office.” This space, a duplex structure with a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling, was likewise filled with books.

“Hmm, mmm-hmm, hmm…”

At a large wooden table in the center of that Chief Librarian’s Office sat a man in a robe, the kind a wizard in a Western fantasy novel might wear, humming to himself.

“Who should I send this time?”

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> muttered gleefully. He reached out, pushing up the monocle perched on one eye.

A large hardcover book lay in the middle of the wooden table. He stroked the book a few times as if it were precious and then opened it.

Nothing was written inside the open book. It was completely blank. However, when he picked up the quill pen next to him and tapped the paper with its tip, letters slowly appeared on the surface.

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> ― LV. 427

Currently Applied Titles:

• “No pain no gain” (Reached user level 400)
• “The Giving Tree” (Achieved 100 newbie assists)
• “The Happy Prince” (Achieved 500 newbie assists)
• “Is it not a pleasure to learn and practice what is learned?” (Acquired 100+ scholar-type Incarnations)
• “Philosophy” (Achieved 100% lab upgrade progress)

One-line Bio: Good person~ Good connections~^^ Cute rookie Compilers are always welcome^^ lolol

“My eyes have been getting awfully dim lately. Maybe presbyopia has set in.”

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> rubbed the area around his eyes inside the monocle.

He mentioned presbyopia, but in truth, nothing about his body was natural. It had been so long he couldn’t even remember since he had undergone artificial body replacement surgery from head to toe.

In the era he lived in, it was rare for someone not to do so. Compared to a natural body that easily gets sick and damaged, an artificial body is far superior. So why would anyone insist on living in the body they were born with?

Artificial bodies weren’t entirely free of trouble, but they could be replaced as much as one wanted as long as they had the money. Many people swapped bodies according to trends even if there was nothing particularly wrong. In his era, people who insisted on natural bodies without undergoing artificial replacement surgery were treated as eccentrics, or even mentally ill.

Decorating the Pantheon in the style of an antique Great Library, wearing a robe, and displaying paper books that had gone extinct long ago was his personal hobby. A very niche, luxurious, and obsessive hobby.

“I’ll have to get eye transplant surgery again soon. With the most popular new product line.”

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> turned a page of the book.

<UserMyeong808>: k

The opponent Compiler matched for this ‘Dimensional Merging’ had not contacted him since that short reply.

What kind of person was this Compiler named <UserMyeong808>? They might be from the same cultural sphere as him, or they might not. Their nationality might be different, and they might even be from a different planet, race, or era.

The system installed in the Pantheon translates every language existing in the world into the language the Compiler uses. <UserMyeong808>’s messages were also translated into <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s native language and written in elegant cursive on the paper book, but there was no telling what form they actually took originally.

“It doesn’t matter what they are. Whoever they are, whatever being they are.”

He rose leisurely and walked.

Behind the Chief Librarian’s Office was a secret door. It was designed so that if one pressed several books on the bookshelf in a specific order, the bookshelf would spin around, opening the space inside.

A blast of artificially kept cold air rushed out. In the hidden space behind the bookshelf, more shelves were lined up.

And on those shelves.

“Ah, you’re all doing well today. My lovely newbie Compilers… my precious trophies.”

Numerous severed heads were placed there. The heads of people of different genders, ages, and races were all cut off cleanly from around the middle of the neck, and because they were exquisitely preserved, they couldn’t even rot…

“Everyone is so easily fooled. I’m actually a newbie hunter, not a newbie helper.”

<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> smiled contentedly.