HACKED 5

Only then did my interest extend to the space I was in. Fabley’s light (weakened version) only illuminated a radius of about 1 meter, so I hadn’t noticed because it was hard to see, but looking closely in all directions, I could faintly distinguish the walls and the floor. No matter how I looked at it, it was an artificial structure.

So, is this indoors? Combining Fabley’s existence with this environment, this must be the interior of the “Pantheon.”

It’s an interior, sure, but which part exactly? And what was that impact sound I just heard?

Thump!

The ceiling rattled again. Just as I was about to ask what that sound was, Fabley hurriedly flew over and covered my mouth with wings that looked like book pages.

“Mmph!”

“Qu, qu, quiet…”

The light Fabley emitted grew even weaker. From the level of a mood lamp, it was now barely at the level of a single penlight.

Fabley even slowed down its wingbeats and held its breath. Its eyes turned toward the ceiling. Because we were close, I could read the emotions dwelling in those round eyes that resembled an axolotl. It was extreme terror.

“…….”

Without even knowing the reason, I also stiffened with tension. Just what kind of sound was that… no, what kind of thing was making that sound?

The mascot of <No Lifer> is, at most, a character that provides tutorials or event notices on the home screen. According to the setting, it has no reason to go into battle or be threatened by a biological danger. What on earth is it afraid of?

Time flowed incredibly slowly.

A few dozen seconds? Or a few minutes? I don’t know. The parchment material stuck firmly to my mouth even covered my nose, and I was starting to feel suffocated. Wasn’t there a punishment like this in the old days? Covering a death row inmate’s face with Korean paper and pouring water on it to make them suffocate. What did they call that?

“Mmph, mm-mmph!”

I scratched the edge of the paper wings with my fingernails. I intended to peel it off like a sticker. However, the wings didn’t budge. Fabley’s gaze was still fixed on the ceiling.

At this rate, regardless of game possession or whatever, I’m going to die at the hands of this thing. Finally, I grabbed Fabley’s body firmly with my hand.

“Com! Gasp, Compiler… are you alright?”

Fabley inadvertently shouted loudly, then hurriedly lowered its voice and removed its wings.

“Gasp, whew… Do I look alright to you right now?”

“You look gaunt like someone who hasn’t seen sunlight once in their life, but it seems you were just born looking like that, and other than that, you seem fine…”

This little jerk, what? I tightened my grip.

“Gwaaak, ack! I’m, I’m sorry! I was wrong!”

This Fabley jerk, its actions and way of speaking… are strangely like a sycophant. Was it like this in the actual game too?

Before I knew it, the sound rattling above my head had stopped. Just in case, I whispered to Fabley while sticking close to the opposite wall.

“Hey, Face-book.”

“I’ve told you so many times it’s Fabley… sigh, yes. Call me whatever you want.”

“What’s that sound? And where is this?”

“Huh? You don’t know?”

“Wouldn’t I be asking because I don’t know? Is it Pedicure?”

“How can you say you don’t know that? How long has it been since the Pantheon became like this… ah.”

Fabley stopped abruptly mid-sentence. What is this now?

“What?”

“You are the ‘real Compiler’, right? You’re the Compiler who has been here since this Pantheon first came into existence, the one who created and raised this place, right?”

“I still don’t know if this is reality or not and I haven’t grasped the situation at all… but what else would I have done besides raise my account?”

“Sigh, ohhh. Finally… Finaly-y-y…”

Fabley slid down as if all the strength had left its body, then fluttered its wings weakly to float back up.

And then something baffling happened. Water droplets began to form in Fabley’s two round eyes, and the creature grabbed me with its tiny front paws—no, hands—and began to wail loudly.

“You’ve finally returned! This Fabley is so happy…”

“Right, is that so. But let go of this.”

“I’m, hic, sorry, it’s just, seeing the Compiler face to face and, ic, talking like this, it finally feels real, hic…”

Small droplets fell incessantly at my feet. The black floor became even blacker as it got wet.

It was beyond awkward. I’ve never even comforted a crying child, so how am I supposed to comfort a crying game character?

“Hey, first of all, stop crying. Stop crying and talk calmly. And I’m not used to the title Compiler, so call me by my name, my name.”

“Your name? How could I possibly…”

“What, are you Hong Gil-dong? You can’t call your father ‘Father,’ is it something like that? Just call me. Don’t you know my name?”

“User Name 808, like this?”

Hearing my nickname come out of the mouth of a tiny fairy character. It was an unexpected mental attack.

“Just call me Myeong.”

“Myeong-nim…”

Tears welled up in Fabley’s eyes again. It seemed deeply moved by something again. I don’t know what it was, though.

“Myeong-nim, I beg of you. Please protect this place… Please save this Pantheon!”

“What is this, a line from Village Resident 1 looking for a hero? Protect what?”

I was dumbfounded by Fabley’s sudden outcry.

The space called the Pantheon is the player’s main base. The beings here are nothing more than the characters I’ve collected—to use the in-game term, “Avatars.”

Battle? This is an allied camp, so no battles occur here. Battle in <No Lifer> refers to training Avatars in the Pantheon, forming units, and deploying them to the battlefield.

There is a PvP function called “Combat Training” where you fight against other players’ decks… but that takes place in a sort of simulation space called the training ground. Since the concept is training rather than a real battle, even if you take damage, everything is restored to its original state once the battle ends.

In other words, to fight in any form, you first have to send the characters out of the Pantheon. The Pantheon itself is a safe zone. The game system itself is set up that way. It means there’s nothing to protect or save.

So what on earth is this Fabley talking about?

“All the Avatars in this place are broken. If things stay like this… the Avatars, me, and even Myeong-nim… everyone will die!”

…What?

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

<No Lifer> is a luck-based piece of shit game.

Shall I elaborate a bit more? <No Lifer> is a game that can go to hell if your luck is bad.

That doesn’t explain it at all. I’ll start from a more fundamental part.

<No Lifer> is a game of the random, by the random, and for the random. First of all, the characters called “Avatars” in the game are like that.

In this game, every element of a character is random. This applies to external factors like appearance and personality, but also to abilities. There are no fixed values, such as the base stats of a Level 1 Avatar being a certain amount and increasing by a certain amount every time they level up.

Even for the same 3-star character, there is only a set range, and within that, the minimum or maximum value can appear. If you’re lucky, it becomes a high-performance character that dominates as soon as you acquire it, and if you’re unlucky, you get a piece-of-trash character that can’t pull its weight no matter how much you raise it.

To this, the element of “Affinity” is added. You could say this Affinity is effectively the core of <No Lifer>.

If you ask what the most malicious point of this Affinity system is, it’s not that there are a lot of variables or that it’s dizzyingly complex. It’s that it is not explicitly displayed in the game. This field is overflowing with people who studied literature and history because of Affinity, things they never would have done otherwise.

<Indie Game Anonymous Lounge — No Lifer Board>

Title: I put <Fanatic Inquisitor> and <Follower of the Messiah’s Guidance> in the same unit, and the stats dropped like crazy, debuffs were applied, and the unit morale was wrecked. Can this happen? Even to allies?

Body: Title says it all.

Comments:

— Ugh, the title is a mouthful.. do you own this board?

— Do I care? — The comments look like cancer.

— Maybe that Messiah isn’t that Messiah.

ㅤ└ (OP) What do you mean?

ㅤㅤ└ How is it written in the original language?? Don’t just use Korean, try writing it in the original language.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ└ (OP) It’s written as al-Masih.. Why?

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ└ Ah……..

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ└ No, that’s… (sweating emoticon)

ㅤㅤㅤ└ Your Messiah. Has been replaced by Al-Masih.

— (OP) No, what do you mean;; I don’t understand a single word you guys are saying. Please explain.

ㅤ└ It roughly means a Crusade is happening inside your unit.

ㅤㅤㅤ└ “The enemy is within.”

ㅤㅤㅤ└ Medieval madness team-kill meta lol.

Things like this happen all the time… Since the penalty for placing characters with poor Affinity together is so large, you can’t help but pay attention to it. There’s a reason why things like “The Uselessness of Stats” or “Affinity is Everything” drift through the user community whenever people are bored.

Are you already getting heated and getting a headache? Surprisingly, this is not the end!