HACKED 6

Affinity is simply that thing common in other games. It is what increases when the player interacts frequently, gives liked items, and places characters in the same unit as companions they get along with.

Contamination… is one of the major reasons <No Lifer> earned the reputation of being a luck-based piece of shit game, and it is the essence of being screwed over by the system.

The combat in <No Lifer> partially adopted a roguelike style. Every time you play, the structure of the map, the dropped items, the appearing monsters, traps, and boss mobs are all random.

If you make a wrong judgment here, it is not uncommon for a character you have raised with such care to meet a complete death. This is a situation newbies experience at least once in the beginning; they usually think without much concern, “Hmm, they died. I’ll just level them up a bit more and try again,” and then they have a mental breakdown when they realize that a character who dies once never returns.

Items that prevent character death or resurrect them? There are no such things.

If they existed, <Boundary Laboratory> would have made a literal fortune. Why don’t they take the money when people are trying to give it to them? They are quite the stubborn bastards.

As you roam around the combat maps, Contamination gradually accumulates on the characters. According to the game setting, this happens because they are exploring corrupt places tainted by disaster. It is like the body of a person exposed to radiation gradually becoming irradiated.

Contamination accumulated like this does not disappear on its own even if you return to the main base. You have to “purify” it by using specific items or by placing them in specific facilities.

Let’s let that part slide. It can prevent auto-hunting style play where one circles a single map indefinitely, and it encourages gameplay that uses a variety of characters equally, rather than forming a fixed deck with a powerful few and sending only them out to die.

The truly annoying thing about this system is that once Contamination exceeds a certain level, penalties are imposed randomly.

To put it simply, you can think of it as playing a role similar to the Sanity value or the Madness system in certain TRPG rules. When a lot of Contamination accumulates, they have seizures, their senses become strange, they see or hear hallucinations, they self-harm, they attack companions, they throw away items they possess, they shower buffs and heals on enemies instead of allies… and so on.

Most status ailments have a way to be cured somehow. In most cases, they disappear just by letting the character rest well. However, if you are truly, truly, truly unlucky… it becomes a “Permanent Disability” and won’t go away no matter what you do….

There are many people who say this Contamination system is the true fun of <No Lifer>, and many who say it is a deep-seated evil that should be removed as soon as possible. Of course, the result is already out. When the development team was asked what they thought about this system in an interview, they answered like this:

“A succession of mercurial and unpredictable events—that is exactly what life is.”

This sentence immediately became a meme and was applied in ways like, “A succession of being screwed over and rage-quitting—that is exactly what Nosaeng-ies are.” It was exported to other games and communities, and it even showed the vigor of being nominated for that year’s Meme Awards… I will omit the rest.

So, the reason I have laid out this long story is this.

“Every Avatar I owned has hit the maximum Contamination? And they are in the same space as me right now?”

“Yes, you summarized it accurately.”

“Is this for real?”

No, seriously. Is this dog-like situation, which no one would believe even if I posted it on the internet, for real?

“After you left, Myeong-nim, this place was ruined beyond control. I am sorry to tell you this but… everyone here is out of their minds. I barely managed to survive by hiding and moving about in secret, which is how I survived until now to meet Myeong-nim. But if we stay like this and happen to get caught…”

“If we get caught?”

“…….”

Instead of an answer, Chirpy drew a line across its own throat with its hand. Then it stuck out its tongue and let its head drop with a thud, mimicking being limp.

Since a fellow the size of a human fist was doing that, it was a situation that might be funny, but the laughter wouldn’t come.

“If Contamination hits 100, what was there? I mean the status ailments.”

“Most likely, it’s ‘Murderous Intent.’ Either killing oneself or killing the opponent.”

“Are there ones who committed suicide? How can a game character commit suicide… no, wait. With this game, it’s entirely possible.”

“What I can tell you now is the fact that the number of Avatars here has likely decreased significantly compared to what you remember, Myeong-nim.”

“This crazy, luck-based piece of shit game.”

If it’s game possession, isn’t it usually like that? A status window or something pops out to give quests, and if you solve them, it showers you with stats, skills, and items. You use the possessor cheat keys to hit rank 1.

Why am I the only one in this state? Why is the genre for me alone an extreme horror survival thriller!

“Right. Status window! If it’s game possession, isn’t there something like a status window? Status window! Information window! Inventory! Quest!”

“…….”

“…….”

I shouted the words that came to mind toward the empty air at random. But surprisingly, nothing happened. Chirpy only looked at me with half fear and half worry.

“Um, are you okay? Myeong-nim, you haven’t accumulated Contamination too, have you?”

“I said that as a joke.”

“It sounded like you were serious… no, never mind.”

I was suffocating from being screwed over by the system with no answer in sight. I don’t know how on earth I fell into a place like this, but at this point, isn’t it just telling me to die?

“What am I supposed to do if I can’t see a single piece of information or status! They call it game possession, but if I’m the player, there should be some kind of privilege! How is this any different from just becoming an extra NPC 1!”

“But you can see them?”

“Huh?”

“Pardon?”

I went blank for a moment. Chirpy was also dazed in turn.

“Did you forget because you returned after such a long time? If you go to the ‘Central Command Room’, you can see all the records you’ve built up, the list of Avatars, and the resource status.”

“No, I know that too. I’m saying that in the original game, if I pressed the ‘Central Command Room’ button, the main menu would open up wide, but now that window doesn’t appear… wait.”

“Yes?”

“Listen, Pastry.”

“Really, all sorts of words are coming out…. Anyway, this is the ‘Storage’ located on the lowest floor of the Pantheon, and specifically, the very bottom of it.”

“If it’s storage, is it a place where resources are stored?”

In <No Lifer>, which is to say, inside the game, there was no separate concept like a resource storage. Resources were simply displayed as numbers at the top of the screen.

But assuming this is reality, resources would have to be piled up somewhere… so a storage would be necessary. I hadn’t thought of the obvious.

“That is correct. This path is a passage that used to carry resources, but it has been almost unused since the scale of the storage was significantly expanded. There is no lighting, so it is completely dark. Thanks to that, I was able to hide and survive until now, though.”

In the game, one could teleport from map to map with a single touch. Looking at account information, starting a battle, or sending characters to farm resources—all of it could be done just by pressing buttons. Naturally.

But now, in any case, it had become a three-dimensional reality, and so I had to think realistically.

“Then how do I get to the Central Command Room from here?”

“Well… that is. Myeong-nim, you know the structure here, right?”

“…….”

As if I’d know. I lived only looking at buttons laid out on a screen.

“Myeong-nim’s Pantheon is in the form of an island floating in the air. Although I used the expression ‘in the air,’ you can think of it as being separated into a dimension distinct from the actual sky. No matter how much you move in any direction, you will never collide with other terrain or objects.”

“A floating island… right. Now that I think about it, I think that was roughly the setting.”

“Roughly the setting, you say…”

“When moving to other maps, it’s a method of entering and exiting by opening gates.”

“Correct. Although specific conditions differ, other Pantheons share the same principle. If we assume there is a Pantheon in the form of a giant ship floating on the sea, that place too, no matter how much one sails, would encounter nothing but the vast ocean.”

“Then for us, since this is underground, it obviously won’t be visible, but if we go somewhere where the outside is visible… like somewhere with a window or a balcony, what do we see?”

“The endless sky stretching up, down, left, and right.”

“Is there no ground at all?”

“That is correct. Because this is a dimension called the ‘Conceptually Constructed Sky’.”

“Is there a possibility of this island falling entirely?”

“It is exactly zero. Because the ground does not exist. Even if you move downward at a very fast speed similar to free-fall, there is nothing below. The sky simply continues forever. Therefore, the principle of ‘floating in the air’ continues to be maintained.”

“It’s like patterned wallpaper that can be attached infinitely in all directions.”

“That is a good analogy. Although you have been absent for a long time, it is a bit puzzling that Myeong-nim, who has been here from the start, would ask such questions… anyway, to answer your original question, the Central Command Room is on the top floor.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

The creature and I looked at each other with stupid eyes again. At this point, I’m getting annoyed by my own dazedness.

“This is the lowest floor, and I have to go to the top floor? Just to see a little scrap of a status window?”

“That’s right, isn’t it?”

“While swish. Swi-swish. Swish. Dodging madmen with 100 Contamination who might pop out at any time and any place?”

“That’s… right, isn’t it?”

“Haha.”

I laughed. Of course, I didn’t laugh because it was funny. The forced laughter disappeared in exactly one second.

“I’m dropping this game. Log me out.”

“Log out?”

“GG. Surrender. Quit. I’m going back to the world I originally came from.”

Even as I spoke, I naturally thought this fellow wouldn’t understand the word “log out.” However, Chirpy looked puzzled for a moment, then soon nodded as if it understood.

“Ah, you mean going to another dimension for a while. That is also possible if you go to the Central Command Room.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

This actually works?