Chapter 10

Before I could answer, he asked again.

“How much do you know?”

And he asked again.

“Why do you know it?”

He fired question after question, but did not wait for any answers.

The wall collapsed.

Like a wave made of images, the wall crumbled and took on a new shape. It curved around me like an enormous hemisphere.

Before I realized it, I was no longer tied to the chair and was standing on a circular platform.

The hemisphere surrounding me no longer displayed the world.

Now it displayed me.

Countless screens of different sizes showed versions of me from various angles.

“I am Samra Man-Sang. There should be nothing that I do not know.”

Samra began walking along the edge of the circle, always keeping me at its center.

“Then why?”

His holographic eyes remained fixed on me.

“Is your existence an unknown?”

Even so, he continued observing me.

“And yet, you are undeniably human.”

He tilted his head back.

From the point where his gaze settled, the screens began changing like ripples spreading across the surface of water.

Following his gaze, I saw countless versions of my past appear.

Me in the orphanage.

Me in elementary school, middle school, and high school.

And.

Me when I was a professional player.

I saw myself smiling while holding a championship trophy in one hand and wearing tape wrapped around my fingers on the other.

My mind went completely blank.

I could not understand what I was seeing.

If I had really entered the game, into the Archive World, then the characters should not know anything about my past.

They should have no way of knowing that I grew up in an orphanage.

Nor that I had been a professional player.

A new truth struck me.

Wait.

Then this place…?

Wasn’t South Korea inside the game?

Wasn’t it the Archive World?

Was it the world where I had lived?

‘The real South Korea?’

My head hurt.

The emotional distance I had maintained by believing I was inside a video game vanished instantly.

Before I could process that truth, a system window appeared.

◆ Epic Mission : Close 3 Trials within one month.

What…?

You have discovered a hidden truth.

You have realized that the world you believed was a game was something that had been secretly occurring within your reality.

As the System of planet Earth, you strive to stop the Trials.

To achieve that, you believe you must close three Trials within one month.

*Trials currently closed (0/3)

I shut my eyes tightly.

I took several deep breaths.

When I opened them again, the window was still there.

Close three Trials through True Endings within one month.

And if I failed, my limbs would be amputated?

It was difficult to take it as a joke.

The image of Park Seonggyeon’s head exploding spectacularly was still fresh in my memory.

And on top of that, the reward was ridiculous.

The punishment was losing my arms and legs.

The reward was keeping them.

As I tried to process that flood of impossible information, I could not help thinking.

‘That practically means there is no reward.’

As if responding to my protest, another system window appeared.

Final reward that will receive upon completing all Epic Missions.

‘So there is something.’

I waited for the next window to appear.

’s body will be restored to its most perfect state.

I read those words.

And I read them once more.

At that instant, a faint tremor ran through my hand.

I forcibly restrained the direction my eyes wanted to move and clenched my fist to hide the trembling.

“……”

Samra tilted his head slightly as he observed me closely.

I managed to regain my composure.

And decided to ask what I needed to confirm first.

“…What date is it today?”

“March 8.”

“Of the year 20XX?”

“Yes.”

“And when did Captain Mo Haein enter HasFac?”

“March 7.”

Samra’s pupils repeatedly expanded and contracted like the aperture of a camera.

He was collecting data on my physical reactions.

“Furthermore, it was the day Captain Mo Haein found Mr. Han Goyo.”

This year was a leap year.

The day I watched the Developer’s livestream was February 29.

That meant there was a seven-day gap.

Up until March 6.

I had absolutely no memory of where I had been or what I had done during that time.

“When did the Trials begin?”

“Four years ago, on February 29.”

It was around the time I retired as a professional player and became unemployed.

I started playing the Developer’s game two years ago.

I tried to gather all the scattered pieces that seemed connected.

But I could not reach any conclusion.

“Mr. Han Goyo.”

After confirming that my mental state was not at its best, Samra changed his approach.

All the screens surrounding me disappeared.

In their place appeared a pleasant outdoor café on a peaceful afternoon.

On an empty terrace table sat two cups of iced Americano along with several desserts.

Even the containment uniform I was wearing had been replaced with casual clothes.

Samra pulled out a chair and invited me to sit.

Then he sat down across from me.

I stopped trying to organize the thoughts racing wildly through my head and took a large sip of the iced coffee.

The sensation of the cold liquid sliding down my throat felt absurdly real.

But it was not real.

It was fake.

Because this place was a virtual space created by Samra.

Samra had been created from an android item obtained from a science-fiction-themed Trial.

Perhaps because his essence was that of a Trial item, he possessed the ability to create virtual spaces similar to the Trials themselves.

Within this place, Samra was practically a god.

He could create or erase anything at will.

In any case, thanks to the fake iced Americano, I regained some of my composure.

And I was able to think a little more clearly.

I still did not understand why I had become a System.

I was not someone extraordinary.

I did not possess the qualities necessary to occupy a position as grand as the System of Earth.

I was, rather, an ordinary person who prioritized his own survival.

There were countless people far more capable of bearing such responsibility or sacrifice.

I did not understand why they had chosen me.

‘Even now, it would be better if they chose someone else.’

I let out a brief sigh while waiting for the next system window.

But nothing appeared.

I swallowed a long exhale.

And, as the ordinary person I was, I established the most important priority among my current circumstances.

To keep my arms and legs.

‘Completing all the Epic Missions—that’s a problem for the distant future.’

After all, I did not even know how many missions I was going to be assigned.

I looked at the android in front of me.

From the moment I mistook this place for the world of Archive, I had reached a conclusion.

I had to go to the Trial Response Agency and meet Samra Man-Sang.

Because if there was anyone I could tell everything that had happened to me and ask for cooperation, it was Samra Man-Sang.

Even at this very moment, the android was probably recording information about me in real time.

He was a gigantic database containing everything related to the Trials.

Created with technology from a world far more advanced than Earth, Samra gathered information that human beings were incapable of perceiving.

The machine that was drinking coffee as if he were a person smiled slowly.

“It seems you will need my help.”

His attitude gave the impression that he already considered himself the winner of the conversation.

But I did not need help.

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

Samra raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Then I made him an offer.

“But I would like to make a deal. Are you interested?”

“Yes. What do you intend to offer?”

“Information about the Trials.”

“Hm.”

“Someone who knows the Trials.”

“No.”

At first, I considered offering exactly that.

Because what Samra needed most was information to expand his data on the Trials.

Samra could not enter them.

He could only obtain information through Compatibles.

But many Compatibles died inside the Trials.

And even when they survived, many ended up infected.

Those who managed to come out unharmed were usually people who had cleared Trials whose methods were already known.

And those Compatibles rarely tried to discover new routes or strategies.

That was why Samra had difficulty obtaining new data.

Even by collecting information from other countries through hacking, there was still a fundamental lack of data related to the Trials.

However, I did not feel comfortable sharing all the information I possessed.

‘The development of HasFac was strange. The items were strange. Even the ending was different and appeared covered by those black blocks.’

Besides, revealing all my cards from the start seemed like a bad idea.

I did not know how the situation would develop.

I also needed to keep something of value for myself.

So I decided to offer something else.

“There is someone who knows the Trials.”

“Hm.”

“Someone who knows all of this.”

I meant the Developer.

After coming this far, it was impossible not to be curious.

What kind of existence was he to have created a game about the Trials?

And why had he chosen me?

He had probably selected me as a candidate to stop the Trials and trained me through Archive.

That was the most logical conclusion.

But I could not be certain.

Because I remembered the last words he said to me.

“I suppose now I’ll be the one watching Gunbam’s streams.”

“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time. A very, very, very long time.”

If he had really chosen me to become the System of Earth.

Well.

There was something about him that did not seem entirely sane.

In any case, I needed to find him.

The problem was that my memories were incomplete.

I remembered perfectly the games he had given me.

I also remembered the conversations we had during his streams.

But I was incapable of remembering his face.

Everything appeared covered by black darkness.

As if someone had deliberately erased that part of my memories.

However, Samra could probably track him using the information I possessed.

“…Interesting.”

Samra leaned slightly forward.

“And what do you wish to obtain in return, Mr. Han Goyo?”

“Absolute cooperation.”

In addition to locating the Developer, I planned to use Samra to secure a stable position within the Trial Response Agency.

Samra’s opinion carried almost absolute influence within the organization.

If he supported me, I could get rid of the accusation of being a national disaster.

And, of course, if there was any other way to take advantage of Samra’s assistance, I intended to do so without hesitation.

“Absolute cooperation…”

Samra left the sentence unfinished as he pointed a finger at the Trial Response Agency uniform he was wearing.

“I am incapable of performing actions that harm humanity.”

“I know.”

“What exactly do you know?”

“Even if you did not have a contract with the Trial Response Agency, you were always someone who wanted to save the world.”

Samra had tried to save the world from the Trial he came from.

The lights already flickering within his eyes began shining even more intensely.

For a moment, I considered asking if he could lower the brightness a little.

But before I could, he covered his eyes with his hand.

When he lowered it, they had returned to normal.

Samra smiled.

“Now I am even more interested in the information you can provide, Mr. Han Goyo. As long as it does not harm humanity, I accept the deal.”

‘Sir, I’m on humanity’s side too.’

‘After all, I’m the System of Earth.’

I felt slightly offended by the way he treated me as though I might be some sort of villain.

But I kept those thoughts to myself.

Then I extended my hand.

“Then I hope we can work well together.”

Samra shook my hand and gave it a slight shake.

As he did, his pupils expanded and contracted without rest.

I had the feeling he was examining me thoroughly.

Even though a simple conversation should not contain that much relevant information.

In any case.

I had obtained a rather valuable ally.

It was not a bad start.

***

I explained everything related to the Developer to Samra in detail.

Of course, I omitted the part about me being the System.

I simply told him that I had played the games created by that person for two years and that, in the end, I had been transported into HasFac against my will.

I also told him about the seven missing days in my memories.

While listening to my story, Samra searched for information about the Developer across social networks and databases around the world in real time.

“There are some scattered references, but nothing particularly useful. Ideally, it would be best to gain direct access to one of his streams.”

But I remembered neither his face nor his name.

The first game I purchased, Happy Smile Factory, had been bought through a digital distribution platform.

However, there was no record of it there.

Not of HasFac.

Not even that I had ever played the title.

Samra even remotely powered on my computer and searched through all its files.

But he found nothing.

No HasFac.

Nor any of the other games.

Not a single fragment of information remained.

Not even traces of deletion.

It was as if they had never been installed.

After completing the search, Samra reached a conclusion.

“There is a high probability that the Developer is an extraterrestrial entity.”

It was a logical deduction.

The Trials were a disaster originating from outer space.

“I will continue investigating a little more. For now, perhaps we should leave. There are people waiting.”

People waiting.

Just hearing that made me feel tired.

But I needed to handle the situation properly from the beginning.

So I nodded obediently.

Everything began to melt.

Normally, when a Trial ended, the surroundings distorted into fluorescent colors resembling neon lights before disappearing.

But Samra’s virtual space was different.

Everything shone with the same holographic colors as his eyes.

White light flooded my vision.

Unable to bear the brightness, I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again.

I had returned to reality.

Although the welcome was a little more aggressive than I expected.

“…Oh.”

I could not help letting out an exclamation.

Dozens of sniper rifle laser sights were pointed directly at me.