“…”
Silence settled in Serena’s room.
Adam remained silent for a while, an unreadable expression on his face in response to my words.
I was the only one whose insides were burning.
Anyway, I needed the permission of this manor’s owner to move freely.
“…What’s the point of betting on a gamble you’re sure to lose?”
Adam finally spoke after a long silence. I responded immediately.
“Either way, whether I lose or not doesn’t make a difference to you, right?”
“…”
“You don’t seem to trust me very much.”
He didn’t answer. I gritted my teeth and added in a soothing voice.
“If I manage to capture the leader with a one-in-a-million chance of success, it’s fortunate. And if I fail, you’ll have nothing to lose, so it’s fine if you kick me out as originally planned.”
“…”
“You must know that it’s all about breaking even at best.”
In my haste, a provocative tone came out, as if I were provoking Adam.
“I know it well. I don’t trust you at all.”
Fortunately, he didn’t seem too offended and nodded his head.
I would have complimented him on being a good lord if it weren’t for the fact that he was undermining me.
“Uh… well, I know better than anyone.”
“Making such statements while hiding your face won’t inspire trust, let alone any expectations.”
“Yes, yes. You’re absolutely right.”
As I responded with indifference to his subsequent evaluations, a glimmer of anger flashed in Adam’s eyes. It felt satisfying.
“…But your words do make sense. After all, there’s nothing to lose.”
He abandoned his earlier indifferent attitude and stared at me seriously.
“If you fail, you’ll regret not taking the money and leaving.”
“…”
“And you won’t get another chance.”
“I understand.”
“Is that okay with you, though?”
I stared at Adam without hesitation.
I wasn’t the one who needed to be asked if it was okay.
Although he claimed to have no expectations, his eyes had been filled with a glimmer of hope for quite some time now.
As I faced the earnestness in his blue eyes, I felt the desperation and the urgency even though he was just a character in a game.
“Yes.”
I replied without hesitation. Even if he didn’t grant permission, it didn’t matter.
For the sake of escaping the game, I was willing to use everything at my disposal, even if it meant exploiting the developers and my NPC privileges.
Adam didn’t utter the words of permission with his lips, but…
「 [Adam Hailey] has placed a slight expectation on you. 」
「 [Adam Hailey] has a faint trust in you. 」
“So, can I assume that the betting is over and that I can go out to fulfill the promised task?”
Checking the system window, I quickly summarized the situation. Time was of the essence.
As I was about to leave, I suddenly realized that Adam was staring at me intently, so I hastily added:
“Oh, don’t worry, I brought a sufficient amount of potions for the sinner.”
“You…”
He might have been about to express doubt about my abilities or something along those lines, but for some reason, Adam’s brow furrowed slightly.
“…I can’t figure out who you really are.”
He rubbed his temple with one hand.
‘If he knew about my true identity, he’d be a human, not an AI.’
I thought so, but I just nodded and excused myself.
– ̗̀ ˚ ·* ༊*·˚ ˊˎ–
After leaving Adam’s office, I stopped in the second-floor sub-hall with the central staircase.
Unlike the first day when I had just glanced around, I carefully observed the large chandelier hanging from the ceiling this time.
[Level 25 An old Chandelier that has lost its Light and fell asleep]
The writing was still as illegible as ever.
As I thought about the person who had planned this while laughing his ass off, I couldn’t help but feel exasperated.
‘Why on earth is it level 25?’
After gazing at the chandelier for a while, I quickly headed to my room.
Even though my room had already been thoroughly searched, I couldn’t openly open the chat window in the hallway.
“Oh.”
Luckily, the room had been cleaned up as neatly as it had been before the servants ransacked it.
‘I wonder what happened to them.’
The servants who had ransacked my room. Beating them senseless might have been excessive, but since Adam hadn’t mentioned anything, I dismissed the thought.
Click. I locked the door and immediately opened the chat window to vent my anger.
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― Me: Why didn’t you tell me about
Adam’s little sister? -_-
― [GM Ari]: Shari! I thought my fingers would
fall off from waiting for you. T_T
― [GM Sera]: She has finally made her
appearance, the ☆Runaway Mouth!★
― [GM Jinu]: Whoa. I was actually worried
you’d get kicked out this time, fr.
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I snorted at the expected reactions.
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― Me: I didn’t get kicked out, did I?
― [GM Jinu]: Acting all cool now, huh?
― Me: Ugh, forget it! Why didn’t anyone
say anything when I asked yesterday?
― Me: Tell me your reasons! He had a little
sister, and we even went to see her.
Why didn’t anyone say anything?
― [GM Ari]: Shari, please calm down. T_T
It might be better for everyone
to calm down and discuss this.
― Me: @GMAri
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Ari’s plea for calming down as if she had no part in it irritated me, so I tagged her specifically.
「 Sent a message to [GM Ari]. 」
‘Oh, this feature works?’
It was a feature used occasionally to ask specific Operation Helpers questions one-on-one. When you receive a message, it plays a “ding-dong” notification sound, but it had been limited to once every 30 minutes due to some malicious players who used it to harass the operators.
‘Of course, operators don’t have those restrictions!’
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― Me: @GMAri @GMSera @GMJinu
@GMAri @GMSera @GMJinu
@GMAri @GMSera @GMJinu…
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「 Sent a message to [GM Ari]. 」
「 Sent a message to [GM Sera]. 」
「 Sent a message to [GM Jinu]. 」
I chuckled smugly as I enjoyed my petty revenge on them. But then…
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― [GM Ari]: Shari, please calm down. T_T
― [GM Sera]: Enough, enough junior!
Are you above or below the law?
― [GM Jinu]: We didn’t realize it until
we watched you today.
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Finally, I stopped sending messages and asked cautiously.
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― Me: Fine, let’s say I was calm.
― Me: But how did you not know about
a new character being added?
This is a complete bug!!
― [GM Jinu]: Nope, there’s Adam’s little sister
in the character relationship chart. Didn’t you see?
― Me: (Typing…)
― [GM Jinu]: You’re totally clueless, aren’t you?
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I wasn’t able to check the relationship chart through the temple NPC.
Since it was true that I hadn’t seen it, I was immediately at a loss for words.
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― [GM Sera]: Junior, as I said yesterday,
we can’t grasp every variable.
― [GM Sera]: Random distribution, that’s the promise.
― Me: But Adam’s little sister has hardly ever
appeared. What kind of random probability is this?!
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Of all things, why did they have to put the Dark-Eater Centipede in a young child who couldn’t even open her eyes properly due to illness?
But even though I said all this, I understood as an operator why Serena’s appearance probability was low.
It was already a game with many twists and turns.
If there had been many Serena routes, there would have been a storm of criticism, saying it was too cruel to children, and that it lacked ethical consciousness.
But…
‘Why am I the only one experiencing this low random probability that all those other players have avoided…?’
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― Me: Because of that, the situation has become
really messed up and frustrating right now. T.T
― Me: What should I do about this?
Please compensate me. -_-
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Eventually, I said what any player would say.
While it was true that the situation had changed, there was still a way to resolve it.
Therefore, my request was more of a reproach for not providing timely assistance rather than an actual demand for compensation.
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― [GM Sera]: It seems that way. We couldn’t
inform you about everything in advance,
and we naturally wanted to help.
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However, surprisingly, the developers provided a reasonable response.
Usually, from the perspective of those running the game, compensation-related matters were always handled stingily.
Puzzled by their enthusiastic response, I asked.
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― Me: Oh, what kind of help?
― [GM Sera]: Once you capture Serena’s
monster with a potion, we will quickly
remove her from the character relationship
chart and treat her as if she’d died a long time ago!
― [GM Jinu]: Then you’ll have captured the monster,
and you won’t have to worry about
Adam’s corruption. Win-win, right?
― Me: No, thanks! Absolutely not!
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I quickly declined with a shudder.
‘Do these guys have no sympathy for characters other than Cassel?’ I wondered.
They must have witnessed Adam’s desperate situation as he clung to a glimmer of hope.
What a cold-hearted proposal.
Sure, if it went through, Adam wouldn’t remember Serena’s death, but I would continue to feel uncomfortable and have a strange sense of guilt.
So, the help proposed by the developers was simply absurd.
‘I must be crazy… to think for a moment that these guys are normal.’
Even Ari, who had been quiet until now, chimed in.
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― [GM Ari]: We apologize for not being able
to help you right away, but we’ve prepared
a special reward for Shari for successfully
eliminating the boss!
― Me: For some reason, I’m not looking forward
to it at all. You don’t have to give me any rewards;
just answer my questions on time.
― [GM Ari]: ㅠ
― [GM Jinu]: Ask away.
― Me: In a light-attribute weapon,
does it have to be solar light?
― [GM Jinu]: Well, technically, no.
But you can only use solar light for potions.
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Nevertheless, I received a satisfactory response this time.
I, as an NPC who specialized in potions, knew better than anyone that you could only use solar light for potions.
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― Me: I want to try using the chandelier
that Sera made, and not a potion.
― [GM Sera]: Oh! Finally, my moment of redemption…!
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「 [GM Sera] has rewarded you with [5,000 coins]. 」
「 [Current coins: 4,062,900 C] 」
Whether it was out of genuine excitement for using a weapon no one had discovered or for some other reason, Sera suddenly gave me something.
‘Huh. 5,000 coins as a reward?’
I chuckled as I looked at the unexpected system window.
Since they were going to give me something, they might as well have given more. How petty.
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― Me: That’s an AoE weapon, right?
Please tell me how it works.
― [GM Sera]: Yes, it is. To put it briefly, it’s a
secret weapon designed by one of the Hailey ancestors
about 500 years ago to instantly eliminate the
lingering power of darkness that hasn’t
completely disappeared…
― Me: Can you summarize it in three lines?
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I finally got the information I wanted about how it worked after a long, verbose message filled the chat window.
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