I was sitting in the office, running the game through what I considered a final inspection.
There was less than a week left until release.
As if to remind me of that fact, a yellow sticky note attached to the top of my monitor bore the words D-5.
I glanced at it once before restarting the game.
Normally, this was the stage when the game should already have been handed over to the QA Department and essentially completed, but as always, we were letting the minor bugs slide with the excuse that we could patch them later.
There were, however, some problems that could not be handled that way.
CLICK, CLICK-CLICK. CLICK.
As I clicked the mouse and skipped through the cutscenes, a cinematic began to play.
Grand, magnificent battles decorated the login screen.
The elaborate mechanics and spectacular boss battles that could be called the highlights of each scenario flashed past one after another.
My reaction, however, remained indifferent.
I had already played through them so many times that I had long since reached the point where I could no longer find them entertaining.
But as a developer, it was not as though I could simply refuse to play.
“Haah……”
It was a game with a simple, clichéd story about preventing the destruction of the world.
But because the company had practically staked all of its capital on the project, it had become a hardcore, AAA-scale single-player action game packed with content for players to delve into.
From a developer’s perspective, the phrase ‘content to delve into’ was practically synonymous with ‘more work.’
It was also commonly understood to mean that overtime would multiply.
Guaranteed overtime, possible post-launch support work, and coming into the office on weekends.
They might sound different, but they all meant the same thing.
A game with a budget in the tens of billions of won had thoroughly worn its developers down.
And yet……
A massive, imposing poster adorned one wall of the office.
There was some consolation to be found in that alone.
Our game currently ranked first among the year’s most anticipated releases.
Tonight’s overtime was caused by a problem in the side quest ‘The Fall of the Peacevolt House.’
After logging in with my developer ID, I was able to skip all the minor sections and stop precisely where I wanted.
[Great Demon of Dreams.]
It was a boss battle.
After I skipped a short dialogue scene, the screen changed and control returned to the player.
I maneuvered the character convincingly enough to advance into the next phase, whereupon the Great Demon roared in fury, tore up the earth, and began Phase Two.
A satisfied smile spread across my face.
There was no lag.
The game did not crash either.
“It finally works properly.”
I replied to an internal company email titled [Aiden’s Phase Two crashes a lot], telling them that I had fixed it, and added a cute emoticon.
Then I looked back at the paused game screen.
A blond-haired man stood there, adjusting his grip on his rapier as he faced the enraged Great Demon.
“They did make him well.”
He really was well made.
Except for the fact that the unnecessarily extravagant combat sequences caused RAM usage to skyrocket and resulted in frame drops.
That blond-haired man was Toscantana Aiden Peacevolt.
He was the representative of one of the two factions that shared the position of strongest in the setting, while simultaneously serving as a professor at the academy.
‘And a character who gets eliminated halfway through.’
Aiden would lose and die in the battle against the Great Demon currently displayed on the screen.
Having grown somewhat bored, I pulled the character setting book out from beneath a pile of documents.
I began reading through it one section at a time.
I had mostly concerned myself with programming and left the story to the side, so the material actually felt rather fresh to me.
The scenario ‘The Fall of the Peacevolt House’ largely dealt with the events that occurred after Aiden’s term as a part-time professor ended and he returned to his family.
“The strongest individual the demons wanted to eliminate in advance of their grand invasion……”
One additional line beneath that caught my interest.
[It is true that the Great Demon had been looking for an opportunity to target Aiden, but this incident would never have occurred if he had continued teaching as a part-time professor.]
“Hmm.”
An additional explanation had been included underneath to make the situation easier to understand.
Apparently, even a Great Demon found the Imperial Capital’s defenses burdensome, so the tragedy would never have happened if Aiden had remained there.
It also said that no one had expected someone as powerful as Aiden to be assassinated.
But even if Aiden had known, he would have returned anyway.
“There is even a setting saying he received a Great Demon’s Blessing.”
I remembered that one.
Within the game’s system, Blessings could provide beneficial effects, but some of them also inflicted negative effects.
The Blessing Aiden had received was probably one of the latter.
What made them particularly vicious was that although they functioned similarly to curses, they could not be removed through ordinary means.
The Blessing placed upon Aiden was the ‘Illusion of Hatred.’
In other words, it had been bestowed by the Great Demon of Dreams whom Aiden had fought.
Could the reason he would have gone back even if he had known the danger have been because he wanted to rid himself of this Blessing?
DING.
A notification sounded as a blinking vermilion window appeared, announcing the arrival of another internal email.
I moved the mouse toward it without thinking.
[Ah, thank you. I am sorry for sending this so close to the end of the workday.]
“I would have preferred it a little sooner, but still……”
I had little desire to blame the QA Team.
Every department was pressed for time, but the QA Team received everyone else’s work last.
In other words, just when everyone else was beginning to breathe a sigh of relief, their workload reached its peak.
For all I knew, they might have sent this in a hurry while frantically checking everything else.
I opened the internal mail program and typed a response.
‘It is fine.’
As I gathered my belongings and prepared to leave work, another DING sounded, and a new internal email arrived.
[Thank you so much. But… um, there is something about Aiden’s character setting. I heard that you were the one who proposed it, Seong-ha. Is that true?]
I stroked my chin, wondering which setting they meant.
When I did not immediately reply, another message arrived from the QA employee.
[The Illusion of Hatred.]
“Ah.”
Now that they mentioned it, I remembered.
The Illusion of Hatred bestowed by the Great Demon of Dreams was a Blessing that ultimately caused its victim to perceive people as cockroaches.
It was also the reason Aiden suffered from pathological mysophobia.
However, everyone only knew that Aiden suffered from misanthropy and knew nothing about the circumstances behind it, so they assumed his obsession with cleanliness was simply part of a genius’s aloof nature.
That was why even when Aiden confessed, ‘People look like cockroaches to me,’ everyone merely interpreted it as a roundabout expression.
Most of them mistook it for him saying something along the lines of, ‘You are as ugly as a cockroach.’
As a result, the number of girls Aiden had reduced to tears throughout the story was practically impossible to count.
‘Haha, I did not expect them to actually approve it either.’
I stopped typing and cleared my throat awkwardly.
A reply came immediately.
[I really like Aiden as a character, but this one setting has always bothered me.]
‘Is that so?’
[When you came up with this setting, did you ever think about how much Aiden would suffer because of it?]
“Hmm?”
There was something strange about the tone……
[Ah, you do not have to reply. I already know you probably did not give it much thought.]
I was still slightly bewildered by the hostile message when the internal mail notification sounded once again.
[So I think it might not be such a bad idea for you to experience it yourself.]
Just as I was about to type a reply asking what that was supposed to mean, my fingers froze above the keyboard.
“The sender is… the Star Mage?”
Wait.
Was everyone not required to use their real names for our internal company email?
The question flashed through my mind.
At the same time, all strength drained from my body, and my vision went black.
Having finished recalling those memories, I tore at my hair.
“Did that really happen……?”
And now, I had become Aiden.
Everyone looked exactly like cockroaches to me, and even the mysophobia and nausea matched perfectly.
“Is this divine punishment?”
It was karma.
This was definitely karma.
During development, Aiden had been designed to look so absurdly impressive that I had jokingly proposed adding something unpleasant to his character, only for the idea to actually be approved.
If I had known it would come back to haunt me like this, I would have done everything in my power to stop my past self.
If there was one thing I found slightly unfair, it was that I had only proposed the idea.
Was the person who actually approved it not more at fault?
There was nothing wrong with making a suggestion……
Haah……
Every time I thought about it, my mind went hazy, and another heavy sigh escaped me.
I clenched and opened my fist as I assessed the situation.
‘Judging by the fact that I retained his memories, behavior, and habits, is this possession?’
I had been momentarily flustered when someone first spoke to me, but fortunately, I had still been able to speak like a nobleman.
The same was true of dining etiquette, the way I walked, my tone and manner of speaking, and even my thought patterns, which closely followed Aiden’s.
‘That really was fortunate.’
Otherwise, they might have suspected me from the very beginning.
A maid assisted me in changing clothes.
She dressed me in a dress shirt, put an elegant purple long coat over it, wrapped a scarf around my neck, and styled my hair with pomade.
In truth, I wanted to do it myself.
Since everyone looked like a cockroach to me, physical contact with another person had effectively become physical contact with an enormous cockroach.
At that very moment, horrifying chitinous legs were touching my body.
Physiologically, I could not handle this.
My complexion grew darker with every passing moment when I heard footsteps ascending the stairs in the distance.
For a moment, I wondered if it could be her, but I quickly shook my head.
‘There is no way Charlotte is still here.’
After all, she was an extremely busy person.
Ever since I had secluded myself under the excuse of illness, all of my official duties had fallen entirely upon Charlotte. Considering that she already had responsibilities of her own, it would probably be more accurate to say that her workload had doubled.
At first glance, it might sound as though I had simply dumped all my work onto her, but Charlotte wanted to prove her usefulness through governing the territory.
If anything, she probably welcomed the situation rather than resented it.
Contrary to my expectations, however, the voice I heard was somehow familiar.
A woman with short brown hair… or at least, I assumed she was a woman.
She appeared to be preparing to go somewhere, and her immaculate attire exuded unmistakable nobility.
The moment Charlotte saw me, she began sighing heavily.
“Finish getting ready and come downstairs. I already have the carriage prepared.”
“Where are we going?”
“…Are you seriously asking me that?”
When I tilted my head, Charlotte grabbed the back of her neck.
“Le Sete Academy.”
It is where you are going to be a professor, so obviously you have to visit it at least once.
Her glare seemed to say the rest.
If I truly refused to go, she looked ready to settle matters with me right here and now.
My jaw still ached from the punch I had received yesterday, so I had no choice but to nod.
She was truly barbaric.
‘The academy, huh?’
Come to think of it, I had business there as well.
‘The game setting book definitely said I would not have died if I had continued teaching as a part-time professor, right?’
The maid apparently finished arranging my hair and stepped away.
I glanced at myself in the full-length mirror and gave a small nod.
Whatever else one might say, there was absolutely nothing to criticize about this appearance.
A sharp, finely sculpted jawline.
A high-bridged nose and blue eyes.
An unyielding ego that harmonized perfectly with his faintly arrogant bearing.
All of it gave Aiden the air of a scholar possessed of unwavering convictions.
“Let us go, Professor Aiden.”
Charlotte spoke with a faintly mocking note in her voice.
I nodded in response.
“A professor, huh.”
“Why? You do not like being a Chair Professor even though the position is practically that of a part-time professor? They arranged it that way specifically so you could quit whenever you wanted—”
“That is not it.”
Charlotte looked at me as though silently asking what I meant, then.
I answered with a faint smile.
“Since I have accepted the position, I should do the job properly.”
My immediate objective was to renew my term as a part-time professor.
Cockroaches or no cockroaches, staying alive came first.
‘I can think about everything else one step at a time.’
Charlotte stared blankly at me for a moment before letting out a small laugh and asking what had gotten into me.
She did not say anything more, but there was something noticeably cheerful about the lightness of her steps.