3-2. Logo
"Faster! Go faster! Do something!"
The pursuit squad had appeared, and the Viscount was groaning and clutching his head.
He looked up at the sound of someone muttering.
"......Game over. Quit. Exit. Exit game. Menu. Return to menu. Status screen. Open status screen. Pause. Pause game. Back. Go back. Control panel. Help. Help! Settings. Status screen. Fuck, status screen! Augh, goddamn it."
It was the scribe. The one who'd been acting strange for a while now.
He seemed to have lost his mind, spewing incomprehensible words.
Pathetic to watch, but understandable. The Viscount was about to tell him to shut up, but stopped himself.
He himself was on the verge of losing his mind—how much worse must it be for the scribe, dragged along without knowing a thing? So he was going to leave him be, but......
"What are you doing now?"
This time, he truly had no choice but to say something. The scribe had grabbed a quill pen and was frantically scrawling something on perfectly good paper.
His gall had even outgrown his belly, because he didn't so much as acknowledge the question.
The Viscount was about to erupt in fury, but a sudden wave of futility made him laugh instead.
'When we're about to live or die any moment now, what does some paper matter? How absurd.'
He's probably writing his last words. That was what the Viscount thought.
Suhyeok, meanwhile, was desperate.
With the carriage about to flip and his head about to leave his shoulders any minute, who wouldn't be?
On top of that, forget a status screen—discovering there wasn't even a way to quit the game was a shock.
Goddamn piece-of-shit game.
Who the hell made this...... Oh. Me.
So what he'd written, half-hoping and half-doubting, was this:
using KingRPG.System;
namespace Exit_from_Inside;
public class ExitTask { …
var _manager = new private KingRPG_Manager();
…
The namespace: Exit_from_Inside.
Please let me out—he'd poured a desperate prayer into it.
using KingRPG.System;
He'd pulled in the system library from the KingRPG game. Dredging 'KingRPG_Manager' access permissions from a library spanning tens of thousands of lines was almost instinct.
Before long, the page was packed solid with code.
Suhyeok shook out his numb arm and double-checked the code. Turning it back and forth for good measure.
"Whew. But this......"
Will it work? This? Is there a chance I just did something incredibly stupid?
TWANG—! TWANG—! Bowstring snaps sounded, and the carriage was already swaying dangerously. He'd written the code in a trance, but this was just a scrap of paper.
Not a computer, not a development tool, not even an editor.
Nothing more than fiber paper made from medieval rags and cotton pulp beaten into sheets.
No matter what he wrote on it, there was no earthly reason for the code to compile and run...... Suhyeok felt genuinely hopeless.
'I should've just jumped out. Out of the carriage.'
If he was going to, he should've done it earlier. With the pursuit squad right behind them, it would just be a pointless death now.
Ha. Damn it. What should I do?
This time it was Suhyeok who was clutching his head and on the verge of tears.
"Th-that thing...... is that a scroll? Are you a mage, sir?"
It was Viscount Alang. He was staring at the paper Suhyeok had written on with an entranced look in his eyes.
A scroll? This? Where do you see a scroll?
The questions surged up to Suhyeok's throat, but he barely swallowed them down.
When the other person was asking because they didn't know, letting on that you didn't know either was an attitude to be avoided—as a functioning member of society, the head of a game company, no less, and a developer.
Even if you don't know, act like you do.
If you do know, act like you know it even better—act like an expert, even.
He'd learned through experience that this was the shortcut to raising your value as a developer and leading employees as a company CEO.
And so, ahem.
Suhyeok cleared his throat.
"I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a mage. I picked up a few things over the shoulder while working as a scribe...... How does it look to you?"
Ooh. Anticipation lit up the Viscount's face.
"I see. What would I know? I'll just take it at face value. But...... if you use this, will it help with our current situation?"
Suhyeok nodded firmly. Spouting whatever sounded good, as any seasoned professional would.
"Yes. I'll give it to you, Viscount. Consider it fate that brought us together."
To an outsider listening in, this conversation would've sounded like two men engaging in some mutually beneficial business arrangement. But in reality, it was a contest over who knew less.
Suhyeok: I have no idea how to use this thing.
vs
Viscount: That's a scroll, right? I have no idea what it does.
With question marks floating over both their heads, the winner of this contest was Suhyeok.
The Viscount, whose expression had been grim, brightened considerably as he accepted the scroll (scrap of paper), while Suhyeok, betraying nothing, prayed silently.
Please let that thing be useful!
Of course, the Viscount had picked up on a thing or two himself.
A man who'd spent his life in the royal court, he had his own accumulated years of experience, after all.
"Normally a mage would activate it, but you said you picked it up over the shoulder, so......"
Viscount Alang opened the chest. The same chest that had survived the carriage crash unscathed.
Inside were wooden cases of various sizes.
The Viscount selected one, and from a palm-sized case, he produced a large blue gemstone.
"Do I use it against the enemy?"
Yes and no.
Suhyeok nodded and let the Viscount's misunderstanding stand.
That's not an attack spell. If anything, it's a 'Shitty-Game Emergency Exit Button.'
At any rate, using it would help with the current situation (for him), so Suhyeok figured he hadn't technically lied.
Now then, how would the Viscount use it?
If that code runs, the game shuts down, and I go back to reality.
As Suhyeok watched with anticipation, the Viscount rose from his seat.
Without a word of explanation, he opened the carriage door, stepped one foot outside, and with the scroll in one hand and the gemstone in the other, raised both arms high.
Then, facing the mounted column that had already closed in right on top of them, he shouted:
"Filthy traitors! Die! The king shall never forgive you!"
CRACK—!
It was the instant the heavy-armored knight spurred his horse alongside the carriage and raised his sword to strike.
The gemstone shattered in the Viscount's grip, and a bluish vapor seeped from the stone into the scroll.
public ExitTask() { …
var TaskRunner = new ProcessHandler() { accesslevel = _manager };
TaskRunner.Run…
Lines of code flickered to life in blue. Light raced along the rows, and then,
DWOOONG.
A shockwave rippled outward.
The concentric ring spreading from the scroll swallowed Viscount Alang, the knight mid-swing, the mounted column behind him, the coachman whipping the reins for dear life, and everything in every direction.
Suhyeok felt time decelerate.
His eyeballs rolled sluggishly. Is this what it feels like when the game shuts down?
......No. No, it doesn't seem right. Something's gone wrong. The Viscount seemed to sense the anomaly too and turned his head toward Suhyeok, but—Slowly.
Outpacing his turning head, the Viscount's eyes reached Suhyeok first, and in them were terror and bewilderment.
Wh-what have you done?
Why have you...... why have you summoned that?
At that moment, the carriage ceiling was torn clean off. Without a sound. Even as it ripped away the Viscount's and the coachman's heads along with it.
A spray of blood splattered against his cheek. But Suhyeok had no time to worry about that. What his eyes caught as the ceiling flew away was—A concentric ring of raging storms.
A grey giant filling the sky.
That tempestuous grey giant looked down at Suhyeok.
[ Анхаар. Буруу хандлага! ]
"Ngh...... d-demon...!"
The heavy-armored knight, who'd been riding alongside, choked out the words.
The knight, frozen in horror, was soon torn apart by the concentric ring, and Suhyeok knew he was next.
Because the giant was looking at him. And because he'd recognized what it was.
"AAAAAAGH!"
Consciousness faded as the agony of his body being ripped apart lengthwise engulfed him.
Then the voice came again.
"The princess has assassinated the king."
He had returned once more.
[ Chapter 0. The King's Proof ]
Suhyeok didn't scream this time.
The Viscount's eyebrow twitched at a faint groan that escaped him, but nothing more. His words continued without interruption.
"The date was the second of September, year 707 according to the kingdom's calendar. The princess, who had been ordered into confinement, conspired with Count Russad to carry it out. Princess Genevieve Astrada......"
- Scratch, scratch.
Cold sweat streamed down.
To collect himself, Suhyeok transcribed the Viscount's words for a while. His hand moved of its own accord as he thought.
He was beginning to understand, if only a little.
All this time, he'd assumed he'd been pulled inside the game. That he'd become an in-game character and was following a scenario.
But no.
It might sound like a distinction without a difference, but he hadn't entered the game—this place was......
'A world where the program I built has been made real.'
He'd realized it when he saw the grey giant just now.
He hadn't made anything like that, which was precisely why he'd recognized it in an instant—the giant with storms raging across its chest resembled his company's logo.
The game company he and Juha had founded.
The storm giant logo had been inspired by the legendary game company 'Blizzard.' They'd made it as a pledge that they, too, would become a storm in the gaming industry.
Juha had drawn it in MS Paint back when they were both still in college.
Crude, but our dream had been grand.
It was later refined by a professional designer, but the essence never changed.
A single giant wreathed in grey storms.
That had been made manifest in this world as some colossal entity.
And the reason it had appeared when the 'Shitty-Game Emergency Exit Button' activated was probably,
'Because I, the player, accessed the system with admin permissions.'
That had to be it. The grey giant was, in effect, the manifestation of the security system.
"It was a tragedy born in the Month of Harvest. The princess struck when the lords had departed to oversee the autumn harvest. The royal palace was lightly guarded. But His Majesty......"
Amid the clatter of hooves and the Viscount's voice, Suhyeok's deliberation deepened. The pursuit squad would appear any moment now.
Escaping the game through coding was impossible.
Because of the giant—at least for the foreseeable future.
But jumping from the carriage was already a bit too late, and surviving the pursuit squad would require a different approach.
'So using admin permissions is a no-go. I should probably avoid touching the system library too.'
Suhyeok's quill pen stopped.
It hovered in midair, wavering as if deliberating, then began to move in time with the TWANG—! of a bowstring.
"What?! What's happening?!"
"It's a pursuit squad!"
"Faster! Go faster! Do something!" the Viscount shouted irresponsibly.
The carriage lurched and picked up speed, but Suhyeok's hand remained steady.
What if I do it without admin permissions?
Suhyeok looked at the Viscount, who was clutching his head and groaning "Damn it. Damn it!" up ahead. He recalled the man's back as he'd stood in the carriage doorway and shouted.
The middle-aged man who'd stood ramrod straight and sought vengeance for his lord, even as the wind lashed his coattails.
Honestly? It was admirable. And he felt sorry.
So this time, he planned to give him something different. Not that defective junk from before—the real deal.
What should it be?
Inside Suhyeok's head were the hundreds of skills he'd implemented in KingRPG, traits, and the ultimate abilities of every boss monster in the game. He intended to use one of them.
Even without admin permissions, using something that already existed—something already made real in this world—should work without issue.
Even if that something was a spell no human could ever dream of casting.
Hmm...... Yeah. Let's go with that guy's.
Suhyeok settled on one.
using KingRPG.Data.Boss;
public class SuperMagic {
public void Cast() {
var ultimate = Boss.List.First(b => b.Name == "Damlir"…
Suhyeok filled the page at breakneck speed.
Writing in a rattling carriage was no easy feat, but his short, stubby fingers functioned as quickly and precisely as if he were typing on a keyboard.
A memory surfaced.
- "Honey, a half-human, half-dragon? Isn't that a bit much? There's no way players can beat this."
- "Don't worry. Players love it when it's harder. Trust me and keep it as-is."
Those pursuit squad bastards.
Time to get a taste of Dragon Count Damlir's ultimate.