Ch.117112 – Adult Circumstances

The creation process of virtual reality games is complex.

Even after the introduction of full-dive capsules, it was impossible to create anything similar without massive capital investment.

What particularly raised the entry barrier for game companies was the existence of “royalties.”

Unless the commercial success of a game was guaranteed before launch, executives couldn’t get permission from shareholders to touch “Open World Royalties” and “ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) Royalties.”

Open World developers transfer unique observations from the real world to database centers, repeatedly expanding and regenerating spaces. This creates open worlds that reflect identical physical laws, which the developers then sell as seeds to game production companies.

Since royalty costs skyrocket as the open world area increases, Wearsoft, the company that created World of Arsheria, made what could be considered a nation-saving decision to rescue their failing company.

While ASI royalties were relatively lower than Open World royalties, the problem was the unavoidable human resource costs required to manage them.

Although existing departments could handle character modeling and design, a character’s narrative, behavioral principles, judgment criteria, and potential couldn’t be created by simply filling in numbers on a blank form. The structure was far more complex.

When Wearsoft announced they would add a “Nightmare” difficulty to relieve user story fatigue after World of Arsheria’s initial success, concerned reactions were inevitable.

The development project had ended, and ASI experts had largely moved to other companies, raising questions about whether the remaining staff could shorten the story to the ending without conflicts.

However, Wearsoft proved successful, even adding bold storylines that complemented previously lacking background explanations.

Of course, World of Arsheria’s commercial success wasn’t due to story mode but rather the introduction of 6vs6 battles and esports popularity, though the excellent background and characters undeniably contributed.

In particular, VIP user “NyangsterCall” was among those completely captivated by Adella’s charm, despite her never appearing in the main story.

He asked this question at the World of Arsheria 5th anniversary event:

“Was there a reason Adella had to die in Act 1?”

NyangsterCall was fascinated by Adella’s appearance and personality. He couldn’t understand why she was eliminated from the very beginning of the story when she could have been a companion all the way to the final boss like Giselle or Luna.

While others were climbing ranks, he desperately searched for all hidden mechanics in Nightmare 1/1/1 difficulty.

He discovered that the Observatory Boss could actually be skipped, and that returning to the Academy after the boss fight allowed farming for key equipment.

But no matter what he tried, saving Adella was impossible.

Perhaps he was secretly hoping there might be a hidden route to save her that he hadn’t discovered yet.

“Ah… there are some complicated circumstances regarding that…”

One of the developers took the microphone.

“If you’ve played Nightmare difficulty yourself, what I’m about to say might not sound credible. But to explain, Adella was designed as a tutorial NPC for users experiencing this difficulty.”

The audience stirred.

Far from being helpful, she actually trolled players in various ways, making the game even more difficult.

“You could have cleared up to the Observatory Boss relatively easily with Adella’s help. If she died too easily from the start, players would have less opportunity to adapt to Nightmare difficulty, so we needed to lower the initial entry barrier this way.”

This explanation made sense.

Many users were able to grasp the true “combat” system not experienced in the main game by watching Adella defeat the Observatory Boss.

“I need to bring up a question I answered earlier this morning. For those who didn’t hear, I’ll briefly explain why we forcibly introduced ‘penalty’ elements only in Nightmare difficulty. As I mentioned, while our company’s capabilities were certainly limited, the technical characteristics of Open World meant we couldn’t include many ASIs.”

World of Arsheria had significantly more ASIs in its world compared to other games. Being set in an academy, there were over one hundred ASIs capable of super-intelligent thinking, he added.

“Forcibly increasing the numbers created problems. In Nightmare difficulty, when the world reset was repeated, the modules controlling AI freedom gradually changed.”

“So that’s why it feels like the difficulty gradually increases?”

“Yes, due to enhanced freedom. Whether it was a mistake by our internal development team or a fundamental compatibility issue with Open World, the exact cause hasn’t been identified yet. Anyway, this resulted in boss mobs becoming excessively stronger than initially set, so we reluctantly introduced penalty elements to prevent this.”

Players were forced to return to just before entering Nightmare mode, maintain the modules, and start the story from the beginning.

“Couldn’t you have designed it that way from the start?”

“Ah, you mean make it a roguelike game without save points? We did consider that… but it was too different from Wearsoft’s basic principles, and with the already difficult battle against Mephisto, having only one chance would probably have been more torturous for users, haha.”

So the intention was to encourage clearing in one attempt while still giving players one or two chances.

“There’s still something I don’t understand – what does this have to do with Adella?”

“Adella was an NPC particularly affected by the freedom control module.”

“What?”

Tap tap.

The man who had been answering sincerely handed the microphone to the woman next to him when she gestured.

After confirming the translation magic was working properly, she opened her tightly closed mouth.

“Let me add some explanation. Actually, since Adella’s initial stats were so low, she often got eliminated in Act 1, so we didn’t pay much attention. However, when we ran simulations, we found that if she survived until Act 2, she would demonstrate excessively outstanding combat capabilities afterward, disrupting the overall game balance.”

“Wait, couldn’t you just adjust the ASI’s… what was it… potential values as you said, rather than modifying the story?”

“I’m embarrassed to say this in such a setting, but there were limitations to the ASI we contracted.”

“Limitations?”

“In other words. To put it simply.”

The woman paused briefly. After thinking deeply about something, she brought the microphone back to her lips.

“To create Adella, who needed to handle all weapons skillfully, we had no choice but to use the same ASI applied to the final boss Mephisto, who had the highest potential value.”

* * *

[Video shared – “NyangsterCall” shared for 100,000!]

“So Adella’s AI is identical to Mephistopheles’ AI.”

-Wow what a twist damn

-So after all this she was the villain?lol

-So creepy lol

-This wasn’t even on the TriWiki

-How is she overpowered if she dies in Act 1?

-Chills

-LEGENDARY lol

-Thought it was Rock Lee but it was Naruto!

-This is Sixth Sense level plot twist

-Truly legendary

“AI or ASI? Anyway, I don’t know much about the ASI mentioned in the video, but basically the development department collapsed and couldn’t create a new ASI, so they recycled an existing one. Did I understand correctly?”

[“NyangsterCall” donated 5,000 won!]

-Yes that’s right crying

The production company, unable to keep Adella alive until the end, decided to eliminate her by introducing the setting that she was Mephisto’s sacrifice, since there was already a setting that demons needed physical vessels to manifest, and both shared the same ASI so not much needed to be changed.

-Why is NyangsterCall so handsome though?

-Even his proportions are model-level wtf lol

-No way! He must be a basement-dwelling NEET like us!

-Is this the average World gallery user…?

-He’s good-looking

-Total hottie

-Wasting his life with that face lol If you don’t want it give it to me

-Let’s think about who’s really wasting their life here

-(Manager3) Mentioning civilians will result in a ban

I could only look sympathetically at Adella, who had fallen fast asleep on the bed.

-But what now? Won’t the account get permabanned?

-Why would it get banned?

-Wasn’t she supposed to die no matter what?

-Protect Adella!

-Protect her!

-Protect her at all costs!

She’s even smacking her lips as if dreaming. Is she eating some cat treats in her dream?

The AI was too realistic to dismiss her as simply a virtual character.

Even if all the past she remembered was false, the memories we’d built together were all real.

Many questions remained unanswered.

Even after hearing about Wearsoft’s development backstory from viewers, it didn’t explain why all memories from every playthrough suddenly returned.

Was it simply a bug, or was this also intended by the developers?

Information was pouring in like a flood, but the situation felt like it was becoming more and more of a maze.

Growl-

Using my brain so much after a long time made me hungry.

I took a bite of the carrots I had stocked from the item shop, but as expected, virtual reality remained virtual reality, and my hunger wasn’t satisfied.

[Broadcast Time – 7:39:18]

[Viewers – 21907]

‘Have I been streaming this long?’

The sun would already be setting outside the capsule.

I needed to pause the game briefly and grab a quick meal. That way I’d have fewer issues when consuming potions all at once.

“Nyaa… meow… I don’t like carrots…”

-lololololol

-So cute lol

-Sensei NyangsterCall… I finally understand your feelings…

-Bring more carrots! No, bring ALL the carrots!

-I could die happy now crying

-You’ve reached enlightenment lol

-Why does she look prettier with her makeup off…

-That’s what love is

Meanwhile, Adella was pouting with a frown, apparently because I forgot to disable the synchronized taste.

“But carrots are delicious.”

Crunch-