Ch.2Chapter 2 – Gray Research

[From: KIM573]

[Subject: To the Story Department, if you don’t want to ruin the game any further, please read this.]

[This game has flawless illustrations, graphics, and optimization. Almost everything is perfect.

Except for one thing: the story that your department is responsible for.

Honestly, with a game of this quality, I believe it will succeed regardless, unless the story is exceptionally terrible.

But that doesn’t mean you can completely destroy the plausibility of the work like this.

I’ll let it slide that all the main characters have been gender-swapped to women as a stylistic choice. But I cannot overlook the fact that most characters are portrayed as unintelligent.

If you wanted the protagonist to shine, you should have designed well-crafted tricks. What’s the point of nerfing everyone’s intelligence in a detective game?

And why are all the cases just poor minor copies of Sherlock Holmes stories?

Fin-de-siècle London with supernatural powers. Detectives tracking bizarre incidents in an urban fantasy setting.

I simply cannot understand why you’re squandering such an attractive premise.

I also don’t understand your insistence on only using Sherlock Holmes cases when there are so many other characters and works you could incorporate.

And how can these detectives not know about fingerprints when the setting spans the late 19th to early 20th century? Please don’t tell me this was done for “historical accuracy”?

The London Metropolitan Police adopted fingerprint investigation in 1901. Even in the original Sherlock Holmes series, it was an inspector who first mentioned the importance of fingerprints, not Holmes.

Ordinary people might not know, but professional detectives of that era being ignorant of fingerprints is a clear historical error.

Of course, these aren’t the only issues. Your story has numerous plausibility problems and historical inaccuracies.

But the crowning achievement of all these problems is the final villain who suddenly appears in the ending to conclude everything: Professor Jane Moriarty.

To use such a charismatic character as Moriarty as a one-off, and in the worst possible way.

You fail at proper historical research, yet somehow you got this detail right?

As a story consultant, I simply cannot accept this narrative.

Let’s scrap everything from beginning to end. Until every implausibility in this ridiculous story is addressed.

I absolutely will not approve it until then. I’ll stop it even if it costs me my life.

Have a nice day.]

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This roughly summarizes the 5,700-character soul-baring email I sent to the story department of the game company where I work a few days ago.

After several phone calls that followed, I was eventually summoned to their conference room.

I passionately vented my frustrations in front of people who clearly didn’t understand me, until I lost consciousness.

And now that I’ve regained my senses, I deeply regret sending that message.

“With that, I’ll conclude today’s class.”

The final boss of the game we’re developing.

The pinnacle of implausible story development.

But Professor Jane Moriarty, whose impact was undeniably overwhelming.

“Don’t forget to stop by my office.”

Somehow, I had just declared to her face that she would fall to her death at Reichenbach Falls in her later years.

As a bonus, I had eloquently detailed her future accomplishments that haven’t even happened yet.

‘This must be possession, obviously.’

I sat quietly in a daze until everyone left the classroom, then quietly thought to myself.

‘Damn company. I knew something was suspicious.’

I’d never actually met the developers or the CEO in person. As a story consultant, I worked almost entirely from home.

Come to think of it, this is my first visit to the company. The expressions of people in the conference room had seemed rather ominous.

I should have been more careful about my employment. Attracted by the high salary and stable working environment, I jumped at the job, and now look at the mess I’m in.

‘…I guess I have to go?’

I’ve already realized this isn’t a dream. I’ve pinched my cheeks several times to confirm.

It seems I’ve been transported into the very game our company was developing—a detective game featuring pretty girls based on the Sherlock Holmes series.

And not during the time when Professor Moriarty reigned as the Napoleon of crime, but when she was still working as a professor at the academy.

Now is the time to act for survival.

Honestly, considering what’s happened to me, I’d like to spend a few days alone in a daze, but my life is currently in danger.

I’ve attracted the aggro of none other than the game’s final boss.

Truthfully, I’d like to run away from this detective academy and everything else.

But considering Professor Moriarty’s nature, that’s impossible.

I probably wouldn’t last a few years, or even a few months, before being stuffed and displayed in her house.

So, reluctantly, I made my way to Professor Moriarty’s office.

Remembering the old saying that even in a tiger’s den, one can survive with a clear mind.

‘…Maybe, it might not be so bad after all.’

Thinking about it, there wasn’t much to worry about.

I’m scared because I know what kind of person Moriarty will become, but right now, she’s just a young professor, not the king of the underworld.

Who knows? Even Moriarty, born with criminal blood, might have had a kinder heart in her early twenties.

And even if she intends to do something to me, she couldn’t touch me inside this sanctuary of detectives.

“Hmm…”

Though I tried to comfort myself with such thoughts, I couldn’t help feeling tense as her office door came into view.

As the story consultant, I was familiar with most characters in the game, but Jane Moriarty, who suddenly appeared in the ending, remained a mystery even to me.

Therefore, I had no idea what would happen when I opened this door.

“…Phew.”

– Knock knock knock…!

After hesitating in front of the door for a while, I finally took a deep breath and knocked.

– Come in.

Hearing Professor Moriarty’s voice, I entered with heightened alertness.

“Oh.”

And the next moment, before I could properly take in the room’s interior:

– Drip…

On the sofa opposite Professor Moriarty was the academy’s headmaster, bleeding from a hole in his head.

‘Shit, that person is one of the mid-bosses.’

My mind went blank momentarily, but then a powerful survival instinct made me step back toward the door.

“Ah, it’s you.”

But the professor looked at me with a welcoming expression and snapped her fingers.

– Click…!

Before I could do anything, the door locked firmly.

“I thought you were a smart person. Perhaps I misjudged you?”

Then, wiping bright red blood from her face with a handkerchief, she smiled at me and spoke.

“Fidgeting with the mana concentrator hidden in your uniform pocket isn’t a very good habit.”

Her words were true.

Just as Holmes felt threatened by Moriarty’s sudden visit in the original work, I too had secretly prepared a means of self-defense in case of emergency.

If my life was threatened, I planned to use the mana concentrator that the original owner of this body possessed as a weapon.

“It could be dangerous if the mana backflows. Isn’t that right, student?”

But Moriarty, who had easily seen through my actions just like in the original work, was staring at me intently while pointing at her desk.

– Click…

Trying to appear as calm as possible while looking at her, I placed the mana concentrator on the desk she was pointing to.

“Not dying alone. A very good stance.”

Still holding the concentrator with one hand.

‘This doesn’t look good.’

I was barely maintaining a standoff with Moriarty, ready to self-destruct if necessary, but my current situation was quite dire.

Judging by the blood still flowing from the elderly gentleman behind me, she had just committed murder.

Yet she deliberately let me in during such a situation.

I don’t know what she was thinking, but judging by the sharp look beneath her smile, she seemed to be testing me.

The key question was what exactly she was testing.

‘Calm down, stay calm.’

The fear of losing my life at any moment. The nausea rising at the sight of a corpse I’d never seen before. The anxiety of not actually knowing how to use the mana concentrator.

Nevertheless, I maintained my composure with all my might.

I had a feeling that if I showed even the slightest sign of weakness here, my life would end immediately.

“What do you want?”

But I couldn’t stay like this forever.

With external access blocked, time was working against me.

“On the contrary, what do you want from me?”

So I asked the question in the most composed voice I could manage, but what came back was Professor Moriarty’s counter-question.

“You’ve successfully escaped from my grasp. But instead of reporting me, you’ve responded to my invitation and come here.”

As I listened blankly to her incomprehensible words, Professor Moriarty glanced at the mana concentrator and added:

“Moreover, you’re now threatening me in return.”

And then a terrifying silence began to flow.

“I’m dying of curiosity about what you want from me.”

Breaking that silence, Moriarty looked at me again with eyes full of curiosity and tilted her head like a lizard.

“Won’t you give me an answer?”

As silence filled the office again, I forced my blank mind to work.

Judging by her reaction, Moriarty seemed quite interested in me. But the problem was, I could roughly predict how that interest might end.

So what answer should I give to avoid being killed by her?

How should I respond to turn her capricious interest into favor?

What did Moriarty like in the original work?

What could possibly make the professor take a liking to me just by mentioning it?

“Why are you just standing there, student?”

There was no more time.

Whether it worked or not, I had to say something now.

“I want to become a graduate student.”

With my eyes closed, I blurted out the idea that had just popped into my head.

“Specifically, under your guidance, Professor.”

Abandoning my dignity to survive. That was the conclusion I had reached.

“What do you think?”

Hoping that the young Moriarty strongly identified with her role as a professor, I waited for her answer.

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– Ding!

It was at that exact moment.

[Villain Maker: Professor Moriarty’s Appearance Plausibility Satisfied]

Along with a cheerful sound, mysterious messages suddenly began to appear before my eyes.

[Progress: 1%]

“…Huh?”

What the hell is this now?