Ch.381376 – Lingering Snow

Katsuhata Emika’s wake-up time was fixed at 5:30 AM.

Even when she wanted to sleep in, habits ingrained in her body wouldn’t easily fade away.

After neatly folding her blanket, she sat down on the mat laid out on the floor.

She stretched her flexible legs into a split, pressing her chest to the floor.

“Nnghh!”

Stretching was effective at waking her up.

Rubbing her eyes as she got up, Emika headed to the kitchen for some water.

“Huh? Did NoName leave her light on overnight?”

It was still early, before sunrise.

In the dim living room, yellow light could be seen leaking through the gap of NoName’s door.

Emika gently placed her ear against the door.

“That’s not how you do it! Try lowering your posture more.”

“Like this? Ugh, this is impossible! I’m a human being, not an animal! I can’t run on all fours!”

“Get in the capsule. I’ll check your form again inside.”

It was none other than NoName and Cheon Saet-byeol’s voices.

For some reason, these sleepyhead beauties were gathered early in the morning.

At that moment, the door that wasn’t fully closed suddenly swung open.

“Eek!”

Crash!

“Emika?”

Her body tumbled forward.

With her excellent reflexes, Emika rolled her body once and landed right in front of NoName.

“Ow ow ow… You’re both up early? What were you doing?”

“Up early?”

Cheon Saet-byeol yawned with tired eyes.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t slept yet?”

“Yeah… I want to sleep so badly, haaawn. That damn beast transformation pattern.”

“Beast transformation? What’s that?”

“No idea. She wants me to recreate something she saw in a dream. Please just let me sleep. Ugh…”

Saet-byeol collapsed onto the bed.

NoName pinched her soft cheeks and explained.

“It’s something that has to be included in Project Sekhmet. The boss we’re conceptualizing is a Sword Master who’s lost all reason.”

“Mmhmm.”

Emika nodded.

This was the combat AI data the trio had been meticulously creating for the past two weeks.

NoName had even named the AI Verstappen.

“Throughout history, there have been various attempts to distinguish humans from animals. Rational thinking, pursuit of values, self-actualization, and so on. But rather than getting into specifics, if we think one-dimensionally, wouldn’t it be bipedal walking? Bipedal walking is extremely rare in this world.”

“Penguins walk on two feet too… urgh!”

“Shut it, Saet-byeol. So I really want to include data for fighting on all fours.”

“Oh, totally like a zombie. I think I’ve seen that in movies a few times.”

Emika clapped her hands and her eyes lit up.

“Something like that. But have you ever seen zombies wielding swords in movies or games?”

“Well, wouldn’t that be strange? Being so mentally impaired that you can’t walk on two feet, yet still using swordsmanship.”

“A Sword Master would instinctively seek out a sword even as a zombie.”

“Is that so?”

Unlike NoName who spoke with a confident tone, Emika scratched her cheek in doubt.

“Saet-byeol, get up. No more stalling, get into the capsule now.”

“Arrrgh!”

As NoName and Saet-byeol each entered their capsules, peace returned to Professor Cheon’s house.

Emika examined the numerous sword technique drawings they had sketched on A4 paper.

‘Verstappen’s combat data must already be overflowing…’

Unlike modern swordsmanship, which was classified into about 20 categories based on overall combat situations, the Imperial Palace Swordsmanship that NoName taught had something old-fashioned about it.

When applying a specific sword principle, there were ten derivative follow-up principles depending on the opponent’s response.

Six main stances, 28 auxiliary stances, and 496 sword principles.

While learning the Imperial Palace Swordsmanship, Emika felt like she was playing cat’s cradle rather than dueling with swords.

It had similarities with the German Lichtenauer sword system, but there were also significant differences.

‘Where did NoName learn this from, or did she create it herself?’

Either way, it was undoubtedly remarkable.

Even for Emika herself, it would take at least two years to perfectly master all the movements.

A little later, Emika ran into Professor Cheon in the kitchen as he was preparing for work.

When Emika awkwardly avoided eye contact, Professor Cheon asked in a gentle voice.

“Would you like a matcha latte too, Katsuhata?”

“Oh yes! Thank you, I’ll enjoy it…!”

Slurp-

The green powder blended with warm milk, creating a bittersweet flavor in her mouth.

Three days left until the August Horror Special Contest deadline.

‘I wonder if NoName can meet the submission deadline…’

* * *

In the 2050s, a troublesome ideology spread like a trend among Resonance gamers.

It was the idea that the criteria for judging a boss’s quality needed to change.

Criticism poured in endlessly about bosses that simply had high HP and monotonous attack patterns.

[Games have evolved day by day, and we must constantly convince the public that current games are better than past ones. Good stories and graphics have already become essential virtues. Now game developers must show effort to adjust difficulty through diversifying attack patterns rather than just changing status coefficients when designing boss monsters. We want ‘games,’ not ‘number comparisons’ – we’re tired of that.]

When renowned American game critic Aston Merlin published an article supporting this ideology, the movement to weed out “incompetent companies” accelerated.

This ideology didn’t appear overnight.

It stemmed from the fact that Resonance was both a game and a platform.

There were approximately 500,000 registered virtual reality games.

Resonance selected one game each month through internal review and recommended it for play.

Games incorporated into the Resonance universe could hit the jackpot.

But as years passed, users expressed dissatisfaction with unclear review criteria and wanted well-crafted boss mobs to be part of the criteria.

Resonance, the market leader in virtual reality games, offered a solution.

[While ‘combat diversity’ and ‘villain appeal’ were already included in our internal review criteria, we will strengthen their scoring weight based on feedback from many gamers. However, we understand that small studios or solo developers may struggle to obtain high-quality combat AI. Therefore, Resonance Studio has decided to hold regular contests to collect quality combat data algorithms and distribute them for free.]

Gamers cheered as the company showed exemplary behavior by fixing the barn before losing the cow and checking the household items too.

-This is what being industry #1 looks like lol

-What were all the games I knew until now…?

-Is it paid? No, free. (Free declaration as soon as controversy arose!!)

-Simply brilliant brilliant brilliant

But Resonance employees ended up bearing all the burden.

As gamers’ standards rose day by day, mediocrity was no longer satisfactory.

Sighs erupted from the ASI Combat Data Business Team at Resonance Studio headquartered in Sweden.

Tens of thousands of combat algorithms poured in from around the world.

Most of them were garbage not even worth looking at.

“If it was going to be like this, I should’ve gotten a job at a recycling center. I definitely joined to develop games. This is employment fraud!”

“Funny how people like Jesse who always complain never actually quit, haha.”

“Sigh… Isn’t there an AI that can identify good combat data AI?”

“Want to make one yourself?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll shut up and work!”

They reviewed and scored hundreds of algorithms every day.

Today too, hundreds of warriors fell before the ‘Prometheus’ AI wearing a red cloth.

To make matters worse, the concept was horror-themed, so there were many bizarre AIs.

An avatar’s arms suddenly extending tenfold to throw a punch was relatively tolerable.

Occasionally, there was welcome news like rain during a drought.

“Wow, 4.8 seconds? Isn’t that a new record?”

Prometheus was defeated in one round by a white silhouette avatar.

“You know that clearings under 5 seconds are usually bugs or designed with exploits.”

“I know, just saying. Still, we need to review it according to regulations. Jesse, please do a detailed check.”

“Sigh, I really need to quit soon…”

A hundred simulations were displayed on one large screen.

The formless white silhouette held a sword.

AI Prometheus faced it with a flame sword.

For thorough review, they took the first attack.

Prometheus attacked the white figure in 100 different ways.

It simply swung down its sword, thrust at the center of the chest.

More unpredictable attacks included throwing the sword and tripping the opponent’s legs.

“What the…?”

Jesse’s gaze moved slowly before coming to a complete stop.

Something amazing was happening.

The white figure responded to the AI’s attacks perfectly, as if controlled by a real person.

Despite its ridiculous design, its sword strikes showed no mercy.

The sword fluttered in the air before instantly decapitating Prometheus.

Irregular attacks didn’t work on the white figure.

It won all 100 out of 100 battles. Each with a different technique.

Truly artistic movements.

“Impressive. Looks extremely strong. But isn’t it a bit odd for a horror special? It just seems like a skilled swordsman.”

“There seems to be a combat mode change system. Let me try switching it.”

The simulation ended so quickly that they didn’t have a chance to check other phases.

After forcibly switching phases, the white figure trembled and then went limp like a mollusk.

“…!”

The white figure ran at unprecedented speed.

It wasn’t simply a speed-up effect.

Four-legged movement is inevitably faster than bipedal walking.

The bizarre movement, like a hybrid of beast and human, drew gasps of admiration.

The white figure made a big leap, spun once in the air, and swung its sword.

A fresh movement never seen before.

It wasn’t swinging the sword randomly, nor was it a swordsman’s refined movement.

‘I want to see more…!’

Fascinated by the swordsmanship born between wildness and restraint, Jesse curiously set Prometheus’s health to infinite.

Joints twisting and swinging the sword from unpredictable directions was like watching a mysterious feat.

The sword was slow enough for an ordinary person to follow, yet the AI couldn’t respond at all.

“Oh Jesse, this was made in your home country? Do you know the clan?”

Meanwhile, the senior had been looking through documents and found the source.

“Where? Korea? The only places that send such high-quality combat data are Arisu or Onnuri.”

“Let’s see. The clan name is… Yanseol?”

“A Korean clan? No way. Let me see.”

Jesse’s eyes widened as she received the paper.

[Clan: Janseol (Lingering Snow)]

[Clan Leader: NoName]

[AI Name: Verstappen]

[Combat Design Concept: Beastified Sword Master]

The youngest High Mage who had only been rumored about.

This was NoName’s first official activity as a Mage.