chapter_0138

138 – Do You Know Why Magia is Strong?

138 – Do You Know Why Magia is Strong?

Here is the English translation of the Korean novel excerpt:

As much as I often recommended games to the members.

I can pride myself on knowing a thing or two about games within the company.

It’s one of the few things I can boast about, as someone with countable strengths to show off.

So for this collab stream, it was also my job to explain Black Warning and the added mods to the members.

The only difference from before is that the conversations we used to have over Talk Code are now happening face-to-face.

Normally I would have called them to the 9th floor of the company, but that’s occupied by the 2nd generation trainees now, so today everyone gathered at Dora’s house.

She lives alone, and if we told her to set everything up by herself tomorrow, she’d obviously struggle. So we borrowed her place as a meeting spot to pre-install all the mods on her computer.

…Ah, come to think of it, there’s one more difference.

There are two hands on my head, four on my shoulders, and two on my waist as I sit in a chair talking about the game.

For some reason, they keep trying to pet and touch me like a pet animal lately, which is troublesome.

They used to be a bit more cautious before, but it feels like the remaining walls completely crumbled after I suggested doing a collab stream first.

Anyway, I still have to do my job in that state, so I’m carefully explaining the mod-related changes.

The double damage, essentially DPS duo who are actually the biggest cowards are already whining.

“Can we… really do this?!”

“I’m already… scared… I watched a lot of videos…”

Rain and Komari said I was a traitor.

Saying where’s the carrying they thought I’d do, just being a pack mule.

“No, honestly, Jia unnie should carry us like a log. What good is it if you’re just a pack mule?”

“That’s right. You’re the muscle.”

“It’s for balance adjustment. Even though it’s your first time playing, if I had attack power too, I’d end up killing all the monsters. You saw me playing Pandemic Village with Dora before, right?”

“That’s true. But this way, I’m the only one carrying the log in the end. Rain unnie won’t help properly.”

“Me? Why? Me will do it properly.”

“You’ll only do it properly when the tribute money gets tight later… I’ve known you for almost 2 years now.”

“Oh. Creepy. Are you a genius?”

“Sigh. In the end, I’m carrying the log alone.”

Maru bristled.

“Hey, I’m not as bad as Dora unnie at least, right? I’ll do what I need to do and die properly, okay?”

“Wow. So mean. Making it sound like I’m the only deadweight~”

“Honestly, you are deadweight when it comes to horror games, unnie. Admit it.”

“So sad.”

“See how you have nothing to say so you just say it’s sad.”

“Don’t be too hard on Dora unnie. Maru unnie, you’ll be the same when we actually start.”

“No I won’t!”

It was another harmonious day for Parallel Another.

However, the four who were bickering stopped fighting and focused as soon as the boombox started playing their songs.

No one suggested it, but they suddenly started doing a live performance in surround sound.

The members really love singing so this is an everyday occurrence, but…

The boombox is a monster that explodes when the time is up while playing music, so soon enough, boom!

Maru and Komari expressed their bewilderment.

“What the heck is this…”

“It feels like seeing the future of our new song flopping.”

“Hey. Komari. Do you always have to put it like that.”

But they soon agreed with Rain and Dora, who were excitedly shaking their bodies at the thought of making YouTube content soon.

“Everyone, couldn’t escape? Then sing a song right where you are.”

“Maja maja, gotta make the execution ceremony flashy~”

To be honest, when I was praised for the good idea at the company yesterday, I thought that was about it.

But seeing how much the members like it, a smile naturally forms on my lips too.

I really had no thoughts when I added the mod for promotional purposes, but I didn’t expect it to be this popular.

It feels like I might get an additional bonus thanks to this.

How I’ll use that is a problem for later consideration though.

Of course, even amidst all the excitement as everyone looked forward to tomorrow, our fact-checker Komari’s direct words didn’t stop.

“But Jia unnie. This boombox only appears from mid-tier planets, right? Can we actually reach mid-tier with this lineup?”

Even Dora and Maru, who had been grumbling that we were underestimating them too much, couldn’t immediately refute this.

After all, to go to mid-tier planets, you need to purchase a license, which takes 3 days in-game time (one day is given for a planet to rotate once) at the fastest, up to 6 days on lower planets.

Even if you get the license, if you get a complete game over, that also resets.

So there’s the difficulty of having to start over from lower planets to get the license again.

However, who is Majiya?

I’ve already considered this sufficiently and reported it to Cheon Do-hee.

“That’s why I added this. Dongle, Hatchlings, Leaves, Puddles. The spawn rate is low, but if you find just two of the four fan characters, you can immediately earn enough money to buy the license.

Honestly, it’s more fun to roll around on mid and upper tier planets than to keep frying eggs on lower planets, right?”

The members who were dancing excitedly at the boombox earlier now crowded close to the monitor, squealing and making a fuss.

“Honestly, it would be really nice to find our fan characters in that dark place…”

“The hatchlings are so cute~!”

“Kyahah! The puddles’ modeling is totally wrinkly! Makes me want to soccer kick them!”

That concludes the explanation.

However, as I tried to prepare to leave, somehow only Komari among the excited members was staring at me intently with a strange suspicious look.

Soon she whispered in my ear.

“Be honest. You prepared more, didn’t you?”

“What did I prepare?”

“This game is perfect for you to play pranks, there’s no way you’d just let it go without doing anything. You prepared something separately, right? Right?”

I understand the suspicion given my usual track record.

And as Komari said, I did actually prepare something, but there’s no reason to use it unless absolutely necessary.

“I modded it to make the difficulty easier on purpose so you four wouldn’t get fried. If I do anything more, the balance adjustment I worked on becomes meaningless.”

“Is that so…?”

I nodded a couple times with a sincere expression, not changing my face at all.

Komari couldn’t press further, so she backed off with a pout.

Right after, I tried to make a quick exit by taking advantage of the timing when the members were busy talking to each other, but…

It seems my additional work, which started from managing 2nd gen trainee education this morning, wasn’t over yet.

Maru’s hand flew over and grabbed my forearm.

“Wait. Where are you going? You have to eat dinner before leaving. Aren’t you hungry?”

I shook my head no to indicate I wasn’t hungry at all, but soon my remaining arms and legs were sealed by the other three people.

“Eat before you go, unnie. We’ll treat you.”

“Maja. We won’t have a chance to eat together like this tomorrow since we’ll be playing from our own homes~”

I was about to mention ‘that menu’ because I wanted to go home, but this time Rain’s finger flew over and pinched my lips like tweezers.

“Pineapple Pizza is not allowed. You know that, right? Jia.”

“Mmphmmphmmph.”

“What?”

“She says she’s hungry, let’s go eat quickly.”

“Mmph!”

“Okay okay. Let’s eat something delicious.”

“Let’s go~!”

“Pff—!”

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The goal of the game is really simple.

Enter the dangerous monster lairs on various planets.

Pick up the scattered waste paper (scrap metal) inside.

Transport it to the spaceship, then take it to headquarters and pay tribute. The end.

However, these monster lairs are full of all kinds of traps.

The monsters are also bizarre and outlandish.

The black company that sends players to investigate seems curious about the ecology too, so if you come back with photos or videos, they’ll count that as money as well.

For reference, since most members would have watched various related videos on YouTube whether they wanted to or not, I skipped explaining about the monsters except for the boombox yesterday.

After all, how they react when actually encountering what they saw in videos is also one of the things people look forward to.

So for the first game, as a tutorial of sorts.

We decided to split up and take time to experience what kind of game it is.

Since I said I’d hang back as a pack mule during the game, the members took the lead in conducting the broadcast itself.

“Then. Let’s split up and search on the first planet for now. It’s scary, but. We need to get used to the game first.”

“Right. We have to try things out and bump our heads to do it properly.”

“Ugh… it’s scary…. Can I. Take Jia-nim with me…?”

“Dora is a super coward so take Jia with you. That makes sense.”

Of course, even though I clearly announced that I would just be following behind the members as a pack mule, viewers seemed to be expecting me to do something.

— Today’s Majiya’s jangsan-beom looks delicious

— Honestly she’ll probably go wilder than the real doppelganger lol

— Looking forward to 1st gen in disarray

— She must have prepared a ton again lol

:: Anonymous donor donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: Reason Majiya is a pack mule: So she can play jangsan-beom ::

— For real lol

— That’s right lol

— So evil

— Gasp maybe she naturally stuck with Dora for that too lol

— Gasp lol

— Dora… is screwed!

The jangsan-beom people are talking about is a monster called the doppelganger.

It wears the same protective suit and gas mask as the players.

It records the player’s voice in-game, then plays it back later while secretly approaching.

If you don’t realize it’s a monster, the moment you turn your back, it bites your neck and you die.

In a way, it’s similar to how I mimic the members’ voices…

So people thought I would imitate this creature to amplify the members’ fear.

But that would make me the center of attention among the members.

I obviously wasn’t even considering it.

But just because I’m not interested doesn’t mean people think the same way.

As Komari did yesterday, Dora, who went exploring with me, also asked me as soon as she saw the chat.

“What? You were going to play jangsan-beom? Jia-nim is really mean.”

“I said I’m not doing it.”

— lolololol

— Even Dora doesn’t believe her lol

— How can you believe her lol

— You guys…! Have you forgotten Magia of the Demon King’s Castle?

— Not just anyone can make a black history maze like that lol

The situation was similar afterwards too.

[Dora unnie. Where are you? I’m over here! Can you hear my voice?]

No matter how you listen to it, suddenly calling for Dora and trying to find her location sounds like a doppelganger.

Dora immediately turned around and looked at me first.

Pitch black.

A dark indoor space.

The flashlight beam hits my eyes straight on.

“That was you just now, Jia-nim.”

“It wasn’t me. Move the flashlight, I can’t see. If you get your neck bitten, don’t blame me.”

— It wasn’t her?

— Wasn’t that Majiya?

— ??

— You’re saying that wasn’t Majiya?

— Liar

:: Anonymous donor donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: But there’s no point in being suspicious like this, because we can’t tell what’s Majiya’s voice acting and what’s a real doppelganger lol ::

— Scary scary

— So scary ㅠㅠ

— I’m sleeping with my mom tonight

Even after that, there were several instances where a suspicious atmosphere formed around me.

But I just quietly followed behind Dora, only putting the items she found into my inventory.

However, the inventory space itself wasn’t very big, so we had to go back at some point.

Boom, a monster made eye contact with Dora at just the right timing.

Startled, Dora tried to run away but slipped on a narrow bridge section.

She fell to her death on the pitch black floor far below that couldn’t even be seen.

“Aaaahhhh————……”

— The sound fading away lololololol

— Damn this is f-ing hilarious lololol

— Did she really fall lol

Left alone, I quickly ran towards the entrance, but I heard a monster sound from somewhere and turned my head, crack, my head turned.

It was the one called Stalker.

It follows closely behind making “hehehe” sounds, and if you get startled by the sound and turn your head, you die the moment your eyes meet.

The funny thing is that Dora and I, who died rather anticlimactically, were actually the last survivors to die.

As soon as we died, everyone’s mics suddenly came back on as we respawned on the spaceship, and they were all busy muttering with crying voices.

“No. No. No. I hate this game so much.”

“Ha. I almost lost my mind. Why are there so many jump scares…?!”

“This game is really garbage. Fucking trash. Why did they put a mine there?”

— lolololololololol

— Oh these scaredy-cats lololol

— At this rate, aren’t they ranking in terms of dying speed? lol

— This is f-ing hilarious lol

But the reaction itself is really good.

It’s a horror game but not quite a horror game, you could say.

Usually when playing horror games, viewers also tremble in fear, but in this game the death scenes are so funny that everyone was busy laughing.

We continued to experience the game separately after that.

We played a total of three rounds until the first tribute deadline, but…

We were expelled from the company like space junk without raising any performance, not even once.

Even as they floated in the black space, the four were busy fighting, blaming each other.

— This is crazy lol

— Wow, 0 won is truly legendary

— How is it possible to not earn a single penny?

— Looks like we definitely shouldn’t go separately lol

— Now that we’ve set the ppajijik record, shall we try calmly?

— My stomach hurts so much

— This is Black Warning lol

— Can’t you at least take pictures of monsters lol

— There’s no chance to take out the camera because they’re so scared lol

The funny thing is that even in the midst of all that, the suspicion towards me continued.

“This is all because Jia played a prank.”

“I heard a voice exactly like unnie’s earlier.”

“That was Jia!”

I didn’t do anything, it’s unfair.

…Of course it’s unfair, but I’m not emotionally hurt, so.

I just brushed it off and suggested we start playing properly.

“Why don’t we all go together from now on? At this rate, whether we go separately or together, we’ll just keep dying and not earn money anyway.”

But the response to my suggestion was…

“Jia. You’re trying to follow us quietly and prank us, right? I know. You’ve got us in the palm of your hand.”

“Heol. Really~? Jia-nim, that’s too much…”

Endless suspicion.

…No, I really didn’t play any pranks today?

I didn’t even think about playing pranks.

There are plenty of monsters waiting to prank the members when we get to mid and upper tier planets anyway.

Why would I, deliberately.

“I’m telling you I had no plans today… So are we going together or not?”

Clearly, sticking together was the right answer for these cowards.

Even if a monster suddenly appeared, Komari at the front would recognize and alert first, so the two receiving double damage could bravely step forward and swing their weapons.

At the very least, that made it possible to beat weak mobs.

Like the ones that charge in a line down narrow corridors to push us back.

Or the centipede-like bugs that suddenly fall from the ceiling and stick to your face.

The giant spider was physiologically difficult for the members, and it was unavoidable to suddenly lose lives to stalker-like creatures that sneak up from behind outside the field of view.

But by going together, the members started to collect items quite decently.

There were times when Rain thoughtlessly ran and set off a mine, causing us all to die in an explosion, leaving only silence and corpses behind if I didn’t bring items to the spaceship.

Unexpectedly, the members became much less scared when acting as a group.

And since I diligently moved items to the spaceship, we managed to pass the deadline by accumulating decent results.

We succeeded in entering the 2nd week right away.

We hadn’t earned enough money to buy the mid-tier planet license yet.

But the speed at which they were learning the game was quite fast?

However, just as they ambiguously adapted to the game, the peak of foolishness reared its head.

We were still on lower planets and hadn’t even encountered proper monsters yet, someone kept getting lost, there were falls to death or mine deaths every round, and one person just kept killing monsters with squinted eyes, but…

The overconfident members said:

“But Jia could have pulled off the jangsan-beom if she really tried today, right?”

“Yeah~. It seems pretty doable~”

I didn’t even feel like responding anymore so I stayed quiet.

Somehow the people watching the official channel broadcast got angry on my behalf.

— Isn’t this clearly a local provocation?

— Give them a taste of their own medicine?

— I feel like you’re deliberately going easy on us with this newbie difficulty, but let’s get this show on the road.

— Jangsan Tiger Majiya, deploy!

— When did Majiya become a Jangsan Tiger? When did Majiya become a Jangsan Tiger? When did Majiya become a Jangsan Tiger? When did Majiya become a Jangsan Tiger? When did Majiya become a Jangsan Tiger?

— Is it now?

— Let’s goooooooo!

— Jia, if you keep holding back, you’ll get sick. Just wipe them out in one fell swoop!

Honestly, I wanted to keep messing around.

I could create opportunities whenever I wanted.

Because when I was explaining the mod to the Boss, there was one thing I deliberately skipped over.

I had a hidden ace up my sleeve, prepared for when the mod-adjusted balance felt too easy. It wouldn’t be hard to throw the members into chaos.

But to use it, I’d have to leave the game for a bit.

And today’s stream is an important collaboration where the members and I play together.

So I was trying my best not to use it.

But the members keep provoking me, asking when I’m going to start messing around.

And the viewers are getting angry on my behalf, saying this isn’t like me.

It’s not like the game is frustrating or stuck in a repetitive loop.

If anything, it’s been too smooth sailing since finishing the tutorial.

…So, it’s okay to do it, right?

I’m really going to do it?

“Everyone, the Boss is calling me, so I’ll be away for a bit. You guys play with just the four of you.”

— Huh?

— You’re leaving now?

— Seriously, where are you going in the middle of the game, lol.

[Majia has left the game]

— ?

— What, she really left?

Author’s Note

Tomorrow is one of the two regular days off I have each year.

Because I have to go to my grandfather’s house…

It’s not much to replace the serialization, but I drew a short comic…

Please enjoy it cutely……

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!

+ Modified for the sake of the story’s development!!

But this time, I really don’t have anything else prepared besides this.

-> And like Komari said, I actually do have something prepared, but there’s no reason to use it unless absolutely necessary.