Chapter 181 - History Quests (2)

'It's nice that content is coming out fast… but this is too fast.'

While everyone was excited about the speed of the patch, Hyun was disappointed.

He had to start the History Quests alone because of how tired Ain was.

'Tsk. Ain gets tired too fast.'

Was it because she got up too early, or was it maybe that she'd reached a limit because of how much she'd concentrated…?

There was a chance it was neither because Ain's tiredness level was at 75 when she logged off.

'I'm okay until 95…'

From 80, he began to feel dizzy, and when it passed 90, he just felt a bit of a headache.

But going to sleep when her tiredness hadn't reached 80?

That was something Hyun couldn't understand because he'd optimized all his life patterns to increase playtime as much as possible.

'I guess there's nothing I can do about it. I'll start alone.'

After teleporting to the city, Hyun immediately saw the sculptures of history. They were in the middle of a huge crowd of people.

An angel and a demon that had their wings spread were exchanging blows, and a giant planet was between them.

He thought they might be Truth and Deception, but that wasn't the case.

Seeing how he didn't recognize either of them, they probably weren't actual characters that existed in the world.

[The sculpture is looking at you.]

[Will you enter the Palace of History? Y/N]

'Yes.'

After he accepted the message that suddenly appeared, the scenery changed.

Hyun was in the middle of a silent palace illuminated with soft candlelight.

'Hmm? This is…'

It was a familiar place.

It was a room with a similar atmosphere to when he'd met Keidrial.

It was a place that looked as if it had a long history. He could feel the intentions behind why the developers had made it that way.

[You're going back in time.]

[Here, you'll be able to see the records of what happened in the past.]

Nobody else was around.

There were various sculptures arranged along the red carpet.

The moment Hyun stepped onto the carpet, he got a new message.

[An episode will start once you touch a sculpture.]

[For more detailed information, use the 'Help' section.]

'This pattern is also the same as before.'

Just like your job was decided when you touched an object, it seems like you picked what episode to do by touching a sculpture.

Suddenly, Hyun burst out into laughter.

He remembered when he was deceived by Keidrial and ended up picking the Support job.

He had become able to laugh about it; he even felt thankful to Keidrial, who had given him the Support job.

"Help."

Hyun read the information about the different History Quests that detailed the interface he could use, the number of members allowed in each quest, how to use the history shop, replays, and some other stuff.

It was as if he'd entered a game inside a game.

"Order by difficulty."

As he mumbled that, the sculptures began moving on their own, and the order changed.

There was a sculpture that resembled Earth in front of it all.

According to the information he'd seen through the 'Help,' it seemed like it was the opening video that was displayed on Asrian's first patch.

He discovered something unexpected.

'Huh? That was harder?'

The Kaidan castle invasion was categorized as harder than the fight against Shakron.

There was the model of a castle at the end of everything.

Shakron was one enemy, but maybe the castle invasion was considered harder because the enemies were hundreds of thousands of devils.

"Order by time."

Swish! The sculptures started to move again, and the order changed.

A new sculpture appeared in front of Hyun. It was a sculpture that looked like a little demon.

Hyun subconsciously knew which episode it was.

It was probably the record of the first day he'd met Louise.

Hyun's eyes deepened while looking at the statue of the little devil and he thought of a possibility.

'Maybe… I'll be able to meet Louise here as well?'

As he extended his hand and touched the sculpture, his surroundings became pitch black.

Ting-!

[The Day Darkness Met Her Shadow.]

(Suggested Members: 1, Max Members: 4)

(※ Warning: The level difference between party members should be less than 50!)

[There's a user that hasn't bought the episode!]

[Except for the 'Battle Section,' all of the story will be summarized! Will you proceed like this? Y/N]

The price of the episode was 3 USD… The battle was separated from the story, and it looked like the story itself was what was billed.

Users that wanted to see the whole thing would have to buy it.

It wasn’t much money, so Hyun decided to buy all of the episodes.

[You cannot choose the difficulty!]

[Starting in 'Easy' mode!]

Hyun ignored the messages.

If he met the childhood Louise, what would he say? Hyun's heart was starting to beat fast.

[With the 'Skip' command. you can pass through the areas that don't involve battle!]

FWOOSH! He felt as if the statue was absorbing him, then everything in front of him changed.

Hyun's eyes widened when he saw the little girl who looked like she’d just been freed from chains.

"Huh?"

It was his first time seeing her.

Her appearance, robe, and atmosphere were completely different.

The girl in front of him was completely different from Louise.

"Who are you…?

At Hyun's question, the girl answered with an arrogant attitude.

"I'm a demon. I cannot tell you my real name. Call me whatever you wish."

Ting-!

[Give the little girl a name!]

'What's going on?'

It took Hyun a while to understand what was going on.

The History Quests were similar to what had happened but weren't exactly the same.

In other words, that girl was playing Louise—she was an actress made to recreate the situation.

Hyun felt disappointed after realizing that.

"Yes. Your name is… Hmm… None."

"None? What a boyish name."

He realized a few things after talking with her…

Unlike Louise, that girl really felt like an NPC.

She didn't seem to be programmed… So she was probably a first-generation AI.

[Darkness is still too weak! Without protection, she'll probably die. Please become Darkness's Shadow.]

- Mission: Take the girl and reach the destination!

- Fail Condition: If the girl dies or the entire party is wiped out.

"I'll tell you where we’re going as we move."

"Even if you don’t tell me, I already know."

Hyun moved out of the Twilight Temple's garden and began running through the forest.

After a while, a familiar sight appeared before him.

Although he wasn't with Louise, he felt like the memories of that day were returning to him.

'They're probably level 25 elite NPCs.'

They started being chased by two masked people while escaping, but because it was an easy difficulty, their specs were low.

He should've been able to kill them with one attack, but Hyun let them follow so he could feel what he'd felt that day again.

'It's been quite a long time since this day.'

"Quite good. Okay, I'll give you the right to serve Darkness."

"You're quite arrogant despite not being able to do anything…"

"Hngh, that's because the seed still hasn't flourished yet."

After they reached the giant dungeon, the girl began talking again to progress the story.

She also spoke about something related to sunlight.

To other users, it might be interesting, but Hyun already knew all of it.

Not only was he hearing the explanation of someone that wasn't Louise, but he had to hear it from the mouth of someone who lacked foundation.

"Don't you have any memories?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Do you remember your childhood?"

"Don't say nonsense. The battle is going to start soon."

He didn't receive a satisfying answer if he asked about things unrelated to the quest.

«Assimilation».

Thankfully, temporary Darkness was easier to control than Louise. It also wasn't hard for her to accept being the target of «Assimilation».

She was probably built to accept most of the users’ requirements.

Hyun «Assimilated» into a humanoid NPC for the first time.

It didn't feel that much different… from a well-made doll.

He tried to make her angry on purpose but couldn't sense a 'real' feeling.

'Well. I guess that being able to pull this kind of quality is already a huge achievement.'

Hyun kept following the story.

The time he'd spent with child Louise was an entire day.

In the episode, they controlled the flow of time by making the scene change from time to time, so it didn't take that long.

Hyun reached the place near the dungeon's exit in just an hour.

"This place is dangerous. You'll probably have to sacrifice yourself to go through this place."

Soon, ten masked enemies leaped toward him, but unlike what the girl said, Hyun didn't need to sacrifice himself.

Enemies of the easy difficulty were weaker than trash mobs, so he didn't even need to use his skills.

"Come find me in five years. Fufu, I might miss you a little bit."

When the girl exited the dungeon, the episode ended.

[You've gained 5 gold as a reward for clearing the easy difficulty!]

[You've obtained the normal difficulty of the episode!]

The full story took him approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Even though the character was a first-generation AI, it still had an interesting personality, and the level of immersion was also great.

'It was okay, but her personality was too different from Louise's.'

He didn't need to see the story after clearing the easy difficulty, so Hyun skipped those parts.

He realized that, every time the difficulty changed, the level of the opponents doubled because on easy, normal, and hard difficulties, opponents that were at levels 25, 50, and 100 appeared.

[You've obtained a 'Seal of History' as a reward for clearing the normal difficulty!]

[You've obtained 5 'Seals of History' as a reward for clearing the hard difficulty!!]

In the real difficulty, elite NPCs that were at level 200 appeared just like at that time.

Hyun could easily go through the cylinder area because he'd done the job ascension to a Shadow Linker long before.

«Sword of Darkness», «Invisible», and «Acceleration»… Thanks to his skills, unlike at that time, he was able to get rid of the enemies.

[You've cleared the real difficulty of the episode 'The Day Darkness Met Her Shadow'!]

[You've gained 1 stat point as a reward!]

'So I can get a stat point for investing 20 minutes?'

The items that were bought using the Seals of History were at a low level to Hyun, so in reality, the only meaningful reward he'd obtained was the one that the real difficulty gave.

After making quick calculations, Hyun figured out how many points he would obtain after clearing all the episodes.

'40 stat points! 20 skill points!'

That meant that, just by clearing the history quests, he'd be able to obtain an effect equivalent to having leveled up 20 times.

From the outside, that seemed like good news, but Hyun didn't think about that in such a simplistic way.

The grass was always greener on the other side, after all.

'That means they're giving such huge rewards to all users.'

As time passed, the number of users clearing the History Quests would increase, so the History Quests were probably going to accelerate upward leveling.

'The developers finally started to worry about me…! This isn't good. I'm going to get all of the rewards as fast as possible and use that to increase the distance again!'

But Hyun was mistaken about something.

He'd done that when he was at around level 50… but could the others do that?

He'd never seen normal users do quests, so Hyun lacked in terms of comprehending quest difficulties.

'Those guys are probably doing the real difficulty right now.'

Hyun thought that the members of the Returner's Guild would be able to reach the real difficulty without much struggle, but the users of the previous game were able to reach high thanks to what they knew of the past game.

Hyun didn't consider how they would react when faced with a quest they'd never seen before or how much they would struggle.

'Among the rankers, there might be some people who are good with strategies… Recently, everyone has been getting better.'

He also lacked comprehension of himself.

While doing difficult quests, a good controlling ability was just one of the necessary ingredients.

You also needed to be able to analyze the situations, make decisions, make plans, be creative, calculate time, and comprehend the world, among many other things…

The quests Hyun had done were ones you would barely be able to do if you had all those qualities.

Why did he think it was obvious that others would catch up?

It was because he thought he lacked a bit in terms of the psychological part and some things regarding certain parts of control!

Hyun only realized what others really thought when he checked the reactions on the community boards a few hours later.

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