I’m a Young God, Won’t You Raise Me?

For a moment, I was unable to answer.

Then, slowly, I opened my mouth.

“Probably. I think it was me.”

As far as I could remember, I was the only viewer who had been talking to the Developer at that moment.

Upon hearing my answer, Pasung’s CEO Cha muttered under his breath.

“Hah damn it.”

All of a sudden, I had become the one being cursed at.

I looked at him in complete bewilderment.

Was Pasung’s CEO Cha the type to swear so casually…?

That made me wonder whether I had judged him solely based on the image I had of him from the game.

But putting that aside, what confused me most was that I had no idea what the hell I had done wrong.

Honestly, my only crime had been answering with the best of intentions.

While discreetly trying to read his expression, Pasung’s CEO Cha leaned back against the chair once more.

“Continue.”

Did he really want me to continue?

He wasn’t about to suddenly pull out Great Sun Tathāgata, was he?

Still, considering his personality, I doubted he would hurt me while I was still useful to him.

Gathering my courage, I continued.

“Were you watching the final broadcast too…?”

“It ended in the most boring way possible. He suddenly said there wouldn’t be any more games.”

“…!”

Pasung’s CEO Cha had also been watching the Developer’s final broadcast?

I already knew that he had played the Developer’s games as well.

Samra had told me before we entered Three Worlds.

“The Suitable who played the Developer’s games is Pasung’s CEO.”

“The reason I prevented you from contacting Pasung’s CEO is also related to that. I am only trying to choose the best option. I will not betray you, Mr. Han Goyo.”

However, that was all Samra had told me at the time.

After that, everything had happened so quickly that we never had the chance to discuss it in greater detail.

I had imagined that, when I finally met Pasung’s CEO Cha, we would end up talking about the Developer.

But I hadn’t expected him to bring it up so suddenly.

‘I thought we’d talk about the Developer after he made me sign the contract.’

Because I had been convinced that, to him, the most important thing was getting me to sign that contract.

“You saw those weird people’s chat too.”

“The chat?”

I asked, confused.

He answered as though he were stating something completely obvious.

“They were always saying the weirdest things.”

The chat?

I tried to remember.

Whenever I watched the Developer’s broadcasts, the chat had always been full of people enjoying the game.

[I already finished the Ending now stop the game stop the game stop the game]

[Does it hurt that much?? The blood? It won’t stop??? Does it hurt? Does it hurt???]

[He just died right I just saw his head explode he just died right]

[I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryItwon’thappenagainPleaseLetmelive]

[SavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSaveme]

Looking forward to the Developer’s next game…

[I don’t care who it is bring anyone but please just let me out]

[HihihihiHeheheHahaThey’realldeadnowit’smyturnHahahahaha]

[ICan’tFinishThere’sNoWayOutThere’sNoWayOutThere’sNoWayOutWhyIsThereNoWayOutIWantToStopPlaying]

[This isn’t a game this is my real body I’m really going to die]

…Or so I had thought.

“……”

As I replayed those memories, I felt my blood run cold.

Why had I never realized that chat was strange?

It was impossible to consider those messages normal.

And yet, until now, I had never thought there was anything unusual about them.

I had always seen it as a perfectly ordinary chat.

I knew I had to control my expression.

But I couldn’t hide my shock.

Pasung’s CEO Cha stared into my trembling eyes before speaking again.

“I heard you’ve been playing for two years and that you watched the final broadcast this year.”

He fixed his gaze on me.

“I started playing four years ago.”

“…What?”

“And I only played for about six months.”

“Then that means our timelines…”

“Don’t match at all.”

For Pasung’s CEO Cha, the Developer’s final broadcast had taken place three and a half years ago.

My heart began pounding.

As I reviewed the past four years under the assumption that our timelines didn’t match, countless strange inconsistencies began to emerge.

Now that I thought about it.

Even Slay to Plate was strange.

Unlike the Developer’s other games, Slay to Plate required groups of five players, so it always matched you with random teammates.

But for the same group of complete strangers to end up with me every single time I logged in.

In an indie game developed by a single person that wasn’t even particularly popular.

That was impossible.

Unless every one of them had been sitting in front of a computer, waiting solely for me to log in.

And yet.

At the time, it had never seemed strange to me.

I had been focused only on playing.

‘What the hell is going on with the timeline?’

At the same time that an even deeper question arose in my mind, a chilling realization ran through me.

For the past two years, I had played every game the Developer gave me without stopping.

But if I calculated the number of games and the amount of time I had spent on them, it was absolutely impossible for all of that to have fit into only two years.

The game I completed the most times was the one in which Pasung’s CEO Cha appeared as an NPC.

I played it exactly one thousand times.

Even assuming a minimum of four hours per playthrough, that came to about four thousand hours.

Even playing twenty-four hours a day without resting, it would take more than one hundred sixty-six days to complete it a thousand times.

And that wasn’t even the only game I had played.

The World Archive games the Developer gave me numbered at least several hundred.

Two years were nowhere near enough to go through all of them in that much detail.

‘Besides, it’s already absurd for a single developer to create hundreds of games to begin with. It doesn’t matter if they’re pixel games.’

My heartbeat began to accelerate.

Before long, I could clearly hear the pounding of my own pulse in my ears.

What the hell did the Developer do to me?

And what exactly am I?

My breathing became ragged.

It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

I felt that if I kept thinking about it, something would break.

“Mr. Gunbam.”

A gentle voice called out to me.

Something soft lightly brushed against my cheek.

It was as if it were trying to comfort me.

I took a deep gasp and came back to my senses.

Then I saw Pasung’s CEO Cha just as he was about to press the button to call a nurse.

I looked at him blankly and murmured,

“I’m okay…”

Pasung’s CEO Cha let out a disbelieving laugh as he looked down at me.

Even I had to admit that didn’t sound convincing at all.

“……”

He sank back into the chair and remained with his head lowered for a few moments.

Then he let out a long sigh.

He seemed to be suppressing his irritation.

Seeing him restrain himself after nearly calling a nurse because of me gave me a very strange feeling.

This was the same Pasung’s CEO Cha who had torn away an entire side of the Trial Response Agency building.

And yet.

I could now clearly tell that he had held himself back solely because I had coughed up blood and fainted.

It felt incredibly strange.

Even throughout our conversation in the room, he had been surprisingly calm for someone like him.

‘Is this really Pasung’s CEO Cha? Well, considering he was wielding Great Sun Tathāgata, it has to be him.’

At that moment, a chime rang out.

You have determined that it is not yet the right time to remember the past.

Because the Young God is still small and weak.

Do you wish to grow as a God as quickly as possible?

Do you wish to register “Seo Moonchan” and “Mok Saehwa” as new characters?

Thanks to that system window, all the confusion I had been feeling vanished in an instant.

Slightly irritated, I thought to myself,

‘If you know something, just say it already.’

Digest.

For a moment, I grew annoyed that it responded with only a single word.

Then I remembered a message the system window had shown me before.

[You have determined that, if you completely digest ■■■■, you may be able to register “Cha■■”.]

I still had no idea what exactly I was supposed to digest.

But it was beginning to seem that recovering my distorted memories would take time.

And no matter how much I pressed the system window, it was obvious I wouldn’t get any useful answers.

I took a deep breath.

Once I had completely calmed down, I looked at Pasung’s CEO Cha.

“Pasung’s CEO Cha.”

I spoke in a surprisingly calm voice.

“As you said, our timelines are different. But it seems we both played the same games. Could you tell me which games you played?”

Pasung’s CEO Cha began listing the titles of the games he had received from the Developer.

None of them matched the Trials I had shared with him.

‘In reality, they’re probably still Trials that haven’t even hatched yet.’

I had already assumed he wouldn’t remember the games we had played together.

It felt a little lonely knowing that I alone still remembered those thousand playthroughs.

But if I brought it up, I would only seem even stranger.

And he already had to think I was pretty strange.

So I decided to keep it to myself.

I continued talking with him.

We also discussed his playstyle.

Unlike me, he never tried to obtain every ending.

He simply completed the game as quickly as possible.

He didn’t care whether he got a normal ending instead of the True Ending.

As soon as he finished, he told the Developer he had completed the game and moved on to the next one.

According to him, the Developer never objected to him playing that way.

Moreover, far fewer real people appeared as NPCs in his games than in mine.

Thanks to the games the Developer had given him, Pasung’s CEO Cha was able to establish Pasung relatively easily.

He sought out Mok Saehwa and Seo Mooncha, who had appeared as NPCs in those games, and founded Pasung together with them.

After that, he used the memories from his playthroughs to overcome the Trials.

That was the reason Pasung was able to grow so rapidly during its early years.

And now, every Trial he had played in those games belonged to Pasung.

“I also investigated the Developer on my own, but I failed every time.”

“Was that when Samra contacted you?”

Pasung’s CEO Cha gave a slight nod.

“Samra says he’s already confirmed that the Developer is a transcendent entity from outside the Earth.”

An Outer Entity.

It was a concept related to Call of the Void, the place where Dominic had remained.

Now that I thought about it, the same was true of the zombie virus from Dead Zone Delivery.

There were many similarities between the Trials and reality.

I decided that later I would ask Samra about the Outer Entities in greater detail.

Then I asked the question that intrigued me the most.

“Then how did you end up playing the Developer’s games?”

The Pasung’s CEO Cha I knew would never have voluntarily played an indie game with pixel graphics.

Much less sought out an independent developer’s broadcasts.

It was obvious just from hearing how he played.

In truth, he wasn’t particularly interested in those games.

He simply completed each one as though it were an assigned task.

That was precisely why I was so curious about how he had become involved with the Developer.

But Pasung’s CEO Cha had no intention of answering.

“Is this an interrogation?”

“No…”

I immediately shrank back.

It had already seemed rather strange that he had been cooperating so much.

It was obvious I shouldn’t keep pressing the issue.

Even so, even if I stopped asking him about the Developer, there was still one thing I needed to confirm.

That seemed like a question he would be willing to answer.

“Pasung’s CEO Cha… I’m sorry, but I’d like to ask you one last question.”

I cautiously opened my mouth.

“Is the reason you were looking for me related to the Developer?”

Up until then, he had answered everything without hesitation.

This time, however, he remained completely silent as he watched me.

His gaze lingered.

I didn’t look away.

I simply waited for his answer.

At last, he spoke.

“Do you really think that’s the reason?”

But instead of answering, he responded with another question.

‘And how am I supposed to know?’

I could only complain inwardly because I couldn’t exactly demand that he answer me already.

Then, all of a sudden, he took Great Sun Tathāgata out of his inventory.

“So, Han Goyo.”

He extended his arm and drove the white sword into the floor.

“Are you going to sign with the Trial Response Agency?”