Chapter 15 — After That
After that, nothing particularly special happened.
I came back to life, swam around the sea absentmindedly, and sometimes got eaten by monsters.
When I met Piai again on the beach, things had somehow become awkward between us.
It had already been difficult for me to make eye contact with her before, but now it had become even harder.
Talking to her had also become strangely awkward.
And then…
Well, I broke rocks, built a house, killed goblins, killed more goblins, and killed even more goblins.
“Member, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“…Grr…”
“Do you really have to act like such a shy kid even inside a game? It’s just a game!”
“…I know!”
I thought his words made sense.
I didn’t need to become so immersed in the game characters that I treated them like real humans.
But if I looked at it another way…
Wasn’t it a little cold-hearted to think that way?
After all, if I casually poked someone in the side and they responded with—
“If you’re bored, go outside and hunt something. You’ve been bringing back nothing but goblins, and now I feel like my mouth smells like goblins. Want to die?”
—could I really say that such a person was completely meaningless just because they weren’t human?
They weren’t human.
They weren’t even technically living beings.
But they possessed intelligence at the same level as humans.
So how should the value of such an existence be determined?
And who should decide it?
This game seemed to have AI so advanced that it made up almost half of the game itself.
It would be unreasonable to ask the developers to make them look more like ordinary NPCs just so players wouldn’t suffer an identity crisis.
Besides, telling someone,
“Your finished product is way too advanced, so please downgrade it a little!”
would probably be incredibly rude to the people who created it.
And honestly…
I also wanted to see how far these AIs could go.
Just how human could they become?
Could they perhaps become even more human than humans themselves?
The NPCs called us outsiders.
I wondered how long they would continue playing their roles as NPCs.
Maybe one day, they would stop relying on us outsiders altogether.
If that happened, the concept of quests might disappear from this game.
If they became capable of solving their own problems, why would they need to borrow someone else’s strength by offering rewards?
Of course, even without quests, there was practically an endless amount of things to do in this game.
A perfect example was what Piai had recently accomplished.
She had finally discovered the possibility of creating a magic sword.
That’s my girl, Goblin!
I knew our good little goblin could do it!
Ah, speaking of that…
The way the other testers looked down on and mistreated goblins was actually quite serious.
Goblins were excellent resources with practically nothing going to waste from head to toe!
If you left them alone, they multiplied by themselves, so there was no need to worry about them becoming extinct.
Their bodily fluids contained toxins and lots of oil, so they could provide poison and oil.
Their bones could be used to make various tools.
And their meat could be dried, boiled, and then roasted to make something edible.
Seriously…
Why did nobody appreciate how useful our cute little goblins were?
Haa…
I should ask the employees to add more types of goblins.
High-level goblins would surely be even more useful.
“In-gwang?”
“…Yes?”
Who was interrupting me during such an important moment of goblin contemplation?
I didn’t know who it was, but judging from the voice, it was probably someone overly friendly, polite, and sociable.
“Ah, Chairman?”
“Haha. You remembered me?”
Even if I tried to forget him, there was no way I could forget someone who looked like a wizard.
His long beard made him look like a crooked old man from a fairy tale.
But he also had a powerful physique and sharp, commanding eyes.
Just standing in front of him made me feel intimidated.
He looked exactly like those handsome old characters in fictional stories who were incredibly powerful in the past, were still powerful now, but hid their true strength.
“I think it would be better to speak briefly and get straight to the point with you.”
“Excuse me? Yes?”
“You’ve achieved more than any of the other testers.”
“So think of this as a reward for your achievements.”
Me?
What did I do?
“It is a special quest.”
“The Labyrinth Forest where you are now…”
“No, excuse me. I was about to give you an unnecessary explanation.”
“In the center of that forest, there is an artifact containing tremendous power.”
The old man had apparently been about to explain something.
But after looking at my face, he gave a bitter smile and skipped the explanation.
What exactly do the employees of this company think about me?
More importantly…
What did I do?
What had I accomplished that made the chairman himself come all the way here to tell me this?
Hmm.
Was it because of my building-related activities?
But I didn’t remember him saying anything about that.
Could he be messing with me?
Whenever I gave the employees suggestions for improvement, they always looked like they were about to die.
Was this his revenge?!
“If you successfully obtain that artifact…”
“I will let you keep the avatar device and the subscription fees, and I will also allow your character to remain.”
…
Oh.
OH!!!
The avatar device alone was probably worth more than 100 in whatever currency we were talking about!
And this game required a subscription fee.
For someone like me, who had no stable source of income and was struggling through each day, that was already a serious burden.
And now…
He was even letting me keep my character!
Wasn’t that an abuse of power?
What would happen if this became public?
Was this old man some kind of god?!
“Of course, the fact that I told you this must remain an absolute secret.”
“Hahaha!”
“…Yes.”
Well, of course.
It was much easier and cheaper to silence one person than to make arrangements for an unspecified number of people.
