Chapter 5: The Miraculous AI and the 3-Second Warning

If I put this on now, I’ll just become prey for this massive crowd, right?

[General] BJBestMan: Everyone, I am currently at the location of the user who cleared the Nightmare tutorial for the first time in three years! Ah, thank you for the donation, “I’m Getting Strength.” There are really so many people here…….

……Yeah, let’s not.

Deciding to wear it later, the next thing I checked was the Hidden Piece.

[One Who Started with Nightmare]

Judging by the massive achievement you left in the tower from the very start, it is certain that the power you lost is this fragment. Upon every Level Up, Attack Power permanently increases by 0.2%. Upon every Level Up, Defense Power permanently increases by 0.2%. [Permanently – Cannot be decreased by any means.]

……Isn’t this Hidden Piece a bit broken?

0.2% might seem like nothing, but if you calculate it calmly, it wasn’t.

Currently, the max level in Zelpia is Level 250.

Achieving max level would mean being 50% stronger than a user of the same level.

Furthermore, “cannot be decreased by any means” meant having immense resistance to debuffs like Defense Down or Attack Down.

I marveled at the broken performance of the Hidden Piece compared to the difficulty of Nightmare mode.

The story description mentioned that better performance in the tower leads to better rewards, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.

The beginning of the Zelpia story, which I’d caught glimpses of during the tutorial, went like this:

Some of the gods who ruled the world became corrupted and turned into Evil Gods.

The Evil Gods used their power to attack the world they once protected.

The High God breathed power into heroes to prevent the Evil Gods from destroying the world.

The heroes who received divine power succeeded in defeating the Evil Gods, but the Evil Gods also succeeded in fragmenting the heroes’ power and sealing it along with their memories.

As time passed, the remnants of the Evil Gods, thought to be completely annihilated, began to move, and the heroes now seek to regain their strength and defeat them once more.

The conclusion of this rather generic story was that I am an amnesiac patient, and to find my memories, I must find and clear the towers where the Evil Gods sealed my power.

And the more impressively I clear a tower, the more the God bestows rewards, essentially saying, ‘Oh, so you were originally a very strong fellow?’ or something like that.

Isn’t the cause and effect reversed here?

“Wow, that’s insane…….”

Perhaps because I was so focused, the voice of my heart accidentally popped out.

I spoke out loud and hurriedly raised my head.

No matter how fast the chat moved, someone must have seen my speech bubble, and what I just said was enough to draw aggro.

However, the scene I faced was something I never expected.

“Huh?”

The general chat, which had been scrolling without rest, stopped.

The reason was simple.

The surrounding area, which had been a sea of people, was now completely empty—not a single person was in sight.

It was a sight inconceivable for a place that had been like a crowded market just a moment ago.

“Did Kyutae clear them out?”

He said he’d come help after clearing a main quest; it seemed that while I was focused on the item descriptions, he had set aside his quest and rushed over to handle the traffic control.

I wondered how he managed to perform a “Miracle of Moses” among such a huge crowd, but I figured I’d just ask him on the way home later.

Thanks to that, I could easily reach the NPC who gave the main quest.

The Orc with a gold exclamation mark sparkling above his head was the Village Chief.

In any other game, an Orc would be an enemy monster, but he just stared up at me.

“Greetings, snort. I am the Village Chief of this village, Kukum Snort Kum-krung-kung, snort.”

……Oh.

Since it was my first time in a VR game, I didn’t know how to respond.

Don’t choices usually appear in times like this?

But there was no sign of a dialogue tree, and as my response lagged, the eyes of Kukum Snort… whatever-his-name-was narrowed.

I was flustered when I suddenly heard a low, melodious voice.

“Ask him if there’s anything he needs help with.”

“Pardon?”

“Hurry, before the Orc gets offended.”

The person I caught a glimpse of was clad in pitch-black armor.

I felt like I’d seen that shiny armor somewhere before, and thinking back, it was the Berserker I met on the 5th floor of the tutorial.

Ah, the AI is coming to help me? Of course. There’s no way they’d leave me without any guidance.

Thinking nothing of it, I replied to the Orc.

“Is there something you need help with?”

“Snort. You’re a young man with no manners, snort.”

I guess I have to be polite, too.

Receiving a cold glare from the Orc, who offered no further response, I corrected my question.

“Is there something you need help with, sir?”

The Orc, pouting his thick blue lips, tapped his staff on the ground and finally answered with eyes full of dissatisfaction.

“Snort. Recently in this village, snort, young Orc men have been disappearing, snort. Youngsters at the peak of their beauty are vanishing, snort, and the village’s troubles are deep, snort.”

“Do I just need to find those young men?”

“That is so, snort.”

“Any clues?”

“Snort. Unfortunately, there are no clues, snort. You should try talking to the villagers, snort.”

It was rather vague guidance.

I figured I’d just follow the next exclamation mark, but when I checked the quest window, there were no markers.

Only a prompt saying “Obtain clues by talking to the villagers” was written there.

It was a small mercy that I could identify where the villagers were, but there were easily over ten of them.

Is this the developers’ way of telling me to take the game slowly?

As a Korean with “ppalli-ppalli” (hurry-hurry) culture bred into my bones, it was a policy I couldn’t quite understand, but I figured it was a consideration to let me learn basic controls while sightseeing in the beautiful village.

“Follow me.”

That was until the AI in black armor, still standing beside me, spoke.

As expected of a Korean game. There was no way they’d leave me stranded like this.

The AI will save me. Long live the guide NPCs.

By the way, what kind of lore does this black-armored NPC have?

He fought a battle of the century with me at the top of the tower, and now he’s quietly helping me with pathfinding?

Would he tell me if I asked about his setting?

Is this guy also sensitive to tone like the Orc Chief?

Because I was lost in these idle thoughts, I walked right past the text floating above the black-armored man’s head without reading it.

[Sephiroth]

[Shout] DaughterOfSpirit: Sephiroth spotted at Newbie Zone Warp Gate! Escape immediately!

[Shout] MusketeerKing: Sephiroth moving toward Newbie Zone Village Entrance! Escape immediately!

[General] StaminaKingME: ??????? Sephiroth???? The Sephiroth I know????

[General] JejuPersimmonKkul: F*ck, newbies run for your lives.

[General] sa92: TT Mommy I’m scared.

[General] ItGirlHotGirlThatGirl: Isn’t the newbie village a no-PK zone anyway?

[General] JejuPersimmonKkul: You’re a newbie, right? If you get caught by Sephiroth, you’re dead the moment you leave the village.

[General] 88403: Didn’t he come to kill BlueberryWhiskey? TT

[Shout] Sephiroth: 3 seconds.

[Shout] Sephiroth: 3.

[Shout] Sephiroth: 2.

[Shout] Sephiroth: 1.

The place the guide NPC led me to was where an Orc with braided hair stood.

Dressed in leather armor, black pants, and brown boots, the Orc was practicing her swing with a frying pan.

The whoosh, whoosh sound of the wind echoing every time her braids fluttered was no joke.

Is she planning to bash someone’s head in with a frying pan?

“What are you doing?”

As I stood staring, lost for words at the shocking visual, the black armor urged me on.

They said the AI industry has been advancing lately, and it seems it’s true.

It even has a nagging function to keep things moving if there’s no response for a certain amount of time.

Marveling at the advancement of science and technology, I took a step toward the Frying Pan Orc.

A fierce wind brushed violently past my skin.

Thinking back to my conversation with the Chief, I used polite speech on purpose, fearing my head might get cracked by the frying pan if I spoke informally.

“Excuse me, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Who are you, snort?”

“Me, me? Uh……. A hero?”

“I’m asking what your name is, snort.”

“Chae……. No. BlueberryWhiskey.”

I almost said my real name. It was a relief no one was around.

Just in case, I looked around.

The people who had dispersed once seemed to have lost interest already, showing no signs of returning.

Unlike the Chief, the braided Orc didn’t seem like the type to care much about whether I used polite or informal speech.

Of course, she wasn’t interested in the fact that my real name was almost revealed either.

She turned her head tartly and asked.

“I’m Bibi, snort. What do you want with me, snort?”

“I heard that young Orc men have been going missing from the village lately.”

“How, how did you know that fact, snort!”

“The Chief told me. He asked if I could solve it.”

“The Chief said that? Snort……”

Having done it once, speaking became more natural.

Since I was having something like a conversation, I really felt like I had fallen into a fantasy world.

I felt like I could understand why Zelpia gained such sensational popularity.

While I was processing this, Bibi, the braided Orc, looked down at the ground as if deep in thought.

Seeing her continue to make snort, snort sounds and digging at the dirt with her toes, it seemed the conversation wasn’t over, but it wasn’t like I had anything more to say.

Wondering if this was right, I looked up, and the black armor whispered.

“Wait a bit longer.”

Wow, AI performance these days is truly insane. It even reads people’s minds.