Chapter 14: Finally!

Flump.

“Haa, it’s finally quiet.”

Coming into a private space from a place teeming with people felt unbelievably peaceful.

Nicholas, sinking into the wide sofa, took a long sip of his cafe mocha and greeted the empty air.

“Hey, Noah.”

─ Hey, Nick.

Along with the familiar androgynous voice, a small spherical orb floated up in the air and approached Nicholas.

A face made of text characters was displayed on the sphere.

“Did you have a good day while I was gone?”

─ Same as always.

Noah, with the body of a spherical android, was an AI created by Nicholas and his only family, his twin sister ‘Nadia Wood’, when they were children.

At first, it was an AI with only the simple functions embedded in a home android for childcare.

But through some coincidence, luck, and mistakes, this unbelievable result was born.

After all, mistakes sometimes come as great miracles.

Like accidentally putting chocolate in curry.

Neither Nicholas nor his sister Nadia had anticipated Noah’s birth at all.

The two named the dazzling miracle that had come to them ‘Noah’.

And so, the young siblings and the newly born AI grew up together.

They were the best of friends, and also family.

The world had long since become an era where it couldn’t function without androids.

It became commonplace for every household to have an android with an embedded AI, and the government even encouraged it.

Support programs were just as active.

It was now an era where it was considered strange to be walking on the street, at school, or at work without an android by your side.

They were humanity’s friends and neighbors, work colleagues, and also family.

…And it’s a bit funny to say this in an era like this, but even in this dramatically advanced world, conspiracy theories about AI invasions or android rebellions were still constantly emerging.

Whether it was because of that or something else, even at a time when androids had become widespread, androids that resembled humans were only ever rumored to be in development and had never actually been released to the public.

Like flying cars or freely traveling through space, it was something that couldn’t be realized due to various problems.

But because of that, there were also areas that had advanced dramatically.

Namely, ‘virtual reality games’.

It was said that it was initially developed for medical purposes, but it went beyond that and has now established itself as a form of entertainment that anyone can enjoy.

Another world where you can live as another ‘you’.

Doesn’t it make your heart pound?

Even before virtual reality games took hold, people had enjoyed various games on mobile, PC, and consoles.

If you could now feel and experience that directly with your own skin instead of a keyboard, mouse, or controller, wouldn’t that be really fun?

And that’s not all; as long as you had a connection device, you could go anywhere in the world regardless of location, and you could travel through fantasy worlds that you would only see in novels or movies.

These elements captured people’s interest.

In this situation, it might have been a predictable event for young geniuses to jump into this market.

The Wood siblings, overflowing with dreams and hope and even having the best AI, Noah, had nothing to fear.

The achievements they had made as mere teenagers were enormous.

No one could stop them.

Until the three of them put their heads together to design the game and, after much trial and error, created the foundation of <Arcana Chronicles>, they were just a small company known only through word-of-mouth on the internet… no, to be honest, they were more like a small group of boys and girls with a pipe dream.

But they received investment from a sponsor who recognized their potential and, through collaboration with hospitals and furthermore, collaboration with a world-renowned mechanical engineering company, they came to develop the ideal virtual reality gaming device.

At the end of that countless effort, <Arcana Chronicles> was born.

Now, <Arcana Chronicles> has pushed aside the world’s leading virtual reality games and has indisputably taken the number one spot.

And the biggest reason all of this was possible was, of course, because Noah existed.

“Umm…”

Nicholas sipped his cafe mocha and scanned the dozens of screens floating in the air.

Although <Arcana Chronicles> was famous for its high degree of freedom, a certain baseline had to be maintained, so daily monitoring was essential.

This was because there were countless players who crossed the line and caused problems every day.

Among them, Nicholas’s main job was to manage major quest content that could shake <Arcana Chronicles> and matters that should not be leaked to the outside, but in fact, the most important thing handled here was, of course, the management of Noah, who had become the foundation of <Arcana Chronicles>.

In fact, the work Nicholas did was not a large amount compared to others.

Unlike when the game had just opened, the parts he had to pay attention to had now been drastically reduced.

Other tasks were the responsibility of other employees and Nadia, who was the general director.

Ah, sometimes, bringing snacks and showing his face to people to cheer them on was also his job.

Nicholas was well aware that his good looks worked on people of all ages and genders.

…Well, unlike Nadia, he was an introvert, so he liked being alone the most.

─ Nick.

“Why? Is there a problem?”

Click-clack, Nicholas, who was changing the hologram screens by pressing a keypad with a satisfying tactile feel, asked as he checked the records that had piled up.

─ Do you remember the quest that was on the verge of being scrapped?

“Huh? Ah, well… There are so many of those. Oops, that player is going to die there.”

Nicholas replied in an indifferent tone.

─ It’s the quest called [King of the Forgotten], which is linked to the hidden main quest.

“What about it?”

At the unexpected name, Nicholas finally looked away from the screen and looked at Noah, puzzled.

It was the name of a quest he had almost forgotten.

And if his memory was correct, the boss monster was the key to opening this quest, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t uncommon for a monster to become an NPC for the progression of a quest, but this one, due to its nature as a hidden quest, had discovery conditions that were twice as difficult as similar quests.

‘In the end, for five years, no one discovered the quest that boss had.’

In the past, while putting in this quest, Nicholas had worried whether there would ever be a player who would receive this absurd quest.

He had left it in because Noah had insisted so much that this quest must exist, but…

It had been almost two years since Nicholas had stopped checking on that boss monster.

No matter how he looked at it, there was no sign of success.

Various causal factors had played a part in this.

This whole mess happened when the leading players ahead of the curve found out that the boss monster was related to the main quest and was an entity whose information had not yet been fully released, and in the process of blocking information about Flora Island to monopolize it.

It wasn’t time yet, but it was too precious to give to the latecomers, so they all conspired together.

As some of the top players hid information and spread false content, at some point, it was branded as a piece-of-crap dungeon, and player traffic, which was once bustling, came to a halt as if it were all a lie.

‘…But after doing all that, it seems most of them have forgotten about it over time.’

Still, it wasn’t like no one remembered, as three or four of the rankers from that time occasionally came and went, but it was difficult to expect them to be able to discover the quest.

It might be different if it were a related quest connected through a different route.

‘The activation conditions are already tricky enough without that. On top of that, a huge amount of luck was required, and with useless interruptions coming in… it’s only natural that it ended up like this.’

It was when he was vaguely thinking that he should suggest modifying this quest as an agenda item for the next meeting.

Noah’s expression changed to [ÒwÓ], and soon after, an excited voice struck his ears.

─ A player who finally meets the conditions has appeared!

Pop!

At the same time, a different person appeared on the screen Nicholas had been monitoring.

It was a person wearing a bizarre mask.

“What is that. That mask…”

It was a bit visually shocking to suddenly encounter, so Nicholas muttered to himself without realizing it.

─ It’s a specialty of the Utooroo region. One of the masks used by the hunters of that region. It’s easy to obtain, but its appearance is unique, and since it’s a fashion item with no effects, very few players use it.

“Who asked you that?”

Nicholas retorted, dumbfounded.

As if he had asked for that!

Regardless, Noah began to chatter excitedly.