𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟔𝟓
‘I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.’
Unable to refuse Illia’s help, I decided to work with her to solve the current problem.
However, since we couldn’t solve any problems within Twilight, Illia told me to come to her house, and thinking it made some sense, I arrived at the address she gave me after two hours.
‘By the way……’
She lives in a place like this?
Staring blankly at the old three-story building that wouldn’t look out of place if it were to be demolished immediately, I soon shook my head and went inside.
Well, what does it matter what the building looks like?
As I stepped inside, I knocked on the door of Illia’s house, and I could hear the sound of someone approaching from inside.
Click━
“It’s Rudin-nim, right? This is the first time I’ve seen you in reality.”
“Likewise.”
I answered similarly to how I did in Twilight, but I couldn’t shake off a feeling of doubt.
That’s because Illia looked to be at least in her mid-30s in reality.
She looked like she was in her 20s in Twilight, so it seemed like she had done some work on her appearance.
Actually, the only person I know who hasn’t had any work done is Yua.
“Come in. Oh, but did you bring what I asked for?”
“Yes.”
Before I came here, Illia told me to open the inside of the capsule and bring a certain part.
I was worried about having to tear apart the capsule, but Illia said I could easily solve it by pressing a button, and indeed, when I pressed the button at the bottom of the capsule, I could easily take out several parts installed inside.
However, since I didn’t know which part to take, I brought all the detachable parts and handed them to Illia, who nodded in satisfaction as she looked at them.
“You brought the right ones.”
“But do you need all of these?”
“No, but it’s not bad to have them, right?”
Illia said it’s better to bring everything than to miss something.
Actually, I think she’s right.
If you’re not sure, you should bring everything.
Anyway, Illia was about to go into the living room, but then I saw her taking out the parts I gave her and connecting them to something.
‘But why is the living room such a mess?’
Looking around, various trash and unknown machines were scattered around.
She should clean up a bit.
Avoiding the trash and machines, I approached Illia and watched what she was doing, and she leisurely connected the parts while talking to me.
“You get a headache when you log in. Is there anything else?”
“I also get forcibly logged out.”
At that moment, I saw Illia’s hand stop for a brief moment.
Was she surprised by the forced logout?
Soon, Illia turned her head and looked at me.
“Forced logout occurs when your body is in danger…… Considering the headache as well, I think there might be a problem with your body, Rudin-nim.”
“……”
“Judging by your expression, you seem to know what it is.”
It would be strange if I didn’t know.
However, I didn’t think it was necessary to talk about Intuition.
If Illia could just solve my headache problem here, I would be able to play Twilight as before.
And Illia didn’t rush me, but leisurely displayed something on the monitor, and I could see her head tilting along with it.
“Huh? Why is there so much information?”
“Information?”
“Simply put, it’s like a footprint? You can think of it as a brief record of your actions in Twilight, Rudin-nim. But there’s an unusually large amount.”
“……?”
What does she mean? My actions in Twilight are recorded?
It’s not like I can’t think of anything.
Whenever I use Intuition, all sorts of information is naturally input into my head.
If that was also recorded, it made sense that there would be a lot of information.
“Did you perhaps play without sleeping?”
“Of course not. How can I play games without sleeping?”
“I’ve seen a few people who play similarly.”
Oh, were there actually such people?
“They play for 6 hours, sleep for 1-2 hours, and repeat this continuously while playing Twilight.”
“……That’s amazing.”
I don’t think I could do that even if I tried.
I only play for 12 hours at most.
That’s long enough, but compared to the example Illia mentioned, I guess it would be considered average.
“But it’s still strange.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Fix what? No matter how I think about it, it seems like a problem with you, Rudin-nim.”
Even as she said that, Illia was diligently typing something.
“What could the problem be……”
‘Is it something even Illia doesn’t know?’
If there’s no solution, I’ll have to quit Twilight by disposing of my items one by one, as I initially thought.
‘How much would I get if I sold everything?’
Even excluding the equipment I’m wearing, I have a few unique items, so I think I could get a decent price.
Furthermore, if I enhance them, the price would jump significantly.
If I sold the equipment I’m wearing as well, I was sure the price would be at least double what I had in mind. Just then, Illia let out a small sigh and showed a determined expression as if she had made up her mind.
“Rudin-nim.”
“Yes.”
“Shall we share some secrets?”
* * *
The reason Illia suggested sharing secrets was simple.
She must have sensed that I vaguely knew about my problem and brought up the topic to hear about it.
And the secret sharing started with Illia, and to summarize, she told me about leaving the company and the reason she was here.
However, the process was so unusual that I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Is it okay to tell me that?”
“Of course not.”
Then she shouldn’t keep talking.
‘Well, then, to summarize……’
It was simple yet complex.
Since Twilight is a virtual reality game, various senses are implemented.
Sight, hearing, things like that.
And the fact that they implemented all of that meant that it could be controlled arbitrarily, and the higher-ups were planning to use that for some kind of experiment.
For example, if your Agility increases, your dynamic vision improves.
Then, wouldn’t there be a way to bring that dynamic vision into reality?
It was roughly that kind of experiment, but Illia, who found out about it, strongly opposed it, but it was no use.
So, as a last resort, she blocked access to player information in advance and stole the key to unlock the blockage, then fled here. That was the secret Illia told me.
“But do you really need a key?”
“Yes, maybe not if the technology advances further, but currently, you can’t unlock it without the key. It would probably be faster to create a new game.”
‘In other words, she’s a criminal.’
And this was an obvious guess, but I thought the headquarters would be frantically searching for her.
‘By the way, is that even possible?’
I pondered, comparing it to my Intuition.
Certainly, my Intuition was amplified and activated within Twilight, but there were no problems in reality.
No, it’s not even amplified.
The fact that I can’t use the second Intuition is proof of that.
I unintentionally ended up being a test subject for the experiment they were trying to do, but with this result, I wondered if Illia had done something unnecessary.
“But thanks to that, you also benefited, Rudin-nim. Normally, they would have investigated how you obtained the S-rank skills, but they couldn’t.”
Hmm, is that a good thing?
The total number of S-rank skills I’ve acquired is six.
Time has passed since Twilight began, so there are people who have acquired one S-rank skill each, but I can say that no one has acquired six like me.
No, not even six. I haven’t even seen anyone who acquired two.
Therefore, it’s highly likely that they would have originally tried to access my information to find out how it happened, but due to Illia’s actions, they couldn’t access the information and instead only checked through the bug-checking system, according to Illia.
‘Come to think of it, I remember. When people were saying it was a bug, the headquarters said it wasn’t.’
It was quite a while ago, but since it was related to me, I vaguely remembered it.
“Do you have any more questions?”
“You’re being generous today.”
“Since I’ve said this much, there’s nothing more to hide.”
Since she said that, I decided to ask one more question that I was curious about.
“Why did you oppose the experiment?”
On the surface, it didn’t seem like a bad experiment, so when I asked about it, Illia expressed her thoughts.
“It felt like a smokescreen? I think the actual experiment was something else. In fact, for the experiment I mentioned earlier, they could just recruit volunteers. There’s no need to create Twilight and gather so many people.”
“That’s…… true.”
There’s no need to create Twilight just to conduct that kind of experiment.
Now that I hear it, it makes sense, so I nodded and thought about what the original experiment might have been, but since I didn’t want to get involved that deeply, I decided to stop here.
“Is there anything else?”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Then it’s your turn, Rudin-nim.”
I sighed for some reason.
Actually, if I questioned everything, there would be no end to my suspicions, but I didn’t do that and briefly explained about the Intuition I have. Upon hearing that, Illia stared at me as if I was talking nonsense and then uttered a single word.
“Intuition?”
“To explain it in terms of enhancement, it’s the ability to feel whether it will succeed or fail.”
“……No, that’s a superpower. Is that a real ability?”
Superpower?
Come to think of it, it is a superpower, isn’t it?
It’s somewhat pathetic compared to what I imagine a superpower to be, but it didn’t seem like the wrong word, so I nodded. Then, Illia got up from her seat and ran somewhere quickly.
“Wait a minute. Wait here.”
After telling me to wait, Illia entered a room on one side and soon came back out with her fists clenched in both hands.
What is she trying to do now?
Anyway, Illia approached me and said something unexpected.
“Can you tell where the coin is here?”
“……”
Is this a confirmation test?
Well, it wasn’t difficult.
I used Intuition and simply pointed to Illia’s right hand. With that, Illia made an incredulous expression and opened her right hand to show the coin.
After that, she made me find the coin a few more times, which seemed meaningless, and even brought a deck of cards from somewhere and lined them up face down, asking me to pick a specific card.
Of course, I could guess them all correctly.
“……It’s really amazing. How is this possible?”
“Leaving that aside, is it helpful?”
“Helpful? Oh, of course. Thanks to you, I figured out what the problem is.”
Oh, really?
If she found the problem, I had the expectation that she would also find a solution, so I waited for Illia’s next words. And Illia gave me a brief explanation.
“I’m not sure yet, but I think the control device is malfunctioning.”
“Control device?”
“Well, you don’t feel any pain when you’re attacked in Twilight, right? That’s because the control device related to pain is adjusted to lower the sensitivity.”
‘Hmm, I think I understand roughly.’
Things like pain are controlled by a control device, but it seems like there’s no control device for the Intuition I have.
Come to think of it, I thought it was strange that it was amplified and activated from the very first time I used Intuition. It must be because there’s no control device, so it’s activated beyond my original limits as it pleases.
‘Thanks to that, I think I understand why my Intuition was activated that way.’
But that’s not important.
The important thing is the solution.
I don’t even expect to be able to control Intuition properly.
If I could just log in to Twilight without any problems, even if I couldn’t use Intuition, it would be a success.
“The problem is that it will take some time to fix this.”
However, Illia gave an uncertain answer.
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