Chapter 64: Pit of Bitterness (2)

Chapter 64: Pit of Bitterness (2)

Thud, it was the moment the paladin’s body collapsed.

The soldier and the Spartan both had disgusted expressions on their faces, as if they had just drunk spoiled water.

The sudden assault that had come out of nowhere had taken control of their bodies.

However, not everyone was like that.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!!”

The barbarian leaped onto a tree.

With a thumping sound, he raised his heavy body high into the air and swung his axe down onto the tree’s forehead.

Crash!

“Ouch...”

“Shut up!”

Crash!

The barbarian’s axe did not stop.

With a grim expression filled with rage, he tore the tree’s face apart, and each time, one of the branches that made up the ground shook violently.

The counterattack had begun.

What blocked the branches that were flying towards the barbarian was the Spartan’s shield.

“You too, block them!”

The soldier, who had been frozen in place until now, finally moved.

Noise filled the silence.

Screams, the groaning of the tree, the clanging of metal, and gunshots were followed by the sound of the tree falling to the ground.

It was only then that silence returned.

The only remaining sounds were the heavy breathing of the exhausted warriors.

With wide eyes, everyone’s gaze was fixed on the barbarian.

He wiped his bloodstained axe on his waist.

Then, he drew a sword from the fallen paladin’s corpse.

The sword was silent.

“Tsk tsk, he won’t come out. He is scared.”

The way he spoke to the sword might have seemed ridiculous to those who didn’t understand the warriors’ relationship with their weapons.

However, there was no one here who didn’t know that.

The soldier and the Spartan looked at the sword with a resigned expression.

There were many emotions hidden in their silence.

Perhaps they understood the paladin’s feelings.

In the silence, the barbarian suddenly spoke.

“Are you scared?”

Startled, the two men trembled.

At that moment, in the barbarian’s eyes, there was not the savagery that had been seen so far, but a resolute wisdom reminiscent of a strong leader.

What followed were words filled with teachings.

“If you don’t kill, you’ll die. My tribe, me, and all of us.”

“You...”

“It’s a choice, life. You can’t avoid it. You can’t undo it.”

He said.

“I killed, and I saved. It’s a choice. I’m not evil.”

It was a story about choices.

Perhaps many people had faced it, and some had already made choices they couldn’t take back.

What he was recalling next was the original purpose.

“We must move forward.”

I, too, pondered.

If war is essentially friction between groups, then surely they must have protected smiles just as many people as they had killed.

For them, war was merely a choice.

The barbarian was likely saying that good and evil couldn’t interfere with that choice.

In this moment of contemplation, the answer had already become clear.

“Frightened ones, step aside. I seek answers.”

I am human.

I understand human emotions, empathize with their perspectives, and even sympathize with their physiology.

I judged that the laws of Hell were at the peak of irrationality.

The thoughts of the parties involved were no different.

···Come on.

“You’re quite clever on this subject.”

The barbarian chuckled and shouldered the paladin’s sword.

The three of them moved forward.

They continued to encounter screaming trees,

“Aaaahhh...!”

“Mooommmmyyy...!”

They pressed on, shouting and crying, just as they had lived their lives.

At some point, they could no longer see the entrance to the swamp.

That’s when the three of them stumbled upon another corpse.

“It’s a woman.”

It was the body of a woman.

A tall, skinny body with black hair, much like a mirage, and next to the corpse lay a flag larger than her own body.

“...I think I know who this is.”

The soldier said.

“Joan of Arc. A war hero from France. It doesn’t quite match what I’ve heard, but...”

I, too, observed and confirmed that the soldier’s words were accurate, from my modern perspective.

To the barbarian, however, it seemed unimportant whose corpse it was.

“A female, fits with our little demon.”

The barbarian said, then drew the paladin’s sword.

Swoosh!

Modifying characters with well-established concepts would only add work without providing significant benefits, and it could even become a barrier to those who found it uncomfortable.

So, there was only one option.

“Adding a new customization element.”

Hellic 3, fundamentally, was a system where different parts could be customized on one body.

Moreover, all the parts obtained had their own unique traits.

In the end, adding a new element meant making the system more complex or creating parts that deviated from the concept when viewed from the perspective of farming and collecting parts for levelling up.

However, there was a way.

“Visual items.”

In other words, adding items solely for customization.

Where could they get those items?

“From monsters.”

What if we made monsters drop visual items?

“It would seamlessly integrate.”

To sum it up, that’s how it was.

War Hero’s corpses would provide parts with special traits.

Monster corpses would provide appearance-related parts.

Users would naturally learn this during the farming process.

So, what kind of monsters should we use as customization elements?

I thought about it, and the answer came to me.

“It doesn’t have to be human.”

Since we were already creating non-human customization elements, it might be interesting.

Thinking about it from an assembly perspective, it was quite intriguing.

There were quite a few monsters that had a female form, but there were even more with grotesque forms.

If players thought that these could be attached to their playable characters, it could be quite interesting.

For example, a body made of wood attached to a human body, or a mechanical body with just a spine could work as well. Even parts with only bones might be fine.

As I thought about it, I suddenly realized something.

“Is this fun?”

Assuming that we could customize characters in various ways, I was naturally imagining, “If I were playing the game, I would like to try this.”

Imagination, in other words, interest.

It was one of the factors that determined the fun of the game and one of the factors for aligning myself with the character.

But that wasn’t all.

Upon deeper reflection, I realized there was another effect beyond just increasing interest.

“It could give players one more reason to hunt monsters.”

In other words, creating an expectation in players like, “If I defeat that monster, I can use its parts?” could be possible.

It would make battles more exciting.

This idea was confirmed emotionally before logically, and when I examined it more deeply, it turned out to be a great idea logically as well.

The possibilities of customization were surprising, and as I thought about it more deeply, I said,

“Seorim.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s add modelling for customization. Including monsters.”

The answer came from Kim Hyeji.

“Huh?”

She didn’t seem to understand.

So, I explained it to her.

“Thanks to you, I came up with a good idea. It would be even more interesting if we used monsters as customization elements. Please think about it on your end. Create some modelling drafts and send them to me.”

I praised her.

In a joking manner, I patted her on the shoulder and said to Han Seorim,

“Oh, Seorim. About map modelling”

“Let’s talk outside. Oh, it’s time for exercise, so let’s get ready together. We can do it while talking.”

Han Seorim suddenly dragged me out.

Her face was unusually cold.

As I was being dragged out, I suddenly felt the gaze of the art team on me.

“Why are they looking at me like that?”

The question remained unanswered.

However, as I stepped out of the partition and left the company, I heard faint voices from the other side of the door.

“Hey, you crazy woman!!!”

“Aaah!!!”

Screams could be heard.

Now, it was the beginning of winter.

Gradually, all the pieces for Chapter 1 were coming together.

At this time, there was something I needed to start.

“Let’s hire voice actors.”

For AAA-level game Hellic 3, we needed voices now.

Yang Gilsang replied, “That’s right. The timing seems quite early though.”

“Since we’re making a demo version.”

Since the script was often changed during development, we had planned to start hiring voice actors around the time when the overall story was finalized.

However, due to recent developments, we needed to secure characters in advance.

“Have you thought of anyone?”

“For sure, one person.”

Hiring voice actors had been a decision made since the moment I thought of this.

“Who is it?”

“Voice actor Lee Suchang.”

“Huh?”

He looked puzzled, and I couldn’t help but sigh.

“He’s the voice actor for Black War Tyrannomon.” [TL Note” Sorry mates but I still havent figured out which game is this.]

Yang Gilsang had no /RomanceMTL