Chapter 277
"Hahaha! Kael is talking about point duplication!"
Commentator Kapil burst out laughing at Seojun's words.
Seojun picked up the scoop net and waited patiently again, and Kapil continued his commentary.
"If it were possible, he would have done it already. With 1 success out of 8 attempts, the success rate is 12.5 percent! I'm a little worried he might blow all his points at this rate. I hope he spends only his public points."
Kapil was half serious.
It would be amusing to watch him keep losing, but that might shake his mentality and give the pros an excuse for his loss. Of course, if he were so pitifully addicted to gambling that he'd lose everything, he wouldn't be worth evaluating at all.
Meanwhile, as Kapil had such thoughts, Penguin and Arin grew serious.
"Hmm..."
"This is dangerous..."
"You think so too, Arin?"
"Yes... Of course. If it really gets duplicated..."
Kapil had a question mark floating over his head.
"?"
***
At the same time, the History Book team leaders, who had been in a meeting after hearing Seojun's words, were on high alert.
They were gathered in Korea.
"AI can forcibly stop him, right? It has to."
"If he succeeds consecutively, there's a way to block it, isn't there? Did we even anticipate such a thing originally? Isn't this just leaving it entirely to the AI's judgment?"
"Shall we take the server down right now?"
"For the first time ever?"
"If the balance is severely broken, we're done. Finished. You haven't forgotten what we put in the next season's preview, have you? We absolutely can't let the points be released!"
"What about seeing the prophecy in just one day! The climax hasn't even shifted to Pangaea from the chaos yet!"
In an instant, a tremendous torrent of words poured out and tangled together.
It was a crisis.
No one knew how to respond, so everyone was confused.
What the production team originally wanted was chaos among the participants due to an unknown assailant.
Since the new region, the Otherworld, was chaotic, they had designed it that way.
But.
"Why is it because of just one participant!"
Chaos had come upon them instead.
Should they forcibly shut down the server and go into a hotfix?
Or should they trust the AI to judge and sanction him on its own?
"Aren't you all getting too worked up? Let's watch for now. It could just be a one-off remark. He only succeeded once."
"Like that would ever happen!"
Several team leaders shouted in unison.
"If he says he'll do it, he'll do it!"
They glared at the optimistic team leader with eyes that said, 'You still don't get it?'
Right.
Seojun had never claimed he could do something that was impossible.
***
Perfect Memory Ability.
It's the ability to perfectly reproduce in one's mind a memory the moment it's received through the senses.
A famous anecdote is how he drew the entire city down to the last detail over several days after looking down from a helicopter.
He remembers that scenery.
Remembers the sounds.
Remembers the tastes.
And beyond manifesting it in his mind, he recreates it in reality.
Through drawing.
Through instruments.
Through cooking.
Such superhumans exist.
Seojun was such a superhuman.
Movement.
People who dance for the first time are unfamiliar with every single movement, so they're what's called 'rusty.'
Just like the saying that muscles have memory, even the most basic movements in fine units are all a domain of mastery.
Perfectly controlling one's body.
That was one of Seojun's talents.
And remembering all his movements.
That was likewise one of Seojun's talents.
In other words.
'Once he succeeds just once.'
After that, he just needs to reproduce the sensation of catching the fish at that moment.
The seven failures were to find that one time.
Other people have to repeat it many times, countless times, to get the feel and have it become second nature, and if they reach the pinnacle of self-discipline, they become masters, but Seojun only needs a single successful experience.
Then he can become a master.
Because at any time, he can do exactly the same.
Of course, for Seojun, it was merely a miscellaneous skill acquired incidentally while reaching the supreme realm.
"Point duplication, coming up."
It's quite useful when streaming.
Holding the scoop net, he paused briefly, then slowly and diagonally inserted the net into the water.
He had deliberately paused not to recall the sensation once more, but because drawing things out like this makes it more fun.
And.
'If you're going to stop me, stop me quickly—that was what I meant.'
It was also a consideration.
But since they still didn't stop him.
'I'll just go ahead. You should have made up an excuse on your own.'
[1 Achievement Point deducted.]
He had not only grasped the previous successful movement but also a sense of how to move to avoid tearing and how not to—beyond that.
Since he could contrast what was different from before after succeeding once.
Current achievement points: 74.
He feels the current.
It's the energy transmitted by the coral fish's minute movements.
It's dangerous.
If he moves when more than three are nearby, the scoop net tears.
This isn't called high difficulty for nothing.
He gets the feeling they designed it deliberately so that continuing would inevitably make you lose points.
He wondered whether it was the production team's will or the AI's.
For a moment, Seojun waited without the slightest movement.
He lifted the scoop net smoothly.
The moment the coral fish entered the front of the net, a brief instant when the water's flow was minimized.
As the rim of the scoop net grazed the flank of the coral fish.
[1 Achievement Point acquired.]
The message appeared.
Seojun immediately picked up the next scoop net.
The shopkeeper NPC congratulated him.
The exact same reaction as earlier.
Seojun smiled.
When would the shopkeeper's reaction change?
"I'll recover it quickly."
Recovery of principal.
That's important, isn't it?
Of course, he wasn't going to stop after recovering the principal.
Who can quit gambling with a 100% win rate?
[1 Achievement Point acquired.]
[1 Achievement Point acquired.]
[1 Achievement Point acquired.]
Right?
***
"Look at this!"
All the team leaders turned to one person.
It was the team leader who had made the optimistic remark.
They all knew it wasn't that team leader's fault.
It was entirely because they had failed to make a swift decision.
"Then do we just have to trust the AI...?"
"79."
"If he does this one, it'll be 80."
"Recovering the principal... and beyond."
He'll start seeing profit.
No, that's too polite a phrase.
Yes.
Having succeeded seven times in a row, Seojun isn't making a profit.
Truly, literally.
"The points are being duplicated..."
This is dangerous.
This must be stopped.
"80..."
At someone's matter-of-fact pronouncement, everyone gulped.
"81."
Time moves damn fast.
No.
It's just that this participant hauls in fish at a damned fast pace.
"82."
Will the AI function properly?
Given its performance so far, it should definitely balance things.
"83."
"This is hopeless!"
"He doesn't make a single mistake! Crazy Korean!"
"That's racist."
This team leader said.
"What do you want me to do! He really is crazy!"
Chaos.
"84."
It was simply chaos.
It was the team leaders who were assaulted.
And only this team leader, who had secretly hoped for Seojun's success, was smiling faintly.
Of course, since the content couldn't be ruined, if things went too far, they'd have to stop it immediately.
They couldn't let him gain achievement points indefinitely from 500 to 1,000.
"Let's quickly think of an excuse."
"Just say we're doing a hotfix. How are we supposed to make excuses? Everyone knows."
They gave up and started swiftly preparing, contacting their team members.
"Give it your all, AI, please! Block the bug!"
It's not a bug.
Right, it's not a bug.
Or is it?
Is it a bug?
The thought processes of the team leaders present became synchronized.
Everyone simultaneously felt as if their thoughts were connected, becoming a single collective consciousness.
"That's not what it was made for. For real. 86, 87, 88, 89, 90."
After adding five more to reach 95. And when it hit 100, fortunately.
The bizarre phenomenon stopped.
"I believed in you!"
"AI, you're the best!"
"Damn, this is it. This is it."
"It's adjusting in real time!"
Exactly when Seojun earned about 20 more points, the NPC approached him and said.
[That's enough now, I think. You seem to have enjoyed yourself sufficiently.]
"Wow!"
"Yes, he's had enough fun!"
This team leader watched his celebrating colleagues with a subdued expression, but he couldn't stop them in their excitement.
Their pride.
Super AI.
It was doing its job properly.
The shopkeeper NPC closed the lid of the pool containing the fish.
[Why, though?]
The crazy streamer said.
"What now."
"Just leave."
[You've really enjoyed yourself plenty. Trying to get more fun out of this is just greedy, you crook. Please consider the shop's situation too.]
[Hmm.]
[Then shall I close up now?]
[Wait a moment.]
[Do you have anything more to say, Inquisitor?]
[Yeah, I do.]
[What is it?]
[You. Are you a heretic?]
Seojun smiled menacingly.
It was an unpleasant expression.
Gulp.
The team leaders started swallowing nervously again.
"Did he hit a nerve?"
"Now what..."
[...?]
[If you're not a heretic, there's no way you'd interfere with my work as an Inquisitor of the Order.]
This is the problem with the freedom brought by technological advancement.
If this were an old game, no matter what nonsense you spouted next to an NPC, whether you set off bombs or strutted around in your underwear, the NPC would just say its scripted lines.
[M-May I ask what work I've interfered with?]
Seojun was earning achievement points in terms of the system, but from the NPC's perspective, it was just the Order's Inquisitor playing a fish-catching game out of boredom.
[I was conducting an undercover investigation to catch heretics.]
[I see.]
[But you've obstructed the investigation. Do you understand what that means?]
[Oh dear, Inquisitor!]
The NPC immediately prostrated itself.
However, the team leaders were confident.
No matter how much freedom there is, it would never take hold if you spouted things that didn't exist.
The shopkeeper NPC is what the AI reacts to.
And the AI knows Seojun's words are a lie.
[I really didn't mean to interfere! In that case, I'll offer you a good seat instead. Come inside the shop!]
So it brushes him off like this.
There's no way the AI won't achieve its goal of stopping Seojun from gaining more achievement points through the fish game.
"He'll have nothing more to say! Hahaha!"
"Deceiving it is completely impossible. The AI is omniscient!"
"Just decorate the History Book within the puppet, according to our intent, according to the AI's intent!"
They fired off a barrage of victory celebrations.
This was absolutely perfect.
It was at that moment.
One of the team leaders, someone who realized something, had his expression sour.
At the same time, Seojun chuckled and smiled gently.
[It's actually fine, brother. I'll be on my way then.]
Suddenly transformed from a tyrannical Inquisitor into a reasonable person, Seojun left the shop.
"?"
"...?"
While moving somewhere,
he spoke.
Was it to them, or to the AI?
[I'll go to the next minigame.]
At that thunderbolt-like news, they panicked.
The reason the AI had stopped Seojun was because he was profiting too heavily from the coral fish game.
As for other minigames.
"It probably won't block them in advance."
"It'll only block them after he's duplicated the points."
"And that participant knows it well."
Yes.
It wasn't over yet.
Afterward, Seojun would instantly be able to buy the prophecy.