PRMG 04

Chapter 4

My heart was pounding, and the corners of my mouth kept rising without me realizing it.

Was it an Easter egg? Or an ending route that I had never seen before?

Either way, it was a new side of <Happy Smile Factory>.

I had played this game until I was sick of it, yet there was still something I did not know!

I wanted to dig through everything immediately.

Knowing that my current reaction was far from that of a normal civilian, I pressed my lips together and hid my smile.

Right on time, Mo Haein finished discussing something and discovered the Sad Smiley that I had pieced together.

She looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask, What kind of nonsense are you doing now?

I explained with an innocent expression.

“Um, when I picked up this candy, it said it could repair toys. Even though they’re just toys, I thought they might feel pain.”

At my words, Mo Haein’s expression became blank, and Park Seonggyeon burst into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! You’re really a kind person. You wanted to repair it?”

Park Seonggyeon lightly tapped my shoulder.

“But being pure isn’t allowed here, okay? You have to be careful. I can’t explain in detail, but this place is extremely dangerous.”

He scared me by saying that the toys could get back up and attack again.

I apologized to him once more.

After happily teasing me enough, Park Seonggyeon suddenly stared into empty space and widened his eyes.

“Oh, Captain. But this item description is a little strange.”

He had read the item description of Sad Smiley through the system window.

“Um, sorry, but can we leave quickly? I want to get out.”

I pretended to be scared and urged Mo Haein and Park Seonggyeon to move somewhere else.

I was worried they might touch the Sad Smiley doll.

I did not know if a broken toy could recover with Nut Candy, but since it seemed like the route had changed, I decided to keep leaving candies and see what happened.

Of course, Sad Smiley was not an NPC, but an item with only a recorded voice. Still, I left the candy there.

“It seems like it has some meaning, but we already cut it in half. Since there’s a civilian here, let’s just clear this first.”

Fortunately, Mo Haein focused on clearing the trial quickly.

Since she had already taken out the Black Moon Blade, it seemed like she planned to force her way through with pure power and finish it instantly.

It was a thought that suited the Collapse Ending very well.

With a large swing of her spear, Mo Haein shook off the rainbow-colored blood and glanced at me one last time before turning away.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

Park Seonggyeon’s mood improved instantly.

While repeatedly checking his hands, he had already changed his left arm into a toy arm as well.

Mo Haein still only had one toy arm because she needed to use the Black Moon Blade.

If she did not have the Black Moon Blade, she would have equipped both arms with items first.

I carefully observed Park Seonggyeon, who was happily looking at his new arm.

In trials, farming items was directly connected to survival, so being happy about quickly obtaining an additional item was natural.

But something feels strange.

Mo Haein and Park Seonggyeon had cleared Haspak many times.

Even though there was a new variable now, since Mo Haein had brought out the Black Moon Blade, clearing this should not be difficult.

No, it was guaranteed that they would clear it.

But I wondered if getting just one more toy arm was really enough to make him that happy.

“Goyo looks young. Are you a college student?”

I put aside my doubts for a moment and answered Park Seonggyeon’s question.

“Yes.”

At twenty-four, I would normally be a college student, right?

Explaining that I was a former professional gamer who retired because of an injury and was currently unemployed felt unnecessarily complicated.

“Military?”

“Not yet.”

Actually, I’m exempt…

There was no reason to explain the details, so I ignored it.

“How did you end up entering here?”

“I just fell asleep, and when I opened my eyes… I can go home, right?”

“Of course. Trust your brother.”

As he said that, he clicked his claw-like fingers.

He looked suspicious, like he would cause trouble at any moment.

Fortunately, before the conversation could continue, we entered the second area: the laboratory.

Unlike the outside world that sparkled like a fantasy space, the laboratory was a ruined place where broken stone and steel frames were exposed.

Various machines that seemed more suitable for biological research than a toy factory were placed everywhere.

◆ Main Quest: Awaken the Shattered Prince.

Inside the secret laboratory of the toy factory, the Shattered Prince is sleeping.

You think you must gather the scattered pieces to awaken the sleeping prince.

I pretended to look around the laboratory while secretly checking the system window.

We needed to find the hidden pieces of the prince doll, but to obtain the final piece, we had to fight the first boss.

Park Seonggyeon used his stretching toy arm to move the fallen debris and quickly found the doll pieces.

Mo Haein solved the puzzle displayed on the computer screen and obtained the key.

She held the prince doll without arms or legs and used the key to open the locked door of the laboratory.

Beyond the door with the large sign saying Restricted Area was a broken glass tank.

It seemed to have broken recently.

Rainbow-colored liquid was pouring out from the shattered tank.

It was the same color as the blood of the toys.

Drip.

A drop of water fell from the ceiling.

I wiped my wet cheek with the back of my hand and thought about what kind of surprised reaction would be appropriate.

Then I slowly raised my head.

“Ugh…!”

I quickly stepped backward.

Park Seonggyeon burst out laughing.

“Don’t be so surprised. We can catch that thing easily.”

A huge hole with no visible end had opened in the ceiling.

From the darkness, a giant spider toy descended using yarn spider webs.

All eight legs of the spider were made of toy blocks, and a smiling face with four pairs of eyes was attached to it.

A spider doll that was far too inappropriate to be sold as a children’s toy.

The first boss of Haspak.

Princess Tarantella.

“Our Captain Mo has the Black Moon Blade, so it’ll be over quickly.”

I glanced at Park Seonggyeon.

His eyes were filled with greed as he stared at Mo Haein’s Black Moon Blade.

That shining greedy gaze reminded me of a forgotten memory.

Ah… Park Seonggyeon. I remember now.

At that moment, a new system window appeared.

You think it would be good to have an example to understand what “System” and “Registration” mean.

Luckily, you found a suitable example right in front of you!

‘Park Seonggyeon’ is a sample character that can be registered.

Would you like to register him?

As if it had read my mind, it appeared at the perfect timing.

This time, I did not hesitate.

Register.

‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’ registration in progress…

When playing games from Archive, a cookie video appeared after the ending.

In post-credit scenes, there were usually short scenes where players who escaped from the trials talked with characters from Archive.

Sometimes, they also moved to different locations.

In those cases, you could travel around Korea inside Archive.

I usually visited the Trial Response Agency.

I had once visited Mo Haein’s office there and read official documents about judgments regarding incidents that happened during trials.

It was about a death incident caused when a teammate who entered the trial together with her attacked Mo Haein for the Black Moon Blade.

Mo Haein had cut the attacking teammate in half with the Black Moon Blade.

…This incident was triggered by Second Lieutenant Park Seonggyeon’s independent attack, and the victim’s counterattack was confirmed to be an immediate response to a preemptive attack.

1. The fact that the incident occurred during a boss battle.

2. The lack of time available for judgment due to the confusion at the scene.

3. The fact that the victim also suffered serious injuries.

Considering the above circumstances, the victim’s attack was judged not as excessive response, but as legitimate self-defense.

Even though it was a death incident, self-defense was recognized, so the punishment was only a written report and a short suspension.

The name of the teammate who attacked Mo Haein was Park Seonggyeon.

Since he only appeared briefly in one line of the document, it was understandable that I had forgotten him.

‘Looks like he caused trouble in Haspak.’

The toy arm items obtainable in Haspak gave humans superhuman strength and incredibly long range.

‘And today seems to be the day he tries something.’

It seemed Park Seonggyeon planned to obtain the toy arms before Mo Haein, steal the Black Moon Blade, and then either kill Mo Haein or turn her into a factory employee to commit a perfect crime.

His actions had a high chance of interfering with the True Ending.

I also disliked the fact that he was trying to harm my favorite character, Mo Haein.

‘Besides, there’s no way he would leave me, a witness, alive after killing Mo Haein.’

Therefore, I had no intention of leaving Park Seonggyeon alone either.

Registration complete!

You want to check the status window of the sample.

I had been thinking this for a while, but the tone of the system window was strange.

Originally, the system window in the game used a perfectly normal tone.

It was just like the system messages in any game, guiding the player.

But now, it acted as if it was speaking for my own thoughts.

‘Is this related to me becoming the system?’

For now, since our goals were the same, I decided to follow along.

I checked Park Seonggyeon as the system window instructed.

‘Park Seonggyeon status window.’

• Park Seonggyeon (Sample) ♥ x3

• Employee of <Happy Smile Factory>

• Items: Cherry Picker (3), Nut Candy (12), Flashlight (1)

The information I could check through the system was extremely simple and poor.

The moment I thought that, another system window appeared.

You are dissatisfied with your simple and poor abilities as a system.

You think you should improve your abilities as a system.

It seemed that other options would appear only after my abilities grew.

I carefully examined the poor information.

The three hearts probably represented lives, and the items were…

“…?”

The number of toy arm items, Cherry Picker, was 3.

But Park Seonggyeon had only obtained 2 so far.

There was only one answer.

He had brought items obtained from previous Haspak clears.

The Trial Response Agency prohibited the use of items obtained from previous rounds in the same trial unless there was a special reason.

Just like the reason they prohibited items from other trials, it was to minimize variables.

Also, after clearing a trial, the Agency checked all obtained items, and the acquired items were basically owned by the Agency.

There was no reason for them to give Cherry Picker items back to Park Seonggyeon.

Meaning he had definitely obtained them illegally.

‘He must have done something dangerous because of Mo Haein.’

I became certain that Park Seonggyeon would cause trouble in Haspak today.

You become curious about what influence you can have on ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’ as a system.

You want to check the additional options below the items.

I followed the instruction and checked the options written below the items.

Message
Execution

There were only two options, and I could not guess what either meant.

First, I chose the easier one, Message.

You think about a message to send to ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample).’

Could this mean I could make a system window appear in front of Park Seonggyeon?

While I was trying to guess how the function worked, the old computer in the corner of the laboratory turned on.

A cheerful chiptune melody played.

The 8-bit BGM announced the beginning of the boss battle against Princess Tarantella.

The smiling face of Tarantella split into four directions, revealing rows of teeth.

“—-!”

An incomprehensible scream burst out from its wide-open mouth and tore at my ears.

At the same time, matching the rapidly playing music, toy notes shaped like musical symbols began falling from the hole in the ceiling.

The toy notes were a gimmick that only appeared in the Collapse Route.

Mo Haein cut down the notes while defending against Tarantella’s eight attacking legs.

While watching the Black Moon Blade move like a dance, Park Seonggyeon opened both claw hands wide and slowly closed them.

Click.

Among the chiptune sounds, a faint noise could be heard.

While I was checking the system window, Park Seonggyeon equipped his third Cherry Picker on his leg.

Using his right toy leg, Park Seonggyeon jumped into the air.

As he leapt between the falling notes and stretched his claw hand toward Mo Haein—

I sent a message to Park Seonggyeon.

A system window appeared in front of Park Seonggyeon.

ㅋ

The sudden system window blocked his vision.

His claw hand failed to hit Mo Haein and only grazed her shoulder.

Mo Haein, who almost fell into Tarantella’s mouth, shouted.

“Park Seonggyeon! What the hell are you doing?!”

Park Seonggyeon landed on the floor while staggering, his face blank with confusion.

He cursed under his breath and immediately tried to swing his toy arm again.

But just as he raised his hand—

He froze.

Park Seonggyeon’s face turned pale blue as it was covered by countless system windows.

Those were the messages I had sent him.