Late dawn. An office within a business complex.
A woman with dark circles under her eyes stared at a monitor.
Her appearance was a ss. Greasy hair. A mouth emitting stale breath.
With the release date approaching, the crunch ti hadn’t eased, and she hadn’t even gone ho, leaving her no chance to relieve the piled-up stress.
But it would all end soon.
Finally, the death scene of a sub-character—considered a core part of the ga—was complete. That marked the 122nd death scene.
DEMO #122
Thunk.
A cold blade pierced through the man’s chest.
His dumbfounded expression was absurd.
The man truly looked as though he had no idea what was happening.
“Why… why is it sothing I can’t reach?”
His desperate gestures and tone conveyed frustration to the girl, as though he was appealing to her.
But her response was cold beyond asure.
“Whatever, just die.”
“Ms. Yura, what do you think this ti? I followed your suggestion and made it more decadent… splattered more blood.”
“…What?”
Startled by the voice from behind her, Yura turned to look. It was Assistant Manager Park from the animation departnt.
“How was it? On Monday’s showcase, you said the male character’s face didn’t convey the feeling you intended.”
“Ah… yes, it seems fine now.”
“Shall we proceed with this?”
Without waiting for more input, Assistant Manager Park turned and left. Watching his fatigued figure disappear, Yura returned to her monitor.
Click—she pressed the demo play button.
“Why… why is it sothing I can’t reach?”
Replay.
“Why… why is it sothing I can’t reach?”
And again.
“Why… why is it sothing I can’t…”
“…Did I make him too handso?”
While reviewing the demo, Yura launched the modeling program, trying to recall her impressions.
She admitted the boy had a high nose bridge and a decadent charm, even as a child, but he hadn’t been this overly dramatic.
Still, what could she do with the release date so close? Assistant Manager Park’s exhausted face ca to mind—scary enough to make her imagine he’d bury soone alive if she requested more changes. s̩
‘Well, I must’ve nitpicked too much when creating this guy in the first place.’
Yura fiddled with the custom model of Shiron Prient. She swapped out his ceremonial avatar, adjusted the size of hidden Easter eggs under his underwear, enlarging and shrinking them as she toyed around.
As embarrassing as it was for an adult to be doing this at work, she had her reasons.
Cha Hyun-jun.
Her childhood friend, now estranged. Shiron Prient’s model was based on him—a boy she hadn’t heard from in years.
Without realizing it, she felt a pang of spite. mories of him still gave her headaches, enough to disrupt her daily life.
It wasn’t out of anger or resentnt, but lingering regret she couldn’t shake off.
“You bitch.”
The last words she heard from him before they parted—a curse so harsh it was hard to repeat.
‘I told you, you wouldn’t make it that way.’
Why had she said that?
At a vulnerable mont, she could have been more comforting. But she’d been too immature back then.
Still.
‘That’s one thing.’
She felt it was too cruel of him to completely ignore her attempts to make ands.
She’d even brought a cake to his house to apologize, only to learn he had left for a long trek across the country.
A month later, he was off backpacking in Mongolia or Nepal.
‘That petty giant. So tall, yet so unwilling to let apologize?’
Even later, when she visited his house again, she couldn’t et him.
He was off on a working holiday, trekking the Himalayas, or canoeing across the Great Lakes.
Whatever the case, Hyun-jun had made it clear—he didn’t want to see her.
Cut ties.
Ten years of friendship discarded so easily.
Though she felt guilty for treating him harshly, her unresolved emotions festered. The bottled-up feelings turned into another problem altogether.
‘Petty bastard.’
It was this resentnt that led her to insert a character modeled after Cha Hyun-jun into the ga, abusing her team leader privileges.
“Bastard… damn bastard.”
Bzzz—
As she muttered curses with a pout, her phone vibrated on the desk.
‘Who is it?’
[0xx-xxxx-xxxx]
An unknown number. Normally, she’d ignore it, but curiosity made her pick up and head to the terrace.
“Who’s this?”
“Ms. Yura! Are you free to talk?”
‘Who is it?’
Yura frowned, trying to identify the voice.
Since they called her by na, it must be soone outside the company. But she couldn’t recall anyone this cheerful.
“It’s ! Hye-jung from Piston!”
“Oh… sorry. I’ve been so tired lately I’m not myself.”
Yura imdiately apologized. It was Im Hye-jung, an executive from Piston, the parent company of her ga studio and a key figure in her promotion.
“Haha! Don’t worry. I’m the one who should apologize for calling when the release is so close!”
“Oh, no. What’s the matter?”
“Ah! About the new release, [Reincarnation of the Sword Saint]? There was a minor issue during the internal showcase.”
“What…?”
A chill ran down Yura’s spine.
The internal showcase.
The company’s CEO presented their blood, sweat, and tears to the parent company’s executives for evaluation.
There was an issue there. Although they called it a ‘minor’ one, she felt as though her breath caught in her chest.
“I’m s-sorry. Just tell , and I’ll fix it imdiately…”
“Ah, no, it’s not that! Hmm… how do I explain this? I’ll send it to you! Once you see it, you’ll understand quickly!”
“Oh, then I’ll send it through the company’s communication network—”
“Not that, let’s work smarter than that.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll send it to you. Didn’t you understand?”
What was she talking about? “Send it”? What was she sending?
While trying to guess the director’s intent as a re employee, it hit her.
A sharp dizziness.
Her grip on the terrace railing slipped.
“Ah.”
And then—a floating sensation in midair.
Her feet lost contact with the ground.
What she saw below was the staircase on the first floor, with sharp edges that looked like they’d hurt enough to kill her if she landed wrong.
“Ms. Yura? Ms. Yura?!”
The last thing she heard was the ongoing call from the phone that hadn’t been hung up.
Reincarnation of the Sword Saint.
A ga with a simple story about a girl who was a hero 500 years ago, reincarnating to save the world again.
After slipping on the stairs, she found herself inside the ga.
Or rather, not quite inside the ga.
The ga’s setting was 500 years after the Great War. But Yura was reborn not as one of the ga’s characters but as the late-born child of an elderly couple living in so rural corner of the world.
Reincarnation.
Yura recalled the mont she first woke up in this world.
The ti when, with the mind of an adult woman, she wailed “Waaah!” in swaddling clothes. The mont when she burst into tears, overwheld by sorrow, thinking, What kind of bolt from the blue is this?!
“Thank you for everything.”
But eventually, those emotions were fleeting.
Now, 15 years later, the elderly couple who raised her had lived full lives and were buried in the ground.
After bowing twice at their graves, Yura gazed at the semi-transparent window floating before her.
[Ba-bam! You lovingly cared for the elderly couple and even held a proper funeral for them! Great job! Here’s 500 Hero Points as a reward!]
“Fuck.”
A rough curse escaped Yura’s mouth.
Hero Points? Her ass. That wasn’t even in the ga she created.
Her temperant, once softened while growing up with Hyun-jun, had turned even harsher after years of surviving in a dieval fantasy world.
Yet, no matter how much she cursed, her next task was clear.
Far from the village she lived in, deep in the wilds of the Silleya tribe’s barbaric land, at the lake marking the start of the northern snowy mountains, she had to find Kyrie, a 10-year-old girl, and stop the world’s destruction.
“Let’s see… how many points do I have?”
[20340 pt]
After diligently completing missions day and night for 15 years, her points had accumulated to a decent amount. But it still felt like she was only getting started at 20,000 points.
There was a reason she had waited until she was 15 to leave her ho.
Ding—
[Hero’s Shop]
Yura scrolled through the semi-transparent screen quickly.
[Waterskin with Fresh Water - 1pt]
[Dried at x1 - 2pt]
[Sturdy Leather Bag - 15pt]
...
[Grand Magician’s Athyst Staff - 14,500pt]
...
[Holy Sword - 20,000pt]
...
[Class Change - 300,000pt]
[Resurrection - 350,000pt]
[Star of Wishes - 777,777pt]
“Great.”
Without hesitation, Yura pressed the button marked Holy Sword.
With a bright flash, the forest lit up, and suddenly, a majestic longsword was in her hand.
“Is this… the Holy Sword?”
Yura couldn’t feel mana and had no talent for martial arts, but even she could tell this wasn’t just any sword.
Perhaps because it had cost her 20,000 points, she felt courage welling up deep inside her.
“Kyrie, wait for ! I’m coming!”
Whether it was because of the sword or not, she felt no fear.
She had spent long hours devising the “perfect” plan, and now, with confidence brimming, Yura’s footsteps toward the north were full of determination.
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