The Game Director Who Returned from Hell - Chapter 1 (Part 2):

 

 

 

I was not wrong.

 

That’s not facing reality, it’s compromise.

 

They were afraid of failure and gave up on challenges.

 

They pursued success and were consumed by it, blinded by the numbers labeled as revenue.

 

“I was right.”

 

I was not wrong.

 

I didn’t compromise, nor did I retreat.

 

You are the ones who are mistaken.

 

You want to undermine me, the one trying to do what you can’t.

 

Anxiety clashed with certainty.

 

Perhaps that’s why, the game I was developing gradually transformed into a manifestation of my self.

 

As if possessed, the game I created dealt with a certain life and emotions.

 

With each step the playable character took, the world rejected them.

 

The more they pressed forward, the heavier the pressure became.

 

It made the path forward doubtful, and at the slightest misstep, it forced a retreat.

 

Anxiety, anger, despair, pain—everything was used to push for compromise.

 

Certainty was the only way forward.

 

Breaking through walls with an unbreakable conviction, again and again.

 

It was the footstep of the heart, conveying the value of challenges.

 

I just wanted to say that I should believe in myself and move forward.

 

With that in mind, the game I created could only be completed as my illness began to take a toll on me.

 

[Identity.]

 

A name of a game where someone who was swayed by the wind but didn’t let go until the end becomes happy. Experiencing this story for about 12 hours.

 

My story was out in the world.

 

That day, I drank alcohol for the first time in years.

 

A sense of liberation washed over me.

 

For a while, I just brooded over the past few years.

 

Only after going through that process.

 

“Team leader? How have you been? I heard your recently released game won an award! I wanted to congratulate you!”

 

I succeeded in proving myself.

 

“I tried playing it, and it’s really great! What should I say… I was so absorbed over the weekend that I didn’t even realize how tired I was. The immersion is amazing…!”

 

I received the industry’s most prestigious award.

 

Although constrained by the limitations of a one-person development, I ventured into indie games, and my accolades were limited to the indie category. Still, it was undeniable proof.

 

I shouted internally.

 

It was a hollow cry that didn’t reach anyone.

 

‘Look, I was right.’

 

What’s important in a game isn’t the business model, it’s the intrinsic fun.

 

It’s about gameplay, in other words, completeness.

 

It’s not my fault; it’s yours.

 

“Isn’t today the awards ceremony? By now, you must be getting on a plane!”

 

It was the voice of a teammate who had been in contact until the end.

 

As I listened, my head throbbed.

 

Upon reflection, it had been that way for a while now.

 

Although I should be on a plane as that guy suggested, I didn’t have the strength in my body.

 

“Thank you…”

 

The moment I stood up from my seat.

 

Ping!

 

Dizziness surged over me.

 

Or rather, it was something stronger.

 

My vision turned white, and my breath stopped. The sensation was undoubtedly signaling the end of an activity.

 

‘Ah.’

 

Thunk!

 

I couldn’t stop my falling body.

 

It was just the act of collapsing to the ground, gasping for air.

 

“T-Team leader…?”

 

The voice grew distant.

 

My vision became engulfed in darkness.

 

My consciousness slipped away.

 

My breath ceased.

 

And eventually, the end arrived.

 

“Team leader! Team leader!!!”

 

Death by overexertion.

 

The ultimate fate of the moron who martyred himself for the sake of proving himself.

 

***

 

A kaleidoscope, a hallucination caused by a chemical reaction in the brain.

 

Such words came to mind but were instantly rejected.

 

Instinctively, I realized.

 

I had fallen into hell.

 

Aaaaargh!!!

 

A multitude of screams mixed with laughter spread out before me.

 

It was a scene that my common sense could hardly comprehend.

 

Well, it didn’t matter; this world was expanding and contracting endlessly, transforming the scenery each time. Such a world didn’t exist within the dimensions I knew.

 

I saw sinners spread out on the crimson ground, intertwined like worms.

 

I saw sinners becoming idols, hanging on crosses, and sinners endlessly being killed by the lives they had taken.

 

I saw sinners turning into possessed demons, tearing each other apart, and sinners in profound tranquility crying out in prayer.

 

I saw countless other things.

 

During that moment, not once did I recall why I was there.

 

‘I have to look.’

 

Driven by a strange sense of duty to capture all of this, I tormented my memory.

 

I was clearly losing my mind.

 

Even though none of this was my intention, even though not one thing wasn’t horrendous, even though it was a form that endlessly stimulated the fears human beings imagine.

 

Yet, when I finally captured all of it in my gaze…

 

‘Wow…’

 

I felt excitement, not fear.

 

whooshing, my heart raced.

 

More intensely than any moment when I was alive, even though I was already dead.

 

It was a thrill as if I had reunited with a first love.

 

I hadn’t realized that meeting my death would result in me wanting to create a game.

 

No, it was clear.

 

Then there was no way to explain this endless thirst that was blooming now.

 

I simply thought.

 

‘I want to make it.’

 

I wanted to encapsulate this world in the form of a game.

 

I thought it would be so much fun to make it a game.

 

Ideas flooded in.

 

As I had done all my life, I injected game-like systems into the information imprinted in my brain.

 

It shook my reason like a massive flood.

 

Then, in the blink of an eye, my vision turned pitch black.

 

– Yeon-ho! Wake up from your nap!

 

That was the last moment in hell I remembered.