A Bugged Reality and an Unexpected Encounter

I spent about a week wandering around in this state. With no real-world time displayed, I had no idea how much time had passed outside. Based on my experience, it felt like roughly an hour.

My wounds healed instantly. I felt no hunger, no fatigue, and no need to use the restroom. At first, these anomalies made me question if this was reality, but they ultimately brought a sense of relief.

‘Right, this is definitely a game. I feel nothing, don’t I?’ If this were real, I’d at least have an appetite or a need to relieve myself. In reality, not feeling cold or hungry right now would be the strange part. Moreover, I’d even respawned after dying.

‘It’s preposterous.’

“Yes, this is certainly strange,” I muttered. “Summoning a hero to another world? What utter nonsense. It’s far more realistic to assume there’s a problem with the game itself.”

It seemed as though the system had malfunctioned. Pain limiters were disabled, and I couldn’t log out. Even the quest content was bizarre. That explanation held far more credence. If this were truly real, shouldn’t I at least feel hungry?

Then, one day, a crowd of people descended upon the Holy Land of Death.

“What in the world is happening?”

I had been lamenting my predicament, gnawing on a whole roasted wyvern, when they suddenly burst in. It was a group clad in gleaming white armor. ‘Ah, those are the Silver Knights.’

In this world, countless gods existed, and the Silver Knights served as priests of one such deity, Hamman.

‘What was it again? Justice and Proof, perhaps?’ He was one of the nine Great Saints, also renowned as the God of Responsibility. Followers of Hamman were required to possess a certain degree of martial prowess to join their ranks. While strength wasn’t the sole criterion, they had to be capable warriors.

The group stared blankly for a moment before brandishing their swords at me. I merely watched them, continuing to tear meat from the wyvern leg I was eating. Though food consumption wasn’t strictly necessary, I was filling my hunger gauge, preparing to leave soon. A full gauge made me run a little faster, and I couldn’t teleport at the moment.

The man at the forefront approached cautiously and inquired,

“Are you a demon?”

“Oh, are you here to hunt demons? My apologies. I’ve already taken care of it.”

‘They must have come for a raid.’ It was a wasted trip, as I’d already defeated the boss, and it wouldn’t respawn. While I wasn’t keen on fighting, I did feel a pang of guilt for depriving them of their target.

“But what brings you here at this hour? You get no rewards for defeating Medusa of the Funeral during the day.”

“No rewards for defeating her during the day? What are you talking about…?”

‘Come to think of it, that’s odd. NPCs aren’t supposed to touch boss-level enemies during subjugation events, as far as I know.’

The game must be thoroughly bugged. My confinement here was already a critical error. Assuming they’d leave after confirming the boss was gone, I continued eating. Yet, the man’s face, and indeed the faces of his entire retinue, took on a profoundly strange expression.

“What? Why aren’t you leaving? You saw it’s gone. Oh, are you planning to give me a reward? But I haven’t even accepted a quest…”

“Did you truly slay the demon? Medusa of the Funeral?”

“Long, straight hair, six pairs of black wings, three tails. Don’t you know Medusa of the Funeral?”

‘Was the AI level always this high? It feels like a genuine conversation. I don’t recall needing specific keywords, either.’ Ah, it must have been an update that glitched the system. That would explain it.

‘The developers are finally doing something! Good, I bought all five of your expansion packs; you owe me this much! In this day and age, you need this level of AI upgrade if you want me to buy the next expansion!’

“Her appearance certainly matches the records, but…”

The man looked troubled. ‘Still, I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere before…’ An exclamation escaped my lips before I could stop it.

Brilliant golden hair, piercing blue eyes, a tall stature, and a strikingly handsome, well-defined face! It was Faust, the very character my username was based on!

It had been ages since I’d seen him directly, especially as this character, aside from the early days. It took me a moment to recognize him because it had been so long. ‘That’s right! It’s not often you see a character this handsome!’

“You’re Faust Lanche, Commander of the Silver Knights, aren’t you?” I exclaimed. “I knew something was off! I thought named characters didn’t trigger subjugation events, but it turns out you guys failed the subjugation and then gave me the quest. No wonder there were only speculative posts about the story progression and nothing concrete. I was wondering why this suddenly went crazy and handed me a subjugation quest.”

Faust Lanche was particularly difficult to encounter among NPCs, as he rarely appeared in the Holy War. One typically had to play as a fellow cleric or be a noble of count rank or higher just to glimpse his face. The only other time he was available was when accepting the Medusa of the Funeral subjugation quest.

‘Now it makes sense. I wondered why he wasn’t in the Holy War; he must have failed the subjugation here and retreated. I heard that hints would be unlocked if you worked on his affection level, but no one ever completed it, so no one truly knew the full story.’

‘Perhaps the respawn mod was functioning correctly until I defeated Zeras of Lamentation. Quests temporarily reactivate upon respawn. After that, a bug must have occurred, leading to this situation.’

Medusa was originally a mid-game boss, only defeatable much later in the story. I, however, had slain her so many times that I knew the path by heart and simply rushed over. The system bug must have also messed with the quest lines.

‘It seems I’ve intruded upon a story progression that normal users couldn’t access at this point in time.’ Even without a player character present, NPCs sometimes proceed with their actions according to set schedules and plotlines.

“Are you… are you truly the one who defeated Medusa of the Funeral?”

“Yeah. About a week ago? Something like that.”

“Why are you here in such a state?”

“Because I’m trying to decide what to hunt next?”

I couldn’t access the system map, which meant I couldn’t teleport, so I planned to run instead. My primary thought was to defeat demons. Whatever the case, clearing quests should resolve this critical error, as it seemed the system malfunctioned due to some bizarre quest. If teleportation worked, it would only take a few days, but now that I had to walk, I couldn’t estimate the time it would take.

“I heard that when a demon is slain, a… a token appears. Did you find a mark?”

‘Was there an event that required me to show something like this?’

I casually pulled out one of Medusa of the Funeral’s tokens from my inventory. ‘I haven’t killed this one much, have I? Only 125 of them.’ I really needed to sort these out someday and exchange them for special items. ‘Should I trade them for a bunny costume? I still don’t have a pink one.’

Everyone gasped in astonishment. ‘Wow—their reactions have really improved. It feels much more natural now.’ The man, no, Faust, sheathed his sword and took another step closer to me.

“May I inquire your name, noble one?”

“I Want to Bang Faust.”

At my words, Faust merely blinked, his face a picture of bewilderment. Thinking he hadn’t heard me, I repeated “I Want to Bang Faust,” but it was a long moment before he finally reacted. He took a sharp intake of breath and instinctively recoiled half a step.

“Huh? Pardon? No, uh… yes?”

‘What’s wrong? Why is he so surprised?’ I rummaged through my hazy, old memories. I distinctly recalled him calling me by that name perfectly well when giving quests. It had even been amusing when he’d utter my name with a serious face in grave situations.

‘Ah, some specific characters do have reaction events where they get annoyed if their name overlaps with yours. Was he one of them? I wouldn’t know, since I’ve never seen him outside of quest-giving. I never worked on his affection, either.’ Then why did he just call me by it before? ‘I don’t know. Maybe there was a new patch.’

“Just call me whatever you like.”

“Is it possible you cannot reveal your name?”

“No? I just told you. Can’t you recognize it?”

Faust frowned slightly. I’d thought the AI had been upgraded, but it seemed there were still shortcomings. He clearly wasn’t grasping it. After a moment’s thought, I just tossed out a random name.

“Haut. Haut of the Void.”

My current title was ‘Hero of the Void,’ and Haut was a nickname I frequently used during my beginner days. It held no significant meaning; creating nicknames was quite bothersome, so I just picked something convenient.

“Haut, of the Void…”

[The name of the Void Hero, ‘I Want to Bang Faust,’ has been temporarily changed to ‘Haut.’ Your achievement in defeating Medusa of the Funeral will now be known to the people.]

‘Even amidst all this, the system is still working.’ It might not be functioning perfectly, but it wasn’t completely broken either. ‘By the way, that’s another feature I haven’t seen before. Could you arbitrarily set a different name?’ I’d have to test it out more later and then brag about what I’d discovered. While I was lost in thought, Faust addressed me.

“Sir Haut of the Void, will you be remaining here?”

“I don’t know. I’ll leave once I finish eating this. Where was the closest demon again? The map isn’t showing up, so my memory is hazy.”

“If it’s acceptable, perhaps you would consider accompanying us?”

‘It seems a lot of content has been added.’ It felt like playing a new game. While it would be even better if I could log out on time, enjoying it in a novel way seemed quite acceptable.

‘Right, I’m not the only one playing this game, am I? Someone will report it soon enough, and they’ll fix it.’ Until then, I might as well enjoy it. As long as I’m careful about the broken pain limiter, it should be fine. I only got hit by Medusa because I was distracted choosing my dinner, and I usually parry well. ‘Surely nothing major will happen, right? I’ll probably get out eventually.’ For now, I’d just enjoy this fresh experience. ‘If the error gets fixed, there might be a save file conflict, so I just need to be careful not to save.’

“If I follow you, will you give me the next subjugation quest?”

“What is a ‘subjugation quest’?”

“Ah, so it can’t recognize that. A subjugation quest. A mission.”

“While it might be more of a request than a mission, we do know of a few demon lairs.”

‘Perfect.’ I only remembered the terrain. I had obtained a map before, but I couldn’t open the system map now. ‘Perhaps all quests reset during respawn, and I can get the map again? If so, that would be a huge relief.’

Faust wore a truly peculiar expression, yet he still extended a hand to me.

“I have to finish this. Want some?”

‘I have to finish my food. If I leave any, I won’t get all the buffs.’