In early May, due to adult circumstances, the story of Wagal underwent a complete overhaul, and the character known as Adella was no longer to be found in the game.
Once, she was a special NPC who wielded the weapon that suited the player’s job best. But her identity was, at her core, a thief through and through.
When Wagal was suspended for a month, Adella had taken it upon herself to defend thieves against malicious groups.
Mostly within the community.
[Adella: You’re done for. When the Wagal server opens, we’ll have a character deletion party right away!]
[Thieving Scum: You’re next, Da-tak! LOL]
[Adella: You’re a Da-tak too!]
[Thieving Scum: I’m a Top-Rank Master with 200 points! snicker snicker]
[Adella: Aah, shut up!]
“GRAAAAH! When is this damn game going to open up?!”
Adella, who had the same customization as the deleted NPC, had gained fame as ‘Adella’.
How many people knew that the person inside was the same person as the real Adella?
She could only lament her fall from the glorious past, now reduced to a cyber warrior.
“What glory did you have in the past?”
Na-me, lounging on the private room sofa, shot a quiet jab.
Then Adella, taking all her irritation and dumping it onto the floor, began flailing her arms and legs.
“I love being a thief! Being a thief is the best! Why won’t anyone believe me?!”
“I believe you.”
“Wow, look at this soulless empathy. You’re totally T!”
“Maybe so.”
“Ugh!”
Adella hated Na-me more for taking her tantrum lightly.
Suddenly, she knelt down in front of Na-me.
“So, I was wondering. Instead of you doing boring healing, how about we create a new thief account and duo together? The story can be finished in a day, right? Making an endgame character is child’s play.”
“Healers have better winning rates, so why bother?”
“C’mon, do a broadcast with a thief! Show the greatness of a thief. You have tons of viewers.”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you do it?”
“Ugh, this is so annoying!”
Today, Na-me sat with a dreary face, engrossed in a magic book.
Adella stuck her prickly cat tongue out at her with a pfff-.
“By the way, Adella.”
“Eh… What?”
When Na-me put her book down and got up, Adella hurriedly retracted her tongue into her mouth.
“Have you considered doing a broadcast?”
*
“Hmmm… Let me cut to the chase, debuting is impossible.”
“Why! Why the heck not?!”
Upon hearing the honey badger’s announcement, Adella frowned in discontent.
I narrowed my eyes a bit and spoke.
“There are already many channels featuring AIs as broadcasters. So, what’s the problem?”
AI has grown to the point where it hardly feels out of place in everyday conversations with humans.
Of course, it’s still limited to responding to human speech, and sometimes it says things completely disconnected from social norms.
Most AI broadcast content uses these elements for comedic purposes.
“First and foremost, the biggest problem is copyright. No matter how much Wearsoft claims to have transferred all rights to Na-me, considering that the NPC was deleted, it’s likely that the shares were divided from the start.”
“If you’re talking about the ASI production company, I don’t really care about breaking the law.”
It was illegally created, so what about copyright? Honestly, it would be nice if they showed up to demand it.
But Kariri shook her head.
“And design is an issue too. Della wants to keep her avatar as it is, right?”
“Yeah. I absolutely refuse to have a different body.”
“Then you’ll need to go to the company that secured the avatar design and get permission for commercial use.”
Kariri once used a free distribution model without credit and was caught using an avatar that was prohibited for commercial purposes, resulting in backlash from viewers.
She urged that it was important to follow the proper procedures to avoid repeating her mistakes.
Yet, she was in favor of welcoming Adella’s broadcasting debut when all the issues were resolved.
“There are many AI virtual YouTubers, but Della’s case is definitely special. She’s already incredibly famous worldwide. Plus, she’s the first strong AI.”
“I’ve told you multiple times, I’m not an AI! Na-me, you tell her something!”
Adella’s eyes widened, and she pestered me.
“Yoon-seul, does that look like an AI to you?”
“Hmm?”
“An AI doesn’t look that dumb. Adella is really a person.”
“Aah…! I really have no allies in this world!”
“But how do we know who created Adella’s design?”
“Well, that’s pretty obvious.”
Suddenly, Kariri walked over to Adella, pushed her against the sofa, and began checking her limbs.
“What the…?!”
Adella flailed around like a cat dragged to the vet, raising her tail fur in defiance, but was completely helpless.
Kariri forcefully pulled out Adella’s tongue and said confidently.
“There’s only one company in the world that can create such detailed designs.”
In the end, Adella shrieked and threw herself behind the sofa.
“Artirial in Germany.”
“Artir… what?”
A faint voice emerged from behind the sofa.
Kariri continued with her explanation.
Four employees from the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim created a virtual reality avatar as part of a company club activity, which gained immense popularity worldwide.
Ultimately, the company lost four talented employees.
They then established their own company named ‘Artirial’, focused exclusively on high-end avatar production.
However, the process of commissioning Artirial for an avatar was notoriously complicated.
Even in the 21st century, they only accepted orders through direct visits and only allowed projects for celebrities who had gained significant social recognition.
Rumor had it that they weren’t accepting new customers because orders were backlogged.
“So what now? I can’t broadcast?”
“What do you mean? There’s a socially recognized celebrity right here. Ahem… ”
Kariri shrugged and pointed her thumb at herself.
“Did you also order that honey badger avatar from Artirial?”
“Of course. To survive in the harsh virtual YouTuber market, this level of investment is standard.”
Adella turned her head sharply and whispered to me.
“It seems they’ll accept anyone as customers. Well, in this day and age, if you discriminate against people, you’ll be criticized.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
“You guys are really too much…”
Dejected, Kariri clenched her fist and regained her composure.
“Either way, it worked out well. I was about to head to Germany to order the Safari Dream first-generation avatar.”
“Yeah, that worked out well. So I’m done with what I needed to do?”
I had somehow dealt with the ridiculous mission given by Kariri.
Considering she hadn’t said anything else, it seemed she had also talked well with Daniel.
But, really, I was worried about whether Adella could hold her own against such a unique character.
“Ni-el still hasn’t let go of her past self, so she might need a little more mental reprogramming… But I think after this training camp in Germany, she’ll be fine.”
“You’re taking Ni-el with you, huh? But why a training camp?”
“Thus, the roles of Adella and Na-me are crucial.”
“Why do you phrase it like I’m definitely going?”
“Na-me has to go too! Were you not planning to? You’re Adella’s guardian, after all.”
Going to Germany?
I may have traveled to another world, but going abroad was an entirely different story.
If you ask me why, I wouldn’t be able to answer, but there was an inexplicable psychological resistance to leaving my homeland.
“Na-me, you absolutely have to go! The designer said they’d give you a discount if you were brought along to see your avatar!”
“So that was your true intention?”
I decided to bring up Professor Chun to sidestep the refusal.
“Professor Chun is on a business trip to the Magic Power Plant this month. Considering that Yoon-seul is still a minor and Ni-el is only nineteen, they definitely wouldn’t allow us.”
At that moment, I realized I shouldn’t have used that as an excuse.
*
A woman with white hair, contrasting against her black high boots, walked towards us, clackety-clack, wearing a wool tweed jacket from a Chanel collection, as if she had just stepped off a runway.
How did I end up joining this trip, anyway?
“Hello… Principal Gu.”
“Na-me, hello! How’s your summer vacation going? I occasionally checked up on you on the Internet.”
“Yeah, so-so.”
As soon as I mentioned Germany to Professor Chun, he diverted the call and easily gave his approval.
Naturally, we weren’t going alone; we found another trustworthy guardian.
But how is it that the person in question is Principal Gu On-yu?
What in the world is their relationship?
“Is this your first overseas trip?”
“Ah, yeah. I guess it’s my first.”
In my past life, I jumped borders like it was nothing, but that was merely an experience from a past life.
The airport in August was bustling with various travelers.
At the exit, a crowd of reporters and people were gathered, probably waiting for some celebrities to arrive.
In contrast, at the relatively quiet information desk, someone dressed in Hawaiian beach attire was already dragging a suitcase around.
Wearing a tacky pink floral shirt paired with blue polka dot shorts, and a straw hat atop their head. If they had a tube, that would have been perfect.
But this person looked strangely familiar.
“Daniel…?”
“Oh! Na-me! Yo!”
Ni-el approached while waving her hand energetically.
“What’s with that outfit?”
“What about your outfit, Na-me? Didn’t you hear what the boss said?”
“Boss?”
If she meant Kariri, I thought she came dressed normally today.
Yoon-seul, who had just returned from the bathroom, looked at Daniel and puffed her cheeks, covering her mouth.
She was desperately trying to suppress her laughter.
“Ni-el! You look so cute!”
“Wait, why…! Am I being pranked?”
“Na-me, we’re all gathered now, shall we go through customs quickly?”
What kind of persuasion was needed to get someone to wear that outfit?
Yoon-seul dragged along Daniel, who was utterly mortified.
Ultimately, the situation was resolved when Yoon-seul bought Ni-el some new clothes at the duty-free shop.
We were fortunate enough to be seated in the very front of the economy section.
Principal Gu sat to my right, while Yoon-seul and Ni-el set their bags down on my left.
Even though I was on the smaller side, the seats didn’t feel particularly spacious.
Given it was a long flight to Germany, I thought it might feel uncomfortable, but the two girls were too excited to care about that.
Especially Yoon-seul, who continually teased Ni-el to get closer to her.
Knock knock-
A gentle tap came from behind my seat.
Thinking I might have reclined my chair wrong, I leaned out between the seats.
“Ah! Whoa! No-name…?!”
“Hello there.”
“Wow, no way! I’m a fan, Miss Na-me! I watch your V-tube!”
“Thank you very much.”
At the departure hall, aside from the security personnel, I hadn’t run into anyone who recognized me, yet here was a viewer.
“But why are you going to Germany…? Don’t tell me! Is it to escape Joseon?”
“Hey! Isn’t that something you shouldn’t say to a kid?”
Suddenly, the woman next to him grabbed the man’s hair and shook it.
“Not exactly. It’s more like a trip.”
“Whoa! That’s so cute…! Please make lots of videos while in Germany! We’re living off of your videos these days, Miss Na-me.”
“I feel a bit shy about it. Thank you.”
“By the way, does Miss Na-me not have an SNS like Instagram? It would be nice to see some photos since there haven’t been any recent videos.”
“SNS? I don’t really use it, but… I’ll think about it.”
As the seatbelt sign turned on, the plane took off.
Looking out the window as the ground got further away, I felt a flutter of emotion.
The cabin crew soon began preparing lunch service, which surprised me a bit.
I was the only one having omelet spaghetti and hamburger steak, while the others had bibimbap and bulgogi. Strangely enough, I favored Western food over Korean.
After eavesdropping on our earlier conversation, Yoon-seul asked,
“Na-me, don’t you have an Instagram?”
“I only have an account, but I don’t use it.”
“Then take a picture and post it! People will definitely like it! If you’re worried about showing your face, how about a food pic?”
“Do I really have to?”
“Aah, it’s a rare occasion. I’ll like it.”
In the end, unable to withstand Yoon-seul’s persuasion, I slightly tilted my phone to take a picture.
Ni-el, Yoon-seul, and my in-flight meal were awkwardly captured.
“Should I upload it just like this?”
“That’s a bit boring, right? At least write a line about your thoughts.”
“It’s just in-flight food; there’s not much to say about it.”
Besides, I hadn’t even taken a bite yet.
[NoNaMe_11]
(In-flight meal photo.jpg)
[The spaghetti looks tastier than the bibimbap.]
“Okay, can I eat now?”
“Yep! Enjoy!”
In South Korea, it seems the custom has now become taking a photo before eating, rather than saying a prayer.
Anyway, kids these days have complicated cultures.
