T/N: Hope you have a good day~

#003

[‘Qwerasdf’ has not logged in for 8 days. Mother Aelusia wants to know how you are doing.]¹T/N: “QWERASDF” is commonly used in gaming communities, particularly those that involve online games. These are the keys on the keyboard that are often used for game controls.

[‘Happy War Evangelist’ has not logged in for 136 days. Hapenesus wants to have a conversation with you.]

“What’s going on here?”

I was browsing for new games, feeling a bit tired of the Conclude community after stepping away from the strategy site. Then, out of nowhere, a pop-up from Conclude appeared on my screen.

“Do even premium games resort to these kinds of pop-up ads now?”

I mean, this isn’t even a mobile game, and yet they’re bombarding me with notifications?

Isn’t this sort of spam usually reserved for games that are desperate for user engagement or focused on monetization?

“Did they release some kind of update?”

There’s no point in trying to lure players back unless there’s new DLC or something. Intrigued, I launched Conclude.

Logging in with my main account [Qwerasdf], I noticed that the usual ⟪New Game⟫ button was missing from the main screen, replaced by a view of a temple.

“Did the game not save properly?”

I thought maybe it had loaded an auto-save, but there was no system message to clarify what was happening.

[Mother Aelusia: My dearest child…]

[Mother Aelusia: My cherished little one…]

“Oh?”

An event cutscene right from the start? Is this a sign of a major update?

[Mother Aelusia: You have made a contract with me 49 times…]

[Mother Aelusia: Of those, you have led me to victory 46 times.]

[Mother Aelusia: You have been a most excellent child.]

Ah, so she’s accessing my account history. Breaking the fourth wall, are we? It’s a bit of an overused trope, but it feels quite fresh coming from Conclude. It seems Mother Aelusia appeared because I’ve spent the most time playing with her on this account.

[Mother Aelusia: But in the end, did it not feel rather hollow, repeating this cycle over and over?]

[Mother Aelusia: Realizing that this is all just an illusion.]

“…? What nonsense is she going on about?”

The game is fun precisely because it’s an illusion.

If the people you shot in FPS games were real, that would be deeply problematic, right? Especially in a game like Conclude, where your choices could lead to the deaths of millions. If you feel regret over it being an illusion, you might just be a psychopath.

[Mother Aelusia: Where have all the things you accumulated gone? The children you gave life to? The world you so faithfully dedicated to me?]

[Mother Aelusia: The moment everything is within your grasp, the world grinds to a halt and all you have amassed simply vanishes into thin air.]

[Mother Aelusia: How much have you truly lost?]

“Wait… What?”

Is the game really telling me, “Look at all the time you’ve wasted, aren’t you disillusioned?”

And this isn’t even coming from a free indie game, but a full-priced one??

Have the developers lost their minds? Are they actively trying to go bankrupt?

[Mother Aelusia: Your time, your effort, your dedication.]

[Mother Aelusia: You have given them all to me, yet received no tangible reward.]

[Mother Aelusia: Devotion to illusion begets nothing but further illusion.]

“No way, that’s ridiculous.”

It’s common knowledge. Didn’t some player in the U.S. try to sue a gaming company because their in-game currency had no real-world value? And didn’t that trigger every game developer to slap on disclaimers like,“This is just a game, and nothing here is real. Please live your own life”?

So, what’s the point of this message?

It’s not like it’s a health warning for gamers who’ve been glued to their screens for 26 hours straight. Why call out someone who hasn’t logged in for a while just to say, “Hey, look at all the time you’ve wasted on this game”?

Are they trying to piss me off?

I was about to screenshot this weird message and rant about it on the community forum, but then I remembered I’d already left.

…Let’s see what else they’ve got in store.

If there’s nothing new—no events, bonuses, or challenges—I’m just gonna uninstall the game. With that thought, I skipped through the dialogue.

[Mother Aelusia: My child, if you truly serve me, I can offer you real rewards.]

[Mother Aelusia: With your skills, you could even conquer the true Dark Realm.]

“Ah, finally, something interesting.”

The first part seemed like trolling, but now it looks like they’re teasing a major update. But ‘real’? Are they hinting at some kind of dimensional travel?

I chuckled. “Another classic game possession trope.”

Will I wake up in another world if I click ⟪YES⟫?

According to the lore of ‘Conclude,’ transporting someone to another dimension would be a minor task.

[Mother Aelusia: Come, my child. Be with me.]

When the choice popped up, I naturally clicked ⟪NO⟫.

Just to be safe.

I wouldn’t go to some crazy medieval fantasy world even if you paid me.

Sure, clicking ⟪YES⟫ probably wouldn’t actually transport me to another dimension. More likely, it would just open a teaser page for the sequel.

“Conclude 2! The True Dark Realm! More freedom than ever! Pre-register now!”—something like that would be written.

ST Game companies are notorious for trolling when they’re about to release a new game. This time, they seem to be masking their lack of effort with this uninspired, meta commentary. They’re just asking for backlash.

[Mother Aelusia: Why do you hesitate, my child?]

[Mother Aelusia: Are you afraid of failure? You need not be.]

[Mother Aelusia: My power is with you. All things will be simple.]

[Mother Aelusia: It is the very power you have been longing for.]

The power I’ve been longing for?

Did I even request such a feature?

Mother Aelusia was already so versatile that I never felt she lacked in anything. In Conclude, the [God of Nightmares] had weak abilities, and without the special item called ⟨Lost Protection⟩, players would be at a disadvantage. However, this was never an issue with Mother Aelusia.

Even when I later discovered various hidden items, I rarely used them. Upgrading through collected biological data was quicker and more cost-effective. Moreover, these upgrades could be applied to all units, unlike hidden items, which were limited to just one.

Is this about the [Unknown Creature] database?

I vaguely remember participating in a survey called “The power you wish to add to Mother Aelusia”.

In that survey, I had mentioned a ‘Database of creatures not found in the Dark Realm.’ Since Mother Aelusia could only extract data from living or recently deceased creatures, recreating beings that didn’t exist in the Dark Realm, like dragons or even dinosaurs, was challenging.

Yes, dinosaurs.

I tried making a giant bird once, but it just didn’t have that authentic dinosaur feel.

[Mother Aelusia: Until now, my contractors were bound by the need to consume an entire being for data extraction.]

[Mother Aelusia: But the essence of life, the very code of creation, lies within every cell.]

[Mother Aelusia: As you desired, I have decided to bestow upon you the power to extract data with unparalleled efficiency.]

So, we can now get all the data we need from just a part of an organism?

We were already pretty overpowered. How much more unbalanced are they planning to make this game with updates like this?

Wait a second, does this mean that if we extract a tiny amount of dinosaur blood from an ancient mosquito fossil, we could finally create a dinosaur?

Even if dragons are off the table, dinosaurs could be a possibility. I’m definitely going the archaeologist route for my 50th playthrough!

[Mother Aelusia: Reproduction, in its purest form, is the union of ‘gametes’.]²T/N: “Gametes” are the cells used during sexual reproduction to produce a new individual organism or zygote. In animals, these cells are also referred to as sex cells.

[Mother Aelusia: Now, my contractors shall have the power to obtain complete biological data from these tiny vessels of life.]

And just like that, my dreams of a Dark Realm Jurassic Park crumbled to dust. Gametes? Where am I supposed to find dinosaur sperm or eggs? Those things don’t even fossilize.

Well, I guess it would be too overpowered if we could extract data from just any cell.

Imagine creating clones from a single strand of hair. On the other hand, gametes are somewhat harder to come by…

So, what now? Am I expected to go around collecting balls and ovaries?

A cult leader who devours genitals but leaves hearts untouched? Somehow, that feels even more disturbing than outright cannibalism.

[Mother Aelusia: How about it, my child? Do you not desire this ‘Blessing of Mating’?]

“…What?”

I blinked, thinking I must be hallucinating.

Mat…mating?

[Mother Aelusia: Yes, there are even blessings to assist with mating. Blessings that can induce estrus with just a glance, or use pheromones to subdue foes…]

“Damn it.”

I quickly realized what had happened. The ‘survey’ was a way to gather user opinions, and the majority of Mother Aelusia’s users are…

Those damn MotherGod fanatics!

A horde of unsavory weirdos with questionable tastes.

They’ve finally done it. They’ve managed to make the game even more disgusting.

I closed the game without bothering to read further.

“They might as well have told us to just quit playing the game.”

Isn’t it normal to want to create a ‘dinosaur army’ with a cosmic being capable of replicating anything? But mating? Seriously?

The Blessing of Mating??

It’s beyond disgusting. You can’t unsee this just by logging off.

How could the developers let this slide? Are they out of their minds? At this point, I’m starting to think the real creeps were the ones who made the game.

If the game’s reputation is being ruined by users with strange tastes, the developers should’ve patched it to prevent such gameplay. They should’ve seen this coming.

“Now all my precious memories of this game are tainted.”

You filthy creeps.

Let’s never see each other again.

I should uninstall the game to stop any more notifications from popping up.

Just as I was about to hit ⟪delete⟫ without hesitation, I paused.

“…There was another notification earlier.”

Besides Mother Aelusia, there was one from Hapenesus.

It was sent to [Happy War Evangelist], an account I made specifically to tackle Hapenesus.

[HappyHappy Hapenesus].³T/N: This God’s name is a play on the word happiness. So, you would pronounce it as “ HappyHappy Happiness”

The only one of the 16 Othergods that’s practically impossible to play.

The only Othergod that has never been successfully cleared.

It’s not just hard, it’s downright impossible.

The controls or win conditions are simply unreachable.

Even top-tier players known for exploiting game mechanics have tried to crack it, but after a year, no viable strategy has surfaced.

I was among those trying to figure out Hapenesus. I even bought a new Conclude account to earn the ⟨Faithful Follower⟩ title, which you get after 100 hours of gameplay with a single Othergod.

Of course, nothing changed.

Hoping for a miracle, I even let a macro run overnight to aim for the ⟨True Fanatic⟩ title, requiring over 1,000 hours with one Othergod.

Still, no luck.

So, I threw in the towel about five months ago.

But if Hapenesus has also been updated based on that survey, maybe there’s a chance to finally beat it.

Before I could hit that delete button, a nagging curiosity got the better of me. I figured, why not check for any updates first? Better to scratch that itch now and be done with it, rather than finding myself tumbling down a late-night Google rabbit hole, courtesy of the game’s obsessive fanbase.

So, I logged into my secondary account and a different pink shrine greeted me.

[Hapenesus: Have you returned…]

[Hapenesus: My evangelist.]

Nope, I’m on my way out. But not before I see what this update’s all about.

I tried to skip the dialogue by smashing the enter key, but it wouldn’t budge.

[Hapenesus: I was ignorant…]

[Hapenesus: I only understood after you arrived.]

[Hapenesus: What you were doing…]

[Hapenesus: You relentlessly sought a pact with me, and only me.]

[Hapenesus: One thousand, two hundred and twenty-one times.]

Wow, did I really try that many times?

I couldn’t even remember, probably because I had a macro running.

Even if you speed-run Conclude, it takes at least four hours to reach the end. For those who love to micromanage every little detail, a single playthrough could easily stretch over 30 hours. But with Hapenesus? Lasting an hour is a monumental feat—because you’re usually dead before then.

Considering I had a macro running until I hit a thousand hours, the numbers seemed to check out.

[Hapenesus: You fell, time and time again, consumed by utter desolation.]

[Hapenesus: Entrusting your faith solely in me…]

Wait, does this event also access my gameplay history?

When I ran a macro with Hapenesus, I always added traits like [Disgust], [Emotional Deficiency], [Depression] to the cult leader unit. Without these traits, making a contract with [HappyHappy Hapenesus] would plunge you into a state of [HappyHappy], turning you into a useless mess.

So, ironically, the leader of the “Happy” cult had to be someone incapable of feeling happiness.

[Hapenesus: You gained no happiness from me.]

[Hapenesus: But why did you believe in me so fervently?]

[Hapenesus: Why…?]

This time, a text box appeared instead of a multiple-choice question, as if the game genuinely wanted an answer from me.

Well, obviously, I wanted to complete the game. What other reason could there be?