>> Prioritizing agility over offensive power seems like a wise decision <<

>> You make a note to increase the capacity of your ers <<

The day of the third session.

The doors to the subway opened, and my feet moved to join the crowds of people entering the carriages that would only stay in the station for a few more seconds.

“Hrmm~”

The alert for the doors of the train to close sounded, but I could still hear the joints in my body pop as the carriage accelerated away from the station; assisted by my arms on a standing handle to keep myself grounded in the commute.

It had been around a month since the last beta-testing session was held, and WJSN have long since ended the promotions for their latest release.

That’s not to say that the group is left stranded without a gig; a collection of upcoming event appearances still occupied their schedules, more and more of them announced as the month goes by. There is even word among Ujungs that they’ll be preparing for a concert soon; to celebrate the success of this era, apparently.

Before that, though…

My heart raced at the thought of meeting the girls in our own, sneaky little schedule together.

From what the developers have communicated, it seems like they’ll be doing today’s session in the afternoon, too: 2:00 to 5:00 PM, to be exact.

Now they want to make it right on the hour, huh.

Well, being ordered is being predictable, and it’s nice to have things going according to plan.

In the middle of the trip,

“…!!”

I noticed my feed blow up with notifications from my Ujung mutual. Bringing out the feed, I saw dozens of fans losing their minds and screaming (in capital letters) over what looked like a slew of articles that just came out, reporting the same thing.

As my eyes laid on the articles’ titles,

“Oh…!”

The grogginess that weighed my eyes cleared away.

[WJSN x Hyperspace Frontier… A match made in heaven]

[Starship and Dreamscape.Net announces Idol Group / Upcoming Sci-Fi Open-World VRMMO collaboration]

[WJSN nabs space game deal… ‘events and promotions in the works’]

Well then.

Looks like an official collaboration is happening after all!

Looking at the hype surrounding the announcement, I could understand where the fans were coming from:

“This really felt like it came out of nowhere, even for me; and I’m literally on my way to play that very game with those very people right now.”

Not only was this the first collaboration between an idol group and a VR game this big; but Hyperspace Frontier had always branded itself as this unknown, mysterious game people could only speculate about. While a respectable amount of environment and character concept art had been released to the public so far, virtually no gameplay footage or explanation of its mechanics exist on the internet.

Some people are already skeptical, calling the game a glorified sandbox-y strategy/conquest game – and I would agree with them, had I not already known Sejin and the game itself.

More than that, the heat of discussion seems to be towards what the collaboration would entail in the first place.

“Based on past idol-game collaborations, we can almost be sure that a crossover event and a let’s play session will be held, in the few weeks following Hyperspace Frontier’s release…”

Reading the breakdown of the speculations surrounding the announcement, my eyes focused on those two events.

“Are they going to run the let’s play session with their current accounts?”

The numbers on their Prestige stats would easily give away the fact that they’ve already been playing the game for a while. Whether or not that will become a problem, however, I had no idea.

Or rather,

I was much more concerned with the crossover event, as a player and as a fan; anything involving a direct reference to WJSN or the girls can easily affect their relationship with the game. Unless the event is generic or sufficiently unrelated to the group, it’ll turn them into in-game celebrities overnight.

“And the Prestige income…”

No, that’s not right, I caught myself envious of their potential progression and shook off my thoughts.

This game had given them a chance to take a break away from their fame, and I don’t want that to disappear. Granted, they’ve had to keep up their image with one fan persistently hanging around them (i.e. me), but still.

“Anyways, reading the comments on these posts won’t get me very far.”

According to the indicator on the upper panel of the carriage, the subway would reach my stop in a few minutes.

“I’ll just have to ask the devs directly.”

I shifted my weight while standing in the train, putting my thoughts in order while waiting for my turn to alight.

---

Quick, steady steps brought me to the entrance of the building where Sejin worked, parts of the interior now familiar to me from having been here twice before.

Dreamscape.Net…

I was not good with names, and those of companies were no different. I didn’t even remember who the publisher was, other than that it was a conglomerate on par with the likes of Kakao and Naver.

Thinking about the implications of dealing with big-name corporations like them would only burden my mind, so I stopped thinking about it and entered the building through the main doors.

“Afternoon.”

The office security nodded in response to my greeting, letting me through without a word.

Finding the right door, I walked through the various rooms in which all kinds of staff members actively worked, grinding through whatever it was in front of their terminals.

Busier than last time.

Certainly, verbal discussions between the employees were more frequent compared to the previous two days.

Even in the control room, the development team spared no attention to my figure walking in, the four or five people at the consoles occupied with their own tasks to complete.

On the other side of the large window, even the servers were being inspected, the team working on it running some test or diagnostic, or something.

I walked over to one corner of the room, where a man crunched values on a file while sipping on a mug of coffee.

As soon as he finished one row of numbers, I laid a hand on his shoulder and said:

“Bruh.”

“Hmm?”

Sejin turned his swivel chair around and made eye contact with me.

“…Oh! Afternoon, KC.”

I held up my other hand towards him in response, asking him to explain himself.

“You must have seen the news, from what I can see.”

He saved the work on his computer and got up from the seat.

Aware of my inquisitive stare, Sejin motioned to a colleague to get ready for the session, then took out his phone for a short glance.

“I’m well aware of what the fans and general public have been talking about, so I know what you’re concerned with.”

He began.

“Our writers are working very hard with the rest of the team, and we’ve come up with something that fits both Hyperspace Frontier and WJSN’s identity, all the while without making it obvious that it’s them.”

“I don’t know about that.”

I couldn’t shake off the skepticism that plagued my mind. With the scale of the in-game world and the extent of freedom players were given, just about anything could happen.

“Either way,”

His slightly weary eyes laid on my face.

“You won’t see a peep of it in today’s session, unfortunately; the event update is scheduled post-launch.”

“Ah, oh well.”

I had a trickle of hope that they’d be doing it today, but seeing how busy everyone in the company was, I figured that wouldn’t be the case.

“Alright then.”

The two of us idled in the spotless white room for a few moments, me observing the work of the staff while Sejin continued to sip on his coffee.

“You sure you shouldn’t be working now?” I turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

“This is part of my work.”

A slight grin appeared on his lips.

“Receiving the girls and managing the session, gathering feedback from the system, et cetera; it’s so tough to be development lead sometimes.”

“Yeah, yeah, you must’ve worked hard, I can tell.”

I rolled my eyes.

The tone of my words was sarcastic, but I did mean what I said. No one from my group of friends have heard from him all this while, except for the responses to our periodic ‘you okay?’ message.

Both of us left the conversation at that.

Fifteen minutes before the session, many footsteps could be heard from the corridor leading into this area, approaching the control room.

The door swung open—

“Afternoon.”

“Good afternoon.”

—And a manager, exchanging greetings with Sejin, led no less than thirteen people into the already busy office. Seeing that no one else was coming inside, a staff member closed the door back shut.

Looks like the girls are finally here. My heart fluttered.

From what I can see, only one of the managers was with them today. Whether that had something to do with the announcement or not, I had no idea.

Arranging themselves in their characteristic line formation, Exy led the girls with their greeting.

“Would You Like, we are WJSN! Please take care of us today!”

Third time’s the charm, they say; the lower tone on their voices, similar to the one they used in fansigns, indicated that they were finally getting used to this place. The fact that most of their clothes today were geared towards comfort rather than looks lent to that idea as well.

“Afternoon,”

Standing before them, Sejin nodded to acknowledge their greeting.

“Glad to have you back.”

Shooting a glance at me, “You too, KC.”

“Hmph.” I responded with a dry smile.

Fully utilizing his role as the lead developer, Sejin began.

“All of you should have heard the announcement regarding our collaboration, haven’t you?”

Hearing his words, about a third of the group turned to the rest, surprised looks on their faces telling me all that I needed to know.

“Don’t tell me it’s one of those ‘surprise’ schedules, again?” I asked Sejin.

“It shouldn’t be, not to my knowledge.”

He answered.

“I know that the publishers have met with the company and the girls a few times in the past few weeks, working things out for the deal.”

I gasped and showed him an exaggerated look of betrayal.

Sejin only sighed when he saw me enlarge my eyes in pretended shock.

“Don’t look at me like that; I wasn’t even there for any of them.”

“Just kidding, Sejin, I trust you and that overworking of yours.”

My expression relaxed, patting the side of his shoulder.

Catching our conversation, Dayoung spoke up.

“We’ve met them several times before, mostly about the scheduling, NDAs, terms and conditions; all kinds of business stuff.”

Looking at the other members,

“Some of us are just surprised that announcement came out so early.”

“Well, that is a problem of its own, with managing hype, expectations an all.” I posed my concern.

“It’s only four months away, and the game is already finished for the most part.” Sejin argued. “It’s just that the finest details haven’t been finalized yet.”

Which explains why everyone’s so busy these past few days, he lamented.

“My other issue is about how you’re going to explain to the audience about them having played the game before.” I continued.

“The excuse is probably just to give them a few hours’ head start, calibrating their senses and getting used to the game world, that kind of process.”

Sejin pondered.

“Or maybe we’ll come clean and disclose the beta-test sessions we’ve been having… Leaving you out, of course.”

“Ah.” I nodded in understanding. You wouldn’t want to endorse a product you don’t enjoy, after all.

“We’ll be using new accounts, won’t we?”

Luda pouted, showing an almost grieving expression.

Sejin confirmed her question.

“The Let’s Play session will likely utilize press accounts, yes. We’ll deck it out to take off the edge from having to start over, but it’ll need to be spoiler-free, too.”

“Okay…”

She reluctantly nodded.

“Ah, right.” I recalled.

The energy transporter system she worked so hard to get.

She’ll probably have to get used to playing the game without it for a while.

to be her, I shrugged.

“As much as I’d like to start discussing ideas for the collab event and session, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and anger the parties involved.”

Sejin showed a bitter smile, indicating that this was not the time and place to talk about it. His words implied that I shouldn’t be around for when they do.

I wasn’t offended, or rather, I agreed with him; Hyperspace Frontier looks like a game I’ll enjoy playing, and I’d rather experience good content on my own instead of spoiling myself with leaked information.

“Regardless, me and the team are still hard at work in order to get that sweet content ready in time for its release. The crossover event itself isn’t planned to be that big or demanding; given the scale of the world we’re working with, however, it’s still heaps of work to implement.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “I look forward to it.”

---

“We’ll get anyone who’s not busy to set up the capsules, but apologies in advance for any possible delay in the schedule.”

“Sure.”

After confirming the time period for today’s session, Sejin left the control room to gather up the necessary people.

I saw his figure as he went into the other rooms.

His hair had grown a bit since we last met, and a little messy too. Observing the other staff members, a lot of them were working without concern for how they looked, as well.

They must have been really busy, huh.

Seeing that all we had left to do was to wait, the members have all split up into their own groups, talking to each other about things I couldn’t make out.

Putting away my phone, I made up my decision to approach them.

The first ones I reached out to were,

“Afternoon, you two.”

“Hey.”

“Afternoon, KC.”

Dawon saw me come over and let Luda know about it.

Like the rest of the group, both of them had light makeup on their faces, enough to keep their appearances up while out and about, without appearing too formal.

Either way, both their eyes looked energetic and full of life, which was good.

“Looks like today’s fashion is on the more casual side?”

I started the conversation with a question.

“There’s no official schedule for the day, after all.”

Dawon answered.

“Other than a bit of practice in the morning, this session, and some lessons after this, we’re pretty much free.”

Ooh, lessons. I bet there’ll be some b-side choreo for their concert in those.

“That’s good.”

I nodded.

“How about in-game, then? You’ve got any plans for DT Coastline today?”

Hearing that question, a smile spread on her face.

“Today’s going to be exciting,”

Eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, Dawon virtually skipped with joy.

“I can’t wait to see Tim’s face when he finds out that the others are coming!”

“He’ll be out of his mind for a while, for sure.”

Luda added, managing a giggle.

“Oh, what do you mean?” I asked.

Before either of us could continue,

“KC.”

A voice called out my name from another part of the room.

I didn’t have to look back to recognize that voice, the almost electric timbre so characteristic of the person it belonged to.

I turned to see the leader of WJSN, Exy, beckoning me over.

“Oh, right, we haven’t told you about it yet.”

A trace of guilt floated onto Dawon’s face, her inner eyebrows raised like they usually do.

“Go on, KC. Exy unnie will explain everything.”

Luda added, waving me away.

“…Okay, sure.”

As I went over to Exy, she gestured to the other members she was talking to, indicating that she was leaving their conversation to deal with me.

“Afternoon, Exy.” I began.

“Afternoon,” She smiled.

I belatedly realized that this was really the first time we’ve spoken one-on-one, ever since the whole Hyperspace Frontier thing began.

Despite her and Seola being my two biases, our individual situations in the game just got in the way of us meeting. Time flew by us too quickly, and before I knew it, it was already the third and last day.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t spare the time to meet you at all the last two days.” I apologized. “Things just kept coming up, you know?”

“It’s fine.” She shook her head. “The stuff I’ve been up to have mostly been solo work in personnel-restricted spaces, so it’s not like you can just barge in and help anyway.”

“You were working with some kind of business, right? Must be hard.” I pursed my lips.

“It’s a hectic career, I would say that.”

Her eyes wandered in thought.

“But the latter half of Day 2… now that was crazy.”

“Hmm?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll tell you about it later.”

Straightening her posture, Exy faced me head on.

“Now,”

---

“…What is it?”

Grasping the change in atmosphere, I also prepared myself by reflex.

“The girls and I have been discussing about the session today for a while, and,”

Hearing her words, a ton of thoughts started racing through my mind.

What is this about? Do they want to kick me out of the play group or something? Did I do something wrong?

“And…?” I barely croaked out a reply.

Out of nowhere, her serious expression loosened into that of surprise.

“…Oh! It’s nothing really that serious, KC.”

Exy waved both her hands, reassuring me. My expression must have really tensed up, to have startled her like that.

While she tried to defuse the tension in our conversation,

“Exy unnie,”

Another voice called out to us. This time, it was clear and melodic, almost musical in nature.

From another side of the control room, we saw that person walk over to join us.

Holding my hand out towards the newcomer,

“What’s up, Yeonjung?”

“Just dropping by to see how’s it going.”

She returned my high five and answered.

“Huh.”

I began to get a clearer picture of the situation: Yeonjung was definitely referring to what Exy was going to say. From what I can see, it seems that everyone is already aware about this.

Because they discussed it, duh, I told myself.

“We’re just going to talk about it.” Exy responded to her.

“Anyways,”

Turning to me, Exy returned to the topic at hand.

“For Day 3, the girls and I are thinking of grouping up with each other and playing the game in one large party.”

We want to push the cooperative play aspect of the game to the limit, she explained.

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

I responded. However, several dots connected in my mind and interrupted what I was going to say.

“Wait, then…”

Where are they going to meet?

If the meetup is taking place outside of Kamag, Luda and the rest will have to leave Deusrust, won’t they? How should I explain their departure to Jina and Memphis?

“The other plan was for us to spend the day helping each other finish their Paths.”

Exy went on.

“Sounds interesting.” I nodded. Exploring each other’s various Path types seemed like a good idea.

“The problem with that,”

She suggested,

“Is the fact that only three of us have currently ongoing Paths: Mine, Dawon’s, and Seola unnie’s.”

“Bona unnie and Xuanyi unnie have already completed their Path on Mika-Klene.” Yeonjung added, “As we’ve done ours, too, with the whole encrypted vault situation and all.”

“Still, three Paths, huh.” I pondered.

If mine and Dawon’s are any indication, they’ll have to go to many places and do many things to get all of them done.

“Are you having trouble splitting up the group?”

“Yes, but I’ll get to that in a bit.” Exy continued. “Let me explain the situation with the Paths first.”

“Sure.” I gestured for her to continue.

“Thanks.”

She nodded, before resuming.

“Like before, not anyone can help me with what I do, and that includes the Path I’m on.”

“Right,” I agreed. “But Dawon’s should be easy, no?”

“Yes, no problems there.”

She looked in Luda and Dawon’s direction.

“Working towards the EP should be straightforward for us; barring any surprises from the Shaen or Nadeum, of course.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Exy shot me a dubious look.

“Challengers, invaders, you’ve met them before, right?”

Ah.

“Right,” I admitted. “I was thinking more towards the shady parts of the music industry, myself.”

“Heh.” Exy chuckled. “That too, I guess.”

Well, it’s better to have someone familiar with these things, after all.

“Seola unnie’s Path, on the other hand,”

Yeonjung spoke up.

“What about it?” Seeing her pause, I asked.

“It’s rather vague, telling her to ‘seek guidance to control the powers she holds’.” She explained.

“Powers?”

Both Yeonjung and Exy shook their heads, saying that they didn’t know what it meant either.

“Seeking guidance…” I pondered.

Does it have something to do with that consciousness-possessing ship of hers?

I couldn’t think of a reason for Seola to hide that from the rest of the girls, though.

However, I recalled a piece of information, and my eyes widened.

“Wait, don’t tell me…” I began.

Exy nodded.

“You’ve read about the races on the game’s website, haven’t you?”

“The Magna…!” I exclaimed.

“That’s right.”

I recalled the three things about the mechanical lifeforms on the race introduction page.

Discipline, virtue, purpose…

They’re pretty much the kind of people you approach if you want to ‘seek guidance’ and ‘control your powers’, at least where the Frontier was concerned.

Taking a look around the room, Exy continued.

“Eunseo and the others have shared what you’ve been up to on Day 2, including the Path you’re working on.”

Thus,

“Based on that, we’ve come to a decision to split up the group into two for Day 3.”

“Oh, I get it now.”

I finally understood the point that she was trying to make.

“Luda unnie will stay with you, like before.”

Yeonjung took over.

“Meanwhile, the two of us will head over to Kamag, along with Seola unnie and Soobin unnie.”

“Oh, looks like a party in the making.” I responded.

Regardless of having never met any of them in the game before, the four members she mentioned were well-known for their great chemistry. This was something to look forward to.

On the other hand,

“The ’98 line unnies will group up with Dawon unnie in the second half of the day, after they’re done with what they wanted to do on Torfalmein.”

“Right, of course.” I understood what she meant.

It was a shame for them to leave, but those three had been dealing with the Magna for pretty much the entirety of Day 2; it made sense for them to go somewhere else today.

ExYeon, Seolbin, Dawon, the ’98 line…

I counted the members they listed with my fingers.

“…With Luda, that should be nine.”

I pointed out.

“What about the other four?”

Exy crossed her arms and answered.

“Xuanyi, Bona, Yeoreum, and Dayoung are still undecided.”

Letting out a sigh,

“Ideally, we want them to settle on a group as soon as possible, but none of them have said anything since the morning.”

“Okay.” I shrugged. “I’m sure they’re thinking hard about it.”

“Either way, the idea is for everyone to get the most out of today, seeing as it’ll be the last time we’ll play the game before the full release.”

“To get ready for the collaboration schedule, I presume.” I pointed out.

“You got it.”

---

At this time, Sejin and another staff member returned back to the control room.

Wiping the lens of his glasses with the fabric of his shirt, he put them back on and gazed all around the room.

The rest of us quieted down, waiting for him to begin.

“The capsules are ready, everyone; fortunately, there won’t be a delay to our schedule. Make your way to your rooms like before, and we’ll set you up to connect to the game.”

That was quick.

Sejin’s announcement was short, without any sort of formality. Whether this was because of the workload the team is facing, or due to the casual atmosphere of the whole thing, I didn’t know.

Glancing at the clock on the control room,

[1:55 PM]

“Five minutes before login, huh?”

That was cutting it close, all things considered.

I went over my thoughts, trying to catch up with my current state in the game.

Meet back up with the two NPCs, do the Trial… and finish my Path.

The girls’ plan to spend Day 3 together in a large group made things interesting, especially after having heard of the other members’ exploits and achievements in the game.

The focus on Paths, too; I still have hope for the Fahrenheit’s Ovation to be upgraded to its final form today, but we’ll have to see how that goes.

While I was thinking, most of the girls have already begun to leave the control room, heading for their respective terminals.

Speaking of which,

“Exy said that four of the girls are still on the fence, didn’t she?”

Whether to meet up with Dawon on the underwater planet of Nadeum, or joining us in the mechanical world of Kamag;

“Both choices sounded equally enticing; I’d be stumped myself if I haven’t already been in Nadeum.”

Still,

Of the four, I’ve never seen anyone else other than Yeoreum in the game.

An idea came up in my head.

“With Exy and Yeonjung going to Kamag, there’s a chance to get the entire ’95 or ’99 liners in one place, too.”

I don’t know how convincing I can be, but I can try talking it out with them, right?

Meanwhile, according to Yeonjung, Eunseo and the rest will be going back to Torfalmein, meaning they’ll likely leave us first thing in the morning.

I could also persuade them to spend their time with us on Arbosienn. They’ll still spend the latter half of the day with Dawon in Nadeum, but we’ll be able to hang out together until then.

I didn’t have much time left, seeing everyone is already leaving for their respective rooms. I wasn’t keen on possibly delaying the girls’ or the development team’s schedules, either; being somewhat familiar with the time constraints always present in the industry myself.

From the looks of it, I can maybe scrape out one more conversation before having to leave for my own capsule.

Who should I talk to?

---

A) Bona and Xuanyi.
B) Dayoung and Yeoreum.
C) Eunseo, Chengxiao, and Meiqi.