I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 6
Before I could even respond, she spoke with a chilling edge to her voice.
“Nut Candy.”
It was an interrogation that brooked no excuses. Her words triggered a memory in my mind.
“That’s because I heard that picking up this candy allows toy repairs.”
It was what I’d said while explaining my collection of Sad Smiley fragments.
If you weren’t a suitable candidate, you couldn’t see the item description for Nut Candy—in other words, the system window.
It was simple logic, but I’d made a careless mistake because the existence of the system window seemed so natural to me.
Mo Hae-in had harbored suspicion from that moment, and now that I’d been left alone and emerged alive without incident, she seemed completely convinced.
‘I need to be more careful from now on.’
I’d already decided to stop pretending to be an ordinary civilian anyway.
Maintaining complete ignorance made achieving the true ending difficult because of Park Sung-gyeon.
That’s also why I’d dealt with Princess Tarantella.
I gave a somewhat ambiguous answer.
“It seems like I can see them.”
“Seems like?”
“Since this is my first time experiencing something like this. Square-shaped messages appear, but is that what you call a system window?”
“Yeah.”
Mo Hae-in continued without lowering her spear point.
“How did you handle the spider?”
“I just dodged it.”
The tip of her spear jabbed sharply beneath my chin. I quickly added more.
“I could see the pattern. My eyesight is pretty good.”
Mo Hae-in let out an incredulous laugh.
“You defeated the spider with nothing but dynamic visual acuity and reaction speed?”
“I thought it was similar to a game, so I played it like I was playing a game. I enjoy games.”
My eyes naturally tilted upward at the corners, so maintaining an expressionless face often led to misunderstandings.
I made an effort to open my eyes as innocently as possible and lifted the corners of my mouth slightly.
“And you said it wasn’t really dying anyway.”
“Reckless bastard.”
Mo Hae-in uttered words that could have been either a curse or not, and finally lowered her spear point.
I rubbed the underside of my chin where she’d jabbed me. There didn’t seem to be any blood.
Mo Hae-in watched me quietly.
“For a first-time suitable candidate entering a trial to play like this….”
She trailed off and closed her mouth.
“Let’s go outside and talk. What’s your name?”
“It’s Han Go-yo.”
“Call me Captain.”
“Understood.”
And in the situation that followed, I soon found myself calling out to Mo Hae-in.
“…Captain?”
Click.
Hinged shackles locked around both my wrists.
They were the Trial Response Agency’s special-issue restraints for qualified individuals—a tool granted only to those of captain rank and above.
Unable to move my hands even slightly, I stared at Mo Hae-in with bewildered eyes.
Mo Hae-in caressed the dark crescent blade and issued a warning.
“Behave yourself, yes?”
“….”
I said nothing more, closing my mouth without further protest or complaint.
It seemed I had failed to earn Mo Hae-in’s trust.
With me restrained and leading the way, Mo Hae-in did not proceed to the next stage. Instead, she turned her footsteps backward.
“We’re going to find Park Sung-gyeon now.”
Mo Hae-in opened a sealed door in the corridor between the Warehouse and the Research Facility. A small space containing an Elevator was revealed.
Unlike the brightly colored paradise designed for children outside, this Elevator was constructed of rigid, colorless metal.
▼
The Elevator had only a down button. As I pressed it, the doors opened immediately.
Large, vivid red letters on the wall caught my eye first.
No children allowed!
The floor selection buttons inside the Elevator were equally sparse—just one.
To be precise, in a space designed for approximately fifty buttons, only a single enormous button was affixed.
Within an elongated rectangle, a long sequence of numbers was densely packed.
B9999999999999999….
I attempted to count the nines but gave up, while Mo Hae-in spread her index and middle fingers wide and pressed the massive button.
A crackling announcement echoed through the cabin.
“Des-descending now. Chil-children are, descending. Descending. Descending.”
The doors closed and the Elevator began to move.
As the Elevator descended, she crossed her arms with the blade tucked against her forearm.
“You.”
Though I was treated as a suspicious criminal suspect, she still deigned to speak to me. I answered eagerly.
“Yes.”
“What do you think happens if you die here?”
Either you exhaust all your given lives and receive a game over, or you equip the cherry picker on both arms and both legs.
The player becomes a factory worker.
“You become an employee working in the Toy Factory and can never leave.”
Mo Hae-in spoke of something I already knew.
But what came next was information I did not possess.
“In the place we’re going now, there are people trapped like that in the trials…. In other words, trapped inside this place.”
I had already seen what lay in the Underground Factory in the game.
Hundreds of workers dressed in the same work uniforms as the players were there, diligently manufacturing toys.
I had explored every corner but found no events, so I had assumed the creators had placed it as a lighthearted joke—a hidden space, an easter egg of sorts….
So all of them are people trapped in the trial?
I recalled finding it endearing—those tiny dot-graphic employees repeating the same motions as they manufactured toys.
The employees showed no signs of exhaustion, illness, or suffering.
Unlike the surface world, in the dim and dreary Underground Factory, they crafted toys with joy, their faces beaming with the wide smiles befitting the Happy Smile Factory.
I swallowed slowly and parted my lips.
“Is Park Sung-gyeon in that place?”
“Park Sung-gyeon? That bastard—I’m going to strip him of his rank.”
Mo Hae-in leaned her face against the Black Crescent Blade. I momentarily forgot the gravity of the situation, fascinated by how her cheek bulged from the pressure.
The Black Crescent Blade was said never to wound its master, yet despite her resting her face against that razor-sharp edge, her cheek remained unmarred.
She lowered her eyes and moved her lips.
“From the start, I attacked the NPCs, created hostile relations with the toys, and committed insubordination against my superior. But I don’t have the ability to clear this alone and escape.”
Park Sung-gyeon had attacked Smiley.
Mo Hae-in had tried to protect him, which cost her a heart.
I felt certain I now understood the identity of the noise I’d heard when I first awoke in the factory.
After her first death and resurrection, Mo Hae-in had been eliminating Smiley, with whom she’d already become hostile.
That was why this veteran had ended up pursuing the difficult collapse ending route.
“Until I clear this, the Underground Factory is the only place where Park Sung-gyeon can hide safely without being attacked by the toys.”
I looked at her nameplate. The smile emoticon on it was now crying.
Mo Hae-in was on the verge of a game over.
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It is dangerous. But I can’t afford to be anxious about a backstab until I clear this, can I?”
It was a fair point—Park Sung-gyeon might ambush her at any moment.
Park Sung-gyeon had two hearts remaining.
Of course, equipping a Cherry Picker on his limbs would mean instant game over, but there was no way Park Sung-gyeon would do that unless he’d lost his mind.
Park Sung-gyeon, equipped with three Cherry Pickers, held the physical advantage in the current situation.
In truth, I had my own contingency plan.
The Volt Candy I’d obtained by exploiting bugs and buying time.
If worst came to worst, I intended to hand the Volt Candy to Mo Hae-in.
Explaining how I’d acquired it would be problematic, so subduing Park Sung-gyeon without the Volt Candy would be ideal.
Thunk.
The Elevator came to a stop at its destination, shaking briefly.
“■■ floor. P-p-please, children, children should not exit.”
The doors opened.
But what greeted me was not what I’d anticipated.
A bright yellow face filled my entire vision.
Smiley….
Smiley had grown so enormous that his face completely filled the Elevator doorway, waiting for me.
In those smooth plastic eyes, devoid of pupils and packed densely with black, the reflections of Mo Hae-in and myself were visible.
Both of us stood frozen, eyes wide open.
We couldn’t even scream—we barely dared to breathe.
One wrong breath, and I’d be crushed instantly.
In Haspack, Smiley’s gigantification only occurs during the final boss battle.
The enlarged Smiley possessed difficult attack patterns befitting a final boss, characterized by large-scale area attacks utilizing its massive body and various toys.
Proper preparation was essential before facing it.
So why here?
This was a space where toys shouldn’t appear.
Though, could I really say they shouldn’t?
The game was already diverging from what I knew. This was entirely possible.
The cause wasn’t what I needed to consider right now.
What mattered was finding a way to deal with the colossal Smiley before me.
“….”
Mo Hae-in lifted her foot with deliberate slowness.
Then she stepped backward.
A cautious movement.
Blue veins bulged across the back of her hand gripping the Black Moon Blade.
Fortunately, even as Mo Hae-in retreated a step, Smiley remained motionless.
She signaled me silently with her eyes.
I began backing away at the same deliberate pace as Mo Hae-in.
Or tried to.
Damn.
The elevator doors, forced violently open, emitted an unsettling screech.
Smiley had thrust its face inside.
Now it was clear. The target of Smiley’s interest was me.
Cold sweat trickled down Mo Hae-in’s temples.
Haspack’s final boss was no easy opponent, even for Mo Hae-in.
Had she been alone, she might have defeated the giant Smiley with the Black Moon Blade and emerged victorious.
But burdened with a liability to protect, it was impossible.
The cramped elevator interior made it difficult to wield the long Black Moon Blade freely.
At this rate, Mo Hae-in might face a game over.
She didn’t know me, but I knew her.
I didn’t want to see a character I’d grown fond of through the Archive’s game end up as a Toy Factory employee.
I decided to take a gamble.
I moved my retreating foot forward. As I took a step, Mo Hae-in’s eyes widened.
She looked ready to shout immediately, but fearing she might provoke Smiley, she merely moved her lips soundlessly.
I took another step forward.
Then another.
Smiley withdrew its face backward.
The elevator doors, which I’d thought were broken, began closing again with a clang.
With a sharp crack, Smiley tore the elevator doors clean off with its pincers.
Thanks to that, I was able to exit comfortably to the outside.
Of course, it would have been better if I’d simply let the door close on its own….
Smiley retreated backward in small increments, matching my pace.
As I walked, I retrieved a Volt Candy from my inventory and gripped it in my hand.
I let it drop quietly to the ground and stepped completely out of the Elevator.
The Underground Factory, hidden from view by Smiley’s bulk, came into sight.
It was a space so vast and towering that its scale was difficult to grasp at a glance.
The interior depths were obscured by darkness, yet I felt certain the space extended far deeper still.
Dozens of massive machines were scattered throughout, yet the silence was spine-chilling.
All the machines stood motionless, their power switched off.
And hundreds of workers.
Employees clad in colorful work uniforms stood at attention with their mouths stretched into smiles pulled to their absolute limits.
Despite the presence of so many people, not even a breath could be heard.
It seemed they were not ‘people’ at all.
A colossal Smiley, commanding the workers behind it, looked down upon me.
…This was somewhat frightening, I had to admit.
A toy approximately fifteen meters tall exerted considerable psychological pressure.
Still, it remained manageable.
Based on the goodwill the toys of Haspack had shown me thus far, I reasoned that Smiley would not strike first.
Smiley’s claw hand approached me. Detecting no hostile intent, I remained still.
The claw grasped my body as if I were a prize in a claw machine.
I was lifted up like a stuffed toy won from a game.
Smiley brought me before its face. Mechanical sounds emanated from it.
“Smiley-welcomes-you-only-you-to-Happy-Smile-Factory-with-us-happy-happy-.”
Behind the mechanical sounds repeating “happy-happy,” I heard children’s laughter and cheers.
A chilling sensation ran down my spine.
The moment Smiley applied even the slightest pressure with its hand, I would shatter into blocks.
Yet strangely, fear did not overwhelm me.
Like Mo Hae-in, Smiley too was an NPC I had come to care for.
Even now, at this juncture, I still wished to achieve the true ending.
It might be impossible, but I wanted to try until it became possible.
“Smiley.”
I smiled at Smiley.
“Shall I kill you?”
Smiley’s death—the absolute condition required for the true ending.
I spoke the wish that Haspack’s final boss so desperately desired and waited for its response.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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