Villain’s Programming - Chapter 285



Only Noblemtl

Episode 285 The Golden Tree

The morning star was going crazy. The black pillar was getting closer and closer, but the Master was still failing.

‘I didn’t trust the Master!’

The hem of her clothes fluttered in the wind. This meant that the spinning black pillar was that close.

At that moment, the voice of the black pillar was heard. Saetbyeol was startled. Even though the distance was quite far, the voice of the black pillar was heard. However, the voice was not very loud.

[That’s funny. How did it end up like that?]

Saetbyeol was flustered, but answered as if nothing had happened.

“You didn’t come here knowingly? You came here because you were so excited that I ended up like this!”

[Honestly, it’s true that I heard that story. At first, I was hesitant. But then I saw a ray of light coming down from the sky. Strangely, the moment I saw that ray of light, my body started moving quickly. That’s when I realized that now was my chance.]

The voice of the black pillar grew louder. It was getting closer. Saetbyeol’s heart pounded.

“Wait, you heard something like that? From whom? Who are you talking to?”

[I don’t know… that.]

“Okay… Wait a minute. Let’s negotiate. Isn’t what you want me to do? I’ll do it. Just untie me and I’ll put my hand in!”

The morning star frowned. Her hair was blocking her view.

In the stronger wind, not only the hem of Saetbyeol’s clothes but also her hair fluttered wildly. Now, the black pillar and Saetbyeol were only about ten meters apart.

[Do we really need to wait until then? We can become one in just a little while!]

The black pillar approached with a strong wind.

‘What is the Master doing? And yet I trust the Master! Lie!’

Saetbyeol tightly shut her eyes, thinking that she would soon be swallowed by a black pillar.

But something was strange. Suddenly, a cat’s meow was heard from somewhere.

“meow!”

Saetbyeol opened her eyes slightly at the strange thought.

‘uh?’

There was a black cat in front of the black pillar. Saetbyul’s eyes widened.

‘Isn’t that… a copycat?’

There were many black cats in the world, but only one had such an annoyed and arrogant expression.

“Ka… Copycat! How did you get here?”

That was when.

The Master’s message was visible to the Morning Star’s eyes. At the same time, the light that was holding the Morning Star disappeared.

The morning star fell to the ground but quickly got up.

‘Oh my goodness, I’m free! The Master did it!’

The morning star shouted without realizing it.

“Master! I believed in you!”

Now that her body was free, Saetbyul stepped back immediately. But then she thought, oh no. Copycat was still there.

“Copycat. Come here! It’s dangerous!”

Saetbyul shouted at Copycat. But Copycat only turned her head once to look at Saetbyul and did not come back.

Instead, Copycat looked at the ‘black pillar’ and growled and hissed.

“No! Move quickly. You’ll get sucked in!”

The moment Saetbyeol gritted her teeth and was about to run towards Copycat, Copycat moved.

Copycat ran towards the ‘black pillar’ and went inside.

“Copycat!”

Saetbyeol screamed in surprise when she saw that, but Copycat was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

‘it’s okay!’

Dojun clenched his fist after seeing the message.

– Time remaining: 0 minutes 9 seconds.

It was a success with 9 seconds left.

As if to prove it, a message appeared before his eyes.

That wasn’t all.

Dojun sighed in relief after seeing the message.

‘What kind of qualification test is this difficult?’

It was fortunate that Copycat appeared right in front of me and was playing, otherwise this quest would have been doomed to failure.

‘It felt like a quest meant to throw me off. Ugh. Anyway, I finished the quest.’

Dojun smiled brightly. There was always a reward for completing a quest.

First of all, he received the ‘level up’ reward. Dojun immediately opened the talent window.

[LINK (EXTRA)]

– Linked to the morning star.

– You can upload it.

– You can link to objects you uploaded within 1 minute.

– You can make voice calls.

– Level: 2/5(MAX)

Dojun tilted his head as he looked at the talent window that had leveled up.

‘You can link to objects uploaded in the past minute? So you can link to copycats?’

It didn’t really come to me what that meant, because Dojun could see the ‘cyber world’ through Copycat’s eyes.

‘No way? It’s a different world so I can’t see it?’

Dojun, curious, tried to connect with Copycat, but stopped for a moment.

‘This isn’t important right now.’

“Morning star!”

“How is it? Are you okay?”

The morning star’s voice was calm.

‘I guess the emergency is over.’

Dojun cleared his throat.

“So, is the world that was supposed to be falling apart now okay?”

“I know. I uploaded it. But is copycat okay?”

Dojun’s expression hardened.

“What does that mean?”

“What? Speak properly!”

Dojun’s expression hardened. He couldn’t understand the whole story, but he felt great embarrassment at Saetbyeol’s voice.

‘Surely, Copycat won’t do anything wrong? No, it will be fine. How many crises has Copycat overcome so far?’

Dojun thought of Copycat.

Copycat was a talent that she gained thanks to her encounter with Ma Huateng. A talent that allows her to copy programs and see if they are successful.

Although it was a fraudulent talent, Dojun did not use copycat as a normal talent.

Before the appearance of the morning star, he was the only friend I could ‘communicate’ with, and he was like a ‘comrade’ who overcame countless adversities together.

So I believed it, but at the same time I was worried.

‘It won’t work.’

Dojun asked Saetbyeol.

“Where did you go? Try saying it in a different way, without using forbidden words.”

Dojun’s eyes grew wide.

‘There’s a dangerous place, so you went in there? Why?’

Copycat didn’t like to move. Unless Dojun gave him orders, he would just lie around or occasionally wander around the PC.

‘This is driving me crazy. Is there any way to find out the copycat situation?’

Dojun, who was thinking, suddenly remembered the explanation of ‘Link’.

‘Right. You said you could link to objects uploaded within a minute? So, can you link to copycats?’

He was going to try it anyway. Dojun decided to give it a try right away.

‘Copycat!’

As I chanted Copycat in my mind, a message appeared before my eyes.

Dojun clenched his fist.

‘It’s possible!’

Dojun immediately pressed the YES button.

* * *

‘uh?’

The scene before my eyes changed. It was similar to seeing ‘Lost Memories’, but different.

‘Where am I?’

It was dark all around. It felt like I was underwater, where no light could penetrate.

That was when my body started to vibrate.

Dojun opened his eyes wide when he saw the message.

‘No way? Am I inside Copycat’s body right now? Then what I’m seeing is what Copycat is seeing?’

In fact, this wasn’t the first time Dojun saw the world through the eyes of a copycat.

However, I thought it was impossible because this was not the world Dojun lived in.

‘This is the link! It’s the one that allows me to see the world of the morning star!’

But it seemed like there was a time limit.

Dojun looked at the remaining time and thought about it.

‘There’s no time. But why did the copycat move? It’s not like the copycat just moves.’

Dojun wanted to know the purpose within the remaining time.

Dojun opened his eyes wide. Prey detection was the copycat’s ability, and the rat’s was the ‘term’ he used when he discovered ‘hacking’ or ‘virus’.

‘You came here to catch rats? Then is this the inside of a giant computer system?’

Hacking viruses only existed inside computers. Dojun felt like he had entered some kind of huge system.

‘I’m sure we’ll know for sure once we get a little more information.’

It was when Dojun was thinking like that. As he continued to wonder where he was, something approached him. It was like a piece of broken glass emitting a faint light.

‘What is that? But if we keep going like this, it looks like we’re going to crash into it!’

Just as Dojun was about to shout to be careful, the piece hit ‘Copycat’s’ body.

‘uh!’

In that moment, Dojun’s eyes widened. It was because he saw himself in the ‘light-emitting sculpture’.

At that moment, the contents of ‘Piece’ flowed into Dojun’s head.

[No, Team Leader! I’m going crazy. Did you see the source code that Team Leader Hwang Do-jun committed yesterday?]

[Oh. I saw it.]

[No. How do I do that? How do I add logic using that? Team Leader. I can’t work with Manager Hwang.]

I saw the person who worked with me in my past life and who exploded and scolded the team leader.

‘What is this? Why is this here?’

Dojun swallowed dryly. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why. However, it was a past he wanted to forget, so he tried not to think about it.

‘It’s over. It’s in the past.’

Dojun looked ahead with shaking eyes. Then, another piece flew in from the front and collided with Copycat.

[Congratulations, Mr. Ma Huateng. This Cross Warrior has surpassed 5 million concurrent users.]

[Haha. Is it because of me? It’s because everyone is so nice to me. Please tell the Korean fun software.]

[Okay, sir. But this time, I think it would be better to negotiate with Jamissoft and reduce the guarantee a bit.]

[Why? The mood is good right now.]

[Isn’t it because they did well that Cross Warrior became a huge hit? Isn’t it because our Baeksent development team improved it to suit China? The guarantee is too high right now. I think we need to talk to Jaemi Soft and reduce it.]

[Hmm. That’s true. It’s a game that was completely botched in Korea. Okay. Let’s negotiate since people are coming from Korea this time.]

Scenes flashed through my mind.

‘ah!’

Only then did Dojun realize what this was.

‘These are… pieces of my past life that changed because of me!’

I looked ahead. There were countless pieces like that.

‘These… Why are these pieces here? Where on earth am I? Where are the pieces?’

I wanted to know more, but there was little time left.

It was then that Dojun remembered the story Saetbyeol had told him before.

‘Fate! That’s right. Most of the words were broken and invisible, but the word fate was clearly visible. So… are these the pieces of fate? Changed because of me? And here, the pieces are gathered in one place!’

That was when Dojun thought like that.

With that message, the surroundings gradually brightened.

At the same time, messages that had been broken and unreadable until now began to appear clearly.

“ah!”

Dojun trembled. Things that had not been resolved for a long time were becoming clear.

‘That’s it. The black pillar was the one who sent the lucky letter!’

The reason was also clear.

‘You’ll hate me. Of course… because you were torn to pieces because of me.’

At the same time, I had a question.

‘Why did you try to gain power? What do you gain by destroying the world of the Morning Star?’

I had a question, but I couldn’t continue thinking.

Suddenly, the copycat started glowing and moving a little faster.

[meow!]

Copycat started running forward, avoiding the ‘Pieces of Fate’.

Copycat ran at full speed, and at some point, Dojun started to see something in his eyes.

‘uh?’

It was a giant tree made of light. It was so big that it couldn’t be seen at a glance. The tree stretched upwards, reaching from the sky to the ground.

‘What is that?’

The thought was short, because the message I saw earlier came to mind.

‘Could that giant tree be a rat?’

Dojun wanted to look at the Tree of Light in more detail, but there was no time left.

Copycat ran at full speed towards the tree of light and swung her front paws.

At that moment, a message popped up.

My eyes brightened.

* * *

Dojun opened his eyes.

“omg.”

Dojun let out a gasp.

‘Is it over? What happened? Did you catch that golden tree, or rather, that little rat?’

I was curious, but the copycat and the link were broken.

‘Let’s come to our senses first.’

Do-jun, who had caught his breath, went to the steam room and drank a cup of cold water. Only when the cold air went down his throat did he come to his senses.

Do-jun returned to the CEO’s office and sat down to ask.

“Copycat!”

Even though I called, the copycat didn’t show up.

‘She hasn’t come back yet? Is there any way to find out what happened to Copycat? Ah! She must be with Saetbyul!’

Dojun said right away.

“Morning star.”

“By any chance… is there a copycat there? Did it come back?”

Dojun smiled brightly.

“Didn’t you know? You leveled up!”

Saetbyul tried to say something, but there was something more important than that.

“Saturday Star, is Copycat okay? Is she hurt anywhere?”

For some reason, Saetbyeol seemed to be dragging his feet a little.

“Why? Is there a problem? If there’s anything wrong, tell me right away.”

“What is it?”

Dojun tilted his head.

“Golden? That kind of… … .”

It was then that Dojun remembered the last time Copycat swung her front paw towards the Tree of Light.

“no way?”