Homma forgot to even breathe as she stared at the game screen.
“.......”
The screen still showed the dark, secret facility from the game.
But there was no one else on it.
No other characters, no BGM, no sound effects, no filter, not even a die.
All that remained was a close-up of Seon Ah hyun’s smiling face.
The guard, wearing the navy-blue uniform and officer’s cap, locked eyes with her through the screen.
As if he were looking right at her.
“.......”
Homma swallowed hard.
The mouth on screen moved.
“You’re not going to leave, are you?”
At that moment, a choice appeared. But....
▶ [Stay.]
▶ [Stay.]
“...?!”
Wh-what is this? Why... are they identical?
“Error...?”
Like any modern person, she reflexively reached to turn the game off and on again. She moved the cursor toward the Settings icon in the top right corner....
“No.”
The Settings button had vanished.
“...?!”
Click after click, only the empty background greeted her.
“Uh?”
“I don’t want to wait again.”
The blond guard still smiled. Homma froze, mouse in hand.
“You’re startled.”
“It’s okay.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Then.
This time the choice... moved on its own.
▶ [Stay.]
▶ [Stay.]
“...!!”
After a brief “choice confirmed” effect, the game continued as if nothing had happened.
“Thanks. For staying.”
“As you know, I can’t leave.”
“Not in this game....”
Seon Ah hyun’s smile faded slowly. Homma screamed.
‘Why is a character in the game telling me he’s in a game!?’
But the guard did not stop speaking.
“Because you can only clear this game if you either evade or overpower me.”
“Either get outside the facility...”
“Or take that jewel.”
The guard shifted his gaze.
The camera panned to reveal the glass case in the very center of the background.
A close-up of the radiant green jewel inside the case....
“Stop.”
The screen flickered and then the jewel was gone.
“.......”
Homma didn’t even have time to be shocked.
The cut, edited screen briefly went black before returning to a close-up of Seon Ah hyun.
“The jewel is gone now.”
“No other characters, either.”
“Let’s play like this.”
The guard said.
“You try to escape from here.”
“I’ll try to stop you.”
“Let’s... keep going.”
Then a die appeared on screen.
Along with the success-failure threshold.
[Threshold: 7]
“Ooooh....”
Homma looked around instinctively, then moved her mouse forward.
And when she clicked the die out of habit:
[5]
A number below the threshold of 7.
This meant,
‘I’ve already won....’
But at that moment,
Seon Ah hyun reached toward the on-screen die.
“...!?”
He grabbed it...and changed its top face!
[8]
“I told you... I would stop you.”
The guard smiled.
[fail]
A red “FAIL” effect stabbed Homma’s overwhelmed face.
Then the guard, gloved hand outstretched, pushed the die back toward the player.
“Roll.”
“Again.”
“...!!”
And so began what felt like a maddening new chapter.
“S-Seon Ah hyun, what the—”
“Hidden route f-f-f-f-f—”
Homma, who’d fought to avoid spoilers, didn’t realize that the first witness to Seon Ah hyun’s secret route had appeared around the time she was hunting down the true-ending guide.
Despite initial disbelief, a few attempts confirmed the rumor—and then screams began to spread.
“What on earth is it?”
“No wonder the Gothambi parts were short—there was a hidden route, the guard captain’s personal story?”
At first, people thought everyone was screaming about the mere existence of a hidden route, but once they saw it themselves, they screamed together.
“??????”
“Save me”
“What do I do, what do I do with this”
By half a day later, everyone had figured it out.
Those TeSTAR maniacs had done it again!
“To see the hidden route you need a code from another version’s album?”
“Can anyone lend me that code? I really want to see it”
After countless tries, the extra condition was revealed.
Hidden Ending Entry Condition: You must enter with the album code on which you’ve already seen the true ending.
In other words, only someone who’d bought and played another version and seen its true ending could trigger this.
“Only real fans can see it”
“I was cursing why Ah hyun had no alternate outfit in the game—but I just hadn’t played enough”
“You just pick the right choices to enter it, right? No special skill needed in this game ㅠㅠ”
└True ending does have some luck element, but playtime is short and you can skip quickly
Then everyone who tried it screamed again in a chain reaction.
“Wow, f—”
“ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ So good but so shocking aaah”
“They’re perverts for giving Angel Sasumi a role like this”
“If you didn’t know the spoiler, you’d have crept out of your skin”
Incidentally, Homma herself had no Life points left.
And the uproar of those who’d accidentally stumbled upon it without spoilers was already dominating SNS.
Shocked reaction videos are always a hit.
One streamer even said:
“Wow... this is ridiculously well made. No wonder it’s called Ruins Factory—more like Ruins Complex. I forgot these folks were idols halfway through.”
After seeing the true ending, this streamer lamented the rule banning posting it, so tried it again on another version.
Of course, there was some calculated intent to satisfy new viewers.
“I’ll watch the prisoner version once, then you all should buy the guard version and watch it too. This is an album, not a game... right? Haha.”
But while chatting with viewers, unfamiliar with idols, they mixed up the photocard version—making a hilarious mistake.
And then:
“Let’s keep playing.”
[...?!]
The streamer’s eyes nearly popped out, and the chat filled with question marks—truly epic.
“BJ DungDung just rolled the dice and triggered the hidden route, chaos [laughs]”
Homma, even more strangely, watched that livestream in a daze when she heard the news.
Seon Ah hyun’s hidden ending scenario... was certainly hidden-worthy.
“Roll.”
“Again.”
As she endured the wild dice-rolling with Seon Ah hyun, the helpless protagonist was cornered again and again.
They fled from place to place in the facility.
The lab, the monitor room, the corridors, even the jail cells.
Each time the guard appeared in prison bondage attire saying he’d “always wanted to try it on,” or in thief’s garb, and forced the protagonist into one-sided dice games.
At last, the player saw an opening.
She tricked the guard into manipulating a die he hadn’t yet rolled, then seized it and rolled a moment later....
And finally, she won.
“Ah.”
At that thrilling moment of escape, the game normalized!
[Wooooo I did it!!]
The restored game replayed the true ending normally—but with one difference.
The final attic scene.
“....I feel someone speaking to me inside my mind.”
“A voice like a friend who’s been with me for ages.”
The player could now speak to Bae Sejin, who was playing the board game!
[Whoa! Everyone, could it be....]
So at the very end:
“...Um, let me try persuading the guard captain.”
“Huh?”
“Really?”
Just before escape, you could change your approach to Guard Captain Seon Ah hyun!
Instead of Kim Rae bin overpowering him, Bae Sejin attempts to persuade.
But an even harsher threshold applies.
“Hmmm... in this case, the player must roll a ‘1’ for persuasion to succeed.”
“...!”
Only a die face of ‘1’ succeeds.
A 1/10 chance.
“Just let him do it. Stronger’s better.”
“...Speak like a civilized person.”
“Sinister one.”
“Stupid one.”
Leaving Cha Yoo jin and Kim Rae bin’s bickering behind, Bae Sejin picked up the fateful die.
As Seon Ah hyun, the game master, hid his die behind his book again, his guard persona flickered atop.
And then,
“...!”
This time, the player could hand over Bae Sejin’s die—letting the guard manipulate it at will.
“...Oh.”
And the result:
[1]
......A grand success for the player.
“...The guard captain... has been persuaded by the hacker’s words.”
After a moment of silence,
“Woooooooah!!”
“No way! You’re amazing!”
“All that psychopath behavior until now—what was it for? Is the hacker a counselor?”
The high-teen TeSTAR in the game erupted.
In the end, Guard Captain Seon Ah hyun also escaped the facility together... and the ending played out.
“...You, alongside the mysterious and terrifying guard with the baton... head toward the exit.”
The game master’s hand moved.
A close-up showed the guard captain’s token moving off the board, past the prison wall.
Leaving this message:
“...Thank you.”
[Hidden Ending]
~%EA%B5%AC%EC%A1%B0
“Ha.......”
Truly... a beautiful ending, even on replay....
Lost in the afterglow of a drama finale, Homma watched along as the streamer viewed the credits.
“Wow... so they all get out. They all escape.”
The streamer, still captivated, watched through the credits and commented on each member when they appeared.
“Ah~ I think Mr. Mundae’s test-subject character looked so cool, and Mr. Cheong woo’s body-blow scenes were top notch~”
“Right.”
Homma nodded, wishing to hear more commentary about Mundae, when a random comment from the streamer caught her off guard.
“Ha, but I... I kind of find this person suspicious.”
“...??”
“The game master in the attic? He’s playing both guard captain roles, right?”
“Right?”
“But he’s the only one whose expression is off in this ending. The guard captain in the hidden escape ending looks uneasy?”
“Uh?”
“Yeah, Seon Ah hyun. I think he might be the true mastermind?”
“Am I going too far? Anyway, let me know when the next work comes out. I’ll play it!”
“DongDong, get a grip—this is an album, there is no next work.” The streamer laughed it off after the donation.
But Homma did not laugh.
She intuited.
‘It’s a setup.’
This is... world-building bait for the next album!
And if so....
‘In the ending credits, TeSTAR was listed first in the scenario credits.’
They planned all this...?
Since when have they been planning and creating this?!
“Sixty days of nonstop work... you’ve all done great.”
“.......”
“.......”
No response. They all looked like corpses.
Actually, they were almost corpses.
I barely opened my eyes and lay there, feeling like a waterlogged sandbag as I received physical therapy.
‘I need Bacchus.’
If I could just produce that effect again, I’d be willing to let them take thirty percent of this payout. Really.
I rolled my eyes to look around.
Everyone lay sprawled as if knocked out cold.
Even Cha Yoo jin, who usually bursts with energy, looked too drained to speak.
No wonder.
‘That was insane.’
Instead of having a programmer build the game content, we filmed it ourselves.
‘And on top of stage preparations....’
I wouldn’t blame Ryu Cheong woo or Big Sejin—the ones who shot the most action—for plotting my assassination over the schedule.
What’s surprising is... they weren’t the MVPs of this hellish effort.
That honor belonged to someone over there.
“Wait a moment. I need you to press something.”
“.......Ugh.”
Bae Sejin.
He looked like he might actually die, but that guy had literally been slaughtered doing everything from guiding the members to recording narration—playing the protagonist in the album game.
Literally butchered.
And before the butchering, he’d already filled one absolutely crucial role.
I forced myself to speak.
“Hyung.”
“.......”
“These people, if you have time....”
‘Who are “these people”?’
The most essential personnel to finish this madness on time....
Film crew.
That was the real problem.
In variety shows, dramas, and other idol-friendly fields, anything with T1 money or branding was off-limits...
‘But there was one field where pro filmmakers would cooperate with us....’
Movies.
Because idols rarely appear there, T1 hadn’t set up to block us like they did with variety or music shows.
‘And Bae Sejin... had starred in a ten-million-viewer film....’
So incredibly, that socially awkward guy scraped together his childhood film contacts and brought in a film crew to shoot the game.
And that’s where this insane operation began.
